Day of Rebellion (3 page)

A
s they walked onto the spiral staircase, the steps began lowering automatically and the aperture closed silently above their heads. After a few minutes of descent they came to a gentle halt. Ahead of them was a door. Jack pressed the device again and the door opened into a short metal-clad corridor lit by a dim blue glow. At the end of the corridor was a circular metal door. Jack and Angus exchanged glances.

“I’m assuming your dad intends us to keep going…”

“Incredible – everything’s just like VIGIL.” But then Jack noticed that the door did not have the familiar ‘VIGIL’ logo etched onto it. Instead, there was a phrase:

The door opened without a sound, revealing a long tubular passageway which melted into the darkness. The passage walls at the VIGIL complex were brilliantly engineered – completely smooth with no rivets and no seams. But this place was different. The passage was hewn directly from the rock. Water dripped down from above and every few metres the roof was supported by old and rusty steel struts. It was like a badly maintained mineshaft.

“This tunnel has got to go right under the sea.”

“It’s giving me the creeps… and it all looks pretty rickety.
Are we just going to go on?” Angus said.

“What the…?”

Jack jumped as, suddenly, a small open car appeared out of the gloom and glided to a halt right in front of them.

“It’s on rails…”

“Nearly gave me a heart attack… it’s just like a ghost train.”

“It must be automatic. Do you reckon we just get in?”

Soon they were trundling through the claustrophobic tunnel and after a few minutes the mysterious rail car came to a halt next to a low concrete platform.

“Guess this is it, then.”

“I don’t get it, Jack. I mean, why isn’t your dad here to meet us? It’s almost like he’s set us a weird test or something.”

Jack gave a shrug and looked around. “What now?”

“Maybe we go down there – it looks like there’s some sort of lift?”

At one end of the platform a mesh cage rose up from the ground and directly into the roof. They approached it and Jack craned his head upwards.

“It’s just a big black hole – can’t see a thing, which is really weird, because I swear the tunnel was going in the direction of the sea. So I don’t get how we’re not underwater now – that hole just seems to go up.”

“Maybe it’s the Bass Rock,” Angus said. “Maybe we’ve gone under the sea and now we’re under the rock itself. Look – there’s a button. Shall I give it a go?”

Jack nodded. Angus pressed the button and there was a mechanical whirring from above.

“Well, something’s working up there…”

They waited with bated breath as they heard the lift cage rattling down the shaft from above. Suddenly, the bottom of the yellow-painted metal cage appeared and jolted to a halt in front of them. Jack’s heart missed a beat.

Inside the lift cage was a man, with his back turned to them, leaning heavily against the latticed door. Without warning, the door slid open and the man tumbled out, slumping over the access gate. He didn’t move. Jack and Angus rushed forward. The man’s head fell back, his eyes stared unblinking at the tunnel roof.

Jack’s heart was racing. He peered closer and then turned to Angus, his face etched with fear.

“God Angus – he’s dead. Looks like he’s been shot.”

They laid the man out onto the platform.

“Who is he?”

Jack shook his head. “No idea.”

“What are we going to do?”

Jack felt his chest thumping. “Dad. He must be up there. Maybe there’s been some sort of fight… maybe he’s in trouble. I think we need to go up.”

“Hold on, Jack, is that clever? Maybe we should go back… get help… get VIGIL here.”

“But what about Dad?”

“Jack – we don’t even know if it was really your dad who sent the message… maybe it’s a trick…”

“Well, I’m going up – you can go back if you want.”

They climbed into the cage. There were three buttons, one above the other:

“What do you reckon? I’m going to try Complex.” Jack pushed the button.

There was a jolt and the cage started to ascend through the lift shaft hewn into the rock. Minutes later the cage came to a halt with a lurch. Jack pulled back the gate and they stepped into a narrow tunnel. After a few metres they arrived at another metal doorway.

“Guess this must be it. Entrance to the ‘Complex’. Whatever that is.”

“Try the access device on this door. But get ready – we don’t know what’s behind it.”

The door opened and for a moment there was just pitch darkness. Then, one by one, lights started to flicker on.

Jack and Angus stood dumbfounded at the scene before them.

The room was similar to the underground library at Jack’s house in Cairnfield. It was oval shaped and there were books and papers on shelves and stacked up everywhere. There was all sorts of paraphernalia on display in various glass cabinets.

Angus found his voice. “This is it, isn’t it? It’s the Revisionist base. What VIGIL would give to see this.”

“Buried somewhere beneath the Bass Rock in the middle of the Firth of Forth… mind blowing,” Jack said. “How did they build it all?”

“And keep it secret?”

Jack bit his lip. “It’s like the
Marie Celeste
.”

“Yeah – too creepy.”

Jack stepped further into the library and suddenly stopped in his tracks. He felt his insides convulse.

“Oh God… there’s another one.”

T
he second body was lying face up next to a low table in the library. The man’s lifeless eyes stared at the ceiling and a dark pool of blood oozed out from beneath him. Jack’s shock was tempered by only one thing. The body wasn’t his father’s.

“That blood looks fresh… it must have just happened.”

Jack didn’t want to look any closer.

Angus pointed to the floor. “You’re right, dark drops… it’s a trail of blood… goes through to the next room.”

“Must be from that guy…”

“No. Look. It stops well before where he’s lying. Someone else must be injured.”

Jack trembled in horror. “It could be Dad’s blood.”

Suddenly, from deep inside the underground complex, they heard a dull mechanical whine. It was rising quickly in pitch and volume, like a jet engine preparing for take-off.

Jack glanced at Angus. They recognised the noise and knew it meant only one thing.

