‘Come on, Becks, cut me some slack here! You said everything was all smashed up! Didn’t you?’
Becks nodded. ‘Affirmative.’
‘Well!’ Maddy shrugged. ‘So, I suppose I figured … I thought our team was all finished. That’s why I –’
‘A mission is still in progress.’ Becks’s gaze flickered across Devereau then back to her, ‘and there is still a time contamination event that must be corrected, Maddy.’
‘Yeah? And how’re we supposed to do that, huh? Some other team’s going to have to sort this one out, because we’re totally freakin’ ruined, aren’t we?’
‘Negative.’
‘What?’
‘I have now made a complete evaluation of the damage. I can effect adequate repairs, if we are able to secure suitably adaptable components.’ She looked at Maddy with an expression that almost looked like a plea. ‘I must have new orders, Madelaine. What are your instructions?’
Maddy stepped forward, reached out for the support unit and grasped her scarred left hand tentatively with both of hers. She squeezed gently. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she whispered.
Maybe it was in her mind, maybe it was just wishful thinking, but she thought she felt Becks return the gesture with the slightest squeeze.
‘Let’s go back to the arch, Becks. You can show me what we need to do to fix it up.’
She turned and nodded at Devereau and his men. ‘I think these guys might be able to help us out.’
‘Affirmative.’
CHAPTER 36
2001, somewhere in Virginia
Liam was shaken roughly awake. By the slanted stripes of blood-red dusk stealing in through the slatted windows, he could see it was Sal tugging on his arm.
‘What … what?’ he muttered irritably.
‘Some weird midget just ran in and stole Bob’s gun!’
‘What?’ He took a moment to digest that. It sounded like the tail end of some bizarre dream. ‘What did you just say?’
‘Midget … or maybe it was a child.’ It sounded like she wasn’t sure this wasn’t a dream either. ‘It happened so fast. I was talking to Bob … and this thing just ran into the kitchen, grabbed the shotgun and ran out again.’
‘Thing?’ Liam sat up on the creaking sofa. ‘Where’s Bob?’
‘Ran out after him to get it back.’
Good thing too. It was the only weapon they had between them. Apart from Bob himself, that is. He shook away the last tendrils of sleep, stepped through the kitchen where Lincoln’s long frame was sprawled across the table, still fast asleep. The back door was wide open.
‘He went out of the back?’
Sal nodded.
Liam stood in the doorway. He could hear a fast-receding rustle and thrash of movement across the cornfield at the end of the weed-infested garden. In the failing light he could just make out where Bob had entered the field, leaving a wake of broken and flattened cornstalks.
‘He’ll get it back, I’m sure,’ said Liam. ‘He’s fast.’
‘Hope so.’
The setting sun was no more than a golden sliver trembling on the horizon, the clouds combed out across the sky directly above it like cotton candy, a fleshy pink.
‘We’ll make a move as soon as he gets back,’ said Liam. ‘Grab as many tins as we can carry and –’
‘Liam,’ whispered Sal.
‘What?’
‘Do you see that?’
‘See what?’
‘There.’ She pointed down the garden towards the edge of the field. He saw nothing but the dark parting of flattened stalks amid the chest-high wall of gently swaying corn.
‘What? I can’t see any–’ Then all of a sudden he did. Dark shapes, slowly emerging from the field and stepping into the garden.
‘Hey! Who’s that out there?’ Liam challenged.
The shapes moved carefully towards them, low shadows blending in with the tufts of weeds and the darkness of the ground.
Jay-zus.
Liam dragged Sal back inside the kitchen and slammed the door shut. The noise roused Lincoln from his slumber. ‘Curse you! I was sleeping!’ he snarled.
‘What are they?’ whimpered Sal.
‘I don’t know, to be sure … but –’
The door suddenly lurched on its hinges, rattling from an impact. A splintered crack ran down the middle of it.
‘What the devil is going on here?’ roared Lincoln, still bleary-eyed with sleep.
‘Chuddah!’ gasped Sal. ‘The window!’
Liam turned to see hands fumbling at it – no … not hands … not quite … They looked peculiar, but moving, scrabbling, scratching too quickly to identify what it was that looked so odd about them. The grime-covered glass suddenly shattered as something was lobbed through it.
‘Out! Out!’ Liam barked, pushing Sal ahead of him and dragging Lincoln out of his chair. They tumbled together from the kitchen and into the dark hallway beyond.