Day of the Assassins (20 page)

Pendelshape had no idea what they had been through these last few days. The deaths that Jack had seen on their journey – the professor, Dani, Zadok and now, finally, the Archduke and his wife… it was too much. Jack glanced over at Angus. He sat on the dusty crate, just staring into the gloom of the musty storeroom. He looked pale and drawn. This wasn’t like playing some sort of super bonus round of
Point-of-Departure
, where you had to get three gold stars on every level. This was real.

Pendelshape sensed Jack’s unease, “Look – I understand – I know you have endured a lot. We all have.” Jack stared back at him blankly. Pendelshape sighed, “In truth we don’t have much time, but it might help if I tell you our side of the story… perhaps then you might understand a little better.”

Jack shrugged.

“I was always on your father’s side. Taurus gives us the chance to change the world for the better. We must be careful, but used with precision, we now have the tools to do infinite good. But Inchquin and the Rector poisoned the rest of the team against your father. They thought that it was wrong to meddle with history – even though our computer technology is highly effective at modelling the consequences of interventions. They still thought it was too risky. So as soon as we knew that the Taurus at the school worked, they closed the whole thing down. Put in place rules, protocols, all codified in the VIGIL Imperative. But they still remained suspicious of your father – they knew he wouldn’t come over to their point of view. He remained a risk. So eventually…” he paused.

“Eventually, what?” Angus asked.

“They tried to get rid of him for good.”

“What – kill Dad?” Jack said.

“Yes, Jack. And they nearly succeeded. So he disappeared when you were just eight and became a fugitive. I remained at the school, I had pretended to side with VIGIL, but I was secretly loyal to him. That is why your father had to leave you and your mum, Jack. I’m afraid that’s why you have had to grow up without him. It’s not what he wanted. Not at all.”

“In exile, it took your father a long time to recreate the Taurus… the machine that sent first Angus back to rescue you and then me, in that wretched tank. I took risks to help your father by channelling information to him. The work took many years. But from our earlier research we had already pinpointed a moment in time where we knew we could make a massive beneficial change in the course of world history.”

“Sarajevo, 28th June, 1914,” Jack said. “Today.”

“Exactly. The twentieth century was mankind’s bloodiest and that date – today’s date – was the trigger. It needn’t have happened. We conducted three short expeditions – using the Taurus at the school during the testing phase – just before your father left. That’s how I infiltrated the Black Hand and the assassins, met Anna and Dani and
set up the second cell, led by Zadok. We were going to return, having laid the groundwork, and then disrupt the assassination to prevent the war. Of course, before we finalised the plan, we created many detailed computer simulations of the various interventions in time that we might make and how they might affect the future.”

“Timeline Simulations.”

“Yes. I remember when we cracked it…”

“Don’t tell me – Simulation 0107. The wallchart that was missing from Dad’s workshop at Cairnfield?”

“Yes. This was the scenario that optimised the future most effectively. It started with stopping the Sarajevo assassination.”

“Then your plan failed because Dad had to escape from VIGIL.”

“But when your father told me that he had perfected his own Taurus, he asked me to bring you to him so you would be safe. There was little time. So I decided to use the school Taurus once more to hide us in history – in 1914 in fact. The school Taurus was already configured for that period – from the earlier tests.”

“You knew you had to take me with you because if VIGIL had me captive – they could threaten Dad.”

“Yes. But we would escape from the school and you would be safe. Before leaving I would invoke a programme that would wipe all the Taurus’s control discs after we’d gone – remove all the software, documentation and design, and wipe all the back-up devices. Without the software or documentation, Taurus is just a useless lump of metal. At that point your father and I would have the only working Taurus and VIGIL would be impotent. I had passed our time phone codes to your father – so once we had escaped he would be able to track us and pick us up with his Taurus. Nothing could stop us then. We had it all worked out.”

“But then the Rector found out. He intercepted Dad’s message.”

