“What happened to you?” Jimmy asked.
“I was billeted in England and thought I’d never see Cruikshank again.” Madrid finally looked up, transferring her gaze from floor to ceiling.
There were clinking sounds from inside the containment unit as Nulce moved samples around, looking for the one he had been sent to find. Sherman ignored him, listening in bewilderment.
“I worked my way up pretty high in counter terrorism. The kind of soldier who gets sent on… special missions.” She gave a thin laugh. “I actually hold a higher rank than Cruickshank.”
“So, is this a special mission?”
“Sort of. See, I got to hear about Cruickshank’s new ‘simulation’ and it suddenly clicked with me what he was really up to.”
“Of course,” Simon nodded. “You knew he’d stolen the time travel formula from me.”
“And had the capacity to memorise it. It still took him twenty years to build a Machine that worked.” She glanced at the larger version humming in the corner. “May-Rose managed to build one in six hours.”
“Cruikshank did all that just to get a sample of May-Rose’s genetic material and hide it in a well?” Sherman looked incredulous. “Why?”
“So he could dig it up twenty years later.” Dave volunteered. “It’s gonnae be worth a lot o dosh.”
“The guy had invented a working time machine!” Simon countered. “What could be worth more than that?”
“I don’t know his reason,” Madrid admitted. “Never got time to find out. All I managed to do was pull a few strings and get on his team. He didn’t recognise me, of course.” She looked down at herself. “I had a code name and I’ve changed a lot since I was a girl.”
“So this isn’t a virtual simulation?” Sherman was still trying to come to terms with these revelations. “You’re telling me we’ve actually been sent back in time?”
“That’s what I’m telling you.”
“How are we supposed to get back?”
“We can’t, Sherman.” The woman turned her steely gaze towards him. “Cruickshank’s Machine can send things forward in time or it can send them back◦– but it’s a one way trip, whichever direction you go. That’s why he wanted you to put the DNA sample in the well, so he could retrieve it in the future. There’s no way we could bring it back ourselves.”
“What if we try and get off the base now?”
“We won’t make it. Pinewood blows up in 2019 and there are no survivors. If we got out then everything we did from that point on would change the future. Cruikshank would never invent a time machine and we wouldn’t be here. It’s called a time travel paradox.”
“Cruikshank knew we’d never escape?”
“Yes.”
“And so did you?”
Madrid nodded again. “You don’t join the army unless you’re prepared to sacrifice yourself.”
“I’m not in the army,” Sherman replied bitterly. “I test computer games.”
“Then pass this test for God’s sakes!” Nulce was in the doorway, a stoppered glass vial in his hand. MR-12 was scrawled across a label on the side. “I can’t believe you’re falling for these lies! Let’s complete our mission, and get the hell out of here.”
“Didn’t you just hear Madrid?”
“Yeah. And I’m not falling for it.”
“I think she’s telling the truth,” Sherman said. “Which means we’re doomed.”
“No wait!” Jimmy snapped his fingers. “Why can’t we use May-Rose’s Machine to send ourselves into the future, just like she intended? If we go more than 20 years forward in time, to a point after Cruikshank invents his Machine, there will be no paradox. Everyone will think we died in the explosion, because there will be no record of us escaping◦– but we’ll actually have gotten away!”
“Will you get a grip? There is no such thing as time travel!” Nulce waved his gun at the Machine. “That’s some contraption May-Rose was building to infect other computers with her virus!” He held out a despairing hand to Sherman. “Colonel Cruikshank told us not to believe anything the kids said. He warned us they’d try to outsmart us.”
He swung the gun menacingly towards the children. They shuffled nervously behind Madrid◦– all except Jimmy, who moved protectively in front of her. Madrid hesitated then gently put a hand on his shoulder.
“Madrid is one of us and she’s backing their story,” Sherman said slowly. “Put that gun up, mister.”
“We don’t know who she is!” Nulce’s voice now had an edge of panic to it. “What about the Colonel’s investors? For all we know she’s working for the competition. She could be a double agent.”
“Nulce. These kids are offering us a way out, despite all we’ve done.”
“They’re all trying to make us fail.” The gun was trembling in his hand, but his eyes glittered with an icy calm. “I never fail.”
And he pulled the trigger.
Sherman hurled himself forwards. The burst caught him square in the chest and threw him half way across the room. Madrid swung Jimmy away and scooped up her own gun in one fluid movement. She returned fire, but Nulce had vanished into the decontamination corridor. They heard the echoes of his running footsteps fading away as he headed back towards the surface.
The children ran and knelt beside Sherman. He lay on one side, a midnight patch spreading across his black jumper and oozing over the arm of his leather jacket. He coughed and a trickle of red bubbled out of his mouth.
“Sherman, you idiot.” Madrid said, gently wiping away the blood. “I told you this wasn’t a game.”
Sherman reached out and took Jimmy’s hand.
“If you get out would you find my kid?” A tear rolled down his cheek and he grimaced in pain. “We don’t talk any more but I’d like him to know how this went down.”
He coughed once more and closed his eyes.
“I’ll find him and I’ll tell him. I promise.” Jimmy squeezed the man’s calloused hand. “Please don’t die.”
“God, I hate technology.” Sherman whispered. He rolled slowly onto his back and breathed out once, as light as a bird’s wing fluttering.
“And I’m so tired of games.”
Then he was gone.
19.40
Madrid kissed the lifeless man softly on the cheek. Jimmy and Dave looked away. Barn was crying quietly. Holding back his own tears, Simon walked over to the Machine and began tapping at the dials.
Madrid looked up, shifting to her cold, calm persona with frightening ease.
“Think you can make that do what it’s supposed to?”
“It’s just a glorified version of the Machine in our dormitory, except this one works.” Simon picked up a pad and looked at a screed of formulae May-Rose had scribbled across it. “I can calculate how to set it, yeah.”
“You need to send us more than twenty years into the future,” Jimmy said. “According to history, we don’t show up anywhere in the next two decades, so if we try to turn up any earlier it’s a fair bet we don’t make it. We’d land in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean or something.”
“That’s the problem,” Simon said. “I can send us to whatever time I like, but where am I sending us? I mean, the whole planet is turning and travelling through space.”
“Talking of time, lads.” Dave tapped his big gold watch. “We’ve only got fifteen minutes left.”