Doctor Who_ The Last Resort Part 1

DOCTOR WHO.

The Last Resort.

by Paul Leonard.

Prologue.

The King Is Dead.

'Your Majesty! If you could just turn this way...'The man had an American accent, but he looked Chinese. He had used the wrong form of address as usual, but the High Supreme Ruler of the Two Egypts and the Greater World had long since ceased trying to insist, just as he had ceased trying to account for all the languages and races and strangeness of the time travellers. The small silver thing, the camera, flashed in Cheops's eyes, dazzling him for a moment.He tried to smile. 'I think you will find ' he began, hesitant as always in the tourist language, but a tour guide was striding across the stone floor in her sea-blue uniform, already shouting at him.'Mister Chee! I'm sorry but I really must ask you to put your camera away! The fabrics and materials here are very sensitive to the light.'Mr Chee's expression became flat, threatening. 'I paid money,' he said. 'Good money, as good as the next man's. Are you saying I can't take pictures?'The guide was facing him now, unintimidated by his anger. 'The materials of the throne and the Pharaoh's costume are quite irreplaceable.''Because no one can do that any more,' said Cheops, but both guide and tourist ignored him. The fabric that made his cloak and covered the throne had been soaked for hours in the clear Nile water, the colours flowing in, flowing out, like blood in a vein, a hundred times for the floods, a hundred times for the blood of the Hundred G.o.ds But the Nile water was no longer clear, it was slicked with oil from the tourists' boats, and their factories, and their markets, and their cars.Mr Chee was still talking. 'Stop me if I'm wrong but I thought that we'd travelled in time, like, in time time, so surely these people can make some more of this lapis blue or whatever it is? I mean, it's not like this is a museum or something!'Cheops knew what a museum was, and knew that his Kingdom had become one of those dead places. He touched the Ring of Power, with its gold cast of Osiris, but knew that Mr Chee had more power in the batteries of his camera than the Ring had in Egypt now. The Pharaoh looked round at the great hall, at the Italian marble and Indian gold that dressed the vast sandstone blocks his father's slaves had dragged along the valley of the Nile two generations ago. The doors were blue gla.s.s, fretted with gold, a time-traveller invention. When they opened, it was done by a machine, which made a slight humming sound. The guards stood by, resplendent and holy, and the women flapped the long fronds of palm, but they were gestures, camera-fodder; the guards unarmed, the women unneeded in the air-conditioned throne room.Mr Chee and the tour guide were still arguing in low voices near the door. A bare-armed woman wearing black had joined them. She was probably Mr Chee's wife. Cheops became suddenly conscious of the sweat dribbling down inside the gold breastplate of his costume. He stood up, hoping to retreat to the inner courtyard of this tourists' temple. He would still be watched, walking amongst the low palms and hibiscus, but at least the air was green and soothing.'O Supreme One!'The words of the address were correct, but the tone was brisk. The man in the blue and yellow uniform had a tense, watchful expression. 'I'm sorry, but we must ask for another hour before you leave. There is a party of over-sixties from Boston due shortly.'Cheops nodded, and sat down. He understood his obligations. Gold and machinery had a cost, and he could not say that he had not understood that cost when he had made his agreement with the time travellers, though perhaps he had not grasped the depth of the river of indemnity he had entered, the full extent of its flood.'Is there anything we can bring for your comfort, O Supreme One?'It was one of his own guards, resplendent in lapis and bra.s.s armour and peac.o.c.k-feather headdress, bowing low as he spoke.'All is well.' Cheops forced himself to speak as a Pharaoh should speak to a mortal, and the young man responded as he should, by silently backing away, still bowing, the peac.o.c.k feathers swaying like flowers in the wind; but Cheops saw the slight twitch of the guard's lips below the gilded face-paint, the suppressed laughter, and knew that the laughter would escape when the guard went off duty tonight and drank beer in the American bar, wearing his Levis and Nike trainers. The laughter would escape just as the life of Egypt had escaped, to be p.i.s.sed down the river in the dead of night. Cheops saw that his fists were clenched with anger.'I sold ' He began to say it, then stopped, shook his head at the alien concept. He had not sold out sold out, he had not sold his soul sold his soul. He had made a stupid mistake. He had bargained with the Trickster, and that is a trade that the G.o.ds themselves always lose. Why had he thought he would win?A movement caught his eye: a young man pus.h.i.+ng his way through the crowd, his belt crude stained bullock hide but it is the belt of a Pharaoh but it is the belt of a Pharaoh his face angry, sweat-streaked and watchful and it is my face and he is looking at me and he knows what I have done and it is my face and he is looking at me and he knows what I have done The young man pulled a knife from his belt, long bladed, iron, but the point as sharp as gla.s.s. Cheops heard a woman's scream, saw the Levis-and-Nike guard moving away (but why should he defend him?) and before he could move the knife was deep within him, felt as an oddness, the pain afterwards and the blood spurting out, more screaming over the ringing in his ears, but it was that face, that face looking down at him, curved and cruel and familiar.'You betrayed me.'He thinks I am his father.Cheops tried to reply, tried to tell the young man the truth before it was too late, but his breath was gone, he could only stare as the world went white and Horus came to greet him, his huge wings flapping slowly, slowly, his great falcon's beak descending on Cheops's chest, to pull out his heart and eat it.

Chapter One.

There is No...

