‘True.’ She nodded and glanced up from her food at the man. He seemed fascinated by the rack of ribs on his plate, inspecting it like a forensic pathologist picking over a cadaver. She smiled at that. Of course. He’d probably never experienced real meat in his time.
‘And he knows forty-four years more of the future than I do,’ said Sal.
‘Excuse me.’ Rashim looked up from his ribs. ‘You’re all talking about me like I’m not right here sitting next to you.’
‘Sorry, Rashim,’ said Maddy. ‘You’re right, that is kinda rude.’
Rashim nodded. Apology accepted. He turned to Sal. ‘When do you come from?’
‘2026. From Mumbai.’
‘Really?’ His eyebrows arched. ‘That’s not long before the…’ He stopped himself.
‘Before?’ She looked at him. ‘Before what?’
He shrugged. ‘The first Asian War.’ Rashim winced apologetically. ‘I’m sorry… I shouldn’t — ’
‘No, tell me. Please.’
He deferred to Maddy. ‘Tell her about it later if you like, Rashim. Right now we need to focus on our next move. We’ve got to decide what we’re going to do.’
‘What is it you wish to do, Maddy?’ asked Foster.
He’s pushing me to lead. Not for the first time, Maddy wondered if she tended to open things up for discussion too much.
She put down the leaking burrito, licked her fingers. Buying time… because she simply didn’t know just yet. A part of her had almost made the decision that the game was up, that their duty as TimeRiders was done and perhaps they should all just put some clear miles between themselves and New York, and then all go their separate ways to live whatever was left of their lives how each of them wanted.
But then an insistent, nagging voice inside her reminded her of the horrendous timelines they’d narrowly prevented from happening. And of course that voice had an even greater urgency to it now she knew it was just their one little team keeping an eye on history. Not some vast agency of multiple teams, with multiple redundancies, safeguards, fail-safes.
Just them.
So the decision, in truth, was already made in her mind. But she wanted to hear what the others had to say, particularly Liam and Sal.
‘We run,’ she said. ‘Then?’ She looked at Liam with a shrug.
‘What do you mean by that?’ asked Liam.
‘I’m putting it to you. I’m asking what you think, Liam. We run… then what?’
Liam frowned for a moment. Then put down his burger — no, dropped his burger. Suddenly indignant, he exclaimed, ‘Jay-zus, Maddy! Are you asking me whether we give up?’
She said nothing. That was her answer.
‘No way!’ He turned to Sal. ‘Right? No bleedin’ way!’ He looked almost angry. As close to anger as she’d ever seen him. ‘Now listen here, Madelaine Carter! I’ve nearly died a dozen times, so I have. To keep that…’ He flung a hand towards the window and the glistening lights of Times Square. ‘To keep New York just like it is! I’m not giving up on that now!’
Maddy noted a proud smile steal across Foster’s lips.
‘Sal? I’m right, am I not?’ said Liam. ‘We want to go on, right?’
She chewed on the straw in her glass of Dr Pepper and blew bubbles for a moment before she finally spoke. ‘There’s things I want to know. I want to know what Pandora is. I want to know what Becks knows; what’s locked up inside her head. I want to know what that man was trying to tell us.’
That man. Maddy and Liam knew who she meant: the poor soul who’d arrived back in New Orleans, 1831, only to be fused into the bodies of two horses. He’d held on to life for perhaps five, ten minutes, a gruesome jigsaw puzzle, an inside-out parody of a centaur.
A horror-show freak for the few minutes he, it, lived.
‘I want to know what’s really going on, Maddy.’
‘I want to know more about this Waldstein fella. Aye, and more about this agency,’ said Liam. ‘And the only way I see it is… we have to keep on doing what we’re doing. Even if we have to move somewhere else and continue doing it there.’
Maddy tapped the table gently with her knuckles. Her attempt at calling their meeting to order. It took a few moments. She would’ve been quicker just telling the pair of them to shut up. But also a touch rude.
‘OK, it’s agreed, then. We relocate and we’ll set things up again.’ She looked at them all. ‘And we will continue keeping this timeline on track while we’re still able to. Because — look — whatever’s really going on, if we’re being played for fools, if we’re being manipulated by Waldstein somehow… or someone else inside his agency or someone outside, the truth is… I know what we’re doing is the right thing. And that’s the only, literally the only, certainty we can grab hold of.’
The other two nodded. They’d seen enough alternate timelines to know there could be far worse ways history could play out than the way it was now.
‘For better or worse, right, Foster?’
The old man nodded. ‘For better or worse, history needs to stay on track.’
‘OK… OK, this is what I’m thinking we do.’ Maddy pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. ‘We head north to Boston.’
‘Why? What’s so special about Boston?’ asked Foster.
‘It’s my home.’
Liam looked up from his burger. ‘You want to go to your home?’
‘It’s my home turf,’ she said. ‘I grew up there. I know the area. And look, maybe we can get some help. My folks — ’
‘You can’t go to your home, Maddy,’ said Foster.
‘Why not?’
Sal’s eyes widened. ‘Jahulla! You’ll be there already, won’t you? Another you?’
Liam stopped chewing. Dawning realization on his face too. ‘You’d be a little girl! There’d be a little Maddy there!’
‘Nine.’ Maddy nodded. ‘Yes, I’d be nine.’
‘Madelaine,’ said Foster. ‘You cannot visit your family, you cannot visit yourself. Do you understand me? That’s a very dangerous contamination!’
She stared at him silently for a long while before finally, reluctantly nodding. ‘All right. I get it. OK, I won’t visit home. It was just an idea. But listen! I know the area. There are places I know where we could set up. If we’re going to ground, it’s better we head somewhere that someone knows. Right?’
‘Somewhere we can easily tap power?’ said Rashim. ‘We’d need that if you want a viable new place to operate from.’
‘Sure. There’s loads of places we could settle in. There’s industrial parks. We could rent a unit, pretend to be some small business or something.’
Liam nodded, encouraged that she seemed to have already given the move some thought. ‘Seems like a plan, so.’
Sal smiled. ‘A new home. I’d like that.’
Foster seemed less than happy. ‘It’s a danger, Maddy. And a temptation. To be so close to your childhood home.’
‘I won’t go home! OK? I promise! I mean… what’s the alternative? We stick a random pin in a map of America and just hope for the best?’ Her burrito drooled gunk on to her plate with an unappealing splat. ‘Seriously, guys. If anyone else has got a better suggestion… I’m all ears.’
No one, of course, did.
‘Then that’s all I’ve got. Boston. It’s a start. What do you guys say?’
Liam and Sal nodded.
‘Uhh… so does that answer your earlier question?’ asked Rashim.
‘What’s that?’
‘Whether I’m coming along?’ Rashim looked sheepish. ‘Am I in your… what do you call it? Your team?’
