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“How’s Mrs Ling?” I interrupted.

  “Joe!” exclaimed Niki.

  “Oh, she’s fine – just gone to pick up a few things from the shops. I’ll just go and make the tea.”

  “Joe,” Niki whispered to me, “I’m sorry – Baba seems to be losing his memory. He didn’t recognize you, and he still thinks Mama is alive. I hope it’s not dementia.”

  I knew what was coming next, and I had to prepare Niki. I’d thought that everything she’d experienced so far would make her realise we really had gone back in time, but understandably she was in denial.

  “Niki, sit down – I’ve got to explain something to you. Your father has not lost his memory – he’s as alert as ever. The reason he looks younger is because he is younger. There were none of your things in the apartment because in 2005 we had not yet met. There are no car registrations with the number sixty–two, because right now we’re still on fifty–five. The newspaper is not out of date, it is today’s date. And any minute your mother is going to walk through that door.”

  “But that’s impossible!”

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I thought when this happened to me yesterday morning. But I assure you that…”

  “The weather is so clammy today…”

  Gloria came through the door and Niki looked as if she’d seen a ghost.

  “Mama?”

  “Oh, that’s a nice surprise – and who is this young man?”

  Tears streamed down Niki’s cheeks, and she ran over give Gloria a big hug.

  “Are you all right Ling Ling? Is anything wrong?” her mother said.

  “No Mama – not now. It’s just so good to see you.”

  I let Niki enjoy the moment with her mother who had died nine years ago in our time, and then interrupted.

  “I’m sorry, can I have a moment with Niki, Mrs Ling – there’s something important I need to tell her.”

  “Of course dear – I’ll go and help Tang.”

  I looked Niki squarely in the eyes. “Now you’ve got to believe me.” She nodded tearfully. I explained that we didn’t have very much time, and somehow we had to convince Gloria and Tang that they should stay in the house the next day and not go out. Before we jumped to 2005 I’d researched the July bombings on the internet and I knew exactly where and when the terrorist bombs would be detonated, and none of them would be near the Ling’s house. The devices were placed in public places where they could cause the most damage – on trains and on a bus. I said I’d tell Gloria and Tang I worked for the Special Branch, and say we’d had a tip–off about terrorist bombs in Central London tomorrow. Niki was still in daze, but nodded her approval. The Lings were convinced by what I told them, and after tea we left the house.

  “Where now Joe?” Nik asked me.

  “MI5, Special Branch.”

  If Gloria followed our instructions, then we’d saved her. Now we had to stop the bombers and save all the others who were murdered in 2005.

  ***

  Five

  On Thursday 7th July, four terrorists would detonate four bombs – three in quick succession at 8.50am aboard London Underground trains across the city, and a fourth aboard a double–decker bus in Tavistock Square at 9.47am. Not only did I have the exact locations of all four devices, but also the terrorists’ names, ages, ethnic backgrounds and profiles. I even knew that they would be caught on CCTV at Kings Cross station at 8.30am that morning. With all this information, the authorities should easily be able to prevent the explosions.

  Niki had now come round to the idea that we had gone back in time. There was just no other explanation for being able to see and hold her mother again. She suggested going to the Metropolitan Police at New Scotland Yard near St. James’s Park, which seemed a good place to start.

  “Yes?” The plan clothed civilian female assistant asked us as we entered the main door.

  “We need to talk to someone urgently about terrorist bombs that are going to be set off in Central London tomorrow morning.” No point in beating around the bush, I thought. The woman looked from one of us to the other, wondering how seriously to take this.

  “I see sir; well you need to fill in this form first…”

  “No no no – we don’t want to fill in any forms – we need to talk to someone who deals with these things – someone at the top. We don’t have much time.”

  “Well, Superintendent Willis is in a meeting just now…”

  “Then get him out of the meeting!” said Niki.

