After the Storm (37 page)

The chalk cave was probably where the old outlaw stored his most precious loot.

A prisoner being held for ransom would be considered treasure worth guarding.

When he heard someone coming up behind him, he slipped off the path. He thought himself well hidden by the dark shadow of a tree, but the woman must have seen him move, because she stopped only a few feet from where he stood.

After several silent moments in which Bas forgot to breathe, she stepped closer.

Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

Though he could barely make out her features, there was something familiar about the small woman.

"You'd be Bastien, then," she said. Her emphatic tone brooked no denial. "Come for Lady Isabeau, you are." She came closer and looked him over head to foot as he stepped away from the tree. "Push back your hood, lad, and let's have a look."

She peered sternly up at him. "Well?"

As Bas yanked back the hood he said, "I am, and I have." Admitting to her conjectures seemed better than throttling her and leaving her in the bushes.

"You're as fine-looking as I've heard," she went on after she'd inspected him.

"Though the brow's a bit heavy and serious for my taste. I'm Berthild," she added. "You'll have to talk to my man about taking the lady away, but I'll take you to her for now."

Bas gaped at the woman as she walked on up the path. Gaped, and followed, because there wasn't anything else he could do to get his wife out of that cave without violence. He didn't want to worry about fighting until he was sure she was safe.

When they reached the guards, Berthild merely waved them aside. They didn't question her authority, or even look at him twice as she stood back and directed him inside. Bas gave her a look of gratitude, and went into the shallow cave.

The place was well lit and dry, high enough for him to stand upright in, but small and full of stuff. Among the stuff, seated next to a block of stone, was his wife.

His breath caught in his throat at the sight of her, and a pain loosed around his heart as well. It had been so hard and heavy and so much a part of him for so long that he didn't realize until this moment that he truly hadn't lost her at Lilydrake. She was really alive, and not a dream. They were together. They would get out of this, somehow. He was never, ever going to leave her side Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

again. No matter what happened, he could not bear to part with her again.

She looked up as he hurried toward her, and her dark eyes lit with pleasure.

Then, with a sardonic twist to her smile, she said, "Will I sound absolutely stupid if I say, oh, darling, I knew you'd come?"

"Yes." He knelt beside her.

He wanted to say all he was feeling, vow his love and undying devotion. But he could tell by the way her eyes glowed at the sight of him that he didn't need to say what they both knew. What they both felt. So, he answered her the same way she'd greeted him. "What you should say, is, oh, darling, did you bring the bolt cutters? You have noticed that you're chained to a rock, haven't you?"

He took her face between his hands then, and kissed her before she could answer. It was a hard, swift kiss, full of passion and relief. He couldn't afford for the kiss to last too long, but he felt much better for having done it. "So," he said as he looked deep into her eyes. "Is this what you wanted?"

She looked confused. "Getting captured?"

He ran his hands down his tunic as though he were modeling his Bastien persona for her. "This. This heroic coming to the rescue sort of thing. What do you think?

Is it me?"

She managed, though her arms were chained to a metal bolt driven into the rock, to just barely cup his cheek with her manacled hand. "It's you. When it has to be."

Bas put the subject aside. This was really no time for it, and besides, she was right. "Man's gotta do what a—Why are you chained up like this?"

"Well, Sikes didn't take kindly to my killing one of his men. And I think the other guy's a kinky little bastard."

He ran his fingertips across her swollen lower lip. "Who hit you?"

Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

"The other guy."

His eyes narrowed to dangerous green slits. "I'm going to kill him."

"Fine with me."

"I'm in love with a barbarian."

"So am I." His answering smile was thin-lipped and dangerous. Libby wondered if she should explain about Hemmons now, or if they should get on with the escape and discuss other problems later. "One crisis at a time," she said. "Did you bring the bolt cutters?"

"No." He stood up and finally took a good look at the rock. After a while he said,

"This is the TDD."

