[Sticks]

Chapter 15

Third man end game

Steve and Sam found it hard to remain conscious because of the intense cold of the North Sea. Steve swam over to Sam; he was beginning to nod off to sleep. The sound of the approaching hover-tank increased above the sound of the waves. Steve just managed to grab Sam's arm. "Wake up he shouted above the noise"

Steve heard a large splash behind him. He glanced over his shoulder; a marine had jumped into the sea behind them, while the hover-tank hovered above. Steve pulled Sam over towards the marine. The marine slipped a harness over Sam's head and tied it up at the front. The marine waved at the hover-tank, and it dropped a cable out of the rear doors. The cable end dipped into the water beside them, then the marine clipped it to Sam's harness, waved at the hover-tank and Sam was winched up towards the hover-tank. The marine then placed a harness over Steve. Another cable came down beside them; the marine clipped the cable to Steve's harness and his own. The marine waved at the hover-tank again, and both were pulled from the North Sea.

As Steve was winched up, the wind took his breath away, he then realised how cold he was. After all going for a swim in the North Sea in the middle of winter, was not his idea of fun. As they reached level with the back door of the hover-tank, he looked around at the grey North Sea. The hover-car had sunk without trace, a small patch of burning fuel marked where helicopter had gone down. Its flickering light added to the orange glow of the sun as it was starting to set. The winch moved into the hover-tank and the back door closed.
"They're in" said another marine, "head for the university campus, we'll meet with the colonel there"

Immediately the hover-tank turned around and flew towards the coast line. Steve took the harness off and sat down on a seat opposite Sam. The marine that was operating the winch opened a first aid box and took out two silver coloured packets. He opened one up, it was a silver coloured blanket, and handed it to Sam. Sam took it and wrapped it around himself. The marine opened another packet and handed it to Steve. Steve wrapped himself up in it. Steve looked around, there were four marines, and each one was armed with machine pistols. The one who had jumped in the sea sat down beside Steve, the one on the winch sat down beside Sam. The marine who had spoken had the stripes indicating he was a sergeant. He sat down beside Sam and glowered at Steve.

"Do you realise ten of our men have died today" He said to Steve.
Steve tried to answer, but for some reason he could not reply. Even well into a collapsed society, where life was worth nothing, the "esprit de corps" among soldiers was one of the few remaining values.
Sam spoke up, "Those guys were trying to kill us as well, two of them were from of your own lot" he said trying to match the hostility of the sergeant.
"Well, we will let the colonel decide what to do with you, along with the other prisoners"
Steve managed to find his voice, "Those MP's were drugged with Klexon three seven, they had to obey the general. Are they going to be court marshalled?”
"I don't know about them, I was told to pick you up"

The sergeant moved across to Steve and pulled a patch off of Steve's anorak.
"You had a micro tracker on me then" Steve said quietly, "how did you manage that?”
"You must have had a run in with a WAIS agent".

Steve looked at the patch; it was designed to blend in with any fabric and contained a powerful micro transmitter that allowed an operator track a subject to within half a meter. They were used by the Western Alliance Intelligence Service, the successors to the old CIA, MI6 and so on. He thought back, it had to be the person who picked him up off of the Laurence Kirk Bypass, the other night, in this time. Something about what had happened was still nagging him. He had killed off the principal players, but the fact about the old CIA front business, running Aberdeen's major shopping centre still played on his mind.

"Approaching landing site sir" said the pilot as the hover-tank started to descend. The marines unholstered their machine pistols and pointed them at Sam and Steve.
"Those aren't necessary sergeant" Steve told him, "We have surrendered, we won't give you any trouble"
"Sorry sir, but regulations and all that"
The hover-tank landed softly in the fallen snow. The marine who had operated the winch opened the back door and got out of the hover-tank. Sam followed him out and waited, shivering in the snow. The marine who had jumped into the North Sea got out and tugged at Steve. Steve slowly got out. He looked around; he was outside the university administration centre. He saw a troop truck driving off, MP's under the guard of marines, looking totally dejected. The lorry turned on to the main road and was gone.
"Move along sir" said the sergeant.

