CHAPTER 73

2001, New York

Liam watched the sun set ing across the river, picking out thin skeins of smoke from the set lement perched on the muddy banks on the far side. He saw several pinpricks of light in the middle of the round huts.

Fire. One of the earliest markers of intel igence. He wondered how many aeons ago this descendant species had learned they could control it, use it. A far cry from the primitive animal fear for it demonstrated by their ancestors.

He heard the shut er rat le as Maddy stooped under it and joined him outside. ‘Hi,’ she said. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Tired.’ Squat ing against the outside brick wal of their archway, watching the jungle turn dark and the sky’s rich palet e change from crimson to violet, he realized how ut erly spent he felt. Final y, after two weeks of nervous tension, two weeks of fearing something primal, savage and hungry could snatch him away at any time … here he was, somewhere safe at last. Somewhere he could close his eyes for a moment and actual y, properly, rest.

‘She’s nearly ready,’ said Maddy. ‘We’re prepping the portal to take her back to one minute after we closed the portal to take her back to one minute after we closed the last one. Those creatures should stil al be gathered there, scratching their heads and wondering where you went.’

‘How is she?’

‘The arm looks like it’s begun repairing itself. I noticed there’s some new muscle tissue. No skin yet. I presume that regrows at some point. Anyway, Sal’s bound her arm and hand in bandages to protect it.’

‘How is she?’ he asked again. ‘Can she do it?’

‘She says she can operate to forty-seven per cent functional capacity.’ Maddy smirked. ‘And she’s real y rather pleased about the weapon.’

Liam laughed softly. ‘Just like Bob.’

‘They could be brother and sister.’

‘Wel , they are … I suppose.’

‘True.’

Liam nodded towards the vil age. ‘It feels wrong, in a way.’

‘What?’

‘What we’re doing … kil ing the rest of that pack. I mean, look what they became.’ He shook his head and laughed.

‘What’s so funny?’

‘I’m almost proud of them, so I am. They’re like, I suppose … I feel like they’re sort of my creation. We showed them how to build a bridge, how to use a spear. And, after Lord knows how many thousands of years …’

‘Mil ions actual y.’

‘… mil ions of years, they’ve become this. A brand-new

‘… mil ions of years, they’ve become this. A brand-new intel igent race and here we are, going to wipe them al out. What’s that word for it?’

‘Genocide?’

‘Aye, that’s it … like that Hitler tried to do to the Jews. And we’re going to do it to those things. They’re not just dumb animals, Maddy. They were clever back in the jungle, you could see that. Very clever, and now here they are just as smart as us humans.’

‘No, Liam, they’re not. Something that old man, Cartwright, said …’

‘What?’

‘Ask yourself this: just how long have they been at this stage of development? Hmm? They could have got this far

– canoes, spear, huts an’ al – mil ions of years ago and yet

… and yet this is as far as they ever got.’ She gazed at the distant vil age. ‘Otherwise, why aren’t they walking around in smart suits and talking on cel phones?’

He shrugged. ‘Maybe they did once. Maybe mil ions of years ago they were that smart, and this place was a big city like New York.’

‘And what? They chose to become savages again?’

‘Who knows? Maybe they had some sort of war? Maybe they once had an incredible civilization that eventual y col apsed into ruins. Or some doomsday weapon wiped them out but for a few poor bloody survivors.’

Maddy nodded. ‘It’s possible, I guess. A lot can happen in sixty-ve mil ion years.’

‘Aye, and who’s to say it doesn’t one day happen to us

‘Aye, and who’s to say it doesn’t one day happen to us too, eh? And soon.’

She looked at him. ‘Kramer’s time?’

‘Foster’s time, perhaps. You remember the things he told us about the future? The dark times ahead. Al that global warming, the ooding, pol ution and the poisoned seas … the starving bil ions?’

She did. It was a future she’d thought she was beginning to see in her lifetime. That big meeting in Copenhagen that was supposed to be the last best chance for the world to agree on how to stop global warming – it had failed miserably. She wondered whether historians from midway through the twenty-rst century would point to that day as the very beginning of the end.

‘Wel … that’s the future whether we like it or not, Liam. And it’s our job to ght to keep it that way.’

He nodded. ‘Hmm … but do you ever wonder, Maddy?’

‘Wonder what?’

He looked at her, with his bloodshot eye and thin shock of snow-white hair, and for a moment he looked both old and young at the same time. ‘Do you wonder whether that future, the one Foster told us al about, whether that’s the right future to ght for?’

‘I dunno. I suppose we just have to trust him that it is.’

The sun dipped behind the far horizon of trees, behind the thin lines of camp re smoke. From inside the arch they could hear the voices of the others: Sal helping the support unit … Becks … get ready.

‘She’s been given orders to kil them al , then destroy

‘She’s been given orders to kil them al , then destroy your camp. Burn everything so there’s nothing left behind to leave fossil traces. We’l know if she’s successful –’

Maddy nodded out at the jungle – ‘when this al goes and we get New York back, and …’ She lowered her voice a lit le. ‘And the tricky situation we were stuck right in the middle of just before jungle-land arrived …’

‘Cartwright?’

She nodded.

‘So …’ He cocked a brow. ‘I’m presuming he, and the poor fel a with the gun, are the chaps who found our message?’

