by Holly Hook
“We're not,” I explain. I glance at Simon. He nods. Isabel backs out of the doorway. We have to go and we have to leave this officer cuffed. It's not like we have a choice. Frank must have the key. “We have to catch him. We'll tell someone you're here.”
I push past Isabel and out of the quarters. The voices up by the bridge are louder. The man calls for us to come back.
“Where do you think he went?” Isabel asks. “He couldn't have gone through the gates. They were both locked, unless he stole the keys for those, too. He must be close.”
Then I hear.
“Do it,” Frank orders. His voice is a scary calm as it echoes down the hall. “Reverse the ship, turn it to the left, and scrape the side of that iceberg.”
Another man says something in protest, but Frank repeats his command.
A scream rises up inside me.
Frank hasn't gone for another rift after all.
He's already trying to set history back and kill us all.
Chapter Five
I search around for a weapon. There's nothing. We should be able to knock Frank out. If we can do that, we can extract his memories. What if the crew up here is already steering the ship back at the iceberg? It can't be far. We haven't moved much since hitting it head on.
I can imagine the history books after this. The Titanic hits an iceberg, then gets steered into it a second time after crew members get drunk or go crazy. People will speculate about what really happened for years to come, not knowing that an immortal influenced them to do it.
Simon's already running for the bridge. The tied officer calls after us again, but I ignore him and follow.
We enter the bridge. It's just like the time we entered the bridge of the Wilhelm Gustloff. Only this time, only Frank and two crewmen stand here. Both crewmen face us, eyes glazed over and dazed. One has his hand on a lever. It's between Stop and Reverse. Frank's unarmed and without cuffs. He whirls around to face us.
And curses.
He's outnumbered. There are too many of us for him to do a mind trick now.
“What are you doing?” I ask, even though I already know. I'm tense, ready to dodge him. We have to get him trapped or still.
"My duty!" Frank shouts. Spittle flies. "I'm never going to avoid my duty again. So much hell came out of that."
I have to keep him talking while we think of something. "You mean your duty to protect Time?"
Frank breathes heavily. "You don't know anything about my life!"
One of the officers shakes his head, free of the mind trick. He blinks several times. “This man is insane. He's strange. Get away from--”
“Move!” Frank shouts at him, lunging for the lever. He shoves the second officer out of the way. Even though he might not know what he's doing, he's going to try sinking us himself.
But before Simon and I can go for him, Isabel does.
She runs into him, beating her fists. Frank falls back, pulling on the lever. It falls back to Reverse. The vibration of the ship starts again under my feet. Isabel screams obscenities at him. One of the officers runs for them and grabs Frank's arm. Frank roars and punches him. The man staggers backwards, gasping for breath while the other officer moves in to attack. He's holding a revolver. But Frank's ready. He shoves Isabel away and tackles the man. They go down and the revolver falls to the floor, sliding underneath a counter. Frank wraps his hands around the officer's throat. The officer struggles for breath. He's turning red. Frank's going to kill him.
I search around for a weapon again. I find only a broom in the corner. I seize it and dodge around Simon, who's trying to pull Frank off the officer. The man on the ground is turning blue. My mind's gone blank.
I take the broom and ram the handle into Frank's side.
Frank grunts and grabs at his ribs. The officer gasps for air and sits up. Color returns to his face. Simon pulls Frank up by the back of his shirt and rams his knee into his chest. Frank gasps and sucks in air. “Now!” Simon shouts at me.
The butterfly.
This is our only chance.
I pull it out of my pocket. Frank's stunned, his eyes unfocused. Simon's arm quivers with the effort of holding him up. I almost drop the hair clip as I fasten it to Frank's head. I rub my finger over the metal body and Frank groans as it begins to download his memories. His eyes fly open all the way. He's getting the tingling on his scalp and with it, the realization that we're not giving up on this yet.
