It wasn’t an impossibility that Mike could somehow get holdof another ticket and since he was here, had money, a ticket and a car, he mayas well stay and go to Oz for Africa, which by all accounts had been an amazingexperience.
The police would probably be looking for him, but if he didrun into them, he could always use the tachyometer to escape, but it didn’thappen. All the way to Sydney, he saw no indication that anyone was looking forhim and there was nothing about it on the radio, but why would there be? He hadrobbed an old banger off some kids, not a bank. And now he was armed with lotsof the old, colourful and archaic currency he could pay for petrol, food andplaces to stay the night on the way without getting into any new trouble.
When he arrived in Sydney on Saturday morning, he abandonedthe car and headed straight for the concert. He was slightly concerned thatthey might know at the gate that his ticket was stolen, but these fears wereunfounded. The antiquated paper ticket system wasn’t sophisticated enough forthem to know.
The concert was everything he had hoped – a little slice ofhistory, part of something global happening in London, Philadelphia and allover the world.
He never saw anything of Mike, but with 11,000 people inattendance, bumping into him would have been pretty unlikely even if he hadsomehow made it there. Therefore, Henry still couldn’t be completely sure hismission had been successful.
He had nothing to worry about. A disgruntled Mike, with notransport and no ticket, ended up watching the concert at home on TV. He nevermet Vanessa’s mother, and hence, as he and Josh had planned, they sealed theirenemy’s ultimate fate – never to be born.
After INXS’s closing set, Henry left the SydneyEntertainment Centre and headed for Hyde Park in the city. It was pointlessgoing all the way back to Melbourne because if he had been successful, then itwas highly unlikely that Josh would be there in any case, due to the alteredtimeline.
Arriving in the park, he found a suitable tree and jumpedforward to 2058. As soon as he got there, he knew he had been successful.Instead of a derelict, abandoned city, he arrived in the middle of the vibrant,throbbing Sydney that he knew and loved.
It was morning, the park was full of dog walkers andfamilies, and he could hear the noise from the hustle and bustle of the city inthe distance. He breathed a huge sigh of relief. It seemed that everything wasback to normal. Now it was just a case of finding out just how much the worldhad changed from Vanessa not being a part of it.
He really needed to find Josh, but where would he be? In alllikelihood he would be in Oxford, in a timeline where things had played outdifferently for him since he had first met Vanessa and the other Henry. Butpresumably he would remember everything due to what they had discovered abouttime travellers being sensitive to timeline changes.
There was only one way to find out and that was to fly overto Oxford, but that might be a little tricky. Technically, he didn’t even existin this universe which meant he had no status, no money, no home, no anything.He had better get started on sorting things out.
The obvious answer was to track down his alter ego in thisuniverse, who hopefully would understand what had gone on. If not, he was surehe would be able to explain it to him. The other Henry was bound to be areasonable chap, just like himself. Yes, it was all going to be fine.
He wandered through the park, heading for Sydney busstation, where he was delighted to discover he could buy a ticket to Canberrausing a retina scan, which he passed with no problem. The scan was meant to beinfallible, coded to an individual’s unique eyes, but they hadn’t allowed forthe possibility of a duplicate from another universe attempting to defraud thesystem.
Safely on the bus, he could finally relax as he headed forCanberra, hoping that there he would find the other Henry.
Chapter Twenty-Four
September 2058
Back in the UK, Kaylee awoke suddenly, and leapt out of bedin a panic, her most recent and very vivid memory being of the assassin in thestairwell standing in front of her, about to blow her away.
Relief flooded through her as she realised that she wassafely in her bedroom at home. She turned to Charlie, who was sitting up with alook of confusion and fear on his face, similar to her own.
“Oh Charlie, I thought I’d lost you,” she cried as sheclimbed back onto the bed and flung her arms around him.
“What the hell happened?” asked Charlie, trying to makesense of all the muddled thoughts.
“I’ve just had an absolutely terrifying dream,” said Kaylee.“It was back when we were young, shopping at Sainsbury’s, and we were attackedby some black-clad assassin who killed you and then came after me.”
“I dreamt exactly the same thing,” said Charlie. “Shepointed a gun at me, then there was nothing – just darkness and oblivion. I’venever known a dream seem so real.”
“How can we both have had the same dream?” she asked.
“Maybe it was real – in another universe I know some of theothers have had dreams like this before. I need to ring Josh and see if heknows what’s going on.”
Josh did indeed know what was going on. He had gone to bedon the yacht in Melbourne and woken up the next day back at home in his ownbed, in Oxford, with Alice asleep by his side. The relief at knowing that Henryhad been successful, and he would never have anything to fear from Vanessaagain overwhelmed him, and he turned quickly to hold his wife, tears in hiseyes.
The next day, the whole team, fully restored, met up at TheRed Lion to discuss what had happened. All of them apart from Lauren rememberedthe original timeline, up to the point where they
