He looked into her face for another second before nodding. “MI-5.”
“Exactly.”
The thought was sobering to both of them. George and Andre’s doubts aside, they needed to find shelter and a telephone so she could call Chad. It wouldn’t do at all for MI-5 to find them first. Sophie assumed, as when Anna had come through, that Chad’s people would also know someone had arrived. But if David hadn’t reached him three days ago, and instead had ended up in a grubby cell in a Security Service basement somewhere, there might be a race to see who could get to Sophie and Cadell first. She’d been on that plane the fighter jets had chased into Snowdon. She wouldn’t be underestimating MI-5’s drive and reach any time soon.
They had to have seen the flash, of course, but that only made it more important for Sophie and Cadell to get away from the point of entry as quickly as possible. Their best bet appeared to be to lose themselves in the town while they waited for help to come.
Cadell sniffed, pushing his wet hair off his forehead and then wiping at his cheeks with both hands. She was touched that he trusted her enough not to be ashamed of his tears. Sophie took his hand, and together they headed back down the hill. The gate to the site was unlocked, and they went through it, finding themselves under trees, where it was much darker than in the ruined bailey of the castle. The path was wide, however, and Cadell seemed to know his way, because he took them down it unerringly to a bridge across a stream, by which point they could see the reflected lights of Dolbadarn’s car park.
Truthfully, if they had to land in modern Wales, Dolbadarn Castle was a pretty good place to do it. Nobody had seen them come in, and there were no cameras guarding the monument. Landing somewhere more remote, like up Mt. Snowdon, would have meant they would have had to wait until it was light to move. She had no idea what time it was, but if the time traveling thing worked the way it had when they’d flown from Snowdon to Tara, it should be a little before nine in the evening, the same time as it had been when they’d left.
“What’s that?” Now that the ruined castle was behind them, Cadell had recovered enough to point to the red light marking a crosswalk. It stayed a steady red as a lone car swept up the road, headlights shining through the rain and wipers flipping back and forth. Cadell watched it go by and then looked up at Sophie. “That was a car!”
“One of many millions you will see before we’re through.” Sophie kept a firm grip on his hand. The last thing she wanted was to arrive in Avalon only to have him run off and die on the front of a car that didn’t see him in time to stop.
They didn’t cross that street, because it would take them to the car park and the lake, but instead headed down the sidewalk towards the town. Reaching it did require them to cross a street eventually, and she pressed the button that would turn this crosswalk light to green—more for Cadell’s edification than because there was a car in sight. “Green for go,” she said, as the light almost instantly changed.
They crossed the street and walked at a steady clip down the main street of the town. The rain was coming down even harder now, quickening Sophie’s steps. Most of Llanberis was already closed up for the night, and lights shone from no shops. Of course, it was Sunday evening. Little might have been open even in the daytime. She would knock on a stranger’s door if she had to, but it wasn’t her first choice. Finally they came upon a well-lit restaurant, the only one on the entire street, and turned into it. A woman of about fifty was standing at the counter, talking to a teenage girl manning the till, both speaking Welsh.
By now, Sophie and Cadell were soaked to the skin, which she thought might make them look off-putting, even homeless. But the sight of them climbing the steps to enter the restaurant prompted a cheery “Hallo!” from the girl at the counter, followed by a look of concern at the water dripping off them onto the restaurant floor.
Fortunately, it wasn’t a fancy restaurant. Once a Victorian house, now gutted and reworked, it was half American diner, half English (or Welsh) chippie with room for at least fifty people spread across four rooms, all with assorted mismatched tables and chairs. It was a riot of color, with blue and red walls and red and white checked tablecloths clashing with the green counter and yellow and green checked floor tiles. Bench seats lined the windows, and the menu was chalked on a long blackboard on the upper half of the wall of the room they’d entered. The main counter, at which a patron ordered rather than waiting for a server, and behind which the girl was standing, took up a third of the room. Everything was brightly lit.
Cadell had been truly set back on his heels by seeing for himself what had become of his grandfather’s kingdom in Avalon, but despite what had to be the newness of what he was seeing, he spoke now with all the confidence she’d learned to expect from him, greeting the two women in Welsh. Instantly, both faces were wreathed in smiles.
Sophie had no Welsh, but it appeared whatever words he’d said were comprehensible to these modern Welsh people. At the very least, the smiles were a positive sign.
Thus, she fell back on outright lies. “Our car was parked in the car park by the lake, and we’ve come back to find it gone. Stolen.”
Both expressions turned gratifyingly sympathetic.
The teenage girl looked Cadell up and down. “You’re soaked through. I’ll get a towel.” She paused, her eye on Sophie, with the not incredible assumption that Sophie was his mother. “Would he like a hot chocolate?”
Sophie laughed. “I’m sure he would. I have no money with me right now.” As she said the words, Cadell opened his mouth to speak, and Sophie just knew he was going to say something about having valuables in his backpack he could barter with. Maybe he had coins too, but she put a heavy hand on his shoulder and added, “I’ll pay you back as soon as someone comes for us.”
