‘Now!’ said my father, and we dashed from the safety of the copse.

‘Leave him!’ yelled my father. ‘Leave him to do what he has to do!’

My father grabbed the interloper and with a sharp cry the man vanished. Billden looked confused and made a run for the river, but in a few short moments a half-dozen ChronoGuard had dropped in, Lavoisier among them. One of the agents rugby-tackled Landen’s father before he could return to rescue his son. I yelled. ‘No!’, pulled out my gun and aimed it at the man who held Billden.

I yelled: ‘No!’, pulled out my gun and aimed it at the man who held Billden.

I yelled: ‘No!’, pulled out my gun and aimed it at the man who held Billden.

I yelled: ‘No!’, pulled out my gun and aimed it at the man who held Billden.

I yelled: ‘No!’, pulled out my gun and aimed it at the man who held Billden.

I yelled: ‘No!’, pulled out my gun and aimed it at the man who held Billden.

I yelled: ‘No!’, pulled out my gun and aimed it at the man who held Billden.

I yelled: ‘No!’, pulled out my gun and aimed it at the man who held Billden.

I yelled: ‘No!’, pulled out my gun and aimed it at the man who held Billden.

I yelled: ‘No!’, pulled out my gun and aimed it at the man who held Billden

I yelled. ‘No!’, pulled out my gun and aimed it at the man who held Billden.

I yelled: ‘No!’, pulled out my gun and aimed it at the man who held Billden.

I yelled: ‘No!’, pulled out my gun and aimed it at the man who held Billden

I yelled: ‘No!’, pulled out my gun and aimed it at the man who held Billden.

The next thing I knew I was disarmed, sitting on the ground and feeling shocked and disorientated after my brief enloopment. It was how I imagine a stuck record might feel. Two SO-12 operatives stared at me while my father and Lavoisier talked close by. Billden was breathing heavily and sobbing into the damp earth.

‘Bastards!’ I spat. ‘My husband’s in there!’

‘So much to learn,’ muttered Lavoisier. ‘The infant Parke-Laine is not your husband, he is an accident statistic—or not. It rather depends on your father.’

‘A lackey for the Goliath Corporation, Lavoisier?’ said my father. ‘You disappoint me.’

‘Greater need prevails, Colonel. If you’d handed yourself in I wouldn’t have had to take these extreme measures, besides, the ChronoGuard can’t function without corporate sponsorship.’

‘And in return you do a few favours?’

‘As I said, greater needs prevail. And before you start waving charges of corruption at me, this combined Goliath/ChronoGuard operation has been fully sanctioned by the Chamber. Now, it’s so simple even you can understand it. Give yourself up and your daughter can have her husband back—whether or not she decides to help Goliath. As you can see, I am in a very generous mood.’

I looked at Dad and saw him bite his lip. He rubbed his temples and sighed.

‘No.’

‘What?’ exclaimed Lavoisier.

‘No,’ I repeated. ‘Dad, don’t do it. I’ll get Jack Schitt out or just live on my own—or something!’

He smiled and rested his hand on my shoulder.

‘Bah!’ went Lavoisier. ‘As hideously self-righteous as each other!’

He nodded to his men, who raised their weapons. But Dad was quick. I felt him grasp my shoulder tightly and we were off. The sun rose quickly as we leapt forward, leaving Lavoisier and the others several hours away before they realised what had happened.

‘Let’s see if we can lose him!’ muttered my father. ‘As for that Chamber stuff—bullshit. Landen’s eradication was murder, pure and simple. In fact, it’s just the sort of information I need to bring Lavoisier down!’

Days amounted to no more than brief flashes of alternate dark and light as we hurtled into the future.

‘We’re not at full speed,’ Dad explained. ‘He might overtake me without thinking. Keep an eye out for—’

Lavoisier and his cronies appeared for no more than the briefest glimpse as they moved past us into the future. Dad stopped abruptly and I staggered slightly as we returned to real time. We moved off the road as a fifties-style truck drove past, horn blaring.

‘What now?’

‘I think we shook him off. Blast!’

We were off again—Lavoisier had reappeared. We lost him for a moment but pretty soon he was back again, keeping pace with us.

‘I’m too old to fall for that one!’ He smiled.

Soon after two of his cronies reappeared as each one found us and matched the speed at which we were moving through history.

‘I knew you’d come,’ said Lavoisier triumphantly, walking towards us slowly as the time flashed past, faster and faster. A new road was built where we were standing, then a bridge, houses, shops. ‘Give yourself up. What do you hope to gain from all this? You’ll have a fair trial, believe me.’

The two other ChronoGuard operatives grabbed my father and held him tightly.

‘I’ll see you hang for this, Lavoisier! The Chamber would never sanction such an action. Give Landen back his life and I promise you I will say nothing.’

‘Well, that’s just it, isn’t it?’ replied Lavoisier scornfully. ‘Who do you think they’re going to believe? You with your record or me, third in command at the ChronoGuard? Besides, your clumsy attempt to get Landen back has covered any tracks I might have made getting rid of him!’

Lavoisier aimed his gun at my father. The two ChronoGuard held on to him tightly to stop him accelerating away, and we buffeted slightly as he tried. I had a sudden thought.

‘Do you guys cross picket lines?’

The ChronoGuard agents looked at one another, then at the chronographs on their wrists, then at Lavoisier. The taller of the two was the first to speak.

‘She’s right, Mr Lavoisier, sir. I don’t mind bullying and killing innocents, and I’ll follow you beyond the crunch normally, but—’

‘But what?’ asked Lavoisier angrily.

‘—but I am a loyal Timeguild member. I don’t cross picket lines.’

‘Neither do I,’ agreed the other agent, nodding to his friend. ‘Likewise and truly.’

Lavoisier smiled engagingly.

‘Listen here, guys, I’ll personally pay—’

‘I’m sorry, Mr Lavoisier,’ replied the operative, slightly indignantly, ‘but we’ve been instructed not to enter into any individual contracts.’ And in an instant they were gone as December arrived and the world turned pink. What was once the road was now a few inches of the same pink slime that Dad had shown me. We were beyond 12 December 1985, and where before there had been growth, change, seasons, clouds, now there was nothing but a never-ending landscape of shiny opaque curd.

‘Saved by industrial action!’ said Dad, laughing. ‘Tell that to your friends at the Chamber!’

‘Bravo,’ replied Lavoisier sardonically, ‘bravo. I think we should just say au revoir, my friends—until we meet again.’

‘Do we have to make it au revoir?’ I asked. ‘What’s wrong with goodbye?’

He didn’t have time to answer as I felt Dad tense and we accelerated faster through the timestream. The pink slime was washed away, leaving only earth and rocks, and as I watched the river moved away from us, meandered off into the flood-plain and then snaked back, swept under our feet, and then undulated back and forth like a snake before finally being replaced by a lake. We moved faster, and soon I could see the earth start to buckle as the crust bent and twisted under the force of plate tectonics. Plains dropped to make seas, and mountains rose in their place. New vegetation established itself as millions of years swept past in a matter of seconds. Vast forests grew and fell in seconds. We were covered, then uncovered, then covered again, now by sea, now by rock, now surrounded by an ice sheet, now a hundred feet in the air. More forests, then a desert, then mountains rose rapidly in the east, only to be scoured flat a few moments later.