The Empire of Time (48 page)

Gehlen laughs humourlessly. ‘Why would I know what’s happening
there
? I’m a physicist, not a courtier.’

‘Maybe. But even physicists can be affected by what’s happening at court.’

‘There’s been another
cull
has there?’

‘You could say that.’

‘So what’s different about this one? They happen. Nothing changes.’

‘I think you’re wrong. But the power drain …’

‘Is a fault somewhere. It has to be.’

‘Why?’

‘Because the maths doesn’t work. The power has to go
somewhere
. Energy can’t just vanish, that’s a universal law – it
has to
be conserved.’

‘Somewhere? Or
somewhen
?’

He looks at me strangely, then laughs. ‘You really don’t understand, do you?’

‘Maybe not. Only there is drainage, correct?’

‘Correct.’

‘And you don’t know why.’

‘Not yet.’

‘Where is it kept?’

‘Pardon?’

‘The singularity. Where is it? It isn’t under Berlin.’

Gehlen smiles, then looks up at the camera. ‘Can I go now? I’ve work to do.’ He looks back at me. ‘Oh, and I’d curb that curiosity of yours, if I were you. People have been killed for less. Even ambassadors.’

‘It’s under Erfurt, isn’t it?’

Gehlen doesn’t even so much as blink. ‘Even if it were, I wouldn’t tell you.’ He pauses. ‘I serve my masters well, and honestly.’

That may be so, only his masters are about to let him down. And I still need to find out where the power source is so I can shut it down and free Ernst.

Or maybe I
do
know. Maybe my guess was spot on. Erfurt. It would make sense. If Gehlen were using immense magnetic forces to bend the trajectory of basic particles, then he’d not do it under Berlin. He’d do it elsewhere. Somewhere much smaller. Like Erfurt. Which would explain the pilot’s strange comments.

Time-jumps, caused by the manipulation – the distortion – of the basic laws of reality.

Gehlen waits, and after a moment a door opens at the far end of the chamber we are in and a servant bows his head as Gehlen walks across and, without a word, without a backward glance, leaves the room. Leaving me alone.

‘Otto?’

The voice is hers. She has been watching our exchange. Listening in.

‘Yes, Gudrun?’

‘Why did you want to know those things?’

I explain it to her, when we’re alone together, and she laughs.

‘How silly you are. You only had to ask.’

‘What?’

‘You want to see the accelerator, right? Well, I can take you in with me, as my guest. I have clearance.’

I stare at her. ‘But you’re …’

‘A princess. Of the royal blood. And Tief’s niece. And people do what I tell them to.’

‘But Manfred …’

‘Is busy. And while he is – while he’s looking elsewhere – I can get you inside.’ She smiles. ‘Maybe that’s why.’

I stare at her, then laugh. She’s quick. Quicker than I expected. And maybe it
is
why I ‘saved’ her. To be my key. My way in.

‘Okay,’ I say. ‘But can we go there now?’

Her smile seems a foot wide. ‘The flyer’s waiting. We only have to get on board.’

Seeing me, Gehlen groans, then gives a great huff of exasperation.

‘
You?
What are
you
doing here?’

‘He’s with me,’ Gudrun says, squeezing in through the hatch.

The flyer isn’t designed for someone her size, but she makes do, taking two seats and stretching her long legs out along the aisle. And I find that being inside such a small space with her has a strange, dream-like quality, like sharing a rabbit hole with Alice.

As the ship lifts and glides towards its cruising altitude, Gehlen tries to ignore us only Gudrun has other ideas. Looking to me, she gestures towards the overhead cams.

‘They’re off. You can speak freely if you want.’

I look to Gehlen.

‘No,’ he says. ‘Not even with the cameras off. I’ve nothing to say to you.’

‘You’ve been working on it,’ I say. ‘Trying to understand the fluctuations. The discontinuities.’

His head jerks round, alarmed.

‘Oh, nothing visible, nothing out loud. Nothing the watchers could make out. But in your head …’

He seems shocked. ‘How do you know that?’

I don’t say. I let him dangle a moment. Then – ‘You want to talk?’

‘No!’ But he says it too quickly, and that’s the give-away. He
does
want to talk. In fact, he positively aches to share his thoughts.

I shrug. ‘Okay.’

