Johnny O'Brien - Day of the Assassins

Pendelshape sensed Jack’s unease, “Look — I understand — I know you have endured a lot. We all have.” Jack stared back at him blankly. Pendelshape sighed, “In truth we don’t have much time, but it might help if I tell you our side of the story… perhaps then you might understand a little better.”

Jack shrugged.

“I was always on your father’s side. Taurus gives us the chance to change the world for the better. We must be careful, but used with precision, we now have the tools to do infinite good. But Inchquin and the Rector poisoned the rest of the team against your father. They thought that it was wrong to meddle with history — even though our computer technology is highly effective at modelling the consequences of interventions. They still thought it was too risky. So as soon as we knew that the Taurus at the school worked, they closed the whole thing down. Put in place rules, protocols, all codified in the VIGIL Imperative. But they still remained suspicious of your father — they knew he wouldn’t come over to their point of view. He remained a risk. So eventually…” he paused.

“Eventually, what?” Angus asked.

“They tried to get rid of him for good.”

“What — kill Dad?” Jack said.

“Yes, Jack. And they nearly succeeded. So he disappeared when you were just eight and became a fugitive. I remained at the school, I had pretended to side with VIGIL, but I was secretly loyal to him. That is why your father had to leave you and your mum, Jack. I’m afraid that’s why you have had to grow up without him. It’s not what he wanted. Not at all.”

“In exile, it took your father a long time to recreate the Taurus… the machine that sent first Angus back to rescue you and then me, in that wretched tank. I took risks to help your father by channelling information to him. The work took many years. But from our earlier research we had already pinpointed a moment in time where we knew we could make a massive beneficial change in the course of world history.”

“Sarajevo, 28th June, 1914,” Jack said. “Today.”

“Exactly. The twentieth century was mankind’s bloodiest and that date — today’s date — was the trigger. It needn’t have happened. We conducted three short expeditions — using the Taurus at the school during the testing phase — just before your father left. That’s how I infiltrated the Black Hand and the assassins, met Anna and Dani and set up the second cell, led by Zadok. We were going to return, having laid the groundwork, and then disrupt the assassination to prevent the war. Of course, before we finalised the plan, we created many detailed computer simulations of the various interventions in time that we might make and how they might affect the future.”

“Timeline Simulations.”

“Yes. I remember when we cracked it…”

“Don’t tell me — Simulation 0107. The wallchart that was missing from Dad’s workshop at Cairnfield?”

“Yes. This was the scenario that optimised the future most effectively. It started with stopping the Sarajevo assassination.”

“Then your plan failed because Dad had to escape from VIGIL.”

“But when your father told me that he had perfected his own Taurus, he asked me to bring you to him so you would be safe. There was little time. So I decided to use the school Taurus once more to hide us in history — in 1914 in fact. The school Taurus was already configured for that period — from the earlier tests.”

“You knew you had to take me with you because if VIGIL had me captive — they could threaten Dad.”

“Yes. But we would escape from the school and you would be safe. Before leaving I would invoke a programme that would wipe all the Taurus’s control discs after we’d gone — remove all the software, documentation and design, and wipe all the back-up devices. Without the software or documentation, Taurus is just a useless lump of metal. At that point your father and I would have the only working Taurus and VIGIL would be impotent. I had passed our time phone codes to your father — so once we had escaped he would be able to track us and pick us up with his Taurus. Nothing could stop us then. We had it all worked out.”

“But then the Rector found out. He intercepted Dad’s message.”

“In our excitement, we made a stupid mistake. Once they knew that your father had built his own time machine they were very concerned. They thought he had disappeared. Over the years VIGIL had ceased to be worried about him — and they certainly never suspected me.”

“So they moved in — just as you were about to tell us your plan in the Taurus control room at school.”

“But you escaped, not surprisingly, scared to death by the Rector and the VIGIL thugs, and we were in a completely new situation. It was unplanned.”

“Then you and Angus were rescued by Dad…”

“Your father knew we might need back up. Over the years he has recruited a few very loyal supporters,” Pendelshape nodded proudly at Angus, “And Angus kindly agreed to rescue you from the castle.”

Angus looked down sheepishly, not sure whether to be proud of his actions or not.

“Why did you send Angus alone?” Jack asked.

“We didn’t! Angus was included because we knew you would trust him. He wanted to come. But the signal failed as we were sending the rest of the team. The time phone signals are intermittent. It has always been a problem. The next signal was at Schonbrunn and when we got a fix on Angus’s time phone we had a second chance.”

“The tank?”

Pendelshape smiled, “A German Tiger tank from the Second World War. Your father has got a little collection of historical artefacts. And it did the job — or at least it diverted VIGIL sufficiently for you to escape.” For a moment, doubt flashed across his face, “Near thing though…” He leaned over so the boys could see the top of his bald head. “See… burned off the remains of my hair.”

Pendelshape chortled — he seemed to think that it was quite funny — but Jack didn’t, “I don’t think you understand. There are people we have met here… who helped us, who were good to us. Real people…”

“Right, sir, and three of them are dead now,” Angus added bluntly.

Pendelshape replied dismissively, “Yes, yes. I am not saying any of this is easy…”

This was too much for Jack. He felt anger welling up inside him. “You can’t just say that. The professor, he was our friend, he saved my life.” Jack shivered at the memory of the professor’s death. “Don’t you get it?” Jack was finding it difficult to control himself… “And Anna… she rescued us from Inchquin… her brother was murdered… right before our eyes…”

“With a lance,” Angus added.

“And Zadok — who blindly trusted you — if he hadn’t been there, the bullet that killed him would have hit me!”

Pendelshape snapped back, waving his time phone, “I’m afraid this time signal won’t wait for us to complete this philosophical debate.” Angus and Jack glared at him and Pendelshape sighed impatiently, “Sorry — look — I understand that you have witnessed some bad things… I’m sorry… and I know your father is as well. This is not how either of us had intended the mission to work out. But there is so much more at stake than one or two deaths…” Pendelshape turned to Jack, “I can see that this is difficult for you. But your father wants you to follow him. Our desire is that you join us willingly. You can help us achieve a great deal. You can help us change the world.” The boys continued to look unimpressed. Pendelshape rubbed his chin. “Maybe I need to show you how much is at stake here.” He was mulling something over in his head. “Indeed. To convince you, perhaps I need to show you the consequences of today’s events — give you a real history lesson, if you will.”