Champions of Time (The After Cilmeri Series, #13)

by Sarah Woodbury

To cover her uncertainty, she gestured to the lounge behind them. “Could we talk in private?” She stuck her arms out at her sides. “Check me for weapons if you must.”

  The female security officer did so, patting her down with no-nonsense movements. Then she stepped back. “She’s clean.”

  David looked at his companions, none of whom appeared very happy. “I’ll be okay.”

  Amelia glowered at him. “You had better be.”

  David gave Amelia a thoughtful look, but then he gestured that Livia should precede him into the room. Once inside, she made to sit, but he flipped off the light switch before gesturing that she could come with him to the window to look out. Now that the light was off, she could see down into the car park. A phalanx of reporters had set up at the far end, waiting, apparently, for something to happen. Fortunately, they hadn’t known who she was and hadn’t stopped her as she’d crossed the car park. Because of what she looked like, they probably wouldn’t have believed she was working for MI-5 if she’d told them outright.

  “I saw them when I came in,” she said. “They seem to have accepted that you aren’t coming out any time soon.”

  “We were just about to head out, actually. Chad has set up a house for me.”

  Livia pressed her lips together. That was something Five would have wanted to know about sooner. “Where?”

  He glanced at her, a smile playing around his lips. “Close by.” Then he turned to look at her directly. “What do you have to say to me? To tell you the truth, I expected you—or your agency—hours ago. Where are the men in black?”

  “They are not coming.” She turned away from the window and walked to one of the sofas, which when she sat down turned out to be softer than she’d expected. She supposed that people who weren’t David might have to sleep in them from time to time.

  David left the window too, but instead of turning on the lights, he pulled a matching chair closer to the sofa and sat as well. “Why not?”

  “Director-General Philips regrets the recent events with your sister and wishes to apologize.”

  David laughed out loud. “Really.”

  “Yes, really.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Though I appreciate the olive branch, does he actually think an apology is sufficient? You guys chased her into a mountain.”

  “We know.”

  David gave a low grunt and leaned back in his chair. “I’m listening.”

  “We want you to come in—”

  He scoffed. “Not a chance.”

  “Please give me the opportunity to explain.”

  “I have no interest in a windowless room.”

  Livia cleared her throat. “That is not in the cards. What I was going to say is that we want you to come in on your own terms, to talk to us at a place of your choosing.”

  “You do realize that we’ve done that before too? We tried to meet once on a motorway. You didn’t keep your word.” He rubbed his chin as he studied her. “Why should I trust you to keep it now?”

  Livia had expected some resistance, but she had hoped that using her as the emissary would soften David’s combative attitude a bit more quickly. Truthfully, she’d hoped her appearance would divert him. As it hadn’t, she opted for more honesty. “That’s why the D-G sent me. Mark trusted me, and he’s hoping that you can too.”

  “It isn’t you I don’t trust.” David had one arm across his chest and the fingers of his other hand to his lips studying her. “Last I heard you were a lowly tech in Mark’s division. Are you telling me you’ve suddenly been promoted? That you have the ear of the D-G? I imagine there’s a great deal he isn’t telling you.”

  Livia nodded. “I’m sure there is, but I believe him on this.”

  “I don’t.”

  “You have the D-G’s word.” She held out her phone to him. “He would like to speak to you to tell you himself.”

  David scoffed. “What exactly are you looking for, here?”

  “The same thing everyone wants. Answers.”

  “To life, the universe, and everything?” At Livia’s serious nod, though David had been joking, he added, “And you think I have them? I’m as much a pawn in this as anyone.”

  Livia found the way his eyes remained on her face disconcerting. She had a feeling that the mind behind those eyes was constantly assessing her and his situation. He was a coiled spring.

  She urged the phone on him again. “Please. Just talk to Director Philips.”

  With obvious reluctance, David took the phone and pressed the green button. The D-G picked up on the second ring. She’d set it to speakerphone already, and his voice boomed out. “Hello?”

