Maddy reached a hand down to Liam’s bare shoulder and tapped it gently. ‘Please, don’t go missing again. I’m not sure my nerves can take another freakin’ crisis.’
‘We’ll be f-fine,’ said Liam, through chattering teeth. ‘A quick look-see, a q-quick chat with this Mr Cabot about this
‘Is there any way we can communicate with them?’ Adam called up. ‘You know, while they’re back in the past?’
‘Yes,’ she replied over her shoulder, ‘we can beam a signal to them. But they can’t talk back.’
‘Could I–I not use this V-voynik b-book?’ said Liam.
‘Information: it is pronounced
Maddy shook her head. ‘No. Hopefully this’ll be a quick in-and-out and no need, like last time, to leave any fossils lying around.’
‘Right.’ Liam nodded. ‘S-see you s-soon, then.’
She rested her hand on his, feeling a growing sense of guilt at sending him back through time. Was it really necessary this time? How much damage was this particular journey going to do to his body?
She squeezed his knuckles gently. ‘See you soon, Liam.’ She looked at Bob. ‘You keep him safe, all right?’
‘Affirmative. Liam O’Connor is the operative.’ There seemed to be a note of affection somewhere in that deep growl.
And to Becks. ‘You clear on the mission parameters?’
Becks nodded calmly. ‘Affirmative.’
‘Maddy!’ called Sal. ‘You need to get down now, twenty seconds left!’
She clambered down the ladder and took a couple of steps back from the bottom of the tube as Sal counted out the last ten seconds.
Adam was gazing with unconcealed wonder at the workings of the displacement machine: a rack of circuitry and looped wires. The arch filled with the increasing hum of suppressed energy building up and eager to be unleashed.
‘Is that buzzing noise normal?’ he asked, but his voice was all but lost against the increasing electrical hum.
‘Seven … Six …’ continued Sal.
Maddy fought a growing urge to yell out an
‘Four … Three …’
Fact is, Sal spotted a small time wave and they were duty-bound not to walk away from that. Fact is, there was a man standing here in their archway who really shouldn’t be. Who really shouldn’t know about them and what they were up to.
‘Two … One!’
Energy pulsed out of the machinery beside the tube and, with a loud, echoing
Adam filled the silence with his own whispered voice.
‘Absolutely … in-cred-i-ble!’
CHAPTER 20
1194, Kirklees Priory, Yorkshire
A heavy and wet landing. Liam staggered under the impact, dropping to his knees as the white mist of chaos space quickly evaporated from around him.
‘Ow!’ he yelped as he slowly attempted to get to his bare feet. The ground beneath him was a lumpy dark soil rendered as hard as sharp-edged rock by a thick morning frost. Shivering in just his boxer shorts, he looked up to see the three of them were standing in the middle of a small and empty windswept field. The lifeless light of a pale sun hiding behind featureless scudding clouds made the winter morning seem like a forlorn twilight.
‘L-lovely.’ Liam shuddered, hugging himself.
‘We should get dressed immediately,’ advised Bob.
‘T-t-too r-right,’ he chattered.
He slid back the zip of his plastic bag and pulled out a thick coarse woollen robe of olive green and eagerly pulled it over his head, ignoring the scratching against his skin. Next, a pair of thick cotton leggings. Not technically of the period, but the best they could get at short notice. As a precaution Sal had unpicked the brand label and wash instructions. It looked convincing enough to Liam’s eye and hopefully no one was going to be studying his undergarments too closely. Finally, a pair of soft leather shoes with wooden soles, picked up at the fancy-dress hire store, and a length of braided rope to secure the robe around his waist.
As they dressed in hurried silence he watched a dozen crows circling in the grey-white sky above; their cawing echoed across the stillness like a caution. He listened to the mournful hum of a fresh wind and the dry rustle of dead leaves picked up and tossed from one ploughed furrow into the next.
‘It’s n-not w-what I expected,’ he uttered, his teeth still chattering as he cinched the rope belt tightly round him.
Becks’s head appeared through the neck-hole of a muddy brown dress. ‘What were you expecting, Liam O’Connor?’
He shrugged. ‘Green woods … sunny meadows … may flowers.’
She frowned and cocked her head. ‘Why? It is winter.’
Liam watched a plume of his breath curl, twist and drift away from him. ‘Dunno really. I just — ’
‘Recommendation,’ said Bob, ‘we should dispose of these bags immediately.’
‘Agreed.’
Bob kicked at the ground and dislodged a dark clod of soil. Then squatted down and began digging with his big hands like a dog burrowing for a bone. Liam handed Becks his bag and then took the opportunity to study their surroundings. Ahead of them the field ended at the edge of a wood. He turned. Behind them the field rolled over the gentle brow of a hill, and beyond that he could just make out a thin line of smoke drifting up from the top of a stone chimney.
‘Hey! There’s something over there,’ he said.
‘Affirmative,’ both support units chorused.
Liam tutted at them both. ‘What’ve I told you two about that? The “affirmative” thing sounds wrong, so it does. Even more so now we’re here!’
Bob stood up straight as Becks placed the bags in the hole and began kicking soil in to fill it up. The folds of his grey robe stretching over hard slabs of muscle. ‘We should adopt the vernacular language of 1194 from this point onwards.’
Becks nodded. ‘Affirmative.’ They both froze for a moment, both blinking, both busy retrieving data. Finally they stirred to life once more.
Liam shrugged. ‘Are you two all done?’
Bob nodded. ‘Ay, serrr. We now can speake bothe in Auld Anglishe.’
‘
‘Well.’ Liam grinned. ‘I
