The Alchemist's Key (20 page)

Both women were distracted as the Contessa approached, and the policeman ran back to join the Baron’s party.

‘What did he say?’ Hannah wanted to know.

The Contessa waited until she had reached them, before answering the query. ‘Officer Stewart has suggested I take the investors across country to my house. He seems to be of the impression that we’ll be out of harm’s way there.’ Both Hannah and Louisa shot a fleeting glance towards the Baron’s party and then back to the Contessa. The look on both of their faces said it all.

‘You go,’ the Contessa urged. ‘I may not know exactly what is going on here this evening, but whatever it is, I’m sure I am capable of handling
anything that might arise. Now that I have some idea what to expect, that is.’

She didn’t have to suggest it twice. Louisa had gone.

‘Take care,’ Hannah cautioned, squeezing the Contessa’s hand before racing off after Louisa.

When Wade saw Hannah and Louisa approaching he started waving his hands around in protest. ‘No,’ he stated firmly; that is, until Hannah was close enough to sway his judgment personally.

‘I made the mistake of not standing by you once before.’ She took hold of both his hands. ‘I won’t make that same mistake twice.’

‘This is different,’ he argued.

Hannah shook her head to disagree. ‘If we get lost, we get lost together.’

Wade was surprised by her resolution. ‘But what about your responsibilities?’ he quoted some of her own logic back at her.

‘I’m making you my main responsibility from now on.’ She sealed her vow with a kiss.

Whilst Wade was losing his argument with Hannah, Hugh urged Louisa to return with the Contessa to her house.

As Louisa was clearly not going to win her argument as easily as Hannah had, she dragged
Hugh aside. ‘Alright, I’ll go,’ she told him, ‘provided you come with me.’

‘Louisa?’ Hugh was surprised by her selfish fears. ‘You’ll be fine.’

Louisa rolled her eyes at his misunderstanding. ‘It’s not me I’m worried about.’

Now Hugh was even more shocked. ‘Surely you couldn’t be worried about me?’

‘Why not?’ Louisa asked. ‘Because I couldn’t possibly aspire to a relationship with someone of your high morals and intellectual standing?’ She barely got the words out, before the welling tears made her choke on them.

Hugh required no further prompting to kiss away her confession.

When his lips parted from hers, Louisa’s senses were left swimming in a heavenly mixture of excitement and desire. ‘My word,’ she uttered. And unable to ravish him where they stood, she settled for another taste of that kiss.

‘Oh great!’ Rex threw his arms in the air. ‘Are we going to get on with this, or are we all going to just stand around and suck face all day?’

‘Well, sucking face is good,’ Phil commented, noticing that neither couple broke from their preoccupation with each other. ‘That is, provided you’ve got someone to suck face with.’

‘Alright … you can come,’ Wade relented, when he finally came up for air. ‘But you stay close. Speaking of close.’ Wade noted Hugh and Louisa glued together over yonder. ‘I can’t believe they took this long to work it out.’

‘Well, you know what they say about people pulling together in a time of crisis,’ Hannah jested, raising half a smile from Wade.

He whistled to get their attention, whereby Hugh and Louisa parted abruptly, appearing to have totally forgotten where they were or that anyone else was present.

‘Yes, right.’ Hugh snapped to attention. ‘We were, um?’

‘Moving,’ informed Wade, heading down an alley and into the back streets, away from the main road and the invisible force that pulsed along it.

I
t took Wade’s party about half an hour to reach Ashby across country. In the garden, but still some distance away, they stood staring in wonder at the energy transferral from the main power grid of the house to the glowing white rod of the temple.

‘So now what?’ Hugh quizzed.

The way Wade figured it, the first thing he needed to do was to cut the power feed. The question was, how?

‘Baron!’ Andrew called, as he and Grace came racing across the lawn to join them. ‘I’m so glad you’re all alright. In John Ashby’s time, Glenoak was an asylum,’ he explained his concern.

Everyone present rolled their eyes, thinking his news a tad late.

‘Yes, thank you, Andrew.’ Wade slapped his shoulder in a condescending fashion. ‘We are all painfully aware of that now.’

