‘Send his likeness to South Africa, buy the land around that machine, and fence it off with guards,’ Jimmy ordered. ‘Make that a priority, and increase the number of people looking for him around Europe.’

‘There’s something we’re overlooking,’ Susan put in. ‘Jimmy’s name was on the manual to create a time machine.’

‘Shit, yes,’ I realised. I faced Jimmy, ‘You were meant to go to that world.’

Jimmy took a moment. ‘At one point I considered that I was being set up to fail, to be there when a war broke out and to take the blame, discredited by someone.’

‘Someone like Gilchrist,’ I suggested. ‘But he’d not get access to a portal.’

Susan said, ‘Then someone like him, but from further into the future, or a split-off world.’

‘If the real reason is to discredit you,’ I began, ‘then maybe your lad wanted to help you, to get in there first. Maybe we’re reading this wrong, and he’s a chip off the old block, Indiana Jones Silo Junior.’

‘Still, he didn’t make contact when he came here,’ Jimmy emphasised, sounding frustrated. He faced Baldy squarely. ‘Is there anything else he did, anything at all, that might shed some light on this?’

Baldy gave it some thought. ‘I first noticed him because of the coal-oil; I knew it was future technology. He was careful, many aliases, always doubling back or using safe houses.’

‘Hang on,’ I said. ‘When he came here he was unknown. Why would he need to use safe houses and aliases?’

‘Why does anyone?’ Jimmy stated. ‘To stay off the grid, either to avoid being found, or to find someone.’

‘Could there be someone after him?’ Susan asked.

‘The person who threw the manual onto that world,’ I said.

‘We’re going around in circles,’ Jimmy said. ‘When we find him ... we’ll ask him.’

When Hardon Chase was awake I showed him around the hotel, followed by the aircraft factories, giving him the ten dollar tour. He found me and Baldy scary, scary in that we were identical, and that there may be many alternate Hardon Chase’s out there.

Command review

Jimmy called a command meeting at 3pm, many of the scientists conveniently at the hotel. Ted came and joined us, as well as the principal factory managers, Hardon Chase already having met them. Our liaisons to the US and Canadian Governments sat with notebooks and pencils, as did the senior officers from the US Marines, Cookie and Sandra sat off to one side, their own notepads ready.

‘OK, are we all here?’ Jimmy called. ‘Please raise your hand if you’re not here.’ He waited as people smiled. ‘OK, let’s start with the US Marines dispositions. Where are we at, General?’

‘There’s still some fighting going on in Manchuria, few Jap units that don’t believe the surrender. History books say some of them will hold out for years.’

‘Any organised resistance there?’ Jimmy asked.

‘No, sir.’

‘Philippines?’

‘Same deal, sir, small groups in the jungle.’

‘Forget them, sound a general recall for your people. Bring them all back here, where – I believe – we should hold a parade or two.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Wounded?’

‘Not many, sir, and even then it was down to bombs and stray artillery. One plane went down, that was our worst tally.’

‘How did the plane go down?’ Jimmy queried.

‘Mid-air collision at night, sir, probably just an accident.’

Jimmy nodded. ‘Do a tally when they get here, but leave a rescue unit behind in case of stragglers. OK, occupation of Japan?’

The White House liaison said. ‘We’ve landed twenty thousand soldiers so far, just the odd shoot-out, usually with civilians. The Japanese soldiers are being disarmed.’

‘Any military hardware returning to Japan?’

‘Not that we know of,’ the man responded. ‘In the Philippines it’s all being destroyed.’

‘Good. Do you need anything for Japan?’

‘You say that there’ll be no uprising in the future?’

‘No, there won’t be. And has your government an economic plan for Japan?’

‘We do, starting with the new coal-oil.’

‘Do you not wish to sell them your oil?’ Jimmy teased.

The man took in the faces. ‘We might if they had more than two beans to rub together.’

‘Moving on: communists in China. Has anyone heard from Mister Han?’ Blank faces stared back. ‘OK, then we should try and contact Mao through channels and find out if Han’s plane went down. What’s happening in Hong Kong?’

I said, ‘Po is rebuilding quickly, the Nepalese Rifles are all home, the Canadian Rifles are back here - paid off and released, the British servicemen still there.’

‘And our armour?’

‘Po has claimed them to defend the colony,’ I said with a smile. ‘Most are back in the caves.’

‘Our aircraft?’

‘Still there, pilots back here. The RAF has our prop fighters,’ I reported. ‘Oh, and we’ve re-started a seaplane route to the colony and back. Even have a few seaplanes still with RAF roundels on them.’

Jimmy smiled. ‘They may get priority slots for landing, or start a war with a small country that thinks it’s being invaded. How’s the commercial fleet?’

Ted reported, ‘We had three hundred operating before the war, fifty converted to military use, another fifty loaned to the US military. Some of them coming back to us now.’

‘Production?’

‘The Goose line was ended, but we have twenty-five to finish off, twelve Super Goose to finish off, so we’ll try and get them back on routes and making a buck. We haven’t ended the Super Goose line because we have too many orders.’

‘And the next variant?’ Jimmy asked.

‘At least a few months away,’ Ted reported.

‘OK, make a few more Super Goose, they’re reliable aircraft anyway.’

‘How many more?’

‘I want pre-war commercial fleet levels to where they were, then to start to expand the fleet.’

‘That’s at least sixty aircraft,’ Ted cautioned.

Jimmy nodded. ‘OK, jet bomber production?’

‘Slow,’ Ted responded. ‘But the first four were handed to an American training unit, another sixteen on the assembly line.’

‘There’s no particular hurry for them. Quality is more important. Small arms?’

I reported, ‘Scaled back from wartime levels, most still going to the US military, some to Britain. Churchill wants the AK47 as standard for British forces.’

‘They’d be expensive for the average soldier. Remind Churchill of that, and suggest that they be used for certain regiments, but not every soldier yet. He’ll find the ammo expensive.’

‘He wants to manufacture under license,’ I pointed out.

‘Fine, sign a deal.’

‘What about jet fighters?’ the US liaison asked.

‘The F15 aircraft is very capable, but also expensive to make. So we’re designing a fighter that’s not so expensive.’

‘And not so capable,’ the US liaison rightly pointed out.

‘Against ... who?’ Jimmy posed. ‘Against propeller aircraft?’

‘We’d like the best fighters,’ the US liaison insisted. ‘And we’ll pay for them.’

‘That’s your call,’ Jimmy agreed. ‘But we won’t be able gear up a US manufacturer to make them for at least two years.’

‘We’ll take them off your production line,’ the man insisted.

‘Ted, start a training school for them in San Diego.’

‘Already in hand,’ I informed Jimmy.

‘OK, cars. Where are we at?’ Jimmy asked me.

‘Looking to make them in six American factories,’ I said. ‘We have more demand than capacity.’

‘And trucks?’

‘They have a few nice trucks on the drawing board,’ I reported. ‘Getting larger all the time.’

‘Start them on mobile cranes as well,’ Jimmy suggested. ‘OK, radios?’

‘At capacity,’ I said. ‘And again, we’re looking at factories in the States to cope. TV sets starting to sell as well.’

‘I’ll want a factory in Japan within six months, making radios,’ Jimmy suggested. ‘Jobs for the locals, and a small export trade to help keep the lights on. Same for cars and trucks; we need to rebuild and modernise their economy. That way they’ll be less aggressive in the future.’

The American liaison made many notes about that last part.

‘OK, submarines. Where are they?’

‘Most are back in Hawaii,’ I reported. ‘The four British subs are back in Hong Kong for now, and there’re a few in the dockyards being made for the US Navy – Brits don’t want any more.’

‘No?’ Jimmy queried, a glance at the British Government liaison.

‘Not that type, no, they have an eye on smaller and cheaper subs,’ I commented.

‘How did our aircraft carrier do?’

The US liaison said, ‘She took three torpedoes but kept going, a few small cracks. She’s sat off Tokyo Bay right now.’

‘And does your kind President wish anymore like it?’

‘We’d like another three delivered,’ he informed us, news to me. ‘And Boeing fighters to operate from them.’

‘Our remaining prop fighters will be handed to you at cost price,’ Jimmy informed the man. ‘Those in Europe will stay in Europe, with the RAF.’

‘And those in Africa?’ the same man asked, an odd question.

‘Will stay with my forces in Africa,’ Jimmy said with emphasis, the man making notes. ‘We’ll also be selling them to Australia and New Zealand, and France will probably want a few. Now, whilst we’re on post-war Europe, I’ll be investing money in the rebuilding of Europe, using my skill and judgement – of course – to plan which areas to help. The aim is simple: to get Europe back on its feet as soon as possible. Paul, divert funds to Germany and Belgium, for the creation of construction companies. Take over existing ones where practical. Then hire as many out-of-work men as you can to clear the streets and to build new houses. Those houses would be for rent to start with, sold in the decades ahead. Build apartment blocks along the lines of what you did in the Congo a long time ago – lots of them.

‘Bridges will need to be rebuilt, roads repaired, rail lines, and by employing a great many men we’ll steer them away from crime. For those who’re interested, the money we make from selling houses later on will pay for the investment now; we don’t aim to profit from the operation. Oh, and Paul, you may as well make use of the head-start in coal-oil in the region. Give that a big push.’

The US liaison asked, ‘What do you see ... as being future problems with the communists in China?’

‘A good question. Have they taken control?’

‘Just about,’ I said. ‘The Nationalists have fled Beijing. The communists now operate right up to the Hong Kong border.’

‘I will engage with them,’ Jimmy told the US liaison. ‘Leave them to me.’

‘Will they try and inspire others to join them?’ the same man asked.

‘They will, yes, but I’ll deal with it,’ Jimmy assured the man, who looked anything other than assured.

‘Will they threaten our colony in Hong Kong?’ the British liaison now asked.

‘No,’ Jimmy insisted. ‘Besides, you’re a nuclear power, and they’re not. And, right now, they should be very happy with the help and assistance they received against the Japanese. Should they not..?’

The British liaison shrugged.

‘OK, Ted and factory managers: my main aim – your aim – in the short term is a version of the jet bomber that will fly passengers.’

‘We’re converting a single aircraft now,’ Ted reported.

‘I’ll want a new design, and as the years go on I’ll want larger and larger aircraft, but also longer runways and better facilities. That ... is your priority. Paul, allocate some extra money, and get Boeing involved. I want that as our main priority, and I want many of our best minds on it. Ted, I want a jet passenger aircraft with capacity for eighty passengers that can fly from here to London in ten hours.’

The people from this era exchanged looks.

Jimmy continued, ‘I’ll also want the engines to be quiet, so that they don’t disturb people in cities, and fuel economy will be an issue. Start recruiting again for the civilian passenger aircraft, I want the best minds working on it.’

‘What about the pay-cut people took?’ Ted mentioned.

‘You can re-instate the old wages in a month or so,’ Jimmy offered him. ‘And raise them where appropriate, but balance the books with Paul. In the years ahead, split-off the civilian airline business, because that will be profitable, and by that I mean most profitable. But I’ll want most of the jet passenger plane production to be in the States, not here. You should look at this place as research and development.’

‘What about my guys in Berlin, sir?’ the US Marines General asked.

‘They’ll hold that portal till further notice, perhaps for years to come, so make a base. No one goes near that portal without approval, and certainly no one from this era. Same with the portal openings in Manson; create a permanent base, make it comfortable.’ Jimmy faced the Canadian Government liaison. ‘We don’t want anyone from another world making any surprise visits here.’

The man nodded.

‘My guys were just getting geared up, sir,’ the General nudged. ‘Could they be of use anywhere?’

‘Not on this planet, but they’re more than welcome in 1984, in Africa. But that’s not a pleasant spot, or an easy fight. You’ll lose men.’

‘They know the risks, sir, and ... well, no point putting the boots on just to march up and down.’

‘I understand, General. Start sending men to 1984, but avoid your fellow Americans of that era. Go direct to Mawlini, and attack north, liaise with the Rifles – it’s their show.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Hardon Chase asked, ‘Why avoid America ... in 1984?’