Steve came to himself again, and with Sam, he started trudging through the snow to the administration building. He noticed another hover-tank nearby, and he heard the characteristic sound of another one coming in to land.
"Those should be the other prisoners" the sergeant told the other marines.
"What prisoners are these?" asked Steve, "I thought I saw the MP's carted off"
The question was not answered. They reached the front lobby; there was an officer with steel rimmed glasses and piercingly steel coloured eyes. On the seats sat Trevor, David, Philip and Brad.
"How are the others" Steve asked.
"They've been taken to Forester Hill" replied Brad, "they have a good chance of pulling through"

"I'm Colonel Samuel Travers" said the Officer, "I hear you shot down those traitors, I wish I could have done it myself. I understand you are the legendary Steve Gryson who was supposed to have been killed to save the universe"
"It was Reynolds and Samson that cooked that one up" Steve said defensively, "I was never interested in changing history"
"That may be so, but ten of my men have died, and who knows how many of the civilian police. At first I thought it was just a matter of collusion with the white slave raiders and Edzell. But there seems to be something else going on here, and I'm going to get to the bottom of it no matter what"

The door to the administration centre opened, and two dejected figures stumbled in, pushed by two marines. The figures were a man and a woman and their hands were tied behind their backs with plastic tags. The woman was wearing a grey coat, the man was not. Steve looked up and could not believe his eyes, the woman was Marie Tavistock.
"Marie" shouted Steve, "I was told you were executed"

"I gave orders that all executions ordered by Reynolds or Samson were to be faked" Explained Travers, "I still reserve the authority to carry them out." The colonel added. "Where did you get them soldier" he asked the marine sergeant who had brought them in.
"We got the man out side the Bon Accord shopping centre, and the woman was arrested at the Uncle Sam's restaurant." answered the sergeant.
"I know that place" said one of the other marines, "I was there yesterday, one of the chicks there has decided to work topless. She has the most perfect" he went to continue.
Marie felt outraged at this soldier, she remembered him now as one of those who had made Cherry feel really uncomfortable. "She's only just sixteen, and she was forced to work that way, she hates it" she spat out
"I didn't know" the marine replied sheepishly
"That's enough soldier" the colonel snapped, "This does not seem like a place that a marine should frequent"

A thought occurred to Steve, the brochure of white slaves, the biological weapon, the compliments slip and the receipt, the air-conditioning, and Cherry herself. It seemed as though the pieces of a giant jigsaw were falling into place. "Hang on colonel, your man may have put his finger on something, if you pardon the expression."
The colonel looked at him through his steely coloured eyes, "What are you getting at Mr Gryson"
Steve walked over to the marine who had just spoken, "That girl, Cherry, She has fair hair, beautiful eyes, clear skin, hasn't she"
"Yes" answered the marine and glanced at the stony face of the colonel.
"Steve" protested Marie, "She's only sixteen"
"Exactly, that's the whole point; the way she has been treated is a key to what this is all about. Marie, what is the name of this main share holder who has been running the centre"
"Larry Rider" she replied unsure of what Steve was on about.
"Colonel" Steve started, "do you have access to military records?”
"Why do you ask?”
"Because, I think we are dealing with more than Samson and Rennylds. I think we have a third man. Colonel if I'm right, there's another victim of this conspiracy out there, who doesn't realise it"

The colonel looked impassively at Steve and then walked towards the door. He stopped and turned around. "Keep these people here, if anyone tries to escape, shoot to kill." he ordered. He walked through the snow to his personal hover-tank. He took out a small black switch and pressed it. The side door opened and the colonel got in. He touched a small pad on the dashboard, and a TV like screen appeared on the overhead display.
"Which service?" asked an electronic voice.
"Military service record of a Larry Rider, currently resident in Aberdeen, Scot sector. Cross reference with service records of Wing Commander J W Samson and General John Reynolds"
The screen went blank, even in the twenty first century finding data files took time. He glanced at a photograph of a young girl of sixteen. It was his only daughter, Kerry; she was supposed to have visited him from school the previous year. The plane she was on, had been forced down by raiders. Kerry was taken by the white slavers and raped. When they had found out who she was the tied a large stone to her ankles and dropped her into a loch. They did not have the decency to kill her before, so, as the reports went, the cheered and laughed as she drowned. They never found the raiders.

"Ready" said the electronic voice.
The colonel looked up and read the information off of the screen. "So you were right Mr Gryson" he said to himself. He touched a pad, the display went off and Travers got out and walked to the building. He thought of his daughter, "There's not going to be anymore Kerry's while I'm in charge" he said to himself. He walked into the foyer of the administration block, and pointed to Marie and Garry. "Cut them free" he ordered.
A marine took out a knife and cut through the plastic tags that were biting into Marie's and Garry's wrists.
"Mr and Mrs Tavistock and Mr Gryson are to come with me" said the Colonel, "the others are to be released. Captain Vishalsky, inform the marines at Forester Hill to stand down. The rest of you come with me down to the shopping centre"
"What's going on?" asked Philip.
"Unfinished business Philip" Steve replied, "take the others home or to the hospital. Make sure Patricia is ok for me." With that he left with the colonel and the others.

