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The policeman laid a hand on the shoulder of the girl who had left Blackbury Karate Club because no boy would dare come within two metres of her.
"Oh, we can't have that, love," he said. He pointed. "See up there on Blackdown? Well, Mr Hodder and his very brave men are up there every night, keeping a look-out. If any planes come near here tonight he'll ring the station in a brace of shakes, don't you worry."
"But supposing the phone doesn't work?"
"Oh, then he'll be down here on his bike in no time."
"Bike? A bike? That's all?"
"It's a motorbike," said the policeman, giving her the nervous looks everyone eventually gave Kirsty.
She just stared at him.
"It's a Blackbury Phantom," he added still further, in a tone of voice that suggested this should impress even a girl.
"Oh? Really? Oh, that's a relief," said Kirsty. "I feel a lot better for knowing that. Really."
"That's right. There's nothing for you to worry about, love," said the policeman happily.
"I'll just go off and play with my dolls, I expect," said Kirsty.
"That's a good idea. Have a tea party," said the policeman, who apparently didn't know withering scorn when he heard it.
Kirsty crossed the road and sat down on the seat.
"Yes, I expect I should have a party with all my dollies," she said, glaring at the flowers.
Yoless looked at Joh
"What?" he said.
"Did you hear what that ridiculous policeman said?" said Kirsty. "Honestly, It's obvious that the stupid man thinks that just because I'm female I've got the brains of a baby. I mean, good grief! Imagine living in a time when people could even think like that without being prosecuted!"
"Imagine living in a time when a bomb could come through your ceiling," said Joh
"Mind you, my father said he lived in the shadow of the atomic bomb all through the Sixties," said Kirsty.
"I think that was why he wore flares. Hah! Dollies! Pink dresses and pink ribbons. "Don't worry your head about that, girlie." This is the dark ages."
Yoless patted her on the arm.
"He didn't mean it ... you know, nastily," he said. "It's just how he was brought up. You people can't expect us to rewrite history, you know-"
Kirsty frowned at him.
"Is that sarcasm?" she said.
"Who? Me?" said Yoless i
"All right, all right, you've made your point. What's so special about a Blackbury Phantom, anyway?"
"They used to make them here," said Joh
They raised their eyes to the dark shape of Blackdown. It had loomed over the town even back in 1996, but then it had a TV mast.
"That's it?" said Kirsty. "Men just sitting on hills and listening?"
"Well, Blackbury wasn't very important," said Joh
"I wonder what's going to go wrong tonight?" said Yoless.
"We could climb up there and find out," said Joh
"Hang on," said Kirsty. "Think, will you? How do you know we might not cause what's going to go wrong tonight?"
Joh
"No. If we start thinking like that we'll never do anything."
"We've already messed up the future once! Everything we do affects the future!"
"It always has. It always will. So what? Let's get the others."
Ru
There was no question of using the roads, not with the police still looking for a Bigmac who, with a wardrobe of costumes to chose from, had chosen to go back in time wearing a German soldier's uniform.
They'd have to use the fields and footpaths. Which meant we'll have to leave the trolley," said Yoless. "We can shove it in the bushes here."
"That means we'll be stuck here if anything goes wrong!" said Bigmac.
"Well, I'm not lugging it through mud and stuff."
"What if someone finds it?"
"There's Guilty," said Kirsty. "He's better than a guard dog."
The cat that was better than a guard dog opened one eye and yawned. It was true. No-one would want to be bitten by that mouth. It would be like being savaged by a plague laboratory.
Then he curled into a more comfortable ball.
"Yes, but it belongs to Mrs Tachyon," said Joh
"Hey, we're not thinking sensibly - again," said Kirsty. "All we have to do is go back to 1996, go up to Blackdown on the bus, then come back in time again and we'll be up there-"
"No!" shouted Wobbler.
His face was bright red with terror.
"I'm not stopping here by myself again! I'm stuck here, remember? Supposing you don't come back?"
"Of course we'll come back," said Joh
"Yes, but supposing you don't? Supposing you get run over by a lorry or something? What'll happen to me?"
Joh
"Here," said Wobbler suspiciously. "This is time travel, right? Do you know something horrible?"
"We don't know anything," said Bigmac.
"Absolutely right," said Kirsty.
"What, us? We don't know a thing," said Joh
"Especially about burgers," said Bigmac.
Kirsty groaned. "Bigmac!"
Wobbler glared at them.
"Oh, yes," he muttered. "It's "wind up ole Wobbler" time again, right? Well, I'm going to stay with the trolley, right? It's not going anywhere without me, right?"
He stared from one to the other, daring them to disagree.
"All right, I'll stay with you," said Bigmac. "I'll probably only get shot anyway, if I go anywhere."
"What're you going to do up on Blackdown, anyway?" said Wobbler. "Find this Mr Hodder and tell him to listen really carefully? Wash out his ears? Eat plenty of carrots?"
"They're for good eyesight," said Yoless helpfully. "My gra
"Who cares!"
"I don't know what we can do," said Joh
"Look," said Kirsty.
The sun had already set, leaving an afterglow in the sky. And there were clouds over Blackdown. Dark clouds.
"Thunderstorm," she said. "They always start up there."
There was a growl in the distance.
Blackbury was a lot smaller once they were in the hills. A lot of it wasn't there at all.
"Wouldn't it be great if we could tell everyone what they're going to do wrong," said Joh
"No-one'd listen," said Yoless. "Supposing someone turned up in 1996 and said they were from 2040 and started telling everyone what to do? They'd get arrested, wouldn't they?"
Joh
"The listeners'll be up at the Tumps," said Kirsty. "There's an old windmill up there. It was some kind of look-out post during the war. Is, I mean."
"Why didn't you say so before?" said Joh
"It's different when it's now."
The Tumps were five mounds on top of the down. They grew heather and wortleberries. It was said that dead kings were buried there in the days when your enemy was at arm's length rather than ten thousand feet above your head.
The clouds were getting lower. It was going to be one of those Blackbury storms, a sort of angry fog that hugged the hills.
"You know what I'm thinking?" said Kirsty.
"Telephone lines," said Joh
"Right."
"But the policeman said there was a motorbike," said Yoless.
"Starts first time, does it?" said Joh