Time Leap (4 page)

“
Take a look
at this?”

“
Why?”

“
You’ll
see…”

She scanned the pages as
we briskly walked along Kensington High Street, then she stopped
and turned to me. “It’s out of date.”

“
Yes, I
know.”

“
Why did you
buy an old newspaper?”

“
I didn’t –
this is today’s date. Come on.”

We reached her parents’
home, and rang the bell. Her father answered the door.

“
Niki … is
that you? You look different… are you okay? And who is
this?”

“
Hello Mr
Ling, I’m Joe – a friend of Niki’s. May we come in?”

“
Yes, of
course – please come on in, I’ll make some tea.”

As we entered the house,
she looked closely at her father. “Baba – you’re looking great – so
much younger! What have you been doing?”

“
Oh, nothing
special – working at the Embassy as usual…”

“
But I
thought…”

“
How’s Mrs
Ling?” I interrupted.

“
Joe!”
exclaimed Niki.

“
Oh, she’s
fine – just gone to pick up a few things from the shops. I’ll just
go and make the tea.”

“
Joe,” Niki
whispered to me, “I’m sorry – Baba seems to be losing his memory.
He didn’t recognize you, and he still thinks Mama is alive. I hope
it’s not dementia.”

I knew what was coming
next, and I had to prepare Niki. I’d thought that everything she’d
experienced so far would make her realise we really had gone back
in time, but understandably she was in denial.

“
Niki, sit
down – I’ve got to explain something to you. Your father has not
lost his memory – he’s as alert as ever. The reason he looks
younger is because he
is
younger. There were none of your things in the
apartment because in 2005 we had not yet met. There are no car
registrations with the number sixty–two, because right now we’re
still on fifty–five. The newspaper is not out of date, it is
today’s date. And any minute your mother is going to walk through
that door.”

“
But that’s
impossible!”

“
Yes, that’s
exactly what I thought when this happened to me yesterday morning.
But I assure you that…”

“
The weather
is so clammy today…”

Gloria came through the
door and Niki looked as if she’d seen a ghost.

“
Mama?”

“
Oh, that’s a
nice surprise – and who is this young man?”

Tears streamed down
Niki’s cheeks, and she ran over give Gloria a big hug.

“
Are you all
right Ling Ling? Is anything wrong?” her mother said.

“
No Mama – not
now. It’s just so good to see you.”

I let Niki enjoy the
moment with her mother who had died nine years ago in our time, and
then interrupted.

“
I’m sorry,
can I have a moment with Niki, Mrs Ling – there’s something
important I need to tell her.”

“
Of course
dear – I’ll go and help Tang.”

I looked Niki
squarely in the eyes. “
Now
you’ve got to believe me.” She nodded tearfully. I
explained that we didn’t have very much time, and somehow we had to
convince Gloria and Tang that they should stay in the house the
next day and not go out. Before we jumped to 2005 I’d researched
the July bombings on the internet and I knew exactly where and when
the terrorist bombs would be detonated, and none of them would be
near the Ling’s house. The devices were placed in public places
where they could cause the most damage – on trains and on a bus. I
said I’d tell Gloria and Tang I worked for the Special Branch, and
say we’d had a tip–off about terrorist bombs in Central London
tomorrow. Niki was still in daze, but nodded her approval. The
Lings were convinced by what I told them, and after tea we left the
house.

“
Where now
Joe?” Nik asked me.

“
MI5, Special
Branch.”

If Gloria followed our
instructions, then we’d saved her. Now we had to stop the bombers
and save all the others who were murdered in 2005.

***

Five

On Thursday
7
^th
July, four terrorists would detonate four bombs – three in
quick succession at 8.50am aboard London Underground trains across
the city, and a fourth aboard a double–decker bus in Tavistock
Square at 9.47am. Not only did I have the exact locations of all
four devices, but also the terrorists’ names, ages, ethnic
backgrounds and profiles. I even knew that they would be caught on
CCTV at Kings Cross station at 8.30am that morning. With all this
information, the authorities should easily be able to prevent the
explosions.

Niki had now come round
to the idea that we had gone back in time. There was just no other
explanation for being able to see and hold her mother again. She
suggested going to the Metropolitan Police at New Scotland Yard
near St. James’s Park, which seemed a good place to
start.

“
Yes?” The
plan clothed civilian female assistant asked us as we entered the
main door.

“
We need to
talk to someone urgently about terrorist bombs that are going to be
set off in Central London tomorrow morning.” No point in beating
around the bush, I thought. The woman looked from one of us to the
other, wondering how seriously to take this.

“
I see sir;
well you need to fill in this form first…”

“
No no no – we
don’t want to fill in any forms – we need to talk to someone who
deals with these things – someone at the top. We don’t have much
time.”

“
Well,
Superintendent Willis is in a meeting just now…”

“
Then get him
out of the meeting!” said Niki.

“
It’s not that
simple – you obviously don’t understand how it works here miss…”
That really got me going. Whenever anyone is condescending to Niki,
I get nasty.

“
Okay, when
four bombs…”

“
Five,” Niki
said.

“
Five?” I
looked at her and she nodded.

“
When five
bombs go off in Central London tomorrow, and fifty people
die…”

“
Seventy–five,” interrupted Niki again.

“
When
seventy–five people die, and…” I turned to Niki. “How many
injured?”

“
Over one
thousand.”

“
When
seventy–five people die and over one thousand people are injured
tomorrow, you can put your hands up and say, ‘That was my fault,
that was my call.’”