“Sure.” The girl spoke with the equanimity of someone who was comfortable with her own authority, and Sophie revised her age upwards from seventeen to her early twenties. And perhaps her parents owned the restaurant. She disappeared into a room behind the counter.
Now alone with the patron, Sophie turned to her, “I’m really sorry to ask this, but could I use your mobile? Everything we had was in the car.”
In this day and age, not carrying her mobile phone on her person at all times was odd, but the woman rummaged in her handbag without question. Sophie smiled appreciatively, and Cadell continued to look bright-eyed and interested. He moved along the counter, eyeing everything, though giving special attention to the pastries under their glass covers on the counter. Now that Sophie had had a chance to look around more, the restaurant also appeared to be a community meeting place, with free WiFi, showers for hikers coming off the mountain, and a paper message board for community events. Sophie rather thought she’d like to come back some time when it was busy and have a real meal.
After a lengthy search, the woman finally found her mobile and handed it to Sophie. “I have unlimited minutes. Talk as much as you like.”
“Thank you so very much!”
“Though—” the woman frowned, “—I tried to use it earlier, but all the circuits were busy. It was very strange. It must have been because of the big interview tonight. Did you see it?”
“I didn’t. Sorry.” Sophie started punching in numbers. Unfortunately, as the woman had said, the call refused to connect.
“Try out on the step?” the woman suggested.
Sophie tried on the step, though with the rain still coming down, she didn’t go all the way into the street—and besides, she didn’t want the woman to think she was stealing her mobile. She tried again back inside the restaurant and even went up the stairs to the second floor, used the loo (oh, the joy of indoor plumbing!), and tried again.
Finally, after a delay of many minutes, in which the girl at the counter produced large towels for both of them, along with the promise of a hot meal (waving away the fact that Sophie couldn’t pay for it), Sophie was hugely relieved to see the mobile phone light up and hear the comforting ring of a call being pu
t through.
She put the phone to her ear and turned slightly away. The woman to whom it belonged had watched the proceedings with interest and an apparent unconcern at how long it was taking. Now, sensing Sophie wanted privacy, she took a seat across from Cadell, who was studying a paper menu with intent, and began conferring with him. Sophie assumed they were discussing the menu, but she didn’t know for certain as they were speaking Welsh. She hoped Cadell could lie effectively, because now wasn’t the time to be talking about Earth Two.
A familiar voice answered. “Hello?”
“I need to speak to Chad Treadman, Jasmine. This is Sophie.”
“Of course.” There was a pregnant pause as if Jasmine was ordering her thoughts. “Are you okay? Are you safe?”
“Yes. For now.”
“Patching you through to Chad. Welcome home.”
“Thank you. I’m very glad to be home.” Sophie’s reply came out more fervently than she intended—not because she wasn’t fervent, but because she didn’t want to scare Jasmine.
Amazingly, the wait to speak to Chad was all of eight seconds. Sophie knew from her years of working with him that ninety seconds was more common—if not five minutes until he finished whatever deal he was working on.
“Sophie!”
“Hi!”
“You’re in Llanberis.”
“It seems so.” She took a few steps closer to the open door to the restaurant, not wanting anyone—even Cadell—to overhear. She was pretty sure the woman who’d loaned her the mobile had heard her say Chad’s name. He wasn’t a very well-known personage in England—or Wales, as the case may be—but she still had an impulse to share as little as possible if she could help it. “I had a moment there, before Jasmine answered, where I was afraid nobody knew what had happened with the plane. But you do? You know where I’ve been?”
“I sure think so.” He hesitated. “Is someone there? Can you be overheard?”
“Yes.” Sophie turned back to look at the woman. “A very nice lady loaned me her mobile so I could ring you.”
As Sophie watched, the girl who owned the restaurant brought out the biggest cup of hot chocolate Sophie had ever seen and set it in front of Cadell.
Cadell’s eyes were huge as he looked at it. “Diolch!”
Sophie knew enough Welsh by now to know that meant thank you, indicating, as she’d suspected, that Cadell had been raised right. Only long years of conditioning could have produced politeness in the face of such a massive concoction. Sophie moved closer in order to lean down to whisper to him. “That’s whipped cream, and the white blobs in it are marshmallows. Try one.”
He did, and, if possible, his eyes went even wider.
On the other end of the line, Chad cleared his throat, “Sophie?”
“Sorry, we’re in a restaurant. We’d really appreciate a ride.”
“Who’s we? Who were you talking about marshmallows to?”
Sophie returned her attention to the conversation. She felt like her brain was going a hundred miles an hour. It was no wonder Chad was having a hard time keeping up.
“Cadell, Anna’s son.” She didn’t bother to say his name properly in Welsh. Chad would know whom she meant.
There was a moment of silence before Chad said softly, “You’re not kidding, are you?” Sophie could feel the concern emanating from him all the way down the line.
“No.”
“It was what David feared most,” he said.
“I’m not sure what you mean by that. David knew Cadell would come here?”
She couldn’t see Chad, but she could still sense him shake his head. “No. Never mind. I’m just glad you’re home.”
“Is David there? Did you actually get to talk to him? He rang the number?”
“No, yes, and yes.”
