The Timepiece and the Girl Who Went Astray: A thrilling new time travel adventure

by O. R. Simmonds

  Moss grumbled his response: ‘You’re lucky I’m tired, sunshine. Don’t you ever move my car again. Understood?’

  The young officer turned red in the face. ‘Of course, sir. Apologies.’

  ‘Where is it?’

  ‘The car? Yes, sir, I parked it over by the south wall.’

  Moss glared at the young officer, concluding the chastising. He snatched his key from his hand and made his way across the yard. The excitement of the apparent shooting seemed to be dying down as officers returned to their duties. Moss found his car parked neatly facing the south wall. He climbed in and shut the door. Staring out through the windshield lazily, he considered sleeping in his car for an hour or two – it wouldn’t be the first time – but he longed for a firm mattress after such a long shift. He leaned forwards and started the engine. He flicked on the headlights and put the car in reverse. As he turned his head to look to the rear of the car, he spotted something embedded in the wall. Something metallic, illuminated and glistening in the headlights.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  May 15th, 1984, 04:58

  Frenz winced as he processed what Will had just told him, doing his best to prevent the increasingly lined features of his face from betraying the disquieting thoughts running through his head. He walked back to the bench, sat down once more and said, ‘Her being in the future complicates things but could explain some of what’s been going on here.’

  ‘Explain it how?’

  ‘Well, as I said, the future is unpredictable.’

  Will nodded. ‘Yeah, and?’

  ‘Nothing that has happened in the past couple of hours was part of the plan. You weren’t supposed to come back with the Timepiece. The Timekeepers shouldn’t have found us so quickly. Something in your future has changed and it’s made everything uncertain. Abigayle being in the future could explain it.’

  ‘What about you?’

  ‘What about me?’

  ‘You’ve travelled to the future too. Isn’t that dangerous and uncertain as well?’

  ‘In theory, yes. Although, technically speaking, I’m now part of your present rather than your past. And since you brought me here, our futures are now somehow aligned.’

  ‘I think this is giving me a migraine,’ Will said, rubbing his eyes.

  ‘Make no mistake, everything we’re doing here is uncharted territory and extremely dangerous. But under the circumstances, it’s very much a necessary risk.’

  Silence fell between the two men. Will stood motionless, studying his shoes, when a thought occurred to him. He took a step towards Frenz, who, sensing the movement, looked up to meet his enquiring gaze. ‘Answer me this: if you guys only ever travelled to the past, how do you know all this stuff about the future?’

  Frenz exhaled gently, then said with apprehension, ‘Please understand that I can only tell you what I’ve read in reports, and some of what I’m about to say is based on nothing more than my own theories and observations.’

  ‘Duly noted,’ Will said with a hint of sarcasm, not used to talking to someone who spoke so formally.

  ‘Operational reports from the agency’s early years are limited. What little we do know is that the Timekeepers conducted experiments with future time travel and, aside from the obvious dangers I mentioned already, they encountered some unexplained… anomalies.’

  ‘You mean anomalies beyond the fact that they were time travelling, right?’

  Frenz ignored the comment and continued, ‘Agents would bring back small caches of information from the future and compare their findings.’

  ‘What kind of information?’

  ‘The aim was to first establish a baseline before attempting more in-depth assignments, so they would look for things like current stock market reports, various government statistics: crime, birth and death rates. Things of that nature.’

  ‘What was so anomalous about that?’

  ‘There were multiple conflicting reports from different assignments to the same period. This is when it was discovered that the future seemed to be constantly changing. At first they couldn’t tell if it was the act of bringing information back from the future that was altering events or if it was something else entirely.’

  ‘What was it?’

  ‘From what I’ve read in the reports, it was the agents themselves. No one knew what the effects of future time travel might be, so in an attempt to avoid potential psychological trauma, different agents were used on different assignments. However, there was something about the individuals that was causing things to change.’

