A Look Into the Future
Alex sighed as he heard the doorbell ring. Who could that be? It's supposed to be Christmas break. I don't get out of school for another week. he thought, getting up from the couch where he had been reading a book that really hadn't been all that interesting.
Whoever was outside rang the bell again. "I'm coming." he grumbled. What could be so important that it had to interrupt his break? That was answered when he opened the door to find . . . Alan Blunt, head of MI6.
"You want me to go on another mission for you, don't you." Alex said. It wasn't a question, but he was wondering what would cause Mr. Blunt to come here himself instead of sending Crawley or someone else to bring him to the MI6 building. It must be something bad.
Mr. Blunt looked startled as he walked into the house, not waiting for an invitation.
"Well . . . sort of."
"What do you mean by 'sort of'?" Alex asked. He went to the kitchen table and sat on a
chair.
The MI6 officer sat on a chair near Alex and looked directly at him, "It's not really an
actual mission, just an experiment. We also have some new gadgets that you might want to come take a look at." He stood, "Of course, if you don't want to, that's your choice."
He thought it over for a moment, then shook his head, "Experiment? As in science experiment? I don't think so. Thanks for the offer though."
Mr. Blunt nodded, "I thought you might say that. However, one of the gadgets might change your mind."
"What is it?" Alex asked, suddenly intrigued.
Blunt gave him a wry smile, "That is, of course, for me to know and you to find out. And to find out, you'll have to come with me and see it for yourself."
Well, thought the reluctant spy, I can't see any way to find out without going along with his plan, so I guess I'm going in blind. In fifteen minutes he found himself seated next to Mr. Blunt in a car on the way to the MI6 base. They arrived ten minutes later.
However, this time he was led into a small shed-like building. When inside, it was nearly devoid of anything but a small wooden table, some hay bales, and a chicken.
"How do I know I won't die on this mission?" Alex asked as they entered the
seemingly very unimpressive shed. "I came very close to dead on the last few. I only came out of that 'simple surveillance mission' I went on in Cayo Esqueleto because General Sarov wanted to adopt me! Even then, I almost got blown to pieces by a nuclear bomb in Russia, which you didn't plan on because you didn't think about what could happen if I was captured -which I was- or that Sarov would go to Russia. And that mission was just to get me out of the country so I would escape the wrath of the triad! Don't you think it's a bit odd that before every mission you say 'Oh, there won't be any real danger, we just need you to go undercover for a while.' I need to be positive that I won't die on this mission you've got planned for me. Only then will I agree." he paused to take a breath from his slightly demonic rambling and saw that both Crawley and Mr. Blunt looked taken aback. "Well he was insane!"
"If you want to put it that way. Well . . . we won't know until it's happened, will we?" said Mr. Blunt, regaining
his composure. "We - I mean you, Alex- will, however, be able to see exactly what will happen to you in twenty years from now. Crawley, would you care to do the honors?"
Crawley nodded and pushed a button on the wall of the shed. A mechanized
noise was heard as the wall opposite Alex was raised into somewhere in the ceiling, revealing a large machine that closely resembled a chair with an umbrella attached to the back.
"What is that?" Alex asked, looking at all the complex parts and mechanisms attached to the machine.
"That, Alex, is a time machine. It will allow you to travel into your future and discover if you will be alive and well in twenty years, or dead and decomposing inside a coffin." said Mr. Blunt, "We've been working on it for the past fifteen years, knowing that there would eventually be an agent-"
Alex interrupted him, "I'm not one of your agents, Mr. Blunt."
Mr. Blunt ignored him and continued. "We knew there would eventually be someone who was worried about their safety and we wanted to have a way to be positive about what would happen to them. The simplest way to do that was, if they were alive twenty years from then, than they wouldn't die on the mission."
"What does that have to do with me?" Alex asked.
"It has everything to do with you. Didn't you just ask how do you know if you would die or not? Aside from that, we just want an excuse to try it out. That's the experiment part of the mission."
Alex nodded, "Ok. Fire it up. Let's see if it works and doesn't kill me before I find out what my future looks like." He walked up to the time machine, "How does it work?"
"It's quite simple, really." Mr. Blunt walked over to a metal box left of the time machine Alex hadn't noticed before. He opened it. "All you do is lay down in this box, we close it, and you'll be transported forward in time to twenty years from now. Well, your mind will be, at least we think it'll just be your mind. It might be all of you, we can't know for sure until we test it."
He looked from the chair to the metal box and back, "Why the chair then?"
"We thought it would look better than a metal box that looks eerily similar to something from Star Wars."
"And a metal chair that so closely resembles an electric chair doesn't?" Alex retorted.
"Another technicality to be worked out." Mr. Blunt looked annoyed. "Just get in the Box of Doom, Alex."
Box of Doom? Alex thought, That's supposed to make me feel better about all this? He walked up to the aforenamed 'Box of Doom' knowing that it probably wasn't a good idea, but he was going along with it anyway. Halfway into the box, Alex turned back to Mr. Blunt and Crawley. "What happens if I see myself die? Will I die? Or will I return knowing who killed me and what he- or she -used to kill me?"
