City of Shadows

Chapter 74

1888, Holborn Viaduct, London

Wednesday 19 December

This is where we live now. It’s not so very different to our last home, I guess. I’m getting used to it. We don’t get the twenty-times-a-day rumble of a train over us. Instead, we have the constant deep engine rumble of Holborn Viaduct’s power generator. Not so different, I suppose, to listening to the back-up generator we used to have.

We’re settled now. Finding new routines. It’s a different feel in here with Rashim and SpongeBubba keeping us company. I think I like it. SpongeBubba makes me laugh; the thing looks so ridiculous with that wobbling nose. We have to keep him out of sight of that nosy man Delbert. God knows what he’d make of that lab unit.

We have a decision to make about the killer support unit. Its organic body is being kept alive. It’s like some person in an almost vegetative state; the eyes are open but there’s nothing going on inside its head. The thing drools when we try and feed it this barley gruel. Totally disgusting. Rashim says we can keep it going indefinitely if we keep feeding it. The big question is whether we open up its… her… cranium and flip the ‘hard-set’ switch inside. I’m not sure how Maddy feels.

Liam, of course, says we should.

Me? I’m not sure. This support unit spent the last couple of months wanting nothing more than to kill us all. I know its programming will all be erased… but will it really be? Completely?

So, we have our new home. A new place in history, which I do find very fascinating. In many ways it feels like when we were first woken up by Foster. Scary, but exciting, new. It does feel a bit like that again. But it won’t ever be the same. Not now that we know we’re fakes. Pretend-humans. In fact, there’s only one real person in here. Rashim.

Perhaps this time around, though, it’s better. Like Maddy said, we’re in charge now. We can decide whether or not we want to fix history. And who’s going to stop us now? No one, NO ONE knows where we are now, not even Mr Roald Waldstein.

I like that. That makes me feel safe.

Maddy joined Liam standing in their side door. He was watching Farringdon Street slowly come to life. It was just gone seven in the morning and wisps of morning mist spun like silk across the wide cobbled street. Today looked like it was going to be another nice one. A clear blue sky waiting for the sun to get up and join it. A lamp-snuffer was putting out the street’s gas lamps with his long-handled snuffer tray. Above them, on top of the viaduct, the electric-powered lights would be turned off manually by a man from the Edison Electric Company. They were beginning to learn the morning routine along Farringdon Street.

‘Good morning,’ said Maddy.

Liam nodded. He seemed a lot brighter since returning from the Whitechapel jump less than a week ago. ‘Aye, looks like it’ll be nice today.’

She had an enamel mug of coffee for him. Handed it to him and took up a place on the doorstep beside him. ‘I like that we’re not endlessly recycling in a two-day loop,’ she said. ‘Things change. That’s kinda nice.’

‘You sure we don’t need to set up a field?’

‘Yup. We’re quite safe here. No one’s looking for time travellers.’ She laughed. ‘No one in this time has even thought about time travel, I’d say. I mean… wasn’t it that writer guy, H. G. Wells, who first thought up the idea of time travel?’

Liam shrugged. ‘I’m sure somebody must’ve thought of the idea before he did. It must be the oldest fanciful notion ever; that it might be fun to travel backwards or forwards through time.’

‘Yeah, well.’ She sipped her coffee. ‘He was the first one to write a fiction book about it.’

‘Mark Twain.’

‘What?’

‘Mark Twain wrote a book about time travel. I’m sure he did. A Yankee Fella in King Arthur’s Court I think it was called. Or something like that.’

Maddy hunched her shoulders. ‘Oh well, whatever. My point is we don’t have to worry quite so much about staying under the radar here. Nor do we have to worry about time waves. None of us are real. None of us belong in this timeline, so it really doesn’t matter.’

He looked at her. ‘You’re OK, are you? Not… uh, not upset about — ’

‘About not being the real Maddy Carter from Boston?’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘Not really. Not any more. I think I quite like the feeling of freedom. I quite like not missing my mom and dad and my cousin Julian. Somebody made all those people up. Put painful memories of them into my head. I’m damned if I’m going to spend another second grieving for figments of someone’s imagination. Stuff ’em.’

Liam laughed. ‘Aye, that does seem a bit daft.’

‘I am who I am. Right now, in this moment of time, this is who I am. And that’s all.’ She looked sideways at him and smiled. ‘Nice thought that, isn’t it? It’s liberating.’

‘Aye.’

They heard a steam whistle echoing up from the far end of Farringdon Street where the docks and the River Thames were. Barges came in there and loaded and emptied round the clock. A never-ending cycle of trade and commerce.

‘On the other hand, Sal’s not coping so well, I don’t think,’ said Liam finally.

Maddy nodded. ‘You and I should keep an eye on her. After all, I suppose we literally really are family now.’

‘Uh?’

She looked at him. ‘I might just be your sister, Liam.’

‘ What? ’

‘Think about it… we could’ve been grown together as a batch.’ She laughed at her own words. Then curled her lip at a thought. ‘God, I really hope we didn’t share a grow-tube with you. That would be kinda gross.’

‘Charmed.’

They sipped their coffees, blowing clouds of condensation out of their mugs into the chilly morning air.

‘What about you, Liam? You all right?’

‘About being a meat robot?’ He grinned that devil-may-care lopsided smile. She wondered if that stupid smile of his was what kept him sane, made his good nature bulletproof. ‘Aye, I’m not too bothered. So, at least I know now why it is I can cope with all that time travelling and not age so much as a normal person. It makes a bit more sense now.’

She hadn’t told him about the ageing thing. She’d planned to, but never quite got round to it. And yet… it seemed he knew all about that.

‘Don’t look so shocked, Maddy. I’m not completely stupid. I worked out this is how I became Foster. Or I should say, how I become like Foster. I presume Foster was a meat-product like us. Right?’

She nodded.

‘Travelling is ageing me.’ He flicked the tuft of grey hair above his right ear. ‘And I’m not blind. I noticed that.’ He pulled at the skin around his eyes. The faintest of crow’s feet there. ‘And don’t think I didn’t notice this either.’ He cocked his head casually. ‘So? I’m getting a little older. Happens to all of us eventually, doesn’t it?’

She could have kissed him for being so resolutely… Liam. So brave.

So strong. So flippant.

‘You know, Mads, I was thinking about this last night. I presume I must be older now. You know? Physically? No longer just a sixteen-year-old slice of a lad, eh?’

‘I suppose so.’

‘Older than you, Mads?’

‘I don’t know. It’s possible. I guess so. What’s your point?’

He grinned. ‘Well now, if I’m the oldest, does that not mean that makes me the boss around here, then?’

She snorted coffee from her nose. There was laughter somewhere in that. ‘In your freakin’ dreams, Mr O’Connor.’