by Holly Hook
“I suppose we're even now, aren't we?” she asks.
“We are.” I take a deep breath and manage a smile at Simon. “Isabel—your family will be fine in thirty years. Simon and I will make sure they don't board the Gustloff at all. We have a long time to plan for that. Since, you know, the Timeless us won't be there now that we've rewritten everything.”
Simon snorts, and then laughs.
“What's so funny?” I ask. Isabel's panic attack is anything but. I set the butterfly down on the desk, glad that the officers were too distracted to think of taking it. “We still have to learn what our punishment is.” That's nothing compared to an icy, black death, but it's still something.
“Do you know what we just wiped out of existence?” Simon asks.
“A horrible disaster?”
“Well, yes. This one, and another one.” His hair hangs in his face as he keeps laughing. “A certain very popular movie is never going to be made now. That means a certain horrible song is never going to torment the world in the late nineties.”
He must read my clueless expression. “Song?” There's something about it, faint in Isabel's memories that swirl through my head. "Oh."
“You don't want to know,” Isabel says. “Even we Timeless had to hear it when we went on assignments in that time period. Wiping it out is an accomplishment, believe me.”
“I'll take your word for it.” I'm so glad to see Simon making jokes and not brooding. Even though it never happened now, I can still remember it all: Simon angry. Simon hating the universe and Time itself, and praying for its death. Simon glad that Time was sick right after we stopped Isabel's ship from going down. I don't remember anything that happened after that. The Timeless me downloaded her memories right there in the corridor, in the middle of all that red fog and amongst all those rifts. Isabel must have run here after that happened. And Simon doesn't even have his old Timeless memories—only mine and some of Isabel's. I might need to fill him in as much as I can.
“You know,” Isabel says. “I'm technically a Rogue now. Sooner or later, even if Frank doesn't find us again, someone will arrive to take me back to my old time. I will never remember any of this.”
“You don't have to.” I don't miss the frightened tone of her voice, the dread. “Oh.”
“I don't want to go back there. Even if the two of you stop the Gustloff from sinking and we make our voyage safely.”
“Oh.”
Her father.
She can't bear to go back to him, even though she will forget what a monster he is. “We left him in that bathroom in that German port town,” I say. “You'd have to explain why you vanished into thin air right in front of him.” I'm just trying to avoid saying the worst.
Isabel turns away, almost like she's hiding something. “I know I should go back for my sister,” she says. “I should let the next Timeless take me back. Frank might have killed me. That's a lot of the reason I didn't go with him.”
“You can stay with us for a while,” Simon offers. “We'll hide you.”
“I can't stay here forever.” She turns back to face us. “There are things I need to do.”
“Simon and I aren't going anywhere,” I say. I realize with a start that my time travel days are over. Even with Arnelia's butterfly and the ability to keep my memories if I hop time to time, I no longer have the ability to see rifts. This is where Simon and I are staying for the rest of our lives. Where we'll marry, and raise a family. Where fifteen hundred people who should have died will now live out their lives and contribute to the world. This is how it should be.
What changes have we created? I know, in general, how the next hundred years will unfold. Nancy and Monica will be born, and they'll live without me. I hope they'll still be happy.
But I can't quite shake a nervous feeling from my stomach. I don't know where it's coming from, but I don't like it.
A lock turns and the door comes open. The three officers have returned, including a gray-haired one who waves us out of the room. “Ladies,” he orders. “The two of you will return to your berths. You are not to leave your section until we dock. Sir, you will come with me. You will be detained for assault until we dock at New York. Unfortunately, that will take longer than planned. Thanks to your distracting our crew, we will need to be towed the rest of the way to our destination.”
“Did you find the crazy man?” Isabel asks.
“We did. He is detained and will not be bothering you again. I'm amazed that he survived the fall my crewmen described to me. We're all stunned.”
A thought hits me. “You're not going to house Simon with the madman, are you?”
Next to me, Simon's fists ball up. “I might kill him if you do. He tried to murder these girls!”
“Of course not,” the officer says. He has bags under his eyes. “We do not want any more problems tonight. Now, sir.”
Simon gives me a small kiss. Even though it's not much, it's the best one I remember in a while, because it will be the first of many, many more. Simon will survive tonight.
He follows the officer and out of my sight. I don't want him to go. The officer waves us out again.
Isabel and I head back to my berth. Neither of us speak. As far as the officers know, she's a fellow passenger. Her 1940's dress isn't that different from what I would normally wear.
There are other passengers out and about, too. Mothers ask stewards why we're stopped. Reassuring words surround me. No worry, ma'am. Return to bed. We're going to be towed. There's no scrambling, no banging on doors, no reaching for life vests like I remember. There's no panic like in the version of the Titanic that now, there never was.
Father stands outside our berth. He's adjusting his overalls like he's ready to go searching for me. Which he, I'm sure, probably is.
My heart swells and I wrap him in a hug.
He's going to live.
He and Melvin aren't going to spend eternity on the bottom of the ocean after all.
“I love you,” I say.
He hugs me back. “Where have you been?”
