Time Riders

CHAPTER 25

2001, New York

Maddy looked at Foster incredulously. ‘We’re going to do what?’

‘I said, this morning we’re going to deliberatelychange history.’

Liam, Sal and Maddy stared at him in silence over their bowls of Rice Krispies. Bob, sittingbetween Sal and Liam, observed them and Foster thoughtfully.

‘Liam,’ said Foster, ‘today’s going to be your first trip back intothe past. You and Bob are both going together.’

Bob’s thick lips managed a clumsy ill-practised smile that looked more like a camelchewing. ‘Is good,’ his deep voice rumbled.

‘And you?’ asked Liam.

‘Yes, I’m coming along too.’

‘Where are we going?’

The old man raised a finger. ‘A-hah… now that’s a secret. The point of thisexercise will be to test Maddy and Sal’s ability to find out exactly where we’vegone, and what we might have changed.’

‘But…’ said Liam, looking confused, ‘but I thought we’re not allowed to change history, you know… at all.’

Bob nodded slowly. ‘Changing history is bad.’

‘It’s what we call a test-bed location,’ Foster replied. ‘We use thislittle piece of history to test out new teams all the time. Don’t worry. We’ll bechanging something for a short period of time only, then putting things backexactly as they were.’

‘How long will you be gone?’ asked Sal. ‘Will it be dangerous?’

Foster smiled. ‘Not at all. And we’ll actually be in the past for a very shorttime. I’ve set the computer up to automatically open the return window, so all you twohave to do is watch history and work out where we’ve gone.’

Liam looked across the archway towards the large perspex cylinder full of water. ‘Andwe’re going to be climbing into that?’

‘Oh yes, I’m afraid so.’

Foster leaned forward and placed a hand on Liam’s shoulder. ‘Don’t worry,we’ll warm it up a bit. I’m not that keen on jumping into a test tube of freezingwater either.’

Liam removed the last items of his clothing, leaving him wearing a pair of grubbyunderpants he realized he’d been wearing for far too long.

‘You better not be peeking!’

He heard Maddy laugh from the other side of the archway where she was sitting at thebreakfast table. ‘What’s to see?’

‘Stop being an idiot, Liam, and get in!’ snapped Foster.

Liam quickly scampered up a rung ladder, swung his legs over the side of the tube and intothe water. He lowered himself down and found himself facing Bob and Foster, both treadingwater.

‘Well now, this is fun,’ he said sarcastically, holding on to the side of thecylinder nervously.

‘Why is this fun, Liam O’Connor?’ asked Bob earnestly.

Liam shrugged. ‘It’s not every day I climb into a large fish bowl with-’

‘Be quiet and listen,’ Foster interrupted. ‘I set the computer to send us back in time automatically. We won’t need Maddy to set anyco-ordinates this time, but normally she would be in charge of co-ordinating this wholeprocess.’

Liam nodded, glancing at her faint foggy form through the scuffed milky plastic of thecylinder. He wasn’t sure how confident he was going to feel being zapped through historythe first time she had her fingers on the buttons.

‘For this exercise neither of the girls know where we’re being sent. We’llbe there for no more than an hour, then the computer will automatically bring us back. I havedownloaded the relevant history data into the support unit’s hard drive.’

‘Into Bob’s brain?’

‘Yes… into Bob’s brain.’

Liam looked at the muscular giant treading water beside him. ‘How’d you get theinformation in?’

‘Wireless. It’s transmitted.’ Foster turned to look at the muscular giant.‘What time are we heading back to, Bob?’

‘Twenty-second of November 1963.’

‘And where?’

‘Dallas, Texas, America.’

‘Good. How much time left before the displacement field activates, Bob?’

‘Fifty-eight seconds until launch.’

‘All right, then,’ said Foster, ‘any questions?’

‘Mr Foster, why exactly are we in our underwear and floating in a pool ofwater?’

‘Contamination protocol. We take as little as we can back with us. That’s why.The water is a neutral buoyancy solution so that when the portal activates, we’re touching absolutely nothing; we’re floating. The water, and us,alone, will go back in time — nothing else.’

‘I see.’

‘Twenty seconds until launch,’ said Bob.

‘When we count down from five, Liam, I want you to take a deep breath and submergeyourself completely,’ said Foster.

Liam swallowed nervously. The thought of letting go of the edge of the tube and allowinghimself to sink beneath the surface sent his heart thundering.

‘Uhh, Mr Foster, I suppose now’s not a good time to mention I never actuallylearned to swim. I… uh… I never — ’

‘I know,’ Foster sighed. ‘Relax. You’ll get used to it.’

Liam looked unhappily at the water. ‘But I… I’ll sink if I let go. Sinklike a bloody stone, so I will. I — ’

‘Don’t worry. You just need to hold your breath for ten, twenty seconds, andit’ll all be over.’

‘My head? My head actually… actually beneath thewater?’

‘Yes, head beneath the water.’

‘What if… what if I’m not actually completelyunder? Would that sort of do, Mr Foster? If I could just keep my face — ’

‘No. You need to be entirely within the water. Every bit of you. The field scanner willdetect if part of you is poking out and the launch will abort for safety reasons.’

‘And?’

‘And I’ll be very annoyed and we’ll have to try again.’

‘Oh.’

‘Information: ten seconds until launch,’ announced Bob.

Liam felt his breathing coming out in short nervous gasps. ‘I… I… I’mnot sure I can go through with this. I really — ’

‘You just hold your breath and let go of the side, Liam. Nothing to it.’

‘Information: five seconds until launch.’

‘No, seriously, Mr Foster… I… I really — ’

‘Bob,’ said Foster, ‘pull Liam under.’

The clone reached out a big hand and a second later Liam found himselfbeneath the surface with a mouthful of water, floundering and thrashing in a blind panic.

Sal’s mobile phone vibrated.

She pulled it out of her pocket and grimaced at the sight of the old-fashioned handset, anugly slab of shiny black plastic with the letters N-O-K-I-A stencilled at the top. Nothinglike the cool Earbud V3 mobile she used to own back in 2026. Shefelt embarrassed pulling this museum piece out of her pocket and self-conscious holding it upto her ear, until it occurred to her that everyone else’s mobile phones in 2001 lookedequally embarrassing.

She thumbed a button.

‘Hello?’

‘It’s Maddy. They went into the past about a minute ago. Where are younow?’

Sal looked around. She was on Broadway, heading north, just passing the intersection withWest 41st Street. ‘I’m approaching Times Square, I think… yeah, I see it upahead.’

‘So you… uh… you see anything weird yet?’

She shrugged. ‘Not really. It’s just like it looked last time I walked over here.Same sunny day, same people, same traffic.’

‘Hmm,’ replied Maddy, ‘not really sure what I’m meant to be doingback here. I’m looking at the Internet, the news pages and stuff. But I don’t knowwhat I’m looking for.’

Sal laughed nervously. ‘Me neither. I’m just taking a nice walk in the sun, Isuppose.’

‘And I’m just sitting here like an idiot, looking at a bank of monitors. You OK,Sal?’

It was a busy Monday morning. With the morning rush over and the commuters all tucked away intheir high-rise offices, it was mainly clusters of tourists, families and groups of friendstaking in the sights of the Big Apple.

Sal sighed. Some company would’ve been nice. Last time she’dstrolled this route a couple of bubble-days ago, Bob had been sentalong with her to get some more experience at passing as human. With his lumbering seven-footframe beside her, every inch racked with bulging muscle, she’d felt somewhat moreself-assured, accompanied by her own pet superhero bodyguard.

‘I guess I’m OK.’