Without saying a word, they rushed through the doorway at the far end of the library. The scene before them was strangely familiar. Directly in front of them, was a solid wall of thick green glass that extended from the floor all the way up to the ceiling. The glass had the same hue and texture as the Taurus blast screen at VIGIL HQ. Beyond this was a large machine embedded within
a network of interconnecting pipes, cables and gantries. They were standing in front of the Revisionist’s time-travel machine. It was just like the VIGIL Taurus, but, if anything, even bigger. Jack and Angus stopped in their tracks and stared in amazement. They could tell by the shrill scream of the generators and the throb of the alert lights that the Taurus was already fully powered up. Jack looked up to the transfer platform in the upper level of the machine. The atmosphere above the platform within the
semi-enclosed
transfer chamber was changing. It was as if the air had become molten and was moving and wobbling like some sort of super-heated plasma. Up on the platform, Jack could see a man. His image distorted and then, suddenly, he was gone. Almost instantaneously they heard the generators power down and in seconds the Taurus returned to normal.

“That guy up there – I couldn’t see clearly – but are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Angus said uneasily.

“I know…” Jack agreed his voice trembling with fear, “it looked just like him…”

“Pendelshape.”

“But it’s impossible. Pendelshape is dead. We saw it with our own eyes – we saw him die in France in 1940.”

“Maybe it was a trick of the light.”

Suddenly the blast screen started to lower and in seconds it had encased itself back in its housing. Now Jack and Angus could see the Revisionist Taurus in all its detail. It sat there, brooding and waiting, like some powerful mythical beast.

“What a monster.”

“Look…” Angus said, and pointed.

The trail of blood from the library led directly up to the Taurus and onto the steps that accessed the gantry to the transfer platform.

“So it was the guy who was hurt…” Angus said.

“Or maybe someone else…”

Angus looked at Jack quizzically.

“I don’t know, Angus, but there’s been a serious fight here. Two guys are dead. Maybe Dad wanted to meet us here but something went badly wrong. Maybe when he got here he found these guys – I don’t know… Maybe they’re the last of the Revisionists? Maybe that one we saw up on the transfer platform actually is Pendelshape. When you’re meddling with time travel – anything can happen.”

“Can’t be. It makes no sense… and anyway… where was he going?”

Jack thought for a moment. “That’s what I’m saying. It could be they had a fight with Dad and… Dad ended up using the Taurus to escape. That man we saw is going after him. Perhaps it’s Dad who’s hurt. Maybe badly hurt.” Jack turned to Angus his face set in grim determination. “I’m going after him, Angus.”

“Hold on – that’s nuts. We don’t know where they’ve gone. Anyway, your dad knows how to look after himself.”

“Not if he’s badly injured.” Jack challenged Angus, “You going to help me or not?”

Angus paused and looked back at Jack, “What do you think? Let you go off on your own, getting into trouble and having all the fun. No way. I’m in.”

For a split second a smile shaped Jack’s lips.

He turned to the Taurus control area. “See there – all those time phones are ready in their pods, but two are missing… if I can get into the system the online activity log should tell me where they’ve gone…”

Jack tapped at a keyboard. Over the last few months he had become more and more proficient with VIGIL’s astonishing technology – and the Revisionist systems seemed to be just the same. He was no expert but he knew enough.

“I’ve got it… the summary activity log…” His eyes narrowed at the screen, “But I don’t get it.”

“What?”

“It can’t be…”

The information on the recent Taurus time-travel event blinked back at them.

“Fenton P. Is that the name of the guy we saw on the transfer platform…?”

“Could be… but look again… look at his
arrival date
.”

Angus peered at the screen. “Well there’s the date and time – but, hold on, it says 2046. But that’s in…”

Jack finished Angus’s sentence, “…the future.”

“That’s…”

“…impossible?” Jack said.

“You think your dad has modified the Revisionist Taurus so it can transport people to the
future
?”

“Look, if I scroll down, I should get the previous time-travel event…”

Jack tapped the mouse. “Yes… Look!” He said, triumphantly.

“This proves Dad was here. There’s hardly going to be another
Tom C. – and it shows that he left here just before that Fenton guy followed him. Looks like it was a close call. He went to the future – and Fenton followed him there. But that’s interesting… the arrival date is different. Dad got there a day earlier.”

“Why would that be? I mean, if Fenton was after him, why not arrive before and surprise him?”

“Yeah… it must be the time signal constraints. You know – you can’t just go when and where you want. You set the parameters you want and the Taurus is programmed to do its best to meet them. But it tries to avoid people flying repeatedly in and out of the same space and time.”

“Armageddon scenario.”

“Right. The VIGIL guys say the Taurus tries to manage it, but it’s risky. The constraints can vary. So Fenton probably got as close as he could to when Dad arrived.”

“So now what?”

Jack’s brow furrowed as he stared at the screen in front of them. “I think it’s pretty obvious, don’t you?”

“We’ll need some kit… packs, clothing… let’s get on it.”

Jack’s breathing was becoming heavier and his whole nervous system buzzed as if it was wired to the mains. The fact that he had endured this experience several times before did not make him feel any better. Nor was he comforted by the fact that, for the first time, the mighty Taurus would transport them not to the past, but to the future. Or so they hoped. Jack started to notice the physical changes around him in the Taurus chamber as they approached the event horizon – the point of no return. He could hear the shrill scream of the generators, but for some
reason the sound was more muffled in their position on the transfer platform high up on the Taurus. Around his feet he could see shimmering eddies of light – the electrical disturbance caused by the temporary wormhole: ion-charged curtains of blue, red and green light. As the shimmering became stronger, it was as if he was standing in the rippling waters of an illuminated whirlpool. The atmosphere within the Taurus structure was also changing and the control room beyond appeared darker and fuzzier. Jack clenched his fists and gritted his teeth…