Johnny O'Brien - Day of Deliverance

“I think this procedure will be familiar to you all. Step to the back, please,” Tony said, pressing the device in his hand a second time. Without warning, an aperture formed in the floor. Soon the entrance had opened completely and a steep spiral staircase appeared, leading downwards. It was lit by a ghostly blue glow, just bright enough to make out the position of the steps.

“Okay — all clear — on you go.”

One by one, they stepped onto the spiral staircase. The steps began to descend automatically. As they dropped beneath floor level, the aperture above them closed silently and after a couple of minutes they came to a gentle halt. Ahead of them was a door. Tony pressed the device again and it opened onto a short metal-clad corridor illuminated by the same dim blue light. At the end of the corridor was a circular door like the entrance to a bank vault. It had five letters etched on it: ‘V I G I L’.

The door opened without a sound, revealing a tubular passageway that curved off symmetrically both to the left and to the right. Jack noticed that there were no markings on the passage walls — no rivets, no seams — it was perfectly smooth.

“Round to your left, please,” Tony said. They followed obediently and as they walked, the passageway bent away from the entrance, which resealed itself silently behind them. They had only taken twenty or thirty paces when Jack noticed a strange marking on the wall at about head height. It appeared like the outline of a figure — a stylised hominid figure of some sort. There was something other-worldly about it. Jack stopped and turned to Tony.

“What does that symbol mean, Mr Smith?”

Tony approached the figure on the wall. He turned to Gordon. “Have you seen this, MacFarlane?” he said apprehensively.

Gordon moved closer and inspected the strange marking, running his fingers tentatively over it. “Mmmm — the latest experiments must be more advanced than we thought.”

Tony turned back to Jack and Angus. “VIGIL have been using their wormhole technology to experiment on new applications…”

The boys’ eyes widened.

“Yes — the figure on the door is indeed a symbol…”

“The alien symbol,” Gordon added reverentially.

“Signifying a portal to a whole new universe.”

Angus’s eyes were on sticks, “You mean… space travel?”

Tony put them out of their misery, “No, you plonker, that’s the Gents toilet — and the Ladies is opposite — look. Do either of you need to go?”

Gordon laughed raucously and the boys shuffled on their feet self-consciously.

“We’re fine, thanks.”

The party moved on, Tony and Gordon buoyed by their joke at the boys’ expense.

Finally Tony announced, “Right, here we are.”

The passageway had continued to curve round and they had reached a point where the grooving on the wall indicated another doorway. Jack reckoned that if they continued on they would eventually arrive back at the point where they had originally entered the underground complex. Essentially, they were in a giant subterranean doughnut from which all the various VIGIL control rooms and annexes could be accessed.

Jack read the lettering on the door:

‘Situation Room’.

He felt his heartbeat tick up a notch. This was it.

Tony pressed the device in his hand and the door slid open.

On each wall of the large underground room there were screens — some showed maps, some complex-looking historical timelines and others just row upon row of computer programming language that Jack could not even begin to understand. Some of the VIGIL team were already seated around a large central board table. They looked like a war council. Others manned computer terminals, or scientific equipment, at pods in separate areas of the room.

Jack spotted a number of familiar faces: Miss Beattie, their English teacher, was involved in an animated conversation with, of all people, Gino Turinelli, from the cafe in the High Street. Jim De Raillar, who ran the mountain bike shop two doors down from Gino’s, was also there and, finally, Jack’s mother, Carole, was sitting at one of the computer terminals. In fact, as Jack looked around, he recognised everyone. They all either worked at the school or in the local village of Soonhope. Since their inauguration into VIGIL, Jack had learned that VIGIL’s network was quite pervasive. It made sense. Clearly, you would need a lot of different skills to create and maintain a working time machine — especially if you ever happened to need to use it. Each member of VIGIL had their everyday persona: teacher, shopkeeper, janitor and so on. Then they had their other, secret, role in the VIGIL organisation — scientist, analyst, technician or security guard. For example, Jack had learned that Miss Beattie was not only an expert on Shakespeare, but also had a first class degree from Cambridge and had done stints at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the European Organisation for Nuclear Research — CERN. Gino — actually Professor Turinelli — was a computer expert, and Jim De Raillar and Jack’s mother were analysts.

Just then, the Rector and Inchquin came into the room through a separate entrance. Soon a tense discussion was under way, facilitated by Inchquin who sat gravely at the head of the table.

“Jim, can you give us an update on the analysis of the message Tom Christie sent to us a couple of hours ago, please?”

“Certainly. To recap, the message confirms that Christie and Dr Pendelshape have fallen out. It also explains that following their failure to stop the First World War they started to work on a new timeline simulation some months ago…”

“What period does the simulation focus on?”

“Late Elizabethan.”

“Interesting…” Theo Joplin, the historical analyst, interjected, and the Rector flashed him an angry glance for interrupting.

Jim De Raillar ignored the comment and continued. “Anyway, it appears that the Revisionist team have refined the computer simulation software so they can make much more precise recreations of the interventions they plan to make in history, and the potential consequences of the action. Christie’s message referred to it as ‘surgical’ historical modelling. It seems that the Revisionist team were very excited about these advances… but then Christie got nervous when Pendelshape started to talk in terms of progressing the simulation to the implementation phase — an actual intervention in history. Pendelshape wanted to target the late sixteenth century using their replica Taurus. Of course, it was clear from the message that Christie’s greatest concern is for Jack’s safety. He does not want the Revisionists to do this…” De Raillar looked at Inchquin and then at Carole and Jack uneasily. There was an edgy silence in the room.

“Carry on.”

“Well, it appears that Pendelshape and the rest of the Revisionists do not share these concerns and it looks like they have decided to go it alone. Christie felt that the Revisionists had moved against him and he decided to leave them some weeks ago. Concerned that they would quickly refine the simulation and we might think him responsible, he took the unprecedented step of sending us a warning message today — and then contacting Jack directly by phone. It was a big step to take. Christie knows he is risking his life — betraying his own team in such a way. He is now isolated from both VIGIL and the Revisionists.”

Inchquin arched his fingers in front of him, deep in thought. “So — Pendelshape has usurped Tom Christie as the leader of the Revisionists. He has a plan to make some intervention in history — in the sixteenth century. Okay, two things to check. First, Carole, what is the latest forecast on time signal availability?”