Matt grinned. “If I know too much as it is, then it can’t hurt if I learn a little more.”
Page thought about that for a moment and then nodded. “True. And I may need some help. Since it’s your fault I don’t have my helpers with me, you’ll have to take their place, until I have them back. So, how do I go about this?”
Matt shook his head. “About what? You’ve got to give me more of a hint if you want my help.”
“I’m here as an authorized recipient, to access funds from the Travelers’ Trust.”
Matt nodded, his brain already connecting the dots. Setting up a trust in the past made sense as a way to get money into the hands of time-travelers, if there was a way to get it started properly in the first place. Which someone must have done for Page to be able to know about it—probably back in the days when regulations were a lot less strict. Amazing if it’s actually survived to the present day.
He waved his arm at what he presumed to be a customer service desk, where a young man in a nice blue suit sat behind a computer screen placed atop an antique cherry oak desk. “Let’s try over here. If he can’t, I imagine he’ll at least know who can deal with a complicated issue like yours.”
Matt helped Page into one of the comfortable leather chairs and dropped himself into the other. “Good morning.”
“One minute, please.” The young man continued tapping on his keyboard for a minute and then turned to face them—and noticed Page for the first time. “I’m terribly sorry for making you wait, miss. Now, how can I help you today?”
Page was all business. “I don’t want this to take any longer than necessary. I’ve got shopping to do. I’m a recipient of the Travelers’ Trust stipend, and I need some cash.”
The young man blushed and cleared his throat. “Let me get Mr. Hemmings for you. He’s the branch manager. It will only take me a moment.” Then he sprang out of his chair and scurried off.
While he was gone, Matt managed to get in a quick question. “If someone went back into the past and established this trust, how are you supposed to access those funds?”
Page glanced around to make sure no one was watching. “I’ll need the device to show you.”
He shook his head. “Here, I’ll hold it out, and you can do whatever you need to do with it. But I’ll keep hold of the thing. As insurance.”
“You still don’t trust me?”
“You don’t trust me yet. I guess we’ll have to work on the whole trust thing.”
Matt held the watch out low between them, so no one could see. Page stretched her fingers to push the buttons on the side of the watch and leaned in to peer at the tiny screen. He held it firmly, but all she did was move her lips as she read.
She leaned up and back into her chair. “Thank you. Matt.” Her tone had bite to it, but he thought she was being sincere.
“Care to tell me what that was all about?”
“The bank gets a new code for each day. An app on the device generates an alphanumeric sequence to match that, based on the date and according to an encrypted algorithm.”
He thought it was pretty sophisticated, but if it had all been set up far in the past, it had to be pretty low-tech on the bank’s end of things. As a mathematician Page would understand how it worked. Of course, so did he.
The young man returned, followed by a middle-aged fellow who was the perfect image of a respectable banker and a smart young woman who would be his secretary. Though she wouldn’t be called that.
The banker discreetly examined them both, and from the fleeting look on the man’s face, Matt didn’t think either of them passed muster. But his voice was pleasant enough as he introduced himself.
“I’m Mr. Hemmings, the branch manager. And you are?”
“Here for the Travelers’ Trust stipend,” Page blurted out without preamble. “You’ll need today’s access code. It’s 4K—”
Mr. Hemmings held up his hands in a rush to stop her. “Not here.” Though the only other people around were the secretary and the clerk. “Come to the conference room.” He nodded to his secretary. “Grab your memo pad and the fingerprint kit.”
Matt and Page followed him to a spacious room with a giant table and comfortable chairs. Seating themselves, they waited for the woman to turn up. As soon as she arrived with pad and pen to take it down, Page rattled off the access code.
Mr. Hemmings took the sheet his secretary tore from her notepad, folded it, and stuffed it into his breast pocket. “Now, your name please. I presume you’ll want to set up a subsidiary account, and Ms. Dervan here will take your thumbprint for our records.”
“My name is Page. I suppose I might as well set up the account now, for the future. But what I really need is some quick cash, so I can buy some decent clothes.”
Mr. Hemmings’ head had snapped up when she said her name, but he didn’t blink an eye at the rest of it. “I’ll leave you with Ms. Dervan while I confirm your eligibility.” He turned, then walked out of the room, hopefully to do what he’d said he’d do.
The secretary took Page’s thumbprint and left, leaving them alone for the first time in forever. Or that was how it felt. Trying to think what he might say, he watched Page while she sat staring into the distance. Ms. Dervan returned before he had come up with anything.
The woman ignored him completely and talked to Page. “Mr. Hemmings confirmed your access to the funds. How much are you requesting?”
“It’s already late November. I’ll take whatever remains of this year’s stipend.”
Ms. Dervan nodded. “A small portion was withdrawn earlier in the year, but the bulk of the funds are still available.” She pursed her lips for a minute. “You said you needed cash for clothes shopping—I presume you’ll need a sizable amount for that. How much? And the rest in your account? We’ll order a debit card for you to use to access those funds.”
