Waging War (46 page)

“Which means museum employees?” I asked. I
picked my way carefully over the uneven ground next to the
tracks.

Archer sighed. “It only takes one
disgruntled or greedy person with the right knowledge.”

“But it still doesn’t explain Tom.” And Tom
was the whole reason we had come to this time and place.

Archer clicked off the small Maglite, and I
was about to protest until I realized I could still see the dim
outline of his shape next to me. I looked ahead of us and realized
we were approaching another station.

“Holborn,” Archer whispered directly in my
ear. He stopped and crossed the track, pulling me with him. The
marbles were tucked safely into the black tunnel behind us and
weren’t visible at all in the dimmest of light that leaked from the
platform ahead of us. I could feel Archer step over the tracks, and
I followed, nearly blind, but with that extra spatial-awareness
sense the darkness brings.

“Why are we on this side?” I asked in a
whisper.

“We’re on the branch line from Aldwych. If
there’s a way to cross over to the through line platform, I’d like
to find it rather than use the passenger tunnels.” I tried to
picture what he was talking about in my mind. Aldwych station was a
branch line that was closed in my own time. Before it closed,
trains originating from Aldwych only went through Holborn station
on their way back out to the main Picadilly line – but the track we
were on started at Holborn station and was therefore a dead
end.

“Tell me about the rocket that went silent
before it exploded,” Archer whispered as we walked.

“I’m pretty sure it was a V-1 rocket. They
also called it a buzzbee. In old war movies they always went silent
for a count of twelve before they exploded.”

Archer was silent for a moment, then he
said, “I’d heard the Germans were building something new. That must
be it.”

I stumbled over something that I wasn’t
expecting and hissed out to Archer. “Wait. Shine the light here.” I
back-stepped and felt it again with my foot. An electrical junction
with a line running straight at the wall. I reached out to the wall
just as Archer clicked the Maglite on and hid the beam with his
palm.

Through the red light glowing from his skin
I could just make out the edges of a metal door. “Block the light
with your body if you can, but I need to see.”

Archer did as I asked, putting himself
between the Maglite beam and Holborn station. The door I’d found
had a rigid electrical cable running through the wall next to it,
which was what I’d kicked. There was no handle, just an indentation
to pull it shut and a lock. Instinctually, I looked up. There was
no lintel above the door – nothing to stick out into the tunnel and
potentially catch on a passing train. But I reached up anyway, and
felt what I’d hoped to find.

“There’s a recessed shelf, just like the
door handle,” I whispered as I patted around, praying there were no
spiders up there waiting to attack my groping fingers.

“Got it,” I said, drawing the flat key from
its hiding place above the door. I loved lazy people who left keys
hidden in convenient places.

The lock turned fairly easily, and I pushed
the door open and handed the key back to Archer to replace. Then I
stepped into the narrow passageway. “Let me make sure there’s a way
out before you close it,” I whispered.

He handed me the Maglite and I aimed it as
far in front of me as it would shine. This place was a long
passageway that must have been a conduit between two tunnels. The
light didn’t reach quite far enough for me to see the end, but from
the angle of the passageway, I realized it wasn’t a straight line
between the tunnels, but more like the zag of a Z. I only had to
take a couple of steps before the other door began to be visible.
It had a lever handle on the inside, and as I had hoped, it was
unlocked. I clicked off the Maglite and pulled the door open very
slowly. It seemed even more quiet and still than the tunnel behind
us was, and I stood there for at least thirty seconds listening to
the silence. Finally, I closed the door again and clicked the
Maglite back on.

“You can close it,” I whispered loudly to
Archer. I kept the light on, but turned back to the door to see if
it would lock when we closed it from the other side. Archer’s arms
wrapped around me from behind and he hugged me close for a long
moment. I melted into the feeling of just being held.

“I can imagine it,” he whispered in my ear.
“A long shower with endless hot water, a rug by the fire, and a bed
with velvet drapes to shut everyone and everything else away.”

“Hmm,” I smiled dreamily. “Sounds wonderful.
Here, hold this.” I broke out of his arms and handed him the
Maglite.

He laughed softly. “What are you doing?”

I had pulled a piece of chalk from my
pocket. “Drawing us a spiral so we can go find that endless hot
water shower.” I had three segments of the spiral finished and was
half way through the fourth when I looked back at him. “Aren’t you
coming?”

His gaze didn’t waver. “An exit strategy, I
understand. But to leave now? I don’t believe you would do it.”

I leaned back against the wall with a sigh.
“When do I get to have a life that’s not about jumping around in
time trying to save the world, or whatever my stupid superhero cape
says?” I glanced at Archer and smirked. “Sounds really arrogant
doesn’t it?”

He had a straight face, but I could see the
effort it cost him to keep it. “A little.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes the cape itches and I
don’t want to wear it.”

He shrugged. “So don’t.”

I sighed again, just for drama, because the
moment called for a little drama. “Whatever this is, it isn’t over
yet. But I promise you, that cape is going to the cleaners the
minute it is.”

Archer did smile then. “You have a
deal.”

I finished the spiral just for the
aesthetics of it. “You know how I knew I wasn’t going
anywhere?”

“Besides the fact that you’re still wearing
the superhero cape?”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Yes. Besides
that.”

“How?”

“There was no buzz in this spiral.”

That got his attention. “You mean it’s not a
portal?”

“Oh, it’s probably a portal, but I didn’t
need it to open for me I guess.”