“In our excitement, we made a stupid mistake. Once they knew that your father had built his own time machine they were very concerned. They thought he had disappeared. Over the years VIGIL had ceased to be worried about him – and they certainly never suspected me.”

“So they moved in – just as you were about to tell us your plan in
the Taurus control room at school.”

“But you escaped, not surprisingly, scared to death by the Rector and the VIGIL thugs, and we were in a completely new situation. It was unplanned.”

“Then you and Angus were rescued by Dad…”

“Your father knew we might need back up. Over the years he has recruited a few very loyal supporters,” Pendelshape nodded proudly at Angus, “And Angus kindly agreed to rescue you from the castle.”

Angus looked down sheepishly, not sure whether to be proud of his actions or not.

“Why did you send Angus alone?” Jack asked.

“We didn’t! Angus was included because we knew you would trust him. He wanted to come. But the signal failed as we were sending the rest of the team. The time phone signals are intermittent. It has always been a problem. The next signal was at Schönbrunn and when we got a fix on Angus’s time phone we had a second chance.”

“The tank?”

Pendelshape smiled, “A German Tiger tank from the Second World War. Your father has got a little collection of historical artefacts. And it did the job – or at least it diverted VIGIL sufficiently for you to escape.” For a moment, doubt flashed across his face, “Near thing though…” He leaned over so the boys could see the top of his bald head. “See… burned off the remains of my hair.”

Pendelshape chortled – he seemed to think that it was quite funny – but Jack didn’t, “I don’t think you understand. There are people we have met here… who helped us, who were good to us. Real people…”

“Right, sir, and three of them are dead now,” Angus added bluntly.

Pendelshape replied dismissively, “Yes, yes. I am not saying any of this is easy…”

This was too much for Jack. He felt anger welling up inside him. “You can’t just say that. The professor, he was our friend, he saved my life.” Jack shivered at the memory of the professor’s death. “Don’t you get it?” Jack was finding it difficult to control himself… “And Anna… she rescued us from Inchquin… her brother was murdered… right before our eyes…”

“With a lance,” Angus added.

“And Zadok – who blindly trusted you – if he hadn’t been there, the bullet that killed him would have hit me!”

Pendelshape snapped back, waving his time phone, “I’m afraid this time signal won’t wait for us to complete this philosophical debate.” Angus and Jack glared at him and Pendelshape sighed impatiently, “Sorry – look – I understand that you have witnessed some bad things… I’m sorry… and I know your father is as well. This is not how either of us had intended the mission to work out. But there is so much more at stake than one or two deaths…” Pendelshape turned to Jack, “I can see that this is difficult for you. But your father wants you to follow him. Our desire is that you join us willingly. You can help us achieve a great deal. You can help us change the world.” The boys continued to look unimpressed. Pendelshape rubbed his chin. “Maybe I need to show you how much is at stake here.” He was mulling something over in his head. “Indeed. To convince you, perhaps I need to show you the consequences of today’s events – give you a real history lesson, if you will.”

He peered into the time phone and started to tap away.

“What are you doing?”

“Well, Angus, it is quite simple, we need to return to Jack’s father’s base. We can’t stay here. But we can make a little detour,” he paused. “Yes, I know exactly where we should go…” Pendelshape murmured to himself, “I believe there was a large field hospital at that point behind the allied front line… Now, if I can just code the right spacetime fix…”

Jack and Angus exchanged nervous glances as Pendelshape busied himself with the time phone.

“Sir – are you planning what I think you’re planning? Because if you are, I don’t think that’s a good idea at all, in fact I think…”

Suddenly, the door of the storeroom flew off its rusty hinges in a storm of splintering wood. A young Austrian army officer stood in the doorway brandishing a pistol.

Pendelshape looked up from the time phone and spoke quietly, “Well boys – I am afraid whatever you think, it looks like we have little choice.”

