Changing Yesterday

by Sean McMullen

  Madeline had apparently hoped that they would run off in search of the sailors who did not exist. This did not happen.

  ‘No chance of catching them now, miss,’ said one of the police as he went to Liore’s aid.

  ‘Leave her!’ shouted Madeline. ‘Help this young man. He was hurt when he drove the ruffians off.’

  Liore walked forward with smooth but mechanical elegance.

  ‘By your leave, speaking courtly,’ she said quietly. ‘I have led a sheltered life, I find all this violence very frightening.’

  The two harbour police made sure that Daniel was not actually dying, then they escorted them to the wharf. Madeline explained that their bags had been stolen, along with their tickets for the Andromeda.

  ‘I am from the Andromeda,’ said Daniel, playing along with their story. ‘I shall explain everything to the purser.’

  ‘We still have all our money,’ said Madeline.

  ‘So, those rotters only got the tickets and bags, what?’ said one of the police. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take you to the ship.’

  They travelled out to the Andromeda on a steam launch belonging to the harbour police. Liore seemed angry with Daniel, and refused to speak to him. Once they were alone together, she took out her radiocomm and studied it.

  ‘Weapon bearing south-south-west, range five miles,’ she said, and then pointed.

  Daniel and Madeline turned. There was a ship in the distance, and it was steaming out of the port.

  ‘So it’s now on that ship?’ asked Madeline.

  ‘Daniel went ashore to distract us,’ said Liore, giving Daniel a very dangerous glare. ‘Now the weapon is on that other ship, and we cannot pursue it.’

  Without any warning at all Madeline’s hand lashed across Liore’s cheek. From the look on Liore’s face Daniel concluded that Madeline had only moments to live, and stepped between her and Liore. Madeline spun him around and slapped his face as well, then pushed him aside.

  ‘Will you bloody well think logically, you silly cow!’ she snapped, stamping her foot. ‘What sort of commander are you? You told me the weapon was sending signals to you from the Andromeda. Why didn’t you just go after the weapon, instead of wasting time going after Daniel? And anyway, how do you know what has happened aboard the Andromeda? The Lionhearts may have got aboard and stolen the weapon while you were chasing Daniel.’

  In her blind fury and thirst for revenge, Liore had not considered this.

  ‘Perhaps it was a bad decision,’ Liore finally admitted.

  She folded her arms very tightly and turned to glare at the departing ship.

  ‘To me it looks like you were trying to trick Liore into killing you,’ said Madeline, now rounding on Daniel. ‘Why?’

  ‘I – what makes you say that?’ he asked, taken offguard by the question.

  ‘Liore told me all about your obsession with suicide, we had plenty of time to talk about Barry and you on the voyage from Adelaide. Well? I’m still waiting for my answer.’

  ‘It’s, um, so much nicer to have a friend kill you than an enemy,’ said Daniel, although not very convincingly.

  ‘That is the most twisted, revolting, perverse thing I have ever heard!’ exclaimed Madeline.

  ‘No target,’ added Liore quietly.

  Daniel said nothing. Being twisted, revolting and perverse made him unworthy to be alive, and so fitted in neatly with his mood and outlook. Even better, being in pain made him feel less guilty, which was actually pleasant. Unlike Daniel’s sister, however, Madeline responded to problems by trying to understand them rather than by shouting at people until they agreed with her. She drew a red and black frilly garter out of her purse and handed it to Daniel.

  ‘This was in your pocket,’ she said. ‘I went through your pockets while you were lying unconscious. My father says a good detective should check everywhere for evidence.’

  Daniel blushed luridly red on the unbruised parts of his face as he accepted the garter.

  ‘The note tied to it says “Happy Birthday Danny, and never jump over the side until tomorrow”,’ said Madeline. ‘Whoever she was, she seems rather nice.’

  Thoroughly mortified, Daniel seriously considered jumping over the side anyway, but then Liore was sure to jump after him and drag him back, so there was no point.

  ‘I also found this,’ said Madeline when nobody had said anything for a time. She drew another note out of her pocket and began to read. ‘Dear Liore, I locked Barry and your weapon in First-Class Cabin 37 aboard the Andromeda. He cannot fire it because I disabled it by flipping the switches FIREW DISABLE, TRACE, BC, AL and RC. The spare radiocomm is in my pocket. I turned it on so you could find us. Barry stole your weapon by himself. You will have killed me by now, so you have to believe what I write. Hope I was useful for a change. Daniel.’

