Hexad: The Factory (Time Travel Thriller) Book 1 (16 page)

"I know, how do you think me and Amanda feel?"

"I can only guess. Well, look, to stop it, to stop everyone getting one we simply need to ensure that you stop this guy Hector, who's a nasty piece of work by the way, from being able to ever get his facility up and running."

Dale sighed. "Look, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to stop you there. It won't work, trust me, I've tried. We tried stopping him, I tried just now, and apparently I try in the future, and at the same time he tries to kill me and Amanda. In the end he regrets what he did, even makes some futile attempts to put it right, but it doesn't work, none of it does. It all happens as it already has, loops of confusion swirling around universes getting more and more convoluted as the future unravels."

"Well, there goes a few years of my life," said Peter dejectedly. "I've been working on ways to sabotage the production plant for an age, but don't worry, there are other options."

"The only thing I can sensibly see working is for us to forget about this time, about Hector and mass produced Hexads, and go right to the source."

"Exactly! That was my next suggestion. Look, you told me before about what had happened to you, no need to explain again, and if you didn't want to try to stop it in the near future, past, or whatever," said Peter, waving away the notion, "then I was going to say why don't we jump right forward into the future to when these things were first made and stop whoever these crazy future people are from ever having Hexads?"

"Do you think it will work? I mean, they are jumping back in time to try to stop us having them, aren't they? The future must be bleak for them now. If there is nobody here now then what will it be like then?" Dale couldn't imagine, the belief in any kind of future marred by the fact that it had all been over for humanity. But if that was the case, and humanity disappeared, then there would be no future people to invent Hexads in the first place. Paradoxes again, God's cruel joke on the minds of mankind.

"You know what I think?" said Peter smugly. Dale just shook his head. "I think that this must be the answer. It stands to reason. Okay, look, these future dudes must still exist, right? Otherwise they wouldn't be coming back, and in order for them to exist then it means at some point you do succeed, and you do stop everyone from just disappearing. Right?"

Dale was getting excited, that actually made sense. "Yeah, of course. If I didn't succeed in stopping this then they wouldn't be there and they wouldn't have invented Hexads in the first place. Oh, hang on."

"Exactly, if you succeed in saving the world, which means there are people in the future, then they invent Hexads as otherwise they wouldn't be coming back, and if they do invent them then what happens to us will happen. Man, this stuff is so confusing." Peter put his head in his hands, his pale red hair, still the same weird cut it had always been, spilling over his eyes, showing the shaved line at the nape of his neck.

"Tell me about it. But one thing rings true, and that is that I must succeed in saving the world, somehow, or none of this would be happening at all. Agreed?"

"Agreed," said Peter reluctantly.

"So, we just need to, well, I need to, go to the future, stop them at least ever letting Hexads work for more than a few people in the world, then it's problem solved. As long as one works for me then everything can happen that has happened to me, and you, if one works for you, and the rest will all make sense."

"Dude, that is so mixed up I don't even know were to start, but at least it's a plan."

Dale felt better, like he had a mission that made sense in a warped kind of way, and going to the source, ensuring that the devices simply could never be used by more than a few people, would stop at least most of the madness. The past would make sense, sort of, but it would never get so out of hand that time would be so mangled that the universes simply couldn't stand for it any longer.

But then, if he did this, he wouldn't remember the past as it had been, it would be different. Normal maybe, and that was a very good thing. Normal, how great would that be?

"Don't suppose you've got any spares?" asked Dale, frowning at the terribly low number on his Hexad.

"Take your pick," said Peter, flicking a switch. A far corner of the cave lit up, revealing a mound of Hexads, all flashing weakly, casting a blue light onto the walls.

Dale couldn't help smiling — he'd bet good money that Peter thought of this as his Bat Cave, he always did want to be a superhero.

"Wow! You've been busy."

"Yeah, well, I had to fill the time somehow, waiting for you to turn up. This was what you needed me for Dale, I'm your backup guy."

"Peter, I have to ask..."

"I got lonely, okay? You don't know what it's been like spending some time here in the future all alone. I put the cardboard cutouts out there just so it felt a little bit more normal."

"Um, okay." Dale smiled at his friend, the only one he had left. Where was Amanda? Could he just jump to where she was just by thinking of her? Of course he could, idiot. Jump to her and take it from there.

But first...

Catching Up

20 Years Future

Dale jumped back to see Peter, performing his duty so he could actually have the meeting he just had. He had the feeling that if he didn't do it right away then it would get lost amongst a myriad other convoluted trips he had to make just so he had the reality that he did.

It felt futile even as he winked out of existence and appeared in Peter's cramped living room surrounded by books, papers, electronic equipment and more computers than could be healthy for a street of families let alone a single man. As usual, the curtains were pulled closed. Peter always said he found it hard to concentrate when he made one of his what he called 'vacations' at his own home between trips to conventions, if the outside world kept interrupting him with such unimportant matters as when it was day or night.

He wasn't in the mood for chit-chat, and made his apologies, but emphasized the importance of what he was about to tell Peter, even though at the moment Peter wouldn't believe him, but he would soon enough.

Once it was over, and Dale had apologized again for being so frazzled and for not saying anything apart from what he had to, and Peter had stopped interrupting him and calling him a liar, and asking where the hell he'd been all these years — which did kind of worry Dale — Dale waited for the inevitable question.

