Hexad: The Ward (24 page)

Poor Wozzy

1 Hour Past

"Oh, poor Wozzy, poor little dude."

"Don't worry, he's fine," said Peter. "Ah, here he is now."

Wozzy sauntered into what Amanda realized with a start was Hector's living room, just decorated differently to how she'd seen it an hour or so ago, licking his lips clean of a milk mustache.

"Wozzy!" Amanda scooped him up in her arms and kissed him on his head. "Ow, ow, ow. You little bugger."

Meow.

Amanda dropped him, scowled at her blouse, and then smiled. "Poor guy. Um, wow! Peter, how the hell did you do that?"

"And where exactly did you get a Hexad from?" asked Dale with a frown that quickly turned to a smile.

Peter spread his arms wide, smiled broadly, and said, "I think we deserve a drink." With that he wandered off, retracing Wozzy's steps.

Amanda and Dale stared after him, speechless. They were still there when he returned with a bottle of wine and three glasses.

Peter shook the bottle, smiled and said, "It's expensive. Really expensive."

"Why not?"

"Count me in."

They moved over to a large, carved table, definitely not the minimalist style Hector had favored on their last visit. Peter poured the wine while Dale and Amanda scraped back a chair and sat, still staring at him open-mouthed.

"Um, okay, how the hell...? Um, are we safe?" Amanda glanced around the room nervously, expecting Hector and Laffer to arrive at any moment.

"Don't worry, we're fine. I jumped us to an hour ago, so they are at your place now."

"Um, Peter, it doesn't work like that. They could jump here still."

"Nah, don't be daft, they are at your house."

"Peter," said Dale, "you can jump anywhere, you know that, you just did it. Um, loads of times."

Peter took a sip of wine, and said, "I suppose you're right. Don't worry about it, they won't know we are here. We could be anywhere, right?"

"S'pose," said Amanda. "Wow, thanks, Peter. You saved us there. Poor Wozzy."

"Yeah, but he doesn't seem to mind." Peter indicated the sleeping Wozzy, curled up around the head of a lion, the rest just a rather comfortable rug. "I got the idea from you, Amanda, when you did it when we first got chased by Laffer at The Ward, remember?"

"How could I forget?"

"Okay, come on, you have to tell me how you did that, it was pretty impressive," said Dale.

"Dale, let's fix your finger first, look at it."

Dale looked down at his finger. To Amanda it looked like a gone-off sausage, but Dale seemed hardly interested in it at all, like he'd forgotten. "It's fine, Laffer actually popped it back in. I'll be all right."

"Are you sure? Oh, my brave man." Amanda leaned to her left and kissed Dale. He smiled back at her, like everything was fine and what had happened was nothing but a dream.

Amanda felt her stomach flip — maybe it was nothing but the imagination of a warped mind and she could be back in her cell, strapped up tight, dosed on her meds, raving about time travel and how her psychiatrist was really trying to take over the world and was out to get her. She shook her head, focused on the here and now. This was real. Wasn't it?

"Amanda. Amanda!"

"Sorry, miles away. God, I'm so tired, I don't feel like I've stopped since I got out of that damn Ward."

Peter and Dale exchanged worried glances.

"What?"

"Well, we wanted it to be a surprise, but now is as good a time as any. Shall we do it now?" Dale asked Peter.

"Yeah, good idea."

"What? What's going on?"

"You'll see." Dale adjusted the Hexad he'd grabbed before they jumped as Amanda suddenly realized they'd left Hector with his and should have taken it, but she couldn't blame Peter for that oversight. "Ready?"

"Ready," said Peter.

"I guess," said Amanda, exhausted.

"Whooooooooooooooooooosh."