  ‘The BC switch activates the Command Override function,’ said Liore. ‘It is a training option that allows me to watch what a cadet is shooting at. FIREW DISABLE means Firewall Disable, and is hard to describe. AL and RC are only diagnostics.’

  ‘What does all that mean?’ asked Daniel.

  ‘You did some very clever work, but . . .’

  ‘But?’

  ‘My weapon is still active.’

  ‘I – ah, oh,’ said Daniel. ‘Another failure.

  ’ ‘Not to worry. You left the TRACE function on permanently, so I have been able to track Barry ever since.’

  ‘And now you will apologise to Liore for trying to make her kill you,’ said Madeline.

  ‘But Liore doesn’t mind killing people,’ began Daniel.

  ‘Apologise!’

  ‘All right, righto, yes. I apologise Liore,’ babbled Daniel. ‘I promise I’ll never do it again.’

  ‘Think nothing of it,’ said Liore quietly. Daniel now left and walked aft. After some minutes he returned.

  ‘I asked the harbour police about that ship,’ he reported. ‘It’s the Ajax, and is bound for Port Said.’

  Liore turned away from the Ajax and smiled at Daniel.

  ‘Thank you, that solves one of my targeting problems,’ she said, sounding surprised. ‘Good work.’

  The arrival of Daniel, Liore and Madeline on the Andromeda caused a great deal of fuss. The harbour police explained how heroic Daniel had been, and how the girls had been robbed of everything but their money. While Daniel’s injuries were being treated, the girls were provided with tickets and assigned a cabin. He was still in the infirmary when a steward told him that Barry was gone.

  ‘He just burned a hole in his cabin door and vanished,’ explained the steward.

  ‘You mean he lit a fire and burned the door?’ asked Daniel, with very convincing innocence.

  ‘No, he used some sort of red-hot poker to burn through the lock. I’ve never seen anything like it.’

  Once the nurse had finished with Daniel he went to Barry’s cabin with Liore and Madeline. It did not take long to assess the damage to the door.

  ‘The weapon was fired from inside,’ said Liore to Daniel. ‘You were telling the truth.’

  Next they locked themselves in the girls’ cabin for a private and very sensitive conversation. Daniel sat on a chair, Madeline sat on a bed, and Liore leaned against the wall with her arms folded and her eyes closed. At first nobody said anything, even though their privacy was guaranteed.

  ‘So you are Daniel,’ said Madeline, mostly to break the silence.

  ‘Yes. I’m sixteen, and I’m a schoolboy,’ said Daniel. ‘You are Madeline, and that’s all I know about you.’

  ‘I’m a waitress from Ballarat, I’m seventeen, and I’m running away to London to be a detective.’

  ‘Fifteen,’ said Liore. ‘Am soldier. Kill people.’

  ‘You’re using battlespeak,’ said Madeline. ‘Language mine,’ said Liore, now trembling visibly. ‘Comforting. Have left, nothing else.’

  ‘You’re looking worse than Daniel,’ said Madeline. ‘Please, sit down.’

  Liore unfolded her arms,
slowly opened her eyes, then stared at the porthole as if it were a way to escape. Walking stiffly to the writing table, she cycled through some breathing exercises, tried to speak, failed, then brought her fist down so hard that it smashed right through the tabletop. Finally she slumped in a corner with her hands over her head.

  ‘Please, go,’ she rasped. ‘Near me, dangerous.’

  Daniel and Madeline looked at each other, then turned back to Liore.

  Daniel shook his head.

  ‘No,’ Madeline agreed. ‘We stay.’

  ‘Please!’ shouted Liore.

  ‘You need us,’ said Daniel.

  ‘Need nobody. Go! Like this, being seen, unseemly.’

  ‘We’re your friends,’ said Daniel. ‘You don’t have to worry about how you look in front of us.’

  ‘Battle Commander, I am!’ exclaimed Liore. ‘Friends, have none.’

  ‘We are your friends,’ insisted Madeline.

