Hexad: The Factory (Time Travel Thriller) Book 1 (14 page)

"Well, at least that's done," said Amanda, looking rather bored.

"Yeah, but we can't go home yet. Wonder how long this is gonna take them?" mused Dale, amazed that Amanda was so calm after being inside the police station and the interrogation.

"Ages, I bet. They won't have a clue what the Hexads are, so you can bet they will be calling in specialists from all over the place. I bet they even get one of those robot things with a camera on. All we have to do now is figure out what we are going to do. Everything is caught up with, the things that happened in the past, so now we just need to fix the future, stop the devices from being mass-produced, stop the knowledge of them getting out."

"And how are we going to do it? All these years and we haven't got a clue."

"I know, but how could we make a plan? Everything just happens doesn't it? I was just assuming that today something would pop up that would allow us to get on with it."

Dale stopped on the bottom step, wafting away the smoke from uniformed officers that were grouped together puffing away rapidly on their cigarettes. "And now you're not so sure, right?" Amanda nodded her head. "Me either. I think it's going to be down to us babe. We have to make the decisions and we have to do it soon."

"Well, I don't know about that. It won't matter when we do it, will it?"

"I think it will, and besides, I know for certain I'll go mad with worry if we don't just get on with it and act. I need to know that we stop the madness that we saw. It's been haunting me for a decade now."

"Me too. Right, where do we start?"

"Ugh, I have absolutely no idea."

