by RR Haywood
In building number eight, Echo watches Arch 451, while Alpha watches building twenty-five. More than an hour has passed since they arrived. Time enough for the old them to complete their third visit and the tension mounts with still no sign of Maggie or her team.
‘The old us are going back into the arch,’ Echo says.
‘Okay,’ Alpha mutters, staring up the street. ‘Where are they?’
‘We’ll run out of time,’ Echo says. ‘We have to take the risk – it’s the only option we’ve got now.’
Alpha nods. ‘I know.’
‘There’s only two of us, Alpha. We can’t take on three other agents and Mother in a complex full of innocent civilians. We join forces with Maggie and we all attack the complex. Maggie can use their device to arrive in our quarters to negate Bravo and the other two if need be while we go back in through the portal room.’
‘That means we hand our device over to Maggie Sanderson,’ Alpha says.
‘So what? Listen, Maggie could have used her device to come back to Cavendish Manor and kill every single soldier and operative there, but she didn’t. They only did what they needed to do to get the inventor and his family away.’
Alpha nods. It makes sense and it really is the only option now. ‘How do we convince Maggie?’
‘Fuck knows,’ Echo says. ‘You can work that one out . . . You get paid more than me.’
Alpha snorts at the joke, sharing a look with Echo, who offers a wry smile. ‘Nothing like winging it, eh?’ Alpha says.
Echo checks his watch. ‘We’ve got just under an hour,’ he says with a glance down to the arch. ‘We need to make a move.’
Alpha looks at the arch, staring hard while thinking. ‘Got a torch?’ he asks.
‘I’m an agent,’ Echo says, pulling a small flashlight from his pocket. ‘Of course I’ve got a torch . . . Want me to signal?’
‘Do it . . .’
‘Signal!’ Ben says quickly, seeing the single flash of light coming from the window on the top floor of the house down the street. ‘There. See it?’
‘Got it,’ Miri says.
‘About bloody time,’ Safa says.
‘We need to signal back,’ Miri says. ‘Someone pass me a flashlight . . .’ Silence in the room. ‘I need a flashlight,’ she says, holding her hand out while keeping her eyes on the window down the street. Safa and Emily shrug at each other and look at Harry, who lifts his hands a few inches. ‘Seriously?’ Miri asks, looking round.
‘Have you got a torch?’ Safa asks her.
‘Can’t think of everything,’ she mumbles.
‘Lighter?’ Harry asks, offering his cigarette lighter.
‘We can try it,’ Ben says. ‘Wave it at the window.’
‘Still nothing,’ Echo says. ‘I’ll give it another single flash.’
‘Roger,’ Alpha says.
‘Flash done,’ Echo reports, his eyes fixed.
‘They flashed again,’ Ben says. ‘Did you see it?’
‘Aye,’ Harry says, leaning closer to look while holding the lighter against the pane of glass and waving his hand a few inches side to side.
‘Was that in response to us?’ Ben asks.
‘Must have been,’ Harry says.
‘Do Morse code,’ Ben urges with a sudden idea.
‘With a cigarette lighter?’ Harry asks, watching down the street and not the flame from the lighter that heats the old paintwork on the dry wooden frame on the inside of the window. A singe, a blister, a flame and a thick tendril of acrid smoke curls up as the wood catches alight. ‘Oops,’ Harry says, moving his other hand in to pat the flames down in the manner of a gorilla smashing his hand through a window with a loud crack of glass that makes people in the street look up.
‘Er . . . one of them just punched the glass out,’ Echo says.
‘What are they doing?’
‘No idea,’ Echo says.
‘Harry!’ Ben says, trying to pat out the flames creeping along the wooden frame.
‘Thin glass,’ Harry says, slamming his enormous hands down again.
‘Unbelievable,’ Safa says, leaning between them both to pour a bottle of water over the burning wood. ‘Are we sending smoke signals . . . ?’
‘Ah well, at least they know we’re here,’ Ben says. ‘Right, better go down then.’
‘I’ll stay up here,’ Safa says. ‘Harry, you stay by the ground floor door with Konrad . . .’
‘I really don’t think I’m cut out for this,’ Konrad says, looking sick to the stomach with nerves.