‘Why do you think?’ Jimmy countered with.

Chase took a moment, then simply shrugged.

‘How would the other nations react to soldiers from the future being present in America?’

‘They ... may think you’re taking sides, and arming America?’ he suggested.

‘They would. I am arming America, but doing so slowly, and by stealth. I have a plan, and I don’t want to upset that plan. And US Marines fighting in Africa will hardly be noticed by the other nations, and could be explained away.’

The US liaison raised a pen. ‘Should we have diplomatic ties with them?’

‘Certainly,’ Jimmy readily agreed. ‘Create a mission over there, send a team to meet the President of that day.’

I puzzled why Jimmy had agreed to that. After all, 1984 technology could be brought here, and outside of our control.

When the meeting finally broke we stood in small groups and chatted, Jimmy talking with most. Airliners were a priority, and we’d soon have our own jet airliners traversing the globe and leaving high contrails. They’d be used for transatlantic flights to start with, for the long distance routes. But the one feature that they would all have, would be a slow landing capability, and the ability to land on water without breaking up or sinking, a departure from jet aviation from our era.

A week after Jimmy’s return we still hadn’t located his mysterious son, the lad being elusive, if he was still alive. Parades had been held in various nations, fly-bys, and the world returned to commercial matters, not wartime matters. Jimmy had pencilled several film scripts for our studio, twenty-eight to be precise, and the studio would be kept busy for the foreseeable future; the age of the great war-movie had arrived. Our factories were still at capacity, the staff still kept busy, new hands hired where necessary, and a kind of normality returned.

Back in 2047, an ageing Singh has been busy looking up old portal codes and opening micro-portals, radio signals listened to. Two worlds were radio silent, not a good sign, two were firmly in the hands of The Brotherhood – no mention of time travel, and one world was holding off The Brotherhood and making modest progress, a society in Canada. Again, there was no mention of time travel. It was a puzzle.

The reality of time travel was now accepted by the population of most countries in 1938, the evidence speaking for itself clearly enough, and people marvelled at sick relatives coming back from the edge of death. The combined effect of the end of the war, and this new scientific reality, was a feeling of hope amongst most people as autumn approached.

A meeting was organised in Washington of various leaders, but principally for Britain and America to decide about the post-war political map, a map that would be quite different to that of my world for this period. On my world, Britain had ended the war broke, heavily in debt to America, and under pressure to break-up its empire. This time around, Britain was nuclear armed, had not borrowed from America – they had borrowed from us, but the empire was still an issue, especially in Africa.

We flew down to Washington, Jimmy and myself, Baldy now off to Sweden with his family, where he would co-ordinate the search for our mystery traveller. He’d also be investing our money around Europe, as well as starting numerous construction projects. A building in New York had been grabbed, to be used to house the new United Nations organisation, its first meeting of world leaders due in a week. But there had been no word from Mao, or from Han, and the loss of Han was a concern to us all.

In Washington, we journeyed around to a hotel that we now owned, our own staff and security running things. After a quiet evening, and a half-decent meal with Hardon Chase, we journeyed around to the White House in the morning. Stepping down from the cars, our own bullet-proof vehicles, we waved to a line of reporters, camera bulbs flashing, Movietone cameras running. Churchill waited with the US President, who now looked very well, and we stood for a photo-opportunity, waves given, silly smiles adopted.

Inside, we all attended a large round table, all friends and allies together. Once pleasantries had been exchanged, the President started with, ‘I’d like to start with an important topic, that of atom bombs. Britain currently hosts two bombs, and I believe that there are eight bombs ready in Canada.’ He waited.

‘Of the eight bombs in Canada,’ Jimmy began. ‘It was my intention to supply a further two to Britain, and six to yourselves, followed by a roll-out programme that would build stocks in line with aircraft that could deliver the bombs. We believe that we could deliver to you twenty jet bombers, and bring your number of bombs up to twenty inside a year.

‘We aim to deliver ten additional bombers to Britain, and with sufficient bombs. Thereafter, we would assist you with your own bomb factories, the aim being that within three years you would both be independent of us, something that would have happened anyway.’

They each took notes.

‘And we understand that you’re well advanced in rockets,’ the President noted. ‘Both those that fly straight up, and those that fly like aircraft.’

‘We are, and that technology will be handed over, but will not be needed by you for twenty years or more,’ Jimmy responded. ‘What your needs are ... depend on Russia, and right now Russia is ten years behind where it should be. Take the aircraft and rockets we’ll supply you with, and Russia is thirty years behind. What’s more, if we can engage the Russians, they may never become aggressive in the first place.’

Churchill began, ‘And are our communist cousins in Eastern Europe our principal threat in the decades to come?’

‘They were, and probably will be, but we’ve altered the playing field so much that they have very little chance of becoming that threat till ... say, 1970 or later.’

‘By that time, our technology would have advanced further,’ the President noted.

‘It would have,’ Jimmy agreed. ‘But is your post-war policy one of sensible defensive precautions, or do you desire to dominate?’

The President took a moment. ‘We’ve just fought a war on two fronts, we’ve no desire to repeat that experience. So if we can deter other potential aggressors through force of arms, then it will prevent future wars.’

‘Your weapons, Mister President, and your aircraft, will set the benchmark for other nations to follow, and to copy; if you build high walls, they know that they’ll need taller ladders. You’ve already shown the Russians what they need to aim for.’

The President took a moment. ‘Not an easy problem to solve.’

‘The solution, Mister President, is not a military one. If you have a problem with another nation, you can ignore them, make ready for war, or sit down and talk to them. On our world, the American policy was to talk at first, hence the United Nations, but later became a policy of building weapons and ignoring enemies, a stand-off. That stand-off led to a nuclear war on many worlds, and the destruction of civilised society.’

Jimmy gestured towards Chase. ‘This young gentlemen, from 1984, comes from a world where Japan and Germany won the war, and where a stand-off developed. I got involved with that world just prior to them destroying themselves with thousands of atom bombs fired in rockets. On his world, successive American administrations failed to engage their enemies, with disastrous consequences.’

The President faced Chase. ‘What happened, with the war with Japan?’

‘We fought many naval battles and held the line, land engagements in Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and on small islands. And, as time went on, we both developed nuclear weapons, but we never used them. By the time we had rockets that could reach each other ... we each had hundreds of bombs, and we knew what the outcome would be, because we had Japan on one side and Germany on the other.’

Jimmy said, ‘The States - over there - had two nice big oceans, and made use of them. Isolationism worked militarily, but trade suffered. Fortunately, trade for Japan and Germany suffered more. On his world, Japan was slowly destroyed by the communists in China, and Germany fell to an Arab army. That’s where they are now.’

‘We understand that you imposed a peace over there,’ the President noted.

‘There was no time to negotiate a settlement,’ Jimmy responded. ‘War was close by, so I placed into their skies a missile defence shield to stop any missiles from reaching their targets.’

‘You could do such a thing here?’ Churchill asked.

‘If it becomes necessary, then it’ll be because you two screwed up the chance for a peaceful world.’

Looks were exchanged, uncomfortable looks.

Jimmy continued, ‘If you do so, then history will not remember you well; no statues with glowing comments, the schoolchildren of the future generations learning of what fools you were.’

The President squared off the papers in front of him. ‘And this new body should help with world peace,’ he flatly stated.

I faced Churchill. ‘Jaw jaw, not war war – someone once said.’

‘Seems like a good policy,’ Churchill agreed.

‘It was one of your sayings,’ I pointed out with a glint in my eye. ‘On our world, you enjoyed a large state funeral and a good statue.’

‘Hopefully’, Jimmy began, ‘that will be repeated here – but not for many decades.’

The President took off is glasses to clean them, and I had to wonder why.

‘You still need glasses?’ I asked.

‘No, but if I don’t wear them then I’m forever looking for them. Besides, my staff believe that I should be ... consistent in my appearance, for the people.’

‘The voters,’ I noted, nodding.

The President regarded me, without his glasses on. ‘I understand ... that you’ve encouraged our administration to visit the world of 1984.’

‘Such an experience can only be a good thing,’ Jimmy cut in with. ‘To see how things may have turned out.’

‘We’ve put a team together to send, to open a mission there as you suggested,’ the President informed us, Churchill now curious.

‘And should we not have relations with the people of that world?’ Churchill asked.

‘Yes, but not yet,’ Jimmy stated. ‘On that world, Britain is run by the Germans.’

‘Then perhaps we may offer some small assistance to our brethren,’ Churchill suggested.

‘That time may come,’ Jimmy suggested. ‘But not now. I am ... working on that world, and on a solution. It’s something for tomorrow. Today, we need to consider this world, and its post-war borders and relations. So, let’s get down to cases. Germany should be occupied by Britain and America. If the French wish to also occupy a part of Germany, then allocate them a slice, that closest to the French border perhaps.

‘Such an occupation should ensure that soldiers disarm and find civilian work, but you should concentrate on rebuilding the nation, then imposing free and fair elections, a new constitution.’

‘Will they trouble us in the years to come?’ Churchill asked.

‘No, they’ve lost the stomach for a fight, and they now know both about myself – and your advanced weapons, including atom bombs. They saw the damage done to their cities, so they’ll not be in the mood for a fight. Unfortunately, they’ll swing too far and shy away from an active role in the world in the decades ahead. Gentlemen, when you punch someone to the floor, you can leave them there, or you can lift them up, dust them down and say – no hard feelings, let’s move on.

‘Unfortunately, it’s human nature to hold a grudge, for people to dwell on those who died or who were injured. That attitude is a primitive attitude, normally adopted by leaders from this era.’

I hid a grin, our illustrious war-time leaders staring back.

‘Enlightenment is not something that comes easy to politicians,’ Jimmy added. ‘Not until 2020 at least. It’ll take you the next eighty years to behave as you should. Still, we live in hope.’

The President took a moment. ‘I’m sure that you’re aware that we answer to voters, and those voters will themselves ... take time to change their attitudes.’

‘Attitudes are changed, set, and managed by great leaders,’ Jimmy insisted. ‘Even if that means that they don’t get re-elected; getting the nation on the right track is bigger than anyone’s personal career. And if Presidents and Prime Ministers did the job they were supposed to do, then my time travels would have never been necessary. Those travels were necessary because of mankind’s fondness to form into groups, and to preach hatred towards those of another group, or another skin colour.

‘Where Mister Chase comes from, those groups are the same as here, each camp sat opposing the others, all sticking to their party rhetoric because they’re too afraid to waiver from it. Each new President of America keeps the train that is the nation on narrow tracks heading in just the one direction, no one bold enough or brave enough to dare to question the direction. Nuclear war is OK, that fits neatly into the psyche of the conditioned citizens, conditioned to expect no more. Peace and cooperation would be a radical approach, too radical for most leaders to entertain.

‘Gentlemen, the average Japanese citizen did not desire a war, and they had no opportunity to vote for it. Their leaders wanted a war, to secure their resources of oil and ore, because the leadership believed that they were acting in the best interests of their people. That leadership may now regard that they were not, in fact, acting in the best interests of the people.

‘Building a good nuclear arsenal, and operating planes to deliver them, is one way to secure your way of life and democratic values, gentlemen, but are you so sure that there’s no other way?’ He waited.

‘I shall visit Germany in the months ahead, and I will engage with their new leadership,’ Churchill boasted. ‘I shall dust them off, and offer them the hand of friendship, since you say that we are destined to be partners in a new Europe.’

‘It’s not the Germans you have to worry about,’ I mentioned. ‘You need to engage the Russians and the Chinese, and the nations of the Middle East.’

‘Should we consider Russia a threat?’ the US team asked.

‘Today, they’re like a ten year old boy,’ Jimmy illustrated. ‘But when they reach twenty-one you’ll have a problem. Unless...’

‘Unless we engage with them,’ the US team realised.

