Day of Vengeance (19 page)

Gone

“Well I have to say, Dad, you drive that thing far better than we do.”

The time phone had landed them on the road next to the woods just outside the Soonhope High School estate.

“Keep your voice down,” Christie whispered.

“There’s the bike,” Jack said. He pointed to where Angus and Jack had left the KTM. They crept forward.

“Engine’s still hot…” Angus said.

“We can only be a few minutes, er, behind ourselves…” Jack said the words and immediately felt confused. “I’m still not used to this…”

“We must be extremely careful. Is this where you went inside?”

“Yes. Entrance Two is up through there.”

They cut into the woods and after a short distance Christie stopped in his tracks. “This is it.”

He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a control device. He pressed a button on the device and a small area in the undergrowth suddenly cleared, showing the circular metal covering set in a concrete base.

“Security systems are down. It will be easier than I thought. Step back.” He pressed the device and the metal cover formed an aperture in the ground revealing a steep spiral staircase that lead downwards. One by one, they stepped onto the spiral staircase.
The stairs began to descend automatically. As they dropped beneath ground level, the aperture above them closed. Ahead of them was a door. Christie pressed the device again and it opened onto the short metal-clad corridor. At the end of the corridor was the circular door with five letters etched on it:

The door opened without a sound, revealing the tubular passageway beyond. It also revealed something else, something unexpected. Standing in the middle of the passageway was a slim woman. She was about forty and had grey-blue eyes and blonde hair. In her right hand she held an automatic pistol, which she held out at eye level, the butt cradled in her left palm. As the door swung open her eyes widened in astonishment and she slowly brought down the weapon.

“Mum?”

“Jack?” Carole Christie said incredulously. She ran over to her son and hugged him. “I thought they’d got you…”

She turned to her husband, “Tom… but how?”

Christie smiled. “It’s nice to see you Carole… been a while. I see you got my message then? A close call.”

Tom reached out and touched his wife on the cheek with his hand. She reached up and put her hand over his, holding it there for a few seconds.

“What’s going on Tom? I only just got your warning. I decided to come straight here. I know I shouldn’t but I was worried about Jack. Then I discovered there had been a security breach.
It’s unbelievable. How did you get here so quickly…?”

“It’s a long story, Carole. We’ve been on a bit of an adventure back in 1940. Don’t have time to explain now – there are Revisionist intruders here. We need to stop them.”

“It’s happened again, hasn’t it Tom? Why? What you’ve done… it’s put Jack… me… in an impossible position… we’re like playthings – stuck between you and Inchquin… you’ve nearly got us killed.”

Christie shook his head. “I know, Carole, I know. I’m sorry… I thought I could manage it… but I couldn’t… it all got out of control and then Pendelshape… I couldn’t stop them… and now…”

“Tom, if we get through this…” she raised her voice, “it’s got to stop. This stupid war between the Revisionists and VIGIL… we have to end it once and for all.”

“We will Carole, we will. But right now we’ve got work to do. And we need your help.”

For the first time in eight years Jack’s mother and father were together. It should have been a happy moment for them, Jack thought, but they were bickering already.

“I want you and Angus to go up to Level Two – we think there are six Revisionist intruders up there. Jack and I are going to the Inner Hub. We should be able to take Belstaff and Johnstone by surprise and then bring up the security systems. That should allow us to lock down the intruders and then we can bring them in. OK?”

“OK,” replied Carole.

They started to make their way along the passage. At each doorway they followed the same procedure – crouching low, guns at the ready as it swung open.

“OK, this is the Inner Hub access point. Angus, Carole – you can take the side door here up to Level Two. Be careful and wait until we have the systems back. I’ll give you the signal.”