“I was...” I gasp for air. “I felt a shudder, so I went to ask about what was going on.” I don't care if he suspects that I went to see Simon. I'll explain his detainment later. I'm just glad that we're going to make it safely to our destination after all.
So long as they keep Frank locked up.
How long will they detain Frank, anyway? Will they call the police when we dock and get him for attempted murder?
I don't miss the worried gaze Isabel sends me. She stands against the wall like she's unsure what to do.
Father releases me. “Why don't you return to bed? From what I understand, the front compartment of the ship is flooded, but the others are closed tight. We're safe.”
I stand there and shift my feet, making sure I can't feel the floor tilting. We seem to be even. A part of me wants to dive into safety and celebrate, but another part isn't so sure. This seemed too easy, like there must be something more that we need to face.
“Okay,” I tell him. I need to talk to Isabel. There's something she wants to tell me and I think I know what it is. I nod to her and head back into our berth. I hope she waits for me, that no other Timeless come to take her back to World War Two quite yet. I need to pretend to go back to bed.
I climb in and wait for Father to settle in the bunk above me. His snores begin after ten minutes, ensuring that there is no way I will sleep for the rest of the night. I catch a glimpse of his pocket watch, which he's left on the floor. It's past one in the morning. The ship should be listing forward by now, enough for me to notice.
And yet, the noise outside the berth is dying down. Footfalls grow farther apart. Kids slowly silence. People are returning to bed rather than gathering at the foot of the staircase, trapped below decks.
We're safe as long as Frank is captive.
Or are we?
If he's as desperate to put history “right,” won't be try to kill us again?
I get back up out
of bed. My head is beginning to pound, but I ignore the pain.
Isabel still waits outside my berth. I'm glad to see her here. She's pacing up and down the corridor. “Are you uneasy, too?” I ask.
She nods. “Frank remains Timeless. I know why he's so desperate to stop us.”
I lower my voice. “Why?”
“You know that we made Time sick,” Isabel says, “by stopping my ship from sinking. I do not know what in the future we have changed, but it must have been something. We didn't find this out until after you downloaded your memories onto the chip, so you don't remember this, but when Time gets sick, these things called Chronophages start roaming the Hub. They eat the Timeless who dare mess with history and they consumed Frank's twin brother. Frank escaped by agreeing to help them stop things like this. I think he's scared that they'll come after him again if history gets out of control.”
“Frank had a brother?” I ask.
“He told all three of us this,” Isabel says. “It was after you put your memories on that thing, so they're not there. It was after I...after I found the rift here again.”
I can't help but wonder if she's hiding something. “Are those Chronophage things still around?”
“I'm not sure. They can't attack mortals. Only Timeless.” She blinks and glances up the hall. “The Timeless versions of you and Simon are gone. They would have been either way, now that you changed history.”
“I figured.” I don't want to imagine what these Chronophage things must look like. At least now, I hope, we won't have to deal with them. But Frank...”Frank can open a rift and escape wherever they're holding him, right?”
“It takes a long time, but eventually, if he has enough concentration, he can do it. That's what I wanted to talk to you about. We're not out of danger yet.”
I know what she's going to say, because the same thought's been swirling in my mind, getting bigger and bigger like it wants to scream. “Frank can just go back to right before the sinking and try to stop us again. And again. And again.” He has access to every time except for the period when he was mortal and alive in the regular world, whenever that was.
“Exactly.”
I feel sick. We might be safe in this version of the Titanic, but sooner or later, Frank will simply go back to when I was sleeping in my berth and stab me right there. He might have thought of doing that already. Father and Melvin aren't safe, either. This is a course of history that might get erased right along with the Timeless Simon and the Timeless me.
“We have to figure out where they have Frank,” she says. “I know it's very late."
“It's fine.” I glance back at the closed door of my berth. Father and Melvin are behind it, sleeping soundly. Somewhere on the other side of the ship, Simon is sitting in a room by himself, probably detained for the rest of the journey. All he'll have are my memories to keep him company, memories of things that now, never happened.
This isn't over yet.
I try to remember the way to the bridge from that map of Nancy's book on the Titanic that won't be written. Another wave of dread sweeps through me when I think of her, but like a forgotten dream, I can't place it. They would have Simon under observation there and definitely Frank. “What are we going to do when we find him?” I ask.
Isabel's eyes cloud over. “I don't know.”
We pass the laundry area. “We can't kill him.”
“Or send him to prison,” Isabel adds. “Well, we could, but he would get out sooner or later. It could take him a hundred years, but that won't matter. Frank can still come back here.”
“I know.” I stop by a gate. “The only way to stop him would be to go back to whenever he was mortal, and either stop him from going Timeless or kill him.”
Chapter Four
“How are we going to do that?” Isabel asks.
“We have something that will preserve our memories time to time,” I say. “Once in the Hub, we'll remember where the right rifts are. Did Frank ever tell you what disaster he was originally from?”
“The Battle of Gettysburg.”
