He hated the Tuesdays.
‘Good night, New York,’ he uttered under his breath.
The city replied with the rumble of a train along the bridge overhead and the echoing, distant wail of a police siren racing through a Brooklyn street several blocks away. As he prepared to duck back inside and wind the shutter down once more, he found himself wondering if Sal was right. If they really were alone. If the agency was, in fact, just them.
As it happened, the answer to that specific question was to arrive the very next morning.
CHAPTER 10
2001, New York
Maddy was entirely engrossed in Big Brother USA when Bob interrupted. She’d been watching Nicole and Hardy quietly plotting together in the kitchen against the other two. It was a rerun of the previous week’s shows on FOX and she already knew who was facing imminent eviction. She’d seen this show at least four times already, but for some reason, despite knowing the outcome, it was still compulsive viewing.
So it was with mild irritation that she answered the dialogue box that had popped up on the monitor over the top of Big Brother.
› Maddy?
She sat forward and spoke into the desk mic rather than tap out an answer on the keyboard.
‘What is it, Bob? I’m watching Big Brother right now.’
› I am picking up incoming tachyon particles.
Her mouth dropped open and she dribbled milk and Rice Krispies on to her T-shirt.
‘You’re kidding me, right?’
› Kidding?
‘Joking.’
› Not joking, Maddy. There is a directed communication beam coming in from down-time.
‘From down-time… You mean the future?’
› Affirmative.
Maddy dropped her spoon back in the breakfast bowl and sat back in her chair. She looked around. Liam was still fast asleep on his bunk and Sal was out clothes shopping for Bob.