VIII

"If it's a shoe, it's probably mine," said Bernard Baal, as we all crowded onto the teleporter pads.

            "Of course it's going to be yours," said Chernobog. "No one else was stupid enough to go wading in the river without checking for caimans first."

            "Let's just hope it is that and nothing else," said Ra, as Anubis and his team stepped onto the teleporter pads as well. We all jostled around to make room and I ended up between Mirabi and Catherine Sobek.

            "It can't be anything serious," said Anubis. "We've monitored very carefully for this from the start. The project members have never taken back anything more than they needed and all the equipment's been accounted for."

            "Apart from copies of the Phai-whatsit disc and music recorders?" said Mirabi.

            "No. I brought all of them back," said Baldr. "I was most careful."

            "I didn't leave anything in Alexandria," said Ra. "And I haven't been looking for translations in Tutal Xiu."

            "Same here. I only brought back data. Nothing physical," said Zeus.

            "Well, we'll find out," I said. I tapped my wristcom, which I'd wormlinked to the controls and we teleported down to Earth.

_          _          _          _          _

As soon as we arrived, I blinked in the glaring sunlight. Then my Helmcom automatically lowered my visor opacity and I could see clearly again. I'd expected to arrive back in the jungle, but instead we were standing in the middle of a wide, flat brown plain. The rainforest ran around the edges of it, almost a mile away on three sides. On the forth side was an old 20th century tarmaced road and farming fields beyond it.  A collection of inflata-tents stood in the middle of the plain ahead of us. They were the only breaks in the brown flatness.

            "Tutal Xiu fell before the Spanish came, Detective," said Domingo Xibalba, as he noticed me looking around. "My people were forced to abandon the city after an earthquake. Then another one finished it off. All that's left is buried here. Hades calls it the site of the city, but it's really its graveyard."

            "I'm sorry," I said. I had been expecting ruins, but I'd thought they would at least be standing ruins. I'd imagined crumbling temples and pyramids covered in wines and surrounded by the living jungle. The flat, empty desert was a shock.

            "The Mayans did survive though," said Megan Uzume. "Through all the centuries to the present. You're the proof of that, Mr Xibalba."

            "Yes, we did," said Xibalba. "And this is only one part of our history. My people are the only South Americans never to have been truly conquered. We rose in rebellion against the Spaniards a dozen times, right up into the 20th century. Twice, we retook all of the Yucatan from them. And we have done more than just survive. We have prospered. Forget what you've seen in the past, Miss Uzume, because that was the past. My people have not yet risen to the height of our glory."

            "Detectives!"

            We looked around as Hades came running out of the camp towards us. His sunhat flew off his head and he had to turn around and run back to retrieve it before he reached us.

            "Hello, Doctor," I said.

            "Thanks for listening to me," said Hades, looking around at us. "You brought everyone? Yes. Good."

            "Yes, we did. So what is this thing you've found?" said Mirabi. "We are leaving a murder victim unattended, I hope you realise."

            "Yes, I know. But this...," Hades glanced over our shoulders at the others, then leaned close and lowered his voice. "This might be connected to the Professor's death."

            "OK. That's good enough," said Mirabi.

            "Where is it?" I said.

            "Still where we found it," said Hades. "When we realised what it was, I had the students stop digging. I thought we'd better leave it in place. Until you'd seen it."

            "Lead the way," I said.

            We followed Hades into the archaeologists' camp. Several dozen people were moving around, both Oxbridge Luna students and local residents, some of whom said hello to Domingo Xibalba as we passed. None of them were the least bit surprised by his ancient Mayan outfit, which was very well suited for the climate. My uniform's insulation lowered a few levels as my wristcom responded to the air temperature.

 The tents were all clustered together, but the dig was spread out over a wide era. Geometric shapes – mostly connected squares and rectangles – were marked out on the ground with yellow string between plastic stakes stuck in the corners. As we walked past several of them, I suddenly realised they were marking out where the buildings had stood in Tutal Xiu. We were walking along a street I'd walked along in the past just an hour ago – and over a thousand years ago – retracing my own footsteps.

