Time Leap

by Steve Howrie

  “Ah, you must be Joe and Niki,” he said, and proceeded to talk to Niki in Chinese (Eden studied Oriental languages at Oxford). She smiled and laughed as he spoke.

  “You’ve caused quite a stir Joe,” he said to me. He used my first name in a very familiar way. (He later told me that his first son was named Joe).

  “That was our intention,” I replied.

  “Good – I’m glad to hear that. But the thing is now… how do we square your ‘documents’ with the real world? I mean, you have presented us with an idea of what could happen if we go along our current path – a path that I have to tell you I am now completely and utterly against. It would be very wrong to enter another war with Germany, so soon after the last war. And although I have to say, to my regret, I was at one time all for appeasing the Germans, I now realise that this is the very last thing we should do, and I am going to do everything within my power to turn the government away from this insane direction – including using your information, if I may?”

  “Yes, of course,” I said. “That’s why we brought it.”

  “Have you seen the DVDs?” Niki asked.

  “D–V–Ds?” Eden queried, and turned to Johnson.

  “Ah, I think the young lady is referring to the small discs in the suitcase, sir.”

  “Then can we see them Harry?”

  “I’m sorry, we don’t know what to do with them, sir.”

  Eden turned back to Niki and smiled. “I wonder if you would be so kind as to show us how they work.” He pointed to one of the discs lying in the open case on the table in front of us. Niki smiled back and removed the DVD player from the case.

  “We need to plug this into the mains power,” she said.

  “Oh, I see!” said Johnson. He looked carefully at the plug on the device. In our hurry to jump back to 1935, we had forgotten to change the electric plug on the player. No doubt it would have been difficult to get one the same as 1930s Britain, though maybe not impossible. “I think we need to change this,” he said to Eden, holding up the plug. “It shouldn’t take long.”

  Eden turned back to us. “Now, how about a drink – tea perhaps? We have some Lapsang Souchong, if that is suitable?”

  Whilst we sat drinking tea with Anthony Eden, he told us how concerned he was about Hitler and the Nazi party, particularly the recent transgression of the Treaty of Versailles. Having seen our documents he now firmly believed the government should stamp out Hitler and the party before they could rearm themselves. If not, he feared the worse. After about twenty minutes, Johnson reappeared with the DVD player, fitting with a ‘new’ plug.

  “Voila!” he said.

  “Plug it in then Harry, there’s a good chap, and let’s enjoy the show.”

  There were gasps of amazement from both men when Niki began playing the first disc (the History of the Second World War, Part 1). When we were putting this information package together, we had only thought of the impact of the content of the discs – we gave little thought to the quality of digital technology and the realism of the video.

  At the end of it, there was silence. Then tears formed in Eden’s eyes.

  “Thank you,” he said. “I don’t know how you did this, or where it is from, but it’s just…” he was lost for words.

  “We just want to prevent the war,” Niki said. “We want you to stop it happening.” We had both realised that Eden would never accept the information as something that had actually occurred – how could he? To do that, he would have to accept that time–travel was possible, and that wasn’t going to happen.

  “I’ve never seen anything like this…” he said. I don’t know where this device is from, but it’s miles ahead of what the Americans have now.”

  “It’s very new technology… from China,” I said.

  “It’s unbelievable,” said Johnson. “The realism…”

  “It’s what could happen,” added Niki.

  “Well, I’m going to make sure it doesn’t!” exclaimed Eden. “Thank you – thank you so much, both of you. You must leave me your details… address and telephone number – if that’s acceptable to you?”

  I nodded, and wrote down my family’s address and phone number in London, adding that I travelled to China with Niki quite a lot, so it might not be easy to find us.

  As we’d said our goodbyes, and were about to leave, Eden turned to the suitcase.

  “What about the material – the player, discs… everything?”

  “Please keep them,” I said. “Show them to whoever you need to.”

  “Thank you once again,” he said, “and safe journey. My driver will take you wherever you need to go.”

