Time Riders

CHAPTER 14

2001, New York

Foster pointed up at the New York skyline. ‘Do you see something there thatshouldn’t be there?’

Maddy gasped. ‘Oh my God… the Twin Towers!’

‘That’s right,’ said Foster, ‘the World Trade Center.’

She looked at him. ‘Does this mean history’s changed already? That they won’t be destroyed by terrorists?’

The old man shook his head sadly. ‘Sorry, no. History remains unaltered… remainsin this case — regrettably — as it should be.’

‘Oh man.’ Her eyes moistened. ‘I’d forgotten how beautiful theylooked, all lit up at night like that.’

‘The agency picked this time and this place for a very good reason,’ Fostercontinued. ‘Today’s date is the tenth of September. Tomorrow is theeleventh.’

Sal looked up at him. Her eyes widened, suddenly registering something. ‘Nine-eleven!’ she said. ‘I remember, we studied that inschool. That’s going to happen tomorrow?’

Foster nodded.

Liam looked from one face to another, bemused. ‘Nine-eleven? What’s that? What’s going to happen?’

‘Nine-eleven is how people refer to the terrible thing thatwill happen tomorrow morning, Liam.’

Foster gestured up at the glowing skyscrapers towering above Manhattan’s cityscape likesentinels. ‘Tomorrow, at eight forty-five a.m. precisely, a plane fullof people will be deliberately crashed by terrorists into the side of the north tower, andabout eighteen minutes later another will be crashed into the side of the south tower. By tenthirty a.m., both towers will have collapsed in on themselves and about three thousand peoplewill have lost their lives.’

Liam looked at Maddy and noticed the glistening trail of tears running down her cheeks.

Foster took a deep breath. ‘Many people in New York lost someone they loved, someonethey knew. The nation was traumatized. Tomorrow, Liam, this will feel like a very differentcity.’ He placed a comforting hand on Maddy’s arm. ‘I’m sorry. I knowfrom our computer records that you lost family in there.’

She nodded. ‘A cousin. Julian. He was cool.’ She could have told the others howshe’d had a childhood crush on him. How he’d made her laugh till she criedwhenever he came to visit. He’d run the computer network for one of the banks. Juliandied along with three thousand others. Died, and left them nothing to bury.

‘I know this is painful for you,’ continued Foster, ‘but for practicalpurposes this is an ideal location for an agency field office.’

‘Why?’ she asked, wiping her cheeks dry. ‘Why does it have to behere?… Why now?’

Foster paused for a moment, thinking how best to explain.

‘The archway you awoke in, the field office, exists in a time bubble of forty-eighthours. Two days. Monday tenth and Tuesday the eleventh of September 2001. Come midnight onTuesday it automatically resets back to the beginning of Monday. You, as a team, will livewithin that time bubble. You will live those two days over and over again, whilst for the restof the world those two days will come… and go.’

‘But why does it have to be these two days?’ askedMaddy. ‘I remember that day. I was nine. My mom and dad both cried thewhole day, that Tuesday. Why then?’

‘Because everyone’s attention will be on what happened. No one will ever noticethe comings and goings from that little archway beneath the bridge. No one will ever remember-’ Foster glanced at Liam — ‘this young man dressed in asteward’s uniform, wandering around the night before. Your existence here will neveraffect time, never contaminate time… you’ll never beremembered by anyone. All anyone will ever recall of today and tomorrow will be the horrendousimages of the planes striking the towers, the towers coming down, the dust-clogged streets,the grief-stricken survivors emerging from the smoke.’

He shrugged. ‘I’m sorry, but it’s how we stay unnoticed, Madelaine,it’s how we keep the agency a secret. It’s how we keep from contaminating timeourselves.’

She nodded silently, new tears beginning to fill her eyes.

He rested a hand on her arm. ‘I’m truly sorry. Do you remember the daybefore?’

She shook her head.

He smiled. ‘The day before, the Monday, really was beautiful. A warm and sunny day,Central Park filled with tourists and New Yorkers enjoying the warmth without a care in theworld. Take comfort in that, Madelaine, at the end of every grim Tuesday, because for you theworld resets and that Monday waits to happen once more.’

Maddy wondered if that meant she might one day catch sight of Julian striding to work in hissmart office clothes, be able to talk to him again. Warn him not to turn up for work?

No… No, I guess I can’t. She shook the temptingnotion from her head, knowing that it would come back again to taunt her.

Foster glanced at his watch. ‘It’s been a few hours now. The seeker should havefaded away.’

Liam swallowed anxiously. ‘You’re sure of that, MrFoster?’

‘Yes. It was already dying when we left. I left everything powered off, even that lightswitch. It’ll have faded away by now. We should head back. There’s much for thethree of you to learn, and learn quickly.’

Maddy drew her eyes from the towers and studied Foster intently. ‘Why therush?’

‘And why us?’ asked Sal.

‘Why you? It’s simple. All three of you have the specific skills we need. Now wehave you, though, I need to train you for the work at hand.’

Foster took a moment to consider what to say next. ‘And I’ll not lie toyou… it’s going to be dangerous.’ He looked at them sombrely. ‘I lostthe last team because of a silly mistake, a simple, stupid mistake. They should have scannedbefore pulling me back. They didn’t. So this time the training’s going to be morethorough. All three of you will need to work hard. You’ll need to understand how timeworks, know what you’re doing or…’ He paused, looking away.

‘Or what?’ asked Sal.

‘Or you’ll end up like the last team.’

They stood in silence, watching the busy street, listening to the bustle of cabs, thethumping bass of a passing sound system, the distant squawl of a police siren bouncing offskyscraper walls of glass and steel.

‘Mr Foster,’ Liam said after a while, ‘what if we don’t want to do this?’

The old man offered them a sad, pitying smile. ‘Then there’s only one place youcan go… back where I found you. For you, Liam, back on deck E, just as that poor brokenship starts its descent to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.’

Liam shuddered involuntarily at the thought.

‘I’m sorry. It’s not much of a choice, is it?’

‘Not really,’ muttered Liam.

He spread his hands. ‘I’m afraid that’s the way it is.’

Maddy shook her head. ‘Well, there’s no way I’m going back on to a planethat’s about to crash and burn.’

‘If you decide to stay,’ cautioned Foster, ‘there’s no leaving. Ifyou decide to stay, you’re in for good.’

‘Until we die in the service of this agency?’

He nodded sombrely. The three of them regarded the old man in stony silence.

‘Right,’ he said, ‘we should probably head back. There’s one moremember of the team I want to introduce you to.’

Liam cocked his head. ‘Someone like us?’

‘Not exactly… no.’