  Livia leaned forward. “Director? This is Livia. I’m with ... King David.” Inwardly, she cursed at the hesitation.

  At first, she hoped he hadn’t noticed, but the smile on his lips told her he was fully aware of exactly what she was thinking and feeling. David tipped his head. “This is David.”

  “Thank you for speaking with me. I’ll get right to the point. We’re hoping that you will meet with us in a more formal setting.”

  “Why?” All of a sudden, David was sitting perfectly still, as if he didn’t want to give anything away by an inadvertent motion. Whatever nervous energy he’d displayed before was gone, replaced by a calmness that Livia didn’t necessarily believe.

  “We are seeking knowledge, that’s all. We have no intention of detaining you.”

  “Under Callum, we had a similar deal. It was you who went back on it, not me.”

  “Mistakes were made.”

  David gave a little tsk. “But not by you?”

  Livia imagined it had been a long time since the D-G had been confronted so openly, but he didn’t rise to David’s bait. “I know Livia has extended my personal apologies for what happened with your sister.”

  “Apologies are nice, but words are cheap. I have no reason to trust you.”

  “We have not entered the hospital in force.”

  David was silent a moment. “Is that a threat?”

  “No. No. I’m just saying that we could have.”

  “I’m supposed to thank you for that, am I?”

  On the other end of the line, the D-G took in an audible breath. “What has Chad Treadman offered you?”

  “With him, I have a bed not in a prison cell, among other things.”

  “In exchange for—” The D-G left the question hanging.

  “For giving him a front seat in whatever is going on with us.” Even though the D-G couldn’t see it, David pushed up his sleeve to show Livia the bandage across his vein from which blood had been drawn. “So far I am not unhappy with the exchange.”

  “He plastered your picture all over the planet.”

  David laughed under his breath. “Yeah, he did.”

  She leaned forward again. “Do you really trust him?”

  “No,” David said immediately, speaking both to her and the mobile phone, “but you must see my problem, right? I trusted MI-5 once and look where it got me.”

  “That’s fair,” the D-G said, “and again, I’m sorry for what happened in the past and for the role I played in it. But this time it’s different.”

  “You have yet to explain how or why.”

  The D-G paused. “I’ll let Livia do that.” He hung up.

  “Wow.” David’s eyes crinkled in the corners. “I must have offended him.”

  “He isn’t used to being distrusted or ignored.” Livia too was surprised that the D-G had disconnected the call so suddenly, but she had trusted him this far and thought he had a plan. It could be that he realized he wasn’t getting anywhere and decided to quit before he made things worse.

  “If he has a problem with me, all he has to do is send his men in here to get me. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “That’s exactly what he doesn’t intend to do, David. He just told you that.”

  “Can you blame me for thinking that this is all a ploy to get me to cooperate, to trick me into meeting and get me ou
t of the public eye, after which you can do whatever you want with me?”

  “Do you really think that’s what this is about? That I would be a party to something like that?” Livia was offended for not only herself but for Five.

  David laughter held derision. “Why wouldn’t I think that? And this is an interesting argument coming from you, seeing as how you helped Mark and my sister in defiance of your employers. Why do you believe them now?”

  “Because—” She looked up at the ceiling for a second, understanding how it might seem crazy to him. “I sat in the meeting with all the department heads. The D-G fired the head of internal security right in front of me and had her escorted from the room. He really does want to correct the mistakes of the past.”

  “And that wasn’t all just a show for your benefit?”

  Livia hesitated. “I don’t see how it could be.”

  “Exactly my point. You have faith. Even after being screwed over by MI-5 more than once, you still believe they have your best interests at heart?”

  Livia flushed. “I—”

  David put up a hand. “It’s okay. Mark does too, despite everything that’s happened to him and what they’ve done to him. It’s one of the things I like about him.” He gazed contemplatively at her for another few seconds. “But trusting you and believing the D-G are two very different things.”