‘Not exactly. It was found a lot, lot earlier. In the 1940s, apparently. But Cartwright runs this lit le government agency,’ she snorted, ‘an agency a bit like ours, I guess –

smal and secret. Its job for the last sixty years has been to be a custodian of your message. And to nal y make contact with us in 2001.’

‘And he came knocking?’

‘Oh, he came knocking al right. Just before the last time wave, we had men with guns standing guard outside in the backstreet. In fact, they had several areas of the neighbourhood sealed up with roadblocks and soldiers and stu . Helicopters overhead and everything. Quite a big deal. You’d have loved it.’

‘My fault.’ Liam looked guilty. ‘Sorry about that.’

She shook her head. ‘Don’t be. You had to send the message. There was no other way we would have found you.’

you.’

Sal was cal ing out for her. It was time.

‘Thing is, Liam,’ she said hurriedly, ‘we have to be ready to move, and move quickly. If Becks is successful … we’l get al of that situation right back in our faces. We’l be right where we were. So, I’m going to need to send you back to make sure they don’t get your message.’

‘Dinosaur times?’

‘Oh no. Not that far.’ She managed to stop herself saying because that would probably nish you o . ‘No … it’l be the second of May 1941. You need to prevent some kids from nding a particular chunk of rock.’

He smiled. ‘And Cartwright and his agency wil never have existed?’

She was ducking down under the shut er when she paused. ‘Wel … his agency might not exist, or maybe it wil , but it wil be busy with some other secret it’s trying to keep from the American people.’

‘Right.’

‘When that time wave comes, Liam … we’l need Cartwright standing outside when I turn on our time eld. His life wil be rewrit en along with the rest of the corrected reality. He’l have no memory of al of this.’

Liam bent down and looked under the shut er and into the archway. He could see Forby’s dark boots poking out of the end of the blanket they’d wrapped his body in.

‘And what about him?’

‘Forby? Not sure. If his body is outside the eld I suppose he gets to live again, doing whatever job he was suppose he gets to live again, doing whatever job he was doing before Cartwright and his agency suddenly winked into existence. The point is … whatever that means for him and the old man, we won’t have a backstreet ful of spooks with guns. We’l be back to normal.’ She grinned up at him. ‘Which would real y be quite nice.’

‘True … but do we not stil have to get Edward Chan back home?’

‘One thing at a time,’ she sighed. ‘Come on, let’s send Becks on her way.’

Liam fol owed her under the shut er and then cranked it down after him.

He rejoined Maddy and the others gathered around the computer desk. He saw Becks standing in the middle of them, the assault ri e cradled in her arms, one of them swathed in bandages up to her elbow.

‘How are you feeling?’ he asked over the hubbub of other voices: questions from Cartwright and the kids that Maddy was busy trying to eld as she con gured the return time-stamp.

‘I am ne, Liam.’

‘What about that spear wound? That looked pret y bad, so it did. Are you sure you’re t enough to go?’

‘My organic diagnostic systems indicate my kidney was ruptured and is no longer functioning. The organ can be repaired later,’ she added. ‘It wil not a ect my performance.’

‘Your arm?’

‘My arm is operable.’

‘My arm is operable.’

‘OK,’ said Maddy. ‘I’ve set it to one minute after the other window. There’l stil be background tachyon particles around from the previous window, but I’ve moved the location thirty feet away so there shouldn’t be any disruptive e ect on your arrival portal. OK?’

‘A rmative.’

‘You understand the mission parameters?’

‘Kil al the reptile hominids. Destroy al evidence of our camp. Return window set for two hours after arrival.’

Maddy nodded. ‘You got it. And, of course, remember to bring the gun back with you.’

One of Becks’s dark eyebrows arched slowly. ‘Wel …

duh,’ she said atly.

Sal giggled. ‘That’s cool!’

Maddy grinned at Liam. ‘Looks like she’s been doing some learning of her own.’

He nodded.

‘Al right, we haven’t got time to l the tube. She’s going back dry. Stand clear of that circle on the ground.’

She pointed to the circle of chalk, and within it, a patch of concrete oor darker than the rest. She sighed. ‘We’re gonna need to l in the oor once again after al this is nished.’

The others pul ed warily back and Becks wandered over and planted her feet inside the circle, her knees bent, ready to react at a moment’s notice, the gun loaded, cocked and raised, the assault ri e’s but pressed rmly against her shoulder and ready to re.

shoulder and ready to re.

‘Be careful, Becks,’ said Liam. ‘We want you back safely.

’ She nodded hesitantly. ‘A rmative, Liam O’Connor. I wil be careful.’

‘Are we al set?’ asked Maddy.

‘A rmative.’

‘Al right, Bob.’ Maddy turned back to the desk mic. ‘On my countdown. Ten … nine … eight …’

The archway l ed with the sound of power surging into the displacement machine, the green LEDs winking o one after another as they indicated the drain of stored energy. A three-yard-diameter sphere of shimmering air suddenly enveloped Becks. The ceiling uorescent light dimmed and ickered.

‘Seven … six … ve …’

Her cool grey eyes turned to rest on Liam and she smiled uncertainly.

‘Four … three … two …’

‘Good luck,’ he mouthed, unsure whether she could read that in the ickering zzing light.

‘… one …’

And then she was gone. Air whistled past them al to l the sudden vacuum created.

‘Wow,’ whispered Edward.

‘Now we wait,’ said Maddy. She shot a glance at Liam.

‘And we make sure we’re ready.’