Send Simon Savage #1 (5 page)

On their tour the previous afternoon, the temponauts had glimpsed the Time Bureau’s Command Centre through an observation window. Captain Cutler had explained that the centre controlled every time-travel mission, and stored all the Bureau’s operational information in its computers.

I have to get into the Command Centre, Simon thought.

When he filled out his Training Request Form, he would ask for instruction in the Time Control and Mission Tracking System. This would get him past the strict security and into the Command Centre. Once inside, he might be able to discover what information the Bureau had about his father. It was worth a try.

He rested his head back on the pillow and closed his eyes.

7

T
he yowl of a wild animal cut through the dusk. Damien stood rigid at the edge of the forest.

This was the danger period: the shadowy, early evening when animals awoke from their sleep and began their nocturnal prowl. Damien had to be extra careful in these twilight hours, and for a few moments he thought of retracing his steps back to the safety of the Chieftain’s fortress on the cliff top. The buildings, lookouts, landing tower and grounds were surrounded by a high stone wall. And so were the series of caves beneath them. If Damien wanted, he could scrounge a blanket and sleep in the safety of the compound, and then return to his family in the morning. But he had to get home right away. He had to tell them about Danice. Although he didn’t want to think about how he would break the news.

The howl rose through the trees again, now more distant. Whatever the creature was, it was moving away. It presented no immediate threat but, all the same, Damien turned sharply and headed back towards the cliffs. It would be safer to take the Uptrack. This was a higher path, about halfway up the cliff face, and it was a longer way home. But it was less dangerous than the direct route through the darkening forest.

He reached the first piles of mossy boulders at the base of the cliffs and started to climb.

‘Damien! Damien!’

He looked up to see his younger sister, Alli, staring down at him from the Uptrack. Damien scrambled up the last of the scree. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘It’s late, we were getting worried,’ Alli said, pushing strands of straggly dark hair out of her eyes. ‘Mama guessed you might avoid the wildlings and come this way.’ She looked around. ‘Where’s Danice?’

‘She’s not … with me.’ Damien suddenly felt a deep shame for having lost their sister. He lowered his eyes. ‘They … they took her!’

Alli gripped his arm. ‘Who took her?’

‘I don’t know! Everything was going fine …’

Suddenly the story came pouring out. ‘We were heading back to our timeline, to return here,’ Damien said. ‘We were almost there when these two guys jumped out.’ He glanced at Alli. ‘They were wearing time-travel suits. Not like the ones we wear, but better.’

‘What—you’re saying they were time-trippers too?’ Alli said.

‘Yes. They had to be,’ Damien said. ‘One of the guys grabbed Danice and pushed her into a wormhole. A different one. Not ours. I hadn’t even noticed it was there. One minute she was with me, the next she was gone.’

‘What did you do?’

‘What could I do?’ Damien said. ‘The other guy grabbed me … I struggled with him. I kicked him back against a tree, and kind of stunned him … then … I just ran off. I was scared.’ Damien hung his head. ‘I’m sorry, Alli, I’m really sorry.’

‘What’s the Chieftain doing about it?’ Alli asked.

‘Nothing,’ Damien said.

‘What did you tell him?’

‘Not much,’ Damien said. ‘I didn’t dare. You know what he’s like. He doesn’t care about us.’

‘But what can we do about Danice?’ Alli demanded.

‘Nothing. We can’t get to the Chieftain’s Time Accelerator. And we don’t know how to operate it. Only the Chieftain and O’Bray can do that.’

‘So we don’t know who took her, and we don’t know where she’s gone,’ Alli said.

‘She’s gone to … some other time.’

‘And we can’t search for her.’

Damien shook his head. ‘No. She could be anywhere in time.’

‘We have to tell Mama.’

‘I know … I know,’ Damien murmured.

Alli struggled not to cry as the news sank in. With Danice gone, Damien would need her help. She had to stay strong and focused, and hold back her tears for when she was alone. ‘Come on, it’s almost dark,’ she said. ‘We’d better get home.’

Damien followed her. The narrow track rose steeply in front of them and they climbed in silence until they were above the forest. Beneath their feet the giant redwood canopy stretched like a vast green carpet to the distant horizon. According to stories, it took forty days on foot to reach the Far Lands on the other side, although no one in living memory had tried it. There were too many hazards to make such a journey worthwhile.

‘Alli?’

‘What?’

‘I didn’t tell you—we’re making another trip, in two days’ time.’

‘We lose our sister—and we still have to keep going on trips!’ Alli protested. ‘How much gold does that greedy old guy want?’

‘
Shusssh!
’ Damien hissed, even though there was no one around to hear them.

‘Yeah, the birds might hear and tell on us,’ Alli said.

‘Well, what choice do we have?’ Damien asked bitterly. ‘We don’t want to end up like Bigdad.’ He glanced back in the direction of Old City, north of the Chieftain’s fortress. ‘It’s no fun being a slave and working for the Tribunes in their factories. Those evil old men are the real rulers of this land, not the Chieftain.’

