"What's strange."
Rick pointed to red lines on the chart that formed a series of concentric circles similar to those of a target.
"That's the location of the Chicxulub Crater."
"The what?"
"Something that hasn't. . ." Rick's face grew grave. He stared at the top of the chart where there were num-bers arranged like those on Con's wall. They glowed red and pulsated:
"Oh God!" said Rick in horror.
"Rick?"
Rick ran over to one of the holographic displays of the solar system. He looked at it, searching for something. "Shit!" he exclaimed.
"What's the matter?" asked Con, her voice filled with concern. "Did we set off an alarm? Is it Green?" Rick whirled around, then froze when he spotted the image of the slowly tumbling rock. He stared at it with a dumbfounded expression. Con looked at it, too, and noticed that the rock had craters like a small planet. "Those symbols on your wall... on these charts ... on that screen .. ." Rick said in a shocked, quiet voice. "They are clocks. They're counting backward."
"Backward? To what?"
"The K-T event." Rick's agitation exploded into frantic activity. He dashed from the room, calling as he ran. "Come on, we've got to find Joe! There isn't much time!"
"Rick, what's the . . ."
Rick was already in the passageway. His voice echoed from it. "Hurry, Con! Follow me." Puzzled and frightened, Con rushed after him. She saw him smash through the plaster-and-wood barrier to her quarters. Rick ran over the debris without pausing and, jerking the curtain aside, dashed out into the morning. Con, who was barefoot, had to pick her way over the splintered barrier before chasing after Rick. She spotted him at the dining pavilion. James had returned, and Rick was questioning him in a loud, anxious voice while Con's father and Sara looked on with bleary expressions. She heard Rick say, "It's a matter of life and death."
James said something Con couldn't hear. Rick turned toward her and yelled, "Come on, Con!" before dashing toward the path to the plane. Con ran after him, ignoring her father's calls. When the path got stony, she found it was too hard on her feet to run and slowed down to a brisk walk. When she saw Rick again, he was talking to Joe, who was holding the picnic hamper.
"We can leave as soon as the plane's loaded," said Joe. "There's only the cooler left."
"No, no," said Rick. "Leave this time, not this place. We all have to go now."
"That's impossible," replied Joe.
"Don't you know what this island's for?" asked Rick incredulously. "Don't you know where you are?"
"All I know is we're at this godforsaken place, because Sam said it was safe," answered Joe.
"Safe?" exclaimed Rick. "Safe? Maybe it was safe when you came here with Sam, but how long ago was that?"
"Over three months."
"Well, I have news for you," said Rick. "This place was built to observe the K-T event. That's why it's de-serted. Sam didn't need to change history—only fools would stay here." Con grabbed Rick's arm. "You're scaring me," she said.
Joe turned to Con. "Do you know what he's talking about?"
"Sixty-five million years ago, a nine-mile-wide meteor hit the Earth," said Rick. "It's called the K-T event. It wiped out the dinosaurs. It wiped out damned near every-thing. Only for us, it isn't 65 million years ago. For us, it will happen today. In a few hours. Now do you see why we have to leave?"
"Can't do it," said Joe.
"Weren't you listening? This is the greatest catastrophe on record. Fire . . . earthquakes . . . darkness . . . tsuna-mis . .."
"What's a 'tsunami'?" asked Con.
"Tidal wave," said Joe.
"This one will be hundreds of feet high," said Rick.
"Do you have proof for any for this?" asked Joe.
"You sealed off the proof yourself, Joe," said Rick. "It's all there in that room with the screens. You can see the meteor ... plot its trajectory . . . see where it will hit. There's a running countdown! You should have looked at what you were covering up before you hid the doors."
"You found them, I see."
"Con did, no thanks to you."
"Green's not going to like this," said Joe.
"Screw Green! None of that stuff matters now. If we don't go, we'll die!"
"Rick, the time machine takes two weeks to store enough energy for the trip back. We don't have enough power to reach our time."
"We don't need to reach our time," said Rick. "Just move us a few months downwhen."
"It's not that simple," said Joe. "I need coordinates."
"I'm only talking about a few months, figure them out."
"Look, Rick, the Earth spins, it rotates around the sun, the sun rotates around the galaxy, the galaxy's moving . . . hell. . . the whole damned universe is expanding. This particular spot is in outer space five seconds downwhen."
"Then how did you plan to find your way back to our time?"
"I already explained that," said Joe. "Those coordi-nates are fixed because of temporal linkage. We can't go downwhen, it'd be suicide."
"There's another time machine," said Con. "We found it on top of the mesa."
"That's a probe," replied Joe. "It's not made for peo-ple. We're stuck here."
"Okay, okay, we can't leave this time. I'll take your word for it," said Rick. "But that doesn't mean we can't leave this spot. This meteor doesn't destroy the world. Some life survived, or we wouldn't be here. It's just we're standing on one of the worst spots—out at sea only twelve hundred miles from ground zero." A frenzied look of hope came to Rick's face as he paced and talked. "We'll leave this place in the plane. Make our way to the southern hemisphere—southern Africa or someplace. Things will be tough, but we'll be resourceful. We can make it! Joe, you provision the plane. Con, come with me. We've got to tell the others." Without waiting for their agreement, Rick started back toward camp. Joe looked at Con. "He's flipped out!"
Con looked back with anguished eyes. "Joe, we've got to help him." She turned and hurried after Rick, leaving Joe alone in thought. When she reached the dining pa-vilion, James, Pandit, her father, and Sara were there, staring at Rick with puzzled expressions while he paced back and forth as he talked.
"... only the necessities and all your clothing," Rick was saying. "It's going to get cold. Hurry, there's not a lot of time."
No one moved. "John," said Sara, "what's going on?"
"Look here," said John Greighton. "We're supposed to abandon everything on your say-so? All because of some theory?"
"It's not a theory!" said Rick hotly. "The meteor strike is a fact. We've known about it for nearly a century."
"Then why doesn't Pete know about it?" asked Greigh-ton. "Why should I listen to you?"
"You know, as well as I do, that Green's a fraud," said Rick. "He has no idea where he is." Green emerged from his quarters, a look of rage on his face. "I've heard enough," he said in a cold, hard voice. "Who the hell do you think you are to frighten my guests?"
"Your game's up," replied Rick. "You're not going to conquer anything. In a few hours, this island and the time machine will be destroyed. Too bad you didn't ask Sam where you were going before you bumped him off."
Green pulled out a pistol from his pocket and aimed it at Rick. "You goddamn nosy sneak!" he said, his voice dripping with venom. "You'll learn what it means to cross me!" Green was taking aim at Rick's stomach when Con darted in front of Rick to shield him. "You'll have to shoot me, too," she said.
"Move out of the way," ordered Green.
"No," said Con firmly.
Green did not lower his pistol as Con expected. In-stead, he raised it until it pointed directly at her face. She looked at the eyes behind the gun barrel. She could find no reluctance in them. He's weighing if it's worth it, she realized. If he believes it's truly over, he'll shoot. Green's cold eyes confirmed her fears. Still, Con held her ground. She looked away to gaze upon the trees that glowed with morning sunlight. This is the last moment of my life, she thought.