Day of the Assassins (10 page)

Jack didn’t know how long they had been asleep when they were woken by the creak of the door opening. A man with two burly guards on either side marched in. The tall, stooping frame and the wisps of silver hair adorning his balding head were unmistakable. Just the gown was missing. It was the Rector. The last time Jack had seen him was in the control room, directing Tony and Gordon to set about Angus and Pendelshape, just before Jack had made his daring escape using the Taurus. Now, here he was with them – in an Austrian castle in 1914. The Rector marched forward and the two guards quietly peeled away to take up positions elsewhere in the hall. Then, he did something that took Jack completely by surprise. He opened his arms warmly and said, “Welcome!” He moved over to where they sat and gestured for them to stay in their seats, “Please, please, stay where you are. I know. You have had a very tiring and traumatic day. Mr Smith has already briefed me.
“You’ve certainly given us a run for our money!” He turned and called back towards the hall entrance, “More food! Our guests are hungry!”

The Rector’s friendliness was unsettling.

“Time travel – it creates a bit of an appetite, don’t you think?”

Jack was confused. He couldn’t work out why the Rector was being friendly. Unable to control himself, he blurted out, “What’s going on? Where are we? What have you done with Angus and Dr Pendelshape?”

The Rector tried to soothe him, “Please, Jack – calm yourself. You are quite safe. And we owe you an explanation. You are one of the school’s better pupils, after all,” the Rector smiled at the professor, “he really is, you know.” The Rector nodded, “Yes – we have much to discuss and much to explain. But first, some proper introductions. The Rector thrust out his hand to the professor. “John Blanding – Rector at Jack’s school, back at, er, home. Pleased to meet you, Professor. My men have told me all about your miraculous escape in the mountains.”

The professor half rose from his seat, “Pinckard-Schnell, at your service. I must thank you for arranging our rescue so quickly… and thank you for allowing us to be guests,” he looked around, unsure of himself, “in your, er, house.”

“A pleasure. I understand from Mr Smith that you were taking an unexpected opportunity to set a new world record, Professor?”

“Yes…”

“Well, as you are no doubt aware, you have landed in the Southern Tyrol, so as you departed from HMS
Dreadnought
, somewhere in the North Sea, I think you will have more than achieved your objective. Congratulations are in order.”

The Professor blushed self-consciously, then his expression turned to one of puzzlement, “You seem to know a surprising amount… sir, how exactly…?”

Jack piped up, his voice a little unsteady. “Professor – I don’t think you quite understand – this is the Rector from my school, the head teacher, the one I told you about.” He turned to the Rector, “I told him what happened, sir, I had to really, although I’m not sure he quite believes me.”

The Rector smiled, “Yes, of course. I quite understand. Well, now we are all here safe and sound, I think you deserve to understand the full picture.” He turned to the Professor, “Both of you.”

“… You can see, then, how the technology we are dealing in, time travel technology, is extremely powerful. Those who use it can potentially change the past and therefore change the future. The people who are in charge of it have a huge responsibility. Sometimes we have to take difficult decisions – and we have to take them quickly.”

Jack and the professor had sat back in their chairs whilst the Rector paced backwards and forwards in front of the log fire. The professor was engrossed in what the Rector had to say. Jack, however, refreshed after his short nap and the food, was impatient for answers.

“Have you killed Dr Pendelshape?” he asked.

For the first time, the Rector’s warmth evaporated, “Pendelshape! That idiot! Jack – do you have any idea how dangerous Pendelshape’s actions could have been?”

Jack shook his head sheepishly.

The Rector took a deep breath, “For your information, no, we have not killed him. Not our style, although he has been severely reprimanded. I don’t think he will make the same mistake twice.” The Rector, calming himself, explained Pendelshape’s sins in more detail, “Pendelshape was collaborating secretly with the Benefactor in his quest to build a separate Taurus. We had no idea. Not only is this quest exceptionally dangerous, but it is against VIGIL rules – the VIGIL Imperative that he signed up to – and what’s more, it’s a personal betrayal to all his colleagues – including myself.”

They looked at the Rector blankly. The Rector sighed, “I think I need to explain to you both exactly what we are dealing with here.”

He stooped down to place another log on the fire, “The scientific team that developed the time-travel technology decided that using it would be too dangerous. Making interventions back in time might have unforeseen consequences for the present. We had developed very good computer-modelling techniques to predict how changes in the past would alter the future course of history. But despite this, we
believed it was just too risky. We decided instead to mothball the technology, and we founded the school as a cover for what we were doing. VIGIL was set up and we agreed to be bound by its rules. In the end there was really only one dissenting voice – the Benefactor. He could not agree that we should never use the technology – he honestly believed that it could be used as a power for good. The argument became very heated. Eventually, we agreed to part company with the Benefactor. It was very sad in a way. He was one of our most brilliant scientists and one of the architects of the Taurus. But he left the Taurus team seven years ago and we heard nothing from him until yesterday.”

