"YEAH," KENNETH SAID. He frowned. "I don't understand a lot of what you're talking about. Can't I just go home?"
Unquill took a moment to respond. He said, "At this point, if we ever do get back to the Constabulary, that's first on the agenda. Too much has gone wrong too quickly. I think the mission should be scrapped."
Kenneth huffed. "Is that what you're calling it, a mission? Geez, isn't that a little cold? You could call it a kidnapping. Or anything else. Don't make it sound like we volunteered for this."
"Ah, yes, you're quite right," Unquill said. "I apologize."
Kenneth looked away.
The rest of their time in the cell passed in silence. Savannah, still sitting next to Unquill, her arm no longer around him, wondered if they could go back. If they did, it would be without Unquill's help. She didn't think the people who ruled in the future-the Council of Thirds?-would let Unquill have anything more to do with her and Kenneth.
She didn't want to be there when he was arrested. That would be the day when she would be completely lost in this future world where nothing made sense to her.
Ideas spun around in her mind, centering upon a recurring notion that she had to save the world by speaking to a man.
She didn't understand this point.
If Unquill and Hinjo were the same person, then she had already spoken to him.
Moreover, Unquill had already understood the situation before taking Savannah out of the classroom.
If he knew the risk, why would he go ahead with eating food again?
If they were the same person, her trip hadn't been necessary at all.
Savannah didn't understand.
While she lost herself in thought, the two robots returned. One of them spoke with the same monotone, mechanical voice. "The door will open. You will exit now."
The door slid open, both automatons training their weapons upon the huddled trio.
Savannah sat up, wishing she could rid herself of the stink accumulating about her body. Her body felt soiled. Her feet itched. Her hair, once a mane of flowing brown hair, had become an oily, flat mass of tangles. Black dirt had collected underneath her fingernails. Yellow sweat stains had gathered underneath her armpits. Scrapes and cuts covered her legs. Savannah frowned at her appearance, surprised that no one had said anything to her about it.
She walked forward in a daze. Even though she knew Kenneth and Unquill stayed close to her, she felt more alone than ever.
Five sets of footsteps echoed through the metallic hallway. No one spoke.
Savannah walked until she came before a door with a large red X on it. One of the robots pressed a palm against the door. The door opened.
"Enter. You will now be sterilized. Do not resist or you will be thrown outside."
Unquill shuddered. Savannah held a cry of alarm in her throat while one of Unquill's large, meaty hands latched on to her arm and pulled. She found herself dragged into a white room with tiny black holes adorning each wall.
The door closed behind her.
Unquill said something about holding their breaths.
A slow, noisy hiss from everywhere cut off his words.
Clear liquid spurted out from the holes in the wall. Savannah shrieked as the liquid struck her from every side, cold as ice. Kenneth shouted, then dipped his head forward into the streams of liquid. Puddles of grime collected around him. Savannah followed his example, much as she loathed doing so. She could have groaned when she saw the gunk sprinkling about her feet. She ran a hand through her hair, and, to her surprise, it already felt cleaner.
The next ten minutes passed this way. Savannah could hardly step anywhere without splashing in the numerous dirty puddles. The design on her shirt had worn away in the process.
Just when she had become accustomed to the freezing liquid, it stopped all at once. She held her arms over her chest, shivering.
Then the ceiling suddenly opened above her. Hot air filled the room, pressing down on her. Whereas the liquid had felt too cold, the air was oppressively hot. Savannah bent over, keeping as much of her face away from the whirring heaters as she could.
At last, the process ended.
The door opened once more.
Savannah found herself moving before either of the robots issued a command. She wanted out of the room as fast as possible. She bumped into one of the robots, who seemed not to notice. It held its weapon at Unquill, not her. "Exit the room. You have been sterilized. Do not resist or you will be thrown outside."
Unquill hastily left the room ahead of her, together with Kenneth, who grinned after his impromptu shower.
Savannah followed behind. She couldn't see what he had to be happy about.
Unquill, too, looked a little more upbeat than he had before.
Although Savannah felt cleaner than she had since the morning before she left for school, she wasn't sure whether to sweat or let her teeth chatter away from the cold. Instead of doing either, she sneezed. The sound, she had been told, resembled a chipmunk's chirp.
A robot said, "Follow. You will now meet Hensen Var. Do not resist-"
"Or you will be thrown outside," Savannah and Kenneth replied in unison.
"That is correct," the robot said. "Follow."
They followed the robot to a dead end. Savannah looked behind her, trying to see if they'd made a wrong turn somewhere.
