Day of Rebellion (10 page)

He sat down on the wrecked gun deck amongst the splintered wood, and paused for breath. He could not quite believe what had just happened. He looked around and noticed that the opium pipe was still lying there, smoking gently. He picked it up. It was about the only thing that had not been destroyed or hurled from the top of the Zeppelin.

Jack did not have long to consider his escape, for at precisely that moment there was a bright flash of white light towards the far end of the Zeppelin’s roof. For a moment, he thought that a stray bullet from one of the Taiping aircraft must have punctured the skin of the hull, igniting the gas within, and the whole ship was about to blow. But the flash of light was familiar, he realised – he had seen it before. It was the telltale energy burst that signified only one thing – a time-travel event. And now, at the far end of the Zeppelin, he could see the figure of a man slowly making his way towards him across the roof. He moved calmly and methodically. In minutes he would be standing right in front of Jack, who was rooted to the spot. His heart was racing. He couldn’t tell from a distance, but he prayed that somehow the strange figure approaching might be his father. But as the man got closer, Jack realised, to his horror, that it wasn’t his father at all. It was someone else. But what he was seeing was impossible. Quite impossible. For Jack knew that the man who approached
him was supposed to be dead. In fact Jack had seen him die with his own eyes – murdered by the Nazis in a bunker in France in 1940. And yet it seemed the man walking towards him now was none other than their old enemy, Dr Pendelshape.

P
endelshape grasped a time phone in one hand and an automatic pistol in the other, which he pointed at Jack. He had known Pendelshape as his History teacher first and then, over time, he had seen him become the fanatical leader of the Revisionists. Eventually that fanaticism had descended into madness and Jack had witnessed Pendelshape’s rapid decline and, finally, his brutal demise. The man drew closer, and it suddenly dawned on Jack that he was mistaken. The figure before him wasn’t Pendelshape at all. The similarity was uncanny. He had the same gait, the same shape of face and the same look in the eye. But it couldn’t be Pendelshape. He was too young.

“Jack Christie, I believe,” the man said.

His eyes were dead and his voice was bitter.

Jack took a step backwards.

“Let me introduce myself, my name is Pendelshape.”

“But…”

The man sneered. “Yes, I thought you might recognise it. Let me enlighten you. My full name is Fenton Pendelshape. I think you knew my father. In fact it is because of him that I am here.”

Jack was staggered. “You’re Pendleshape’s son? But…”

“Yes, Jack. You didn’t know?” He laughed, but there was
no warmth. “I am my father’s only son and I am heir to the Revisionist cause. I’m the next generation – the phoenix risen from the ashes.”

“But how…?”

“The Revisionist time phones, Jack. All connected. When there is a time signal and the Taurus is energised you can locate all the other active time phones, if you know how. I picked up your signal – seemed strange that there was another time-traveller in 1860s China. But then I thought I saw something when I departed from our base – your images were very distorted from my position up on the platform so I couldn’t be sure. But now I know. Seems I hit the jackpot – Tom Christie’s only son.” Pendelshape looked up at the open sky all around. “I didn’t reckon on such an interesting location… it makes what I have to do almost too easy. I won’t ask how you got yourself into this mess…”

It seemed there was no way out, but Jack suddenly had another awful thought and he whispered in desperation to himself, “Dad…”

Pendelshape’s lip curled. “Your father? There’s no easy way of saying it. He’s dead, Jack. Your father is dead.” He spoke callously. “Revenge for his betrayal of my father and the Revisionist cause. I can’t say it didn’t give me some pleasure.”

Jack felt as if he had been stabbed through the heart.

“I’ll spare you the details. Suffice to say, that I tracked him into the future and then back here. It’s been an interesting journey. And one that is not yet finished. As you have probably worked out, something very strange has happened. There has
been a major change in the historical timeline that has changed the future. I need to find the cause and rectify it. But first I have other priorities.”

Jack wasn’t listening. His voice cracked, “You’ve murdered Dad…?”

He felt rage coursing through his veins. Fenton shrugged, as if he had done little more than swat a fly.

