The Pocket Watch

by Michael Shaw

  “Your secret admirers,” Sam said, gritting her teeth. “Eclipse has eyes in the city, and they spotted them coming our way.”

  I inched back, the door a few feet behind me. “Howard Miller.”

  “Yeah. And his goons, too. Kemp and Richards.” She took a step forward. “Now use the watch.”

  “Why? It has one use left. And Donald sent us here to-”

  “Donald sent us here to die!” She growled. “And I know what that thing can do. You have to use it.”

  “I thought you didn’t trust it.”

  “If they’re coming after us for that pocket watch, then it’s more than just a piece of metal. Prove yourself now and use the watch.”

  I felt frozen in my tracks. I would have immediately done what she said, but the circumstances made me hesitate. My eyes lowered to Hunter’s body. “Why did you-”

  “You should know. This one likes to do things behind people’s backs.”

  I can’t argue with that…

  She lowered her hand. “He would have gotten in the way. Now for your own sake, listen to me, and pause time; get us out of this mission.”

  I stayed deathly still. “I thought you did everything for Eclipse.”

  She took a second to breathe in. “Look. After the mission, Donald was going to-”

  Suddenly the door clicked. I looked behind me. The handle turned.

  Sam pointed an open palm at the door. “Get behind the bed.”

  I snapped out of inaction, ducked down, and knelt between the two beds, positioned in front of Sam’s feet. My eyes peered over the comforter of the bed closest to the door.

  It slowly opened.

  I lowered myself down, but I kept the door in sight.

  At the opening was Cooper, standing still with a cold face.

  I exhaled in relief. Okay. At least it’s not-

  His head tilted down, and then the rest of his body followed. He fell completely forward, revealing a knife sticking in his upper back. He landed on the floor with a thud, leaving the cause in full view at the door.

  David Kemp stood behind him, releasing the knife and watching Cooper fall to the floor.

  I stayed where I was, kneeling, unmoving, completely in shock.

  Sam must have been in shock, too; she hesitated to use the gloves.

  And her hesitation was enough for David.

  He drew his silenced pistol from behind his back and fired. The round whizzed over my head, prompting me to go completely prone.

  Sam took the bullet into her chest.

  David shot again. This one she redirected into the wall, but she was already staggering.

  He shot again. Sam took a slug. I closed my eyes.

  Again. A thump resounded next to me. I peaked my eyelids open and saw her body.

  Somehow amidst everything, her eyes managed to catch mine after she fell onto the ground. Deep, brown, and fierce. And I remembered what she had told me to do.

  Use the watch.

  David entered the room. His footsteps came closer and closer to me.

  I shoved my hand into my pocket. The watch responded to my grasp with a sting. I pulled it out, and my arm shook.

  A foot came down on my wrist. Hard. Involuntarily, I dropped the pocket watch onto the carpet.

  David Kemp loomed over me, his gun pointed at my face. He bent over and picked up the watch with his foot still on top of my wrist. Two other men entered. Jacob Richards, with a black bag in his hand. And behind him, Howard Miller, holding himself upright with power in his step.

  I squirmed under the pressure of David’s foot.

  “Well done finding him, Jacob.” Howard rested his hands over his stomach. “And David, catching him.”

  David took his foot off of me. I put my hand on the bed to stand up.

  “Don’t move.” He put the gun in my face.

  I froze.

  He looked back at his boss.

  Howard watched me.

  I swallowed and attempted to calm my tremors.

  “Enough of this. It’s finished.” David pressed the gun against my head.

  My knees turned inward. I crouched uncomfortably against the bed. Powerless without the watch.

  He dug it in further. “I should have killed you the first time I saw you.”

  I closed my eyes.

  “No,” Howard objected.

  Now David shook as well. The barrel rubbed against my forehead.

  “The way we planned, David,” Howard demanded.

  Jacob cleared his throat uncomfortably.

  David’s breaths were the only thing keeping the room from silence.

  I peered up at his face and wondered what I had done to make this man as angry as he was at me. Or maybe I wasn’t the one who had done it.

  “The way we planned,” he groaned.

  I remembered his memory of the man he killed on the street. He said that a selfish man had caused their problems. A selfish man. For some reason, that thought resounded in my head as David stared down upon me.

  He lowered the gun and exhaled. Howard and Jacob seemed to both sigh in relief. He turned his back and gave Jacob the gun. “I need the bag.”

  Jacob handed the black bag over to Howard.

  I lifted my eyes to David. “Did you know my father?” I breathed.

  He stopped.

  I stared at him intently. Even though he was a bit older than me, David would have been too young to be the one who killed my father. Plus, no scar. I rose to my feet. He couldn’t have done anything. Unless he had a time machine.

  Howard handed David the bag, who received it and held it loosely in his hand.

  Jacob closed the door and lifted the gun, pointing it at me. “David, let’s do this. Let’s grab him and go.”

  “Grab him?” I repeated in my head, and I took in a shaky breath. They’re going to kidnap me.

  David kept his back to me. Stared at the watch.

  I swallowed. “Are you going to kill my father?”

  “He’s already dead.”

  “The man who killed him vanished,” I replied.

