Time Leap (12 page)

I went to the bedroom to
warn Niki, but it was too late.

“
Mama?”

“
Er, no Nik…
it’s, er, you. An older version.”

We had been face–to–face
with ourselves before, but the difference then was just ten years.
The people sitting in our lounge must have been around forty years
older than us. Joe2 broke the silence.

“
I know this
will seem very strange to you both – it’s actually very strange to
us too... you both look so
young!
”

Funnily enough, we soon
got used to seeing the older versions of ourselves. It didn’t
really feel like seeing us – it was more like looking at two very
familiar older family members.

“
First ups,
we’ve changed our names… at least for these situations. We’ve made
a lot of jumps over the years, and met up with many different
versions of ourselves. So instead of there being two Nikis and two
Joes, you can call her Yoyo and me Mike.

“
Yoyo… I like
that!” smiled Niki.

“
You’ll want
to know why we’re here, I guess,” Yoyo said.

“
Well, that
would be nice,” I replied.

“
It’s nothing
to do with what you did in 1935. Wow, that seems like a long time
ago, doesn’t it Mike?” He nodded. I have to say that they both
looked pretty good for their age. Yoyo continued. “We’re here
because we need you to do something.” She paused. “Joe, Niki… would
you be prepared to do anything to save the human race?”

“
What do we
have to do?” I asked.

“
You’ve got to
kill Kim Jong–un, the leader of North Korea.”

We were stunned. Although
we’d considered killing people before to change history, this was
the first time we’d been asked to do it. Kim Jong-un had been
President of North Korea since his father, Kim Jong-il, died in
2013. It was well known that the country appeared unstable at times
under Kim Jong-un, so we didn’t really have to ask why we were
being asked to do this. North Korea had recently developed nuclear
weapons and launched rockets into space, and the dictators had
great hatred for their ‘evil enemy’ – the USA. But there was
something I didn’t know.

“
Actually,
it’s not Kim Jong-un who is the danger, explained Mike. It’s his
son – Kim Jong-hui.”

Niki looked puzzled. “But
Kim Jong-un doesn’t have a son!” she said.

“
No, not yet!”
replied Yoyo. “But on the first of October next year, his wife Ri
Sol–Ju will give birth to a baby boy – and they’ll call him Kim
Jong-hui.”

“
Why is Kim
Jong-hui more dangerous than his father?” I asked. They told us the
whole story.

Kim Jong-hui would grow
up with a hatred of America and all it stands for, but without the
common sense or restraint of either his father or grandfather. Much
of the propaganda that his forebears spread was bluster: they had
no real intention of being the initiator of any war with the USA –
a war they’d have very little chance to win without support from
Russia, or their closest ally China. However, the DPRK were
certainly ready to retaliate should the Americans either attack
Pyongyang, or support the South in a war against the North. Partly
due to a birth defect, Kim Jong-hui would grow up to be, as his
peers will later admit, a little crazy in the head – or ‘special’
as they would say. This, combined with his hatreds and a supreme
arrogance, would lead him to push the button, releasing rockets
towards the USA. In 2015, the Koreans did not have the technology
to accurately send missiles that far, but in forty years’
time…

The first missile would
hit the sea off the coast of Maine, and a second fall short of
Washington. This would be enough for the USA to retaliate, hitting
Pyongyang and causing death and destruction on a large scale.
Another small city would be virtually razed to the ground. The
Russians, seeing this as a gross over–reaction, would support North
Korea alongside China. The UK and some European nations would side
with the Americans, and World War Three would become
reality.

By the time Mike and Yoyo
had painted this picture, we understood why such an assassination
was needed. But two questions remained. One: why kill Kim Jong-un
when we could take out the perpetrator, Kim Jong-hui, instead? And
two: why don’t Mike and Yoyo do this themselves?

“
Well, we
could try to kill the son, of course. But whilst he’s young, he’ll
be very heavily protected within the presidential palace. Another
option would be to assassinate the mother – that would certainly
prevent Kim Jong-hui being born. But she rarely travels outside of
Korea. Jong-un, on the other hand, will be visiting China very
soon, and we think this is a good opportunity to wipe him off the
face of the Earth – before he fathers a child.”

Niki and I looked at each
other.

“
How soon?”
she asked.

“
In two weeks’
time – in Beijing,” Mike replied. He paused to let this sink in,
and then continued. “And as regards your second question, Yoyo and
I are getting on now, and this is a job for younger people.” They
smiled to each other. Then a thought struck me.

“
So you’re
both here now because it’s happened? The balloon’s gone up –
they’ve dropped the bomb?”

“
Yes – and not
just one: Washington and San Francisco have already been
hit.”

“
With nuclear
missiles?” asked Niki.

“
Yes,” Yoyo
replied.

“
Shit!”

We were all quiet for a
minute. Then Niki said, “You can stay here with us for as long as
you need…”

“
That would be
great, thank you,” Yoyo replied.

“
It’s going to
get pretty nasty on planet Earth now,” Mike said. “Korea sees the
UK as an ally of America, of course, so it’s only a matter of time
before London is hit.”

*

That night in
bed Niki and I talked about the day – a very strange day. If we
really wanted to be involved in a big adventure, then this was it:
it doesn’t get much bigger than assassinating the supreme leader of
North Korea. In one way, it didn’t seem at all real, and perhaps
that’s why we’d agreed to do it.
How
we could actually do it, we’d no
idea at that moment. We would have to plan very carefully and in
great detail: we could not afford for things to go wrong this time.
We had failed to stop World War Two, but we knew the World had
survived and got over it. In the case of the new Korean War,
however, it could mean the complete annihilation of not just the
human race, but planet Earth as well.

