Time Leap (16 page)

“
It’s his
finger on the button,” Yoyo added.

I thought
about this. John Clinton would be no more than ten years old now –
just a boy. But how many ten year olds would die in a cataclysmic
war if we didn’t prevent it happening now?

“
There’s no guarantee than eliminating Johnny Clinton will
prevent this war,” Mike pointed out, “but if we do nothing, the
war
will
happen – no question about that. It all started with the US
escalating their presence in the Korean Peninsula – and that was
the President’s call.”

“
Okay,” I’m
in,” said Yoyo.

“
Me too,”
added Niki.

Again, I was
in the minority. But I had to agree it seemed like the right
approach.

“
Well,” I
sighed, “I guess we’d better get back in touch with our Mr
Smirnoff.”

***

Twenty–Three

Niki contacted
Smirnoff and arranged a meeting at 2pm the next day on the South
Bank of the Thames in Central London. He wouldn’t say exactly where
– just that he’d ‘find us’.

Thus far, we
hadn’t discussed a price for the job, but that was on the agenda.
Since discovering we could win money very easily in all sorts of
ways by travelling back and forth in time, we hadn’t given much
thought to the cost of things. We were growing aware, though, that
we should be more careful with our gambling habits. Some things
were easy to win money on a regular basis: horse–racing and
football, for example. They were not huge payouts, but it was a
regular income under far less scrutiny than the big lotteries.
Speaking of which, we had won the UK National Lottery three times
now, in different time periods, and also the Euro Millions lottery
a couple of times (netting more than two hundred million on one
occasion). But we couldn’t keep doing that – people would become
suspicious.

We’d tried
Casino gambling too. Roulette was the most fun. I would write down
a winning number, rush to a quiet area and jump two minutes back in
time. Then I’d place my huge bet on the number I knew would win. I
did get this wrong a couple of times (a very expensive mistake!). I
had jumped back a couple of turns of the wheel instead of just one,
and lost the lot! Yoyo and I therefore tried a technique whereby
she stayed by the table and gave me a signal when I arrived back to
let me know when to place the bet. This was a little strange as it
created a double of me, which caused some strange looks amongst
other gamblers. We laughed it off as my twin brother – and never
did it again. We were only doing it for enjoyment anyway – we have
enough money for this lifetime.

So paying
Smirnoff didn’t seem like a problem to us… but what if he wanted an
insane amount? I put this question to Niki.

“
What do you
mean by ‘insane’?” she asked.

“
Say, one
million pounds. It would be difficult withdrawing that amount from
the bank in cash, wouldn’t it? You know what these banking
regulations are like nowadays. And wiring it to his account could
be a problem too. We could hardly write ‘Contract Killing’ as the
reason for the transfer.”

As Niki and I
were talking, we gazed across the Thames to the Embankment – and I
suddenly felt a prod in my back.

“
You should be
more careful – you never know who is listening,” the Russian
observed after sneaking up on us. “But don’t worry – it’s safe
now.”

We discretely
let Smirnoff know our new target, relaying our conversation with
Yoyo and Mike, and watched his reaction. It was
positive.

“
I can see no
problem with this project. You can leave the when and where to me,”
he said matter–of–factly, pausing to light a cigarette. “As regards
my ‘Agency fee’ – it is usually one hundred K for the first time,
and fifty K for repeat business.”

“
Pounds?” I
asked, not that it really mattered.

“
You are
British I take it Mr Joe?” I nodded. “Then yes, British
pounds.”

Niki would
normally haggle with any price – just her Chinese way – but on this
occasion she kept quiet. She knew it was a small price for what we
were about to achieve.

“
However,”
Smirnoff continued, “I would like to make a proposal.”

I nearly said,
‘Okay, shoot,’ but thought better of it.

“
Okay, go
ahead,” I replied.

“
If you can do
something for me, then I will undertake this little business for
you free of charge – just this time.”

“
What do you
have in mind, Mr Smirnoff?” Niki asked.

“
I would like
you to help me visit my mother – before she died.”

Niki and I
looked at each other. “Okay,” I said, “just tell us where and
when.”

“
Moscow, 1997.
I was not there for her when she passed away, and it has been
troubling my soul ever since. You do not have to do this before I
take care of your current business. Already, you have let me meet
Mr Lenin… I know you will do this other thing for me.”

We agreed to
Smirnoff’s request, and began to make our plans for ‘the Hit’.
Smirnoff would jump forward in time to do the deed, rather than
undertake it in the present time period (‘undertake’ seemed such an
appropriate word in this business). Assuming that the technology of
future crime detection isn’t invented in the next few days (as in
the movie
Minority
Report
), this plan seemed safe. It was
Niki’s idea. We would choose a suitable time period and both
accompany the Russian to the future – just in case anything went
wrong. Smirnoff suggested the time when Clinton would be a student
studying at university. Security would not be so tight then, we
thought, and therefore more opportunities for the kill (I hate that
word).

Thanks to Mike
and Yoyo, we knew exactly at which university he would be enrolled,
and the courses he would be taking… and we were in luck: Johnny
Clinton would be following in his mother footsteps and studying at
Oxford University – just a short train ride from London. So no need
to head off to America.

“
We have to take a
train
to Oxford?” exclaimed Smirnoff when he heard the
news.

“
Well, yes.” I
replied.