  Again they lapsed into silence, none of them moving except to breathe. Finally, after more than half an hour, Liore looked up.

  ‘You stayed.’

  ‘Of course,’ said Madeline. ‘Now speak courtly, try to relax.’

  ‘By your leave, speaking courtly.’

  ‘Now then, where were we?’

  ‘I . . . showed weakness,’ said Liore. ‘I allowed myself to hate, and it corrupted my judgement. I lost a chance to retrieve the weapon. I am furious with myself for that.’

  ‘So?’ asked Daniel. ‘I make mistakes all the time.’

  ‘Enough has been said about mistakes,’ said Madeline. ‘I want to move on to a petty criminal called Barry the Bag who was supposed to be on this ship. Daniel, please tell us about what happened on the voyage.’

  ‘There’s not much to tell,’ said Daniel. ‘As the Andromeda was leaving Adelaide I discovered that Barry was aboard and calling himself Barold Chalmer. He said Liore put him aboard to do some spying in Britain.’

  ‘Did you see any pigs flying past?’ asked Liore.

  ‘Soon he lost track of his own lies, and started to talk about not being rewarded properly for stopping the bombing of parliament. That made me suspicious, so I got him drunk and locked in the infirmary for the night. I burgled his cabin and discovered that he had stolen things from you.’

  ‘You got Barry the Bag drunk, then you burgled his cabin?’ exclaimed Liore.

  ‘Well, yes.’

  ‘You have been spending too much time in his company – but never mind, go on.’

  ‘I remembered you said that you could tell where the second radiocomm is when it’s turned on, so I played with it until a light came on.’

  ‘So you had nothing to do with Barry stealing the weapon?’ asked Liore.

  ‘No.’

  ‘And the garter?’ asked Madeline.

  ‘There was a lady . . .’ managed Daniel, then his voice trailed away.

  ‘I worked that out for myself,’ prompted Madeline.

  ‘I was talking about not living for very long, so she was worried about me.’

  ‘I’m not surprised.’

  ‘We saw a lot of each other.’

  ‘All of each other, by the sound of it.’

  ‘No! Please, this is hard enough already.’

  ‘Continue,’ ordered Liore.

  ‘That’s all. As we approached Colombo, we saw the Millennium overtake us, and Barry thought you must be aboard. When he went to his cabin to retrieve the weapon, I locked him in there. I thought I had disabled the gun, but I was wrong, and you know the rest.’

  ‘So you burgled Barry’s famous bag,’ said Madeline. ‘Apart from the radiocomm, did you keep anything else?’

  ‘Not much. I threw most of his stolen goods over the side, but I kept what looked useful.’

  ‘And you tried to disable the weapon before putting it back into his bag,’ said Liore.

  ‘I did disable it! I tried to fire it through the porthole. Nothing happened.’

  ‘With the switch cover off ?’

  ‘I . . . yes. Is that important?’

  ‘Very important. Go on.’

  ‘That’s all. When Barry saw the Millennium catch up with the Andromeda, we were both pretty sure that you were aboard. He ran to his cabin to get the weapon, but I followed and jammed the lock with a pencil in the keyhole.’

  ‘Nice plan, if you had managed to jam the weapon, too,’ said Madeline.

  ‘Failed again,’ muttered Daniel.

  Madeline put her hand on his arm and squeezed it.

  ‘Not so,’ she said. ‘You did well.’

  ‘You’re just saying that to make me feel better.’

  ‘Of course, but you still did well. Why did you go ashore with the radiocomm?’

  ‘Um . . .’

  ‘The truth?’ said Madeline.

  ‘So . . . so Liore could track it and . . .’

  ‘Kill you.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I’m worthless alive, but I didn’t want to waste my death.’

  ‘Daniel!’ exclaimed Madeline. ‘I – never mind, go on.’

  ‘Once I was dead Liore would find the note about how I thought I had disabled the weapon and locked Barry in his cabin. Liore, I wanted you to, well, to respect me, but only after you had killed me. Do you understand?’

  ‘No target – I mean no,’ said Liore.

  ‘I didn’t want you to think I was on Barry’s side. I wanted you to kill me, then realise it was an honest mistake and not feel bad about it. It would have been perfect –’

  ‘Daniel!’ shouted Madeline.

