The Eighth Guardian (Annum Guard)

by Meredith McCardle

  “Eta?” I prod.

  Yellow nods. “Eta seems most likely. I—I hate saying this because she is—was—Violet’s mom, and Violet’s been my friend like forever; but I can see Eta being swayed by the idea of money and power.”

  “What happened to Eta?”

  “She died,” Yellow says, looking down at the ground. “On a mission.”

  “Or do you mean Alpha had her taken out during a mission because she knew too much?”

  Yellow’s head snaps up, and her mouth falls open. “Do you think? I mean—oh my God—he really could have, couldn’t he?”

  I shrug. Because now that the words have come out of my mouth, all I can think about is my dad. That maybe Alpha set it up so that Beta would kill my dad on the mission. So that he wouldn’t have to split the money with him. Maybe my dad was just a pawn. He got caught up in something he didn’t understand and got too far in. Or maybe he was just pretending on the Kennedy mission. It was a sting operation to bring down Alpha and Beta, and Beta got him first.

  Or maybe that’s just the wishful thinking of a girl who doesn’t want to know the truth about the man who’d fathered her.

  I look down at the piece of paper Ariel smuggled into my bracelet. “Okay, so we go back and look for Eta,” I mumble. “Lynn or Maryland?”

  “I’ll take Maryland,” she says.

  I nod. I’m relieved. Getting to Lynn is going to be so much easier. And faster.

  We agree to meet up when we’re done, at the Christian Science reflecting pool in Boston on Christmas Day 1963. We already have the clothes, and it’s safer to stay away from the present, especially in Boston. Who knows what the manhunt looks like now.

  Yellow and I walk to the bus station together. There’s a bus leaving for Lynn in twenty minutes and one leaving for the capital in three hours.

  “Good luck,” I tell her as I climb the steps of a silver bus with a rounded top. She reaches out and squeezes my hand.

  “You, too.”

  The doors close behind me, and I take a seat. Here goes nothing.

  I spend the entire bus ride with my head leaned against the window. When I get out of this—if I get out of this—I’m going to get my mom help. I won’t take no for an answer this time. I need her. I need normalcy. I’m going to haul her to the doctor, then the pharmacy; and I will shove those pills down her throat every damn day if I have to. I won’t let her stop taking them after two weeks—not this time.

  I will be enough for her, goddammit. She will get better for me. I’m only a year away from eighteen. One year before I’m officially an adult. She owes me one last year of a normal childhood.

  Normal.

  I laugh. My father was a time-traveling assassin, and I’m a minor employed by a secret wing of the United States government. That’s as far from normal as you can get.

  The bus drops me off at Market Square, which is somewhere in Lynn. I don’t know. I’ve passed the stops for Lynn on the highway before, but I’ve never been here. I find someone manning the ticket counter. He’s short and squat and wears a greasy blue shirt and an expression that shows he’s none too pleased about working on Christmas Eve.

  “Pardon me,” I say. “I need to get to 1100 Western Avenue. Could you point me in the right direction?”

  The man squints behind his glasses. “What did you say the address was?”

  “1100 Western Avenue.”

  The man’s brow furrows. “The GE plant?”

  “The . . . the what?”

  “GE,” the man says. “General Electric.”

  I’m not sure why, but a funny feeling tickles the middle of my stomach. “Oh, right, yes.” I say it as if all along I was headed to a huge power plant.

  The man points. “That crossroad there is Western. Hang a left and start walking. It’ll be on your left in a mile or so. Can’t miss it.”

  I’m walking toward the water. An inlet of the bay. The wind is kicking up, and a light snow falls from the sky. I hunch my shoulders and keep walking. What I wouldn’t give for a coat right now. Or even a jacket. Anything to block out the cold that’s blowing right through the arms of my dress and piercing my skin. I can see my breath.

  The streets are nearly empty as the sun sets on the horizon. Church bells ring in the distance, which reminds me that it’s Christmas Eve. I have no idea what day it is in the present. Definitely past Christmas, I would imagine.