Fitz needed a beer. In fact he needed several beers, but he wasn't sure he would get away with that, with the clients due to arrive at any minute. Anji would go mad if she found out, never mind his supervisor. But he couldn't face staying here any longer: the bland, turn-of-the-century look of his hotel room was making him stir-crazy. The low wooden table, the pale rugs, the mirror-fronted wardrobe made of s.h.i.+ny white plastic, the gla.s.s bowl on the table with plastic grapes. This could be London, 2003, or it could be New York, 2003, or it could be Singapore, 2003. The fact that it was mid-Western America in 1852, when the place ought to have been full of pastoral Native Americans and fur traders, with the Wild Wild West just getting going, only made it even more dispiriting.He looked down at the shapeless blue-and-yellow uniform with the Good Times logo blazoned on the lapel. He even had a name tag, 'Fitz Kreiner', with a little smiley face on it, perhaps in case he didn't feel like smiling at the customers himself. He fingered the cheap, hard-edged plastic and wondered if this had really been the best way to go about it. Getting the job had been hard enough. It was all very well for the Doctor to go on about infiltrating and researching. He didn't have to dress up in a suit and know about Excel 2000 when he'd been abducted from the world twenty years before the spreadsheet was invented. Anji didn't have a problem. She was used to wearing suits, used to smiling in the right places, used to talking the right kind of bull to get you the job, and, most important, used to Personal Computers. She'd sailed through. The girl doing the recruiting had, if anything, seemed puzzled that a person with Anji's CV should want to work for an outfit like Good Times at all. Fitz even with the a.s.sistance of some fake qualifications had nearly m.u.f.fed it. Seriously, how was he supposed to know about word-processing and spreadsheets? What did they have to do with taking tourists to visit ancient Egypt, or the Wild West, anyway? Eventually, with the help of a few hints from Anji, he'd managed to bluff and flirt his way into the pool of sheepish-looking people who'd been accepted.'They're desperate,' Anji had muttered.After twenty-four hours on the job, Fitz could see why. If there had been any romance or glamour attached to this sort of time travel, it had disappeared long ago. The time-travel machines were bare silver cylinders without windows, and the 'timeport' looked just like an airport, complete with delayed flights, echoing announcements and bored and screaming children. The pay was four pounds an hour, which sounded a lot to Fitz, but Anji reliably informed him it was lousy in 2003, no more than the legal minimum. As for on-the-job perks, all Fitz had seen so far was a company pager each, one small van (for supervisor's use only, except in emergency) and a single motor scooter between them. If Anji hadn't used one of the Doctor's credit cards to hire herself a flashy yellow car at the timeport they'd have had to come here in a taxi. She'd also used the cards to buy them each a mobile phone and a hand-sized video camera a little blue and silver thing that looked like something out of a spy movie, but which Anji a.s.sured Fitz was used routinely by tourists and wouldn't be even slightly suspicious.For about the tenth time Fitz looked at the briefing notes in front of him, neatly laid out in a blue plastic folder. He'd filmed each page carefully with the tiny camera, feeling rather stupid. The listed destinations were represented by codes, with a name and date attached to each: AR501, Nero's Rome; AC624, Mandarin China. This one was WW486/7, the American West, mid-nineteenth century. The bright-faced woman who'd given them their three-hour Induction Training at the hotel had been quite definite about the contents of these folders: whatever the code, whatever the destination, the 'holiday experience' had to be exactly the same. The almost infinite variety of human histories was being packaged like varieties of breakfast cereal (yes, the woman had actually said that), different enough to cater to different tastes, but all manufactured to the same high standard.'Manufactured,' muttered Fitz. That was the key word. He remembered the Doctor's face in the TARDIS, crumpling, amused and disturbed at first as he watched the almost identical collections of concrete towers and souvenir shops on the scanner screen, then hardening, angry, and finally, without expression. He hadn't let on what he'd been thinking, but it was clear that far from having put history to rights by his drastic intervention to stop Watchlar and the Eternines, he had failed totally. Things were much, much worse.Fitz shook his head. He almost wished he'd stayed in Totterdown. He'd had a good job there, known some good people, and the beer was great. After a while perhaps he wouldn't have had any worries.OK, after a while he might have ceased to exist altogether, but perhaps best not to think about that...He definitely needed that beer, and quick, before the tourists arrived. He slung on his leather jacket over the featureless Good Times Inc. uniform, felt his mobile phone in the pocket. Good trick, that, being able to carry a phone around. He decided to give Anji a call, just to make sure it worked. Her posting had been the Oregon Trail, and she'd gone off with the party at lunch time.Before he could work out which b.u.t.ton to press, the phone rang, to the tune of the Beatles' 'Help!' Since only the Doctor or Anji were likely to ring him, Fitz had decided it was appropriate.It was Anji. 'Meet me in the bar,' she said, without preamble. 'It's urgent.''Aren't you going to say h.e.l.lo?' Fitz wasn't really miffed: he recognised Anji's office-manager tone well enough. She didn't bother with greetings in that mood. And why wasn't she in Oregon?'Fitz, when you meet me oh, for Pete's sake just hurry up hurry up.'The edge of panic in her tone got Fitz moving. He hustled out of his room and down the stairs.The bar was as standardised as his room: plush plum-coloured carpet, fake-leather chairs, a steel counter in a style which he recognised as turn-of-the-century post-modern retro something-or-other. He almost didn't recognise Anji, though, sitting slouched against the steel with half a gla.s.s of mineral water in front of her. It wasn't the ill-fitting clothes, clearly not her own, nor even the fact that she looked tired and scared. She looked older older. He could almost swear some of her hair was grey.She looked at him over her shoulder, then stood up, spoke in her usual brisk way. 'Come on, we've got to get back to 2003.''Why? What's up? What about the greeting thing with the clients?'Anji shook her head. 'I'll explain on the way.'Fitz was beginning to feel annoyed. 'What was the point of spending two days getting the job and doing the training if I'm going to get myself the sack right at the beginning of the first a.s.signment?'She raised her eyebrows, looked around them at the three or four people in the bar who might be within earshot. He nodded, and she led him out through the door, out of the double doors of the lobby.He stopped her there. 'Right, what. You've got to tell me.'She looked back nervously at the hotel. 'We've got to get away from here.''Why? Is a there a bomb?''Worse than that.' She was walking again. Fitz saw a silver taxi waiting, the late-generation petrol engine rustling gently. She gestured him in.'What happened to the hire car?'She frowned at him.'The yellow hire car you got at the timeport this morning because you couldn't be bothered to wait for a taxi.''Sorry. Rather a lot has happened to me since this morning.' She rolled her eyes in the direction of the taxi driver.Fitz fell silent, watched the scenery swish past. Whatever was happening, it must be pretty bad if it wasn't safe for a taxi driver to hear.'Oh, well, I don't suppose I was cut out for the job anyway.'Anji looked at him. 'Don't worry about it. I'll tell you when we get there,' she said. 'Or at least I'll try to.''I don't like these clothes.' Fitz's face was screwed up tight with irritation, his hand clenched over the tie half-tied on the collar of his white office s.h.i.+rt.Usually Anji found this amusing, even charming Fitz's childishness, his lack of interest in anything that was routine, tidy or businesslike. Now she thought it was out of place. Way out. She felt her own hands clench and unclench, automatic, unstoppable, as if they belonged to another person's body.'Don't you ever think of anything outside yourself?' she snapped.'What's the point?' He gestured over the vast rank of suits, the seemingly endless maze of wardrobe rails rising towards the roundelled walls. 'We know what's going to happen. It'll all end happily ever after.'His irony was out of place, too. 'Be serious,' she said; then regretted it. It was too much like what she would say what she had said before when what she might say if she hadn't seen She felt giddy for a moment. She remembered Fitz's uncomprehending expression out in the square in Jumpsville, his voice saying 'Anji stop messing about.' Or had he said, 'Be serious', copying her? And she'd had to pretend not to know him.'Sorry.' Fitz's voice now was firmer, older. She looked up, saw that he was watching her. He looked down and began knotting his tie, inexpertly. Anji stepped forward to help him. Their hands touched for a moment. It wasn't very rea.s.suring.'What if...?' he began. 'I mean there must be some other way of doing this. After what happened to me in Bristol. What's happened to the Doctor's plan?'Anji shook her head, avoided making eye contact. I can't bear this I can't bear this, she wanted to say. But she couldn't.She tried to remember the last time she'd had a choice, a real choice that would actually make a difference. The vast clothing store seemed to fold in on her, like a Next warehouse painted by Escher, and the faint humming of the TARDIS in flight became sinister, oppressive.With a slight popping sound, Fitz pushed a cufflink home. Anji smoothed her own charcoal-coloured jacket into place and they set off for the console room. Anji didn't want to see the Doctor, particularly, and was glad when they found the room empty, the central column on the console stilled. She checked the screens: they showed an office, steel and gla.s.s with a view of what she hoped was London in twilight. The yearometer showed 2003.Good.Anji flicked the door control, and led Fitz out into the real world.What little was left of it.

