Refuge in Time

by Sarah Woodbury

  “I’m ashamed to say I was more worried about myself last night,” Chad said, “but I fear more for you now.”

  Amelia pushed her tablet towards Livia and Michael’s side of the table. It showed the front page of The Guardian. The lead story was about David, with a complete transcript of his conversation with Owain Williams. Because the story was digital, they had footage of the entire forty minute interview playing on a continuous loop.

  But Amelia scrolled down the page to another story, this one about Chad. It included the two images Candy had shown them.

  Livia looked at Amelia. “This is your doing?”

  “I’ve been up most of the night.” Amelia grimaced. “It behooved us to get ahead of any accusations that Chad was behind the shooting. Apparently, someone else contacted them moments after it happened. The only reason they hadn’t run the story yet was because they couldn’t get through to Chad for denial or confirmation.”

  “How did they get those pictures?” Michael said. “WECTU has that bad of a leak?”

  Amelia laughed mockingly. “They don’t reveal their sources. Likely it was the same hacker who flagged the images in the first place.”

  Michael’s eyes narrowed. “The one in the Balkans.”

  “Probably,” Livia ate a bit of bacon.

  Chad leaned towards her. “You have to take this more seriously.”

  “Believe me, I am.”

  “She’s been through this before,” Michael said. “We are agreed she isn’t going to take the fall for someone else’s treachery again. The hard thing is knowing how best to prevent it.”

  “They’re going to have to track down the two men who shot up the warehouse,” Amelia said. “The public will demand it.”

  “I agree,” Livia said. “But even if they don’t capture them, they’ll come up with some names and put them on Interpol’s most wanted—if they aren’t there already.”

  “My lawyers are on their way,” Chad said. “I didn’t do anything wrong, and you didn’t do anything wrong, but MI-5 is a black box into which you could disappear in a way I can’t. My instinct is to get you out of here, to safety.”

  “To Ireland?” Michael said dryly.

  “Why not?” Chad said.

  “And still, nobody knows about Cade. Why?” Livia put her head close to Michael’s again to read the tablet, since he was scrolling through the news now himself.

  But then he turned his head to look into her face. “What if the flash is what Jack Stine wanted to talk to the director about? Wouldn’t that make sense? It came through your department, right? The director didn’t confirm that anyone was missing this morning, but what if he was the one doing your job?”

  Livia found her breath catching in her throat. “If that’s the case, Director Philips really is being kept in the dark. I should have told him about Cade.”

  Chad leaned forward. “How is it possible to keep that kind of information from the Director-General of MI-5? How many people have the power to do that?”

  Livia stared at Chad and then looked at Michael. “Not many. A handful.” And then she paused. “One. Grant Dempsey.”

  “Why him?”

  “He’s the head of Internal Security. He was the man to whom Jack Stine directly reported. Dempsey then reported to Philips.”

  “What if he told Dempsey about Cade’s flash?” Michael said. “Even worse, what if he learned about or discovered the digital trail that would ultimately implicate Dempsey in the shooting at the warehouse—and reported his preliminary findings to Dempsey, as he should have done, since Dempsey is his boss. That’s a reason for Dempsey to take him out if I ever heard one.”

  Livia’s breath caught in her throat. “If Dempsey is really behind everything, he played everyone brilliantly. It was Dempsey who argued with the D-G about David, just enough to be credible, but not enough to get himself sacked like Amanda.”

  She could still hear the sharp crack when Dempsey had called David insane and slapped his hand on the polished wood of the table.

  “He wanted to lock David up. He supported Amanda’s position until it became clear she was in trouble. It was he who pointed out she had been watching too much Doctor Who.”

  “That means we’re not safe here.” Michael rose to his feet. “Dempsey’s reach, seeing as how he’s still within MI-5, is nearly unlimited. We might not be safe anywhere.”

  Then Mali swung around the frame of the door leading to the kitchen. “Everybody move! We’re under attack.”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  4 April 2022

  Michael

  Everyone else surged to their feet too.

