Jay came through the door next and knelt beside me. Neve moved to cover the door when there was a small blast at the end of the hall. Several of us exclaimed “What the...” at the same time and then Breckenridge’s voice was in my ear again, “Just clearing our path, Sumter. Don’t shoot us.”
Another voice, that must’ve been Rao, added, “But we’re bringing trouble on our tail.”
Jayden rolled Kristoff to his side, and was checking him over for signs of a bullet. “I don’t see any blood,” I tried to assure her. “I think they just knocked him out.”
“I’m just making sure,” she mumbled as she loosened his vest. It only occurred to me then that she was crushing on Kristoff. I didn’t have time to worry about it though.
I leaned over to see through the doorway, and then stumbled to my feet to see two figures racing toward us, and Breckenridge shouted, “Hit the door!” I could see three or four more figures enter at the end of the hall.
They dove in and hit the ground, rolling right back up on their feet just as the door slid shut. The number of the enemy running down the hall had grown to six, and I expected there were still more to follow. Everyone had their helmets off, Michael and Breckenridge were next to the door speaking in hushed tone, Jay and Annika were hovering over Kristoff, and Neve had wandered to the back of the room, where there was an archway that led to the vaults.
I cleared my throat before asking, “What now?”
Breckenridge and Michael both turned, but Breckenridge answered, “Trace says the last of them are gathering in the corridor outside, once they’re there ... okay she’s sealing them in now,” I noticed he still wore an earpiece that kept him in contact without the helmet. “Once that’s sealed she’ll knock them out with gas, then we’ll have about thirty minutes to get them secured.”
Michael continued, “Then we begin the interrogations.” Then it seemed like everyone was talking at once.
“When will Mom and Zhou reappear?” I was anxious to know they were fine.
Annika asked Jayden, “Did you see this?”
Jayden looked, and pulled a small needle from Kristoff’s neck, “So that’s it.”
Michael answered me, “Probably forty-five more minutes, maybe an hour.”
Rao asked, “How long ‘til the gas clears?”
Breckenridge was listening to his earpiece, “Okay, thank you Trace.” He turned to us, “Five minutes and we’re clear.”
Li-Ming suddenly dropped to one knee beside Kristoff and withdrew a pouch from a long black cord around her neck. She tilted his head up, parting his lips to pour a fluid in his mouth. He moaned and turned his head in Jay’s lap, but still did not wake up. “It may take a little while yet, but that will stop the poison.”
We all looked at her. Jay asked “How did you know?”
Neve added, “I thought it was a tranquilizer.”
Li-Ming nodded, “And it was laced with something else.” She pointed to Kristoff’s face, “See around his eyes? The skin is turning blue. Check his fingernails too, they’ll be the same. Well, they were turning blue anyway, now they’ll go back to normal, but it will take a little while.”
Breckenridge hugged her, “You saved his life, Li-Ming.”
She shrugged, “Guess I did show up at the right time, after all.”
CHAPTER 28
10/11/2006
The Family Tree
As a fail-safe, the door that sealed us in didn’t open for another eight minutes after the door on the other end of the corridor, extending our wait to thirteen minutes in all. When the door opened, a medical team swarmed in and immediately loaded Kristoff onto a stretcher and then rushed off again to take him to the infirmary. Jayden followed right behind.
I moved toward the door, laying my eyes on the bodies piled up just outside. Breckenridge said the count should be forty three, but it looked like more. They were alive, just knocked out by whatever the Society’s gas of choice was, and there was already a team of six Shadow Watchers disarming and cuffing our unconscious enemies, when we joined them.
There were mostly men, but among them I did count five women. I helped Michael bind wrists and sit unconscious prisoners up against the walls for a few minutes before I asked, “So women get to go into combat in the future?”
I didn’t know Li-Ming had come to stand behind me until she giggled, “Yes, I sometimes forget they don’t now.”
Michael sighed, “It’s not as far off as it seems though. Soon, very soon.”
