Through Your Eyes Read online

  "You and me!" she exclaimed. "What do you mean you and me?"

  Eyes blazing, pouting lips.

  "Well it all started after you and I met at a pub, not a date, but a chance encounter," I said.

  I was definitely treading water now, or maybe starting one of my backwards tap dances? I started explaining. I went into great details about the device and the people chasing me. Solomon Grundy lookalike. Siris. She listened, nodding occasionally, but staring with no obvious facial expression.

  Inscrutable, and I daren't even allow myself to think of anything else.

  "Yes, yes. I know all that somehow. You transferred that information to me when we moved in the ether. I have a separtacle, you know, the one I invented," she snapped.

  She was fidgeting with her arm as she spoke; maybe it was pain from holding on to the device through me.

  "I do know how this all works, you know," she said.

  She was now tapping the side and back of her head with her finger.

  "So you were telling me, we have a grand plan to follow up. We have to give the device to a future Sam to prevent some kind of catastrophe? I'm in trouble in the future, aren't I?"

  I said, "All I know is that I had to come back and retrieve the device from your Sam, and take it to future Sam. Yes, you are in trouble in the future, but he felt he could help you. Other than that, you know the rest, and that is as much as I know is happening or has happened. The only big problem is those goons are following me and that big guy took a swipe and nearly got a hold of me. He is seriously scary! And when I travel with the device, I can sense another presence. I have felt I have been watched since I, um, met you in my dream. Were you able to feel anything following us?"

  "There was something. I couldn't put my finger on it, but there was something there. A whispering. But it sounded very familiar to me. Like a distant echo following us, and then disappearing again. Almost like a Doppler effect, but with energy rather than sounds. One minute it was getting closer to me, and then was simultaneously moving away."

  She had now stopped fidgeting and was looking very pensive. She then took a deep breath and turned to look at me. Those eyes were piercing and glinting again.

  "Look before we continue, you need a new name, I mean, I know what your name is, and who you are, but I am not going to call you Sam. You are not my Sam."

  "What do you want to call me then?" I asked.

  "Hmm, you really are extremely irritating, so I can think of a number of appropriate ones, I will think about it," she replied.

  She gave me a curt smile and a flick and sweep of her dark brown hair.

  She continued, "But first of all, you are going back."

  "Going back?" I asked.

  "Yes, you can go back and save my Sam from those security thugs, he is injured and needs urgent help. After all, you are now the master of time," she said.

  Perhaps there was a tiny bit of mockery, I could not tell, as I mentioned, I was not that great at reading women. I was getting the feeling she wasn't quite convinced of my credentials for carrying the device. I suppose her Sam was a hard act to follow.

  "I know I'm an idiot," I said.

  She was nodding as I said this and it was not filling me with confidence, but I steadfastly continued.

  "But nevertheless your Sam is what I will become. I don't really know you, but what was I like when you first met me? Your Sam that is. Think back ten or so years. Was your Sam really that different to me?"

  She had definitely paused now, less scary as well.

  I continued, "Was he not a bit reckless and disorganised. Perhaps he took chances and lived day to day, and was definitely pretty careless at times?"

  And for the first time, she stopped and looked at me. It was a different look. More tender, and then an almost imperceptible acknowledgement from those eyes. Perhaps there was something there that was triggering her older memories of me. Perhaps there was a chance that someone like me could eventually end up with someone like her.

  "I'm sorry but this has been a lot to take in over the last day," she said, with the faintest hint of an apology.

  "Imagine the week I've had. It's not been easy. I don't even know where to start!" I said.

  I then slumped down in one of the flea bitten chairs in the middle of the room; the true enormity of what had happened was starting to sink in. I hadn't even had a chance to think about the movement with the device. The intense feelings as I moved back and forth. The ribbons of time, as I had started to think of them; now I had two of the bloody things. I then remembered something. About the seba. Were the two devices the same, or had the one I first got been subsequently changed as Siris had alluded to? The only way to check would be at Siris' shop. It was close by.

  I said, "Ok, of course I will try to save your Sam. But I need to take the device you and your Sam created, and see if I can get the viewer Siris showed me. I want to look at the markings around this symbol."

  I pointed to the Seba and explained what I would have to do.

  "It's important that I do this for Siris. He was most upset and worried when he found out about my device and the altered inscription. There is also something else in his shop that I want to look for. He tried to show me but we ran out of time, or more likely he ran out of time."

  She looked at me open mouthed and was visibly startled with what I just said.

  "What alteration? I didn't know anything about an alteration."

  I showed her the altered Seba, although you couldn't see it in the natural light. I told her about what Siris had told me about the duat.

  She listened intently and seemed to stop suddenly, giving the impression that she was thinking about something else. She was deep in her thoughts. After a minute or so, she looked at me and snapped out of her trance.

  "I'll do it. You get Sam. I know where the tailor's shop is."

