A Time of Shadows (Out of Time #8) (13 page)

Elizabeth took a final slurp of her Sumatran blend iced coffee that was making her feel both light-headed and like she was saving the rainforest. She slurped the last bit through her straw and paused near an overflowing trashcan.

Simon, who was a step ahead of her now, stopped and turned back to glare disapprovingly at the sound. He did, but then his gaze went over her shoulder and his expression changed. Without taking his eyes off whatever it was he’d seen, his hand snaked out and latched onto Charlotte.
 

“What is it?” Elizabeth asked, turning to look behind her.

“The man in the blue jacket. He’s the one from the theatre.”

He was about half a block away, walking with his head down. Her breath caught. “The man next to him. He was there, too.”

“Dammit,” Simon said, turning around, quickly judging their circumstances. “This way.”

He took hold of Charlotte’s hand and started across the street. Elizabeth wasn’t far behind. She turned back in time to see the two men dash across traffic after them.
 

Simon looked around as they did double-time down the sidewalk. The side street they were on was fairly empty and Elizabeth felt that old welling sense of panic. She turned back to make sure the men were actually following them. Not only were they still there, but they were gaining ground.

“Faster,” she said, pulling Charlotte ahead. “We need to go faster.”

They broke into a slow run and had nearly reached the corner when their sidewalk ended, thanks to a cement truck and construction zone.

“Crap,” Elizabeth muttered, skidding to a halt.

The sidewalk on the other side of the street was open, but they would never lose them at this rate. They needed help, and none was on the way. What they needed was a labyrinth, and she saw one across the street.

“Come on.”

As a delivery truck drove past, she pulled Charlotte across the street. They dove down a stairwell that appeared like a magic rabbit hole in a cement forest. Their footfalls echoed in the stairway. They rushed down another flight of stairs before spilling out into the entryway of the subway station.

Only a few people milled through the turnstiles and there didn’t seem to be any security around at the moment. Of course, they hadn’t bought Metro Passes, but that wasn’t about to stop Elizabeth. Barely breaking her stride, she slid under the low turnstile arm and turned back to Charlotte.

“Come on, honey.”

Charlotte looked anxious but followed Elizabeth through. Simon braced his hands on either side and easily lifted himself over. Just as he grabbed Charlotte’s other hand, Elizabeth saw the men arrive at the bottom of the stairs.

The platform was long, and for a moment Elizabeth hesitated. The signage made no sense. Brightly colored circles with letters and numbers in them stared back at her defiantly, keeping their secret code to themselves.

“This way,” Simon said.
 

Thank God he could figure it out.

They hurried down along the platform, stanchions whizzing past them on the right and white subway tiles a blur on the left. Daring to look back, she saw the two men chasing after them.

An express train roared past on the middle tracks.

“Here,” Simon said, pulling them toward an archway.
 

They ran through it and down another short flight of stairs, and then another before turning and racing through a short tunnel. The sound of their feet and gasps for breath echoed loudly around them.

At the far end was another flight of stairs. They ran up them. Elizabeth’s lungs started to burn, and they emerged onto the opposite side platform just as a train was pulling into the station.

A hot gust of air pushed against them. The train’s air brakes squealed as it slowed, finally clanking to a halt. They ran down the platform toward the exit, but as she turned back, she saw the men weren’t far behind.

The door chimes sounded and people got off the train, briefly blocking their view of their pursuers. Elizabeth felt a wave of anxiety and gripped Charlotte’s hand harder.

Without a word, Simon tugged them into the middle car. An overhead announcement said something Elizabeth couldn’t make out. She poked her head out of the still-open doors and saw the men get on a few cars back.

“They got on,” she said. “We should get off.”

Simon nodded, but instead of getting off, he dragged them all toward the back of the car and then through to the next. Then he paused at the open doorway for a few seconds and picked up Charlotte. She clung to him tightly.

“What are we waiting for?”

