Chapter Two
Eilish
11 March 1912, London ENGLAND
When Eilish Cork stepped out of a darkened alley onto rain-soaked Bury Street, St James, with Luke Bedford on her arm, anyone awake at that late hour might have assumed some salacious business transaction had just taken place in that alley. By the time they reached the intersection where Bury Street met the more populated Jermyn Street, any person viewing the pair might have assumed they were a happy couple making their way home from a night out in the West End. When they turned into The Cavendish, a moderately priced hotel on Jermyn Street, where a night bell brought a groggy concierge and the hasty exchange of some Guineas to find them a room with no questions asked, an observer might have suspected that a romantic liaison of a clandestine and discrete nature was taking place.
None of these observations would have come anywhere near the truth.
‘What a night!’ Eilish exclaimed, as she tossed off her broad-brimmed hat and flopped backward onto the double bed in their small room. It didn’t offer much in the way of a bounce. But it was enough to knock some of her wild, black hair loose from its confines so it fanned out around her head like Medusa’s snaky locks.
‘Typical London weather. I remember what it was like here in the war. Raining one night, bombing the next. You eventually got ta preferrin’ the safety of the miserable, wet nights.’ Luke removed his overcoat and hung it neatly in the huge Victorian wardrobe.
‘It is rather exciting to be here at this time. So much earlier than any Jumps I have made previously. My god, did you see that old Tin Lizzie parked along the road? Absolutely ancient!’
She shifted to her side and stared at the broad back of her mission partner. They were largely strangers to each other, even though they had been part of the same team for more than four years. It felt odd to be sharing such close quarters with this larger-than-life hero for the first time.
It had taken her quite a while to get used to Jumping with a partner at all. In the past, they’d always worked alone in-situ. However, in the last six years the rules had changed, and the new Protocol required two Jumpers for every Target. In those six years, she’d mostly been paired up with women. Although she had Jumped with Julio Santa Catarina in the early days of the Child Retrieval Program before Jane became his regular partner.
Jumping alone had always suited her. However, once the restrictions such a partnership required were overcome, the advantages became apparent. Not the least of which was having a companion who could relate to her amazement and wonder at the sights they saw in-situ.
That her partner on this Jump was the infamous Luke Bedford had, at first, seemed like icing on the cake. However, now she was alone with him for the first time, she wasn’t sure how she felt.
It was known that Luke was only brought in on dangerous and complex missions. He was an ex-World War II Commando who was very good at his job. Everyone knew the story of how he’d killed three Nazis in less than a minute in 1942 Poland when he was rescuing Faith Lincolnshire. And, for all his wisecracking, amiable persona, Eilish had no doubt that beneath it was a cold, killing machine. Dangerous men were so foreign to New Atlantis that Luke had immediately become as much a novelty as a tiger on a lead would be walking down the streets of London.
Am I attracted to him? She knew he represented that Alpha Male type that was supposed to attract women. However, though he was undoubtedly handsome in a muscular, boyish way, she didn’t feel drawn to him other than as a friend and co-worker. Of course, that was only to be expected since she’d never been sexually attracted to anyone in her very long life.
And it was good she wasn’t since she knew that Luke had eyes for no one but his Faith. He was almost slavishly devoted to the gentle, unassuming woman who now worked exclusively with the children Retrieved by the program and her adopted son, Bart. She was the perfect mother, even though she could never bear children from her own womb, as no woman in their world ever would.
‘How long until morning?’ Eilish asked absently, shifting back so she could stare at the overly ornate moulding on the lofty ceiling above. Such a high ceiling in such a small room made the space seem even more restricted. She rubbed at what was left of her pompadour hairstyle, loosening more strands from the mound on top of her head. She would need to hire a maid to do her hair during the next month if she was to pass as a lady of the upper echelons of society.
‘We arrived at two and this is March, so I wouldn’t expect much activity before seven. Sleep if you want to. I brought a book to read.’ With a grin, he pulled a stained, yellowing Penny-Dreadful from his pocket. The title: Varney, the Vampire or the Feast of Blood, was arranged around a crudely drawn skeletal figure in a bat cape leaning over a sleeping woman. It was laughably awful and she wondered what archive Luke had raided to secure the thing. Most material in New Atlantis was kept on computer. There were few, if any, hard copies of books left preserved.
‘It was in Wardrobe. It’s probably a bit antiquated, even for this period, but it’ll attract little attention if it’s found. Unlike a Neville Shute paperback might.’
‘Neville Shute?’
‘A guy who wrote adventure stories during the early part of the twentieth century. I used to read his books on missions. There’s always a lot of boredom when you’re waiting around for something to happen.’
Eilish nodded thoughtfully at this gem of information. ‘A bit like our Jumps. I used to buy a book or two to read while I was grooming my Targets. You cannot be with them twenty-four seven, and after a few days of sight-seeing, most places are a bit “same ol’, same ol’,” as I think they used to say.’