Angus and Carole crept out of the side door and Christie looked at his watch. “Right Jack, we’re two minutes from when you used the Taurus to escape to 1940. When I open this door there is another short passageway and at the end is the entrance to the Taurus Control Centre. If we have timed this correctly, it will be open and Johnstone and Belstaff will be busy trying to stop you and Angus escaping. You said that Gordon is hurt on the floor, that Inchquin, the Rector, Tony, Joplin and Turinelli will all be in there and Johnstone has been thrown back from the Taurus. We need to rush Belstaff. I’ll take him out; you cover me and keep an eye on Johnstone. As soon as I open this door we go. Got it?”

Jack felt the adrenaline pumping through his veins. The image in his head of his view from the Taurus looking down at himself and his dad was clearer than ever. This moment had given him hope that had helped keep him alive; and now it had finally arrived. The only trouble was he didn’t know what happened next.

Christie pushed through the door in front of them. As predicted, the entrance to the Control Centre was open.

“Go!” Christie shouted.

They rushed down the passageway and burst in to the Control Centre, arriving just as Johnstone was flying backwards through the air from the Taurus gantry, where he had reached into the Transfer Chamber. He landed awkwardly on the floor of the Control Centre. Belstaff had his back turned to them and was pointing his gun up at the Taurus platform. Jack saw himself and
Angus up on the transfer platform and, just for a split second, Jack caught his own eyes before he vanished through the temporary wormhole back to 1940.

“Drop it.” Christie moved forward and pressed his gun into the back of Belstaff’s neck. Belstaff froze and his weapon clattered to the floor. “On your knees.” Belstaff dropped to the ground and Christie snatched up his weapon.

“Get something to tie these two up – though I don’t think Johnstone is going to cause us too much trouble.” Tony was quick to follow Christie’s instruction. “Joplin – let me free you – then come over here and give me access to that terminal – we can bring the security systems back up.”

Jack looked on at the astonished reactions of everyone in the room.

Inchquin was the first to speak, “But Tom… how on earth…?”

Christie did not look up as he pummelled the keyboard. “I thought I’d better come and help you guys out,” he looked up briefly, “although if it weren’t for Carole, Jack and Angus… I might not have bothered.”

“Tom…” Inchquin started to speak.

“There…” Christie said, looking up at the screen with satisfaction. Security systems are back up. Joplin, you can now isolate each sector in turn as you see fit. Let’s see – yes – there are intruders there and… there. Carole and Angus are up on Level Two, so you can instruct them to bring the intruders in once they know they can’t escape and have put down their weapons. Tony can help bring in the others. You’ll also need to deal with any of them outside the VIGIL site. We’d better get some medical
help for him.” Christie nodded at Gordon on the floor.

“We’re saved,” the Rector said. “I don’t know how to thank you, Tom.”

Christie got up from the terminal. “As I said, I’m not doing it for you.” He looked across at Tony. “Those two secured?”

“They’re not going anywhere,” Tony said.

In some pain, Gordon managed to haul himself up from the floor. “My vest saved me – but I’m pretty sure I’ve got some colourful bruises…”

“Good.” Christie turned to Inchquin, “Looks like you owe me one. Joplin – when the dust has settled you might want to do some analysis – make sure there is nothing else you need to tidy up in 1940 – we had a pretty interesting time back there.”

Joplin was already concentrating on the security systems and he held a hand up to his headset. “Message from Angus: he and Carole are both safe; upper levels secured, intruders secured. They’re coming back down.” He turned to them and grinned. “It’s over.”

Christie walked over to Jack. He held him by the shoulders as he looked into his eyes. “Jack – I’m afraid I need to go. It’s not safe for me to stay here. I know this seems strange but I hope you understand. First, I’m going back to the Revisionist base to tie up some loose ends. Then, I don’t know what I will do… I need time to think a few things through. I think everything will be OK now.” He turned to Inchquin, “Don’t worry, I’m laying low for a while.”

Jack looked into his father’s eyes. “Dad… please don’t go, it’s like Mum said, it’s over, isn’t it? The Revisionists are finished… it’s time to move on…”

Christie looked at Inchquin and scowled. “There’s just too much water under the bridge, Jack, I can’t do it. Not yet, anyway, I’m sorry. But maybe one day. One day I will return. For sure.”