As the hover-tanks flew down towards the centre of the town, Marie explained to the colonel how Cherry had come to be in the position she was, and how they had all tried to help her. It seemed impossible to read Travers' face; he just looked at them impassively with his steely coloured eyes. Marie told him what she had seen the general do to Cherry. Still his face was dead pan. Travers was quite good at hiding emotions, but it seemed hard to suppress his anger. He went to the front passenger seat for landing.
"Is it secured ok over" he said into the radio.
"Units here, ok over" came a voice over the radio.
"Is the target there? Over" the colonel asked.
"Target has gone to Uncle Sam's, do you want us to move in ok over?”
"Negative soldier, this one is mine" the colonel replied and hung the radio microphone up.

The colonel's hover-tank set down with another hover-tank at the north entrance, while the other hover-tank landed at the south entrance. Marie and Garry got out of the back first, the colonel and Steve got out together. The snow was about one foot deep, and the light was fading rapidly. The colonel strode through the snow easily compared to Steve, Marie and Garry; it was all they could do to keep up. They reached the door and the Colonel slammed it open, it seemed the only expression of emotion they could make out. As Steve got into the centre, it was how he had seen it when he had just returned. He found himself comparing it to the centre he had just visited on his trip back into the past. Yet again, he was surprised by the enormous emptiness of the building, compared with twenty years in the past. Marie and Garry found themselves being left behind by the colonel and the other marines as they struggled to keep up. Steve was only just managing to keep up with him. He saw the shop where Jennifer had bought her sweatshirt, it was still there. Where was she now, he wondered. The colonel virtually flew up the stairs, he seemed mad about something.

The colonel reached the top of the stairs and looked around at the cafeteria. What he saw, he did not like. He saw the small thin virtually naked body of Cherry, shivering as she was clearing the tables. Sitting in the corner was a man in a suit; he was going over accounts with the supervisor. Steve arrived a few seconds later, Marie and Garry about a minute later.
"Is this supposed to be a cafeteria or a pervert’s paradise" the colonel said aloud.
"You may not like it, but that's you opinion, others do" said the man in the corner. The supervisor just remained silent.
"And who are you?" Travers asked.
"I am the main share holder and the owner of this centre"
"Oh yes, I heard about you and what you have done to Miss Turner"

The man narrowed his eyes as he looked at the colonel, who was this man to tell him what to do. "I assume your talking about Cherry; I don't know what you have heard. But lets ask her shall we" said the man in a snide manner.
Cherry looked around when she heard her name, she spotted the marines and felt scared. She had not noticed the marines come in, as she was feeling very cold, and out of it. She looked at the bruise that was forming on her arm, and looked at Mr Rider, the man she hated most, apart from the general.
"Come on Cherry, why don't you tell the man how lucky you are to have a job and a home here" Rider said in a threatening manner, "Just tell him how grateful you are"

Cherry looked at the tall soldier with metal rimmed glasses, she wanted to tell the truth, but Mr Rider was here. He could order her clothes to be destroyed, he had told her, he could throw her out of the centre, he had told her that as well. She had no choice. She just stared past the colonel at the floor and stuttered "I'm er very lucky to have this job. When I er had to leave the home, I had to leave my clothes so the others could use them. I was lucky to get this er uniform to wear, and I have a bed and a blanket in the supervisor’s room". She dropped her head, she was cold, frightened, and hungry and now she had to lie.

Travers walked up to her and gently put his right hand under her chin and lifted her head up. Without thinking, he put his other hand on her shoulder. He felt her flinch, and could feel her shivering. "I can tell when people are lying to me Cherry, but in this case I can understand why"

Susan was coming out from the kitchen section when she caught sight of the officer who was touching Cherry. She didn't care who was there, if this man started molesting Cherry, he would have to answer to her. She walked into the seating area and started walking up behind Cherry.

The colonel noticed a tear running down Cherry's cheek. He wiped it away with his fingers and took his hands from Cherry; she was obviously still traumatised from what the general had done. Susan sighed with relief; this man did not seem like a child molester for some reason. Cherry dropped her head and tried to get on with her work, but she was terrified. Mr Rider had wanted her to lie, and she had failed to be convincing.

