Time Riders

CHAPTER 20

2066, New York

Kramer sent the man through and reset the co-ordinates for the next as the rattleof gunfire echoed down the passageway from the distant stairwell. He had lost count of howmany of them he’d put through, perhaps a dozen, maybe fourteen.

Karl had radioed through a few minutes ago; they were down to the last five men holdingposition at the bottom of the stairs. Another man had gone down — Saul. Woundedbadly.

Things were getting tight by the sound of it.

He tapped his throat mic. ‘Karl, you need to come now!’

Haas’s voice crackled back over the radio. ‘Someone’s got to hold themhere, sir. If we all turn and run, they’ll be on to us inseconds.’

Kramer cursed. Karl was right. Someone was going to have to be left behind to buy enough timefor the last two or three to be sent through and for Kramer to sabotage the machine so theycouldn’t be followed. Already they’d lost five good men; to have to leave one ortwo behind to hold them off wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

‘Dammit,’ he hissed.

If he’d managed to find the machine sooner, assemble it just a little morequickly… or if the police had taken a few more minutes to get organized before stormingthe museum they could have all been through into the past without any bloodshed, without a single casualty.

‘I’ll hold them,’ wheezed Saul.

Karl looked down at him; the front of his grey and white Arctic-camouflage tunic was almostentirely black with his own blood. Several unaimed shots sprayed over the top of thestair’s handrail had found him, thudded into his chest and knocked him off his feet. Theyoung lad was spraying thick gouts of blood with each laboured breath; a lung, or both, hadbeen hit.

Karl didn’t need a medic to tell him that the rest of this young man’s life wasnow going to be measured in mere minutes, perhaps even seconds.

‘Saul, I…’

‘You have to go, sir.’ The young man forced a ragged smile. ‘You have togo… Change this world for a better one. Kramer’s one.’

Karl nodded. ‘We’ll do it, Saul.’

‘You better,’ he gasped, a thick curl of congealed blood leaking from the side ofhis mouth. ‘Go… now,’ he whispered. ‘I’ll give you… aslong as… I can.’

Karl nodded. Saul was fading fast.

He looked at the remaining men and gestured with a well-practised hand the signal for them tobreak cover and pull back to join Kramer. As they did so, Karl emptied a complete clip on tothe stairs. Sparks and sprayed chips of concrete danced amid plumes of dust. The armed police,getting ready to storm the last flight of stairs, backed off, ducking their heads from theheavy fire.

The clip empty, he looked down at Saul quickly and squeezed his shoulder. ‘Perhapswe’ll see each other in another time.’

Saul grinned, then began firing at the stairwell with short economic burststhat would conserve his ammo and hopefully buy his comrades the precious time they needed.

Karl turned and ran after his men, hearing their pounding footsteps ahead of him.

Kramer reset the machine once more. The last of the men with him had gone throughand now he was waiting for Haas and whoever else was with him.

He could hear footsteps and, in the distance, short staccato bursts of gunfire.

‘Hurry!’ he called out.

Out of the darkness two men emerged. Ronan and Sigi.

‘Quick!’ he said, ushering the first of them into the wire cage.‘Where’s Karl?’

‘Coming just behind us, sir.’

‘All right… good.’

He activated the machine, sparks showered and the darkness flickered alive with strobinglight as Ronan vanished. Sigi stepped in just as Karl’s pounding footsteps could beheard.

Kramer quickly reset and activated the machine.

The gunfire down the aisle suddenly ceased.

Damn… they’re in.

Karl appeared. ‘They’re through!’ he called out.

‘I know, I know. Hurry up and get in,’ he said, holding open the door of the wirecage.

Karl drew up and looked at him. ‘Who will send youthrough?’

‘Don’t worry, I’ll manage, Karl.’

He hesitated. ‘No one gets left behind. Your words, remember?’

Kramer offered him a smile. ‘No one left behind, I promise. I’ll be right behindyou, my friend.’

Kramer closed the door on him. ‘I’ll see you there, Karl.’

He replied with a salute. ‘Yes, sir. I’ll have the men ready tomove out.’

Kramer nodded. ‘Good… see you in a minute.’ He activated the machine.

Once more the dark area of the storage basement lit up, throwing the wooden fascias ofstacked crates into stark relief.

For a fleeting moment, as the sparks showered to the floor, it occurred to him that thecontents of some of the crates and boxes down here in this dusty basement were about to bechanged. History, recent history… the last hundred years to be precise, was soon goingto be drastically rewritten.

No bad thing. History as it stood had led mankind here to this dark, poisoned, overcrowded,exhausted world.

No bad thing at all.

Over the noise of the portable generator he heard the thud of combat boots on hard concreteechoing down the passageway swiftly and voices calling out. The police were coming, and fast.He could see the dancing beams of their torches swinging from side to side in thedistance.

He kneeled down beside the palmtop and set the co-ordinates one last time. Taking a deepbreath, he set a five-second delay on the command, then hit the purge icon.

Quickly he stepped inside the cage, pulled a grenade from his pack, pulled the pin and placedit on the floor outside the cage. He shut the door and closed his eyes… hoping that themachine would have finished sending him into the past before the grenade detonated.

Come on!

He cracked open his eyes and winced at the sudden blinding shower of sparks cascading aroundhim. Through the wire of the cage he thought he saw the approaching shapes of several armed police swiftly dropping to one knee and raising their guns to fire athim.

Come on!.. Come on!.. Come on!..

It would be the cruellest turn of fate for one of their bullets to find him a microsecondbefore he left this world for good. Kramer clamped his eyes shut, expecting any second torecoil from the impact of several lethal high-spread large-calibre rounds or to be blown topieces by the grenade on the floor just outside the cage.

Then he felt it… a sensation like falling, as if the floor of the cage beneath his feethad been suddenly whipped away like the trapdoor of a hangman’s scaffold.