“But Dad… please,” Jack pleaded.

“Sorry Jack, I have to go.” There was a tear in his eye. “You look after Mum, OK?” He smiled ruefully and then Professor Tom Christie took out his time phone. The yellow light was still burning brightly. He pushed a button. There was a sudden, incandescent flash of white light and then, he was gone.

Déjà Vu

Just one week later there was the knock on the front door at Jack's home in Cairnfield.

It wouldn't be fair to say that things had got back to normal; after all, what was ‘normal' about VIGIL and their lives now? Jack should have felt elated about their escape and the defeat of the Revisionists, but actually he felt he was in a state of limbo. Things which should have been sorted out had not been. Pendelshape was dead and the Revisionists had been destroyed and it even seemed possible that his dad would be reconciled with his old colleagues, Inchquin, the Rector and the rest of the VIGIL team. Jack had seen a moment of tenderness between his mum and dad – and he had hoped against hope that they would get back together. It had all been tantalisingly close to reconciliation and peace and then, at the final moment, his dad had decided that it was all too much of a leap of faith and that he would go and come back, ‘maybe one day…' His dad's words went round and round in Jack's head and the more he thought about them, and what he and Angus had been through, the more frustrated he became.

He stared at Facebook on the big downstairs computer and occasionally fiddled with his new iPhone. That was one good thing: VIGIL had given him a replacement for the one he had lobbed into the Seine. But he couldn't be bothered with it all.
There was some outside summer party up river that evening… he and Angus were supposed to go, but Jack didn't feel like it. It all seemed a bit pointless and trivial after what they had been through. Sure, he got on with the other people his age in Soonhope, but sometimes the stress of keeping things secret was too much. At least there was Angus, but he seemed less bothered about everything than Jack; disappointed, almost, that they wouldn't be time travellers again, now the Revisionists were out of the way. VIGIL still had to be on their guard, of course. His dad was still at large – he had said he planned to return to the Revisionist base to think a few things through. Jack had no idea what he would do after that. They would just have to wait.

VIGIL had been busy tying up a few loose ends. There was the endless scrutiny of everything that had happened in 1940 and the historical variation analysis. Then there was the small matter of what to do with the Revisionist fugitives that had been caught inside VIGIL and the traitors, Johnstone and Belstaff. The men who had attacked Jack and Angus had finally been hunted down on the hills above the Grey Mare's Tail. There had been others who had been involved in raids on VIGIL personnel around Soonhope. They had all been caught now. Jack had no idea what VIGIL's procedures were in these circumstances. But he knew that they would be pumped for information and the secret whereabouts of the Revisionist base would soon be discovered. His father would not have long before he would have to say goodbye to it once and for all and move on again.

Then there had been the more trivial concern of trying to mend the window at Angus's place before his mum and dad had got back
from their trip to the ‘Sound of Music' – not to mention plastering over two bullet holes in the kitchen wall. Angus had reported that his parents had noticed nothing, although his dad was furious that Angus had come off the KTM XC 450 and scraped it all down one side. He had no idea, of course, how the damage had really been done and that, but for Angus's superb driving skills, the bike would have been a write-off and he would have been attending Angus and Jack's funerals.

There was also the problem of recovering a time phone from the top of Nelson's column. It was an operation not without risk and if anyone was around at the other end when a time-traveller arrived, it would give them a bit of a surprise. All these things Jack was more than happy to leave to VIGIL to worry about. And from VIGIL's perspective, once again, Jack and Angus had proved their worth. This time Angus had high expectations of a reward and he had already brazenly expressed his wish for something better than a new iPhone.

Again, the knock at the front door. This time harder. Jack remembered – Mum was out. He didn't rush to answer it.