He’s still for a while, then he turns and looks at me. ‘Who
are
you?’

‘A friend.’

‘I don’t believe that. A friend wouldn’t expose me like this.’

‘
Expose
you?’

‘To suspicion. I’ve children …’

‘I know.’

‘Then you’ll know I can’t take risks. I can’t talk. I can’t …’ He looks down, then sighs heavily. ‘I just
can’t
, that’s all.’

I like him better when he’s not being so cock-sure and arrogant. And I take his point about his children. Only … they’ll be dead two days from now. Dead. And there is nothing any of us can do about it.

I soften a little. ‘Look … I’m sorry. But what’s done is done. I’ve met you now. And if Manfred has any suspicions, he’ll have them whether you speak to me or not.’

‘Only I won’t.’

‘So you’ve said.’ I leave a brief silence, then, as if to Gudrun, say: ‘It’s the equations. They keep running off to infinity. And that’s bad. It indicates that the laws of physics are breaking down.’

I look back at Gehlen, who’s now staring at me open-mouthed.

‘Either that,’ I add quietly, ‘or the maths is wrong.’

‘The maths is right,’ he says, so softly that I have to strain to hear him. ‘I’ve checked it endless times. In my head.’

‘And now there’s drainage, too.’

Gehlen meets my eyes and nods.

‘Some
when
,’ I say.

‘Yes … only it isn’t possible.’

They’re waiting for us at Erfurt – four of Manfred’s ships. As we land, their guns are trained on us.

‘Shit!’ Gehlen says, his face pressed to the cabin window. ‘Shit!’

He turns and glares at me. And who can blame him? Only I
can
change it; make it all right again.

I concentrate, thinking it through. I could jump, back to Four-Oh, then jump directly to the moment before I first meet Gehlen. There, confronting myself, I could tell myself not to board the flyer with Gehlen, but let him return alone, unhindered, to Erfurt. The rest could be left to transpire as it did until that point.

Right. Only there’s a problem. If I
don’t
get on the flyer, then I won’t be there to make the jump back to Four-Oh when things go wrong. If I take myself out of the loop, the loop will vanish.

In other words, we’re fucked.

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Sorry?’ He looks at me despairingly. ‘You’ve ruined me! You and your stupid fucking questions!’

And he puts his head in his hands and groans.

Get a grip
, I want to say.
No one is going to harm you
. Only I don’t know that. Because this is a whole new train of events I’ve set in motion. And if I can’t jump out …

But before I can even begin to think of a solution, Gudrun takes matters into her massive hands.

I hear the sound of safeties being taken off, feel a new tension in the air and, turning round, realise that Gudrun is no longer in the craft.

She’s outside, talking to one of the soldiers. I can’t make out what’s being said, but suddenly the man’s voice rises to an angry shout.

I rush to the hatch and look out. Gudrun is standing there, towering over the man – a captain – while all about her his men point their weapons up at her. It’s a tense moment and I try to defuse it.

‘Gudrun … move back from him. And for Urd’s sake do as he says.’

She looks at me, surprised. I sense that it’s against a habit of a lifetime for her to take orders from a common
Wehrmacht
officer. Even so, she does as I’ve asked.

Things relax a little.

The officer looks to me and nods. ‘Ambassador. I have orders to take you back to Berlin. To the
Konigsturm
.’

‘And my friend?’ I ask, indicating Gehlen, who can be seen through the thick glass of the cabin window.

But the officer doesn’t say. ‘If you would come now, Herr Lucius …’

What have I done? What in Urd’s name have I done?

On the flight back to Berlin, I picture it. Gehlen in chains in a cell in the
Gefangnis
, the Guild prison, unable to complete his work. Unable to come up with the equations that will be the saving of us all.

In which case …

I stop, mentally staring out over an abyss. Surely, if I
have
fucked things up, then it will simply end? If Gehlen doesn’t complete his work, then we’ll all just disappear, like so many ghosts – isn’t that so?

Isn’t it?

But here I am still, bound hand and foot, a prisoner, sitting between two visored soldiers in the back of a troop-carrier.

So maybe it isn’t over yet. Maybe …

No. No maybes. It
can’t
be over. Something
has
to happen. Something which sets it right. Which allows Gehlen to complete his work and forge the circle.

After all, the snake has to swallow its tail.