‘Sorry I couldn’t have warned you sooner, but I’ve been detained in the eighteenth century for the past few hours, speaking with John Ashby, as a matter of fact.’

‘What?’ Everyone in the Baron’s party was immediately intrigued.

Andrew nodded to confirm his words ahead of giving them all an explanation of why he held a forked copper rod in his hands.

‘Did he tell you how to switch this thing off?’ Wade questioned, hopeful.

Andrew shook his head. ‘He couldn’t. He hadn’t even finished constructing it yet.’

‘Excuse I,’ Hannah interrupted. ‘But isn’t that Arthur?’ She directed everyone’s attention to the small glowing figure heading across the lawn towards the dig site.

‘What’s he up to?’ Wade wondered out loud, moving to investigate.

‘Are you nuts? Don’t follow it!’ Hugh insisted, grabbing hold of his friend by the arm. ‘We need you here, in the twentieth century.’

‘Settle,’ Wade advised, loosening Hugh’s grip to continue his pursuit. ‘He’s trying to help us.’

‘How the hell do you know that?’ protested Hugh.

‘He’s been trying to help us all along,’ Wade explained.

‘Hold on!’ Andrew took off after Wade, holding the metal fork out in front of himself. ‘Just in case,’ he advised the Baron.

Arthur came to a stop beside the chainsaw, and began to circle the power tool.

At first Wade didn’t know what to make of the cat’s interest in the device, but glancing back at the large wooden poles that ran the power across the huge property to the house, it suddenly dawned on him. ‘Nice thinking,’ Wade commented to the cat, as he took the chainsaw in hand.

‘What are you doing?’ Hugh grew frustrated as Wade walked past him towards the long driveway.

‘Just get back out of the way,’ Wade advised them all.

‘Oh my Lord,’ uttered Rex, ‘he’s going to bring down the power lines.’

‘No!’ Hannah went to race off after her boyfriend, but Rex detained her and dragged her kicking and screaming out of harm’s way.

Wade made sure he was a good distance from the house and the dig before he fired up the saw. ‘Here goes nothing,’ he mumbled, digging the blade into one of the wooden poles. It was a race against time to get the saw blade through the thick timber pole, as the threatening blue force overhead began lashing out towards the power tool Wade held. The pole began to waver and Wade gave it a good kick before making a run for it. When he’d reached a safe distance, he turned to watch it crash to the ground. The power lines snapped from the adjoining pole and began to whip around wildly. The surge of electricity from the house’s mains to the dig disappeared, although the rod still glowed white with energy.

As Phil approached the Baron, he gave him a firm slap on the shoulder. ‘Well, that’s one way of doing it, I guess.’

‘Yeah,’ agreed Hugh, ‘but that machine is still powered up to the hilt, and is therefore highly unstable.’

‘Then we’ll just have to power it down.’ Wade dropped the chainsaw. ‘The three of us may have been unable to throw the “off” lever, but with a bit of help from Phil and Hercules here,’ he motioned to Rex, ‘we might just do it. Who’s with me?’

As all the men nodded in accord, Hannah barged through them. ‘You’re not going anywhere without me.’

‘We’ve been here from the beginning,’ Louisa added. ‘We should be allowed to see this thing through.’

‘I don’t want to risk being separated again,’ Grace directed a plea at Andrew, taking hold of his hand.

Wade covered his frustrated expression with both his hands. Why did these women always have to make things so difficult for him? ‘Goddamn it!’ he cried, exasperated. ‘Alright, you can come,’ he decided, just knowing he was going to regret the decision.

Down in the dig site, the blue waves of power pulsated over the main body of the machine, making access to the metal boxes containing the keys impossible.

‘Is this the lever?’ Rex wandered over to evaluate how hard it was going to be to shift.

‘That’s it alright,’ Wade confirmed, as he and the other three men followed to assist with the chore.

‘Well then,’ Rex placed both his hands on the large lever, ‘let’s give this a whirl.’

All five men took a firm hold.

‘Ready?’ Wade asked, and as all nodded to confirm, he announced, ‘on three. One, two —’

‘Don’t do it, lads!’

They all paused, hearing the imploring voice, and looked to find the source. John Ashby had emerged from the shadows.