 Inside the marked shapes, the actual digging was happening. Large pits were open in the ground, which I'd thought would be too dry and powdery to dig easily, and inside them, the students and local volunteers were brushing the dust off chunks of masonry, sections of walls with the carvings still intact and broken pots and statues, some of which I recognised from Tutal Xiu in the past. The living city I'd seen there was reduced to nothing but rubble in the present.

 That was what had affected me about Uzume's latest comment. It had touched a nerve that I hadn't realised was raw. Tutal Xiu was dust in the present, with only fragments of what its people had created. But the project members had saved all their books. I was potentially also staring death in the face, but what had I created? Apart from a personnel file recording a few dozen successfully solved temporal crime investigations and a bedroom filled mostly with issued equipment at HQ, what was I leaving behind if – or when – my time came? Mirabi had told me for years that I should get a hobby, find some interests to pursue, build a life outside of work and for the first time, I felt that she was right. What had I created that anyone in the future would think was worth coming back through time to save? If I was right and time was twisting to swallow me up and ensure I didn't escape my fate after all, what was I leaving to show I'd ever existed?

            "So what do you think of her?" said Mirabi.

            "Who? What?" I said, snapping out of my thoughts.

            "The tall, dark haired, skinny one," said Mirabi. "Intriguing, isn't she?"

            "Mirabi," I said.

            "I'm deadly serious," said Mirabi. "Do you like her?"

            "She's a suspect," I said.

            "I know that. Do you like her?"

            "It's irrelevant," I said. If I said I didn't, she'd just say it was proof I did. I'd be down this particular road before.

            "No, it's not," said Mirabi. "It could influence your judgement, for one thing. And, if it turns out she isn't guilty, what are you going to do about it?"

            "Nothing," I said. "Because there isn't an 'it'."

            "Sure," said Mirabi. "But if, theoretically, there was; I approve. I think she'd be a very good fit for you."

            "Don't start this again," I said.

            Ever since I'd learnt the truth about where I'd come from, and how truly alone I was in the universe, Mirabi had taken it upon herself to try to play matchmaker whenever we met anyone who she thought might be even remotely suitable as a life partner for me. Her candidates had ranged from other ChronOps officers, experts we called in, the engineering techs and a zero-gravity racing pilot. Uzume wasn't even the first murder suspect she'd tried to set me up with, and she was still proud that only two of the others had turned out to be guilty.

            "If there's nothing, why do you keep snapping at her?" said Mirabi.

            I sighed behind my helmet. Time wasn't the only thing I couldn't escape from. Another was Mirabi's ability to read me like a book and my own inability to fool her.

            "It's not her fault," I said. "She just... She keeps saying stuff that reminds me of... Of what's really going on."

            "Ah. Insightful," said Mirabi. "That's a very good sign."

            "No, it isn't," I said. "And do you have to do this every time? You hate it when your aunts are doing it to you."

            The extended Arjuna family had been slow to accept Mirabi's career in ChronOps, and even now that they had, most of her relatives still couldn't understand why Mirabi was content to stay in the lower ranks and not start climbing the promotion ladder to become a real officer. But even then, her mother and mother-in-law, all of her aunts and both grandmothers still felt the first priority was finding her a husband.

            "That's different," said Mirabi, tapping the ChronOps logo on her tunic. "I've already found the love of my life. And you're different too. Your circumstances are unique."

            "Exactly," I said. "That's why nothing is going to happen."

            That was truer now than it had been this morning. For all the time I'd thought I was doomed to die, I'd never dated. How could I start any kind of relationship with anyone when I had time-limit on my own life? For most of that time, I hadn't even known the date of my predicted death, so how could I take someone out for dinner and a movie when fate could come knocking at any moment? I couldn't even think about starting a family.

