Matt Reilly Stories Read Online Free

own filth.
    Humbert
Hughes.
     
    Several
empty sleeping-pill bottles lay alongside the note…and a wine-bottle-opening
device that had been used to open and then re-seal the cork on a bottle of 1932
Dom Perignon.
     
     
    The
Sleeping Guests
     
    Ellis
had the media removed from the display theatre, then he turned to his team of
programmers and scientists: ‘Okay. Why would Hughes drug the other  guests?’
    No
one knew.
    ‘ What the hell …’ another technician said from his computer console.
    ‘What
now?’ Ellis said.
    ‘Sir,
it’s Mr. Hughes. He’s, er, done a deal with the Germans.
    He’s
ended the war in Europe and united all forces under him.’
    ‘He what ?’
    ‘The
program allows it. As the commander of Operation Overlord, he just called up
his opposite number and did a deal: decided to share France with the Germans
and they agreed. But that’s not the biggest problem.’
    ‘What
is?’
    ‘He’s
just brought his combined invasion force to London, to Trafalgar Square.’
    ‘Trafalgar
Square, but that’s one of the—’ the chief tech froze.
    ‘Good
God. He knows about the portals. He’s going to take his invasion force into
another world.’
     
     
    The
Portals
     
    ‘Remind
me about the portal structure,’ Ellis said.
    The
chief tech explained, ‘The six virtual worlds of Time Tours are all actually
connected—rather like a six-storey car park with ladders linking each floor.
    ‘In
effect, the master program lays six identical “Europes” on top of each other
and connects them with these virtual ladders, which we call portals. The
portals are located in the same spots in each world: Trafalgar Square, inside
the Sphinx—’
    He
pulled up a screen on a nearby computer:
     

     
     Ellis
said, ‘So they’re all in the same spot in each world?’
    ‘Yes.
They’re like ladders between floors—you could conceivably climb right down from
World War II to Dinosaurland if you wanted to. It was inserted into the program
as a stabilising feature.’
    ‘What
are we going to do?’ someone asked.
    Ellis
bit his lip. ‘Get Mr. Black.’
     
     
    Mr.
Black
     
    Mr.
Black was Nathan Black, formerly a Marine, now head of
    ‘Rescue
and Recovery’ at Time Tours.
    In
the early stages of Time Tours, the company had experienced some unexpected
problems with their virtual worlds.
    The
worst was known as ‘Lock-In’ and it had first arisen when a staff member had
come to work stoned and subsequently experienced a psychotic episode while
inside Superstar .
    He
had refused to come out.
    And
due to his psychosis, they couldn’t extract him without inflicting serious
brain damage on him. It was soon discovered that the same thing happened when a
guest went into a deep-state coma: they became psychologically ‘locked’ in the
world.
    So
Mr.. Black had been sent in to get the man. To reason with him, inside    the
world, and get him to come out by his own will .
    That,
in the end, was what mattered. To avoid brain damage in such a situation, exit
had to be voluntary.
    In
that case, Black had successfully guided the man out via an
    ‘Emergency
Exit Portal’ (an EEP was located in a central place in every world, usually a
major landmark: in Superstar , for example, it was atop the belltower of
Westminster Abbey in London).
    While
Black came, Humbert Hughes’s progress was monitored.
    ‘He’s
taken his entire army through the Trafalgar Square portal,’ a young tech
reported. ‘He’s bypassing Submarine Odyssey, Monaco and Egypt …wait!
He’s stopping. His army is moving out of the portal…into Superstar .’
    ‘Oh
shit,’ Ellis said, realising. ‘He’s going after Laura.’
     
     
    Superstar
     
    Modern
London had never seen anything like it.
    Hordes
of 1940s-era German and Allied troops stormed out of Trafalgar Square, guns
blazing, shooting anyone in their path. In their midst, their Supreme
Commander: Humbert Hughes.
    And
since there was no armed force of any kind in this world,