Chapter Two.

Happy Days.

'You should live your life in the best way you can. You don't know what day the world will choose for you to die.'The Martian's twin antennae twitched slightly as he nodded. The deep grooves on the bony surface of his skull took up the sunlight from the open window. They looked like the canyon country of his native world in the famous Peter Scott picture: a polished russet with thin lines of black and green. His eyes, silver geodesic domes spotted with the ochre lichen of age, surveyed the plain red Formica top of the table he was scrubbing. He didn't look up at Jack.Jack, impatient, cracked his knuckles. 'Does that mean yes or no?'The Martian laughed, a sound like a saw biting metal. 'You are not yet an adult, Jack.' He turned with the cloth and sprayed a s.h.i.+mmer of polish on the front of the refrigerator, then began scrubbing. 'You're asking me for wisdom, but I'm a servant, a member of an inferior species ''You're the oldest person I know!' And the most infuriating, thought Jack, but he didn't say it. Mom had told him to always be polite to Martians. 'And you're not inferior!'Sio'phut stopped polis.h.i.+ng, turned his head on its pivot to stare at Jack. 'Look at it this way. When your people came to Mars, we had a civilisation that had lasted a million years. We had ceremonies of negotiation. We had tiny, intricate machines that measured our water almost by the molecule. We spent entire seasons just setting out the pebbles in our courtyards so that they were in accordance with the traditions of a thousand generations of ancestors, and yet at the same time new. Your people had what? Four s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps, a couple of dozen oxygen tents, and a brace of a.s.sault rifles. It took ten years for you to all but wipe us out.'Jack blushed. He wanted to say he was sorry, but he'd already learned that wouldn't earn him the old Martian's respect. He heard a motor outside, looked out of the window at the hard blacktop of the driveway: but the sound faded. It wasn't his mom, not yet.'So the answer's no? I shouldn't use the machine? It would be a bad thing to do?'The Martian's big latticed eyes darkened from silver to amber, which was better than a laugh.'The answer's "be careful", Jack-o,' said the Martian quietly. 'Be careful, because nothing lasts for ever, and glory can turn on you.'Jack nodded. 'I'm going to try, anyway.'Sio'phut turned back to the s.h.i.+ning front of the refrigerator and began to polish it again. 'Of course you are,' he said.Jack turned slowly and left the kitchen. He checked on his sister Sammy in the front room, but she was still asleep on the couch, her thumb in her mouth. His mom would be home in a few minutes. Sammy would be safe enough till then, with Sio'phut just in the kitchen. He tiptoed past her and out through the side door into the garage, then shut the door behind him as quiet as he could.The garage wasn't used for cars any more. His dad had built a double garage off from the house, so that he and Mom could have a car each. Jack had taken over this old one. It was an ordinary kid's room, with posters of rocket s.h.i.+ps and railway trains on the walls. There was a record player, a radio, even a black-and-white TV with the antenna wired up to the roof. Up against the opposite wall to the TV was a plain wood workbench, covered in electrical components, the resistors and capacitors sorted numerically, the wires in neat coils, the bigger stuff valves, transistors, variable capacitors laid out in plastic trays so that they couldn't roll off. Several circuit diagrams in pencil were sellotaped to the wall above, and a soldering iron with its cord carefully coiled around the base hung from a hook.Next to the workbench was the time machine. Jack couldn't suppress the rush of pride every time he looked at it. This was something no other kid could do. It was nothing to look at, just a breadboard rig lashed to an old green armchair, with a car battery and a coil to get the voltage up for the valves. But he knew every wire in that circuit, every ohm of resistance and every pico-farad of capacitance. He could follow the trail of electrons along copper, the track of positrons along the saturnium coils of its QX No.4 valves.It was his idea. He didn't know how anyone could have missed it, but loads of people had. He'd been reading about the properties of QX No.4s and positron flow. The book had said that the positrons flowed backwards backwards in time across the coils just for a few hundred thousandths of a second. And he'd thought: in time across the coils just for a few hundred thousandths of a second. And he'd thought: All I have to do is take that and amplify it. All I have to do is take that and amplify it. He knew how to build an amplifier he'd built his first push-pull two-stager when he was eight. He knew how to build an amplifier he'd built his first push-pull two-stager when he was eight.Now he was fourteen, and he'd built a time machine.He sat in the chair, smelling its familiar old-cloth smell, checked the straps (a left-over car safety belt) and fitted them around his body. He put his hand on the cold smooth metal of the power switch. As he did so he caught a sidelong glimpse of himself in the s.h.i.+ny TV screen: a small, round-faced kid with freckles and short dark hair. An ordinary kid, as his folks kept telling everyone proudly, saying it as if ordinary ordinary meant meant extraordinary extraordinary.No. What his folks thought was what every kid's mom and dad thought, if they were any good. But a time machine meant extraordinary, no more questions asked.A few seconds connected to the battery and the coil had enough power for the valves. Jack put his hands on the row of four plastic switches that controlled the power flow.One two three The humming of the circuitry rose, not a brash loud humming like the machines in movies, hardly a sound at all. Jack's view of the doorway lensed as s.p.a.ce-time warped. His image in the TV screen fuzzed and vanished, bent out of the edge of his vision.Jack felt the fourth switch under his hand. It was the red one. The final amplification stage. So far he'd travelled back in time about two and a half seconds long enough for him to know it was working, but not long enough to be very interesting. The final circuit provided the real power, boosted the interval to a hundred and fifty years. He'd thought about trying for a thousand he could get enough power but had decided that this was far enough. He could see the American wilderness just before the farmers came. He could see the bison, vast herds on the prairie instead of just a few standing around in the park. There would be Indians: he could find out if what Sio'phut had told him was true, about the whites deliberately wiping them out just like we'd done to the Martians, or whether his father was right and the Indians and the Martians had been no good anyways. He looked at the new valve, the bright solder on the mounting gleaming, barely cold.He could have built a variable interval into the circuit, but he wanted to make sure he got back to the present when he reversed the polarity: what would happen if he tweaked the interval from a hundred and fifty to a hundred and forty-nine years, or a hundred and fifty-one? When he tried to get back he'd never get within a month of the day he left. The tolerances of the fixed capacitors and the valves were pretty good, but he knew that variable capacitors and potentiometers which were his options for 'tuning' controls were both unreliable. A speck of dust could make it impossible for him to get home.Even now, it was risky. If anything failed, there was no way back.Still, Sio'phut had said 'be careful'. He hadn't said 'don't do it'.Jack's finger pushed down the switch, and with a slight popping sound the world rippled into darkness.Into light.Darkness light dark light darklightdarklight Grey.He thought he could see flecks of black moving inside it, like soot in smoke. He peered at them, leaning forward against the straps in an effort to see better. Some of them seemed to have shapes, like crystals he wished he'd thought to bring his dad's field gla.s.ses. He hadn't thought there'd be anything to see whilst he was actually travelling. Some of them were getting quite big, boulder sized then bigger still, like drifting mountains.Jack felt his fists clench on the familiar cloth of the chair arms. If there was anything that big he was in trouble. What if he got hit?There were lights on the drifting things now, bright pinpoints that sent dazzling rainbow discolorations through the grey like a bow-wave. Jack's machine began to jolt and rock like he was on a fairground ride. A vast shadow moved in the grey light, rippled into form, and revealed itself to be a building a blue, silent building, with cathedral windows and a blue light flas.h.i.+ng on top. For a second the light seemed to envelop him. Jack stared. Obviously he wasn't wasn't the first person to invent time travel! But it didn't look quite human, somehow perhaps there were aliens who could travel in time. the first person to invent time travel! But it didn't look quite human, somehow perhaps there were aliens who could travel in time.Perhaps the Martians no, surely not. Sio'phut would have known about it.Bang!The near-at-home sound made Jack jump he saw one of the valves had blackened, the element burned out. The others were glowing far too brightly. Another burned out as he watched, then the last two died simultaneously.The blue cathedral-building and its light were gone, and with it everything except a grey, empty mist. The time machine was twisting, as if it were an airplane, falling out of the sky without power. I should have listened to Sio'phut I should have listened to Sio'phut, thought Jack. He was warning me, not egging me on. I'll never get home now. He was warning me, not egging me on. I'll never get home now.There was a bone-jarring impact, and Jack became aware that the chair wasn't moving any more, it was stuck at a slight tilt. There was a wind on his cheek, and he could smell fresh dry air. Ahead were electric streetlights, and the neon sign for what looked like a bar. It wasn't home, but it didn't seem dangerous, and he wasn't hurt, just shaken up a bit.Five minutes ago this would have felt like he'd failed whatever had happened to him, this obviously wasn't 1850, and the machine was broken. But 'failure' felt like 'survival' now. Maybe the machine hadn't worked properly at all. Maybe he was just down the road from home. Right now that would be good.He undid the straps and got out of the chair, and almost fell on his face. He was on a gra.s.s-covered bank by the side of a road a good, honest, blacktop road with a white line down the middle and streetlights. A car no, a bus was thrumming along the road towards him, its headlights bright. He stepped back on to the verge, and watched as it pa.s.sed slowly. It was big, and silver, and quieter than the buses he knew. A couple of kids waved at him from windows that had neat little blue drapes. A woman in a lemon-yellow dress frowned at him. Then the bus was past, its tail lights red. He saw the orange tell-tale of the indicator, saw it turn in beside the neon sign. He looked at the wreck of his time machine, the straps trailing from the chair like the legs of a dead spider, sighed and set off after the bus. He wasn't home, or at least not anywhere he recognised, so he'd better find out where he was. These people should know.It took a couple of minutes to walk to the bar. Jack could see the name now, picked out in blue and pink neon: 'Club Apache'. It looked like a sleazy nightclub, the kind of place his dad had told him to stay clear of. But there had been kids on the bus, so it was probably OK. He turned into the spur road where the bus was parked and saw the driver helping an old lady down the last step. As he got nearer, Jack saw the writing on the back of the bus in the lights from the club:GOOD TIMES, INC.