  She had said it immediately and quickly, looking very decisive as she spoke. I didn't think I had a choice when I looked at the determined expression on her face. She should be safe, I thought. The two men had done enough damage when they had visited Siris, and there would be no benefit for the goons to return. They had what they already wanted, I hoped.

  "You should be safe because I believe they're after me, I'll come back to the tailor's after I've got your Sam, or at least found out what has happened to him. I won't be long," I said.

  I felt I must have had a reassuring look on my face. Although, as I thought about it, my bowels were churning again. In fact I don't think they had stopped turning over the last week.

  We returned to the street and said our goodbyes. I noticed we were definitely still on Framlington Avenue, so she didn't have far to go. As I activated the device, I thought about how different she was in reality to the way I had first met her, albeit in very strange circumstances.

  I also thought about Dr Sam Beckett in a TV show called 'Quantum Leap', a show I watched many years back when I was a kid. Was this reality or fantasy like that show? Was I destined to continue leaping like this, because I realised how very tired I was getting? Siris had warned me about the great energy required to move with the device. It was not just the physical energy being expended. Plainly, I was exhausted, but this feeling was different. The only way I could describe it was it felt like my very soul was being drained every time I moved. What would happen to me eventually? Would I end up in this dirty, dead hole of a duat Siris told me about? It scared the living daylights out of me. I had never believed in it, but by using this device was I going to hell?

  I went through the ether. It was easier now, and finding the room where Sam was held was no problem.

  There was a chair in the far side of the room and I could see a man. He was clearly dead. His eyes were open, and there was a pool of blood surrounding him from a wound to his abdomen. I recognised this person as a man called Steve. Thank goodness it wasn't me, I thought, uncharitably. I had never met him before but knew he was their co-worker. One of the four founders. I didn't leave th
e state, however, because when I looked into the room, I could see a fat man and the two goons looking around the area, flapping their arms as if they had lost something. They were oblivious to my presence. The chair was empty, metal fastenings were torn off. Just a pool of blood remained on the floor. I looked at where future me had sat and thought to myself, where on earth was I?

  17.

  D block interrogation room.

  The fat man and Christopher Stowe stood hunching over a computer monitor in the corner of the room.

  "Show me it again," Stowe said, staring at the fat boss with gleaming eyes.

  They were the eyes of a murderer.

  The fat man was sweating profusely, and wiped his forehead with his chubby palm. He moved over to the computer terminal, pressing some buttons frantically on his keyboard. They looked again at the black and white, grainy image that showed Woakes looking uncomfortable, on the radio listening to orders, and then subsequently activating his weapon. The moment he walked over to the Professor, the camera panned in on the chair, and slowly, but surely, his face started to change like a horrible metamorphosis. The weird sight was then obscured, as there were green and golden lights all around him, dark shadows filling the room. At this point something else happened that no one had seen before in any of the trial runs; a firework show of crimson flames. When they had dissipated, the Professor was gone!

  "Rewind it once more. Show me those lights again," said Stowe.

  He was staring with his eyes wide and mouth open, his upper teeth bared like a rabid dog. He couldn't believe he had managed to let both of them get away, or rather; the idiots that worked for him had managed to let them get away. He would have to talk to his recruitment team in the near future.

  They looked at it again, in slow motion, almost frame by frame. The same lights were discernible, followed by what appeared to be an explosion of colour, the subsequent view being completely obscured. Stowe paused the image at the crimson colour, staring at it intently. He was puzzled, as these were very new to him, and they didn't make sense. Nothing like that had been seen before. What was Berner up to? What had they been doing behind his back, the bastards?

  The pictures then went blank with static electricity, and after half a minute, the picture gradually started to clear and finally returned to normal. There was no sign of Professor Berner, just metal holdings that at first looked like they had been twisted and broken. Closer inspection revealed metal bubbling; it was as if they had quite literally melted away.

  "How the hell was he able to move with no device?" asked Stowe.

  He was either talking to himself or to nobody in particular, and had moved over to have a look at the torturing chair with his own eyes.

  "Nobody is supposed to be able to do anything like that. And what happened to these?" he said.

  He clinked the metal holding and then instantly put his finger to his mouth.

  It was hot. Really hot.

  Stowe and the fat boss had also carefully examined the footage of the 28th floor when Abby disappeared. They must have been through it fifty times, and got their best analysts to feed it through every light filter they had, and finished by churning the images through their supercomputers. Once again, they had examined it frame by frame; his team had painstakingly gone through every little aspect of the images. The results were largely inconclusive, but one picture stood out from the others. A single frame that seemed to show a figure within the light as well as Abby. The figure appeared to be reaching out a hand to her, but it was there only for a split second, and then disappeared. It may have been artifactual and imagined, but deep down Stowe knew someone or something had helped Abby escape. Who was it, and why? And why now!

  Stowe slowly walked back to the lift, and went up to the 28th floor.

