A Time of Shadows (Out of Time #8)

by Monique Martin

  “Go now?” Simon asked.

  She sniffled and Elizabeth could see her anxiety growing again. “That’s our code. If Daddy says ‘go now!’, I’m supposed to go into your closet and get the watch, and it’ll take me somewhere safe.”

  Simon looked anxiously at Elizabeth.

  Charlotte’s gaze landed on the watch in Simon’s hand. “I must have bumped it or something. It was supposed to bring me here, but it dropped me down the street and I ran here as fast as I could.”

  “Someone attacked us—your parents—and you escaped by using the watch?” Simon said slowly.

  Charlotte nodded. “You, I mean, Daddy, set it up that way, to take me here to you. He said you’d help me.”

  She looked at them imploringly, her emotions revving back up again. “You have to help me.”

  “Oh, we will,” Elizabeth said as she pulled the girl, pulled her daughter into her arms. “I promise we will.”

  She looked over to Simon, who stood and started to pace. “Won’t we?” she prompted.

  Simon cleared his throat and stopped pacing. “Of course. Of course, we will.” He walked back over to them. “What can you tell us about the men you mentioned? Do you know why they’d come?”

  Charlotte sat up straight and wrinkled her forehead in thought and told the story, what there was of it. She hadn’t seen much, but she had heard the struggle and ran downstairs only to be sent away by her father.

  “They were throwing things around,” Charlotte said.

  Simon leaned over the back of a chair. “How so?”

  “Like they were looking for something.”

  “For what?” Simon asked. “Did they say anything? Anything at all?

  Charlotte shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  Simon sighed and stopped his interrogation. “It’s all right,” he said and then frowned. “Do they know where you went?”

  She shook her head again. “I don’t think so. I don’t know.” She glanced around the room nervously.

  Elizabeth sat up a bit straighter. “Do you think they’d come here after her?”

  Simon’s jaw set. “Possibly.”

  Elizabeth stood. “Then we should leave.”

  Simon nodded.

  Elizabeth looked around. “Maybe we can—”

  The sound of the doorbell brought her up short. Simon lifted a silencing finger to his lips and jerked his head toward the back door. Elizabeth reached down for Charlotte’s hand while Simon walked quietly over to the side window.

  He peered through the sheers and let out a sigh of relief. “It’s all right.”

  He moved to the door and opened it to reveal a grinning Jack Wells. “I’m sorry I’m early, but—”

  His eyes fell on Charlotte and his grin grew wider and curious. “Hello.”

  “Uncle Jack!”

  She let go of Elizabeth’s hand and rushed toward him. He shot Elizabeth a confused look but swept Charlotte into his arms as if he’d done this sort of thing every day.

  He gave her a big hug and then turned to Elizabeth, “How long was I gone?”

  Simon coughed and Jack let the girl slide back down.

  “It appears introductions are not necessary,” Simon said, closing the door firmly behind him and turning the deadbolt into place.

  Charlotte smiled up at Jack but wavered, and there were tears standing in her eyes. “I haven’t seen you in so long—I mean—” She swiped at the unshed tears with the back of her hand, but they came back.

  Jack dropped to one knee before her. “Hey, now,” he said, brushing away one that had escaped. “Why so sad, sweetheart?”

  Charlotte’s face crumpled again and she threw herself into his arms with so much strength he had to steady himself with one hand on the floor. He glanced up at Simon and Elizabeth for an explanation. They filled him in as best they could. Elizabeth rubbed Charlotte’s back as she did. Simon stumbled twice over the word “daughter.”

  All through it, Jack barely batted an eye. It was one of the many things Elizabeth loved about him. He just accepted things. He’d time traveled from World War II to the present and taken the whole thing in stride. A little girl from the future was nothing special. Except, this little girl was special. Very special.

  The thought of it all made Elizabeth’s heart flutter again. This beautiful child was their daughter.

  Charlotte’s tears didn’t last long. She pushed herself away from Jack and nodded as if she’d decided she was finished with all that nonsense.

