The Doomsday Code

CHAPTER 24

1194, Kirklees Priory, Yorkshire

Liam checked over his shoulder to ensure that none of the monks had followed them out of the priory gardens and into the field. They were safely over the brow and out of sight here.

It was as grey and dark, as cold and unwelcoming as yesterday morning. Mercifully, on cue, the air before them shimmered. He could see Maddy and Sal and that Englishman, Adam, and the dim lights of the archway twisting and undulating like a film of oil on rippling water.

They stepped through and moments later the three of them were standing back in the stuffy warmth of the archway. Liam rubbed his arms, relishing the heat. For the last twenty-four hours he’d been doing little more than shivering.

Adam was silently shaking his head and marvelling at their return.

‘Well?’ said Maddy.

‘Well, we found your Cabot, so we did,’ replied Liam. ‘But I could murder for a lovely cup o’ tea before I do anything else.’

‘Sure.’

‘And something to eat?’

Maddy looked at her watch. The day had almost gone. It was Monday mid-afternoon and most of the cafes and restaurants they’d been to were usually quiet at this time. ‘Sure, why not? You better get changed, though. You look like a bunch of Krishnas.’

2001, New York

‘So, what this fella Cabot suggested is he’d take us down to meet this John fella.’

Adam lowered his fork so fast it dinked noisily on his salad plate. ‘John? John Lackland? Wicked King John?’

Liam nodded. ‘Aye, that’s the fella.’

‘My God!’ he gasped. ‘That’s — I wish I …’ He turned to Maddy. ‘I should go. I should go back with him and the two, uh …’ Liam looked at Bob and Becks sitting side by side opposite and slurping on a bowl of chicken soup each.

‘Big Ape and Psycho Girl?’ said Maddy.

He shrank guiltily before them, but nodded.

‘Sorry, no. I’ve no idea how many agency protocols I’ve already broken allowing you to sit in on this mission. I’m not sending you back in time as well.’

‘But I know this history like the back of my hand. I’ve read — ’

‘Sorry, no. I can’t take any more chances with you. God knows what Foster’d say if he knew what was going on!’

‘Foster?’

‘I’ll explain later.’ She turned to Liam. ‘So, this is what the message was about, then, do you think? “Seek Cabot at Kirklees.” Someone used the Voynich — ’ she glanced at Adam — ‘and used Adam to get that particular message through to us. And this is why … so that you could retrieve the Holy Grail …’

‘Pandora?’ added Sal.

‘Pandora … Holy Grail, same thing,’ said Maddy dismissively. ‘So you can retrieve this document, scroll, book — whatever exactly it is — from this behooded robber guy. Who, you suspect, might be a support unit from another TimeRiders team?’

Liam nodded. ‘That’s about the size of it.’

Sal steepled her fingers beneath her chin. ‘What if the Grail was meant to be lost? I mean, that’s why it’s such a big legend, right? Because it vanished?’

‘You mean just let it go?’ replied Liam. ‘Let it remain lost?’

‘Yes. Look around you … history hasn’t been changed that much, apart from the cruddy-looking DiCaprio movie based on Adam’s story. Maybe we should just let this one go?’

Liam took a bite of his burger. ‘Mr Cabot called it the Word of God. Sounds pretty important to me. And anyway, if King Richard comes back and finds that it’s been nicked because his little brother John couldn’t keep order back home in England, couldn’t keep it safe, Cabot says he’ll kill him.’

‘Hmmm, I guess. There’s another thing,’ said Maddy. ‘If there’s a support unit running amok back there, then that really is a contamination risk. We can’t sit this one out, Sal.’ She turned to Adam. ‘You’re the history expert, what’s going on with King Richard? What’s the situation in 1194?’

‘King Richard’s crusade ended in failure in 1192,’ said Adam. ‘He had an inadequate army to take and hold Jerusalem. Knowing that Saladin would be able to take back the city with ease, he realized an attempt to attack the city was futile, so he agrees a truce with Saladin and the crusader army disbands and returns home in dribs and drabs. Richard himself returns to England by ship, but bad weather means it ends up shipwrecked on Malta and he has to return on foot. But he’s unlucky as his route home across Europe takes him through the land of some duke with a grudge and he’s kidnapped. He’s held for about eighteen months, I think, while some ransom money is stumped up. So, in 1194, he’s just been released, or about to be, he’s due to arrive home in a really bad mood, because his crusade has been one big mess, and he’s coming home to an England bankrupt and on the verge of rebellion.’