  “Into the kitchen!” Shooing Livia and Chad before him, Michael came around the table and scooped Cade into his arms—just as the picture window burst inward.

  With Cade clutched to his chest, Michael glanced back to see a stun grenade hit the coffee table and bounce onto the floor. Had Amelia still been sitting at the end of the table, she would have been in the most danger from it, but she had been first through the kitchen door, followed by Candy, who’d still been hovering over the dishes of food.

  In the split second before the grenade went off, Michael threw himself through the open kitchen doorway, sliding on his left shoulder with his arms clutched around the boy. He kept his own eyes tightly closed while at the same time trying to wrap Cade up to protect his eyes and ears. The kitchen was warehouse-like, with white walls and stainless steel appliances. An industrial oven took up pride of place in the center of the floor, and Michael tried desperately to slide behind it to put it between himself and the open door—but only his head made it.

  The point of a flashbang is to disable an enemy without killing him by emitting a flash of blinding light and a bang at a disorienting decibel level. Flashbangs weren’t supposed to be lethal or cause permanent damage to people or things, though when they went off in close proximity to people, they could cause permanent hearing loss and burns.

  This flashbang, even though Michael had made it to the kitchen before it went off, left him reeling. He saw spots before his eyes and couldn’t hear anything, but because he held Cade, who was struggling against his chest, Michael forced himself to a sitting position, with his back to a cupboard. Then he put a hand on each side of Cade’s face and blinked away the disorientation to look him in the eyes. “Are you okay?”

  Cade’s eyes were wide, and he was blinking back tears, but he nodded. The cook, who’d fed them so well, even though it was only half five in the morning, lay moaning on the floor by the sink. That Michael and Cade weren’t worse off was entirely due to the fact that Michael had known what to expect and had worked hard to make it through the door to the kitchen before the grenade went off. The cook had already been in the kitchen, but he hadn’t known he needed to protect his sight and hearing.

  “Livia!” Michael turned his head, able to see better, even if his ears were still ringing.

  “I’m here.” Livia crawled around the corner of the oven island before reaching up to a countertop to lever herself to her feet. She stood there, swaying. “We need to go now.”

  Then Reg came through the outside kitchen door, having passed through a side garden and mudroom to get to the kitchen. He went straight to the door to the breakfast room, looked through it, and then shut and locked it. Then he crouched beside Chad, his gun still in his hand. “Are you okay, sir?”

  Michael’s hand went to the small of his back where, even after changing out of his suit, he’d tucked the gun Mali had given him. It was still there.

  Amelia was on her hands and knees, throwing up in a corner. Of those who’d experienced the flashbang, only Sophie was upright and functioning. She pressed her ear to the breakfast room door and said, “I hear someone coming!”

  Michael managed to push to his feet, Cade in his arms. He could feel, more than hear, movement in the lounge. Likely, whoever was coming in had forgone the front door for the broken window. Then a heavy bang came on the door beyond the mudr
oom. Both front and back doors were steel. Neither should fold easily.

  Livia bent forward, her hands on her knees, breathing hard. “I feel sick.”

  “You’re supposed to.” Michael looked at Reg. “What can we do?”

  “They’ll be coming through the back in a moment. I locked that door too, but it won’t hold for long.” Reg tried to get Chad, who was resting with his back to the oven island, to his feet. “Let’s go.”

  “No.” Chad spoke with utter calm. “Take them.” He gestured to Michael, Cade, and Livia. “It’s Cade they want. Or Livia. Get them through the tunnel. Mali and Joe can stay with Amelia, Candy, and me.”

  Reg didn’t argue but went immediately to the basement door, located a few steps from the sink, and pulled it open. Then he gestured that Michael and Livia should precede him. “We need to move. Now.”

  Michael was recovering enough that he could actually hear the words, if tinnily. “We’ll be sitting ducks down there.”

