Timekeepers

by Dave Weaver

  Portia nodded enthusiastically. “I agree with Michael, it’s far too dangerous for you to stay now. Better to be a free man in Gaul than in one of Borg’s cells at the Ministry of Security.”

  Jack remembered the vision of the young nurse’s brother.

  “Right, which leads us to problem number two.” Michael continued. “We need a boat from Noviomagnus docks. The airports will all be watched, the sea buses as well, but a cargo hydro from one of the private ports might fit the bill before they start snooping around those as well. I know someone who can get you over to Gaul, an EG who runs a small hydro and will do anything for the cause. But first, we’ve got to get you there.”

  “There’s another problem, I’m afraid.” Portia said, frowning at the two of them. “He’s got no I-Dent. Even if we got him over the Channel he’d never get through the check stations.”

  “He’s not going anywhere near a check station. That’s the first place they’ll try to pick him up! And the security forces in Gaul will send him straight back to Borg, even though they hate the guy. But you’re right of course. You can’t get anything in the Empire without an Identity Code Number.” He explained to Jack, “You can’t rent a room, buy food, drive a car, get on a magno train; basically you can’t live without one.”

  Portia looked desperately into her boyfriend’s eyes. “That’s why I brought him to you, Michael. You’re the only one who can help him get one. You know people; you can get things like that.”

  He did a mock frown, Jack thought with unnecessary smugness. “Won’t be easy babe but I think arrangements can be made if you guys are prepared do exactly what I tell you.”

  “Michael, I really love you!” She raised herself on tiptoes to kiss his lips. “Thank you, Babe.”

  Jack felt both relieved and slightly nauseous.

  Michael broke away from Portia’s clutches and tapped a ring on his finger. “Just got to make a little call first.”

  Immediately a tiny holographic figure jumped out of the ring and into the palm of his hand; a shaggy-haired man of around thirty dressed in a red leather suit. He had a sharp, slightly rodent-featured face. The eyes, even at this six-inch miniature version, were clearly EG grey.

  “Michael, my man!” The figure spoke in a slightly metallic voice. “What can I do you for?”

  “Titus, I need a rogue I-Dent fast. It’s got to be clean and I need it to be positioned on my client in the next hour. Can do?”

  The figure performed an exaggerated double-take of disbelief, probably for Michael’s invisible client’s benefit as the two men had obviously done this kind of transaction many times before. “You’re kidding? Even if I had one it would take hours to get the surgery sorted. I can’t get hold of an implantist just like that you know!”

  Michael’s voice took on a hint of menace that surprised Jack and, he noticed, Portia. “It’s all for the cause, Titus. A bit like it was with your sister. How is she by the way, do you ever hear from her in Germania?”

  “I know I owe you, Michael, but what you’re asking is impossible.”

  “Yes you do owe me Titus, but not just for that. How many rogue I-Dents have I put your way in the last year? Risky business, we wouldn’t want your bosses to get wind of it, would we?”

  The tiny figure’s body language had changed. “I don’t know…”

  “You can do the positioning yourself, you’ve seen it done enough times and I trust you not to mess it up. He’ll be with you shortly.”

  “Yeah, okay Michael, I’ll do my best.”

  “I know you will, Titus. Michael out.” The little figure vanished. Michael turned to Jack and Portia who still looked shocked.

  “Were you threatening him Michael?” She seemed uncertain of him.

  “Advising him to help us, that’s all. You’ve got to be tough with these lowlifes. I got his sister into Germania when the authorities found out about her illegality. He owes me big time, luckily for our friend here, right?”

  Jack spoke up before Portia could reply. “Thank you for helping me, Michael.”

  “No problem mate, but you guys had better leave right now. Titus’ place is all the way across the city and you haven’t got long to make it to the hydro before dawn.”

  “Aren’t you coming with us?” There was noticeable hurt in Portia’s voice.