TIME TRAVEL TOURS.

OAKSVILLE, LOUISIANATime travel tours tours...?Jack pinched himself. He didn't think he was asleep, not really, but this was impossible. There was no time travel, except his machine. OK, someone else might have already invented it in secret and he didn't know, but they'd hardly be running time-travel vacations without the whole world having heard about it. But here they were. Someone was organising secret vacations? It didn't make any sense.Jack thought of going back, but remembered the burned-out valves. At the very least he would have to replace those. Anyway, he needed to find out what was happening here. His heart thumping, Jack advanced towards the bus. No one took any notice of him. He walked past some of the people standing around with their cases. The bus driver was talking to a tour guide. There was a little stone bridge over a stream leading into the Club Apache. Jack went across, through a door which opened of its own accord in front of him (was he in the future? But how?). He found himself in a pine-walled lobby with a plush purple carpet. A rack of glossy colour brochures was against one wall. He picked one at random. The cover showed a rose-lit pyramid with fireworks going off above it and a gold-and-blue mask like Tutankhamen's.THE SPLENDOUR THAT WAS WAS IS IS...

EGYPT.

YOU choose the period!

YOU choose the locations!Jack flicked open the brochure, looked at the choices. The Valley of the Kings (2500 BC) Alexander's Empire (330 BC) Anthony and Cleopatra (34 BC). There was no doubt that these people meant business. He turned the page, saw an advert for a burger joint, McDonald's. Underneath the image of a sizzling burger for a dollar ninety was the strapline 'Now open in Giza/2500, Alexandria/330 and Cairo/2500/34!'The numbers had to be the dates. But how...? Jack picked up another brochure. It was just the same, but the attraction was Tudor England. 'Visit the Home of the Rose 1580 AD from only $299!'It seemed expensive. The components for his machine had cost less than five dollars, and most of that had been the valves. He supposed laying down roads and lights and burger joints explained the rest of the money.'We did Medieval England last year. It was boring. And smelly.'Jack jumped. He hadn't noticed that the lobby was filling up behind him. He turned, saw a small girl in what looked like a vest with something written on it, cowboy jeans and tennis shoes on her feet. She was about twelve, and was holding hands with a boy of about five wearing clothes that looked the same. Behind her, the other pa.s.sengers from the bus were milling around.'Hey, are you OK?' asked the girl.'I'm fine,' Jack said, staring at the vest. The writing on it said 'FatBoy Slim'. It didn't make any sense.'We're going to do Egypt next year.'She had an English accent, Jack realised. Or perhaps East Coast: he always got them mixed up. And why was she wearing a vest in the lobby?'Are you sure you're OK?' she asked.'I yes. We were going to do Egypt too.' He wondered why he'd said that. Now she was going to 'Which period? I think the Tutankhamen one's fascinating myself.''Uh yes.' He tried desperately to think of something he knew about Tutankhamen. A violent drumming started, quite suddenly, so loud that it seemed to be shaking the floor. The girl took no notice at all, so Jack decided he'd better try to go on with the conversation. '1400 BC wasn't it?''That's right! They've got a five-star hotel in that period now. We usually go five-star but this time ''Ladies and gentlemen!' It was the tour guide. He spoke into a microphone, his voice booming above the drums. He was English too, by the sound of his voice. 'Welcome to the nineteenth century! In a few minutes there will be an orientation session, but first we'd like you to meet the Apaches!'An inner door burst open and an Apache warrior in full battle-dress burst in. The crowd jumped back, then, as the man smiled and began whirling a very fake-looking axe around his head, they began to clap in time with the drums. The 'warrior' gestured them towards the open doors beyond the lobby. Jack could see a swimming pool, and a stage with some very big loudspeakers.The girl was laughing and clapping. With her free hand she grabbed Jack's arm and dragged him towards the inner doors. 'Come on!'In the background, somebody began playing a trumpet. Jack couldn't see a trumpeter on stage perhaps it was recorded?But the tour guide had said it was the nineteenth century!Suddenly Jack realised how all this might be happening.'Are you from the future?' he asked the girl.'What?'Jack realised that the question didn't make much sense, so he rephrased it. 'What year are you from?''What year is it? 1852! Didn't you read the brochure?''No! You!' He pointed at her. 'What year?'She frowned at him and moved away.They were through the doors now. Four men were on stage, the Apache, a cowboy, but bizarrely also a policeman, a construction worker, a sailor and a man wearing an odd leather costume which looked a bit like a racing biker's.They pointed out at the crowd, started singing, 'Young man, there's no need to feel down...'Despite the gleeful tune, Jack was beginning to feel very 'down' indeed. His young companion had bounced off into the crowd, still holding on fiercely to her kid brother. Everybody else seemed to be dancing, except a few of the older folks who were watching from the sidelines. A banner above the stage, in blue paint on a pale wood, said 'Sponsored by Microsoft.'Who were Microsoft? Another time-travel company? Surely these weren't real Apaches or if they were, they'd stopped being warrior tribesmen a while ago. And the music was far too loud. Jack's ears were ringing. He backed away through the crowd, confused. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned, saw the woman in the lemon-yellow dress from the bus. Close up, she looked older. The skin on her face was dry, her eyes grey, like pebbles. Her hand pinched his shoulder.She led him into the relative quiet of the lobby, then, before he could think about objecting, into a small room behind the cash desk. There was an odd sort of typewriter on the desk, flat, without any paper in it, with a wire leading to a TV A half-empty paper cup of coffee sat on a painted windowsill. The blind was open: Jack could see a small moth climbing up the window against the black night outside. A man sat behind the desk, a big man with dark eyebrows and dark gla.s.ses. His suit looked casual, but his manner was tense.n.o.body spoke for a moment. 