What James Did: The Accidental Time Travellers-Book 3 (25 page)

Chase touched the gun in his holster, the thought had crossed his mind many times before.  He had never been closer to acting on it than he was now.  “What is your problem?”  He asked, still touching the gun.

Jacob’s dead eyes stared deep into Chase’s blue eyes, he smirked.  “You make me laugh, that’s all.”  Jacob replied.

“Why?”  Chase barked.

Jacob laughed again.  “You are just a bomb scare wherever you go.  Have you ever done anything right?  You spend your time with a cripple who stole your woman and a half blind man who has everything you want.  Do you not find that humorous?”

Chase stared at the man, he despised him more than he ever thought possible.  He removed the gun from his holster and pressed it into Jacob’s stomach.

Jacob laughed loudly.  “Is that supposed to scare me?”

Chase nodded.

“I’ve told you before Chase, you don’t have the guts.”  Jacob replied coldly.

“You are a bad man.”  Chase stated.  “You gave that reason for killing Abaddon.”

As Chase squeezed the trigger, he could hardly believe what he was doing.  Jacob’s cold dead eyes looked deep into Chase’s, Jacob pressed his hand to his stomach and fell towards the ground.

When Jacob hit the ground, Chase almost felt sick.  When he looked down at Jacob, he could hardly believe that the man was smiling up at him.

“I never thought you were capable.”  Jacob managed a laugh.

Chase looked down at the man he had shot in cold blood, the guilt was already affecting him.

Jacob was still laughing maniacally.

“You deserve this!”  Chase yelled.

“If I were you, I’d start running.”   

“I hope it hurts.”  Chase replied.

“Only a little.”

“Give it a minute.”  Chase replied coldly.

“Don’t be so sure.”  Jacob chuckled.

A shot was fired, it struck Chase in the shoulder, he stumbled backwards and fell over.  The pain was excruciating, but it was not a fatal wound.  He managed to rise to his feet and watched Jacob struggling on the ground. 

He looked at his white shirt and saw that it was already stained red with blood

“Goodbye Jacob.”  Chase said as he turned and ran further into the labyrinth of the Dallas sewers. 

“This isn’t over Chase!”  Jacob yelled as Chase disappeared from sight.

A minute had passed before Faraday reached him.

“Jacob what the hell happened!”  Faraday said in shock.

Jacob laughed loudly.  “Your wife killed the bastard!”

“Jane killed Hitler?”  Faraday asked in confusion.

“Yes.”  Jacob replied, rising to his feet with his hand still on his stomach.

“I heard shots coming from that direction!”  Faraday replied anxiously.

“There’s nothing we can do about that, Bobby is her only hope.”  Jacob replied, rushing further into the sewers away from Faraday.

“Where are you going?”  Faraday asked in exasperation.

“Well, we can hardly go the way you came, can we?”

Faraday followed knowing that Jacob was right, they needed to find a manhole further away from Hitler Plaza.

“Where is Chase?” 

“Bastard shot me, idiot that he is!”

“Are you okay?” 

“I’m wearing my vest, but he is going to regret this.”

“Jacob we are on the same side, there is no need for you to hurt him.”

Jacob stopped to face Faraday.  He walked towards him angrily, putting his hand around his throat and pushing him against the wall.

“He shot me!  Unprovoked, do you really think I am going to let him walk away from this?”

Faraday struggled for breath.  “Jacob I can’t breathe.”  He managed.

Jacob tightened his grip.  “Why the hell are you even here?  I saved your damn wife and you brought her back here!”

“Jacob.”  Faraday gasped.

Jacob loosened his grip and turned away from Faraday, running after Chase.

Faraday gasped for air and reluctantly followed.  “Jacob I heard two shots from here, did you shoot him?”

“Yeah.”  Jacob replied still running.

“Then surely you’re even!” 

“He tried to kill me!  Now I’m going to show him how it’s done!”

Faraday was slightly ahead of Jacob as they ran, Jacob still had a hand on his stomach. The gun shot may not have been fatal, but it had winded him.  The gunshots in Hitler Plaza were no longer audible, but Faraday was still feeling shaky. He just hoped Bobby had gotten Jane out of there.

He had no idea what Jacob would do to Chase when they caught up with him. He would do whatever he could to help, but he knew that short of shooting Jacob in the head there was little he could do to stop him.

“What are you going to do to him?”  Faraday asked as they ran.

“I’m going to kill the son of a bitch!”  Jacob yelled.

“Don’t be stupid!”  Faraday yelled.

