Time Riders

CHAPTER 2

1912, Atlantic Ocean

He turned to look up the passageway and saw a man standing ankle-deep in the water,holding on to a wall rail to prevent himself tumbling down the passage towards him.

‘Liam O’Connor!’

‘We’re s-stuck!’ Liam replied. ‘There’s no… there’sno way out!’ His voice sounded shrill.

‘Liam O’Connor,’ the man said again, his voice calm.

‘What?’

‘I know who you are, lad.’

‘Whuh?… We need to — ’

The man smiled. ‘Listen, Liam.’ He looked at his watch. ‘You have justunder two minutes left to live.’ The man looked around at the vanilla-coloured metalbulkheads of deck E. ‘This ship’s spine will snap in about ninety seconds.She’ll break two thirds of the way along. The bow end, the larger section, the bit youand I are in, will sink first — like a stone. The stern will bob for another minute andfollow us down, one and a half miles to the bottom of the ocean.’

‘Ah, p-please no. No, no, no,’ Liam whimpered, realizing that he was crying.

‘As we sink, the water pressure will quickly mount. The hull will buckle under it. Theair pressure will burst your eardrums. The rivets in these walls,’ hesaid, running his hand over a row of them, ‘will fire out of the bulkheads like bullets.This passage will instantly fill with water and you’ll be crushed before you can drown.That’s at least a small mercy.’

‘Oh Jay-zus, no… H-help us.’

‘You’ll die, Liam.’ The man smiled again. ‘And that makes you perfect.’

‘P-perfect?’

The man took several steps forward, wading waist-deep into the water towards Liam.

‘Tell me, do you want to live?’

‘What?… Is th-there another w-way out?’

The lights in the passageway flickered out in unison. Then a moment later came back on.

‘Sixty seconds until she buckles, Liam. Not long now.’

‘Is th-there another w-way out of — ?’

‘If you come with me, Liam,’ he said, holding out a hand, ‘there is anotherway. You’ll live an invisible life. You’ll exist as a phantom, never quite in thisworld of ours. Never able to make new friends, never able to find love.’ The mansoftened that with a sympathetic smile. ‘You’ll learn about things that… well… that can ultimately lead to madness if you let itmess with your mind. Some people choose death.’

‘I w-want to live!’

‘I must warn you… I’m not offering you your life, Liam. I’m offering you a way out, that’s all.’

Liam grabbed hold of the candelabra of a flickering wall light and pulled himself backwardsup the slanting passage, his feet finding the floor once more. A shuddering groan rippledaround them — deafening.

‘She’s dying, Liam. The Titanic’s back is goingto break in just a few seconds. If you believe in God, you might wish to joinhim now. If you stay here, I assure you, it’ll all be over very quickly foryou.’

Drowning. It was Liam’s worst nightmare — for as farback as he could remember. He’d never learned to swim because of his terrible fear ofwater.

Liam looked up at the man, looking at his face for the first time: deep sad eyes surroundedby wrinkles of age. And then a thought occurred to him.

‘Are you… are y-you an a-angel?’

He smiled. ‘No. I’m just an old man.’ His hand remained steady,outstretched towards Liam. ‘I’d understand if you chose to stay and die. Noteveryone decides they want to come.’

Liam felt a shudder. The floor beneath his feet convulsed and the air around them was filledwith the shriek of tearing sheet metal, the pop of unbuckling seams, as deck after deck abovethem began to give way one after the other.

‘Here it is, Liam. We’ve arrived at decision time.’

Liam pulled himself forward, up out of the water, desperately reaching out for the oldman’s proffered hand. If there was time, if his mind wasn’t in a free fall ofpanic, he might have wondered who this man was, and how exactly he intended to save them both.Instead, right now, he could think only one thing.

I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.

The lights suddenly winked out, leaving them in complete darkness.

Liam flailed with his arm blindly. ‘Where’s your hand? Please! I don’t wantto drown!’

His fingers brushed the old man’s. The old man caught it and held on.

‘Say goodbye to your life, Liam,’ he shouted above the thunderous din of the shipsplitting in two.

The last sensation that Liam was aware of was the vibrating metal floor ofthe passageway beneath his feet giving way, and falling… falling through darkness.