“No!” He tears the clip off his head and throws it. It lands somewhere behind the lever that's still stuck on Reverse.
Frank breaks away from Simon and runs at me, pulling his fist back. I dodge away, hitting a control panel and pressing myself against the glass window of the bridge. I raise the broom, but there's no hope of defending myself against and immortal. Simon calls my name and rushes up behind Frank. He won't get here in time.
A shot rings out and Frank falls, landing face-first in front of me. Isabel screams. One of the officers stands behind him, holding a smoking pistol. His mouth's dropping open. The other officer runs towards Frank, who bleeds gold on the floor. I feel like I'm going to vomit. I've seen Simon in this state before.
For several seconds—or it might be minutes—I can't move. Frank's blood pools around him, spreading away from his chest. The bullet must have gone all the way through his heart, so it's knocked him out completely. His blood sparkles like glitter in the bright light of the bridge. If I didn't know better, I'd guess that it is glitter.
“Julia.” Isabel's busying herself picking up the butterfly hair clip from the floor, as if she can't bear to look Frank like this. My heart goes out to her. She used to love Frank and maybe a part of her still does. “I think we got what we needed. We need to do something about him.” She gives a quick nod towards the body on the floor, the body that should be dead but isn't. She's right. Frank will get back up.
"What?" the officer sputters. He stares at the golden blood expanding on the floor and faces his comrade. "What?"
I break my dumb paralysis and pull myself away from the window. "We have to throw him overboard!" I yell. "He's going to get back up and try to kill us all!"
The officer shakes his head and stares at the other man. The second one nods. He's very pale. "I think we should do that," he manages.
I grab Frank's arm, holding my nausea back. Simon takes his other one. We drag him towards the doorway of the bridge while one of the officers pulls back on the lever to stop the ship. They don't know what to think, but we can't worry about that now. Frank will recover any second. We leave a golden trail along the floor for everyone to see. He won't be able to escape the icy ocean for a long time. That's my hope. At least he'll be off the ship and unable to come after us again until another vessel passes and rescues him.
Frank groans.
"We should tie something heavy to him," Simon says. He pushes open the door to the outside and grunts as he pulls Frank through. We squeeze through and the officer with the pistol comes out behind us. Our breath spirals into the dim early morning light. Dawn's approaching.
"What is he?" the officer asks, opening a gate for us. "He fell from the crows' nest and survived, and now you say he's going to survive this?"
There's no point in lying. The three of us are going to leave the ship shortly, anyway. "He's an immortal," I tell the officer. "The Titanic was supposed to sink tonight and kill fifteen hundred people. The three of us here changed the course of history, and this man--a member of the time police, basically--wanted to set history back to its original course."
The officer stares at me, eyes big. He shakes his head and opens his mouth like he's going to say something.
Frank groans again and stirs. He's leaving no more golden trail on the stairs now. His wound has closed.
"Shoot him again," Simon says.
The officer stops on the stairs. "But he's--"
"Do it!" Isabel yells from behind him, and turns away.
The officer raises his pistol just as Frank lifts his
head and pulls against us. I close my eyes. The shot's deafening. I feel Frank lurch. He sags in my grip again. I open my eyes to see fresh golden blood bubbling up from his back. Gun smoke burns the inside of my nostrils. The second officer's running out from the bridge now, his own pistol ready.
“Toss him over,” I say, waving to the railing.
Simon and I huff over to the side, lift Frank, and let him dangle head first over the rail. The ocean spreads out below, dark and deadly. He groans and then screams. He's still conscious. I know exactly how he feels and I'm glad that he's experiencing what I would have if he'd had his way.
We let go.
Frank plunges through the early morning and into the icy Atlantic with a small splash that ripples white, then disappears.
I lean again the railing and sigh.
Simon wraps his arm around me. It's welcome in the bitter cold of the morning. The horizon's pink, outlining the jagged form of a distant iceberg. Is it the one supposed to doom us?
