Day of the Predator - Alex Scarrow [34]
> Unknown. Records show zero-point energy research was abandoned as being potentially hazardous. There is very little public domain data on the Texas Advanced Energy Research Institute’s work in this field.
‘So? What do I do?’
> Recommendation: do nothing.
‘Nothing?’
> Correct. Wait for possible contact from them. Sending a tachyon signal forward may endanger Liam and the support unit and might also present a security risk for the agency.
Maddy stared at the screen in silence. ‘You want me to do absolutely nothing? When they might be in trouble and need our help? You’re asking me to do nothing but sit on my hands?’
> Affirmative. A tachyon signal might be detected by sensitive instrumentation at the institute and the message intercepted. This would clearly alert them to the existence of time travel and the agency.
‘They could know time travel is possible fourteen years before Edward Chan does his maths paper,’ added Sal. ‘Our message to Liam might alter history just as much as someone killing Chan.’
> Sal is correct.
‘So you’re saying we wait for them to get themselves out of whatever’s happened?’
> That is my recommendation. They are very capable.
Maddy chewed her lip in thought for a moment. ‘And this is my call?’
> You are team leader. I can only offer data and tactical advice.
‘Right, well then I say forget potential contamination, forget any of their zero-point experiments we might be messing up and stuff any security risks for the agency. They’ve pretty much left us all alone to fend for ourselves so far … I’m damned if I’m going to sacrifice Liam just to keep them happy. We warn Liam and the support unit to abort the scouting trip. We get them back home and then … then … we can deal with any time changes we may have caused! All right?’
Sal nodded. ‘I suppose it’s a plan.’
Maddy turned to the computer screen. ‘All right?’
The ‘>’ cursor blinked thoughtfully on and off in the dialogue box and they heard the computer’s hard drives whirring softly. Finally, after a few moments the cursor flickered forward.
> Affirmative.
‘Cool,’ said Maddy. ‘So, Bob, send that message to five minutes before Chan’s recorded time of death.’
> Affirmative.
As Bob proceeded with beaming the message, Maddy prepared to open a window yet again in the storeroom for the same moment in time and resolved to keep it open for at least ten minutes. That would give them enough time, she hoped, to receive the message, wherever they were in the institute, and make their way back to the storeroom. She was about to activate the time window when Bob’s dialogue box appeared centre screen.
> Information: there is an intense energy feedback loop interfering with the tachyon signal beam.
‘Meaning?’
> 87% probability that this is an explosion.
Her breath caught in her throat. ‘An explosion?’
> Correct.
‘Oh my God.’ Maddy felt the blood drain from her face. ‘How big?’
> Unable to specify. It is a large signature reading.
She looked at Sal. ‘Oh my God, you don’t think …?’
Sal swallowed nervously and didn’t say anything – her wide eyes said it all.
‘Bob, tell me it wasn’t us that just caused that to happen – our tachyon signal?’
Bob’s cursor blinked silently for a few seconds.
> The tachyon signal is the most likely cause of the explosion. The precursor particles may have caused a reaction.
‘Oh God, what have I done?’
CHAPTER 21
Brilliant white, floating in a void of perfect, featureless white. To Liam it felt like hours, staring out at it, hanging motionless in the void as if he was floating in a glass of milk.
It felt like hours, but it could have been minutes, seconds even.
He’d begun to wonder if he was actually dead and hanging around in some pre-afterlife limbo. Then he saw the faintest flicker of movement in the thick milk world around him.
An angel coming for him? It looked like a cloud of slightly dimmer white and it danced around like a phantom, gliding in decreasing circles that brought it ever closer to him. It looked familiar.
I’ve seen that before.
Then he remembered. The day that Foster had pulled him