  With the good Professor now on the run, it could complicate his future plans. He must be close by, he certainly couldn't have run very far as he was injured from their pleasant interrogation. Alternatively, he could be far away, anywhere in time. What was apparent was the fact that they had been lying to him. They had newer technology they hadn't shared with him, and had been doing this for years. To move without the device was preposterous, but the good Professor had somehow managed it. It was the only solution to him breaking out of the detention room, but the melted metal fastenings worried him. He would have to put a stop to it. If the Professor had gone on the run then it would be impossible to track him, he was too clever. They would have to come up with a more ingenious solution to this problem.

  Perhaps the way to look at it would be to examine when rather than where, and to tackle the problem head on from that vantage point. As for Abby, that was much more of a mystery, and at that moment, he didn't have any obvious solutions to that problem; he would have to concentrate all his resources on finding the Professor. Actually, none of this business would scupper his future plans, those were formulated many years ago behind their backs, an insurance policy so to speak. His ideas were way bigger than anything the pair of them had ever come up with. What with their grandiose and pathetic ideas of world peace and eliminating hunger, none of which he had ever signed up to.

  No, the plans of Chris Stowe were all plans for Chris Stowe, and for his benefit only, and he had enough of the technology created by the other three to fulfil all his ambitions.

  He walked over to the other side of his capacious office, and went to the vast and expensive drinks cabinet sitting on the side.

  But he wasn't in need of a nice scotch today, but maybe there was a real thirst for revenge.

  He rummaged under the cabinet, beaming when he saw his prized possession; his own personal safe. He pressed a few buttons and as he did this, the lift door opened, and in walked the familiar faces of his two favourite guys. Woakes and Smithwick. Woakes stared quizzically at the safe and at Stowe. Smithwick just stared aimlessly at something in the distance.

  Stowe shuffled with the safe lock, and had to input the code three times, maybe all this messing around had caused him to lose his composure somewhat. The safe opened with a little buzz and two tiny clicks, and after some delving around, he brought out three objects.

  The first was a small silver piece of metal the size of a lighter, with three black buttons on the side. The other two were identical. They looked like the headpieces people from decades ago used to answer phones with, remotely. Where the earpiece should have been, however, was a small black tube with what looked like a lens at the end that looped over the user's eye. He put them to one side and looked at the lighter object. This was a little something he had his own team construct without the Professors' knowledge. It was similar to the hallowed device they had constructed, but was very basic and carried significant risk in its use. It was also very difficult to control, but he was not bothered about any of that, especially as he had absolutely no intention of using it himself! Why would he do that when he could use one of his monkeys instead? You don't buy a dog and bark yourself, after all!

  Stowe placed the devices in his hand and then turned to his team.

  He said, "Ok guys. I have a mission for you. It's simple. Find Berner and kill him. When I say Berner, I mean a younger version of the good Professor Berner. I will show you where to find him, or should I say when to find him."

  The two men looked at each other completely bemused.

  "I can help you get there, and if you are successful you can steal his device and come back to this time. I can control your exit point to that position in time, but will not be able to help you any further. Keep this with you at all time, and do not let go of it during your journey or you will die. It can take you back in time to him, but cannot bring you forwards. Those traitors never included me in cracking that great mystery so you can blame them," he said, tossing the silver object to Woakes.

  And then he walked away, leaving the two men standing there, staring at each other.

  "And if you don't get his device from him, then you are well and truly up shit creek without a paddle, because there
will be no other way back. Now sort out this bloody mess you made," he said.

  He was speaking as he exited the room to the lift. His cackles could be heard long after the lift doors had closed, and it had started moving.

  They walked away to prepare for their mission, like the compliant monkeys they were.

  Stowe exited the lift and slowly went back to his office, slumping in his chair. He switched on his computer, opening a file from within an encrypted drive.

  It was labelled Harnfeld 1.

  When he opened it, his face lit up, and he started to smile. He picked up his phone, and jabbed a very special extension number that picked up on the first ring.

  "Roger, are you ready?" asked Stowe.

  "We have been waiting for this moment for years, Sir," said the voice on the line, presumably Roger.

  "I would like you to activate stage 1 immediately. I am sending you my authorisation codes right now. Remember we are going for stock markets first, and if we are slow and precise, we can get this all done from right under their noses. Once they realise what has happened, it will be too late to do anything about it and no one will be able to challenge us," said Stowe.

  "Right away, Sir, we will initiate within the next twenty minutes," said Roger.

  Stowe slammed the phone down, sitting back in his chair. He opened his top drawer and poured himself a glass of his finest whisky.

  And he said to himself while he raised his glass up, "Well, Sam, this is a problem, but nothing that is insurmountable. All this time and energy rubbish was your interest, but mine is a little more refined and subtle than that. I will build my workforce and my armies, and then you will all bow to me. All of you idiots will sit at my feet and beg for your measly, pathetic lives. That day is coming, you can count on it."

  Talking to himself, just like the deranged, comedy megalomaniac he was.

  Only he was for real.