Day of the Predator

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‘It’s not in the usual time-stamp format,’ said Maddy.

› Please show me, Sal.

Sal held the piece of paper up to the webcam.

› It is a number. 62,739,406. Suggestion: it is the AI duplicate’s best estimation of their current time location.

‘Oh my God!’ gasped Maddy. ‘It actually managed to work it out?’ She looked at the cam and smiled. ‘Well, that’s you, actually, isn’t it? A copy of you, Bob. Well done!’

‘To the exact year?’ said Cartwright. ‘To the exact year? That’s

… that’s incredible. How could anyone possibly — ’

› Negative. The best resolution guess can only be to within 1,000 years of that year.

That silenced them all.

They could be up to 500 years before or after the specified time location.

‘Oh jahulla,’ whispered Sal. ‘Then that’s no good to us.’

‘The nearest thousand years?’ Maddy’s head drooped. ‘How are we supposed to find him in that?’

Cartwright looked down at both girls. ‘So your machine can’t bring back your colleague?’

Maddy shook her head. ‘It takes time to build up enough charge to open a portal, particularly for one that long ago. I don’t even know how long it would take to accumulate enough to open one then anyway, let alone do it thousands and thousands of times over.’

› Information: approximate charge time — nine hours.

‘So we can do it,’ said Sal.

Maddy laughed drily. ‘Yes, we can… but a thousand years? If we opened one window for each year it’ll take us nine thousand hours… what’s that? Just over a year of constantly opening and closing portals.’

‘So? We’ll do that for Liam, right?’

Maddy sighed. ‘That’s opening one window per year. What are the chances of Liam standing right there in the two or three seconds of that year? Hmm? What if he was asleep at that moment? Taking a leak? Hunting for food? To stand any sort of chance we’d need to open one… like… every day!’

‘This sounds like a needle-in-a-haystack problem,’ said Cartwright unhelpfully.

‘Oh.’ Sal bit her lip. ‘But we could try, couldn’t we?’

‘Three hundred and sixty-five thousand attempts!’ replied Maddy. ‘Do you want to have a guess how many years that would take us? Hmm? Lemmesee,’ she muttered, as she gnawed on the nails of one hand. ‘Oh, there… three hundred and seventy-five years or something.’ She made a shrewish face, growing pink and mottled with frustration and anger. ‘So, what do you say we get started, then?’

‘Then I’m sorry, that’s it,’ stepped in Cartwright. ‘I’m afraid your friend is stuck where he is. This facility will need to be packed up by the end of today and shipped down to a more secure government facility.’

‘You can’t do that!’ snapped Sal. ‘This is our… this is our home!’

‘It’s now a US government asset,’ he replied calmly. ‘And so are you, my dear.’

› Suggestion.

‘You can’t do that! We’ve got… like, human rights and stuff!’

Cartwright’s smile was humourless and cold, the calm and empty gesture of someone who cared not one whit. ‘I wonder… who exactly is going to miss the pair of you? Hmm? Family? Friends?’

‘The agency,’ snapped Sal. ‘And if you mess with us, if you hurt us, they’ll come for you! They’re from the future! And they’re — ’

‘Sal!’ barked Maddy. ‘Shut up!’ She grabbed Sal’s arm. ‘Don’t say anything more about the agency! Do you understand?’

She clamped her mouth shut and nodded mutely.

Maddy looked at Cartwright. ‘I think I can guess what you have in mind for us; you’ll keep us under lock and key in some remote Area Fifty-one facility, like freaks, like lab rats. And that’s where we’ll remain until you’re sure you know everything about this technology… then I guess you’ll dispose of us, right? A drive out into the middle of the Nevada Desert and one shot in the back of the head for each of us. Is that how you lot work?’

Cartwright shook his head. ‘Nothing so brutal, Maddy. You’re worth far too much to us alive. Even when I’m sure you’ve told me all that you know, we’re still going to need guinea pigs to test your time machine on.’ He sighed. ‘Mind you, it would have been good to have your colleague too… I’m not sure I’m entirely comfortable with the idea of him being out there roaming around history. But I suppose if he’s sixty-two million years away, I can’t see him doing — ’

Sal cast a glance back at the monitor.

› Suggestion: rapid-sweep density probes.

She pointed at the screen. ‘Maddy! Look!’

Maddy spun in her chair to look at the monitor and quickly digested the words. ‘Oh my God, yes! Probes. Density probes… that could work!’

