Paycheck (2003) Read online

  ‘I have the feeling Rethrick is a great deal more than just another construction company the SP wants to control.’

  ‘I suppose it is. I really don’t know. I’m just a receptionist. I’ve never been to the Plant. I don’t even know where it is.’

  ‘But you wouldn’t want anything to happen to it.’

  ‘Of course not! They’re fighting the Police. Anyone that’s fighting the Police is on our side.’

  ‘Really? I’ve heard that kind of logic before. Anyone fighting communism was automatically good, a few decades ago. Well, time will tell. As far as I’m concerned I’m an individual caught between two ruthless forces. Government and business. The Government has men and wealth. Rethrick Construction has its technocracy. What they’ve done with it, I don’t know. I did, a few weeks ago. All I have now is a faint glimmer, a few references. A theory.’

  Kelly glanced at him. ‘A theory?’

  ‘And my pocketful of trinkets. Seven. Three or four now. I’ve used some. They’re the basis of my theory. If Rethrick is doing what I think it’s doing, I can understand the SP’s interest. As a matter of fact, I’m beginning to share their interest.’

  ‘What is Rethrick doing?’

  ‘It’s developed a time scoop.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘A time scoop. It’s been theoretically possible for several years. But it’s illegal to experiment with time scoops and mirrors. It’s a felony, and if you’re caught, all your equipment and data becomes the property of the Government.’ Jennings smiled crookedly. ‘No wonder the Government’s interested. If they can catch Rethrick with the goods—’

  ‘A time scoop. It’s hard to believe.’

  ‘Don’t you think I’m right?’

  ‘I don’t know. Perhaps. Your trinkets. You’re not the first to come out with a little cloth sack of odds and ends. You’ve used some? How?’

  ‘First, the wire and the bus token. Getting away from the Police. It seems funny, but if I hadn’t had them, I’d be there yet. A piece of wire and a ten-cent token. But I don’t usually carry such things. That’s the point.’

  ‘Time travel.’

  ‘No. Not time travel. Berkowsky demonstrated that time travel is impossible. This is a time scoop, a mirror to see and a scoop to pick up things. These trinkets. At least one of them is from the future. Scooped up. Brought back.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘It’s dated. The others, perhaps not. Things like tokens and wire belong to classes of things. Any one token is as good as another. There, he must have used a mirror.’

  ‘ He?’

  ‘When I was working with Rethrick. I must have used the mirror. I looked into my own future. If I was repairing their equipment I could hardly keep from it! I must have looked ahead, seen what was coming. The SP picking me up. I must have seen that, and seen what a piece of thin wire and a bus token would do - if I had them with me at the exact moment.’

  Kelly considered. ‘Well? What do you want me for?’

  ‘I’m not sure, now. Do you really look on Rethrick as a benevolent institution, waging war against the Police? A sort of Roland at Roncesvalles—’

  ‘What does it matter how I feel about the Company?’

  ‘It matters a lot.’ Jennings finished his drink, pushing the glass aside. ‘It matters a lot, because I want you to help me. I’m going to blackmail Rethrick Construction.’

  Kelly stared at him.

  ‘It’s my one chance to stay alive, I’ve got to get a hold over Rethrick, a big hold. Enough of a hold so they’ll let me in, on my own terms. There’s no other place I can go. Sooner or later the Police are going to pick me up. If I’m not inside the Plant, and soon—’

  ‘Help you blackmail the Company? Destroy Rethrick?’

  ‘No. Not destroy. I don’t want to destroy it - my life depends on the Company. My life depends on Rethrick being strong enough to defy the SP. But if I’m on the outside it doesn’t much matter how strong Rethrick is. Do you see? I want to get in. I want to get inside before it’s too late. And I want in on my own terms, not as a two-year worker who gets pushed out again afterward.’

  ‘For the Police to pick up.’

  Jennings nodded. ‘Exactly.’

  ‘How are you going to blackmail the Company?’

  ‘I’m going to enter the Plant and carry out enough material to prove Rethrick is operating a time scoop.’

