Before the Storm Page 19

  ‘BC, may I ask you two questions?’ she ventured.

  ‘No, I shall never tell anyone about last Wednesday night,’ replied BC.

  ‘Actually, that was not the question, but thank you.’

  ‘Wednesday night?’ asked Daniel and Muriel together.

  ‘None of your business!’ snapped Emily.

  ‘Then what?’ asked BC.

  ‘Firstly … well, it’s not a question. I was waiting for some boy to come along and rescue me from my cage. You taught me that I could break out of that cage any time that I wanted to, without help from any boy. It was not easy, but it was not impossible.’

  ‘True. We are all trapped in cages, yet all of us carry the keys. Finding the courage to use the keys, that is the hard part.’

  ‘And second, your future ceased to exist when Barry stole the bombs that were supposed to destroy the Exhibition Buildings.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Yet you and Fox did not cease to exist.’

  ‘Obviously.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Quite probably, it was a causality loop,’ replied BC.

  ‘Um, can that be explained to someone like me?’

  ‘It was a future that happened, then looped back on itself and got bypassed by changed history.’

  ‘Oh, but I thought you would sort of die, or, um, never have been.’

  ‘Apparently time travel does not work like that.’

  ‘So that was why you were not worried about changing your past?’

  ‘No, I was indeed worried. I did not know that causality loops existed until two days ago.’

  ‘Is this something to do with that time travel nonsense you tried to tell me about?’ whispered Muriel to Daniel. Daniel nodded.

  ‘So you thought you might die?’ Emily asked BC, ignoring Muriel.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘But weren’t you afraid?’

  ‘I am a soldier. Death is never far away for me. If some German boy had ashed me a hundred years in the future, would that be any worse? History looped upon itself. My future happened, at least until I vanished into the past. Now a new history will happen, and there will be no century with five world wars. My history has become a forgotten loop in time that did happen, but became closed off and bypassed. Fox and myself are all that is left of it.’

  ‘But if your future has gone, you can never go back. Yesterday is different, now.’

  ‘It was a bleak future in a mad world, Emily. I am content to stay here, and be part of this new time.’

  Emily looked over at the others for a while, smiling, with her chin on her hands. Presently she tried some more coffee. Muriel squeezed Daniel’s hand and smiled as Emily choked, then commenced a coughing fit.

  ‘Fox loves artwork,’ wheezed Emily to BC once she had got her breath back.

  ‘A career as an artist is probably safest for him,’ responded BC. ‘At heart, he is a very gentle and sensitive soul. Muriel, that was very kind, introducing him to those teachers and other artists.’

  ‘My pleasure. Anything for a friend of Daniel’s.’

  ‘Now then, there are some very stupid and dangerous men still on the loose,’ said BC.

  ‘Not to mention stupid and dangerous schoolgirl artists!’ snapped Emily, glaring at Muriel.

  ‘Enough!’ said BC sternly. ‘As I was saying, there are still several conspirators out and about. We really should deal with them.’

  ‘Yes, indeed,’ agreed Emily warily, and Daniel nodded too.

  ‘Does that mean I have to keep carrying this silly gun in my knickers?’ asked Muriel.

  ‘Perhaps not. I have learned that cunning is vastly superior to firepower,’ said BC, who now turned to Emily. ‘What would you do?’

  ‘You are asking me?’ asked Emily in turn.

  ‘I am not familiar with your times and society, so I need to learn from you. I may not agree with what you say, but I shall take it into account. Later I shall even ask Barry.’

  Emily spread the papers that she had taken from the false policemen at the Exhibition Buildings. Nothing on them seemed to inspire her. She put them away again.

  ‘Um … first we need a plan,’ she began. ‘A plan based on what each of us does best.’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘But we also need to be a team, to work together better.’

  ‘Splendid idea.’

  ‘So we shall hire a boat, a coxed four.’

  ‘What?’ exclaimed BC, her eyes suddenly wide.

  ‘You are to be cox. Daniel can be stroke, he already knows rowing from school. Muriel shall be bow, and Barry and I can sit in the middle. What do you think of that? Fox can be the person who runs along the bank and shouts at us.’

  ‘The coach,’ said Daniel.

  ‘Why?’ asked BC softly.

  ‘You are injured, you cannot row. Barry, Muriel and I need to become fit and coordinated.’

  ‘I meant why should we learn to row together?’

  ‘Because of what rowing does for people. We need to learn how to lock together as a perfect team, absolutely committed to winning and totally loyal to each other.’

  ‘I think we are close to that already,’ replied BC after considering Emily’s words for a moment.

  ‘That is my advice, Liore-BC. You may do with it what you will.’

  BC folded her arms on the table, glanced at her crew, then looked across the river to the boatsheds. Finally she stood up, called, ’Crew, to me!’ and walked from the café. Emily explained what they were planning to Barry and Fox as they followed BC.

  ‘Last time you and I got into a boat we nearly drowned,’ Daniel pointed out to Emily as they walked across the bridge to the boatsheds.

  ‘This time you will not stand up in the boat,’ retorted Emily.

  ‘Hope me bag doesn’t get wet,’ muttered Barry. ‘Important items of a covert nature in me bag.’

  ‘Confirmation, am coach, BC?’ asked Fox.

  ‘Kindly ask that in courtly,’ ordered Emily.

  ‘Ah … Am I truly the coach, Miss Liore?’ he said very slowly, pressing his hands against his temples.

  ‘Thank you Fox, yes,’ said BC.

  ‘I still don’t see why I have to row,’ muttered Muriel to Emily.

  And so the last surviving cadet battle crew of a British Empire that would never exist shakily steered their hired rowing shell out into the waters of the Yarra River in the late autumn of 1901. On the bank, Fox shouted instructions that went largely unheeded or misunderstood, and managed to keep up with the boat without even running. In terms of strength, skills and coordination, the crew was an ill-assorted collection, yet they were already absolutely loyal to each other and had won their first victory.