“Are you surprised? Your father is, sorry,
was
a brilliant man. Now he has even discovered how the Taurus can be used to travel to the future. Incredible, really, incredible. But… he caused my father’s death. It’s an eye for an eye, Jack. So now, he’s gone,” he paused, “and now it’s your turn. I don’t need you getting in my way, looking for revenge…”

Pendelshape raised his pistol to Jack’s head but Jack’s overwhelming rage gave him the burst of speed and strength that he needed. Bizarrely, he still clutched the opium pipe and now he tightened his grip. In a single movement he swung it as hard as he could at Pendelshape’s head. It happened so quickly that Pendelshape had no time to react. It was a perfect blow. Blood appeared instantly on Pendelshape’s forehead and he staggered across the roof of the Zeppelin. He still held the pistol, but Jack, surprised by the effect of his actions, landed a second blow on Pendelshape’s wrist and the gun spun free. Pendelshape lost balance, stepped sideways and then slipped from view. In seconds he was gone, but for him it was not the end. Still just conscious, he managed one final action – the one action that could save his life. There was a second flash of white light and Jack knew Pendleshape had activated his time phone just as he’d
started to drop to his grave. Jack’s exhilaration at victory was quickly overshadowed by the knowledge that his father was dead, and that he would most likely be seeing Fenton Pendelshape again.

W
hen Jack finally clambered back through the roof of the command gondola he saw there were shards of glass scattered over the floor and big holes in the skin of the cabin. Incredibly, the airship was still moving, the big engines pumping – propelling them northwards. The only problem was, there didn’t seem to be any crew left. It was just Lai, Shu-fei and Angus. Lai and Shu-fei were busy controlling the command gondola and for a moment Jack and Angus were alone.

Angus saw the expression on Jack’s face. “You OK? You look like you’ve seen a ghost…”

“That’s not far from the truth.”

“What happened up there?”

“I’ve just had an encounter with a time traveller. Fenton – remember him? Fenton P. – the person on the Taurus activity log? You’ll never guess who he is. I thought it was Pendelshape at first. It’s not – but it’s the next worst thing. It’s his son and…” Jack’s voice cracked as he spoke, “he got Dad.”

“What?” Angus said in astonishment.

“I’ll explain in a minute… have you got it, the time phone?”

“Of course.” Angus looked around and patted his chest conspiratorially. “It’s right here but the signal’s gone again… What do you mean – he ‘got’ your dad?”

But before Jack could answer, Lai had come back over to them and was barking orders.

“There is much damage, but we are lucky, three engines are still working and we can make repairs.” He then turned to Shu-fei and said something in Mandarin. He moved over to the smashed front window and peered out from the cabin. Jack looked too and he could see that the weather was getting worse. In the distance there was a broad bank of grey cloud.

“Cloud is good. We can go up and we won’t be seen from below. But we need eyes…” Lai looked at Angus. “You will help Shu-fei in front…” He turned to Jack. “You will be our eyes. Come with me.”

Lai marched out onto the gantry. He threw open a narrow hatch in the metal grating under their feet. Jack couldn’t bear to look down, but when he finally did, he saw something which he had missed the first time he had crossed the gantry. Hanging beneath there was a strange metal capsule. At first, Jack thought it was a very large bomb. It was about five metres long and cylindrical, but had a bulbous nose which tapered to the rear where four raked fins stuck out from the back. The whole thing was attached to the underside of the gantry and tethered by four wires attached to a cable which was spun onto some winding gear. In the front of the capsule there was a hole with a seat in it – a kind of cockpit. Jack’s brow furrowed as he tried to work out what on earth the machine was for. Then he noticed something else. On the inside of the cockpit there was an
old-fashioned
telephone – just like the one on the gun platform on the roof.

Lai straddled the hatch and pointed at the cockpit below. Then he pointed at Jack.

“You go in the sub-cloud car. If you see anything use the speak machine to tell us. Take a hat and coat. It will be very cold.”

With a rising sense of horror, Jack suddenly realised what he was being asked to do.

“No way…” he tried backing away, but there was nowhere to go.

Lai ignored him and handed him an oversized jacket. Then he lifted Jack from his feet and forced him down through the hatch, suddenly letting him go so he landed with a crash in the cockpit of the sub-cloud car. The whole machine and the winding gear shook noisily as he landed. He was facing forward and his head just popped up over the front of the bulbous nose of the car. The whole contraption seemed incredibly crude and Jack was terrified. But things were about to get much worse.

There was a mechanical scraping and the little machine lurched down a couple of metres, swaying dangerously beneath the gantry. As Jack stared upwards, he could see feet through the metal latticework of the grating above and the faces of Angus, Lai and Shu-fei peering down at him. It was like he was being lowered from a huge ship into the depths of the ocean.

“Don’t worry, Jack, it is very safe.” Lai leered at him through the grate. “Remember, if you see anything… use the speak machine.” He gave a toothy grin.

“It’ll be fine Jack, and remember, I’ll be up front with Shu-fei driving this beast,” Angus said.

“Great – that’s made me feel better already,” Jack replied.

