She’d kept busy since the team last met. Thinking about leaving, about what the team would be doing without her, about the threat Colin posed—obsessing about all of it would drive her crazy if she let it, so she worked continuously to keep her mind occupied.
Today, they were restocking linen supplies.
“You want to finish up here?” Marcus asked. “I’m supposed to meet Karl before dinner.”
“Sure.”
“I’ll meet you there.”
She nodded, and he leaned in and kissed her lightly before heading out the door. She listened to his footsteps fade. The idea of leaving him made her panic. She kept telling herself that it would only be temporary, but when she allowed herself to think about it, her insides ached.
Just as his footsteps faded almost into inaudibility, they suddenly returned, getting louder and louder. Maggie glanced around the room, wondering what he’d forgotten.
The door opened, but Marcus didn’t say anything or enter.
“Forget something?” Maggie turned and sucked in a quiet breath. “David. I…thought you were Marcus.”
“Can I talk to you?”
The supply room, though really more of a closet than a room, was spacious enough to fit them both comfortably, but butterflies still flared in Maggie’s stomach as she nodded. He came the rest of the way in, closing the door behind him.
He stayed by the door, staring at his shoes for a time as if unsure how to begin.
“I’m not…happy about sending you back to your own time.”
Maggie shrugged uncomfortably. “I don’t think anyone’s happy about it, David, but it’s necessary.”
He nodded. “I know. I just…wanted you to know that.”
When he didn’t speak for a moment, Maggie raised an eyebrow. “Is that all you wanted to talk to me about?”
“Nat told me everything that was said between you and Colin on the island. You said some interesting things—things about God and freedom. I wanted to ask you about them.”
“What do you want to know?”
David shrugged. “How do you know such things with such conviction? I’ve never been able to do that, to feel those things and believe them.”
Maggie sighed. “That’s a long conversation, David. I was raised to believe in a higher power, and I think I always did, but I never truly felt it until that moment. I thought about what Colin was saying, about what the collectives espouse, and I came to the conclusion that belief in anything hopeful supersedes all pessimistic beliefs. Optimism and belief in something greater—something good—is what keeps the human race going, and there’s nothing ignorant or superstitious in that. You don’t have to believe the same things I believe, but belief in good will always out-weight negative philosophies. So, I choose to believe in God. Colin couldn’t comprehend that argument on any level. That’s why the collectives will eventually be brought down. They can’t stand up to the positive force of true beliefs.”
David was staring at the floor and nodding.
“Does that answer your question?”
He raised his eyes, and his gaze bored into hers. “Are you angry at me for giving you that ring?”
Maggie frowned. So perhaps this was the real reason for his visit. She hadn’t thought about it. Should she be angry? Probably. But was she? Anger wasn’t an emotion she felt about the entire situation. She was angry at Colin, of course, especially as he was the reason she had to be sent back to her own time. She was broken-hearted over Clay, but not really angry about anything else that had happened. It simply was.
“No,” she said slowly. “It saved Marcus and Nat’s lives and maybe everyone else’s too. I understand why the others are angry, but I don’t really share that feeling.”
David twitched when Maggie said Marcus’s name. For him, that was more akin to a grimace. He was still relearning how to show his emotions in his face.
“Good.” He breathed. “I hated the idea of you leaving while angry at me.”
Maggie smiled, but the conversation still felt awkward. “Is there anything else?” she asked after another pause.
His penetrating gaze locked on her for several seconds, but then he shook himself. “No. That’s all.” He turned to leave.
“David.”
He froze but didn’t turn.
“Is there something you aren’t telling me? Something you want me to know?”
He turned back to look at her. “There’s a lot I…can’t express yet.”
Maggie put her gaze on the ground briefly before meeting his again. She hadn’t missed his neat side step of the question. “All right, fair enough, but is there something you can tell me but are choosing not to?”
He said nothing, but his look gave the answer.
“David, why wouldn’t you want to tell me something?”
“It’s…personal.”
Maggie immediately felt guilty. David was still getting used to social rules, and she didn’t want him to feel like he had to share something he was uncomfortable with.
“I’m sorry, David. I didn’t mean to pry. Don’t let me invade your privacy—”
He shook his head and put up a hand to stop her. “That’s not what I mean. It may be personal to you. You aren’t mad at me now, but you may be if I…”
Maggie studied him for a moment. He was such a mystery to her. Though she wished to high heaven that her memories of Marcus would return, she did think she was beginning to understand him, but that didn’t help her understand David. Despite being brothers, David and Marcus were mysterious in totally different ways.
Marcus was always in control of his emotions. While he sometimes hid them, at least he was doing it consciously. David, on the other hand, was not in control of his emotions, or at least not of how he expressed them. She often got the feeling that he was as confused about how he felt as she was.
“Just tell me, David.”
He turned fully to her. “There are things they’re hiding from you.”
“Who?”
“The team.”