  ‘Sorry.’

  ‘So, we still have to catch Barry,’ Madeline continued.

  ‘The Ajax is only a tramp steamer, so the Andromeda should catch up with it while it is taking on coal at Port Said,’ said Daniel. ‘The weapon is still working, so Barry will be very dangerous.’

  ‘The soldier is more dangerous than the weapon,’ said Liore. ‘How did you and Barry activate it?’

  ‘Barry must have had some part of your body.’

  ‘Hair, most likely,’ said Liore.

  ‘How would he have got it?’

  ‘I would say he used a broom when he burgled my room. And you? How could you have obtained my hair?’

  ‘I have a strip of Muriel’s petticoat that was once used to bandage your stomach. Your blood was on it.’

  ‘Clever.’

  ‘You kept a strip of a girl’s petticoat that had been used as a bandage?’ asked Madeline.

  ‘Um, yes.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because the girl I love once wore that petticoat.’

  ‘I’ve heard of keeping a lock of a girl’s hair, but – but never mind. Now back to practical matters. Liore, we should see the purser about sending ashore for spare clothes for us.’

  ‘I should leave,’ said Daniel.

  ‘Before you go, please take this back,’ said Liore, holding the radiocomm out to Daniel.

  ‘Don’t you need it?’

  ‘Of course. I need it to stay in contact with you. You are still a member of my squad.’

  ‘Oh. Thank you. And if you want your old uniform back, it’s in my cabin.’

  Daniel put the radiocomm in his pocket and began to stand. The cabin suddenly spun before his eyes and went dark.

  Daniel spent the next two days in the infirmary, drifting in and out of consciousness in the sweltering heat, attended by the ship’s nurse. He had a string of visitors, mostly girls and their mothers enquiring after his health, or telling him how heroic he had been to defend Liore and Madeline from the sailors, whose number by now had grown to between five and ten. At some stage the ship had loaded the last of its coal and got under way, but Daniel had no memory of that. Gradually his strength returned, and he passed the time by reading the books about ships’ engines that he had borrowed.

  On the third day after leaving Colombo he was well enough to go back to his own cabin. On the fourth he went to breakfas
t in the first-class saloon, then found a vacant deck-chair on the promenade deck and fell asleep for the rest of the morning. After lunch he decided that he felt strong enough to face Liore and Madeline again. As he raised his hand to knock on their cabin door, Liore called to him.

  ‘The door is unlocked, Daniel. You may enter.’

  Daniel opened the door. The table that Liore had smashed four days earlier had been replaced, and was now covered with tools, wires, and what looked like parts of electric motors. Liore was sitting at the table, heating something in a glass tube, while Madeline sat on her bed, winding an electrical coil.

  ‘I don’t remember you bringing all this aboard,’ said Daniel.

  ‘Foraged,’ said Liore.

  ‘She stole it,’ said Madeline.

  ‘Can you tell me what are you building?’ asked Daniel.

  ‘And not in battlespeak,’ added Madeline.

  ‘It is an extension for the radiocomms.’

  Daniel looked down at the thing. It had six barrels, all wound with wire, and the general shape of a gun. Liore’s radiocomm was attached to it with wires and sealing wax, and there was a space for Daniel’s unit.

  ‘What does it do?’ asked Daniel.

  ‘Pull the trigger, and you set off six charges together. They shoot magnets along these barrels, generating a resonant field which is tuned and focused on the target by the radiocomms.’

  ‘So it’s a death ray?’ guessed Daniel.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then what?’

  ‘Worse.’

  Daniel shivered.

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘You can help if you like,’ said Madeline cheerily. ‘We need some metal brackets filed into shape.’

  When one has been confined to bed for some days, one loses the proper matching between day and night. So it was with Daniel, on the fifth night after leaving Colombo. Ignoring the promise of ‘A concert of tropical love songs’, he went to bed soon after dinner. He awoke at two in the morning, lit a match, looked at his pocket watch, then closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep again. After what seemed to be a very long time, he lit another match. It was seven minutes past two. He lit the beside lamp before the match burned out, sat up in bed and stared at the books on his writing desk. He decided upon A Scientific Guide to Human Reproductive Biology, mainly because Fox had read it.