‘There will be many people, here in the States, calling for all communists and socialists to be harassed and banned,’ Jimmy explained. ‘That’ll be a mistake. Yes, the Russians will try and export communism, but your citizens will only choose their system over yours if you guys are doing a bad job. The Russians will argue that everyone in the factory should have the same wages, even the managers. Human nature insists that those who work harder, or are talented, make more. You only need illustrate that point, because no one wants to share with a lazy person.’

I said, ‘On our world, you went through a period of self-destruction, where you held show-trials of communists, and banned them, sending them underground. Just debate with them in front of a live audience, and let the people decide. By outlawing such movements you’ll become as bad as they are.’

‘An interesting approach,’ Churchill noted. ‘Now, what of our world today, and of tomorrow?’

I told him, ‘You should allow India to be independent, but should try and run factories there afterwards, in partnership with the Indians; they have huge potential for industrial growth in the decades ahead.’

‘Will you leave India?’ the Americans asked Churchill.

‘Such a move, although unpalatable to many, seems inevitable. Since I’m assured that it is not such a bad idea in the great scheme of things, I shall be looking at a phased withdrawal.’

The President faced us. ‘And the Middle East?’

‘Should be made up of independent states, but not with monarchies,’ Jimmy said. ‘Britain and France should withdraw within five years, but should arrange elections first. Unfortunately, the nations of the Middle East tend to lend themselves to tribal dictators, and will always be volatile. I’ll have a hand there, so leave them to me.’

‘And the new state of Israel?’ the Americans asked.

‘Will become an important ally in the years to come,’ Jimmy emphasised. ‘You should engage with them now, and support them.’

I began, ‘One of the greatest problems in the Middle East … will be that the leaders get rich selling oil, yet the people remain very poor. You’ll prop up those leaders later on – because they’ll be supplying you with oil – and you’ll ignore the plight of the little guy. That anger eventually manifests itself as The Brotherhood, an Arab army intent on destroying the oil wells, and then destroying your lot. Unless you’re paying attention, they’ll succeed.’

Jimmy said, ‘You must try and make sure that oil revenue in the world goes to the people, not to the leaders and their Swiss bank accounts.’

‘Swiss banks?’ Churchill repeated.

‘Right now,’ I began, ‘most of the treasures that the Germans stole from France are in Swiss vaults. In the years to come, criminals and terrorists hide money in Swiss banks, and the Swiss don’t give a shit.’

‘How should we deal with them?’ Churchill asked.

‘Surround them, invade, and search every vault,’ Jimmy suggested. ‘Or those treasures, and the gold taken, will stay in the hands of criminals.’

They took notes.

‘What of Italy in the future?’ the Americans asked.

‘Quiet, peaceful, corrupt, socialist, and ... typically Italian,’ Jimmy said. ‘They’ll be fine.’

‘Might we talk of currency exchanges,’ Churchill broached.

‘You’ve both used the gold standard on and off, and you should keep to it,’ Jimmy firmly suggested. ‘One of the greatest problems of the future will be the growth of the American economy, followed by the import of oil from the Middle East, followed by a break with the gold standard and the printing of money in excess by the Federal Reserve.’

‘Such printing of money would leave to uncontrollable inflation,’ the US President puzzled.

‘In the future,’ Jimmy began, ‘all oil is traded in dollars, and the dollars that you print remain in foreign hands, not returning to America.’

‘Seems reckless,’ the Americans noted, making Jimmy and myself smile.

Hardon Chase volunteered, ‘We’ve kept the gold standard, in strict agreement with the countries we trade with.’

‘Your economy is small in comparison to where it should be,’ Jimmy informed Chase. ‘On most worlds, it’s a hundred times bigger, the biggest economy in the world by far, ten times bigger than the closet economy, and heavily dependent on imported oil. After the US broke with the gold standard they printed dollars to keep going, otherwise their economy could never have afforded its oil. It would have shrunk.’

‘Seems like a false economy,’ the US President noted.

‘And it led indirectly to the disasters than befell many of the worlds I visited,’ Jimmy explained. ‘You could say directly in at least one case, complete global collapse.’

‘And the solution to that potential crisis?’ Churchill asked.

‘The solution,’ Jimmy began, ‘is to keep the gold standard, not to trade oil in dollars, not to be too dependent on oil, and – in particular - not to trust future American presidents, those wishing to break from the gold standard.’

‘And the potential for this new-fangled coal to oil conversion?’ Churchill asked.

‘You have a thousand years worth of coal,’ I pointed out. ‘And now a cheap way to convert it to oil.’

He made a note. ‘Then it seems that I should take a far greater interest in coal, a far greater interest.’

The US President asked, ‘How would a future US economy fare, if dollars were not printed?’

‘You would not grow as quickly, not compared to others,’ Jimmy illustrated. ‘But I know where the oil is, and I’ll make sure that you get it cheaper. Still, there is only so much oil, so a dependency on it will always lead to a final day of reckoning.’ He faced Chase. ‘On your world, now that we have a peace and a good chance of increased trade, you’ll face this problem. I’ll drill African oil to help with it, but you could sleep-walk into the same problem.’

Chase made notes, and it was oddly amusing to see the young man, having known the older man.

‘Would it be seemly to enquire as to what directions our economy should be going in?’ the US President asked, getting a look from Churchill.

‘We’re here to help, so ask all you like,’ Jimmy replied. ‘And as for future direction, you simply need to make things and sell them overseas; so long as you keep that principal in mind you’ll do OK. You can internalise your markets well, and go some way to avoiding the problems that your future Presidents will face, namely importing too much and exporting too little. You’ll build up a deficit, and a debt that you could never repay.’

They took notes.

‘And of Britain?’ Churchill nudged.

‘The same,’ Jimmy said. ‘You need to make things, and import less in the future. At one point in the future, a full quarter of British income comes from your banking sector, a huge mistake. By then your manufacturing base will have been eroded, and your future European partners will be happy to see that happen.’

‘And who gets access to Africa?’ the Americans asked, Churchill seeming a little put out by the question.

‘You will all get access to Africa,’ Jimmy insisted. ‘But the people of Africa from the future will take a keen interest in how the continent develops. You would not wish to upset them.’

‘Africa is a strong nation in the future?’ the Americans asked.

‘It’s the strongest nation,’ I corrected him. ‘Black Africans. They have the highest education standards, and best quality of life. White people ... go to work or study in Africa a good career move, studying under black teachers.’

The US President again cleaned his glasses, the ones for effect. ‘You’ve made no mention of how Negroes in this country are treated.’

‘You’re primitives,’ I said with a shrug. ‘We don’t expect you to behave any other way.’

There followed a long silence.

‘Primitives,’ the US President repeated. ‘And how long will it be before your people don’t consider us to be ... primitive?’

‘You reach that level around 2020,’ I said. ‘Eighty years.’

‘Eighty years,’ he repeated. ‘Would it not be desirable to accelerate that process?’

‘That’s down to you,’ Jimmy told him. ‘Your social development is your concern.’

The President faced Chase. ‘And how are Negroes treated in your world?’

‘We have black soldiers, pilots, teachers. But we also have race riots in the south in many cities,’ Chase admitted. ‘Things are better than they were, but ... obviously not where they should be in an ideal world.’

‘And what should Britain do in this matter?’ Churchill asked.

‘Keep black and Asian immigrants out,’ I told him. ‘A few immigrants can be absorbed and can actually help with relations, but too many always causes a problem – in many nations. Here in America, millions of South Americans will cross the border. That will lead to problems later on.’

‘We’ve already started tightening the border controls,’ the Americans admitted.

Chase put in, ‘We forcibly expel illegal immigrants; we have a tight border.’

‘That’s because you have a small economy, not one that’s booming,’ Jimmy pointed out to Chase. ‘But when you do boom, educate those living in trailer parks - don’t use immigrants.’

Chase added, ‘On our world you’re supplying electric vehicles to do away with oil dependency. Would that not work here?’

‘The use of oil here is not a problem,’ Jimmy explained. ‘It’s the over use, and the financial stupidity of future Presidents.’

‘Should we not look at electric vehicles?’ the Americans asked.

‘It would be premature,’ Jimmy told them. ‘And unnecessary at the moment.’

‘It can’t hurt to have them ready,’ the US President suggested, and I hid a smile.

‘You’re welcome to examine them on Mister Chase’s world,’ Jimmy offered. ‘But at the moment you don’t have the engineers to understand them and to make them; we’d have to educate your people.’

‘Are they expensive?’

‘No,’ I responded. ‘Not comparatively. For the same cost as a tank of gas you could drive six hundred miles. We use electric buses a great deal.’

They keenly took notes, and I had to wonder about the future of this world; they could end up way ahead of any other comparable world.

The next day we attended the opening of the new temporary UN building, a handful of staff appointed already, the presidency to be rotating between Canada, America, Britain and France, so far. Sixty-five countries had representatives appointed and in place, many from the League of Nations, which would now be disbanded. Germany and Japan had representatives, at gunpoint I figured, and I took the time to chat with many of the delegations. Actually, they all wanted to talk to me and Jimmy, simply because we were time travellers.

An excitable Israeli team introduced themselves. ‘We have only been a nation state for a year, and we have a place in this new council,’ they pointed out in German accents.

‘How are things in your new state?’

‘We are developing a modest economy, as well as farming, and the jewellery business grows rapidly with your people in Africa.’

‘Do you have people in the Congo?’

‘No,’ they puzzled. ‘Should we?’

‘Yes, open an embassy in the Congo, and have your people working on gold and diamond supplies. Tell Rudd that I sent them, he’ll find them offices and accommodation. There are plenty of jobs going, so there’s no harm in you sending unemployed men down there for a year each. They’ll bring money back with them. Send them by ship to Mombasa, then by train to the Congo.’

‘We do have many idle hands,’ they agreed.

‘And your neighbours?’ I broached.

‘There are some problems, but we put money in their hands, relations are not too bad.’

‘And the Arabs left in Israel?’ I nudged.

‘Fewer every day, but many who wish to stay and work. Those who we expel have money to start over.’

‘And the West Bank of the Jordan?’

‘We are negotiating to buy it, in a settlement with Trans-Jordan.’

‘Are the British still there?’ I puzzled.

‘Yes, but we deal with the ruling family.’

‘Do you have the money to buy it?’ I asked.

‘We will pay it off over many years,’ they assured me, less than convincingly.

‘Start building nice hotels around Jerusalem, and we’ll help you with tourists and pilgrims.’

I practiced my Russian on the Russian delegation, surprising them, and offered to expand the coal-oil technology deals they had from Baldy. After five minutes of talking with me, they asked if we were related. ‘Twin brother,’ I explained, shocking them.

‘He is a time traveller as well?’

‘Yes. And we’re here to help you as much as anyone else. We’ll help with trade and technology, in particular mining. And aircraft, we’ll supply you with aircraft so that you can fly safely across your vast nation.’

They were surprised, to say the least, as they wondered off.

I was then in for a shock. The Chinese delegation turned up late, so I approached, practising my Chinese and stunning them, pleasantly stunning them. They did, however, both speak English, which I guess was why they had been given this task.

‘We are still concerned about the whereabouts of our intermediary, Mister Han. Has Mao found him, or what happened to him?’

They puzzled that. ‘Mao dead, bad health,’ they reported. ‘On march to north.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry to hear that, he was a great leader.’

‘Chairman Han now leader.’

I stopped and stared at them. ‘Han ... is leader?’

‘Han leader communist party.’

‘He’s a good man, a true son of China,’ I said. ‘Excuse me.’ I went and found Jimmy, dragging him away from a debate with the Brazilians. ‘There’s a Chinese communist delegation here.’

‘Ah, good, we did invite them, but didn’t hear anything back.’

‘Mao is dead,’ I carefully mouthed.

‘Dead?’

‘Dead. And Han ... has been appointed chairman of the communist party.’

Jimmy’s eyes widened. ‘Han?’

I nodded. ‘Han, now in charge of global enemy number two.’

‘If ... if he’s in charge, I’ve got the feeling that they’re going to be less book-thumping and more capitalist.’ He looked away. ‘Shit, that could seriously affect the world economy.’

