Alex Scarrow: Time Riders

The arch is quiet right now. Liam is on his bunk, his nose stuck in a historybook all about the Second World War. He does a lot of reading. Says he never ever wants tobe stuck again in a time he knows nothing about.

Maddy and Foster went out earlier. He told her he had a number of things to discuss withher ‘confidentially’. I don’t like that. That there are things he’stelling her and not me and Liam. It doesn’t seem fair. After all, we’re a team,aren’t we?

Sal had watched them both step out under the open shutter door a couple of hoursago. Foster had waved a goodbye. But there was something about the way he’d done that, arueful smile as he’d surveyed the scruffy place.

In fact, the old man had been acting very oddly these last few days. She wondered if it wasbecause he was tired. Foster seemed to have too much on his shoulders, too much to do. Shedecided, when they returned, she’d insist he sit back in one of thetatty old armchairs they had around the table, put his feet up and she’d make a fuss ofhim. Make him some coffee, some beans on toast. Whatever he wanted.

He looked like he could do with some TLC.

2001, New York

‘So,’ said Foster eventually, ‘so now you know everything youneed to know, Madelaine. Everything .’

Maddy stared back across the table at him. It was mid-morning, and Starbucks was relativelyquiet. The morning rush for take-away lattes and frappucinos had been and gone and now thecoffee shop was half empty.

‘And now you know why I’m dying. Why I can’trisk riding time any more. Why I can’t live in the field office’s time bubble anymore…’

‘You’re sure?’ She looked at him. ‘You’re sure the technologyis killing you?’

‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘The damage it does builds up slowly over time. Youdon’t notice it at first, but it catches up on you really fast eventually. I don’tknow how much longer I’ll be able to live outside the bubble, but it’ll be longerthan if I remain inside with you.’

‘If you did stay?’

‘Stayed with you… inside ?’ He shrugged.‘It’s hard to tell. Maybe I’d live on a few more days, a week or two atmost.’ He sighed. ‘It’s not an exact science. And I’m nodoctor.’

Maddy bit her lip. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Don’t be.’ He smiled weakly. ‘It goes with being an operative. I wastold early on, when I first started out and I was a fit, young lad, that being a TimeRiderwould eventually kill me.’

‘But you carried on regardless?’

‘Given all the wonderful history I’ve seen, Maddy, all the history I’vetouched, smelled, tasted, all the experiences I’ve had, the things I’ve learned?Jesus… I’d do it all again. I really would.’

‘You were given the same choice that you gave us? Join up or go back and face yourpredestined death?’

‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘and I don’t regret a moment of it.’

‘So, what about Liam?’

Foster pursed his lips in thought, then eventually, reluctantly, he nodded. ‘Yes,I’m afraid Liam will end up like this. Time travel will age him faster than you or Sal.Time travel will sooner or later kill him… riddle his body with cancers.’

She shook her head and looked down at her coffee and her muffin; all of a sudden she had noappetite for either.

Poor, poor Liam.

It was going to be down to her, as the team leader, to tell him some time, to let him knoweach occasion he stepped through a displacement window and was sent back into the past thatthe cells of his body were going to become more and more corrupted, until finally they turnedon themselves and became tumours that would eventually eat him up from the inside.

‘So,’ she said after a while, ‘where will you go?’

‘I don’t know.’ He shrugged. ‘I guess I wouldn’t mind feelingthe sun on my face whilst I enjoy a good hotdog.’ He grinned. ‘Make the most ofwhatever time I’ve got left.’

‘Will you stay in New York?’

‘They say it’s the city that never sleeps… and, as somebody once told me,you can do all the sleeping you want when you’re dead. So I guess New York’s theplace for me.’

They both laughed. A dry, sad noise that filled the space between them.

He finished the last of his coffee. ‘Anyway, it was always my plan tovisit New York and see the sights. I just got waylaid for a little while.’

He reached for a bag at his feet, a small overnight bag with a few personal keepsakes andmementoes.

‘Foster, wait,’ said Maddy. ‘I’m not sure I can do this. I’mnot sure we’re ready to cope on our own.’

‘You’re more than ready. I know you’ll make agreat team.’

‘How can you know ? There’s still so much we need to-’

‘I know,’ he said firmly as he rose from his seat slowly, painfully, grimacingwearily from the effort.

‘Will we see you again?’

‘You have all the information you need, Maddy. It’s there in your head, in whatI’ve told you, what you’ve learned, what you’ve experienced. Anything youdon’t know… Well, there are notes on the computer’s database, answers to allthe questions you’re ever likely to ask.’

‘How do you know what I’m going to ask?’

He winked. ‘This is time travel, Maddy; what goes around, comesaround .’

She cocked her head, confused by his cryptic answer. ‘Yes, but if I needed yourhelp… could I find you out here somewhere?’

His frail, liver-spotted old hand squeezed her shoulder lightly. ‘You’ll do justfine, Maddy, so you will.’

He turned away and shuffled towards the glass front of the coffee shop with his overnight bagslung over one shoulder. He looked like the world’s oldest traveller, pulling the dooropen and stepping out on to the busy Manhattan pavement. She stifled an urge to call out, tochase after him and beg him to stay on a while longer with them.

But then he was gone from view, lost amid the busy pavement traffic. For awhile she watched the bustling street outside, pondering all the things Foster had told her.Wondering how much of that information she ought to share with the others, how much of it wasbest she keep to herself. Already she was beginning to feel the burden of responsibilitysettling all too heavily on her narrow shoulders.

‘Top you up?’

Maddy looked up at the Starbucks waitress standing beside her booth holding a decanter ofsteaming coffee in her hand. A girl the same age as her. For a moment she wondered whattroublesome dilemmas kept her tossing and turning atnight…

… Go skating with Sheena and Kayisha tomorrow? Should I acceptDanny’s invitation to Jimmy’s house party? Or shall I go out with Stevieinstead? Should I do an overtime shift Tuesday or shall I make itWednesday?…

‘Top you up?’

Maddy nodded, distracted. ‘Sure… yeah, please, fill me up.’

The waitress poured till the cup was filled and she moved on to the next booth to ask thesame question.

Maddy watched her go, envious of what she supposed was an untroubled life of petty decisions.She realized right then that if she could wave a magic wand and swap places with the waitress- she could pour coffee and Miss Starbucks Waitress could go and worry about keepinghistory the way it is — she’d do it in a heartbeat.

But, she realized, rubbing her tired eyes and thinking she needed to get a new pair of specs,someone’s got to do it, you know? Someone’s got to keep an eye on the time.