‘That’s true, but it’s no fun getting kidnapped by people from another time, either. How many more trips will we have to make before the Chieftain’s happy?’

Damien shrugged. ‘Who knows? These Spanish guys I saw today took mountains of gold from some New World. The Chieftain says there’s a lot.’

‘And he’ll make us steal every last piece of it, I reckon,’ Alli said, as they reached the point where the path dropped back towards the gloomy forest below.

‘Come on—we’d better run!’ Damien said.

He ran down the slope, between a stand of towering redwoods, and was first into the clearing beyond. The last rays of the sun lit the very top branches of two massive trees in the clearing. Their ancient trunks had fused together at the base to form a colossal column a hundred metres high.

Damien reached into a hole in the trunk’s fibrous bark and took out a short wooden club.

‘Hurry … hurry … up!’ Alli puffed, glancing fearfully over her shoulder.

Damien took a step away from the base of the tree and bent down to a small, hollow log which had been stripped of its bark. He drummed on the log three times, then waited and tapped it another three times.

After a moment, a long rope ladder tumbled down the trunk. It swung wildly as the bottom rung reached the ground. Damien yanked at the ladder until it was tight and even.

‘Best to tell Mama the news straightaway,’ Alli said, grabbing the bottom rung.

‘I will. But how do you reckon she’ll take it?’

‘With Dad gone, and now Danice?’ Alli replied. ‘Badly.’

Damien nodded. ‘You first!’

Alli started to climb.

The frightened whoop of a bird echoed sharply through the clearing. Damien spun around. The bushes rustled a short distance away.

Damien leapt onto the ladder and followed his sister up into the thick green canopy of branches.

8

The year 2000, New York City

S
imon was getting annoyed. He was also getting worried.

He stood by the news stand with a copy of the latest issue of
The New Yorker
magazine rolled up and inserted into the pouch on the right thigh of his travel suit. That part of his first mission was completed and on schedule. Now all he had to do was meet up with Danice, then return to their timeline in a quiet alley near Grand Central Station. They were supposed to have met five minutes previously. Simon stepped out from the side of the stand and looked up and down the street. Cars, trucks and yellow cabs beeped loudly and crowds of office workers scurried along the pavements.

‘So, buddy, where’s your bike?’ the news vendor asked.

Simon looked away. He was supposed to be inconspicuous! He’d told the man he was a bicycle courier. This was the explanation he had been ordered to give to anyone who asked. With his helmet retracted, and a big T-shirt over the top part of his time-travel suit, he looked like any of the couriers who buzzed around the city.

‘It’s over the road,’ Simon lied. ‘I’m just waiting for a friend.’

The man turned to a new customer and Simon breathed a sigh of relief. He checked his wrist pilot, pressing a finger to the touch screen and activating a series of yellow grids. A red locator dot and a set of figures flashed in the right-hand corner. They indicated the timeline would stay open for another seven minutes, which meant that in two minutes he would have to go back alone. He wasn’t crazy about the thought of reporting: ‘
Sorry, sir, got one magazine, lost one time traveller!
’

‘So, Simon, what are we waiting for?’ a voice said. It was Danice, wearing a bright-red coat over her travel suit.

‘What took you so long?’ Simon demanded.

‘I had to find the right clothes,’ she replied. ‘A woman from the Bureau took me shopping a couple of times. But this was my first go by myself.’

‘How could you afford that? How much did they give you?’

Danice shrugged. ‘Two hundred dollars.’

‘They only gave me five!’ Simon held out a couple of coins. ‘And I was ordered to bring back the change.’

‘I need modern clothes,’ Danice replied.

‘Because you’re so old-fashioned?’ Simon asked. ‘Maybe you could tell me what era you
are
from?’

The day before, Simon and Danice had spent several hours in the underground zone that housed the Time Accelerator, learning about its basic operations. He had still discovered nothing more about her, except detecting that she had a slight American accent. But she wouldn’t tell him what year she was from, or even what country she was from. And Captain Cutler was keeping them busy with a tough exercise regime, information briefings, and training missions. Simon had been unable to get away from Danice for even a minute. He was starting to feel claustrophobic.

‘I can’t tell you what era I’m from, you know that,’ Danice said, checking her wrist pilot. ‘Come on, time’s up.’

Simon headed for the alley where the timeline was waiting for them. ‘It’s not me who’s been holding us up!’ he muttered.

9

S
imon stepped through the airtight lock.

‘Stop there!’ snapped the Security Officer. ‘Stop at the yellow line and remain stationary!’

Simon looked down at his bare feet and halted by the line on the floor. A series of rapidly moving red and violet beams scanned his body from head to toe.

The last couple of hours had been both weird and gross, as his time-travel suit was dissolved and peeled off his body. Now all he wanted to do was go to his room to chill out, watch TV, have a bite to eat and sleep.

‘So, find any bugs?’ Simon asked.

‘Just checking you don’t bring back any microorganisms, bacteria, viruses or insects from the timezone you visited,’ the officer drawled.