Breckenridge joined us, clapping Michael’s left shoulder with his right hand, “Good work, Sumter.”
Michael turned and gripped his hand and then they slapped the backs of their hands together and finished with a fist bump. “You too, man.” His brief grin faded back to serious mode, “Do we have them all now?”
Breckenridge shook his head, “There are still a few stragglers, but we have them where they won’t be getting away.”
I wondered what would become of them after the Shadow Guard was done interrogating them. It wasn’t as though they could be sent to a normal prison, not that they had necessarily done anything to be convicted of, but they wouldn’t exist for a couple hundred more years. These certainly weren’t the first enemies the Society had dealt with, which would mean they would have their own way to deal with prisoners. Their brain-washing experiments came to mind, and then I pushed the thought from my mind altogether because I decided it would probably be better if I didn’t know.
Michael sighed, “You know none of them are going to talk, right?”
Breckenridge nodded, “We still have to take them through the process.”
“Better scan them all for suicide capsules too,” Michael added. “They’ve all got them most likely, since they knew they’d be landing in here.”
The Captain’s eyes widened, “Didn’t think of that, but will do.” He nodded in my direction, “Do you want to get her out of here before they start waking? We can get it from here.”
Michael nodded, “Yeah, we’ll stop and check in on Kristoff too.”
Li-Ming said, “I’m coming with you; I need to see Zhou.”
“Be careful,” Breckenridge warned. “There are five together in the North fork. And Trace has seven, wait,” he listened to his earpiece for a second. “Make that six individuals scattered about; she doesn’t know if they’re too wounded to move or just lying in wait, but be ready.”
“Will do, man,” he put his hand on the Captain of the Shadow Guard’s shoulder in a show of brotherhood. “Thanks,” he added before turning to me. “Ready?” Li-Ming and I nodded and followed him down the hall.
***
The systems were not all back up and running yet, and there were still bodies and debris in the tunnels, preventing the cars from running, so we had to walk. Bullet holes punctured the stone murals, converting what might have been a tranquil scene of horses grazing by a lake into a crater filled war zone. Down the next tunnel were gargoyles missing wings and talons, and in yet another was a cherub with a bullet hole right between its eyes.
Twice, the tunnel we went down had been collapsed, and it occurred to me their mission must have been to get the tree, and seal us in. But how would they have known the tree was here, or me, if I was as much a target as Michael said? This question was nagging at the back of my mind as we reached the infirmary.
Inside, and down two well-lit halls that resembled any other hospital, we found a room with Jayden at Kristoff’s side. She ran her fingers through his hair as a nurse checked his vitals.
“How is he?” Jay asked her.
Just then he stirred; his eyes fluttered open. “I’m better now that you’re here.”
She smiled down at him, “I’ve been here.” She looked back up, saw us and waved for us to enter. To the nurse, she echoed “How is he?”
The nurse sighed wearily, “It appears the Essence has done the job, once again. He will make a full recovery, and he’ll have whoever found that poison dart to thank for it. I
t was something new, definitely from the future; they’re analyzing it in the lab now. If that dart didn’t come out when it did, and he didn’t get the Essence right away, he wouldn’t be here. That’s for certain.”
“You don’t think I could’ve beaten it without the Essence?” Kristoff joked as he raised the bed into a sitting position, clearly feeling better.
Clearly not amused, the nurse replied with a curt, “No,” and scurried out of the room.
“Thank you, Florence,” Michael called after her as he walked over to Kristoff. They did one of their weird little handshakes. “Had me worried about you there, brother.”
“Ha, ha!” Kristoff chuckled. “You worried about me? Isn’t that something for a change?”
“I’m not planning on getting used to it,” Michael replied. “We have enough to worry about right now, replacing you would be challenging.”
“Challenging?” Kristoff scoffed at him. “It would be impossible! I’m irreplaceable.”
“That you are, my friend,” Michael smiled.
Satisfied Kristoff would make a full recovery, we left Jay there. Michael, Li-Ming and I continued on our way back to the suite. When we arrived, we found it empty, which made me nervous. “Are you sure they got away? Are you sure they’ll be here?”