"Um—yes," she agreed. She couldn't twist around enough to see him, but she heard his hands as they moved over his creation. The whisper of his touch sounded like caresses, and his voice as he commented on bits of circuitry was full of wonder. She had a feeling he'd forgotten temporarily about her predicament. She only minded a little; she'd known what the job entailed when she'd married a genius. Geniuses tended to get distracted by their work. "Excuse me, Mr. Wizard, but—"

"Who integrated it into this kind of mineral sheath casing?"

"Someone with a literal definition of the word hardware?"

"Olivia."

She almost laughed at his reproving tone. "Warin, of course. He'd been working on the thing. He stole it, remember? And probably wanted to make sure nobody got the chance to steal it from him."

"It's going to take hours to get it out of this box. And other than solving the miniaturized power source problem he's—"

Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

"So happy to see you approve of the new energy utilization design, Dr. Bailey."

"That's all I appro—" Bas broke off as he realized the speaker had not been his wife.

When he looked up he saw a bearded man standing nearby. Several things about the man seemed out of place—his stance, the cut of his clothing, the language he'd used. The easiest anomaly to pin down was the gun he was holding.

"This is a Kalishnikov KU-49." The man sounded smug, and as though his words were self-explanatory.

Bas looked at his wile. "'Olivia?"

"It's a fully automatic assault weapon capable of firing a thousand fully jacketed 9-mm explosive rounds per minute, It also fires laser packs, in case you just want to permanently blind your target," she rattled off details about the weapon without a pause. "Charming-little accessory, isn't it?"

Bas didn't know whether to appreciate his wife's expertise in certain areas, or to be appalled at learning far more than he wanted to know about the gun the man held on them. He decided to simply say, "Oh. And he is?"

"Elliot Hemmons," the man answered. He gestured around the cave. "Welcome to your new laboratory, Dr. Bailey. And welcome back to the real world."

'Real world? You call this the real world? We're in—what year is it, Olivia?"

"Never mind," Hemmons answered. He smiled, in a very unpleasant and calculating way. "I'm told you have recovered from your little psychotic episode and are fit to work. You can take off the bow and arrow, Bailey," he added. "You look silly in that Robin Hood getup."

Sebastian returned to crouch by his wife after he'd laid his weapons on the cave floor. "What's he doing here?" He looked at the dark bruise on her cheek and her swollen lip while she explained how Hemmons had caused all their troubles and Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

gotten caught in them himself. Bas hadn't cared for the man before he heard the explanation. He hated him by the time she was done. Her current treatment at Hemmons's hands sent a sharp, burning anger through him.

He stood up and spoke to the man with the gun. "Let her go."

Hemmons shook his head. He jerked a thumb toward the darkness beyond the cave. "There seems to be a battle going on outside," he told them. "Your band of outlaws coming to your defense, no doubt."

That had not been the plan. His men were only supposed to take out the sentries, then guard the path back to the river. Bas glanced briefly at Olivia. He could hear dogs barking in the distance. And shouts, and the clash of weapons. She lifted her brows in question. Apparently, she hadn't arranged for the cavalry to arrive either.

Before he could comment, Hemmons stepped closer and went on, "Sikes isn't putting up much of a fight. In fact, I think he and most of his people have decided that discretion is the better part of valor. They have hiding holes throughout the woods. Better to let their village be burned than be taken. So, your people might make it to the cave without too much trouble. But I still have the gun."

"So you have nothing to be concerned about," Bas agreed.

Hemmons nodded. "After you've sent your people away, or I've killed them, you can get to work. On second thought, get to work now. Warin said it was almost operational. I want it operational tonight."

"Operational? The TDD? You want me to get it working for you?" He laughed.

Once again Hemmons nodded. "No," Bas said. "I don't think so."

"I intend to own time, Bailey."

"No one can own—"

Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

"I own David Wolfe's daughter," the man interrupted harshly. Bas took a menacing step toward Hemmons, but the man's next words stopped him. "I have the key to those manacles, I have the gun, so I own Wolfe's daughter and your wife. Through her I own David Wolfe. And I own you. You'll both give me what I want."

"Why?" The question came from Olivia. "Why should he give you what you want?"

