‘I’m afraid not, sir. Our security procedures require us to keep the flight deck completely separate from the rest of the pod.’
‘Understood,’ said Luke. ‘Given our little incident just now, rather sensible when you think about it.’
‘Indeed, sir.’
Geoffrey tinkled his glass again. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, if you could take your seats for our return trip, please. Thank you.’
Jane sat motionless, her eyes still glued to the screen. Around her, the two attendants were whisking themselves into the cockpit. A musical chime sounded a warning and the lights dimmed again.
For those accustomed to the frequently bowel-loosening landings of their colleagues, this again was surprisingly imperceptible.
Mr Geoffrey stood up. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we have landed. Please take a moment to gather yourselves together and then make your way towards the exit.’
Jane glanced at Luke, who was making no move to get up, sighed, and sat back in her seat.
Mr Geoffrey glanced across. ‘When you’re ready, Luke.’
Luke stretched his legs out in front of him. ‘Oh, I don’t think you’ll want me to say this in front of the punters.’
Mr Geoffrey’s smile vanished. ‘I beg your pardon.’
Luke watched the last tourists leave the pod and then turned back to Mr Geoffrey. ‘It was very well done, I grant you. I’m impressed – especially with the build-up to take-off – but you really need to check over your people more carefully.’
‘I’m sorry?’
‘You should be. How stupid do you think I am?’
‘I’m not sure I . . .’
‘The overseer, for example.’
‘What about him?’
‘The one with the pretty staff.’
‘Yes?’
‘And the khat.’
‘I don’t . . .’
‘And the wristwatch.’
There was complete silence in the pod.
29
For the life of her, Jane couldn’t imagine what would happen next. To her complete surprise, Mr Geoffrey laughed.
‘Well done. Well done, both of you.’
He seated himself alongside Jane. Because he thinks I’m the weakest link, she thought, and he can use me to bargain his way out of this. Well, he’s got that wrong.
She braced herself for action but, disappointingly, Mr Geoffrey showed no inclination to use her as a human shield while he fought his way to freedom.
‘Allow me to explain.’
‘Not sure we want to hear,’ said Luke. ‘It’s not as if we paid for this charade, but they did.’ He nodded his head in the direction of the departed passengers.
Mr Geoffrey dismissed his valued customers with a contemptuous flick of the wrist. ‘Camouflage.’
‘You mean they’re your people?’
‘Oh no, they’re genuine enough. It’s just that they’re the sort of people who apply but aren’t quite . . . you know.’
‘So if we turned out to be not quite who you thought . . .’
‘Then no one important would ever know and our credibility remains intact.’
Oh, thought Jane. Yes. Of course.
‘You see, even though you checked out, we still weren’t too sure about you. Either of you,’ he said, with a glance at Jane. ‘And so, we offered you this . . . alternative . . .’
‘So,’ said Luke slowly. ‘You don’t do time travel after all. Well, that’s disappointing.’ Jane was already on her feet.
‘Yes, we do,’ said Mr Geoffrey.
‘Complete with holos, wristwatches, man-made fabrics, tattoos and so forth.’
Mr Geoffrey didn’t do sarcasm. ‘Well, hardly.’
‘Dear God, no wonder you panicked when that Terence guy tried to open the door. That would have given everything away, wouldn’t it? Heaving open the door to reveal – what? People sitting around drinking coffee while a holo played out on the screens? Just a normal afternoon in the fraud and deception business?’
To say nothing of two highly pissed-off Time Police officers who had expended a great deal of time and effort on pursuing the wrong people, thought Jane.
‘And what about your customers?’ she demanded, righteously indignant. ‘Those people just paid a lot of money and . . .’
‘Come with me, please.’
Jane took Luke’s arm to hold him back. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘Yes,’ said Mr Geoffrey, thoughtfully. ‘I always suspected you have the brains.’
‘Hey,’ said Luke indignantly. ‘I have brains too.’
‘Of course you do,’ said Jane soothingly.
Mr Geoffrey led them out of the door and back into the hangar. The other passengers had disappeared. She stood, puzzled. This looked completely genuine. Now that the lights were on, she could see a number of other pods standing around the edges of the hangar. One large one – Cancer, she assumed, sister to Capricorn behind her, and two or three smaller ones. Jane noticed they used the old-fashioned plinths, like St Mary’s. She could see the thick, black umbilicals running up into the walls because these pods would need regular charging. This was a proper, working pod bay.
Mr Geoffrey was continuing. ‘This is standard procedure for everyone’s first jump. There have been occasions when some of our customers have not been quite who they claimed to be.’
‘Shit,’ said Luke, looking around as if he expected to see the door explode off its hinges at any moment. ‘Not Time Police.’
‘Oh no,’ said Mr Geoffrey, comfortably. ‘No, they have no idea. Trust me.’
‘So,’ said Jane, ‘you set this up as a kind of . . .’
‘Firewall,’ supplied Mr Geoffrey.
Jane nodded. ‘Yes. This way the worst thing you could be charged with is fraud. Just a few years in prison. If that.’ She looked at Mr Geoffrey. ‘For which, I am assuming, those affected and their families are more than adequately compensated.’
Mr Geoffrey smiled at her. Jane’s flesh stopped creeping and positively bolted.
‘I find myself quite impressed by you, Miss um . . . and I suspect you have more influence over our Mr Parrish here than either of you realise. We would be more than willing to incorporate you, too, if you wish. At a suitable remuneration, of course.’