The Doomsday Code

CHAPTER 47

2001, New York

It was dark outside. Lit only by a half moon, the East River sparkled silver and reflected the amber glow coming from the lamps of several fishing vessels moored across the water. A dozen street lamps in the small fishing port across from them — they’d learned it was called Laurent-Sur-Mer — glowed mutely, and windows here and there flickered with the movements of family life.

‘I’ve never seen New York so peaceful,’ said Adam. ‘It reminds me of my grandparents’ village up in Scotland.’

Maddy nodded. ‘There’re some places like this up in Maine and Connecticut. All nice and picture-postcardlike.’

They listened for a while to the soothing ebb and draw of gentle lapping waves and the far-off cry of seagulls.

‘So, how long have you been in this time-travel agency? I mean, not always, right? You sound like you’ve done other things; had a life before all this?’

She nodded. ‘Sure, I did.’

‘Well?’

She shrugged. Telling him a little about herself was probably not going to do any harm. ‘I’m from Boston originally. My folks live there. I went to high school there. Then I went to college to major in computers. I bummed out after the first year.’

‘Why?’

‘I got a job with a games company. Seemed pointless going on with the degree, an’ all.’

‘Where was the job?’

‘Here. In New York. Programming user interface stuff on an online game. Kind of like World of Warcraft, but way better.’

‘World of Warcraft? I’m sorry … never heard of that.’

‘Stupid.’ She laughed at herself. ‘Of course not. It doesn’t come out until 2004.’

‘So, how did you go from being a code monkey to being a time traveller?’ asked Adam. ‘That’s quite a professional jump.’

She looked at him. ‘I’m not sure I should tell you too much, Adam … Remember, I said you wouldn’t be able to stay with us, and the more you know, the bigger the problem. So it’s best if I just say I got “recruited”.’

Maddy suddenly felt dizzy, as if she’d been spinning on a merry-go-round with her eyes closed. ‘Ohh,’ she murmured queasily.

‘You feel sick too?’ said Adam beside her. ‘Hang on … was that a — ?’

‘Yup.’ She turned to call inside for Sal. But she saw Sal was already halfway across the floor, hurrying towards them and uncoiling loops of data cable in her wake.

‘Good job,’ Maddy said, taking the end of the cable and plugging it into the hard drive sitting at her feet. She looked up and studied the distant town and the fishing boats dotted across the river for a few moments. Even though it had been intense enough a ripple that even she and Adam had felt it, nothing appeared to be any different out there as far as she could see.

‘Looks like we got another message from Liam!’ Sal called from inside.

A moment later Adam and Maddy were standing either side of her, staring at the grainy image of a gravestone on the monitor.

‘Look, see?’ she said, pointing at the image. ‘There’s definitely more stuff carved on there now.’

Maddy leaned forward. It was easier to detect the faint, worn grooves in the old stonework, now that they’d manipulated the image to a much higher contrast.

‘Yup … that’s new, all right.’ She grabbed a pen from the desk and her notepad, and the sheet of paper with Adam’s pigpen cipher scrawled on it. ‘OK, then, let’s work out what we’ve got.’

The three of them peered closely at the screen. Despite the sharper image, this time the grooves appeared to be shallower, as if a different tool had been used. In some places worn away until almost nothing but a guess could be made.

‘Hmmm,’ Maddy murmured, chewing on her pen.

Adam grabbed another pen and began scribbling down the symbols that were clear enough to be certain of. A minute later there was some semblance of a sentence emerging on paper:

‘I can’t make that out,’ said Maddy. ‘What does it say?’

‘Oh, come on, it’s really easy,’ said Sal. ‘Revolt stopped. Ready for return. Await instructions.’

Adam quickly inserted the missing letters. They fitted the gaps perfectly. He looked at her and grinned. ‘Outstanding.’

Maddy continued chewing on the end of her pen. ‘But nothing’s changed out there. Or maybe it has and we can’t see it yet cos it’s dark. Thing is, that sure isn’t New York out there still.’ Stating the obvious of course, but she didn’t care. ‘Things still aren’tright.’

› Maddy.

‘What is it, Bob?’

› Some of the data on my system has changed.

‘What? How’s that possible? The preservation field’s on, isn’t it?’

› Affirmative. However, the time ripple was significant enough to cause a temporary voltage dip. The preservation field was down for several seconds.

Sal looked at Maddy. ‘Shadd-yah! Does that mean it has affected us?’

‘I dunno.’ She looked Sal up and down. ‘You don’t look any different. What about me?’