  “Thank you,” replied Niki, “but we have our own transport.”

  *

  We left the building, and as soon as we could find a quiet spot, we set the date back to our present time. Just before I hit confirm, I turned to Niki and looked into her eyes.

  “Well, baby, let’s see what we’ve done to the future.”

  Seventeen

  “What nothing?” I looked at Niki in disbelief as she studied the screen of her iPad. “Are you saying that after all our hard work, getting arrested and talking to a key player in the British government – nothing has changed? World War two still happened – exactly as before?”

  She nodded. “I can’t find anything different,” she replied.

  We had just finished breakfast, and I sat back in disbelief. “Then I guess Eden did sod all,” I said at last. “His concern was just pretence...”

  “Or no–one listened to him,” she said.

  “…what a waste of time! All that for nothing.”

  “Maybe not totally wasted….” Niki said after a minute. She drew me over to her iPad and the Wikipedia webpage she was reading. It talked about Eden’s vehement attack on Hitler and the Nazi party at a meeting of the League of Nations (a predecessor to the United Nations). He urged the League to take the strongest measures to prevent Hitler’s advance into neighbouring countries. And when Hitler occupied the Rhineland, Eden also supported the French with British military backup. This was a bit of a u–turn from his previous appeasement of Hitler, but it was far too little too late, and had no real effect on the outcome of the war. That was all we could find.

  “We’re not always going to be able to make a difference, Joe… some things just have to be.”

  I turned away from the screen, and slumped on the sofa. I should agree with Niki, but I couldn’t help feeling that we’d failed. What did we do wrong? How could we have done things differently? Why didn’t Eden go to the Americans with the information we gave him? This ‘failure’, as I saw it, put me in a very depressed mood for the rest of the afternoon. But I snapped out of it that evening with an unexpected visit.

  “Dad?” The man standing at the door certainly looked like my father… but I was in for a shock.

  “No, it’s me, Joe. Or should I say, it’s you Joe.” I stood opened–mouthed at the door. “Can we come in?” I moved out of the way, and he entered – followed by what turned out to be his Niki.”

  “Oh–my–god!” I gasped. “I’d better warn Nik. Take a seat – make yourself at home... is this still your home?”

  I went to the bedroom to warn Niki, but it was too late.

  “Mama?”

  “Er, no Nik… it’s, er, you. An older version.”

  We had been face–to–face with ourselves before, but the difference then was just ten years. The people sitting in our lounge must have been around forty years older than us. Joe2 broke the silence.

  “I know this will seem very strange to you both – it’s actually very strange to us too... you both look so young!”

  Funnily enough, we soon got used to seeing the older versions of ourselves. It didn’t really feel like seeing us – it was more like looking at two very familiar older family members.

  “First ups, we’ve changed our names… at least for these situations. We’ve made a lot of jumps over the years, and
met up with many different versions of ourselves. So instead of there being two Nikis and two Joes, you can call her Yoyo and me Mike.

  “Yoyo… I like that!” smiled Niki.

  “You’ll want to know why we’re here, I guess,” Yoyo said.

  “Well, that would be nice,” I replied.

  “It’s nothing to do with what you did in 1935. Wow, that seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it Mike?” He nodded. I have to say that they both looked pretty good for their age. Yoyo continued. “We’re here because we need you to do something.” She paused. “Joe, Niki… would you be prepared to do anything to save the human race?”

  “What do we have to do?” I asked.

  “You’ve got to kill Kim Jong–un, the leader of North Korea.”

  We were stunned. Although we’d considered killing people before to change history, this was the first time we’d been asked to do it. Kim Jong-un had been President of North Korea since his father, Kim Jong-il, died in 2013. It was well known that the country appeared unstable at times under Kim Jong-un, so we didn’t really have to ask why we were being asked to do this. North Korea had recently developed nuclear weapons and launched rockets into space, and the dictators had great hatred for their ‘evil enemy’ – the USA. But there was something I didn’t know.

