He looked through the first box, finding toys suitable for toddlers and small children, the search being accompanied by the occasional squeak and two-toned musical jingle caused by catching the buttons on various brightly coloured objects. The second box contained a number of old school reports and a couple of plastic bags. In one of those bags he found the item for which he had been looking.
During his misspent youth he had played around with several things, including various kinds of toy gun. He had discovered one which was powerful enough to hurt someone without bruising, but which was not powerful enough to do any real damage. It was a BB gun which fired small round plastic pellets towards whoever it was aimed at. To him in his youth, this was the ideal weapon. He could shoot someone, have them blame him, and deny all knowledge. The people he shot could never prove anything without bruises.
In any case, the actual use of the gun had no real bearing on Jake’s reason for taking it with him. This particular gun had been made as an exact replica of a popular handgun. From more than a couple of feet away, most people would be unable to tell the difference between a genuine handgun and a replica. He was hoping it would be realistic enough to fool Ironside and his men. He was not exactly sure how he might use his toy weapon, but he suspected that it could help him, and he would need all the help he could get.
He managed to get the gun into his briefcase, thus hiding it from Amy and avoiding any awkward questions from her concerning his reasons for taking such an item to work. Before he knew it he was in his car, ready to drive to his office. He reversed out of the driveway, and left the street.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jake had thought carefully about how he might get the better of Ironside. He was trading from the same factory that Jake had visited several times over the past few days. He knew the place well by now, but hoped that this would be the last time he would have to look around it.
The lavishly decorated office had been prepared for Ironside the previous day. The rest of the building would remain in whatever state they had found it.
In order to stop this trade and get Ironside arrested, Jake had come up with several options. Obviously it would not be possible for him to take down all of Ironside’s guards with a BB gun. The problem was, only by removing these guards could he prevent the ambush of the police officers at the scene. Another option was to let the police be captured, hoping that the guards would be distracted, allowing him to move in unnoticed and find a way to save them. That idea also had its flaws.
The only viable option he had was to already be waiting inside the factory when Ironside and his crew arrived. They had set up the building the day before and would show up to do the trade several minutes before it was due to take place, and then they would leave almost immediately on its conclusion.
Once inside the factory he found surprisingly few places to hide. The old building was almost an empty shell. Several old chairs, tables, and pieces of wood were lying around. Jake moved three large pieces of chipboard into the far corner of the big empty space in the centre of the factory.
Thanks to Ironside's detailed description, Jake knew he was at least fifty feet from where the actual trade would take place. The building was almost a hundred feet long, but quite narrow. The chances were that Ironside's people would not even concern themselves with this end of the factory. There were no doors or windows on that side of the building, and there was no logical reason why someone would be situated there.
Jake was now crouched in a dark corner, flanked by solid brick walls and shielded from view by some old wood, hopefully as inconspicuous as possible.
He had the replica gun in his hand as he sat on the floor in his chipboard hiding place. Jake looked at his watch and saw the time was 9:30am. Ironside's men would be there with the goods in about an hour. The other party to the trade would arrive fifteen minutes later.
Jake knew how the trade was to work. It would be 11am when Arnold and his men were paraded before the thugs inside the factory. By 11:30am a deal would have been made and Arnold and his colleagues would walk free.
The whole plan seemed a little bit weak, and Jake decided he needed more of a backup plan. He picked up his mobile phone, searched for and then dialled the number for the police station he had called yesterday. “Hello. I'd like to leave an anonymous tip-off, please.” The woman who answered seemed surprised and confused by the request. It seemed people were not usually so polite in leaving anonymous information.
He was put on hold, and had to endure several minutes of what seemed like out-of-tune choir music. It was almost enough to make him hang up the phone and call back. He stayed on the phone, however, and was soon rewarded with the end of the horrible hold music.
“Okay sir, what is it you’d like to tell us?” a woman asked. She actually sounded rather bored. Jake suspected the long pause had not been to allow for her to pick up a piece of paper and a pen. The chances were that this call was now being recorded or traced, or both.
“Detective Inspector Arnold is planning on apprehending Paul Ironside at a factory on the outskirts of Darlington at about eleven o’clock today. Ironside operates with an outer ring of guards who will trap the police officers if they keep to their planned positions.”
His statement was greeted with silence. “Is there anything else you wish to tell us, sir?” the woman asked. Jake was now a little more specific with his details of the location of the factory, and the nature of the trade that the police were intending on interrupting. He told them enough about the trade so they would know he was genuine, and he told them exactly where, and at what time they would be trapped.
“I suggest more officers be stationed at a perimeter further out, so they can stop Ironside’s guards from interfering.” The woman thanked him for the information and the call ended.
He was anything but convinced that they would take his tip-off seriously enough. He needed to call someone else. He dialled another number.
