XIV

Mirabi's boot must have knocked the co-ordinates off slightly as, instead of the jungle, we re-materialised in the middle of one of Tutal Xiu's streets.

"No!" gasped Ra, as he realised where we were. He immediately started struggling again. I gripped his arm as hard as I could, preventing him from moving the knife any closer to Megan or Mirabi. Unfortunately, I was using both hands and Ra's first uppercut punch caught me straight on the chin, under the visor of my helmet. His wrist forced the visor open and upwards, ripping my helmet off my head. I gasped in pain as it rolled away from me and Ra twisted out of my grip and was quickly up and running.

"Go!" said Mirabi, who was rolling over to help Megan, who'd been trapped between all three of us. She wasn't bleeding.

I jumped up and chased after Ra through the streets of Tutal Xiu. The locals looked at me in astonishment, seeing my black 30th century uniform for the first time. It was probably a good thing I'd lost my helmet. Ra blended in slightly better with the earth and the clay walled houses in his brown jacket as he sprinted ahead of me, the jaguar knife still clasped in his hand. He glanced back and saw me following. I sped up as he darted left and right, trying to lose me in the maze of house, but I kept up my pace and kept him in sight until we reached the stone buildings around the centre. Ra swore out loud and dashed up the steps into the temple I'd visited when I was last here.

He was standing panting, with his back to one of the carved altars, as I burst in. Two of the priests were kneeling close to it, looking at him with astonishment. One of them was Huehuetlotl, whom Baldr had been talking to when I'd first been here

"Get away from me!" said Ra, panting.

"I'm not the danger, Doctor," I said. "You're in danger as long as you stay here. Give me the knife. Let's go back."

"Ba'ax ku yúuchul?" said Huehuetlotl, standing up, his huge Jaguar headdress rustling.

"Le wíiniko' ba'axi' juntúul chokoj pool sajbe'en. Leti'e' taan u kíinsik tuláakal!" said Ra, gesturing at me, obviously telling them that I was dangerous.

"I'm not here to harm anyone," I said, as clearly as I could. I quickly holstered my Unigun and showed them my empty hands, hoping that looking unthreatening would be enough. I took a slow step towards Ra.

"Stay back!" said Ra, whipping the jaguar knife out and brandishing it at me. I moved one of my hands towards my shockstick. It probably wasn't going to cut my uniform – which had a very high fibre density – but there was no sense in taking chances.

"Le kili'ich xotob!" said Huehuetlotl.

The priest was staring at the knife. I suddenly remembered where Baal had said he'd stolen the dagger from; one of the temple's while the priest's back was turned.

"Keep back, sir," I said, holding up my hand. The last thing I needed right now was him trying to retrieve his property. If Ra killed a local, none of us might make it out of here alive.

"Bin tech," said Huehuetlotl, staring at Ra. "Robó le kili'ich xotob ba'ax Ma'atech debía utia'al u p'atik le Santuario."

"Ma' u ba'ax in k'áaj bejla'e'. Le wíiniko' Talan!"  said Ra, without looking at him.

Footsteps – not sandals, but modern shoes – sounded on the steps behind me as Mirabi and Megan ran into the temple.

"Are you all right?" said Mirabi.

"Fine."

"Doctor Ra, please," said Megan. "This is insane. Let's just go back."

"Stay away from me! All you!" said Ra, backing away towards the altar. "I'm not dying here. Do you hear me? I am not going to die h..."

A spearhead suddenly burst out of his stomach. Megan shrieked as the wooden shaft, with another blood slick obsidian blade on the end, was driving nearly a foot through his body. Ra feel to knees. The shock had kicked in instantly. He looked more surprised than pained. The second priest – who had just stabbed him – straightened up behind Ra.

"Teche' ma' kun yantalto'on robado u yuumtsilo'obo'," said Huehuetlotl, quietly.

He walked over and gently took the jaguar knife from Ra's hand. Ra didn't resist, but watched, gasping as Huehuetlotl placed it reverently on the altar and stepped back and he and the other priest bowed to it.

"He... He shouldn't have stolen from the Gods," Megan translated, shaking next to me. I automatically put my arms around her shoulders to steady her and she leaned against me.

"I...," said Ra. "I..."

