Instants Instance Wattys2016

Chapter 7

The men deactivated Alex and Max's gloves and headsets, making control of their Warpers impossible. They threw them into a small holding cell, but had a guard watch them closely.

"We'll explain it all when you're sentenced," the man replied when questioned by Alex. All that left for Alex to do was to sit and wait for Max to regain consciousness.

He didn't have to wait long. With a groan, Max's eyes flickered open. Pushing himself up onto one elbow, he looked around, noticing the walls of the high-tech cell before his eyes came across Alex. Immediately, he scrambled to his feet, backing into a corner with his arms raised defensively.

"What are you doing here?"

"Relax; I'm just as trapped here as you are. Don't bother trying to use your Warper, they deactivated our gloves."

Max, who had just been attempting to use his Warper, stopped. After a long awkward silence, he spoke again.

"Why did you try to stop me saving them?"

"Because they needed to die."

Max's face contorted, but he mastered himself. "What do you mean by that?"

"It's not that I want them to die, but that bomb had to go off in the centre of Kiev! If it didn't, there are massive consequences for the entire world."

"What do you mean? Stopping the bomb means saving 150,000 people!"

"But it also means dooming countless more. The war that was started by that bomb was so much smaller than it would have been if the tensions between the USA, China and Russia had been allowed to build."

Max looked away. "It doesn't matter. I got the bomb, whether you like it or not."

Alex paused. Internally, he was torn in two. Was it better for Max to know or not? In the end, he decided.

"Max, I'm afraid I haven't been entirely honest with you. There was a second bomb."

Alex watched emotions spread across Max's face like wildfires in a drought-ridden forest. Eventually, Max simply buried his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking with silent sobs. Alex sat down next to him and put an arm around his shoulders, but Max shook it off angrily. "YOU DON'T GET TO BE SORRY! YOU MIGHT AS WELL HAVE KILLED THEM YOURSELF!" Almost blinded by tears, he swung a punch at Alex, who blocked it, standing up and backing away. Max rose and charged at him, fists flying, no longer trying to subdue, but to damage in any way possible. Alex dodged and blocked many of the punches, but he was forced to soak up just as many, and while Max was out for his blood, Alex didn't want to kill him.

Max broke Alex's defences completely with a knee to the stomach. Winded, Alex couldn't block the hail of blows and collapsed. Max jumped on top of him, raining punches down on Alex's face and shoulders. Stars danced in his vision, and he was on the verge of losing consciousness, when Max spasmed and fell, a Shocker bullet on the back of his neck. The guard had opened the door and shot him, and now stood there with four other guards. They strode into the cell, and manacled Alex's and Max's hands.

"It's time for your sentencing."

They were led out of the cell, Max still somewhat insensible from the Shocker. Down a corridor, all constructed of bone polymer. Taking a left up a ramp, which proved to Alex that they weren't in his home in Ukraine, as that had been all on one level. They turned right, and went through a pair of large doors into a cavernous dome of a room. There was a raised section at one end, on which three people sat. One was a bald, powerfully built man with heavy dark eyebrows, who exuded an aura of danger even from across the room. The second was a blonde, sharp-featured man, whose eyes were black and darted between their faces, as if already calculating their sentence. The third was a beautiful woman with a face as perfect, but unyielding, as a marble statue.

Below the raised area were two chairs, with manacles ready for the arms and legs. Knowing that they were going to be sitting in those chairs whether they liked it or not, Alex and Max sat down without complaint, and waited for the restraints to be clicked around their ankles and wrists.

"Max Lucas and Alex Turin," began the sharp-featured man, "you stand accused of interfering with the timeline by use of time travel. The sentence for this offense is sixty years of time accumulation. What do you say in your defence?"

"For starters, I would like to know in which times and places we are accused of having interfered." Alex spoke up despite his nervousness. What did "time accumulation" mean? He had the feeling it wasn't at all pleasant.

"Firstly, Mr Lucas is accused of attempting to interfere with the explosion in Kiev in 2046. Secondly, you are both accused of interfering with the experiment of Galileo at the tower of Pisa in 1586. Thirdly, you are also both accused of destroying the notes of Nicolaus Copernicus in 1509. And finally, you both revealed yourself as time travellers to the Nazis in 1944."

Alex thought it wise not to mention the nuke in the Cretaceous Period.

The bald man was speaking. "So. Do you have anything to say for yourselves, or not?"

Alex cleared his throat. "Well, I have one thing to say, I was tasked to prevent Max Lucas from deactivating the bomb in Kiev."

There was a pause, and then woman spoke. "Even if your safeguarding of that place and time had been effective, which it wasn't, then it still doesn't excuse the amount of damage done in other areas of the timeline. In any case, you say you were "tasked" to do this. Who sent you?"

At that moment, the doors swung open again. Nestor strode into the room, a slight smirk playing around his lips, obviously aware that he'd timed his entrance perfectly. Walking alongside him was another man. His hair was a light brown, streaked with grey, and his eyes were intent and a vivid green.

Nestor walked up to the raised area, and then paused. "I did."

There was a long silence. "Sir," the bald man started, "you mean that-"

"Yes, that is exactly what I mean. I want them freed, let go, released into the wild, you understand?"

The three people looked about as surprised as Alex felt. "But what about the timeline?" asked the woman, almost plaintively.

"You people have watched too many time travel movies." The man next to Nestor spoke. His voice seemed oddly familiar. "You ought to know full well that the very fact that we stand here means that their so-called damage to the timeline has always and will always have happened. I do, on the other hand have some tasks that need to be completed for the history books, so if I could have a squad assigned to me for that, that would be wonderful."

The sharp-featured man stood. "I'll get started on that right away."

"Good. In the meantime, I'll give these two a little tour." Nestor's eyes twinkled, and he appeared to be barely suppressing laughter.