‘Axel,’ Chad said. ‘I’m cloaking the ship.’
‘Good idea.’
I wasn’t sure what was going on, but something was not right. The quieter we played this, the better. We headed for The Bronx and were soon in the neighborhood where The Agency was situated. I peered out the window into the street as I brought the vessel into a slow loop around the building.
‘That doesn’t make sense,’ I said.
‘No sense at all,’ Chad agreed.
The Agency was located in a hotel called The Piccolo. The old hotel signage was in place, and the new signage over the door had been removed. Why would they—
‘Ferdy,’ I said, swallowing. ‘What’s today’s date?’
Ferdy paused. ‘Checking several sites on the internet, as well as numerous news reports, we seem to have not arrived at our required time period.’
It took us a moment to process this.
‘So, this is the wrong date?’ Chad said.
I checked the onboard computer. It connected to the internet and gave me the exact date. A chill swept through my body.
This is it. This is the day.
‘Chad,’ I said. ‘This is the day I woke up in the hotel room.’
He stared at me. ‘This is the day?’ he said. ‘You mean the actual day.’
I nodded. None of the events of the last year had occurred. We hadn’t learned any of our skills. I hadn’t met Brodie yet. Or the others. We hadn’t joined The Agency. It also explained why our wristcoms weren’t working. They hadn’t been invented yet, and the frequency The Agency used was different back then anyway.
I brought the ship around in a tight loop, landing us on the building that would become The Agency. Turning off the engine, I stared into space as I considered what this meant.
Chad spoke up. ‘Ferdy,’ he said. ‘Can we still go back to our time?’
‘We can, friend Chad.’
‘Great. In that case—’
‘Wait,’ I said. ‘Not yet.’
He frowned. ‘What do you mean?’ he said. ‘We’ll just try again.’
‘No,’ I said, shaking my head. An idea had taken seed in my head and was growing at an astonishing rate. ‘You know what this means? We can get the second book—the full copy of the book—before it gets destroyed at the cabin.’
‘Huh?’
I explained excitedly. ‘This is the day we were brought to New York for safekeeping,’ I said. ‘I was taken to a Manhattan hotel for safety.’ I checked the time on Liber8tor’s console. ‘In about an hour, my past self is waking up in a hotel room to find that Doctor Richards has been shot. We might even be able to save his life!’
‘No,’ Chad said, shaking his head. ‘You’re a crazy person. Don’t do it.’
‘Chad is right,’ Ferdy cut in. ‘You must not save Doctor Richards. The damage to the timeline could be catastrophic.’
They were right. I hadn’t been thinking clearly. As much as I might want to save Doctor Richards, saving him would mean that several other events wouldn’t happen. I might never meet the others. Anything could go wrong.
‘Okay,’ I agreed, thinking furiously. ‘You’re right. That’s taking it too far, but there is a way forward. We can save the book and finally discover who we are! Do you see what I mean?’
Chad was still shaking his head. ‘I can see you’re a crazy person,’ he said. ‘You’ve completely lost your mind.’ He grabbed my arm. ‘Axel, this is too risky. The sensible thing is to lie low and do nothing.’
But my mind was taken up with the certainty of what I could achieve. We can get the second copy of the book! I knew where it was. It was with a man called The Swan. Getting that second copy would allow us to finally learn our past!
‘Chad,’ I said. ‘We have no idea how many times this time travel thing will work. It might never work again after this. We have this one opportunity to finally discover our true identities!’
‘Axel,’ Chad said. ‘Have you stopped to think that this is how you ended up in that apartment building in Washington? Maybe this is what happened. Somehow, you get stranded in this era, you never make it back and you die.’
‘According to Mister Brown,’ I said, ‘Glen Johnson didn’t have my powers.’
‘So maybe you’re going to lose them. You’ve had problems with them before.’
That was true. In the early days, my powers had fluctuated a lot before finally stabilizing.