'Why am I here?' asked Jack. This was too much like an arrest to feel comfortable.The woman replied. 'I saw your rig from the bus window. You need to be careful, you know. Homemade time machines are dangerous things.'Jack couldn't contain his curiosity. 'You mean you have other sorts?''Where do you come from, kid? Mars?' She sounded amused.Jack began to get annoyed. He was sure that wherever he was it was still America. These people didn't have any right to just pull him in like this. If what had been done was illegal well, they could tell him about it. He could apologise. Then they could take him home.'Jumpsville, Ohio, ma'am. I'm an American citizen.''What year?''Two thousand three.''And let me guess you never heard of time travel up to now?'Something in the tone of her voice a slight hardening, as if she might have to do something unpleasant set off alarm bells in Jack.'Well kind of. But I'm the first kid in Jumpsville to actually build a time machine.'The first in the world. But he was no longer so proud of that. Or so sure about it.The woman nodded slowly, glanced at the man, who shrugged.'You'd better come along with us. What's your name?''Jack. Jack Kowaczski.''Mine's Lieutenant Grania Flynn. And this is Sergeant Jim Lamarra.''I guess I'd better get back to my machine now,' Jack said. 'I mean, I've proved it works. I should be going home. I don't want to interfere ' He remembered about the burned-out valves, but at the moment he just wanted to get away from these people. Perhaps there were other people here who could help him.Jack wasn't surprised when Lieutenant Flynn shook her head. 'Your machine's probably burned out, Jack,' she said. 'And those homemade rigs are always one-way tickets. You go back in time, you change history. Every time. It's the first rule of the universe.' She squeezed his arm, not painfully, but hard. 'And I'm sorry to tell you this, Jack, but all the other rules are worse.'They had a car outside. It was silver, and it looked strange. The body was curved as if it had been made in a jelly mould, more like a four-wheeled s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p than an honest-to-goodness car. They put Jack in the back seat and locked the doors on either side of him. Sergeant Lamarra drove.The road widened after a while, became a two-lane highway with strip lights overhead. It was busy, lots of buses and the jelly-shaped cars, most of them silver, a few black.'So you're from two thousand three?' asked Flynn. 'Who was President in '74?'Jack thought for a moment. 'Bob Heinlein, until the election. It was his second term.''You mean Robert Heinlein? The science-fiction writer?'Jack frowned. Had Heinlein written anything? He couldn't remember. 'No, he was General Heinlein before he was President. He was the one who conquered Mars.'Lamarra spoke for the first time. 'G.o.d, this one's way out. D'you think we should ''No. There's no point. There are too many of them.''But we need to know why it's happening.''No we don't.' Flynn glanced at Jack in the mirror. He saw her eyes there, still with that speculative frown. He wondered what they were talking about.'Were there any Martians?'Then Jack got it. Their history wasn't the same as his. They'd never had a President Heinlein. And 'You mean you've never been to Mars?'There was a slight pause, then Flynn nodded. Lamarra said, 'Of course. We sent automatic probes. But there weren't any Martians. There couldn't possibly be, except bacteria, maybe.'Jack swallowed. 'You mean you're from a different possible a different ' He'd thought about this happening, but it had always made his head spin. In the end he'd just decided it was impossible. Now he wished he'd thought about it some more.'The word's "timeline",' said Flynn. 'And you're the one who's different, by the way. Did you really meet a Martian?''Uhh we employ one. To do the cleaning.''Oh my Go-o-od!' Lamarra seemed genuinely amused. 'The boys at the lab are going to love this one!'The car jolted under him, and Jack saw that the road had changed. This was more like the roads he would have expected in 1852: a rough mud track with stones on either side, curving between thin white trunks of pines. He stared between the flickering branches, hoping to see a glimpse of a real Apache, at least a tepee or log cabin.After a couple of minutes' driving in silence, Jim Lamarra spoke again. 'What you've got to realise about these timelines, Jack, is that only one of them can survive in the end. It's like companies, or countries, or Red Indian tribes. The one that stays in business has to be the smartest, strongest, fittest. Has to have the most fun. That way, you get the greatest good for the greatest number. See? The greatest good for the greatest number. You don't go worrying about all the little numbers ''Shut up, Jim.''I'm just telling him, aren't I? What's wrong with that? He's got to know.''No he hasn't. Shut up.''I'm just telling him he doesn't have to worry about the numbers.''Stop the car,' snapped Flynn.Jack was glad she'd said that. The way Jim Lamarra was talking was frightening him it was almost like he was nuts.The car stopped, too quickly, throwing Jack against the seat in front.The doors opened. Flynn beckoned. 'Come on, kid. Get out.'Jack got out, stared around at the empty forest in confusion. Had they stopped here just to have a quarrel? 'Where's the lab?''Just kneel down, Jack.'Kneel?Then he realised. Realised just before he saw the gun in her hand. He turned to run, but hit a barrier Lamarra. He struggled, but it was no use. A rough leather glove covered his mouth, strong arms forced him face down against the hard, dusty mud. He felt cold metal against the back of his neck, felt the mechanism move as the safety catch was released.A huge force slammed his head against the ground. He could see a dark tide spreading against the mud. With a dull shock, he realised it was his own blood.This can't happen to me, he thought, I'm an American. I'm an American.And died.