One of the robots pressed a hand against an unmarked wall. The wall split open in the middle, opening into a room so blindingly white Savannah squinted her eyes when she beheld it.
The room contained white walls, a white ceiling, a white floor, a white couch opposite three white leather chairs with a white table in between. A white water purification machine sat in a corner with a bulb of clear water atop it. The water took on a light blue shade.
A man sat on the sofa wearing a white sweater, white pants and white sneakers. He was bald. In fact, Savannah could not see hair anywhere on the man's body. He had no eyebrows.
He beheld Savannah, Kenneth and Unquill with soft green eyes. He beckoned them to enter with one hand.
"Hensen Var. Enter. Do not resist or-"
"It's okay," Hensen Var said in a vibrant, living voice.
Savannah found herself amazed at how alive he seemed. His very being pulsated life.
Savannah thought she could grab hold of his energy with her hands.
"You may leave," Hensen Var said to the robots.
"We will comply," the drones replied in detached voices. They backed away from the wide opening into Hensen's room. The walls closed in front of them, leaving Hensen alone with Unquill, Savannah and Kenneth.
"Well," Hensen said. "Do you recognize me, citizen Hester?"
Unquill stared for a moment. He scratched his chin. "No, can't say that I do."
"Maybe it's the voice," Hensen said.
He coughed.
"Or maybe it's the transformation. I used to be Tinbar Ross. You remember that name, don't you?"
Unquill's eyes widened. He took a step forward, one hand extended towards Hensen, as if bringing his fingers in close proximity to Hensen's face would confirm the bald man's existence. He pulled his hand back.
"Surely you cannot be Tinbar Ross-the Tinbar Ross who was removed from his position as head of the Temporal Constabulary?"
"I am the very same man," Hensen said. He paused. "Actually, that's not true. I've changed. Just as you will change, citizen Hester. You have found out that you and Hinjo Junta are the same person, haven't you?"
Unquill nodded, slowly.
"That was my doing, I must admit," Hensen said. "From this base, I can-I suppose the right word is influence-the central computer into doing certain things. As you may have noticed, for some time now, the computer has been repeating the same sets of results on a feedback loop. Due to the speed at which it processes information, this hasn't been observed by the general public as yet. Truth be told, the vast majority of people don't even need or want anything from the computer in the course of their daily lives, yet there it sits in Germany, all by itself, a repository of human knowledge. The only people who use it are people like us-people to whom information matters. Control the information and you control the person relying on that information.
"With my influence, I put up the only picture of Hinjo Junta known to exist. Did you see it? I'm guessing you did, otherwise you wouldn't be here. More to the point, they saw it too. Those fuddy-duddies on the council who stare into the computer screens like werewolves had to have known what the image meant.
"So they branded you an enemy of humanity, did they? I'd like to apologize for that. But you know something? That's not the worst thing that's going to happen to you."
"I had a feeling you were going to tell me that."
"Is there any other way to learn these days?" Hensen chuckled, then continued. "So far, events are proceeding more or less as I had hoped. Only, I hadn't quite anticipated these two. Are they human, these small ones?"
Savannah said, "I'm human. My name's Savannah. You know, you have some very mean robots."
Hensen laughed. "I'm sorry. I really don't mean to make light of your situation. But you're presence here is so unexpected." He asked Unquill, "Did the Constabulary make the decision in secret?"
"They did," Unquill admitted. "The council would have put a stop to it otherwise. We're allowed to proceed in such matters at our own discretion."
"Yes, yes, I know all that," Hensen said. He waved a hand dismissively. "Interesting, though. No announcement was made anywhere. I would think that, once two of the most significant citizens of history got here, the Constabulary would have made it public. That's what I would have done, at least. There's no better way to protect citizens of the time stream than by letting everyone know they have come into our own time. The council can't risk abducting them for their purposes, what with the public backlash and all. It's a very critical time right now, as I'm sure you know."
"I'm well aware."
Kenneth crossed his arms. "I don't know. I mean, could you explain what all of this means?"
"All of this?" Hensen asked. He waved his hands about, indicating the whole room. "That will take a while. I'm not really sure what you mean. Let's just confine ourselves to this much: Unquill, you are not Hinjo. Not yet. But you will be. You will become Hinjo Junta. To prevent this, the council has blacklisted you from the human race.
"Except, what they don't realize, and what they have always failed to realize, is that what they have done has always happened, and will always happen. They act within the confines of the predictions made by future historians some years ago.
"However, here's the really important part. Are you listening?
"Neither of you should be here.
"Neither of you are recorded anywhere in future history. That makes you the wild card in this equation. You two might be the unexpected salvation the world desperately needs."