  “It’s not that simple – you obviously don’t understand how it works here miss…” That really got me going. Whenever anyone is condescending to Niki, I get nasty.

  “Okay, when four bombs…”

  “Five,” Niki said.

  “Five?” I looked at her and she nodded.

  “When five bombs go off in Central London tomorrow, and fifty people die…”

  “Seventy–five,” interrupted Niki again.

  “When seventy–five people die, and…” I turned to Niki. “How many injured?”

  “Over one thousand.”

  “When seventy–five people die and over one thousand people are injured tomorrow, you can put your hands up and say, ‘That was my fault, that was my call.’”

  “What’s going on Judith?” A tall policeman with black hair, balding at the top, with long sideburns and matching moustache and beer belly came through the door. The civilian relayed the conversation, and the policeman asked us to follow him through a secure gate. The police officer, who introduced himself as Sergeant Brown, apologized for us having to be scanned (bodies, bags etc – just like at an airport), but explained it was necessary with all the terrorist threats those days.

  He led us to an interview room, similar to the sort of thing you see on television, and got us some water.

  “Please take a seat.” We sat facing the officer, and he asked for our names, which we gave. “Okay, tell me what you’ve got,” he said. I’d decided to use the same angle as the one that seemed to work at the airport. After all, that approach had prevented the attacks in America, so why not use it here.

  “I had a vivid dream last night…”

  “Whoa! Stop right there! We’re talking about a dream?”

  “Well, a premonition actually – in the form of a dream.”

  “I see. Well you’ll need to make a written statement – I’ll get a form for you to complete and we’ll check out your story, and well, get back to you in forty–eight hours…”

  “Forty–eight hours! In less than twenty–four, seventy–five people will be dead!”

  “Look, I’ll be straight with you… you seem like nice, honest people who would not just make things up, but we get a lot of strange people in here with crazy ideas, conspiracy theories and the like; and ninety–nine point nine percent of all the dreams, visions and premonitions we hear about turn out to have no basis in reality – not in this universe. We are very busy fighting and preventing real crimes with real criminals, and before we close down half the Capital, I need a bit more hard evidence that ‘I had a dream’ – to quote Nelson Mandela.”

  “Martin Luther King,” corrected Niki.

  “I think you get the idea, miss,” the officer replied.

  We were all quiet, and then Niki said, “Joe was only saying it was a dream because we didn’t want to get my brother into trouble.” She paused and looked at me. I tightened my lips and shrugged my shoulders. I’d no idea what she was going to say.

  “I’m listening,” the Sergeant said.

  “My brother works in a factory in Balham, South London. There’s a lot of immigrant workers there – most of them working illegally, including Zhou. Anyway, one night he was working late and overheard three of the Pakistani guys in conversation. They must have thought everyone had gone home, because they were talking quite openly. Zhou heard the word ‘bomb’ which got his attention right away. Then they talked about planting three devices on metro trains and two on buses…”

  “We’ll nee
d to get your brother in for questioning,” the Sergeant stated.

  “No! He’ll never do that. He’s got no work visa or residence permit – he’s afraid you’ll deport him if he talks to you – that’s why we’re here.”

  “All right – give me a couple of minutes.”

  Whilst the Sergeant left the room, I smiled knowingly at Niki and squeezed her hand. The officer soon returned with a senior policeman and a young policewoman.

  “This is Superintendent Peter Willis, from our Anti–Terrorist Unit, and PC Knowles. I’d like you to tell them everything you know – all the details. When did you say the first devices would be detonated?”

  “Eight–fifty tomorrow morning,” Niki stated.

  “Okay, we’d better get started…”

  Niki cleverly relayed the details of a fictitious conversation overhead by her fictitious bother Zhou, where three terrorists were plotting to blow up London. (Her real brother, incidentally, is an investment banker in Hong Kong, not a labourer in a Balham sweatshop – and his real name is Tian). She gave just enough details to lead the police to both the terrorists and the bombs, with plenty of phrases like, ‘I think he said…’ and ‘they seem to be saying…’ to show this was a remembered, overhead conversation. Quite brilliant, actually.

