TimeRiders 05 - Gates of Rome by Alex Scarrow

ripped-out pages …?’
    ‘I think it might have been
me
writing in the diary before.’
    ‘Oh …’ was all she could say. Then, ‘I’m not sure I like the sound of this.’
    ‘Me neither.’
    The pair of them stared at each other. ‘We don’t know anything for sure, do we?’ said Sal finally. ‘We’re like little test rats in a lab.’
    Maddy nodded. ‘Feels like that sometimes.’
    She looked out of the window at the street outside. Not for the first time she wished she could just walk away from all of this; trade places with just about anyone out there on the street.
    ‘All I know is … I trust you, Sal. And I trust Liam too. As long as we’re honest with each other.’
    Sal turned to her. ‘But
you did
keep things from us. The note from San Francisco with that Pandora message. And now this, Liam being Foster. You’ve lied to us! So how can –’
    ‘I … you’re right.’ Maddy’s eyes dropped guiltily. ‘But I’m done with all the secrets. You know
everything
I know now.’
    ‘And you said that before too.’
    ‘Well, this time I mean it, Sal. Seriously. No more secrets. You know what I know.’ She reached out for Sal’s hand, but she pulled it away. ‘Sal?’
    ‘You seem to have picked up this job, though, Maddy … Imean really easily. Like maybe you’ve done it before or something. Like maybe –’
    ‘
Easy?
You’re kidding, right? Tell me you’re kidding. You think it’s been
easy
for me? Sheesh …’ Maddy could hear her voice wobbling with emotion. She shut up before that wobble became tears. Pressed her lips and took a deep breath.
    Don’t you dare cry, Maddy. Don’t you dare go girly.
    She sipped at her coffee, not even wanting it any more. They sat in silence for a while, both watching the market outside for something to do other than look at each other.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ said Sal eventually.
    ‘OK.’
    ‘I was just saying …’
    Maddy waved her hand. ‘Forget it. I trust you, Sal. And I trust Liam. We’ve put our lives in each other’s hands, haven’t we? Quite a few times now.’
    Sal nodded.
    ‘And that’s all the three of us have got. Each other. If I don’t even get to have that … then I don’t want to go on doing this. I
can’t
go on doing this.’
    Sal reached out and squeezed her hand. ‘I’m sorry, Maddy.’
    Maddy puffed her cheeks. ‘’s OK.’ Tainted with guilt, though. There was one more secret she hadn’t shared and maybe now was the time for it to come out.
    ‘There’s more, Sal. There’s more I need to tell you.’
    Sal looked like she didn’t want to hear any more right now. But the proverbial cat was halfway out of the bag. Maddy decided she needed to hear this. ‘Foster’s old, right, Sal? Old. How old do you reckon he is?’
    ‘I don’t know.’ She hunched her shoulders. ‘
Really
old.’
    ‘Come on, give me a number.’
    ‘Seventy? Eighty?’
    ‘Try twenty-seven.’
    The smoothie almost slipped out of Sal’s hands. ‘
What?
’
    ‘He’s twenty-seven years old.’ Maddy sipped her coffee. ‘So I suppose we can presume from that that he’s been a TimeRider for ten years. The field office, our archway, this agency … has been doing its thing for about ten years’ worth of two-day loop-time.’
    That felt about right. The archway had – from day one – felt as if it had been lived in already. Certainly not brand spanking new. Freshly set up. But that wasn’t the thing she needed to tell Sal now.
    ‘Thing is … the time displacement aged Foster. Every time he went back in time to fix history it was corrupting him, ageing him before his time. And now the same is happening to Liam.’
    Sal stared out of the window for a moment. Maddy suspected she already had half an idea something like that was happening to him. ‘His hair?’ she said after a while. ‘That bit of his hair?’
    Maddy nodded. ‘Yup … that was a huge jump for Liam. Sixty-five million years. He took a big hit on that one. I hate to think how