  “We have to save my mom and dad.” Her voice broke a little, but she swallowed hard and set her jaw.

  Still crouching, Jack rubbed his chin, taking it all very seriously.

  “Okay,” he assured Charlotte with a nod. “If that’s what we have to do, then we’ll do it.”

  Charlotte searched his face for a moment. She found whatever it was she needed to see, nodded and looked up to Simon and Elizabeth. Tentatively, she slid her hand into Elizabeth’s. The sensation was at once a strange mixture of “oh, there you are,” and completely foreign. Elizabeth gave it a small, comforting squeeze.

  Jack looked at Simon as he stood. “Do we know anything else?”

  They knew next to nothing and Elizabeth said so.

  “There’s one way to find out what’s going on,” Jack said.

  Simon’s expression grew wary. “And that would be?”

  Jack inclined his head toward the watch. “Those things have an auto return feature right?”

  Simon frowned but nodded.

  “I could ride it back to the future and find out what’s what.”

  Simon pursed his lips in thought. “We don’t know what you’d be walking into. The…” His eyes slid over to Charlotte and then back, “situation is fluid.”

  “I’ve parachuted behind enemy lines before. Piece of cake,” he added with a wink for Charlotte. She managed to smile briefly in return, but the worry in her eyes never let up.

  Elizabeth knew Simon was right, the future was unknown and apparently dangerous, but was there a choice?

  “We’re just stumbling around in the dark otherwise,” she said.

  Simon grunted and after another moment of hesitation handed Jack the watch.

  Charlotte lifted off her necklace and handed the watch key to Jack. “Don’t lose it,” she warned him gravely.

  “You should arrive a few blocks from here,” Simon said. “Don’t interfere, just—”

  “Reconnaissance. Got it.”

  He took a deep breath, opened the watch and inserted the key.

  Simon came to Elizabeth and Charlotte’s side and the three took a step back.

  Jack grinned at them and said, “Be back before you can say Jack’s your…” He turned the key, but instead of snakes of blue lightning, there was simply nothing. “…uncle?”

  He looked at Simon and Elizabeth. “Did I do it wrong?”

  Simon frowned. “Try it again.”

  Jack did, but there were no sparks, no light, nothing.

  “Odd,” Simon said, taking the watch from him and removing the key. He turned to Charlotte who raised her shoulders and palms to the sky.

  “I didn’t do it.”

  Simon hmm’d thoughtfully and then retrieved its döppleganger from their upstairs closet. He programmed it, and handed it to Jack. But the result was the same.

  “They can’t both be broken,” Elizabeth said.

  “Aren’t they the same watch though?” Jack asked.

  “They are, but they aren’t,” Simon said.

  “That’s helpful.”

  “They’re the same watch but at different places in the timeline. In the same way I’m Charlotte’s father and yet I’m not,” he said, and then repeated with a small, warm smile, “yet.”

  Jack rubbed the back of his neck. “Right. Timey wimey. But that doesn’t explain why they’re both not working.”

  “But worked for Charlotte moments ago.”

  “Maybe it’s not the watch. Maybe it’s me?
” Jack offered.

  “I can try it. Just pop in and pop back out,” Elizabeth offered.

  Her suggestion was met with a very sour face.

  “I’ll try it,” Simon intoned, moving the watch well out of her reach.

  Elizabeth didn’t argue with Simon’s, well, she’d call it chivalry for now and sexism later. And there would definitely be a later.

  They all gave him room, but the watch didn’t work for him either.

  “Maybe it’ll work for me,” Charlotte said, holding out her hand.

  “A world of no,” Simon said firmly. “Until we know more, you’re not going back there.”

  She looked about to argue.

  “No discussion,” he added.

  Charlotte pouted but then brightened. “Why don’t we just ask Teddy?”

  Elizabeth stood stunned for a minute and, judging from Simon’s expression, she wasn’t alone. She and Simon hadn’t seen Teddy since they’d returned Evan Eldridge to 1906 San Francisco, although barely a day went by when she didn’t think of him.