I try not to think about it. I lean into Simon and absorb his warmth. His salty scent. He smells so much like the beach. Like the day we met while searching for Melvin. Even like the day Father threw open the front door of our house with four tickets to America in hand, announcing that we were finally bound for a better life.
Maybe now, Father is right. We are bound for something better.
"It's over," Simon whispers in my ear. Behind him, one of the officers says something. "Frank is, anyway. For now. At least he'll be out of the way. The next part shouldn't be too bad."
"I hope."
We turn away from the rail. Frank will have to float in the ocean for quite a while. If we're lucky, his joints will stiffen and he will sink. I glance over the rail again. The water remains dark and foreboding as ever and I spot no signs of movement. A lone piece of ice drifts away, but that's all. I think of the darkness Frank may be plummeting through right now and I wonder if he'll reach the bottom, to where things crawl on the ocean floor and wait to devour any meal that lands.
I almost feel sorry for him.
But this, at least, gives us some time to figure out how to get to the Civil War.
"You two," Isabel calls. I glance around Simon. She stands by the doorway to the bridge, holding the hair clip close to her. I don't want to leave Simon's grasp, but I must. The two officers stand there as if stunned. One leans close to the other and whispers something. Sooner or later, they'll try to talk to us to learn more about what just transpired. They might even detain us while they try to unravel this mystery. We don't need that.
Isabel turns and vanishes back inside.
"Young lady!" one of the officers calls, but she doesn't come back out.
I grab Simon's arm and we follow. We don't have time to explain to the officers how we knew about Frank. I know that we're leaving them with an enigma that they'll wonder about for the rest of their lives, but at least they have the rest of the their lives.
"Sir. Ma'am. Where are you going?"
I almost slip on the golden trail on the steps. Frank's blood is still here. It gets worse inside. Simon and I hug the wall to avoid stepping in it. This, too, will baffle researchers for hundreds of years. Isabel waits by the ruined gate. The third officer shouts again from inside his cabin. We'll have to leave him for the other crewmen to find.
“Come back. We want to talk to you!” The officer is more bewildered than angry.
We bolt through the gate and Isabel closes it behind us. We bolt for the elevators and head down to the next level. The brass cage carries us further into the innards of the ship.
We all catch our breath.
"Here," Isabel says. "I don't want to carry this." She hands be back the hair clip as if it's some kind of dangerous weapon.
I study the butterfly. It must have gathered at least some of Frank's memories. Now it's only a matter of putting it on and receiving them. I'm tempted to do it now, but we have to make sure we have quiet first.
Somewhere above, an officer calls for us again. "You are not in trouble. We merely wish to speak to you."
At last, we make it down to my normal deck, following the path of unlocked gates that are sure to be discovered. They'll follow us and we don't need that. If there's a rift here on the ship, it could vanish at any moment, destroying our chance to ever visit Frank's time.
"In the dining hall," Simon huffs.
We're in the long hall that joins both third class sections. The door to the dining hall is wide open. We dodge in as footfalls echo at us from the direction we came. They're still chasing us.
"Don't close the door," I say once we're in. "That'll look obvious. Press against the wall." I have no other ideas. I don't dare move too far away from the door. I don't want them to hear me. The three of us do so and the footsteps grow louder.
And pass.
I hold my breath until they're down the hall. After several minutes, I nod at the nearby long table. There's the faint sound of footsteps from the kitchen and I jump, but we're alone in here. I breathe out. Frank's not going to hurt us right now.
We sit. The place is so empty and quiet.
“I take it I should put this on and see what we got out of him," I say, setting the hair pin down on the table. I face Isabel. “Unless you think it would be better for you to look at Frank's memories. You know, in case there's private stuff on there you don't want us seeing." How long were Isabel and Frank together?
She makes a face, deliberating. “I think I would be best,” she says.