 After the Time Traveller's Ball, when I'd thought I was free from this, I had briefly re-considered it. The only problem was that there was no one in my immediate circle who I particularly wanted to start a relationship with, and I was too busy enjoying the freedom to bother looking. And now that I might not be free from it after all, it was straight off the table again.

 "It's here, Detective," said Hades.

 We'd reached a pit at the edge of the dig site, which – I realised after a seconds thought – had to correspond roughly to the edge of the city, where the jungle, now pushed hundreds of yards back, had started last time. Three students were standing around the hole, all holding brushes and shovels and all looking just as worried as he did.

 "No one's touched it, Doctor," said one of them, as we reached the edge of the pit and looked in.

 "Well, what is it?" said Isabel Chernobog, coming up behind us with the others. "What's all the fuss about?"

 "If it's a size twelve brown loafer, it's mine," said Baal. He paused as he saw what it was. "Oh, Darwin."

 I was thinking the same thing. As soon as I saw it – and I recognised it instantly – my blood ran cold. Everything had changed. It was no longer just that there was something else going in the library project, aside from the Professor's murder, his colleagues scheming to win the Wells Prize and whatever the I.I had Chernobog looking for. Whatever our mysterious third unauthorised backstepper was up to, we now had a very serious problem.

 The object was half buried at the bottom of the pit, surrounded by bits of broken pottery. The student had dug out around it and brushed off enough of the dirt and dust so that we could see it clearly. It was scratched and battered and stained all over and I could see what Hades had meant when he said the jaguar knife definitely had not been in the ground for centuries, but it was still unmistakable. Buried in the ruins of a 14th century Mayan city was a 30th century solar powered Unirifle recharger.

_          _          _          _          _

"All right. It's not one of ours," said Anubis, coming back into the main room of the library. "The weapons store's intact. No one's tampered with the locks. And it isn't the make or model we use anyway."

            "Good. Thanks, Captain," I said, as I placed the recharger down on the table.

            As soon as we'd arrived back on the moon five minutes ago, I sent Anubis to check his team's own armoury. We had left Hades's students down at the dig site to search the area around it in case anything else was buried there. We'd brought the recharger itself back to the university to examine properly.

 "OK. That's one place it didn't come from," said Mirabi.

 "This is a very serious situation, Detectives," said Domingo Xibalba. "My people are going to have the conquistadors come down on them in barely a century, armed with horses, steel swords and early firearms. The last thing they need is foes with modern weapons as well. Not to mention what it could do to recorded history and the time stream."

            "I know," I said. "Don't worry. We're going to solve this."

            Objects from the present had been getting lost in the past for years. Even before time travel in the 20th century, some people had been smart enough to spot items dropped even further in the past by careless backsteppers, such as the Aiud aluminium artefact or the Dropa stones. But there was still the potential to cause damage and – considering this was evidence that somebody had been moving around in the past with at least one modern day military weapon – the potential was a lot higher than normal.

            "It's certainly not part of our equipment," said Baldr. "And I doubt any of us have ever taken anything like it to the past."

            "Haxing right," said Zeus. "Go ahead and polygraph me."

            "Actually, I was about to do that," I said. "Unless anyone's got any objections?"

            "Of course not," said Isabel Chernobog. "Go right ahead. None of us have got anything to hide."

            I had actually meant in terms of personal objections. Helmcom polygraph's ability to detect lies, half-truths and concealments meant it came with heavy potential for misuse and even heavier potential for unpleasant side effects, as completely unrelated secrets, non-disclosures and guilty consciences could be turned up by it, right in the presence of colleagues, friends or family members. There were almost two gigabytes of rules and regulations on its use in the ChronOps procedures manual. Mainly for privacy reasons, we could not use it to ask direct questions without the subject's express permission. But in this situation, I'd risk a professional conduct hearing.

