Blackout (9 page)

“What’s your assignment?” Eileen asked.

“It
was
Pearl Harbor, which is why I sound like a damned American—”

“I thought you sounded odd,” Eileen said.

“Yes, well, I’ll really sound odd in Dover. I’m doing the evacuation of Dunkirk. With less than three days’ prep. That’s why I’m here—to see if he’ll move it back—”

“But—” Eileen said confused. “They evacuated children from Dunkirk?”

“No. Soldiers. The entire British Expeditionary Force, as a matter of fact. Three hundred thousand men in nine days flat. Didn’t you attend any of your first-year history lectures?”

“Yes,” she said defensively, “but I didn’t decide on World War II till last year.” She hesitated. “The evacuation of Dunkirk
is
in World War II, isn’t it?”

Michael laughed. “Yes. May twenty-sixth to June fourth, 1940.”

“Oh, that’s why I don’t know about it—”

“But Dunkirk was one of the major turning points of the war,” Polly interrupted. “Isn’t it a divergence point?”

“Yes.”

“Then how can you—?”

“I’m not. I’m observing the organizing of the rescue in Dover and then the boats as they come back with the soldiers.”

“You said you were supposed to go to Pearl Harbor,” Polly said sharply. “Why did Mr. Dunworthy cancel it?”

“He didn’t,” Michael said. “He just switched the order around. I’m doing several different events.”

“Is one of them VE-Day?” Eileen asked.

“No. I’m observing heroes, so it’s all crises—Pearl Harbor, the World Trade Center—”

“Are any of them near VE-Day?” Eileen asked. “In time, I mean?”

“No, the Battle of the Bulge is the closest. It was in December of 1944.”

“How long will you be there for that?” she asked.

“Two weeks.”

Then he wasn’t the one doing VE-Day. “Do you know of any historians who are doing assignments in 1945?”

“Nineteen forty-five…” he said, thinking. “Somebody told me somebody was doing the V-1 and V-2 attacks, but I think those were in 1944—”

“Did Mr. Dunworthy’s secretary say how long it would be before you could get in to see him?” Polly interrupted. “He needs to approve driving lessons for Merope—I mean, Eileen—and Props is only open till five.”

“No,” Michael said. “All Mr. Dunworthy’s new secretary said was, was I willing to wait. I thought he meant a few minutes, not the whole damned afternoon, but it can’t be too much longer, even if Dunworthy’s reaming out a historian.”

“Why don’t you go over to Oriel and reserve the Bentley, Merope—I mean, Eileen?” Polly said to her. “We can tell Mr. Dunworthy he needs to ring Props and authorize your lessons, and they can ring Transport. It will save time all around.”

“I will,” Eileen said. She turned to Michael. “You don’t know anyone else who’s observing 1945?”

“No. Ted Fickley was supposed to be doing Patton’s advance into Germany, but Dunworthy canceled it.”

“Why?” Polly asked with that same alertness.

“I don’t know,” Michael said. “Ted said he couldn’t get any reason out of the lab. All I know is Dunworthy’s switched four drops and canceled two others in the last two weeks.”

Eileen nodded. “I was just over at the lab, and Linna said he’d made over a dozen schedule changes. Gerald was there, and Mr. Dunworthy had just postponed his drop.”

“Where was
he
going?” Polly asked her.

“I don’t remember. It was something to do with World War II as well. Not VE-Day, though.”

“Are
all
the drops he’s changing World War II?” Polly asked Michael, sounding worried.

“No. Jamal Danvers was going to Troy. And my roommate, Charles, is scheduled to go to the lead-up to the invasion of Singapore, and Dunworthy hasn’t changed his.”

“And he hasn’t changed either of ours, Polly,” Eileen said. “Polly’s doing the London Blitz,” she explained to Michael. “She’s going to be a shopgirl in a big store in—where did you say?”

“Oxford Street,” Polly said.

“The
Blitz
?” Michael said, sounding impressed. “Isn’t
that
a divergence point?”

“Only certain parts of it,” Polly said.

“But it’s definitely a ten. How did you talk Mr. Dunworthy into it? I had a hell of a time talking him into letting me do Pearl Harbor, especially after what happened to Paul Kildow.”

“What happened to him?” Polly asked sharply.