“Until you intercepted the emails between him and Pendelshape.”

“That’s right, Jack. We were carrying out a check, as we do on all the team members from time to time, without their knowledge. We have to. What we found was extremely alarming.”

“The Benefactor had built a separate Taurus.”

“Exactly – we were staggered by this. We could not believe that he could have done it on his own.” The Rector stared into the flickering flames. He shook his head and added grudgingly, “You have to admire him. Now, there are two working time machines, and suddenly, the Benefactor has the ability to time travel and, potentially, to make his own changes in history – just as he always wanted.”

“And you can’t do anything about it?”

The Rector turned back to Jack. “Well, of course, as we also have our original Taurus at the school, if the Benefactor made a change in time, we could go back and try to reverse that change. In fact one of the reasons we kept the Taurus intact and even tested it was in case somehow, someone developed similar technology in the future. We had considered that scenario but believed it to be highly unlikely. But science moves quickly…”

“Two time machines? Sounds like things could get really messed up. Dr Pendelshape said something about the ‘Armageddon Scenario’.”

“Yes – a theoretical possibility. You could get into a series of interventions and reversals in history… anything could happen.
It’s unpredictable and very dangerous.”

The professor removed his round glasses and started to polish them energetically on a napkin, as his mind spun in wonderment at the potential consequences of time-travel interventions.

“A kind of time war,” he said – probably with more enthusiasm than he intended.

“If you like, Professor, but we don’t even want to contemplate that. We must stop the Benefactor from doing anything at all.”

“But you can’t do that – you don’t know where he is – he has his own Taurus – he can do whatever he wants… whenever he wants.”

The Rector stared down at Jack. His expression had changed – he now had a sympathetic, even sad, look in his eye, “Of course, you would be right, but for one thing.”

Jack cocked his head, not sure what the Rector meant.

“Sorry – I keep calling him ‘the Benefactor’ – old names, old habits, I’m afraid. You of course know by now, who the Benefactor is?”

“Some nutcase – sounds like.” Jack glanced over to the professor and smiled nervously.

“He’s your father, Jack.” 

J
ack heard the words but they made no sense. For a second, he just stared blankly at the Rector.

“What?”

“The Benefactor – he’s your father…”

“But… how…?”

“Jack, I know this is hard…”

Slowly it started to become clear. “…the library at Cairnfield…”

“Yes – your father’s workshop.”

It all made sense. All the First World War memorabilia they had found there. Then there was the present of a history book and his strange flashbacks of the trip to the First World War battlefields and cemeteries – no doubt driven by his father’s interest in history – maybe his desire for Jack to share the same interest, and share his horror at the slaughter. And then there was his early childhood near Geneva – where his father had worked with the rest of the Taurus team. And his father never being at home – always working – which wasn’t surprising given the importance of what he was doing. And, of course, the separation from his mum. It was obvious now why that had happened. The stress must have been unbearable. Jack couldn’t believe that he had not realised it before.

“But why wasn’t I told… why didn’t Mum say…?”

“To protect you. Knowledge of the Taurus, and the people involved with it, is strictly controlled. Carole, your mother, is aware, she has to be… but she is on our side. Your father pleaded with her desperately for you both to join him when he left. But Carole was determined that she should try to give you a normal life… not to have you caught up in all… this. And anyway…”

“Anyway what?”

The Rector turned away again, rubbing his hands by the fire. “Sorry Jack… your father could be… difficult.”

“So, this explains the message we received from Jack’s mother on the time phone in the balloon,” the professor said.

“We managed to send a temporary signal from our Taurus to your time phone. We told Carole immediately what had happened, and we sent the message from her, we thought you would trust her, to try to warn you that we would be bringing you in. Not to resist. We would have tried to get you back right then – but there was no signal.”

“So why send a couple of thugs?” Jack said crossly.

“MacFarlane and Smith?” the Rector raised his eyebrows, “This is not a game, Jack. The fight you witnessed at the school was… unfortunate. But we were desperate – we had to act very, very fast.”

“But on
Dreadnought
… they were going to inject me with some stuff, then Gordon shot at me with that weird rifle thing when I managed to get on the balloon.”

“No. It might have appeared like that to you. You were under intense stress. They had strict orders to sedate you if necessary, but to bring you home, safely, as soon as we had a signal. I understand that Mr Macfarlane’s shot at the balloon was an attempt to free it from its moorings before you boarded it. It was the shot of a marksman… He was certainly not aiming for you. Those two are utterly trustworthy.” He added under his breath, “Although sometimes they become a little over enthusiastic.”