“Nice clothes appear to be quite expensive.” Her gaze drifted, and Matt knew she would be doing the math in her head, extrapolating from the prices she had seen in the one shop she’d been in. “Ten thousand should be enough. I only have today to shop—then I’ll be leaving. So I won’t want the debit card. Not now.”
Ms. Dervan nodded with a blank face, but she seemed to understand. “I notice you don’t have a purse. We can provide a bag to carry the cash in.”
Page clenched her jaw. “My beautiful bag was stolen.” When the secretary didn’t say a word, Page continued, “I suppose it’s a paper sack or something you’ll put it in for Matt to carry?”
Ms. Dervan displayed an admirable lack of response. “I’d be happy to find you something nicer than that.” She looked Page up and down. “There’s an accessory boutique not far from here that carries a nice leather bag. Black, to match your boots. And large enough to hold the money you’ll be withdrawing. Of course, the price will be deducted from the funds being made available to you.”
“That sounds fine. Just see that the expense is deducted from what’s going into the account, not from the ten thousand.”
The secretary made a quick notation. “At any point in the future you can come back and we’ll get you that debit card.”
Page simply nodded.
Ms. Dervan offered a thin smile. “Then I’ll see about acquiring that purse for you and taking care of your withdrawal.” She started for the door. “By the way, Mr. Hemmings had something he needed to check on. I expect he’ll be back to talk with you soon.” And she was gone.
Matt wouldn’t have minded waiting, hoping as he did for another minute alone with Page, but the banker entered soon after his secretary had left.
The man cleared his throat a couple of times before speaking. “I’m afraid this is rather unusual—” Matt could almost hear him thinking how the whole business was unusual, but the man didn’t say it out loud. “As it happens, seven years ago another trust recipient rented a safe deposit box here. And gave the bank instructions that the contents of the box should be made available to any future trust recipients who h
appened to be named Anya or Page.”
“My name is Page.”
“Well, yes. Exactly. Since no Anya has yet appeared, I’m obliged to inform you about the box and its circumstances—and give you the opportunity to examine its contents. What you would do with what it contains would be up to your discretion.”
Matt felt sorry for Hemmings. The man must have been burning with curiosity, between the unusual aspects of the complicated trust and now this. But it was an itch the banker would never be able to scratch. Still, it was part of the job.
Page looked at the man for a long minute. “Who left the box?”
Mr. Hemmings coughed into his hand. “I’m not at liberty to reveal that. But I might conjecture that the contents could reveal the person’s identity.”
“I suppose I should at least take a look inside. Can I go ahead and do that right now? Since I have to wait anyway.”
The banker smiled with a little nod. “Certainly, Miss Page. I’ll escort you to the vault myself.” He paused and glanced at Matt.
She shook her head. “He can wait here. I think I should examine this by myself.”
Matt smiled to show he didn’t mind. “Alright, you go satisfy your curiosity. I have other things to occupy my thoughts.”
Page’s smile in return was disingenuous. She turned and followed Mr. Hemmings out, and once she’d gone Matt allowed himself a deep sigh. He’d enjoy getting out of here to take her around town, even if it was to go clothes shopping, but then she’d want to return to two thousand and find her fellow time-travelers. Back to the present, from his point-of-view, where she would leave him behind.
He pulled her watch from his jeans pocket and strapped it around his wrist and was pondering the life he would soon return to when the door opened and Page returned. Seeing the look on her face, he flew out of his chair to meet her, though he had no idea what he could do.
She was alone and white as a sheet, and in her hands she clutched an envelope and another watch like the one Matt held for her. He reached out for her hand, but she pulled back without even looking at him. He looked into her beautiful blue eyes and saw the wheels behind them were turning fast.
Matt couldn’t help but wonder what had caused this reaction—if it were whatever was in that envelope, or something about that watch. Or could there have been more in the box that she had left behind? “Are you alright? What’s wrong?”
Page shook herself, and the color suffused itself back into her face. She sat down in the chair she’d left a little while ago and took a moment before she folded the envelope with care and stuffed it into her jeans pocket. Then she focused on the watch she still held in her hands.
“This is a device similar to mine—the one you continue to hold hostage. Its capabilities are more limited though. It can’t Travel on its own, but if it’s within range of a leader device like mine when it’s used for Traveling, then it develops a sympathetic field attuned to the leader. It transports the wearer along in the same field, to the same destination. Or close to it.”
Matt nodded. “I suppose that means we don’t have to hold on to each other for dear life when we go back to two thousand then. What’s the range?”
Page almost smiled. “You’re quick, I like that. But I’m not sure I should tell you—we’re still working on our trust issues, remember? And we’d better stay as close as possible when we Travel. It seems that distance increases on arrival. That’s how I lost my helpers when I first landed.”
Matt nodded. “I noticed that when we arrived on that cliff top in Montauk, we were farther apart than when we’d left. The edge of the bluff was badly eroded. If it weren’t for that separation, we’d likely both have fallen over when it crumbled.”
Page dismissed that with a wave of her hand. “Even my leader device shouldn’t have Traveled the two of us—the watches are only meant to transport one person.” She frowned. “They’re also supposed to Travel to the same physical location. I suppose you must have accidently changed the coordinates somehow. Or maybe it was just an error caused by there being two of us and one device.”