Chapter Two.

Happy Days are Here Again.

'You should live your life in the best way you can. You don't know what day the world will choose for you to die.'The Martian's twin antennae twitched slightly as he nodded. The deep grooves on the bony surface of his skull took up the sunlight from the open window. They looked like the canyon country of his native world in the famous Mary Scott picture: a polished russet with thin lines of black and green. His eyes, silver geodesic domes spotted with the ochre lichen of age, surveyed the plain yellow Formica top of the table he was scrubbing. He didn't look up at Jack.Jack, impatient, cracked his knuckles. 'Does that mean yes or no?'The Martian laughed, a sound like a saw biting metal. 'You are not yet an adult, Jack.' He turned with the cloth and sprayed a s.h.i.+mmer of polish on the front of the refrigerator, then began scrubbing. 'You're asking me for wisdom, but I'm a servant, a member of an inferior species ''You're the oldest person I know!' And the most infuriating, thought Jack, but he didn't say it. Mom had told him to always be polite to Martians. 'And you're not inferior!'Another laugh. 'I'm the one polis.h.i.+ng the refrigerator, you're the one who's invented a time machine.'Jack cracked his knuckles again. He wished Sio'phut wouldn't always avoid the subject like this. 'It's a big decision.''Hmmm.' (A single metallic tone, like a pipe from a tiny church organ) 'Not really. It is a a decision, yes. There are many, many decisions. The resulting paths always seem different. Yet they are also the same path, part of the greater road.' decision, yes. There are many, many decisions. The resulting paths always seem different. Yet they are also the same path, part of the greater road.'Jack frowned. Sio'phut was being even more confusing than usual today. Perhaps that meant 'The answer's no? I shouldn't use the machine? You think it would be dangerous?'The Martian's big latticed eyes darkened from silver to amber, which was better than a laugh.'Not dangerous, Jack-o,' said the Martian quietly. 'I'm certain you'll succeed. But success may not be what it promises to be.'Jack thought a moment, then nodded. 'Maybe. But I'm going to find out for myself.'Sio'phut turned back to the s.h.i.+ning front of the refrigerator and began to polish it again. 'Of course you are,' he said.Jack turned slowly and left the kitchen. He checked on his brother Sam in the front room, but he was still asleep on the couch, his thumb in his mouth. Mom would be home in a few minutes. Sam would be safe enough till then, with Sio'phut just in the kitchen. He tiptoed past the kid and out through the side door into the garage, then shut the door behind him as quietly as he could.The garage wasn't used for cars any more. His dad had built a double garage off from the house, so that he and mom could have a car each. Jack had taken over this old one. It was an ordinary kid's room, with posters of rocket s.h.i.+ps and railway trains on the walls. There was a record player, a radio. He'd been saving up for a TV, but they were still too expensive for kids. Anyways, the time machine had to come first.It was there, next to his workbench with its neat stacks of components and coils of cable. Jack couldn't suppress the rush of pride every time he looked at the machine. This was something no other kid could do. It was nothing to look at, just a breadboard rig lashed to an old wooden kitchen chair, with a car battery and a coil to get the voltage up for the valves. But he knew every wire in that circuit, every ohm of resistance and every pico-farad of capacitance. He could follow the trail of electrons along copper, the track of positrons along the saturnium coils of its QX No.7 valves.It was his idea. He didn't know how anyone could have missed it, but loads of people had. He'd been reading about the properties of QX No.7s and positron flow. The book had said that the positrons flowed backwards backwards in time across the coils just for a few hundred thousandths of a second. And he'd thought: in time across the coils just for a few hundred thousandths of a second. And he'd thought: All I have to do is take that and amplify it. All I have to do is take that and amplify it. He knew how to build an amplifier he'd built his first push-pull two-stager when he was nine. He knew how to build an amplifier he'd built his first push-pull two-stager when he was nine.Now he was fourteen, and he'd built a time machine.He sat in the chair, smelling its familiar stale-wood smell, checked the straps (a left-over car safety belt) and fitted them around his body. He put his hand on the cold smooth metal of the power switch. A few seconds connected to the battery and the coil had enough power for the valves. Jack put his hands on the row of four plastic switches that controlled the power flow.One two three The humming of the circuitry rose, not a brash loud humming like the machines in movies, hardly a sound at all. Jack's view of the doorway lensed as s.p.a.ce-time warped. He felt the fourth switch under his hand. It was the red one. The final amplification stage. So far he'd travelled back in time about two and a half seconds long enough for him to know it was working, but not long enough to be very interesting. The final circuit provided the real power, boosted the interval to a thousand years. A thousand years. A thousand years. He would be able to see the Indians, long before the white men came. He would be able to warn them. Perhaps he would be able to find a way of warning the Martians too. He owed Sio'phut one, just for keeping quiet. He looked at the new, final-stage valve, the bright solder on the mounting gleaming, barely cold. He would be able to see the Indians, long before the white men came. He would be able to warn them. Perhaps he would be able to find a way of warning the Martians too. He owed Sio'phut one, just for keeping quiet. He looked at the new, final-stage valve, the bright solder on the mounting gleaming, barely cold.Jack took a deep breath. Sio'phut hadn't actually said 'don't do it'.His finger pushed down the switch, and with a slight popping sound the world rippled into darkness.Into light.Darkness light dark light darklightdarklight Grey. He thought he could see flecks of black moving inside it, like soot in smoke. He peered at them, leaning forward against the straps in an effort to see better. Some of them seemed to have shapes, like crystals he wished he'd thought to bring his dad's field gla.s.ses. He hadn't thought there'd he anything to see whilst he was actually travelling. Some of them were getting quite big, boulder sized then bigger still, like drifting mountains.Jack felt his fists clench on the familiar hard wood of the chair arms. If there was anything that big he was in trouble. What if he got hit?There were lights on the drifting things, bright pinpoints that sent dazzling rainbow discolorations through the grey like a bow-wave. Jack's machine began to jolt and rock like he was on a fairground ride. He could see some things that looked like fish, or birds time-travelling animals animals? But how?Then one of the mountains was close too close. Jack felt an impact, like he was in a car wreck. There was no light any more and he couldn't breathe something was sucking the air from his lungs. Pain shot through his arms and legs. Desperately Jack reached for the power switch and tried to toggle it back, but it was as if his arm was clamped to the chair.I should have listened to Sio'phut, he thought, He was warning me, not egging me on. I'll never get home now. He was warning me, not egging me on. I'll never get home now.There was another impact, then no sound but the roaring in his ears.Jack was hot, p.r.i.c.kling with sweat, and his head and chest hurt. Was he ill? He was sitting in the chair in the garage, but it felt like he was in the sun. No wait a minute he'd travelled in time He'd travelled in time. Jack remembered the black mountains, the weird animals in what should have been emptiness, the air rus.h.i.