The blood was pooling thickly on the floor around him. Something like peace came into his face and he toppled over and lay still. The colour drained from his face. The other priest calmly pulled his spear out of the body. Huehuetlotl turned to us.

"K ka tu tsikaj u ma'alo'ob fe," he said. "Túuxta'al ti' le metnalo' ku apacigua ti' yuumtsilo'ob."

"...He abused their hospitality," said Megan. "Sacrificing him will appease the Gods."

"Great," said Mirabi.

"Tell him we've got no problem with that," I said. "We'll leave now."

"Wait. Can I just check one thing?" said Mirabi.

Megan quickly translated and Huehuetlotl nodded. Mirabi went forward and knelt down by Ra's body. She patted the pockets of his jacket and trousers and pulled something out from inside his lapel. She nodded thanks to Huehuetlotl and came back to us.

"Mission accomplished," she said.

In her hand was my cloning tube. I had actually never seen it before. But I'd also never been so happy to see anything.

_ _ _ _ _

An hour later, we were back in the main room. The undertakers had been called and they were gently lifting Professor Wei'To, now in a body bag, onto a hover stretcher. We'd already teleported Baldr to HQ and called in the Tranquillity police, who'd warned Baal and Hades not to try to leave the moon until they'd made full statements.

"So... Doctor Ra's now dead in the past and the locals are going to bury him in the sarcophagus until Doctor Hades digs it up?" said Baal. "All because of the knife? Oh, Darwin. I never should have stolen it."

"No, you shouldn't," I said. "But it wasn't entirely your fault. If he hadn't been so determined to clone himself, if he hadn't taken the knife back with him... It could have turned out differently."

I was sure of that now. The past was what had actually happened and history was what we thought had happened. The future was what we thought was going to happen, but it was also the Fan of Open Paths. I'd saved the Prince and myself at the Time Traveller's Ball by finding out what other possibilities there were and what different routes could lead to the same destinations. If Ra had done that, rather than focusing so blindly on what he thought was his only chance, he might have found another way to save himself and keep the time stream intact and un-paradoxed.

"Well. At least we know why he killed the Professor," said Megan.

"Yes. There's that," I said. I turned to face her. "And I'm sorry, by the way."

"Oh, no. That's not..."

"Yes, it is," I said. "And I am. I'm sorry about earlier. For... reacting badly. You'd been helpful. Both times. It helped me. To see more clearly.

Megan paused, and then a smile came slowly onto her face.

"You're welcome, Detective."

"My name's Erik," I said.

"Well, we're fine. He hadn't put his DNA in it yet," said Mirabi, coming up behind me, examining my cloning tube. "We're not going to have an amnesic 20 year old on our hands in a few hours. Been there, done that."

"Good," I said. It was a relief. I really did not want anyone else going through what I'd been through, even though we knew Ra's full story this time.

"So, is this it?" said Ishtar, coming over. "It's all over? All's well that ends well?"

"Not quite," said Mirabi. "Though if you can tell me who it was who took the rifle recharger back to the past so I can arrest their temporal smuggling hide, yes."

"Oh, Darwin. I forgot all about that," said Ishtar.

"Could it have been Anubis after all?" said Chernobog. "Illegal weaponry would probably be right up his alley."

"Possibly," I said. "I don't think it could have been Ra. There's nothing he needed weapons for. He wasn't even planning on going back to the past again."

"No one was. The Project is finished in Yucatan," said Chernobog.

I nodded. Perhaps we were just going to have to leave this as one loose end that we couldn't follow with Anubis hiding in Free Mars. But by forcing him to flee the moon and the Project's teleporter, we had at least thwarted whatever else he had been planning.

"Did Thor really not tell you anything?" said Mirabi. "Like who he sold them to?"

"Someone named Dominic Underworld," I said. "But it's not helpful. It's almost certainly an alias..."

I stopped, as Megan's eyes suddenly widened. She grabbed my arm. Mirabi and Chernobog looked up.

"Detective," she said. "Xibalba means "Underworld" in Yucatec Maya."

There was a long, silent moment. We all looked slowly around. Domingo Xibalba was nowhere to be seen. I resisted the urge to punch the wall, as something blindingly obvious – that I should have picked up on at the time – suddenly occurred to me.

"He... He said he was going downstairs to change," said Ishtar.

"Lead the way," I said.