Travers walked up to Rider, "I know why she lied, but more importantly did you know that both General Reynolds and Commander Samson have been, shall we say, shot while trying to escape"
"Oh" Replied Rider, "What has that to do with me Colonel" he added trying to stay as cool as a cucumber.
"Well Mr Larry Rider, they were your accomplices weren't they, or shall I call you Mother Goose"
Larry's eyes widened for a moment, "What are you talking about, I never met them before today"

Travers snapped his fingers and a marine came across, "You are lying, both the commander and the general and you, all attended the same interrogation course. Mother goose was your call sign."
The supervisor saw her chance to shop the man who had made everyone's lives a misery. "He is lying colonel, Mr Rider has met the commander a number of times before today. The last time they were discussing bringing in Cherry" she said.
"It's ok Miss Judith" Travers replied, "I have enough to pin his hide to the wall."
Rider was beginning to look nervous, "Do you know who you are talking to, I own this place and a large part of this city. What you may have would never stand up in court"

"I don't need a court of law, you see General Reynolds made a big mistake" Travers said, his face impassive as ever, "you see he declared marshal law, and only a five star general can return the situation to civil rule, under the Western Alliance emergency powers act."
"So?”
"It means that as the only senior officer in charge, I am the judge, jury and executioner. And I now use my power under the act to confiscate this entire centre from your company"

Larry Rider's face broke into a broad grin "You will never get away with it; we still have friends that can bust you down to a squaddie. But you wouldn't dare, I have an ace-in-the-hole, you see if I don't regularly transmit a disarming sequence, then a hidden nuclear device will be detonated instantly, and this city will be nuked. Do you want to take that risk?"

The whole atmosphere of the cafeteria went still as Larry Rider sat there grinning at the colonel. He got up, smoothed a crease in his trousers and picked up his brief case in his left hand, "Now call off your men and surrender Colonel, you may have won one battle, but methinks, I seem to have won the war. Never mind we can't win them all can we. Cherry come with me now, my hover-car awaits"

Cherry started to walk over towards Rider, the man she hated had finally won. She felt like crying, but held back, she was too terrified to do anything other than submit to this monster in a business suit.

The colonels cap radio burst into life, the colonels eyes lit up.
"Not so fast Mr Rider" Travers spoke up, "Handy things radiation scanners, especially when you use an old soviet tactical nuclear warhead, which does tend to leak now and then" explained Travers. "As we were considered to be under invasion threat, some of my men were ordered to look out for nuclear devices. Didn't you know that scanning for atomic weapons is now part of the routine procedure; I'm surprised the general didn't mention it. Perhaps you never mentioned your little "ace in the hole" to the wing commander that was very remiss of you Mr Rider. You see I have just heard that they have found your device, two hours ago in the old abandoned railway station, and they have just deactivated it."

Larry Rider just stared at the colonel in disbelief; his own little "insurance policy" had been undermined. He slowly started to switch his brief case from his left hand to his right. Suddenly he felt the case being the wrenched from him as Steve grabbed at the case. Steve lifted the case up and showed the handle to a marine, "It's a hidden laser gun in the handle, I thought it looked a bit thick" he explained.
Larry just looked ashen faced, at Cherry's terrified figure as she stood shivering in front of him.

"Nice try Rider" The colonel pointed at Rider, then spoke to the marine that he had summoned "Lieutenant take this man into custody"
The marine walked up to Rider and pulled Rider's hands behind his back, and tied them up with a plastic tie. He then pushed the man to get him moving and then holding him firmly by the arm, he was joined by another marine and they took him down the stairs. The colonel looked impassively on as they disappeared from view.

Cherry decided to get back to work, but she was shaking badly. Colonel Travers walked up to Cherry. Cherry looked up at him, he looked hard and cold. Travers reached into his inner coat pocket and took out an electronic notebook. He unzipped his outer coat and took it off, and then he handed the coat to Cherry. "I think you want to put this on miss" he told her in a gentle voice, "it’s designed for arctic survival"
Cherry looked at the coat, she so wanted to put it on to cover herself up and get warm, but what about the uniform rules?. She turned around to look at the supervisor; her eyes seemed to be pleading with her. The supervisor found this look heartbreaking. Rider had driven her so near to breaking point, that she was still frightened of disobeying him, even when he could no longer harm them. "For Pete's sake put it on, Cherry you need it, from now on you can wear what you like" she told her

Now she had been given permission, Cherry took the coat from Travers and put her right arm down the sleeve, and then the left arm down the left sleeve. She could feel the residual warmth on her back and around her, as she tried to close it up. She tried to fix the zip up, but her hands were shaking too much. "It won't do up, it won't do up" she kept repeating, then she burst into tears, "Why me, what did I do wrong" she sobbed. It seemed to her that everything was her fault, and she was to be punished for some forgotten sin.

Susan rushed up to Cherry and grabbed at the two ends of the zip. She fixed the two ends and started to pull the zip up. Cherry reached for the zip, Susan let go of it and allowed Cherry to zip the coat up until the zip was just under her chin. She was still sobbing uncontrollably, so Susan put her arm around her and guided her to a seat, where Cherry collapsed onto it.

