The Doomsday Code

CHAPTER 14

2001, New York

‘All right, stand clear, everyone!’

Sal crouched down and thumbed an icon on the growth tube’s small glowing touchscreen. A motor softly whirred at the bottom of the perspex tube and it slowly tilted backwards to a forty-five degree angle. A moment later the bottom of the tube opened and a flood-tide of foul-smelling gunk splashed out on to the floor of the back room.

Bob’s glistening, baby-smooth body slipped out of the tube and across the floor like a freshly landed blue marlin on the foredeck of a fishing boat.

‘It’s a boy!’ announced Liam.

‘This time round,’ added Maddy.

The newly birthed clone stirred on the floor, grey eyes opening and gazing up at them. They crouched around him, cooing like proud parents. ‘Liam,’ said Liam, pointing to himself. ‘My name’s Liam.’

The clone opened his mouth and vomited a river of pink gunk down the front of his muscular chest.

‘Oh, that’s our Bob all right,’ said Sal.

‘Negative.’ Becks squatted down to inspect the slimy naked body on the floor. ‘The AI designated “Bob” has yet to be uploaded.’

‘She’s right,’ said Maddy. ‘It’s not our old buddy yet. Just a meat combat unit.’

‘Og gub ber smuh,’ gurgled the clone in agreement.

‘And just as moronic as he was last time,’ she added. ‘Come on, let’s get him cleaned up and dressed, then we can get the software upload started.’

Liam placed a hand under one bulging arm, Becks the other and together they helped him to his feet. Liam winked at the bewildered-looking giant. ‘Welcome back, Bob.’

Half an hour later, hosed down and no longer stinking like a pile of rotten meat, dried and dressed in a mix-and-match collection of oversized clothes, Bob sat motionless on Liam’s bunk. His eyelids flickered rapidly as terabytes of data filled the empty silicon wafer embedded in his skull. Becks was overseeing the software transfer process while Maddy had called the other two to join her around the kitchen table.

‘So you see … we’ve got to at least go and take a look. Make sure this Voynich Manuscript isn’t going to totally give the game away.’ She shrugged. ‘It isn’t going to be a particularly secret agency much longer if one of our teams is blabbing away all our secrets in that document. Right?’

Liam nodded. ‘Sure.’

‘Does that mean Liam might meet another “operative” like himself?’ asked Sal.

Maddy shrugged. ‘It’s entirely possible he’ll make contact.’ She turned to him. ‘And, if you do, then obviously the most important thing you need to communicate is that they can’t use the Voynich Manuscript any longer. It’s been compromised, OK?’

‘Right.’

‘So …’ Maddy consulted a pad of paper on the table. ‘So the time we’re sending you back to, Liam, is 1194 — that’s when this Adam Lewis said the document carbon dates to.’ She looked up from her notes. ‘I don’t think carbon dating can be that precise … but it’s a specific year to aim for. And we’re sending you to a place called Kirklees. That’s in England.’

‘Ahh now, I’ve been to England before. With me uncle and me dad, so.’

‘A place called Kirklees Priory. I did a search on it. It’s famous because it’s the place where Robin Hood died and was buried. Supposedly.’

Liam’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Robin Hood, did you say?’

Maddy laughed at his response. ‘Don’t get your hopes up, Liam. From what I’ve pulled up, there seems to be a lot of evidence that Hood’s just a myth: a story made up from a whole bunch of different sources. From old Saxon-aged myths to, like, seventeenth-century highwayman stories.’

‘Oh.’ His face dropped. ‘And there was me hoping to become one of his Merry Men.’

‘Sorry. Now, listen closely. Historical records show this is a dangerous time. The king of England is Richard and he’s abroad fighting some crusade. At home, there’s a lot of unrest and stuff — bandits, anarchy, that kind of thing. So for safety I’m going to send both support units along with you, OK?’

Liam smiled. ‘I’ll be fine, then. Me own little army.’

‘And, remember, all this is a quick look-see. If you can, I want you to find who or what “Cabot” is, and talk to him. See if you can find out who’s writing this Voynich Manuscript, and if it’s another team like us then you’ve got to make contact and warn them that the code’s been broken, right?’

‘Aye.’

‘A secondary objective, Liam — if you can locate the manuscript, or come across whoever’s writing it — is … if you can, find out how to decode that manuscript so we can see what else is in it.’ She glanced at both of them. ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being totally in the dark about this agency. I want to know more, and if there’s more we can find out …’

‘Yeah,’ said Sal. ‘I want to know too.’

The three of them were quiet for a moment.

‘I don’t know where this is taking us,’ said Maddy. ‘History has been changed a little. There’s a movie out there that wasn’t there yesterday. And maybe that’s all that’s going to happen with this time wave and we don’t need to correct things again. As Foster once said, history can tolerate some change. Maybe this Adam guy got lucky with those couple of sentences, and that’s all anyone is ever going to get out of the manuscript. But I think we have to just take a look. Agree?’

Liam nodded. ‘It’s the time of knights an’ all. I wouldn’t mind seeing some of that.’

‘Cool. So … when Bob’s ready, Sal, I want you, Liam and the two units to go locate some clothing that’ll not attract attention. God knows what they wear then,’ she said, shrugging, ‘potato sacks and sandals, for all I know.’

‘OK. What about you?’

‘I need to put together a data package for Bob and Becks so they’re, you know, up to speed on all the relevant history.’ She looked at her watch. ‘It’s just gone ten. If we say launch time after lunch?’ She nudged Liam. ‘Might as well get some pizza in before you go.’