Time Catcher

by Cheree Peters

  I can’t argue with his logic. I reluctantly take the dress and change in the lounge, returning with a gloomy look on my face. It only becomes gloomier when I see Jay, kitted out in his cute glasses and flattering coat, suppressing a laugh.

  ‘Quiet, you!’

  The birdcage veil is pulled up and over the hat, out of my eyes.

  ‘And finally . . .’ Bennet hands me a hooked wooden cane. ‘My masterstroke.’

  ‘So I’m meant to be your mother?’

  ‘The cane was Dad’s. But basically, yes, you’re the widowed lady who is being helped along by your lovely son.’

  Jay and I look at each other doubtfully.

  ‘Do you two have a better idea?’

  He is right. ‘No.’

  ‘Benny, I think it’s a great idea!’ Jay says, wiggling his eyes at me.

  I look at Jay accusingly and he smirks. I turn back to the twins. ‘It’s time we were going.’

  At the front door, Dawn grips my arm. She leans in and whispers, ‘You have your mother’s eyes.’

  Dawn smiles gently at me and I tear up. As much as the Kingdom of Cardiff tried to change me, they could never change the fact that I will always have my mother’s eyes.

  ‘I hope you make it out,’ I say to the Graysons.

  The words are barely out of my mouth before Bennet envelops me in a bear hug. ‘You too, Your Highness!’ He lets me go. ‘I mean, ah, you understand what I mean.’

  Darcy gives me a quick hug. ‘Thanks for showing us who we are, Thea.’

  I smile. I may never know if I have helped them or not.

  They both shake Jay’s hand and then he opens the door. I take one last look at them: the brothers with wide grins on their faces, and Dawn standing behind them in the dim hallway, a frown etched across her face.

  We head south, towards the Imperial Gardens.

  ‘It would probably be safer to go around the gardens and take side streets, but I want to get out of here as soon as possible.’

  Jay continues down the street without turning back. ‘If you think that’s best, Princess.’

  ‘Wait!’

  He stops. ‘I didn’t mean it, Thea. You don’t need to get angry.’

  ‘I’m not angry.’ I catch up and reach my hand into his coat’s left pocket, pulling out a tweed flat cap. I run my hand through his hair, smoothing the longer top before placing the cap on his head. ‘There, now you’re completely unrecognisable.’

  He pulls the black veil down to cover my face. I look up at Jay through the netting and he smirks. ‘There, now you’re completely unrecognisable, too.’

  We encounter no trouble in the North-west Quarter. The people we pass do not give us a second look. I don’t want to raise suspicion by walking too fast with the cane and I am frustrated by our slow pace.

  At the North Road we stop. Across the road the markets are bustling and noisy: traders call to customers, street performers sing and play instruments, and livestock bellow.

  ‘Thea,’ Jay says, nodding at a sentinel patrolling on the other side of the road. We watch him hand a flyer to an old man leaving the markets.

  I don’t know what to do. We have to cross to enter the gardens. What if the sentinel recognises us?

  Jay sees my hesitation. He links his arm through mine and during a break in the traffic walks me across the road. I am grateful for the support. We reach the curb just ahead of the dark-skinned sentinel and I lower my head. Jay ushers me past him towards the gardens’ entrance.

  ‘Ma’am?’

  I stumble but Jay supports me. I take another step but the sentinel speaks again.

  ‘Excuse me, ma’am.’

  Inside the gloves, my hands start sweating and I grip the cane.

  The sentinel taps me on the shoulder. I slowly turn, keeping my head low. I try to disguise me voice. ‘Yes?’ I quaver in my best old-lady voice.

  ‘If you haven’t heard, the princess has been kidnapped.’ He holds out a flyer and I unlink my arm from Jay’s to take it. ‘If you see the princess or her Manipulator kidnappers, be sure to report to the nearest sentinel.’

  ‘Dreadful news! We will be on a keen lookout.’ I am thankful for the veil masking my lying face.

  I feel so tense I can’t help but squeeze the flyer, making it crinkle. The longer he speaks to us, the less likely these hasty costumes will hold up.

  ‘Thank you, ma’am,’ the sentinel says. ‘There will be a crisis conference in the Imperial Gardens at the north-east podium this afternoon at four o’clock.’