“Good afternoon, officer…” Pendelshape said. The officer seemed a little taken aback by Pendelshape’s confident English voice and eyed them suspiciously. “Come on boys – close in – hands on the time phone,” Pendelshape whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

The boys did what they were told but, alarmed by the sudden movement, the officer shouted an order and raised his pistol to shoot. 

T
he shock wave from the air burst caught Jack full on, lifted him up and threw him backwards a full six metres, his body twisting in mid air as he flew. Gravity pulled him back to earth, but where there should have been churned-up mud to cushion his landing, there was nothing. Instead, he was propelled into a huge empty space on the ground. With a crunching thud, his face, and then the rest of his body, hit the sloping inner wall of a large hole. As he slid down, mud filled his ears, nostrils and mouth. He came to rest in a large puddle in the bottom of the hole.

Pendelshape’s plan to give Jack and Angus an impromptu lesson in the horror of war was looking like a very bad idea indeed. With his encyclopedic knowledge of the First World War, it had sounded like he was aiming for some field hospital way behind the allied lines. But with the intrusion of the Austrian officer things had not gone according to plan. The time travel technology had placed them slam in the middle of no-man’s-land during a major British offensive.

Just as they had landed, there had been an ear-splitting explosion and Jack had suddenly become airborne. He didn’t even know if Angus and Pendelshape had survived the blast. And now, here he was at the bottom of some putrid hole in the ground.

Suddenly, on the other side of the puddle, Jack saw two eyes staring back at him from a mud-freckled face. The figure opposite was lying against the side of the crater, caked in dirt. From his uniform and helmet, Jack recognised immediately that he was German. But judging by his pink skin and the fear on his face it was clear that he was more a boy than a man. Above the boy’s knee, Jack could make out a large dark patch. The boy-soldier was wounded. At that point
Jack realised with dismay that within his white, fragile, boy-fingers, the soldier held a large black pistol. It was pointing at Jack.

He felt panic start to build from the pit of his stomach. The boy was as terrified as Jack was, but nevertheless, Jack could see his index finger slowly squeezing the trigger of the pistol. There was a yellow flash and a loud crack as the gun fired. Jack braced himself – but the impact from the bullet didn’t come. Instead, it had buried itself in the wall of earth to his left. The boy held the pistol up again, this time both index fingers wrapped round the trigger and squeezed a second time… there was a click. The gun was empty.

At that moment, a second German soldier loomed from behind the lip of the crater. Even at that distance, Jack could see that he was stockier than the boy opposite. The soldier surveyed the scene and quickly descended into the crater moving with speed and confidence. Reaching the bottom of the hole, he bypassed his young comrade and marched directly through the puddle to where Jack lay. The soldier reached down to the bayonet hanging on his belt and fastened it to the end of his rifle, which he now lifted up and pinned under Jack’s chin. Jack was helpless. This was it.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Jack detected a large, fast-moving blur descend from his side of the crater. The German soldier half-turned, momentarily distracted. The blur moved with uncanny speed. Jack recognised the figure. Angus! The soldier had no time to react. Angus launched at him with a crunching rugby tackle. Jack was first to his feet and grabbed the soldier’s rifle. The tables were turned.

The soldier stared back defiantly from his prostrate position on the crater floor. Then he reached to grab something from his back.

“Don’t even think about it,” warned Jack, raising the rifle and inching the glistening bayonet towards the soldier’s face. He thrust the bayonet forward – instinctively copying the soldier’s action against himself a few seconds earlier. But Jack misjudged, and the serrated steel edge of the seven-inch blade made contact with the lobe of the soldier’s right ear, slicing right through it. The soldier whimpered in fear. Jack recoiled – alarmed at the ease with which the injury had been inflicted. Angus was now up on his feet. The soldier stared,
pleadingly, first at Jack and then Angus standing next to him. A moment before, he had seemed like an automaton – a killing machine. But now he was helpless and terrified. Contrary to what Jack had first thought, he could not have been that much older than either Jack or the boy soldier who still sat quivering on the opposite side of the crater. And there was something else about the soldier lying at their feet, something about the face… and now with the injured ear… Something odd. Jack waved the rifle and shouted a second time.