‘Could affect it either way,’ I warned.

‘I’d like to think Han is still on board,’ Jimmy insisted. ‘And, if he is, it could remove a huge obstacle to progress. But...’

‘But what?’

‘What if he gears them up for trade early?’

‘The US economy would ... be altered early,’ I realised.

‘Han knows the dangers, he’ll not repeat that mistake.’ Jimmy took a breath. ‘Bloody hell.’

Doc Graham corned me ten minutes later. ‘Hello stranger,’ I offered him. ‘What you doing here?’

‘Rescue Force; it’ll be a UN body from the get go.’

‘Ah, good.’

‘I have four hundred people already. Just need a few Hueys!’

‘They’re slow to make, but we’ll get there,’ I offered. ‘We’ll get you a few Goose aircraft as well.’

‘Yeah, well Mawlini is full of soldiers,’ he complained.

‘Boot them across the runway as before, grab a compound,’ I encouraged. ‘Those soldiers work for us, remember.’

‘Ngomo and his son are there, organising the Rifles. But most of the modern era rifles have left for 1984 already. Oh, I saw Helen Astor again recently.’

‘How’s she doing?’

‘I’m not supposed to say, but she’s had a few kids by a few different fathers; I did the “C” Sections.’

‘She puts it about a bit then.’

‘She wanted kids, but not a father around, so she raised them herself. Three now.’

‘Headstrong woman.’

An hour later, everyone was assembled in a large room, two rows of concentric tables, a dedicated building already under construction, designed by Jimmy. And it was Jimmy that kicked things off.

‘Ladies and Gentlemen. As most of you know, my name is Jimmy Silo, and I’m from a time in the future where there are no wars. Nations still squabble, but they don’t shoot at each other. This new body, known as the United Nations, is about trying to prevent nations from shooting at each other, through debate and negotiation.

‘If one nation has a problem with another, then they can air those concerns here, and bring potential problems to the attention of everyone. This council of world leaders can then vote on a resolution, a resolution that could lead to economic sanctions or the authorised use of force – the aim being fair play around the world.

‘But the nations represented here are in a good position, in that people from the future are here to help. We made the mistakes that you made: we fought wars, and we suffered economic problems. But we survived, and so will you. Those of us from the future would prefer not to impose our ideas upon you, but to inform you of future problems, and to offer you a route-map.

‘But make no mistake. If a nation here ignores that advice, attacks another nation or risks the stability of the planet, we will act, and you have no defences against us. The aircraft and weapons that you saw us employ in the wars with Germany and Japan are but toys compared to what we could deploy if we wished to. If you are intent on destroying yourselves, we’ll get involved.

‘That’s not to say that we’ll involve ourselves in your internal politics. We won’t. We won’t tell you how to do things, but we will stop you when we see you about to make a mistake. How you build roads, schools, and hospitals is down to you. What you debate in your chambers is down to you. We will not interfere.

‘There will be times when one nation claims the lands of another, and we may adjudicate. But first, you should seek a solution through this body, a body that does not exist so that the large nations can bully smaller nations. This is a body where the truth can be exposed for all to see.

‘But the formation and existence of this body does not mean that nations should fail to compete with each other, you should compete. Compete for better economies, for better education standards, for larger slices of trade. That is your right. Now, before anyone begins the process of complaining: yes, we have favoured Britain and America in the past, because it was necessary to control the war and its outcome. That outcome was a great many casualties on the side of the Germans and the Japanese, much damage to their cities.

‘That damage was necessary, because only through such hurt and damage do nations change their minds. Simply warning the Germans and Japanese not to start a war would not have worked; attitudes needed to be changed through tears. Let us hope, that in the future, attitudes can be changed through debate.

‘Those who may complain about the technology we’ve given to America and Britain should keep in mind that we see America and Britain as custodians of the technology and the weapons, and expect them to use those weapons to keep the peace, not to impose their will on others. And right now, there are no other nations we would trust to do that.

‘But that technology will benefit you all, as my aircraft did before the war. You will soon all benefit from better and safer aircraft, better cars, as you will all benefit from our medicines. Those medicines will be sent to this body in the future, and this body will distribute the medicines where they are most needed. We will also share technology on things such as radios and televisions, fridges, sanitation methods - the kind of technology that will benefit everyone, but could not be used as weapons.

‘Japan and Germany will be rebuilt, both with money from myself and from Britain and America, and they will return to normal life in a few short years. But that normal life will come with the imposition of peace through this body, and free and fair elections will be held.

‘Now, since some of you have asked about my role in Africa, I will explain it. Africa is the world’s greatest untapped resource, both in oil and ore under the ground, and in its people above ground. All those people need is an education, and a chance. History records … that without my intervention Africa would be left to fester in tribal wars, corruption and poverty. That will not happen here. Myself and my people will take a very personal interest in Africa, and god help anyone who gets in our way.

‘Africa will be developed, its ore and its oil, and all of the peoples of the world will benefit from it. But first, and foremost, the people of Africa will benefit from it. I will now hand you to the President of the United States. Thank you.’

The President spoke for ten minutes, and I could hear our words on his lips. Churchill made a longer speech, much talk of cooperation and building, or a new age of world cooperation. Doc Graham spoke about Rescue Force, and some of what it had achieved in our era, inviting nations to sign up to its charter. The French representative spoke for ten minutes, but then the real work began, that of post war politics. Nations complained about treasures lost to the Nazis, of missing people and prisoners, of borders being encroached upon.

A few resolutions were passed, including one to recognise the state of Israel, and the State of Eastern Congo - our state in Africa. The new Japanese state was recognised, elections to be held in six months, and the new German Democratic Republic was recognised, elections also to be held next spring. Land annexed by the Germans was returned, elections to be held in Austria and Czechoslovakia. It was not a bad first session, an upbeat message delivered to the invited Press by Jimmy after the meeting. The world, this world, was moving forwards at a pace.

On the plane on the way back, Jimmy said, ‘You know, having Hardon Chase here, and the administrations from now and 1984 mingling is not a bad thing. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it would have been a brilliant move if planned. They’re viewing the best and worst features of each other, but because it’s them and not us they’re paying even more attention.’

‘Do you think that’s why your lad is involved?’

‘We’ve assumed that he didn’t throw the book at the Germans, someone else did. But having my name on it gave me instant credibility when I arrived in 1984; they weren’t tempted to shoot me. If the book was designed to get me there and to be popular, then it did the trick. And now that the two administrations are talking, great.’

‘That still don’t explain your lad, or him jumping through,’ I pointed out.

Jimmy nodded. ‘Baldy may find him. But if this was planned, then I can see the sense now; Second World War era Americans viewing 1984 Americans, as well as knowing the future for them. They get to take a long hard look in the mirror, and the greatest influence will be on those of this era.’

‘If they adopt electric cars, shit...’ I let out. ‘The ramifications! The future oil industry will be turning in their graves.’

‘This lot have the best chances of any world I’ve seen. But my worry is that we’ve introduced too many new variables; something else may go wrong.’

‘When are you going back to 1984?’

‘I thought I’d do a world tour first; Europe, Africa, Russia and China. Check up on all the projects.’

‘I heard Helen Astor has had a few kids.’

‘She married finally?’

‘No, just had kids, no intention of being landed with husbands. She’s raising them herself apparently.’

‘She’s a head strong woman alright. She asked if I would give her a kid.’

‘She’s planning on being involved with Rescue Force apparently, so maybe you should pop in and say hello. I think Doc Graham said she’s in London somewhere.’

‘Family estate in Ware, Hertfordshire,’ Jimmy idly commented.

At Benton Hall, just outside the Hertfordshire town or Ware, Helen Astor sat playing with her children on the lawn, a mild and cloudless day. A baby lay asleep in the cot, two toddlers now being chased around by a nanny in a frilly apron and a bow cap.

The sun was suddenly blocked, a figure stood over her as she smiled at the scene. Swivelling, and lifting her head, she saw a man in a suit, a tall man. ‘Jimmy?’ she said with a hand over her eyes.

‘No, not Jimmy.’

Helen eased up, now looking into the face of the man. ‘You ... you like like Jimmy Silo.’

‘He’s my father.’

‘Oh. I ... I didn’t know he had a family.’

‘Yes you do, mother.’

‘Mother?’

The stranger pointed. ‘That’s me in the cot.’

Helen turned to the sleeping baby, then back to the stranger, hand still over her eyes. And just stared.

‘I’m from the future, mother, I’m Christopher.’

‘Christopher?’ she gasped, a hand to her mouth.

‘You must tell him.’

‘Tell him?’

‘About us; it’s one of the reasons I came. If you don’t tell him, mother, you’ll spend a great many years regretting it. And so will he.’

A cry from one of Helen’s daughters caused her to turn, and when she turned back the stranger was gone. ‘Christopher?’ she called, and peered around the hedge.

‘Is all OK, ma’am?’ the nanny asked. ‘Christopher is in his cot.’

Helen knelt down and lifted the sleeping baby, rocking him gently. ‘You’ll take after your father.’ She turned back towards the hedge, thinking about many things.

At the edge of the grounds, Christopher moved through the trees, and to a waiting car. Getting in, the other man asked, ‘She OK?’

‘We’ll have to see, Peter. And I should have taken a picture of that dress she had on, embarrass her later.’

They drove off, smiling.

The Manchurian candidate

A week after getting back to Trophy, Chairman Han sent us a note, saying that he was well. We dispatched a phone via diplomatic courier, with instructions that invited the Chairman of the People’s Republic to call.

That call came a full ten days later, Jimmy and I sat alone in the diner one evening. When Jimmy answered the phone, Han asked, ‘Am I disturbing you?’

‘On several levels,’ Jimmy answered in English. He put the phone on speaker, and placed it down. ‘Paul is here, now on speakerphone.’

‘My end is secure, I still have a device to make it so,’ Han assured us. ‘Yet I do not believe that anyone here wishes to bug me, nor has the technology.’

‘How did Mao die?’ Jimmy asked.

‘The pen was mightier than the sword.’

Jimmy and I exchanged looks; Han had given Mao a heart attack with one of our devices.

‘Was Mao not well?’ I asked.

‘He was ... not the man I had hoped for upon closer inspection.’

‘Historical figures never are,’ Jimmy said. ‘If someone came back to meet me, they’d find me just an average Joe.’

‘They would find a giant in a man-sized suit, and be very impressed,’ Han insisted.

‘And what of you, Han, what will history make of you?’ Jimmy asked.

‘Hopefully, they will erect a statue to the peace and order that I intend to bring.’

‘You’ll receive every assistance,’ Jimmy assured him. ‘And the new temporary British Ambassador to China will be with you soon, his family in tow.’

‘You know this man?’ Han enquired.

‘He’s good with rose gardens,’ I said towards the phone.

‘Jack is coming?’

‘Yes, so if you need anything outside of normal channels, let him know,’ Jimmy told Han.

‘It will be good to see him again. May I ask ... what I can expect from the Americans?’

‘That depends on you, Mister Chairman,’ I said. ‘And how your countrymen export themselves.’

‘My countrymen will not be exporting themselves, except to the Olympics, perhaps.’

‘Do you think you can steer them?’ Jimmy asked.

‘I can die trying,’ Han answered, Jimmy and I exchanging looks. ‘And it would be a noble death.’

‘How do the people there view me?’ Jimmy asked.

‘As an honoured friend of China,’ Han reported. ‘Your donations are known by all, I have made sure of that, and my people all understand time travel – I have not tried to deny it. Many here believe that we would have suffered decades of occupation without your kind assistance.’

‘And your status?’ I asked.

‘I am but a mere mortal,’ Han informed us. ‘And none suspect otherwise.’

‘Have you quelled the entire country?’ Jimmy asked.

‘There are small pockets of Nationalists, but they won’t last long.’

‘And if America sent grain ships and supplies?’ I asked.

‘They would be most welcome.’

‘I’ll be conducting a world tour soon,’ Jimmy informed Han. ‘So I can drop in after Hong Kong. About four weeks.’

‘Call ahead and let me know a few days beforehand.’