‘We’ve been over this,’ Safa says. ‘Miri, Ben and Emily will go out. You’re on standby for a distraction if it goes wrong. Deploy now.’
‘You’ll be fine,’ Harry rumbles, clamping a hand on the poor man’s shoulder to guide him out the room.
‘Movement,’ Echo says urgently, leaning closer to the window.
‘Got them,’ Alpha says, watching three figures move out from the doorway at street level. ‘Male and two females in period clothing . . . That’s Tango Two. It’s her . . . That’s Maggie Sanderson and Ben Ryder.’
‘Okay,’ Echo says. ‘Let me go down.’
‘No, I’ll do it,’ Alpha replies.
‘Let me. You’re Alpha. I should go. Stay here in case it’s a trap.’
‘No, mate,’ Alpha says. ‘But thanks, Ian . . . I appreciate that.’
‘I’m right here,’ Echo says, nodding as Alpha moves to the door. ‘Listen, want me to run back and draw a sniper rifle? I can give you overwatch . . .’
‘It’ll draw suspicion . . . but thanks.’
Alpha goes down the stairs and steps into the street to a view worse than ever before. Bodies everywhere and the buildings surrounding them in an even worse state. Smoke in the near distance from fires burning uncontrolled and he spots the shapes of aircraft in the sky from bombing raids underway on different parts of the city. People are still here though, dragging bodies out of the rubble and trying to scrape order from the destruction and chaos.
All of that is taken in within a glance as he looks round and settles his view on the three figures further up the street. He looks up to the window of the building the others came from and guesses they’ll have someone on overwatch in radio contact. He spots Tango Two moving with Maggie and Ben across the street and sets off towards them, his hands tucked in the pockets of his coat and his head down to blend in.
Safa stares from the top floor of building number eight, taking in the solitary figure coming, then glances back up to the window, trying to see if he has left anyone on overwatch.
‘It’s just him coming out,’ she says into her radio. ‘Walking up the street towards you now.’
Harry stays next to Konrad inside the ground floor door, ready to respond and react if needed.
Alpha closes the distance, his eyes scanning everything in front of him. A group of German women clutching clipboards and wearing Nazi armbands to mark their authority move slowly through the street and he spots the way they point out the worst mounds of rubble and piles of bodies stacked and waiting to be taken away.
He has to take his hands out of his pockets to show trust. He has to show open hands. He does it now, taking them slowly out to hang at his sides while he walks.
‘Got you covered . . .’ Echo holds his pistol, aiming up the street. The distance for a pistol is huge, but by the grace of God he’ll do what he can to cover Alpha.
Alpha walks on, feeling a strange surge of warmth at the gesture from Echo.
‘He’s taken his hands out of his pockets,’ Safa transmits. ‘Empty hands, but he’ll have a weapon somewhere.’
‘Do the same,’ Miri says, drawing her hands out to show they’re empty.
‘I’m on pistol but I’ve got you covered,’ Safa says from the top floor, holding her own gun aimed at Alpha.
They come in sight of each other. All of them tense. All unblinking. The distance reduces, the space between them growing less. Miri tries reading his face, but the man i
s impassive. Alpha does the same, trying to see inflections.
‘What are you doing?’ a woman from the group wearing armbands shouts in German, her voice harsh and commanding.
Alpha stops walking, his hands at his sides. Miri, Ben and Emily watching him closely and none of them responding to the woman.
‘You . . . Who are you?’ the woman demands, moving at the head of her group of women, striding towards the three facing off in tense silence against Alpha.
‘Someone better answer her,’ Safa transmits. ‘Konrad, be ready to go out and distract . . .’
‘I said who are you?’ the German woman shouts angrily, tired, filthy and sick of the death and destruction in her home city.
‘He’s my brother,’ Emily says, instantly morphing into a sickened and terrified German woman. She waves a tired hand at Alpha and closes her eyes at the horror of it all.
‘Emily,’ Alpha says in true sorrow, closing the last few feet with a look of intense worry. ‘Have you found him?’
‘Not yet,’ Emily says, her lip trembling with emotion.
