*
Tamar
was outraged. ‘I can’t believe it! You came in here because you thought Denny –
my
Denny, was after Cindy, how stupid are you?’
‘No, she likes him though. She thinks he’s more of a man than I am. She forgot, I think, that I could read her thoughts.’
‘Oh, yes, I forgot about that too.’
‘Everybody does.’
‘Well I can’t read yours, so explain it to me. How was this supposed to help?’
‘She thought I was afraid. So, I thought I’d show her that I’m not.’
‘And leave her alone with Denny, who I think she’s actually a bit scared of, good job.’
‘She’s not scared of him anymore, oh no, thinks he’s the bees knees, now. You should have seen them, heads together all the time, always whispering, making plans, leaving me out. Poor Eugene’s too stupid to help,’ he said, bitterly. ‘I can’t get a read on
his
thoughts for some reason, but don’t you think it’s a bit funny that he’s closed the file after me? He was supposed to be so all-fired keen to get in here to find
you
. So where is he?’
‘Something must have happened,’ she said. But she sounded uncertain.
‘Like what?’ said Eugene sceptically. ‘The world is frozen in time, what could possibly have happened? Nothing
is
happening.’
Tamar nodded. He had spoken her thoughts aloud.
‘I wish he’d stayed in Hell,’ said Eugene.
Tamar looked horrified.
‘Okay, no I don’t, but I wish he’d left us out of it anyway.’
‘How did he get out of Hell anyway?’ asked Tamar. ‘Did he tell you?’
‘They had to let him go, apparently. Something about legislation or jurisdiction or something.’
‘Because he wasn’t dead yet?’
‘No, something else, something about his not having a contract. Denny said he didn’t understand it, and frankly, I don’t either.’
‘
Jurisdiction
?’ muttered Tamar. What did that remind her of?
* * *
Cindy stumbled and gasped and clutched at the stitch in her side. ‘Why are we running? What’s going on?’
‘Something very, very bad. I don’t know what, but you saw it too.’
‘The sun?’
‘Yes, the sun doesn’t turn black for no reason. Especially when there’s no time for it to happen in. Something’s gone horribly wrong.’
‘All right – STOP!’
Denny wheeled round, frowning. ‘What?’
‘Tamar,’ said Cindy. ‘And Eugene of course,’ she added, almost as an afterthought. ‘Though I say nothing about him. He’s
my
problem.’
‘And mine,’ said Denny gloomily. ‘You’re right of course, it’s just …’
‘Whatever the problem is here,’ Cindy said, ‘I think we’d be able to handle it better with Tamar’s help. Don’t you?’
Denny sighed. ‘I suppose you’re right.’ he shrugged. ‘I hate that.’
‘So, are we going in to get them?’
‘I am,’ Denny said in that tone that you don’t argue with.’
‘
What
?’ Cindy was outraged. ‘You can’t just leave me behind, you might need me. Okay you probably
won’t
need me, but, I mean you can’t just leave me here! I mean it’s not safe.’
Denny ignored her. He opened up the laptop and typed busily.
Cindy paced behind him. ‘Are you just going to ignore me? Do you even know what you’re doing there? And what are you going to do once you get inside? What am
I
going to do?’ What are you doing anyway?
Denny
!’
Denny had reached the file and had stopped, puzzled. ‘Hum,’ he muttered. ‘I forgot. I don’t have to go in the long way now. I have the password I can go directly to the historical files, what
was
that damn password? Ah, yes, there we go… My God!’
‘What?’
‘My God, this is brilliant.’
‘
Denny
!’
Denny finally looked up. ‘Look.’ He pointed at the screen.
‘I don’t …’
‘Look at the menu,’ Denny yelped excitedly.
‘Uh huh.’
‘Oh you don’t understand, actually, I forgot, you wouldn’t understand would you. This means I can search for any file I want. We couldn’t do that before.’
‘Oh. So how does that help you to find Tamar?’ We don’t know which file she’s in.’
‘I don’t need to find her. We’ll have plenty of time to find her after I sort out Askphrit.’ Denny looked at Cindy’s blank expression. ‘Don’t you see? This means I can find him and end this.’
‘How?’
‘Well, he made the mistake of messing up his timing when he went after my Grandfather. He gave himself away, so I know exactly where he’s been. Which means I know exactly where to find him. If I go into the file and prevent him from killing my Grandfather, then I’m guessing that none of this will ever have happened.’
