She sensed the loss of Sal like she now felt the creeping damp in here. It no longer seemed like their home, more like a dark and dank prison cell. A place to escape from.
SpongeBubba sat inert in the corner beside the computer bench like a broken toy. Rashim had flipped his power over-ride switch so that he was properly off and not just in a dormant low-charge state that he could emerge from at will. There was no knowing for sure when they were all going to be returning.
‘Why the hell does this feel like a goodbye, Liam?’
‘No reason why it should. You’re seeking answers, I’m seeking answers. We’ll be back here comparing notes before you can say “Tawamattawockymickytata”.’
She smiled. ‘Oh yeah, that “Bend in the River” place in the jungle? I see you’ve been practising.’
‘Aye. Stupid name for a village, anyway.’
She stepped towards the desk and threw an arm round him, hugging him tightly. ‘Just you be very careful back there.’
‘Are you kidding? I’ve got Bob. He’s a one-man Roman legion. It’s you that needs to be careful, Mads. The future? Well, you know what I think about heading there.’
‘I can’t ignore the invitation. That’s the first and only time Waldstein has ever attempted direct contact with us. I have to go … I need this. You know that.’
He looked at her for a moment, then nodded. ‘Aye. But it’s stupid.’
‘It’s necessary.’ She stepped back and smiled. ‘A few days or weeks from now, we’ll all be back here. We’ll know everything there is to know.’ She shrugged. ‘And maybe then we can make an informed decision for once … instead of winging it.’
‘Decision? About what?’
‘Whether we go on. Go our separate ways. Whatever … At least we’ll be free to go about our lives without having to look over our shoulders all the time.’
‘Go separate ways?’ Liam looked down at his hands. ‘Is that what this is?’
‘What?’
‘This … going to speak to Waldstein –’ he stroked the bristles on his chin – ‘is this you looking for a way to leave? Is this you asking his permission to cut free …? To go your own way and know he won’t be hunting you down?’
‘I’m after some answers, Liam. That’s all.’
‘Aye, and when you’ve got them?’
‘I don’t know. Who knows what the hell we’re going to find out? What that might change about us?’
‘I’m after answers too, Maddy. We’re here for a purpose.’
She glanced at Bob. ‘A mission?’
‘Aye. A mission. Maybe it’s Waldstein’s mission. Maybe we now have to work against him. I think we need to know that. And I think that giant tachyon transmitter is the bigger question, to be sure. Not the old man.’ He puffed air and shook his head incredulously. ‘I can’t believe that you’re not as curious about them as I am.’
‘Oh, I am … but …’ What she didn’t want to admit to him was that that giant transmitter in the jungle terrified her. It radiated more than energy. It radiated menace. ‘Waldstein’s the one person we know who’s going to have answers, Liam. You want my opinion?’
‘You’re going to give it to me anyway.’
‘You’re going on a wild-goose chase.’
‘Aye, well … we’ll see.’
They stared at each other, sharing an awkward silence. Maddy cracked first. ‘So, have you decided your call-back window?’
‘Aye. I’ll give me and Bob a week back in Jerusalem to see what’s what.’
‘A week?’
‘I wouldn’t mind seeing what it’s like in Bible times. Anyway … we’ll be back here long before you, I’m sure.’
Liam was probably right. They were going to have to find out where the reclusive billionaire, Waldstein, was hiding away. The only return window she’d scheduled was an hour after the outward one. In the same spot. Just in case they needed to beat a hasty retreat. But, in truth, she had no idea how long or difficult or dangerous their jaunt into the future was going to be. Maybe her mission was going to be the wild-goose chase.
They were probably pushing their luck. Two missions at the same time? No one back in the dungeon keeping an eye on things, waiting for a sign, a time wave, on the lookout for a get-me-back-home-now message?
She glanced at the monitors on the computer bench. A row of twelve quietly humming personal computers wired together, working in parallel to host an artificial intelligence that she’d come to view as a trustworthy colleague, if not a friend.
