She stepped carefully across the floor. ‘Are you able to guarantee no one could communicate with anyone outside the building?’
‘Absolutely, ma’am. We hit them with an EMP burst before we blew the door. Captain Simon at the King’s Arsenal confirms the same there. In fact, most of them were still groggy from whatever it was St Mary’s did to them. There was no fight in them at all. They’re all being shipped back to TPHQ as we speak. He wants to know if we need any assistance here.’
She opened her com. ‘Thank you, Captain Simon, but I want King’s Arsenal secured until we’ve had a chance to go over it. Make sure nothing happens to any of our guests on their way back to TPHQ. I wouldn’t put it past their own people to try to take them out to protect themselves.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘Be alert, Captain. No interaction with anyone who isn’t known to you personally. And don’t relax until they’re safe with security. And probably don’t relax even then. Who’s on duty there?’
‘Filbert and Varma, ma’am.’
‘All right. Keep me informed and don’t let anything happen to your prisoners.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
She closed her com and turned to Major Ellis. An officer approached. ‘Ma’am, sir, Officer Dal found these.’ He held out Jane and Luke’s proximity bracelets.
Ellis and Hay regarded them in silence.
‘They were here, then,’ said Ellis. He turned to the officer. ‘No sign of Lockland or Parrish?’
‘None, sir. We’ve searched the whole building and they’re definitely not here.’
‘Right,’ said Hay. ‘Your team is to strip this building. Records, equipment, pods – everything. The transports are on their way. Be ready for them. I want everything loaded and taken back to HQ.’
‘On it, ma’am.’ He turned and trotted back down the hangar, shouting, ‘Open the pod bay doors, Dal.’
‘I don’t think I can do that, sir.’
‘Open the pod bay doors.’
The mech bent over his equipment, cursed mightily and fetched the recalcitrant doors a vicious kick. They opened smoothly. ‘Doors open, sir.’
Ellis turned to Hay. ‘Our prisoners, ma’am?’
‘Call up the river launches and get them back to TPHQ. Same instructions as King’s Arsenal.’
A mech approached. ‘Ma’am, we’ve rebooted the mainframe console. If you can give us a few minutes . . .’
‘Quick as you can, please.’
They waited while the mechs jacked themselves in and hunched over the equipment.
‘Right,’ said Hay, turning away. ‘To recap. We’ve secured Shoreditch. We’ve secured the King’s Arsenal. We’ll see what the mechs can tell us and then hunt the rest of them down and find out what’s going on.’
‘You’re trying to take down the whole organisation at one and the same time, ma’am?’ said Ellis.
‘Yes, and I’m furious, because this isn’t how I planned it. Yes, we’ll deal them a mighty blow but I’m pretty sure we’re going to miss the big boys. The money. Whoever is behind all this.’
Ellis surveyed their prisoners being led away. ‘I suspect they’re all too scared to speak, ma’am. And that’s supposing that at this level they know anything anyway. Which I doubt.’
They were joined by the Head of IT. ‘Doesn’t matter, ma’am. Their systems will tell us everything we need to know. And much more quickly, too. One thing I can tell you now – there’s a pod missing.’
Ellis jumped. ‘Highest priority. I want details of all jumps over the last twenty-four hours.’
‘On it, sir.’
Another mech turned up. ‘Ma’am, I think you might want to see this.’
He led them into a big pod and pointed. Giant images of Abu Simbel were flashing up on the screens.
Hay frowned and looked around. ‘Is this actually a pod?’ Her face flushed with anger. ‘Don’t tell me we’ve given ourselves away just to arrest a bunch of fraudsters?’
‘Yes and no, ma’am. It is a working pod. It can jump. It didn’t jump today. This holo runs for about ninety minutes.’
‘For what purpose?’
He shrugged. ‘Promotional material, perhaps?’
‘Or the whole thing’s a big con.’
‘Possibly, but there are pods here and there’s been actual pod activity so . . .’
A breathless mech appeared at the door. ‘Got it, sir. And ma’am.’
‘Where?’
‘The missing pod is in the Pleistocene period, ma’am. Jumped about an hour and a half ago. And there are other jumps. Scores of them. They’ve been all over the place. There’s a couple to the 17th century . . .’
Hay glanced at Ellis. One of those would have been Imogen Farnborough’s jump.
‘. . . A couple more to Tudor England. One to 10th-century England, as well, but mostly the Pleistocene. A lot of jumps to and from there. Regular intervals but always the same location.’
She turned to Ellis. ‘I wonder what’s the attraction? There’s nothing there, surely?’
Ellis was listening to a voice in his ear. ‘Lt Grint is reporting a large part of the pod bay appears to be stuffed full of supplies and equipment. Mostly medical, ma’am. It looks as if they’re taking medical stuff in and out for some reason.’
‘Get your men together, Major. Leave enough to escort the prisoners back to TPHQ, but otherwise I want everyone you can lay your hands on. We’re going to the Pleistocene.’
36
It was the thunder of feet running past his room that woke Matthew. And the shouting. And then the alarms went off. All of them. Again. For a moment he blinked in confusion. Were people still turning out to invade King’s Arsenal and Shoreditch? For how long had he been sleeping? And then he felt the building shake as the blast doors came down in the Pod Bay. And then shake again with another, different impact.
It seemed unbelievable but . . . were the Time Police under attack?
He swung his feet off his bed and wrenched open the door. Further along the corridor, those sleeping off night-duties or just taking the afternoon off ran towards him, shouting orders. He fell in behind as they raced along the corridors and up and down stairs, finally bursting into the wreckage of the atrium where officers crouched behind counters and tables, shouting demands for assistance into their coms. Smoke and dust swirled wildly. Those unfortunate civilians having the misfortune to be attending TPHQ today screamed and ran aimlessly. Outside, where the Time Police gardens lay, several smoking craters had appeared. People lay spread-eagled on the ground.