by April White
“But do you?” he asked quietly.
Finally, he was meeting my eyes again. I exhaled. “Yeah, I care.”
“I’m sorry, Saira. As I said, I know it happened, though I don’t have any of the details. But I thought you should know, so maybe you won’t hate me when you return.”
Ringo, Ravi, and Stella were waiting for us at the entrance to a long, cement block building. I took Archer’s hand and threaded my fingers through his. “I couldn’t hate you.”
I could feel the tension begin to seep out of him. “Thank you.”
“But don’t do it again,” I said. “You’re mine.”
He gripped my hand tightly. “Yes, I am.”
Colossus
Ringo held the door for us, and Archer went to push Ravi’s wheelchair. Ringo whispered to me as I passed him. “Are ye alright?”
I smiled a little too brightly. “I’m fine.”
“Liar.” His eyes searched mine for a brief moment, but he didn’t press the issue. It wasn’t my story to tell, and dissecting my feelings at that moment was about as appealing as dissecting the formaldehyde squid eyeball that squirted eye juice at me in fifth grade.
The first room we entered was set up for visitors to see the history of the Tunney machine, including a listening station where the encoded messages would have been received and instantly translated into teletype tape by Wrens. It was a really well done exhibit that looked like the Wrens had just stepped out for a cup of tea.
The next room held a giant machine covered with valves and wires that was nearly as tall as the ceiling and practically filled the room. I couldn’t even imagine how all the parts worked together to find the code key from hundreds of millions of possibilities, and even though the cell phone in my pocket was a technological giant in comparison, this machine could give anything an inferiority complex.
“We used to dry our laundry on top of it.” Stella’s voice was quiet in the room, and I turned to find her watching me. She was smiling. “The girls in the other huts were jealous that our woolen stockings would dry in time to wear home, while theirs were always still damp from the walk to work. It was one of the perks of working with Colossus. The other perk was working with those two men.” She nodded toward the other room where I could still hear Ravi expounding on the life of a Colossus engineer.
“What was he like then? Archer, I mean.”
Stella had moved next to me at the railing and was looking at Colossus as she spoke. “He was very serious, as if he knew that the work we were doing here meant life or death. It did, of course, but we didn’t know that at the time. It wasn’t until the Bletchley Park archives were declassified that the statistics began to come out. Your President Eisenhower credited our work as having shortened the war by two years. And certainly, we were instrumental in the success of the D-Day landings in 1944.”
I gasped at the realization that I’d forgotten something so important. “When was D-Day?”
“June 6th. Wrens were absolutely glued to the teletype machines translating the enormous number of messages that came through from German high command. It was around that time that Archer was sent to France with the SOE mission to help the French resistance fighters to stop the 2nd SS Panzer Division from getting to Normandy. There were no men available to replace him, so Ravi promoted me to help him keep the beast running.”
June 6th. A day when all English eyes would be focused across the channel at Normandy. Tom would know the date. Could his mission in London be planned around the Allied D-Day invasion? It seemed too horrible to contemplate. No matter how disillusioned Tom had become, I didn’t think he would actually betray his country.
“There was a note attached to a piece of tape, like the stuff that ran through Colossus. They found it in the bedroll in the hidden room, and it was addressed to Ravi. Did you see that?”
Stella’s eyes widened and she shook her head. “I didn’t. One of the curators asked me about Ravi, and of course I told them his full name, but I didn’t know why. What was the note?”
I showed her the photo on my phone.
She seemed startled. “June 4th, 1944. The day I got engaged. It was just before Archer left for France.”
“Ravi remembers having seen this message when it came out of Tunny. He said you took it up to the mansion.”
“I often did take messages up to Colonel Marks. But I never read them.”
“The torn tape is only part of the message, and Archer wanted Ravi to find the other piece.”
“Those tapes were always tearing, and this piece of tape isn’t actually the message itself. It’s the teletype transcription of the encoded message. It was run through Colossus purely for the purposes of determining that day’s code settings.”
“Which means what?”
“It means that this piece of tape is from an encoded message which can’t be decoded without the settings from June 4th, 1944. And as all the records from Colossus were burned right after the war, it is now just a torn relic of an extinct codebreaking process.”
And there it was.
That was the reason I had to go back in time. Ava and Adam had Seen me go, but until that moment, I hadn’t really accepted that there was a compelling reason to. Not really. But unlocking the rest of the encoded message about the mission in London could only happen with the decoding key from that day, so in one fell swoop I had motive to go and a date to focus on. June 4th, 1944.
Stella was studying me, and I realized I was going to need her help when I went back. “So, who’d you marry?”
She gave me a sly smile. “Colonel Marks.”
I gaped at her. “The Monger?”
“Of course I didn’t advertise the fact that I was Family. My mother had been very private about her gifts. Not even my father knew, and James’ parents had been killed in the Blitz.”
“Did you have any children?” I tried not to let my shock show, but Stella’s expression began to shutter and I quickly added. “I’m mixed, by the way, and I wasn’t raised with Family prejudices. I’m just curious.”
She seemed to assess me before she answered. “Our son lives in Portsmouth, and my grandchildren and great-grandchildren are scattered around Britain.”