‘Oh god,’ Alpha whispers. He can see the scowl on the woman’s face and the looks of suspicion from her cohorts. He closes in, taking his sister in his arms. ‘We’ll find him . . .’ he says sincerely. ‘Have hope . . .’ He pulls back to shake his head sadly at Ben, patting him on the shoulder in a manly display of affection in this awful time, and steps to embrace Miri. ‘Don’t fret, we’ll find him . . .’ He takes in the group of women, observing the Nazi armbands on their arms, which signal they have taken authority to try and keep the city running. He spots the clipboards in their hands that hold lists of the dead and injured and where needs attention the most.
‘Who?’ the woman demands.
‘My son,’ Emily says, casting about with a wild look.
‘My nephew,’ Alpha says.
‘Name?’ the woman barks, reaching back to take a clipboard from another woman. ‘Name!’ she shouts.
‘Hans,’ Emily says weakly. ‘I had a picture . . .’ She puts her hand in her pocket as though searching for the photograph, but presses the button on her radio. ‘I had a picture . . . I can’t find it . . .’
‘Hans what?’ the woman asks.
‘Johanns,’ Emily says.
‘Poor Hans,’ Alpha says wretchedly, rubbing his face while Ben listens on. He doesn’t speak German but guesses the conversation underway and adopts an expression of great worry.
‘You the father?’ the woman asks Ben.
‘He is,’ Alpha cuts in. ‘His hearing has suffered from the bombing . . . We’re trying to . . .’
‘Why aren’t you fighting?’ the woman asks, glaring from Alpha to Ben.
‘Please,’ Alpha says. ‘We’re trying to . . .’
‘My son,’ Emily says. ‘We’ll look for him . . . I have to find him . . .’
‘You’re both young. You should be fighting,’ the woman says angrily.
‘Emily!’ Konrad staggers from the door, running across the road, clutching the photograph they used last time. ‘Have you found him?’ He aims for the group of women wearing Nazi armbands, pushing through to show them the picture. ‘Hans . . . Have you seen him? You must have seen him . . . Look again, look . . .’
‘Another one!’ the woman shouts. ‘Who are you . . . ? Why aren’t you fighting? Three men here looking for one child while the Russians and the damn Americans are killing us while we sleep . . .’
‘I AM CAPTAIN SCHMIDT OF THE FIRST INFANTRY . . .’ Alpha roars. ‘My nephew is missing. My family are searching. I have been fighting for six years and I will have one day to search for him . . . DO YOU UNDERSTAND!’
‘Yes, sir.’ The woman backs down, showing instant supplication at the authority pouring from the man.
‘Now unless you know where Hans is I suggest you move on and do your jobs. Emily . . . I am sorry you had to hear that . . .’ He turns to Emily, showing his back to the women, who start moving off, but Ben spots the wary glances they cast towards them as they go.
Konrad stands seemingly lost as to what to do, holding the photograph while staring at Alpha, the man who tried to kill him and Malcolm outside the warehouse.
‘My friend, we’ll find him,’ Alpha tells Ben, staying in role and noticing the glances of the women as they walk away. He turns back to Emily, distraught and wishing only to help her find Hans. ‘They’re suspicious,’ he says quietly in German. ‘We don’t have long.’ He motions to the side, indicating they should move away as though they are a family taking time during their search to stop and talk earnestly.
‘In English now,’ Miri says quietly. ‘Ben doesn’t speak German.’
Ben and Alpha stare at each other, standing face-to-face amidst the ruins. Ben remembers Alpha from Cavendish Manor. The viciousness of the man and what he did to Ria’s mother.
‘You dropped a nuke on London, you evil prick,’ Ben hisses, stepping closer to Alpha as Emily reaches out to pull him back.
‘The Roman patrol? What was that for?’ Miri asks.
‘Maggie, it’s an honour to meet . . .’
‘Shut up,’ Miri snaps, surpassing the power of authority Mother has. ‘Answer the question or I will kill you right now.’
‘To draw you out,’ Alpha replies instantly. ‘You didn’t react so Mother escalated . . . I know what we’ve done isn’t right, but . . .’
‘Report,’ Miri orders.
