CHAPTER 78

2001, New York

Sal felt it again, the early ripples, the faintest sensation of dizziness. But it looked like no one else had felt it. Cartwright stil had his gun on Maddy.

‘This … this is my life. This world. This reality!’

‘Y-you have to step outside now … rejoin your men,’

replied Maddy rmly.

Sal was impressed with her calm, her cool in the face of his wavering gun.

The old man shook his head and laughed. ‘What?

You’re expecting me to just walk away from this? The greatest discovery in the history of mankind … and what? I just walk out into that backstreet and try to forget about it?

’ Sal glanced at the other two kids. They met her gaze; eyes exchanging a shared imperative.

We’ve got to do something.

‘Listen!’ cut in Maddy. ‘If the wave comes and goes while you’re in here … y-you’l be left behind. It’l rewrite the present without you –’

He smiled. ‘Oh … I think I could live with that, Maddy. In fact, I’ve been waiting a long, long time for something like –’

like –’

Her eyes narrowed. ‘This isn’t about state security any more, is it?’

He shrugged. ‘Al right, yes! And why not? This thing …

this time machine … it’s a boy’s dream! It’s a man’s dream!

Mankind’s dream, goddammit! To travel anywhere, to any time, to see it al . To see things no other human wil ever see!’‘It’s not a toy, Cartwright. You know you … you just can’t think of it that w-way.’

‘Oh, right! You … some snot-nosed teenager and her buddies … you’re to be entrusted instead, are you? You’re the guardians of time, huh?’

Sal glanced at the others again, then took a hesitant step towards the old man. She looked to see if the other two were going to do likewise. Laura remained where she was, trembling, face ashen. She shook her head. Too frightened. Edward, however, took a silent step forward along with Sal.She had no idea what she intended to do – make a grab for the gun?

Oh God, the thought made her knees wobble.

‘I was selected!’ replied Maddy. ‘I didn’t freakin’ want this, Cartwright! Jesus! In fact, I didn’t have much of a freakin’ choice at al !’

The old man shrugged. ‘Guess what? I don’t real y care.’

He stepped towards her, across snaking cables. ‘This is what I want. And I’ve spent my life waiting for it. Preparing for it.’

Preparing for it.’

Sal noticed something blinking on one of the monitors.

‘I’m an old man,’ he continued, stepping on to concrete oor in the middle of the archway, clear of any cables that could trip him up. Al the while the aim of his gun remained resolutely on Maddy. ‘My whole life, my whole adult life, has been leading towards this moment. And I’ve known for so many years that a time machine was going to arrive under this bridge, in this archway, on September tenth, 2001.’ He sighed. ‘Can you imagine what knowing about something like that does to you? Knowing that near the end of your natural life … something truly wonderful is going to happen.’ He shook his head. ‘And what?’ He laughed drily. ‘You’re tel ing me to just forget about it?

Just walk away and forget about it?’

Over Maddy’s shoulder Sal could see the blinking cursor in Bob’s dialogue box. He was trying to tel Maddy something. A warning of the impending time wave?

‘The things I’ve wanted to see, Maddy Carter … the things I’ve dreamed of seeing over the last fteen years, the destruction of Pompei , the fal of Atlantis, the cruci xion of Christ … the bat le of Bunker Hil , George Washington crossing the Delaware, Lincoln giving his Get ysburg address! The arrival of Columbus …’ His rheumy old eyes were alive with naive wonder. ‘My God! The impact of the K–T asteroid that ended the time of the dinosaurs! Can you imagine actual y seeing that impact for yourself?’ He shook his head. ‘How far back can I go? Do you know?’

Maddy spread her hands. ‘I … I don’t know. I –’

Maddy spread her hands. ‘I … I don’t know. I –’

‘The beginning of life on earth? The rst division of cel s?’ Cartwright seemed lost in his reverie, of the things he could see, the places he could go. Al his now for the taking.

Sal suddenly felt the hairs on her forearms stand on end, and knew it was here – the time wave. A moment later the ceiling light dimmed and ickered and they al felt it, a moment of imbalance, the oor dropping away beneath their feet. The monitors over Maddy’s shoulder al ickered and went dead. Laura cried in alarm and Edward gasped as the ceiling light ickered o , leaving them, for a moment, in complete darkness.

Then the monitors ickered back on and the ceiling light zzed, blinked and bathed the archway in its cold blue glare once more.

Cartwright giggled joyously. ‘Good God! That was it?

Wasn’t it?’

Maddy nodded slowly. ‘Yeah … I think it was.’ She looked at him accusingly. ‘You should’ve been outside our eld. You should have been out there with your people. This messes things up. This –’

‘But I wasn’t outside,’ he said calmly. ‘So why don’t you just get over it?’

‘You don’t understand … you’ve been writ en out of the present. I’ve got no idea what that means to you or –’

‘That suits me ne,’ he smiled.

