THE H-BOMB GIRL by Stephen Baxter (beach books txt) 📕

“OK. Tally ho.”

Cooper raised his bazooka.

Chapter 28

The wall blew in, showering old bricks and bits of silver panelling over the computer banks.

And a horde of Liverpool teenagers burst through the hole in the wall, like rats from a broken sewer. Girls with pencil skirts or slacks and towering beehives, and Teds with quiffs and drainpipes, ran screaming across the floor of the computer pit. Surrounded by the silver walls and fluorescent lights and flashing computer panels, they were laughing and yelling, full of youth and energy. All this to a drive of rock music, belting in from the dark spaces beyond the broken wall.

Laura’s group just stood and stared, amazed.

Then the fighting started. Two Teds caught one of the Hegemony technicians and ripped off the hood of his NBC suit. Some of the girls took off their stilettos and began smashing at monitors, and they ripped reels and paper tapes out of the computers. Telly screens flickered and went blank.

Among the youngsters there were soldiers, Laura saw now. Big men taking off overcoats to reveal camouflage uniforms with “MP” arm bands. They had guns.

But so did the Hegemony people. Mort produced a pistol and began firing in the air, trying to scare the crowd. The teenagers screamed and scattered. But they kept fighting, and hacking at the equipment.

Laura looked around. With Bernadette, Mum, Agatha and Nick, she was still backed up against the nuclear pool. There was nowhere for them to run.

The Minuteman had got his chair moving. His face was a mask of pure hatred. “I’ll beat you yet, you little witch!” He drove his chair straight at Laura.

Laura held out the Key on its chain. “Is this what you want? Then get it!” She threw the Key back over her head, high in the air.

“No! It’s mine!” The Minuteman barrelled forward, eyes raised, trying to get under the Key’s flight.

But it was falling just where Laura had thrown it—straight into the nuclear pool. It hit the surface making barely a ripple, and then sank into the fizzing blue waters.

And the Minuteman was moving too fast to stop. His chair tipped off the edge, and chair and man descended into the water with an immense splash. The water boiled around him.

He came up once, screaming. His flesh was peeling from his face. Laura looked away.

When the chair thudded into the bottom of the pool, the lights flickered.

Joel came running up. Laura was amazed to see Billy Waddle at his side. They were breathing hard, and Laura saw that Billy’s knuckles were bleeding.

“Bern!” Joel yelled. “Are you all right?”

Bernadette said, “You two took your time.”

Billy panted, “I’m sorry.”

Bernadette smiled at him. She reached up and stroked Joel’s cheek.

And Mort was standing before Laura. His face was flushed, his tie half ripped off. He had his pistol pointed squarely at Laura’s face.

“The Minuteman was right,” he said. “You are a witch. You’ve ruined everything. My life. My plans. The whole future.”

Mum came running. “Mort, no!”

But Mort just held up the flat of his hand and pushed her away. The pistol never wavered.

Laura stared back at Mort, determined not to show weakness.

Mort said, “Now I’m going to put an end to you, once and for all, in this and any other future—”

There was a tap on his shoulder. “I beg to differ, old chap.”

Mort turned. And Dad’s right fist slammed into his jaw. Mort went spinning back and clattered to the ground.

Dad picked up his pistol. “Right, safety on. And I think we’ve had enough of you. Cooper, arrest this American buffoon. Now then, where were we?” He grinned. “Hello, chicken.”

“Dad!” Laura hurled herself at him, and let his strong arms wrap around her.

Mum was here too, and Dad spared an arm for her.

“Dad, you came. I knew you would.”

“Well, better late than never. But I can see you’ve coped pretty well without me. You’ve kept everybody alive, and avoided starting a nuclear war. Not a bad day’s work.”

There were greetings all round now. The Woodbines gathered around Nick, belting him on the back. “Mind the bonce,” he protested.

Laura looked around for Agatha. In the confusion, she’d vanished.

The lights flickered again, and there was a drop in the tone of the air-conditioning fans.

“Look!” Bernadette yelled. “They’re legging it.”

The gunfight was still going on. But the Hegemony staff were running towards the time portal. As each of the technicians ran into the portal, he or she just disappeared.

Joel said, “They’re trying to get back to 2007 before the portal shuts down. But which 2007…?”

The portal was flickering, like the lights.

“It’s the power,” Bernadette said. “You’ve just shorted out a nuclear reactor, Laura.”

“On any other day,” Nick said dryly, “that would be quite a stunt.”

Miss Wells reached the portal. She looked back once at Laura. She shouted, “You little fool. You don’t know what you’ve done.”

Laura yelled back, “I know I’ll never be you. That’s enough for now.”

Miss Wells looked wistful, just for a moment. As if she wished she could swap places with Laura, in her dad’s arms. Start her life all over again.

And then she walked into the portal, and disappeared.

“Let me get this straight,” Nick said. “That’s a doorway to the future, right?”

“So we’re told,” Bernadette said.

Joel said, “But we don’t know which future. If there’s not going to be a Hegemony everything’s changed—”

Nick grinned. “I’ll take my chance. I never did fit in round here.” He grabbed Billy Waddle by the ears and gave him a kiss, full on the lips.

Billy stepped back, gasping.

“That’s what you’re missing, Billy Waddle. Remember me!” Nick called. And before anybody could stop him, he ran across the chamber, and disappeared through the portal.

The power finally gave out, and everything went black.

Chapter 29

Monday 10th June 1963. 7:45 a.m.

Another Monday morning, yuck.

School’s back to normal. I’ve got to think about my O-levels next year. Et cetera. You’d think Miss Wells had never even existed.

Miss Wells. We had the worst winter for years. Snow on the ground until March, packed down to