“
What’s going
on Judith?” A tall policeman with black hair, balding at the top,
with long sideburns and matching moustache and beer belly came
through the door. The civilian relayed the conversation, and the
policeman asked us to follow him through a secure gate. The police
officer, who introduced himself as Sergeant Brown, apologized for
us having to be scanned (bodies, bags etc – just like at an
airport), but explained it was necessary with all the terrorist
threats those days.

He led us to an interview
room, similar to the sort of thing you see on television, and got
us some water.

“
Please take a
seat.” We sat facing the officer, and he asked for our names, which
we gave. “Okay, tell me what you’ve got,” he said. I’d decided to
use the same angle as the one that seemed to work at the airport.
After all, that approach had prevented the attacks in America, so
why not use it here.

“
I had a vivid
dream last night…”

“
Whoa! Stop
right there! We’re talking about a
dream?
”

“
Well, a
premonition actually – in the form of a dream.”

“
I see. Well
you’ll need to make a written statement – I’ll get a form for you
to complete and we’ll check out your story, and well, get back to
you in forty–eight hours…”

“
Forty–eight
hours! In less than twenty–four, seventy–five people will be
dead!”

“
Look, I’ll be
straight with you… you seem like nice, honest people who would not
just make things up, but we get a lot of strange people in here
with crazy ideas, conspiracy theories and the like; and ninety–nine
point nine percent of all the dreams, visions and premonitions we
hear about turn out to have no basis in reality – not in this
universe. We are very busy fighting and preventing real crimes with
real criminals, and before we close down half the Capital, I need a
bit more hard evidence that ‘I had a dream’ – to quote Nelson
Mandela.”

“
Martin Luther
King,” corrected Niki.

“
I think you
get the idea, miss,” the officer replied.

We were all quiet, and
then Niki said, “Joe was only saying it was a dream because we
didn’t want to get my brother into trouble.” She paused and looked
at me. I tightened my lips and shrugged my shoulders. I’d no idea
what she was going to say.

“
I’m
listening,” the Sergeant said.

“
My brother
works in a factory in Balham, South London. There’s a lot of
immigrant workers there – most of them working illegally, including
Zhou. Anyway, one night he was working late and overheard three of
the Pakistani guys in conversation. They must have thought everyone
had gone home, because they were talking quite openly. Zhou heard
the word ‘bomb’ which got his attention right away. Then they
talked about planting three devices on metro trains and two on
buses…”

“
We’ll need to
get your brother in for questioning,” the Sergeant
stated.

“
No! He’ll
never do that. He’s got no work visa or residence permit – he’s
afraid you’ll deport him if he talks to you – that’s why we’re
here.”

“
All right –
give me a couple of minutes.”

Whilst the Sergeant left
the room, I smiled knowingly at Niki and squeezed her hand. The
officer soon returned with a senior policeman and a young
policewoman.

“
This is
Superintendent Peter Willis, from our Anti–Terrorist Unit, and PC
Knowles. I’d like you to tell them everything you know – all the
details. When did you say the first devices would be
detonated?”

“
Eight–fifty
tomorrow morning,” Niki stated.

“
Okay, we’d
better get started…”

Niki cleverly relayed the
details of a fictitious conversation overhead by her fictitious
bother Zhou, where three terrorists were plotting to blow up
London. (Her real brother, incidentally, is an investment banker in
Hong Kong, not a labourer in a Balham sweatshop – and his real name
is Tian). She gave just enough details to lead the police to both
the terrorists and the bombs, with plenty of phrases like, ‘I think
he said…’ and ‘they seem to be saying…’ to show this was a
remembered, overhead conversation. Quite brilliant,
actually.

“
That was
fantastic!” I told her as we headed for a coffee shop we knew in
Victoria Street, having left New Scotland Yard.

“
Do you think
they were convinced?” she asked. “I still think I’m living in a
dream.”

We arrived in Victoria
Street to find a few ‘changes.’

“
We might have
to wait a little while for coffee,” I said staring into the window
of a dress shop.

“
I’m sure it
was here,” said Niki.

“
Yeah, well
I’m sure it will be in six or seven year’s time. On the other
hand…” I pulled out my mobile. “Take my hand Nik…” She gripped my
hand tightly and I changed the date on my mobile back to the
‘present’. “Ah, now that’s more like it!”

We walked into the shop,
enjoying the aroma of freshly–ground coffee, and found a table at
the back. As we were sipping our drinks, Niki was clearly thinking
deeply about things.

“
Can we really
go anywhere in the past Joe – at any time?” I thought for a
moment.

“
I don’t
really know for sure. All I can say is that it’s worked for two
time periods so far. One thing I have noticed, though, is we can
only move in time, not space.”

“
How do you
mean?”

“
Well, at the
airport yesterday, and with you today, we changed time zones, but
not position. Remember in the flat this morning, and again just
now. The time and date changes, but we don’t move to any other
location.”

“
So what if we
wanted to go back in time to another country – Ancient China say.
Would we have to fly there first?”

“
I guess so…
we’ll have to give it a try,” I smiled.

“
Not today
though, hey?” she said.

We were quiet for a
minute, and then I said, “Where would you want to go – if you could
choose any time in history?” She thought for a moment.

“
I’d really
like to see one of Shakespeare’s first performances at the original
Globe…”

“
And meet the
Bard himself?”

She nodded, “Wouldn’t
that be cool!”