Maggie tried to keep her face passive. What was he getting at? “I’m sure there are things I don’t know, yet, because no one’s had time to explain them to me, but—”
“No. I’m sure that’s true too, but other things, important things—things they didn’t tell you before, even the last time you were with them.”
Maggie frowned. He was making a serious allegation against the team’s communal honesty. And furthermore, how would he know?
“Like what?”
David sighed. “Maggie, I’m still trying to figure myself out. I’m trying to figure out my past, my feelings—even my break from the collective is hazy. I’m trying to puzzle out what everything was…what everything meant. Maggie, I feel…drawn to you.”
Maggie’s cheeks heated. Was this what his whole I-want-to-talk-to-you thing was about? There was chemistry between them, but she didn’t want to do anything about it. He was Marcus’s brother.
“What I mean is.” He backpedaled upon seeing her expression but then rubbed his forehead, obviously frustrated. “My brain chemistry is drawn to yours.”
Maggie glanced from side to side, unsure what to say. That had to be the worst pick-up line she’d ever heard, or at least the geekiest.
“David.” She tried to be tactful. “What on earth are you talking about?”
There was still frustration in his eyes, but he laughed in spite of it. “What do you know about attractive forces, Maggie?”
“Do you mean magnets or between two people?”
“Both. Our universe is made up of polar objects, so everything exerts an attractive force. Physicists can calculate the attractive force between two people. When it comes to romantic interest, when a person finds something they like or want in another person, their attractive force toward that person increases.”
“You can measure that physically?”
“Yes. By the same token, people who need one another or who can be united in a common purpose
are also drawn to one another. Even if they don’t know it consciously, they find themselves in the same place. If you talk to the people of Interchron, many of them didn’t know that this rebellion existed before they found it. They were simply wandering the earth, looking for a safe place and trying to stay alive. They stumbled onto it, and it was exactly what they were looking for. These are attractive forces at work.”
“Okay, but you said you felt drawn to me. Why?”
“When I left the collective, I was looking for Marcus, or at least I thought I was. I could feel what I was looking for in a particular direction, and I just kept walking toward it. But when I got here”—he stepped toward her—“it was you I zeroed in on, not him. I think it was you I was looking for all along.”
Maggie shrugged uncomfortably. “Why would you be looking for me? You were looking for your brother, for the rebellion, to give them the information about what the collectives were up to.”
David shook his head. “It was you I felt drawn to. I thought, consciously, that I was looking for Marcus. I thought it was him I was feeling far out in front of me, but I would have walked straight to you. The fact that you and Marcus were in the same place was just coincidence.”
He looked down into her face, but she was unable to meet his gaze.
“What’s your point, David? Why are you telling me this?”
“This is what I didn’t have the words to tell everyone before—why I gave you the ring. Maggie, I’m not the only one that feels drawn to you. The entire team does.”
A mental image of Joan hitting on her came to mind. Maggie wanted to laugh but didn’t because she didn’t want David to think she was mocking him.
“The entire team is…attracted to me?”
“They feel drawn to you. Think about it, Maggie. They have Seekers who look for the correct brain chemistries laid out by the prophecy. How do you think they are able to find them? It would take years to search the entire globe physically. More often than not, the people with the right neurological abilities just showed up, drawn here as surely as the sun is drawn to the western horizon. Then there’s you.”
“What about me?”
“You were the only one not born in this period of human history, the only one they had to travel across time to find. How do you think they found you?”
Maggie didn’t know where David was going with this, but she didn’t like it.
“This is what I’m trying to tell you, Maggie. Everyone who is part of the collectives will feel drawn to you—every Arachniman, every Trepid, every drone, this B person, Colin, all of them. They can find their way to you. You exert this magnetic force that everyone on earth can feel. The collectives have been taught to kill you on sight.”
The weight of what he was saying bore down on her, and she felt sick. Why was he telling her this twenty-four hours before she was to go back to her own time?
“Why would I exert this force while no one else does?”
He put his hands on her upper arms. “Because you’re the key, Maggie. The key to the prophecy.”
That got Maggie’s attention. She had heard several others, including Colin, call her that, but she’d never questioned it until now. Why was she the key? What did that make the others? Weren’t they just as important in the prophecy? She rubbed the bridge of her nose. Just when she thought she had everything straight, more mind-numbing questions arose.
“David…wh, why are you—”
“Because I want you to understand what kind of danger you’re in. I want you to understand how important you are. The team knows all of this and is keeping it from you.” He paused then lowered his face until it was only a few inches from hers, and his voice was only a whisper. “And because I want you to understand that Marcus’s feelings may only be a result of the attractive force you exert.”
It took Maggie a second or two to realize what he was saying, but when it sunk in she recoiled from him, putting a hand on his chest and pushing him backward. He didn’t resist, letting her push him back several steps.
“But…I…how can you…” She fled the emptiness that his implication made and let the anger swallow her up. “You’re implying that I’m somehow, unconsciously manipulating Marcus into feeling something for me? If that’s so, how do you know I’m not doing the same thing to you? To all of you?”
