What James Did: The Accidental Time Travellers-Book 3 (12 page)

“Incredible.  A symbol of what?”  Guy said in amazement.

“Well, you were a symbolizer of different things to different people.  I suppose for me it would be standing up against a corrupt government.”

“That is very nice to hear.”  Guy smiled.

“I’ve never heard of him.”  Scarlett interjected.

“You seem to have damaged my reputation Mr Faraday.”  Guy said, looking disappointed.

“You are alive Guy, count it as a blessing.”  Faraday replied.

“But a symbol never dies.”  Guy argued.

“Anyway, James and I have been speaking, and we have decided that we will not take action against Abaddon.”  Jane interrupted.

“You can’t be serious Mum!”  Scarlett snapped.

“I am deadly serious.  Your father and I have been through this too many times, it isn’t worth us losing each other again.  We are finally together, we don’t need to do anything.”

“How can you say that?”  Scarlett almost shouted.

“Because Scarlett, since we started meddling with past events, it has caused nothing but disaster.”  Jane explained.

“Well then it is your duty to help us fix things.”  Scarlett argued.

“You cannot change the past Scarlett, well not for the better anyway.”  Faraday interjected.

“Mum why have you changed your mind?” 

“I don’t want to lose you or your father.  We are a family and we are back together again, I will not risk that.  And neither will you.”

“Yes I will!”

“We have a good life here, what difference does it make who rules over us?”

“But this is your fault!”  Scarlett snapped.

“I have made my decision.”  Jane said firmly.

“It isn’t your decision to make Mum!  I am an adult, I can do what I like.  So can Clint and so can Guy! Maybe when you two were younger you fucked things up, but that doesn’t mean we will.  We promised Jacob that we would help him!”

“Jacob is a scumbag!”  Faraday yelled.

“He’s been like a father to us.”  Clint interjected.

“Which is more than can be said for you.”  Scarlett added.

Faraday could hardly believe his own daughter considered Jacob to be a father figure.

“This isn’t a discussion, we are not doing anything.”  Jane interrupted.

“If I may, I intend to help kill this man.”  Guy stated.

“Why?”  Faraday asked in disbelief.

“We gave our word.  That is why we are not helping this other friend of yours, so we could come here and help kill Abaddon.  He sounds like a swine and I am happy to do this.”

“I thought you were here because you owed me a debt.”  Faraday asked.

“I am indeed.  I know you want him dead.”  Guy advised.  “This goes back to what we were discussing last night.”

Faraday was baffled.  “Which part?”

“Thinking things through and being short sighted.  Yes you say that you do not want to lose your family but think of that family we met yesterday.”

“This isn’t like what happened to David.”  Faraday advised.

“It is actually Mr Faraday.  He went to this man for help, and this man killed him.  This man is a warmonger and if you honestly believe that after everything you have been through with this man, that he will just allow you to live a quiet life with your family, then once again you are being short sighted.  But at least on this occasion I understand your decision, you have your wife back.  I will kill this man for you.”  Guy smiled.

“Well, you will be doing it alone!”  Jane snapped.  “I won’t hear another word about it, I will not lose my family, not again!”

Chapter 23

As they entered their new living quarters, the three men were amazed.  They were not luxurious by any definition of the word, but compared to the cell they had been in they were heaven.  It was a wooden hut, consisting of three single beds, a shower, a toilet and a sink.  They each took a shower and changed into clean clothes.

They then sat down on their beds and ate chicken and rice, it was the first solid food they had had in a long time, they then washed it down with coffee.  Bobby looked at his cane in amazement, his hip was excruciatingly painful and he was glad to have it back.  Throughout the afternoon, the items Bobby had asked for were delivered to the hut.  To Bobby’s surprise they had even been given the car he had asked for, it was a black Volkswagen KDF.

It was the first time Bobby had managed to look at Will and Emmerich.  They were both incredibly thin, particularly Will, and their faces looked drawn and gaunt, they too had shaved heads.  When Bobby looked at himself in the mirror, he was stunned by how ill he looked.  His blue eyes were glazed over and he had big black bags beneath them, he was perhaps as thin as Will and his black shaved head made him look like a skeleton.

“So I need to tell you both why we are here.”  Bobby began, both men looked slightly scared as Bobby started to speak.  “I have been asked to build a time machine for the Nazis.”

“If you can do that then we can use it to break out.”  Will replied.

Bobby nodded.  “Well, the thing is, I can’t actually do it, but that’s not what I told them.”

“So what are we going to do?”  Emmerich asked.

“Well, I have managed to get us a car, we could try to escape.”  Bobby suggested.

“They have tanks surrounding the place, we would never make it.”  Emmerich replied, looking slightly downtrodden.

“Tanks?  I thought it was just soldiers defending this place?”

“No, there’s tanks alright, we wouldn’t even get to the gate.”  Will replied. 

“Son of a bitch.”  Bobby said under his breath.

“So if you can’t build a time machine, then what will you do?”  Will asked.

“Well, we will pretend to build one. He gave us six months to finish it.”  Bobby advised.

“We get to live in here for six months?”  Will asked.