‘We were worried this would happen,’ Chad said. ‘Going out there is certain death. All you’ll do is make history repeat itself. You probably are Glen Johnson. You probably are that body in the morgue.’
I weighed up what Chad was saying against finally discovering the truth about my past. Curiosity won out in the end.
‘I’ll be fine,’ I insisted. ‘You wait here. I’ll be back after dark.’
Chad clenched his jaw. ‘Axel,’ he said. ‘You’re an arrogant idiot. We should focus on getting back to our own time.’
‘We have one chance! If we don’t take it, we will never know who we are!’
‘What if something goes wrong?’
‘I have powers. I’m not the same kid I was a year ago.’
Chad sat back, furious. ‘Great,’ he snapped. ‘Go out there and die. It’s your life.’
‘Everything will be fine. I’ll be back—with the book—before you know it.’
‘If you’re not back by nightfall, Ferdy and I are leaving to return to the future. We can’t go searching for you. It’s too dangerous.’
‘I understand, but everything will be fine.’
Chad tried speaking to me again, but I was ecstatic as I marched out of the ship and made my way down to the street. This is it. I’ll get the book and finally learn our true identities. It was mid-afternoon as I walked south through Upper Manhattan and Harlem. The day had never seemed so sunny or bright.
Finally, we will know.
But first, I had to make sure we really were a year in the past. All would be for nothing if we’d landed in some kind of bizarre alternate reality. Soon I was wandering down a street I remembered all too well. I didn’t want anyone recognizing me, so I bought a newspaper to use as a cover. Pausing in front of a shop, I peered up and down the street to identify some familiar landmarks.
Yes. I recognized that building over there. And that one on the corner.
It was somewhere around here…
A wild-eyed teenager came sprinting out of an alley. Looking frantically in both directions, it was obvious he was in some kind of terrible trouble. My eyes narrowed. Wow. I felt sorry for him because I knew exactly what he was feeling.
The teenager on the street was me.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Shots rang out. He ran wildly across the road, dodging vehicles as horns blared. Other people on the street glanced at him. I could understand his—or my—confusion. Shortly before, he’d awoken in a hotel room with no memory of who he was or how he came to be there. A dying man lay on the floor beside him. Now he had people trying to kill him.
Two men emerged from the alley. I quickly lifted the paper in front of my face so they wouldn’t see me. An instant later, I heard the shattering of a shop window. There were screams. Peering about the edge of the paper, I saw the gunmen charging after the younger version of me. My eyes angled to a man who had been shot. He lay bleeding on the road.
I took a single step toward him—and stopped.
No. I couldn’t help him. The poor man lay on the ground, clutching his stomach. He could even be dying, but helping him might completely upend the timeline. Shaking my head, I turned and walked in the opposite direction.
At least I was sure we were at the right time and place. Now I just had to kill a few hours until I reached West Forty-Ninth Street. Slowly, I made my way across town, careful to keep interaction with other people to a minimum. Eventually, late in the afternoon, I found myself standing opposite the building where Cygnus Industries was located. Now I just had to see the Swan bef
ore he met his terrible fate. I crossed the road.
Okay, I thought. This is it.
The last time I’d been here was when the man known as The Swan was thrown out the window by Ravana and his men. The poor man had fallen to his death. Immediately after that, I’d met up with Brodie, and we’d make good our escape.
Entering the building, I checked the directory and went up in the elevator to the eighth floor. The doors opened to reveal a vast empty floor that had been stripped back to concrete. Some kind of major renovation was in progress. There was no carpet or light fittings—only the windows around the sides and supportive concrete columns.
A man peeked out from behind a column.
‘Axel?’ he said. ‘You’re here?’
The Swan was a middle-aged man, balding in a blue suit. He looked decidedly nervous. His forehead was wet with sweat, and he was wringing his hands. I hurried over to him.
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I got away.’
‘You got away?’ he frowned.
‘I mean…people were chasing me. Doctor Richards gave me this address.’
‘Is he all right?’
