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

by O. R. Simmonds

  ‘That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.’

  ‘Don’t let it go to your head, we’ve still got to figure out a way to bring this wall down and fast. We’ve already had the Timepiece activated for far too long. They’ll be here soon.’

  Both Will and Frenz began frantically searching the basement room. Frenz got lucky first. In the far corner of the room, he’d come across a rusted metal toolbox with chipped metallic-blue paint. Inside he’d found a large hammer with a wooden handle and a heavy metal head. He marched back over to the wall, calling out for Will to join him. He then angled his arm high above his head with the mallet in hand and swung a wide arc, smashing the metal head against the brick wall. The force with which the mallet struck the wall made an almighty crunch and sent debris flying in all directions.

  Unfortunately for Frenz, however, the debris was mostly in the form of fractured wood. The wooden handle had become brittle over the years and had virtually disintegrated in Frenz’s hand. Frenz had let out a yelp of pain as the mallet had met the wall. He reeled backwards, clutching his wrist.

  ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Yes, I’m fine. It’s just a sprain. My dignity, on the other hand…what a foolhardy thing to attempt.’

  ‘Well, I’ve got to say, Frenz, that was a little bit optimistic if you ask me.’

  ‘What else is there? That was the largest tool in the box aside from some screwdrivers.’

  ‘Screwdrivers! Frenz, that’s perfect.’

  ‘William, we don’t have time to chisel our way through this wall.’

  ‘That’s not what I had in mind. Where did you find the tools?’

  Frenz pointed to the other side of the room and Will hurried over, returning with a variety of rusty screwdrivers. He set them down on the floor and began to examine each one. He looked at the first, scrutinised the type and size, grunted in dissatisfaction, then discarded it. He looked at the next one with the same result. He picked up the third, dismissing it even quicker than the previous two. This went on for a further thirty seconds until finally, at the second to last screwdriver, he found what he was looking for. He then slid the tool into his back pocket.

  Will stood, kicked the discarded tools to one side and then proceeded to push all the storage units one by one towards the entrance of the room and away from the far wall. Frenz stood by and watched as he repositioned the final storage unit, sliding it home so that all eight were neatly pressed together. Will knelt down, pulling the large screwdriver from his back pocket, and began getting to work on the bulky metal blocks attached to the wheel of the storage unit. Realising what he had in mind, Frenz moved to assist him. By the time Frenz had reached the unit, Will had already removed one dampening block from its wheel. Frenz held back the large metal unit while Will began working on the second of the four dampeners. Once Will had released the second, he pressed all his weight against the unit before passing the large screwdriver to Frenz. With Will now holding the storage unit back, Frenz removed the third and fourth dampening blocks.

  ‘What about the blocks on the other side of the unit?’ Frenz asked.

  ‘Let’s leave them. Each unit has eight perfectly tuned dampeners to slow this thing down, so it should move pretty fast with only four. Besides, it’ll help stop the unit from toppling over as we push it if we leave the dampeners on the back.’

  ‘Truly excellent lateral thinking, William.’

  ‘Well, let’s find out. You ready?’

  Frenz nodded and moved to the end of the storage unit. Will moved to the opposite end and said, ‘On three. One two, three!’

  Together the two men began pushing the large, heavy storage unit. There was only ten or so metres between it and the wall, where the tracks terminated abruptly. They both pushed with all their might. The unit moved painfully slowly at first, the remaining dampeners still doing their job. Now that a gap had opened up between the storage unit that they were pushing and the adjacent one, Will and Frenz moved quickly from pushing at either end of the unit to pushing from behind. They both kicked their feet off the units behind them, becoming almost horizontal as the gap opened up. This move seemed to help immeasurably as the speed the unit was moving increased. They had almost reached the halfway point, the unit now barely six metres from the wall, but it was still moving far too slow. Fortunately, the remaining dampeners completely failed and with only four metres to go before impact, both men were approaching a full sprint. By the final two metres, the unit had picked up so much speed that neither Will nor Frenz found themselves pushing it anymore; its momentum had increased to the point that they could no longer keep up.