  “I’ve got to get the hydro organised then get down to Noviomagnus to make sure everything’s ready to go. I need time to do that. When you guys get to the hydroport I’ll be there to meet you. Then it’s bye-bye Jack. Maybe you and I could go to my place in Corinium and lie low for a few weeks after that, just the two of us, until Borg stops looking for you. Look, take my car, here’s an I-dent chip for it.” He pinned a tiny button on her t-shirt. I’ll use the bike and we’ll meet up at 3am at the port. You can plot the route yourself.”

  Her face brightened and she kissed him again, this time lightly on the cheek. “Thanks Michael, that’s really amazing. I’m sorry to lay all this on you.”

  “That’s what I’m here for, Babe.” He turned to Jack. “Take care of her. I’m sure I can count on you after what the two of you have been through together.” He walked past them and opened the door. Portia hugged him again on their way out. “Thank you darling. I can’t wait till we’re together in Corinium.”

  “Counting the hours, Babe!”

  The door shut and they were back again in the shadowy corridor. She looked at Jack, slightly embarrassed. “He’s a great guy, isn’t he?” Jack didn’t answer. “I guess we’d better go to this Titus then. The car’s downstairs in the carport.” With a self-conscious grin she led the way.

  As Jack followed he thought he heard another voice, this time muffled, coming from inside the apartment they’d just left. Michael appeared to be making a second call.

  Chapter 16

  There was tense silence in the car as they sped down a neon-lit hover-way past shadowy apartment blocks like the one they’d just left. Portia was driving. She turned towards him without taking her eyes off the blur of concrete track.

  “Let me tell you about Michael.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “I want to. Perhaps I should have told you about us before, but we have been a bit busy.” They both smiled at the understatement.

  “Okay tell me.”

  “Michael’s been the leader of our EG Rights group for the last year but up until five months ago he also worked for my father.” Ignoring Jack’s surprise she continued. “He’s a brilliant guy. He came over with the other EGs from the Academy of Padua but he stood out from everybody else. Dad says his grasp of multi-dimensional physics is extraordinary. Dad and Michael got on like a house on fire but some of the others thought him a destabilising influence on the EGs at the Centre. They wanted him out so father reluctantly asked him to leave. Basically they railroaded him.”

  “What did your uncle think?”

  She didn’t answer directly. “Dario’s a complicated man; he says a lot of things he regrets later on. When he’s sober, I mean.”

  “But he doesn’t like Michael either?”

  She frowned. “Michael’s an orphan, Jack. His parents were sentenced to death for using a fake EG licence for his birth. They were some of the first to be charged under Silas Borg’s new Family Law; really a way of intimidating the EGs even more. He was adopted by the State Talent Programme for Ectogenetic Orphans; they sent him to Padua when they realised his latent genius. He’s never known familial love, that’s why he’s the way his is now. I’m the first person, the first non-EG anyway, he’s ever really trusted. I’m proud of that.”

  “Maybe that’s the problem.” He shouldn’t have said it but he was too tired to edit his thoughts.

  “What do you mean?” Portia’s eyes flashed with sudden rage.

  “Well, you love him but you don’t really know the whole truth. I mean you’ve only his word about the past. What do the other EGs at the Centre make of him for instance?”

  “They admire
his brilliance, most of them do anyway. And what do you know about any of it?” She seemed flustered, still white-faced with anger. Her driving became erratic.

  “I don’t know anything, Portia. But if Dario thinks there’s something wrong…”

  She braked. The vehicle skewed sideways then almost overturned before floating to a halt at the side of the hover-way. She set it down onto the surface with a bump.

  “Get out Jack!”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”

  “Michael’s done everything he can to help you. He’s saving your life for Jupiter’s sake!”

  “I know, I know! I’m sorry I said anything. But you must have thought about it a few times yourself. I don’t know what happened but it’s obviously something that ruined his career at the Centre. Now he has to live in that crappy flat flogging black-market I-Dents and smuggling people’s sisters out of the country for a living. All I’m trying to say is he must be pretty bitter by now. Against Lucas and the Centre I mean.”

  “You don’t understand anything about him!” she shouted.

  “I understand you love him and you hope I’m wrong! So do I actually.”

  She looked at him in surprise. The anger slowly drained from her face. Finally she turned away to start the car’s magnopac again. “We’ve got to get going.” She told him in a low, tired voice.