Sal noticed the blinking cursor was back on-screen and al of a sudden it occurred to her what Bob was al of a sudden it occurred to her what Bob was desperately trying to tel Maddy.

‘Maddy!’ she cried, pointing at the monitors. ‘You need to look!’

Maddy turned to glance over her shoulder. ‘Oh no!’ She turned back to Cartwright. ‘GET OUT OF THERE!’

His wiry brow furrowed. ‘Uh? What’s up?’

‘MOVE!’ she screamed.

The displacement machine’s hum changed in tone as stored-up energy prepared to be released.

‘LOOK!’ shouted Maddy, pointing to the ground at Cartwright’s feet. He looked down, wondering what was so special about a chalk circle and, within, a smal irregular section of the grubby concrete oor scooped out and …

‘OH GOD, CARTWRIGHT, GET OUT!’

It happened in nanoseconds, the instant appearance of a sphere of energy around the old man. Most of him was inside, al but his left hand.

Sal thought she saw in that eeting moment dark shapes swirling around him like demons or ghosts, a window on to some world that an uneducated person, a superstitious person, someone from the Dark Ages, might have cal ed Hel .

Then he was swept away. Gone.

The sphere pulsed and shimmered, and now she could see what appeared to be an undulating Texas-blue sky, and an arid and drab landscape … and the wavering outline of a shape stepping through. Liam staggered into view with a distinct look of nausea on his face, and a moment later the distinct look of nausea on his face, and a moment later the sphere of supercharged tachyon particles vanished with a soft pop of rushing air.

‘Jeez, that was an odd one,’ he said queasily, bending over, nauseous and heaving.

‘Liam!’ yelped Maddy. ‘Oh my God … I thought you were going to get al mushed up with Cartwright! I …’

He raised a hand to hush her. ‘Just a second, just a second … I’m gonna –’

He threw up on the oor and on to the stil -twitching hand Cartwright had left behind.

Sal rushed over to him. ‘Liam? You OK?’

He wiped his mouth and looked up at her with his bloodshot eye. ‘I … I just … I’m al right now.’ He straightened up and looked down in disgust at the hand and the acrid-smel ing puddle at his feet. ‘That wasn’t like I’m used to. That one felt real y odd, so it did.’

Maddy shook her head. ‘I’m not sure what happened. Cartwright was standing in the circle. I forgot the countdown was due.’ There were tears in her eyes, running down her cheeks. ‘Oh God, Liam, I thought you were going to end up a twisted mess with him and …’

‘Wel …’ Liam rubbed his mouth dry and grinned. ‘I’m al right now, aren’t I?’ He spread his hands and looked down at himself. ‘Or have I got an extra arm or something stuck on the back of me head?’

She nodded, wiped her eyes and laughed. ‘No … no, you’re just ne as you are.’

‘Did it work?’ asked Liam. ‘Has anyone looked outside?’

‘Did it work?’ asked Liam. ‘Has anyone looked outside?’

‘I think a time wave came,’ said Laura, looking at Sal for con rmation.

‘That’s right.’ Sal nodded. ‘I’l go see.’

She turned back to the entrance, hit the but on and the shut er slowly began to crank up. They gathered around the rising corrugated shut er and as it lurched to a halt they stepped outside into the dark night.

Manhat an glistened brightly across the Hudson, a towering wedding cake of lights. A commuter train rumbled overhead along the Wil iamsburg Bridge, and the evening was l ed with the soothing white noise of far-o tra c and the echoing wail of a police siren.

‘Normal New York,’ said Liam. He pu ed out a weary sigh. ‘That was a bleedin’ mess and a half we got out of, so it was.’

Sal reached out and hugged him tightly, embarrassed by the tears rol ing down her cheeks. She squeezed him in a self-conscious way, just like anyone might a big brother, and then let him go.

‘But here we are again,’ she whispered.

They watched New York in silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts for a long while.

Maddy stirred. ‘I bet er go and sort out the return window for the support –’ she corrected herself – ‘for Becks.’ She turned and headed back inside.

The rest of them savoured the evening panorama, watching beads of car headlights edging forward along FDR Drive across the river, and a ferry cut ing the mirrored FDR Drive across the river, and a ferry cut ing the mirrored re ection of Manhat an with its wake. Final y, it was Edward who stated the obvious as-yet-un nished business.

‘Me and Laura, we got to go back, don’t we? To get things back to the way they were?’

‘Yes,’ Liam nodded. ‘But I don’t suppose it has to be tonight.’

‘Good,’ whispered Laura, ‘I’m not feeling so good.’

‘We’ve got some beds back inside,’ said Sal. She looked at the girl and the Chinese boy. Both looked pale and il , their faces smudged with a fortnight’s worth of grime. And Liam … She realized he looked disconcertingly old and young at the same time with that streak of white hair at his temple.

‘I’l go make some co ee,’ she said.