  Kelly laughed. ‘Enter the Plant? Let’s see you find the Plant. The SP have been looking for it for years.’

  ‘I’ve already found it.’ Jennings leaned back, lighting a cigarette. ‘I’ve located it with my trinkets. And I have four left, enough to get me inside, I think. And to get me what I want. I’ll be able to carry out enough papers and photographs to hang Rethrick. But I don’t want to hang Rethrick. I only want to bargain. That’s where you come in.’

  ‘I?’

  ‘You can be trusted not to go to the Police. I need someone I can turn the material over to. I don’t dare keep it myself. As soon as I have it I must turn it over to someone else, someone who’ll hide it where I won’t be able to find it.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because,’ Jennings said calmly, ‘any minute the SP may pick me up. I have no love for Rethrick, but I don’t want to scuttle it. That’s why you’ve got to help me. I’m going to turn the information over to you, to hold, while I bargain with Rethrick. Otherwise I’ll have to hold it myself. And if I have it on me—’

  He glanced at her. Kelly was staring at the floor, her face tense. Set.

  ‘Well? What do you say? Will you help me, or shall I take the chance the SP won’t pick me up with the material? Data enough to destroy Rethrick. Well? Which will it be? Do you want to see Rethrick destroyed? What’s your answer?’

  The two of them crouched, looking across the fields at the hill beyond. The hill rose up, naked and brown, burned clean of vegetation. Nothing grew on its sides. Halfway up a long steel fence twisted, topped with charged barbed wire. On the other side a guard walked slowly, a tiny figure patrolling with a rifle and helmet.

  At the top of the hill lay an enormous concrete block, a towering structure without windows or doors. Mounted guns caught the early morning sunlight, glinting in a row along the roof of the building.

  ‘So that’s the Plant,’ Kelly said softly.

  ‘That’s it. It would take an army to get up there, up that hill and over the fence. Unless they were allowed in.’ Jennings got to his feet, helping Kelly up. They walked back along the path, through the trees, to where Kelly had parked the cruiser.

  ‘Do you really think your green cloth band will get you in?’ Kelly said, sliding behind the wheel.

  ‘According to the people in the town, a truckload of laborers will be brought in to the Plant sometime this morning. The truck is unloaded at the entrance and the men examined. If everything’s in order they’re let inside the grounds, past the fence. For construction work, manual labor. At the end of the day they’re let out again and driven back to town.’

  ‘Will that get you close enough?’

  ‘I’ll be on the other side of the fence, at least.’

  ‘How will you get to the time scoop? That must be inside the building, some place.’

  Jennings brought out a small code key. ‘This will get me in. I hope. I assume it will.’

  Kelly took the key, examining it. ‘So that’s one of your trinkets. We should have taken a better look inside your little cloth bag.’

  ‘We?’

  ‘The Company. I saw several little bags of trinkets pass out, through my hands. Rethrick never said anything.’

  ‘Probably the Company assumed no one would ever want to get back inside again.’ Jennings took the code key from her. ‘Now, do you know what you’re supposed to do?’

  ‘I’m supposed to stay here with the cruiser until you get back. You’re to give me the material. Then I’m to carry it back to New York and wait for you to contact me.’

  ‘
That’s right.’ Jennings studied the distant road, leading through the trees to the Plant gate. ‘I better get down there. The truck may be along any time.’

  ‘What if they decide to count the number of workers?’

  ‘I’ll have to take the chance. But I’m not worried. I’m sure he foresaw everything.’

  Kelly smiled. ‘You and your friend, your helpful friend. I hope he left you enough things to get you out again, after you have the photographs.’

  ‘Do you?’

  ‘Why not?’ Kelly said easily. ‘I always liked you. You know that. You knew when you came to me.’

  Jennings stepped out of the cruiser. He had on overalls and workshoes, and a gray sweatshirt. ‘I’ll see you later. If everything goes all right. I think it will.’ He patted his pocket. ‘With my charms here, my good-luck charms.’

  He went off through the trees, walking swiftly.

