Fragments (Out of Time) Read online

  “So you became a spy where everything is exactly as it appears.”

  Jack laughed. It was a comforting sound. “Yeah. Not right away though. You know how it is. Came from a nice middle class family, then the crash, and we had no class at all.”

  Elizabeth took another sip of Coke. It was wonderful and soothing her jumpy stomach. “What did you do?”

  “Same as everybody else. Looked for work. I was on the south side of twenty. Did all sorts of things. Headed out West, even spent a few months in Ragtown down in Nevada. I’ll tell ya, that was hard work.”

  Hard work in Nevada after the stock market crash meant one thing. “The dam.”

  “Moved a lot of rocks. Figured there had to be something better so I kept going west. Ended up in Hollywood. You ever see Texas Wind? Third Caballero,” he said pointing his thumb at his chest in mock pride. “Also, The Lawless Rider Rides Again, I was Man Shot in Bank. Uncredited.”

  “Really? You were an actor?” He was handsome enough, but he didn’t seem the type.

  “Not really. I did stunts mostly. Faked my way through until I met Canutt and he showed me everything I was doing wrong.” He turned his head to the side. “See this?”

  There was a one-inch scar at the base of his skull just behind his ear.

  “Ow.”

  “Jumped eight feet from a moving horse onto a wagon. Problem was the wagon was ten feet away.

  Elizabeth lifted the hem of her skirt to show him a faded scar on the corner of her knee. “Bicycle. Curb. No training wheels.”

  “Impressive,” he said. He pulled up his pant leg, pushed down his sock and showed her a long thin scar above his ankle. “Hit by a fire engine.”

  Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. “You were not.”

  “Was too. Only about so big though.” He held his hands about six inches apart. “Was a toy. My brother’s. But it still hurt.” He nodded toward the top of her head. “How’d you get that one?”

  Elizabeth’s hand traced the small, crescent-shaped scar at the edge of her hairline on her forehead. “Exploding boat. Not a toy.”

  “You are going to have to tell me the rest of that story.” He stood and checked his watch. “But it’ll have to wait. You ready for this?”

  “Not really.”

