Sand Glass (30 page)

‘What does that
mean?’ I asked. They all looked at me.

‘It means,’
said Janey, ‘That once we go back, this time it is over. No more
repeats. No more alternate from Base. No new expeditions.’

‘My last trip
then.’ I said.

‘You sound
disappointed.’ She looked up at me.

‘No. just
tired. I think I need a holiday.’

Elland loomed
near so I pressed my lips together. Aiden sat down on a camping
chair and rubbed his face in the palm if both hands. He looked
tired and stressed.

‘You’re going
with the others.’ Jared stated flatly.

‘I have to
stay.’ protested Aiden.

‘No.’ Jared was
harsh and blunt, ‘Joe. Give him a shot and make them ready to
leave.’

‘Yeah. Sure.’
Joe sounded a little unhappy with Jared’s abrupt order, but he took
Aiden over to where the others were all gathered.

‘So time to
wade in?’ Elland was looking pleased with himself.

‘As long as you
are happy with everything.’ Jared was beginning to get exasperated
with us all. Too many people causing difficulty I guessed.

‘Best get on.’
Elland said, ‘time and tide really do wait for no one round here.
I’ll take you to the top of the mountain. There is a clear place
for the transition to be created.’

We arrived at a
place that was open to the sky. And endless plain of chilly rock.
And far off to our left another rocky edge. The top of one of those
enormous chimneys that filled with the water that poured from
another time and place.

‘It is not safe
to stay for long.’ Elland seemed unhurried but serious faced, that
is for one who took mostly an amused superiority at anything that
might befall anyone in the group. He pointed to the right. The pale
light here was indistinct and there was a light but insistent
breeze that never stopped blowing.

‘This place
gives me the creeps.’ said Curly.

Personally I
shared the sentiment, but thought it a good idea not to advertise
my misgivings in front of Elland. He stepped forward and simply
stared. And there, like a corridor that opened up was a view of
something else. At first indistinct. It quickly resolved itself
into the shapes of rolling hillocks and unpleasant vegetation. Kay
came and stood next to him.

‘Closer than
that.’ she said.

And there clear
as anything, were the gates of the Base. And I could even make out
the masts for the transmitter on top of the first low building.

‘It’s time.’
Oliver announced.

The group
didn’t seemed to want to leave and stood hugging and saying goodbye
to the ones in our little team. Elland’s soldiers seemed a bit more
practical, but since they had been charged with making sure the
others got back safely they stood and waited.

At last Elland
stood forward and ordered them to move. Oliver just shouted at them
all ‘Our necks will be swinging on Rimmington’s rope by the time
you lot get back!!’

That got them
all moving. Aiden took one pained look back at Jared then turned
away. I don’t know what it was between those two. They had a
history that went back longer than the rest of us I supposed. At
last it was done. Elland turned to us.

‘Are you ready
for this?’

‘What happens?’
Oliver spoke.

‘Just get to
the tunnel.’

We did so. And
as the doorway in Space-Time closed it started to snow. Elland came
towards us laughing, ‘Well! I’ve not seen a winter in ten
years.’

‘Minus twenty
isn’t winter. It’s a bloody deep freeze.’ Oliver hurried us along
the tunnel back down into the bowels of the mountain.

We stopped to
split into two teams. Joe and Curly divided up our kit. Elland
helped them. Oliver looked at Marcia, then turned to Jared, ‘You
are asking for trouble.’

‘Yeah….sure.’
Jared looked at him in a casual way, just waiting for the equipment
to be sorted out. He took out the hunting knife and ran his thumb
along the edge. Satisfied, he put it back in the sheath. Janey was
checking her pack and handed some things to Curly.

‘We can
separate at the tunnel just before the bridge.’ said Elland, ‘Let’s
go.’

Marcia came to
Jared and bluntly said: ‘I’m going with you.’

‘No you’re
not.’

‘Why not?’

‘Just help Adam
and the lads please.’ He sounded harsh and cold, ‘This is no time
to get difficult.’

She looked
furious. Elland regarded her with the curious gaze of an big game
explorer observing the tigress getting ready to fight. She turned
away suddenly and picked up her pack. ‘As you say.’ She said. She
was super mad. I could see that. Janey didn’t say a thing. She was
coming with us. Suddenly science was the thing that was the
defeating token in this game.