There was a woman standing on the doorstep. She looked up at him. Jack was a little taken aback. She was very old and quite frail – certainly in her eighties. She had grey hair and dark, weather-beaten skin and behind her glasses Jack could see that her eyes were brown.

“Hello,” Jack said.

The old woman looked at him oddly. She seemed quite surprised by something.

“I'm, er, sorry, but I was looking for someone. I believe this is
the Christie household. Is your father in…? Or your grandparents, perhaps?”

The question seemed a little strange and the old woman continued to stare at Jack in a rather disconcerting manner, almost as though she recognised him. But Jack was sure he'd never seen her before in his life.

“Well… my father is away, but Mum is in town. She'll probably be back soon.”

“And the rest of your family, grandparents… er, grandfather?”

“I'm afraid they died some years ago, they did live here though. Did you know them?”

The woman suddenly looked rather sad.

“I'm sorry – would you like to come in – maybe sit down? Some tea perhaps?”

“Tea? How English. That would be very kind. I am a little tired.”

The woman's English was excellent but now Jack picked up a slight accent.

“Come in. So it is my grandparents you were looking for? Come through, the kitchen is just in here…”

They went into the kitchen and Jack put on the kettle.

“You can sit down there if you like.”

Jack pulled out a chair. Suddenly, the woman clasped his wrist and brought her face close to Jack's as though she was searching for something. It was a little alarming.

“It's uncanny my dear, quite uncanny.”

“Er, sorry, what is?”

“You! You're the spitting image of him. Same hair, same face,
same voice: the spitting image. And your name is Jack, isn't it dear?”

“Yes – how did you…?”

“The same name too,” the old woman smiled. “It is extraordinary.”

Jack eased his wrist free. “Sorry – who am I like?”

“Your grandfather, of course. Well I assume he was your grandfather. Sit down, dear, let me show you something. I was never supposed to speak of it, but now, well, I'm old and it was many years ago, so what harm could come of it?”

The woman had a handbag which she put on the table. She pulled out a slim, well-worn leather folder. It looked almost as old as she did. “I kept most of them, even though I knew it might be dangerous. Why don't you take a look?” The old woman nodded at the folder lying unopened on the table in front of them.

Jack opened it. Inside there were a number of old black-
and-white
photographs. He looked at them closely, and, with growing astonishment, he started to understand.

The first photograph was of the Eiffel Tower, taken from some distance away. The top of the tower was in low cloud. The tail fin of an aeroplane was sticking out of the tower just below the cloud line. The photo was exactly the same as the one that Angus's dad had shown them at Rachan. The old woman smiled.

“And that one…”

The second photograph was of Jack and Angus. They were on a narrow platform way up in the air, surrounded by metal girders. They both seemed beaten up and Angus was covered in blood. He looked up into the old woman's eyes and they transported him
back seventy years to wartime Paris, as he recognised her at last: Sophie. Jack was stunned.

“There,” she pointed. “That's your grandfather – Jack was his name – the same as yours. He was a pilot in the RAF and that is his friend, Angus. What an adventure we had! I was not supposed to speak of it and it has been my secret for many, many years. Although the photo of the Eiffel Tower and the Spitfire, I admit, I sold when we went through hard times after the war…”

Questions crowded into Jack's head… “What happened to you… after the war? How come you are here?”

“We were in the resistance you know. But in 1940 we escaped Paris and went south. Mother and Father tried to live a quiet life. British Intelligence ordered it. We ended up in Grenoble and they died there, peacefully, many years ago. I set up a photographic studio… and later we had a shop – climbing, skiing, Parkour. My father had a special name for it, he called it ‘les jeux abnormales'. She smiled and her whole face wrinkled. “We had a good life and good fun… eventually. But…” she shrugged, “I never forgot your grandfather… and I hoped one day we would meet again. I did try and make contact, after the war. But I could find nothing, nothing at all. It was as if he had vanished off the face of the earth. I have my own family now… five grandchildren! But still I have kept looking, kept hoping.