They went to the pub.

~~~

"Two pints please Steve," said Dale, before staring at the polished oak floorboards glumly. He glanced around at the busy pub, scowling deeply. It was all wrong; too weird.

"Right Dale, two pints coming up," said Steve happily, whistling as he grabbed two shiny glasses and began pulling the beer.

Steve being chirpy was definitely not right, it was disconcerting. For too many years to mention Dale and Amanda had been coming to the same pub and the one constant was that Steve would be forever cleaning scratched glasses, trying to get a shine back that always eluded him. He would be morose and uncommunicative, sometimes maybe grunting at you if you were lucky: a proper pub landlord in other words. As soon as you walked in you could guarantee that your feet would stick to the carpet, the place would be empty apart from a few old codgers, you'd probably have to shout for Steve, or go get him as he'd be puffing away in his 'office,' and the beer was always warm and slightly suspicious tasting. Oh, and you avoided the toilets unless it was a real emergency. It was how it was supposed to be: a genuine pub.

Now Steve had sold out, got the place revamped so it was as soulless as every other pub in town. Everything was new and shiny or fake old — Steve was loving it. He had so many customers he had to take on help, and worst of all was that he'd even started to serve food. Food! Dale thought he would never see such blasphemy in The Dog And Duck — the only food there had ever been were packs of pork scratchings or a maybe a pack of ready-salted Walkers dangerously past their sell-by date.

Dale cocked his head to one side, listening for a moment. "Is that Genesis?"

"Yeah. Good innit? Got the new speaker system up and running finally."

Dale shook his head sadly — the one time Dale had suggested Steve get some music in the place he'd muttered that it was a bloody pub, not a disco, and given him a pint with more head than beer.

"Eight pounds forty," said Steve proudly, rubbing a smudge off one of the pints with what Dale was sure was an actual new cloth. He smiled as he pushed the beer towards Dale on spotless beer mats.

"You what!?"

"Sorry Dale, but the prices have gone up. This lot doesn't pay for itself you know." Steve was practically rubbing his hands together with glee.

"What about all the extra customers? That's where you make the profits, not fleecing regulars." Steve just smiled and held out a hand. "It's bloody daylight robbery," muttered Dale, handing over a ten pound note.

"Keep the change?" asked Steve.

"Not likely, give it here."

Steve rang up the pints on his new touchscreen till, then handed Dale his change before ignoring him and going off to serve the others waiting at the bar. Dale put his change in his wallet and put it back in his satchel, buckling it up as it contained the Hexad, and carried the drinks over to their regular spot in the corner, although now it was some 'distressed' old table rather than the original old table.

"He's lost the plot," said Dale, pointing at Steve morosely.

"It's kind of lost it's atmosphere, hasn't it?" said Amanda.

"You can say that again." Dale sipped on his beer. "Damn! Even the beer's cold now. It's just not right." Dale hated to admit it but it was the best pint he'd ever had, even if it was at an astronomical price.

"What are we going to do Dale, just wait?"

"Something will happen, I'm sure. What we saw? Well, it involved us, so one way or another we are going to be busy soon enough. Enjoy your pint while you can."

Amanda took a sip, eyes widening in surprise at the cool beer.

"Hello, do you mind if I sit down?"

It was The Caretaker.

A Strange Reunion

Present Day

Dale and Amanda stared open-mouthed at The Caretaker, a man both of them had begun to believe may never have existed, just like any of the rest of it — although the bomb squad in their kitchen was proof enough that their lives were far from ordinary once more.

"What? Is there something wrong?" asked Tellan.

"Um, no. Please sit down Tellan, or should we call you The Caretaker?" said Amanda.

"Thank you, and, er, I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage, how do you know my name if we haven't met yet?"

Ah, damn, I forgot. When we first met him he said he'd just come from having a chat with us in the future. So this is his first meeting with us. God, what a way to live. How could people do this all the time?

"We met you in our past, your future I guess. You go to meet us next. Again, whatever," Dale waved the convoluted paths away with a hand.

"Ah, I see." Tellan took off his hat and placed it carefully on the table, before taking a sip of his beer. "Delightful." Tellan took a large gulp then placed his pint down carefully on a beer mat. "Now, I'm afraid I have some bad news."

"Save it," said Amanda. "We already know."

"Oh. Oh dear."

"But please tell us in the past, that's how it happened. You turn up in our kitchen and tell us we've been naughty and messed up time and all that."

"Well, I must say, I wasn't expecting this. Now I don't really know what to say, not if I've already said it. Actually I haven't, but I'm about to I suppose." Tellan drank while he thought about the problem, then said, "I don't suppose I told you what you should do to stop this whole future mess from actually happening, did I?"

"No!"

"No! But please do," said Dale, leaning forward eagerly just like Amanda.

"Ah, now, how best to approach this?" Tellan sipped thoughtfully, then laced his fingers after placing his glass back down on the table. "If I have already told you certain things, namely that you have caused quite a few headaches, then I guess I can tell you what you are supposed to do next. You have reported the Hexads, and you do have one yourself don't you?"

"We do," said Dale. "Although it seems very convoluted if you ask me. If we cause it then it seems silly to actually go out of our way to ensure what happens in the future happens, when in reality we want to change the terrible things we have seen." Amanda visibly flinched at Dale's words, the memories of an awful day ten years ago breaking through the defenses they had both tried in vain to erect.