Mr. Blunt frowned, "I hadn't thought about it that way, but doesn't it make sense that if you die in the future you wouldn't die in the past and present? It's not as if you'll be traveling into the past, where everything's already happened. If you were killed in the past, you would be dead now."
He handed the time-traveler a remote. "Push the red button when you want us to send you back."
Alex nodded, "Ok. That makes some sense. Start the machine and send me to my future." All he saw after he climbed into the box was the silvery-grayness of the top of the box.
After sliding out of the box, it took him a moment to figure out where he was. When he did, Alex was shocked to find himself in a factory. There were workers everywhere- how was he ever going to get out of here without being noticed? The answer soon presented itself in the form of a cardboard box. Actually, it was a moving cardboard box. There was a kid about 11 years old underneath it, slowly crawling his way toward a door a few feet away. A few minutes later, doing the same thing under his own box that he'd found lying around.
"Almost there," he told himself. There were only a few feet left, but between him and the door was a man who looked . . . a lot like himself. The man had blonde hair, and dark-brown eyes which Alex also had. After shifting the box's position a few more inches, Alex stopped to watch the man. He looked nervous, yet also confident. As if he wasn't supposed to be in the factory, or he was pretending to be someone he wasn't .The man walked over to the door, opened it, and walked out of the factory.
Now's my chance! With a burst of energy, Alex burst out of his box and through the
door. His new location wasn't much better than inside the factory; it was a narrow alley cluttered with garbage and boxes, but he didn't care- he'd made it out! Then he remembered something he'd forgotten- the Box of Doom was still in there, and he needed to be in to return to his own time. Someone put their hand on Alex's shoulder- it was the man who'd left the factory moments before Alex had.
"You did very good, Alex," said the man, "But you'll need to be more careful. If one of the workers had seen you . . ." he sighed, "Don't worry, I'll get your box out of there. Stay here." He went back into the factory.
How did he know who I was? Alex wondered. He could see the boy hiding in the shadows behind a stack of boxes, trying to decide if Alex was a friend or a threat. After what seemed like quite a long time, the boy left the safety of the shadows. He must've decided Alex a friend. "Can you tell me your name?" Alex asked.
The boy hesitated before quietly muttering "Ian . . . Ian Rider."
It took all he had to hide his amazement from Ian. The time machine was supposed to sent him into the future, not the past! The man, probably Ian's father, exited the factory through the door, carrying the Box of Doom.
"Why MI6 sent it here, I'm not sure. there are less exposed places than a factory in the middle of London." Mr. Rider muttered.
Ian's eyes widened, "Dad! You're not supposed to talk about you-know-what in front of strangers!"
His dad grinned, "It's ok, Ian. This guy's not a stranger. Right Alex?" he set the box down onto a garbage bin, "Sorry if it smells, but there's not many places in or near any factory that don't." he apologized.
"It's fine. How did- how did you know my name?"
Mr. Rider looked at Ian, "I got a call from your mother. You're a good spy, but you're needed at home, too."
Crestfallen, Ian trudged away. When he was far away and out of earshot, Mr. Rider turned back to Alex, "You really don't recognize me?" Alex shook his head. "I'll give you a hint, when you're thirty-four you'll be doing this same exact thing."
Then it hit him- of course he knew who he was! Mr. Rider was himself! He'd known
about MI6 and Alex being there because he'd done exactly the same thing twenty years earlier. Future Alex, as Alex now thought of his future self, must be an MI6 agent, and was teaching Ian how to be a spy. "Is Ian learning to be a spy?" he asked. Future Alex.
Future Alex nodded, "Yes. It seems like he wants to be one as much as I- as much as we didn't." A noise came from inside the factory- Future Alex had blocked the door. "We should get away from here. My wife will want to know what's taking me so long." said Future Alex, grinning. "I'm not going to tell you her name, though." He started off down the alley, then turned around and looked at Alex, "You coming?"
Alex shook his head, "I'm not sure I should. I mean, wouldn't it be kind of odd if you
invited yourself over?"
Future Alex thought for a moment, "Yeah, that would be kind of strange. I guess it'll be better for both of us and for my family if you didn't. I can help you into the time machine if you want."
"I can get in, it'd be great if you could close it for me though."
"Ok." Alex climbed into the metal Box of Doom. Once he was in and had his finger just barely not pressing the red button, Future Alex closed the top. He pushed the button, leaving thirty-four-year-old Alex Rider alone in the alley.
It's been over an hour. I think it's safe to assume he's dead. Thought Mr. Blunt. His next thought was, Never mind. Let's see if he's still alive after this. The Box of Doom reappeared, glowing an extremely bright blue color. After the glowing aura faded, Alex's voice could be heard, "Can someone please open this thing? I think I'm getting claustrophobic." Mr. Blunt ordered someone to open it and help Alex out while he turned the machine off.
Alex walked over to him, "I talked with myself. I have a son named Ian."
Mr. Blunt gave him a slight smile, "I think you would have named your son that even if you never traveled through time."
Alex frowned, "I don't really want to say this . . . but I agree to go on the mission now."
Now Mr. Blunt laughed, "Alex, time travel was the mission! In truth, we had only started building the time machine two months ago, and had just put the last piece on it yesterday. There was a lot we didn't have a clue about. Thank you for cooperating." He walked out of the shed, leaving Alex behind, thinking about the future.