What James Did: The Accidental Time Travellers-Book 3 (2 page)

Faraday glanced towards Teller.  “Another one for the list.”

“What list?”  David asked.

“We need to save the others David; Abaddon sent them to their deaths.”

“Who?”

“Bobby, Chase and Sarah Salmond.”

David nodded.  “What does that have to do with me?”

Faraday could hardly believe David’s reaction.  “We helped him David, this is our fault.”

“I hardly knew Chase and I didn’t know Sarah Salmond, it has nothing to do with me.”

“What about Bobby?”  Faraday argued.

David sighed, before taking a draw of his cigarette.  “Everybody dies James, he had a long life.”

“So you don’t care?”

“Honestly, I really don’t.  I have a daughter and a wife to think about.”

Faraday lit a cigarette from his pack and took a long draw.  “I can’t believe you David, after everything we’ve been through?”

“Faraday it will never end if you keep trying to change the past.  You can try and save them and then something else will happen.  So you’ll need to save someone else, or kill someone else.  What’s done is done.”

“You say that now that you have your wife back!”  Faraday yelled.

“That’s right, I’ve fixed things.  I’m done.”

“So you don’t care at all about the others?”

“That’s right.”  David replied coldly.

“David if it was the other way around, you know Bobby would try to save you.”  Faraday tried.

“But it isn’t the other way around.  He chose the wrong side.” 

“No he didn’t, we did.  Abaddon sent him to Auschwitz.”

“Auschwitz?”  David asked in horror.

Faraday almost smiled, he had him.  “Yes, can you imagine what that must be like?”

“No, I can’t say that I can.”

“We owe him.” 

“I owe him nothing.”

“Come on David, I need your help.”

David was silent for a moment.  “How do you intend to get him out?”

“I don’t know yet.”  Faraday conceded.

“It is insanity, it can’t be done.”

“Please David, after this we can go our separate ways.”

“Sorry, but the answer is no.”

Faraday could not believe the way that David was acting.  “Well, I guess there’s nothing I can say.”

“I guess not.”  David replied.

David watched as both men turned on their heels and left the garden.  They went back into the house and were once again gone from his life. 

He took his seat on the sun lounger and opened another beer.  He could finally enjoy the life he was supposed to have. 

Chapter 5

Bobby was pushed violently into the room, the guards instructed him to remove his clothing.  Bobby did as he was told, the concrete floor was cold on his bare feet and any dignity he had taken into the room with him had now deserted him.

He stood in the room completely naked as three guards stared at him, another man then shaved Bobby’s black hair off.  He was then pushed into a shower, there was no soap and the water was cold.  When he was hurried out of the shower, he was instructed to put on some dirty clothes that lay on the floor.  They consisted of a blue and white striped jacket, a striped hat, a vest and a pair of blue and white striped trousers.  The shoes he was given had wooden soles and a linen strap.  The number 221163 was sewn onto the jacket, as was a red triangle.

Bobby was not given a walking stick and tried to hide his limp.  He knew that if this was a labour camp then he knew he would only stay alive if he looked fit enough to work.  As he was led back outside into the cold, his hip ached. He could not hide the limp, but he managed to walk quickly. He was led to one of the brick buildings and entered a dimly lit corridor.

The walls were grey and Bobby was led to a metal door, it was opened and Bobby was pushed into the room. The door was closed and he was left in complete darkness.  He could feel that he was pressed against someone else, but there was no light in the cell.  The smell was repulsive, whoever was in there with him had apparently not been allowed out to go to the toilet.

Bobby had no idea what to do, he was paralysed by fear, he would surely be killed in this place.  He tried to move, but the room was so small, all he could feel was another person and the brick walls.  There wasn’t even enough room to sit down.

“Do you speak English?”  Bobby asked, in hope rather than expectation.

“Yes.”  Came the whispered reply, it was an American accent.

“Where are we?”  Bobby asked.

“Auschwitz.”  Came the reply.

Even though Bobby had been expecting this response, he was far more terrified now that his suspicions had been revealed to be true.  Bobby couldn’t help but throw up, he managed to get most of it down himself but some went on the other man.  He broke into a coughing fit.

“I’m sorry.”  He finally managed.

The other man sighed loudly.  “Believe me it is the least of our worries.”

Chapter 6

Faraday and Edward Teller were sat in a restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel in LA.  Both men had a plate of steak and chips in front of them, Faraday had a beer and Edward had a Cola. 

“So we will spend the night and leave first thing in the morning.”  Faraday instructed.

“We have all the time in the world James, perhaps we should spend some time thinking about this a little more carefully.  Any attempt we make to free Bobby will be incredibly dangerous.”

Faraday nodded.  “But couldn’t we just appear in Auschwitz, grab him and then disappear again?”

Teller shook his head.  “It doesn’t work like that.  The machine takes time to gather a reception, it can take hours, sometimes even days to generate the wormhole.  My bunker in Nevada was different, the wormhole has been established there for years.  But with the handheld device, it is a little less reliable.  In some locations, it would be impossible to even use it.”

Faraday sighed.  “Then what options do we have?”

