TimeBomb: The TimeBomb Trilogy: Book 1 (35 page)

‘Oh, grow up,’ said Quil.

‘Is there anything in here that can save her?’

‘Yes,’ replied Quil. ‘But only if I show you how to use it, and I’m not going to do that.’

Sweetclover ran up behind Quil, picked her up bodily and ran over the threshold of the room with her. Quil squealed in surprised protest and Kaz was forced to back away unless he wanted to run them both through. When he was inside the room Sweetclover dropped Quil, grabbing the knife from her as he did so. Then he dropped to one knee and held the knife to Jana’s throat.

‘Drop the sword and shut the door, or the girl dies,’ he told Kaz.

Dismayed at how quickly he’d lost the initiative, Kaz had no choice but to wave his approaching allies away from the door and close it in their faces.

‘Think I’ll keep the sword,’ he said. ‘Otherwise you’ll kill me too.’

Taking advantage of the stand-off, Quil rummaged through the instruments on the medicine table. She found what she was looking for and began swabbing her wound with some liquid that she sloshed onto a piece of linen.

‘Who’s he?’ asked Kaz, pointing to the man who lay on the bed. He was a mess; covered in blood, with a nasty red gash in his stomach and what looked like a bullet hole in his chest. Remarkably, he was still breathing, but his breaths were rasping and shallow, with a soft gurgle of blood; he didn’t look like he was long for this world.

‘Nobody,’ replied Sweetclover.

There was a pistol shot outside, which told Kaz that the soldiers had broken through the door.

‘Big fight outside,’ said Kaz. ‘My guys against Parliament soldiers. Fifty/fifty my side wins, but whoever wins, you lose.’

‘Idiot,’ laughed Quil. Kaz glanced over at her just in time to see her grasp the alarm cord and press the button. He cursed his own stupidity. After what had happened last time, he should have remembered the damn thing was there.

‘Within a few minutes my guards will come down from the gun emplacements on the towers and kill everyone in that room.’ She winced as she cleaned her wound. ‘Hank, flip her over and cut the back of her neck open for me, would you? You’ll find a small grey square thing attached to the spine where it meets the skull. Prise it off and toss it over.’

Kaz stepped forward quickly and levelled the point of his sword against Quil’s left breast.

‘Try it, Hank,’ he said, ‘and this monster dies.’

‘Who are you anyway?’ asked Quil, affecting nonchalance and continuing to staunch the bleeding from her wound. ‘What is that accent? Russian?’

Kaz felt a familiar anger rise in his breast. ‘Polish,’ he said.

‘Oh, right. Sorry,’ she said, making it plain exactly how sorry she wasn’t. ‘But who are you, Kaz? I know Jana’s story, I know how Dora got involved. But you’re the wild card. Can’t get a handle on you.’

‘I am just a guy,’ he said. ‘Nothing special.’

‘A guy who can travel in time. A guy who makes it his business to get in my way. What have I ever done to you, Kaz? What’s your beef with me?’

Kaz shrugged. ‘Where do I begin? You kidnapped me. Plugged me into a mind probe thing. Sent guards to shoot at me.’

‘Haven’t done that yet,’ she replied. ‘But I’ll make a note so I can be sure not to forget.’ She turned her attention to Sweetclover, who was still holding the knife to Jana’s throat. ‘Hey, Hank, she still breathing?’

‘She is,’ he confirmed.

‘If she dies now, before I met her, there’s a chance it could change history. Maybe it’d rewrite the timeline or something. I could vanish, you know. It could be like we never met.’

‘That would be a shame,’ replied Sweetclover dryly.

‘You say the sweetest things.’

‘If she dies, you die,’ said Kaz, pushing the tip of the blade against Quil’s chest for emphasis.

‘Which would mean I couldn’t go to the future and plug you into the mind probe thing,’ said Quil, imitating his accent. Kaz really hated it when people did that. ‘Another paradox. Has anybody explained to you what happens if you change history, create a paradox, kill your own grandfather or whatever?’

Kaz shook his head.

Quil seemed disappointed. ‘Shame, I was hoping you could tell me. Way I see it, there are three options. One: the universe explodes. Two: you create an alternate timeline that exists separate from the original, but with you in it. Three: time resets and you vanish in a puff of paradox. And I have no idea which is the right one. So if she croaks in the next minute or two, and you decide to kill me, thereby creating two paradoxes at once, and the universe doesn’t go FOOM! you’ll at least be able to discount one option.’