  The awkward journey continued.

  The I-Dent hurt. Not a rolling around in agony kind of hurt, but enough to make him glad when it was over. There had been a painful nick in his wrist, the sharp red beam of the laser knife slicing the flesh apart then the chip pushed under the skin and another pencil-thin shaft of light, blue this time, played over the area until all that was left was a small scar. There was nothing apart from this to show that he’d joined the ranks of the privileged; a true citizen of Rome International.

  The man Michael had referred to as Titus sweated profusely whilst performing the operation, which wasn’t encouraging to Jack. If the guy had so much as sneezed he could easily have sliced through his wrist and left him to bleed to death on the huge bear skin rug that was just one of an expensive collection of accessories in the flash penthouse.

  Luckily Titus didn’t sneeze and now Jack had the all-important I-Dent. His eyes lingered on the panoramic view of the city as he gave a humourless grin. He was about to leave the country, not his own country admittedly but the closest thing he had to one, and go on the run like a criminal. If he couldn’t get back to Lucas he’d be stuck in this alternative timeline until he eventually died in it.

  “Does it hurt?” Portia asked. “I had mine done when I was two, probably screamed the house down.”

  He stopped the self-pity in its tracks. “I won’t see you again after tonight, will I?”

  “That’s not true, Jack. We can still find you through the implant Dad put in your neck. You were right about that being a lot more than a translator; it’s also a tracking device for Chrono to trace your exact position wherever you are on the planet. We knew there was a chance you might try to go on the run when you discovered what had happened. Try to stay in northern Gaul. When things change we’ll come and get you and my father will have a programme ready to jump you back.”

  His spirits rose immediately. He’d felt he was being cast adrift on a hostile ocean to fend for himself. At least now there was a plan that he could cling to through the lonely nights of his enforced holiday in what he’d better stop thinking of as ‘France’.

  “How’s it feeling?” Titus asked him.

  “Okay, stings a bit.”

  “Perhaps I should do this surgery stuff on a regular basis, nothing to it really.” He held Jack’s wrist out to admire his handiwork.

  “Yet another string to your bow?” Portia’s dislike of Titus was obvious.

  “You think I like living this way, Portia?” he snapped back.

  “Do you know this guy?” Jack asked, surprised by the familiarity.

  “Titus used to be in the EG rights movement until he took a job at the Ministry of Information. He works for the government now, although he has a useful little sideline fleecing his mates.”

  “That’s a load of crap and you know it!” The EG was angry, or at least feigning it. “I just charge them expenses. All this…” he waved a hand around the expensively furnished suite, “comes from Normals: the ones who need to become somebody else quick. I don’t ask any questions; I don’t care what stuff they’ve done. And I never screw another EG. Anyway, if I didn’t work for MINFO how else could you lot get the I-Dents?”

  “How do you get them?” Jack asked, fascinated by this peek into a profitable black market operation below the surface of Romano Briton.

  “I’m in the I-Dent Reprogramming Department. I’m way overqualified for the job actually but they have to employ a minimum quota of EGs in low government departments to get their budget approved by Rome. I’ve actually got a degree in Nano-tech from Deva University.”

  “I-Dent’s are quite expensive pieces of kit,” Titus continued. “When someone dies their family will often turn it in to the Ministry for cash or if they don’t the guys at the incinerators will. They always keep a laser in case a stiff comes through still carrying one.”

  “But they’re no good to you, are they?”

  “I take a couple every few days; the newer ones, usually from a kid who’s bought it in a hover-way crash. I’ve got a little lead-lined box I stick them in to avoid the personnel scanners we pass through to clock-off. I’ve a small lab,” he jerked his thumb at a door, “through there. I make a copy of the I-Dent, personal information and security code number included. It doesn’t work of course, but it looks near enough like the real thing. I change the I-Dent, the real one, so now it’s got my client’s details. An acquaintance in Registration puts it straight back into the system for a cut. I take the copy into work bright and early so I’m the first one in. I slip it into the batch for reprogramming that day. I pretend to test its lifespan along with the others. Surprise! The thing’s dead! It’s handed to the chief inspector and he dumps it. He dumps my copy: brilliant!”

