Alex Scarrow - Time Riders

An agent of the future could take this world from you with anassassin’s bullet. But it could be far worse. Something we can never hope tounderstand could come for you… could be out there in that dark city rightnow…

He felt his scalp prickle, his skin turn cold.

But you could prevent that.

‘By destroying this world?’

Yes, Paul… by destroying this world.

He pushed his chair back. Oddly, there was some growing comfort in that notion. This worldrendered still, silent, lifeless and unchanging. An everlasting monument to the world createdby Paul Kramer. All life ended with a sudden flash, instead of the protracted misery thatwould exist in the future. And there was a way — a doomsday device he’d consideredin his idle moments.

We both knew this might happen one day. Didn’t we? Perhaps it wasalways going to be your destiny.

Kramer narrowed his eyes, almost sensing the inevitable subtle shifting of destiny ahead ofhim, future histories adjusting, rewriting, as he felt his decision being firmly made.

‘Then it has to be so.’

His voice, his instinct, seemed appeased by that.

A fitting end to things, Paul. Mankind was always destined to destroyitself. It’s in our nature to destroy all that we create. And you will be the one whodoes it.

Isn’t that just a little bit like being God?

2001, New York

‘Sal will be all right out there, won’t she?’ asked Maddy.

Foster was scrolling through their history database. ‘She’ll be justfine.’

They’d found her a plain dark-blue T-shirt and grey jeans. They belonged to a member ofthe previous team and were large on her, almost swamped her. But she stood out far less thanshe did wearing her favourite emo clothes.

‘No one will notice a little girl,’ he added. ‘She’s just a harmlesschild.’

Maddy shuddered. ‘It looks so grim, so grey and ordered outthere.’

She had stepped out with Sal briefly to get a glimpse of this alternate New York. The citylooked tidy and drab. The only colour amid the uniformly monotone towers was the stabs ofbright red from unfurled banners and pennants that dotted the city skyline.

Foster nodded. ‘It is grim. But, for an innocent child just walking around, perhapswalking home from school or an errand to a shop, it’s probably a great deal safer rightnow than it would be otherwise.’

‘What do you mean?’

He looked up from the screens. ‘I don’t imagine they have a crime problem, hmm?This is a fascist state. I think it’s a safe bet that muggersdon’t get away with a slapped wrist and a behaviour order in this version of NewYork.’

Maddy nodded. ‘I guess not.’

‘Anyway, back to business,’ he said. ‘I suggest we pick a return windowwithin the vicinity of the White House, not too far away but safely beyond any securityperimeter. We need to see whether they have a map of Washington in this new Nazi version. Thecity may be different, sections rebuilt.’

‘OK.’

‘So that’s the where . We need to now consider the when . I have a suggestion for that. We set it for the lastpossible time for their mission. Bob’s maximum mission durati-’

Maddy felt it. Light-headed, as if she was losing her balance.

The screens went blank and a moment later the fizzing strip light above them winked out,leaving them in pitch black.

‘What the — ?’

‘That was a time shift.’ Foster’s voice emerged from the dark beside her.‘A big one. I felt it as well.’

‘We’ve lost power,’ whispered Maddy. ‘That’s not good, isit?’

‘It means that whatever the world is like outside our fieldbubble , we’re no longer able to tap electricity from it.’ Foster balledhis fists with frustration. ‘In fact, the field generator’s down as well. Thatmeans there’s no forty-eight-hour flip-back. We’re well and truly stuck in this world’s timeline… whatever it is.’

‘I’m not sure I like the sound of that.’

‘We should take a look,’ he said quietly.

She heard his chair scrape on the concrete. ‘Come on.’

She stood up, her hands spread out in front of her.

‘This way.’

She followed his voice across the floor.

‘Keep coming.’

A moment later her fingers brushed the crumbling brick wall.

Foster cursed under his breath. ‘I hate winching this wretched thing up.’

‘I’ll give you a hand,’ said Maddy. She felt her way along the wall untilher fingers brushed the winch box. She found a space on the handle beside Foster’s frailold hand.

‘Let’s get to it, then,’ he said quietly.

They pulled on the handle and it creaked round. The shutter door began to crank up slowly andnoisily.

A faint afternoon light eased into the room, pushing back the absolute darkness behindthem.

‘Looks like another grey day in Manhattan,’ laughed Maddy skittishly.

The shutter inched up until it was waist height.

‘That’ll do, Madelaine,’ said Foster. ‘Duck down, will you, and takea look?’

She nodded. ‘Sure.’

She stooped down and peered outside. The backstreet was littered with rubble and twistedspars of rusted metal that looked like they had tumbled down from the bridge above many, manyyears ago. A tangle of coarse dry weeds emerged through it all and laid claim to the ground,nature clawing its way back.

Maddy slid under the shutter and stood up on the other side.

‘What do you see?’

She glanced up at the bridge above them, the one that had majestically crossed the HudsonRiver only moments ago. It was now little more than a creaking ruined web of rusted metalstretching across the river. In the distance the tall slab-like buildings ofthe Nazi-Manhattan she’d observed a short while ago as she’d let Sal out nowlooked like the crumbling stubs of rotten teeth. Bare skeletons of iron sprang from collapsedruins across the river. The sun hung low and heavy like a bloodshot eye peeking throughscudding brown clouds that looked threatening and toxic.

New York was utterly dead. An apocalyptic wasteland.

Something dreadful had happened here. It had happened decades ago from the look of the sparseand withered plant life that emerged here and there among the crumbling ruins.

‘My God, Foster… it’s… it’s the end of the world,’ shesaid, hearing her own voice catch, falter and die in her throat.

The end of the world.

2001, New York

Sal was afraid. Very afraid.

She looked up at the dark, silent, blasted structures around her. Tall ruins that creaked andgroaned while skeins of dust chased like fleeting ghosts through them.

Times Square was no longer Times Square — it was a tomb, the crumbling relic of along-dead civilization. She couldn’t begin to imagine what must have happened. Thebreeze moaned through open windows, a haunting cry like some tormented spirit warning her toleave now and not delay a moment longer.

She decided that was probably good advice and turned to head back to the field office,wondering for a moment if the bridge and the archway beneath it, their littlebackstreet… was actually still there.

As she turned, she saw something move.

The faintest flash of something pale flitting from one dark window to another.

Just a bit of rubbish… that’s all.

She picked her way quickly across the rubble, kicking stones that clacked and clatterednoisily in the silence. Again she thought she spotted another flash of movement from withinthe darkened bowels of one of the buildings.

A pale oval… with two dark holes that studied her intently for the briefest moment,then disappeared into the gloomy interior.