  There’s not a soul near the GE plant. I walk up to the front doors of the main building and peer inside the glass. It’s dark. Then I look up to the corner of the doorway. No camera. I have no idea when cameras became standard fare, but I was sort of expecting one here. You know, this being a power plant and all.

  I unravel the black dress Yellow bought me in 1894. It’s so wrinkled that the few shakes in the air I give it do absolutely nothing. I glance down the street once more to make sure it’s safe. Deserted. I slip out of my 1963 dress and into my 1890s one, then stash the sixties dress behind a trash can. I’ll be back soon enough to pick it up.

  I turn the dials on the Annum watch back to June 2, 1890. And then I laugh. I’m standing in front of a massively huge power plant, and I’m about to go back in time to try to track someone I don’t know and have never seen a picture of as she does something (I have no idea what) somewhere inside this building.

  Easy.

  I snap the lid of the watch face shut and am immediately ripped back through time. I land on the sidewalk in the early-morning light and gasp for breath. I close my eyes to block the vision of Epsilon’s broken body mangled before me during orientation, but it comes anyway.

  That won’t be me. It won’t. As soon as we stop Alpha, I’m never projecting again. Ever.

  Time check. 5:30 in the morning. I shake my head and turn around, then I gasp. I should be used to this by now, but I’m not. The plant that stands before me is probably half the size of the plant I left behind. Well, that should make finding Eta marginally less difficult. A sign outside the door welcomes me, not to General Electric but to Thomson-Houston Electric.

  Just as I suspected, the plant is pretty empty at this time. I wander around the perimeter to get my bearings and try to come up with a plan. There’s an entrance marked WORKMEN ONLY around the side of the building, and I figure that’s going to be my best bet. I’ll pretend to be an employee.

  But when workers start showing up a few hours later, I realize the fatal flaw in my plan.

  They weren’t kidding when they said workmen. They’re all men. Men dressed in pants and shirts and work boots. And I am very obviously a female wearing a wrinkled black dress.

  I put my head down and duck behind a group of men anyway. They’re carrying silver-colored lunch pails and talking about the census. It dawns on me that I don’t even know what day of the week it is. A workday, obviously, but Friday? Monday? Who knows?

  Vulnerability creeps into my skin. I feel so unprepared. I hate this feeling more than anything.

  I duck my head even lower as I follow the workers through the doorway. My eyes are trained on my feet, and I’m not really watching where I’m going.

  Which explains why I run right smack into a tall man with enough girth to put a sumo wrestler to shame.

  “What are you doing in my plant?” the man growls.

  I meet his gaze. One eyebrow is cocked to the sky, and he’s peering down at me from a very red face.

  “I work here.” I straighten myself. It’s something they taught us at Peel. Standing up straight asserts authority even when you have none. Which is what I have in this situation. None. Less than none.

  The man’s eyebrow raises even more. “Since when?”

  “Today.” My voice is loud.

  “You one of Bessie’s girls?” he asks.

  “Yes.” I have no idea who Bessie is. Hell, she could be running a prostitution ring for
all I know. But if telling him I’m a part of it means I can stay in the plant, then I’ll pretend to be a hooker. Emphasis on the word pretend, of course.

  The man’s left eyebrow lowers to meet his right. “Bessie’s girls don’t enter through this door. They go in through the front. Turn around and go back to the main door.”

  My mind races. What if I go back to the main door and they won’t let me through? That will make two entrances that are blocked for me. There can’t be that many more doors in and out of this place.

  “I’m already late.” I give a sheepish smile. “Is there a way through from here?” And then I blink my eyes a few times because it strikes me as something Yellow would do, and Yellow seems to have no problem getting what she wants.

  The man grunts but jerks his head toward a hallway to my left. “That’s the main hallway. It’ll take you to the entrance. You know where to find Bessie from there.”

  I fly down the hallway and pick up the hem of my dress to prevent from tripping. The hallway ends in a lobby of some sort. There are a number of men standing around, so I slow myself and wait. I close my eyes and try to listen to their voices.