            "Thank you, Miss Chernobog," I said. I glanced around at the other faces, but no one else objected. "Did any of you take the rifle recharger back to the past?"

            "No," said Chernobog.

            "No," said Baldr, Zeus and Ra.

            "No." Bernard Baal and Megan Uzume shook their heads.

            "It wasn't me," said Max Ishtar.

            "I have not taken the rifle recharger or anything else to Tutal Xiu," said Xibalba.

            "My first glimpse was when we dug it up," said Hades.

            "It wasn't us," said Anubis. All of his team quickly said the same.

            Helmcom brought the rush of results up as a graph on the inside of my visor. I tried not to sigh with exasperation audibly. Everyone had scored 94%+ or higher.

            "Well, thank Darwin for that," said Zeus. "So it is our mysterious backstepper. Hey, does this mean it's someone from outside the Project?"

            "It couldn't be one of the other librarians, surely," said Baldr.

            "I don't know. There's always been something weird about Juno," said Zeus.

            "We'll find out," I said. "In the meantime, Dr. Hades, I need you to go back down to Earth right now. Can you analyse the spot you found it in?"

            "Yes, of course," said Hades.

            "Good. See if you can find out when it was buried," I said. "As accurately as possible."

            Hades nodded and hurried away to the teleporter. I should not have been placing trust in a suspect like this, but as he almost definitely had been down on Earth when the Professor was murdered, he was my best option. The only other was to call ChronOps for a forensic team, all of whom would have their hands full at HQ at the moment.

            "Well. At least we've got a second clue," said Mirabi, picking the recharger up from the table and examining it again. She brushed at some of the encrusted dirt on its side with her thumb.

            "Are you sure?" said Baal. "Is it something to do with Professor Wei'To?"

            "Find me whoever took it back and I'll ask them," said Mirabi.

            "You don't...," said Ishtar, scratching his head. He looked around at the other teaching assistants. "You don't suppose... It couldn't have been Andrew who took it back, could it?"

_          _          _          _          _         

"Who in Dawkin's name is Andrew?" said Mirabi.

            "Andrew Tawaret," said Ra. "He was my teaching assistant this year."

            "Right. Where is he and why are we only learning about him now?" said Mirabi.

            "Because there is no way he could possibly have been involved in any part of this," said Ra. "Henry's death or the recharger. He's been dead for three months."

            "Our third backstepper's been making jumps since then," said Anubis. "I already considered this. Detective. It can't have been him."

            "Never the less, why has no one mentioned this before now?" I said. "What happened to him?"

            "It wasn't very good," said Ishtar.

            "It was an accident," said Ra. "A stupid mistake."

            He lowered his head slightly and gazed at nothing in the middle distance as he said this. Whatever it was, he had been grieving about it and was not finished yet.

            "It was simple bad luck, Doctor," said Anubis. "The coroner already closed the case, Detective. The funeral was a month ago. That was why we didn't mention it."

            "We were planning to have a toast to him tonight," said Baal, indicating the party table.

            "What happened?" I said.

            "We were taking some gifts back to the priests in Tutal Xiu," said Ra. "It was just myself and Andrew backstepping. We were still negotiating for access to the books and it's traditional to offer gifts. We were carrying them between us, and Andrew had one of the longer, metal objects. We materialised in the middle of an electrical storm."

            "The statuette acted as a lightning conductor," said Anubis. "He took the full force. Something in the region of 350,000 volts."

            "He was killed almost instantly," said Ra. He held out his hands to us and turned them over. While the back of his hands were tanned and creased, the skin of his palms and his fingers was smooth and supple and visibly several shades lighter than the rest of his hands. He'd spent some time recently with both hands in a regenerative tank. "I got second degree burns trying to save him. It was quite simply the worst day of my life."

            "I'm sorry," I said. "Would he have had any reason you can think of to take a weapon recharger to the past?"

            "No," said Ishtar. "But... Well, if it really wasn't one of us, maybe..."