‘And you call if you need anything,’ I told Han.

Jimmy cut the call. ‘What a turn-up for the books.’

‘Literally, a turn-up for the history books. Do you think they’ll try and unseat him if he’s not radical enough?’

‘Probably. But he knows all the leaders and the faces, he wrote a book about them. He also knows about droughts and floods, so that will help.’

‘And if we ship goodies across, that’ll help as well. To start with they struggled with food production and supplies.’

Jimmy nodded as he thought. ‘I wouldn’t have risked him like that. Plan was for him to influence Mao, not kill him.’

‘If we had a man in Russia, then this place would be sewn up.’

‘Given Han’s position, we can spend more time on Russia. And if Han opens relations with America, Russia is isolated.’

‘By time this world gets to 2047, assuming there’s no great calamity, they’ll be ahead of my world,’ I pointed out.

‘Well ahead. And if the Catholic Church hadn’t suppressed technology, we would have landed a man on the moon in 1850.’

Mary came out to us. ‘Not sleepy, babes?’

‘I’m not a baby,’ she complained, but then asked for a warm milk from Cookie. Sitting with us, we waited. ‘I often have a warm milk to help me sleep after studying.’

‘What are you studying?’ Jimmy asked.

‘Microbiology.’

Jimmy and I eased up.

‘Microbiology, babes?’ I asked.

‘On my data-pad. Mum gave it to me last week.’

‘You have a data-pad?’ I asked.

‘I can use all the functions,’ she proudly stated. ‘After I read for an hour it asks me questions, and then explains what I get wrong.’

‘What age group does it say the reading material is for?’ I asked.

‘Age range sixteen to eighteen. Mum says that I’m latent.’

‘Wow,’ I let out.

When Mary went back to our suite, Susan came out for a snack.

‘Darling dearest, a moment please,’ I called. She approached. ‘Is our daughter ... gifted?’

‘She is, and it just happened overnight almost. I gave her a data-pad when she saw me using one, and she sat up all night. In the morning she was typing eighty words a minute. I was a bit like that.’

‘Does this mean she’ll be rude in Latin?’ I sullenly asked.

‘Probably,’ Susan said as she took her snack back to the room.

‘Concentrate on Toby,’ Jimmy suggested. ‘Yesterday he peed into a milk bottle and threw it out the window.’

‘That’s more like it, someone at my level.’ I blew out. ‘Another genius in the family, eh.’

‘They all take after their mothers,’ Jimmy pointed out, so I gave him the finger.

Baldy placed down his drink, his daughters running through their house in Stockholm, Sweden. ‘Walk, please!’ he called in Russian, a look exchanged with Mia.

A maid approached. ‘Two gentlemen here to see you, sir, the same two as last year; Peter and Christopher. But they won’t give their last name, sir.’

‘I’ll see them in the study.’ Baldy eased up.

‘Dinner is soon,’ Mia called.

‘This won’t take long,’ he assured his wife.

In the study, Baldy greeted Peter and Christopher Silo with hugs, both Silo offspring now wearing a few weeks growth of beard. Stepping back, he said, ‘Now tell me you didn’t steal a plane and fly here again.’

‘No, we stole a boat and sailed here,’ Christopher assured Baldy.

‘After we stole a plane and flew to Denmark,’ Peter added.

Baldy shook his head. Suddenly serious, he asked, ‘Did you see her?’

Christopher nodded. ‘I asked her to see him, just as she described it to me when I was young. The exact time and day, exact weather conditions.’

‘Paradox fulfilled,’ Baldy stated. ‘Are you going back?’

‘Any more time here would risk the paradox,’ Christopher stated. ‘You?’

‘I’ll be here another forty years. So, I won’t see you for a while. Try and stay out of trouble, yeah.’

‘Yes, mum,’ the Silo boys said in unison.

Hardon Chase headed off back to 1984, taking with him a delegation from the US Congress and a few reporters of 1938, and Jimmy flew off to London for the start of his tour. I settled down to running the empire, daily reports flooding in, as well as reports from the Rifles in Berlin and Mawlini - on several worlds.

In 1984, the Rifles had pushed south in small groups, eliminating The Brotherhood in tactical night moves, a similar tactic used over and over. They would approach a town at dusk, make their presence felt and then withdraw, the fighters mobilising and coming out to engage the intruders. A night sweep of the town would follow, captured AK47s handed to local men. The Rifles would not remain in any town longer than a few hours, and would then move off.

Cities would be attacked from several sides at once, a night action followed by a pull-back, tempting the fighters out. Fridays were always a good day, the fighters out in force - and forcing the locals to pray in the streets, no matter what the weather. Prayers would end suddenly, a serious lack of live Imams preaching, the fighters all slumped, flags burning.

Most of the infrastructure of the towns and cities encountered had been destroyed by successive years of bombings, and the local European citizens now lived simply, and without electricity. Wood and coal fires were now not only common, but essential, and more people could be seen tilling the land and working the fields. It was that, or go hungry.

In Africa, in 1984, some twenty thousand Rifles had spread out and attacked the fighters with fervour, some twenty thousand support staff behind them. Forward Base had been reached in the Congo, few Arabs in the area. A base had been established, more for sentiment than practicality, and our soldiers were spreading out in all directions, a terrible fate awaiting The Brotherhood in the jungles.

Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia had been cleared of Arab fighters, and the Chancellor had wasted no time with his “victory”, reclaiming Berlin in a grand ceremony. For that ceremony they had to keep many of the locals away, who were less than impressed at being left behind and tortured daily by the fighters, many killed for sport at random.

In a bold move, the Chancellor moved the bulk of the native German army back to its ancestral homeland, as well as four million displaced Germans. Air bases moved back to Germany, and Britain started to empty out, a mass exodus of Europeans going home to claim what was left of property and farms, even dusty old cars left in garages.

Food shipments had been made from the States as promised, even an oil tanker or two, the starving masses of Europe receiving a little token assistance. But the troubles started for the Chancellor soon after reclaiming Berlin, with Ukrainian, Polish and French armies refusing to move into Italy or the Balkans; they were intent on protecting their own borders. The first orders were refused, and the Chancellor knew that it was the end.

In British cities, government offices were bombed or torched, a similar process erupting right across Europe. Food stocks and imported produce from South America were now being diverted towards the north German coast, the people of Britain wondering about the nature and size of their future supplies. The regional military governors also wondered about those supplies.

With the mass movement of the German war machine and the government back to Germany, mass job losses ensued in Britain. That, coupled with a lack of food, and little in the way of prospects, sparked what the Chancellor had always feared, a popular uprising. Britain was on fire, soldiers and police officers changing sides, or killing those Germans left behind to keep order. Black Shirts and National Police officers were being killed, regular soldiers in green seen to be siding with angered housewives.

Cities in Spain underwent another Spanish Revolution, socialists and communists setting off bombs. France declared independence, but did so in an economic union with Germany to save any fighting. Belgium and Holland followed suit, as did Poland. They were saying that they wanted to move away, but not too far, and not just yet. Denmark elected to stay with Germany, as did Austria and Czechoslovakia, and Norway was not given a choice, the German navy based there with its all-important nuclear subs.

The considerable German Army units based in Russia had moved back to Belorussia, but most had kept going, right back to Germany. That led to a good supply of soldiers inside Germany’s borders, necessary to quell dissent and to help to rebuild the shattered nation. Many of those soldiers had received injections, and were now very fit and strong, if they had not been before.

Russia had bided its time and made ready, and with the final German unit reaching Belorussia - along with sixty thousand civilian workers, they simply walked in, to be welcomed by Russian citizens who had endured forty years of occupation.

President Kennedy’s administration observed with interest as Greater Germany fell apart, and they hadn’t needed to fire a shot. And now that they could see the break-up of Europe, the food shipments increased, ships told to dock in Britain, France and Spain, and not in Germany, diplomatic missions increased in size in each European nation.

Kennedy had kept his word about Angola, and a sizeable force had landed, seizing remote airstrips from surprised fighters. Those actions drew in fighters from further afield, but the American units held their own against small but sustained attacks, drones overhead supplied by the Rifles alerting the US forces of movements on the ground. Those drones also attacked concentrations of fighters when they were located.

The first military transport had landed in a liberated Nairobi, the airfield now in the hands of the Rifles. Mombasa port had also been liberated, the first US supply ship docking to unload av-gas, the Rifles making use of some very old aircraft that they had liberated.

I then read a report about electric cars, and I wondered what planet they were referring to. Reading on, I soon found out that the people on Baldy’s world had taken Jimmy’s request for help quite literally, and had hastily assembled two addition portals. One of the portals had a smaller event horizon, but was permanently open, suspended pipes having been passed through and connected up. Water now flowed through one, petrol through another.

The second portal maintained a much larger event horizon, and a ramp, and had been used to drive some sixty electric cars through to 1984 Mawlini. They had been followed by fifty electric buses, which left me speechless, and four light aircraft with their wings taken off. Large tents were being shoved through, camp beds, even a kitchen sink. Tinned food was being driven through, hundreds of tonnes a day, the electric cars and buses being used to distribute it, the light aircraft dropping supplies to forward units of Rifles.

Super-sized tactical drones had been carried through in parts, quickly assembled and sent on their way to attack fighters in North Africa and the Middle East. Cement was being driven through, no need for sand, and the first solid buildings were being built at Mawlini. In a move that made me smile, they had planned to recreate the base exactly, something of a spiritual necessity to many, to recreate the birthplace of Team Silo.

Rescue Force personnel had volunteered to go through, and some four thousand were already in place in Africa, their jeeps and kit driven through the larger portal. Their compound had been reclaimed at the base, pegged out, buildings and rooftop bars planned. For now, they camped in the sand, but they had brought along a good supply of beer.

Here, in 1938, the modern-day Rifles maintained a small outpost at Mawlini, the remainder of their force either back in 2047, or in 1984 Africa on rotation, Ngomo Junior overseeing things whilst Lobster was in Berlin. Lobster had pulled back his men from northern Europe and sent them all south, keeping four hundred men around the portal, and stood ready to blow it up if necessary.

The return of the German Government and its soldiers meant that a cordon was soon thrown around the portal, and around Lobster’s men, no interaction allowed with local citizens. Lobster had discussed the matter with Jimmy, and a plan had been hatched. Supplies were flown into Berlin, 1938, from Canada and Britain, some of the supplies being from the modern era. Each day, Lobster’s men would drive out to the roadblocks erected by the 1984 German soldiers, and hand over vials of the drug, which the soldiers then sold on the black market. The demand soon became great, large amounts of cash offered for more.

The Rifles used the cash to buy things like chickens and pigs, and regularly distributed bottled or canned beer to the German soldiers, hard to come by chocolate, tinned meat, sugar, even candy bars. What had started as a kind of siege, quickly turned into a thriving business.

That black market business soon led to an approach by a vicious gang of German soldiers, men who cared little about politics, but a great deal about money. Jimmy saw an opportunity. Lobster supplied the officers who controlled the gangs with all sorts of goodies, including medical opiates. The gang soon started to make very good money, a small cut handed back to the Rifles.

Then the officers who ran the gang were invited inside for a chat. The result of the chat was the promise of a large shipment or two of goodies, in return for certain favours. In the days that followed slogans appeared daubed onto walls: Free the people! Other slogans called for democracy, and for the Chancellor to be killed. Those slogans were followed by bombs going off at government officers and army bases, the criminal gang just not giving a shit. The bombs crept ever close to the Chancellor himself, the man now under pressure from internal dissent.

1938

Jimmy landed in London and met with the British cabinet as I ran things from Canada. Timkins was now Chancellor, planning the future economy of Britain, and Sykes was busy handling Israel in Jack’s absence. They met for a private chat on the second evening.

Jimmy produced a device to block attempts to bug them, the guards sweeping Timkins house just in case. ‘You never know,’ Jimmy had commented about the device.

‘The US administration has ... questioned my role as Chancellor,’ Timkins reported.