Michael put his hand on my shoulder, “They will be here.”
And just then I felt the vacuuming of air from the room, and Mom and Zhou and four burlap sacks landed in the middle of the room. Then Zhou collapsed, and I found out why Mom screamed - he’d taken a bullet to the chest just as they hopped.
“Zhou!” Li-Ming bounded across the room, kneeling beside him. Mom handed her one of the Essence, and she ripped away the flesh, putting the seed to his lips. “Eat.” He hesitated. “Now,” she commanded.
He took one bite, then another, and as he swallowed, the flow of blood receded. Li-Ming ripped his shirt away, revealing the wound, which was getting smaller before my eyes. Michael helped her get Zhou sitting up, and he examined his back. “Looks like it went clean through.”
Zhou coughed, and said, “Feels like it, too.” He looked down at the pink flesh now covering the hole, and ran his fingers over it. “Another inch to the left and even the Philosopher’s Stone wouldn’t have saved me.” He looked at Mom, “Thanks for taking me on the hop.” It had been his intention to stay and fight.
“Almost didn’t make it,” Mom said. “I barely brushed you with my fingertips.”
“It was enough,” Li-Ming breathed. “Thank you, Marion.” She hugged Mom, then Michael, and me.
“Mom,” I turned to her, and hugged her fiercely, “I was so worried.”
She took my shoulders and stepped back, looking me over, “Are you alright? Are the intruders secured?”
“Yes,” Michael and I both answered. I went on, “Michael and the others were amazing. It was insane,” I started babbling, “they hit Kristoff with a poison dart, and if Li-Ming hadn’t given him the elixir when she did, he might not have made it.”
Even as I was singing her glories, Li-Ming was too busy to take credit. Zhou was on his feet again, and they were locked in a passionate kiss. She had the only reward she needed, and it was clear they would need some time alone together, soon.
***
After everything settled down in the rest of the mountain, we left our suite to join the Society in the Assembly Hall. We entered, and Mom addressed the head of the Shadow Watch immediately, “Captain Breckenridge, what is our status?”
“We have the Mountain, Mrs. Marquet. Five of the intruders are still holed up, in one of the bunkers. If they don’t surrender, we will gas them out shortly.”
Members of the Society were trickling in through the various entrances to the auditorium. It appeared we would be resuming the assembly where we left off, while handling the new issues at hand as well.
“How many do we have captive?” Mom asked.
“Counting those five, twenty-eight. We had nineteen more but Michael was right, they must have had suicide capsules - they dropped dead with no bullet holes in ‘em.”
“That’s disturbing,” Jay muttered to me under her breath.
Breckenridge continued, “We’ll have toxicology back in a couple of hours.”
“Thank you, Logan.” She surprised me by hugging him and giving him a peck on the cheek. “Why don’t you go see about accommodations for our remaining guests?”
“Yes, Mam.” He saluted her, winked at me and left the room.
I looked at my mother in shock, “What the...?” I wondered if my encouraging her to date all these years had been breath wasted.
She knew what I was thinking right away, “No, no dear - it’s not what you think. Logan’s my nephew, your cousin.”
“But,” I was completely confused, “I thought we didn’t have any relatives?”
Mom simply said, “I will explain, but it will have to be later.” She took her place at the podium, and struck the gavel, calling the meeting back to order. “Now, back to business.”
Ilsabein Unverfehert stood, and moved to the floor before speaking. “Before this attack, we, the Society, accepted Marion Marquet would lead the Council. In fact, we welcome it.” There was a round of applause. “It was decided in the mind of every member the moment the Philosopher’s Stone was delivered, before Pennington and the Council even entered the room, so I think we can forgo the formality of a vote, Marion.” She smiled as the cheers from the audience validated her statement. She bowed her head to my mother, and Mom returned the gesture before Ilsabein returned to her seat.