“
You mean we can travel one hundred years back in time in the
blink of an eye, but to travel eighty kilometres, we must travel
by
train?”

“
Or take a
bus,” Niki added.

“
We can only
travel in time, not space,” I explained. “So if you want to visit
your mother in Russia, we must actually travel to Russia in the
normal way, and then make the time–jump back to 1997.”

“
Okay, okay –
I get it. But we still do it my way. We travel separately: you and
Niki go to Oxford first, and I’ll meet you there,
understood?”

“
Perfectly,”
Niki replied.

*

Whilst we’d
been talking with Smirnoff, our doubles had been researching Johnny
Clinton’s whereabouts during his second year at University. We
thought there’d be less attention on the grandson of an ex–US
president during his sophomore year (rather than his first or
last), which would commence at the beginning of October 2024.
Smirnoff made it very clear that he never discusses the details of
his assignments – he just gets it done. Safer that way, he said. No
doubt we could read about it in a future edition of the Guardian if
we wanted to. It would also be in Mike and Yoyo’s history once they
jumped home, of course.

We chose the
end October for the jump, which meant it would be during term time.
Johnny would be studying law – not a bad subject for a future
President of the United States of America, I suppose? No, don’t
think about that.

We spent the
next few weeks considering our trip, winning money, spending it,
and (on occasions) worrying about bumping off a future president of
the United States. We weren’t actually pulling the trigger or
turning the knife; but we were paying someone to do it for us,
which amounted to the same thing. Almost. Niki was better at
dealing with this aspect than me, truth be told.

The days
seemed to pass quickly, and it was soon time to drive to Oxford.
Yes, drive. We had originally intended to take the train, but
thought it was better to take the car – no official record of us
travelling to Oxford that way.

I must say, I
like Oxford. One of my uncles lives just outside the town, though
it didn’t seem like a good time to go visiting. I imagined a
conversation with him: ‘Oh, and what brings you to this neck of the
woods Joe?’ ‘Well, Niki and I have just hired a contract killer to
knock off the future President of the United States of America…’
Perhaps not.

Niki called
Smirnoff from a phone box outside a pub close to the University
when we’d arrived in the city. All I heard her say was the name of
the pub and the street – and that was that. Inside the pub, I
ordered a couple of beers and two packets of crisps. When I
returned from the bar with the drinks, Niki was in deep
thought.

“
You okay?” I
said.

“
I’ve been
thinking.” she said.

“
Whoa! Don’t
do that – it’s dangerous!”

She ignored my
schoolboy humour and continued.

“
What happens if someone sees us with you–know–who ten years
into the future? If he’s picked up by the Police after
the
thing
,
won’t we be under suspicion too?”

It was a good
question – one I hadn’t really considered. I sat in deep thought
for a minute, sipping my drink almost mindlessly.

“
You’re
right,” I said at last, “it’s possible. We do need to be more
careful. Actually, we didn’t need to come to Oxford with him at all
– we could have done the jump in London and he could have travelled
alone.”

“
Well, we’re
here now,” replied Niki.

“
Okay, let’s
do the jump well away from the University – somewhere very
quiet.”

Niki agreed
this was a good idea. But there was something else.

“
We should
also make sure we don’t return to Oxford on this day in ten years’
time.”

I could see
where she was going with this. For one thing, it would mean there
could be two of each of us in Oxford on that particular day. Which
would increase the risk of being associated with Smirnoff should he
get caught. It was all very implausible, but we did need to
consider the possibility. We were, after all, about to become
accomplices in the murder of a future US President – we must do our
best to cover all the bases.

A few minutes
later, Smirnoff arrived. He didn’t enter the pub, but tapped on the
window, just as we’d planned.

“
Remember this
day,” I said to him as we walked along the street.

“
And don’t
come back to Oxford in ten years’ time,” Niki added. The Russian
gave her a puzzled look. “Don’t ask,” she added as we walked
quickly along some back streets looking for a suitable jump point.
We had originally planned to make the time leap within the
University grounds, very close to where Johnny Clinton would be
living in ten years’ time, but in light of our discussion, it was
safer away from the University. We found a small, secluded park
about ten minutes walk from the pub, which seemed ideal. The three
of us held hands, and made the jump.

“
See you back
here,” I whispered after we travelled ten years forwards, and the
Russian was gone.

“
S’funny… it
still looks the same,” I said scanning the area.

“
It probably
hasn’t changed for five hundred years!” Niki replied.

*

Within
forty–five minutes, Smirnoff was back. Without speaking, we jumped
back to the present date, and walked calmly away from the
park.

“
Fancy a lift
back to London,” I smiled.

“
You know my
rules,” he said.

“
Better than
the bus,” Niki added. “And the job won’t have been completed for
another ten years, so no–one’s looking for you.”

The big
Russian stopped in his tracks.

“
That’s true,”
he said, “but I thought you took the train?”

“
Ah, that’s
something you’ll have to learn about us, Mr Smirnoff,” Niki replied
“always expect the unexpected.”

As we drove
back down the motorway, I asked Smirnoff how the job went. I really
shouldn’t have asked – I knew he wouldn’t tell me, and he was a bit
peeved that I asked. So I pointed out that we could easily jump to
the future and read the news about it, so he said, “Okay, so you
will read that the grandson of a former American President had an
unfortunate accident in his student accommodation one afternoon in
Oxford, and died of his injuries.”

“
Our prayers
will be with his family,” I replied.

***