Day of the Predator - Alex Scarrow [112]
‘It’s like … it’s like knocking on a door before entering. Like asking is anyone in there? It’s a lot quicker than actually opening a portal. A lot less energy needed.’ She turned back towards the mic on the desk. ‘Bob, what are you suggesting? We can’t scan every moment over a thousand years … can we?’
> Negative. We scan a fixed moment of each day, 500 years either side of the calculated year. That is a total of 365,250 density probes.
‘But that’s going to take you what? Months? Years?’ asked Cartwright.
> Negative. Small signals, no more than a few dozen particles per signal, would be enough to identify a transient mass. Movement.
‘Yes,’ said Maddy. ‘That’s it! And all the signals that came back with some movement detected could become a … become our candidate list: a shortlist of times we could try to open a portal on. Bob, how long would it take to do that many probes?’ She turned back to Cartwright. ‘It’ll take a lot less time, I promise you! Maybe just a few days, tops!’
He shook his head. ‘Unacceptable. I want this archway empty by the end of today. Empty and everything inside in boxes and en route to –’
‘Please!’ begged Maddy. ‘We can’t leave Liam out there!’
Cartwright silently shook his head.
‘He knows the location of all the other field offices,’ cut in Sal.
Maddy’s jaw dropped open. ‘Whuh?’
‘He alone knows where they all are. Locations, time-stamps.’ She turned to Maddy. ‘I’m sorry … I was going to tell you, but … but Foster swore me to secrecy.’
Cartwright studied her silently. ‘There are others, then? Other places like this?’
Her face hardened and her dark eyes narrowed. ‘I’m not telling you any more. I don’t know any more, but … like I say, Liam knows.’
‘Hmm.’ He thumbed his chin thoughtfully.
‘Bob,’ said Maddy, ‘how many days would it take to do those density scans?’
> Calculating … just a moment … just a moment …
‘Nice try, young lady,’ said Cartwright eventually. ‘You know, that was almost convincing. But it’s the sort of nonsense that only happens in movies.’ His croaky voice raised in pitch to that of some damsel in distress. ‘Oh, please don’t shoot, mister … If you let me live, I’ll show you where the loot is hidden.’
Cartwright laughed, pleased with his impression.
Sal shook her head. ‘Oh, I’m not lying. Where do you think the time machine came from?’ she replied. ‘What? You think me and Maddy put it all together by ourselves?’
He had no answer for that.
Maddy could see where Sal was going with this. A good bluff. ‘She’s right, Cartwright. Where do you think we get spare parts from? When the displacement system breaks down, who do you think we call to come and fix it? Some spotty kid from PC World?’
Sal nodded. ‘You think our people are going to let you walk away with one of their time machines?’
There were questions there that the old man needed time to consider carefully. The room remained a motionless tableau, while from somewhere overhead came the faint muted sound of a circling helicopter.
The blink of the cursor running across the dialogue box suddenly caught everyone’s attention.
> Information: running at 11 scans a second, 365,250 scans will take approximately nine hours.
‘Nine hours,’ said Maddy. ‘See that? Nine hours.’ She looked at her watch. ‘By three this afternoon, we’ll have an idea exactly when he is and we’ll be able to bring him back.’ She smiled sarcastically at him. ‘Then you’ll have three lab rats to play around with instead of two.’
‘Yes.’ Cartwright nodded appreciatively. ‘I suppose there is that.’
‘Please,’ whispered Sal, her hard-bargaining face softened to that of a begging puppy.
‘All right. But if either of you tries anything silly, like dialling for help with one of these signals –’ he reached into his jacket and pulled out a handgun – ‘in fact, if you do anything that isn’t explained clearly to me first, I will shoot you dead. Do you understand?’
They both nodded quickly.
‘There’ll be no shouted warnings, girls. I will simply pick up my gun and I will blow your brains across that messy desk of yours.’ He offered them that