_ _ _ _ _

The floor below turned out to be mostly storage rooms, containing Oxbridge Luna's main library archive of books and records that weren't used very often. We raced as fast and as silently as we could down the stairs and along the corridors, past rooms filled with storage shelves of books and data crystals.

"I don't understand it," whispered Chernobog. "You polygraphed us. He passed."

"Yes, he did," I said. "He'd said he had never taken the rifle recharger or anything else to the past. But that doesn't mean he hasn't done it yet. Or that he's not planning to."

"Oh, Darwin," said Ishtar.

There was a slight noise in one of the rooms up ahead at the end of the corridor. Mirabi and I drew our Uniguns. I absently noted I was on my last power cell. We motioned for the others to stay back and crept forwards slowly.

"Mr Xibalba?" I said, trying to sound as casual as possible.

Automatic laser fire tore through the doorway. Mirabi and I flattened ourselves against the walls. Everyone else ducked behind us in the corridor.

"It's Lord Xibalba, Midgard," came Xibalba's voice. "And preferably say it in Yucatec Maya."

I took a risk and quickly leaned forward and back to peek around the door. Xibalba was standing in the centre of the large room. Far from changing, he had added a jaguar skin to his Mayan outfit and some more decorations to his headdress. Several dozen large transport crates; all bearing the Viking Weapons Systems logo, were standing around the room. One of them was open and Xibalba was aiming a double-barrelled Unirifle he must have taken out of it through the door

"Don't push your luck. You're under arrest," said Mirabi. "I take it the Spanish aren't the only threat your ancestors have to worry about."

"On the contrary," said Xibalba. "I'm going to make sure my people do not have to worry about the Spaniards at all. Never once will they have to fear the conquistadors. Not when I place these in their hands. We will throw de Cordoba and Cortez and all of their vile thugs back into the Atlantic. With today's weaponry, we will never have to fear any enemy ever again."

"That's exactly what I meant," said Mirabi. "You're going to change history. Your people are only going to enjoy it if they survive the paradox reaction."

"She's right," I called. "The Mercury Disaster was one man trying to save his wife. That was enough to alter the entire Solar System. You're talking about changing an entire chapter of human history. The side effects will be bigger."

"Of course it will," said Xibalba. "That's is exactly the point. The whole of human history from 1402 to the present day will be torn up and rewritten the way it was always meant to be."

"Oh, Darwin save us," muttered Mirabi.

"You're not listening to me," I said. "Fifteen thousand people died at Mercury. How many more are going to die from this? Most of them will be your own people."

"No, you are not listening to me, Midgard," said Xibalba. "I am on a mission given to me by the Gods. When I was invited to join the project, I knew it was a sign. That our time had finally come. That I was their instrument; to shake off the shackles and restore our disrupted destiny to its true course."

"You're not going to restore anything. You're going to destroy everything," said Mirabi.

"Of course I am," said Xibalba. "That is what you don't understand. A paradox reaction is exactly what I have been sent to create. The universe is built on cycles of creation and destruction. There have been many deaths in the past. There will be many more rebirths in the future. But out of this one, my people will rise again to take our rightful places as rulers of the cosmos and spread our empire across the stars."

"Oh, gentle Darwin," said Ishtar. Next to him, Zeus had pulled his palmcom out of his pocket and was frantically typing on it.

"Could one of you shoot him, please?" said Chernobog.

Mirabi and I had been inching closer to the door, planning to do just that. But we still needed to distract him and ideally bait him into making a mistake before we charged through or fired around the door frame and found out who had the faster trigger finger reflexes.

"You're not getting any of this stuff upstairs, Mr Xibalba," I called to him. That was the one thing in our favour. The project's time teleporter was not going to transport all these crates in one go, and even to take the crates to it, Xibalba was going to have to make several trips with a grav trolley.

"Wrong again. How did you think I got them here in the first place?" said Xibalba. He took one hand off his Unirifle and touched a boardcom that was resting on one of the crates beside him.

Something inside the room hummed as it started powering up. I risked another glance and Xibalba didn't fire, letting me see what was there. To my horror, four field teleporter modules were set up in the corners of the room. He didn't need teleporter pads. He could transport everything within the box they created, including himself, in one go.

"The university teleport system is not the only thing that can be connected to the temporal field generator," said Xibalba. If that was true, it meant he could backstep to Yucatan from right here whenever he wanted to.