  Barely a second later it happened. The unit smashed into the wall with a deafening clang. Metal thundered against stone and the heavy papers that were once neatly organised on the unit spilled into the air followed by a cloud of thick red and grey dust. Within a few moments, the entire room had been engulfed in a powdery haze. Will and Frenz covered their mouths and shielded their eyes. Will approached the wall, sweeping his hand back and forth in an attempt to clear the air. As he neared the twisted, mangled remains of the storage unit, the dust began to settle.

  Although the wall had obviously taken some damage, he could see no clear way through it, and he feared it was still intact. He was soon joined by Frenz, with whom he exchanged a concerned look. Frenz grunted defiantly and, fighting through the pain in his injured wrist, grabbed hold of one of the boxes of ledgers, which was sitting at an odd angle on one of the shelves, and pulled it loose, letting it crash to the floor. It was followed by a torrent of brick fragments. The wave of red rock flowed out towards Frenz, almost swamping his feet before he was pulled away by Will. The red rocks brought with them another cloud of dust, which thankfully settled faster than the last.

  Will approached the wall, then crouched and peered into the dark, dusty hole beyond the storage unit. He turned to Frenz and said, ‘We did it! We’re through!’

  ‘Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!’

  With that, Will began climbing on all fours through one of the shelves of the storage unit. Frenz meanwhile suddenly turned and ran back towards the remaining seven storage units, saying, ‘One moment, I saw a torch back here.’

  Will looked back as he crawled through the wall and said, ‘Okay, but be quick. The rest of this wall might come down any second now.’

  Frenz returned to the crumbled wall just as Will emerged on the other side. Will hauled himself to his feet and turned to see Frenz clambering through the opening with a brightly illuminated, metal-bodied torch in his hand. As Frenz was almost through, he reached out a hand to Will to help him to his feet, but before Frenz could feel Will’s hand close around his own, he felt another slender but strong hand close firmly around his ankle and begin pulling him back through the wall.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  December 23rd, 1983, 05:07

  ‘And where do you think you’re going, my old friend?’ the somewhat high-pitched voice said through the jagged opening in the wall. Through the gloom, Will could see the grinning face of Agent Tyke behind Frenz. He was an even more frightful sight with that disturbing smile on his face. His thin skin creased dozens of times over his bony cheeks, while his crooked yellowed teeth seemed far too large for his mouth. He was laying on his front across one of the metal shelves of the mangled unit on the other side of the collapsed wall. His long, outstretched arm reached through the opening in the wall and his leather-gloved hand was clamped like a vice around Frenz’s ankle.

  Will took a hold of Frenz’s hand before he was dragged back through the wall, beginning an unusual human tug of war. He pulled at Frenz’s arm with both hands, but despite Tyke’s disadvantageous position, he was somehow able to match Will for strength. Frenz began kicking at Tyke’s hand with his free foot, but even the heaviest of blows appeared to make little difference, with Tyke grinning wider still, saying, ‘Go on, Frenz, that’s the spirit! It’s always better when they put up a bit of a fight.’

>   Frenz locked eyes with Will and with his free hand pulled both vault keys from his pocket. He held them out to him and said, ‘Take them and go!’

  Will looked at the keys, then back to Frenz. ‘What? No way!’

  ‘Will, you must. I’ll hold them back as long as I can. Now go!’

  Still gripping Frenz’s ankle firmly, Tyke turned his head and shouted back into the file storage room, ‘Wigmore! Down here, I’ve got ’em down here!’

  Frenz looked into Will’s eyes once more, pleadingly saying, ‘Let go of my hand and go find Abigayle. Don’t worry about me!’

  Resigned to the situation, Will released his left hand from Frenz’s arm and reached out for the vault keys before hesitating. A flash of inspiration suddenly struck him, and he was no longer focused on the vault keys but instead the pulsing Timepiece, peering out of the upturned sleeve of his right wrist. While still holding on to Frenz with his right hand, he pulled with all his strength, gaining just enough distance to edge Frenz’s foot clear of the opening. With Frenz safely clear of the collapsed wall, Will immediately deactivated the Timepiece.