“He got hit by shrapnel from a cannonball at Antietam,” Michael said. “It was nothing, only a superficial wound, but you know how over-protective Dunworthy is. He refused to let him do any of the other battles in his assignment.”

“Perhaps that’s why he’s been canceling drops,” Eileen said. “Because he decided they were too dangerous. All the ones he’s canceled are battles and things, aren’t they?”

“I need to go,” Polly said abruptly. “I’ve only just remembered, I was supposed to have a fitting this afternoon. I must get to Wardrobe.”

“But I thought you were going to show me how to open the Bentley’s doors and—”

“I’m sorry, I can’t. Perhaps we can do it tomorrow.”

“But I thought you had to report in to Mr. Dunworthy,” Eileen said. “Do you want me to tell him—?”

“No. Don’t. I’ll come back after my fitting. I really must go. Michael, good luck at Dunkirk—I mean, Dover,” she said, and hurried off.

“What was that all about?” Michael asked, looking after her.

“I’ve no idea. She’s seemed distracted all afternoon.”

“She
is
going to the Blitz.”

“I know, but she’s done heaps of dangerous assignments. She’s
much more likely to be worried that Mr. Dunworthy will cancel her drop. At least I needn’t worry about him canceling mine because it’s too dangerous. Unless Alf and Binnie set fire to the manor or something.”

“Alf and Binnie?”

“Two of my evacuees. I’m observing the children who were evacuated from London.”

“Which was when?”

“September of 1939 to the end of the war. Didn’t you attend any of your first-year history lectures?”

He laughed. “I
meant
, when are you there?”

“Till May second, which is why I didn’t know about Dunkirk.”

“If the evacuation lasted till the end of the war,” he said, “maybe you can talk Dunworthy into letting you stay on to do VE-Day. Or you could just not come back.”

She shook her head. “The retrieval team would come after me. And even if I could elude them, staying would mean I’d have to put up with Alf and Binnie for another five—”

“Merope!” someone called.

Michael turned and looked across the quad. “Someone’s looking for you.”

It was Colin Templer. He loped up to them. “Do you know where Polly is?”

“At Wardrobe,” Eileen said.

“I thought she said she was coming here.”

“She was. She did. She came to see Mr. Dunworthy, but he’s in with someone, and she couldn’t wait.”

“What do you mean, he’s in with someone? Mr. Dunworthy’s not here. He’s in London. He won’t be back till tonight.”

Eileen turned to Michael. “But you said—”

“That damned secretary of his!” Michael exploded. “He didn’t say a word about Dunworthy’s being gone. He just asked if I’d care to wait, and I assumed—”

“This is dreadful!” Eileen said. “Now what am I going to do about my driving lessons?”

“How
late tonight?” Michael asked Colin.

“I don’t know,” Colin began, but Michael was already striding up the stairs and into Mr. Dunworthy’s office. “You said Polly’s over at Wardrobe?” Colin asked Eileen.

She nodded, and Colin took off at a run. Michael came back, shaking his head. “He won’t be back before midnight at the earliest. He went
to see some temporal theorist named Ishiwaka. And here I wasted an entire afternoon—no offense,” he said. “It’s just that I didn’t have enough time to get ready for this drop as it is, and now—”

“I know. I only have two days, and now I’ll have to wait till tomorrow to get my driving lessons approved.”

“No, you won’t,” he said, digging in his pockets. “I got permission from him for lessons in piloting small craft when I thought I was going to Pearl Harbor. If he didn’t fill it out…” He pulled out a slip of paper and unfolded it. “Good, he didn’t. He just signed it. Here.”

“But won’t you need it?”

“Not till I get back from Dover,” he said. “I’ll tell him I lost it and need another form.” He handed it to her.

“Thank you,”
she said fervently. “You’ve saved my life.” She looked at her watch. If she hurried, she could make it to Props and get the driving authorization before they closed. “I need to go.”

“So do I,” he said, walking her back to the gate. “I need to go memorize the map of Dover and the names of the boats that participated in the evacuation, all seven hundred of them.”

They started out through the gate and nearly collided with Colin. “I thought you were going to find Polly,” Eileen said.