Computer-Bob. If Liam ran into trouble, there might be some way he could leave a message through time for the AI to pick up. Maddy on the other hand … she was relying on finding Waldstein, who obviously had a displacement machine of his own. There was, however, the distinct possibility that both teams could end up being marooned. Which was why she’d given computer-Bob some instructions to carry out in the event that he found himself all alone here in London.
One of the screens displayed a dialogue box with text written in a font large enough so that she could see it from the square plinth of sawdust she was standing beside.
> Charge complete. Are you ready to go, Maddy?
She stepped up on to the plinth. ‘And don’t forget – if you do bump into you-know-who, get him to say something really useful.’
‘Like what?’
‘Like … Blessed are women, for they make far smarter decisions than dudes.’
He laughed. ‘Right.’
‘And it’s totally OK to be gay, straight, black, brown … and listen to banjo music.’
‘I’ll try to remember.’
‘And … I want an autograph.’ She grinned. ‘Can you imagine what I’d get for that on Craigslist?’
‘I’ll do my best, Mads.’ He reached out and grabbed her arm. ‘Stay safe … and come home, all right?’
She nodded. ‘I better go … Rashim will be wondering what’s happened to me.’ She nodded towards the webcam on the bench. The nearest equivalent to direct eye contact. ‘Computer-Bob?’
> Yes, Maddy?
‘In the event of … of the worst-case scenario – the one we talked about earlier – you know what you have to do?’ That was something she’d discussed with Liam and Rashim – the possibility that some self-destruct process needed to be agreed. If they all went missing, this place couldn’t be left intact.
> Yes, Maddy. I will ensure the displacement machine is rendered inoperable, then complete a hard-drive wipe across the computer network.
They’d agreed that if Liam’s return window didn’t bring them back, and if she wasn’t able to request a return portal from the future, computer-Bob was to allow six real-time months to pass here before destroying the machine and erasing himself.
‘And … meantime, if anyone unauthorized enters this archway without us … then you do the same. Wipe everything. Do you understand?’
> Yes. I understand. We have already discussed these protocols.
She rolled her eyes. ‘Yes … yes, of course we have.’ She looked at Liam. ‘I’m just –’
‘I know. Clucking like a mother hen.’
‘Being thorough … I was going to say.’
> Do not worry, Maddy. I will make sure this technology does not fall into the wrong hands.
‘Good. Right. Then … I guess I’m ready to go. You better give Liam the countdown.’
A digital display appeared on one of the screens. One minute to go. She watched the seconds tick down.
She listened to internal circuit switches clicking, the building hum of energy peaking held at bay and ready to be released. A sudden and melancholic notion occurred to her.
This could be the very last time I see this place.
A stupid thought really. After all, every time they’d opened a window to the past, it could quite easily have been her last jump. There was no knowing what fate existed round the very next corner. All the same … it did somehow feel a little bit like a goodbye.
‘Liam??
??
‘Aye?’
She couldn’t think of anything meaningful to say. Nothing that could sum up the confusing swirl of thoughts and emotions inside her. ‘Just be careful, OK?’
‘Always am, Mads. Always am.’ He looked at the countdown display. ‘Ten seconds. Hands by your side and stand still like a good girl.’
‘Liam, you know I love you, right?’ she blurted as the noise of the displacement machine began to fill their dungeon. She wanted to quickly add something about not in ‘that way’ … but as a dear friend, as a brother, as a comrade in arms. But, as always seemed to be the case, her farewell words were being cruelly drowned out and she’d have to bellow them to him. But she saw she didn’t need to. He nodded back at her and mouthed, ‘I know. Me too.’
The countdown on the screen showed five seconds. Time for one last reassuring smile. He replied with a wink … and a wave.
Then she was gone and Liam watched the displacement field collapse to a pinprick of light, then vanish.