  Frenz removed his glasses and began cleaning the lenses with a handkerchief. As the sun rose above the line of the nearby townhouses, its rays burned through the early morning cloud cover, revealing the orange-blue sky beyond. Long, warming shadows reached out from the roots of the surrounding trees, plants and the bench upon which Frenz was sat. The dew that had formed atop the encircling fence was rising up, evaporating in the heat of the new day.

  As Frenz replaced his glasses, Will said, ‘So, if I went to the future, it would be different for me than it would be for you?’

  ‘Correct.’

  ‘Okay, but why?’

  ‘It’s theorised that when any person travels into the future – for argument’s sake, let’s say ten years into the future – they would emerge in a future where they’d been missing for the intervening ten years. It may seem trivial, but removing a single person’s interactions in the world for an extended period of time can have a huge effect on future events.’

  ‘You mean like the Butterfly Effect? Small causes having very large effects. I studied a bit of the theory in college.’

  Frenz beamed, pleasantly surprised at his new friend. ‘Yes, exactly. For example, tomorrow morning you could bump into a man in the street, making him just a few seconds late into his office building. This minor delay causes him to miss his elevator ride to the floor where he works. This in turn causes him to reach his floor two minutes later than usual, where he has a chance encounter with a young lady whom he would’ve otherwise missed. The two of them strike up a conversation and agree to go out for dinner. They fall in love and eventually marry and have four children. One of those children goes on to discover a cure for a major disease that saves the lives of thousands, perhaps millions of people. All this because tomorrow you’ll bump into a man in the street whom you don’t even know. However, if you travel to the future today, you won’t be here to bump into this man and that future will never come to pass. You’ll arrive in a future where millions of people will have died from the disease that was never cured. This is an extreme example, of course.’

  Will shook his head in mock disbelief. ‘Wow, I never knew my life was so important!’

  Frenz allowed himself to smirk at this.

  Will said, ‘Is that why they stopped anyone else from travelling to the future?’

  ‘It wasn’t the sole reason but it contributed. From some of the reports I was able to get my eyes on, it was suggested that there were many parallel, converging versions of the future. Different timelines crossing into one another. But the main reason for stopping the programme was the dangers involved. We lost many good agents in those years.’

  Any trace of darkness had almost completely deserted the garden. Though Will was growing more anxious about their being spotted in broad daylight, his interest in Frenz’s words won out and he pressed him for more.

  ‘Lost? You mean they died?’

  ‘We can’t always be certain what happened to agents lost during time travel. Their files aren’t marked as deceased but rather as “astray.” Like they were alive somewhere – or somewhen – and might return one day.’

  ‘Did any return?’

  ‘I’m afraid not, but their loss wasn’t in vain. Without their sacrifice, we wouldn’t know what we do now about the dangers of future time travel. Before long, the Futures Project – as it was called – was abandoned and travel to the future was strictly prohibited. Officially, at least.�
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  ‘Only officially?’

  Frenz hesitated before proceeding, rubbing his chin, unsure of how much he should reveal to this man who was still relatively unknown to him. Folding his arms across his chest, he continued, ‘It was suspected that a faction inside the agency still saw value in the Futures Project. One very senior and influential agent believed he had a way to ensure that the data recovered from future travel would always be reliable. It’s thought that they continued to conduct research covertly.’

  ‘How could they ensure the data was reliable?’

  ‘This agent was something of an extremist. His proposal was to send an agent into the future and have them isolated upon their return to limit interactions with others. The agent would then be thoroughly debriefed to ensure all information about the future was gathered. It was never proven, but I suspect that the agent would then be executed. If that agent saw a future that was predicated on them being missing for decades, what better way to ensure that future came to pass than to make sure they stayed missing?’

  ‘Holy shit! Did that really happen?’

  ‘No one knows for sure, but I believe so.’

  Will said, ‘I guess the agents didn’t know they were going on a suicide mission?’

  ‘I wouldn’t have thought so, no.’

  ‘Damn, that’s heavy.’