  ‘Excellent. Thank you.’

  ‘Here’s a flyer for you too.’ The sentinel hands one to Jay.

  ‘Thanks. Let’s go, Mother, you said you wanted to see the ducks on Infinity Lake.’ Jay takes my arm and turns me around, guiding me away.

  In the gardens we walk along the gravel path and not until we are one hundred metres from the entrance do my shoulders loosen. After two hundred metres, I unlink from Jay. As we follow the path beside the lake, I see a pair of sentinels ahead. I divert Jay off the path and onto the oval to our right.

  As always, there is a group of kids playing ball. I hear a chorus of childish voices scream, ‘Heads!’ Before I can react, their ball hits me, knocking my hat off. I stumble, dropping the cane.

  I rub my head and Jay picks up my hat and cane.

  A young girl runs up to us, her sandals barely holding together with string. ‘Sorry!’ she says as I hurriedly jam the hat on my sore head. She stares at my face.

  My smile at her politeness turns to dread.

  ‘You’re the princess!’

  ‘No, sorry, not me.’ I twitch the veil over my face. Jay takes my arm and we walk away, quickly.

  ‘Yes, yes, you are her!’ She says, running to keep up with us. ‘Everyone!’ she shouts to her friends. ‘It’s the princess!’

  We are now a procession. Jay and I almost jogging with a stream of kids chasing us, yelling my name. My fake name.

  ‘Oh no,’ Jay says, looking over his shoulder.

  Behind the kids, the two sentinels from the path by the lake are dashing across the oval. They stop a few children and we hear the girl shouting ‘Princess Althea!’ and pointing at us. I look ahead and concentrate on running.

  ‘Stop in the name of King Duncan!’ a sentinel yells.

  We need cover and we aren’t going to find it amongst the scattered trees on the edge of the oval. I start curving right, towards the west side of the park, Jay following. The sentinels are gaining on us. One of them starts speaking into his transceiver.

  I stop between some oak trees and Jay skids to a halt a few metres ahead. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘We can’t outrun them. They’re just going to tell the other sentinels where we are.’ I turn to face the sentinels, now only fifty metres away, maserlocks out of their holsters.

  ‘You think standing still is a good idea?’

  I don’t feel confident that I can freeze them, out in the open like this.

  Thirty metres.

  ‘Thea, we have to go!’

  Fifteen metres.

  Jay tugs my arm. ‘Thea!’

  ‘Be quiet, John!’

  Five metres.

  I swing the cane at the first sentinel, hitting him in his scarred face as he raises his maserlock. He falls to the ground and his weapon skitters across the grass. The other sentinel is temporarily shocked, giving Jay a chance to tackle him. As the scarred sentinel pulls something from his belt, I swing the cane again, aiming for his ribs. I know he is just doing his job but a couple of bruises for him are worth my safety. One more swing at Scar-face’s head and he is down for the count. I rush to help Jay, wrestling with the other, bushy-bearded sentinel. I raise the cane but they are rolling, too interlocked for me to get a clear shot.

  Bushy-beard pushes Jay back and I take a swing. He sees it coming and seizes the cane, swinging at me and connecting with my ribs, taking the wind out of me. I stumble back, gasping for air. I look up just in time to see
Jay duck under the cane and send a right hook into the sentinel’s chin. He’s out cold before he hits the ground.

  I look around and see the kids watching us. Some are cheering and some are scared. A few factory workers in greasy blue overalls have stopped to stare, unsure whether to step in. Other sentinels can’t be far away. I tug at Jay’s arm as he bends over the sentinel.

  ‘Let’s go, Jay!’

  ‘Hang on.’ He pulls Bushy-beard’s maserlock from beneath his body and scoops up the scar-faced sentinel’s maserlock from the ground, dropping them in his coat pockets. We start running toward the West Road but I stop and run back to the fallen sentinels.

  ‘Thea, what are you doing?’

  I reach Scar-face as a few of the factory workers are cautiously approaching. I quickly swipe what the sentinel holds before running back to Jay.

  As I reach him, he says, ‘What was that?’

  I run past him without stopping, holding up my hand. ‘I wanted one of these.’

  The transceiver in my hand crackles with voices.