Jacob did not reply, he carried on running.

Faraday wondered about what options he had available to him, Chase must have been headed towards Turtle Creek Park. If he could delay Jacob then Chase might have a chance.

The only problem was if Bobby and Jane weren’t there then he would be waiting around, they would catch up to him eventually.  Even if they didn’t, a man walking around with a bullet wound, in a police state on the day that the leader died would certainly attract attention.

“You need to calm down!”  Faraday yelled.

Jacob again chose to ignore Faraday’s statement.

Faraday knew that if they continued at this pace then they would surely catch Chase, he had a bullet in wound which would undoubtedly be slowing him down.

“Jacob you need to remember whose side you’re on!”  Faraday yelled.

“I don’t recall saying I was on yours!”  Jacob snapped.

Faraday saw slightly further along the sewer that there was a manhole cover that was showing a slit of light. Chase had evidently climbed out here.

Jacob laughed when he saw it.  “The man is a moron, if he closed it then we would never have known!”

Faraday reached the ladder first but didn’t climb it.

Jacob did not hesitate, he immediately began climbing the ladder. Faraday knew that this was his only chance.

“Fuck it.”  He shouted, before grabbing Jacob’s legs and pulling him down from the ladder.  Jacob landed hard on the floor and stared up at Faraday with his dead eyes.  He glared for a few seconds before he started to laugh, thumping the ground as he did so. The laughing ended as quickly as it began and he just stared.

“Are you under the impression that we are friends?”  Jacob snapped, rising to his feet.

Faraday blushed but didn’t speak.

“Answer me!”

“Not friends exactly, but not enemies.  I just want us to work together.”  Faraday replied.

Jacob chuckled.  “Perhaps it may help if I explain it to you.  I do not like you, I am working with you and your friends to kill Hitler.  He is dead, which essentially means that you mean absolutely nothing to me.  If you died I would not care, do you understand?”

Faraday was stunned, he had thought that everything they had been through may have made Jacob more human, but he was the same bastard he’d always been.  Faraday knew he couldn’t win a fight against most people, let alone Jacob.

“I don’t want to fight you Jacob.  Just leave Chase alone.”

Jacob pushed Faraday aggressively.  “Or what?”

“It wasn’t a threat, just please leave him alone.”

Jacob laughed again.  “Do you realise that if it weren't for me, your wife and your kid would not be alive?  Bobby would not be alive.  At least he had the good sense to leave!  I gave you your life back, and you chose to come here and risk their lives, again!”

Faraday had nothing he could say to that.

“So why did you do it?”

“I didn’t really think it through, I just...”

“You don’t think anything through!  That’s what Jane always used to say to me.  You needlessly almost got yourself killed by the men that killed Officer Tippet.  You were always antagonising Will, you said to your own wife that she had gotten herself pregnant on purpose.  Then you betrayed your cripple friend for a chance to go through time, not knowing where you wanted to go, and you brought the two people in your life that you should protect back to today!  You let them leave!  You came with me rather than going back to help your wife!”

Faraday did not reply, he suddenly felt nothing but shame.

“Instead of worrying about what I am going to do, worry about yourself!”  Jacob yelled.  He turned away from Faraday and climbed the ladder.

Faraday did not follow.  He took out his packet of cigarettes and lit one.

Chapter 56

Bobby Kennedy pulled up at the entrance to Turtle Creek Park, they had managed to escape the barrage of bullets that had battered the car following Hitler’s assassination.  On the way to the park, they had seen many citizens of Dallas rising up and fighting against Nazi soldiers. But the revolution was not something that either of them cared about now.

Jane, having been shot in the leg had been crying for the entire journey.  The pain was only a small part of what was making her cry.  She worried firstly about her daughter and her husband.  She was also worried sick about her near adopted son Clint.

Bobby’s attention had been split roughly three ways.  Firstly he worried about his wife and children, they were in Hyannis Port, far from the troubles in Dallas, but they were never far from his mind.  Secondly he worried about Jack, he just hoped that Scarlett and Clint had managed to save him.  Thirdly he feared for the woman who was lying beside him with a bullet in her leg.

“Can you walk?”  He asked Jane.

“I don’t think so.”  She sobbed.

Bobby looked around in all directions, he couldn’t see anyone.  “Jane no one is here.  They might be in the park, will you be alright on your own?  I’ll head into the park to look for them, I’ll be a couple of minutes at most?”

Jane nodded.  “I still have the gun.  Help me over to the driver’s seat, if anyone comes there’s not much I can do here.”

