‘She’s all yours,’ he said finally and closed the door on them.
Mallard looked decidedly uncomfortable. ‘You sure we’re safe in here with her, sir?’
Cooper ignored him. He squatted down beside the cot; those grey eyes were now on him. Her panting and flexing stopped. No longer a wild animal. In a heartbeat she was calm and impassive. He could feel those grey eyes coolly evaluating him.
‘Release me,’ she said evenly after a while.
‘Ah! So… you can talk?’
‘Affirmative. I am able to talk.’
Cooper tapped his chin with his fountain pen for a moment. ‘I have no idea what exactly you are. I do know, however, that you’re not a normal human being.’
She said nothing.
‘We had a preliminary report back on a sample of your colleague’s blood…’ Cooper worked to keep his voice as cold and clinically professional as this young woman’s. ‘It’s not a match with any blood type.’
‘Correct,’ she replied. Her dark eyebrows knotted momentarily. ‘Abel is terminated?’
‘Terminated? You mean dead?’ No point lying to her. ‘Yes, he’s quite dead.’
He thought he detected the slightest flicker of a reaction on her face.
Terminated. God, yes… that’s what this was beginning to feel like — that awfully cheesy eighties science- fiction movie about killer robots.
‘The post-mortem also produced another very interesting discovery,’ continued Cooper.
This one’s a doozy. The pathologist who’d rung this little detail through to him was almost in tears. She was gabbling, confused, asking him questions none of which he could answer. Mallard had yet to hear this titbit of information.
‘Your friend, Abel, has no human brain.’
‘ Whuh? ’ Mallard’s jaw hung open. Cooper scowled at him and his mouth snapped shut.
‘The cranial cavity interior’s much, much smaller than a regular human skull. The space is taken up with additional layers of bone. A thoroughly reinforced skull. Inside all of that we found a brain the size of a fingernail and what appears to be some sort of embedded circuitry.’
‘The circuit has self-destructed,’ she said, cocking an eyebrow. ‘Yes?’
He wasn’t sure if that was a statement or a question. He waited for more, but she just eyed him coolly. ‘Yes…’ He sighed. ‘It was pretty much fried.’
‘That is good.’
Was that the ghost of a smile there?
‘Abel was able to self-destruct.’
He thought he’d give the direct approach a go. At the moment she seemed willing to talk candidly. ‘Would you care to tell me who… or what… you are?’
‘Genetically engineered organic-silicon hybrid — Reconnaissance and Covert Operations variant,’ she replied. ‘With W.G. Systems AI version 2.3.11 installed.’
‘What does organic-silicon hybrid mean? You’re what?… Some sort of half human-half robot?’ asked Mallard.
‘Negative. I am a genetically engineered human frame with a dense silicon-wafer processor.’ Her eyes flickered on to Mallard. ‘A computer for a brain,’ she clarified for his benefit.
‘But… but — ’ He looked at Cooper — ‘we can’t do that kind of genetic engineering yet! Can we?’
‘No,’ Faith replied. ‘Not for another fifty years.’
‘My God!’ gasped Mallard. ‘Jesus! You’re from the… from the future? Is that what you’re saying?!’
Cooper was tempted to tell Mallard to shut up. Yes, at some point he was going to need to bring his new man up to speed. Mallard had already been exposed to knowledge way beyond being allowed to return to the FBI rank and file. Cooper decided he might as well get him right up there on the same page as him. The sooner, the better. ‘Why don’t you start by telling me what precise year you’re from?’ Cooper said.
‘My batch birth date is 25 June 2069. Waldstein sent us back to kill TimeRiders.’
‘Oh my God! Did she just say — ?’
‘That’s right, Mallard. You’re going to need to get your head round this. And fast. I can’t have you flapping your jaw like that every time something’s said. She’s from the future — get used to it.’
The younger man paled. He rocked on his heels uncertainly as his jaw hung open, catching flies once more.
Cooper decided he’d better go easy on him. After all, personally he’d had quite a few years to get used to the idea that anonymous time travellers had passed this way in recent years and just might have rather carelessly left one or two of their footsteps in history.
‘ The future? ’ he whispered.
‘Mallard, I need you to process that quietly, all right? I know it’s a helluva thing to take on board. So, just think about it for now, and later I will talk you through it, all the evidence we have. The whole deal. But for now? Right now?… I need you to shut up.’ He patted the man’s shoulder. ‘All right?’
Mallard nodded. Cooper turned back to the young woman strapped to the cell’s cot. ‘Why have you come back here to our time? Who were you after in that shopping mall?’
She started blinking rapidly.
‘You all right? What’re you doing?’ No response, just the rapid flickering of her eyelids.
‘Good God!’ Mallard was horrified. ‘I think she’s having a seizure. She’s — ’
Her eyes snapped open. ‘Negative. I am reprioritizing mission parameters. Just a moment… just a moment…’
A minute passed in silence. Long enough for Cooper to begin wondering whether he needed to prod her again.
‘Information,’ she said finally. ‘While you may be able to assist me, revealing mission objectives to you is a protocol breach. A contamination.’
‘Contamination?’
‘A time contamination: providing information to you that may cause you to behave in a way or perform actions that alter the timeline. This is a basic protocol breach and must be avoided. However…’ Her eyelids stopped fluttering and her gaze settled back on Cooper. ‘There is a greater contamination occurring at the moment which must be prevented.’
‘The people you were after?’
‘Correct. They are not of this time. They must be located immediately and dealt with.’
‘By that, I’m guessing you mean killed?’
‘Affirmative. They have with them the necessary components to facilitate further time displacements and cause even greater contamination. They must be located before they effect a displacement.’
‘Displacement? You mean time travel?’ Cooper felt hairs rising on the back of his neck. ‘My God, you… you’re actually talking about a functioning — ’ he felt ridiculous even voicing the words, but there was no other way of saying it — ‘time machine? Is that what you’re talking about? Is that what they’ve got with them?’
‘The components required to rebuild one, yes.’
Cooper felt a little unsteady. Like Mallard had a moment ago, he rocked back on his heels, settling gently against the cold wall of the cell, grateful for its support.
She played a cold, emotionless facsimile of a smile across her lips. ‘What is your name?’
‘Cooper,’ he answered. ‘Agent Niles Cooper.’
‘Cooper, I am Faith. I believe that we are able to assist each other.’
A deal. She’s proposing a deal.
‘You want us to let you out of here?’
‘Affirmative. I can lead you directly to them. I have data on their likely movements.’
‘And, if you find them, then what?’
‘I will kill them.’
‘What about their — ’ he decided to use her term — ‘ displacement machine?’
‘It must be destroyed.’
‘No, we’d want that intact. I can’t agree to those — ’