“I cannot see a way of breaking Bobby out of Auschwitz.  Chase should not prove to be that difficult, as long as we time our arrival perfectly.  Sarah is saveable, but there is no guarantee.  Bobby in my opinion is a lost cause.”

“What about Clint?”

“I have no interest in saving him, it had nothing to do with me.”

“But I need your help!”  Faraday insisted.

“I cannot give it to you.  I will help you save the others, but he is on his own.”

“We can figure Clint out later then.  Who do we go for first then?”

“I would suggest that Chase would be the most sensible target.”  Edward replied.

Faraday nodded his agreement.  “This one should be fairly straightforward right?”

“What makes it difficult is that we don’t know exactly how much time we’ll have before the guards arrived.”

“Well, what time of day did Chase arrive?”

“It was 23:00.  I would suggest that we go back at the same time.”

“Why not earlier?  That would give us time to get the machine ready?”

Teller considered this for a moment.  “What about Guy Fawkes?”

“What about him?”  Faraday asked in confusion.

“Well, how is he going to react to us showing up?”

“I don’t know, I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“The man was about to blow up the Houses of Parliament.  If I’m not mistaken, he was attempting to kill a Scottish King.”

“Well, he was the King of England as well.”

“No James, what I meant was, he probably won’t take too kindly to the appearance of a Scottish man as he is preparing to blow up parliament.”

“That’s true.  Well, nothing we can do about that.”

“Are you not worried?”

“There will be three of us and I have a gun.”  Faraday replied.

Chapter 7

After a night’s sleep at the hotel, Teller prepared the wormhole generator, whilst Faraday went to a shop to stock up on cigarettes.  He was certainly not intending to spend too much time in the seventeenth century, but he didn’t know how readily available tobacco would be.  He bought four packets and returned to the room.

He was still wearing the navy suit that he had been wearing when he had killed Will Carter, he knew that he smelt terrible, but he hadn’t had a chance to buy any other clothes.  Teller was smartly dressed in a black suit and a white shirt with a navy tie. 

“It is ready.”  Teller announced.  “We will arrive in the cellar below parliament at 22:45 on the night of 4
th
November 1605.”

“That gives us fifteen minutes before Chase will arrive.  So when we get there will you just get the machine ready to bring us back?”

“I was a little curious about that.  Where should we travel to next?”

Faraday thought for a moment.  “I think we should go somewhere before we try to save Sarah, we will need to explain the situation to Chase.”

Teller nodded.  “Yes I thought that would be the case, but where do we go and when?”

Faraday thought for a moment, he knew exactly where they should go.  “We go to 12:30, on 22
nd
November 1963, we can use Bobby’s condo in Dallas.  It will be empty, it’s 1505 Elm Street, Dallas.  It’s on the twelfth floor.”

“Okay.”  Teller nodded.  “Are you ready?”

Faraday felt for his gun, it was in his holster.  “I guess so.”  Faraday walked over and stood beside Teller.

Teller activated the device and it made a strange humming noise, it was quiet at first but steadily grew louder.  This carried on for around thirty seconds until the light appeared in front of them.  It was about a metre wide.

“We just walk into the light.”  Teller instructed. 

“We did this yesterday.”  Faraday replied sarcastically.

Both men stepped into the light in unison.  Faraday again experienced the feeling of being sucked down a plughole, the hotel room disappeared and was replaced by a dark room, with stone walls.  Teller had explained yesterday that due to the stability of the wormhole generator the sickness that he had experienced when he arrived in Dallas would not affect him this time.

The light disappeared and a man stood in front of them just staring.  He had long brown hair and a pointed goatee beard, it was fuller than Faraday had expected.  The man wore a black capotain hat, it was tall and shaped like a pilgrim's hat.  He wore a tight fitting jacket that was also black, with a black cape and black breaches that were fuller around the thigh area and tighter at the knee.  Below that was a pair of black tights and black boots.  The only light in the room was emitted from a metal lantern that the man held in his hand.

“Are you here to arrest me?”  He asked, there was no fear in his voice.

“No we..”

“You Scotch swine!” 

“It’s Scottish.  We don’t want any trouble.”

“Why are you here?”  The man demanded.

“Are you Guy Fawkes?”  Faraday asked.

“My name is John Johnson.”

Faraday looked nervously to Teller who was already fiddling with the machine.

“I’m James Faraday.  We are not here to stop you, we are meeting someone.”

“What are you wearing?”  The man asked, giving them odd looks.

“It’s traditional Scottish clothing.”  Faraday lied, he received a strange look from Teller.

“Where are the tartan skirts and what is that contraption?”  He said, pointing to the wormhole generator.

Faraday didn’t see the point in lying to the man.  “We are from the future.  One of our friends will appear in about ten minutes.”

The man just stared at Faraday.

“Someone sent him here to be killed.”  Faraday continued.

“Why would I want to kill your friend?” 

“Not you, the guards.”  Faraday clarified.

The man was startled.  “Are they coming?”

“They will be.”  Faraday replied.

“How do you know this?”

“We are from the future.”  Faraday repeated.

“Do I succeed?”