The Lost Libraries Archive (The Erik Midgard Case Files Volume 2)

Chapter 15

XV

"Are... Are we going to die?" said Baal.

"...Probably," said Chernobog. She sank down against the wall to the floor.

"Oh, Darwin," said Zeus. He sank down beside her, looking at Megan. "I never got a chance to tell her how good her last essay was. I never apologised to Sarah for the divorce. And I never won the Wells!"

"Shut up. All of you," said Mirabi. She was breathing fast herself. "We... we might not. We're still here. Paradox reactions are meant to happen instantly. As soon as the time stream changes."

"M... Maybe it takes a little while to catch up?" said Ishtar. "Oh, Darwin, Newton, Einstein, Hawking and Dawkins!" He put his head in his hands.

"... Do I have time to call my parents?" said Chernobog.

I stared at all of them and at Megan's body. Somehow, my eyes seemed unusually sensitive and I took in every detail of all of them. Zeus's shoes. Ishtar's watchcom. The shape of the cloning tube in Mirabi's tunic pocket. The prototype mind scanner that Chernobog was still holding. The blood in Megan's hair. Not now. The words repeated in my brain, like echoes off mountains. Not now. It could not end this way. We shouldn't be kneeling here. It should have already ended. Mirabi was right. Paradox reactions were meant to happen the instant the future, past or present was changed. We could only still be here if...

...if there was another possibility.

My head snapped up. I gazed at the group again, my eyes again taking in all the details. The bruise of Ishtar's cheek from taking cover behind the table during the fight with Anubis's team. The blood on Mirabi's gloves from trying to save Megan. The red paint on Zeus's shoes from where he'd trodden in the edge of it. The scratch on Chernobog's forehead - I couldn't even remember where that had come from - and the mind scanner in her hand and the cloning tube - my cloning tube - in Mirabi's pocket.

Like two galaxies colliding, the connection clicked in the back of my mind.

_ _ _ _ _

"Give me those," I said, sitting up. I pulled the mind scanner out of Chernobog's hand and hooked the cloning tube out of Mirabi's pocket. "Doctor Zeus. I need your password for the time teleporter."

"What?"

"Now," I said.

"Erik?" said Mirabi, as I jumped to feet, pulled Zeus up and dragged him after me towards the stairs.

"I've got an idea," I said. "I think I can solve this."

"But you can't! You can't change the past," said Ishtar.

"I'm not going to," I said. "Come on. Move. Quickly."

I pushed Zeus ahead of me up the stairs and he started running under his own power. The paradox reaction hadn't happened, but it could be that it hadn't happened yet. We could be against some kind of temporal countdown. I could only assume that the clock would get to zero when Megan wasn't where she was supposed to be in - I glanced at my wristcom - twenty seven minutes.

We all raced into the Project teleporter room and Zeus got to work on the controls. I stepped up onto the pad, stuffing the cloning tube and mind scanner into my pockets.

"Destination?" said Zeus.

"Downstairs here. Five hours ago," I said. That would have to do for a start. I quickly linked my wristcom to the time teleporter controls so I could operate it myself from now on.

"OK. Ready," said Zeus.

"Erik," said Mirabi. "Whatever you're doing, is it going to work?"

"There's no reason why it shouldn't," I said.