  The trees led to the very edge of the road. He stayed with them, not coming out into the open. The Plant guards were certainly scanning the hillside. They had burned it clean, so that anyone trying to creep up to the fence would be spotted at once. And he had seen infrared searchlights.

  Jennings crouched low, resting against his heels, watching the road. A few yards up the road was a roadblock, just ahead of the gate. He examined his watch. Ten thirty. He might have a wait, a long wait. He tried to relax.

  It was after eleven when the great truck came down the road, rumbling and wheezing.

  Jennings came to life. He took out the strip of green cloth and fastened it around his arm. The truck came closer. He could see its load now. The back was full of workmen, men in jeans and workshirts, bounced and jolted as the truck moved along. Sure enough, each had an arm band like his own, a swathe of green around his upper arm. So far so good.

  The truck came slowly to a halt, stopping at the roadblock. The men got down slowly onto the road, sending up a cloud of dust into the hot midday sun. They slapped the dust from their jeans, some of them lighting cigarettes. Two guards came leisurely from behind the roadblock. Jennings tensed. In a moment it would be time. The guards moved among the men, examining them, their arm bands, their faces, looking at the identification tabs of a few.

  The roadblock slid back. The gate opened. The guards returned to their positions.

  Jennings slid forward, slithering through the brush, toward the road. The men were stamping out their cigarettes, climbing back up into the truck. The truck was gunning its motor, the driver releasing the brakes. Jennings dropped onto the road, behind the truck. A rattle of leaves and dirt showered after him. Where he had landed, the view of the guards was cut off by the truck. Jennings held his breath. He ran toward the back of the truck.

  The men stared at him curiously as he pulled himself up among them, his chest rising and falling. Their faces were weathered, gray and lined. Men of the soil. Jennings took his place between two burly farmers as the truck started up. They did not seem to notice him. He had rubbed dirt into his skin, and let his beard grow for a day. At a quick glance he didn’t look much different from the others. But if anyone made a count—

  The truck passed through the gate, into the grounds. The gate slid shut behind. Now they were going up, up the steep side of the hill, the truck rattling and swaying from side to side. The vast concrete structure loomed nearer. Were they going to enter it? Jennings watched, fascinated. A thin high door was sliding back, revealing a dark interior. A row of artificial lights gleamed.

  The truck stopped. The workmen began to get down again. Some mechanics came around them.

  ‘What’s this crew for?’ one of them asked.

  ‘Digging. Inside.’ Another jerked a thumb. ‘They’re digging again. Send them inside.’

  Jennings’s heart thudded. He was going inside! He felt at his neck. There, inside the gray sweater, a flatplate camera hung like a bib around his neck. He could scarcely feel it, even knowing it was there. Maybe this would be less difficult than he had thought.

  The workmen pushed through the door on foot, Jennings with them. They were in an immense workroom, long benches with half-completed machinery, booms and cranes, and the constant roar of work. The door closed after them, cutting them off from outside. He was in the Plant. But where was the time scoop, and the mirror?

  ‘This way,’ a foreman said. The workmen plodded over to the right. A freight lift rose to meet them from the bowels of the building. ‘You’re going down below. How many of you have experience with drills?’

  A few hands went up.

  ‘You can show the others. We are moving earth with drills and eaters. Any of you work eaters?’

  No hands. Jennings glanced at the worktables. Had he worked here, not so long ago? A sudden chill went through him. Suppose he were recognized? Maybe he had worked with these very mechanics.

  ‘Come on,’ the foreman said impatiently. ‘Hurry up.’

  Jennings got into the freight lift with the others. A moment later they began to descend, down the black tube. Down, down, into the lower levels of the Plant. Rethrick Construction was big, a lot bigger than it looked above ground. A lot bigger than he had imagined. Floors, underground levels, flashing past one after the other.

  The elevator stopped. The doors opened. He was looking down a long corridor. The floor was thick with stone dust. The air was moist. Around him, the workmen began to crowd out. Suddenly Jennings stiffened, pulling back.

  At the end of the corridor, before a steel door, was Earl Rethrick. Talking to a group of technicians.

