Sand Glass (26 page)

‘Yes. There
must be logically. If there is every possibility, then there must
be every chance that everyone gets out in one piece.’

Marcia was
silent for a moment: ‘Extrapolate forward…. Plot the line to this
action that we are currently following. What do we conclude?’

‘That it would
be a bad idea to give the drugs to Elland and his team. I mean, if
Alexander knows we have stolen them.’

‘We must assume
he does by now. So what must we do?’

‘I see a choice
of three things: Leave; stay and tell Elland where Alexander will
have the drugs; or go after Alexander directly.’

‘Do you think
Jared’s idea of letting them take us is any good?’

‘No. Because it
narrows our options. We need to know what our options are, and make
the right choices in order to circumnavigate that mad man.’

‘Do you think
he is mad?’

‘Maybe. Maybe
not. I don’t actually know….’

‘Ha!’ said
Marcia, ‘And there is our problem stated in a nutshell! We don’t
know if our nemesis is mad or not.’

‘Does it make
any difference?’

‘Of course it
does. All the difference in the world. This place is about all the
choices that are thrown up… not just by circumstance, but by human
interaction. We will, that is you and I, will choose to do certain
things for Janey and Jared because…..’ Marcia let the rest
drift.

‘Yes,’ I said,
‘You are right. Before, I was not involved; Now I am. Entangled as
it were. We both are. And now it is time.’

‘Time for
what?’

‘To decide to
go; or to stay.’ I felt that horrible gravity against the idea. But
it felt sound. And like a well-made door, it would hold back the
tide and shut out all sorts of other worlds.

Marcia seemed
to be grappling with this new thought that had entered into her
head almost against her will.

‘You mean
leave?’ she dropped her voice even lower, ‘You mean leave them
here?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why.’

‘Because they
can survive, and so can we. But we need to do something that is off
the map.’

‘Outside the
box?’ Marcia was obviously trying to entertain my suggestion with
as little horror as possible.

‘No.’ I said
thickly, ‘In this case: there is no box.’

We both turned
back to Janey and Jared. And like fading smoke; as we stood
watching, the two of them fragmented and curved into a forgotten
dimension. At our bidding they were folded up into some other
place. And Marcia and I stood up and shouldered our packs and
without a word began walking down the tunnel.

We came at last
to the place lit with lamps.

‘Hands up
now!’

We raised our
arms and let Elland’s men take us. In a few minutes we faced
him.

‘Now then! What
do we have here.’ He came round the camping table, and when neither
of us responded, he picked up a knife that was laid on the table
and pointed it at me. He came close and rather lazily trailed the
knife around my shoulder, until it rested; rather cold and ticklish
on the side of my neck. I relaxed into the moment. It was over, the
sense of struggle, the sense of being commanded by fate. What would
happen would not be up to them, we had other choices to make.

‘Speak now.’
said Elland calmly, ‘or perhaps you would like to feel what I can
do, rather than say it?’

‘I’d prefer
coffee, and a nice friendly chat.’ I said calmly.

‘Ah! The skinny
kid does have a voice, after all.’

‘I think, that
to refer to someone who is twenty-seven as a kid, is pushing it!’
said Marcia.

‘Twenty Seven?’
the tone of Elland’s voice changed, he seemed to mutter to himself,
‘It might be coincidence…. But can I take that chance?’

We waited.
Elland came round the front of me again, the knife point trailing
in a slow arc towards my lower body. When he saw I didn’t flinch or
show any fear, he seemed curious and slightly irritated.

‘You are a Man
if I give it a day.’ He said, ‘I wonder how long it would take for
you to lose this cool appearance. A day? A week? Perhaps several
months? Or if you are like me….. You might last a few years?’

‘I don’t think
this is about how long this lasts; but how soon it can be ended.’ I
said.

‘Ended you
say?’ Elland lowered the knife then, ‘Do you have in your grasp
such alchemy?’

‘I do.’ I said.
Marcia rolled her eyes at me, as if to say “what are you
doing?”

‘Tell me
stranger, why should you offer a way out?’

‘We need you to
be let out.’ Said Marcia, ‘And then we can leave.’