  “You’ll be great. Just stick with the plan,” Jack said. He added with a grin, “And when it’s over, the first beer’s on you.”

  ~~~

  Elizabeth and Jack had driven into position and all they had to do now was wait for the ambulance carrying Evan to drive past. Jack handed her a cardboard box. “Better put this on.”

  She opened the box. A gas mask. “We’re not going to gas them, are we?”

  “No, it’ll cover our faces and distort our voices. Hurry up, put it on.”

  Elizabeth pulled the mask over her face. The eyeholes were huge and round, but set too far to the side. The entire contraption was hot and uncomfortable and had a horrible rubber smell. Worse yet, it was more than vaguely disturbing. She turned to Jack who looked like an alien from a fifties low-budget horror movie or bug-eyed elephant who’d lost his trunk.

  The mask slid down her face until her nose was firmly planted between the eyeholes. Jack laughed and reached over to help her adjust the straps.

  “Okay?” His voice was muffled through the filter.

  She nodded that she was, but inside she definitely wasn’t.

  A few minutes later, the ambulance drove past right on schedule and Jack started the car and headed after it. No turning back now. After a few blocks, he floored the big sedan and they passed the ambulance. With a jerk of the big wheel, he swerved in front of them, cutting them off. Both vehicles came to a screeching halt. “Wait here until I give you the signal,” Jack said as he jumped out of the car, guns in both hands.

  “Don’t move!” Jack yelled. “Hands. Let me see ‘em. Don’t move. Don’t you dare move. Guns. I know you have ‘em. Toss ‘em. Slowly.”

  Elizabeth’s breathing sped up so much she started to fog her goggles. Inside the confines of her mask, her heart was pounding so loudly and echoing in her ears, she almost missed Jack’s signal. She opened the door and came to the driver’s side of the ambulance. The driver and the other man stayed in the cab and kept their hands in the air, their eyes fixed on the guns in Jack’s hands.

  “Give her the keys to the back,” Jack said. “Slowly.”

  The driver did as he was instructed and tossed her a set of keys. She caught them and hurried to the back. She glanced around nervously. Where were Simon and Blake? She unlocked the door and sitting on the wooden planked side panel was Evan. He didn’t move.

  “We’re here to rescue you,” Elizabeth said in a loud whisper, feeling equal parts excited and idiotic.

  Evan still didn’t move. She realized what was wrong and lifted her gas mask up to show him her face. “It’s me. Come on.”

  He seemed a little dazed, but clearly recognized her and started to crawl out of the van. Elizabeth heard footsteps behind her and whirled around. Dark silhouettes emerged from the blackness of the empty street. Her heart jumped rope - double-dutch — until she recognized one of the shadows. It was Simon, thank God, and next to him, Blake. They were careful to stay directly behind the ambulance and out of the line of sight of the side mirrors.

  “Elizabeth?” Simon whispered.

  She pulled up her gas mask again. “Shh. I’m fine. Take him.”

  Simon looked worried and frowned, but followed the plan. He gave Evan a hand out of the back of the ambulance, slipped off Evan’s overcoat and handed it to Blake. With one last anxious look, Simon and Evan disappeared in the same direction they’d come, back down the street into the darkness, unseen, hopefully, by the driver and other attendant.

  Blake shrugged on Evan’s coat and Elizabeth wrapped a heavy woolen blanket over his shoulders, pulling it up just enough to obscure his face. He was the right height and build and if all went well, he’d be a dead ringer for Evan, hopefully without the dead part.

  Blake hunched over and indicated that he was ready. Elizabeth took his elbow and led him back to the car in front of the ambulance. She kept herself between Blake and the driver, trying to shield him as best she could. It was only twenty feet, but it felt like a thousand. She opened the back door and Blake got in and slid across the seat. She followed him into the car and shut the door behind her, tossing the ambulance keys onto the floor of the car. Her heart was pounding again and the mask felt like it was closing in on her.

  A moment later Jack jumped into the driver’s seat, put the car in gear and roared off into the night. He took off his mask, tossed it onto the empty passenger seat and took a quick look back. “Smooth as silk.”

  “Well done,” Blake said as he shucked his blanket covering. “You can take that off now, if you’d like.”

  Elizabeth pulled off her gasmask and took a deep breath of cold night air. “What now?”

  “We head to the rendezvous point and hope everything goes well on their end,” Jack said.

  “And if it doesn’t?” Elizabeth asked.

  The car sped down a deserted street. Neither man had an answer for her.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Simon could barely see the road in front of him. The car’s shuttered headlights cast a pool of light that spread out perhaps all of ten feet in front of the car. Even at slow speeds it was dangerous going. It didn’t help matters that the better part of his mind and all of his heart was fading behind him. He’d hated this part of the plan when they’d discussed it and he loathed it further still now that he and Elizabeth weren’t just separated, but headed in opposite directions.

  “You really shouldn’t have come for me,” Eldridge said in a voice dry and rough from disuse. “It’s the Shard that’s important.”

  “We haven’t forgotten it, but it’s currently beyond our grasp and,” Simon said as he cast a glance at Eldridge, “as luck would have it, you were not.”

  “It’s moved?”

>   “At least once. The book was sold and given as a gift to a man in Cirencester.” Simon eased off the gas. As much as he wanted to deliver Evan to the safe house quickly, driving without headlights meant he’d have to slow down if he wanted to get there in one piece. “Elizabeth and I were going to look for it when news came of your impending transfer. We couldn’t leave without at least trying to help you.”

  “I am grateful.” Eldridge looked out into the dark of Greater London. He shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “I’m almost afraid to ask. I know the nature of time travel and leaving people behind. But, did you really see my wife?”

  Simon could hear the fear and hope in his voice. “Yes.”

  “Is she all right? Was she?”

  “She was fine.” That was a bit of an overstatement. The last time he’d seen Lillian Eldridge she’d just survived the Great Quake and was facing raging fires, but technically, she was all right when they left.

  “Thank God. When did you see her?”

  Simon cast an anxious glance at Eldridge. He could only imagine how he’d react if he were in his place. “1906.”

  Eldridge nodded thoughtfully, processing the meaning of that year. “I see. And the house? It survived?”

