by Janet Leigh
The Toches car started again, and we followed. Trying to get the fake führer to safety was a chore. His car didn’t maneuver over the rubble as easily as our truck did. Caiyan sped up, and I thought a few pieces of our precious cargo may have fallen out into the street as we rounded a corner. The ground was vibrating as planes dropped bombs in the distance, and they were heading in our direction.
A truck came out of nowhere and sideswiped us, sending us barreling through a blockade and toward the back end of the Toches motorcade. Pedestrians were running for shelter. I covered my face as Caiyan jerked the steering wheel to the left, and we slid sideways before slamming into something hard. Marco and I were ejected from the truck.
I heard a woman scream, and something wet spewed across my face as I hit the ground. I couldn’t see, and a sharp pain was shooting through my right leg. Caiyan’s voice called out to me. I was lying on the ground, trying to see him through the thick fog. I managed to wipe the wet out of my eyes and saw red running down the front of me. My hands were also covered in red. I started screaming, and Caiyan was at my side.
“Are ye OK, lass?”
I felt Caiyan’s hands on me, checking my body for injuries. I focused as he helped me sit up.
“I’m…I’m covered in blood!” I shouted.
“Jen, relax—it’s jest paint,” Caiyan yelled into my ear.
“Paint?”
“Aye, the truck we hit was hauling paint fer the bomb shelters. The walls are painted so the people can see their way in the dark.”
I took a closer look at my hands, and they seemed to have a fluorescent tint to them. “We didn’t hit anyone?” I asked, trembling. “I heard a woman scream.”
“It was you screaming,” Marco said as he joined us. He had a small cut on his face but was otherwise unharmed.
“Are ye hurt anywhere?” Caiyan was running his hands over my legs.
I winced when he touched my ankle. “My ankle hurts, but I think I’m good.”
They helped me stand, and my ankle was a little sore. Probably a sprain, but I could walk on it. I tried to wipe my hands off on my skirt, but the paint was drying quickly.
“I can’t get the red off,” I said.
“That’s OK,” Marco said, handing me a handkerchief from his pack. “You look good in red.”
* * *
***
* * *
The front end of our truck was crumpled and spouting smoke from under its hood. We had missed Toches’s car and hit a parked cargo truck head on. The truck was unoccupied, but the back had been full of barrels of paint, which had spilled all over the street. When we hit the truck, it rammed into the back of the Toches motorcade. His car had sustained a minor scrape during the crash and was stalled out in the intersection. The soldiers had bolted, seeking cover and leaving Anna standing next to the car. Toches was MIA.
“Are you OK?” I asked when I reached her.
“Yes, I am fine,” she said and squeezed my arm. “My mother told me one day someone would come and ask for my magic key. She told me to give it to them only if they seemed trustworthy. I thought Mein Führer was trustworthy, but look what he has done to my country.” She gestured at the fallen buildings and the people running to save their lives. “He is going to Märchenbrunnen. The key is under turtle.”
The sound of approaching aircraft had me worried.
“We’re getting the hell out of here, with or without you,” Marco told Caiyan as he grabbed my hand and yanked me in the direction of the park.
“I’ve got to find Toches before he gets the key,” Caiyan yelled at Marco.
“He doesn’t have the vessel,” I said, trying to calm the two men over the air-raid sirens and the distant sounds of more oncoming aircraft.
“Yes, he knows of vessel.” Anna began to sob. “He threatened to kill my Isla if I didn’t tell him.”
“Don’t worry; we’ll find him,” I said. I told her Isla was taking shelter in the basement of the bakery. Anna nodded and gave me a long hug. Thanking Caiyan and Marco, she hurried off in the direction of the bakery.
“Get to the park. I’ll meet you where we landed,” Caiyan said. “Just give me some time to find him before he takes that key.”
Marco helped me walk a few steps. We weren’t that far from the park. “You’ve got twenty minutes, and then we are gone.”
