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that has ever existed or will ever exist in the
universe–'
    'Listen to me. If you
try to send yourself back in time–'
    'Myself?' Byre smiled.
'I'm sending you.'
    ' Me? ' Six's
heart accelerated in his chest. 'Why?'
    'Because I know the
machine will work, but I can't calibrate it without a test subject.
I don't know if it will send me back ten seconds, or a hundred
years. And you owe me, after making such a mess last time.'
    'You'll kill us both,'
Six said. 'The machine won't work.'
    'It will, now that I
have the ununoctium. Thank you for the suggestion, by the way.'
    'The last stockpile of
that element disappeared a long, long time ago,' Six said. 'I don't
know what you have, but it's not ununoctium.'
    'You think I tracked
down Hoth Amet's index of everything just so I could hack into the
Deck and lure you here?' Byre smirked. 'No. I used it to locate the
missing stockpile. And once I've sent you into the past, I'll use
it to determine when and where you showed up, and whether or not
you survived the journey through spacetime.'
    She pressed a cylinder
into one of Six's hands. By the time he realised what she was
doing, she was already duct-taping it to his palm. He kept his
other fist squeezed shut, but she just taped the second cylinder to
the back of his hand. Apparently it didn't matter which part of his
skin the machine touched.
    'You'll cause a massive
explosion,' Six cried. 'You'll die before you get the chance to see
if it worked.'
    Byre shook her head. 'I
fixed that bug. You're not going to explode. Like I said, using
ununoctium was a really good idea. It solved all sorts of
problems.'
    She left Six's field of
vision. Her footsteps became more distant.
    'Where are you going?'
he demanded.
    'Okay,' she called. 'You caught me. I'm only ninety-nine per cent sure
you won't explode.'
    A heavy door creaked
open, then slammed closed. Six heard an electric lock engage.
    'Byre,' he yelled.
'Byre!'
    There was no reply.
    Something hummed and
whirred beneath Six. The electromagnet. He struggled against his
bonds, but they were too firmly fastened. Even the duct tape around
his hands was painfully tight. He couldn't shake off the
cylinders.
    The humming was getting
louder. Six threw his body sideways, hoping to tip over the table.
But he could tell from the sound that it was bolted to the
floor.
    'Byre!' he screamed.
'You can't–'
    A deafening roar filled
the air. The lights went out. A sickening dizziness flooded through
Six, and suddenly he felt himself spinning down, down, down into
the icy darkness of a bottomless pit.

 
     
     
     
     

Chapter
Three: The Heist
     
     
     
    'So you're telling me,'
Benjamin said, 'that you can't play the drums at all.'
    Ash
gritted her teeth. 'I wasn't supposed to have to. Tognetti was
supposed to be on before me.'
    'Then what were all
those lessons for?'
    She was about to reply
when the stage door swung open. Applause echoed through the halls
of the conservatorium. A man with an earpiece and a lanyard leaned
through the gap. 'You'll be on in two minutes, Miss Burnett.'
    Ash tried to look
confident and aloof. 'Thank you.'
    The man disappeared and
the stage door swung shut, muffling the claps and whistles of the
audience. Ash put the phone back to her ear.
    'What am I going to
do?' she hissed.
    Benjamin sounded
amused. 'My guess is, you're going to go out on stage and play the
drums.'
    'But I don't know
how!'
    'Then do what you do
best,' Benjamin said. 'Fake it.'
    'Thanks. You've been really helpful.'
    'Any time.'
    Ash looked up at the
TV, which displayed footage from inside the auditorium. Her drum
kit had been set up by the backstage crew. The master of ceremonies
was speaking from behind a podium. Ash guessed he was introducing
her.
    The stagehand opened
the door again and beckoned silently. Ash followed him into the
wings, dread curdling in her guts.
    From her spot behind
the thick velvet curtains, she could see the stage but not the
audience. The drum kit gleamed, alone in the centre