‘They have their own route map,’ Jimmy shrugged off. He faced Sykes. ‘Any word from Jack?’

‘He’s only been there a week,’ Sykes responded. ‘But I dare say that the embassy garden will get a new look.’

They laughed. Jimmy said, ‘Han surprised me.’

‘He surprised us all,’ Sykes complained. ‘You think he can pull it off?’

‘He said he’ll die trying,’ Jimmy reported. ‘But if he does pull it off, then the implications for this world are huge.’

‘No Chinese threat,’ Timkins noted. ‘But what if they start trading early?’

‘Then the world economy will grow, America’s portion of it diminished,’ Jimmy responded.

‘Which could lead to trade wars early on,’ Timkins pointed out.

‘Possibly,’ Jimmy agreed, ‘but you can be sure that oil won’t be traded in dollars here, and that’s one major headache fixed from the start. And, if Han plays it right, there’ll be a Chinese middle class buying luxury goods from America early on.’

‘That’ll be a hell of a tightrope act,’ Sykes cautioned. ‘Dabbling with a communist base, yet with scales of pay.’

Jimmy nodded. ‘But Han does have a head start, a massive head start. He spent thirty years as a diplomat, worked with us for forty years, and wrote books on Mao and early communism. Who better to try and steer them a middle road.’

‘I was thinking about Hong Kong,’ Timkins broached. ‘About leasing more land under license, still to 1997.’

‘More land?’ Jimmy queried.

‘Hong Kong trade boosted the UK economy. More trade will be nothing but a benefit.’

‘Talk to Han, see what he says,’ Jimmy said with a smile. ‘It’s his call now.’

‘I’ll send a note to our Ambassador in China,’ Timkins said, also now smiling. ‘But what of Africa? There are many over-confident members of the house who’ve found a new voice about our empire.’

‘Send them my way,’ Jimmy threatened. ‘I’ll silence their voices.’

Timkins waited. ‘Will you ... accelerate the break-up?’

Jimmy took a moment. ‘It doesn’t make a massive difference, since we’re swapping flags, not company boards. The Congo and Kenya will grow rapidly in the decade ahead, the money used internally after we’ve spent some on German reconstruction. That in itself is the key, not who flies the flag. Besides, if you want to avoid a few wars of independence that will tarnish you, best start thinking of pulling out by 1945.’

Timkins reluctantly nodded. ‘I’ve been looking at coal-oil. It’s hardly necessary, but I’ve been doing some sums, and we could be independent of American oil in a year or so, and could keep oil prices down for thirty or forty years.’

Sykes put in, ‘It would be an odd reversal; coal oil runs low in 2020, but pumped oil is still there.’

‘Maybe not a bad reversal,’ Jimmy suggested. ‘And with the Americans looking at electric cars, oil may never be seen as a weapon – or a danger. We’re definitely in new territory, and it’s hard to see the outcome now. My only fear is of an overheated economy, but we can try and control that through interest rates and trade tariffs.’

‘No news on you know who?’ Sykes asked.

Jimmy shook his head. ‘Nothing. He may not even be here now.’

‘And his purpose?’ Sykes nudged.

‘May have been to get me to 1984, either to fix that world for some reason, or to show a comparison between the worlds. My trip there has definitely shaken things up, otherwise we would have slowly altered things on this world, instead of going public and making the sweeping changes that we’re making.’

‘Maybe that was it,’ Timkins put in. ‘A change of pace was needed, not stealth.’

‘Why, I saw no particular dangers here,’ Jimmy countered with.

‘Maybe he just wanted to refine your approach,’ Sykes suggested. ‘From one of stealth - the long game, to a faster and more aggressive approach.’

‘Why?’ Jimmy posed.

‘Free you up to help other worlds, perhaps, instead of being here for the next eighty years,’ Sykes suggested.

Jimmy stared out of focus at the table for a moment. ‘Why would a son want his father freed up?’ he softly asked without looking up.

Sykes and Timkins exchanged looks. ‘Maybe,’ Sykes began, ‘a son would wish more time with his father, in the future.’

Jimmy blew out. ‘I don’t even know who the mother is. I might meet her and ignore her.’

‘Obviously not, or you’d create a paradox,’ Timkins suggested. ‘You will meet her, and have kids, or at least one.’

‘A paradox like that could do my head in, trying to second-guess which woman I make pregnant.’

‘You have her DNA match on file,’ Sykes suggested with a grin. ‘So just steal a hair on your first date, and you’ll know!’

Jimmy shot him a look. ‘That could be an interesting conversation: come back to my place, we’re destined to have kids – and I have the proof!’

‘An interesting way of getting a lady into bed,’ Timkins noted. ‘But given that it’s you, who would refuse?’

The next day, after a sleepless night, Jimmy called Dr Helen Astor, and asked if he could pop up and see her. She agreed. Jimmy drove up in convoy, an hour to reach the town of Ware and the country estate of the Astor family. He liked the estate as they drove in, lines of tall trees, horses roaming free. They parked around a dated stone fountain, stepping out to peer up at a four-storey hundred room mansion.

A waiting maid showed Jimmy inside - the bodyguards hanging back, and to a reception room, two nannies assisting with two toddlers and a baby.

‘Looks like you have your hands full,’ Jimmy commented as he entered the room, Helen sat with the baby on her lap. He sat next to her. Without saying anything, Helen passed over the bundle. ‘This is Christopher, your son.’

‘My ... son?’ Jimmy queried as he held the baby, the child staring up at the strange face, looking cute in his white bonnet.

‘I was a little unkind to you in my subterfuge and scheming,’ Helen softly admitted. ‘I ... did a little research with Doctor Graham’s help, although he never knew why. After we ... coupled the last time I retrieved the rubber from the bin, and placed it in a specially adapted part of a fridge.’ Jimmy’s eyes widened. ‘And ... I made good use of your seed.’

Jimmy looked across at the two girls.

‘Yes, they’re both yours,’ Helen admitted. ‘And normal; no degradation because of time, something that may be put down to your unusual blood, and mine.’

Jimmy stared down at the boy, as the baby boy waved his chubby little arms about, gurgling.

‘They heal very quickly, faster than myself,’ Dr Astor pointed out.

‘They have my blood then,’ he realised, still staring down. He placed a large finger where the baby could grip it.

‘There’s something else,’ Helen began. ‘I had a visitor.’

Jimmy lifted his head and made eye contact. ‘My son, as an adult?’

Helen nodded. ‘Christopher came to me a week or so ago. At first I thought it was you, he takes after you so much, tall and broad shouldered. He ... he asked me to inform you about the children.’

Jimmy stared back, and waited.

‘I ... was not planning on doing so, but raising them myself.’

Jimmy waited.

‘I know how hard you work, how much you travel, and how important this all is to you.’

‘And now?’

‘When your son comes back from the future to tell you something ... you listen,’ Helen softly emphasised. ‘I’d ... like you play a role in raising them.’

Jimmy stared down at the young Christopher. ‘I’d like that. But how much of a role, and what do you want, really want?’

‘Well, you can ... see them as often as you like.’ She paused. ‘I never loved anyone else, Jimmy, it was always you. I tried other lovers just to try and forget you, to move on, but ... I couldn’t. And your damn face was in the newspapers every day, everywhere a reminder of the good work you were doing.’

Jimmy twisted his upper body and beckoned a guard with a look. When the man drew near, Jimmy said, ‘Have my luggage brought from London. Then call Paul and tell him ... tell him I’m taking a holiday. Ask him to handle things for a while, including 1984.’

When he faced her again, Helen asked, ‘You’ll stay a while?’

‘Till you kick me out.’ He lifted the baby Christopher to his shoulder. ‘A woman of your standing should not have kids out of wedlock.’

She stared back, trying not to blush. Too much. ‘Oh.’

‘I’ve been travelling a long time, and when the seat is pulled out for you by the cosmos, you sit down and stop.’

I took the call late at night, smiled, then went and found Susan. ‘Jimmy’s moving in with Dr Helen Astor, her house in Britain. He’s asked me to run things for a while; he’s ... taking a holiday.’

‘And she has three kids out of wedlock. That’ll do the rounds.’

‘There’s something I didn’t tell you, or Jimmy.’

‘What?’ she asked after I paused.

‘They’re his kids, all three of them.’

Susan’s brow pleated. ‘He kept it secret ... for security?’

‘No, he didn’t know till today.’

‘How can he father three children ... and not know!’

I explained what I knew Helen had done, Susan staring wide-eyed at me as I grinned like an idiot.

‘Then it was his son who jumped from 1984!’

‘Before I left 2047 to join Jimmy here I met his son, he was visiting 2047 whilst Jimmy was away, to save a paradox. His identity was kept secret, everyone thinking his group from Baldy’s world; only a handful of us knew his real identity. When Jimmy got together with Helen Astor I wondered what would happen, puzzling it when they didn’t stay together. I was suspicious of her claiming to have kids by strange men, but I wasn’t sure.’

‘Did he throw the book to that world?’ Susan puzzled.

‘I don’t know, is the truth. Guess we’ll find out in ... well, when we go back. Anyway, I have a round-the-world trip to organise. You want to come?’

‘And the kids?’

‘They have nannies, and Toby can pee out the window just as well if we’re here or not.’

‘And we’ve lost Mary to her data-pad,’ Susan sighed. ‘Yes, I’ll come with you.’

‘I’ll break the bad news to Cookie and Sandra; they’ll love spending more time with Toby.’

We set off a few days later, after I was sure that we were on top of everything in Canada, and headed to London in a Super Goose. Jimmy’s presidential-style Super Goose was sat waiting in London, and we’d make use of it whilst he was “holidaying”.

We decided to leave Jimmy well alone for now, and met with Timkins and Sykes, followed by a meeting with Churchill - trade at the fore, especially African trade. Kenya was rapidly becoming a global industrial centre in itself, now starting to see American companies setting up shop. Those new companies were amazed by the clean streets, the police on corners, and fast and efficient steam trains – air conditioned trains with toilets and buffet cars. Steffan had not been wasting time through the war, and had pushed track and roads out to many areas. With an increased budget, he would now extend track and roads around the Congo.

We flew overnight in comfort, from Heathrow down to Nairobi, a single leg. Landing, we were met by Rudd and Doc Graham in imported cars, our cars, present-day Rifles on duty at the airport.

‘Why did Jimmy cancel the visit?’ Rudd asked as we drove around to our hotel. ‘Has he gone to 1984?’

‘No, he ... has three kids he didn’t know about.’

‘Three?’ Doc Graham queried. ‘I wondered if one of Helen Astor’s kids might be his, but she denied it.’

‘All three of her kids are his,’ I explained. ‘Just don’t ask how.’

‘He’ll raise them?’ Rudd puzzled.

‘Apparently he will,’ I said, not giving too much away. Facing Rudd, I said, ‘How are your housekeepers?’ Susan’s interest was piqued.

‘They’re fine,’ Rudd sheepishly responded. ‘All three of them are fine.’

‘And the kids?’ I nudged.

‘Four now,’ Rudd admitted.

‘And two more on the way,’ Doc Graham loudly added.

Booked into the hotel, we travelled first around to the hospital, Doc Graham showing off his gang of international medical students.

‘Does the drug keep the numbers down?’ I asked.

‘Yes, disease is less of an issue. But we see genetic abnormalities that the drug won’t affect, plus daily injuries, a few geriatric problems that the drug won’t alter. And there are always plenty of babies to deliver.’

Back at the hotel, we sat for lunch with Rudd, a trip organised to the Rifles base afterwards. A senior white officer met us there, a Major, Ngomo and the others up in Mawlini.

‘How’s it going?’ I asked him.

‘We’re still growing,’ the man reported as he showed us into the cool interior of the officers mess, chairs claimed. ‘We lost sixty during the war, but we’ve not lost men who’ve quit; they want their jobs.’

‘British Brigade back?’ I asked.

‘Most of them yes, although many have quit. Most don’t have any more of a desire for cold and green Britain than they did before, but others have seen enough action for a while.’

‘They fought well in Brest,’ I commented.