‘Right, so he’s not a happy bunny, then,’ said Maddy.

‘But he got what he went for,’ said Liam. ‘The Grail.’

‘And then lost it again. Lost it in England for which he’ll blame his brother.’

‘If he does kill his brother,’ said Adam, ‘that would change things a lot. No John, means no King John … and that could mean no Magna Carta.’

The others looked at him, with faces that said And?

‘Oh, come on! The Magna Carta is the basis of English law! It’s what defines England.’ He looked at Maddy. ‘And perhaps what defines America too.’

‘Oh God! You’re right!’ It would be a significant enough change to cause a wave, to alter all this. She looked around at the restaurant — an expensive one, Adam’s choice since he’d offered to pay for lunch on his gold American Express. It was quiet except for the clack of dishes coming through swing doors into the kitchen. Just them in here right now, and a couple of businessmen on the far side. Maddy looked out of the blue tinted window down on to Times Square.

‘We have to follow the trail,’ she said eventually. ‘If Cabot seems keen to take you to meet King John — ’

‘He’s not king yet,’ Adam pointed out.

Maddy shrugged and continued. ‘Then I suggest you go along with it for now. Because … this — because something’s going on back there. Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to get us back there and talking to this Cabot guy. The Pandora message — ’

‘Maddy?’ Sal looked up from her plate. ‘Why is Pandora so important to you?’

Well? You going to tell them? That old dilemma again. ‘Be safe and tell no one’ — that’s what the scribbled note had said. Be safe … tell no one. Surely, though, Sal and Liam could know. Surely it wouldn’t be dangerous to share this with them?

Liam’s eyes were on her now. ‘Maddy? What is it?’

But Adam Lewis was really just a stranger, perhaps only a hapless victim caught up in this thing. The less he knew, the better.

‘Adam, would you please excuse us for a few minutes?’

He looked hurt, but then finally nodded. ‘All right, I’ll … uhh … go and settle the bill.’

She watched him cross the deserted restaurant before she turned to the others, her voice lowered. ‘I’ve been keeping something from you. I’m sorry.’

‘What?’

‘Liam, you remember our trip to San Francisco, 1906, to get some new clone foetuses?’

‘Aye.’

‘In the safety deposit box was a handwritten message. It was a note addressed to me.’ She took a deep breath, still not entirely sure she should be doing this. ‘It was handwritten, scribbled really — like whoever wrote it was in a real hurry.’

Sal fidgeted impatiently. ‘Maddy, just tell us!’

‘OK, OK,’ she said. ‘Well, it was this: Maddy, look out for “Pandora”, we’re running out of time. Be safe and tell no one.’

Liam and Sal exchanged glances. Bob frowned, Becks cocked her head in consideration.

‘It’s a warning,’ said Maddy. ‘I didn’t — I really didn’t give it much thought while we were sorting out the dinosaur business. And, you know, I guess I was just trying to push it aside. Trying not to think about it. But then — ’ She looked up at Adam waiting for the waiter to process his American Express card. ‘But then our friend over there decoded that message.’

‘It makes a little more sense to me now,’ said Liam. ‘You being so keen for us to go back and take a look-see.’

‘I’m sorry — ’ she shook her head — ‘so sorry I didn’t share it with you both earlier. But … it said tell no one. I didn’t know what to — ’

‘It’s OK,’ said Sal. ‘We know now. That makes it OK.’

‘Aye,’ said Liam. He pressed his lips, a half smile. ‘No more secrets?’

She shook her head and sighed. ‘Having that one was bad enough.’

Adam Lewis was finishing his business by the till and getting ready to come back.

‘So the message is just between us, OK? This is agency business.’

The others nodded.

Adam approached their table tentatively. ‘Safe for me to come back now?’

Maddy nodded and smiled. ‘All done. I think we should make a move. Lots of things to do.’