  She did a little wits gathering before managing a bewildered, “Teddy Fiske?”

  Charlotte nodded. “He can fix anything.”

  “How do you know Teddy?” Simon asked.

  Charlotte looked at him with an expression Elizabeth had seen Simon use on first year students for ages. Half pity, half exasperation. “He comes to visit all the time. Or, he used to.”

  “In the future?” Simon clarified.

  “Oh, yeah,” Charlotte said, understanding his confusion now. “Is he in this time?”

  The casual way she asked made Elizabeth’s head spin. But then again, Charlotte was their child and could have grown up hearing stories of time travel or possibly even time traveling herself. Although that seemed a little irresponsible of future them. There was no situation Elizabeth could imagine where Simon sanctioned a family-time travel vacation. Unless she counted this one.

  “No,” Simon said. “We haven’t seen Teddy in a long time.”

  “Oh,” Charlotte said, worrying her lower lip. “He’d know what to do.”

  Simon cast Elizabeth a troubled look. They’d definitely have to learn more about Teddy’s visits later, but for now they needed someone in the present who knew something about the watches. The list of people who fit that bill was painfully small. In fact, it had only one name on it—Travers.

  “Road trip?” she said.

  Simon nodded. “Seems we have little choice.”

  He looked down at Charlotte. “And I think the sooner we leave the better.”

  She nodded and he held out his hand. It seemed to dwarf Charlotte’s as she slipped hers into his. He squeezed it tight before turning back to Elizabeth and Jack.

  “Right.”

  “Where are we going?” Charlotte asked.

  “San Francisco,” Simon said. “I have a few questions for the Council.”

  Chapter Three

  DESPITE HIMSELF, JACK FELT an unfamiliar twinge of anxiety as the cab pulled up in front of the Aion Society building, the front for the Council’s headquarters. The last time they’d been here, the life he’d tried to build here had been wiped from history and the old life he’d had in 1942 London felt like someone else’s.

  He hadn’t told either Cross or Elizabeth, but since he’d come back, he’d felt that way about life here. He was literally a man out of time. He didn’t belong here or there anymore. He wasn’t sure where he belonged and it was a new, unpleasant feeling. Jack had always been at home wherever he was. For most of his life he’d traveled, first looking for work in the Great Depression, then as a stunt man in the movies and later as a spy in the war. He’d never had roots, had never felt the need for them. But something had changed in the last few months. He felt an itch, an itch he couldn’t scratch.

  “Are you getting out or should I carry you?” Cross said.

  Jack broke from his reverie and smirked up at Cross’ impatient face staring down at him from the sidewalk. Next to him, Charlotte giggled.

  Charlotte. That was a mind-bender. He’d half expected Cross to force the girl to get a DNA test before he accepted her. Judging from the way he tightly held onto her hand, that hadn’t been required. Cross’ heart apparently had room for two.

  Cross opened the cab door and Jack held out his arms, as if to say, lift me. Cross rolled his eyes and turned away. Jack heard both Elizabeth and Charlotte chatting as he trailed along behind them up the broad steps of the Council headquarters. She was a tough kid and handling all of this at ten years old a heck of a lot better than most adults he knew would. She wasn’t exactly sunshine and rainbows, but between the three of them they’d managed to coax out a few smiles.

  The building was just as he’d remembered it. On the surface it looked like any other museum with artifacts from around the world in glass display cases. What the average visitor didn’t know was that nearly all of the pieces had been brought back by actual time travelers. The four of them made a pretense of looking at an exhibit from Pompeii—now there was an assignment Jack wouldn’t want—before making their way toward the back of the great room.

  Cross said something to a broad shouldered security guard who slowly looked each of them over. His eyes lingered on Charlotte, but any question he might have had was cut off as Simon pulled the girl closer and said with entitled impatience only an Englishman like Cross could summon, “We don’t have all day. Travers. Now.”