She flickered a smile. ‘You still look like a geeky geek.’

‘Thanks.’ She turned to Adam. ‘You OK, Adam?’

But he was staring at her wide-eyed. His mouth hung open.

‘Adam?’

‘Good God!’ he slowly gasped. ‘Whoareyou people?Where … am … I?’

Maddy turned to Sal, wondering what kind of a mess they were in now, when Adam finally cracked a wide grin. ‘Just kidding.’

She cursed under her breath and shot him pistol eyes. ‘That’s not even close to being funny, you moron!’

Computer-Bob’s cursor skittered across the screen.

› 17 of the 37 history-book pages you scanned have changed file size.

Adam looked down at the library books they’d stolen a little earlier, stacked on the end of the desk. ‘If their contents changed, the page layouts may be changed and it would affect the size of the digital files a little.’

Maddy nodded. ‘Bob, what about the summing-up document you put together? The potted history?’

› That has also changed.

‘Put it up on screen. Lemme see it.’

The document appeared beside his dialogue box.

› Identifying text sequences that have changed.

Bob began highlighting all the parts of the text that had been altered. Which was to say, most of it.

Adam began to read snippets of it aloud. ‘… 1194, King Richard returns from the Third Crusade … reclaims his kingdom from his younger brother, John … the siege of Nottingham, John surrenders and begs for King Richard’s mercy. King Richard executes his brother for high treason … has him hung, drawn and quartered …’

Adam shook his head. ‘That’s still wrong. The correct version is that Richard forgives him, lets him live.’

‘You sure?’ asked Maddy.

‘Of course I’m sure! You never heard of King John?’

She shrugged. ‘I guess I saw a Disney cartoon once with a King John in it. But then he was, like, a fox or a lion or something, so I didn’t take it too seriously.’

Sal had been reading ahead. ‘There’s no mention of this peasant rebellion of the north any more.’

The other two read on.

‘Liam said he’d stopped the rebellion in his message,’ she added. ‘But … if you look what it says there, England’s still going to end up disappearing.’

Adam resumed skimming the document. ‘… 1195, King Richard announces the Fourth Crusade.’ He looked at the girls. ‘Well, there was certainly no fourth crusade. That’s new.’ He resumed. ‘The Fourth Crusade is championed by King Richard, his goal again to retake Jerusalem. This time round there is little support for it, despite a Papal Bull being issued.’

‘What’s one of those?’ asked Sal.

‘The Pope basically announcing God says it’s a cool idea.’

‘King Richard raises ruinous taxes, and incurs crippling debts to fund the crusade and, in 1196, leaves England for the last time … 1197, King Richard and eleven thousand knights and men-at-arms are massacred by Saladin’s army at the Battle of Al Karak. With no successor in England, and the country bankrupt, anarchy ensues … 1199, King Philip II of France invades … and so on.’ Adam shook his head. ‘Same result still.’

‘England gets gobbled up by France,’ said Sal.

‘This fourth crusade didn’t happen, you say?’

‘No. In normal history, when Richard failed to take Jerusalem during the Third Crusade, that was pretty much the end of the wars in the Holy Land. All the Christian kingdoms just sort of lost the appetite to fight for it. None of them could afford another crusade anyway. Fact is, in normal history, when Richard returned home he turned his attention to rebuilding his kingdom, reclaiming territories he’d lost to the French in Normandy. That became his sole focus for the last six years of his life, getting back the lands he’d lost while he’d been on his holy war.’

Maddy pursed her lips. ‘Hmmm … something’s changed his focus.’

‘Focus?’ Adam shook his head. ‘More like obsession. I mean, what’s going on there? He ruins his country, he bankrupts himself and he launches what looks like a suicidal last crusade. Why?’

‘He went mad?’ said Sal.

‘Some historians say he was already a bit loopy.’

‘Something new, then,’ said Maddy. ‘Maybe something that Liam’s caused? Maybe something to do with the Voynich Manuscript?’ She took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. ‘If there’s some other time traveller back there … then perhaps something they’ve done?’

The others looked at her silently. There were no answers. Only questions.

‘OK … all right, here’s what we do. We send back another data package of this new version of history and ask Liam if they’ve got any ideas at all what’s suddenly eating Richard that he wants to go back to Jerusalem again.’ She put her glasses back on. ‘Meantime, we’ve still got the scheduled six-month return window if they want to use that, or, if they want to come back any earlier, they’ll need to send us a time-stamp.’