“Your time-travel devices ought to be more reliable than they seem to be. You didn’t have a hand in programming them, did you?”
She glared at him. “Anyway, the point is this—you don’t have to worry about being abandoned in the past anymore. I’ll give you this helper device so you can be sure you’ll be Traveling with me when I go. We can exchange watches now. Then when that woman brings my money we’ll go shopping.”
Matt started shaking his head right away. “I’ll hold onto this one a little longer. I’m not sure I trust you. After all, you didn’t even tell me how close I’d have to stick to you to be in range.”
“Because you’re my helper for now, and I don’t want you to abandon me—without the range, you’ll have to remain right by my side. Why would I leave you behind?”
He didn’t want to argue. He knew he wouldn’t abandon Page and he needed to make sure she kept him close a little longer. “Show me how to operate your device, and I can be the leader.”
Page glared at him. “No. If you’re going to keep my watch, you’ll have to rely on me to set it for you. As long as you don’t know how to use it, then I can trust you won’t find a way to leave me behind. Another reason not to tell you the range.”
Matt nodded. “Stalemate. I guess we have no choice but to stick close to each other. At least until we get back to two thousand.”
“You’re being ridiculous—”
He knew she would’ve continued the argument, but the door opened and Ms. Dervan entered. The secretary was carrying a large black leather bag. It bulged, presumably with all that cash Page intended to blow on clothes. It didn’t look much like a purse to Matt. But it matched the boots he’d bought Page and was big enough to hold the money.
Page eyed the thing critically. It was classy and expensive, so it must’ve been the bulge she objected to. She gestured at Matt, and Ms. Dervan dumped the thing into his arms as he held them out. It clearly wasn’t the weight Page didn’t like, since she was having him carry it.
The secretary turned to Page. “The receipts for the cash withdrawal and the bag and your account information are in the bag, on top of the money. Is there anything else?”
Page shook her head. “That will be sufficient.” She stood and gestured at Matt and walked out with him following.
He trailed after Page across the lobby and out of the bank. He would have a difficult time trying to take care of her, holding the heavy bag and keeping up as she stalked down the sidewalk.
He almost had to yell to make sure she’d hear. “Where do you think you’re going? We should take a taxi. You can afford to be driven around in style now.”
He really wanted her to take that taxi—it would be safer with all this money, and it would be a load off his arms as well as his mind.
Matt played his hole card. “All the nicest shops are down by Times Square. That’s a long walk.”
Page paused and turned to squint at him. “You might actually know what you’re talking about. If you don’t know anything about clothes, you should at least know enough about this city. Alright. Get me a cab.” Then her eyes widened as they traveled over his shoulder. “I don’t believe it.”
Matt tried not to be irritated with her. “What can’t you believe? An available taxi?”
She shuddered. “Those thugs from the train. The ones you tripped over.”
Matt didn’t bother trying to correct her. “What about them. Surely you don’t mean—”
Page grabbed his arm. “They’re down the street behind you, coming this way. They see us.”
“They could hardly miss us.” Matt fought down a flutter in his stomach. Protecting Page with arms full would be a challenge, so he tried to shift the bag onto her, where it belonged anyway. She pushed it back into his arms. “Are you sure they’re the same ones? They’d have had to follow us all the way into Penn Station and on the subway and all the way to the ban
k. It hardly seems likely.”
“Look for yourself.”
Matt glanced behind him and saw the very delinquents they’d encountered on the train. That is not good. They must have wanted payback pretty bad to have gone to all the trouble of following him and Page across the city. Matt doubted they’d fail to understand the significance of the bulging bag he’d carried out of the bank—which would provide them extra motivation. This is going to get ugly.
He grabbed Page’s hand with his own sticking out from under the bag. “Come on. Move.”
Page stood still. “They wouldn’t dare do anything here in the open with all these people around. We couldn’t outrun them anyway.”
Matt wondered what it would take to wake her up to the reality of life in the city. But she was right about one thing—there was no way to outrun those hoods, but he had to get her out of harm’s way and there was only one way he could do that under the circumstances. He hoped the thing was sufficiently recharged.
He didn’t have time to ask or to have her show him how to operate it properly. Or even let her do it herself.
As the ruffians closed in, Matt was already fiddling with the watch as he shifted the bag and tried to remember exactly what he’d done when he was playing with it in the clinic this morning.
He did the same thing again. Only this time he had his arms full of the bulky bag. He’d rather have been holding Page.
Chapter 9
Partners in Crime
July 1st, 1994 Midtown Manhattan
SAM sat up against her quiet patch of wall, leaning back on the white brick and sticking her foot out far enough for her bandaged ankle to be plainly visible. She had sent Bailey out to look for food, and twenty-nine hours ago he’d returned with an explanation. Which he’d finished making by the time the woman from the shelter showed up in a taxi.
The man had usurped her observation post, and she’d had little choice but to go along with it, since it had been a good idea. At least she’d gotten a ride to the place. And medical attention, a hot meal, and a good night’s rest. She’d made him promise though, to stick to the target and to give her a full report.
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