UNDERCOVER - Dark Fire Data (Book 3)

Part 14 - Blooming Hell

'Hey, Denny's back in school.' Miguel was looking out of the window again. 'His Jeep's parked across the street.'

We promptly decided to interrogate him. It was a short journey across Sumac Street so Miguel and I were ready to run across without our parkas but Licia insisted that we wear all our arctic survival clothing. 'You never know. They might have turned the heating off for the holidays.'

 Denny had forgotten to lock the loading dock doors and we found him setting up a computer controlled milling machine in the machine shop. 'What the blooming 'ell. You must like school! It's Boxing Day! You should all be at home eating left-over turkey and Christmas pudding.'

 'Happy Christmas,' Licia said with a big smile. 'We were hoping you would tell us what is going on.'

'Well, you may have to wait a few days for Lee Zhang.   He's in the U.S. of A;  negotiating the sale of WongTime Photonics.

I told him about Kozak, Andy and Con Black. We had decided not to mention Yonnie and Treeka until we found out if they were some kind of practical joke.

Denny listened patiently until we had finished. 'Blooming 'ell,' he said. 'You guys seem to be attracting a lot of attention. Lee Zhang won't appreciate this news. He is trying to keep the whole project secret.'

'Anyway, you never really explained why we all ended up on the Titanic,' I said.

'It was too real to be virtual,' Miguel pointed out.

'Well, blimey, I agree. To be honest, I really don't know what happened. It was far better than anything Lee Zhang has done so far. I was just doing some work on the back-up computer when there was a flash of light. I thought a blooming circuit had blown on the electric bookcase. So I went to check and found myself on the Titanic. I thought Oppy had some kind of software glitch. Afterward, I wondered if your pal, Murga, had switched the time setting.'

'He is definitively not my pal,' I snorted indignantly.

Denny grinned. 'I had just figured out I was on a ship when I bumped into Isambard. He assumed I was Sir Saint Denis and showed me around.'

Isambard (usually called Sam) was a very young member of the Titanic's crew who had helped us after we accidentally found ourselves on the ship just before it struck an iceberg and sank. Sam was about 17 years old. He had grown up in an orphanage and got a job delivering coal before working on a steam ship transporting coal from the mines in the north of England to Southampton. There, he was lucky to get a job on a brand new transatlantic ship called the Royal Mail Steamer Titanic. 

 Very likely his life would have ended when the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage to New York, but for the strange chance that Denny, Licia, Miguel and I had joined the ship in mid Atlantic, by way of Dr Zhang experimental time machine. 

 'Do you know what happened to Sam?' Miguel asked. 

 Denny looked a little embarrassed. 'He's at my apartment boggling his mind with the World of War Craft.'

 Licia, Miguel and I goggled at Denny for several seconds before Licia blurted, 'WHAT! You brought him back . . . here?'

'Well, not blinking exactly. He just followed us and then knocked himself out. With all the smoke and confusion I didn't see him lying on the floor until I had put the fire out and then I figured it would cause all kinds of consternation if I told anybody.'

'You didn't tell Dr Zhang?' I asked. 'Not blooming likely,' Denny said. 'He doesn't believe what happened. He would go through the roof. You're the only people who know about Sam. I'm going to pretend he is my nephew just arrived from England. I hope you will not let on.'

'Well that blows a big hole though Dr Zhang's explanation.' Licia sounded peeved. 'It proves this really is time travel.'

 'Well hold your blinking horses. Until this little mishap, I didn't believe in time travel. I thought Lee Zhang was bonkers but he really is totally mystified. He's blown several gaskets trying to figure it all out.' 

 'What on Earth is a gasket?' Licia asked.

'Oh, it's a seal. When the cylinder head gasket on your car blows, it allows gas to escape from the cylinders. Your engine doesn't work too well.'

'Is Sam okay?' Miguel asked. 'You said he knocked himself out.'

'Oh, he's fine. But, it's is interesting to watch someone from 1912 discovering modern technology,' Denny replied. 

 'He can barely read but he already knows how to use a computer. I have arranged with Principal Ball for him to start taking some classes to improve his English and I would appreciated it if you would bring him up to speed about Silverwood School. But, changing the subject, what did you think about the Titanic? Weren't those steam engines fantastic?'

'I felt like a mouse inside a engine, terrified,' Licia said. 'But I still don't understand how they worked.'

 'Yeah,' Denny said. 'They were a bit like a large four cylinder car engines with huge pistons. The two low pressure cylinders were six feet in diameter, almost two metres. They were the ultimate development of the steam engines built almost 200 years earlier. I was just googling James Watt, the man whose name is on every light bulb. One could argue he started the Industrial Revolution . . .'