by Darrell Pitt
Dan felt his stomach churning. He had been rattled after the crash, but he was awake. He was sure of it. ‘I need to find Henry,’ he said. ‘I’m going out looking for him.’
‘Ferdy does not think that is a good idea. The entity that attacked Liber8tor was extremely dangerous.’
But Dan wouldn’t listen. His gut was churning. He was the only person who had actually seen Henry. Could the boy have been a figment of his imagination the whole time?
Pocketing the Tagaar blaster, he filled his backpack with metal pipes and checked his communicator was still working as he headed to the exit. ‘Can you keep repairing the Liber8tor systems?’ he asked Ferdy. ‘And try to find out what this island was used for during the war.’
‘Ferdy will do what he can. And one more thing, friend Dan.’
‘Yes,’ Dan said, ready for Ferdy to pass on some useless information about the life cycle of bees, or the size of the planet Jupiter. ‘What is it?’
‘Be careful.’
‘Oh. Thank you. Yes, I will.’
Dan headed in the direction of the buildings. He was afraid of the monster that lived on this island, but he was even more afraid for his own sanity. Could he have imagined Henry? No. Was Henry a ghost? Dan wasn’t sure he believed in ghosts. The sensors on board Liber8tor had to be faulty. He had touched Henry. Felt him. He was real.
He remembered the wrecked ship on the beach and changed direction. Minutes later he was climbing aboard the Morning Star, calling out Henry’s name. No greeting came back, but he hadn’t expected the boy to be here anyway. Dan returned to the room where he had found the skeletal remains, grimacing as he examined the bones more closely. There was no doubt about it. They were the bodies of two adults. Dan continued to the next cabin. He had not come this far last time. The wild pig had scared him off. Now he pushed open a door and peered into a darkened cabin.
This was another bunk room containing four beds. Two on each side. The bedding had long since deteriorated to muck. Some of it on one bed looked like it had been eaten, probably by the pig. A white shape poked out from under a bed.
He cautiously peered under it—and grimaced. Another skeleton. A skull was mixed in with a tangle of bones and clothing. The remains were that of a small child. Presumably Henry’s brother, Charles. Dan started to rise from the floor, but then he saw something that stopped him.
‘No,’ he said. ‘That’s not possible.’
Under the opposite bunk were more bones. A second child.
‘How is that possible?’ Dan asked aloud. He snapped on his communicator. ‘Ferdy, do you read me?’
‘Loud and clear, friend Dan.’
‘How many people were on the Morning Star when it went missing?’
‘Four.’
‘Have you found out anything more about the Japanese on this island?’
‘Ferdy is still gathering information.’ He went on to say that seventy percent of the ship’s systems were back online. The engine still needed repairs, but he had formulated a plan to make the ship fully operational again. ‘Liber8tor will be ready for travel within twenty-four hours.’
Stomping back into the jungle, Dan made his way to the settlement, returning to the long corridor of cells.
‘Henry?’
The small boy was back in the last cell. He raised his head over the rubble. ‘Dan?’ he said, tears in his eyes. ‘I was scared.’
‘Everything’s okay,’ Dan said, holding him tightly. Henry was as warm blooded as himself. ‘We’ll be away from here before you know it.’ His communicator crackled to life. ‘Ferdy?’
‘Hello Dan. Ferdy has discovered some more information regarding Doctor Hiroto Satou and his research.’
‘What is it?’
‘It seems his later research involved fungi.’
‘Fungi?’
‘Molds, mildew, mushrooms—’
‘Anything else?’
‘Not yet, Dan. The Liber8tor computer system is now fully repaired.’
Good old Ferdy, Dan thought. Where would we be without him?
He thanked him and signed off. Looking down at Henry, he saw the boy was still holding his book. ‘Do you mind if I see that?’
Henry handed the book to him. Dan leafed through it. The novel was a worn out volume, and quite old, dating to the middle of last century. The lines were quite close together, a strange book for a small boy to be reading. Dan supposed it was the only—
His eyes froze on a page.