‘He’s fine,’ I said, lying. Chad had been right in what he’d said. The less interaction, the better. Giving the Swan too much information could upset the entire timeline. ‘I need to get the book from you.’
‘The book? Fantastic.’ He delved into his pocket and pulled it out. ‘Make certain you’re careful with it.’
I will be, I thought, staring at the volume. This is it!
‘Thanks,’ I said, looking back up at the man. He’d be dead in a few hours, and there was nothing I could do to prevent it. ‘I really mean it. Thanks.’
‘That’s all right,’ he said. ‘It’s the least I can do.’
Tucking the book into my jacket, I said goodbye and left. Soon I was heading back uptown to The Bronx to where I’d left Liber8tor. A couple of hours later, I slumped into the pilot’s seat beside Chad.
‘You did it?’ he said. ‘You got the book?’
I showed it to him. ‘This is it,’ I said, relieved that the whole thing was done. ‘Now, we’ll finally get all the answers.’
‘And you didn’t…break anything?’
‘Like what?’
‘Like history?’ he said. ‘The entire timeline?’
‘Everything’s fine,’ I assured him, starting the engines.
I placed the book into a compartment in Liber8tor’s console. Taking off, we headed across New York. I peered down at the scene below, feeling a kind of heady elation. This is perfect. We’ve got both books. Now we’ll track down our parents—finally!
‘Ferdy,’ I said. ‘Engage the time machine.’
The scene outside the ship changed to swirling patterns of rainbow color.
‘Well,’ Chad said. ‘It looks like you did it.’
I nodded. ‘The readers must only operate once you have both books.’
The swirling colors outside Liber8tor changed. There was a flash of light, and then we were through.
Yes!
‘Warning!’ Ferdy said. ‘High amounts of radiation detected. Warning.’
‘What?’ I said.
‘Axel. You must navigate away from this area immediately.’
Glancing down, I caught a glimpse of a blackened warzone and melted buildings. I immediately steered Liber8tor up high over the devastated area. My heart started pounding. Peering back down at the city, I saw a ruined landscape. This isn’t right. We’ve ended up in the wrong place. The city below had been annihilated in some terrible tragedy. Something must have gone wrong in transit.
‘What’s happening?’ Chad said. ‘Where are we?’
‘Ferdy?’ I said.
‘We are high above New York City.’
I stared down at the destruction. No. That’s impossible. But the more I looked, the more I realized I could make out the general shape of Manhattan. And The Bronx. To the south was Staten Island. But now it had been destroyed. Everything for miles around had been razed in some terrible disaster. Every window was missing from every building. The structures that remained were reduced to hollow shells. The roads were melted. Cars parked in the streets looked like they’d fused with the asphalt. Nothing grew in the streets below.
Looking further afield, my heart caught in my throat as I glimpsed the Statue of Liberty. What remained of her had melted to slag. Beyond the statue, most of the other boroughs were also destroyed. It looked like a wall had been built around the whole area. Undamaged buildings lay beyond, although I doubted that anyone lived in them.
No one could live adjacent to this kind of devastation.
Chad groaned. ‘Oh, no,’ he gasped. ‘You see what’s happened?’
‘No,’ I said, utterly confused. ‘This makes no sense.’
‘You’ve changed history. You’ve upset the timeline. Somehow, you’ve wrecked everything.’
‘But…’ I couldn’t speak. ‘But I haven’t done anything. Apart from getting the book, I didn’t interact with anyone. I got the book from the Swan and came back to the ship.’
‘Well, you’ve wrecked something,’ Chad insisted. ‘Somehow, you’ve broken the timeline.’
‘Ferdy,’ I said. ‘What’s happened to New York? Why does it look like this?’
‘The city appears to have been struck by a nuclear explosion.’
I felt faint. ‘A…bomb?’ I said. ‘It was hit by a bomb? When did it happen?’
A moment passed before Ferdy spoke again. ‘Judging by the level of radiation,’ he said, ‘the blast occurred approximately one year ago.’