“I only have one other matter to address before we get preparations underway,” Mom said. She turned to Tollack, who had been escorted to a seat on the floor. “Tollack, I would like to add another seat to the Council’s table.” A few whispers rippled through the room. “As I have been away for decades, and you have been handling the day to day affairs of the Society, I would like to extend you the opportunity to serve as my Chief Advisor.”
They didn’t tell me about that part of the plan. As Tollack walked up to the table, taking his new place, Michael leaned to whisper in my ear, “At least he’ll think he is.”
Tollack finally spoke up, “My dear, Mrs. Marquet, there is still one more matter that needs to be settled.”
“What on Earth is that, Tollack?” Her exasperation was evident.
His sugary coating melted away. “The deal was for the tree itself, not just the fruit. Where is the Flamella Tree?” Desperation had set in, and he was grasping for any way to shake her foothold on territory he considered to be his.
“You should be grateful to still have a seat at that table!” I shouted, irate he dared to mention the tree at that point. If Michael hadn’t grabbed my shoulder, I would’ve charged across the floor and slapped him. “Your precious tree - no, my Flamella tree is safe, where it will remain, as I see fit.” It was the truth, even if I didn’t know where Future Me had it stashed, or when for that matter.
I turned to the Society and shouted up to them, “Just so we’re all clear on this, Marion is in charge around here, and I’m in charge of the damn tree. Right?” Shouts, cheers and applause erupted from the audience. “Anyone besides Tollack have a problem with that?” The room fell silent. I faced Tollack again, “You have your next fix of the Philosopher’s Stone - we all know that’s what you really care about - so shut the hell up, before I change the terms again!”
Mom came to my side sometime during my outburst, but I didn’t notice until she took my hand just then. She must have known it was itching to go for the Marquet Special I was wearing under my jacket. We turned and strode out of the room, with Jay and Michael right behind. I was later told Tollack’s mouth hung open for a full two minutes before Eleanor Bennis walked over and tapped his chin to remind him to shut it.
CHAPTER 29
10/11/2006
Festive Preparations
A centuries old tradition dictated a celebration be held for the Feast of the Phil
osopher’s Stone; all members of the Society who were ready to shed a few decades from their appearance would do so together in ceremony. This Feast would also mark the official ceremony of induction to the Society for Jayden and me, so we had to get ourselves all dolled up.
This was the first chance Jay and I had to talk alone since Michael and I returned, and I had been bursting to talk to her about the letter from Future Michael from the moment I read it. But this thing with Kristoff sprang up on me out of nowhere, and I had to interrogate her about it, so I blurted “So, what’s up with you and Kristoff?”
She sat down at the vanity in the bathroom. “Blah, blah. You have your Shadow Watcher, and now I’ve found one of my own. Ha!” She stuck her tongue out at me.
I proceeded to start combing and sectioning out her hair. “How did this happen? When?”
“It started the day they came to check out the computer. And then you left me trapped here,” she gave me her most impish grin, “I had to find some way to make my confinement more bearable.”
I smiled back at her in the mirror, “I see.”
“Why?” She looked concerned, “Do you have a problem with it?”
Laughing, I assured her, “Nope. Just seemed kind of sudden to me, that’s all.”
“You skipped a few days in all your hopping, too. We’ve had plenty of time,” she winked, “don’t worry.” Then she stuck her hand up in the air with a grabbing gesture, “Now hand over the letter.”
I gave it to her to read while I continued to curl and twist her hair into an elaborate arrangement on top of her head. She must have read it three or four times at least because her ‘do took me awhile.
She didn’t look up at me or speak until I said, “Voila,” to announce that I was finished.
She set the letter down on the vanity, picked up the hand mirror and turned around to inspect my work. She flashed me a smile of approval, “Perfect.” Then her face grew more solemn, “So this letter, here’s my take: Future You knew Present You fell in love with Present Him right about now, and told Future Him, and Future Him knew that might mess things up so he wrote Present You the letter because he knows Present Him is too in love with you to stay away if you’ll have him.”