While she tried to work out what questions Chad was answering in which order, there was another pause, and this time Chad’s concern was even more palpable. “David left tonight. In fact, he left at the exact same moment you arrived.”
Sophie’s eyes were fixed on Cadell, who was merrily working his way through his hot chocolate. “How is that even possible?”
“That’s the way this works, isn’t it? God—” Chad cut himself off, leaving Sophie unsure if he meant to call upon a higher power or was merely cursing. “Never mind. Are you safe?”
“At the moment.”
“Michael and Livia are on their way.”
Sophie took a breath as the second name registered. “Livia! Isn’t she with MI-5?”
“There’s been a meeting of the minds in the last two weeks.”
Sophie thought back to her conversation with Andre and George and realized she didn’t like the sound of that. With the disappearance of the plane, it would be the perfect time to appear to mend the relationship between Treadman Global and the government. “They didn’t arrest you?”
Chad actually said pshaw! like in an American cartoon. “For what? I wasn’t flying the plane. How was I to know I was sheltering a fugitive?” He snorted. “They knew better. But now, we seem to be set on separate paths. I don’t know why, and Livia doesn’t know what’s going on with them.”
That, oddly, she could believe. Just because Chad worked with MI-5 earlier didn’t mean they were working with him. “I know who Livia is from Mark, but who’s Michael?”
“David’s bodyguard. It’s a long story.”
“I’m sure. It sounds like we both have some long stories.” Sophie swallowed. “So David really is gone?”
“Yes.”
“And you’ve already sent Livia and Michael to find us because you detected the flash?”
“We knew someone had come. Not the worst-case-scenario, though.” And then he amended hastily, “I don’t mean your return, specifically. I just wish you hadn’t brought Cadell.”
“It was more a matter of him bringing me,” Sophie said dryly.
Chad grunted. “True. We’ve missed you. How are the others?”
“They’re fine. We have a lot to talk about.” Boy did they.
“I’m looking forward to it.” And then, after a pause, he added, “I’m patching Livia and Michael in.” His voice went away for a second and then came back. “I’m being called to an interview. Other than Michael and Livia, don’t talk to anyone else but me. I will call you back when I’m available again.”
“Okay,” Sophie said.
“Hello,” a woman’s voice said, speaking high class BBC English. “I’m Livia.”
“Hi.” Sophie had never met Livia, but she’d heard about her beauty from Mark. It would have been something to resent if he hadn’t been so matter-of-fact about it. Her voice perfectly matched his description.
“You are, in fact, in Llanberis?” Livia said.
Sophie had a frisson of satisfaction that even Livia couldn’t pronounce Llanberis correctly. “Yes.” And she gave the name of the restaurant.
“We’re on the A55. Traffic has slowed for an accident up ahead. It will be at least a half-hour until we get there. Are you going to be all right until then?”
“I think so.” Sophie eyed the young woman who’d brought Cadell the hot chocolate. She’d come around the counter to sit with him, alongside the woman patron whose mobile phone Sophie had borrowed. Both women were drinking tea, and neither showed signs of impatience. The woman patron might want her phone back, however. “I’m on a borrowed mobile.”
A deep male voice spoke, “Is anybody injured?”
“No. We’re fine, though Cadell might be about to suffer a massive sugar high.”
The man laughed. It was such a normal sound Sophie found her own breath coming more easily.
“Hang in there,” Livia said, sounding more human herself. “We have the GPS from the phone you’re using.”
“We can keep talking if you want,” Michael said. “I hear the fact that David returned to Earth Two is news to you.”
“Chad said we arrived in the same moment he left. Even if he returned to Ch
ester, I would have no way of knowing.” She cleared her throat, imparting the bad news. “Cadell came here because he wanted to rescue his uncle.”
That prompted a choking sound from Livia. “Oh no!”
“Did you tell him David’s gone?” Michael asked.
“Not yet. We didn’t know until just now.”
“I can do it, if you’d rather,” Michael said. “I saw it happen.”
“Maybe that would be better.” Sophie paused, and the memory of climbing Beeston rock, leading warriors up the cliff face to take the castle, receded farther into the past. It almost felt now that someone other than she had done it. But it forced her to articulate the first thought that had come into her head as soon as Chad had told her David had already returned to Earth Two. “And then we need to talk about what happens next with Cadell. I’m pretty sure nobody is going to like it.”
Chapter Twelve
3 April 2022
Michael
Michael exited the main road onto the street that ran through the center of Llanberis, Livia navigating according to the GPS, and then parked in one of several empty spaces near the front door to the restaurant. It was past ten o’clock at night by now, and Llanberis was not a happening place, particularly in the rain. The torrent had let up on the drive from the warehouse, but it was still raining steadily.
If anyone was tracking his or Livia’s phone, they would know they’d reached Llanberis, but both were abiding by Chad’s request not to speak to anyone but him. It was bad enough that they’d talked as much as they had on a clear line. Livia had assured him that the intelligence services, MI-5 as well as GCHQ, could sift through every phone call made in the entire country, listening for particular keywords. It was likely one of the ways they’d tracked Anna to Chad’s house in the first place.
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