  “The quake? Yes, and I’m sure Gerald will take good care of your wife until we can return you to your home.”

  “Gerald is a good man,” Eldridge said and drifted once more into silence. It was ten minutes at least until he spoke again. “It’s strange; I’ve dreamt of going home every day since I’ve been here,” he said, tugging nervously on his hands. “I didn’t realize until just now that I never truly believed it would happen.”

  Simon smiled. “It will. If Elizabeth has anything to say about it.”

  “Your wife?”

  Simon’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Yes.” He turned the car onto the A21.

  Eldridge noticed the change of direction. “Where are we going?”

  Simon leaned forward to peer into the darkness. With no signs and no lights, navigating the outskirts of London as they traveled into the agricultural green belt was tricky business. “Until we can sort out this business with the Shard, it’s best if you’re somewhere safe and secluded. There’s a cottage in Hastings that’s available and no one will bother you there.”

  “Surely, there’s something I can do to help.”

  “There is. You’ll tell me everything you know about the Shard.”

  Eldridge rubbed his temple. “I’ll do my best, but not all of that back there in the hospital was an act. I can’t even remember when I left Lillian. It could have been years ago or months. I can see her face, but I can’t place the moment. It’s an image with no context. I have a lot of those.”

  Eldridge paused in thought for a moment. “I remember things from my past. The further back the clearer they seem to be.”

  “Do you remember what your mission was?” Simon asked. He didn’t want to push the man too hard, but they desperately needed information and he wasn’t sure how long Eldridge could remain lucid and actively in the moment. “Why you came here? What you were supposed to do?”

  “Find the Shard, confirm its existence and report back to the Council. Didn’t they tell you that when they sent you?”

  Simon hesitated before answering. “The Council didn’t exactly send us. We’re…freelancing.”

  Eldridge laughed. “They must be having fits.”

  The idea of the Council being in an uproar because of him gave Simon some pleasure. It was the least the bastards deserved. “My grandfather was a member. I am not.” He briefly recounted his and Elizabeth’s history with the watch, including how they’d accidentally activated it.

  “That must have been a shocker.” Eldridge’s expression grew concerned. “What about my watch? Do you know where my watch is?”

  “I was hoping you did.”

  Simon knew the loss of Eldridge’s watch was a distinct possibility. Part of him had expected it really. After all, he was, by nature, a cautious, and some might even say pessimistic man, but surely even Schaupenhauer saw the glass as half full now and then.

  “I hate to think of it out there in God knows whose hands,” Eldridge said.

  “We can only hope it’s in a lockbox at MI5 headquarters and they’re none the wiser as to what it does.”

  “I suppose.” Eldridge sounded far from pleased at the notion.

  “But. “

  “I have this ridiculous feeling I gave it to Winston Churchill.”

  Despite himself and despite the old man’s fragile mental state, Simon couldn’t help but smile at the thought.

  “I know it’s impossible,” Eldridge continued. “Just an hallucination, I guess. Head trauma and pneumonia certainly do lead to interesting dreams. It’s maddening though not knowing what’s real and what’s a figment of my own imagination. For all I know, you’re not really here.”

  Simon hit a deep pothole in the road and they both bounced in their seats.

  “Although,” Eldridge said, “that felt pretty real.”

  The road grew even rougher, and enormous shell craters made it painfully slow going in some places. The car crept along on the dark road, winding its way through a maze of holes.

  “If you weren’t sent by the Council, why are you here? How did you know I was here?” Eldridge asked.

  Simon explained about the museum and the photograph. “Elizabeth grew very attached to Mrs. Eldridge and she’s a bit. “

  “Of a romantic?”

  “I was going to say insane,” Simon said with a smile, “but yes, a romantic and she has a fearless streak of altruism that takes us to rather unusual places.”

  “Like San Francisco in 1906.”

  “Yes,” Simon said. “And here. Although we didn’t know about the Shard at the time.”

  “I’m sorry you’re mixed up in it now. If it were anything else…”

  “If it were anything else, Elizabeth would still find a way to go where angels fear to tread. It’s her nature.” Simon’s heart ached with worry for her. He tried not to think about what unknown risk she might be facing right now. With an effort, he pushed that thought away and took refuge in focusing on the matter at hand. “If you were sent to observe the Shard, how did you end up hiding it? I’m far from an expert on matters involving the Council, but I thought interfering with timelines was high on the list of things not to do.”

  “Typically, yes, although small changes happen all the time. Most of the ripples are localized and nothing of any real significance changes,” Eldridge said, sounding more sure of himself, stronger with each word. “But, sometimes, a large link in the chain breaks and if things aren’t set right, the repercussions can be disastrous. In the original timeline, the Swedes supposedly made the exchange with someone from MI5 and the Shard was tucked safely away somewhere.”

  “But that’s not what happened. The Swedish agents were killed.”

  “Exactly. I hid the Shard as best I could until I could figure out what to do or until the next eclipse.”

  “Why didn’t you take it to MI5?”

  “MI5 operatives were the ones who killed the Swedes. Maybe it was Nazis who’d managed to infiltrate the section. I don’t know. No one else knew about the exchange.”

  “Blake said MI5 has a mole.”

  Eldridge shifted in his seat and fixed Simon with an austere expression. “You can’t afford to trust anyone. Not with the Shard.”

  And yet, Simon thought, he’d trusted those men with Elizabeth. Anxiety pulsed through him. He needed to get back to her.

  “I went to Charing Cross and hid it in the book box,” Eldridge continued. “The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital.”

  “And you pretended to have amnesia?”

  “Not at first. My memory is vague on far too many things. I do remember the feeling of hearing Elizabeth mention my wife’s name.” Eldridge paused and cleared his throat. “I can’t describe it.”

  Simon couldn’
t imagine what that must have been like and prayed he would never know.

  “Where is she?” Eldridge said. “Elizabeth. Are we meeting her in Hastings?”

  “No. Assuming they escaped without incident,” Simon said, his mind overflowing with the unthinkable, “I’ll be meeting her later, once you’re settled.”

  “Good. I’m sure she’s fine.”

  “Yes,” Simon said. She sure as hell better be.

