people by the colour of their skin!’
‘I think he was trying to be kind.’
‘Kind?! Jahulla …’
Liam shrugged. ‘Ah well, I’ve been mistaken for Welsh before, would you believe? I’ve heard many a silly Englishman lump us Irish, north and south, Welsh and Scottish even, altogether in the same pot. Imagine that?’
And many an Irishman confused the Chinese with Japanese, he mused. Quite probably many a Chineseman confused Turks with Persians; and many a Persian confused Celts with Saxons.
He reached out and squeezed her hand. ‘Come on, Sal. Let’s go back inside. We need to get a little rest, so we do … before we start out tonight.’
CHAPTER 35
2001, New York
‘You realize, young lady, that this is the dead zone?’ said Colonel Devereau.
She stopped and turned. ‘Dead zone?’
He pointed across the landscape of ruins leading down towards the East River. Beyond the river’s smooth dark water lay the skeleton of Manhattan. ‘We’re just about within range of their snipers. One of them might try and take a potshot if he’s bored enough.’
‘What?’ Maddy ducked down to the ground, her bound hands crossed over her head. Neither Devereau nor any of the other soldiers moved. A murmur of laughter rippled up and down the patrol line as they watched her fidgeting on her haunches.
‘Relax,’ he said. ‘It’s well beyond accurate range. All the same …’
He took off his forage cap, reached to his side and unclipped a carbine bayonet, popped the hat on the tip and raised his arm, sweeping the hat slowly in a figure of eight.
‘What are you doing?’ hissed Maddy. ‘You’re attracting attention!’
‘Indeed … I’m signalling the enemy.’
Maddy looked up at him as he stepped forward across the rubble, up on to the top of the low uneven wall of loose bricks. In the stillness, broken only by the tidal lapping of poisoned water nearby, she expected a shot to ring out and this reckless officer to drop, headless, like a butcher’s carcass.
Across the river, her eyes picked out faint movement, the glint of metal.
‘There,’ he said, stepping down. ‘They’ll spread the word on their side. We should be safe from potshots for a while.’
‘But –’ she got to her feet – ‘but that’s the enemy, isn’t it?’
‘I know the colonel over there. Pleasant enough fellow.’
‘Know him?’
He sighed. ‘We’ve been staring over this wretched river at each other for years. Decades, actually. We meet once a year … for Thanksgiving.’ He turned to his men. ‘Don’t we, Sergeant Freeman?’
She recognized the bearded man who’d found her earlier this morning. ‘Aye, sir.’
‘A chance for the boys on both sides to let their hair down.’ Devereau pulled up some field glasses and inspected the Southern lines briefly. ‘In fact, a … couple of years ago, East River froze right over … the lads had a snowball fight.’
‘Whupped ’em good too,’ said Sergeant Freeman, grinning.
‘Indeed we did.’ He lowered his field glasses. ‘A good day,’ he added wistfully. He turned to her. ‘Now then, you say your “base” is here somewhere. And this miraculous time-travelling device of yours?’
She heard barely concealed amusement in his voice.
He’s humouring himself. For a moment she wondered what her fate was going to be if she failed to convince him that the broken machinery in the archway was what she said it was.
And what about Becks? Presumably she was still sitting inside awaiting further orders, or perhaps she was nearby, watching them even now. She wondered how the support unit would act once she spotted Maddy in cuffs being led towards the archway by men with weapons.
‘It’s around here somewhere,’ she said, looking across the wasteland towards the collapsed remains of the Williamsburg Bridge. That was her only way of orienting herself. The only landmark she could recognize. ‘Not too far from the support-works of that bridge over there.’
‘Right.’
‘I have a … a friend over there, though.’
Devereau looked at her sternly. ‘You’re not alone?’
‘Look, she’s not a spy either.’
‘Is she armed?’
Maddy shook her head. ‘No … no weapons, but she … well … she can be dangerous.’
Devereau seemed amused by that. ‘Twenty men … I think between us we can handle an unarmed woman.’
‘No … really,’ said Maddy, ‘trust me, she’s really nothing like me. She, well, she can be kind of deadly. I should call out to her first. Let her know it’s OK.’
The colonel eyed her suspiciously for a moment.
‘I won’t call out for her to run or anything … I promise.’
He stroked his beard thoughtfully. ‘All right, then. But, to make it perfectly clear,