Caiyan nodded and then went to the back of the truck and pulled out the tapestry with the Madonna hidden inside.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Marco asked. “He’s going to steal that painting. Jen, he never changes.”
Caiyan took off at a dead run with the tapestry clamped under his arm, leaving Marco and me alone.
Marco helped me as I limped to the park. Antiaircraft guns shot at the planes from the top of the Flak tower, and a low-flying plane dropped a bomb that had a direct impact on the tower. I thought about all the people taking refuge there. The Flak tower didn’t budge, though the ground was shaking with fright, and buildings were toppling over in surrender.
Just as we reached the park entrance, a bomb exploded nearby, knocking me off my feet and away from Marco. A huge pile of debris separated us. The building adjacent to where we were walking began a crumbling descent.
“Look out!” Marco yelled as the building fragments tumbled between us. We found each other across the hill of debris, and he motioned for me to meet him in the park.
“I’ll go around.” I gestured and hobbled the opposite way, looking for an entrance. I finally found a gaping hole in the fence, climbed through, and headed in the direction of the fountain.
The air was thick with the fog of war, making visibility difficult. I moved slowly, not only because my ankle was sore, but also because I was trying to keep from falling over uprooted trees and debris. As I rounded a corner, I came face-to-face with Toches. We practically bumped into each other. Dangling from his scrawny neck was a gleaming key. I thought it resembled a cloud. The tiny diamonds fell like snowflakes, accumulating in a blanket of sparkles along the base of the medallion. He saw me staring at his key and pulled his coat around his neck.
“I know what you are,” he said, his accent sounding a little less German.
“I know what you are,” I said, my voice sounding a little more frantic. “A murderer.”
That quirky, twisted smile consumed his lips. He reached up and ripped off the mustache. “Is that what they told you?” he asked and tried to push past me. “Out of my way.”
He underestimated my strength, and I pushed back. He wasn’t a big guy, so my push moved him back an inch or two.
“I’ve got to get out of this shithole!” he screamed, his face turning beet red, and he charged at me.
“Not with that key, you’re not!” I braced for impact. “It doesn’t belong to you.”
I dropped my shoulder linebacker-style to offset his hit, but he dodged right at the last minute, and I ended up flat on my face. I turned in time to see a glorious red sleigh appear. I had to blink twice to be sure I wasn’t hallucinating—Santa would have been envious of the beautiful vessel. With debris from the bombing raining down on us, it almost looked like it was snowing.
My first impression was all girl, definitely more yang than yin. This was the vessel of a transporter, not a defender.
Toches was caught off guard at first. I didn’t know what he was expecting, but he slowed down long enough for me to make my move.
I leaped at him, grabbing him by the legs, and we tumbled to the ground.
“Let go of my legs!” he screamed. He clawed at my arms, trying to break my hold. He grabbed my hair and yanked hard. I screeched in pain, and he pulled his legs free, giving me a good kick in the head as he stood and tried to make a run to the vessel.
I rubbed my head, trying to lessen the blow. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash, and someone was running at Toches. He saw it too and made an Olympic effort to run for the sleigh. He jumped inside and was searching the interior, looking for the ancient word
of the Ancalites that would propel him to his destiny.
I struggled to my feet just as Toches gave me an evil smile followed by a finger wave. Time seemed to slow as Marco made a flying leap and tackled him in the sleigh. They fought for a brief second—and then whoosh. They were both gone, and I thought I heard sleigh bells.
* * *
***
* * *
My head was pounding, and I felt the force of each explosion as the bombs tore the city apart. I needed to get to the other side of the fountain for the rendezvous with Caiyan.
As I approached the remains of the Märchenbrunnen, I saw a figure on the other side of the empty fountain. The upper half of his body was bending into the pedestal of one of the turtle statues. As I came closer, I recognized the tight ass sticking up in the air as belonging to Caiyan. He rose from the base as if his Spidey sense had told him I was near.
“Good. Yer here.”
“You can stop looking. Toecheese has the key.”