  “He does want to turn a page on the way we’ve treated you.”

  “So you’ve said, but what would be happening right now if Chad hadn’t spent the last two weeks broadcasting my story? The D-G didn’t send you to the wilds of Wales out of the goodness of his heart. Chad was right, as it turns out, and I will tell him so when I see him. Philips doesn’t want the publicity of taking me down while cameras are rolling.”

  David got abruptly to his feet and went again to the window. He cupped his hands around his eyes and stared out. “Where are they hiding?”

  “Who?” She joined him at the window.

  “Your men.”

  “I have a driver, but there’s nobody else. I swear it.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “You don’t believe me about that either.” It was a realization, not a question. She was a little stunned at how badly she and the D-G had handled David. And maybe that was the problem. They’d gone into this focusing on handling him—managing him. For all that every word she’d said to him was true as far as she knew it, the impetus behind it wasn’t so things were better for him. It was so things were better for them.

  “I believe that you believe there’s nobody out there. I’m just not sure why I should believe it.” He pointed to a SUV backing into a space in the car park. The vehicle stopped, but nobody got out of it. “That one of yours?”

  She chewed on her thumbnail, a habit she’d trained herself out of years ago. “I don’t know, but I will find out.”

  David studied the vehicle for another minute. “Call your boss. Tell him Chad will call him with the details of a future meeting. I want it to be with Philips, personally, or nobody. We can do it tomorrow afternoon, if he likes.”

  “Okay.”

  “Meanwhile, you can hang with us.”

  She paused with her phone halfway to her ear, uncertain if she’d understood him. “Really?”

  He shrugged. “That’s what he wants, isn’t it? Access? He can have it, if it’s you.” With a nod, David headed for the door. “I’ll let you talk to him in private.”

  He shut the door behind him, leaving Livia alone in the dark. Her finger hovered a moment and then pressed the green call button.

  A man answered. “Yeah.”

  “Are you in the car park in the corner under the light?”

  There was a pause. “Yeah.”

  “David made you.”

  There was more hesitation on the line. “That’s not possible.”

  “He stood beside me and pointed out your vehicle. I swore there was nobody else, and then there you were. I told you not to arrive at the hospital until after I left. Instead, you made me look like a liar.”

  The man on the other end of the line swore.

  Livia gave a tsk of disgust. “Patch me through to the D-G. He wanted to hear the outcome as soon as I had one.”

  Grumbling to himself, the man obeyed. Livia waited through a few more beats and then Philips came on the line. “How did it go?”

  “He doesn’t trust us.”

  “For good reason, I admit.”

  “David says he’ll meet with you and you alone at a place of Chad Treadman’s choosing.”

  Philips let out his own burst of air. “Treadman.” The word had weight.

  “We blew it a long time ago, sir. It’s going to take time to rebuild trust.”

  “I know. That’s why you’re there.”

  “Is it?” The sick feeling in Livia’s stomach worsened. “You promised to let me do this.”

  “I have let you handle it, and I will continue to do so,” Philips said firmly, “but I believe strongly in tying my camel too.”

  She wouldn’t have put the director among those who routinely referenced Arab philosophy, the more complete quote being, trust in God but tie your camel, but she could appreciate his point nonetheless. In other words, Philips wanted to do everything he could to control the situation.

  “He made our men the moment they parked in the car park.”

  “Did he? Good for him.” To her surprise, Philips barked a laugh. “Idiots.”

  “They need a different vehicle. One less noticeable.”

  “A black SUV is noticeable?”

  “It is to David, who’s been chased by them.”

  “Point taken.” He grunted. “Good work. Stay with him if he lets you.”

  “He invited me to his house, so yes, I will stay with him.”

  “That lets us know where he’s staying.” The D-G’s satisfaction was palpable. Then he paused. “Does he realize this?”

  “I wouldn’t underestimate him, sir.”