“But you still have not explained why this young man is so important to you – why he needs to be mixed up in all of this?” the professor said, glancing across at Jack sympathetically. “Surely it is Jack’s father you want, not Jack?”

The Rector sighed, “Don’t you see? I’m afraid, Jack, in a way, you are a kind of hostage. If we have you, then the Benefactor, your father, has his hands tied… You are the only person in the world that he cares about. He even thinks Carole has betrayed him now. The only way we can stop him using the Taurus is by threatening to harm you if he does.”

Jack suddenly realised the terrible logic of his predicament and
thought back to the email from his father that he and Angus had read in Pendelshape’s store cupboard:
I fear that when they find out, they may
take Orion… we must protect Orion.

Orion. At last he knew who that was. Orion was himself. His father had wanted Pendelshape to make sure that Jack was safe, so that his father would be free to use his own Taurus, without the Rector and VIGIL stopping him by threatening to harm his son. It explained, too, why Pendelshape had taken them into his confidence so suddenly and taken such a risk in showing them the Taurus and its control room. Pendelshape had been working secretly with his father all along. Before the Rector had arrived with Tony and Gordon in the control room, Pendelshape was about to take Jack somewhere so that the Rector could never find them. In fact, as he had guessed, Pendelshape had been planning to use the Taurus to hide Jack in time. In 1914. Then, his father could use his second Taurus to locate them and rescue them – so they would be permanently free from the clutches of the Rector and VIGIL. But the Rector had arrived too soon and had upset the plan. Ironically, Jack had been so frightened by the sudden arrival of the Rector and the VIGIL guards, he had panicked and used the Taurus to escape anyway.

But the email had also mentioned someone else: Lynx.

There is nothing we can do about Lynx now – she has gone over to the
other side.

Jack looked at the Rector, “So if I am ‘Orion’, who is ‘Lynx’?”

“Carole – your mother.”

Of course. “So, what you’re saying is that I’m a kind of pawn in a battle between you and my dad?”

“I’m afraid so, Jack.”

“And while you have me… you can threaten my dad that you might kill me… or… or torture me… then you know he won’t do anything. Anything silly – with the second Taurus – to change things in the past. To change the course of history…”

“Yes. But you are more than a pawn. You are much, much more important than that. In fact, I would say, right now, until we can track down your father, and bring him under control, you are possibly the
most important person in the world. It’s only the threat to harm you that prevents your father from acting. We are all involved in a deadly high-wire balancing act… It’s not how we want it to be. But it’s the way it is.”

Jack felt confused at first… then he started to feel angry. Angry that these men, with their intellects and ambitions had created a technology so powerful and so potentially lethal that it could scarcely be discussed, let alone used. Angry that, for some reason, it was in him that the precarious balance of power between these two enemies was maintained. Angry, that his mum had not found it possible to explain any of this to him before. Angry that it was the battle to control this great power that had torn his own family apart.

Later, with the night upon them, they were led through a series of spiral staircases and passageways to their rooms. Separate rooms. Jack’s seemed to have been cut straight from the massive stonework of the castle walls. The door closed behind him and he heard a key turn in its lock and a dull clunk as two bolts on the outside were slid into place. It was like being in an underground bunker. The air was completely still and there was no sound. Although it was small, some attempt had been made to make the place comfortable. On the floor, a thick rug covered the grey flagstones. There was some simple dark-oak furniture and a pair of maroon curtains. There was a made-up bed with pillows, sheets, blankets and a richly embroidered gold and red bedspread. It looked like it must have taken months to hand sew. It was nothing like his blue-and-white striped duvet at home that had probably spun off a textile machine in China in five seconds.

Jack peered through the small window. It was getting late and the ragged outline of the mountains was darkening against an indigo sky. The window was set solidly into the one-metre thick castle wall and could not be opened. For the time being, he was caged. Of course he now knew why. He was being held hostage from his own father, the Benefactor, in case he was, in some way, able to find out where his son
was located and was then able to mount a daring rescue mission.

He remembered the awe he had felt when he discovered that the extraordinary workshop beneath Cairnfield actually belonged to his own father. He had been proud to be associated with somebody so brilliant – his own flesh and blood. Now, he realised just how powerful his father was, and therefore how important he himself was, his feelings were agonisingly mixed. There was pride in feeling ‘special’ but at the same time he was scared and confused. He didn’t know who to trust – the Rector, VIGIL and his mum, or Pendelshape and his dad. He didn’t know who was really right and who was really wrong and he didn’t want to have to choose.