Chapter Twenty-Two
Sadie stared at where the door had slammed shut behind Kaitlin. She’d only said what a lot of them had been thinking.
Kaitlin had always been the upfront one, willing to say what she thought regardless of the consequences.
She glanced around the room. Jake’s lips curved in a small smile—a look of approval? Kaitlin had always been his favorite. No one had ever minded, because they had all loved her. The colonel had a sour look on his face. She had a peek in his mind—just a quick one, not long enough to curdle her mood completely. His thoughts were a mixture of dislike and guilt—no surprises there.
Kane was still staring at the door where Kaitlin had disappeared and he looked—sad? She could feel the emotion rolling off him. But no guilt. He’d done what he’d had to. He wouldn’t let the mission fail at this point.
He turned to her, as if he felt the flicker of her mind and gave her a brooding look. “I don’t like what happened at this party. Who were these people? What did they want?”
“To kill us. A lot like you really, just a little while back. Maybe all we need to do is have a nice chat with them, and we’ll all be friends.”
His eyes narrowed and his anger flared. Interesting. Not so cool after all. She sighed, this wasn’t getting them anywhere. “I don’t know who they were. I didn’t get a good look, but I suspect they are tied to us somehow. As to how”—she shrugged—“I have no clue. But they killed the Conclave person who’d been dealing with us, so I’m pretty sure it’s nothing to do with them.”
“Any way we can find out more?” he asked.
“Ethan’s assistant is back in London. I’ll get Ethan to ask if he can find anything out. Maybe look for video footage from the party…?”
“I don’t want to involve the Conclave. They already know too much.” Kane ran a hand through his hair and scowled—looking so much like Jake that, for a moment, her antagonism waned. “My people have guarded the machine for ten thousand years,” he said. “Am I supposed to sit back and let that all be for nothing?”
She could see his point. Sort of. She’d always wanted something to believe in. A cause she was willing to fight for. To die for, if necessary. Other people felt that way about love, but she’d always shied away from that. So yeah, she’d love to believe in Kane’s mission, that it would ensure the survival of mankind. But right now, she wasn’t convinced. And maybe mankind didn’t deserve to survive. They should leave well enough alone, and mankind would no doubt self-implode in the not too distant future.
When she didn’t answer, Kane continued, “Through everything, we have maintained our secrecy. Now this organization threatens that. They have to be destroyed.”
She blew out her breath. “Okay,” she said. “Say we go along with this. But we know enough now to understand that most members of the Conclave know nothing at all about us. Killing them would be a pointless waste of time.”
“Do we have any idea what’s going to happen, now their leader is dead?” Jake asked. “Are there files on us in existence? Is it likely the new leader will gain access?”
Good questions.
Sadie thought about her answer carefully. “Ethan is next in line for leadership.”
“The one you brought with you?” Kane said. “You do understand that he can’t be allowed to leave here? He must die.”
Sadie pushed herself to her feet, stalked over to him, and glared down into his face. “You fucking touch him and I’ll blow up your fucking time machine myself. To hell with your mission, and mankind can fucking perish for all I care.”
Shock flared in his eyes, followed by a glimmer of amusement. Yeah, she was so funny.
“What is this man to you?” he asked.
She glanced at Jake. “Did you tell him?”
He shook his head. “I thought you’d rather ask him yourself,” he said out loud.
She blew out her breath. Time to share. And she wasn’t ready. But hell, it wasn’t as though they would think she was crazy. They’d gone beyond the point of believing anything was…unbelievable.
She went back to her chair, sank down. “Take a look,” she said to the room in general. She brought the whole damn thing to the surface of her mind, then winced a little. She didn’t want them to see everything, and she tried to keep the love scene dreams down at the bottom, but…what the hell?
“You can see the future?” Rose said, wonder in her tone.
She shrugged and shuffled on her chair. “I think so. At least, a possible future. But some of it’s come true. Max. And the vision before the party, where they were all dead.”
“Except they weren’t dead, just unconscious.”
Hmm, obviously she had to be careful how she interpreted what she saw. She could end up making decisions based on false assumptions.
“You love him?” Kane said.
Trust him to see the one at the bottom. No doubt Jake had as well. “No,” she snapped. She didn’t—did she? “As I said, it’s a possible, maybe, might-never-happen future. But that’s beside the point. I’ve been in his head. He’s a good person.”
“Do you know the things the Conclave have done?”
“Yeah. Probably more than you. I was in their heads.” She shuddered as she remembered the woman in scarlet and her plan to destroy London. Way beyond evil. “But we can’t help where and who we’re born to. We just make the best of it.”
“Assess the threat,” Jake said. Like he had done so many times before, in so many missions.
“Low,” she said. “But go into his head and see for yourself.”
At that moment, Kaitlin slipped in through the door and took the nearest seat. “I like your boyfriend,” she said in Sadie’s mind.
So Ethan was awake.
“What’s happening?” Kaitlin said.
“Have a peek in Sadie’s head,” Rose said.
Kaitlin was silent for a moment, and then her eyes widened. “You can see the future?” She looked some more. “Wow. Sexy. You love him.”
“No. I. Don’t.”
“Yes, you do, you just haven’t admitted it to yourself yet.”
“Okay,” Jake said, “so we take a look in his head and then make a judgment.”
“He’s going back to London,” Kaitlin added. “He says he’ll take me with him. So I can have some fun.” No one said anything. “Hey, I deserve some fun.”
When had he decided that? And why?
“You stay here, where it’s safe,” Kane ordered.