Back at the
Konigsturm
I am taken straight to Manfred’s private suite where, roused from his bed, he comes out to face me, draped in a dark blue silk gown the size of a sail, a deep anger in his clear blue eyes.

‘Lucius, oh my dear Lucius, what
have
you been up to?’

‘It’s Otto,’ I say. ‘Otto Behr. And I’m German.’

But he seems not to hear me. Or ignores me. Whichever, he gestures towards the centre of the great chamber, and as he does, so a holo-image forms, life-size in the air.

‘Do you know this man?’

I do, if only from the distinctive double head. It’s Reichenau.

‘No.’

‘He says he knows you.’

‘You have him prisoner?’

‘We did. In the
Gefangnis
. But he blasted his way out. He and his accomplices.’

I am quiet for a time. When I look up again, I see that Manfred’s watching me. He seems less angry now.

‘Tell me,’ he says. ‘What were you doing down there? Why were you so interested in the power source?’

‘I had heard rumours, my lord.’

‘Rumours?’

‘That there was leakage. That the impossible had happened and that the black hole was failing.’

Manfred studies me a moment, then turns away. ‘Are you working for
them
, Lucius?’

‘Them?’

‘The Russians.’

I laugh. It’s so preposterous, it’s almost funny. ‘No. For us.’

‘
Us?
Who’s us?’ And he half turns towards me as he asks, like he’s teasing a child.

‘The
Volk
. The German people.’

‘Ah.’ He’s quiet a moment, then. ‘Your arrival. It was …
timely
, shall we say. Just as things began to go wrong. The drainage. The bomb. Perhaps …?’

He doesn’t finish his perhaps, just leaves it as a general insinuation.

‘I have done nothing, My Lord.’

‘Nothing? Smuggling my niece out of the palace. Trying to get in to our highest security establishment. Mixing with the leader of the
Unbeachtet
– the most powerful
Undrehungar
sect. You call these nothings?’

‘I’ve never met the man.’

‘And yet he says he knows you. Made a great point of it, in fact.’

‘Before he escaped.’ I pause, then: ‘I didn’t think it possible, to escape from the
Gefangnis
.’

Manfred turns and faces me. ‘I ought to have you killed. You, and Gehlen and that stupid meddling niece of mine. Only …’

I wait and he finishes. ‘Only I’ve seen too many die these past few hours.’

So I’m to live. Good. It saves me disappointing him and jumping straight out of there.

He crouches, his face almost at the level of my own, yet not quite. Even on his haunches he is still a good few feet taller than me.

‘So what were you talking about? In the flyer …’

‘My lord?’

‘Just tell me, Lucius. Save yourself the pain. I really don’t want to hurt you. I rather liked you. You seemed …
fresh
. Untouched by it all.’

I’m silent, and so he sighs and straightens, his tall, well-proportioned body seeming to climb up and up until his head almost touches the ceiling of the room, high as that is.

‘Oh, Lucius, why don’t you simply tell me? It makes things so much easier. So much … nicer.’

‘I asked him about the leakages.’

‘And he said?’

‘He wouldn’t answer. He’s very loyal. Was fearful for his children.’

‘A boy and girl, I understand …’

I look up at Manfred. Is he teasing me now? Being sadistic? Has last night’s work broken something in his mind?

But he only looks disappointed.

‘What will happen to him?’

‘Gehlen? Nothing. He’s far too valuable. Besides, I believe him.’

‘And Gudrun?’

Manfred doesn’t answer, and after a moment there’s a knock. It’s Tief. He stands there in the huge doorway, his grey head bowed, awaiting his master’s orders.

‘Your niece,’ Manfred says. ‘She must tell us everything. Unless she does …’

Tief seems to bow even lower. ‘Master.’ And then he turns and leaves, obedient to the last.

Manfred looks at me. ‘You say your name is Otto?’

‘Yes, My Lord.’

‘Then tell me, Otto. What’s happening? What’s
really
happening?’

I want to help her, only I don’t know how. I don’t even know where she is.

Jump
, I tell myself.
Go back. Unthread it all, stitch by stitch, then put it back together differently.

Only how? And, more to the point, when?

My mind’s a blank. For once I’m totally at a loss. Gudrun’s important – she has to be – only I don’t know in what way. I’ve not a clue what part she has to play, except that she clearly does.