  Male voices run together in my mind. Deep. Some of them have the distinctive North Shore accent, and some of them don’t. I squeeze my eyes and concentrate.

  One voice floats above the crowd. It’s lighter than the others. Not as masculine. The voice stops speaking, then starts again. I peer into the lobby and look at everyone. There are a lot of conversations going on, but I zero right in on the one I’m listening for.

  The speaker is a short, thin man wearing a three-piece suit. His wildly curly hair peeks out from under a top hat, and . . . hang on a second. I stare at the man’s hands. They’re small. Delicate. I look at his feet. Same thing. That’s not a man at all.

  That’s Eta. Pretending to be a man.

  I squint. Eta is white. Violet is not. I guess I never really stopped to think about this before. Just then, a man with white hair and a white beard strolls into the lobby and extends his hand to Eta. She takes it, shakes it firmly, and then she follows him down another hallway.

  I need to see where they’re going.

  I take a deep breath and step out into the lobby, then walk across it like I own the place. Confidence can get you anywhere.

  Except when it can’t.

  A big arm reaches out to stop me halfway, and a man in a gray, three-piece suit with a gold pocket watch chain pinned to his vest stops me. I have no idea who he is, but from the way he’s looking at me, I think it might be a good guess that he does actually own this place.

  “Who are you, and where are you going?”

  I bow my head at him. “I’m one of Bessie’s girls, sir.”

  “Are you now?” He draws himself up tall.

  I do the same. Two can play at that game. “I am.”

  “Then you wouldn’t mind if I escorted you to Bessie right now so she can confirm your employment.”

  Shit.

  “Actually, I’m supposed to be with them.” I nod my head down the hallway as Eta and the group of men get farther and farther away from me. But then they stop at what looks like the last door before the hallway curves to the right. They all file into a room.

  “That,” the man says, causing my head to snap back to him, “is a financial meeting that I’m certain doesn’t concern you.”

  “I’m . . .” I’m what? Think! I say the first thing that pops into my head. “I’m to make sure your guests are well accommodated, Mr. Thomson.” The name is a complete guess. I’m at the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, so I just threw it out there. But from the way the man’s lips press together and his chin tilts down, I instantly know I’ve guessed wrong.

  “My name is Bauer,” he says with a telling look. “Now, since you’ve clearly been here before and are in my employ, I’d like for you to lead the way to Bessie.”

  And I’m done for.

  But then a girl right about my age strolls into the lobby. A floor-length black dress hangs off her skeletal frame, and she’s wearing a long apron and a lacy cap that looks like something I wore with a Halloween costume when I was five. She meets my eye, and I instantly read her. She has meek, little mouse written all over her, from her timid expression to her hunched shoulders; and I pounce like the lion I need to be.

  “She knows me!” I cry, pointing to my mouse. “She can confirm I work here.”

  Bauer turns to the girl, and his face dawns with recognition. “Annie, know this young lady?” His arm flies in my direction.

  I stare at Annie and raise my eyebrows at her, hoping I’m being both persuading and intimidating.

  “I do, sir,” Annie says. “She’s new.”

  Bauer brings his hand to his chin and takes a long breath. I can see he’s mulling over the whole thing—deciding whether he wants to be a hard-ass and press me on this or just let it go—and I bow my head to him like Annie did. Sometimes winning means knowing when to submit.

  Then Bauer pulls out his pocket watch and takes a quick glance before tucking it away. “Very well then.” He turns and starts down the hallway after Eta and the other man.

  I wait until he’s out of range before turning to Annie. “Hey look, I really appreciate what you—”

  And then I stop. Because I have completely neglected to realize how the parable of the lion and the mouse ends. But it’s clear Annie hasn’t. My meek, little mouse has fire in her eyes.

  “That’s going to cost you,” she says. “I don’t know who you are or what you want, but unless you want the coppers hunting you down, I suggest you pay up.”

  “I don’t have any money,” I say. It’s partly the truth. I don’t have any 1890s money.