  “Didn’t you hear Chad?” Reg said. “The house comes with a tunnel. I will send you down it while I defend the door.”

  “I haven’t done anything wrong,” Livia said. “I should stay. I could do more good here.”

  Michael rounded on her. “You shouldn’t and you couldn’t. We don’t know who this is. Why would it be MI-5? You need to come with us.” He paused as she continued to hesitate, and then lowered his voice to change the emphasis, “I need you to come with us.”

  After a second, which was still too long, Livia nodded, and Michael encouraged her to go in front of him down the basement steps. He hurried after her, Cade still on his hip.

  “It should take a minute for them to find us.” Reg urged Sophie in front of him and then locked the basement door behind them.

  “Who’s them?” They reached the floor, made of concrete covered by a cheap flat carpet, not unlike that in the warehouse office, and Sophie’s gaze went to Livia. “Not MI-5?”

  “Michael’s right that I can’t see how or why WECTU or Five would attack the compound. I just spoke with Director Philips.” She looked at Michael. “And if it’s Dempsey—”

  “Then Chad’s right, and we need to run.”

  Meanwhile, Reg had holstered his weapon and gone to a large cabinet on the east side of the basement. After pulling back the carpet, he shoved at the cabinet, and it slid to the right before sticking. Michael set Cade down and went to put his shoulder to the effort.

  Behind the cabinet lay a five-foot-high door, which Reg opened. Michael had a vision of spiders and rats, but once he ducked under the lintel, the tunnel was revealed to be made of concrete. It was also dry. Reg hit a switch, and industrial lights lit its length.

  “It’s a priest hole,” Sophie said, and then explained so Michael didn’t have to ask what’s a priest hole? “This manor house was built in the sixteenth century when Catholicism was outlawed. Catholic families built tunnels under their houses so priests could come and go without being detected. It’s been improved since then, of course.”

  That made about as much sense as anything else in this crazy day.

  “The tunnel comes out in the shop by the staff car park. My wife’s car is parked there.” Reg dug into his pocket and came up with a key fob, which he handed to Michael. “It’s the orange one. Call me when you get clear, and we’ll work out what to do next.”

  “We don’t have a phone,” Livia said.

  “Take mine.” Sophie crouched in the doorway, her mobile in her hand, and listed off her four-digit passcode. Michael took it because Livia had no pockets. “I’ll get Chad to give me another.”

  Cade turned to look at her. “But ... you’re coming with us, aren’t you?”

  Sophie went down on one knee before him and took both of his hands in hers. “No, Cade. I’m staying here. You’ll be safe with Livia and Michael.”

  “I want you to come with us.”

  Sophie looked as if she was about to cry. “I’m sorry. Give my love to Mark and the others.”

  Michael wanted to argue with Sophie’s assumption that they wouldn’t be coming back, but not in front of Cade. So he tipped his head to Livia, who, as in the restaurant the previous night, reached for Cade’s hand and started down the tunnel with him, leaving Michael with Sophie. He was really appreciating Livia’s professionalism and calm just now. It wasn’t that she was lacking in sentiment—he could see from the way she interacted with Cade that she cared a lot—but she didn’t let it stop her from doing what had to be done.

  “Why did you say that to him? We’re going to see you again.”

  Sophie straightened and gave him a look just short of withering. “I told you before that I’m not going back. I’m sorry, but it’s up to you now. You’ve known from the start you would have to be the one to do it. You and Livia. Especially now. It’s your job to keep them both safe.” And then as the kicker, she added, “You know David would say it was the right thing to do.”

  Michael stared at Sophie, swallowing down a flat denial he couldn’t get out in the face of her certainty.

  “Go.” She shoved at him a little. “It’ll be fine.”

  Livia and Cade had stopped at a curve in the tunnel, waiting for him.

  Meanwhile, Reg gestured from the doorway to the basement. “You need to go if you’re going. Sophie, we need to close this door!”