“Directory Enquiries. What number would you like?” the man who answered the call asked politely.”
“Andrew Arnold of Rainhill Way, Darlington, please,” he requested. The operator found the number. Within seconds Jake was calling the Arnold home. A woman answered.
“Hello Mrs Arnold. This is Officer Hingham. I need to contact your husband urgently, but he seems to be out of his office. Do you have a mobile phone number I can reach him on?” She obliged, he thanked her, hung up and then called the number.
“D.I Arnold.” were the first words spoken when the call was answered, by way of an introduction.
“You don’t know me, but I need to tell you something about the trade you’re trying to intercept today.”
Arnold was obviously shocked that anyone else knew about the trade or their plans. Jake got the impression his message was getting through to him. He was assured that his information would be acted upon, and thanked him. Jake hung up and was grateful for directory enquiries for probably the first time in his life.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Having been waiting in the corner for only half an hour, Jake was not yet expecting to hear any movement, so he was surprised when he heard footsteps. They were coming towards him.
“Jake!” The voice sounded familiar, but a lot of voices now sounded familiar. He had met a lot of people over the past week. He was also concerned about the fact that everyone seemed to know his name all of a sudden “We haven’t talked in a few days, Jake. I thought that we could catch up.” It hit him in an instant. It was the voice of William Spalder.
With Jake having travelled back a few days since their last meeting, Will should have not even have known who he was at this point in time. “I followed you here, Jake. I know what you’re planning,” he continued. “It won’t work.”
Jake stood up from behind the chipboard and pointed his gun at Will. “How can you be sure?" Jake asked.
“I know how the future looks Jake, and as far as I can see there are only two options.”
“How do y
ou even know who I am?” Jake asked.
“I met you a few days ago.” Jake was confused. “I’ve been travelling backwards, too.”
“So why are you here?”
“I’m here to make sure the future doesn’t change.”
Jake could not believe the contradictory words he was now hearing from Will. None of this made sense.
“I've been put here to stop all of this,” Jake stated. “My wish was granted and I've been put here to save the victims-”
“Do you really believe some mystical force put you here?” he laughed. “It’s all a big accident, Jake. Pull up a chair and I’ll explain it all.”
Jake stood his ground, unmoving. Will came a little closer, seemingly content enough to hold the conversation while standing.
“Are you familiar with Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity?” Will asked as he was pulling out a gun, pointing it at Jake.
“Everyone knows his theory of relativity,” Jake responded.
“I mean his special theory – the one about time travel.”
Jake's puzzled expression showed he had no idea what he was talking about. “His special theory states the faster a person travels, the slower time goes. Therefore, it has been assumed that if one travels fast enough for time to stop and beyond-”
“He can begin to travel into the future.” Jake finished off the sentence.
“Exactly.” Will confirmed. “The trouble is most people thought he was talking about actual speed of travel in miles or kilometres per hour, by vehicles such as a boat, car, or any other form of transport.”
Jake nodded. “But that isn't the case?”
“No. It’s about matter. Everything is made up of matter. The density of this matter depends on the speed at which the molecules inside move around. The faster they move, the less dense the matter.”
Jake had no response, so he let the man carry on talking.
“My father discovered that if you accelerate the molecules in an object, the object's density can become so low that the object appears to be invisible. If you accelerate them further, the object disappears completely. But instead of the object simply vanishing, it travels into the future.”
This conversation was so far over Jake’s head that he did not even bother trying to understand. He let the man continue with his monologue.
“As a result, my father was the first person to build a working time machine. He documented his experiments, and tried the last one with the subject being himself. His theory was that a person would continue to travel forward in time until his molecular structure started to stabilise again, and the body’s density returned to normal. Because of this, all time travel was likely to simply be guess work.” He paused, and Jake wondered what any of this had to do with this situation.
“My father disappeared while he was performing the last of his experiments. People assumed he had found an elaborate way to commit suicide.” His voice changed. He sounded upset. “I still believe he travelled forward in time, but I don't know how far he went ahead.”
“What does this have to do with anything?” Jake interjected.
“When someone travels through time, he effectively fractures the fibres of space-time in the process. These fractures are necessary to help slow molecular speeds, increase density, and halt any travel through time by leaving markers at specific points in time. These fractures lead to anomalies within the space-time continuum. One of these anomalies has been named the Time and Event Replacement Phenomenon.”
Jake shook his head. Was he really saying his father caused all of these time travel phenomena by travelling through time himself, and his situation had occurred entirely by accident?
“After a few years, I got hold of the documentation, and I followed the example of my father.” Will started to sound like a madman. His speech had become more rapid and monotone and his eyes were growing wider. He seemed to have allowed himself to be obsessed with his father’s dream. “It’s my destiny to find my father.”