One day I was doing some research into my photograph. It became quite famous you know – the one of the Spitfire in the Eiffel Tower. It was always a mystery who the pilot was, and I never told anyone. I learned more about the story behind it. About the Northolt Raid and the Battle of Britain. I heard about
a Hurricane pilot – a man called Ludwig Jud – who had been involved in the Raid. I followed the trail and then I discovered that his descendants still lived in Scotland. A place called Rachan, near here. And that's why I decided to come here.”

“You've been to Rachan?” Jack said, increasingly anxious.

“My family thought I was stupid to travel all this way at my age. But I was insistent. I am staying in Edinburgh and I went and paid the Jud family a little visit yesterday. Do you know that Ludwig Jud's grandson still farms up there? Of course, he knows the story about his grandfather Ludwig very well. We had a wonderful chat. It's unbelievable, but he is actually restoring the plane that crashed into the Eiffel Tower. He even had a copy of my photograph. It was a thrilling moment for me. We talked some more. The Juds were very kind and told me all about their friends and life in the Soonhope Valley and then, it was very strange, because they talked about their son. He wasn't there but he's called Angus – they're very proud of him. He's a good sportsman apparently. They showed me a picture of him with the rugby trophy. They talked about his friends and they mentioned the name of his best friend – a Jack – Jack Christie. That's you, Jack, isn't it? They told me that you lived just outside Soonhope. You had the same name as the Jack I knew and I thought, well, there might just be a chance that it's the same family – or at least the family might be related in some way to the Jack I knew. So I had to come and visit.”

She looked deep into his eyes. “So Jack, does any of this make any sense? Do you know anything about your family history…? Was your grandfather in the war? Could he have been the pilot of
the Spitfire? Could he have been my Jack? Or are there are other Christies that you have heard of? Do you know? Because no trace was ever found of him. If he survived the war and he had children, it has been the world's best-kept secret.”

Jack was starting to sweat. He sensed Sophie's turmoil. She had been searching all her life, for him, for Jack. He desperately wanted to blurt out the truth and tell her everything. He tried to think of a way out.

“I'm sorry,” he said. “I'm afraid our family, is a little dull… Nothing exciting like that has happened to any of us.” He didn't sound very convincing.

“Oh, I see.” Sophie gave him a doubtful look. “I thought it might be too much to hope for. He must have died later in the war or something. That's what I always thought… but there was no trace, you see. Nothing. I'm like a silly girl sometimes. I suppose I am still a bit in love with him even after all these years. So silly.” She paused and looked at him intently, with a twinkle in her eye. “But, Jack, maybe you can help me anyway?”

“Of course. I'll try.”

“I think I will die soon. If I ever found
my
Jack, well, I wanted to make sure I said ‘goodbye'. Properly I mean. You look just like him and sound just like him and even have the same name, so we could
pretend
, couldn't we?”

“Sorry?”

“We could
pretend
that you are him and I can give these to you, my photographs. If you accept them…” she put a wrinkled hand over his and squeezed it gently, “… you will make an old woman very happy.”

Jack felt a lump in his throat. “Thank you, Sophie. I will look after them. It's an incredible story and you are an incredible person. I would love to keep them.”

Suddenly, Sophie's demeanour changed. Her eyes narrowed. It was as if she were trying to work something out in her head. “You know some things about the time I spent with my Jack never made sense to me. He seemed to know things. And for some reason his father was there, working for British Intelligence. Jack didn't want me to find out, but when I did he swore me to secrecy. Seemed strange, on reflection. And it was odd, you know, but of course, Jack had a friend – the other pilot who flew the Spitfire. His name was Angus. Angus Jud. The son of the family I met at Rachan yesterday had exactly the same name. Very strange. Two men, Ludwig and Angus, with the same surname fighting in the same air battle I might think was possible. But two boys living in this valley with exactly the same names, seventy years later, who, well, look identical. It is most odd.”