Free Day of the Assassins by Johnny O'Brien

crumbly remains of his mum’s chocolate cake wrapped up in cling film. He felt a lump forming in his throat.
    Suddenly, the wooden pallet beneath his feet groaned. It was moving. Jack found himself rocking gently from side to side and had to steady himself with both hands between the two walls of sacks. He looked up. He could make out some cables and the hook of a large crane. The pallet and its heavy load, including Jack, were being hoisted into the air. Through the wooden slats of the pallet he could see that there was already clear air between him and the quayside. Then the crane stopped and he could feel the whole structure swaying gently. From his vantage point, Jack saw that both the ship and the quayside were throbbing with activity. Without warning, the massive load started to move again – sideways this time. With horror, Jack realised what was happening. Dreadnought was taking supplies onboard – and the mighty battleship had an uninvited guest: Jack was about to be lowered deep into the hold.
    The crane paused once more. Jack was helpless and peered desperately from his hiding place, scanning the edge of the ship and the quayside for some means of escape. Just as the massive crane started to lower its load into the ship, Jack spotted two figures standing further down the quayside – not ten metres away. The Taurus must have delivered a final spasm of energy, after transferring Jack, before losing the signal completely. They were after him already: Tony and Gordon.
    *
    He’d been lying in the dark hold for what seemed like ages with dusty smells wafting around him. He was well hidden and one thing was for sure, he wasn’t going outside again, right into the hands of Tony and Gordon. He tried to make himself comfortable. After a little while, he detected a slight vibration as the ship’s steam turbine engines gently pushed Dreadnought away from the dock.
    They were going to sea.
    Jack tried to think logically through the events of the last few hours. Most worrying were Tony and Gordon. They must have been sent to get him. They must have their own time phones – also connected to the Taurus. He wondered if he had made a clean getaway – or whether they had guessed he had boarded the ship and had followed him aboard to hunt him down like a rat in a steel maze.
    Jack thought back to the strange conversation that he and Angus held with Pendelshape before the Rector had stormed in. Pendelshape had been about to tell them something. Something important – about the Benefactor – and this was linked to the strange email they had discovered. He tried to remember what the email had said. It had been from the Benefactor, who had been replying to Pendelshape. So the two of them had been in contact – perhaps for some time. What had the email said again? Jack racked his brains.
    Do not concern yourself with the Cairnfield workshop…
    So the Benefactor knew about his father’s workshop at Cairnfield. And he had also said: Our own Taurus is complete! Yes! A functioning, full-scale system.
    But… could that mean the Benefactor had somehow developed another time machine? Maybe there were two Tauruses? The one at the school, and a separate one – belonging to the Benefactor. That would be incredible… but already Jack felt he had seen enough incredible things to last several lifetimes. It would have been strictly against the rules of VIGIL that Pendelshape had talked about. But on the other hand, the Benefactor was a key member of the original Taurus team… so perhaps he had the brains to pull it off. It sounded like Pendelshape must have known about it… known what the Benefactor was up to. Maybe that’s why the Rector was so angry with Pendelshape?
    Jack tried to remember what else the email had said:
    I fear that when they find out, they may take Orion… we must protect Orion.
    Who was Orion? And the email had mentioned someone else too – a ‘she’ – ‘Lynx’. A man and a woman who could not be named.