I had a sudden thought. “Are they all accounted for?”
Her assessing look turned hard. “Why?”
“Because mixed-bloods have been disappearing around London. A Monger named Seth Walters is responsible for the kidnappings, and we’ve been working to find them.”
Her expression shifted to concern immediately. “My family is safe.”
“And no one knows about them?”
“We lived in Australia after the war. Our son didn’t go to St. Brigid’s, and neither did his children. My grandson married a Seer, but her family never met James and assumes I’m the only true Descendant in Nolan’s family.”
“Good. I’m sorry if my questions made you uncomfortable.”
Her smile didn’t reach her eyes, but I didn’t think it was because of me. “When James and I fell in love, the world was at war and the prejudices against mixing seemed so unimportant. James would have been appalled, as I am, at the prejudice that remains.”
Archer pushed Ravi’s wheelchair into the Colossus room, and I thought Stella was glad for the interruption. She went to Ravi’s side and pulled a stool around so she could sit next to him to talk. Archer came up behind me and touched the small of my back lightly.
“Is everything okay?”
I turned to face him. “The note you left for Ravi was from June 4th, 1944. I think I need to get there on the third so I can tell you to look for the decoded message.”
His eyes narrowed. He wasn’t happy about this trip, and honestly, neither was I. I tried to diffuse the tension with practicality. “Where should I find you?”
The expression on his face was unreadable. “If you arrive at night, I’ll be here. If it’s daytime, I’ll be in my room behind the library wall.”
I winced. “I should pro
bably plan to Clock in your cupboard then, since there would have been a whole shift working with you here. Hopefully you’re not too jumpy about strangers in your space.”
He leaned in and smelled my skin. “I’ll know it’s you.”
“Fifty years later?” I said incredulously.
“I’ll always know you.” The whisper of his breath in my ear made me tremble. I leaned my head back onto his shoulder and he held me like that for a year, or maybe just a minute, tattooing my skin with his heartbeat.
“I think Ravi may have overdone it.” Stella spoke to us as she held his hand in hers, and surreptitiously checked his pulse. Archer and I raced to his side.
Ravi cracked an eye open and glared at her. “I’m not dying, just tired. A quick nap will do wonders.”
Archer smiled at him and stood to navigate the chair out of the Colossus room. “Let’s get you back to the car.”
Ravi finally allowed Stella’s hand to slip from his. “Thank you, my dear. It’s been far too long, and yet you remain as lovely as the day I met you.”
Stella leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Ravindra Singh, you always could charm the gold from a leprechaun.”
Archer wheeled him out and Stella held her arm out to me. “Come, my dear. I put on a good show, but I’m as exhausted as he is. Walk me to my car?”
I took her arm and we navigated our way out of H Block, shutting off lights and locking doors behind us. Ringo emerged from the darkness outside as we made our way back to the mansion.
“Where have you been?” My voice was just above a whisper. The Bletchley Park grounds at night seemed to require stealth and quiet, as though its secrets were still being kept.
“Reconnaissance,” he whispered back.
“We’re leaving soon,” I said quietly.
I could see his silent nod in the dark, and Stella squeezed my arm. “When you see me again, please tell me to trust my Sight. Even when it shows me impossible things.” I could hear the smile in her voice. “And tell me James really did like butter, he just gave me his ration coupons for it every week because he knew how much I loved it.”
“Will it shock you to know I’m a Clocker when I meet you then?”
She shook her head. “Oh no. One of my grandmother’s dearest friends was a Clocker, and she often told me stories of the places they dreamed of seeing together when they were girls.”
I laughed. “I promise, it’s not as glamorous as it sounds. Did your grandmother ever get to Clock with her friend?”
“No, sadly. Her friend suddenly became heir to the position of Clocker Family Head, and they grew apart as responsibilities changed.”
I stared at her. “Was her friend Emily Elian?”
Stella sounded surprised. “Yes, I believe she was.”
“Emily was my aunt.” That announcement was met with stunned silence. “I’ll introduce you to her granddaughter when I get back, if you like.”
“I … I’d like that very much.” She hesitated a long moment. “You said you were of mixed blood. Is your mix one of Time and … Death?”
I stared at her. “Death? No. Time and Nature. My mom Clocked forward to have me. She’s native to the Victorian era.”
“Oh, I see. I’m sorry, I thought …” It wasn’t that she sounded relieved, exactly, because it seemed like she knew what Archer was. But maybe the idea of two Vampires in such close proximity was unsettling.
It actually unsettled me. Not the idea of being around Vampires, but the idea that I could be one.
It would solve a lot of problems.
And create about a million more.
I realized I hadn’t answered Stella, and she must have thought she offended me because she apologized. I told her there was no need to apologize, but I was only partly engaged in the conversation while my mind was spinning with all the possible ramifications of adding Death to the mix.
“No.” Ringo whispered to me. I jumped, because it sounded like he was answering the question I’d just mentally asked myself. Could I become a Vampire so Archer didn’t have to risk the cure? “No,” he said again. His tone of voice was like he was trying to shake some sense into me.