She was starting to become aware the differences in their speech patterns. Luke still spoke like an American of the 1940s, while she used the formal speech of twenty-fourth century New Atlantis. Hers was far closer to the speech of this time than his was, she knew, even though he was born in this era. That was a relief for her, because it meant she didn’t have to try to adjust her language. Her linguistic downloads could do it for her, but it was still easier if she could just stick to what she knew.
‘You’ve been a Jumper for a long time, then?’ Luke sat down on the side of the bed, also seeming to be a little uncomfortable with their close quarters. She wondered if it was his background that made him consider it unsuitable for a couple to share a room when they weren’t married.
‘Since the beginning, I have always been a bit restless. I was only thirteen when the Last Great Plague wiped everyone out. Too young for a clone and too sick for manual labour. So they moved me to New Atlantis and put me to work in the Knowledge Centre. By the time I got my first clone, I was ready to DO something with my life. I did not want to be stuck in a mouldy old Knowledge Centre forever. I wanted to see the world – or what was left of it.
‘I was uncharacteristically restless, so I was told. Everyone else was shell-shocked after the LGP and for years afterward. All anyone wanted to do was knuckle down and work to survive. But I was never like that. I had been an Irish orphan living in one foster care home after another most of my life. I did not feel like I lost much with the LGP – not as everyone else did. And I had always moved around, so it was ingrained into me…
‘Sorry I am giving you my life history and you just asked about my Jumping.’ Eilish shrugged and grimaced as she became aware of how she was running on.
‘No, go on, I’m interested… better than Varley, the Vampire, anyhow. If we’d been in the back-end of this century, I could’ve got Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but hey, Eilish the Restless Irish will do as well.’ He laughed, visibly more relaxed now that they‘d started talking. Making quick work of it, he slipped off his shoes, sat back against the headboard and leaned his elbows on his knees. He watched her with bright, blue eyes that didn’t seem to miss a thing.
‘Ha, do you know how many times people have played on the “Eilish, the Irish” thing? Not very original. But anyway, if you feel like being entertained by my life story, here goe
s.’ She flopped over onto her stomach and rested her head on her hands, elbows bent to support them.
‘So, for a hundred years or more, I just moved around the communities turning my hand to anything that needed doing. I got to see the world, sometimes getting to take excursions into the major cities. Once the bodies had decomposed, it was no longer a health hazard to go into previously populated areas. I would be part of collection details, foraging for anything valuable or interesting. It was the grass roots end of the Knowledge Centres. I had done the compilation end of the process as a kid.
‘Then, about seventy years or so ago, the news came out that they had been able to perfect time travel. Of course, they had been teleporting for years before that. But when they worked out how to transpose molecules across time as well as space, it was big.
‘People immediately saw how we could maybe change the past so the Second Dark Age never happened. Not all of it. We all knew the geological disasters were not man’s fault. But the rest... what could we do if we went back and changed things for the better?’
‘But you never did that. Changing the past is against the rules, even if it were possible,’ Luke interrupted fiercely.
‘Yes, but in the early days people had wild ideas. They thought we could fix everything. Luckily, there were enough sensible heads at government level to make sure none of those wild ideas took hold. In the end, we were all satisfied by the idea of Retrieving people from the past so that humanity could go on.
‘I applied to become a Retriever as soon as it was clear what that would involve. Even though I was not anything special, I had a good brain and most of the other attributes they felt necessary for a Jumper. I did my training with Jac and Chen, and right from the outset, I loved it. I got to travel and see the world – not the hollowed-out shell of what was left of the world, but the way it used to be. Like this! My god, it was exciting – really exciting – and every Target I brought safely home made me feel like God Almighty. And my success rate was even higher than Jac’s and he was one of the best.’
Luke frowned and shook his head. ‘You’re not like the rest of ‘em, are you? Old Timers never get excited about anything. That’s what Faith told me anyway.’
‘Yes, I know. I am abnormal. I never really fitted in. I am able to keep my passionate nature well hidden mostly. But sometimes it is impossible. But now that things have changed and more of the Old Timers are starting to feel more intensely, I do not feel so out of place.’
‘Does that mean…’ Luke stopped mid-sentence and blushed. He coughed and made much of looking for a handkerchief in his pocket.
Eilish laughed light-heartedly. ‘No, my passionate nature has never extended into the sexual arena. I think it is because I was pre-pubescent when the LGP happened. I never had sexual thoughts, not that I remember anyway. And by the time I reached puberty, I was so sick that sex was the last thing on my mind. Then, of course, once I had a clone, there was never much of a drive to be sexually active. I haven’t missed much, from all I have heard.’
