But the inventor had already gone back to his work. Only Lucas observed the scene, his pale eyes penetrating like a hawks, a small smile of evil delight upon his lips.

Oliver was hauled roughly to the door of the factory. The guards heaved it open. Then, with no ceremony, he was thrown straight through it.

Oliver tumbled to the ground as the door slammed shut behind him. He lay there in a dazed heap. It was the first time hed been outside the factory since hed entered. Except where hed come out wasnt the same place hed gone in.

Slowly, he picked himself up to sitting. As he wiped the dust from his overalls, he glanced around. He wasnt anywhere familiar at all. He hadnt been thrown out into the same world he knew, but somewhere else entirely.

Not somewhere, Oliver corrected himself. But somewhen.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Oliver stared mournfully back at the factory he was now barred from. It had been his home for such a short amount of time but it meant more to him than any home hed ever lived in. He didnt know what he would do without it.

From the outside, its differences from his versionthe one that existed more than seventy years in the futurewere even more startling. The faded red bricks were bright. The rainwater stains and splatters of bird poop were completely absent. Where before there had been caved in roof tiles and smashed up windows, now everything was exactly as it should be. The ivy that had overtaken the factorys facade in Olivers era was little more than a manageable shrub, and the nettles that had stung him as hed first explored the perimeter were nonexistent. There was even a factory sign, Illstroms Inventions, in the same retro typography style of old World War Two posters. And over the road, the rusted bus stop sign from where hed first alighted the bus was brand new and gleaming.

Now what? Oliver said aloud.

He cast his mind back to the moment hed jumped into the vortex. It hadnt been his intention to go back in time, hed not planned it, but in the heat of the moment and under the pursuit of Lucas and his guards, something had compelled him to run to the secret room, to jump into the swirling purple vortex. Could it be a part of his destiny? Some kind of force beyond his control guiding him? And if this was where he was supposed to be, then why? What happened next?

At a loss, Oliver wandered the streets. The previously dilapidated neighborhood looked brand new. Houses that in the present day were graffitied and falling into disrepair, were clean and well cared for. The overgrown gardens filled with trash in Olivers modern memory were neatly trimmed and full of flowers.