  There was another pause on the line. “Is that your professional assessment?”

  Livia answered without hesitation. “Yes, sir. He pretty much lives up to the hype.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  After Midnight

  2 April 1294

  Callum

  “I never intended to come here again.”

  “I know.” Callum stopped beside Mark as he hovered over his equipment. Since they could do no more good for Sophie and the others, who even now should be making their way up the cliff on the west side of the castle, Callum had moved closer to where the bulk of their forces were camped on the east side, in preparation for the assault on the main gate.

  Mark glanced at him. “I’m not okay, if that’s what you’re wondering.” He gestured generally. “Not with any of this. I honestly thought I could do this again, and it could be like it was before, but it can’t. And I can’t. I have to go home. My need for it is driving me just a little bit mad.” All the while Mark was talking, in between swiping at his tablet, he was fussing with his other electronics, checking connectors and screens. He was in charge of the timing of the various aspects of this plan. This was the Middle Ages, so nothing would normally be timed to the minute, but Mark was trying anyway.

  “We need you.”

  “I know.” He emphasized the last word. “And it’s clear to me that MI-5 doesn’t. Nobody does back in Avalon. I’ve frittered away my life there, thinking I could make a difference, and I can’t.”

  Callum knew he needed to tread carefully. He had come to check on how things were going, more out of due diligence than because he thought anything might be wrong. This really wasn’t the time for this conversation, but it seemed they were having it anyway. “Is it the war?”

  “Of course it’s the war.” Mark let out a burst of air.

  “David—”

  Mark cut Callum off with a gesture. “I know it isn’t his fault. It isn’t as if he’s going to roll over for these people.” He glanced over at Callum. “You kno
w why I’m angry?” The question was rhetorical so Callum didn’t even try to answer. “There are wars in Avalon too. The world is going to hell in a freaking handbasket, and there’s nothing I can do about it. Half the world tries to insulate itself from thinking about how the other half is suffering, and I sit in my office and push paper around. I bloody well know I’m needed here and not there, and as you can probably tell I’m pissed off about it!”

  During the tirade, Callum had eased slightly away. He was well aware that there was nothing he could say to Mark that would be right. Mark was going to have to come to terms with his current circumstances one way or another.

  But he tried anyway. “You can make a difference here.”

  “Shut up.” Mark pressed a button on his tablet. Then he glanced at Callum. “Sorry.”

  “Oh no.” Callum put up his hands. Mark had never in his life spoken to him that way. “I got you into this.”

  Mark scoffed. “I got me into this. That’ll teach me to do what I think is right.” Then he laughed, and it actually sounded genuine. “Give me another few seconds here, and we’ll be ready for this latest crazy idea.”

  “You’re the one who suggested it.”

  Mark shook his head. “David was the one who suggested it. I just took the idea and ran with it.”

  “It has the benefit of not starting with killing people.”

  “I’m good with that. I have no problem with that. I’m worried about sending our friends into danger. Sophie’s all confidence, but she has no idea what she’s really up against. She’s been here two weeks.” He gave another laugh, this one mocking. “The shine hasn’t worn off her new toy yet.”

  Callum drew in a long breath through his nose. “I’m worried about that too.”

  “But you let her go anyway.”

  “We had nobody else who could do the job. Sophie and Constance have seven men with them, Ieuan among them. They are well-protected.”

  “Unless they’re caught. Unless they’re outnumbered. There isn’t exactly a Geneva Convention here. We both know what Mortimer’s men will to do to them before they kill them.”

  From the start, this had been Callum’s problem with including women in the army. It wasn’t at all that they couldn’t be capable soldiers, and he wasn’t particularly concerned about harassment within the ranks. Few enough women were involved such that the commanders could keep a sharp eye on any misbehavior. It was what would happen were a woman taken captive by enemy forces. They wouldn’t simply be killed. They’d be given to the men for their amusement first.