Time's Chariot

‘Sentient?’ Su looked at the man in horror. ‘You made it sentient? You… you…’

‘Are an accessory to murder and kidnap,’ Rico said, ‘and you’re going to face the authorities back home.’

‘Not with what I have in my head,’ Daiho said calmly

‘Kidnap?’ said Scott. ‘What do you mean, kidnap?’

Rico glared at him. ‘Those two kids, and thanks for reminding me. Su, get your agrav off. I’m going to need it.’

‘We are now at recall point,’ said their suits together.

‘Cut speed and hover,’ Rico ordered the pilots. ‘Hold this position.’

Su was looking round and doing a head count. ‘You said there were five of them.’

‘The other two are back at the hotel and Asaldra is God knows where. With two agravs, I can at least get the kids back to the recall point.’ The helicopter rocked slightly. ‘I said, hold position!’ Rico snapped.

‘Windy,’ the pilot said nervously, glancing back over his shoulder.

‘Do what you can.’

‘Yes, sir!’

‘What will you do with the equipment?’ Daiho said. Rico looked blankly at him.

‘Destroy it, of course,’ he said.

‘You can’t!’

‘Oh, I think I can…’

‘Rico,’ said Su, ‘it’s not worth it. We’ll be home in five minutes, and then we can just send a general recall. It’ll get them and the equipment too. They’ll be back in the Home Time thirty seconds after we are.’

Su held his gaze, and Rico reluctantly had to admit she was right.

Scott sat back comfortably in his seat, stretched his legs and put his hands behind his head. ‘Those two kids, as you call them,’ he said, ‘work for me. I think you’ll find their contracts allow me to take them where I want and do with them what I will. The era in which they work isn’t specified. I broke no laws.’

‘Unauthorized transferences…’ Rico said.

‘I authorized them,’ said Daiho.

‘Making contact with bygoners…’

‘Again, something that someone at Commissioner level can do.’

‘Did you order Asaldra—’

‘Mr Asaldra,’ Scott corrected.

‘— to make contact with a correspondent?’

‘Of course,’ said Daiho.

‘And that’s not illegal?’ Rico was beginning to feel desperate.

‘Actually, no. Unusual, but not illegal.’

‘By the way,’ Scott said, with an enormous smile on his face, ‘thank you for getting us out of the bygoners’ hands.’

Rico’s jaw tensed and he turned back to Daiho.

‘Did you order Mr Asaldra not just to make contact but to reveal the truth about the Home Time to a correspondent? To let the correspondent know that recall is possible?’

Daiho’s smile became fixed. ‘No,’ he said, ‘but that didn’t happen, did it? There would be witnesses.’

‘I witnessed their conversation,’ Rico growled.

‘We have your word for that, yes, but that’s all.’

‘I recorded it on my field computer!’ Rico shouted.

‘When we get back to the Home Time and this little matter comes to the tribunal you’ll no doubt insist on, I think you’ll find you didn’t.’

‘Almost definite, I’d say,’ Scott commented. ‘After all, Op Garron, you’re not very good with field computers, are you?’

‘Why, you…’ Rico took a step forward and Su had to step in his way.

‘It’s almost time for recall,’ she said. ‘Will you both please stand up. Remember that we’ll arrive home in the same position as we leave this time, so sitting down won’t be very comfortable.’

With an insouciant ease which made Rico’s teeth stand on edge, the two men undid their buckles and slowly stood up. The helicopter was still rocking and they had to put arms out to balance themselves.

‘Please, Op Garron, believe me,’ said Daiho. His voice suddenly held quiet, rock-steady conviction. ‘It may seem to you that we’ve stepped outside the law, but what we’ve been doing has been for the good of the entire Home Time. Everyone will be grateful to us, and that includes you.’

‘Somehow, I’m not interested in people like you deciding what’s good for me,’ Rico snapped. ‘And there’s still the matter of murder, isn’t there? That clone might have had the mind of a baby, or maybe you implanted it with just enough of your brainwaves to give the forensics people the idea that it was you, but—’

‘I would have been prepared to lay down my life for the Home Time,’ said Daiho. ‘Therefore, so would that clone. Therefore, what happened was voluntary suicide.’

‘You can’t be serious,’ Rico said in amazement, but then he saw the look of firm conviction on Daiho’s face. ‘Good God. You believe that, don’t you? You really can use a clever little lawyer’s argument to absolve yourself of all moral guilt. So much for the noble patrician.’ He shook his head, not in doubt but as if to shake the revulsion of the sudden insight from his memory. ‘Well, we’ll see what they say when it comes to trial.’

‘You keep talking about this trial,’ Scott said, ‘but let’s face it, you really don’t have any evidence, do you? For… well, anything, really. Unless…’ He had to grab the back of a seat as the helicopter reeled again, which rather spoilt his superior air. ‘Unless you interview the correspondent,’ he added with a laugh.

The look on Rico’s face wiped the smile from Scott’s own.

‘Rico!’ Su warned him, loudly, but she needn’t have worried.

‘Mr Scott,’ Rico said quietly, almost in awe, ‘I could almost kiss you. But I won’t.’ Instead he grabbed Su’s shoulders and gave her a kiss on each cheek. ‘Hold the fort,’ he said, and pulled the door open. The wind blew into the cabin again.

‘Where are you going?’

‘To get the evidence,’ Rico said, his eyes agleam. He grinned at Scott. ‘Thank you so much.’

‘For what?’ Scott took a step forward. ‘This has gone far enough, Garron. Just face the fact that you have bungled…’

It seemed to happen in slow motion. The helicopter took another buffeting from the wind; Scott stumbled forward towards the open door and stretched out a hand to catch himself, but with the door open there was nothing to hold on to and with a shriek he fell into the night.

‘Shit!’ Rico bellowed and dived into the dark after him. His night vision showed a wriggling, screaming Scott plunging down to the waves and he symbed the instructions to his agrav to dive after the man. He plunged head first, hands by his side, down towards the sea, then to his amazement felt his rate of descent suddenly slow.

‘No!’ he bellowed. ‘Keep diving…’

It was too late: Phenuel Scott smashed into the freezing water. A few seconds later Rico drifted across the seething mass of bubbles where Scott had splashed down. A man’s dark outline showed through the froth, and Rico didn’t need his fieldsuit’s sensors to tell him that there was no hope.

The shock of impact with the bitterly cold water would have killed him straight off.

‘What the hell were you doing?’ he shouted.

‘This unit could not permit the operative’s intended course of action.’

‘I could have saved him…’

‘Incorrect. You could have reached him before he hit the water, but your combined momentum would be too much for this unit to overcome.’

The fieldsuit was probably right, Rico realized angrily, floating above the waves. No — not probably, it was right. He and Scott would have died together.

He swore for a very long time, then looked back up at the helicopter.

‘Too late,’ he symbed.

A pause. ‘Are you coming back, then?’ Su said. ‘We’ll recall any moment…’