  “Yeah, brilliant, now we’ve got to fly.” Portia told him. “Thanks for the positioning job. Let’s hope Jack still has the use of all his fingers tomorrow morning.”

  “I’m not an implantist, Portia. I did my best.”

  “I know you did, Titus. Thanks for helping us.” She saw his look. “I mean it. Good luck.”

  She turned towards the door but Titus grabbed her arm. “Wait, I’ve something I want you to take to Michael.

  “What is it?” She looked suspicious.

  “Leonardo’s been working on it for ages. He got spooked and left for Gaul when they arrested Brusus a month ago. He’s just sent it to me for safekeeping but I don’t want the damn thing! Brusus doesn’t know me from a hole in the ground but most of the others in the group remember me, and he’ll finger them all when Borg breaks him. And I don’t want it to be found here after I’ve built all this up.” He glanced around.

  “Find what?” Portia’s hands jerked a ‘get to the damn point’ gesture.

  “This!” From the breast pocket of his shiny red suit he produced a tiny plastic tablet. “It’s the bug, the Spartacus Bug.” Titus had a mischievous grin.

  “But that’s not meant to happen for another two weeks…”

  Jack looked from one to the other of them. “What’s he talking about, Portia?”

  She looked suddenly confused. “It’s a computer bug. A friend of ours created it to corrupt the Central EG Registry at the Ministry of Information. Leo said it could take out any system in the world, eat away at the central memory until it’s a basket case. We just need to get it into an entry point connected to MINFO. Titus won’t take it into work, unfortunately.”

  “Damn right I won’t, they’d trace it straight back to me and I’d tell them everything; I’m no hero.”

  “Why Spartacus?” Jack asked him.

  “The King of the Slaves, remembe
r? Spartacus was the guy who led their revolt against Rome.” Of course Jack knew who Spartacus was but he couldn’t see the connection between him and the EGs’ situation.

  “But why did he send it to you?” Portia sounded mystified.

  “He had to get rid of it pronto and didn’t have Michael’s latest address. You know how he likes to keep on the move. If they find it here there’ll be no more free I-Dents for the cause, and none of you want that to happen, so get it out of my place. Take it to Michael.”

  If the man made his living out of the cruelties of the government’s system, Jack wondered, why was he so keen on helping to destroy it? Perhaps he wasn’t quite the rat Portia made him out to be.

  “Okay, give it to me!” Portia snapped it out of his hand. “Now I have to go to the bathroom! Wait a minute Jack, I won’t be long. Is it through here?” She stabbed a thumb at the door Titus had identified as his lab then marched in before he could stop her.

  “All right, it’s at the end of the passage…please don’t touch anything… and hurry up!” He seemed to want them out as quickly as possible. So did Jack, cursing Portia under his breath.

  After a long wait she was back. “Let’s go!” She rushed out of the apartment. Jack gave Titus a grateful nod of thanks then hurried after her.

  Chapter 17

  They were speeding down the hover-way to Noviomagnus before either spoke again.

  “Seemed a nice enough guy; apart from making a small fortune out of dead kids’ I-Dents.” Jack said, breaking the silence. “Apparently I’m some kind of medical student.” He stared at the readout of his new identity that the counterfeiter had thoughtfully provided.

  “He’s a little scumbag; turn in his own mother for ten units. He’s not one of us but we need him. You don’t know what it’s like to be an EG in this State, Jack. Other countries, even parts of Romano Briton, are growing more liberal every year. The Normals’ common decency is replacing the old bigoted attitudes and Rome’s been slowly bending to international pressure. The Grand Senate are aware that times are changing, at least the more open-minded Senators are; the old brain-dead ones will soon be gone. Here though, the EGs are treated like shit, like some kind of infestation to be stamped out. Silas Borg is getting ready for something big, we can all sense it. I don’t think Rome will let him last much longer anyway. The rest of the world hate and despise him, they’re disgusted at his EG rights record…” She paused in mid-tirade, seemingly surprised at her own depth of feeling.