“Oh.” I know I shouldn't be surprised. When I first met Frank in Trenton, we were working on a presentation on the Civil War. Why didn't I realize that might be where he's from?
“He and his brother enlisted and lied about their ages to do so. They were supposed to die in a cannon blast.”
“Lovely.”
“Time originally rescued Frank and made him immortal, but his brother died. Frank worked out a plan to go back and make his brother Timeless, too. Then, they wanted to save more of their friends from dying in the battle, so they wound up causing the Civil War to go on for two more years. Time got sick from the change and that's when the Chronophages ate his brother.”
I stand there, stunned. “Frank's tried to same stuff we have?”
“He has. And now, he wants to stop anyone else from making his mistakes.”
I'm reeling.
Frank. Working to save his brother the way Simon and Isabel worked to save me.
He should be on our side against Time.
I take a breath. “Okay. We have where he's from established. Do you remember where that rift is in the Hub?” The Timeless can remember the location of every rift they've ever used. Isabel's memories are on that device back in my berth. If she's ever been there—and she likely has since she was with Frank for a long time—she'd know.
“No. I never visited that time and place. Frank never talked about where he was from. I think Time forbade him after what he did.”
“So the only person who knows which rift is his is Frank.”
“Yes. Another Timeless who helped him with his plan, Sven—he got eaten by the Chronophages, too.”
The whole impossibility of this plan washes over me. The Hub has millions of rifts, all lined up in corridors. Our chances of ever finding the right one are about none.
And we also have the matter of finding a way into the Hub in the first place.
"Isabel, where on the ship did you come out?" I ask.
"In the laundry room," she says. "But the rift I came through dissipated as soon as I arrived here. I checked for it, but couldn't feel it. Some of them are like that. Frank must have used another one, one that's sticking around for longer. If it wasn't still around here, he wouldn't have tried to drag me off like that earlier. But it could be in some obscure corner of the engine room or inside a boiler for all we know. None of us can see rifts anymore and Frank is far too crazed to help us. The last thing he'll want to do is let us go mess with more history."
“Well, I'm lost,” I say. “Unless we have some way to extract Frank's mem--”
I realize what I'm saying. Isabel and I stare at each other. Her eyes get big.
We do.
Arnelia's butterfly.
If I could force Simon to take my memories earlier tonight, I can surely steal Frank's. Then, it will only be a matter of finding the place where he remembers the rift on the ship to be. We step through, go to the Hub and find the rift that goes to the place where Frank was supposed to die. He'll remember where that is, too.
“We've got to get Simon freed,” I say. “It's going to take all three of us to do this.”
* * * * *
I check on Father and Melvin again to make sure they're still asleep. They are. I grab the clip out from under my bunk and put it in my pocket. I know that I should sleep, too, and get caught up on my rest, but how can I do that when I know Frank can open a rift at the right moment and escape? He could have done so already by now.
Where would they detain people on this ship? There are no jail cells. My guess would be some officers' quarters or a sick bay. That's going to be difficult if it's near the bridge. Frank will have constant supervision, especially after trying to commit murder. That could prevent him from opening his own personal rift and stepping out, but it'll also prevent us from getting to him.
Then we have the matter of making him wear Arnelia's device and hitting the button to download his
memories. He's going to find out about our secret weapon, but this is the only way. We might have to do it while he's taking a nap.
He'll have to pass out sometime during the rest of the voyage. We just have to reach Frank before they take him off the ship.
But first, Simon.
I nod to Isabel. I remember where that office was where they detained us for a while. It's worth checking again, in case they've moved either Simon or Frank there. It will only be a matter of getting through the gates. I'm sure they've taken Simon and told him how much trouble he's going to be in. My only hope is that they don't house the two of them together.
I lead the way through the hallways. It must be growing close to four in the morning by now. My eyelids burn with fatigue. Thankfully, I remember the way back to the gate that leads to that office, even without the knowledge of Nancy's books.
It's closed. Locked. Rats.
“How are we supposed to get through?” Isabel leans on the wall.
I eye the chain around the gate. We don't have Simon here to lure a guy down and punch him this time. Isabel and I are on our own. “The hair clip,” I say. “Maybe it's sharp enough to cut through this. It was sharp enough to stab Frank in the side like that. We don't exactly have access to bolt cutters.”
I fish it from my pocket. The wings are pointed as ever. All the traces of Frank's golden blood are gone. I don't know what kind of future material it's made from, but I'm shocked I haven't injured myself yet just from leaning on it wrong.
“I don't know if that will cut,” Isabel says. “Those points are sharp, but they don't pierce human skin very well.”
“How do you know that?” I ask.
“Well, you've been carrying that in your pocket and you haven't cut yourself yet.”
“Frank got cut by this.”
“He's Timeless. Perhaps Arnelia made some kind of material that can only hurt them.”
“Well, it's not like we've tried stabbing any mortals,” I say. “And I don't want to start. Let me at least try something.”
I take the hair clip. I feel amazingly stupid doing this, but it's worth a shot. I take a second to turn it in my hand to protect my skin, and slice it across the chains keeping the gate shut.