  Annie clicks her tongue and takes a step back, eyeing me from head to toe. And then she zeroes in on my wrist. On my bracelet.

  “No,” I say. No. She can’t have it. It’s the only thing I have left connecting me to Abe, to my past.

  “My brother’s a cop,” she says. Brother sounds like bruddah. “In Boston. He’ll hunt you down.”

  He won’t, actually. I’ll be long gone by the time he gets word. But that doesn’t change the fact that Eta is right down the hallway and I’m wasting time.

  My hands are tied. I slip the bracelet off my wrist and squeeze it tight in my palm before I hand it over. Annie smirks, and I want to punch her. But I don’t. I take off down the hallway.

  Annie follows me. I hear the triumphant pat pat pat of her buckled shoes on the wooden floor behind me.

  There’s a rolling cart with a sterling pot, several teacups, and a platter of pastries and rolls outside a door. Male voices echo into the hall.

  Jackpot.

  I pull the car closer and place my hand on the doorknob, but Annie steps in front of me and grabs the cart handle. My charm bracelet slides down her wrist, and I tense my shoulders.

  “I’m supposed to service the meeting,” Annie says.

  “Yeah, well, now you’re not. So let go of the handle or I’ll break your wrist.” I’d like to say it’s an idle threat, but I’m not so sure.

  “My bruddah—”

  “Is a cop. Yeah, I know. Screw your brother.” I’m sure she’s probably never heard my modern-day insult before, but her narrowed eyes tell me she’s caught the gist. “Now step aside.”

  She stares at me for a few seconds before raising her wrist and flicking it back and forth to make my bracelet jingle. Then she gives me a smirk and backs up to let me pass.

  I take a breath. Focus on what’s important, I remind myself. I swing open the door and take hold of the cart. “I suggest you make yourself scarce,” I hiss to Annie.

  I duck my head as I roll in the cart. I don’t think Eta will know who I am, but you never know. Alpha sure knew everything about me from childhood. Maybe Eta will, too. I keep my head down and peer up out
of the tops of my eyes. Bauer sits at the head of the table, and a number of men line each side. Eta sits in the middle, on the right side, in front of the window. I can feel Bauer glare at me as I push the cart past.

  “I suppose my main question,” Bauer says, “is why you’re interested in investing in the company now. Why not seven years ago when we first started?”

  I settle into the corner of the room and turn my back to everyone as I pour tea into the cups. That’s a really good question. I want to hear Eta’s answer.

  Eta smiles politely. “I’m sorry, I was under the impression I was to meet with the president of the company.”

  Bauer’s lips press together. “Mr. Coffin is unavailable today. I assure you I am well prepared to hear your proposal. Now why are you just offering it today?”

  Eta pauses for several seconds, then her shoulders relax and she leans forward and rests her forearms on the table. “My company has not been around for seven years,” she says. “We only started last year, making investments in those companies we feel have real potential but could use a greater financial backing. Thomson-Houston Electric is such a company.”

  She’s lying. But why? Thomson-Houston Electric doesn’t even stay Thomson-Houston Electric. At one point it becomes General Electric, and . . . oh. There it is. It all comes back to money, doesn’t it? Invest now and reap a huge reward when GE really starts booming.

  I set down the teapot and steady myself. Corruption wafts through the air and threatens to choke me. I feel dirty right now, and no amount of scrubbing will wash away the truth.

  Someone clears a throat. “Tea?” Bauer asks his guests in a tone that makes it clear I need to serve it already.

  My head snaps up, but I don’t turn to look at him. I nod with my back to him and lift two teacups. My hands are shaking as I carry the saucers and set them on the table before Bauer and the man to his right.

  Bauer drums his fingers on the table and cocks an eyebrow. “And what sort of investment are you proposing?”

  I grab two more cups and set them on the table, then start back for the last two.

  Eta clears her throat and folds her hands on the table. She’s trying to act confident, but from here I can see her foot tapping rapidly under the table. “It’s all outlined in our proposal,” she says. “We provide you with one hundred thousand dollars in capital, and in return we get a minority-ownership interest.”