"Dale, do you have to—"

They jumped.

~~~

78 Years Future

"No more time travel, no more Hector or Laffer, no more madness. Just rest."

"Wow," was all Amanda could say.

"We were going to save it until it was all over, but, well, now seemed like a good time, right, Peter?"

"Absolutely. And don't worry, I'm not staying. This is for you guys. I'm gonna go and get Wozzy and leave you to it."

"Oh no, not yet you don't," said Dale, grabbing Peter's arm before he disappeared.

"What? I'm just giving you guys a break."

"You have some explaining to do first. How did you do all that just then and where the hell did you get a Hexad from?"

"Oh, er, um, I thought you'd be pleased." Dale stared at him; Amanda was too caught up in where she was to think about scolding him. "Okay, I nicked it. Happy?"

"Peter, we went through this," said Dale.

"I know, but c'mon, it's time travel!"

"Fine." Dale sighed. "Tell us all about it. Then you can bugger off."

Peter sat down on the sand and owned up.

Amanda was surprised he'd lasted as long as he had, but the truth was he had been a sneaky bugger and while Dale was in a bit of a meltdown, hunting high and low for her, jumping back and forth through time, doing his daft thing with the trunk full of Hexads in the garden and almost getting Cray involved, Peter had rather taken advantage, much to his shame, so he said, although he looked anything but shamed, and had taken the opportunity to get himself a nice handful of Hexads.

He'd taken one out of Dale's hands when he fell asleep after a longer day of jumping than usual, and without explaining in too much detail Peter admitted he'd then proceeded to jump back time after time and take more and more Hexads from Dale while he slept.

Dale hadn't even noticed that when he woke up the Hexad display read one jump less than it should have, and Peter then had a never-ending supply. All he had to do after he had a few of them stashed away was jump to where he'd put them, take them all, jump away, put them back again with the others and double his loot each time.

That was just the beginning. After he had what he thought was enough, and Amanda didn't want to think how many that would be, he'd then come to own up, only to be faced with seeing Hector and Laffer in the kitchen with them. Dale and Amanda had interrupted him saying they didn't remember that, but he'd just looked at them like they were stupid — of course they wouldn't, he'd jumped away and then jumped back and did his little trick before any of that had happened, and he was quiet about what he saw and what had happened.

Rather, he'd jumped back into various places, did what he did, jumped away and kept jumping back to different spots, ending with a fast "here then gone," threw Wozzy, reappeared with bricks and the rest was history.

Amanda had to admit she was impressed. It was some serious coordination on his part, done with military precision.

"And there we have it," said Peter. "I saved the day."

"I still want the Hexads back," said Dale with a pout.

"Spoilsport," moaned Peter.

"Peter, I can't thank you enough for saving us, and for this," Amanda swept a hand around at the beautiful location, "but you know what we have to do. We have to get rid of them all. We have to go and get that one off Hector, and it's a shame you didn't put that into your plan, but you can't keep them, you know that."

"I know, and sorry about not getting Hector's. I didn't want to risk doing any more than I did. Okay, I'll sort it, promise. You guys just relax, I'll deal with it."

"Promise?" asked Amanda, almost asleep.

"I promise," said Peter. "Right, I'm off. I'm going to get Wozzy and then I will get rid of the Hexads. I'll see you back in the present, let me know when you are home."

"We'll be home soon, this is time travel, after all," said Dale with a smirk.

"Oh, yeah, right, of course. Just don't go home to the present now, Hector and Laffer are in the kitchen, remember?"

"How could we forget?"

"See ya."

Peter was gone.

Amanda was asleep.

A Welcome Rest

78 Years Future

Amanda woke to a gentle tinkling sound, heat that felt unnatural for the British climate, and the feeling she was sinking. She opened an eye and it came back to her: they weren't in the UK, they were on a beach, somewhere definitely tropical, probably Thailand if she knew Dale.

She turned her head to the left in search of the familiar noise. Dale was smiling at her, holding out a glass full of beer and ice — that explained the sound. She smiled at the man she loved more than anything in the world, head fuzzy from sleep, nerves ready to put her on edge, her subconscious expecting something bad to happen at any moment.

She sat with a start and stared around the beach, frantic, expecting Laffer to grab her, Hector to buckle her into a straitjacket, or to wake from her dream and find herself playing dominoes while she stared at countless incarnations of herself, lost to madness.

