Free The Witches of Chiswick by Robert Rankin

I don’t understand any of it. The business with the picture. And how do you know about
that
?”
    “There are surveillance cameras in the archive too. I saw what you got up to. It did make me laugh, I’ve never cared too much for Rothko myself. I erased your image. But I thought I’d check on what it was all about. So I accessed your workstation and had a flip through your morning’s work. I saw the digital wristwatch. Things fell into place. It’s not the first time it’s happened. There have been other historical artefacts that don’t fit into our accepted view of history. There’s a website dedicated to them: anachronisms. Or there was; it was recently closed down.”
    “But what does it mean? What does
this
mean?”
    Will took out the little brass plaque and handed it to Tim. Tim examined it at length and grinned broadly.
    “Incredible,” he said. “And I’m really holding it in my hand. Incredible.”
    “But what does it mean?”
    “It means we’ve been lied to,” said Tim. “About history. What do you know about Charles Babbage?”
    “A little,” said Will. “He was the father of computer science. Born in London in 1791, he had a natural genius for mathematics and when he entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1811, he discovered that he knew more about the subject than his tutors. In 1821 he began work on his Difference Engine, the first computer, which he completed in 1832. He designed it to work out mathematical tables and he went on to build his Analytic Engine in 1856, which was capable of advanced calculus. He should have been hailed alongside Brunel as one of the great geniuses of the Victorian age, but he was not. The British government showed no interest in funding his work and his inventions were never truly realised until the twentieth century. He was a man ahead of his time.”
    “That’s somewhat more than
a little
” said Tim. “That’s a whole lot. How come you know all that?”
    “I looked him up in the library archives on Wednesday lunchtime. After seeing the digital watch in the painting I wanted to know whether there really had been a Babbage in Victorian times, who had anything to do with computers. There was, but he didn’t invent digital watches.”
    “I think he did,” said Tim. “And robots too. But not in the version of history that we’ve been brought up on.”
    “What other things?” asked Will. “On the website you saw. What other historical artefacts did you read about that don’t fit in?”
    “Ever heard of Jules Verne?” Tim asked.
    “I’ve read his books, on my palm-top, I downloaded them from the British Library files; they’re wonderful.”
    Tim shook his head. “What is it with you and the Victorian era?”
    “I don’t know. I’ve always felt a part of it somehow; I can’t explain.”
    “So you’ve probably read
Twenty Thousand leagues Under The Sea
.”
    “Brilliant,” said Will.
    “Then you’ll probably be pleased to hear that according to the information on the website, the wreckage of Captain Nemo’s
Nautilus
was recently discovered in the Antarctic”
    Will managed one more “
What
?”
    “It’s true,” said Tim. “I know it’s true. I can’t prove it. But this—” he displayed the little brass plaque “‘ – is all the proof I need. You’ll have to run, Will. Get away. They know you’re onto them. The painting didn’t get destroyed. They’ll send another robot after you.”
    “Who will? The authorities?”
    “The Victorians. The robot was sent through time to destroy the painting and destroy you. That robot was sent from the past.”
    “Yeah, right,” said Will. “In a time machine, I suppose. Like the one that H.G. Wells wrote about.”
    “I’ve never heard of H.G. Wells,” said Tim. “Was he another scientist?”
    “Another novelist, like Jules Verne. This is absurd, Tim.”
    “Not according to the website. According to the website the Victorians made incredible advances in technology. The wireless