We all started
to pick our way carefully down debris strewn corridors of wildly
contorted rock. Marcia was subdued, and Janey seemed to be
concentrating hard.

I felt
reassured by the thought that Jules was on the case back at base
with the dreadful machine that had played a part in making all this
happen. I felt the strap around my thigh. The small silvery knife.
Did I dare tell Janey. No, I decided. She had too much in her mind
already. She walked with me. We were towards the back of the group,
with Oliver joining us. He was whispering something to Jared. I
couldn’t lip read; but something in both their expressions even in
the light of our lamps gave me an odd felling. Jared caught my eye.
I fell back into step with him.

‘Quietly,’ he
said.

We dropped back
a few more paces with Oliver.

‘We are not
safe.’ said Jared, ‘the spike is still here.’

I digested
this. ‘Who?’

‘Could be one
of two people. And they may not be aware they are.’

‘Very Russian
Sleeper. Please illuminate me.’ I whispered.

‘Let’s put it
this way,’ said Oliver, ‘they’ll get back the painful way.’

‘He means he’ll
take care of it.’ said Jared.

‘So who?’ and
when neither answered, ‘what is the problem?’

‘It’s Curly….
Or you.’ said Oliver.

I didn’t say
anything. partly due to the fact that whatever approach I took the
question was an unanswerable one. I felt certain they were right.
But just because it had to be one of us. Just because some kind of
suggestion had been planted long ago in a person’s mind ready for
the key trigger, and even though I knew it was possible…. I
believed that it wasn’t me. But then I doubted. We carried on. Not
much further now. Then the group would do the human equivalent of
cell division. And take the angry half with the others in the form
of Marcia. I thought that blowing things up might help her get over
Jared’s bullying decision.

Something
flickered in my peripheral vision. So much for being confident. I
jumped slightly and we all stopped. There was nothing there. They
spoke in whispers. A slight breeze could be felt. Was it from the
endless wind that blew above us on the mountain? I felt that
crawling sensation of dislocation that had afflicted us last time
we were here. Jared and Elland seemed undecided which route to take
towards the bridge. They stood and debated in hushed voices as we
stood waiting. I thought someone was watching me. I really needed
to get a grip.

In the small
cave, I had seen Jared’s mind turned inside out by one thing that
happened. He seemed alright now. But unusually testy. I needed to
remember what we had already done. But it seemed kind of faded and
remote. I didn’t want to confuse loyalty with innocence. I wasn’t
innocent. I had seen and done things in the course of this
expedition that had stained me. I would not see anything the same
again.

We silently
parted ways at the next large boulder. The others slipped away
before I had chance to say anything to Marcia. I thought better of
it then. No room for sentiment now. And the clock was ticking.

We stopped
within an hour and sat down to check our position with Elland’s map
of the mountain.

I really didn’t
see what we were going to do to find the others. ‘What about
Hanson?’ I said at last.

‘Hanson is a
smart man. And an idiot.’ said Jared.

‘He’s has been
fooled in the conventional sense of the word, into backing the
wrong course of action.’ said Oliver, ‘But he isn’t really the one
they could use for a covert betrayal.’

‘Oh? Why
not.’

‘He’s a good
expedition leader. And if you are going to use someone, you don’t
sacrifice someone who is that important.’ Oliver was blunt.

I felt angry.
Then irrationally, I hoped it was me, so that I could see the whole
thing go to hell in a bucket, and really know what all the fuss was
about after all.

Jared, who was
perhaps a little more aware of the way my mind was working, said:
‘I know it’s harsh. Oliver is just putting it from their point of
view. None of us think that. You know I don’t. I know you too
well.’

‘Thanks Jared.’
Was all I managed to say.

At last we
found what we were looking for the entrance to the lair of the
enemy. Things were different, grimmer, darker and more ominous.
Gone were the white and sterile corridors. Now they were wreaked
and grey and grimed with the dirt of years.

‘Interesting.’
said Janey, and ran a finger along some old piping. She turned to
Jared, ‘We’ve got about six hours now. Not long.’