  ‘It gets worse. If this rogue faction ever successfully carried out experiments of this kind, there were other things they hadn’t considered.’

  ‘Such as?’

  ‘First, if these agents reported on the future that they had witnessed, just passing that knowledge onto others could change the course of history. And second, they had forgotten about the Mimic Watches.’

  ‘What the hell is a Mimic Watch?’

  ‘You recall that physical contact is required for more than one person to travel at a time and we had to hold hands?’

  ‘How could I forget.’

  ‘In the early days, it was common practice for more than one agent to travel, and holding hands isn’t exactly the most practical or safe way to do it, as you well know.’ Will pulled a face and Frenz continued, ‘The agency’s horology engineers developed a watch that could replicate the effects of physical contact during time travel. On its own, a Mimic Watch was relatively useless and had no power to alter time. Each one was a slave to the Timepiece, waiting for a signal. But when the Timepiece was activated, each Mimic Watch was able to connect that signal, enabling the wearer to follow the Timepiece to whichever time period it had travelled to.’

  ‘Wait a sec. This is how those two guys were able to follow us through time? They’re wearing Mimic Watches?’

  ‘That’s the only logical explanation.’

  ‘Why didn’t you say something earlier?’

  ‘By the time it became clear how close they were to our location, it was too late to explain.’

  ‘So, what’s the problem with the Mimic Watches?’

  ‘When authorised assignments take place,’ Frenz said, ‘they are done so with huge care. They are meticulously planned and the whole agency is fully briefed and prepared. Safety is of the utmost importance. The problem is that this rogue faction conducted a number of unauthorised assignments, and they did so under the assumption that all Mimic Watches would be deactivated at the time.’

  ‘Well, you know what they say about assumption.’

  ‘I’m afraid I don’t. But I do know what I saw. A dear friend of mine, Nestor Ordell, worked in the Engineering Section of the agency as a horological engineer. We were very close. I would go as far as to say he was my best friend. The two of us had been working late and I visited him in his workshop to ask if he would be attending our weekly stargazing event later that evening. At the time, he was partway through repairing a malfunctioning Mimic Watch. The whole episode is somewhat of a blur, but I do recall Nestor saying that it was locked in its active state.’

  ‘Active state? What’s that mean?’

  ‘Mimic Watches are nominally inactive, waiting for a signal from the Timepiece. When a signal is received, an amber light indicates this. Then, when the Timekeeper agent wearing the Mimic Watch is ready, they activate it and follow the Timepiece to the same time period.’

  ‘Right, got it,’ Will said, doing his best to take all this in.

  ‘As I was saying, the two of us were talking when he suddenly vanished before my eyes. A few minutes later the Mimic Watch he’d been holding reappeared and dropped down to his workbench. I never saw him again.’

  ‘Jeez, Frenz, I’m sorry. I had no idea.’

  Frenz nodded his appreciation.

  ‘Look, I don’t mean to sound insensitive to your loss, but how does any of this help Abigayle?’

  ‘I wasn’t in that jail by accident, William. I had been sent instructions to be there and to expect a friend of the agency to help me escape. Then you appeared and unless you’re a very good liar and have some other agenda, you weren’t supposed to be there.’

  ‘We’ve been over this, and no, I still have no idea what’s going on.’

  ‘The fact that you’re so closely connected to someone who has gone astray in the future and that you yourself travelled there with her cannot be unconnected. Somehow Abigayle being sent there is causing uncertainty to bleed back into the present. It’s already caused things to change. She’s the reason you turned up in my jail cell, after all. So perhaps she’s the reason you have the Timepiece, whether she knows it or not. In order to unravel this mess, we need to get the lay of the land from someone in this time period. Someone we can trust.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘A friend, an old colleague. If she can, she will help us.’

  ‘Okay, if you trust her, then go speak to her but we go together.’

  ‘I trust her with my life. Besides, she used to service and maintain the Timepiece for the agency, and it wouldn’t hurt to have her look at it herself. It’s been years since it’s been used, and it shouldn’t be overheating the way it has been.’

