by W. J. May
“You in?” Julian’s voice echoed through the small earphone plugged into her ear.
“Yes,” she whispered back.
“Good. I knew you could do it.”
“Easy peasy.” She giggled, probably more out of nervousness than anything.
“Okay… give me one sec… alright, go!”
She burst into a fast sprint running up the darkened stairwell to the main floor.
“Alarms are off. You’ve got about two minutes forty seconds.”
Rae nodded, and sprinted down the marbled floor of the main room the moment she pushed open the stairwell’s fire door. She had never pushed herself this fast, and could feel her heart and body protesting the strain. She reached the room with the book in no time. Rae didn’t even pause, pulling the little contraption Julian had given her out of her back pocket. She went to work, setting the little round stickers where they needed to be, and exhaling a quick breath as she wiped her hands over her black tights.
“Here goes,” she mouthed to herself. She closed her eyes, and lifted the front end of the glass case.
It didn’t budge.
She opened her eyes and tried again. “It’s not moving!”
She heard nothing in reply. There was only radio silence on the other end from Julian.
Crap! She knew the seconds were ticking away. Rae scratched her eyebrow, wracking her brain for a solution. She went through the motions again, as she had practiced them in her head over and over, and in the process, noticed the pen-like object inside the little case of stickers. Of course! How could I forget? She grabbed it and twisted. A sharp wedge appeared. She pushed it between the wood and glass and then put her weight on top of it.
The glass lifted, but not enough. Rae switched to a strength tatù, and held the case up. With her left hand, she turned the book two pages back. What was revealed was another one of the weird drawings like the one from the page on display. She couldn’t quite tell what it was, but it didn’t look like anything special. Is this the right page? The pages weren’t numbered, but it had to be the correct page. She pulled gently, but the book twisted, all of it preferring to come instead of just the single page. Seriously? Why can’t this be easier? She wedged her bicep against the glass, groaning from the weight of it against her muscle. Crap! This thing is heavy. What is it made out of? Oh yeah, now that I’m stuck in this situation I think of all the good questions I should have asked earlier. Fabulous.
Using both hands, she steadied the book with one and pulled the sheet out with the other. It finally came free, and she quickly put the book back as close to the original spot as possible. Rae pulled the paper out of the case and lowered the glass.
Switching back to Devon’s tatù, she let her eyes readjust to the darkness as she pulled a plastic sleeve out of the small pouch on her hip. She unrolled it and slipped the paper inside of it. Almost out of here. Tick tock Rae. She shoved it under her shirt, tucking it into the waistband of her tights.
Pulling the round stickers off as fast as she could, she stuffed them back in the little pencil case, along with the pen-object, which closed with one simple twist.
“One minute, Rae. The guard’s heading back.” Julian whispered calmly in her ear.
She double-checked that she was leaving nothing behind, before sprinting out of the room and back to the stairwell. Rae flinched when the door clicked shut behind her, but by that point the thundering of her heart would have drowned out the sound of an alarm going off.
She nearly fell on the second to last step of the stairs, just barely catching herself, and using the railing for balance. Back near the door, Rae frantically looked around for a place to hide.
Nothing! Nothing! Where’s a handy pile of boxes when you need them?
Through the little glass window, she could see the guard walking down the steps outside. She pressed herself tight against the wall on the left side of the door. I am so screwed. Oh man! Think! There has to be something. She thought back to when the guard had lit his cigarette, and, in a flash, realized he was left handed and the door opened left to right. He would come through with the left side of his body first. He would be just slightly angled, but his left eye would skim the room. She bent down and twirled over to the right side of the door, and pressed her lips tight together. She spun around so her face was against the cool wall. She shut her eyes tight and froze. Please let this work.
She heard the key in the lock, and felt the door open. A moment later, the guard stepped in. Go! She slipped right behind him, and using Jennifer’s tatù, tore up the stairs and across the small field of grass. She heard the door click shut, but didn’t stop. All Rae wanted at that point was to be done with it. She ran as fast as she could till she reached the fence. Without slowing, she leapt into the air, hurdling the six-foot metal barrier. In a single bound! Ha!
Rae landed on the grass outside near the sidewalk, and slowly stood. She let out the breath she had no idea she’d been holding, and let her hands fall to her knees. After several big gulps of air, she forced herself to calm down and began walking. She stayed in the shadows until the sidewalk met up with a street. She stepped under the street light and hit the pedestrian crossing button.
As she waited for the light to change, she heard someone calling her name. She turned around, but didn’t see anyone.
That voice…Julian? Why can’t I…?
She felt her ear, realized the earpiece had wiggled out, and pressed the earpiece back in, realizing that she was lucky it hadn’t fallen out. “Hey, Juls.” She could feel herself grinning, but didn’t care.
“You okay? Where are you?”
The panic in his voice made her smile more. She couldn’t help it. She had just broken in and stolen something for the Privy Council without getting caught. What a rush! Holy bloody smokes! “I’m almost at the café.” She crossed the road and quickened her pace, making a conscious effort not to use one of her tatùs. “Look out the window, toward your left.”
