she almost looked sorry for her. ‘You sound sad about that.’
‘Sad?’ Becks considered that word. ‘Sad,’ she said again quietly. ‘My developmental AI routines allow me to learn and replicate human behaviour patterns. But I am unable to directly experience emotions. This would affect my performance as a support unit.’
‘So, let me get this straight,’ said Laura, shuffling round the fire, closer to them so she wasn’t being drowned out by Franklyn’s droning voice. ‘You’re flesh and blood, just like a human being, but your head is, like, all robot?’
‘My body is a genetically enhanced female human body. I have multiple-threaded muscle tissue capable of a five hundred and seventy-six per cent performance response.’
Laura looked at Liam. ‘That means she’s… what? Like, six times stronger than she should be?’
Liam nodded. ‘Aye, that sounds about right.’
‘I also have a high-density calcium-based support chassis — ’
‘Strong bones,’ said Liam.
Laura nodded. It looked like she’d figured that out for herself.
‘I also have a rapid-reaction, high white-cell-count fluid repair system.’ Becks turned to Laura. ‘My blood clots quickly.’
‘Right.’
‘All of this gene technology will be developed by W. G. Systems in the year 2043 for military applications: genetically engineered combat units.’
‘Wow,’ uttered Laura. ‘You mean like super soldiers.’
‘Correct. I was designed for war. Specifically subterfuge and covert operations.’
Liam smiled. ‘But don’t let that put you off her — she’s a sweetie really.’
Becks looked at him curiously. ‘Sweetie?’
Liam put an arm round her shoulders and hugged her clumsily. ‘We go back a bit, Becks and me. Would you believe it, she used to be a man, so she did? Big chap, just like some muscle-man called Schwarzenhoffer or something. Apparently he becomes a president of yours sometime.’
‘Oh my God.’ Laura made a face. ‘You don’t mean Arnold Schwarzenegger?’
‘That’s the fella. Anyway, Becks was called Bob back then. But… well, you had a bit of a scrap, didn’t you? And — ’
‘Caution,’ said Becks. ‘It is inadvisable to reveal details of previous missions.’
Liam hushed. Perhaps they’d revealed more than they ought. ‘Yes, you’re right. Sorry, Laura.’ Liam decided to change the subject. ‘Becks, we should consider what message we want to leave in the ground, you know?’
Becks nodded. ‘Affirmative. This is important.’
Kelly overheard that. ‘You guys discussing the help message?’
And that shut up everyone around the fire, even Franklyn.
‘Yes,’ replied Liam. ‘I’ve been giving it some thought, Becks… We would have to actually reveal the exact date and location of our field office.’
She frowned. ‘Negative. The location and time-stamp must remain known only to agency operatives.’
‘But we have to, do you not see? Because Sal and Maddy aren’t exactly likely to go fossil-hunting in Texas any time soon. It will be someone else who finds it. And the only way it will find its way to them is if we reveal that.’
‘You know,’ said Kelly, ‘that kind of information would be mighty powerful stuff. The fact that time-travel technology exists. The fact that humans have actually been back to dinosaur times… that’s world-changing information, Liam. You understand that, don’t you? You mentioned time contamination and time waves and stuff like that… Won’t it — ?’
‘Oh, for sure,’ said Liam. ‘That’s the kind of nightmare we were recruited to prevent — contamination of the timeline.’
‘And yet you’ll be causing it.’
‘I know… I know. But it’s the only way.’ He looked at Chan, sitting quietly between Leonard and Juan. ‘The timeline is already badly broken. Who knows what state the future is in now? And, yes, by deliberately stamping a big ol’ message into the ground, we’re about to make it a lot worse. But — and it’s taken me some time to see this for myself — time is like, I dunno, like liquid. It’s fluid. What can be changed can be changed right back, so long as you know where to go and what to do. And, of course, as long as you’ve got a time machine.’
Liam nodded at Chan. ‘We need to get Edward back to 2015. That fixes part of the problem. Then, once we’ve done that, Becks and I will come right back here and undo all that contamination.’
‘How?’
‘Very simple,’ said Liam.
CHAPTER 38
65 million years BC, jungle
Liam looked down at the shale by his feet. He dragged a finger through it. The others watched curiously as his finger inscribed four letters in the gravel. He spelled the word Help. Then with his hand he messed it up. ‘We’ll erase the message we just left,’ he said. ‘And everything that happened as a result of it being discovered, well… it’ll all un-happen. It’ll all be erased too.’
‘If your message includes the location of your base,’ said Kelly, ‘I assure you, it won’t be some curious fossil-hunter that turns up, it’ll be some secret government agency. NSA, CIA, maybe some spooks we don’t even know about… They’ll storm the place. Kick the door in. Delta Force guys with guns. What you’ve got is too valuable.’
‘Oh.’ Liam hadn’t considered that.
‘You could be endangering your colleagues,’ said Laura.
‘They wouldn’t hurt them, would they? They’d just want to be asking questions, would they not?’
Kelly shrugged. ‘With something like time-travel technology at stake? Who knows? Our secret services have a long history of shooting places up first and asking questions later.’
Whitmore cut in. ‘Oh, come on! They’re professionals, the best in the world!’
Several of the others joined in. Some agreeing with that, some of them disagreeing.
Liam looked at Becks. ‘Maybe this is not such a great idea.’
‘You wish me to proceed with the alternate plan?’ she said softly.
Liam looked at her, pleased that she’d had the sense to ask that in little more than a whisper. Not so encouraged, though, seeing one of her hands flinching and reaching for a hatchet.
‘No, not yet,’ he said, reaching out and grasping her hand in his. ‘Not yet, OK?’
She nodded.
‘Unless,’ said Edward quietly, his voice almost lost beneath the to and fro of all the others. ‘Unless, there’s a really important reason not to hurt anyone.’
The others stopped and looked at him. It was the first thing he’d said all evening. All day, in fact.
Edward’s eyes widened as they all stared at him. ‘I… I was just saying…’
‘Go on,’ said Liam.
‘Well… if part of your message was a… was in, like, a code. Then there’s a reason to… you know, not to want to shoot everyone up, because they know they’d need someone to decode it.’
Liam pursed his lips in thought. ‘That’s true.’ A code, a secret, hinting at still further secrets and revelations. What person wouldn’t want to know more?
‘If a message is going to lead some government spooks right up to the front door of your secret organization,’ said Kelly, ‘then you can bet the bit of the message they can’t make sense of will be driving them nuts. Edward’s right. They’ll want your colleagues alive.’
‘All right,’ said Liam. ‘So then the first bit of the message needs to be the time and place of our field office.’ He turned to Becks. ‘That’s how the message will find its way to Maddy and Sal. The rest… the time-stamp they need to aim for, that bit should be the super-secret coded bit. Can you come up with a code, Becks?’