  “Actually, it’s not Kim Jong-un who is the danger, explained Mike. It’s his son – Kim Jong-hui.”

  Niki looked puzzled. “But Kim Jong-un doesn’t have a son!” she said.

  “No, not yet!” replied Yoyo. “But on the first of October next year, his wife Ri Sol–Ju will give birth to a baby boy – and they’ll call him Kim Jong-hui.”

  “Why is Kim Jong-hui more dangerous than his father?” I asked. They told us the whole story.

  Kim Jong-hui would grow up with a hatred of America and all it stands for, but without the common sense or restraint of either his father or grandfather. Much of the propaganda that his forebears spread was bluster: they had no real intention of being the initiator of any war with the USA – a war they’d have very little chance to win without support from Russia, or their closest ally China. However, the DPRK were certainly ready to retaliate should the Americans either attack Pyongyang, or support the South in a war against the North. Partly due to a birth defect, Kim Jong-hui would grow up to be, as his peers will later admit, a little crazy in the head – or ‘special’ as they would say. This, combined with his hatreds and a supreme arrogance, would lead him to push the button, releasing rockets towards the USA. In 2015, the Koreans did not have the technology to accurately send missiles that far, but in forty years’ time…

  The first missile would hit the sea off the coast of Maine, and a second fall short of Washington. This would be enough for the USA to retaliate, hitting Pyongyang and causing death and destruction on a large scale. Another small city would be virtually razed to the ground. The Russians, seeing this as a gross over–reaction, would support North Korea alongside China. The UK and some European nations would side with the Americans, and World War Three would become reality.

  By the time Mike and Yoyo had painted this picture, we understood why such an assassination was needed. But two questions remained. One: why kill Kim Jong-un when we could take out the perpetrator, Kim Jong-hui, instead? And two: why don’t Mike and Yoyo do this themselves?

  “Well, we could try to kill the son, of course. But whilst he’s young, he’ll be very heavily protected within the presidential palace. Another option would be to assassinate the mother – that would certainly prevent Kim Jong-hui being born. But she rarely travels outside of Korea. Jong-un, on the other hand, will be visiting China very soon, and we think this is a good opportunity to wipe him off the face of the Earth – before he fathers a child.”

  Niki and I looked at each other.

  “How soon?” she asked.

  “In two weeks’ time – in Beijing,” Mike replied. He paused to let this sink in, and then continued. “And as regards your second question, Yoyo and I are getting on now, and this is a job for younger people.” They smiled to each other. Then a thought struck me.

  “So you’re both here now because it’s happened? The balloon’s gone up – they’ve dropped the bomb?”

  “Yes – and not just one: Washington and San Francisco have already been hit.”

  “With nuclear missiles?” asked Niki.

  “Yes,” Yoyo replied.

  “Shit!”

  We were all quiet for a minute. Then Niki said, “You can stay here with us for as long as you need…”

  “That would be great, thank you,” Yoyo replied.

  “It’s going to get pretty nasty on planet Earth now,” Mike said. “Korea sees the UK as an ally of America, of course, so it’s only a matter of time before London is hit.”

  *

  That night in bed Niki and I talked about the day – a very strange day. If we really wanted to be involved in a big adventure, then this was it: it doesn’t get much bigger than assassinating the supreme leader of North Korea. In one way, it didn’t seem at all real, and perhaps that’s why we’d agreed to do it. How we could actually do it, we’d no idea at that moment. We would have to plan very carefully and in great detail: we could not afford for things to go wrong this time. We had failed to stop World War Two, but we knew the World had survived and got over it. In the case of the new Korean War, however, it could mean the complete annihilation of not just the human race, but planet Earth as well.

