‘That’s right.’ He smiled warmly. ‘It’s me, Saleena.’
‘Sal,’ she replied. ‘Sal… Only my mum and dad call meSaleena.’
‘Sal, then,’ he said, helping her up. She swung her legs over the side of thebunk and silently studied the other two: a boy dressed like a hotel porter, and a lank-hairedteenage girl with glasses.
‘Hey,’ said Maddy, ‘welcome to Weirdsville.’
‘Just give her a bit of room there. Let her catch her breath.’
‘You got an odd accent, so you have,’ said Liam curiously to Sal.
‘That’s rich,’ snorted Maddy, ‘coming from you.’
‘She’s from a city called Mumbai, in India, Liam. You’d know it asBombay.’
‘But she speaks English, so she does.’
‘Well, duh,’ said Maddy, rolling her eyes, ‘they all do. It’s abilingual nation.’
CHAPTER 6
2001, New York
The coffee was gone and one last unwanted doughnut sat in the box.
‘We’ve been… did you say recruited?’Maddy repeated.
‘Yes, that’s right. You’re working for the agency now.’
Liam leaned forward. ‘Uh… Mr Foster, sir, what exactly is theagency?’
‘Let me go through everything I need to say first. Then you can all ask as manyquestions as you like. It’ll be much quicker if we do this my way.’
They nodded.
Foster pointed out at the darkness beyond the alcove. ‘I left the other lights off inhere so you wouldn’t see it all — this place, the equipment — and beoverwhelmed by it. Right now let’s just pretend there’s only this little brickarchway, that light bulb, the four of us and these beds… and that’s whereI’ll start.’
He took a deep breath.
‘Time travel exists, boys and girls.’
He left that statement hanging in the air for a few moments before continuing.
‘A theoretical physics paper demonstrating the possibility was written in 2029. Thefirst successful prototype machine was constructed in 2044.’ He sighed. ‘Now thatwe’ve opened that can of worms we can’t close it.’