Time Riders

atombomb.’

Liam cocked his head questioningly. ‘What’s an atom b-?’

‘I’ll explain later,’ replied Foster. ‘Which brings me to you three,and this place,’ he said, gesturing at the darkness beyond the pool of light. ‘Thefact is there are too few of us TimeRiders — groups like us dotted around the world,dotted through time, watching and waiting patiently.’

‘Watching for what?’ asked Maddy.

‘For a shift.’

‘A shift?’

He nodded. ‘It starts as something ever so slight, almost unnoticeable to the eye. Youcatch it then, when it’s just a ripple. You have to because, before you know it, itbecomes a tidal wave; it becomes unstoppable, uncontrollable. And then we’re all trulyscrewed.’

Sal’s eyes had been lost in the darkness, still far away, but she turned to look atFoster. ‘What is a shift?’

‘A shift is the result of time being disturbed.’

Foster pursed his lips in thought for a moment. ‘OK, think of it like this: time is like a still pool, or a bath. Have you ever tried stepping into a bath without creating a ripple? It’s impossible, isn’tit?’

The three of them nodded as the bulb above them flickered and fizzed ever so slightly.

‘In the same way, it’s impossible to step through into the past without creatinga ripple. But the problem is the ripple spreads and grows from the point at which someonesteps in. From that we get a tidal wave that increases in size and destroys everything in itsway to replace it with a new world… a universe that might havebeen.’

Liam shook his head. ‘Not sure I understand.’

‘I get it,’ said Sal. ‘If you change the past a little, you’ll changethe present a lot.’

Foster nodded. ‘That’s exactly right, Sal.’

The light dimmed for a moment, then winked on and off. Foster looked up at it, irritated.‘The bulb’s worked loose again.’

He stood and, carefully covering his hands with the sleeve of his jumper, twisted the bulb.The flickering stopped.

‘We need to rewire this place… but there never seems to be enoughtime.’

Maddy looked around. ‘Where are we? It looks like some skanky old railwayarch.’

Foster smiled. ‘That’s pretty much what it is. It’s actually a-’

The light dimmed and flickered once more and his eyes suddenly widened.

‘Oh no.’

The others looked up at his face, all of a sudden a shade paler.

‘What’s up?’ asked Maddy.

‘It’s here…’ he whispered.

‘A shift?’ asked Liam.

‘No — ’ he shook his head — ‘worse.’

CHAPTER 7

2001, New York

Foster’s eyes remained on the fizzing and flickering light bulb.‘It’s draining the energy. I thought it was the damned light bulb on the fritz.Stupid of me,’ he hissed.

‘What’s draining the energy?’ asked Maddy.

The strained tone in Foster’s lowered voice unsettled the others.

‘I thought the thing had gone.’

‘What thing?’ asked Liam.

Foster turned to him, raising a finger to his lips to hush them.

‘A seeker. It should’ve faded by now… It musthave been leeching power somehow, just enough to keep it alive.’

The old man reached up with one hand and found a switch on the brick wall. He snapped it offand instantly the bulb winked out, leaving them in complete darkness.

Sal’s small voice cut the silence softly. ‘Er… it’s dark.’

‘Shhh, it’s all right,’ Foster whispered. ‘We’re going to sittight for a little while. As long as we’re still, we’ll be just fine.’

A long silence stretched out, disturbed only by the sound of their ragged breathing. ThenLiam saw something faint moving in the darkness, the slightest glow, barely an outline…of… something.

‘A seeker,’ Foster uttered quietly. ‘It’s very weak now — onits last legs.’

Maddy stirred. ‘It looks like a ghost.’

‘We don’t know what they are exactly,’ replied Foster, ‘but every nowand then when you open a time portal… it’s possible to attract one, accidentallytrap one of them and bring it back with you.’

The undulating outline pulsed and flickered like a loose cluster of fireflies, embers dancingabove a campfire.

‘That’s what happened here. The last team…’ Foster’s whisperquietened to nothing.

‘The last team what?’ asked Maddy.

‘I must have brought one back with me… the last mission I took into thepast,’ he replied. ‘I went out for some food, came back a few hourslater…’ He paused for a moment, considering how to continue. ‘What was leftof them wasn’t very nice to look at.’

Liam heard Maddy’s breath hitch.

‘They’re pure energy. But they can take physical formif they’re charged up enough. It’s not good when that happens.’

The pale blue cloud drifted across the darkness in front of them, a spectral form like a lostspirit in a graveyard, a wisp of morning mist in a deep, dark wood.

‘But this one’s grown weak. I thought it had gone, faded away to nothing.’He shook his head with disbelief. ‘I was cleaning up the mess, looking up your files onthe computer, preparing to send myself into the past to find you and bring you back. And allthat time the thing was lurking here in this place… quietly watching me.’

The shape stopped moving. It hovered just a few yards away, a dull pulsating glow that infleeting moments seemed to find a shape that reminded Liam of mythical creatures — acentaur, a unicorn, a dragon — before becoming a pale cloud once more.

‘I’d say it’s too weak to take a physical form. It’s dying. Butwe’re best just keeping back for now.’

‘Does that thing know we’re here?’ asked Maddy.

‘Perhaps.’

Liam licked his dry lips anxiously. ‘Where did it come from?’

‘Another dimension,’ Foster replied, ‘another dimension overlaying ours,perhaps, attracted to the energy of a time portal like a moth is to light. These things areanother reason we should never have messed with time to begin with.’

The entity moved again, this time drifting ponderously towards them.

‘Er… it’s getting closer,’ whispered Sal.

‘Yes, I do believe it is.’

‘But we’re safe, right, Mr Foster?’ asked Liam.‘You said it’s too weak to hurt us?’

Foster’s silence in the pitch black was less than comforting.

‘We should leave,’ he finally replied. ‘We’ve got over thirty hoursbefore we need to return, before the arch’s time bubble resets. I can’t see thisthing surviving that much longer.’

‘Time bubble?’

‘I’ll explain outside. Everyone grab a hand. There’s a mess of things inhere to get tangled in. I need to lead us