Fenton Osorio and Andrea Turner were sitting in the parlor when Vega returned. He walked in the back door of the small London home without saying a word, and tossed the pocket watch to the tubby bearded professor.
Andrea straightened up, once again surprised by Vega's sudden entrance. She realized that the transient was not alone.
"No! No!" She cried as her eyes widened on the young blond boy following the transient. He was the same boy she had seen days earlier sitting in an interrogation chair in the present. She was even more startled by the robot that brought up the rear, shorting its base to make it through the narrow doorways, the wood floor creaking under its weight.
"What is he doing here? If you made a double through a time loop, it will only make it easier for the Supervisor observing the past to see what you have done!" Andrea cried.
Vega gazed at the young black girl, whom he had assumed to be only a helper. He turned his attention back to Fenton Osorio, who was checking the time on the pocket watch.
"Four hours to spare," Vega said to his contemporary, ignoring Andrea's protest.
"What was the point of making a looped double? Why would you bring him here? And the robot? You have wrecked everything!" Andrea continued shrilly.
"Listen, girl!" Vega interrupted, taking a tone Greg had only heard him use once the very first time they met. "I am not foolish enough to make waves in your timeline with those sorts of tricks. We substituted a clone in place of the original. His name is Greg Thompson."
Greg took a step forward to join the circle, timidly grinning and nodding to the two people from the present.
"And I take it, you have with you the fourth lost coin?" Osorio said, unfettered by Andrea's panic.
"Fourth? There are four coins? I thought of it as the third..." Greg said. "My brother had one, we just let the second go with Curt, and Vega has the third. Where is the last one then?"
Andrea drew her coin from beneath her shirt. She held it toward Greg on the chain.
"Ohh..." Greg muttered looking at the familiar coin. It looked so much like his own, but took on a totally different feel being placed in a setting. "Did the Snow King have another stash or something?"
"I have no idea who the Snow King is," Andrea said to Greg. "My uncle gave this to me as a birthday gift."
Greg was confused. "And you are from the present? I thought you were a Keeper? How did your uncle get the coin if I saw the Snow King die in 2011?"
"The Snow King is dead?" Osorio interrupted.
"He was hit by a car. Before he died, he gave me a map with the location of his treasure stashes. There was a time coin hidden in each. That's how I got involved in this," Greg said.
"Maybe you should tell us no more," Fenton Osorio began to say. "Once we learn the genesis of this split we can not unlearn it..."
"I came from San Francisco in 2011!" Andrea spoke to Greg over the top of her teachers’ warnings. "My uncle was a mortician in Grass Valley. My name is Andrea. Is that where you are from, Greg?"
"Yeah!" Greg said. "How did you become a Keeper if we're from the same time?"
"I used the coin accidentally and got stuck in the present. So, I made the best of it..." Andrea replied. "That is why we had to get Vega to convince you to not tell your secrets, just like your brother. If I am found out, I don't know what will happen to me..."
"Peter," Greg whispered. "Is he okay?"
"Yeah," Andrea said, realizing there was more souls involved than just her own. "He was in a holding cell, last I saw him. He is being held in suspended animation. So he looks about the same age as you are now."
"Is it true that his mind has continued to work even though he has been imprisoned?" Greg asked.
Osorio answered, "That is true as far as I know. I have never been placed in suspension, but I am told the subject does experience some passing of time in a half dream like state."
"I am renegotiating our arrangement," Vega cut in, speaking to Fenton. "Or should I be speaking to you, Andrea. It seems like you may be the one who is truly in charge here."
"You can still speak with me, Vega the Tarkin," Fenton Osorio said, attempting to use extra language to show his dominance.
"Not quite," Vega said with a grin. "I am half human, and half forsaken Tarkin. I am without the gift of my father's blood. In other worlds, I am well compensated for this deficiency. Unfortunately, in this version of earth, I have only my cunning. And now, former Manager Fenton Osorio, I will use all of my faculties to accomplish my own goals. If you do not like this change, you should not have enlisted the help of a man such as myself."