  ‘Where does your friend live?’

  ‘In a small village in the south of Ireland called Dingle. At least that’s where she used to live.’

  ‘Ireland? We’ve got to go to Ireland? Can’t we just phone her? They even have phones in cars now, can you believe that?’

  ‘In cars? Fascinating,’ Frenz said, wide-eyed, then shook the thought from his mind. ‘No, we can’t risk it. The Timekeepers will be listening. They always had friends in high places, and I wouldn’t want to bet on that being any different now, even if they don’t have the Timepiece anymore.’

  ‘Can’t we just go back in time and stop Abigayle from using the Timepiece in the first place?’

  ‘Putting aside the fact that undoing an event in your own past, which is directly responsible for your being here now, would tear the fabric of the space and time, there is another issue to consider.’

  ‘Which is?’

  ‘The moment we activate the Timepiece, the Timekeepers will know and it won’t take them long to track us down.’

  ‘Shit, I’d forgotten about that.’

  ‘Very perspicacious, William,’ Frenz said in agreement. He stood from the bench, looked at his watch and began walking back through the garden to the open gate. ‘The streets will begin to get busy soon, unless people no longer work in 1984?’

  Will turned and began walking alongside Frenz. After a moment, he said, ‘Frenz, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘You keep talking about the Timekeepers as them rather than we. I thought you worked for them. How is it that the older version of you that I met had the Timepiece and they don’t?’

  ‘Isn’t it obvious?’

  ‘Not really, no.’

  ‘I stole it from the Timekeepers, of course. Now come on, we must go.’

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  May 15th, 1984, 07:04

  The journey from Norland Square, in central London, to the small seaside
town of Dingle in County Kerry, Ireland, would prove to be a long, sleepless one.

  If Will had inherited anything from his father, it was a true, unwavering love of being in an unconscious, sedentary state for extended periods of time. Will tended to only indulge in this pastime at night. His father was rather less regimented in his approach, sleeping through most days as well. Despite his love of a good night’s rest and the constant nagging exhaustion in his bones and cloudiness in his head, Will’s determination to find Abigayle was the only thing in his thoughts.

  After Frenz had marched out of the gardens, he proceeded towards the sound of traffic. He emerged onto Holland Park Avenue, which was the main artery road running east to west through the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. He was joined by Will, who had half jogged, half walked to catch up with him.

  Will attempted to broach the subject of Frenz’s theft of the Timepiece from his masters, but Frenz was unequivocal in his insistence that now was not the time. Will was adamant that he would revisit the subject later.

  Frenz suggested that they stick to public transport for the entire journey. He was most eager that they keep a low profile. ‘Taxis are out of the question,’ Frenz said. ‘A taxi driver could remember his customers and might talk to the authorities. Passengers on buses and trains are anonymous. Inconspicuous in their movements to the point of being almost invisible. Being invisible at this point in time is to our advantage.’

  ‘Okay fine, but how are we going to pay for all this? I’m completely broke.’

  Frenz stopped abruptly and turned to Will. ‘The Timekeeper’s Guidebook I left for you. Do you still have it?’

  ‘Yeah, sure do.’ Will twisted his shoulders, reached into his back trouser pocket and pulled out the small, leather-bound book. He held it out towards Frenz, tilting it to one side inquiringly. Frenz made no move towards the book and instead said, ‘Check the inside of the back cover. There’s a small incision running along the outer edge.’

  Will flicked to the back of the book and studied the inside of the cover. Sure enough, there was a small opening running along it, two centimetres in from the outer edge. Will pressed his fingers on the leather-bound exterior of the book and used his thumb to bend the sturdy cover. It was stiff, and he needed to apply considerable force to expose the hidden compartment. His fingers turned white as he peered into the narrow slit that had appeared. He could just about make out several folded pieces of paper inside. He slid his free hand into the opening and retrieved the contents.