Bas turned to look at her. "Because I love you."

She smiled at him. The warmth of it melted some of the cold fear that twisted through him. There was a layer of steel underneath the warmth, however. "I love you too, Bas," she told him, "but that doesn't mean I would—"

"Shut up," Hemmons cut her off before speaking to Bas again. "I should have done something like this years ago. I can't imagine either of you romantic fools sacrificing the life of someone you love. So tell me I don't own time, Bailey."

Bas didn't want to tell the man anything. He wanted to get the gun, and the key that held his wife locked to the time machine. He did not want to give Elliot Hemmons access to the most dangerous technology any damned fool curious scientist had ever devised. There was only one thing he could think of that he could do about it.

He looked at his wife and said, "I'm sorry."

Her eyes widened in alarm. "What? You're not giving him what he wants, are you?"

"Yes," he said, and went to the bank of controls at the front of the TDD. He removed a panel, then flexed his fingers, and set to work.

He couldn't see Olivia from where he was. but he felt the explosive silence that Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

emanated from her side of the rock. Finally, she said, "Sebastian?"

"Yes."

"Tell me you aren't doing this to save my skin."

"I'm doing this to save your skin."

"I told you not to tell me that."

"I know."

After a short silence, she said, '"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"But I really wish you wouldn't."

There was a hum coming from the TDD now. and a group of lights were going from green to amber to red in the sequence he wanted. "I know," he said again.

She sighed. "Bas, think of what Hemmons will do with a time machine. He can't change his own past, but he can mess up everyone else's."

He heard the man with the gun come a little bit closer, as though he were curious to hear the answer. Bas said, "He'll use it for plundering the past and controlling the future. He'll use it to make himself CEO of the world. It can't be helped, Olivia."

"Yes, it can! Just don't do it!"

Sebastian didn't let his concentration waver from the controls he was so delicately adjusting as he answered, "Can't stop now, sweetheart."

Hemmons laughed. The triumph in the sound was galling.

The TDD was more than humming now. The sound was closer to a screech, a fingernails-on-slate rasp just on the edge of hearing. The noise didn't seem to come from the machine, it was more like the machine was pulling the noise out of the air. Bas knew it was the protesting sound of time being sucked out of the Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

world. Pulled, twisted, distorted, and turned into a weapon. The timefield generated by the TDD was growing, soon it would encompass the area of the cave.

Bas's head was beginning to throb with pain, but he wasn't worried. He was used to this effect, not immune, but practice with the madness would help him fight it.

It would have to, because he had to make himself function for as long as it took.

He vaguely heard the clink of metal against metal as Olivia tried to move. She groaned. "My head hurts."

"I'm sorry, sweetheart."

"What are—" Her words stopped on a sharp gasp. "Ah," she finished. It was a small sound, but it hadn't been one of pain. It had held a great deal of understanding, not to mention savageness and pride. He knew that despite her distress, she was smiling.

"Room's spinning," Hemmons said. There was a strain of fear and confusion in his voice. "That damn thing's giving me a headache."

"Good," Bas whispered under his breath.

"What's happening?" Hemmons demanded as he made the mistake of taking another step closer.

Hemmons hadn't noticed the dagger when he'd made Bas disarm. Or if he'd noticed it, he hadn't thought it was any use against a weapon from the twenty-first century. Bas waited a few more moments, holding on hard to his sanity and self-control as the field continued to build. He whispered a prayer as he heard his wife moan, and slipped the dagger from his belt.

Hemmons's skin was ashen, his brow furrowed and his eyes squinted nearly closed in reaction to the drain from the timefield. He hunched forward in agony, just as Sebastian grabbed for the gun with one hand and thrust the dagger up Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

under his ribs with the other. Hemmons was dead by the time his body dropped heavily onto the cave floor.

Even through a red veil of pain Libby heard the clatter of the gun as it hit the ground, followed by a thud a moment later. The sounds sent a shiver of terror through her that had nothing to do with the disorienting agony. "Bas," she called frantically. "Are you all right?"