Time Riders

CHAPTER 65

1957, woods outside Baltimore

Liam stood outside breathing deeply, sucking in the cold air until the sensation ofnausea began to ease. He took a few steps through the undergrowth away from Bob’sshelter, trying to clear his mind of what needed to be done.

Past the slender sapling trunks and low fir tree branches he could see the flickering lightof the campfire in the middle of the clearing. Around it huddled most of Bob’s littlearmy, nearly a hundred after that last raid. He wondered how betrayed and angry all those menwere going to be when he had to announce that Bob was leaving with him; that they had othermore important matters to attend to.

Men don’t give up their gods or leaders lightly.

He imagined the scene was going to be nasty. Their eyes would be upon him, suspicious andaccusing, wondering what poison he must have dripped into their leader’s ear. But therewas no time to delay if Bob’s decoding of that message was right. Washingtonwasn’t so far away from here. Just over an hour of driving. But there’dundoubtedly be roadblocks and guarded perimeters to figure their way through, once theyreached the city.

Why’d they have to pick a place so close to the WhiteHouse?

He wondered how on earth they came to the conclusion that that was such a good idea. But thenit occurred to him that Foster, Maddy and Sal could have no idea where theymight be. So they were making a simple logical assumption — that they’d remainedin the vicinity.

That’s one hell of a big assumption.

A lot could have happened in six months; they could have ended up on the other side of thecountry in that time. Or even the other side of the world.

He shook his head. It was crazy and stupid that he and Bob couldn’t communicate back.Not for the first time he cursed this insane time-travel technology. Just when you thoughtyou’d managed to get your head round it, it just seemed to get even morecomplicated.

So, they had a time and a place now. At least that was something. Heading for the middle ofenemy-occupied Washington DC sounded like suicidal foolishness… but it wasn’t asif they had a choice.

‘Oh well,’ he muttered to himself. He was sure Bob would enjoy himself cutting aswathe through the bad guys. It’s what he did best.

The sooner they got a move on the better, left these woods behind… and Bob’s loyal band of worshippers.

Liam decided they’d be best setting off at first light. With a nationwide curfew inplace, they’d look far more suspicious if they were stopped at a checkpoint travellingaround at night than they would during the day.

Meantime, Liam decided, he’d better figure out a way for Bob to extract himselfpolitely from his devoted followers. He had visions of those men lynching him for luring theirmessiah away from them.