TimeRiders: The Eternal War

CHAPTER 23. 2001, New York

Half an hour later Bob, Liam and Sal stood in the middle of the archway’s floor, just outside a faint hand-drawn circle of chalk, four foot in diameter. Within the circle the concrete floor was gone, or, more accurately, scooped out, leaving a shallow crater as if an impossibly large bowling ball had been dropped from the ceiling.

Maddy hated the sight of it. They’d refilled the small crater several times; she’d even bought a cheap throw rug to cover it. But several times now they’d had to open a portal in the middle of the archway — ‘going dry’, that was their term for it. Going dry because there’d not been enough time to fill the displacement tube with water.

‘Now let’s see …’ Maddy looked at her watch. ‘It’s nearly twelve thirty now. If the FBI grabbed Lincoln just after nine-thirty, it’s what? … A three-maybe four-hour drive down Interstate 95 all the way south into Virginia?’

‘Correct,’ said Becks. ‘That would be my calculation.’

‘So I’ve set the coordinates for the slip road off Interstate 95 that leads to the grounds of the FBI Academy at Quantico. It’s a pretty discreet, quiet spot. Russell Road. There’s a checkpoint where every vehicle has to slow down and stop; you gotta show some ID and stuff. That’s maybe the best place for you guys to keep watch.’

She hunched over the desk and tapped at the keyboard as she spoke. ‘I’m not bumping you backwards or forwards in time — it’s just a straight spatial transposition. You should be there at that checkpoint before the van arrives.’ She glanced back at Sal. ‘If, that is, you’re absolutely sure you saw Lincoln in the back of it.’

Sal’s hesitant nod wasn’t entirely reassuring.

‘OK, then.’ She clicked the mouse on a dialogue box and tapped in a one-minute countdown.

‘What about a return window?’ asked Liam. ‘Do we not need to agree on a —’

Maddy rolled her eyes. ‘See the mysterious-looking contraption Sal’s holding?’

Liam turned to look at her. She grinned as she held out her hand, the mobile phone sitting on her palm.

‘Just gimme a call, OK? And I’ll bring you right back home. No need for funky fossils or ancient parchments this time.’

‘Oh.’ Liam looked sheepish. ‘Right … yes, of course.’

‘And look, Bob, if that van looks like it’s full of SWAT guys wearing Kevlar vests and packing big guns, then don’t be a dummy. You may be a tough brute, but you’re not invincible.’

‘I will operate within acceptable risk parameters.’

She looked at Liam. ‘It’s your decision to make, OK? If you feel it’s too dangerous, then we can figure out something else. At the very least we’ll know where they’re holding him and we can work out some other plan of action.’

‘Aye.’

‘OK … so everyone good to go?’ She checked the screen. ‘Twenty seconds.’ The displacement machine’s hum began to rise in pitch and volume.

‘Careful, guys, OK? Particularly you, Sal. Let the boys do their work.’

Sal sucked in a tremulous breath, clearly excited by the prospect of doing something more proactive than sitting idle and intently watching the world for subtle changes. ‘I will.’

A draught swept across the archway, sending sweet wrappers flying and pizza boxes shifting across the desk. Before them a shimmering sphere of daylight had suddenly pulsed into existence.

‘See you soon,’ Maddy called out above the hum of energy.

Sal waggled her hand as Liam took the first step into the portal.

She watched him vanish, then a moment later Sal, gritting her teeth and wincing as she stepped in, then finally Bob.

‘Close the window, please.’

Computer-Bob obliged and the spherical field collapsed into a single point and vanished.

She sat down beside Becks, facing the dim glow of a row of monitors, all of them showing news feeds from different channels, a variety of live-footage angles of the same thing: the smouldering ruins of the World Trade Center and the dust-covered ghostly faces of a thousand firemen, paramedics and police officers staring in stunned silence.

A frozen tableau.

The only movement seemed to be the still-fluttering sheets of paper circling restlessly in the sky like a flock of birds taking flight to seek a new home.