Time Riders

Kramer craned his neck to get a better look. Up a winding track he could make out a couple ofsandbagged machine-gun posts either side of a gravel track and a sentry hut bathed in thelight of twin floodlights.

‘This is it, Karl.’ He smiled. ‘This is it! Hitler’s winterretreat!’

‘Der Kehlsteinhaus. The Eagle’s Nest. It does notappear that heavily guarded.’

‘It’s up this one road, perched on the side of a steep hill,’ said Kramer.‘The building itself is defended by several dozen of Hitler’s personal bodyguards,the LeibstandarteSS. A little further up the hillside, only a few hundred yardsaway, is an SS garrison housing four or five hundred of them.’ He turned to Karl.‘They will happily die to defend their leader. Your men will have to be very fast, Karl.The moment the first shot is fired, the alarm will be raised and the garrisonalerted.’

Karl looked back at his men, perfectly still in the snow, weapons ready and waiting for anorder. They were expertly trained and well equipped with modern weapons and nightscopes.

He smiled. ‘My men will get to him. Don’t worry.’

Kramer wished he shared the man’s confidence.

Just seventeen of them. If Karl’s men were unable tocomplete their objective before the regiment-strength SS garrison descended upon theFuhrer’s retreat, then it would be all over.

Seventeen against five hundred?

Even with the advantage of combat technology from 2066, he wondered for a moment if he wasasking too much of these men.

CHAPTER 29

2001, New York

‘Why have you brought us here?’ asked Maddy, looking around theentrance hall of the Museum of Natural History. It was crowded mostly, it seemed to her, withJapanese tourists.

‘Because, Madelaine, this building, these exhibits, are what we’re allabout.’ He gestured with his hand at the giant skeletal frame of a brachiosaurus loomingover them and all but filling the grand entrance hall.

‘This is the history that was meant to be. This is thehistory that you — just like the other field teams — are tasked withdefending.’ His eyes drifted down from the giant skull above to rest on them.

‘Madelaine — the analyst. Sal — the observer. Liam — theoperative… and Bob — the support unit. You’re a team now. And everybodyalive today and alive tomorrow is depending on you to keep an eyeon the time. This museum records how history is… and itcannot be allowed to change.’

Foster’s voice carried a little further across the grand hall than perhaps he’dintended, but since no one else here seemed to speak English Maddy thought it probablydidn’t matter too much.

‘So, this afternoon, I want you to explore the museum. To reach out and really feel the history you’re defending. I’ll leave you to makeyour own way around and then we’ll meet back here in the entrance hall at fivesharp.’

They nodded in silence.

‘Then I’m taking you guys out to the best ribs and burger place I know. Acelebration… Think of it as a sort of graduation party.’

Liam found the display of dinosaurs breathtaking and was unable to tear himselfaway from the giant skeletons and the animatronic dioramas. He was soon left alone as thegirls and Bob wandered off to view the other exhibits.

Before he knew it, several hours had passed and he decided to make his way back to theentrance hall to await the others.

He watched the busy area, full of snapping cameras and quietly whispered familyconversations, overexcited children and mewling babies. Not for the first time, he felt a warmglow of gratitude to Foster for plucking him from the bowels of the stricken Titanic, saving him from the worst possible death he couldimagine.

In the last dozen or so days — he’d lost track of how long they’d been here- he realized he was the luckiest person born in the nineteenthcentury for the things he’d been privileged to see almost a hundred years intohis future, and all the amazing things he was yet to see. Hegrinned like a fool, like a child promised every Christmas present he could wish for.

His gaze drifted across to a milling crowd beside the large entrance doors. People seemed tobe hesitating there on their way out. Curious, he crossed the hall.

On a podium, a large leather-bound book lay open beneath the glow of a brass reading lamp.Beside it an old security guard with a ruddy face, topped with thick bushy eyebrows and an oddheart-shaped mole poking out from one of them, stood to attention.

‘Guest book,’ growled the guard, noticing Liam’s curious gaze. ‘Feel free to sign and add a comment if you wish, sir,’ he addedreluctantly. ‘And keep it clean.’

Liam looked down and noticed the scrawled messages of hundreds of visitors, so many differentnames, so many languages.

‘Keep it clean?’

The guard cleared his throat. ‘I know what you damn teenagers are like.’

Liam felt a tap on his shoulder and turned round. It was Maddy.

‘Guest book,’ said Liam.

‘Oh yeah… I know. I came here on a school trip once and left a dirty poem,’she giggled.

The guard scowled disapprovingly, his bushy old eyebrows knotted together, as if he actuallyrecalled the very words she’d written.

‘You still archive them?’ Maddy asked the guard.

‘We do,’ he replied stiffly. ‘We keep every guest book, down in thebasement. We’ve done that since before the beginning of the last century. A hundredyears of comments,’ he said proudly. ‘Not all of them dirtypoems, neither.’

Maddy cringed guiltily. ‘Sorry.’

But the guard was already busy directing a visitor to where the toilets were.

‘Go on, Liam. Why don’t you sign it?’

He looked at her. ‘Uh… will I not change history, or something?’

‘I can’t see how you would.’

He gingerly picked up the pen, attached by a chain to the podium.

Liam O’Connor, 10 September 2001 — I loved the dinosaurs alot.

‘That it?’ asked Maddy.

He shrugged. ‘Don’t want to push me luck now.’

She shook her head and snorted. ‘Ah… there are theothers.’

Liam followed her across the hall, casting one last glance back at the book.

There, I left me mark on history.

If he died tomorrow for whatever reason, at least there’d be a scribbled line on a pageof a book somewhere that showed he’d once existed.

‘Well done,’ said Foster, clinking his glass tankard of beer againstLiam’s, and Maddy’s and Sal’s glasses of Dr Pepper.

Bob observed the ritual with a curious expression on his face, picking up an empty glass andtapping it against another.

‘You all did very well,’ added Foster, before slurping a large frothy mouthful ofice-cold beer. He wiped his lips and, cautiously glancing around at the busy restaurant, helowered his voice. ‘You’ve all seen how it works now. You all understand the partyou have to play in the team?’

Maddy and Sal nodded.