The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 46
She looked round at a bunch of bowed heads, all trying toavoid eye contact. Their body language was all the confirmation she needed.
“That settles it,” she said. “It’s down to me. And there’sno time to waste. I suggest we start right away. Josh, where are thetachyometers? Have you finished the upgrades you were working on?”
“Hold on a minute. It’s not that simple,” said Josh. “Thesethings need to be planned. Yes, I have upgraded the tachyometer but remember itonly travels in time – it’s not going to transport you to Australia. You’ve gotto make your own way over there.”
“That’s going to waste time, though,” said Hannah.
“Maybe, but it’ll be a lot quicker if you travel there inthe present day. In the time you are going back to it took a good 24 hours totravel there by plane, and on top of that you’ve got to drive hundreds of milesto the last place she was seen. All of that is a major headache when currencieshave changed, and your passport isn’t valid in the earlier time. Trust me, youneed to get where you need to be first – then make the jump.”
“And you’re not going on your own,” added Peter. “I’m comingwith you.”
“No offence, dear husband, if you come back with me into thepast, you’re only going to get in the way. This is something I need to do on myown.”
“I can’t let you both go, anyway,” said Josh. “I’ve only gottwo functioning tachyometers, and if you go with her that means taking both ofthem. If anything goes wrong and you get stranded, then there’s not going to beany way I can come and rescue you without building a new tachyometer fromscratch – and by the time I’ve managed that there’s no knowing what havocVanessa may have wrought.”
“I wasn’t talking about travelling to the past,” said Peter.“I meant I would come to Australia with you in the present.”
“That might not be a bad idea,” said Josh. “You can reportback to us what happens.”
“You’re not coming, too?” asked Hannah.
“No, I think that would be a bad idea,” said Josh. “For allwe know, Vanessa could be watching my every move. If I go with you toAustralia, she’s going to cotton on to what we’re up to. If I stay here,hopefully you’ll be able to travel over there undetected.”
“OK, that sounds sensible,” said Hannah.
“And the rest of you, stay put and keep your wits aboutyou,” added Josh. “We have no way of knowing what Vanessa’s got planned.”
Later that afternoon, Josh, Hannah and Peter met up atJosh’s new flat in Oxford.
The day that Alice disappeared he had gone home to discoverhe didn’t live there anymore. Once he thought about it, it was perfectlyunderstandable. He and Alice had chosen that house together.
Fortunately, when he dug out his wallet, he found that hisdriving licence had the address of a flat in Jericho on it. He went to theaddress and when the door scanned his retina it recognised him and let him in.
It was clearly his flat, as many of his books and otherlong-standing possessions were there. It was odd thinking that he hadapparently lived in an entirely different home for years.
“The décor’s certainly a lot different from your otherplace,” remarked Hannah.
The arty prints with which Alice had adorned the walls weregone, along with every other stamp she had ever put on the place. The wallswere painted a pale cream white, and the furniture was minimal. He now had abattered, old, black leather sofa in place of the softer furnishings that Alicehad preferred.
“Thankfully the tachyometers were both here, mine and theone you had,” said Josh. “It seems I still developed them even without Alice’shelp.”
“That’s a relief,” said Peter. “We’d have been sunk withoutthem.”
“It’s bloody weird getting used to all these changes whenthe rest of the world’s oblivious to them,” said Josh. “A cleaning lady turnedup this morning. I’d never clapped eyes on her in my life, but she certainlyknew me alright. She was chatting away as if she had known me for years.”
“Which she probably has,” said Peter.
“That’s why Vanessa’s so dangerous and has to be stopped,”said Hannah. “She could change the entire history of the world and only we fewwould even know she had done it.”
“Right, well, let’s get started,” said Josh, taking themthrough to his kitchen and opening the cupboard under the sink where he hadstowed the tachyometers.
“Are these safe here?” asked Peter.
“Is anything safe anywhere, anymore?” replied Josh.
“Fair point,” he replied.
Over the next ten minutes, he explained the working of thetachyometer to Hannah, who had never operated one before. Then they conducted aquick test, sending Hannah back a few minutes in time and that completed herbrief training. They couldn’t afford to delay any longer.
After they had bid Josh farewell, Hannah and Peter headedfor Oxford station where they were able to take a short hop on the Hyperloopdown to Heathrow, where the state-of-the-art new Ultraloop InternationalTerminal had been built over the site of the now defunct third runway.
What a white elephant that third runway had turned out tobe, thought Peter. Just like HS2, by the time it had been completed, technologyhad rendered it obsolete.
Peter had used the Hyperloop before, but never theUltraloop, which had been designed for high-speed, long-distance, internationaltravel. Capable of speeds of up to 6,000mph, it was now possible to travelhalfway around the planet in just two hours.
Peter and Hannah found that the sensation of being enclosedin the Ultraloop tube felt no different to that of the Hyperloop. There was nofeeling that they were even moving, just as a person standing still on PlanetEarth has no concept that the planet is hurtling through space at thousands ofmiles per hour.
Hannah was following Josh’s advice to travel directly to theplace and time where Alice had last been seen before taking her journey backinto time.
Peter had wanted to take the spare tachyometer along so thathe could travel back to help her if she