The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 42
“Speaking of which, I still can’t understand why Laurencan’t remember her, but we all can,” said Peter.
“That is a mystery,” said Charlie. “How long have we allknown Alice? At least thirty years?”
“Yes, since I got together with her at college,” said Josh.
“And you don’t remember anything about her at all?” saidHannah to Lauren.
“Honestly, I’d never heard of her until you mentioned hertoday,” said Lauren.
“The waiter in the restaurant couldn’t remember Henryeither, when he disappeared,” said Josh. “Which made sense because Henry hadnever made it to the restaurant in the altered timeline. Which means thatwhatever Vanessa has done to Alice, she did it over thirty years ago, before Imet her.”
“But that still doesn’t explain why the rest of you canremember her and I can’t,” said Lauren in frustration.
“There must be a connection,” said Charlie. “Something thatwe’ve all got in common that Lauren and the waiter haven’t?”
There were blank faces as they pondered this for a moment,then Charlie’s face lit up as he came up with the answer.
“You know, I think I’ve got it,” he said. “Do you rememberwhen we had all the original adventures with the Time Bubble? Well, when all ofthat was going on, each of us here at the table went into the bubble at onepoint or another. All of us that is, except for one.”
“That’s right – I didn’t,” said Lauren.
“And if I remember correctly, you’ve never travelled in timeat all, have you?”
“That’s true,” replied Lauren. “I wouldn’t mind trying atsome point, though, especially if it means a chance to be young again like wetalked about before. I could have sex with all the people I didn’t have time toshag the first time around.”
“Trust you to think of that,” said Kaylee.
“The point is that you haven’t ever travelled in time, andit’s a fair bet to assume that the waiter hasn’t either,” continued Charlie.“That must be the common factor that explains why we can remember, and theycan’t.”
“Why, though?” asked Hannah.
“I don’t have an explanation for that,” said Charlie. “Mybest guess would be that travelling through a time bubble alters the brain insome way to enable those who have to sense changes in the timeline that otherscan’t – similar, say, to dogs who can hear certain frequencies that humanscan’t.”
“And how would that work, exactly?” asked Hannah.
“I don’t think we need to get hung up on thetechnicalities,” said Josh. “Let’s just go with Charlie’s theory for nowbecause it’s all we have.”
“Definitely,” said Peter. “And it could come in very usefulfor comparative purposes. If we remember the new timeline and Lauren remembersthe old one, we can compare notes if there are any more changes.”
“Exactly,” said Josh. “Maybe we can use that to try and workout what’s happened to Alice.”
“That shouldn’t be too difficult,” said Hannah. “We alreadythink it happened before you met her, so we could look back at social media fora start. That was huge back in the first quarter of the century. Peopledocumented every move they made on Facebook and Instagram. There are bound tobe clues there. We can also Google her and, if there’s no joy there, there’salways the good old registrar of births, marriages and deaths. We’ll track herdown.”
“And when we do?” asked Kaylee.
“I’ll have to go back and find out what happened,” saidJosh. “I can’t do it right away – only she has a tachyometer that can mergeuniverses, but I’m using Henry’s notes to adapt mine to do the same. I shouldhave it up and running in a couple of days.”
“All this talk of universes always totally confuses me,”said Lauren. “Forget the technobabble and get to the point – can you stop her?”
“Hopefully,” said Josh. “Let’s just say we’ve got a workableplan, which is about the best we can hope for at this stage.”
“And what will you do when you do catch up with her?” askedHannah. “She needs to be brought to justice for killing Henry.”
“I can’t see that being easy,” replied Josh. “My preferredsolution would be that we would undo the damage she’s already done, so neitherHenry nor anyone else would have died in the first place. That would leave nocase to answer.”
“You’ll have to put a stop to her, permanently, though,”said Charlie. “You can’t have a maniac like that running around in time on theloose.”
“What do you mean by ‘permanently’?” asked Hannah. “Killingher? You know I can’t condone that.”
“Sounds like the bitch deserves it to me,” chipped inLauren.
“Let’s just concentrate on preventing her doing any moredamage first and worry about what to do with her later,” said Josh.
“I agree,” said Hannah. “And we need to work together as ateam on this and keep in close contact, in case she tries anything else. Atleast there’s more of us than there are of her.”
“Safety in numbers,” said Kaylee.
“Exactly,” said Hannah. “Now, let’s concentrate on findingout what happened to Alice. Here’s what I suggest we do.”
Hannah began to outline her plans, but unbeknown to her,their opponent was already one step ahead of them.
Every single word that had been spoken at the table hadalready been overheard.
In the larger, high-walled garden at the rear of the pub,Vanessa was sipping a glass of white wine, wearing a black wig, dark glassesand a large straw hat. They couldn’t see her from where they were and wouldn’trecognise her even if they could.
They could plan all they wanted, but they’d never outwither. She had already followed them here once today, then travelled back in timeto place the listening device beneath the bench where they were right at thismoment discussing how they were going to deal with her. Everything that wasbeing said was being transmitted directly to the implants in her inner ear.
Whatever they came up with, she would always be one stepahead of them. Eventually they would be bound to uncover the truth about Aliceand then Josh, or one of the others would come looking for her.
And when they did, she’d be waiting.
Chapter Fourteen
September 2024
Alice was spending her student gap year backpacking acrossAustralia.
She had just been dropped off