“Just as you did…,” I reminded her in a soft voice.
“No, Kate,” said Katherine. She got up from her chair and walked over to the window, putting her empty cup and barely touched plate on the counter. “I introduced two lonely people who had something in common—sadly not enough to make their relationship last, but they were in love at one time. I think you know that, if you’re honest with yourself. I never forced anything, but just hoped for the best. And I got incredibly, unbelievably lucky.”
She paced back toward me, a touch of anger in her voice. “Saul, on the other hand, left nothing to chance. Did you know that Cyrist clergy are required to marry only people approved by the Temple hierarchy? That leadership of a temple is hereditary—and always subject to approval by the International Temple? Did you know that?”
Yes, I had known that—although the reasons hadn’t really clicked until Katherine spelled it out directly. “So all Cyrist Templars carry the CHRONOS gene?”
Connor, who had appeared at the doorway, answered my question. “We can only speculate at this point. But it seems likely. We’d know a lot more if we had a copy of their Book of Prophecy—assuming, of course, that the damned thing actually exists. The Cyrists use smoke and mirrors so often to fool their believers that it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s a lie.”
I gave him a long, hard look and then turned to Katherine. “And the two of you really think that I can change all of this? That I can what? Alter the timeline so that the Cyrists never emerge?”
Katherine shook her head, then stopped and threw her hands up in frustration. “To be honest, Kate, I don’t know. When you were a baby, I just hoped that someday you could help locate Prudence—if only to give her a message for me. To try and get her to come back to this time and let me explain. But then I began to see subtle changes in the timeline. And last May—everything became clear. Saul was putting his plans into action. I wanted to come back here, to see if you would help, to train you—but the cancer hit and I basically had the choice of fighting cancer or fighting Saul. I’m still not sure I made the right choice…”
“You did,” said Connor, who had appropriated Katherine’s apple slices and was munching as he spoke. “Your treatment bought us some time, and we have a much better chance of succeeding if Kate is trained by someone with actual experience.”
“It also cost us a considerable amount of time, and we have a more powerful enemy as a result,” Katherine countered with a sigh. “But either way, it’s done and we’ll have to play with the cards we’ve been dealt.”
I was still mulling over the point I’d made to Trey in the car. Would I be happy in a timeline where I was a museum piece who couldn’t leave the protection of a CHRONOS key without ceasing to exist? No, but…
“What makes you sure that the timeline you want me to help you ‘fix’ is the correct one?” I asked. “Wouldn’t it be more in keeping with your training for me to go back and tell you what Saul is planning and have him arrested? After all, he kills at least two of your colleagues in the process. And how many changes happened because of his actions? Even if all of those historians stranded at various points in time did their best to avoid changing things, they must have made some alterations to the timeline. And like you said, if you hadn’t been stuck here, you wouldn’t be dealing with cancer right now.”
Katherine flushed and looked down at her plate, a bit of guilt in her eyes. “You’re right, Kate. That’s what I should have you do. There were some minor changes to history—I’ll admit that. A few instances where someone made a discovery that was a bit too advanced for their time, if you know what I mean.
“But,” she continued, “those changes were miniscule compared to what Saul is planning. And I haven’t been a CHRONOS historian for many years now. I’ve got a personal motive here. So do you. So does Connor. The timeline I knew for over forty years is the correct timeline for the three of us, as long as we can stop Saul. Being cured of the cancer would be nice, but I’ve lived a long time. I’m not willing to trade your life and the lives of my daughters, not to mention Connor and his kids, for an extra decade or so added on to my own life. Angelo and Shaila didn’t deserve to die that way, but from my perspective, they’ve been gone a very long time, and from your perspective, they never existed at all.”
Connor nodded. “Katherine and I have debated this over and over, Kate. I’m not sure there is a correct timeline here. I’m in this to get my kids back and hopefully to give them a nice, Cyrist-free future. I don’t know exactly what the Cyrists are planning, but based on what Katherine has told me, I don’t think a future with Saul in control is one that is good for anyone. It’s tougher for Katherine because she lost friends, but it’s pretty simple for me. I couldn’t care less which timeline is correct, because I know which one is right.”
11
I put the book down by the computer and rubbed my eyes. “This is the world’s most boring version of the Travel Channel. And the History Channel. Combined. And I don’t much care for either of those…”
Connor snorted. “You have real-time views of hundreds of spots in history, all around the world, and you’re bored?”