She laughed as she watched Luke’s expressive face mirror his contradictory thoughts.
‘You aren’t attracted to men at all?’ he asked tentatively, after chewing for a while on her information.
‘No, not really. And before you ask, I am not attracted to women either. In that way, I am no different from most of the Old Timers.’
‘Hmm,’ he grunted and seemed to want to say more.
‘What? It is all right to talk about this you know. We are a very liberal society, as I think you have probably discovered.’
‘Yeah, but not as liberal as the back end of this century. Their media is obscene.’
‘Porn? Yes, it is rather off-putting. I have seen a bit of it while in-situ. Anyway, what did you want to ask?’
‘It isn’t my business, forget it.’
‘Now you have me curious. Come on Luke, we are going to be spending a lot of time together in the next month or more; you may as well clear the air. I will ask you inappropriate questions as they arise. I am famous for it.’
‘Okay, you asked for it, doll. You’re 200 or so, right?’
‘Actually I’m over three hundred years old, given my time in-situ.’
‘Yeah, right. Well, you’re a beautiful gal. In all that time, you’ve never… oh, forget it. It’s not important!’ He threw up his hands in disgusted embarrassment.
Eilish liked watching him blush. She‘d never seen anyone blush as he did. It required intense embarrassment or shame to elicit the physiological response and no one in her world felt intensely about anything.
Well, that wasn’t really true anymore. She’d spent time with Julio and he was the epitome of intense. Although, from what he had told her, that wasn’t the case before he met Jane. She brought him painfully back to life; but Julio was an Old Timer, and so little embarrassed him.
‘If you are asking if I am still a virgin at three hundred plus years, then the answer is yes. I think I shared a few pre-teen kisses during spin-the-bottle, but that is about it.’
‘Don’t you miss being touched… held?’ The question was out before he had time to censor it. And after it was, he clamped his mouth shut tightly, obviously angry with himself.
Eilish leant her cheek against a shoulder as she thought about his question. ‘I never had it as a child, so I do not think I miss it. But sometimes I envy you couples – Jac and Cara, Julio and Jane, you and Faith… and the others that are popping up everywhere these days. I wonder what it would be like to be close to someone, feel their warm skin on mine. Even so, it seems to me that for every pleasurable moment such a bond gives you, there is an equally painful one. I am happy to forgo the pleasure to avoid the pain.’
Luke’s face had closed down as he considered her words. Eventually, he looked up and caught her with his intense gaze. ‘Me and Faith, we’ve had our painful moments, especially in the early days when I couldn’t accept New Atlantis, but I know for a fact that neither of us would want it any other way. The highs… the highs are incredible, and I don’t mean just in bed; I get high just holding her. It’s like nothing I’ve ever known before. And I was pretty damned experienced by the time I got to Faith, I gotta tell ya. But, just holding her is better than sex with any broad I ever had. I don’t think I could live without her now. And the brat… well, holding him is almost painfully intense sometimes.’
‘Brat?’ she whispered, moved more than she thought possible by his open sharing.
‘Bart. I call him Brat because that’s what he is most of the time. God, that kid is enough to test the patience of a saint. And ain’t nobody puttin’ me up for sainthood anytime soon. From the moment I met him, hovering around his fallen companions on that death train tryin’ to drag them out…’ He stopped speaking while he tried to get his emotions under control.
Eilish had been there. She had assisted with the extraction of those 150 traumatised women and children on the train that was to take them to Belzac Death Camp. She’d been moved by those children, as all the team had been moved by their innocent fear and pain, and she'd been told Bart’s story in outline but never from the source.
Eventually, Luke felt able to go on. ‘From the moment I met him, it was like I’d found another little piece of myself. Faith gave me a piece, a big piece. And then Bart came along with another piece I didn’t even know I was missing. He’s like me, you know. Like I was when I was a kid. And my pappy beat the bejeezus outta me for it. I guess I always thought I deserved it. But Bart is one hell of a kid, and he’s special and likeable, and I can’t imagine anyone wantin’ to beat the bejeezus outta him. Oh, a quick clip upside the head, maybe to pull him in ta’ line, but nothin’ else. And so the more I came to love him, the more I stopped believin’ I deserved what my old man handed out.
‘So every time I hug that little brat, it’s like I’m huggin’ that little kid I used to be.’ He shook his head and scowled. ‘That makes it sound like I only love him because he reminds me of myself. That’s
not true. I love him for who he is – the brave, rebellious little soldier who wouldn’t leave a man down, who’ll take on a bully twice his size to defend someone weaker, who questions everything, who seems to have an innate sense of justice and who still doesn’t believe his good luck in being part of our family. And I’d have to love him simply because he loves Faith so much it makes him cry. Jeezus, how did we get into all this deep and meaningful cr… garbage?’