Kaitlin tossed him an evil look. “Get this straight. I’m not one of your stupid Guardians. You’re not my boss or anything else to me. No one is. From now on—I decide.”
Jake sighed. “We’ll talk about it later.”
“What about the other one you brought with you?” Kane asked.
She presumed he meant Dave.
“You touch him,” Rose said quite mildly, “and I ditto what Sadie said. No more time machine.”
Kaitlin sniggered. “Are the peasants revolting? No one doing what they’re told. Perhaps we all need to die as well.”
“Shut up, Kaitlin,” Jake said.
She shut up.
“I’ll vouch for Madsen,” Jake continued. “We’ll have a look in Weiland’s head, see what he’s thinking, and then decide what to do next. Okay?” He looked straight at Sadie as he spoke, and she nodded. “So next thing. The machine. The others have agreed?”
“Yes,” Kane replied. “Within reason. No blowing anything up. One step at a time. If anything…out of the ordinary happens, we take a step back.”
“Ordinary?” Sadie muttered. “You’re talking about a goddamn time machine. Do you really expect anything that happens to be ordinary?”
Kaitlin snickered.
“When do we do this?” Jake asked.
Kane rose to his feet. He’d been against this, but Sadie could sense his suppressed excitement. “Why not now?”
…
While she didn’t like to admit it, Kaitlin was pretty intrigued. A time machine. That could be so much fun. She could be a sort of Doctor Who, traveling through time and space and having adventures. And she’d have a gorgeous assistant who would be in love with her and…
She really needed to get a life.
Kane led the way up the steep, narrow track at the back of the house, and they formed a procession after him. The sun was hot on her back and the air was almost tangible, thick with heat and moisture, and sweat broke out on her forehead. She’d tried to keep in shape by exercising in her cell, but after a few minutes, her muscles ached from the climb. All around her, the chatter of monkeys, the screams of birds filled her ears. Vegetation crowded in on either side, but the path was clearly well used. After about five minutes, the track ended abruptly.
She peered around the others, trying to see as, one by one, they disappeared into a gap that opened up in the face of the mountain. Her steps slowed as though subconsciously, she didn’t want to enter. This place held a secret with the power to change her life. A man and woman stood, one on either side, as if guarding the entrance. This must be Leila and Brandon, the two Guardians. Apparently, they were old, like really old, and they had never left this place. She sensed they were not happy with this development, but she stayed out of their heads.
They were all inside now, except for her. She’d never been a coward, but it took a force of will to make herself take the final step through the opening into the space beyond. She stopped inside the doorway, trying to take in what she was seeing. The cavern was huge with a pale sandy floor and filled with sunlight from a hole in the arched ceiling above their heads. And in the middle of the space was the machine. Smooth, silver, broad at the base and tapering to a point at the top. Like a rocket. It was too big to have come through either the door they’d entered by or the hole in the roof. So how had it gotten here?
Without conscious thought, she shuffled forward until she was standing beside the structure.
“Don’t touch,” Kane said.
She scowled at him, but shoved her hands in her pockets. She had an almost overwhelming urge to stroke her hand down the machine, see if it would come to life beneath her fingers.
There was nothing that looked like an engine, no propulsion units to be seen. How would it work? Would it fly through time? Or would it disappear and rematerialize in another time and place?
Kane believed it had been here for ten thousand years. Why? What possible purpose could it had served? Had something gone wrong? Had it taken Kane’s ancestors to a time and place they had never expected or wanted to be? And now, if they brought it to life, might it disappear off to some other dimension never to be seen again?
She was still reeling from Sadie’s admission that she could see the future. Everything was changing. Moving. She felt off-balance. All she’d dreamed about for six months was getting out, now she had no clue how to move forward.
Nothing was within her control.
“Christa?” Kane turned to where she stood beside Jake. “You want to try?” he asked.
Why her?
She nodded and excitement glinted in her eyes. Christa stepped forward, reached out slowly, and Kaitlin held her breath. What did she expect, flashing lights and mysterious humming noises?
She edged closer so she could get a better view. Sadie moved to the side to let her in as Christa ran her hands over the smooth surface, her fingers hesitating over the one flaw in the otherwise perfect exterior. She pressed her hands to the indentation. Nothing happened.
Kaitlin exhaled.
Maybe there was some sort of timing device. The machine wouldn’t open until the time of Kane’s mission. He told them the date—2020. Or perhaps it was broken and would never open and this was a complete waste of time.
Christa frowned, then studied the thing some more, her head cocked to one side. She turned to him. “One of you lot try. Maybe it’s genetically coded to recognize DNA.”
Kaitlin stepped forward. “Can I?”
Kane turned to look at her, and for a moment, she thought he would refuse, to pay her back for not shaking his stupid hand earlier. But according to Christa, her DNA was almost all original tribe. Why shouldn’t it be her? Finally, he gave a curt nod.
Excitement fizzed inside her. Christa held out her hand and she took it, stepped forward. “Place your palm here.”
She took Kaitlin’s other hand and spread her fingers, pressing her palm up against the place she’d been trying.
For a few seconds, nothing happened.
Disappointment welled up inside her. This was what Teagan had died for. She needed it to be important. To make sense of everything that had happened.
Then something stirred to life beneath her palm. A whirring sound filled the cavern. A screen formed from the smooth metal above her hand. It flashed a couple of times and then settled to blackness with numbers in crimson.
23688
“What does it mean?” she asked.
23687
“I think it’s a countdown,” Christa said.