As the colonel looked on, a thought occurred to him, if this had been someone under interrogation, he would have considered them broken. But this was done to a helpless teenager, who was innocent of any crime. He had an idea and started tapping something into his electronic notepad.

"This kid's frozen" Susan shouted, "get her a hot drink of something"

The supervisor walked over to the counter and spoke to Angela, "Give her a large hot chocolate and then a super Sam burger meal, she needs feeding up. I'll arrange for her clothes to be delivered" then the supervisor went into the office to use the intercom. Angela took a Styrofoam cup and filled it up and took it across to Cherry. Susan was still sitting beside the weeping child, she reached up and took the cup and held it in front of Cherry's mouth. "Get this down you Cherry, it will help warm you up." she told Cherry.
Cherry sniffed and took hold of the cup with both hands and started to sip the creamy hot chocolate. She could feel the warm liquid run down inside her, and it felt good. All the time Susan continued to keep her arm around her shoulder, to give her a reassuring hug. "It's all over now Cherry, it’s all over now" she kept whispering to her.

Steve and the others looked on from another table in silence. "So that is why the air conditioning is this high" Said Steve under his breath.
"What are you talking about" said Garry said to Steve.
Marie motioned to Garry to keep quiet.

Angela brought a large Styrofoam box over to Cherry and put it on the table in front of her, and then went back to the warmth of the kitchen area. Cherry stared at it for a moment in disbelief, she had served them, but never dared hope to try one, her meal allowance only ran to one ham salad sandwich and half a pint of milk a day. "Even at the home, we never got that much, when ever we were able to get meals" said Cherry, tears still streaming down her face.
"It’s ok Cherry" Susan told her, "you're not there now, we have to feed you up, or you'll waste away, won't you."
Cherry put the cup down and opened the box up and lifted the giant hamburger up and bit into it. She could hardly believe her torment was ending.
Travers came over and sat down in front of the two girls. Another marine came up and tapped Susan on the shoulder. Susan looked up at him; it was a marine captain offering his coat to Susan. "Mam, it looks like you need this as well" he said.
"Thank you" Susan replied, and put the coat on while Cherry demolished the hamburger. She had been so concerned about Cherry, that she had not realised she was going in to the first stages of hypothermia as well. The marine captain went to the counter and ordered a coffee. Angela handed it over. The marine captain put some cash on the counter and brought the coffee across to Susan and handed it to her. Susan said thank you again and took the cup and started to drink the coffee.

As Cherry finished the burger, Travers started to speak, "Now Cherry, with what you have been through over the last few days, I don't think you would really like to stick around"
"But I have no where else to go" Cherry said in her quiet voice.
"That's where your wrong, Cherry. Do you like horses, animals and countryside ?"
Cherry Nodded and said yes quietly.
"Well, if you want, there's a VIP suborbital craft at Dyce airport. It can take you tonight, and you can go and live with a decent family in Montana in the American Sector. I know them well, they run a Hyper-farm and you would be part of a family"
Cherry was rather startled by this offer; it was more than she had ever dreamed of. Ever since she was orphaned at the age of six, she had wanted to be part of a family, but it would mean leaving behind Susan, one of her few friends. She turned around and looked at Susan. Susan saw the look in her eyes. "You go for it kid, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity, don't let me hold you back. I've survived all this time on my own, I'll be ok" She told Cherry.
Travers looked at the two girls; he could tell how close the two had grown over the last few days. "You can have the same offer Susan" he told her, "you two are just like sisters, and I would not like to split you up"

It was Susan's turn this time to be taken aback, "No one has ever given me anything like this before" she answered. She thought of the time she had spent on the run from the home, how it was all dog devour dog. No one ever gave you something for nothing, she was almost speechless. "I don't really know I would have to pick my bag up from the caretaker, I couldn't leave it at the squat" was all she could get out. Susan turned back to look at Cherry.
"Go on" Cherry urged her.
Susan gave in, "Ok" she said, "we can show those yanks a thing or two, can't we." Susan wiped a tear from her eye, then she realised she had been crying with relief.
"Oh yes please" said Cherry eagerly and then the two girls embraced each other for a moment.