‘Actually, I meant how are you going to stop him when you find him, don’t you need Tamar for that?’
‘Actually, no. It was always going to be me that killed him, if I could. That’s what this is for.’ He held up the Athame. The blade looked strangely dull.
Cindy looked sceptical. ‘It’s an impressive weapon, no doubt,’ she said. ‘But it won’t kill a god.’
Denny smiled. ‘Not the blade,’ he told her. ‘What’s
on
the blade – Harts blood’
Cindy blanched. ‘Does Tamar know you have that?’
‘No.’
‘She’s going to kill you.’
Denny shrugged. ‘Under the circumstances, I think it’s just as well that I
do
have it, don’t you think?’
Cindy looked dubious.
‘Look, I took some of the blood, in case something like this happened. I think I knew that it might be down to me in the end. Now I have him in the hollow of my hand.’
‘If you say so.’
‘I
do
say so. My Grandfather died on October nineteenth, 1941 in his back garden during an air raid. I don’t know the exact time, and I don’t know exactly how Askphrit pulled it off. But I know he’ll be there somewhere, and, thanks to this very helpful menu, I know exactly how to get straight there. And since I have the file number, I literally have all the time in the world to get him.’
‘If at first you don’t succeed etc. etc?’
‘Precisely.’ Denny tapped in a long number, double checked it and then looked at Cindy, his finger poised over the “Enter” key. ‘Aren’t you going to wish me luck?’ he asked.
‘You’re really just going to leave me here?’
‘You’ll be safer here,’ he muttered. ‘Trust me.’ He hit the key.
‘Good luck,’ whispered Cindy to the empty air.
~ Chapter Nineteen ~
‘O
vertime’s a bitch,’ thought Clive. And Tamar and Denny’s interesting trek through the files of history was causing more overtime than that clerk had ever known. He had picked up on their journeying almost immediately, because he had watched and influenced all their movements closely for many years. He was confident that he was the only clerk to have picked up on what they were doing now. Management would, obviously, be oblivious, and he certainly was not going to tell them.
The worst thing about this overtime was that it was self-imposed and, therefore, unpaid. But he felt that it might be worth it.
At the moment, he was watching Denny.
An old man was creeping up behind him. He was carrying an axe. Clive had a bad feeling about this. He did a quick search and came up with a name for the old man. He groaned; this had the potential to be really, really bad.
The old man struck Denny on the back of the head with the butt of the axe head and gave a cowardly whimper when Denny conspicuously failed to go down like a sack of potatoes, but instead, turned to face the old man with a look of terrible ferocity.
‘What the hell …’ he roared, then he saw the old mans blanched face. He lowered his voice ‘What did you do that for?’ he said in fairly reasonable tones
The old man gathered his courage. ‘Well, what are you up to?’ he demanded, ‘You’re trespassing on my property in the middle of the night. I’ve a right to defend my home and family.’ He glanced suspiciously at Denny taking in his outlandish attire. ‘And my country, for that matter,’ he added.
Denny smothered a smile. It was obvious now; the man thought he was a German spy.
‘Dad?’ both men turned, a skinny young man had appeared from inside the house
Without warning, he fired a shot straight at Denny. With an instinctive dexterity which his best friends would hardly have credited him with a few years ago, Denny spun and threw the Athame into the man’s heart.
The old man gave a cry. ‘John!’
From his place in the shadow of a large oak tree, Askphrit gave a satisfied smile and turned to leave.
And suddenly Denny had a horrible feeling of destiny, but not for long, as the young man drew his last breath and Denny ceased to exist.
He did not really notice though. Since he did not exist, he could not have caused his existence to be erased. And so it was not. Until he did it again, except he could not have, so he did not. This could go on all day, or for the rest of eternity.
* * *
Peirce was lounging against a pillar grinning toothily and enjoying the show. Askphrit predictably, had released him, and Hecaté had, somewhat reluctantly, unfrozen him. It was either that or watch Stiles die. But she was painfully slow at unfreezing the rest of the world and Askphrit was getting impatient and throwing the occasional energy bolt at Stiles to speed up the process.
I cannot go any faster, please leave him alone,’ she pleaded.