‘Henry,’ Dan said. ‘What’s your last name?’
‘Jekyll,’ Henry said, looking at him with innocent round eyes. ‘My name is Henry Jekyll.’
Henry Jekyll was the name of the protagonist in Henry’s book.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
A low growl emanated from the corridor’s far end. Henry grabbed Dan’s hand. ‘Don’t leave me, Dan,’ he pleaded. ‘I’m afraid.’
‘I won’t leave you,’ Dan promised.
A shape moved in the dark, a large, shifting mass that Dan had last seen in the cave. Now Dan focused on it and realized it looked more human than he had first thought, a man made taller by what appeared to be a long coat and hat, but still more shadow than solid.
‘Who are you?’ Dan yelled. ‘What do you want?’
The figure started towards them, and Dan pulled out the gun, aiming it.
‘Stay where you are or I’ll shoot!’ It continued to advance. ‘I warned you.’
Dan fired. The blast hit the creature and it stumbled, the point of impact exploding into millions of tiny particles, leaving a huge gap in its shape. The particles scattered into the air like flies before returning to the form and filling the hole. Dan fired again. And again. Each time the figure stumbled before repairing itself.
‘Dan!’ Henry pulled at his arm. ‘We’ve got to go!’
Dan wanted to run, but he wasn’t ready. Not yet. ‘I know who you are,’ Dan said to the approaching figure. ‘You’re Mr. Hyde.’
He fired again, then grabbed Henry’s hand and dragged him up the debris to the jungle. Pushing the boy ahead, he was almost over the edge when the creature grabbed his leg, dragging him back down the slope. The smell of the creature struck him again, the same terrible stench of mold and decay. Dan aimed at the creature’s arm, fired again and the limb dissolved into mist.
Rolling, Dan narrowly avoided its other hand as it came smashing down into the debris.
‘Leave him alone!’ The voice came from above, and Dan saw Henry standing at the edge of the hole. ‘He’s my friend!’ Henry yelled. ‘You leave him alone!’
Dan squirmed free and scrambled down the corridor, adjusting a setting on the weapon designed to disperse the beam over a wider area. Glancing back, he saw the creature had frozen, undecided whether it should pursue him or Henry.
Dan pulled the trigger again. This time everything from the shoulders up was reduced to nothing.
What remained of the monster—everything from the waist down—blindly staggered about in confusion as something flitted past Dan. A transparent black cloud raced to the monster. At first a faint outline appeared, then it grew more solid, rebuilding the body in seconds.
The monster flexed its hands, focusing on Dan and started towards him. Firing again, Dan smashed another hole in it. More of the tiny black particles floating past him. He inhaled. They smelt like mold.
Dan gasped. Doctor Hiroto Satou’s later research had been in fungus and mold was a kind of fungus.
Dan turned and ran to the cell with the huge patch of mold growing across the back wall. The monster roared in fury, but Dan already had the gun pointed at the fungus. He jerked the trigger and the mold burst into flames.
Bellowing a blood-curdling cry, the monster staggered and fell to its knees. It tried crawling towards Dan, but didn’t make it. The millions of black particles dispersed. Henry appeared beyond it, taking a single faltering step before collapsing.
‘Henry!’ Dan yelled.
Henry’s skin turned brown as he became as light as a feather.
‘I’ve tried to be good,’ he said.
‘You are good,’ Dan said, his face wet with tears. ‘You’re a good boy.’
Henry nodded and didn’t speak again. His head fell back. He dissolved into dust, and then less than dust, and then Dan was holding only the memory of him. Dan picked up the book and went back to the cell where the mold had been growing. The fire was still burning fiercely. In the midst of the flames lay a skeleton wearing the remnants of a United States navy uniform.
Forcing the doors open, Dan tossed the book into the flames.
‘Goodbye Henry,’ he said.