"That's the problem with time I'm afraid. What's the future for you is the past for someone else, so it's already happened. It's all a matter of changing things in the right way so you don't disrupt reality so much that the Universe just kind of gives up and implodes. What you're involved in came pretty close, I can tell you, and will again... Um, never mind about that, we just need to set this right."

"It could do that? Implode? Explode?" asked Amanda.

"It could," agreed Tellan. "You already know what happened just so reality could continue. It's your job to set that right. Somehow."

"Listen Caretaker, I thought you said that you knew how—"

"Please, call me Tellan. Caretaker is so formal. And actually, young man, it's The Caretaker — there is only one."

"Oh, sure, sorry. But look, what do you mean by The Caretaker? I asked you before and I never got an answer." Dale figured it was worth a try, Amanda was no help in terms of getting an explanation.

"I'm The Caretaker, it speaks for itself doesn't it?" Tellan finished his drink and stood, reclaiming his hat and adjusting it carefully once on his head. "Now, if you will excuse me, it seems that I have appeared at the wrong time. This time travel business, such a confusing thing. Bye."

Tellan disappeared.

Dale and Amanda looked around nervously, but the clientele didn't seem to have noticed.

Too busy networking. Gee, what did you do to our pub Steve?

"That wasn't very helpful, was it?" said Amanda.

"No, it was decidedly unhelpful in fact. I'd totally forgot that when we first met him he'd said that he'd just come from meeting us in the future."

"Me too. I guess so much happened so quickly back then that it's kind of blurred after all these years."

"Yeah. Come on, let's go, this place is freaking me out. Look at that bloody fire. I can't believe he ripped out the original only to buy a new one and have it distressed. Now it looks exactly like the old one. Bloody madness."

"That's progress for you," laughed Amanda, taking Dale's arm and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"What's that for?"

"Oh, nothing, just because I wanted to," said Amanda, smiling at Dale.

Beep, beep, beep beep beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

"What the hell is that?"

"I dunno." The noise was getting louder and louder, a piercing, high-pitched shrill coming from Dale's satchel. He tried to muffle it by wrapping his arms around the battered leather bag but it was no use and they were beginning to get a lot of unwanted attention. "Come on, let's get out of here before we have the bomb squad after us as well as them being at home."

They walked fast, but as casually as they could, out of the front door of the pub, battling through cigarette smoke from the banished drinkers congregating on the steps. Steve was with them, laughing and joking with people he would probably have refused to serve not long ago.

"Bye guys, see you soon," said Steve cheerily.

"See ya Steve," said Dale, hurrying Amanda, ignoring the strange looks they got once the group realized Dale was beeping.

They sped round the corner and got into their car, the noise stopping then resuming again intermittently, neither of them knowing when it would start again. Once inside the car Dale quickly drove through town, trying to drown out the sound with the stereo, but Rizzle Kicks was no match for the screaming coming from the back seat that had got louder and louder by the second.

"It must be the Hexad," said Amanda, hands over her ears, shouting at the top of her lungs.

"Yeah, but why? You don't think it's going to explode or anything do you?"

"What?"

"I said, oh never mind." Dale gave up trying to have a conversation — Amanda was still covering her ears and the Hexad was deafening.

Well, there goes the quiet afternoon. Ha, like I expected it to be.

Dale drove to a local park. He couldn't think of anywhere better, and as soon as they arrived, heads feeling like cracked-open coconuts, they ran as fast as they could toward the open space at the center. There were a few funny looks from dog walkers, and Dale panicked that the noise might act as some kind of recall to the animals, but his fears were thankfully unfounded and before long they were alone in the middle of acres of green grass.

Dale fumbled with the buckle and pulled out the Hexad, which instantly went quiet. "What the hell? Do you think it's going to do something?" Dale held it gingerly, ready to throw it and run if it started ticking. The bomb squad ruse was making his mind play tricks on him now.

Amanda peered at it. "I don't know. Maybe it's lonely. Maybe it's a warning that something is happening to the others. Or maybe it needs to be picked up every now and then."

"It's not a bloody puppy," mumbled Dale.

"I heard that Dale. Don't get moody with me, it's not my fault."

"Sorry, I'm just stressed. This is the last thing we need. Look, let's just start shall we? Nobody is going to give us any help, this is down to us so we have to do something."

"Okay, I agree. But what?"

Dale had no idea. They'd gone over so many scenarios and none of them seemed viable, all of them leading to probable paradoxes that made their own lives impossible, their past untenable. If they did anything that meant what they remembered was eradicated, such as destroying Hector before they met him, then they wouldn't remember meeting him, wouldn't have ever thought to go back and kill him, so the inevitable conclusion was that they simply couldn't do it, it wasn't possible.

So what was the answer? Try anyway? Think of something else to stop society ever getting its hands on Hexads, stopping Hector and his terrible Factory of terror where Dale and Amanda had witnessed firsthand what it took to actually get Hexads to function.

"Dale. Dale!" Amanda screamed as Dale turned and two men looking exactly like the ones that had taken them both all those years ago blinked out of existence, taking Amanda with them.

"Amanda." Dale was alone, she'd gone, and he had no clue how to get her back. She could be anywhere, at any time.

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.