CHAPTER 21
2001, en route to Quantico, Virginia
Lincoln glowered at his three captors in silence for the best part of an hour. The horseless vehicle they were travelling in was uncomfortable and bare. There were no windows that he could see out of clearly and the occasional lurching motion was beginning to make him feel sick. He had no idea how long they had sat like this, a man either side of him and one sitting opposite, returning his glare through round wire-framed glasses with cool professional contempt.
To his left a hatch suddenly snapped open revealing wire mesh and two more men in a cabin in front. Lincoln had the distinct impression that he was seeing the drivers,
‘Agent Mead, sir!’
The man who had been silently staring at him turned and shuffled up the bench opposite. ‘What is it?’
‘Message from the New York field office, sir …’ The man’s voice was hesitant.
‘Well? What is it?’
What was muttered, Lincoln couldn’t make out. But for the first time he thought he saw a flicker of emotion on the bespectacled man’s face. The conversation was quick and the trapdoor snapped shut again. The man shuffled back down the bench to look at Lincoln once more. His jaw was grinding away, his lips pressed tightly, the knuckles bulging on his fists as he silently clenched and flexed them. Finally, in a voice clogged with emotion, he spoke.
‘Jesus.’ He shook his head. ‘God knows how many innocent civilians just died. One thousand? Five thousand? Ten thousand? We may never know.’
‘What’s happened, sir?’ asked the agent to the left.
‘They came down.’
Both agents cursed.
‘North and south, both of them, the whole damned thing … gone!’
Lincoln frowned for a moment, and then realized the man was talking about those two magnificently tall buildings he’d seen exploding back in that brick archway. ‘The two straight towers are completely destroyed now?’
Lincoln could see the man with the spectacles wanted so much to throw a punch at him, but was doing his best to contain that urge. Nonetheless, he decided it was worth another go explaining his bizarre circumstances.
‘Now you must listen here, sir. I told those two
‘I’d shut up if I were you.’
‘Good God, sir! This is a
‘Right now … no, you don’t.’
‘Do you know who I am, sir?’
‘Sure, I know who you are. You’re some scumbag, whack-job terrorist. Some messed-up-in-the-head fanatic who believes in killing innocent civilians to make some sort of screwed-up point!’
Lincoln leaned forward and narrowed his eyes. ‘Now you
The man wearing spectacles moved with a blur and Lincoln found himself doubled over, gasping for breath, winded by a blow to his solar plexus. He tried his best not to vomit on the metal floor between his feet.
‘Agent Belling, you saw what just happened, didn’t you?’
‘Yes, sir. The vehicle lurched violently and the detainee fell on your fist, sir.’
‘Precisely.’
Lincoln looked up at them. ‘
‘Like I said,
CHAPTER 22
2001, New York
‘He must have blabbed about nine-eleven,’ said Maddy. ‘He must have said something about the Twin Towers being blown to pieces when he was arrested last night.’ She looked at the others, pointed to one of the computer screens. ‘He saw it all on there, didn’t he?’
‘It is logical that with foreknowledge of the event the authorities will think he is involved,’ said Becks.
‘Exactly! I remember when nine-eleven happened there were arrests going on all over the country, you know? Like within hours of it all happening! If the FBI have just whistled him away somewhere in the back of a van, then they must believe he’s some terrorist. That he’s involved in nine-eleven somehow.’
‘But … if he is also telling them he’s Abraham Lincoln,’ said Sal, ‘maybe they will just think he’s a total crazy and let him go.’
‘Information: this is an altered timeline,’ said Bob.
Maddy nodded. ‘Exactly, Bob’s right. It’s a timeline — remember — where there was no famous Abraham Lincoln. He can tell them till he’s blue in the face that he’s
She got up from her armchair and paced up and down the length of the kitchen table. ‘We’ve got to work out where they’re taking him and snatch him back before we get another wave coming along. The next change could be a big one. We need to find him quickly.’
‘What’s the FBI?’ asked Liam.
‘Federal Bureau of Investigation,’ said Maddy. ‘
‘Like Scotland Yard?’
Maddy shrugged. ‘I guess.’
Liam nodded. ‘All right, then … and do they have a place they work from? Like us, like our archway? A base?’
‘Washington DC, I think,’ replied Maddy quickly. ‘That’s the FBI headquarters if I remember
‘
‘An old TV show — it’s not important,’ she replied. ‘Look, that’s got to be where they’ll have taken him. That’s what happened in the aftermath of nine-eleven. I remember reading about the FBI rounding up every suspicious- looking character they could and processing them and the FBI holding them until the camp at Guantanamo Bay was up and running a few months later and ready to take them.’
She turned to Becks. ‘Can you get computer-Bob to put together a data package on the FBI, their HQ … layout, location, that kind of thing? Also any information on the suspects rounded up after nine-eleven — where precisely they were held?’
‘Yes, Maddy.’
She turned to the others. ‘It doesn’t seem like we’ve got a lot of choice. I can’t think of anything else we can do. We need to make our way down to the FBI’s HQ and …’ She looked up at Bob. ‘And if worst comes to worst, Bob, you’re going to have to do your one-man-army thing and bust him out for us.’
‘That will require extreme violence,’ said Bob. ‘I will need more weapons.’
Maddy nodded. ‘Oh, you can be sure of that. This is going to get messy.’
‘Where did you say this FBI place was?’ asked Liam.
‘Washington. You’ve already done that journey, Liam. Remember?’
