Sal giggled. ‘True.’ She spun in the office chair beside the computer desk. ‘So, you don’t… so you’re not jealous?’
Maddy took off her glasses and wiped them on her T-shirt. It was decidedly odd having Bob looking like that, like some athletic-fit catwalk model, some Amazonian beauty. And yes… having something like that gliding beautifully around was enough to make any female feel inadequate, plain in comparison. But then Maddy was used to it.
On the other hand, if Sal was asking in a roundabout way whether she had feelings for Liam… well, the answer was no, not those sort of feelings. Liam was nice-looking, charming in an old-fashioned gentlemanly way, but what she felt for him, more than anything else, was pity, a choking sadness.
Every time I send him through… I’m killing him just a little bit more.
She looked at Sal. ‘No, I’m not jealous. I’m not, you know, like… after him — ’
› Maddy, it is time to activate the return window.
‘OK,’ she replied, turning to face the desk. She began to tap the retrieval coordinates into the computer.
‘But he’s nice,’ said Sal.
‘Sure he’s nice,’ said Maddy. ‘I’m sure he had girlfriends back in Ireland, but… but, I’m a couple of years older than him anyway and… and it’s more like he’s a little brother, or a nephew really, than, you know… sort of boyfriend material.’
Maddy double-checked the coordinates. ‘Anyway… My God, Sal — ’ she grimaced at her — ‘I can’t believe you’re being so personal!’
‘Sorry,’ said Sal, flicking a tress of dark hair out of her eye. ‘Oh… I just remembered! You’ll never guess what I saw in a junk store down-’
‘Just a moment, Sal. I need to concentrate…’
CHAPTER 19
2015, Texas
Liam identified Chan among the students. It wasn’t as obvious as he’d thought it would be. There were about seven or eight who looked oriental to him, and most of them were younger than the other students. But he knew Edward Chan was the youngest here and he zeroed in on a small boy at the front, gaping wide-eyed at the zero- point energy reactor. Seemingly entranced by it.
Becks gently tapped Liam’s arm and leaned towards him. ‘Information: according to the mission data, Edward Chan only has four minutes and seven seconds left to live.’
Liam nodded. He looked around the chamber, trying to identify what or who could possibly pose a threat to the boy. If they were down to four minutes, then presumably the lad’s killer was right here, right now, getting ready to make his move. His eyes darted from Mr Kelly, explaining the machinery and instrumentation, to Mr Whitmore, stroking his sparsely bearded chin thoughtfully, to the two technicians manning a couple of data terminals.
One of them?
His gaze shifted to the students, all of them still marvelling at the interior of the chamber and some of the incredible-sounding statistics that Mr Kelly was reeling off. ‘… equivalent to all of the energy produced by coal, oil, natural gas… over the last one hundred and fifty years…’
One of them? One of the students?
Why not? It could just as easily be one of the students. After all, Liam was the same age as the oldest of them and an assassin would probably have a better chance smuggling himself in as a student than he would a member of staff. After all, that had worked for him and Becks. His gaze wandered from face to face, looking for a nervous tic, darting eyes, lips moving in silent prayer, someone clearly agonizing over the precise moment to strike.
Becks gently tapped his arm again.
‘What now?’ he hissed.
‘I am sensing precursor tachyon particles in the vicinity.’
He looked at her. ‘Uh?’ Their return window wasn’t due yet, not until ten minutes after Chan’s supposed moment of death. That was the arrangement. ‘Are you sure?’
Becks nodded towards the reactor. ‘There. They are appearing…’ Her eyes widened, and her lids fluttered and blinked rapidly. ‘DANGER!’ she suddenly barked at the top of her voice.
Howard was almost beside Chan, his finger on the trigger inside his bag ready to pull the small weapon out and fire it at his back. He wanted to be right beside Chan, right next to him, to know as an absolute certainty he wasn’t going to miss. Too much rested on this. Everything rested on this. He was just a couple of yards from him when a tall girl with distinctive red hair at the back of the knot of students suddenly started shouting.
Mr Kelly stopped mid-sentence. ‘Excuse me?’
‘DANGER!’ shouted the girl again, her voice loud and urgent.
‘Excuse me, young lady,’ replied Mr Whitmore, ‘this is not the place for some sort of stupid prank!’
Howard turned to look at the girl.
Something’s wrong. Someone knows!
‘DANGER!’ shouted the girl again, but her finger pointed directly at the reactor, not him. ‘Tachyon interference with the reactor! The reactor will explode!’
Howard had no idea what the hell she was on about. Perhaps it was just a coincidence, perhaps she was just some flaky goth girl making some sort of a protest against experimenting with zero-point energy. He was with her on that, but now was not the best time. He wasn’t going to be distracted. He pushed his way forward towards Chan as the other students began to step back warily from the reactor in response to her outburst.
At last, standing beside the small boy, he looked down at him, his finger poised on the trigger, ready to whip the gun out and fire.
Chan turned to look up at him. ‘What’s the girl at the back saying?’
Howard found himself shrugging. ‘I… uh… I guess she’s having some kinda fit.’
‘Now stop it!’ snapped Mr Whitmore, pushing his way through the bemused students towards the girl. ‘Nothing is going to explode!’
Chan grinned up at Howard. ‘Crazy girl, huh?’
And Howard found himself smiling back at the kid, somehow not quite ready… not quite ready to pull out the gun and fire at point blank range. He really hadn’t expected to be looking down into a friendly face at the very moment he pulled the trigger on Chan.?
Without a warning Becks grabbed Liam roughly by the shoulders and man-handled him back from the reactor towards the walkway leading to the sealed exit.
‘Becks! What the hell are you doing? What’s going on?’
‘Imminent threat of explosion,’ she said crisply and calmly, and a little too loudly. Her voice spooked the other students nearby who quickly began to join them backing away from it.
‘Everybody, calm down!’ shouted Mr Kelly. ‘Nothing is going to happen!’
Liam looked up at Becks. ‘Are you sure it’s going to — ?’
Becks suddenly stopped dragging him. ‘Too late to escape!’ She yanked Liam’s arm downwards to the floor and he dropped to his knees.
‘Ouch! What are you doing? ’
She knelt down in front of him and wrapped her arms round his shoulders, shielding him from the reactor. Liam peeked over her shoulder and saw the reactor’s thick metal casing suddenly start to ripple like jelly and a moment later begin to collapse in on itself.
‘What the — ?’
Becks reached out one hand and grabbed his nose painfully. ‘You must lower your head,’ she ordered, yanking him roughly down until he was almost doubled over, his head in her lap. Then all of a sudden he felt the oddest tugging sensation. As if he and Becks and the world around them was being sucked into a gigantic laundry mangler, stretched impossibly thin like elastic strands of spaghetti towards the reactor… following the collapsed metal casing into some inconceivable pinpoint of infinity.