"What would you do?" Osorio fenced back. "Leave with your freshly acquired coin and go to the present unaccompanied? That would be foolish. If you went anywhere in the present, your presence alone would be immediately noticed, especially with an ancient war robot in tow. Should you want to use our cloning booth, you will need my help to guide you to the exact location."
Vega stood still, observing the man. "You underestimate me. I have been to the present once, and there was no problem. But that was long ago, and you are right; I don’t know where to go. That is not to say I could not eventually find what I need. I have done my part, and now you must do yours.
"The boy is coming with me; both he and the robot. He will rescue his brother and clone and I will use your machine. That is the new deal. Accept or we will leave and make due on our own."
"I could alert the present of your location here," Fenton counter attacked.
"If you will, they would have been here already."
"I could have told them to hold off until any time I choose."
"Stop this, both of you!" Andrea interrupted. "It is a deal! Greg can rescue his brother and you can use the flash cloner."
The group stood at four separate points, all regarding each other.
Andrea had broken up the duel, sick from the rising conflict. She knew her former teacher planned on yielding, but had enjoyed the match nonetheless. Her stomach could not take the bickering. She felt especially exhausted after holding in the dread her situation had created over the past three days.
Osorio nodded to Vega and the corners of his mouth curled up a fraction of an inch; the conversation had given him much personal satisfaction in learning more about the man who had seen other worlds.
"There is one last problem we should discuss," Fenton Osorio said. "Once we assault the present, there is no going back. The Mistress holds an iron grip on time from her position at the top. How do you plan to escape once you resurrect whomever you have come all this distance for? Where will the boy and his brothers go?
"Do you know what kind of life you will have to live once you free the other two?" he said to Greg. "You will have to abandon any hope of a life that makes any impact on history. You will have to change your name and live in constant fear of being remembered."
"Don't worry about us," Vega said, shielding Greg from the attack. "We have our own plan. When we are done, I just need to get to the sunlight. What about you and Andrea? What will you do? You will be traitors to your own people."
"That is doubtful," Osorio said. "We can cover our own tracks. Andrea just wants her life secured. This we will do for her, in exchange for your demands. We have three hours, and so we should go. Let me collect a stunner from my room, before we depart."
Fenton turned and started out of the room, but Greg stopped him in his tracks.
"We are prisoners."
The old man from the future glanced at Greg as if he had just fired a gun into the air.
"It's been on my mind," he added. "I had to ask. The Snow King left messages under the lid of the boxes the coins were hidden in. It was like a warning or something. Do you Keepers know what it means? We are prisoners. Find what they fear. They fear themselves."
"I have no idea," Fenton said, abruptly leaving the room.
"He left those messages?" Andrea said.
"They are not Keeper sayings, then?" Greg asked.
"No," A
ndrea said. "But it makes me think..."
Fenton Osorio returned, a non-lethal weapon from the present in his hand. "Are we ready?"
Envy tracked the armed man as he joined the group. Vega gave him the signal to load up. Before he could mount Vega and Greg's feet, Fenton spoke.
"You are aware, any electronic measures possessed by this robot will be useless where we are going?"
"I am aware," Vega said. "But these two have gained a special place in my heart, and that is why I will bring them with me. And though this robot is inferior to your technology in the present, he has another capability you lack in your modernity: his kind were ruthless killers in another age. I doubt your people have much use for violence in an age where you control the past."
"We are prisoners," Andrea whispered, beginning to understand.
"Fine," Fenton said, unimpressed. "I will place us in an exact location so as to neutralize the duty observer. Then we must move swiftly. Andrea, you take the boy to free his brothers and I will accompany this man on his errand."
Everyone nodded. Envy loaded up and the others all put themselves in contact with Vega, who once again put on his green cloak.
"Are we ready?" He asked.
With no protests, the man from another world, who knew magic but could not use it, produced the stolen coin, which would propel them in time to the furthest point possible. He gazed at the obverse image of the Mistress, and then the reverse image of the hourglass. A smile crossed his face, the type of smile that came to his face on countless occasions, always before terrific battles where his fate would be decided. Vega always came out victorious, except once. He was now ready to right that wrong.
He patted his satchel and flipped the coin.
CHAPTER 28