The Log of Stable Points was as deceptively thin as one of the diaries that I had been reading, but it contained even more information. It was similar to watching a small video, but these were live webcams, as best I could tell. I used the visual interface to choose a date and time and then blinked my eyes to select, at which point the translucent “screen” in front of me would display the geographical location at that specific date, in real time. It might sound cool in principle, but…
“Have you actually watched any of these?” I asked Connor.
“No,” he admitted, continuing to scan the document on his screen as he talked. “I can see text on the page, but the earpiece that you’re wearing is what triggers your ability to hear and see the video. I’ve tried it and I get occasional sound and images that break up every few seconds. It gives me a stomachache. Katherine can’t really pull them in clearly either—we think it’s because CHRONOS still had a lock on her signal when the explosion or whatever it was happened. But she has described some of them to me…”
“Did she tell you that most of these videos are of a deserted alley? Or woods? Or a dark broom closet?”
“Would you rather appear suddenly in the middle of a crowd? On top of someone? In some of the eras you’re observing, that would be a quick ticket to burning at the stake, you know.”
“Yeah, well, I just spent five minutes watching a squirrel in a park in Boston. Supposedly on May 5th, 1869, but it could just as easily have been yesterday. He looked like a very modern squirrel to me.”
“Then you wasted five minutes.” Connor sighed. “Focus on the elements that are constant, Kate. The squirrel isn’t going to help you locate that stable point when you start doing test jumps, unless it happens to be a stuffed squirrel.”
I picked the book back up and was scrolling through to find something remotely interesting when Daphne began barking, followed by the doorbell. A few seconds later, I heard Katherine’s voice from below.
“Kate, you have a gentleman caller.”
I rolled my eyes. “How is it that a grandmother from the twenty-fourth century sounds like she’s from a Charles Dickens novel?”
Connor shrugged. “Maybe both eras seem like ancient history to her. Could you tell me the difference between what they called a boyfriend in 1620 and in 1820?”
This time I gave in to the temptation to stick out my tongue, and Connor surprised me by actually laughing.
I had purposely avoided thinking about whether Trey would come by like he said he would, mostly because I didn’t want to feel let down if it didn’t happen. The previous day had been too devastating for me to get my hopes up about anything. Still, I was ridiculously happy to know he’d kept his promise, and it took a conscious effort to keep from taking the stairs two at a time.
I could hear Katherine’s voice in the kitchen. “So kind of you, Trey. Connor will certainly be pleased—he has an insatiable sweet tooth.” She turned as I walked into the kitchen, two iced coffee drinks in her hands. “I’ll just take these upstairs and leave you two young people to talk.”
“Hi, Kate.” Trey was crouched down, petting Daphne, whose tail was wagging happily. “I see they found you something to wear besides your school uniform.”
I nodded, hit by an inexplicable wave of shyness. Despite everything that had happened the day before, we were still only a few hours removed from being strangers. “Connor is a surprisingly good shopper, as it turns out.” I took one of the two remaining drinks, both of which were topped with whipped cream and a drizzle of caramel, and settled down on the window seat. “Thanks. How did you know that caramel and coffee is my favorite flavor combination?”
“Well—the coffee part I knew from yesterday. Caramel was just a lucky guess.” He sat down next to me and his smile faded a bit. “So… are you okay? I mean, that was some hellacious day you had. I was thinking about it on the drive home and, well, I was worried about you. Kind of wished I could call or text you or something, but…”
“Hold on.” I walked over to the counter near the telephone and found a notepad. I jotted down the screen name and free email account I had set up that morning while I was ordering some additional clothes and other necessities.
“These are both active now,” I told him. “No phone yet—we’re going to get one of those pay-as-you-go things next time Connor goes out. Katherine and Connor had to do some creative banking yesterday once they realized what happened. She kept a lot of cash on hand and his accounts are still active—I mean, he still exists, it’s just that some things are different. I’m beginning to wonder how long we have before someone out there figures out that we are, technically, squatters. The house is shielded from the time shift, but… if Katherine doesn’t own it now, someone must.”
“Yeah, you’d think,” he said. “So did you get all of your answers? It looked like the conversation was headed toward choppy waters when I left.”
I shrugged. “I actually decided I wasn’t up to that conversation last night. But we’ve made up for lost time since I woke up this morning.” I began filling him in on the day’s events and revelations, then hesitated a bit when I reached the part about the Cyrists.
“What religion are you, Trey?”
“Uh—Presbyterian, I guess? We don’t really go regularly—at all, to be honest. Actually, I’ve probably been to more Catholic services. Estella likes to have company at holiday mass. Why?”
“Just making sure I wasn’t about to step on any toes. This is going to sound kind of crazy, anyway.” I took a deep breath and then continued. “How much do you know about the Cyrists?”