Free TimeSplash by Graham Storrs Page B

course, would have access to all Jay’s training and operational reports, his psych evaluations and his officers’ reports. He would know full well how Jay was doing.
     
    “Nasty rumours we’re hearing about this new kind of timesplash.”
     
    “Yes, sir.”
     
    Part of Jay’s work of late had been to hang out with local bricks and stay in touch with the splashparty scene on the UK side of the Channel. Some of the rumours to which Holbrook referred came from Jay’s own reports.
     
    “Do you think they’re true?”
     
    The service, Jay knew, had many analysts working on just this question. “After tonight, I’d definitely say so, sir.”
     
    “Really?”
     
    “It confirms there’s at least one European group trying to assemble enough generating capacity for the kind of lob people are talking about.”
     
    Holbrook nodded but said nothing. Jay wondered if the boss could possibly have sent for him just to chat about this.
     
    “You did well in your training, Jay. And I’ve heard good things about your undercover work.”
     
    Now Jay really was confused. “Thank you, sir.”
     
    “I’ve got another job for you.”
     
    “Sir?”
     
    “Ever hear of the Daleks?”
     
     
     

Chapter 7: Beijing
     
    “This is the Nine O’clock News.”
     
    Sandra Malone glanced at the screen. She had been working on her physics assignment for the past hour and she was keen to be distracted.
     
    “Reports are just coming in from Beijing of violent disturbances in China’s capital city and throughout the North China Plain. Reporters in the capital are saying there appear to be seismic and temporal disruptions similar to the backwash from a timesplash but on a massive scale. Chinese officials have yet to make any comment but netlogs and biologs from the area include reports of bizarre physical phenomena and massive destruction. One netlog, from a financial analyst in the commercial centre of Xidan, close to the city centre, tells of buildings collapsing and bridges melting and even has vidstream of what looks like a marauding army of soldiers shooting civilians as they flee for their lives. To view this footage, select Xidan from the context menu.”
     
    Sandra rose to her feet, her assignment forgotten. The images on the viewer drew her toward them. In the city of Beijing and in the towns and country all around it for tens of kilometres, chaos ruled. The ground rippled as gravity fluctuated, buildings tumbled, crowds of fleeing people grew and shrank as space distorted.
     
    “Oh my God,” she whispered, her hands clutching her head. “Oh God, not again.”
     
    She watched the panic and the fear, the cancellation of all physical normality. Once more she relived the horror she had felt two years ago. On the screen Beijing tore itself apart, but in her mind she fled with the terrified people of Ommen, running, hiding, trying to get away from the lethal madness all around her. Her name was Patty again and she was scared, more scared than she had ever been in her life. Sniper lurked in the shadows and Patty ran and ran, the way she had run in her nightmares every night since that awful day.
     
    * * * *
     
    “It’s a backwash,” Colbert said, entering Bauchet’s office. “The Chinese have confirmed it.”
     
    “Impossible! On such a scale?”
     
    “Official estimate is thirty thousand dead. Maybe a hundred thousand injured. The numbers keep growing. Beijing is a ruin. Total devastation in central Beijing. A hundred square kilometres flattened. Partial destruction stretching out to a thousand square kilometres.”
     
    Bauchet said nothing for a long while, staring at nothing, trying to take in the enormity of what had happened. “So someone’s managed it,” he said at last. “Now every damned brick on the planet will want to do it too.”
     
    “Maybe not. The Chinese say they found the cage and it had five dead bodies in it. As far as they can tell, no one survived. Even the tekniks died in the