As she finished her little speech there was a cry from outside the door and Kaz realised that the sounds of fighting had faded away.

‘Oh good, the boys have arrived,’ said Quil. ‘Open the door, Hank.’

Sweetclover rose and opened the door. Outside Kaz could see Quil’s blue-faced guards standing over a line of men – both soldiers and Clubmen – kneeling with their hands behind their heads. The floor was littered with dead and wounded of both sides. Kaz could see both Thomas and Dora propped up against the wall comforting people, oblivious to everything that was happening around them.

Kaz cursed himself. The Clubmen of Pendarn, who had fought so bravely, had lost, and it was all his fault. He was the one who’d persuaded Thomas to help him storm this place to try and get Dora and Jana out. He’d tried to play the big hero, come running to the rescue, and look what had happened – half the men of Pendarn were dead or dying. Confronted with the consequences of his actions, the totality of his failure and the awful cost of his recklessness, he felt the fight go out of him.

Kaz dropped the sword.

‘Screw it,’ he said. ‘You win.’

‘I usually do,’ said Quil.

Jana felt like she was swimming to the surface from the very darkest depths of the ocean. There was light ahead (or above, she couldn’t be sure which) and she was clawing her way towards it through liquid agony. Even when sounds began to fade back in they were muffled and distant, as if she was sitting on the bottom of a swimming pool trying to listen to a conversation someone was having on a pool-chair by the water.

The first words that came through loud and clear were, ‘Screw it, you win.’

That didn’t sound good. She kept her eyes closed and tried to breathe calmly, as if she were still unconscious. Easier said than done; one side of her chest felt as if someone had cut it open and shoved a red-hot steam iron inside. She could taste blood in her mouth and throat. She could smell it too, and feel it caked around her nostrils and lips. She was lying down, had no feeling in her legs or right arm. She wanted to vomit, had the worst migraine she’d ever experienced, and generally felt as bad as she thought a human being can without actually being dead.

She heard footsteps around her head, and the voices moved away. She lay still for another minute, somehow managing to prevent another bloody cough, and when she was sure there was no one directly beside her she risked opening one eye into the tightest of squints. Brick ceiling. So she was still in the undercroft. Even that small amount of light hurt and she winced as her brain found one more pain centre that it hadn’t previously activated and gave it a punch, just to complete the set.

She risked turning her head, which was a very bad move indeed, because she almost passed out again from the pain of it. Once it had subsided to merely excruciating, she squinted again. She was looking into the undercroft, where Quil and Sweetclover were standing over a row of kneeling prisoners. They were an odd bunch – some soldiers, some civilians, and Kaz, who looked totally downcast. It didn’t take a genius to work out what had happened. She closed her eyes and lay still for a moment, collecting her thoughts. She wasn’t dead, which was a nice surprise, but she felt sure she soon would be unless she received urgent medical care. There were two options, as far as she could tell – persuade Quil to save her, or join hands with Dora and Kaz and jump to a year where they had hospitals.

Given how completely Quil seemed to have the upper hand, Jana quickly discounted getting her help. Which raised the question – how was she going to get to Kaz and Dora, when she couldn’t walk, and there were guards looming over them?

She turned her head again, stifling a groan of agony, and looked around the room for inspiration. The first thing she saw, lying right by her hand, was a sword.

And that gave her an idea.

She moved her arm, which unleashed a fresh hell of pain across her chest and nearly forced out a wet red cough, but she managed to grasp the blade, slick with fresh blood, and pull it to her, her fingers slipping again and again as she struggled for purchase. When the sword was close enough, she walked her fingers down the blade until she found the hilt and grabbed it. Then, trying not to think about how much it was going to hurt, she lifted her arm, put the point of the sword on the floor, and used it as a lever to sit up.

She wasn’t even aware of having screamed until the sound had faded away, because her head was so light from lack of blood that she passed out for a moment as she was pulling herself upright. But when her hearing and vision returned she found, to her delight, that she was sitting up, sword in hand. And everyone was staring at her.

‘Sorry,’ she wheezed, and attempted a smile. ‘That hurt.’

Gritting her teeth for another brush with darkness, she raised her other arm till she was holding the hilt of the sword with both hands. The wound in her chest felt like someone was trying to scoop out her heart with a blunt teaspoon, but she managed not to pass out again. Finally she rotated her hands and raised the tip of the sword until it was pointing at her throat.

