‘No,’ Miri’s voice comes from somewhere.
‘You’re in a good mood again, Safa,’ Ben says, grinning as Safa flicks him a middle finger.
Flirting. That was flirting.
‘And that’s the portal room. Oh, I forgot to call you a shithead for killing Malc and Kon.’
‘I am so sorry for their loss, but it wasn’t me,’ Tango Two says, struggling to understand the jibe. It should be malicious and full of spite, but despite the foul language Safa uses, nothing she says is spiteful or malicious, just very direct. Safa has influence here. The way she speaks and moves. A sense of leadership about her. Be friends with her. Get her onside.
‘Anyway, so that’s the portal room where you first came in . . . And that’s Roland’s office, or at least it was. It’s now Miri’s office,’ she says.
Tango Two stops behind Safa to look through the door at Miri behind a roughly made wooden desk. Sheets of paper stacked up. Notepads one on top of each other and a sizable stack of newspapers on the floor. She spots an ancient-looking electrical device on the desk. Like an old smartphone. It still has wires wrapped round it. No one uses wires anymore.
Miri stares back, seeing the passive, easy way the agent looks round while scrutinising every detail. ‘Are you telling the prisoner our secrets, Miss Patel?’
‘Only the shit ones, Miri,’ Safa says, walking on. ‘So, this is important. This thing is a . . . a thing that makes it . . . so it . . . Ben, what is it?’
‘Filtration system,’ Ben says as Safa stops below the machine fitted to the sides and above a door at the end of the corridor. ‘That door leads outside,’ Ben explains. ‘We might have bacteria or things on us that could harm the world out there; likewise, we could take something from outside to another time era and cause harm . . .’
‘Cross-contamination,’ Tango Two says.
‘Exactly,’ Ben says. ‘We pause underneath that and it apparently neutralises anything harmful.’
‘Understood,’ Tango Two says. ‘Tech labs use them all the time.’
‘Yeah, Malc and Kon fitted them.’ Ben pauses, offering a downturned smile. ‘And we haven’t killed everyone yet . . . As far as we know anyway.’
‘You’ll love this,’ Safa says, pushing the door open. She pauses and walks through to the outside world. Tango Two follows. Staring up at the metal fittings that look like old air-conditioning units, then stepping through.
‘Round here,’ Safa calls out.
Tango Two complies dutifully. Walking on springy stems that are like grass, but much thicker. The air too. She could eat it. It’s so gloriously pure. She walks round the edge of the bunker. Wooden chairs left outside. Weatherproof gun containers. No locks on them. A range set up for firing. A table at the side. She goes closer to Safa, knowing that is what she is expected to do, and looks down the side of the hill. All other thoughts cease. All worries fade. The view she saw from her window is a mere snapshot of this vista. The valley is so big. So wide. So long. So full of life.
It’s like the air is taken from her lungs and the blood drains from her brain. Like her legs are suddenly not hers. She staggers in shock. A big hand on her elbow. A deep voice asking if she is okay. She blinks up at Harry, not faking the heavy blinking this time. She nods and looks back down the valley.
‘Takes a while to adjust,’ Ben says from close by.
‘Understatement,’ Safa mutters.
The magnitude of it dwarfs her. The sheer incomprehension of being so far back in time that it renders her entire existence meaningless. She is a speck of dust and nothing more.
The creatures are so big. Even at this distance, and without proper scale, she gets the measure of them. Long necks. Broad backs. Huge legs. Tails that go on forever.
So many different types too. Big ones. Small ones. Single ones that look enormous in comparison to the others. Herds that cluster together. Shimmering lakes of water. Thickets and copses of trees. Wide-open spaces.
Tango Two didn’t realise Ben was next to her. She can see the scar on his cheek. She looks to her other side at Safa. The shape of her eyes. The darker skin tone and pure black hair. She looks past her to Harry. When did he move away? The man is enormous. His chest is bloody massive. His bushy black beard and unruly dark hair. He lights a cigarette and blows the smoke out with the manner of a contented man, but she saw him fight. She saw him lift Alpha off his feet with one hand. Visions of him holding the operatives off at the top of the stairs fill her mind. The strength of the man. The vicious way he fought. Now he looks completely at ease, so calm and genial. He senses her watching, and turns to smile.
‘Did you want a cigarette, miss?’
‘No. No, thank you,’ she murmurs.
Too many thoughts. Too many sensations. She faces forward and looks down to a world lost and now found again.
‘I don’t know why they tried to kill me,’ she says suddenly, without any idea she was going to say it. She feels instantly stupid and berates herself harshly inside. A loss of control brought on by the shock of being here.
Ben frowns and goes to speak, but drops his head to scratch his jaw, and doesn’t notice Safa staring intently at him.
Miri stands by the window in her office. A wire running from the single earphone in her left ear to the smartphone in her hand. Her cold grey eyes tracking the four outside.
‘Ah, bollocks,’ Safa says with a sudden groan. ‘We didn’t give Lucas his cut.’
Fifteen
Tango Two sleeps deeply. She lay in bed for a while thinking about the day. They spent a while outside staring in silence until a screech made her jump back. The others pointed up at two black objects plummeting towards them. At the last second, they both opened their wings and sailed over the ledge to swoop down the valley side. They were like pterodactyls from the holomovies, with big, curved beaks and enormous wingspans. She couldn’t help but laugh in wonder at the sight, and ventured closer to the edge to watch them once again tuck their wings in to drop like missiles, then soar up on thermals, seemingly dancing round each other.
She then listened as the other three told her about the time they ventured up into the forest and described the creatures they saw. The plants and bugs. A spider nest, then a small dinosaur that ate the spiders. She even pulled a sympathetic face at Harry shuddering in memory. Big men don’t like bugs sometimes.
When they went back inside to get food, Miri was gone and the portal was shining blue and glorious. Ben asked the doctor where Miri was. He mumbled he didn’t know and went back to reading a newspaper. Safa then said they were eating outside because of the stench of the money.