Elland handed
the knife to one of his men who returned it to the table, ‘Get
coffee!’ he ordered, ‘I think that Myself and our guests, need to
have a cosy chat.’

We lowered our
hands and sat down gingerly on some camping chairs as he invited
us.

‘Very well.
Tell me of this plan of yours. And what do I need to do to gain our
freedom. Because I must emphasize the point most strongly. That is
freedom for all twelve of us.’

‘Of course.’ I
said, ‘I would like to give you the probable location of a load of
time stabilisation drugs at six o’clock today.’

‘Then tell me.’
He said.

‘You do
something for us first,’ I said boldly. ‘You bring us Aiden and
Hanson.’

‘Oh! Not much
then… just a matter of doing the impossible, and reaching the
unreachable.’

‘Not at all.’
said Marcia, ‘we will give you a small sample of the drug that we
have with us. Just enough to do these things, and then by six you
will have access to more, and transport to get home.’

‘And why would
I help you get your comrades back?’ Elland was intrigued now.

‘Because they
have the access codes for the train. And the passcodes to get back
into Base.’

‘You want us to
persuade them to reveal these codes?’

‘No. that will
be our job.’ Marcia said, ‘We are skilled in the art of persuasion
you see.’

There was a
little pause. Two of Elland’s men came with the mugs of black oil.
I supped it gratefully. Marcia was on a roll now. She already had
all the codes of course. What we really wanted was to get Hanson
out, and make sure that all Aiden’s people were already gone.
Because no one else had a direct link to one of these people in the
original expedition. In the time frame we had slipped into we
perhaps had ten more minutes if that. I had faith that Jared being
true to form would catch up with our position. We had to tell him
the truth. But in the scheme of things it was worth a small risk.
Marcia was sure that Elland was not the sort of person to take
anything for granted. We weren’t in a sense trying to deceive him.
Reality was bending around us. We had done this without the aid of
drugs. We simply stepped out of the stream we were in and stood in
a different one. I wasn’t worried except by what Jared might say if
he found out. Actually it bothered me more than normal what Janey
might do. How did she now remember? I was still grappling with
certain inconsistencies between my own reality and hers. No one had
the power to really break the stream they were in. But to jump from
one line to another was actually possible. In the mountain they all
existed together with a very thin veil between them. I thought of
Aiden’s remark about reality being more flexible at certain
points.

Elland put his
mug down after taking three rather large gulps of the stuff;
another man came to him and whispered something to him.

‘Well!’ he said
with an assertive vigour, ‘I can confirm that you have a deal.’ He
held out on large strong paw.

‘Very well.’ I
said, ‘We will come back to your gate way at exactly five o’clock.
If you have them both then you will be given any assistance that we
are able, to get you home.’

‘And if we
haven’t achieved this feat?’ Elland said in an amused tone.

‘Then we all
need to renegotiate our position.’ I replied, and nodded to Marcia
who got out the small shots of the time drug.

‘A couple of
words of advice Sonny,’ said Elland, as he rolled up his left
sleeve, ‘just remember who your friends really are. And learn to
shoot straight. Or at least, make it count.’

‘I will.’ I
said. About five minutes after that we were back in the tunnel.

‘What did he
mean?’ Marcia stopped and blocked the narrow part of the corridor,
‘is there something you’re not telling me?’

‘You mean about
making it count?’ I said, ‘I really have no idea. I think he thinks
we’ve met at a different time…. Maybe we did; we will…. Oh God help
me! I don’t know!’

Marcia looked
at me with a new expression on her face, as if trying to calculate
the distance between the boy she had first met in me and the almost
grownup before her now. I imagined she would look at a half made,
awkward teenager just like that; pity, and irritation and
unrelenting affection blended so perfectly they were like a bitter
chocolate of the soul. ‘It’s fine Davey. I just had to ask. But
tell me something. What is it that you know, that you aren’t
telling me? I know there is something, you were confident in a way
you haven’t been before. Tell me now Davey, right now.’ She folded
her arms. Marcia was not the sort of woman to deflect when she had
made up her mind. I paused opened my mouth; shut it again. Thought
better of it then took her right hand in mine and pressed her palm
against my thigh. She rolled her eyes at me as if I was being
really weird. Then realisation. The fine knife was strapped there
in its sheath, fitted so well against my skin that it was
undetectable underneath the loose cargos.