A security guard came up the stairs and the supervisor took some money from the till, and pushed past the other marines, to give him the cash and take the three bags he was carrying. She went up to the table and handed one bag to Cherry, "Your clothes Cherry" She handed another bag to Susan, "This I believe contains all your worldly goods Susan". Then the supervisor took from the third bag a pink sweater, and handed it to Susan. "It's a lot more substantial than what you turned up to the interview in." The supervisor said. Then the supervisor turned to the colonel, "When Susan first showed up all she was wearing was a pair of jeans cut like shorts and a white cotton shirt that had to be tied up in front because most of the buttons had gone, She told me that it was that or wear nothing"
Susan's face went several shades of red, "Thanks Miss Judith" she said and tried to hide her face.
"I must go and give the other girls their sweaters" the supervisor said as she went into the kitchen area.
"Well" started Travers, "I will get Corporal Granger here, a female marine, to help you to get more clothes before you leave tonight. The winter here is nothing compared to winter in Montana. Now you two go into the toilets and get dressed as far as you can."
Susan turned round to Cherry, "ok, kid, we better go fix ourselves up, we look in a right state don't we."
"Yeah" replied Cherry and she gave a weak smile. It was the first time that they had ever seen her really smile.

As the two girls walked off to the ladies, arm in arm, the colonel got up, walked over to the table where Steve and the others were and sat down. "Now Mr Gryson, I take it you can tell me what this has all been about" he said.
"I think I can" Steve started, "One thing that is certain, my experiments with tachyons and chronons were just a smoke screen. The vision of these men was the same as Adolph Hitler, a genetically pure race. Over twenty years ago they had the idea of a biological weapon which would attack humans, but could be vaccinated against. Not only would the person receiving the vaccine be protected, but protection would pass to next immediate generation, most likely by the maternal line. They managed to use the cover of, antidotes to chemical warfare attacks, based on experience during the Gulf war, to hide it in the defence budget. They must have picked RGIT, because although it was an excellent institution, its geographical position meant it was off in the hinterlands, away from the prying eyes of your congressional committees of the time. Their first problem though, was when the wife of the man who was creating the biological weapon, gave birth to a baby with Down's syndrome"
"So if they wanted absolute perfection, they would have to die because they were genetically flawed" chipped in Travers
"Exactly, and the biochemist knew it. As it was his child, he must have had a change of heart. As it was common knowledge about the child, he would have been marked for termination, and the work farmed out to his assistant. The only way to stop them from continuing with this biological weapon was to expose the conspiracy. If he went to his own side, the general would be able to squelch all news of it."

"How come?" asked Garry
"It was a well known rumour, that General Reynolds had a file on most of the important people. He would have found a way to spike any investigation" explained the colonel.
"Thank you colonel" Steve replied and then continued, "The only way was to tip off the Russians, that a biological weapon was being manufactured, against the international arms treaties of the time. But the biochemist was murdered anyway. As the Russian delegation was going to investigate the biochemist's files on the Monday after the attack, it was just a simple case of destroying the evidence. As my experiments were hitting the news, I was just used as a convenient scapegoat. They could not afford anyone questioning their so called official line, so anyone who did, was subsequently targeted. It’s just lucky that Sam saved my kit bag; there are sufficient details to prove this. I'm just sorry you had to suffer Marie"

"Well maybe our family name can be cleared now" answered Marie, "but you said the way Cherry was treated was a key to this. Why?”
"To put it bluntly, Cherry was being softened up to take part in the other half of their twisted plan. Think about it. Cherry is a girl who has a high personal moral code: make her do something against her nature so she feels guilty, like stripping off in public; make her cold by turning up the air-conditioning; and reduce the food she has. All that was left to do was sleep deprivation. Recognise this colonel"
The colonel nodded, "The means of breaking a person down for mind programming, some times known as brain washing"
"Larry Rider would have known that, since he did a course on interrogation with the commander and the general, right colonel"
"Yes, they were at Salisbury together"
"I recognised it, because of work I once did with those caught up in cults, they used similar techniques. Now if you look at the first part of their plan, it was to wipe out racial groups they thought were undesirable. The second part was to breed the genetically pure. Cherry, if you look at her, is genetically pure, even her face is symmetrical. She was to be used as one of several baby factories, to create more of the new master race. Being sixteen, she would have more time to produce more babies; my guess is it would have been by artificial insemination, possibly to produce multiple births for greater efficiency. Colonel, please make sure she never knows what was planned for her, it would destroy her."
"That's horrible" Marie said quietly, "so that was the reason behind the uniform policy"
"Partly, the excuse that it increased turnover as much as it did, was probably fictitious. Did you notice that it was really that busy?"
"It seemed pretty busy at the time Steve"
"In order to finance the operation and General Reynolds election campaign, they needed to get involved with the white slavery racket. Any other baby factories would have been a bonus. The money was going through an account somehow, because it was being funnelled to party headquarters. Since white slave traders don't use cheques, what better way of converting large quantities of cash, than to have it hidden with other cash spent at various establishments owned by a holding company, in a town that is due to die anyway. If you audit the accounts, you should find the extra cash."

