Burton hummed his acknowledgement and asked, “Where is Mr. von Lessing?”
The group became silent. Farren broke it. “Still in London. He got word to us. Jane was killed by that bloody pig.”
Henry Murray’s great-granddaughter, Burton thought. Dead.
It was Henry who’d introduced Burton to Richard Monckton Milnes. Both men were—had been?—a decade older than him and had greatly influenced his decision to make the famous pilgrimage to Mecca. By God!—how different might Burton’s life be had he never met the man!
Suddenly, the warmth of Saltzmann’s throbbed in his temples, and the lounge appeared to drop away from him. He envisioned the path his life had taken as a shimmering ribbon of light. It wound through an infinite tangle of other ribbons; crossing some; running parallel to others for short and long distances; coiling around and even knotting with a few. It weaved in and out, and as his imagination—or was it his insight?—gained clarity, he sank into it until the ribbon streamed through and around him, and he saw that it was comprised of mathematical formulae.
Tumbling helplessly, he was inundated by outlandish algebraic geometries; he folded into obtuse equations; he sped along lines of esoteric calculus. He dissolved into such contorted topologies that for an instant and an eternity, he was nowhere and everywhere.
Burton reconstituted around a bunched segment of probabilities that he somehow recognised as personality traits. They manifested as an utterly unique individual. He collided with its dazzling nucleus, his own cluster of singularities ploughing into those of the other, and they exploded outward in an incandescent blaze of newly forming potentials.
The birth of further equations.
The forging of new paths.
The creation of a friendship.
Burton possessed no knowledge of the woman who’d borne Henry Murray’s child. Where he had come from, that event existed in the future. However, such were the intricacies of cause and effect, that he realised his mere presence in Murray’s life had been enough to contribute to the existence of Jane Murray, for he’d influenced his friend’s preferences and behaviour, caused him to make certain choices and to be at certain locations at certain times. He’d been the stimulus for steps taken, and subsequent ones had led his friend to that unknown woman, with whom Murray had created a child.
Converging ribbons.
Actions and consequences.
A child.
Descendants.
Jane Packard.
Dead.
Wordlessly, Burton jumped up and hurriedly left the lounge. He entered the passage that led to his cabin but had only just passed into it when he stumbled and was forced to lean against the bulkhead for support.
Sadhvi Raghavendra followed. She placed a hand on his shoulder and said quietly, “Richard, are you all right?”
He drew in a deep shuddering breath, fished a handkerchief from his pocket, and wiped a tear from his cheek.
“I never properly mourned Isabel,” he whispered. “She was to be my wife, but she was killed, and there will never be a woman to replace her. I shall have no children. When I die, everything I am will die with me. Nothing of Richard Francis Burton will continue. I’ll have no representation in the future.”
She smiled sadly. “You’ve overlooked the obvious.”
“Which is what?”
“You don’t require representation. Where the future is concerned, you are very much in it.”
“Oops!” Orpheus said. “Watch out!”
Burton, blinking the whiteness out of his eyes, fell across the sloping cockpit and slammed into a control panel. Nathaniel Lawless landed on top of him.
The floor heaved upward, sending the two men tumbling in the other direction.
Algernon Swinburne let loose a piercing shriek. Mick Farren swore.
“Wait! Wait!” Orpheus demanded. “I’m getting the hang of it now!”
The ship lurched again.
“Stop it!” Swinburne hollered, somersaulting into Lawless.
“I’m trying! Do you think it’s easy controlling a new vessel without any practice?” Orpheus protested. “You should be singing my praises!”
Finally, the Concorde levelled out. Burton, Swinburne, Lawless and Farren got to their feet.
“Report!” the captain barked.
“Give me a moment,” Orpheus replied. “It’s rather more intricate than before. Ah. No. Yes. All right, we’re fine. We’re at five thousand feet, directly above our starting point.”
“Bendyshe Bay?” Lawless demanded.
“That’s what I said, isn’t it? I should warn you, there’s a lot of air traffic around us. I recommend an immediate landing.”
“Do it.”
“The date?” Burton asked.
“As you ordered,” Orpheus answered. “Four o’clock in the morning on Tuesday the first of February in the year 2022.”
Farren looked out of the windows. “It’s as black as pitch out there.”
Burton felt suddenly lighter as the airship sank toward the ground. “I learned my lesson,” he said. “It’s a winter new moon. It was likely to be overcast, so running without lights, as we are, makes us harder to spot.”
“Not to telemobiloscopes,” Swinburne pointed out.
“Radar,” Farren said, reminding the poet of the technology’s new name. “Getting out of the sky is a very good idea.”
“Someone’s calling,” Orpheus announced. “Really! This isn’t a good time for interruptions. How many things am I supposed to do at once?”
“Let’s hear it,” Lawless said.
The Concorde’s radio system was more sophisticated than the equipment they’d gained in 1914 and didn’t require Burton or any of the others to hold the equivalent of a speaking tube. It projected a female voice directly into the bridge.
“Captain Lawless?”
“Hello,” Lawless replied.
“Incredible! You just appeared out of thin air!”
“We’re coming down. Is it safe?”
“Yes. Is Sir Richard with you?”
“I’m here,” Burton said.
“Hello. Marianne Smith. Just a small party to meet you. We’ll come aboard.”
“Very well. We’ll see you in a moment.”
He’d hardly finished speaking before their descent slowed dramatically.
“Brace yourselves,” Orpheus warned. “I’ve not landed a Concorde before. This might be disastrous.”
“Cripes!” Swinburne muttered.
The ship bumped to a halt. The whining of its engines deepened in tone as they slowed to a stop.
“I’ll gladly accept a round of applause,” the Mark III said.
“Miss Smith?” Burton queried.
“Still here.”
“We’ll open the doors in a couple of minutes.”
“Thank you.”
The radio cut off.
“I’ll stay here,” Lawless said. “I want to get the hang of the manual controls. Just in case.”
Burton nodded and gestured for the others to follow. They exited. The exterior hatch was just behind the bridge and in front of the lounge. Krishnamurthy and Gooch met them by it.
“Sadhvi’s staying with Herbert and William,” Krishnamurthy said. “They both require more time to recuperate.”
Burton took hold of the hatch’s right handle. He indicated that Krishnamurthy should take the left. In unison, they pulled and twisted, then pushed the portal open and slid it aside. A staircase automatically emerged from the base of the opening and glided down to the ground below.
Three shadowy figures were waiting. They mounted the steps, ascending to the chrononauts. The first of them to enter the ship was a short middle-aged woman with cropped grey hair and sharp features.