  May 19th, 1984, 09:17

  The Timepiece whirred and Will and Frenz lurched backwards, away from the wall, the tug of war suddenly over. They landed in a heap together, Will groaning awkwardly as he broke Frenz’s fall. The two of them heaved themselves to their feet and dusted themselves off. The room had fallen suddenly darker, save for the flickering light from the torch that lay on the floor pointing back towards the collapsed wall. Only the wall was no longer collapsed. Gone were the piles of red brick and the unstable wall. Instead, in their place, was a sturdy, neatly constructed grey breeze-block wall. Muffled screams of anguish could be heard from behind it. The sound was blood-curdling and would stay with Will forever. He moved nervously towards the wall to retrieve Frenz’s torch. As he picked it up and its light played across the floor and over Frenz’s feet, Will let out a gasp and said, ‘Holy shit!’

  Frenz spun, shielding his eyes from the light, and said, ‘What is it?’

  Will pointed towards Frenz’s ankle. ‘Look!’

  He aimed the torch at his feet and there, still in its vice-like grip, was the severed hand of Agent Tyke holding on to Frenz’s ankle.

  Unflustered, Frenz calmly crouched and one by one bent back each of the fingers. The screams of agony were still ringing through the wall. Upon releasing the last digit, the hand fell limply to the floor. Frenz looked back to Will and said, ‘There. Now, shall we continue?’

  ‘How can you be so calm? That’s a severed hand! I did that! I cut off a man’s hand!’

  ‘You did. And it’s a valuable lesson for you as well. Those are just the kind of dangers that come with using the Timepiece.’

  ‘Are you serious? You’re using this as some kind of teaching moment for me.’

  ‘You are the Timekeeper now, but you’re inexperienced. Dangerously so. I would say this is a good lesson to learn and is one you’ll not easily forget.’

  ‘Damn straight I won’t forget it! That guy may have been a bad guy. He may have tried to kill us more than once, granted, but he just had his hand, Mimic Watch and all, removed from his body because of me.’

  ‘Mimic Watch?’ Frenz quickly turned back to the hand and picked it up, holding it out in front of the torch light. Congealed blood oozed from the base of the wrist, where the forearm should have been.

  Will gagged. ‘Oh God, I think I’m going to puke.’

  ‘Please don’t vomit, just hold the torch steady.’ Frenz proceeded to carefully remove the Mimic Watch from the wrist of the severed hand, tossing the watch to Will and discarding the hand. ‘Okay, now we can go. No more holding hands when we use the Timepiece. You can give this to Abigayle when you see her.’

  ‘Yeah, sure. Thanks.’

  Frenz walked past Will, taking the torch back from him. He led the two of them away from the newly constructed wall down a spooky, dimly lit tunnel that stretched off into the distance for what looked like eternity. The tunnel had walls that curved at the ceiling. As the light from the torch flickered over them, Will could see that they were covered in white metro-style tiles with dark grey grout. Many of the tiles had fallen, the broken remains littering the floor along the corners. He couldn’t make out exactly what type of material was beneath their feet. It was damp and slippery in places but generally firm enough.

  As they walked hurriedly along the tunnel, a breeze of unknown origin cooled their faces. The walls shuddered as distant trains trundled through tunnels overhead. Fine debris fell from the ceiling, sending dust swirling through the air. Will said, ‘Wait a sec, are we in the subway?’

  ‘In a way, I suppose. This is part of an abandoned underground network.’

  ‘Is this part of the old King William Street underground station you told me about?’

  ‘No, that’s farther east, near the Tower of London. That was used for regular agency staff. These are just unused passenger transit tunnels. There are hundreds of tunnels like this running under the capital. Stations too. They’re called “ghost stations,” and most of them ended up in the hands of the agency after they closed to the public. The agency purchased properties that lay above these tunnels so that directors and high-ranking agency staff could move to and from the headquarters building unobserved.’

  ‘They’re safe though, right?’

  ‘I’m sure they are, but from the sounds of it Cillian Gander has had virtually all of them sealed or collapsed, so who knows.’

