‘And that’s what we have here at the TERI labs, a device that can create a proper space-time gap. A genuinely empty space.’
Another hand went up.
‘Yes?’
‘Keisha Jackson.’
‘Go ahead, Keisha.’
‘How big a hole have you got?’ asked the girl. ‘Is it big enough to step inside?’
‘Good Lord, no! No. It’s tiny. Very small. It doesn’t need to be big. It’s a pinprick.’
One of the boys at the back giggled.
‘Shortly, we’ll be going through into the main laboratory, where you’ll see the containment shielding that surrounds the area of experimentation. I believe the team is due to be opening a pinhole vacuum in the next half-hour.’ He splayed his hands. ‘Wanna go take a look-see?’
Every head in the room wagged enthusiastically.
CHAPTER 8
1906, San Francisco
They returned to their alleyway with half an hour to spare, having spent an hour on the dockside watching the steam ships being loaded and unloaded, Maddy relishing every little detail of the past and giggling with unbridled delight as dockside workers knuckled their foreheads and doffed their caps at her politely as they walked past.
‘Oh my God! I feel like some sort of duchess!’ she whispered out of the side of her mouth to Liam as they turned into the alley. ‘Everyone’s so… I dunno, so polite and proper back in this time.’
He nodded. ‘Especially to a lady… like yourself.’ He nodded at her dress, her flamboyant hat with its ostrich feathers. ‘Them clothes mark you out as a lady of means. You know? A really posh lady, so you are. Now, if you’d found some dowdy dress that made you look common, them workers would’ve walked on past without a by-your-leave.’