‘You shouldn’t be doing it at all,’ admonished Stiles. ‘He’s just going to kill me anyway as soon as you’re finished. And then God knows what he’ll do!’
‘Besides,’ he continued, with a confidence that was completely unjustified in the circumstances. ‘Tamar and Denny
will
get out of mainframe eventually, whatever this lunatic thinks, and then – well, we’ll just see, won’t we?’ he finished lamely.
Askphrit chuckled. ‘They won’t get out,’ he said. ‘I have taken some rather elaborate precautions to make sure of it. The last time I saw him, he was very effectively cooking his own goose – or rather his own grandfather, I should say.’ He gave an evil laugh.
Stiles shook his head. He did not believe it. Tamar and Denny could get out of anything that this maniac could cook up. He admonished Hecaté again.
Hecaté ignored him and continued muttering spells, pausing only to flinch as this remark earned Stiles another blast.
Peirce grinned again. He did not like Stiles. He did not like anyone much – well he
was
a vampire.
‘I don’t know what you think you’re grinning about,’ said Stiles. ‘As soon as I get out of this, you’ll be the first to die.’
‘Ha! Big talk for a man in a cage,’ said Peirce. ‘But even supposing you do escape. One, I’m already dead, and two, in case you forgot – you can’t stake me unless you can find my heart, and I don’t even know where it is.’
Peirce had had his heart removed (well it was not as if he was using it) and stored, so he said, in a vault somewhere.
Stiles had indeed forgotten about this, and he shifted uncomfortably. ‘Well, anyway,’ he blustered, ‘you’d be amazed what you can live through.’
‘Not really,’ yawned Peirce. ‘I lived through death didn’t I? After that, nothing much really surprises one.’
Askphrit interrupted mildly. ‘Please, please, enough of this. You will disturb the lovely lady in her meditations. And Peirce, our friend is right, should he escape you will indeed be the first to die,
I
shall make sure of it, now shut up.’
‘Go on my dear,’ he said to Hecaté. ‘Oh and stop re- freezing time whenever you think I am not paying attention. I am not a fool you know.’
‘What is that word that Tamar is so fond of using to describe you?’ muttered Hecaté, who had indeed been doing this at intervals. ‘Oh yes – Bastard!’
* * *
‘We have to find another way out of mainframe.’ Tamar was saying. ‘We obviously can’t count on the file being opened again from the outside, and for that matter, we don’t even know why it was closed in the first place.’
‘Or the second place,’ said Eugene mournfully.
‘Exactly,’ agreed Tamar. ‘If something’s happened to Denny, I want to know about it. Besides …’
Eugene’s silence was eloquent.
Tamar turned on him fiercely. ‘He wouldn’t have abandoned us here if he could help it,’ she said firmly in a cold voice. ‘You may disabuse yourself of that idea right away. Right, so we need a plan to get out. Any ideas?’
‘What about finding the file for the present, say the day before you froze time. Then we’d just have to wait a bit to catch up with ourselves – oh.’
‘Exactly, it would cause a paradox. There’d be two of us in the same time. Two of each of us I mean,’ she explained.
‘I know,’ said Eugene affronted. ‘Still, he mused, there’d only be two of us until the other two of us entered mainframe again, then we’d be back to one. Wouldn’t we?’
‘No, there’d be one of us in here and one of us out there. Anyway it’s not practical. Do you have any idea how long it would take us to find the right file? They aren’t named. It’s all a bit hit and miss you see.’
‘Oh, I didn’t know.’
‘On the other hand, I can’t see any other way out unless there’s a way out from central files.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Just what it sounds like. In fact, I think that’s the best idea, but we’ll have to be careful not to get caught. I think they might be looking for me there.’
‘Sounds risky, how do we get in anyway? It must be guarded.’
Tamar held up the pass key. ‘With this.’
‘You stole it?’
‘Of course.’
‘Then I think you’re right, they
will
be looking for you, are you sure this is a good idea.’
‘Can you think of anything better?’
‘Well, what about the way Denny got out?’
~ Chapter Twenty ~
T
here cannot be many people who try to get
into
hell.
Out
of hell, certainly. Plenty of those, there is after all, only so much Enid Blyton a grown man can take. But trying to get
in
is pretty rare, though not unheard of. There is a section of society that think that Hell is all wild parties and racy leather underwear. They know nothing of the horrors that really await them. After all, it is supposed to be a punishment.