Chapter Forty
‘Get the others,’ I yelled.
Brodie raced from the room as I climbed into the time ship. I quickly swapped an old temporal resonator with a new. Focusing on the controls, I saw they were similar to those Old Axel had used on the other machine. The date was easy; I set it for the time and date we had departed. Getting the coordinates for our departure location was harder, but I managed it just as Chad and the others burst through the door. Squeezing into the tight compartment, they slammed the hatch shut.
‘I’ve thrown up a wall of ice,’ Chad said, ‘but they’ll be through it in a minute. There’s a mod out there—’
I started the time ship. As the vessel rose, I activated the firing sequence and a portal appeared. I aimed us into it as a bunch of guards broke through into the underground chamber and started firing. They were too late. The ship started its descent down the time corridor.
‘Does someone want to explain what’s going on?’ Chad asked. ‘Where did this time ship come from? And who sent it to us?’
‘Ferdy,’ I said. ‘His name flashed on the console screen at the last minute.’
‘Ferdy?’ Ebony said. ‘But he’s dead. Old Axel said he was killed years ago.’
I had already been thinking about this. ‘Ferdy wasn’t killed,’ I said. ‘I think he’s been hiding in the bowels of the Agency computer system all these years.’
‘But the time machine?’ Ebony said. ‘How—’
‘It was sent to us by Ferdy. You remember Old Axel said several of the machines went missing while they were being tested? I bet you that was no accident. One of them was this machine.’
‘That’s stupid,’ Chad said. ‘How could he know we’d get captured by James Price?’
‘You remember Ferdy saying he can perceive possible futures? This was probably one, a future where my older self went to the past and asked for our help. It’s not too hard to guess that we’d want evidence.’
Ebony was nodding. ‘Like seeing the future for ourselves.’
‘Exactly. And that we might get captured and brought to Agency headquarters.’
The time machine shuddered as a distant patch of blue appeared. It was growing larger by the second. Before I could speak, it rushed towards us and then we were through and sailing across a clear sky. I hadn’t gotten our coordinates completely right. We were about three miles away west of the island.
‘Looks like Dan’s been busy,’ Brodie said.
The Liber8tor was lying at the edge of the clearing, one side damaged as if an elephant had rammed it. Dan was working on it with a toolkit at his feet.
‘At least he doesn’t look ten years older,’ Chad said. ‘You know, like we’ve arrived ten years later than we left.
Chad was trying to lighten the mood, but I wasn’t laughing.
After bringing the ship in to an untidy landing, we silently made our way back to Liber8tor. The resentment within me was still sour, like curdled milk. I knew the future now. Brodie would dump me. She and Chad would be together. Forever. The joke was on me.
Dan looked up at us. ‘Hey team!’ he yelled. ‘You wouldn’t believe what happened!’
‘You got drunk and crashed Liber8tor?’ Brodie asked.
‘No. There was a boy named Henry, but he wasn’t really a boy. And there was a monster and a—’
‘Hold on,’ Ebony said. ‘Let’s grab a meal and you can tell us all about it.’
The others headed inside, but I grabbed Brodie. We needed to speak.
‘Do you want to explain to me about Chad?’ I asked.
‘I don’t know what you mean.’ She looked furious. ‘Don’t tell me you’re still annoyed. Your older self was right. We’re better off not knowing our futures.’
‘I’m not talking about our future,’ I said. ‘I’m talking about the present. How do I know you’re not running around with Chad?’
A shadow crossed her face.
‘What?’ I said. ‘Tell me.’
‘It’s not important. It doesn’t mean anything.’
Some people can keep secrets, but Brodie isn’t one of them. She haltingly told me about her illness and Chad saving her. She didn’t look me in the eye as she related everything that had happened. Everything including the kiss.
I felt the world drop out from under me.
Chad had kissed Brodie.
I heard the fall of footsteps. Chad spoke, but I didn’t hear it. Rage blinded me as I drew back a fist and slammed it into his face. He fell backwards into Liber8tor’s hull.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ he screamed.