"It's okay, it's just us here. Relax." Dale handed her the drink and she took a grateful gulp, the cool beer bringing back memories of lazy days lounging on similar beaches, swimming in turquoise water and eating Pad Thai for dinner.

"Oh, thanks." Amanda smiled, forced her body to relax, to accept that everything was all right and she was safe. Dale was looking after her, she was fine. "You know me too well, Dale. Thank you. Is this Koh Tao? It looks familiar."

Dale nodded. "Yep. I figured after what you'd been through we could have a nice break. It, um, didn't go exactly as expected," Dale frowned at the close encounter with Hector and Laffer, "but the main thing is we are here now."

"Just us?"

"Just us. And, er, well, I think we should keep it that way now. I love Peter, and he did just save us in his own rather unique way, but this mess is down to us, so we have to clear it up ourselves."

Amanda drained her glass, not even asking where it came from — there was certainly no bar nearby — and said, "Agreed. What Peter just did was great, but the more he's involved the messier this will get. He's already put everything at risk by taking the Hexads, I just pray he'll do as he promised and get rid of them."

"He will, he meant it. Knowing Peter, he'll do something epic and throw them into a live volcano or something. You know what he's like, loves a bit of drama."

"Haha, he does, doesn't he? But we seem to keep getting involved in rather dramatic things ourselves, don't we? God, what are we going to do, Dale, this is such a mess?"

"Hush, hush, just relax, don't think about any of it. Let it go, get your energy back, pretend it happened to someone else."

"How can I? You know what we've done. We started this whole thing off and Hector is probably right now somehow figuring out how the damn Hexad works and thinking of ways to get all those poor women to give him what he wants. It's a sick game he's playing. I don't know why on earth he did what he did, but we have to stop him." Amanda let the tears flow. There weren't enough she could shed for all the lives that were ruined because of what they had done. No, what Hector did, not them, not her. Him.

"Don't think about it now. We're seventy-eight years into the future and the place is deserted. It's just us. We're safe, and once we are ready we will go and finish this once and for all. I promise."

Amanda looked into the eyes of Dale, saw the determination, the truth behind his words. "Okay. Now, where are we staying? If this is a vacation then it better be somewhere nice."

Vacation? I must be mad. How can I relax at a time like this? Because I have no choice, that's why. A few days ago I was in an asylum, full of drugs and lost, and since then things have just got crazier. Maybe I am crazy, maybe I'm still there?

"Amanda? Amanda?"

"Eh?"

"Come on, love, let's get you to bed. And yes, I have picked somewhere rather nice. I think you'll like it."

"But what are we going to do? We can't stop this now, not now it's happened, or is going to happen anyway. We did this to ourselves. We messed around when we shouldn't have and now we've broken everything." Amanda stood rapidly, suddenly aware of something Dale said. "What did you mean about nobody being about?"

Dale stood and took hold of Amanda's hand. "Honey, we are in a future where there are no people. It's happened, what Tellan said would happen. What we saw on that huge screen, about that billionaire getting a Hexad, then everyone would be able to... Well, that happened. I saw it, I jumped all over looking for a way to undo what he did to you, and I saw things fall apart. All the jumping messed things up too much, just like Tellan said, and people vanished. They aren't here; they aren't in any futures I went to. Whether they are the ones in our universe, or Peter is right and when you jump you create a new one, I don't know, or care to be honest, but everyone's gone."

"But Dale, what—"

"Look, don't think about it. I am telling you so you know that for now you are safe. Rest up, we have all the time in the world to fix this, and that is exactly what we will do. We will find a way to get this sorted out and we will put an end to this for good. But for now... Ta-da!"

Amanda hadn't even realized they had been walking while they talked, and at Dale's huge smile and excited grip on her hand she looked where he indicated with his other hand.

"Oh. Oh, wow!"

"Who loves ya, baby?"

~~~

Four days later and Amanda couldn't contain herself any longer. The large house set on a high point overlooking the beach was absolute heaven, perfect. She slept, lazed about, swam, ate and drank, and she could almost make herself believe that everything was perfect and they really were on vacation.

But that wasn't the truth, and she could never quite allow herself to forget the mess they had left behind them. It was obvious Dale felt the same way. He smiled, put a brave face on it, but she knew he was waiting for her to recover so they could try to undo what they had done, not that she knew how that was possible.