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?”  Kennedy replied.

“Just bring my family back with you.”  She sobbed.

“I will.”  Kennedy replied. 

He stepped from the car and helped Jane over to the driver’s seat.

“I’ll be as quick as I can.”

Chapter 57

Bobby Stinson lit another cigarette as he saw Chase run from the manhole cover.  Sarah was sitting open mouthed staring at Chase, he seemed to be in pain.

“He needs us Bobby.”

Bobby stared at her and it brought to mind something that Jacob had said to Chase in the forest near Auschwitz.  “Chase what have I told you, if you looked out for yourself you might have a chance with her.”  Bobby continued looking at her, she seemed so concerned about Chase and yet they barely knew each other.

“Is there something going on between you two?”  Bobby asked accusingly.

“What?”  Sarah replied, evidently shocked.

“You and him, did something happen between you?”

“What are you talking about?” 

“Just tell me?”  Bobby insisted.

“No, nothing happened.”

“Then why do you care so much?”

“He saved your life Bobby!”  She snapped.

He took a pull on his cigarette and sighed.  “You go, I’ll catch up.”

Sarah frowned.  “Are you sure?”

“Take the car, I’ll slow you down.  Just pick him up and I’ll come out.”  Bobby replied.

Chapter 58

Faraday took a deep pull on his cigarette and just stared at the wall, his mind was no longer here.  He had never felt so down on himself in his entire life, he thought back to that day on the ward, David and Bobby had come to him in desperation, and they had then killed themselves.  They had done the wrong thing over, and over again, and he was now the same.

He took another pull on a cigarette and thought of Jane.  He had loved her from the moment that they had met, he had taken her to Loch Ness to propose and then she was gone.  Maybe that’s how things were supposed to be, everything that they had done had only made things worse and a fair amount of it was his fault.

He removed the gun from his holster and just looked at it.  Before he had travelled back here, he would never have dreamt of killing a man, or even holding a gun.  Now here he was, sitting in the sewer holding a gun, he had murders on his conscience.  Death had just become a natural part of life for him.

He stared at the gun, he could end it all in an instant.  It wouldn’t matter anymore if Hitler was alive, or if Kennedy was alive, he would be gone.  Jane was the only person he cared about and he was ashamed to even feel that way.  He had a daughter, and if truth be told he cared about her as much as he cared about Chase.  She was a friend, nothing more, nothing less.

Jane had changed, she was a mother, and she was responsible.  He would always be a problem to them. Jacob was right he didn’t think anything through.  It was similar to what Guy had said, he had told him that he was short sighted.  Guy’s was another death that played on his conscience, he had only tried to kill Abaddon because he knew that was what Faraday had wanted. 

“What was I doing?”  He said under his breath, before taking another pull on a cigarette.

He looked at the gun again, it was the best thing he could do for Jane.

He raised it to his temple and spoke aloud.  “God, well you probably aren’t there.  But if you hear this, then just look after her for me.  I am not a great man, probably not even a good man.”  Faraday felt the tears gush out of his eye.  “I have done my best.”  He sobbed.  “I am an idiot, and I don’t deserve her, so please just look after her.”  He put his hands to his head, dropping the gun momentarily, and he cried. He cried for himself not for Jane, not for Scarlett, only for himself.  “I just wanted to do what was right.”  He moaned.  “I never meant for any of this to happen.”  The crying continued.  “Just look after her.  And if you can, make sure that she remembers the good times, not the shit we’ve been through.  We had a great time before any of this, just try and make her remember that.”  He wept into his left arm and grabbed the gun with his right, he raised it to his temple.

“What the hell are you doing James?”

Faraday was startled, he had thought he was alone.  The old man looking back at him struggled down to the ground and lent against the opposing wall.  Faraday recognised the old man instantly, it was David.

“David?”

“Put the gun down James.”

Faraday did as he was told.

“What are you doing?”

“What needs to be done.”

The old David looked sternly at him.  “You are being stupid.”

“Are you alive?”  Faraday asked.

“No, no.  Not for a long time now.  I came to visit you in the hospital, I killed myself in a toilet.”

“So why are you here?”  Faraday asked, drying the tears from his eye.

“To stop you from being an idiot!”  David snapped.

Faraday just stared at the old man.

“Why have you chosen to end your life?  Because some idiot, you don’t even like tore you a new one?  Get a grip!”  David yelled.

Faraday jumped as the sound of gunfire came once again from the street above.  “What the hell is going on up there?”