‘I do not know, but I am glad we did. I was nervous about working closely with you, Luke. You scare a lot of people. I am glad I had this chance to get to know you.’
‘To see I’m not scary?’
Eilish laughed as she sat up and began to pull the last of her wreckage of a hairdo down so she could comb out the lengths with her fingers. ‘Oh, you are still plenty scary. But in a good way, I think. I feel safer knowing you are here with me.’
Luke’s face broke into a bright smile and he ran his fingers through his own lengthened, pomade coated hair. ‘Good, that’s good. Scaring gals is not somethin’ I wanna do. You’re safe with me, Irish.’
‘Eil… oh no, do not start calling me Irish! I am not your Brat!’ She tried to sound severe, but all she could do was laugh at his boyish, cheeky grin. How did he get to look like he was eight years old when he was clearly a war-wearied man in his mid-thirties?
‘Anything you say Irish, er, Eilish.’
She picked up one of the long pins she had removed with her hat and waved it at him threateningly. He laughed as he scrambled from the bed, trying to escape her.
At that moment there was a loud thumping against the wall, and they both realised their noise was disturbing the neighbours. They hushed.
‘Does it feel wrong to you that we are rescuing some people, like our Target, and then leaving others to die?’ Eilish said softly, manoeuvring up so she could sit leaning against the headboard as Luke had been doing. The pencil-thin skirt she wore made moving difficult, and her lounging had already creased her clothing badly. Somehow, before they went out in the morning, she would have to try to make right her appearance if she wanted to blend in with Edwardian society, but right now, it didn’t matter.
Luke sat next to her and resumed his position with his elbows on his knees. His elasticised braces pulled tight as he rounded his shoulders.
‘There are a lot of things that are morally ambiguous about what we do. Taking kids away from parents so we can give them to our childless couples for one.’
‘But history says that they would have been taken from their parents regardless. We just give the children a new life.’ This was an argument where Eilish felt on the moral high ground.
‘Sure, and the same could be said for what we’re doing on this Jump. We’re taking children away from their parents, who would otherwise have drowned, so they can have a new life.’
‘But we could just as easily take the parents too. But we will not. Not unless they can adapt to our world. We will leave them behind to drown.’
‘You know more about Crash and Burn than I do,’ Luke said with a sigh.
‘I know, I know. Adults are far more likely to C and B than kids, especially if they are not prepared beforehand. And it takes a certain mindset to be able to accept our world… to accept time travel itself… and few have that mindset. I know that. I do. I have had firsthand experience with people who could not grasp the reality of our world. Even so, I still feel squeamish about talking parents into letting us take their children…’
Luke rubbed his head and then grimaced at the grease on his palm. He wiped it on his handkerchief. ‘I hate this stuff!’
‘Smells nice though, and it keeps your goldilocks in place.’
‘Hmm. Give me a razor and I won’t have any goldilocks to keep in place. Where was I? Oh, yeah. The way I see it is, if we had a lifeboat and called for children to board it, they’d want to put their kids on it to save them. Any parent would. As far as they’re concerned, once the worry over the safety of their children is taken from them, they can focus on getting to safety themselves. And even though we know they won’t be successful, we can at least feel assured that in their last moments they’ll be content that their children were saved.’
‘But they will not have a choice about keeping or sending their children with us. We will have tricked them into believing they are just trying out the new life raft. They will not know they are gone until it is too late.’
‘But they’ll know they’re at the “lifeboat” when the emergency becomes real to them. Look, it’s all about risks and pay-offs. This whole mission is one huge risk. Even though I’m not happy putting Brat in danger, I can see the advantages of having him with us. The pay-off’s worth the risk. The parents will feel that way.’
‘Bart can convince the children to trust us. And they, in turn, can convince the parents to let us have them…’ Eilish frowned. ‘Yes, it is a good plan. But he is so young. You will have to keep him close. If something goes wrong, you could lose him.’
Luke’s face became the mask of a soulless killer in that moment. ‘He’s nearly eleven. He went through worse than this at a much younger age so he’ll handle it. And I won’t lose him. I won’t go back without him.’
‘What about Faith?’
His eyes were hollow as they looked deep into hers, ‘I will not go back without him.’
‘Then maybe he is better off not…’
‘He’s got it into his head that he’ll be useful on this mission and there’s no telling him he won’t. Have I mentioned he’s as stubborn as a mule? Another characteristic we share. Both Jac and Chen think it’s a good idea. Cara is worried, only because of Faith, but agrees it’ll make the transfer smoother. As for Bart, well he’ll follow direction. He knows what’s at stake. He’s survived the Nazis, and he’s been well trained. I have to trust that it’ll be enough.’
‘I guess that goes for all of us. We would not do what we do if we were not willing to face the danger.’
‘We risk our lives to save lives. It’s what we do,’ Luke agreed grimly.