“Damn, do ye know how many turtle statues are in this fountain?” Caiyan paused and dropped his head down on his arm, exhausted from the scavenging. “Weel have to catch Toches back home.” Caiyan glanced behind me, and a faint look of alarm crossed his face. “Where’s Marco?”
“Toecheese took Marco.”
“What?” Caiyan gave me his undivided attention. I explained about the sleigh and both of them vanishing into thin air. I also told him my theory about the sleigh being a transporter’s vessel.
“Huh, I didnae know it was a transporter’s vessel. That’ll make it difficult fer him until he has it trained.” Caiyan resumed his digging. I bent over the hole and saw he was using a small shovel to dig a hole in the dirt-and-rubble-filled base of the turtle statue.
“If you would pause from your thieving for a moment, I would like to go home and find Marco.”
Caiyan bent and picked up the tapestry, checking to make sure the painting hidden inside was secure. “I’m saving the art,” Caiyan said as he laid the tapestry gently in the hole. He reached into his pocket, retrieved the pouch with the ruby ring, and dropped it in the hole.
“Are you nuts?” I asked. “Did you hear me? Marco just disappeared with Toches, and that painting isn’t going to last seventy years buried in the dirt until you can recover it in the present.”
Caiyan stood, wiped both hands on his jacket, and placed them on my shoulders. “’Tis valuable, and I will find another way to get it when things are not so…dangerous.”
I stood with my mouth hanging open. Come back here? Who was this man who risked his life to save a painting? A glint of something shiny caught my eye. On the ground at my feet was the painting of the woman in gold. Anna’s mother was staring up at me. “Wait!” I cried before Caiyan could fill the hole. I handed him the painting.
“Toches must have left it behind.” He rolled it up, tossed it in with his other treasure, and began covering it with dirt and rubble from the surrounding ground.
At least the woman in gold would be safe from any brigands trying to hunt down Anna for the key.
“Please, lassie, help me move this turtle back to its original spot.” He strained as he tried to heave the stone statue into place. I pushed from the back end, and we managed to get the rectangular base of the turtle statue aligned with the stone pedestal carved into the fountain.
Caiyan held his palm up for a high five to celebrate our accomplishment, but the air-raid sirens began crying out their miserable warning, and his face changed from victorious to serious. “Jen, call yer vessel.”
I looked around to make sure it was all clear.
“It doesnae matter if someone sees. They willnae be around to claim witness.” I placed my hand to my neck and summoned my vessel. My outhouse appeared under the only undestroyed tree left in the park.
We made a run for it. Bombs dropped around us like hail from the planes overhead, and gunfire lit up the sky from the Flak towers. We jumped into my vessel together. I covered my ears against the roar of the plane’s engines and screamed my word. I heard Caiyan yell, “Not Gitmo!” But it was too late; I was driving my vessel to the safest place I knew…and destroying Caiyan’s chance of traveling in the process.
Chapter 10
My vessel landed. I didn’t want to look at Caiyan. I knew he would be mad, but I was mad too. He had put our lives in danger with his stupid attempt to get a new key. I glanced at my watch and saw it was 9:00 a.m. It had been around three in the afternoon when we’d left Berlin. The time change, combined with the time-travel lag, was going to kick my butt. I turned toward Caiyan. He was slouched against the wall of my vessel, wearing a stony expression. He seemed disappointed in me. Well, it goes both ways, buster.
“Jen, ye brought me to my prison.” His Armani suit was covered in mud. My vessel knew he had hurt me, and it had backed me up by changing his clothes but leaving him filthy.
“I know. I think maybe it’s for the best.” I bit my bottom lip.
Before we could sort out our differences of opinion, Jake yanked open my vessel’s door. He stood staring at us.
“McGregor—that figures. I should have known you’d be the instigator. Both of you, out now!” He was angrier than I had ever seen him. I felt like Maverick and Goose in the movie Top Gun when they got busted for buzzing the tower. Caiyan climbed down from the platform. He didn’t turn to help me down as he normally did when we traveled together.