“Exactly what you were hoping would happen, revolution.”

“So we did it?”

“It certainly looks that way.”  The old David smiled.  “Why did you let Jacob go?”

“He was right. I should be worried about Jane, not Chase.”

David nodded.  “And you think Jane would be better off if you shot yourself?”

Faraday lit a cigarette and offered one to David.

“I can’t I’m afraid.”  David smiled.  

“Me and Jane, we are different people now.”  Faraday explained.  “She is in her forties, or fifties, she sees herself as a mother first.”

“Do you ever think that perhaps Jane deserves more from you?”  David asked.

“How do you mean?”

“Well, just speaking as an observer, she has had to put up with a lot from you James.”

“What has she had to put up with?”  Faraday snapped.

“Well, you see, before the Kennedy assassination when you were assaulted and you lost your eye, she sat by your side crying her eyes out the entire time.  Then after the assassination when you were shot, she again had to sit by your bedside, crying her eyes out.”

“That isn’t my fault!”  Faraday barked.

“I didn’t say that it was James.  After the assassination, she asked you countless times to go back to Scotland with her, but you wouldn’t.  When she told you she was pregnant you shouted at her and then she died, or well, didn’t as it turns out.  She raised a child all alone, she built a life for them and you went to her and blew everything she had worked for to hell.”

“I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

“I know you didn’t, but it did happen.  She is stuck here now James, she needs to start over again.  She needs help James, she needs you to be strong for her now.”

“So what do I do?”

“I can’t tell you that, you must decide that for yourself.”

“So why are you here?”  Faraday asked.

“In my life I made many mistakes, and I got a second chance.  Well, I didn’t, but the other version of me did.  He got to see his daughter and his wife again.  Jane has received a second, and a third chance.  Bobby has also had a couple.  But this is it, this is the end James.”

“How do you mean?”

“Come on James, you know what I mean.  One wormhole generator was destroyed in the escape from Auschwitz.  Bobby Kennedy destroyed the other.  The last one will be destroyed within a day or two, there are no more do over’s.  From now on whatever happened, happened.”

“So is there another you?”  Faraday asked.

“No.  My family were killed by the Nazis.  I don’t get another chance.  But you must seize yours.”

“So where do I go?”

Chapter 59

Scarlett drove on despite the tears, she couldn’t stop them.  Jack had closed his eyes minutes previously.  Clint had shown no sign of life since she had put him in the back, and the Nazi soldier was leaning forward with a bullet in his head.

The insides of the car were drenched in blood and Scarlett’s shoulder was excruciatingly painful.  She just wanted to see her Mum.  She wanted to tell her that she was sorry, her Mum had been right as mothers always are.

Jack had told her roughly where the park was, but he had passed out. She just hoped that she would be able to find it.  As she drove, she listened to the radio.

“This is a breaking news report from Hugo Evans.

We reported earlier that our beloved Fuhrer has been shot by terrorists whilst travelling through Hitler Plaza.

It is with great sadness that I announce that the Fuhrer has died as a result of his injuries.

The terrorist cell that has carried out the assassination has also created uprisings in major cities around the globe. 

Anyone who has any information regarding the terrorist cell is being urged to come forward. 

The death total is already in the thousands.

Heil Hitler!”

Scarlett swerved to avoid a car that seemed to be performing a drive by, it was spraying bullets at members of the SS who were now lying dead in the street. As she swerved she crashed into the front of a red Volkswagen.  She jolted violently forwards and let out a scream of pain, the wound in her shoulder was beyond any pain she had previously experienced.

Before she even considered looking forward, she pulled a cigarette from her jacket, she knew she probably didn’t have long to live.  She lit it, took a quick draw and looked at the car in front, she was stunned to see her Mum looking back at her. 

Chapter 60

Chase struggled on until he reached the park, his shoulder was in agony.  It had only been days ago that he had been shot in the back. The wound that he had suffered that night was still painful, and now he had a new one.  He could hear gunfire in almost every direction.  He had passed wounded men, both in Nazi uniform and in plain clothes.  The revolution had begun. 

He struggled through the park but felt compelled to stop and look at the water.  With the sun shining as it was today, the park looked incredibly beautiful.  He looked at the water and put his weight on the wall that was in front of him, stopping to look at the Creek was only a convenient excuse, he was exhausted.  He looked around but couldn’t see anyone that he recognised.  They were meeting on the other side of the park, Chase needed a rest.  He wasn’t sure if he could make it to the other end of the park.