The two girls came out of the toilets carrying the coats over their arms; they had taken off the baseball caps, reminders of bad times. Susan handed the supervisor a bag, "these are our uniforms, such as they were"
"You didn't have to give them back" she replied as she took the bag.
Cherry walked over to the colonel and tried to hand his coat back.
The colonel refused it and told her "You two keep them, I can get more from stores"
Cherry looked at the coat, "Thank you sir, but it is too big for me though" she said, and offered it back again
"Granger will get you a coat more you size then" Travers said as he reluctantly took the coat back.
Susan put her coat back on, it fitted her quite well.
"Ok let’s go you two" said Corporal Granger as she clapped her hands, "we have some serious shopping to do and a flight to catch". With that the two girls went with the marine down the stairs.
"Are we still under a death sentence" Garry asked the colonel
"What death sentence, you’re all free to go as far as I'm concerned" he replied. The colonel got up. "By the way Mr Gryson, that was a nice bit of shooting" he said and then left with the other marines.

Steve examined his chronon accelerator, enough charge for thirty seconds. He put it away, and slipped out conventionally, the waitresses at Uncle Sam's were to busy celebrating their liberation to notice him anyway. Steve had other things to do.

The five star general that came in to return Aberdeen to civilian rule two days later, arranged for the hospital bill to be paid for those who had been shot. It took two weeks for Neel and Mike to be discharged from the hospital. Patricia was kept in over Christmas, and Steve was the only visitor she had. Meanwhile the press had a field day over the story of a presidential candidate turning traitor. All the press was told was that he had become tied up in white slavery racket, and had died fleeing in a neo-soviet helicopter. Several senators in Washington resigned. The president at the time of the original bombing of course denied all knowledge of the affair as presidents usually do.

Steve and the End-of-the-bar gang were hailed as heroes, the dead computer operator was honoured posthumously. Those who went to prison because they refused to denounce Steve as a mad man had all their convictions quashed and were offered substantial compensation. Of course those papers that had libelled Steve and Co, which still existed, fell over themselves to offer out of court settlements. The fact that Steve had built and used a time machine was of some limited interest, but all the details were withheld. This suited Steve quite well, he just wanted to drop out of sight again.

The best news of all, was that some of the End-of-the-bar gang managed to redo the old RGIT student union bar up. The big opening night was scheduled for Hogmanay. Patricia was discharged from hospital three days before Hogmanay, when she discovered that Steve Gryson, alias the Lone Stranger had decided to leave town the next day by coach.

As Steve waited outside for the coach to arrive, Patricia came and sat down beside him. "Why must you leave?" she asked, "I would like you to stay"
"I have to. People I knew have suffered and died because of me. You yourself nearly died because of me Patricia. This city has to many bad memories" Steve replied. "There's a lot of healing to be done, and my presence here won't help matters. Just remember me as a stranger who saved your life. To me Steve Gryson died twenty years ago" With that he handed a letter to Patricia addressed to the End-of-the-bar gang, "give this to them at Hogmanay"
"But Steve" she protested, "you did a lot of good here as well; you stopped an attempt at genocide."
"All I did Patricia was stop this attempt. There will be others who believe in the shibboleth of the master race in there own warped minds. Remember Adolph Hitler's attempt, the introduction of genetic screening, and the rise of so called nationalism at the end of the twentieth century"

Patricia thought for a moment then said "Mrs Tavistock's putting me up, and she said how you helped them out with that corrupt owner. Miss Judith has taken over running the centre now and Mrs Tavistock has succeeded her as Supervisor." Suddenly Patricia remembered a letter that Marie had passed onto her. "Steve, read this, it's a letter from Susan, one of the girls that went to the states" she said as she handed Steve a faxed letter.