  “That was fantastic!” I told her as we headed for a coffee shop we knew in Victoria Street, having left New Scotland Yard.

  “Do you think they were convinced?” she asked. “I still think I’m living in a dream.”

  We arrived in Victoria Street to find a few ‘changes.’

  “We might have to wait a little while for coffee,” I said staring into the window of a dress shop.

  “I’m sure it was here,” said Niki.

  “Yeah, well I’m sure it will be in six or seven year’s time. On the other hand…” I pulled out my mobile. “Take my hand Nik…” She gripped my hand tightly and I changed the date on my mobile back to the ‘present’. “Ah, now that’s more like it!”

  We walked into the shop, enjoying the aroma of freshly–ground coffee, and found a table at the back. As we were sipping our drinks, Niki was clearly thinking deeply about things.

  “Can we really go anywhere in the past Joe – at any time?” I thought for a moment.

  “I don’t really know for sure. All I can say is that it’s worked for two time periods so far. One thing I have noticed, though, is we can only move in time, not space.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Well, at the airport yesterday, and with you today, we changed time zones, but not position. Remember in the flat this morning, and again just now. The time and date changes, but we don’t move to any other location.”

  “So what if we wanted to go back in time to another country – Ancient China say. Would we have to fly there first?”

  “I guess so… we’ll have to give it a try,” I smiled.

  “Not today though, hey?” she said.

  We were quiet for a minute, and then I said, “Where would you want to go – if you could choose any time in history?” She thought for a moment.

  “I’d really like to see one of Shakespeare’s first performances at the original Globe…”

  “And meet the Bard himself?”

  She nodded, “Wouldn’t that be cool!”

  “We’d probably have to change our clothes, though – so we didn’t stand out,” I pointed out. “Having said that, you’re going to stand out whatever you wear.”

  “Why? Because I’m Chinese or because I’m a woman?”

  “Probably both. I don’t think women were allowed to watch plays in those days, were they?” I asked.

  “They could watch – but they couldn’t take part in the performances.”

  We finished our coffees, and as we were leaving Niki asked me if I thought we’d prevented the bombings.

  “Well, if not we’ll just have to come back and try again. Just a second...” I went over to talk to an assistant at the counter. “’scuse me mate, d’you remember the London bombings a few years back – in 2005?”

  “Yeah, sure I do… I was working near Liverpool Street station when one of the bombs went off.” Niki looked crestfallen. Then the young man added, “Good thing they’d had a warning about it and no–one was hurt.”

  “And the other bombs?” I asked.

  “Oh, they were all discovered in time,” he said. “Where have you been then – another planet?”

  “Something like that,” I replied, taking Niki’s hand. “So what d’you want to do now Nik?” I asked.

  “I want to see my mum.”

  ***

  Six

  We returned home late having spent several hours with Gloria and Tang. In my universe Niki was talking to Gloria less than a week ago, but in Niki’s World she hadn’t seen her mother for nearly seven years. This was going to be difficult to explain to her – it was hard enough for me to get my head around it, and I’d been through this twice now. The day before I went to the airport, we all lived in a universe where the World Trade Center had been devastated by terrorists flying passenger planes into the Twin Tower buildings. In that World, Niki’s mother was very much alive and well. Then I intervened – and by doing so I put part of the planet on a different path, one in which over 3,000 people were not killed, but two World leaders – and Niki’s mother – were dead. Not only had physical events changed, but also the memories and thought patterns of billions of people around the globe had been edited in order to accommodate this new universe. Now we had changed events again, and in doing so created a new reality of life on planet Earth.