Archer tilted his head and looked at the
spiral I’d drawn. “So it really is an escape hatch then?”

I shrugged. “Maybe. Hopefully not. In any
case, it’s here if we need it.”

Archer – Present Day

I thought we might need that escape
route.

In any case, I intended to show it to
Adam.

I’d brought him into the Underground through
the old Aldwych station. It was locked, of course, but not
especially secure. They had most recently used the platform for
filming an episode of
Sherlock
, so it was free of debris,
and once we were on the platform it was a simple drop to the same
dead track Saira and I had traveled that night of the air raid in
1944.

Saira.

My wife.

That one fact overrode every other memory
that had been crowding into my brain since she left. I had seen so
much death and horror during that war – so much that I’d buried it
as deeply as my psyche would allow – and yet one fact made all of
it fade into sepia images from the long-ago past.

I had married her.

There was a profound sense of relief that
came with the knowledge that she wore my ring. It was relief for
her security, and because she had finally chosen me. I’d long ago
given up the ring as lost. To know that in fact I’d given it, as
I’d always intended, to the woman I loved more than words could
ever convey gave me remarkable peace.

I no longer felt separate from myself, nor
jealous of the man I’d been. My memories of being with Saira felt
fresh and real, and a part of me looked forward to each night’s new
batch of truths. I had resented having to stay behind and lived in
constant fear for her safety, but the new memories were like
looking through a portal into the past to see everything we did as
we did it. It created a bit of a fugue effect in my brain though,
which I anticipated would only get worse as this night wore on.

Tonight, as Adam and I crept silently along
the branch line track where the Elgin Marbles had once been kept
safe from German bombs, the Descendant Council was meeting. If
Camille Arman had her way, there would be a vote to oust Markham
Rothchild as Head of the Mongers, but as far as I knew, Claire was
still opposed to a move that drastic until they had a possible
replacement. Adam had gotten word from Ava that Seth Walters was
not in evidence, and so far, neither was the Monger ring.

Only Jeeves and the Edwards boys were privy
to our use of the Aldwych station access, which we had worked out
from the urban explorers’ recounting of their adventures
underground. I had expected more of a fight from Connor and Logan
when I told them to stay behind, and their stoic acceptance still
worried me. Connor could be rational – I’d seen it so often in
medieval France when he’d had to manage Jehanne – but I didn’t
delude myself into thinking Logan had any regard for things like
rules and safety. To be fair, his ability to Shift into any animal
he chose made him nearly impervious to harm, but I didn’t
necessarily credit him with the sense or experience to know how to
use that ability strategically.

No one knew about the memories that had
begun to crowd my head. I supposed that if I’d been sensible, I
would have waited to come down here until I remembered what had
happened to us in that Underground tunnel during the air raid. But
the Seer blood in my veins boiled with warnings, and I could sense
the same tension in Adam behind me.

The air in the branch tunnel was as dead as
the track until we rounded a bend and a breeze picked up a bit of
trash. I dragged my hand along the wall until my fingers found the
edge of the access door.

“Shine a light here. You need to see this,”
I whispered to Adam.

He allowed the penlight to flash quickly on
the wall where the door was barely visible under the black grime of
disuse and age.

“Now up.” I directed.

His light illuminated the recess exactly
where Saira had found it, and I reached up, hoping the key had
never been removed. It was there, just where it had lain for more
than half a century. Adam’s beam of light found the indented
door-pull with the lock beneath it, and a moment later, I turned
the key. The lock was tight, but the mechanism still turned
smoothly, and I replaced the key above the door.

“Take your light to the end of the tunnel,
but turn it off before you try the other door,” I said quietly.

Adam was quick and efficient, and a few
moments later he flashed his light at me to indicate the other door
was unlocked. He waited with the door closed and the flashlight
pointed at the floor.

“How did you know about this passage?” he
asked when I reached him.

“Saira and I came here during the war.”

“During the ...” He stared at me. “How do
you know that?”

“Memories. They’ve been hitting since she
left.”

His stare turned incredulous. “You mean
you’re remembering stuff as it happens to you in the past?”

“More or less.”

“What are you doing right now … then?”

“We’ve just left this access passage and
have switched to the Central line.”

“You know how to get there because you’re …
going there … then?”

“The obvious difference between now and then
is that once you and I step out of this passage, the Central line
track will be live.”

He shrugged. “So, as long as we keep our
footing, and if we can make it past the CCTV at Holborn station,
we’ll just have Mongers to worry about?”

“Mongers who have kidnapped more than forty
people.”

Adam’s scoff was mocking. “We can take
‘em.”

My expression was deathly serious. “Be very
clear, Adam. I cannot just injure or maim a Monger. If there is
blood, I will have to kill them rather than risk turning even one.
I will not be responsible for unleashing yet another Monger Vampire
on this world.”

Adam was suddenly still, and his eyes didn’t
leave mine. “Tom isn’t dangerous,” he whispered finally.

“Not here or now,” I said.

“Not then, either.” Adam sounded
desperate.

“He’s working for the Germans.” It was
strange to speak of something from the war in present tense, but it
was still unfolding in the past.

“I know he has a reason. Do you guys—” he
paused and sighed. “You and Saira, in the past, do you know about
Tom’s great-grandfather – George Walters?”

“No. We have realized the museum treasures
stored on the tracks are probably the Germans’ target, but we don’t
know about Tom’s personal connection to the museum.”