‘If you throw that lever, all this energy shall be wasted. Now is our best chance.’ He was quite excited about the fact.

‘How the hell did he get here?’ Wade looked to Andrew, as he’d been the last to encounter the late Baron.

‘He must have followed us here,’ Andrew admitted.

‘And who might he be?’ Phil queried, eyeing over the gentleman’s old-fashioned attire.

‘He’s my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather, who’s been dead for the last three hundred years.’ Wade filled him in.

‘No wonder you’re on drugs,’ Phil allowed, with a shake of his head.

‘This is spooky … the ramifications of this could be mind blowing!’ advised Hugh.

‘We’ll discuss that after we shut this thing down.’ Wade motioned everyone back to the task at hand, choosing to completely ignore his forefather’s plea.

‘Wade?’ Hannah requested his attention, and Wade turned to find John Ashby holding a pistol to her head.

‘I did ask politely,’ John advised.

Phil immediately pulled the pistol that he’d confiscated from the warden at the asylum and aimed it at the intruder. ‘Drop it.’

‘Are you out of your mind.’ Hugh placed a hand on the barrel of the policeman’s gun and lowered it. ‘You could wipe Wade from existence.’

After a second’s thought, Phil realised what Hugh was on about and refrained of his own accord.

John smiled. ‘I would ask all you gentlemen to kindly step away from the lever.’

‘No.’ Wade encouraged Phil to raise his gun again. ‘At this stage of his life, John has already had Frances, and Frances has had Ernest. Therefore, I am in no danger.’

‘But your lady friend is.’ John rested the pistol barrel against Hannah’s temple. ‘At this range I doubt very much if I shall miss.’

‘It would seem we are at an impasse,’ announced Hugh. ‘You realise that if we finish John now, he will never complete the machine and there’s a good chance that all this won’t happen.’

Wade didn’t know what to think. ‘But it is happening,’ he stressed.

‘This is also a good point,’ Hugh admitted.

‘We have a rare and wonderful opportunity here, children,’ John advised them all. ‘A chance to explore time as none before us have been able to do.’

‘We’ve all done as much time exploration as we care to,’ retorted Wade.

‘Well I haven’t.’ John got a tighter grip on Hannah, and a squeal slipped from her lips. ‘So, I would ask you all to leave my laboratory.’

‘Come on, John.’ Andrew attempted to reason with him. ‘You’ve made it to the twentieth century, isn’t that enough?’

‘It’s only the beginning,’ the aging inventor advised. ‘History is immense, and I for one want to see it all.’

‘But this machine is completely random. There is no controlling the destinations of these portholes in time,’ argued Wade. ‘We are all at the mercy of infinity.’

‘Here, in the twentieth century, I could probably fix that. Then, immortality will be mine,’ said John, again motioning them all to the ladder.

‘But you already possess the Elixir of Life,’ said Hugh, attempting to distract the old Baron with
conversation. Louisa was edging around behind John and his hostage, a large spanner in her hand. ‘The sparkling dust contained inside the crystal keys of this machine is said to give life everlasting if ingested.’

‘Hogwash!’ John waved this off with his free hand. ‘It cannot be exposed to the air for even the shortest time.’

Hugh cocked an eye as he ventured to ask the million-dollar question. ‘So what was the base metal, John?’

John smiled broadly as Louisa brought the metal tool crashing down onto the back of his neck and the old inventor dropped to the floor, unconscious.

Hugh let out a heavy sigh. He was pleased Louisa had rid them of their problem. It was just her timing that really sucked.

‘I’m so sorry, Hugh.’ Louisa realised his woe. ‘Should I have waited?’

‘No.’ Hugh mouthed the word, in an attempt not to sound annoyed with her.

Hannah rushed to Wade, who comforted her momentarily. ‘Now’s our chance,’ he announced, urging his team back into action.

‘So what are we going to do with him?’ Andrew queried as he gripped the lever alongside the others.

‘He’ll just have to settle in the twentieth century, I guess.’

Wade’s flippant comment brought a smile to Hugh’s face. Perhaps he would discover the unnamed base metal of the ‘Ghost’s Gold’ after all.