‘He gave it to
you!’ Marcia withdrew her hand, ‘And do you really know how to use
it?’

‘Yes.’

‘Oh! So Leanna
told me that thing. But I did not understand it. She said that only
one who has been beyond this life can release the trapped
soul.’

‘Yes…’

‘Does she mean
people like us?’

‘I think,’ I
said slowly, ‘she must have meant anyone who was in a place they
are not supposed to be in.’

‘And does it
work by killing them?’

‘No! of course
not. Do you really think I could do that?’

‘No. Yes. I
really don’t know if you could or not. You’re not like Oliver, are
you?’ Marcia turned and started to walk down the tunnel again, ‘I
guess then that a cut is sufficient?’

‘Yes; but
here’s the rub. I cannot be done to a friend against their
will.’

‘What if that
friend was unconscious…. Or dying?’

‘I would
suppose it would only work if they had already agreed. It is the
consent that is important, not when it is given.’

‘And what of an
enemy? Or one who is simply not known to you?’

‘I think that
it depends on the connection to yourself. It is about breaking a
bond; cutting off some binding of fate…. It is not about hurting
people.’

‘Drawing blood
isn’t about hurting people?’ Marcia sounded a little sarcastic.

‘I believe that
a surgeon would draw more blood than this to save a person.’ I
said. Marcia fell silent for several minutes. I saw she had divined
my meaning. We walked back through the same part of the tunnel; all
the while looking for signs that Jared and Janey had passed by this
way.

‘We’re nearly
back to the small cave,’ said Marcia, ‘Hush now.’

We walked
another thirty paces and came back to the little cavern.

The oddest
thing. It was as if we had at that moment just left and Jared and
Janey were exactly as we had last seen them. Janey was wiping her
eyes, and Jared was making more tea. He looked up. We quickly sat
down. But Jared wasn’t fooled by our apparent brief
conversation.

‘So what did
you find?’ His eyes glinted in the lamplight with a fire I had only
ever really seen in Janey before – the other Janey that is.

‘There is a way
out; we have to find the combination of factors that leads back to
you and Janey arriving.’ said Marcia, and touched his arm. Jared
flinched as if she had scratched him.

‘What have you
two been doing?’ He said coldly,

‘There are
twenty-four combinations of your possible outcomes on that
night….late on the first of august. Most of the scenarios mean
everyone gets out alive.’

‘Really? And
what about serious injury? That’s kind of the problem we have
here.’

‘In seven
scenarios only…..’

‘You are
whispering in corners. I don’t like it.’

Marcia sat back
slightly with pain in her eyes. Janey looked up at all of us.

‘What are they
doing?’ she asked Jared.

‘I don’t know,’
Jared’s voice was heavy and threatening, ‘but I will find out.’

‘We have been
down the tunnel a little way….’ Marcia began.

‘I know you
have!’ Jared snapped at her, ‘I know by the way your pack straps
have been adjusted, and the dust on your clothes that you’ve been
out of sight for quite a while.’

‘We were gone
for a few minutes, weren’t we?’ I asked calmly.

Jared looked at
me then in a way I had not seen before. He scrambled to his feet.
Marcia and I were quickly alert in a defensive stance, rather
alarmed by his manner.

‘You say a few
minutes? Yes, for us. No more than the time it would take for me to
wonder why you were silent. Then, there you were!’

‘Well then?’ I
shrugged. I knew I had made a mistake as soon as I said it. Jared
leaped towards me and grabbed the front of the jacket, pushing me
against the wall. I was so shocked I didn’t resist. Marcia and
Janey jumped back out of the way.

Jared was close
to me, but he seemed as far away as he could possibly be.

‘Where were
you?’ he said slowly, pressing his weight against me. I heard Janey
stifle a cry from the other side of the cave.

‘Get off me
Jared!’ I said loudly, ‘You are not going to force anything from
me.’ I shoved him backwards. It was with such force that we both
tumbled over each other across one of the packs. I dropped my pack
down as I moved, and tried to slide sideways. Jared pinned me to
the floor by the shoulders, but I twisted sideways and tipped him
over my head.