  ‘Well, that’s comforting,’ Will said as a chill shuddered up his spine.

  The two of them continued on through the dark tunnel for half a mile when the darkness began to recede. Passing through a bulky iron archway secured to the walls with hugely oversized bolts, they found themselves in a comparatively well-lit vestibule. Looking around for the source of the light, Will saw thin shafts of dancing blue-green pouring in from cylindrical openings in the ceiling.

  ‘Where is that light coming from? And why is it moving like that?’ Will asked.

  ‘We’re under the River Thames.’

  ‘The Time Travel Agency is under the River Thames?’

  ‘I wish you wouldn’t call it that. But yes, part of it is. Come along, we’re almost there.’

  Less than a minute later they emerged from the underwater tunnel into a larger octagonal room with four passageways converging from different directions. Three of the passageways were blocked with rubble and had apparently caved in years before.

  Frenz gestured to the collapsed tunnels. ‘Cillian’s handiwork, no doubt.’

  To their right, between the tunnel they had just emerged from and one of the collapsed ones, was an immense circular door. It was huge, spanning some ten metres from floor to ceiling, and appeared to be cast steel. The steel hadn’t rusted but had faded, with dull white and green streaks running from top to bottom as the damp from above had seeped through the ceiling. To the left and right of the giant door were colossal hinges, each the size of a telephone box.

  Frenz approached the door, with Will tailing behind. He fished around in his trouser pocket and retrieved both keys. He handed Madame Izri’s vault key to Will and kept the one given to him by Avy. Frenz traced his hands over the door, eventually locating the two keyholes after clearing away some kind of disgusting fungal growth that had blocked them from view. He motioned for Will to move to the right-hand keyhole. He nodded cautiously before moving into position. They both inserted the circular-shaped keys and on the count of three turned them anticlockwise.

  A loud metallic clunk could be heard as the keys rotated the internal lock mechanism. With that done, Frenz took hold of a large circular bar in the centre of the door and turned it clockwise a full three rotations before he heard another clunk.

  ‘Would you mind helping me with this?’ Frenz said.

  Will walked over eagerly, took hold of a thick horizontal bar on the right side of the door and began pulling the vault door outwards. Each half of the lar
ge circular door began to move, with Frenz pulling the left half and Will working the right. The hinges were stiff with inaction and protested valiantly before giving in and opening fully to reveal the long-lost Central Station of The Office of Time Dissemination.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  May 19th, 1984, 10:32

  Will was doubled over, his hands on his knees, still panting from the effort of opening the stubborn door. Frenz, who was apparently far fitter than Will despite being almost a decade older, continued to move forwards. Will eventually joined him, stepping through the doorway and into a vast rectangular chamber. The room was four stories high, with a large, reinforced glass skylight at its peak. With the Thames at low tide, light danced through the shallow waters, illuminating the room from above.

  ‘Hey, Frenz, are you sure this place can’t be seen through the water when the tide is low?’

  ‘No. The Thames is so filthy you can’t see a thing at this depth. They’ve been pumping raw sewage into it for years. Let’s hope they never clean it up, though.’

  ‘What if there’s a drought or something?’

  ‘That hasn’t happened for decades. The last I’m aware of was in 1858, the year of the Great Stink. Fortunately, the river was so full of waste that those windows were covered with a thick layer of it.’

  ‘That sounds awful. I’ll be sure to steer clear of that year if I can help it.’

  The lower level of the main atrium was filled with disorganised desks covered in disused typewriters, stacks of crumpled paper and a thick layer of grey-brown dust. Toppled chairs were scattered across the floor. On either side were doors and corridors leading deeper into the facility. To Will’s right, a plain ceramic sign with the words Operations Section written on it in black embossed lettering hung above a set of dark-stained wooden doors. To the left were a further two corridors, each with similar signs: the closest read Engineering Section; the farthest read The Bureau of Game Theory, the section where Frenz had worked. The three floors above had raised wooden gangways beyond which were more doors and corridors. It was clear that this was a substantial complex and would have been a hub of activity when it was fully staffed and operational.