Alex Scarrow - Time Riders

‘The devil, Karl… Satan. Death. Chaos.’

He regarded his leader in uncomfortable silence.

He has gone quite mad .

‘Paul, there is no such thing as the devil.’

‘Oh, but there is. You and I stepped through a gap in space-time, a gap in the laws ofphysics… you and I may have stepped briefly, so very briefly, and placed our feet inHell itself.’

This has to stop. Paul is not himself.

‘And Hell has our scent now, Karl. It has our scent. It is seeking us and it will punish us.’

Karl’s eyes stole away from Kramer’s intense face, and darted again to the atombomb nestled in its metal support frame. He could kill us both with thisdevice. Kill everyone aboard the command ship.

Kramer turned and followed his gaze. ‘Yes, Karl. This device … you want to know what it is?’

‘You have an atom bomb linked to a time machine?’

Kramer shook his head. ‘It’s not a time machine. I’d need things Ican’t get my hands on in 1957 to make one of those. No… it’s a doomsdaybomb. An atom bomb magnified infinitely by Waldstein’s displacement field.’ Hepointed at the wire cage. ‘It will ensure a blast and gamma radiation that will wipe outevery living thing.’

‘My God!’ gasped Karl.

Kramer’s face creased with a playful grin. ‘It is aGod-like thing, is it not?’

Karl felt his heart thumping through his charcoal-grey tunic, through the silver eaglestitched on his left breast pocket.

‘Paul, this is… this is madness.’

‘I consider it a kindness , my old friend.’

‘ What? ’

‘Yes… yes, a kindness. We mistakenly let some dark force come into the pastbehind us. Something evil… chaos itself. It is seeking us.It will come for you and I, and will come for every other soul in this world. I can see thatnow.’

‘Paul… listen. There are no angels, or demons, or — ’

‘It will come for every soul in this world… because this is a world that should never have been . Every person living right now is living a lifethat should never have been.’

Karl found his hand instinctively, slowly, reaching down for the pistol on his belt. Beingmerely decorative it was unloaded, but perhaps Kramer would not be aware of that.

Am I really going to pull my gun on him?

Yes. He needed Paul to come with him now, away from thiscontraption, where he could talk to him, where he could reason with him safely. And, if needsbe, he would order a physician to provide sedatives for the Fuhrer. The man needed to becalmed, desperately needed some sleep by the look of him.

‘You know, Karl, I wanted to make a better world, a better future,’ said Kramer,his tired eyes rimmed with tears. ‘Instead — ’ he shook his head — ‘I believe I’ve condemned us all to something worse than death itself.’

‘But you are talking of supernatural things, Paul. Devils,angels, God, Satan — these are things that belong to the Middle Ages. You are a man ofscience, not some insane… priest.’

‘Perhaps the supernatural is what lies beyond our science? It is in that gap inspace-time.’ A solitary tear rolled down Kramer’s gaunt cheek. ‘The factis… I know the devil has arrived and is coming for us as we speak.’

He’s gone too far.

‘I have to ask this, Paul… Is this devicefunctional?’

Kramer nodded. ‘It is.’

I have no choice, then. Karl’s hand stole into his holsterand with one fluid sweep pulled out the pistol. He aimed it at Kramer. The gun was steady. Hisvoice wasn’t. ‘Paul… I’m s-sorry. You must understand I cannot letthis go any further.’

Kramer remained calm, his eyes on the gun. He smiled, not unkindly. ‘I’m afraidit’s something I have to do.’

Karl cocked his gun. ‘Look, come with me, Paul. We’ll talk about this in yourquarters. You and I — ’

Kramer calmly reached for the intercom on his workbench.

‘Paul! Please stop! I will shoot!’

‘I don’t believe you will, old friend,’ said Kramer softly as he thumbed abutton on the intercom. ‘Security detail to my private laboratory on the double,please.’

A tinny voice acknowledged the order over the desk speaker.

Kramer looked up at him. ‘I’d hoped we could face this together, Karl. After allwe’ve been through.’

‘Do you not see? You’re not well. You’re tired. You’re not seeingthings clearly. Send the guards away and you and I can talk.’

Karl could already hear the clatter of boots on the hard floor outside the lab. ‘Callthem off, Paul. This is madness.’

A rap on the double door, a muffled voice outside. ‘Security detail, sir!’

‘Enter!’

Karl quickly lowered his gun. The SS Leibstandarte guards would shoot even him, theReichsmarschall, if they saw a weapon raised at their beloved leader. The door swung open andfive SS Leibstandarte entered. The oberleutnant leading them glanced at Karl, the pistol heldloosely in his hand now aiming down at the ground.

‘ Mein Fuhrer? Is everything allright?’

Kramer sighed, his shoulders sagging. ‘I’m so very sorry, Karl.’ He steppedaround a nest of cables towards his friend, gently easing the unloaded pistol out of his handand placing it on the workbench.

‘Paul,’ said Karl quietly, ‘you must listen — ’

Kramer put a finger to his lips, hushing him. He reached out and affectionately clasped hisshoulder. ‘I consider you my closest friend… perhaps my only real friend, Karl. But this is too important a thing.’

My God.He’s going to place me under arrest.

Karl bit his lip, realizing it would be foolish to push Kramer any further right now. Assecond-in-command of the Reich’s invasion force, he might still be able to reason withthe guards, the higher echelon officers… but not right here, not like this.

Kramer took a step back. ‘Trust me,’ he said softly, barely more than a whisperfor Karl’s ears only. ‘This is a kindness for you.’

‘Paul? What are you — ?’

‘Oberleutnant?’

‘Sir?’

‘Execute Reichsmarschall Haas.’

The young officer’s eyes widened in momentary confusion.

‘Do this right now, please.’

What? He can’t be…!

Karl was turning round to sharply bark a counter-order when two precisely aimed shots endedhis life and scattered tissue and blood across Kramer’s workbench.

1957, woods outside Baltimore

‘All right, Bob? You understand what you’ve got to say tothem?’

‘Affirmat-’

Liam raised a finger and cocked a scolding eyebrow.

‘ Yes … I understand, Liam O’Connor.’

‘Better. This has to be convincing. You need to come across sounding sort of like someOld Testament prophet, and not like a bloody robot.’

‘I understand.’

‘You remember it all?’

Bob looked down at the tattered sheet of paper in his hands, and Liam’s untidyhandwriting littered with words crossed out, phrases rewritten, and written again.

‘It is stored in memory.’

‘Right, then I suppose we should get a move on.’

‘Correct,’ rumbled Bob, ‘Washington is fifty-seven miles south-west fromthis location. We will need to travel quickly.’

Liam led the way out of Bob’s shelter and blinked at the early-morning sun piercing thebranches and pine needles above them and dappling the hard-trodden snowy ground with pools ofwarmth and light. The camp was already stirring with activity, some of the men already up andreviving the smouldering campfire to cook breakfast and heat an urn of coffee.

He could see Panelli interviewing more newcomers eager to join the fight,even more eager to catch sight of the legendary Captain Bob in action.