One year ago…
How could—
Then realization struck me in one horrible moment of clarity.
‘Oh no,’ I gasped.
Chapter Twenty-Five
A long moment passed before I could talk.
‘I know what happened,’ I said, swallowing. ‘Or I can guess, at least.’
‘What?’ Chad said. ‘How could you cause a nuclear explosion over New York?’
My brain was working frantically to understand what had happened. ‘I didn’t cause it,’ I said. ‘The problem is that I didn’t prevent it.’ I turned to him. ‘You remember our first mission? That terrorist group, Typhoid, fired a nuclear missile called Pegasus at New York City. I went chasing after the rocket to stop it from exploding. I only just reached it in time.’
‘But when we went back to the past,’ Chad said, ‘nothing you did affected Typhoid or Pegasus.’
I shook my head stubbornly. ‘I don’t know what it was,’ I said. ‘I did something, but...’
It still didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but Chad was right. This whole thing was somehow linked to me retrieving the book. Something I did upset the flow of time.
‘Axel,’ Ferdy said. ‘We should probably move from this area. The radiation is high even at this height.’
Nodding, I steered Liber8tor up the coast. Once away from the city, it became clear that everything for miles around the city had been evacuated. We continued North to a beach on Rhode Island. Bringing the ship down, I stared through the window at the ocean.
What went wrong?
Chad got up to leave. ‘I’m heading out for a while.’
‘I’m not sure if—’
Chad swung about. He looked like he wanted to deck me. ‘Don’t speak to me!’ he yelled. ‘I said not to change anything! I said, don’t go out there and get the book! Now, look at what you’ve done!’
He left the ship and marched angrily across the sand. I was about to head after him when I decided a better course of action would be to leave him alone. This is my fault—Chad’s right. I should have just left things as they were. Except then we wouldn’t know what the book had to tell us.
I thought about the shattered landscape of New York City.
That was too high a price to pay.
‘Ferdy,’ I said, wanting to burst into tears. ‘I wrecked everything. Didn’t I?’
‘It would app
ear that your actions created a new timeline where New York and other cities were destroyed.’
‘New York and other…what do you mean?’
Ferdy continued. ‘Ferdy has been able to glean some news reports from the last year,’ he said. ‘It would appear that the destruction of New York led to the decimation of four other cities: Moscow, Beijing, Washington, and Los Angeles.’
My mind reeled. ‘How?’
‘The United States assumed the attack was from a foreign power,’ Ferdy said. ‘This led to an automated response that fired nuclear warheads at Moscow and Beijing. These two countries then retaliated by attacking Washington and Los Angeles. It was only then that rapid diplomatic communications occurred, stopping the war from escalating further. It was eventually discovered that Typhoid was responsible for the initial detonation. The leaders from the terrorist organization were later captured and put to death.’
‘How many…how many died in the blasts?’
‘The estimated death toll is more than fifty million, although it is believed that further deaths will result for years to come because of nuclear radiation…’
Ferdy continued to speak, but I didn’t hear any more. I felt sick. Suddenly I was stumbling from Liber8tor and emptying the contents of my stomach on the sandy beach. I vomited until my stomach was empty and was still there when a pair of legs appeared beside my face. Chad sat beside me.
‘You look terrible,’ he said.
‘Thanks.’
‘I wished you looked worse, Mister Goody,’ he said. ‘You’ve really wrecked things this time.’
My head hurt, and my mouth tasted awful as I sat up. ‘I wanted to find out our true identities.’
‘Did it ever occur to you to just leave well enough alone?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Axel. It’s time travel. Can you understand that? You went racing off like it was just another day on the job, but this isn’t some bad guy robbing a bank. It’s the mechanics of the universe. The building blocks of everything.’
‘But—’
‘Shush,’ he said. ‘Let me finish. And did it occur to you that learning the truth about our origins isn’t that important?’
Teen Superheroes Box Set | Books 1-7 Page 105
