The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 38
“I’m more worried about how much further she might potentiallygo,” said Josh. “She’s somehow changed things in our universe that we can see,even though the waiter couldn’t. That means she must have used the exact methodHenry was describing earlier, which we haven’t even seen yet.”
“If she’s got that ability then how can we ever be trulysafe again?” asked Alice.
“With great difficulty,” replied Josh. “We can protectourselves to some extent in the here and now, but what if she decides to gointo the past and do something to us? It could be before we even met her. Wewouldn’t be aware we were in any danger.”
“We’ve got to stop her,” said Alice.
“Without a doubt, but we don’t even know where she is at themoment,” said Josh. “That’s why I think it’s vital we get back to the lab rightaway and try and figure out exactly what she’s done. Henry must have left somenotes about what he was doing, she couldn’t have figured it all out herself.”
“What about poor Henry?” said Alice. “We really ought to goup to the hospital and see if he’s OK.”
“You heard what the waitress said,” replied Josh. “He was ina bad way. I doubt if there’s anything we can do to help him.”
“If he’s still alive he might at least be able to shed somelight on what happened,” said Alice.
“That’s a big if,” said Josh, immediately regretting it ashe saw fresh tears forming. “Sorry, I know how much you liked Henry. I tell youwhat, let’s go to the lab first and see if we can find anything out, and thenwe’ll go and check on Henry afterwards.”
Together, they headed back towards the lab, but they woulddiscover when they got there that they were already too late.
Vanessa had indeed done exactly what they had suspected.Filled with rage, she had gone directly to the lab after leaving therestaurant, taken Henry’s notes and the tachyometer with Henry’s latest upgrades,and taken them back to their hotel.
It didn’t take long to figure it all out. Then shetransported herself back into her own body, several hours earlier in the middleof the afternoon.
One feature of Henry’s new upgrades meant that she had theoption to transport the tachyometer into the past with her, even when she wasonly sending her mind back. This left no need for a return trip, and alsoremoved the possible complication of having two Vanessas running around.
Her arrival in the past coincided with her arrival back fromAustralia, before she had gone to the hotel to meet Henry. This time she had nointention of going there so she rang him, explained she had been delayed, andsuggested she went straight to the restaurant and met him there. An unsuspectingHenry had accepted this without question.
As soon as she got back to Oxford she went and hired ahigh-performance hybrid car, designed for maximum acceleration. In the 2050sera of self-drive, carbon-neutral vehicles, such cars were now a luxury item,taxed beyond the means of ordinary citizens by a government determined to meetits target of a 100% driverless network by 2060. For Vanessa, of course,finances were not a problem.
About half an hour before the restaurant booking, she parkedup on St Giles’, ignoring the ever-present surveillance cameras that wouldissue her with a fine for stopping in a restricted zone.
The latest cameras were incredibly advanced. Long gone werethe days of attempting to identify miscreants from grainy, washed-out CCTV.Vanessa knew that it would take the police a matter of seconds to identify heronce they got into footage later, but that was of no concern to her whatsoever.
She had the tachyometer which was the perfect device fordisposing of the evidence. She could travel back and give herself an alibi forthe time of the murder. She could make the camera evidence disappear, as wellas any paperwork to say she had ever hired the car. Or she could frame someoneelse for what she had done, Alice maybe. That would amuse her.
The possibilities were endless: as long as she stayed aheadof the law and had the tachyometer in tow, she had all the time in the world.As she sat in her car and waited for Henry to appear, she mulled over all theother things she could do.
The one thing she craved more than anything was Josh. It wasinfuriating that her feelings for him were not reciprocated. Why couldn’t hesee that she was so much better for him than Alice?
Alice was an obstacle and so was Henry, but obstacles couldbe removed. If Josh didn’t love her in the current version of the world thenshe would mould it and shape it until he did. There was nothing Henry and Alicecould do to stop her. Pretty soon there wouldn’t be a Henry anymore, and oncehe was out of the way, she would turn her attention to Alice.
Framing her for Henry’s murder would be satisfying butnowhere near as satisfying as killing her, and there were so many possible waysshe could do it. The thought of hurting people didn’t faze her one bit. As faras she was concerned, they had asked for it – they should have known betterthan to get in her way.
No one was going to stop her getting what she wanted – noone. She had trampled over people all her life, but up until now she had beenforced to keep at least one foot on the right side of the law, even with allthe hush money at her disposal. Now, possession of the tachyometer had takenthose restrictions away. She could do anything.
She smiled, an evil grin spreading across her face. She feltalmost drunk on the power that the tachyometer was giving her, cackling away inher mind like some crazed, clichéd B movie villain screaming out, “Nothing’sgoing to stop me now!”
And now the time had come to carry out her first act ofvengeance as she saw Henry walking up the road past the Lamb & Flag,wearing his stupid, blood-red Hawaiian sunset shirt.
It was an appropriate choice of outfit, she felt. It wouldcomplement the blood from his