  ‘Affirmative. The Impure and the princess spotted at the Imperial Gardens, by the oval. Bass and Waldorf not responding. All sentinels move in on their position.’

  ‘Nice one, Thea.’

  We leave the Gardens and run across the West Road, heading into the first street we see. I realise I’ve lost my hat and my face is bare for all the world to see. A couple of young boys playing with sticks in the middle of the pavement look up as we dash by. With the transceiver to keep us informed of the sentinels’ movements, I feel more confident we might make it out of the city. We duck into a roughly cobbled laneway.

  ‘Thea, where are we going?’

  ‘I don’t know. We have to keep moving, preferably continuing south.’

  The crackling of the transceiver again draws my attention.

  ‘Seven sentinels en route from the North Quarter. Ten more are starting their search from the South-west Quarter.’

  ‘Excellent. Report when you have them.’

  The sound of Duncan’s voice almost makes me drop the transceiver.

  Sentinels from all over the city are converging on our location. Further up the laneway we see two laughing young men leave a small, burnt-out storefront, cigarettes hanging loosely from their mouths. They barely glance at us as they pass. We hurry into the long-abandoned shop and carefully creep along the charred floor, away from the blackened, glassless window frame and an empty doorway. The shelving units that once lined the walls and shop floor have buckled from the flames, creating mounds of charred timber and tortured metal. We reach the storeroom at the back where a patched white sheet covers the floor. Cigarette butts are scattered on the floor, the only evidence of the young men having been here. I sit down on the sheet, trying to calm my nerves.

  As Jay walks over, his foot slips through the sheet into a gap in the floor. Once he’s righted himself, he looks at me with an arched eyebrow, tempting me to mock him, but I stay silent.

  ‘Bizzell checking in. Nothing to report on Schofield Street.’

  ‘Brayshaw checking in. Nothing to report on Fromer Street.’

  ‘Hogan, moving east on Patterson Road. Nothing to report.’

  ‘Jones checking in. Two young citizens report sighting the targets on Dumaresq Street roughly five minutes ago.’

  A few more sentinels report in but I am interested in only one: Jones. He must have spoken to the two boys playing sword fighting.

  ‘That was pretty smart of you to go back and take that thing.’

  ‘You weren’t too bad yourself, picking up the maserlocks,’ I say quietly. ‘Hopefully we won’t have to use them but if we do, at least it will help save our verve.’

  ‘Thea, I’m not too worried about shooting a sentinel. You shouldn’t be either.’

  ‘The sentinels aren’t evil, they’re just trying to live better lives than those they were born into.’ I think of Francis, and even Harries. They have good intentions. ‘It’s Duncan I want.’

  ‘You can have him.’

  Something about how he says it makes me ask, ‘Why? Who do you want?’

  ‘Why do you think I “want” anyone?’

  ‘Is it whoever gave you those fresh wounds on your back?’

  Jay is silent but the clenching of his jaw tells me I am correct.

  ‘Oh, that’s right, we don’t talk about anything to do with you.’

  Jay looks hurt. He opens his mouth to speak, but can’t seem to get the words out.

  The transceiver comes to life again.

  ‘This is Jones. I have two delinquents in a laneway that may have seen them. Waiting to confirm.’

  Jeresh’s voice crackles through. ‘Jones, switch to your secondary frequency, targets may have acquired a transceiver.’

  I rack my brain for a plan. We need to figure out how to get out of the city undetected. I put the now-useless transceiver on the ground.

  Jay’s voice interrupts my train of thought. ‘They’re burn marks.’

  I look up at him. ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘The marks on my back, they’re burns,’ he says without inflection.

  ‘From what?’

  ‘From the electrodes they put on me. Like I said earlier, the scientists were testing me in the Chamber. They used electrodes to shock me.’

  ‘Why did they do that?’

  ‘They were trying to get me to use my Ability by giving me jolts of electricity. They thought once the pain was too much, I would involuntarily use my Ability.’

  ‘Do they know what your Ability is?’

  He shrugs and looks away.

  ‘Thanks,’ I say.

  He smiles tentatively, completely different to his smirk. ‘So what happens now, damsel?’

  ‘We can either make a dash for it or wait until it gets dark, hoping they don’t find us.’