“I saw pictures of you from years ago,” Jake stated. “Did you travel forward through time to find your father?”
“Yes I did. I’ve built the same time machine several times in several different years. Each time I have travelled ahead to find him.”
“So you've caused further anomalies?” Jake asked.
“After travelling forward, somehow I ended up stopping at apparently random points in time. I was stopping wherever these phenomena occurred. I was experiencing these things with the other person experiencing them. It was then that I discovered that my destiny was not to find my father, but to fix these errors. It was to stop people like you screwing with time, and messing with destiny.”
“Why do you care about other people's destiny?”
“Because any change in events causes shifts and further errors in space-time. It is also more likely to change the future, destabilising my father's existence. By minimising change, I minimise damage to space-time, and I increase the chances of keeping my father alive in the future where I will eventually find him.”
“I still don't really know what this has got to do with me,” Jake stated.
“It has everything to do with you, Jake,” Will responded. “You’re trying to change the destiny of these people. The people you have saved so far were supposed to die. What happens if one of those drastically changes the future? You’re messing with some serious forces.”
“Those forces put me here!” Jake shouted in reply.
“An accident put you here!” Will shouted back. “My father didn't foresee the impact his time travel would have on the space-time continuum as a whole. These problems were side effects.”
“I believe I’m here to change these people’s destinies,” Jake countered.
“You believed a lie. I told you that lie to get you here.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I needed to undo the damage you had already done before I met you,” he responded. “I told you before that you had two choices. Option one is this: You can leave now and let your family and the others die like they were supposed to.”
Jake shook his head forcefully. That idea was a non-starter. He could never sit idly by and wait for his family to die. His life was certainly not worth living without them.
“Your other option is to stay here and let these people catch you – because they certainly will. When that happens, you can sacrifice yourself to save your family.”
Jake was becoming confused. He was tired of trying to make sense out of all of this.
“So if I let these people kill me, then my family won't die?”
“They’ll be distraught by your death. Your wife won’t go to the shopping centre on Saturday, and she will never put herself in the way of D.I Arnold. Everyone else you saved will still die, and most of the balance will have been restored.”
Jake's head was spinning from all of this. Once again he had no idea what he should do. Will had travelled back in time, just as he had done. Will clearly felt his goal in life was to make sure the Replacement Phenomenon did not alter events in time. Jake believed that entirely the opposite was true. It was all about making the most of second chances.
“It’s your choice, Mr Hingham.” Will had not called him anything other than Jake before. His tone reflected that of Ironside the day before; One of formality to portray the gravity of the situation. He had seen a softer side to both men, but he now believed their true colours to be showing. Both behaved like mad men, crazed and obsessed.
“You can either return to normal life without your family, or you can allow your family to live a long life without you.” He turned away from Jake and started walking towards the door. “It’s your decision, Mr Hingham, and you don’t have much time left to make it.”
Will walked out of the door and Jake sat back down in his hiding place, covering himself once again with the chip board.
Jake could find no form of resolution in the conversation he had just had with Will Spalder.
There were conflicting statements running through his head. Should he die? Should he let his family die again? Who was right about all of this, and was there a third option which would allow both himself and his family to survive this?
Will believed fixing situations altered space-time. He believed all of these anomalies and phenomena were some cosmic by-product of a time travel experiment. Jake, by contrast, believed that some divine power had placed him here to put things right.
Either his romantic notion was correct, or Will’s rather bleak, matter-of-fact outlook was closer to the truth. Which one was correct?
Regardless of who was right, Jake was determined to succeed at his self-appointed task, whatever the space-time continuum was doing.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
As Jake watched Will walk out of the factory door, then sat back down, he heard the sound of a car. It was not the sound of Will leaving, but of another car arriving. Car doors opened and closed. Will was still just outside the factory entrance. He heard several voices outside. “Who the hell are you?” one man asked.
“No one important,” Will answered nonchalantly. “I’m just looking around.”
“You shouldn't be here.”
“Do you think I’ll interfere with your illegal trade?” Jake winced at Will's question. It was definitely not the right thing to ask.
“How do you know about that?” There was silence. “Answer me!” he shouted.
“I don’t want any trouble.” He could hear fear in Will’s voice. “I’m just leaving. I don’t really know anything.”
“I don't believe you.” Jake heard distant beeps like someone dialling a number on a mobile phone. He heard the man talking, but his voice was becoming quieter. He was walking away so the others would not be able to hear him. His voice grew louder again as he returned to the factory entrance. “Yes sir.”
The next thing Jake heard was unmistakable. He heard two gunshots – one immediately after the other with absolutely no warning.
He did not know who had been shot. He assumed everyone involved in this illegal trade would be carrying their own gun. Either Will or the others were dead. The door of the factory opened again and he had his answer.