  ~~~

  The drive to Hastings, which normally would have taken an hour and a half, took nearly four. They’d managed to avoid any roadblocks where questions might have been awkward to answer. Judging from the emptiness of the turnpike behind them, Simon was certain they hadn’t been followed. He turned off the lane and onto a rutted country road. It hadn’t been used in over a year and he had to struggle to keep the wheel straight. If he hadn’t known each quirk and curve, he would have plowed into a tree. But this was a path he knew well.

  His Great Aunt’s cottage was nearly exactly as it was when he’d shown it to Elizabeth when they’d first arrived in England. A little less overgrown perhaps, but otherwise, it was remarkable how little it had changed in so many years. Sebastian was overseas fighting in the war and no one else would be on the grounds. It was the perfect place to leave Eldridge while they looked for the Shard.

  He lifted up the edge of the small green pot near the side window where she kept her key. He’d toyed with the idea of playing inside the cottage as a boy, but he’d never dared go inside before.

  Eldridge slowly got out of the car. His mind was obviously healing faster than his body. He was still quite weak and Simon worried if he’d be able to manage on his own. He helped Eldridge walk to the cottage.

  “I’m all right,” Eldridge said in protest, but his grip on Simon’s arm told a different story entirely.

  It was dark enough at the end of the lane, but inside the house it was completely pitch black. He lit a match and looked for something to cover the windows with. Even though it was well set back from the main road, the last thing they needed was a visit from the home guard or an air raid warden. Thankfully, Sybil’s blackout curtains stood at the ready and Simon pulled them closed. He lit two half-full kerosene lamps and handed one to Eldridge.