‘One, two, three,’ Wade cued, and all five men strained for all they were worth.

Slowly the metal lever began to shift.

‘Come on guys,’ Louisa encouraged them to try harder. ‘It’s starting to give!’

Just then something snapped within the machine, the chain to the lever mechanism was freed and the lever crunched into the ‘off’ position. As it did so, the metal cross on top of the machine, which housed the keys, turned a one-quarter rotation anti-clockwise. The waves of blue energy that encompassed the machine fizzled into nothingness.

‘Andrew!’ Grace cried, as she began to fade along with the power. ‘What is happening?’

‘Dear God.’ Andrew rushed to her side, his feet passing right through the vanishing form of John Ashby.

‘I love you,’ she uttered and was gone, before Andrew could reach her. ‘No!’ he cried in protest, swinging around to confront the Baron. ‘Turn it back on.’

‘I can’t do that, Andy. She’ll only disappear again when we turn it back off.’

‘Then we’ll leave it on.’ Andrew took hold of Wade, whereupon Rex and Phil were forced to restrain the outraged lover.

‘You know we can’t do that,’ Wade regretfully informed Andrew, as he pulled on a set of gloves and moved to climb up onto the machine.

‘At least give me the chance to say goodbye to her.’

The heartfelt pain of his friend’s appeal brought Wade to a grinding halt. ‘Look Andy, I’m truly sorry about Grace, but you heard what John said … we’ve shut off the power feed and shut down the machine … the huge energy stores have been wasted. Now we both know that I am not going to willingly charge them up again, so please, let me end this.’

Andrew, who knew he was being unreasonable, hung his head and gave Wade the nod.

The metal frame of the machine was still very hot and quickly began melting the thick rubber soles of Wade’s boots. Still, he was determined not to rest until all the keys were destroyed, thus rendering the machine useless. He went after the main key first, but upon unbolting the compartment, Wade was surprised to find it empty. ‘What?’

Nobody could have removed the key whilst the machine was operational, or they would have been toast, and the machine obviously hadn’t been shut down at any time.

‘What is it?’ Hugh wanted to know.

Before answering, Wade rushed to one of the other compartments and finding it was also empty, rushed to the next and then the next. ‘They’re all gone,’ he announced finally.

‘Aw, damn it!’ Hugh cursed. ‘Now I’ll never find out what the base metal was.’

‘But where could they have possibly gone?’ Hannah questioned, as Wade jumped back to the ground, leaving half the soles of his shoes on the top of the machine.

‘You don’t think they could have been destroyed in the power surge, do you?’ Louisa suggested.

‘Without a trace left behind?’ Hugh shook his head to dispel the theory.

As all discussed the possibilities, Rex had a thought and left the others for a time to move deeper into the dig.

‘I’ll tell you something else strange,’ he announced as he reappeared, ‘the corpse is gone, too.’

‘You’re kidding?’ Wade moved to investigate for himself. He found the claim to be quite true.

‘Corpse!’ Phil repeated, alarmed. ‘What corpse?’

‘Chill,’ Wade advised. ‘It was the remains of John Ashby, buried here in the fire of 1779.’

‘Phew.’ Phil gave a sigh of relief. After this evening’s events he’d rather warmed to the new Baron Ashby, and didn’t really want to see him in more trouble.

‘So what do you think this disappearance means?’ Wade put to Hugh, who merely shrugged.

‘I think it means that this machine is no longer of concern to you, my friend … or any of us.’

‘Thank God,’ uttered Hannah, before considering Andrew’s feelings. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t —’

‘That’s okay,’ he cut her short, and moved to exit up the ladder. ‘How long can one expect a miracle to last?’ With his emotions fit to burst, Andrew departed as fast as his legs were able. He craved privacy, where he could mourn his loss alone.

When John Ashby found himself returned from the future to his laboratory containing his half-constructed time machine, his mind began to reel with the knowledge of all the work he had ahead of him.

Grace was seated on the ground close by, wailing her eyes out. ‘Come, come, young Grace, there is nothing to cry about.’ He reached down and gave her the handkerchief from his pocket. ‘If you wish to see your love again, dry your eyes, child, for we have much work to do.’