“I was,” Colin said breathlessly. “But when I got to Wardrobe, they asked me if I knew where you were, Mr. Davies, and I said yes, and they said to come tell you they need you to come talk to them straightaway. They said they’d had to give your costume to Gerald Phipps and they need you to come in to try on a new one.”

BADRI ADJUSTED THE FOLDS OF THE NET AROUND MIKE
. “I’m sending you through to 5
A.M.
on May twenty-fourth,” he said.

Good
, Mike thought. The evacuation wouldn’t start till Sunday the twenty-sixth, and the civilian boats wouldn’t start bringing soldiers back till the next day, so he’d have plenty of time to get to Dover and figure out how to get out to the docks.

“There may be slippage of an hour or two,” Badri said, “depending on who’s in the area and might see the shimmer.” But when they sent him through a few minutes later, it was much darker than an hour or two before dawn should be—a total, blanketing darkness. He waited for his eyes to adjust, but there was no light to adjust to.

He couldn’t see any stars
or
lights, though that could be due to the blackout. In May of 1940, no outdoor lights had been allowed, cars’ lights had had to be masked, and windows had had to be covered with blackout curtains. The contemps had complained about how dangerous it had been to get around in the blackout, and now he could see—or, rather,
not
see—why. His first instinct was to put his hands out in front of him and feel his way forward, but this was the southeastern coast of England. He could be on the edge of a chalk cliff, and one step could send him plummeting to his death.

He stood still, listening. He could hear the faint sound of waves lapping the shore off to his right. From the twenty-third on, the fires of the burning town of Dunkirk had been visible from parts of the coast, but he couldn’t see any red on the horizon. Or any horizon, for that matter. Which meant either this wasn’t one of those parts or he’d come through
earlier than the twenty-third, even though the whole point of picking this site was that it didn’t have temporal slippage.

You can figure out the time later
, he thought.
Right now you need to find out
where
you are
. The waves sounded level with him, not somewhere below. Good. He slid one foot slightly forward. Gravel. The shingle of a beach. Or a road down which someone would presently come driving with the shuttered headlights that only let the driver see a few feet ahead, in which case he needed to get off said road right away. But he couldn’t hear any sound of an engine, and the road north of Dover wound along the tops of the cliffs, not down along the beaches.

He stooped and patted the gravel. It was damp. He swept his hand in a semicircle and could feel a patch of wet sand and what felt like a shell. Definitely a beach—though in 1940, an English beach was probably more dangerous than a road. It was likely to be mined or covered with barbed wire—or both—and in the dark he could easily trip and impale himself on a tank trap.

Props had sent a book of safety matches through with him. He debated lighting one to give him an idea of where he was. It should be all right. The beach had to be deserted. The drop wouldn’t have opened if there’d been anyone to see its shimmer. But that had been several minutes ago. A soldier might be patrolling or there might be a ship out there in the Channel. He couldn’t see anything, but some vessels had run without lights to keep from being spotted by the Germans. And the shimmer would be visible for a long way over water. Even a match’s tiny flame could be seen for miles. More than one World War II convoy had been sunk by submarines because a careless sailor had lit a cigarette.

So, no light. And unless he wanted to be blown up by a land mine, no wandering around in the dark. Which meant his only option was to stay put and hope dawn wasn’t too far off. He lowered himself carefully down onto the sand and settled in to wait for dawn.

I could have been spending this time prepping in Oxford instead of sitting here in the dark
, he thought. He could be memorizing that list of naval ships that had participated in the evacuation he hadn’t had time to, or finding out exactly where the returning troops had docked and how he was going to get access to the dock when the press wasn’t allowed.

Damn Dunworthy and his schedule changes
, he thought. The damp sand was soaking through his pants. He stood up, took his jacket off, folded it, sat down again, and resumed staring into the darkness. And shivering.

It was growing steadily chillier.
It’s much too cold for May twenty-fourth
, he thought, and suddenly remembered every horror story he’d ever heard—the medieval historian they’d sent through to the wrong year who’d ended up smack in the middle of the Black Death; the one back in the early days of the net, when they’d still thought historians could affect events, who’d gone through to 1935 to shoot Hitler and found himself in East Berlin in 1970. And the historian who’d tried to go through to Waterloo—which was a divergence point just like Dunkirk—and ended up in America in the wilds of Sioux territory.