CHAPTER 6
1890, London
The dungeon was quiet once more, with nothing but the distant muted chug of the Holborn Viaduct generator, the whir of computer fans and the clatter-click of hard drives to keep them company. He turned to Bob. ‘So, it’s just the two of us once again, big fella.’
‘Yes, Liam. Just the two of us.’
‘I suppose we’d better start identifying exactly where we’re deploying. Biblical Jerusalem, I suppose, is a bit on the finger-in-the-air side.’
‘Recommendation: we identify a specific time first.’
‘Aye. I recall you and Becks had a jolly good go at calculating the start and end times of the beam when we were back in the jungle?’
‘Correct. I have the data stored.’ He reeled off the statistics and figures on his hard drive, then broke the numbers down into the conclusions they’d come to eighteen months ago. The beam in the jungle had appeared to be deliberately directed through the very centre of the earth and out of the other side. Emerging, of all places, in the middle of the city of Jerusalem. More specifically, somewhere beneath the big temple in the city. The decay rate of the tachyons suggested the beam either started, or ended, at the very beginning of the first century.
The time of Christ. Liam wondered whether that was significant or not.
‘You know the ideal time we need to aim for, Bob?’ Liam said. ‘Just before that thing is switched on. Like the day before or something. Perhaps we’ll even catch whoever these people are with their launching-ceremony party hats on, cracking open a bottle of champagne, passing around a bowl of peanuts … or something.’
‘You need me to calculate to a particular day?’ Bob looked at him. ‘I am unable to guarantee that kind of precision, Liam. I can attempt a best-guess calculation, but we may arrive days, weeks or even months before or even after the origin time of the beam. This will be an imprecise calculation.’
‘Well, let’s get as close to the beginning as we can. Even if we miss it being turned on, surely one of them will be hanging around to make sure that beam thing is working properly, right?’
‘That is a reasonable assumption.’
‘All right, then … you better start working on your numbers.’
Bob nodded. ‘I will commence calculating.’ He closed his eyes.
And, while he was doing that, Liam decided he was going to head on down to the market at the bottom of Farringdon Street and get in whatever useful things he could find for their trip to biblical times. As he headed out through their low door, he decided to pay a visit to the library too, to see if he could find anything about the temple itself; a history of the building perhaps, with information about the sacred ground beneath it.
‘This is not a suitable place,’ said Bob.
Liam nodded. The density graph was spiking every few seconds. He looked at the grainy, pixelated image they’d just snapped from the past. It wasn’t showing them very much: a section of sun-bleached stone wall and a long hard-edged shadow cast diagonally across it. As far as Liam could make out, the shadow could have been cast by a person, a camel, a palm tree … a large dancing banana … for all they knew. And there was something blurred on the left of the low-resolution image, perhaps someone’s robe or cape swishing past. Whatever it was, this narrow backstreet in the upper city was just as busy as the last half a dozen locations they’d density-tested.
They’d also been experimenting with different times of day. This current time-stamp was at dawn. Their version of seven in the morning. They’d tried midnight, three in the morning, midday – Liam had bet midday would have been quiet. Surely, with the sun at its highest and hottest, things would slow down a little? But no. It seemed Jerusalem was a city that never settled down.
‘Seriously? Don’t these Judaeans ever sleep?’
‘We may have picked a busy period in their year, Liam.’ Bob turned towards the webcam. ‘Computer-Bob, reference the historical database.’
> I am already checking, Bob … one moment … one moment.
Liam grinned. ‘What’s it like talking to a copy of yourself?’
Bob frowned. ‘Which version is the copy, Liam … and which is the original?’ He frowned. ‘My AI is inherited from the first organic unit. The one that was incapacitated by Kramer and his men. As was computer-Bob’s. As such, we can both be considered “descendants” of the original AI. However, I have acquired additional first-generation memories, which computer-Bob has inherited and –’
‘All right, all right. Clearly a sore point. Sorry I asked.’ He patted the support unit like a scolded pet. ‘I was just attempting a bit of light-hearted banter there. My mistake, Mr Sulky Pants.’