"Don't get too comfortable when you get there. We'll be right behind you!" said Mirabi.

"No, you won't," said Xibalba. "Not unless you can defuse the bomb."

There was a pause. Megan, Chernobog and Ishtar looked pale. Zeus looked up from his palmcom.

"The bomb?" said Mirabi.

"You've got forty minutes to defuse it. Or to try to. I set the time when I wasn't planning on going back so soon," said Xibalba. "But if you leave it to follow me, it will take out most of the university when it detonates. A fitting end to this capital of decayed, corrupted, European-centric civilisation."

"You're a historian, Xibalba. We've defused devices made by amateurs before," said Mirabi.

"Maybe you have," said Xibalba. "But good luck getting into Professor Wei'To's safe to do it."

I was so relieved, I almost sat down. My brief trip to the future chasing Ishtar earlier today, when I'd overheard myself talking to Megan, now made sense. I glanced at the clock on my wristcom. The time I'd arrived at in the future was thirty minutes away. And I didn't even need to cut it so fine. We could defuse the bomb right now and I could just make sure that Megan and I were in position to be overheard by my past self afterwards.

"I stole the combination from behind the Professor's back," called Xibalba. "No one else knows it, but me. Good luck trying to guess it."

He slapped his hand down on the boardcom, on what must have been the transport button. The teleport modules hummed, but nothing happened. Xibalba blinked and slapped it again.

"Sorry, Lord Xibalba," called Zeus. "As you said, the university teleporter isn't the only thing that can be connected to it." He held up his palmcom to us. "When I was going back to look for the lost libraries, I put in an emergency shutdown. No one's time jumping anywhere until I unlock it."

"Wha...? No. No! NO!"

Laser fire exploded through the doors again. We all pressed ourselves back against the walls as it raked the floor and ceiling. Over the singing hiss of the bolts, I heard Xibalba screaming in Yucatec Maya as he charged toward us, evidently intending to take the palmcom from Zeus's corpse. I raised my Unigun, aiming to stun shoot as he came through the door, but Mirabi stuck her boot out across it. Xibalba burst through doorway, screaming his Mayan battle cry, feathers flying from his headdress and tripped straight over her boot and fell flat on the floor of the corridor. Mirabi pressed the tip of her shockstick to the back of his head and he collapsed unconscious.

"Drama queen," she said.

"Thank Darwin!" said Zeus. He and Ishtar, who were pressing themselves trembling against the wall, slowly started to peel themselves off it.

"I suppose this means we're going to have to make one more trip to Tutal Xiu?" said Chernobog. "To take the rifle recharger back? Because if he hasn't taken it back yet, someone needs to or Doctor Hades won't find it..."

"You're catching on," I said, as Mirabi knelt down to handcuff Xibalba.

"Erik," said Megan.

I glanced up. My heart stopped beating.

Megan was standing at the end of the corridor, leaning with one hand against the wall. The other was holding her stomach. The red stain there was quickly spreading, as blood soaked through her clothes.

"No," I said. "No. Megan."

I leapt over Xibalba and caught her as she started to fall. I lowered her to floor. Her hand clutched at mine. I fumbled for a pressure bandage as Mirabi ran to help me, but the wound was too deep. One of Xibalba's last desperate laser shots had torn almost all the way through her stomach. I clamped the bandage on, but I could tell instantly it was doing nothing. Most of the bleeding was internal. There was nothing I could...

"Megan. Megan!" I heard myself saying. "Stay awake. Don't close your eyes. Don't close your eyes."

Mirabi was beside me, trying to help. There was nothing. Nothing we could do. The wound was too serious. But I kept yelling at her not to close her eyes. Megan's hand trembled on my arm. Tears filled her eyes, which were already full of fear. I was frantically shouting something.

Megan's hand went loose. She sank slowly down on the floor as all the tension and pain went out of her. She stopped moving. Helmcom's emergency medical program – running on my helmet visor, where I hadn't even noticed it – announced her breathing and heart rate had stopped and her brain activity had ceased.

She hadn't closed her eyes.

Not now.

That was the only thought that went through my mind and then echoed there. Not now. Not on the same day I'd met her. Not when I hadn't thanked her properly. Not when I hadn't made it up to her for earlier. Not