‘So we can open
a door back if we need to?’ Oliver since the group had parted and
he was staring ahead as if he saw something moving. His eyes darted
one way and then the other.

‘Watch out!’ he
pulled me and Jared rough to the side as something whizzed past out
heads.

Janey looked at
me and turned to Elland who was crouched against the grimy
wall.

‘Is there
another way into the high security section?’

‘Yes. But you
won’t like it.’

‘Show us.’ she
said in a hard tone of disgust. I think it was aimed at the
corridor defences but I wasn’t absolutely certain.

I really wasn’t
liking this at all. A narrow corridor and then nothing. It opened
out into a channel where a rope bridge had once been tied. We went
forward and I backed off away from the edge.

‘Whoa! Steady
on there.’ Elland griped my elbow and pulled me forward.

‘Let go!’ I
shook him off.

‘Best not.’
said Oliver mildly. Elland shrugged and turned away to examine the
damaged end of the bridge; he leaned out and peered down.

‘It’s not far.
There’s wide space to land.’

‘Yeah.’ said
Janey, ‘It will be fine.’

‘What?’ I
said.

Jared pulled me
aside, ‘We have to run from back there, and jump across.’ He
pointed to a spot not far back.

‘No way!’

‘It’s not far.
See how short it is across.’

‘See how far it
is down!’ I heard my voice wobble with rising terror.

‘Err….. Jared!’
Oliver had that tone that you never refuse to attend to if you
value your life.

‘Zarks!’
Janey’s eyes went round with surprize, ‘this is not a Scooby Doo
moment I know…. What the….?’

Jared was
dragging us both backwards. ‘You are going to bloody jump right
now. Janey! Take him!’

I didn’t have
time to find the terror, and quantify it properly. Shots rang out
and clattered near out feet, and we ran. I felt my feet leave the
floor, and then then the other side came up fast to hit me. I began
to tumble; and instinctively rotated in the moment of impact. With
a bone jarring thud we landed. Janey pulled me out of the way as
Oliver flew over our heads and rolled. Jared followed. He grabbed
me and snapped me out of the trace:

‘Damn it
Milnes! You never bottle on me again!’ I picked myself up and we
started to run.

‘Where’s
Elland?’ I said.

I heard Oliver
swear in response, then we skidded round a sharp left hand bend in
the small tunnel. We ran for another fifty yards or so and then
stopped.

‘The stupid
idiot!’ Jared bend over and winced.

‘Who?’ I said,
but he ignored me and straightened up his hand against his
stomach.

‘We will find
the experimental area just up ahead.’ said Oliver, ‘There isn’t
long now.’ Janey pointed out. We walked at a slower pace as we
cautiously neared our destination.

‘I thought we
had until the fifth of November?’ I said.

‘We did,’ said
Oliver, ‘but since everything is now going backwards. We have less
and less time.’

‘What?’

‘Janey! Your
call.’ Oliver said, ‘I’d like to hear it from an expert.’

‘Oh!’ she
wrinkled her nose, ‘You want relative time and dimensional
existence For Idiots right?’

‘Yes Please.’ I
said, ‘Please make it as close to explaining what it is even if you
know that it isn’t really what it’s like, so that I’ve got a
picture in my mind that will make me feel less shit scared of what
Oliver just said!’

‘Okay,’ said
Janey, ‘Oliver gets it so I don’t see why you can’t.’

‘Joe and the
team are setting the delay so it goes off no later than midnight.’
Oliver’s voice was heavy and authoritative.

‘Will he really
knowingly do that if anyone is still not out?’ I asked, as we edged
further through the low tunnel.

‘We’ve got
until midnight.’ said Oliver. ‘Then everything will unravel whether
we like it or not.’

‘What does that
mean?’ I said feeling a little queasy.

‘For Idiots.’
said Janey with a smile, ‘now everything is going backwards.
Everything will accelerate towards the end point. Time will go
faster on the outside than on the inside. The experiment ends
tonight.’

‘And then
what?’ I said fearfully.

‘We’ll be out
of here.’ said Jared.

‘And if we’re
not?’

‘We will be.’
Jared suddenly grinned at me, ‘Come on Davey. Have a little faith.
Things can’t be so bad.’