Alpha glances round and draws breath. ‘They found a blueprint in the remains of Cavendish Manor and used it to build a time machine in a purpose-built complex. Mother was disgraced after what happened, but she now claims she sanctioned the whole project. She also said everyone in the complex was murdered by you. She said you found out, got in and slaughtered innocent people, then wiped the footage. She said you also killed the PM . . . She then tasked us to extract those same scientists back into that complex, then sent the whole thing fifty million years into the past. Now she won’t stop. She wants you dead . . . I saw her plans last night. She’s planning to detonate modern thermonuclear warheads and release anthrax . . .’
‘So?’ Miri says flatly. ‘You’re an agent. Negate her and go back to your superiors.’
‘There’s only two of us – me and Echo, that’s it . . . Bravo, Charlie and Delta are still in the complex . . .’
‘Your problem, not ours. Was there anything else?’ she asks, showing a hint of boredom. ‘What? You want us to storm your complex? Is that right? We get filmed killing you, we’re the bad guys or, worse, we walk into a pinchpoint trap and get killed. Yeah, sure, you think this is my first rodeo, son? This ain’t my first rodeo . . . Go back and sort your own mess out.’
‘We have to stop her,’ Alpha says.
‘You have to stop her,’ Miri says.
‘Maggie, listen . . . There’s been enough killing. I can’t risk the lives of the people in that complex.’
‘You just dropped a nuclear bomb,’ Emily says.
‘I know, but . . .’
An idea comes. An idea that makes Ben drop his head and reach up to rub the side of his jaw with an action that makes Safa smile as she watches from the window as Alpha blinks in reaction. He saw the Ben Ryder movie and that same thing the actor playing Ben did to capture his essence.
Miri spots it too, and the wry smile on Ben’s face. ‘You got something?’ she asks.
‘I’ve got something,’ he says.
‘Go,’ she says, giving her consent for him to say it.
‘Someone press a button so I can listen in,’ Safa says through their radio network.
‘This is the you now, isn’t it?’ Ben says to Alpha, who frowns in response, unsure of the question. ‘I mean we’re all in the present . . . and you’re dressed in period clothing, which means you’re conducting observations, right? Who else is up there?’ he asks, motioning back down the street to the building Alpha came from.
‘Just Echo.’
‘Bravo, Charlie and Delta are on standby then?’
‘Order them out, then tell them to disarm. You’re Alpha, they’ll listen to you . . . Once they’re out and safe then we’ll discuss terms.’
Alpha thinks fast, seeing the sense in the idea. ‘If I order them out Mother will want to know why. We’ll have minutes to do something before she reacts.’
‘And does what?’ Ben asks. ‘We’ve got a time machine. Once you five are out the way we’ll take care of it.’
A pause, a beat of a heart, a blink of an eye, the air thick with tension as Alpha nods. ‘Okay, I’ll get them out, but then I go straight back in on my own to negate Mother.’
‘How do we know you haven’t got more agents or soldiers in there?’ Emily asks.
‘We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,’ Ben says, looking at Miri who nods once.
‘Run with that plan,’ she says curtly.
‘I go back straight back in,’ Alpha says.
‘We just said we’ll deal with that bit when it happens,’ Ben says.
‘Negative. No deal. I’ll order them to disarm and I’ll even kill them for you if they don’t, but I go straight back in.’
‘You are in no position to dictate terms, mate,’ Ben says.
Alpha tenses with stress showing in his features. ‘There’s a woman,’ he says quickly, quietly, glancing down as he speaks. ‘If Mother suspects anything she’ll kill her.’
‘Should have thought of that before you dropped a nuke. Call your agents out,’ Ben says, rolling his eyes at the look Alpha gives him, the same look he would give if he was in that position. Emily sees it too. An expression she never thought possible of the lead agent from the British Secret Service.
‘I’ll go back in with him.’ Safa’s voice in their ears. ‘Accept the terms. I’ll go back in with him . . . This is them live now, Ben. You just said it. If nothing else, we negate the threat from them. Miri can take them to the place she held Roland if need be.’
Miri nods.
‘Agreed,’ Ben says. ‘Call your agents out.’