The door chimes came again and he nodded. As soon as the chime had finished, the doors started to close. Just before they did, Simon quickly stepped out of the car and onto the platform, pulling Elizabeth with him.

Behind them, the doors shut and the train whirred and creaked as it started to pull out of the station. They hurried down the platform toward the exit. Elizabeth could just make out the two men inside the train working their way down toward the car they’d just been inside.
 

She tried not to think about what would have happened if they’d caught them. Somehow this had changed from following to chasing. Any pretense of being silent observers was gone, and that meant they didn’t care that Simon and Elizabeth knew about them. And not caring about that meant nothing good.

Nearly out of breath, they emerged onto the sidewalk of the city. Even though they’d only been down there a few minutes, the sunlight on her skin felt like freedom.
 

Simon hailed a cab and they piled in quickly. It pulled away from the curb and for the first time since the chase had begun, Elizabeth felt like she could breathe again. She let out a deep breath.

Next to her, Charlotte squeezed her hand.
 

“Okay, honey?” Elizabeth asked.

Charlotte nodded, but gone was the effervescent child that had just skipped down the street an hour earlier. Her eyes were round with fear.

“It’s all right,” Elizabeth assured her.

Charlotte nodded, but Elizabeth could tell she was fighting back tears.

“Are they coming for you, too?” Charlotte asked.

“I don’t know,” Elizabeth said honestly. She pulled Charlotte close. “But they won’t get us. I promise.”

On the other side of Charlotte, Simon clasped her hand. She looked up at him.

“We Crosses are clever,” he assured her.

She nodded solemnly, but it seemed to soothe her.