“That was the deal.”  Bobby nodded.

“What about my family?”  Emmerich asked hopefully.

Bobby paused for a moment, he was unsure as to how to respond.

“Emmerich how many times do I have to tell you this?  They are dead, you can’t change that!”  Will yelled.

Emmerich just stared at Will, he did not cry this time.  “Do you have anyone in your life that you love Will?  Because I do and I will not leave here until I have them back.”

“Well then you will never leave here.”  Will snapped.

“Why do you always have to say things like that?  Don’t you realise that this is hard enough?”

“Emmerich, I am trying to make this easier for you.  They are dead.  There is no doubt about that, you having this crazy fantasy that you will see them again is false hope.”

“But it is hope.  Without hope, we may as well be dead right now.”  Emmerich snapped.

Bobby knew that he couldn’t tell Emmerich the truth of what had happened, it would kill him.  “I’ll ask Mengele about them and see what I can do.”  He lied.

“Thank you Bobby.”  Emmerich smiled, he had tears forming in his eyes.

“And if they are dead, will you help us?”  Will asked.

“I will not leave here without them.”  Emmerich repeated.

“It’s every man for themselves now Emmerich.”  Will argued.

“I pity you.”  Emmerich snapped.

“Well, you shouldn’t Emmerich.  You have to understand that we are not in the ordinary world anymore.  You must adapt or you will die.  You must forget about whatever your life was before this place because it no longer exists.  Even if we do manage to escape, and even if we can somehow save your family, that life is gone.  If you return to Germany, they will find you and they will kill you.  The only hope any of us has is trying to get back to America, or at the very least Britain.”

“And what will you do?”  Emmerich asked.

Will smiled for what felt like the first time in his entire life.  “I will do exactly what Bobby said I would do, well with the exception of that woman.  I will go to the Allies and I will tell them everything that I know about this evil place.  And I will devote my life to doing to these bastards what they have done to us.  I will humiliate them, I will hurt them, and I will kill them.”  Will shouted.

“You will dedicate your life to this place?”  Emmerich asked in astonishment.

“Not to this place, to killing the bastards that have done this to us.”

“That is not a life.”  Emmerich replied.  “Your life should not be built around revenge or you will never be happy.”

“And will you say that if your wife and child are dead?”  Will barked.

“If my wife and child are dead, then my life ended when I arrived here.  As I have told you, I will not leave here without them.”

“You meant that literally?”  Bobby interjected.

“Of course I did.”

Chapter 24

The younger Wernher had made both himself and his older self a coffee, whilst the others sat in the dining room.  He sat beside his older self on the green couch in the middle of the huge living room.  They both took a sip from the coffee, slurping slightly.

“So why have you come here?”

“After the war ended I defected to the United States.” 

“So we lost the war?”

“Yes, poor military decisions cost us victory.”

“How do you mean?”

“Trying to conquer Russia, it is insanity.  The sheer size of the country, the size of the population and the freezing conditions make it impossible to defeat.  Look at what happened to Napoleon.”

“So what is it you did in America?”

“We tried to land a man on the Moon.”

“Did it work?”  The young Wernher asked with enthusiasm.

“No, it didn’t.  I was later arrested by a man named Bobby Stinson, he believed me to be guilty of treason, and I was due to be executed.  I was in my cell a couple of hours ago and then the young man with the blonde hair came to talk to me.  He had some sort of time machine with him and took me to meet the others.  They explained that their friend was locked in Auschwitz, as a result of the real traitor’s actions.  They need our help to get in and get out with the man.”

The young Wernher nodded his understanding.  “So who is the prisoner?”

“The man who imprisoned me, Bobby Stinson.”

“So why help him?”

“I don’t want to help him, they do.  They have threatened that unless I do as they ask, they will kill me.”

“Who threatened you?” 

“The man who stayed in here after the others went into the dining room.  His name is Jacob Cohen and he was the one that was guilty of treason.”

“I don’t see why we should help them, it is they that are the foreigners here, and there is no reason to be scared.”

“This was my thinking.  One of them has the time machine with them, if we were to give that to the Fuhrer then he would undoubtedly be pleased.  The Nazis currently have the best space programme, the time machine would give us an advantage in the war effort, and then we could turn our attention to the programme.  We can explain to Adolf that I am you from the future.  The scientist that created the time machine also helped to build an atom bomb, he is in the other room.”

“The atom bomb, and it worked?”  The young Wernher asked in amazement.

“It flattened Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

“Unbelievable.” 

“Quite.” 

“So we tell the others that we will help them, lead them to Auschwitz.  Whilst we are there, I will explain the situation to Mengele and they will be captured.”

“Exactly, but they have an escape plan.  It will not work as they are planning to simply drive away, but we need to get them far enough into Auschwitz so that there is no chance of escape.  The two who are staying in the car can be allowed to leave, they know nothing of value.”

“I see, well I will phone Josef Mengele and tell him we are coming, I can explain we need workers to build V2 rockets and he will show us who they have available.  Whilst he is doing that, I will sneak away with him for a moment and explain what is going on.  There will be no chance of escape.”

“Terrific, we will need uniforms for them.”