  Sophie gripped Michael’s hand for another second, and then ran back to Reg. “You’ll be fine. Earth Two was made for people like you.” The door shut behind her, and he could hear the cabinet scraping along the concrete floor to hide it.

  Michael jogged after Livia and Cade, catching up after a hundred feet.

  “What was that about?” Livia asked.

  Michael kept pace beside them for a dozen steps before answering. “She says I have to take Cade home.” He was still stunned at the assumption. At the same time, he could see why Sophie thought he had to be the one. He was a man, he knew David, and they could hardly send Cade back with someone he didn’t know.

  Livia jogged along beside him for a moment. “It doesn’t have to be you, Michael. I could do it.”

  “There is no way I am letting you go alone to the Middle Ages any more than I would let Cade.” As soon as Michael spoke, he felt a little better. “If I know anything, I know that.”

  Chapter Twenty-two

  4 April 2022

  Livia

  The tunnel wasn’t a straight affair, so Livia couldn’t tell at any given moment as they ran along it how much farther they had to go. It felt like the longest hundred yards of her life.

  Cade had started to flag, so Michael scooped him into his arms. “I’ve got you.” Livia would have done the same if carrying Cade wouldn’t have slowed her down.

  “I can run!”

  “I know you can. This is because I’m terrified. Not because you are.”

  Now that he was being carried, Cade had time to think. “Why does Sophie hate my home so much? Hate us?”

  “Oh, honey,” Livia said, “she doesn’t. Really, she doesn’t.”

  They finally reached the bottom of the stairs that would take them up to the shop, and she paused for breath while Michael set Cade on his feet and went up to the door to press his ear to it.

  “Mark does too,” Cade said.

  “I know for a fact he doesn’t. He loves you all. When he’s in Earth Two, he just misses his computer. When Sophie was there, she missed her family and the life she has here. It has nothing to do with you. That can be one of the hardest things to understand when someone is unhappy.”

  “Hey.” Michael flapped a hand to get her attention. “I can’t hear.”

  Livia looked up at him and waited a beat, letting him listen in peace. She didn’t know that any of them had recovered from the flashbang as yet. In her mind, she’d been whispering.

  When Michael pulled away from the door, she said in as low a tone as she could manage, “It is possible this entire thing was designed to get us into the open and easy to take.”r />
  “Not unless they knew the tunnel was here.” Now Michael gestured that they should join him on the top step. “What was idiotic was not pulling the curtains again. I should have known better.”

  “You should have?” She scoffed under her breath. “I’m the MI-5 officer.”

  He glanced at her, a sheepish smile forming on his lips. “How about we share the blame and leave it at that?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say the blame should be equally distributed.”

  He chuckled under his breath, as she meant him to, but then sobered, his eyes on her face. He took his gun from beneath his jacket. “Ready?”

  She pulled up the hem of her dress and unholstered hers too. “Ready.”

  Michael opened the door, and she went through it first, gun held in front of her, but the shop was deserted. All she could hear was her pounding heart.

  Michael cat-walked to the door to the shop, circling around a small tractor that was suspiciously clean, as if it was really for show rather than for actual farm use. He pulled the deadbolt and turned the handle to the door, pushing it open with his left hand so he could point the muzzle of the gun through the widening gap between the door and the frame.

  She had feared that a hundred yards really wouldn’t be far enough from the house to disguise the fact they’d left the kitchen, but the car park was shielded from the house by a thick rhododendron hedge. The farm track, unpaved and very rutted, perhaps by centuries of use, was the same one David and Chad had walked along. Often tracks like these appeared on ordnance survey maps, but whoever had assaulted their compound appeared completely focused on the house itself.

  “I hope the others are okay,” Cade said.

  “We don’t dare hang around to find out,” Livia said. “We’ve been given a chance to escape, and to protect you, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

  Michael held the key fob out to her. “You drive this time. I know you’ve had training.”

  She looked at the key. “I have.”