‘What?’ said Cartwright, shaking his head irritably at the distraction. ‘What’re you on about?’

‘Tachyon signal probes to check a return location is clear of obstructions and that someone else isn’t wandering through it before we open.’

Cartwright looked none the wiser.

‘It’s like… it’s like knocking on a door before entering. Like asking is anyone in there? It’s a lot quicker than actually opening a portal. A lot less energy needed.’ She turned back towards the mic on the desk. ‘Bob, what are you suggesting? We can’t scan every moment over a thousand years… can we?’

› Negative. We scan a fixed moment of each day, 500 years either side of the calculated year. That is a total of 365,250 density probes.

‘But that’s going to take you what? Months? Years?’ asked Cartwright.

› Negative. Small signals, no more than a few dozen particles per signal, would be enough to identify a transient mass. Movement.

‘Yes,’ said Maddy. ‘That’s it! And all the signals that came back with some movement detected could become a… become our candidate list: a shortlist of times we could try to open a portal on. Bob, how long would it take to do that many probes?’ She turned back to Cartwright. ‘It’ll take a lot less time, I promise you! Maybe just a few days, tops!’

He shook his head. ‘Unacceptable. I want this archway empty by the end of today. Empty and everything inside in boxes and en route to — ’

‘Please!’ begged Maddy. ‘We can’t leave Liam out there!’

Cartwright silently shook his head.

‘He knows the location of all the other field offices,’ cut in Sal.

Maddy’s jaw dropped open. ‘Whuh?’

‘He alone knows where they all are. Locations, time-stamps.’ She turned to Maddy. ‘I’m sorry… I was going to tell you, but… but Foster swore me to secrecy.’

Cartwright studied her silently. ‘There are others, then? Other places like this?’

Her face hardened and her dark eyes narrowed. ‘I’m not telling you any more. I don’t know any more, but… like I say, Liam knows.’

‘Hmm.’ He thumbed his chin thoughtfully.

‘Bob,’ said Maddy, ‘how many days would it take to do those density scans?’

› Calculating… just a moment… just a moment…

‘Nice try, young lady,’ said Cartwright eventually. ‘You know, that was almost convincing. But it’s the sort of nonsense that only happens in movies.’ His croaky voice raised in pitch to that of some damsel in distress. ‘ Oh, please don’t shoot, mister… If you let me live, I’ll show you where the loot is hidden.’

Cartwright laughed, pleased with his impression.

Sal shook her head. ‘Oh, I’m not lying. Where do you think the time machine came from?’ she replied. ‘What? You think me and Maddy put it all together by ourselves?’

He had no answer for that.

Maddy could see where Sal was going with this. A good bluff. ‘She’s right, Cartwright. Where do you think we get spare parts from? When the displacement system breaks down, who do you think we call to come and fix it? Some spotty kid from PC World?’

Sal nodded. ‘You think our people are going to let you walk away with one of their time machines?’

There were questions there that the old man needed time to consider carefully. The room remained a motionless tableau, while from somewhere overhead came the faint muted sound of a circling helicopter.

The blink of the cursor running across the dialogue box suddenly caught everyone’s attention.

› Information: running at 11 scans a second, 365,250 scans will take approximately nine hours.

‘Nine hours,’ said Maddy. ‘See that? Nine hours.’ She looked at her watch. ‘By three this afternoon, we’ll have an idea exactly when he is and we’ll be able to bring him back.’ She smiled sarcastically at him. ‘Then you’ll have three lab rats to play around with instead of two.’

‘Yes.’ Cartwright nodded appreciatively. ‘I suppose there is that.’

‘Please,’ whispered Sal, her hard-bargaining face softened to that of a begging puppy.

‘All right. But if either of you tries anything silly, like dialling for help with one of these signals — ’ he reached into his jacket and pulled out a handgun — ‘in fact, if you do anything that isn’t explained clearly to me first, I will shoot you dead. Do you understand?’

They both nodded quickly.

‘There’ll be no shouted warnings, girls. I will simply pick up my gun and I will blow your brains across that messy desk of yours.’ He offered them that cold lifeless smile. ‘And, believe me, you’d be in very good company. It won’t be the first time I’ve blown a person’s brains right out of his head.’

Maddy swallowed and puffed out a fluttering breath, her eyes resolutely on the wavering muzzle of Cartwright’s gun.

‘Sure. Uh… O-OK. Nothing silly, then… I totally promise you that.’