When she looked away, his calm expression fled. Something grim and dark took its place, and it made Elizabeth shiver.

~~~

“Well, dammit, destroy them!” Simon barked into the phone. “Redacted clearly wasn’t sufficient, was it?”

He clenched his jaw and continued to pace the length of the sidewalk in front of the motel. That idiot Travers hadn’t disposed of their files. Simon wasn’t sure why in the hell they had files in the first place. They didn’t work for the Council, and if they survived this idiocy they’d never go near it again.

“Yes, yes,” Simon said tartly. “Just get it done.”

He didn’t wait for another of Travers’ explanations and hung up the phone. Cars sped past the little motor lodge along the highway and for a brief moment, Simon thought about throwing the cell phone onto it and turning his back on all of this forever.

It was tempting. Damned tempting. His fingers curled tightly around the small phone. The muscles in his arm tightened in sync with his jaw. He raised his hand, but he couldn’t do it.

No matter how disgusted he was with them, how vulnerable his family was, it would be infinitely worse if the Shadow Council got their hands on the watch. If only there had been some way for them to have stayed out of it, he thought. But there wasn’t. The men following them had seen the pattern of the clues, and knew that their past was the key.

Now that their files had been rifled through, that cat was out of the bag. The only thing in their favor was that the Shadow Council didn’t have the clues. Although, he thought ruefully, all that seemed to do was buy them a little time. They were one step ahead, but barely.
 

He briefly considered stopping the whole ridiculous masquerade. If they stopped looking, the Shadow Council wouldn’t know where to go next. Not immediately, anyway. Still, with enough manpower and patience they would be able to scope out the places he and Elizabeth had traveled to in the past. And, eventually, find what they needed.

No matter how much he hated this, they could not let that happen. And for now, they were safe.

He turned to look at the shabby roadside motel with its filthy pool and chipping paint. Garden State indeed.

They’d taken their cab to Penn Station where they’d switched to another cab. They could have boarded any number of trains, but he figured that all of them had enough of trains for one day.

Abandoning their luggage at their hotel in Midtown, Simon told the driver to head east.
 

Somehow, they’d ended up in a small motel in Union, New Jersey. Simon had never felt quite so unsure of himself. He and Elizabeth couldn’t stop searching, but every step endangered those he loved.

Looking back down at the cell phone still in his hand, he sighed, slipped it into his pocket and started back toward their room. The sooner they found this damn thirteenth watch the better.

He unlocked the door to their room and pulled it open, but the chain held it in place. Inside, he heard the distinct halt of movement.

“Sorry,” he said through the small crack. “It’s me.”

Elizabeth closed the door and slid off the chain. She sighed at him as he came in.
 

“I’m going to take a shower. I feel…” She wriggled in place.

Simon nodded, understanding.
 

“I’ll just be in there,” she said to Charlotte as she started for the bathroom.

Charlotte sat on the bed with her back against the headboard, her knees pulled up to her chest. She nodded but kept her head focused on the television. What appeared to be a talking sponge was driving some sort of boat across the bottom of the ocean floor. He could tell, though, that she wasn’t really paying attention to it. Thank God. Her eyes had that glazed-over, “thoughts anywhere but there” look to them that Elizabeth wore when the world weighed too heavily on her shoulders.

Clearly the day’s events had bothered her tremendously. And why shouldn’t they? Her parents had been attacked by strange men and now the same thing was happening again.
 

Simon walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge next to her. They sat in silence in for a long moment until Charlotte leaned forward and rested her chin on her knees.
 

“It will be all right,” he said.

She tilted her head to the side and looked up at him with soulful green eyes. She nodded and turned back to the TV, but he could see she was far from assuaged.

Simon reached for the remote control and turned off the television. He moved until he too sat back against the headboard and extended his legs out toward the television.

She sat up. “Shoes on the bedspread? Back home that’s a paddlin’.”

He drew back in shock. “Paddling? For God’s sake, you don’t mean I…?”

She smiled then and shook her head. “Figure of speech.”

“Thank God,” he said and then looked down at his feet, shrugged and smiled. “One time dispensation?”

She almost smiled again, but just nodded, and then leaned her head back against her knees. She was already small for her age and all curled like that, she was barely a whisper.

He lifted his arm over her and held out the other. “Come here.”

Her lower lip trembled just a bit and then she scooted closer to him. He wrapped his right arm around her, pulling her close.
 

She looked up at him with an amount of trust no man was worthy of. He almost said so, but then stopped and smiled down at her.
 

“It
will
be all right,” he said softly, wishing it were so simple
 

Her eyes searched his face and if she saw the lie in it, she didn’t say. Instead, she nodded thoughtfully and rested her head back against his chest.
 

“Try to get some sleep,” he said.

Her reply was soft and muffled. “You’ll stay?”

“I will,” he said and kissed the top of her head. “I promise.”

A
FLOCK
OF
SEAGULLS
squawked overhead as they flew toward the sea. Their silhouettes cut in and out between the minarets of the Blue Mosque against the orange and red sky of sunset in Istanbul.

As he and Tess walked down one of the cobblestone streets toward the cafe, Jack wasn’t the only one who noticed the birds. One of Istanbul’s many feral cats lifted its sleepy head and even stood. Jack had never seen so many wild cats in a city, and never so many that just lazed around as if they owned the place.
 

The cats of Istanbul weren’t the typical strays that might be found in other cities. These weren’t afraid or furtive; they were well-fed, healthy and content. Jack had heard a legend that many years ago the Sultan had proclaimed them protected, and there was a proverb that anyone who killed a cat would have to build a mosque to be forgiven by God. Whatever the reason, the cats of Istanbul had the run of the place, and this particular one, roused from its afternoon nap, gave a great arched stretch and sauntered over to him. It wound its way through his legs, rubbing on him and hoping for a treat.

Jack stopped and looked down at the tabby and saw his two cat friends appear on the sidewalk.

“I don’t have anything for you,” he said, shaking his head.

The cat rubbed his leg and he reached down to scratch its ears. “I’ll bring something back.”

The cat purred and flicked its tale.

“Hello there,” Tess said as she bent down to pet it, but the cat turned and hissed and she snatched her hand back.

Jack was surprised at that. He’d never seen one of the cats do that before. “You must have startled him,” he said.