I climbed off of my mental merry-go-round long enough to say goodbye to Stella. She held my hands in hers, wished me luck, and said she looked forward to the memories she’d have of meeting me in 1944. I told her I would invite her to tea with Millicent when I returned. She cupped Ringo’s cheek in her hand and looked sternly at him. “Don’t get caught, my dear.”
Before either of us had a chance to comment on that cryptic statement, Archer jogged over. “Ravi’s already asleep and will likely stay that way long enough for me to get him home without his noticing that you didn’t return with us,” he said. He bent to kiss Stella on both cheeks, she asked him to come visit her again, and she got in her car and drove away.
“She’s lovely,” I said to Archer as he waved to her one last time.
“She always has been.”
“She married a Monger.”
He shrugged. “James Marks was a decent fellow, as colonels went. He certainly loved her enough to make up for any deficits in his heritage.”
“How’d he feel about you?”
“If he knew what I am, he never let on, and considering the hours Stella worked with us, he was actually quite civil.”
“Are ye goin’ to tell ‘im what ye were just thinkin’, Saira?” Ringo’s voice was quiet and held none of the teasing tone ours had.
“I wasn’t really—”
“Yes, ye were. Tell ‘im.” Ringo’s tone didn’t allow for wiggle room.
Archer was waiting expectantly. I sighed. “Stella asked if I was a mix of Time and Death, and it made me wonder—”
“No.” The quiet certainty in Archer’s voice was exactly the kind of tone that made me bristle and immediately want to do exactly what I’d been denied.
My eyes narrowed at him. “No? Just like that? You haven’t even heard what I was going to say.”
His eyes narrowed right back at me. “You wondered if you were turned, would that alleviate any desire I have to attempt Shaw’s cure? Because if your hours were suddenly in line with mine, perhaps I wouldn’t need to see the sun again or feel it warming my skin. And if you were essentially immortal, perhaps I could let go of my unreasonable and inconvenient need to keep you safe. Is that a fair approximation of your thoughts?”
It was, but I’d rather have walked barefoot over hot coals than admit that out loud. I glared at him. “It made me wonder—” I had to think fast to come up with something plausible that didn’t let him be right. “It made me wonder if Tom still had his Sight and would See me coming. He obviously still has use of the Clocking skills he got from Wilder, and that made me wonder how good your Clocking skills might be, since you had some of my blood.” I put my hands on my hips and dared either of them to contradict me.
Ringo’s eyes laughed at my obvious re-direction, and he turned to Archer and said in a perfectly calm and reasonable voice, “Good point. ‘Ave ye tried to Clock on yer own?”
“Obviously not. I have no interest in going anywhere Saira isn’t. I did try to draw a spiral once. That went nowhere.” Archer had schooled his own tone of voice to match Ringo’s casual one, and I forgot to be so mad.
“You did?”
Archer nodded.
“Do you want to try tracing one of my spirals?”
“No, but as much as I hate to admit it, it’s time you did. I need to get Ravi back home to his flat, and now that it’s clear when and where you should arrive, additional delay just makes it that much longer before you return.”
We had started to make our way back up to the mansion when Archer grabbed my hand suddenly, and pulled me around to face him while Ringo walked ahead. “I’m not kidding though, Saira. I won’t turn you, and another Vampire would likely kill you.” His eyes burned fiercely. “The way you feel about my desire to attempt Shaw’s cure is the way I feel about this. If it were something
I believed you truly wanted for yourself, I might understand it. But to even consider something so … life-altering, as a means of avoidance – that, I can’t abide.”
All the air went out of my defiance and my shoulders slumped. Archer pulled me into his arms for a quick, tight hug before we continued walking. “In a perfect world, you’re back before I wake up tonight, and then we go find the missing mixed-bloods together.”
My voice was a whisper. “If Tom finds me and we can leave 1944, I will be back before you wake up tonight.”
He sighed. “Finding Tom that quickly is about as likely as my perfect world scenario.” He kissed my forehead and we got to the mansion just in time for Ringo to open the front door from the inside. I didn’t even ask how he’d gotten in. That would be like asking the sun how it set that day.
We slipped through the dark mansion to the library, and Archer opened the secret door in the fireplace wall. “I’ll be needin’ the plans for that door when we get back,” said Ringo.
Archer smiled. “Ask me in 1944. It’ll be a lot fresher in my memory then.”
Ringo pulled a mini Maglite from his satchel, then tossed me the other bag he had somehow stashed in the secret room. He aimed it at the white plaster wall, then pulled out a piece of white chalk. I thought that was pretty brilliant and I told him so. The spiral would be nearly invisible when we left. “Milady,” he said as he handed it to me.
I threw my arms around Archer and held him tightly. My heart was pounding so hard I could feel it in Archer’s chest, and I inhaled the warm, spicy scent of his skin. “I love you,” I whispered in his ear.
“Come home to me,” he whispered in mine.
Tom – Limoges, France – June, 1944
They were beating the kid again.
Karl was taking it because standing up to the bullies was a sure way to get stabbed in his bunk. I was halfway down the stairs on my way back to the planning room, away from the grunts the tough guys made as they punched the kid in all the places the bruises wouldn’t show, when I heard it.
The whimper.