  Jacob kept the gun pointed on me. “Mr. Miller…”

  Howard raised his eyebrows. He said nothing. He watched me.

  “Howard doesn’t want you to kill me,” I exhaled, “but you wouldn’t mind making your target’s son suffer.”

  David chuckled. “You don’t know a thing.”

  My eyes darted between David and Jacob. He waited for Howard. He wasn’t like David. He followed orders.

  Jacob bounced lightly on his feet. He lowered the gun for a moment.

  I took a chance, lunged at David, and wrapped my arms around his shoulders from behind.

  He immediately thrashed in response. “Jacob!”

  Howard took a step back. “Shoot him, Richards!”

  My fingers reached for the watch. As David tried to pull me off, my right hand found its target.

  “I can’t, he’s…” Jacob tried to aim at me without hitting David. “He’s moving too much.”

  Both of us had a hand on the watch now. I closed my eyes. Here we go again.

  Chapter 21

  I pressed the button while we both had hands on the watch. And I knew that meant we would both go through when time was paused. But it was the only thing I could do to keep from getting shot. On top of that, this meant I was going to see David’s past through his eyes once more.

  David, Jacob, and Howard all sat in a dark lab, slouching, and in ruddy clothing. David fiddled away at what looked like a data board for a hard-drive. He worked meticulously with an array of small tools, as well as his fingers. A small pair of glasses rested on his face. He cracked his knuckles. Calloused hands.

  “We can’t make it.” Howard leaned back, rolling his eyes. A computer sat in front of him.

  “We can if we try.”

  “We’ve lost the technology, David.” Howard typed something up on the computer. “The only person who has it is Jonathan-”

  “Is Jonatha
n Ashe!” David closed his eyes. “Yeah. I know.”

  Howard sighed and typed some more.

  Jacob sat silently with his hands folded, looking at the floor. His eyes went to David briefly, but seeing his anger, he turned to Howard. “Mr. Miller…”

  David scoffed at the respectful address.

  Jacob swallowed. “You said you had a plan.”

  Howard looked up. “That’s exactly right.”

  David took his glasses off. “No. Whatever it is, I don’t want to hear it. You had your chance, and we almost got ourselves killed.”

  Howard held a hand up. “Slow down. All we need is to take-”

  David shook his head and scoffed.

  Howard held his breath, holding back frustration.

  “Listen to me.” David rubbed his thumb along his rough fingers, looking at Howard intently. “We are not trained. We are not vigilantes. We are not prepared - or even able - to go on another ‘mission’ of yours.”

  Howard pursed his lips together.

  “I’m a computer technician.” David picked at the board. He pointed at Jacob. “You’re an accountant. And you,” he pointed at Howard. “You think the two of us and some old-hat lawyer can fight their way through a crime lord’s front door?”

  Howard tilted his head to the side.

  Jacob unfolded his hands.

  “That’s why we have to build something that can take us back.” He went back to the board in front of him. “We have to do it ourselves.”

  “You’re right,” Jacob said.

  The others looked at him.

  He was staring at the floor once more. His eyelids narrowed. “You’re right, David. We don’t have a clue what we’re doing.” His head rose, and he looked him directly in the eye. “But unlike you, I haven’t forgotten why we’re here in the first place.”

  David broke his gaze and looked down.

  “We’ve all lost someone because of this monster.” Jacob put his hands on his lap. He breathed in slowly. “Because of Jonathan Ashe, my sister is dead,” he looked at David, “your brother.”

  “That was-”

  “Someone else,” Jacob finished. “Yeah. But it was still an affect of Jonathan Ashe. It was because of time.” He shook his head. “Why are we mesmerized by it… mesmerized by the chance to prolong reality. Something only Ashe can give. People are slaves to it.” He pointed a finger between both of the others. “They’re losing their families to this thing, or to those who would kill just to buy themselves a few more minutes.” He pointed at Howard. “Your child, gone.” At David. “Your brother, and your wife-”

  David dropped a hand onto the table. “Yeah, Jacob,” he said loudly, frustrated, “we know what he did-”

  “Then act like it!”

  The other two watched him.

  “That’s why we’re here. But every time we meet, all you do is yell and complain.”

  David grit his teeth. “Watch it, Jacob-”

  “Or what?” He stood up.

  David began to rise.

  “David,” Howard cautioned. He sat there, the oldest man in the room, as though he were watching his own children argue.

  Jacob shook his head at him. “Our… occupations don’t matter anymore. What we used to do doesn’t apply.” His eyes fluttered for a moment. The light, though dim, reflected off his irises. “I wonder if you even care-”

  David lashed out and punched him in the face.

  “David!” Howard ran over.

  “Accuse me again, Jacob,” he growled. “See what happens next time.”

  ∞

  The scene flashed. Some time had passed, maybe not much. Jacob was no longer in the room.

  David was at his data board again, staring down at it, rubbing his knuckles. He closed his eyes and leaned an elbow on to the table. He rubbed his forehead. “I do care…” he said, “I care about this more than anything.”

  Several moments of silence.

  “We have to go back,” Howard exhaled.

  David sat, still.