Steve took it and glanced at it. It seemed quite long and handwritten in a very neat script. Steve read through it, "Dear All" it started, "We arrived safely at the farm at night, the building was huge, and the people there, the Brackens, are great and we both love them. It took a day, most of it sleeping to get over the jet lag, they gave us some pills to help. The food here is something else, and there are large amounts of it. Cherry managed to stun the rest of the family into silence one meal time, by saying that at the home, they would have only a third of what they had on the plate, per day, and sometimes they had to go without. Cherry has been helping Mrs Bracken in the kitchen; get ready for Christmas while I have been getting to know one of the herds of cattle. On my first day out on the ranch, a ranch hand gave me a wolf whistle; I shook my fist at him and told him if he did that to Cherry he would have me to deal with. Mr Bracken was there and told him that he would deal with what was left of him. The ranch hand apologised, he quite dishy actually. I have to tell you that we almost lost Cherry the other day. She wanted to get herself a new Bible, so she asked one of the ranch hands if it was far to town. He told her that it was fifteen minutes away, so she tried to walk there in the snow. He didn't tell her that he meant fifteen minutes by hover-car, stupid berk. When we discovered her missing at lunch time, the ranch hand discovered the misunderstanding. It was lucky that Mr Bracken's hover-car was equipped with a sheep location device. She had fallen down a ditch, knocked herself out and broken her right leg below the knee. If we had been half an hour later, she would have died. We took her to the ranch’s own infirmary. Cherry was very upset, but Mr Bracken told her it wasn't her fault and the Ranch hand apologised for the misunderstanding. Mrs Bracken says at least she can keep her inside while she puts on a bit of weight. The nurse says she is three stone underweight. I'm just about ok. Mr Bracken has given both of us new Bibles, though Cherry will probably make more use of it than me. In the spring we will get a horse each to use I sometimes wonder what Cherry would do without me, but I think she will be all right now. Yours Sincerely Susan McLaughlin"

Steve folded the letter up and handed it back to Patricia.
"Because you came back Steve, those two girls have got a new life." She started, "Remember that bit about food." she added, "the colonel visited that home that Cherry came from? They found ten children there, even a one year old boy. Every one, including the resident staff was suffering malnutrition. Now, they have all been treated and farmed out to families for adoption, they even managed to place one child with a family living on that city on the moon"

Steve sighed as the coach drew in, "What about all those police officers who died, what about those marines who died. You have a career to try and pick up again, and your parents died, thinking you were dead. Besides, I know that in the future someone will try and kill me, I don't want you to be around when that happens, in case you get hurt"

Another man came out of the waiting room and boarded the coach. Patricia embraced Steve "Keep in touch please" She pleaded, "We were two of a kind"
Steve didn't answer; he didn't have the words anyway, so he gave her a quick hug and boarded the coach. Patricia watched as others boarded the London bound coach, and then continued to watch as it disappeared into the distance. She realised she had been crying, and then she turned around and trudged up to the old student union.

As the End-of-the-bar gang were drinking at the old RGIT student union bar with Patricia at Hogmanay, a policeman came into the bar. "I have some bad news" he said in a quiet tone
"What?" Mike asked.
"Last night the coach, which Mr Gryson was on, was involved in a crash with a hydrogen tanker. Mr Gryson was not listed among the survivors. There was one man badly burnt who said he had Mr Gryson, but he has since been removed by Luna Cit authorities"
"So Steve is dead" Patricia said faintly
"I'm afraid it looks that way, some of the bodies can't be identified, because we don't have sufficient dental records" the policeman answered.
Patricia started to feel faint, the policeman rushed to catch her. He helped her to a seat. Patricia remembered the letter that Steve had given her. She handed it to Neel, and he read it out allowed.

"Dear friends. I'm sorry I can't be with you for the Hogmanay celebrations, being English; perhaps it's just as well. I know that each of you, who came through in the time bubble, will have to readjust to a world, where our values of decency have long since vanished into the dustbin of history. I used the code name Lone Stranger, perhaps in a world of today, those of us who hang onto moral codes, really are lone strangers. The white slave traders have suffered a heavy blow, but they will be back. Aberdeen will become a ghost town eventually, especially as the oil is just about gone, and the fish stocks that have vanished, because of the over fishing that happened in the past. I am sorry that you had to be put through this, but at least you are still alive. Some one gave me an offer to lecture in physics at the Luna Cit University. I don't know if I want to take it up. The only thing I know is that I have met myself, and I told myself that some one is going to try and kill me. You may be luckier than you think. Your lives now are a blank page, I have to go and meet an uncertain destiny. Ain't life a bitch, and then you die. Yours Sincerely Steve Gryson, A Lone Stranger"

Silence hung over the bar as the last words of Steve's letter rang in the air. Steve had risked everything to save them and clear their names, but now he was dead, the victim of a simple traffic accident.

Patricia got up and walked outside. Neel followed her out.
"Are you ok Pat" he asked.
Patricia took in a deep breath, "I just need some fresh air Neel. You go in. As it’s near midnight, I will do the first footing" she replied.
"I'm not leaving you" he started.
"Just go" she snapped, she didn't anyone to see her in this state.
Neel realised that she wanted to be alone and retired back to the bar. Everyone was getting ready to link hands to see the New Year in.

In the distance Patricia could hear a church bell chime twelve o'clock. Then she looked up at the night sky and caught sight of a shooting star. "I'll never forget you Steve Gryson. I will always remember you" Patricia whispered, as she heard the sound of Auld Lang Syne. The words seemed to have a new poignancy

“Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

and auld lang syne ?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne”

The End