            "I can't imagine why he would have," said Zeus. "He was quiet, but he was always polite, friendly. A great student."

            "All right. As we can't polygraph him, let's focus on something else," said Mirabi, scraping more dirt off the recharger with her thumb. "Like where this came from originally."

            "What?"

            Mirabi turned it around where I could see it. She had scraped away enough of the dirt off it to reveal a serial number lasered into the metal.

_          _          _          _          _

"There you are, Detective," said Megan Uzume. She stepped back from the wall com terminal, having just used her password to open the system for me and connect it to the hypernet.

            "Thank you," I said. I stepped up to the keyboard and called up Googleplex. I typed the recharger's serial number – double checking all the digits – into the search box. Mirabi was using her wristcom to do the same thing with the ChronOps database. If we could find out who had manufactured the recharger, we might also be able to learn who they'd sold it to.

            "You're welcome," said Uzume, quietly. She paused, then seemed to steel herself. "I'm sorry if I upset you. Earlier. And before..."

            "No," I said. "Don't worry about it. You didn't."

            "Oh," said Uzume.

            There was another pause. I gritted my teeth. I really did not want to be doing this right now – or at all – but I made myself look around at her. She had been extremely helpful, my reactions hadn't been her fault and I had no reason to be unpleasant to her. Despite her unfortunate ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time.

            "It's nothing you did. It's just..." I struggled to find an uncomplicated and detail-minimum way to explain it. "I'm dealing with some personal problems at the moment. You just said a couple of things that reminded me."

            "Oh," said Uzume. She lowered her eyes and looked away.

            "It wasn't your fault," I said. "You couldn't know. I should apologise. Actually, I do..."

            "No, please. You don't need to," said Uzume, looking up at me again. "I understand."

            "I very much doubt that," I said, as the search results started scrolling across the screen. Why were connections always slow on this side of the moon?

            "No. Not your problems, I meant...," said Uzume. She looked away. "When I lost my parents – and my brother and my sister – everyone told me to try not to dwell on it too much. So it didn't become too painful. But I couldn't. Because anyone could say anything. It could be completely unrelated, but it would remind me of them."

            I immediately felt like even more of a haxer. I was very glad I'd looked back at the screen in case it showed on my face. And to make things worse, I had to admit Mirabi was right. Uzume was very insightful.

            "I'm sorry," I said.

            "It won't last forever, though," said Uzume. "Everything gets better eventually"

            I nodded. Hopefully, she was right. The only problem was that I didn't have forever, and I might not have eventually. I might not have very long at all, before destiny came calling in some strange and dangerous form to drag me back to the fate I thought I'd avoided. I could be fated to end up as dead as Megan's family and there was nothing I could do to prevent it.

            "How do you have all the system passwords?" I said. I was grateful to have something to change the subject to this time, even though the hypernet search was turning up combinations of the numbers everywhere, but so far with no links to rifle rechargers.

            "Professor Wei'To gave them to me," said Uzume. "I help out with all of the project's administrative work. The doctors are all very good, but..."

            She paused and glanced at them.

            "But what?" I said.

            Zeus, Ra and Baldr were out of earshot, but Uzume lowered her voice anyway.

            "They're all a bit forgetful," she said. "I spend a lot of time correcting their mistakes. Dr. Zeus's last three emails to his producer all had the wrong address on them. Three different wrong addresses."

            I smiled. Zeus was the kind of man who would try to type as fast as he could think. But before I could say anything, Mirabi spoke.

            "Erik."

            "Yes?" I said. Uzume and I looked around

            "Match," said Mirabi, walking over to us.

            "Great," I said. My own screen of scrolling number combinations was getting nowhere.

            "Don't get too excited. You're not going to like it," said Mirabi.

            She held her wristcom screen out where I could see it. It was indeed showing a picture of our rifle recharger. But it was the ChronOps file, and specifically the company name and logo, which gripped my attention.

            Viking Weapons Systems, Ltd.