She waved at him and gave him the thumbs up. Julian grabbed his computer and iPad, stuffing them into his backpack. He threw it over his shoulder, and grabbed Rae’s backpack before racing out of the café, and grabbing her to hug her tight. “Thank goodness you’re alright.” Julian quickly stepped back and straightened, his face turning into a mask to hide his feelings. “Sorry. I knew you could do it. Just glad you’re alright.”
Rae ignored his awkward reaction and grinned, too excited to care. She patted her stomach. “I got what we came here for.”
“Then we’re good to go?”
“No trace, no face.”
He glanced at her sideways as they began walking back to the subway. “We can stay tonight or if you want, there’s still a last train out of town. We can be back at Guilder just after midnight.”
“Sure. Let’s go home. Back. Let’s go back to Guilder.” Sometimes Guilder felt like home. She just wished she hadn’t said it out loud.
“You did good, Rae.”
She punched him in the arm as he handed her bag back. “Do you want to see the paper?” She glanced at the near empty street. “No one’s going to see us and if they do, it won’t mean anything.”
He looked around and shrugged. “Sure, why not?”
Rae pulled the paper out from under her shirt. The plastic reflected the light of the street lamp above them so she held it up toward it to get a better view.
Julian’s gasp sent prickles down her spine. “What’s wrong?” she asked him. He pointed to the paper and she followed his finger. “It’s like a module of some kind. Do you know what it is?”
Julian shook his head. “Look at the light through the paper. You can see the other side.
Rae moved slightly so she stood under the picture and did as he told. She froze when she saw what had made him gasp.
There was a drawing on the other side of the page. The reflection of the street light showed it through the old paper.
It was a picture of her mother.
Chapter 15
More Questions
“That’s impossible.” Rae flipped the paper over and stared in disbelief. The hand drawn image was a portrait of her mom.
Oddly, she thought of her mother’s note. The one in her room at the back of the Whimsie case. A memory surfaced about building blocks or puzzles she remembered doing as a child. It’s a link to the past. She had no clue how, but somehow the note and this five-hundred-year-old drawing were connected.
“How can that be?”
Julian’s question brought her out of her deep thoughts. “I have no idea.” She decided to go with the truth. “I’m pretty sure it’s my mother.”
Julian looked skeptical. “It looks...” He tilted his head. “I don’t know, I’ve never met your mother.”
“The picture’s hand drawn and super old.”
“No wonder the Privy Council wanted you to get it.” Julian reached for the picture. “Let’s put this in your backpack and get out of here.”
She nodded and stood still as he unzipped the bag on her back, waiting as he stuffed it inside and closed the bag.
They walked in stunned silence to the subway.
“I should probably change,” she said as they passed a public washroom. She slipped into the ladies and switched back to her “street” clothes.
Julian handed her a sandwich when she came out. “Grabbed these from the deli over there.” He began eating his.
They couldn’t sit next to each other on the subway as it was crowded with people. There were only two separate seats, one near the front and one near the middle. They did the same thing when they boarded the train.
She sent him a text from her phone:
Rae: What time do we get in?
Julian: Just before midnight. We debrief with PC ASAP.
Rae: Okay.
She had no idea what that meant, but figured she would find out shortly enough. She leaned back against her seat and let her eyes close. The gentle lulling of the train helped her fall asleep.
She dreamt she was a child again. She and her mother were sitting outside on a blanket in the backyard. Her mother had a picnic basket, but instead of food, there were odd toys and things inside. Rae played with the pieces, trying to fit weird shaped blocks together to build a tower. It didn’t come out right. Her mother laughed and put the completed piece back in the basket. Rae continued to play with each building toy, and her mother kept putting everything she made into the basket. When all the pieces were done, she closed the lid and put the clasp on it so Rae wouldn’t be able to open it again to play with the pieces. There were two letters on the top of the picnic basket: PC. When her mother picked it up to carry it into the house, Rae saw two letters on the bottom XK.
Rae woke with a jerk and stared vacantly around. She sat hugging her backpack tight while people were getting off. Where they still on the subway? Her dazed brain took a moment to remember.
Julian shook her shoulder slightly. “Train’s stopped.”
She yawned and rubbed her eyes, before slinging her bag over her shoulder and following Julian off the train and to his car.
They drove to the PC training facility. Neither spoke. Rae’s mind raced back and forth between the dream and the drawing in her bag. As Julian punched the code to get into the PC’s training facility, a sudden thought struck her. “Julian, do you think the person who drew that image of my mother had your drawing ability? Like seeing into the future?”
Julian sat back in the driver’s seat and closed the window. He drove the car through the gates as they opened slowly. Just when Rae thought he might not have heard her, Julian answered quiet and thoughtful. “I’ve been wondering that. A Tudor scientist with the tatù ability to see the future?”
Not liking Julian’s serious tone, Rae tried to joke, “Could have proven pretty handy in keeping one’s head connected to their neck, especially in those days.”