‘What are you doing, Jana?’ asked Quil, her voice full of amusement.

‘Going home,’ she rasped.

‘Really?’ Quil laughed. ‘Oh, this should be good.’

‘Kaz and Dora. Where are they?’

‘I’m here, Jana. So is Dora, but she’s not so good.’ That was Kaz, his face the picture of misery.

‘Kaz and Dora are going to come and sit with me,’ said Jana. ‘Or I’ll drive this sword through my throat into my chip, and destroy it.’

The long silence that greeted her pronouncement was broken by a slow clapping.

‘Oh, very good,’ said Quil, ending her applause.

‘I’ll do it,’ croaked Jana. ‘Nothing to lose.’

‘I can see that,’ said Quil. ‘So what’s the plan – hold hands, jump to a time with a hospital, get yourself fixed up, live to fight another day?’

Jana tried to say ‘something like that’, but found she only had breath for, ‘Yes.’

‘The jump might kill you, you know.’

Jana managed a short laugh.

Quil made a show of considering her options. ‘I do want that chip, and damn if I don’t believe you would kill yourself just to spite me. If you stay alive, I can always catch up to you another day.’ She shrugged. ‘Why not? Kaz, Dora, go sit with your friend.’

Kaz rose to his feet and walked over to the wall. He had a mumbled conversation with Dora and then, holding her hand, he helped her get to her feet. Sparks shot from their joined fingers. Together they walked across to Jana.

‘Hi,’ said Kaz.

‘Hello, Jana,’ said Dora, in an odd, flat voice that told Jana she was deep in shock.

‘Hi, guys,’ breathed Jana.

‘We leaving?’ asked Kaz.

‘Yes.’

‘Sorry, I can’t leave. My family’s all here, I need to stay with them,’ said Dora.

Kaz smiled at Dora patiently. ‘That’s OK, Dora,’ he said. ‘We can come back for them. But Jana and me need you to help us jump out of here to somewhere with a hospital. Or Jana will die. We cannot jump without you, Dora.’

Dora looked over at Jana and her face creased in puzzlement. ‘Jana, why are you holding a sword to your throat?’

‘Long story,’ gasped Jana, wishing that Dora would shut up and hold hands already.

‘You know what, Hank?’ said Quil loudly, making a point of ignoring the three time travellers. ‘I think it’s time we got going too. Not much point hanging around here any more, not if Jana’s leaving.’

‘Go where?’ asked Sweetclover.

‘I thought Paris, the Grand Expo, my time. It’ll be lovely. I can get a new face, you can try escargot, we can drink the city dry. What do you say?’

To Jana’s eyes Sweetclover seemed relieved by Quil’s suggestion, as if getting away from all this bloodshed was his fondest wish. He nodded and said, ‘Yes.’

Quil turned to address them. ‘OK, we’ll be off then. It’s been fun. Don’t hang around too long, though, I’m going to set the self-destruct. Don’t want to leave any evidence lying around to confuse the archaeologists. Just this room, though. Seal it up. For now.’

So saying, she typed a series of commands into the computer’s keyboard. All the screens merged into one large image, showing a clock counting down from sixty seconds.

‘I love a good countdown, don’t you? Bye.’

She reached out and took her husband’s hand, and they vanished in a blaze of red.

‘Crap,’ said Kaz.

Jana let her arms flop to her sides and the sword fell to the floor. She was racked by a terrible coughing fit, and felt her mouth and throat fill with blood again.

Dora was staring at the clock curiously. ‘What happens when the clock gets to nothing?’ she asked.

Jana tried to warn Kaz not to tell her, but she was too busy coughing to get the words out, and the dumbass went and answered her question.

‘This room will explode,’ he said. ‘We have to go.’

Jana gave Kaz the dirtiest of looks in which she tried to communicate as much of ‘and what about her family, you moron?’ as she could manage in a glare.

She saw Kaz realise his mistake but it was too late, Dora was already tugging at his hand.

‘My parents, my brother, we have to get them out of here.’

Kaz held tight, refusing to let her pull away. ‘Those guards aren’t letting anyone out. We stay, we die. We are the only three who can escape, Dora. We have to go
now
.’

‘Let go of me,’ said Dora, pulling as hard as she could.

Jana, knowing that it was now or never, willing herself to ignore the pain, raised both arms, leant forward and grabbed Kaz and Dora’s free hands with her own.