+ng out of his lungs but he'd made it. Jack remembered the black mountains, the weird animals in what should have been emptiness, the air rus.h.i.+ng out of his lungs but he'd made it. He'd made it! He'd made it! He opened his eyes, saw blue sky, and green leaves. Cautiously, he got up. He saw row after row of green bushes, neatly tended, curving around the gentle slopes of hills. It didn't look like Jumpsville in any period of history he knew about. Was he in the future? But how? Had he got the polarity wrong? He opened his eyes, saw blue sky, and green leaves. Cautiously, he got up. He saw row after row of green bushes, neatly tended, curving around the gentle slopes of hills. It didn't look like Jumpsville in any period of history he knew about. Was he in the future? But how? Had he got the polarity wrong?He saw movement between the bushes, and realised that there were people. People in dark clothes, all around him, moving slowly. They were picking something fruit? He took a step forward. There was something odd about the people their faces were all wrong, pushed forward like were they apes? No, not quite. But they weren't human either. One looked up, stared into his eyes for a moment with a look that wasn't human or animal. The ape-man face puckered in a frown.'Er h.e.l.lo,' said Jack softly. He took a step forward.The ape-man jerked his face down and began picking leaves frantically.'It's okay,' said Jack.No response, but the pace of the leaf-picking became a little less frenetic. Jack took another step forward. The apeman retreated, bowed down, his face in his hands. Jack could see him clearly now: his body was short, slender, but he could see the muscles under the skin. The skin itself was a dark brown, almost black, with long silver hairs on all visible parts of his body. He wore a loose brown s.h.i.+rt and black shorts, and his feet were bare, and oddly shaped.'You can get up,' said Jack, but the ape-man only s.h.i.+vered. Jack began to feel nervous himself. If the guys were this frightened, what did people round here do do to them? He backed away slowly, then turned and trotted back to the time machine. He needed to power up and get out of here. He'd seen more than enough to know that it worked. He could get the answers to the mysteries later. to them? He backed away slowly, then turned and trotted back to the time machine. He needed to power up and get out of here. He'd seen more than enough to know that it worked. He could get the answers to the mysteries later.There was a rustle of leaves behind him, and a swift footstep. An arm went around his neck, a hand across his mouth. Jack struggled, tried to shout, but the hand only clamped tighter across his mouth.'Keep quiet and I'll let you go.'Jack stopped struggling. The hand moved away from his mouth, though the arm stayed around his neck.'Right. Now keep low. Don't let them see you.'Jack was half pulled down, but gently enough to allow him to keep his balance.'OK, we can talk now, but quietly, right?' The voice had a strange accent, half American, half something else. African?Jack nodded. The man shuffled around him. He was dark, but Latino, not African. Jack tried to smile. 'Where am I?'The man laughed softly, and kept laughing, and laughing, until Jack began to feel uncomfortable. He took in the strange grubby vest and shorts, noticed a long curved knife in the leather belt.'You don't need to know where you are,' said the man. 'All you need to do is tell me how to work this thing. It is a time machine, isn't it?'Jack nodded, then saw the man's greedy smile and wished he hadn't.'It's broken,' he said, hoping it wasn't true. Wherever this was, he needed to get out of here.'It looks good to me. I can't see anything smashed.'Jack shrugged. 'OK, I'll try to get it working. But I need to know where I am and what year this is.'The man nodded. 'Does 2580 BC make any sense to you as a date?'Jack felt his heart lurch. It was nowhere near where he was meant to be. And how come the man was speaking English? There hadn't been any English in 2580 BC and how come he knew it was 'BC'? You could only know that after after 0 AD or more likely after about 300 AD when the new calendar got invented. And 0 AD or more likely after about 300 AD when the new calendar got invented. And ape-men ape-men?But Jack couldn't afford for the man to know he didn't know what he was doing, so he nodded as if the anomalies meant nothing to him. 'And where 'The man started laughing again. 'A coffee plantation, on the far side of the Great Ocean h.e.l.l, what do you guys call it? The Atlantis?''Atlantic,' Jack corrected automatically. He was still in America then. But this was a strange prehistoric America coffee plantations, a modern-looking man who spoke English, who knew what a time machine was and was trying to steal one.'Are you an escaped convict?' he asked the man, careful to be casual about it, as if he met people like that every day.The man grinned. 'More like a potential recruit into the fake Pharaoh game who worked out that becoming an Immortal One might be a health hazard,' he said. 'But you've got the picture. I need out of this place, and I need it right now.' He glanced over his shoulder. 'Picking coffee beans isn't much fun, especially with ape-men for company.'So he had had seen it right! Jack felt his heart thump with excitement. Sure, this was dangerous, but it was a really wild adventure. And the man didn't seem so frightening now. Jack extended a hand. 'My name's Jack,' he said. 'Jack Kowaczski. Who are you?' seen it right! Jack felt his heart thump with excitement. Sure, this was dangerous, but it was a really wild adventure. And the man didn't seem so frightening now. Jack extended a hand. 'My name's Jack,' he said. 'Jack Kowaczski. Who are you?'The man hesitated. 'Just call me Ak.' He didn't offer to shake hands. Instead he sat in the chair of the time machine. 'Come on, how does it go? They're going to notice I'm gone soon, and then we've both had it.'Jack pointed at the switches. 'You push them back, to go back to my time. But I'll need to sit in your lap.''No you won't.' Ak was pus.h.i.+ng the switches home. One two three Jack stared. The circuit was powering up.'You can't leave me behind!''Why not? It seems safer than taking you with me.'There was shouting behind them, and Ak pushed the fourth switch closed. Jack jumped on the machine, but was punched backwards with a force he hadn't expected. He tried to get up again, but the machine was gone. His clothes felt wet: he looked down, saw that they were dark with blood.His blood. It was rus.h.i.+ng out, like water from a tap.He felt his knees give way, felt the p.r.i.c.kle of hot earth on his face.This can't happen to me, he thought, I'm an American. I'm an American.And died.