So drastic times, called
for drastic measures. The fact that neither Niki nor I had ever
killed anything bigger than a cockroach was something we’d have to
deal with of course. There was also the fact that a foreigner with
white skin and big nose would stand out like a sore thumb anywhere
near the Korean leader. So it looked like a lot of pressure on
Niki. The question we kept coming back to was this: how were we
going to kill this man without risking getting ourselves killed or
imprisoned for life?

We discussed many
different options that night, including direct shot to the head,
poisoning, a bomb, and a fire. One thing that came out of our
discussions (which went on until three in the morning) was the fact
that we now knew how to eliminate Adolf Hitler. Forget about
assassinating the Fuhrer – go for the mother and father. With the
benefit of time–travel, we could actually prevent Hitler being
born; but that was a project for another time. For now, we had
another dictator to consider: Kim Jong-un.

*

The next morning, we let
Mike and Yoyo sleep in (well, they’d travelled nearly forty years
back in time), whilst we began planning our trip to Beijing. The
Korean Leader had wanted to make his first visit China in September
2013, but the request had been turned down on the basis of
‘inconvenience’. It was a time when the leadership of China was
changing, with Hu Jintao making way for new man Xi Jinping. The
North Korean’s request for a meeting was at that time was therefore
understandably inconvenient. But trying to find any details of the
rearranged meeting in Beijing the following week drew a blank. The
mystery was solved when Mike and Yoyo came down for
breakfast.

“
When are you
guys going to move into your new house?” Yoyo asked.

“
I thought you
could tell us that!” I replied.

“
Well, you
know, you forget things as you get older,” said Mike.

Niki got some breakfast
for our visitors (now part of our family), and whilst we sat with
our coffees I asked Mike about Kim’s visit.

“
No, you won’t
find anything about it on the net,” said Mike. “It was arranged
secretly to avoid any frenzied media attention. But you can read a
media report about it online if you jump forward to the day after.”
He suddenly noticed Niki’s iPad and smiled. “Oh, I’d forgotten
about those!”

“
I guess
you’ve got new versions now?” I said.

“
Well, you
could say that!” he grinned. “Show them Yoyo.” She pulled back her
sleeve to reveal a fluorescent video display screen.

“
Wow!” I
exclaimed. “Can I see?” I looked carefully at the ultra–thin
device, seemingly attached to her wrist. “How is it
powered?”

“
You might not
believe it, but it’s powered by the human body. Why people didn’t
think of this years ago, I’ve no idea. All that electrical and
mechanical energy in the body and it’s mostly wasted. No batteries
needed.”

“
How do you
listen to music and on it?” Niki asked. “I can’t see any audio
outlet.”

“
Direct
connection to the brain via the nervous system and neural
networks,” Yoyo explained. We were both gobsmacked. “We can get
video the same way, but it’s still being developed. It’s very
strange when you switch on the internal video because it can
override your normal vision. So when you watch a movie it feels
incredibly real – it’s like you’re actually
in
the movie! You can layer it to
simultaneously receive both normal vision and internal video, but
that’s
really
confusing.”

“
Can I try?”
Niki asked.

“
Sure you can
try, but it might not work properly. The device is matched to
personal neural networks to make it work efficiently. I know that
you and I should have the same brain patterns, but they do change
over time. Try it anyway.”

Yoyo removed the device
from her wrist and placed it on Niki’s. It was extremely thin and
light, and could hardly be called ‘hardware’.

“
What’s it
made of?” Niki asked.

“
The base is
Cellulose,” Yoyo replied.

“
Ah! You’ve
got a plant around your wrist!” I exclaimed.

Mike then removed his own
device and gave me a try. The material felt very strange: cold at
first, but soon my wrist - and then my arm - became very warm. Mike
explained that the device was automatically scanning my nervous
system as it searched for a power source. Next it would configure
itself to my neural networks. After about thirty seconds, its
colour changed from pink to light blue.

“
It likes
you!” Mike smiled. “Try the sound.” He touched the wristband, and I
suddenly heard music in my ears. It was broken up at first, but
soon was incredibly clear. “People used to talk about ‘Virtual
Reality’ in the past – but that was nothing to what this device can
do. This is so real – you’ll wonder what’s real and what isn’t. Try
the video now.”

Suddenly I experienced
the most real, the most beautiful sound and pictures I had ever
experienced. I was mesmerised by the sensation – it took my breath
away. It was one of the latest movies, Mike told me, and I have to
say it was as real as real life itself. My entire vision was filled
with the pictures, and my mind swam with sound and
light.

“
If you
normally wear glasses, you don’t need them to watch this,” he
added. “Even if you’re blind, you can still see the pictures.” But
I was hardly listening – I was so much absorbed in this experience.
“The thing they’re working on now is utilising the device as a
recorder – so that you can download whatever you see and play it
back. No need for video cameras anymore! Instant replay – with
zoom, freeze–frame, and whatever else you do with video. Just think
of the uses!”

Meanwhile, Niki was also
totally absorbed in her experience with Yoyo’s device. She was
equally stunned by it.

“
Any chance of
keeping it?” Niki asked.

“
Well… sorry,
no. Call it a benefit of old age – you’ll get your own one day.”
Yoyo replied.

Whilst Niki was enjoying
Yoyo’s device, Mike and I discussed Kim Jong-un’s visit to China.
The fact that the meeting was planned extremely secretly would work
in our favour: the only media present would be the government’s
own, and security might not be so tight.

Mike told us
that the Korean leader would arrive by private jet with a small
staff on Saturday, 2
^nd
August. From the airfield, the President would be
driven directly to the government offices in Beijing.