The sub-cloud car lurched down again and in seconds Jack felt his stomach in his chest as the winding gear unleashed the cable and the car dropped like a stone. It was like descending in an express elevator inside a giant skyscraper, except he was completely exposed to the elements. In seconds the sub-cloud car had dropped more than a hundred metres beneath the giant airship and it was still going down. A couple of minutes later the car jolted to an abrupt halt and Jack felt he might now be flung upwards through the top of the open cockpit. He looked up. The airship was way, way up above him and looked like a small cigar silhouetted against the greying sky. Now the attachment cable was played out to its full extent, the airship could easily have been half a kilometre above his head. Occasionally, there was an eerie whistling as the cable caught the wind. Jack dared to peer downwards – he could see hills way out off in the distance, endless fields in every direction and the tracery of waterways and tracks and villages.

Slowly, Jack calmed down and his mind wound back to the extraordinary meeting with Fenton Pendelshape. Could his father really be dead? Every time Jack remembered Fenton’s words outrage welled up inside him. Pendelshape must have intercepted Jack’s father in Shanghai when he time travelled from the future – just as Jack and Angus feared that he would. But as Jack gathered himself and thought about it more, he realised that they were still in possession of the one thing that could bring his father back. A time phone connected to the Taurus – a time machine. He knew that when there was a new time signal,
he and Angus could travel back to Shanghai and intercept Pendelshape or his father before Pendelshape killed him. Jack knew there was hope.

The cold was beginning to seep through to his fingers and toes, burrowing into his bones. He wasn’t sure how much more he could take. Again, he peered up at the airship and his heart jumped. It had gone. Vanished. The cable extended way up above him into the sky and then… it just disappeared. Jack couldn’t understand it at first, but then he realised that the airship had ascended into the thickening cloud layer above. The great airship was safely hidden from view in the clouds. Jack wished he was back up there in the relative safety of the mother ship.

Ten minutes later and the cold was becoming unbearable and the cloud above was even thicker. He craned his neck to make one final observation – and then he spotted something on the distant horizon. At first it was only a tiny dot and it looked like it wasn’t even moving. As Jack stared, the dot became gradually bigger. It was directly behind him and it was getting closer – an aeroplane. Jack grabbed the phone, but his hands were so cold that he immediately dropped it. He grabbed it again and held it to his ear. Nothing. Next to the receiver there was a cylinder. He remembered an old movie where the man had turned a dial to generate power for the phone. He gave the dial a few vigorous turns and suddenly he heard a voice on the other end of the phone. It was like talking to someone underwater.

“Lai!”

“Aeroplane coming, er, about a mile away… bring me up!”

“Wait there.”

“Where do you think I’m going to go?” Jack said under his breath.

He looked around again at the approaching aircraft. Now it was getting closer, he could see that this plane was much bigger than the Taiping biplanes and unlike them, did not have two but
three
sets of wings. He could also see that the fuselage was enclosed. It appeared that this plane was designed to cover much greater distances. The Taiping had calculated the trajectory of the Imperial airship and had set off in pursuit. They were not going to give up. As Jack studied the approaching aircraft, he noticed that in the far distance, other, similar-shaped aircraft were starting to appear. He counted five of them. Now he could even hear the sound of their engines.

Jack cranked up the phone again and shouted. “Get me up!”

“Wait. We are pulling you up,” came the calm reply.

“There are more of them… they are going to attack!” Jack was almost screaming now.

The front plane was already buzzing straight past him – it was less than a hundred metres away. Jack was terrified and could only stare helplessly at the huge, three-winged aircraft. Ahead of him, the triplane banked in a long, lazy arc and came back around for another look at Jack dangling helplessly below the airship.

“He’s coming straight for me!” Jack screamed again.

This time there was no response from the airship – just the crackling of empty static.

But as the triplane approached, it did not open fire on Jack.
It just swooped past him and then banked round again. It was not attacking, it was just circling round and round like an eagle expertly playing the thermals, eyeing its prey and waiting for the right moment to strike.

As the triplane made its third circumnavigation, Jack suddenly understood what the Taiping were doing and why they had not attacked the hull of the airship itself. It was a vast target and a few rounds straight into its vast belly might casue a massive explosion. They did not want to destroy the airship: they wanted to force it to the ground – ideally as near Taiping territory as possible. Then they could recover the precious ‘Seeing Engine’. They had caught up with the airship, and now they were just waiting. Waiting and following.

Jack felt a sudden lurch and he looked up. The cloud above seemed to be moving towards him as the cloud car was slowly pulled up. But the sky was also becoming ominously dark. It was then he saw the first flash of lightning.