Chapter Two.

...And Again.

'You should live your life in the best way you can. You don't know what day the world will choose for you to die.'The Martian's twin antennae twitched slightly as he nodded. The knurled buds on his almost flat skull took up the sunlight from the open window. They looked like the canyon country of his native world in the famous James Scott picture: a polished russet with thin lines of black and green. His eyes, silver geodesic domes spotted with the ochre lichen of age, surveyed the red-and-yellow check Formica top of the table he was scrubbing. He didn't look up at Jack.Jack, impatient, cracked his knuckles. 'Does that mean yes or no?'The Martian laughed.

Chapter One.

...Alternative Fitz needed a beer. In fact he needed several beers, but he wasn't sure he would get away with that, with the clients due to arrive at any minute. Anji would go mad if she found out, never mind his supervisor. But he couldn't face staying here any longer: the bland, turn-of-the-century look of his hotel room was driving him stir-crazy. The low wooden table, the pale rugs, the mirror-fronted wardrobe made of s.h.i.+ny white plastic, the gla.s.s bowl on the table with plastic grapes. This could be London, 2003, or it could be New York, 2003, or it could be Singapore, 2003. The fact that it was mid-Western America in 1852, when the place ought to have been full of pastoral Native Americans and fur traders, with the Wild Wild West just getting going, only made it even more dispiriting.For about the tenth time Fitz looked at the briefing notes in front of him, neatly laid out in a blue plastic folder. He'd filmed each page carefully with the tiny camera Anji had bought for him, feeling rather stupid. The listed destinations were represented by codes, with a name and date attached to each: AR501, Nero's Rome; AC624, Mandarin China. This one was WW486/7, the American West, mid-nineteenth century. The bright-faced woman who'd given them their three-hour Induction Training at the hotel had been quite definite about the contents of these folders: whatever the code, whatever the destination, the 'holiday experience' had to be exactly the same. The almost infinite variety of human histories was being packaged like varieties of breakfast cereal (yes, the woman had actually said that), different enough to cater to different tastes, but all manufactured to the same high standard.He shook his head. b.u.g.g.e.r boning up, he'd done enough of that. He definitely needed that beer, and quick, before the tourists arrived. He slung on his leather jacket over the featureless Good Times Inc. uniform, felt his mobile phone in the pocket. Good trick, that, being able to carry a phone around. He decided to call Anji. Her posting had been the Oregon Trail, and she'd gone off with the party at lunch time.After three rings, she answered, a brisk h.e.l.lo.'Thought I'd see how it was going.''Fine. We've just been briefed on Health and Safety.''In the wild west?' But Fitz hadn't really expected anything different: he'd received the same briefing.'Hold on can't talk now, I've got customers. Call you later. See you day after tomorrow!' The phone went dead.Fitz shrugged and glanced at his watch. It was half an hour until his customers were here. He pictured a large gla.s.s of beer with a foamy head, smiled and made his way down the stairs.

Chapter Three.

A Day in the Life of the Time Police 'Just kneel down, Jack.'Kneel?Then Jack realised. Realised just before he saw the gun in Lieutenant Flynn's hand. He turned to run, but hit a barrier Jim Lamarra. He struggled, but it was no use. A rough leather glove covered his mouth, strong arms forced him face down against the hard, dusty mud. He felt cold metal against the back of his neck, felt rather than heard the snick of the safety catch.'Stop!' It was Lamarra who was shouting, right in Jack's ear. 'There's someone coming!''It's too late!' Flynn's voice, shrill with panic. 'We'll have to kill him too!'Kill who? thought Jack. Then he could hear it: the roar of a motorcycle engine, already close, getting closer.'We can't do that.' Lamarra's voice was close to Jack's ear. The gun was still on his neck, the leather glove across his mouth. It was hard to breathe.The motorcycle engine stopped. 'I should put those things down. I don't think you can really kill an officer of Good Times Incorporated going about his lawful business.' The voice was a new one, strangely m.u.f.fled.'We could arrange an accident.' Flynn. 'Riding a motorcycle on this kind of road is dangerous, you know that?''You're well outside your authority. And anyway, I know what you do, and why, already. You think I'm stupid because I'm not a cop?''You think I'm stupid because I am one?'Jack had a weird sense that the stranger and Flynn were enjoying this game, almost as if they were playing out a script. Perhaps it was a script perhaps the guns weren't real He struggled to move, but Lamarra still held him firm against the hard earth.A booted foot appeared in front of his face. The hand moved away from his mouth, the gun was gone from his neck.'You can get up.'The stranger's voice was no longer m.u.f.fled. Jack stood, but was surprised to find that his legs would hardly hold him. He couldn't stop shaking. The stranger took his arm. He was wearing silver leather and a silver helmet, more like an astronaut than a motorcyclist. The visor was raised, showing a pale face which, after a moment's confusion, Jack recognised as belonging to the tour guide from the hotel.'I'm Fitz, by the way,' said the guide. 'And you are ''I I I ' He could think, but he couldn't speak.'It's OK,' said Fitz softly. 'You're in shock.'Am I? thought Jack. He opened his mouth in another attempt to speak, but Lieutenant Flynn got there first.'You shouldn't be talking to him,' she said. 'We're still going to have to kill him. You know the rules.''We'll see about that,' said Fitz. He guided Jack towards a motorcycle lying on its side in the mud. To Jack's surprise it wasn't big, no more than a scooter, like one of those Italian Vespas in the movies, only blue and yellow.'You can't take him anywhere without my say so.' Flynn again. She sounded edgy. Jack wondered if she still had the gun in her hand, but didn't dare look round.'We've already had the discussion about the legality of having me shot,' said Fitz. 'I haven't got time for any more of it now.'He pulled the bike upright, lifted Jack up and put him across the back of the saddle. It was a double saddle, and Jack found that it was easy to hang on to Fitz's shoulders once he'd climbed aboard.The engine started up. As they began to move, Jack thought he felt the gun on the back of his neck again. He almost let go, but made himself hold on. There couldn't be a gun. He could see the speedo, blue and silver like something out of Flash Gordon. They were moving at ten twenty thirty miles an hour. The trees were flas.h.i.+ng by. There was the roar of the engine, there was the jolting of the road, there was the smell and petrol and the sting of dust. He was alive.'How did you know they wouldn't shoot you?''I didn't.' Fitz looked younger out of his leather motorcycle costume, wearing just a rumpled check s.h.i.+rt and black cowboy jeans. He'd put on sandals instead of the boots. 'It's just a trick a friend of mine uses, that play-it-cool stuff. It usually works for him, so I thought it might work for me.''Why were they going to kill me?' Jack knew it was real now. He had nearly died. He had nearly died. He was still terrified: the fear kept coming back, gripping his whole body in a fit of shaking. He hadn't thought he was such a coward. He was still terrified: the fear kept coming back, gripping his whole body in a fit of shaking. He hadn't thought he was such a coward.'You're from the wrong reality,' Fitz explained.'The cop said that. He said that only one reality could win.''Survival of the fittest.'Jack swallowed. The s.h.i.+vers. .h.i.t him again. 'W-w-why 'Fitz glanced at him. 'They're right. Only one reality can "win". At least, my friend thinks so. More likely none of them will, the way things are going.' He shrugged. 'But killing people won't help. They don't understand half of it.' He screwed up his face; it made him look like a kid. 'But then, neither do I.'Jack looked around. They were in a hotel room. It was ultra-modern, with a low wooden table, pale rugs, and a mirror-fronted wardrobe made of s.h.i.+ny white plastic.Fitz picked up a gla.s.s bowl from the table and tried to pluck himself a grape. Then he grinned. 'I forgot. They're plastic. Like everything else here.'Jack wasn't interested in plastic grapes, and he didn't think it was funny right now. 'I just want to go home,' he told Fitz.Fitz looked away. 'Well hmm. That could be difficult.''Because my time machine's broken?''No, Jack, because time's broken. Your "home" probably doesn't exist any more.'Jack stared at Fitz. He looked s.h.i.+fty, his gaze on the wall behind Jack, or the ceiling above him, anywhere but his face. Jack realised he couldn't trust Fitz either. Just because he'd rescued him from death didn't mean that he had Jack's best interests at heart. Hadn't he, too, said that only one reality could win?Jack began to s.h.i.+ver yet again. 'I doh-doh-don't w-' He didn't even know what he was trying to say.Fitz stepped forward, put his hands on Jack's shoulders. 'Calm down!''I don't want thi