‘You’ve been running around with Brodie!’
He stared at me with a mixture of guilt and confusion. ‘You’ve never loved her,’ he said. ‘So why do you care?’
Brodie yelled as we flew at each other. Within seconds we were rolling about on the ground, threatening to tear each other’s heads off. Ebony and Dan raced out of Liber8tor. It took the three of them to drag us apart.
‘Stop! Stop!’ Brodie screamed, tears running down her face. ‘We’re friends! We have to stick together!’
‘I don’t have any friends!’ I yelled, leaping into the air.
Brodie screamed my name as I flew away from the island, but I kept going. I had a mission to complete. I had to kill James Price.
Chapter Forty-One
I flew across the Pacific filled with a rage unlike anything I had ever known. The skies were clear at first, but then a storm appeared on the horizon. I had flown through bad weather before, but never through anything like this. It dominated most of the skyline. Any other time I would have flown around it, but this time I drove straight into its heart.
The thin pocket of air I always kept around my body deflected the rain, but I could still feel the effects of the wind as it tore at me. This was a massive tempest with winds pulling in all directions, thunder rolling like the ringing of an enormous bell.
I thought about Brodie and I thought about Chad, but mostly I thought about James Price. How many people were dead because of him? Billions? The world would be a better place if he were not part of it. It was wrong to kill one man, but even worse to allow wholesale slaughter.
Lightning flashed, the hair stood up on my arms and a moment later a bolt of energy crackled and danced around me. It was as if I was at the storm’s heart, as much a part of nature’s unbridled power as the rain and the wind.
And then I was through. Soaring away from it, I looked back at the bubbling mass of energy as it heaved and writhed like a living thing. The lightning continued to flash, but I was separate from it. Disgorged from its belly and alone in the world.
An hour later, I reached the west coast of the United States. I was still visible to radar, but I wasn’t worried. The government—or the Agency—wouldn’t scramble any fighters. So many mods were flying about these days that it was impossible to tell one from another.
I didn’t know where James Price was located so I flew into the Los Angeles area to do what anyone else would have done: I found an internet cafe. It didn’t take long for me to find his New York address, and take to the skies again.
N
ight fell as I landed in the heart of the country. I had been here the previous day—and forty years in the future—when it would be a desolate wasteland. This was where the eye of an eternal storm would lay waste to the country. Arriving here again reminded me of the purpose of my mission. The night was clear and quiet as I booked into a rundown motel in Missouri, not far from Route Sixty-Six. The woman gave me an odd look as I asked for a room.
‘You’re traveling by yourself,’ she said.
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘Aren’t you a little young fer that?’
The adventures I’d had over the last few months, including my latest foray into the future, would have turned her hair gray. She was better off not knowing. Paying for a single night, I told her I was meeting my parents in the morning.
The view out the window of the room was of the parking lot. A man went to his car and drove off. I heard someone playing country music on a radio. An insect buzzed in the night. The motel’s neon sign flashed on and off. A car pulled in, a couple got out and went to their room, but not before tossing their empty beer cans into the bushes.
This was not a perfect world.
I awoke early with my head throbbing from a night of tossing and turning. The events of the last few days had kept me awake half the night. My thoughts went from the fight with Chad to imagining he and Brodie together. Laughing at me behind my back. Brodie had said it was just a kiss, but how could I know for sure?
How long had he felt this way about her? Had he always been planning this? Did everyone know what was going on—except me?
Leaping into the sky, I continued towards New York, catching sight of its distinctive skyline within hours. I had been here forty years from now when it would lie in ruins.
Changing direction towards Staten Island, I descended into a small suburb made up of family homes, parks and quiet streets. James Price’s street was closed to traffic at one end. His home was a timber clad, barn style building with a pitched roof. The driveway was empty. Possibly he had left for an early morning drive.
I waited.