  So drastic times, called for drastic measures. The fact that neither Niki nor I had ever killed anything bigger than a cockroach was something we’d have to deal with of course. There was also the fact that a foreigner with white skin and big nose would stand out like a sore thumb anywhere near the Korean leader. So it looked like a lot of pressure on Niki. The question we kept coming back to was this: how were we going to kill this man without risking getting ourselves killed or imprisoned for life?

  We discussed many different options that night, including direct shot to the head, poisoning, a bomb, and a fire. One thing that came out of our discussions (which went on until three in the morning) was the fact that we now knew how to eliminate Adolf Hitler. Forget about assassinating the Fuhrer – go for the mother and father. With the benefit of time–travel, we could actually prevent Hitler being born; but that was a project for another time. For now, we had another dictator to consider: Kim Jong-un.

  *

  The next morning, we let Mike and Yoyo sleep in (well, they’d travelled nearly forty years back in time), whilst we began planning our trip to Beijing. The Korean Leader had wanted to make his first visit China in September 2013, but the request had been turned down on the basis of ‘inconvenience’. It was a time when the leadership of China was changing, with Hu Jintao making way for new man Xi Jinping. The North Korean’s request for a meeting was at that time was therefore understandably inconvenient. But trying to find any details of the rearranged meeting in Beijing the following week drew a blank. The mystery was solved when Mike and Yoyo came down for breakfast.

  “When are you guys going to move into your new house?” Yoyo asked.

  “I thought you could tell us that!” I replied.

  “Well, you know, you forget things as you get older,” said Mike.

  Niki got some breakfast for our visitors (now part of our family), and whilst we sat with our coffees I asked Mike about Kim’s visit.

  “No, you won’t find anything about it on the net,” said Mike. “It was arranged secretly to avoid any frenzied media attention. But you can read a media report about it online if you jump forward to the day after.” He suddenly noticed Niki’s iPad and smiled. “Oh, I’d forgotten about those!”

  “I guess you’ve got new versions now?” I said.

  “Well, you could say that!” he grinned. “Show them Yoyo.” She pulled back her sleeve to reveal a fluorescent video display screen.

  “Wow!” I exclaimed. “Can I see?” I looked carefully at the ultra–thin devic
e, seemingly attached to her wrist. “How is it powered?”

  “You might not believe it, but it’s powered by the human body. Why people didn’t think of this years ago, I’ve no idea. All that electrical and mechanical energy in the body and it’s mostly wasted. No batteries needed.”

  “How do you listen to music and on it?” Niki asked. “I can’t see any audio outlet.”

  “Direct connection to the brain via the nervous system and neural networks,” Yoyo explained. We were both gobsmacked. “We can get video the same way, but it’s still being developed. It’s very strange when you switch on the internal video because it can override your normal vision. So when you watch a movie it feels incredibly real – it’s like you’re actually in the movie! You can layer it to simultaneously receive both normal vision and internal video, but that’s really confusing.”

  “Can I try?” Niki asked.

  “Sure you can try, but it might not work properly. The device is matched to personal neural networks to make it work efficiently. I know that you and I should have the same brain patterns, but they do change over time. Try it anyway.”

  Yoyo removed the device from her wrist and placed it on Niki’s. It was extremely thin and light, and could hardly be called ‘hardware’.

  “What’s it made of?” Niki asked.

  “The base is Cellulose,” Yoyo replied.

  “Ah! You’ve got a plant around your wrist!” I exclaimed.

  Mike then removed his own device and gave me a try. The material felt very strange: cold at first, but soon my wrist - and then my arm - became very warm. Mike explained that the device was automatically scanning my nervous system as it searched for a power source. Next it would configure itself to my neural networks. After about thirty seconds, its colour changed from pink to light blue.

  “It likes you!” Mike smiled. “Try the sound.” He touched the wristband, and I suddenly heard music in my ears. It was broken up at first, but soon was incredibly clear. “People used to talk about ‘Virtual Reality’ in the past – but that was nothing to what this device can do. This is so real – you’ll wonder what’s real and what isn’t. Try the video now.”