When Peter asked, in an exasperated, and understandably rather annoyed manner, what on earth could convince him of such a story, and that time travel was real, Dale had simply finished telling him what he had to and jumped, knowing that was proof enough for anyone, and definitely for Peter. It didn't matter anyway, as soon as Hexads became common items then Peter would know he had to do as Dale had instructed.

~~~

1 Day Future

There was nothing left he could do in the state he was in, so he went home, a day after they'd informed the police of the Hexads and the bomb squad had stood outside their house, remotely viewing the trunk via their robots, scratching their heads and calling for more equipment and more specialist manpower.

Dale hit play on the answer machine, listening over and over to the angry voice of the detective inspector, telling him to get in touch as soon as possible, informing him it was safe for him to return home but he better not have left — there were some more questions he would like to ask.

Well, he'll just have to wait
.

A cold beer sat all alone in the fridge so Dale decided to take it out and keep it company. He slumped down on the sofa and lay back, closing his eyes, hoping the buzzing would clear and his thoughts would unwind into some kind of normal pattern. He dreaded to think what such jumps did to your head — surely it was impossible for all those firing neurons to work properly and stay in the right order when they hurtled through time and space, spanning universes?

He had to get some rest, he knew it would be no good jumping into who knew what without making some preparations. It seemed clear that the convoluted cat and mouse game that had to play out between him and Laffer was still to come, and the end result was that it all ended in his favor in the future, meaning nothing got resolved that way, and neither party got what they wanted, so he had to believe that the plan to go to the time when Hexads were invented was a course of action that could deliver results.

He had no better idea anyway, so that was what he'd do. He just needed to rest, just for a little while.

I love you Amanda.

~~~

Dale woke to the phone ringing and stumbled to the kitchen, answering it before he had a chance to realize what he was doing, just going on auto-pilot. It wasn't until he'd said a groggy "Hello?" that he remembered Amanda was gone, he'd spent the previous day jumping all over the place, and he felt so hungry his stomach was threatening to crawl out of his mouth and go find its own food.

"Mr. Ando, this is Detective Inspector Cray, I've been trying to get a hold of you. Would you mind telling me where you have been?"

Damn, this is the last thing I need right now.

"Sorry, we, er, we just wanted to stay out of the way."

"Yes, well, that wasn't what we agreed, now was it? You need to be available at all times. I have a few more questions for you and your partner, may I speak to you both this morning?"

"Um, it's not really convenient at the moment."

Damn, think of something.

"You've been missing for a day and a half, I need to speak to you."

"Amanda's gone... shopping. She's stocking up. You know, the big shop? She'll be a while."

"How long Mr. Ando?"

"Probably won't be back until lunch."

"I see sir. So does she often go shopping at six thirty in the morning and take five hours?"

Dale looked at his watch. He was right, it was that early. "Oh, you know, she likes to take her time, compare prices, all that stuff. I think she's even got an app."

"An app?"

"Yeah, you know, you can scan stuff with your phone and it checks other stores for better prices."
Damn, I'm rambling.

"Hmm, well, I shall be at your home at twelve sharp. I have some questions. There has been a theft, of the devices that were removed from your home. I am hoping you may be of some assistance."

"Um, okay." Dale rubbed a hand on his jeans, then switched the phone and wiped the sweat off the other. "See you then."

"Goodbye Mr. Ando."

Dale hung up. After all he'd been through and talking to the police on the phone still made him nervous. Crazy.

With his head clearing, Dale filled up the kettle and flicked the switch, then put the frying pan on the heat and began preparing breakfast. He felt like a traitor, sipping coffee and eating a huge fry-up while Amanda was being held captive by the strange people from the future, doing who knew what to her in a vain attempt to eradicate a past for them that was yet to happen for Dale, yet seemed inevitable whichever way you looked at it.

Yet the contradiction was there: he and Amanda were alive in the future. Hector had said that he'd chased them both, so clearly he had to get her back somehow, and the only way he could see that happening was if he went right forward to whatever time it was that she was currently in.

"Shit, shit, shit." Dale reached for the mug but it crashed to the floor, shattering into a thousand pieces, coffee spilling everywhere.

"Sorry, didn't mean to make you jump," said Amanda, smiling radiantly, looking absolutely beautiful. She looked quickly at her Hexad then put it in her bag.

"Amanda! God, it's great to see you." Dale jumped to his feet and hugged her tightly. "Um, this isn't what it looks like, honest. I was coming to get you I promise, I just had to eat something first." Dale felt guilty as hell, eating while the love of his life was lost in time.

"Haha, that's okay. I'm here to help."

Dale got a funny feeling, and then noticed something, or thought he did. He sniffed, staring at Amanda like she was an alien. "It's not you, is it? You're not my Amanda."

"Well, that's debatable. We could say that you aren't quite my Dale, not quite. Just a slightly different hairstyle and maybe a little more of a paunch," said Amanda playfully, wobbling his belly with her hand.

"Hey, I will have you know that I am the same weight as I was twenty years ago. I'm still slim."

"Not saying I didn't like it big boy, just saying you are slightly different to the Dale I know and love. I like the hair though, very cool."

"You think so?" Dale ran a hand through his locks then realized what he was doing. "God, what is wrong with me? Look, what's going on, um, Amanda?"

"Of course Amanda, who else could it be?"

Dale stared at her, the woman he loved so much, yet it wasn't her, just by a fraction. She smelled different, she looked the same but also there was just a hint of something that didn't quite match up. Maybe the eyes were a little larger or the hair a shade lighter, he couldn't actually tell, just got the impression that it was a different person, just a little. And she seemed a lot more relaxed about the situation than his Amanda would have been.

"Sorry, but this is just a bit of a shock. So you're Amanda but not my Amanda?"

"It's so close to being the me that you know that honestly you really wouldn't notice the difference. Nearly everything that has happened to you has happened to me, up until very recently anyway, then things kind of took different directions. Timelines split and I guess that makes me and her properly different now, but only a little. We share the same past, the same everything. I think we better clean that up," Amanda pointed at the mess on the floor, "and then I can tell you all about it. More, I need your help."

"Of course, sorry about the tiles."

Damn, what is wrong with me?