  “We have to go back before any of this happens. Before Jonathan Ashe makes time travel a marketable commodity.”

  “We’ve tried,” David barely croaked, still staring at the board.

  Howard raised an eyebrow. He hesitated to speak. After a moment, he asked, “can I see her again?”

  David’s eyes rolled over to Howard. He took out his wallet and removed a photo from inside. He handed it him.

  Howard held the photo tenderly. Smiled. “She’s beautiful.”

  “She was.”

  He handed the photo back. “You never told me about what happened.”

  “I told you she died,” David replied. “Wasn’t that enough?”

  “You just never talked about the details.”

  David began to put the wallet in his pocket. “Same goes to you, you know. You never told me how he took your daughter.”

  They stared at each other in silence.

  David grabbed the board and walked over to a side counter. “I guess I’ll go first, then.” He plopped it onto the surface.

  Howard sat back and listened.

  “My wife used to work for Jonathan Ashe, actually,” David began. “Just like you used to.”

  “That was a long time ago. Before his black market trade was discovered.”

  “I know,” he sighed. “The company he laundered through just faded away after that; I remember.” He rubbed his hands together. “But my wife started working for him after all that. He hired her when his empire started growing. I didn’t know about what she had been involved with until after everything happened. She handled business dealings. Clients…” He turned to the table and picked his glasses up. “She was good. Smart, and efficient. I don’t know how he got a hold of her, but,” he smiled, staring at the dust and fingerprints on the lenses, “she did everything right under my nose.” He took a breath and hesitated.

  Howard watched him.

  David’s eyes stayed on the glasses. After several seconds, he put them down. “FBI started investigating some people that were buying time from Ashe. He’s so powerful, he doesn’t care that everyone knows his name. But his clients,” he looked at Howard, “those names are valuable.”

  “And that was when you found out?” Howard asked. “When they started investigating?”

  David nodded. “Yes. She had important information. They caught her dealing time to someone in San Francisco, and they linked her back to Ashe.”

  He rubbed his hands together. “She had this black list of sorts. Names that the FBI could use. So they set up a deal. If she gave the names, they’d give her protection. Change her name. Make her - and by consequence, me - disappear. New start.”

  “Were you angry at her?” Howard asked.

  David started. “Was I… Excuse me?”

  “When you found out,” Howard said. “Were you angry at her?”

  David took a deep breath. “I…” He paused. Stared down at his hands. “Yes.” He scratched at a callous. “I was.”

  “What happened next?”

  David picked his glasses back up and put them on. “She was going to go through with the deal. But we didn’t act soon enough.” He returned to examining the board.

  Howard frowned. He kept his mouth closed, expecting the end of the story. “And?”

  David looked up at him. “And that’s it.” He tinkered with his work. “Jonathan Ashe knows how to make things look like an accident.”

  Howard nodded, sitting there, quietly. Thinking.

  “Why do you think this all happened?” David turned and took a glance at the door. He leaned forward on the counter. Pressed his fingers down.

  “Well,” Howard began.

  David lowered his head and looked at his fingers.

  “I think every man has a destiny.” Howard ran his hands across the legs of his own pants. “His own fate.”

  David squeezed the ledge of the counter. “Destiny…” He lightly loosened his grip. “I make my own.
”

  “The Lord gives and He takes away,” Howard said to David’s back.

  David’s fingers began to choke the counter once more. Each knuckle white as a ghost.

  “So they say…” Howard exhaled solemnly.

  David straightened his back, standing tall. He released the counter and turned his neck, putting Howard in his peripherals. His lips parted just enough for him to say,

  “The Lord takes away.”

  ∞

  The memory changed. This had happened to me before, but it was always so ethereal. Elusive to accurate description. The three men were now standing around the table. Jacob was there. All of them wore different clothes than before, so this must have been a new day.

  “So,” Howard said, “I’ve worked out some of the details. I think we should go through with it.” He raised an eyebrow at David Kemp. “That is, if you’re ready to proceed.”

  He nodded. “Let’s hear your plan.”

  “Okay,” Howard began. “Jonathan Ashe has made sure that he’s the only one who can have time devices that actually travel through time, rather than just stopping it. That means the only things on the market right now are time stoppers, and as we know,” he glanced at David, “we don’t have the resources or the knowledge to make a time traveller ourselves.”

  David’s eyes fell to the floor.

  “But listen to this. I ran into a former client of mine the other day. And that’s what I’ve been wanting to tell you about. This guy,” Howard looked over to the counter and saw David’s failed invention, “he made one of those.”

  “You just said we had no way of doing it,” David replied.

  “We don’t have a way of doing it. This guy’s done it already.”

  “Are you taking him on his word?”

  “I trust him.”

  David and Jacob glanced at each other. Jacob shrugged. “What other choice do we have?”

  “Good then.” Howard took out his phone. “I will contact him and get the device.”

  “And it can take all three of us?” David asked, lifting his finger toward Howard.

  Howard glanced up from his phone. “Of course.”

  David lowered his hand with uncertainty.

  “This will be it, then.” Jacob donned a smile. “We’ll go back. We’ll go back before everything.”