“Go! Go on, get out of here!”

For a moment, the soldier looked confused and stared back at them questioningly.

Jack raised his voice, “Go! Now! The British will be here soon.”

Euphoria spread across the soldier’s face – it was if he had been re-born and his humanity restored. He scrambled to his feet and staggered through the water to the other side of the crater. He stopped briefly to haul his young comrade to his feet. Then, supporting his friend, he clambered up the opposite side of the crater and away.

Jack was shaking, “Er, thanks Angus.”

Angus was silent and stared at the opposite side of the crater.

“You OK? Look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I think I might have.”

“What?”

“That soldier… I’m sure…” Angus stopped mid-sentence and rubbed his eyes. “Doesn’t matter… Come on, we can’t hang around. It’s dangerous here.”

“Where’s Pendelshape – did he make it?”

Angus jerked his head to one side, “He’s behind me. He’s OK.”

They looked round, and sure enough, Pendelshape’s head loomed into view above them on the crater lip.

“Come on boys – the bombardment has stopped. We need to get out of here.”

“Really? I thought we might hang around and maybe do a bit of shopping,” Angus said to Jack as they dragged themselves back up to the top of the crater. The smoke was clearing steadily and a weak sun
was starting to wink through. They seemed to be on a slightly raised part of the battlefield.

Jack couldn’t believe his eyes. They were in the middle of some sort of extraordinary lifeless moonscape of craters and mud as far as the eye could see. There were no trees, there was no grass… nothing. On either side of them in some places not more than a hundred metres apart, embankments of earth signifying the position of the two armies’ front line trenches, snaked towards the horizon. Barbed wire was strung out along each trench – in some places there were gaps where it had been cut or blown apart. As Jack gained his bearings, he began to notice that, strewn haphazardly about the landscape, were dead bodies. In some cases their position was only signified by a discarded rifle or a helmet or a flapping piece of material. But they were there. And it was clear that some of them had been there for a long time. He’d been staring for ten seconds. But he’d already had enough.

“Look – they’re retreating,” Pendelshape gestured over to the German lines. In the distance they could make out the figures of hundreds of men picking their way from the German front line. “They’re evacuating following the bombardment. Come on… we can take refuge in there.”

They followed Pendelshape and careered forward thirty metres to the German lines. First Pendelshape and then Jack tumbled over the side, landing on the fire step above the bottom of the badly waterlogged trench.

“It stinks in here,” Angus said.

Pendelshape glanced left and then right. The trench was deserted apart from a single corpse that lay face down in the water only metres from where they had landed.

“Quick – over there.”

A small bunker had been honed from the earth on the opposite side of the trench and they stepped inside gingerly. A makeshift bed had been set up in the subterranean room and there was even a small table and chairs. There were papers strewn everywhere and a chess set lay on the table with the pieces scattered.

“Should be safe here for a moment.”

Jack sat down on one of the chairs, “I’ve had enough. Let’s see the time phones… now!”

First Angus, then Pendelshape placed their time phones on the table. The telltale yellow bar on each of them was burning fiercely.

“We still have a signal – we can get out of here. Now!”

Pendelshape seemed to hesitate, “Well, hold on…”

Jack was incredulous. “You’re not seriously suggesting that we hang around?”

“Well, now we are here…”

Angus interrupted him, “Sorry, sir – you’re mad if you think we’re staying.”

“Yes – I think we’ve seen enough already,” Jack added.

Pendelshape replied, “Good. As you have now observed, the consequences of war are indeed horrific… so we can travel back… back to your father now?”

Jack couldn’t believe it. Pendelshape seemed to be almost… smiling. It was at that moment, seeing that smile, that Jack knew he couldn’t go along with Pendelshape or, for that matter, his father.