Isabel fixes the hair clip to her scalp, rubs her finger across the metal body, and waits. She exhales and spreads her fingers out on the table. Sweat marks appear around them. She's nervous and I don't blame her. What kind of things about Frank does she dread seeing?
Isabel winces. "I hate this part," she says, squeezing her eyes shut.
I watch her for seconds. At last, her eyes fly open and she takes the clip off. “This got only the past couple days' worth of his memories,” she says. “Frank didn't have it on long enough to get more than that. But it's enough. There's a rift on the Boat Deck, right behind one of the funnels where no one walks. It was pretty strong when Frank came through it and it should still be there for at least a few more days. At least, that's what Frank thought about it when he came through. I'll trust his judgment on that. He's traveled through more rifts than even I have."
Simon pumps his fist in victory. I want to do the same. Instead, I raise my hand as my heart leaps. We need more than a way to get back to the Hub, the place where all times and places meet.
"Did you get the memory of where the rift to his time is?" I ask. "It'll do us no good getting into the Hub if we don't know which one of those millions of gateways will lead to him."
Isabel nods. "Don't worry. It turns out that right before he came here, Frank went and stood by it for a long time. He made a promise to his twin that he'd never let anyone get eaten by the Chronophages again. It's luck that he did that before he came here, or we'd be done before we even started."
Frank made a promise.
The way Simon made a promise to me.
"Should we go?" Simon asks. "I mean--we have time to sleep a bit before we do, if the rift's as strong as you say it is. Frank's not going to get to us. I hope he's enjoying the way the freezing ocean feels."
"So do I." I can't help but feel a bit sad about Frank standing there at his rift, unable to return to his brother. When I was Timeless, I had the same horrible experience. But why am I feeling sorry for him at all?
Isabel glances at the entrance to the dining hall. "I think we should rest before we go," she says. "If you'd let me sleep in your berth, that is."
I get up. My eyelids droop and my limbs ache. We're in no shape to march into the Civil War until we get some sleep and a decent meal. "I agree," I say. "The hardest part will be convincing my father to let you stay."
Chapter Six
Sleep is marvelous, now that I know Frank won't be going back in time and killing me all ove
r again while I lie here. I sink into my bunk and Isabel takes the spare one on the other side of the room. Father's snoring and Melvin's sucking his thumb. My family's together. It's the way it should be. I can't wait to spend breakfast with them in a few hours.
After that, I'm not sure I'll ever see them again. I'm going to enjoy this time with them no matter what.
My thoughts twist around each other and drift apart. Eventually, I fall into darkness and remember nothing more until Father's voice wakes me.
“Julia, who is this?”
I rouse from sleep and turn over. Father's dressed in his jacket and hat. He has one hand tucked into his trouser pocket and the other points to the bunk where Isabel still sleeps. She's still out cold, in her blue and white dress. Her leg hangs over the edge and threatens to pull her onto the floor.
“Oh.” I need an explanation. “Her name is Isabel. She's a new friend of mine. Last night, she had a fight with...with her ex gentleman friend and didn't want to return to her berth. So I let her sleep here. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but it was very late.” I realize that I'm actually telling the truth and hold down a laugh.
Father's expression softens. “That's okay,” he says. “I am taking Melvin to breakfast. Just make sure she doesn't go through our things.”
Our things, I think. It's not like we have much.
Melvin is already sitting up, rubbing his eyes.
“You sucked your thumb again last night,” I tease.
“I did not.”
“You did.”
“I'm a big boy.”
“Are you sure?”
I help him dress and Father takes him down the corridor. Others are getting up. Footfalls pass our cabin. People talk and somewhere, a baby cries. There's life here. Fifteen hundred people who should be dead are now free to go on with their lives.
I dress, slipping on my brown dress with the flowers. After that, I wake Isabel. Father's pocket watch is gone, so I have no way of checking the time. I know we'll probably just have plum pudding again in the dining hall, but it'll be the best breakfast I've ever had.