‘They did, and took heavy casualties; everyone was injured at least once. They heal up, thanks to your drugs, but the psychological scars remain.’

‘How many left?’

‘Just five hundred of them.’

‘I’ll make sure that they’re kept busy around Africa. French Brigade’s old base being utilised?’

‘We’ve put a battalion in there, it won’t go to sand and dust.’

‘How many Rifles now?’

‘Coming up to six thousand Kenyans including support staff, that many again in the Congo. What manning levels are we aiming at? ’

‘More than that, but we’re in no hurry. We aim to see the Kenyan Rifles to be the sole army of Kenya at some point.’

‘After independence?’ the man queried.

‘How do the people around here view independence?’ I probed.

‘The whites don’t want it, the blacks do,’ he said with a shrug. ‘And our Rifles are seen as both being able to quell any uprising, but also a danger if they turned on the whites.’

‘They won’t turn on the whites, nor do we intend using them to quell their countrymen. We see independence as ... inevitable.’

‘You’re the time travellers. But what do the politicians in London think?’

‘They’d like to keep their colonies, but they’re aware that countries will always want their independence. Problem is, we know that independent Africa states will be cruel to their people, they’ll be run by corrupt leaders, and they’ll not advance their nations.’

‘Seems that keeping the empire intact is not such a bad thing.’

I shrugged. ‘When the countries around Africa desire independence we’ll make sure that power is handed over peacefully, and to people we like; we’ll have a very large input to Africa politics from here on.’

‘You’ve already got this place sewn up, there’ll not be much of a difference after independence.’

Susan and I inspected a few units of soldiers who had lined up and marched about for us, and I enquired about the men’s role in the war. Some of these had landed in Italy, and a few of those present had fought in the Alps.

Back in Nairobi we enjoyed a peaceful evening at the hotel, no kids around, flying up to Mawlini in the morning. Descending towards the base, it reminded me of how it had been in 1990, many compounds fenced off, many wooden huts laid out, a few brick buildings scattered around. Now I could see many tents arranged in regimented neat lines, Goose and Super Goose aircraft on the apron, a few Boeings and prop fighters, an old Cessna or two.

Mac met us off the flight, stepping down from jeep and now in green combats, large sweat stains visible. ‘Hello stranger,’ he offered, appearing heavily tanned. ‘Come to see where we do a hard day’s work, have we?’

‘Built a golf course yet?’ I asked him as we jumped aboard the jeep, hats and sunglasses placed on.

‘No time yet, but it’s on my mind,’ Mac said as we drove off. ‘Where’s Jimbo?’

‘Busy, so you’ve got us. What you been up to?’

‘Just building a Rescue Force compound. Well, a bigger one. Doc Graham is up here a lot these days, in my hair, couple of hundred bodies in training.’

We pulled up next to a brick control tower, and as we stepped down I wondered if it was in the same position as our original. ‘Got a fridge on the roof?’ I asked.

‘Got fridges all over, but the power around here is fucking crap. Mostly petrol generators.’

‘No power station nearby?’

‘Steffan is building one up the road, where it was in our time. It’ll power the town.’

We greeted pilots and administrators in the lower rooms of the tower, following Mac up to the glass tower for a view of the base.

I pointed into the distance, where the old UN hotel used to sit. ‘Solar panels?’

‘Yeah, the future Rifles brought them to power radios, and left them for us,’ Mac explained. ‘They power a few fridges and radios, a few air conditioning units. We get a cold beer now and then.’

‘Are there any Rifles from 2047 here?’ I asked as I surveyed the aircraft on the apron.

‘There’s a communications detachment, and a drone unit, over beyond the regular Rifles compound,’ Mac explained, wiping his brow with his sleeve. ‘They talk with the lads in Berlin, some kit to monitor who and what comes through the portal to this world.’

‘What other units are here?’

‘There was a large training detachment here, British soldiers, and some have just come back,’ Mac reported. ‘But they’re rattling around over there, just four hundred and space for three thousand. There’s another runway over there, RAF flight back from Tunisia, fuck all to do each day.’

‘War’s over,’ Susan noted.

‘Aye, and I was thinking about 1984 Africa?’ Mac broached.

‘I need you here,’ I insisted. ‘Running the airfield and Rescue Force. It’ll grow quickly, and there’ll be plenty of deployments in the years ahead. I’ll then need this place training a common Africa army after they’re independent.’ I held my gaze on him.

‘Well, see how it goes,’ Mac finally let out.

‘And Ngomo?’ I asked.

‘Around here someplace, I did say you were visiting. Maybe he’s getting a haircut.’

Mac led us down, and showed us around the Rescue Force compound, a few foreign doctors and nurses already recruited, and operating as the old Flying Doctors used to. The barrack blocks housed hundreds of Kenyan nurses - a few male nurses, most indicating that they worked on rotation in the Congo, but some had served in Egypt and Libya during the war. They had even treated white soldiers in Egypt, many having treated white American soldiers in the Congo before the war.

Driving around to the Rifles base, we stopped at the HQ building, Ngomo coming out to us. ‘Welcome strangers,’ he offered as we shook. ‘You are early.’

‘Early?’ I queried as Mac drove off.

‘Mac said lunchtime.’

‘Since when has he been able to tell time?’ I quipped.

Ngomo led us out of the bright sunshine and oppressive heat, and into the cool darkened interior of the officers mess, ceiling fans whirling away.

‘You met your son I understand,’ Susan noted as we sat.

‘Yes, he was here with his men for a few months. Now he’s back in 2047, organising the fight against The Brotherhood in 1984.’

‘They’ve opened several portals to that world,’ I commented. ‘Electric cars and busses going through.’

‘So I hear. They will fix it quickly.’

‘Well, not that fast, the place is a ghost town, little industry, all equipment rusted. Mining will take years to set up; no heavy equipment going through the portals.’

‘And can the Americans there provide the equipment?’ Ngomo puzzled.

‘They can,’ I answered. ‘But they’d probably want a cut.’

Ngomo nodded. ‘I look at the reports from that world, and it’s very strange. Germans running Europe, Japanese nuclear armed. It is like the history teacher has been drinking!’

We smiled. ‘It’s how this place may have ended up.’

‘And this German union has collapsed, yes.’

I nodded. ‘Jimmy figured they would, that’s why he offered them back their old territory. They have enough men and money to support one nation, but not the whole of Europe.’

An officer stepped in, handing me a data-pad. ‘Message for you, sir.’

I entered a password and read the message. ‘The German Chancellor on that world was just killed, blown up by his own people, along with his entire cabinet.’

‘Lobster arranged it,’ Ngomo informed us with a grin. ‘Unit 402, in Germany!’

‘They may get a more democratic leadership now,’ Susan noted.

‘Out with the old, in with the new,’ Ngomo quipped.

‘Any problems with ... your lad?’ I asked.

Ngomo gave a big shrug, his hands wide. ‘He now knows about my family here, and his mother will get to hear of it. He was the preacher for a week or two, a soldier for a few weeks, then finally a son again. And what of this mysterious son of Jimmy?’

‘Right now, Jimmy is bouncing him on his knee.’

Ngomo eased upright and forwards, an elbow resting on a knee. ‘It was his son from here, coming back from the future?’

I nodded. ‘We don’t know the full story yet, and you have to keep it quiet.’

‘Then he makes a paradox, this boy,’ Ngomo noted.

‘I’m not quite sure about that either, but maybe he’s from a world that split-off or something.’

‘A split-off world could still cause a paradox,’ Susan pointed out.

‘The son was born to this lady Jimmy was with, Doctor Astor?’

I nodded. ‘He’s with her now, taking a break from things.’

‘And the reason for his boy going to this other world?’ Ngomo queried.

‘We’re still not sure,’ I admitted.

‘We will find out when we go back,’ Ngomo said reflectively. ‘So, what instructions do you have for me?’

‘We’re going to use more of the gold revenue to build up Africa, working outwards from the Congo, so that should grow quickly. Keep recruiting and training soldiers, and police, so that we can expand the mining areas. There’ll be a few small wars of independence in the years ahead, after which we’ll want a pan-African army trained here.’

‘You will unite Africa quickly?’

‘As quickly as we can, no idiot dictators or corrupt politicians, we’ll kill them all and take the nations by force.’

‘That’s a better way,’ Ngomo approved. ‘No sneaking around. When will the British leave?’

‘Not for a few years, but we could probably strike a deal with them, as well as the French and Belgians; we could offer them money for taking territory. Zambia should be easy enough, and right now Guinea is just swamp.’

‘We are controlling the aluminium well, the largest supplier,’ Ngomo approved. ‘But this year, not Mister Yuri from Russia. Now it is mister oligarch Rudd.’ We laughed. ‘How goes it in Hong Kong?’

‘You won’t have heard, but Chairman Mao of the Chinese Communist Party died, and Han was elected to run China.’

‘Mister Han ... is running all of China?’ Ngomo puzzled.

‘Yep, enemy of the west – no more.’

‘He played the friend, but was the king in hiding,’ Ngomo said as he nodded. ‘Now to be a peace with America?’

‘We hope so, as well as peaceful trade.’

Back aboard our comfortable Super Goose, we took off into the setting sun and headed west to Forward Base, landing after dark. Rudd was already there, a direct flight from Nairobi, and had booked us into the best hotel. There we met Yuri in the restaurant.

‘How’s the town developing?’ I asked Yuri as we settled, drinks ordered.

‘Growing rapidly, but we are limited in the export markets.’ He shrugged. ‘It’s 1938.’

‘The world’s economies will pick up speed now,’ I commented.

‘Do you trade with Hong Kong?’ Susan asked Yuri.

‘They make it cheaper and better than we do, and they’re not hungry for ore yet. They buy ore, yes, but not in large amounts, and much of the ore is used by Po’s shipbuilders in Mombasa.’

‘There’s plenty of work going in Germany,’ I pointed out. ‘Massive reconstruction.’

Yuri appeared to have been struck by divine inspiration. ‘I should ... do something to help there, yes.’

‘We need all the help we can get. And yes, there’re lots of British and American soldiers there that’ll need beer and ladies.’

Susan shot me a look.

‘I was thinking of construction,’ Yuri insisted. ‘I will look at a business there, to ... help out.’

‘Is your entertainments empire here not taxing you enough?’ I teased.

He shrugged. ‘It’s 1938 in Africa. It’s slow.’

We caught up on facts and figures in the region, and the growth of mining. The war had slowed things down, in so much as many miners wished to return home, some to join up, but had speeded things up in that we sold excess ore to the British and to Po’s shipyards, which had been busy making much-needed cargo ships. Many cargo ships had been torpedoed in the Atlantic at the start of the war, so there was a natural demand for replacement ships.

Exporting our ore in this day and age was always going to be an issue because of the distances involved. Aluminium was produced on the west coast of Africa, and had done well after we had stockpiled it, but basic steel and tin had a limited demand unless it was used locally. So we dug up gold and diamonds, sold them abroad, and used the money to buy ore from ourselves to extended rail track, and to make girders for buildings.

A great deal of ore still went by train to Mombasa and by ship to the buyers, but again we bought much of our own produce through Po. Now that the war was over, Zanzibar oil was not quite so cheap, our deal with the British navy reworked. They still received a good discount, but now we sold much of the oil from tanker-to-ship off Aden, servicing ships passing through the Suez Canal.

Steffan bought ore, iron ore, and now made train track to sell, shipping the lengths around Africa and the Middle East. And many of his track lengths went by train themselves, delivered to customers around Africa. He shipped some up to Tunisia, and onwards by ship to Europe now that the war was over, but the costs negated the benefits. Still, as a process it broke even and kept the mines ticking over.

We asked Rudd to send a great many lengths of track to Tunisia, and onwards to Germany, even if it cost us in the short term, and asked Po to buy more steel for shipbuilding in Hong Kong.

In the morning we reviewed Rudd’s parliament building, all of the staff now settled in and slowly turning the jungle into a modern thriving state. Their influence reached far beyond our own borders in the Congo, produce bought from neighbouring countries and goods sold back, a nice little internal Africa marketing operating. Since Yuri fleeced the workers, and both he and they paid tax, much of the money stayed with us.