“You’re late!” Jake barked. He squinted at me. “And why are you red?”
I looked down at my hands and saw they were still tinted with the red paint. I guess there are some things even my vessel couldn’t remove. “It’s paint,” I said as I clumsily tried to maneuver out of my vessel, thankful I was back in my sexy red dress. My ankle was swollen and painful, but I refused to ask for help.
Jake and Caiyan both stared as I flashed a long leg while stepping down from the landing square.
Jake motioned to two rather large men in black suits who were standing behind him and then turned on his heel and left the hangar. The men escorted us to the blue room.
“Do ye gorillas jest hang out in here waiting for someone to land?” Caiyan asked along the way, causing one of the men to tighten his hold on my arm. They deposited us in the room and then stood at attention on either side of the door frame, just in case one of us might try to make an escape from the most secure prison in the world.
The credenza, which normally held only a fresh pot of coffee, was loaded with pastries and kolaches. My stomach rumbled, reminding me it had been a long time since I’d had anything to eat.
“Sit, both of you,” Jake said as he shut the door behind him but remained standing. Both of us sat down across the table from each other. My hunger was silenced by guilt.
“You’re not supposed to be traveling,” Jake said, pointing a finger at Caiyan. “And you”—he turned toward me—“you were supposed to report for duty at six hundred hours. What the hell were you thinking?”
I was thinking I was in love and was trying to help the man I loved. I started to speak but shrugged instead. “Are you going to take my key?”
“I can’t!” Jake almost yelled the words, but his self-control grabbed him at the last minute. “I’ve got brigands that need to be followed. The moon cycle’s been open for nine hours, and I had to put your entire team on hold until I knew if you would need help in Berlin.”
Caiyan and I both stared at the ground. I was trying to decide if I should tell Jake about Marco. Would he be in trouble for coming to rescue me? If Jake took Marco’s key away, he would race without the extra protection from his key. But how was I going to rescue Marco without help from Jake and the travel lab?
“Mitchell Mafuso has been traveling back to 1990. I can’t even send you back then,” he said, pointing at me. “It will have to be Campy, and he’s not ready to travel alone. The Cracky clan has another traveler, and now they are dividing up and going back to different times. Not to mention Rogue is back, and God knows where h
e’s going to end up.” Jake dropped his arms to his sides.
This was good and bad. Good, because they needed Marco, so they would help me find him…and bad, because we had so many brigands to chase.
Caiyan started to disapprove about sending Campy when Jake cut him off. “What do you know about Mitchell’s sister, Mahlia, and Germany in 1945?”
Caiyan grimaced and looked down at his hands. He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Mahlia has been going back to Berlin to the year 1945 the last few travels. We didn’t have a WTF agent available to track her, but since lover boy here snagged you to the same time period, I thought he might know something about this.”
“Do you?” I turned and raised an eyebrow in his direction.
“She might have been helping me locate a lost key.” Caiyan sighed like he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
“You’ve been traveling?” I stood. Now I was mad. “With Mahlia?”
Caiyan remained silent. He was apparently debating how much he wanted to tell me. I knew that look of indecision.
I aimed my anger at Jake. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Jake shook his head. Holding up both hands in front of him, he said, “He doesn’t have a key or a vessel, so he doesn’t show up on the travel screen.” Jake put his hands on his hips and smirked at the fact Caiyan that had been caught and I was pissed. “It’s almost like a NAT going back in time.”
“Before ye were hired…” Caiyan gave Jake a nod and straightened in his chair. He cocked his head to the side as if he had a perfectly good explanation for this mess. “I found a key in the possession of another WTF traveler. We are to report any unclaimed keys to authority, so I did. When the traveler was confronted, he claimed it had been taken by a brigand. My boss at the time, Agent Geoff Grant, asked me to follow up on the key if I ever received any information on its whereabouts, so I did.”