  The guard bristled but pressed the earbud tucked away in his cauliflower ear. It had taken Jack a few months to get used to seeing people talk into thin air and realizing they were on their telephones. The guard muttered something into his lapel that Jack couldn’t make out. After a moment, the guard nodded his head once and opened the door behind him.

  Two more security guards rode down with them in the elevator. When the doors opened, they were escorted forward into a foyer with several locked doors. Jack expected one of them to step forward and do their thing with keypad locks, but both men stepped back into the elevator.

  “Aren’t you going to let us in?” Jack asked.

  Neither replied as the elevator doors closed leaving Jack and the Crosses alone in the entry hall. He looked around the room a little nervously.

  “Well, this is weird,” Elizabeth said, catching Jack’s eye.

  “Yes,” Cross said flatly, but Jack could see the tension in him. He managed a reassuring smile for Charlotte though, whose face was pensive and tight with anxiety.

  They waited for a moment longer before Jack decided maybe they were supposed to knock or something and eenie-meenie-miney-moed a door.

  He’d just raised his fist to knock on the door when he heard a sound coming from a door to his left. He stepped back and they watched the center gears embedded in the door spin and recede until there was a two foot round hole in the center of the door. After a beat, the rest of the door slid back into the walls.

  Peter Travers stood on the other side looking five years older than he had two months ago. Either he’d been away on a long mission or something was very wrong. With their luck, it was the latter.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” Travers said, his voice squeakier than usual. Cross, Elizabeth and Jack exchanged wary glances.

  Travers gave each of them a nod and what Jack thought was an attempt at a reassuring smile, and then he paused at Charlotte, as if he’d been too distracted, which he probably was, and had just realized she was there.

  He cocked his head to the side like a curious puppy. “And who’s this?”

  Cross ignored the question. “What’s going on?”

  Travers looked ready to repeat his question but heaved a sigh instead. “Oh, nothing. Just the end of the world.”

  He turned to usher them down the hallway behind him. “Again.”

  Charlotte’s eyes shot to Jack in alarm. He shook his head in that “Nah, everything’s gonna be fine” fashion that adults lied to kids with all the time. She didn’t look convinced but, like the troope
r she was, fell into step with her parents as they followed Travers.

  None of them spoke until they’d reached the relative security of Travers’ office. As they passed through the outer office, a pretty young woman startled at her desk, nearly dislodging her glasses. She stood and pushed the black horn-rimmed spectacles back onto her face.

  “Mr. Travers, there’s someone to see you—” she said.

  But Travers waved a hand and started to open the door to his office. “Not now, Grace. Make sure we’re not disturbed.”

  “That’s what I’m—”

  “Turn off the damned tracker,” a voice from inside the office said.

  Jack tensed and took a step closer to Charlotte before he realized who it was.

  Victor Renaud stood in the middle of the room, fists on his hips and fire in his eyes.

  “Victor, let me explain. There are circumstances—” Travers said in a tired, but placating voice.

  “Do not play your word games with me,” Renaud said as he strode forward. “Turn off the tracker.”

  Travers ran a hand through his hair and made his way toward his large desk. “If you would just sit down a moment.”

  Renaud’s gaze left the hole it was burning in Travers’ back long enough to notice the Crosses. “What are you doing here?”

  Cross snorted. “Lovely to see you, too.”

  Renaud made a sour face at Cross, but his expression softened just a touch when he saw Elizabeth. Not fondness but respect, perhaps. Considering what the three of them had been through, Jack wasn’t surprised. But he was surprised by Renaud’s expression when he caught sight of Charlotte. It was probably Jack’s imagination, but the man blanched, like he was almost afraid of her. Quickly, as if he’d been caught out in something, Renaud looked away and set his anger back on Travers’ slender shoulders.

  “I have found him. Do you understand? I know where he is,” he said, leaning forward on Travers’ desk. “But I can’t get to him because you have that damned tracker on.”

  Travers sighed. “I do.”

  “Turn it off.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”