  ‘All out,’ the foreman said. ‘Let’s go.’

  Jennings left the elevator, keeping behind the others. Rethrick! His heart beat dully. If Rethrick saw him he was finished. He felt in his pockets. He had a miniature Boris gun, but it wouldn’t be much use if he was discovered. Once Rethrick saw him it would be all over.

  ‘Down this way.’ The foreman led them toward what seemed to be an underground railway, to one side of the corridor. The men were getting into metal cars along a track. Jennings watched Rethrick. He saw him gesture angrily, his voice coming faintly down the hall. Suddenly Rethrick turned. He held up his hand and the great steel door behind him opened.

  Jennings’s heart almost stopped beating.

  There, beyond the steel door, was the time scoop. He recognized it at once. The mirror. The long metal rods, ending in claws. Like Berkowsky’s theoretical model - only this was real.

  Rethrick went into the room, the technicians following behind him. Men were working at the scoop, standing all around it. Part of the shield was off. They were digging into the works. Jennings stared, hanging back.

  ‘Say you—’ the foreman said, coming toward him. The steel door shut. The view was cut off. Rethrick, the scoop, the technicians, were gone.

  ‘Sorry,’ Jennings murmured.

  ‘You know you’re not supposed to be curious around here.’ The foreman was studying him intently. ‘I don’t remember you. Let me see your tab.’

  ‘My tab?’

  ‘Your identification tab.’ The foreman turned away. ‘Bill, bring me the board.’ He looked Jennings up and down. ‘I’m going to check you from the board, mister. I’ve never seen you in the crew before. Stay here.’ A man was coming from a side door with a check board in his hands.

  It was now or never.

  Jennings sprinted, down the corridor, toward the great steel door. Behind there was a startled shout, the foreman and his helper. Jennings whipped out the code key, praying fervently as he ran. He came up to the door, holding out the key. With the other hand he brought out the Boris gun. Beyond the door was the time scoop. A few photographs, some schematics snatched up, and then, if he could get out—

  The door did not move. Sweat leaped out on his face. He knocked the key against the door. Why didn’t it open? Surely— He began to shake, panic rising up in him. Down the corridor people were coming, racing after him. Open—

  But the door did not open. The key he held in his hand was the wrong key.


  He was defeated. The door and the key did not match. Either he had been wrong, or the key was to be used someplace else. But where? Jennings looked frantically around. Where? Where could he go?

  To one side a door was half open, a regular bolt-lock door. He crossed the corridor, pushing it open. He was in a storeroom of some sort. He slammed the door, throwing the bolt. He could hear them outside, confused, calling for guards. Soon armed guards would be along. Jennings held the Boris gun tightly, gazing around. Was he trapped? Was there a second way out?

  He ran through the room, pushing among bales and boxes, towering stacks of silent cartons, end on end. At the rear was an emergency hatch. He opened it immediately. An impulse came to throw the code key away. What good had it been? But surely he had known what he was doing. He had already seen all this. Like God, it had already happened for him. Predetermined. He could not err. Or could he?

  A chill went through him. Maybe the future was variable. Maybe this had been the right key, once. But not any more!

  There were sounds behind him. They were melting the storeroom door. Jennings scrambled through the emergency hatch, into a low concrete passage, damp and ill lit. He ran quickly along it, turning corners. It was like a sewer. Other passages ran into it, from all sides.

  He stopped. Which way? Where could he hide? The mouth of a major vent pipe gaped above his head. He caught hold and pulled himself up. Grimly, he eased his body onto it. They’d ignore a pipe, go on past. He crawled cautiously down the pipe. Warm air blew into his face. Why such a big vent? It implied an unusual chamber at the other end. He came to a metal grill and stopped.

  And gasped.

  He was looking into the great room, the room he had glimpsed beyond the steel door. Only now he was at the other end. There was the time scoop. And far down, beyond the scoop, was Rethrick, conferring at an active vidscreen. An alarm was sounding, whining shrilly, echoing everywhere. Technicians were running in all directions. Guards in uniform poured in and out of doors.