Jack spoke calmly but there was steel in his voice, “In the last week, we have been shot at, chased half way around Europe and seen three good people… friends… die and now you’ve brought us here. You and Dad have taken terrible risks with our lives and those of many others… for your own… ambition.”

Pendelshape stood up, “But we have to change history; we have to change it so it’s all better, so it’s all good… don’t you see? We must…”

“You might think you have to, so might Dad. But I don’t.”

“What do you mean?”

Jack’s heart was pounding, “We don’t want anything to do with this. We’ve got our own lives to lead. We belong in the present and we should stay there,” Jack tried to steady his voice, “Look – I think what you and Dad have done is…” he shook his head, “…incredible. Really. Creating the Taurus. All that. But it’s dangerous. Just one example – Angus and I worked out that if we had done what you and Dad planned – he wouldn’t even exist.”

Pendelshape waved his hand dismissively, “We can fix that… it would just be another variant of Simulation 0107…”

“The point is: we belong in the present. I know that puts me at the mercy of the Rector and Inchquin and VIGIL.”

Pendelshape was incredulous, “What? But they might kill you!”

“No they won’t. They would only threaten that if you and Dad were to use your Taurus. If you don’t – they won’t touch a hair on my head. So it’s simple, really. If you and Dad promise not to use your Taurus, then we will be safe… We’ll be left alone.”

Pendelshape stared back at him goggle-eyed, “So you’re going to make yourself a willing hostage to VIGIL? And stop us fulfilling our life’s work?”

“It’s nothing to do with you or your life’s work. It’s to do with us. I’m doing it because in the last few days we’ve already seen too much death – more than enough to last a lifetime. I don’t want any more. The past should stay where it belongs – in the past.”

Jack knew what he was saying was right.

“So, you set your time phone to go back to Dad’s base. We need never know where it is – so VIGIL will never know and you’ll be safe. I know you’ve also got the codes for the other Taurus at school. So you set Angus’s time phone so me and Angus can travel back to school. Simple…”

“But…”

“And do it now before we lose the time signal again,” Angus said.

“I can’t – your father… He will never forgive me.”

But seeing the expression on the boys’ faces, Pendelshape knew his cause was finally lost. He leaned over the time phones and started to tap.

“Good. Hurry up.”

From outside the bunker they heard a distant whistle.

“What’s that?”

“The British are going over the top. They’ll be here in a minute.”

Angus breathed into Pendelshape’s ear, “Well you’d better get on with it!”

“I’m going as fast as I can!”

Jack jerked his head at Angus to move away from Pendelshape.

Suddenly, there was an explosion further along the trench.

“What was that?”

“A shell?”

“Or a grenade?”

“The Brits must be here already.”

Angus turned back to Pendelshape, “How long?”

“A minute… at most.” Pendelshape was sweating.

“Go faster!”

“You’re not helping.”

There was a sudden commotion from outside the trench.

A British voice shouted, “Check down that end, Corporal!”

“They’re clearing the trench,” Jack said. “We must hurry – they won’t take any chances – they’ll just assume we’re the enemy…”

At last, Pendelshape lifted his head and slid Angus’s time phone across the table, keeping the other for himself.

He had a sad look in his eyes, “It’s recoded. You can go home.”

“No funny business, right?” Angus said.

Pendelshape looked resigned and shrugged, “No. I am disappointed, and your father will be too, Jack. We may not see each other again. Certainly not for double history.”

Jack flipped open the time phone. The bar was still shining bright yellow.

The British voices were now very close.

“In there, Corporal! I heard someone!”

“Any grenades left, Jim?” There was a pause. “Good – just chuck it in!”

The door to the bunker flew open and a grenade rolled menacingly across the floor towards them.

Angus moved close to Jack so that they were both touching the time phone. Jack put an arm round his friend’s shoulders and stabbed the time phone with his thumb. There was a flash as the grenade exploded.