A second hospital had sprung up, in the south of our region and not far from where Mining City may be someday, and many new hostels and hotels had been built since my last visit. The main thoroughfare at Forward Base bustled with dated cars, even a few of our Trophy cars to be seen. Also a few horses and oxen pulling carts; this was still 1938 in the heart of Africa. The airport was kept busy, many flights passing through to all points on the compass, London to South Africa stopovers popular. All we needed were a few more planes, and large ones at that.

That evening at dusk we said goodbye to Rudd and Yuri, and set-off northeast towards Cairo, and across the Sinai to Israel, landing just before dawn. The old British RAF base was now a civil airport, of sorts, in that a corner had been given over to our prop fighters, now in Israeli colours.

We booked into a hotel that we apparently owned through Jack, a nice view south from a hill near Jerusalem, and I tried to imagine where the later-day King David Hotel would be located. Still, the waiters were polite for Israel. That wouldn’t last. At 9am, we journeyed in convoy towards Tel Aviv, and found it busy.

‘Market day?’ I asked our allocated driver.

‘It’s always like this. Too many people!’ he complained. ‘And today they know you are coming.’

‘Some of these people ... they came to see us?’ I puzzled.

He shrugged. ‘Of course.’

I exchanged a puzzled look with Susan; being greeted by the masses in Israel was a new experience for me. I would have settled for a cup of tea and a sandwich.

We drove to the civic centre, what it was, a group of ugly concrete buildings that seemed to have been put up in a hurry. Turns out they had been put up in a hurry, and the locals thought they were ugly as well. The new Israeli Prime Minister met us, the guy being the very first Israeli Prime Minister, no two-party system yet in operation. This guy had been voted in on his personal merits: honesty and integrity. Susan and I both agreed that, as a process for electing political leaders, this would not catch on.

They welcomed us with cheery smiles, a contrast to my first visits to an Israeli state, and my second and third visits, and offered us drinks. We sat around a large table, small cakes sampled, many questions fired at us.

‘And how is Mister Silo?’ their Prime Minister enquired with a Russian accent, a short man in his fifties with an unkempt grey beard.

‘He’s ... taking a well-earned holiday,’ I responded.

‘Indeed, yes, he has done much in a short time here, what with the war. And how are your children?’

‘Unfortunately, they’re growing up and answering back,’ I replied. ‘We couldn’t find any that stayed small and cute.’

He laughed. ‘I am sure that you will rejoice when they become young adults.’

‘Wanna bet?’ I retorted, making them laugh. ‘So, how’s your economy?’

‘It could be better, not too bad,’ they responded, a few faces made, a few shrugs given. ‘The jewellery business was slow in the war of course, now we’re moving stock again to Holland and Paris, some to America.’

‘There’s a need for strong men to work in the mines in Africa, if you have idle hands,’ I floated.

The Prime Minister made a face. ‘We suggested this to the people. Not so much the interest.’

I cocked an eyebrow. ‘Then let’s hope that oranges and jewellery will get you back on your feet, and some tourism no doubt.’

‘Before the war the tourism was good,’ they agreed, keen to see the visitors return.

‘Is the British Navy still here?’

‘Yes, they have their port, and it makes us a little money.’

‘We’ll be re-starting routes through here to Asia again, and soon. It’ll probably just be diplomats to start with, but it all helps. Is your population still growing?’

‘Yes, a sudden increase in numbers when Germany fell, many fleeing, terrible stories told.’

I took a moment. ‘Were many killed by the Germans?’

‘Many yes, maybe fifty thousand in total, a great stain on German nation for all time!’

I exchanged a look with Susan. With a false smile, I said, ‘Let’s be thankful we got as many people out as we did, and that we shortened the war.’

‘We have been hearing of this future world, 1984 no less.’

I stared back for a moment, and lowered my head. ‘On that world,’ I said as I looked up, ‘the Germans won the war, and overran Europe.’

‘And ... what of the State of Israel on that world?’

‘There ... is no State of Israel on that world,’ I informed our hosts.

‘The Jews are oppressed by the Germans there? We should try and do something.’

‘Mister Prime Minister, on that world, Jews fled to America, but no Jews are left alive in Europe.’

They stared back in silence. After a while, a man softly said, ‘There ... the Germans killed all Jews?’

I reluctantly nodded. ‘Why do you think we paid to get your people out before the war?’

The Prime Minister stood, not a tall man, and walked to the window, peering out with his hands behind his back. Half turning his head, he asked, ‘And on your original world?’

‘Millions died before the end of the war,’ I answered.

‘But they went on to found a state,’ Susan put in. ‘The survivors.’

The Prime Minister returned and sat. ‘We believed we owed you our thanks before this day, maybe the lives and freedom of some. But you shame us. I have no words.’

‘How about a tour of the hospital,’ I said, now wanting to get out of there.

The PM nodded, and we were shown out in silence, the Health Minister showing us around the nearby hospital. There were crowds on the streets en route, most waving as we passed. At the hospital, again a grey concrete monster, doctors greeted us warmly, a tour given of the ground floor maternity ward, babies wailing, their mothers greeting us in a variety of accents. I practised my Russian and my German on the proud mothers, before the senior doctors showed us a new operating theatre. They had supplies of the drug, but were not making full use of it yet.

Back outside, the crowds were now thicker, our convoy crawling along, and to a pre-arranged visit to what appeared the foundations of yet another horrible concrete monster. I made a note to have a word with Jack. Sykes met us there, now the official liaison, and in front of a large crowd I shovelled freshly made cement into foundations, a bank of dated cameras taking snaps.

‘This will be a newly designed parliament building,’ Sykes informed us. ‘They’ve outgrown the old one already.’

We all said a few words to the waiting press, a flight of eight prop fighters buzzing us in a “V” formation. After a quick bite to eat with Sykes - who filled us in on a little of the background detail that we were missing, we journeyed by road up to Jerusalem, being photographed visiting the famous Wailing Wall, famous in our time, little known outside of the Levant in 1938. I asked a Mullah for permission, and we were granted access to the Golden Dome, a tour given, a view taken across the valley from the gardens.

Negotiating very narrow streets with stone floors, we returned to our convoy, soon heading back to the hotel. At the hotel, and after a shower, I sat on the balcony with Susan, the sun setting over the distant Mediterranean, a cold beer in hand.

‘I sometimes wonder how things will turn out, I mean way into the future,’ I said.

‘We might be around to find out.’

‘They have laws to stop us peeking into the future, but I sometimes wonder if this is all for nothing, that some giant meteorite destroys us two hundred years from now.’

‘That meteor would likely be in each parallel world, although its course would vary slightly with random changes. It may hit each Earth, each version.’

‘I sometimes think we should have a decent space programme, back in 2047. They’ve been to Mars, but ... you know, long distance stuff with warp engines and Starship Enterprise.’

‘Maybe someday they’ll take that leap. But if a meteor threatened, someone could jump across to another world, jump back a year earlier, and warn everyone. Many people would get off to other worlds, back through time. And they could keep jumping, always going back.’

‘Till they build something to destroy the meteor,’ I said. ‘But according to Singh’s theory, it will eventually end, a few billion years or so into the future.’

‘Singh’s theory is a loop, so mankind can keep jumping back,’ Susan pointed out. ‘Indefinitely.’

‘But every time they jump back, they have to start afresh,’ I said with a sigh. ‘They’ll be doing this over and over.’

‘But they won’t be able to visit any of the worlds we know about, they’d destroy themselves in a paradox. They’ll have to jump to other worlds, further away, more of difference to these worlds.’

‘Somewhere where Spain dominates Europe and the Americas,’ I suggested. ‘Or where dinosaurs didn’t die out. Yeah, Spaniards in odd helmets - and dinosaurs.’

‘Spain was well on its way to controlling the Americas, it could have dominated,’ Susan pointed out.

‘Lots of permutations of history.’

We sat and enjoyed the sunset, no bombs yet going off in the land of milk and honey, and women did not yet sit at the back of the buses in Jerusalem.

The next morning we reclaimed our aircraft, our security detail boarding, the men now kitted with 2047 detectors, scans made, sniffs of air taken by detectors the size of a pen. After take-off we climbed to the east, and across Trans-Jordan towards a peaceful Iraq, ever east and over a peaceful Iran, a very sleepy and peaceful Afghanistan, and to Delhi - where we re-fuelled in the dark. Flying on, we covered the great continent of India, and I asked the pilot to keep us low in a few places so that I could peer down at the world beneath.

I grabbed a data-pad, and used it to relay information regarding India in this time period, interesting facts, views of old images taken on our world in the past. We made Hong Kong in one leg, landing in the dark at Po’s airport, the arrivals lounge now completely rebuilt and decorated. No holes in the runway or apron were visible, life very quickly having returned to normal in the colony. We took our luggage with us, a short car journey followed by a pleasant boat ride across the bay, soon a convoy of our own cars delivering us to Po’s latest and best hotel. It offered its guests an infinity pool on the top floor, a bar on the roof.

Having dumped our luggage in a palatial suite – not having carried it of course, twenty waiting maids were intent on emptying our cases for us – whether we wanted them to or not. We met Po on the roof, the weather holding. Stood at a wall, I peered both ways down the bay, a spectacular view offered to the hotel’s guests. There were no skinny skyscrapers yet, and not many twinkling lights at night, but I was sure that Po would alter that quickly.

Sat around a table, food brought straight out, Po said, ‘Mister Jack ask for more land, and Han say it OK.’

‘How much land?’ I puzzled.

‘Five mile.’

‘That’s not much,’ I reflected.

‘It big area, many hotels to be there, much factory,’ Po insisted. ‘After this land, Han make industrial area.’

‘Industrial area?’ I repeated.

‘It zone for communist make business,’ Po explained.

‘I think they did something similar in our era,’ Susan put in.

‘Han industrial area fifty mile long,’ Po pointed out.

‘Then this place could grow to be a very big concern,’ I said. ‘Much bigger than the Hong Kong on our world.’ I told Po, ‘You can make us a lot of money.’

‘Yes, yes, much money,’ he agreed. ‘And I have six son to work with me.’

‘Six? Ngomo has twelve,’ I teased, guessing a number.

‘Twelve son, Ngomo?’ Po repeated, clearly feeling out done. I wondered what I had started, and was Hong Kong big enough for all of Po’s future relatives. ‘Where you boy?’

‘We sold him into slavery,’ I said. ‘And Mary, she’s bright like the Ebede orphans.’

‘You girl very smart?’

‘Yes, how about yours?’

‘No smart like special children,’ Po said with a sigh. ‘No smart like Shelly before.’

‘How much ore can you buy, how much steel?’ I asked our host.

‘We can buy many, but long way. Steel in China in many places, more closer.’

‘Let’s use it to make ships then, in Mombasa. Large ships.’

Po nodded. ‘Good place for ship.’

‘How many aircraft in your fleet?’ I asked.

‘We now ten, fourteen before war. I ask always more plane.’

‘Soon,’ I assured our man in Hong Kong. ‘And in a year’s time, jet aircraft.’

‘Jet aircraft for passenger?’

I gave an affirmative nod.

‘I buy, I buy many.’

‘They’ll take time to make,’ I cautioned. ‘Keep the flying boat fleet expanding for ten years, at least.’

The next day I contacted Han by phone, and asked if we could visit. No suitable runway existed near Beijing, no suitable fuel; the trip would have to wait, but an airport would be built as a matter of priority.

‘Ah, well,’ I told Susan. ‘Hawaii needs a visit, the troops and all, and I’m sure that there’re a few small islands that need a morale boost along the way.’

‘It could take weeks to get around them all,’ she cautioned. ‘And we’d have to test the beaches in each place, for ... future reference.’

‘Future reference,’ I agreed.

‘Besides, Cookie and Sandra are probably just loving looking after Toby,’ Susan suggested.

‘Like the son they never had, but yearned for.’

Part 11