  ‘Go where? They’ve probably guessed we’re heading south.’

  ‘I didn’t think about that.’ Our very limited options just became even more limited. ‘We need to lay low for a while to trick them into thinking we’ve slipped away,’ I say. I wish Tahan were here. She would know what to do. ‘Of course!’ I don’t need Tahan to provide an answer. She is the answer. ‘Tahan. She’s my best friend. She’ll be able to help us.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘She lives a few streets north of here.’

  ‘North? Thea, we have to go south, remember?’

  ‘I know. But like you said, the sentinels think we’re heading south. They won’t expect us to head north.’

  ‘Can we trust her?’

  ‘Can I trust my best friend? Yes, Jay, I think I can. Just last night Tahan helped me sneak out of Casteel. She’s always been there for me, regardless of the consequences.’ I walk back to the front of the shop, thankfully not sighting Sentinel Jones.

  ‘Thea, you can’t trust anyone anymore,’ Jay says from the storeroom doorway.

  I walk back to him, outraged. ‘Don’t tell me who I can and can’t trust, Jay. Right now I trust Tahan much more than I trust you.’

  He whips off his useless glasses, looming over me. ‘You can trust me!’

  I push him back into the room. ‘Can I? Can I trust the guy who hides important things about himself?’ We lock gazes. ‘Can I trust the man who doesn’t even like me?’

  Breaking our staring game, Jay nudges past me and walks into the shopfront.

  I follow him, wishing Eli were here to break the tension. Suddenly Jay slides down against a broken shelving unit, reaching out to pull me down beside him. I stumble into the shelves and a charred board splinters apart, falling to the ground. The sound cascades out into the lane.

  ‘What was that?’

  I clench my fists. Is that a sentinel out there?

  A more laconic voice responds. ‘Let me go check for you, boss.’

  Footsteps draw closer until they crunch on the scorched floor. I lean back into Jay, trying to hide myself behind the collapsed shelves. The footsteps stop on the o
ther side of the shelves.

  I look up and meet the eyes of one of the young men we saw leaving the burnt-out shop before. He smiles, sweeping his brown fringe back.

  Friend or foe? I wonder, and Jay must be thinking the same because we both raise our left hands simultaneously, preparing.

  The young man whispers, ‘Stay quiet, you two. We’ll get rid of the sentinel for you.’

  I clasp Jay’s left hand, pulling it down. I smile tentatively at our unexpected rescuer. ‘Thank you.’

  The jaunty young man walks back the way he came. ‘Just the neighbourhood cat, boss.’

  Jay whispers, ‘Thea, we can’t trust any–’

  I grip his hand tighter, glaring at him fiercely.

  The sentinel speaks, ‘And you, boys, you’re now saying you haven’t seen the princess and the Manipulator? Only I’m sure I overheard the two of you talking about the princess and –’ The sentinel pauses. ‘“A black-haired fella in a funny jacket” – to quote you verbatim.’

  ‘We just saw the drawing you fellas were handing out, that’s all,’ another, unknown voice says with a disrespectful drawl. ‘Sorry, boss, haven’t seen nobody. Liked the jacket, though.’

  ‘Hmm. You make sure you report to a sentinel if you see them.’

  ‘You got it, boss,’ the man with the drawl replies.

  We wait anxiously. My hand is sore from gripping Jay’s hand.

  There are footsteps on the crunchy floorboards and two grinning faces look down at us from the other side of the shelves – no sentinel in sight.

  The one with the brown fringe says, ‘It’s all apples, lovelies. The boss is gone. My name’s Erwin and this here is Kayto.’ Erwin offers me his hand and tries to pull me up, but Jay holds tight to my other hand.

  ‘It’s all right, Jay.’ I tug back and he moves to stand between me and our two new allies. ‘Thank you, Erwin.’

  ‘Anytime, love.’

  Jay straightens his shoulders and says with a scowl, ‘Why’d you help us anyway?’

  Kayto retreats to the open doorframe, watching the laneway.

  ‘We’re not huge fans of the cacking boss men ’round here,’ Erwin says. ‘They like to spend their time patrolling the easy streets up by Casteel, beggin’ your pardon,’ he says to me. ‘This place was burned down by some ruffians last week.’