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.
Rising Son
Jack looked up at the massive dinosaur. Two eye sockets, way above, leered down at him from a large white skull. If the creature had still been in possession of its prehistoric eyes, maybe it would have winked at him, knowingly. Instead the vast skull and the huge skeleton, to which it was attached, hung there lifelessly — a monument to past glory. Normally, Jack liked this place. Particularly the dinosaur exhibit. The Royal Edinburgh Museum. He liked its open spaces and polished floors and the hushed voices that would echo through the exhibition halls. You could happily wander around for hours, lost to the world. But today, he knew there would be no time for that.
“So why did we end up here?” Angus asked for about the fifth time.
“I told you — no idea. Just be grateful that the grenade didn’t get us before we escaped and we got back to approximately the right time and location.”
“Close one. Do you think Pendelshape made it?”
“I should think so. He pressed at the same time as us.”
“Wonder if we’ll see him again,” Angus said ruefully.
Jack sniffed, “Wonder if I’ll ever see my dad again.”
“Sorry Jack — you know what I mean.”
“Sure. No matter.”
The clock at the end of the large entrance hall struck seven p.m. In thirty minutes the museum would close for the evening.
“Where are they? They should be here by now.”
The Taurus had dumped Jack and Angus in the toilets of the Royal Edinburgh Museum — thoughtfully the Gents and not the Ladies. It took them a little while to work out where, and when, they were. Finally, they made it to the large marble-floored reception area. The calendar indicated 14th October. Only the day after he had made his original fateful decision to use the Taurus to escape the Rector back at the school.
The receptionist did not quite know what to think of the two mud-caked teenagers, but she allowed them to use the phone. Jack called his mum. He could tell that she was immensely relieved to hear from him, and now she and VIGIL were on their way. They waited patiently in the hall, trying, with difficulty, to look inconspicuous.
Jack spotted his mum first. She was running towards him, arms outstretched and soon he was in her arms. Close behind followed the Rector who was smiling broadly and then his two old friends, Tony and Gordon, who stood back at a respectful distance. Thankfully, they were in their janitor’s uniforms and unarmed — assault rifles weren’t generally permitted inside the Royal Edinburgh Museum.
Soon they were aboard the school minibus speeding back home. It seemed a rather modest form of transport, compared to what they had been used to. And now their lives would be one long secret — to keep the mystery of the school, the extraordinary technology within it and the powerful people entrusted with its control — carefully hidden from the rest of the world.
In the back seat, Jack and Angus were wedged between the large frames of Tony and Gordon. Angus had dropped off to sleep. As they sped along, Tony punched Jack in the upper arm, with, Jack thought, rather more force than was necessary. In fact, it hurt. He looked up at Tony and his glare was returned with a wide, yellow- toothed grin.
“Gotta tell you, son,” Tony said.
“What’s that, Mr Smith?” Jack replied.
“You were the best mission we ever ’ad.”
Jack smiled, reluctantly, “I guess that’s a compliment, is it?”