He looked at her steadily for several seconds. “Because I can tell the difference. I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s a neurological ability emerging. Perhaps it’s a result of being in the collective, but I can feel, differentiate, almost see the pull you have on people, Maggie. I can even feel the pull you have on me. And I can tell the difference between an attractive pull and the other feelings I may have for people. I’m just not sure that everyone on the team can tell the difference.”
Maggie covered her eyes with her hands then let her finger slide up, digging into her hair and pushing it back. “I’m leaving in less than a day, David. Why are you telling me all this, now?”
She would not have thought there was room for him to get much closer to her, but he stepped forward so that they were toe to toe. He touched her cheek with the back of his index finger.
“I think you know. I’m sorry to upset you, but I couldn’t let you go without knowing you understood.”
He lingered there, hovering above her for another moment before stepping back, turning, and walking toward the door.
Maggie marveled at his retreating form. It was amazing how far he’d come. Less than two weeks before, David had been unable to use the word I or form his own opinions. Now he was processing information, coming to his own conclusions, and acting on them. She couldn’t sense fear in him anymore, only quiet confidence.
“David, wait.”
He turned to her.
“Can I ask you a favor?” She’d wanted to say something to him for days, and what he’d just said made it more awkward.
“Anything,” he said.
“Be patient with Marcus? I know he’s angry at you. I don’t think he’s told me everything that happened when you were kids, so I can’t make any judgments about it.”
“Do you want me to tell you?”
“No. That’s not the point. I think it’s important that the two of you mend your relationship. No matter who you were headed toward when you followed your…senses to Interchron, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you ended up where Marcus is. He’s your brother, and you two need to come to terms with each other. I know Marcus is being stubborn, but will you be patient with him and keep trying?”
David didn’t answer. His gaze was on the floor.
“Will you do it for me, if not for yourself?”
After another pause he nodded. Then he was gone.
Chapter 35: “The Roses Are in Bloom”
An hour before Maggie was set to leave, the team met once more in the conference room. As before, Clay was glaringly absent.
“Maggie,” Doc said from the head of the table. “I want you to know that we have our Seekers and our networks looking for three different people. One is Colin, one is another Concealer to fill the spot on the team, and we are still looking for a Deceiver to take Colin’s spot. Should we find any one of these people, it should be enough to bring you back.”
“How will finding any one of those people help?” Maggie asked.
“If we find Colin, we can find some way to capture or kill him or otherwise neutralize him as a threat.”
Maggie gave him her best suspicious look. “How?”
Doc opened his mouth then hesitated, looking wary. “I don’t think we ought to go into details about that. You won’t be here, and I don’t want to worry you.”
“Which is code for it’s really dangerous and I’m not allowed to be part of it because I have to go to my own time where I’ll be safe?”
Doc gave her a sad smile.
“That’s pretty much the gist,” Karl said.
Maggie opened her mouth, but Doc hurried on.
“If we find a
Concealer with Clay’s abilities, he will be able to hide you from Colin. And I have a hunch that if we can find a Deceiver to fill Colin’s spot, he or she may be able to posit a solution to the Colin problem as well.”
“How?”
“I think he or she may be able to Deceive Colin about your whereabouts, or something along those lines.”
“But Colin’s a Deceiver too, Doc,” Joan said from across the table. “How do you know that will work?”
“As I said, it’s only a theory. Not being a Deceiver myself, I’ve no idea how one can stack up against another, but I’ve been thinking about it ever since we came back from the mission, and it makes sense to me. My point”—he directed his words to Maggie again—“is that I don’t think it will be long before we see you again.”
Maggie cleared her throat. “About that, won’t it be a short time for me one way or the other?”
“What do you mean?”
“Karl’s a Traveler.” She turned to look at him. “You can travel to any point in time you want. Can’t you just come to pick me up a week after you drop me off, regardless of how long it’s been for you guys?”
Karl snorted. “So we have to age ten years, but you’ll still look exactly the same when we see you again? How is that fair?”
The others chuckled, but Maggie’s mouth fell open. “You’re going to wait ten years to come get me?”
Marcus’s hand closed over hers. “Of course not.” She turned to look at him. “He’s exaggerating.” The corners of Marcus’s mouth had turned up, but the look in his eyes was warm and reassuring.
“I’ll leave the exact timing to Karl, as he’s the expert, and from what I understand, time travel is an inexact art. I don’t mind giving you some time, though. You’ve had a lot to deal with these past weeks. For the rest of us, this war is a way of life, and with the exception of Clay’s loss”—his voice cracked when he said Clay’s name—“the drama has built up slowly over time. This has been thrown at you all at once, and I think it would be prudent to give you some time to absorb it. You need time to rest and recuperate.”
Maggie tried not to sigh. “I just don’t want it to take too long. What am I supposed to do with myself? I can’t build up relationships or my business when I know I’ll be severing all my ties again soon. How can I go back to living a normal life, knowing what I know?”
Persistence of Vision Page 34