Bob cocked his head and smiled – unpleasantly. All tombstone teeth and pink gums. ‘As Maddy would say … goofing around?’
‘Yeah … something like that.’
The dialogue box on the monitor in front of them flickered to life.
> Information: the time-stamp you have chosen coincides with a Judaean religious holiday called ‘Passover’. The religious holiday lasts for a week. In first-century Judaea, the city of Jerusalem is a major attraction for the local population to celebrate Passover. Expect this location to be busy.
‘Great.’ Liam sighed. ‘So maybe we’re going to have to head further out.’
> That is recommended.
‘All right, then, I suppose we’ll have to take it outside the city. Computer-Bob, can you find us some quiet place not too far away? I don’t want the same back-breaking hike we had getting to Rome.’
> Affirmative. Checking …
‘By the way …’ Liam turned to Bob. ‘I picked up some things while you were sleeping.’
‘I was not sleeping. I was calculating our time-stamp.’
‘Aye, yeah … sure. I bet you calculated that in about three seconds and used the rest of this afternoon to get in an old-man nap.’
Bob’s thick Neanderthal brows knitted together.
‘Just messin’ again.’ He slapped Bob’s shoulder. ‘Now, I got us some clothes that should just about pass as suitable for this time. I should be OK. But, as usual, you’re going to stick out like a brontosaurus.’ He looked at Bob. The support unit’s coarse, springy, wiry hair had grown long enough during their time abroad that it was now hanging in thick corkscrews to his shoulders. His normally smooth, square jaw had sprouted a thick thatch of dark bristles. Maddy had been nagging the pair of them to get down to the barber’s at the end of the street and tidy themselves up. Rashim, on the other hand, kept his beard meticulously trimmed and his long hair tidy, thus escaping her disapproving scowl. Luckily they hadn’t listened to her. Liam looked at Bob; the scruffy, unkempt look would probably help them. He could imagine Bob passing as some simple-minded gentle giant. Perhaps an ex-Gallic slave.
‘And … I picked up an old goatskin bag, a satchel-type thing, I’ve packed a couple of those torches. Oh, and I bought a second-hand copy of the King James Bible for reference and this … I
nicked from the library.’
Liam produced a burgundy-coloured, leatherbound hardcover book. A Remarkable Exploration Beneath the City of Heaven, by Sir Richard F. Barton. ‘I flicked through some of this. Some gentleman explorer messing about in the sewers and Roman-era aqueducts. It might be useful.’
‘Liam, the Bible is not a reliable source for historical data.’
He shrugged. ‘You never know. There might be something we can use.’
‘Suggestion: you should download the appropriate language into one of the babel-buds.’
‘Done that … while you were napping.’ He smiled. ‘First-century Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. You’ll need to download those into your hairy nut too.’
‘I will do that now.’
An hour later, computer-Bob finally came up with a suitable location for them. The slopes of a hill overlooking the city to the east. They examined the pinhole image and saw dry clay-orange ground and the twisted thick trunks of stunted olive trees. In the distance … the cluttered, labyrinthine mess of a city crammed within the confines of a salmon-pink stone wall. All flat roofs and terraces, narrow streets and crowded marketplaces that shimmered with colour.
‘To be clear … that is Jerusalem, right?’
> Of course.
‘Good, then that looks to me like a short downhill stroll. Good job.’
They ran a density scan and got nothing on the display but a gentle undulation that could have been the swaying of dry grass nearby or a passing bird.
‘I think we’ve got ourselves a winner,’ said Liam. ‘But let’s just be cautious. Let’s go in after dark.’
> Good idea, Liam. I will advance the time-stamp by six hours.
‘All right, computer-Bob, looks like we’re good to go. Can you start charging her up once more, please?’
> Of course, Liam.
Liam settled on the edge of the desk. As soon as the displacement machine was charged, they were ready to go. He found himself staring affectionately at the row of monitors sitting on the bench and at the webcam.