  For all I knew, the previous reality was still in existence ‘somewhere’, though god knows where; but wherever and whatever, Niki’s consciousness was now firmly rooted in this alternate present. It was very difficult to explain to her that her mother had never really died; and though I did try, I thought in the end it would be better to let her come to her own understanding. For me, it was something that our present science, our present understanding of this universe, was not yet able to explain in practical terms, even though the concept of time–travel had been contemplated and discussed many times, and a plethora of books written about the subject and its consequences.

  The next thing to consider was the impact that our latest intervention might have had on the World. We watched the News avidly every day for the next week for indications of changes to the economy, to people, and to society in general. Fortunately, we found nothing, and I felt we could move on and consider what we should do next with this amazing ability. We had no idea how long this window would be open, and we both wanted to experience more and more, doing what we could to change the past for the better, as we saw it.

  *

  One night after work, two weeks after stopping the London bombings – well, the killings at least, Niki and I chatted about the things we’d like to do next. Despite Niki saying she’d like to meet Shakespeare and see one of his original performances first hand, we both agreed that we should embark upon projects for ‘the benefit of mankind’, rather than just to satisfy our curiosities. I had in passing mentioned preventing the Nazi holocaust by assassinating Adolf Hitler, and Niki also mentioned killing off Emperor Hirohito before his invasion of China, and thereby preventing the atrocities perpetrated on the Chinese people by the Japanese.

  In both cases, however, we agreed that it would be very risky attempting these feats, given that many others had tried and failed; and even if we were able to eliminate both men, there was no assurance that other, equally evil, dictators would not take their places.

  One thing that appeared paramount was that we should always go on these trips together, never alone, so that if anything happened to either one of us, the other could always take the phone, go back to a time prior to the calamity and try to undo what had befallen the other. This seemed to make good sense. It did, though, raise an interesting question one evening after work.

  “Joe, I’ve been thinking about what we d
iscussed the other day.”

  “Go on.”

  “When you went back to the time of the World Trade Center bombings, you said you spoke to me on the telephone.”

  “Yes, when you were still in school.”

  “What would have happened if I had gone back with you too, and made that phone call instead? Would I find myself talking to a younger version of me?”

  “Wow, that’s spooky!”

  “Isn’t it?”

  I had to stop and consider the concept of two Nikis talking to each other… weird!

  “Well, I suppose that could happen,” I replied. “I can’t see why not. Interesting though.”

  There was a lull in our conversation, and I turned to see her staring serenely into space. “What are you thinking?” I asked.

  She snapped out of her reverie, and looked at me slightly guiltily. “Oh, nothing – just about the past.”

  “And?”

  “Do you remember me telling you about my first boyfriend – when I was fourteen years old?”

  “The kid who killed himself… Steve, wasn’t it?” Niki nodded. I continued, “Yeah I remember… I know you must have been very cut up about it at the time. You don’t still blame yourself for that, do you?”

  “Oh no, not really. It’s just that… what if I’d known about the pressures his parents were putting him under…” She looked hopefully at me.

  “You could have intervened – and saved his life?” I said. We were both quiet again, then I said, “Y’know, we’d be taking a big risk if we changed this – I mean, personally. When we jump back to the present, you could be married to him, not me.”

  Niki looked at her feet and nodded. “I know – I’ve thought about that. But what if we just tell his parents what’s going to happen if they don’t let up, and then I split up with Steve later.”

  This was beginning to sound insane. We would be risking our relationship on the suicidal depression of one fourteen year old boy, when we could be saving millions of lives elsewhere. And anyway, even if we could prevent the suicide attempt, Steve might try it again because of something else – Niki dumping him for instance. I told Niki what I thought, and she agreed it was crazy and she shouldn’t have mentioned it.

  I thought that was the end of it – but I was wrong.

  The next morning, my mobile phone was missing – and so was Niki. She must have been up before me, and taken my phone by mistake. But hers has a pink cover, and mine is black. And although she could grab the wrong one by mistake if she was in a hurry, as soon she looked at it, she’d know it wasn’t hers and call me. Wouldn’t she?