Julian didn’t even crack a smile. “But to see this far into the future? I get seconds, and only if I focus solely on it. Otherwise it’s barely a second.”
“But you draw the future. Your drawings are further than a second.” She thought back to the time he’d given her a drawing that had warned about Lanford. He hadn’t known what it meant, but he had drawn it days before it happened.
“I guess so… but five hundred years into the future?”
“Maybe I have a great, great, ka-gillion great-grandmother the artist had a crush on?”
“Maybe.” Julian parked the car in the underground garage and gathered his stuff. Rae did the same. They walked side by side into the training facility. He led her into a conference room just before the gymnasium. Rae had never noticed the door before.
Jennifer and Carter sat inside, with several other men Rae did not recognize. Jennifer gave Rae a critical stare, as if assessing Rae’s body for injury or something out of the norm. When Jennifer nodded, Rae had no idea if it was directed at her or simply to herself.
Rae sat beside Julian on the far end of the table. Weird set up. Not so employee-manager friendly.
Julian cleared his throat and pulled his iPad out of his pack. He used it to illustrate as he explained in detail how they assessed the museum, ran through every possible scenario while at the safe house, and then what he did while Rae was inside the museum stealing the book’s page. Julian opened a notebook as he talked and Rae saw he had listed off everything they had done – minus any conversations that did not involve the book’s page.
Rae noticed little drawings and doodles on the margins and blank parts of the book. One or two of them kind of looked like her. She wondered for a moment if he had known about the picture inside the ancient book. Maybe they were just coincidental.
Carter asked several questions as did two of the three men sitting at the table. Julian answered everything.
Jennifer interrupted Carter when he commented on the unique hall. She waved her hand. “The hall’s not important. Rae, tell us what you did to get to the manuscript.”
Rae looked at Julian, who nodded in encouragement. “I didn’t have to do much. From the sounds of it, Julian had his hands full. A lot more than I did.” She reached under the table for her backpack and paused when Julian’s hands stopped her. She didn’t know why, but she got the feeling he didn’t want her to pull out the page yet. Julian was one of the few people she trusted without conscious thought. So, she continued her debriefing. “Once I was through the door, I raced up the stairs and ran into the hall, then into the room and used that tool-thing Julian described to you to get the page from the manuscript. Then I got the heck out of Dodge and met up with Julian.”
One of the men leaned over to Carter and whispered loudly. “Who’s Dodge?”
Seriously? Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or the long day, or everything, but Rae couldn’t stop her flash of irritation. “It means, I got out of there as fast as I could.”
“How?” the clueless man asked. “What tatù did you use? The same one the entire time?”
Everyone at the table leaned in. Even Julian seemed like he wanted to know. So this is a debriefing. Seems more like an excuse to ogle my abilities. “I started with Riley’s tatù as I approached the museum, except—”
“What’s a Riley tatù?”
Oh my freakin’ goodness. They were going to be here all night. “Riley has a cheetah tatù, but it’s like being strung out on about a billion cups of coffee, so I had to switch to another. I used Devon’s – I used a fennec fox inside the building. It gave me speed, better night vision and hearing. I left using Jennifer’s tatù.” She didn’t bother explaining that one, as she was sure everyone at the table knew Jennifer’s ability. She was right.
“You retrieved the paper?” Carter asked.
Rae unzipped her backpack and just before she slid the plastic cover with the sheet of paper inside it, she hesitated. The paper had the portrait drawing on the side facing the table. Now was possibly the only time she would have to ask questions and get half-way honest answers. It was a ga
mble, but she had something they wanted. At that point in time, she knew something they didn’t. She might not get another chance like this. So, she went for it.
“Do you know what is on the pages?”
“Rae!” Julian hissed.
The table went silent. A full minute passed before one of the unknown men answered her. Rae found it interesting that it wasn’t Carter who replied.
“We have an idea.”
“None of you have seen it?” she pressed.
It took a moment but everyone at the table shook their heads.
“Why didn’t you get one of the historians or English teachers at Guilder request to have a look? I’m sure the museum would have gladly let a professional in, or at least let you look at other pages. It seems silly to have to break in.”
Julian kicked Rae’s shin as a warning to close her mouth. She pressed her lips tight to stop herself from saying “ouch!”
Carter nodded. “Your question is a valid one. We did not want to raise suspicion. Trust me when I say this was the best method of retrieving the page before someone else did.”
Like the Xavier Knights? Rae held the question in and leaned back against her chair. She didn’t miss Julian’s sigh of relief. Rae leaned forward and slid the paper across to Carter. It stopped perfectly in front of him. “Why is there a drawing of my mother on the other side?”
Jennifer grabbed the paper and flipped it over before Carter had a chance. “What the…?” She gasped and looked at the portrait and then at Rae. “That’s not your mother, that’s you.”
All the men at the table stared at the portrait and then at Rae.
What? What is she talking about? “It’s my mother,” she repeated dumbly.
“No,” Jennifer said slowly. “It’s you. The hair is curly, your mother had straighter hair. I knew your mother when she was nearly the same age as you. This isn’t her.”