City of Shadows

Chapter 18

7.25 a.m., 12 September 2001, North Haven Plaza, outside Branford

Maddy brought the tray over to the booth and sat down opposite Foster. He wasn’t looking so good this morning. Perhaps a couple of sleepless nights hadn’t helped. Perhaps it was the artificial lighting in this coffee shop. He’d looked healthier in Central Park: sun on his face and a fresh breeze ruffling the tufts of snow-white hair on his head. Healthier and happier back there.

‘Coffee, milky and sweet, just how you and Liam like it.’

‘Thank you, Maddy.’

She sat down, grabbed her latte and looked out across the mall. There was a toddlers’ play area and a fake palm tree, beyond that the mini-supermarket where the others were food shopping. She thought she caught a glimpse of the bristly top of Bob’s coconut head above an aisle. An hour’s stop over here, that’s what she’d told them. An hour, grab something to eat, then she wanted them all in the RV and back on the road. The further away they were from New York, the better.

Foster sipped his coffee, testing the heat with his lips. ‘I think it would be safer if you were to head somewhere else. Somewhere other than Boston.’

‘Where, though?’

‘Anywhere.’

‘Why?’

He took his time answering. ‘I just think it would be safer.’

‘They can’t know where we’re going. We lost them, right? We got clean away.’

‘What if they know your family lives in Boston?’

‘But those support units… they don’t know me. They don’t know anything about me. How the hell are they going to guess my folks live in Boston?’

‘They know something about you, Maddy. They found you after all, didn’t they?’

‘They found our field office. Maybe we’ve been… I dunno… leaking traceable tachyons. Maybe we just got careless and left a breadcrumb trail? All the coming and going backwards and forwards in time, that’s going to leave some kind of a mark, right? Some kind of a trackable signature maybe?’

He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. In fact, you probably know as much, if not more, about this technology than I do now.’

‘You think?’ She looked up from her styrofoam cup at his craggy face, seeing the ghost of Liam in there among the folds and wrinkles. ‘Maybe so,’ she said. ‘After all… not so very long ago, you were just a young lad from Ireland, weren’t you?’

He looked like he was going to say something, then laughed. ‘That’s about right.’

‘Foster, there’s something I’ve always wanted to know.’

‘What?’

‘How we got picked. Selected. Me, Liam and Sal. You too, I guess. I mean, who knew so much about us? Who knew I was on that plane? Who knew Liam and you were on that particular deck on the Titanic? Who knew exactly where Sal was in that burning building?’

‘I… don’t know.’

‘And how come they knew we had the necessary skills?’ She rubbed her temple. ‘Not that that’s helped so much. I’ve messed up more than I want to think about.’

‘The three of you were perfect,’ he replied. ‘Perfect recruits,’ he added. ‘You’ve done so very well.’ He patted her arm gently. The lightest touch. ‘Don’t be too hard on yourself. From what I’ve heard you tell me, you’ve been busy saving history over and over.’

‘Well, more like fighting fires. But we’re here still. The world’s the same as it ever was. For what good that does it.’

‘Oh, it’s important, Maddy. History can’t be changed.’

‘Yeah, yeah… has to go one particular way, I know.’ She lifted a plate of sausage patty bagels off the tray. One for him, one for her, and more for the others when they finally came over to join them. That is, if the bagels lasted that long. She was famished.

‘Did you have many missions, Foster? You know… back when you were Liam, I guess.’

‘A few. Enough.’ His smile looked sad. ‘Enough that I ended up like this. Old before my time.’

‘Long before your time.’ She could cry for him, cry for this wizened old man sitting opposite her. ‘Foster, you remember telling me about how travelling through time can age you?’

‘Yes.’

She almost stopped herself. ‘Were you serious? Are you really only twenty-seven?’

‘I think so.’ He sighed. ‘Twenty-seven, perhaps twenty-six. It’s easy to lose count of the field cycles.’

She could only imagine how Liam must feel looking at him now that he knew this fate was awaiting him. That all too soon his body was going to be irreversibly corrupted by time travel.

‘What were the others like? The team you were with before us?’

‘Young. Like you… and having to grow up fast.’ He looked away. His voice had faltered. He sipped his coffee, gave himself a moment to regain his composure. ‘Only they never got a chance to grow up properly.’

‘Were you very close?’

He nodded.

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Don’t be sorry. They lived an extra life. They had extra time, so they did. Not many people get to have that.’

‘You miss them much?’

His gaunt face wrinkled painfully. Maddy realized this conversation was hurting him. ‘Stupid question, I’m an idiot. I apologize, that was — ’

He shook his head. ‘No need to apologize. I have the three of you now. We’re just as much a family together as the others.’

‘Family… see? That’s why I think this is a good idea heading to Boston. Perhaps my folks can help out? The way I figure it, now we’re not living in a resetting time loop, then that money in the bank account won’t last forever. There’s just under twelve thousand dollars in it. Now it doesn’t get to “reset” itself every Monday morning, that money’s gonna go quickly. At least if we go see my mom and dad, they might be able to lend us some money to tide us — ’

‘Maddy. I think going to see your parents is a big mistake.’

‘Why?’

She could see Foster was hesitating. He had something to say and was fidgeting just like Liam tended to do when he was unsure of himself. ‘Foster?’

‘Maybe those killer support units do know you. Maybe they know all about you. Everything about you.’

She looked at him. He said that in a funny way, like it was meant to mean so much more than just those words. ‘Foster? What’s going on? What do you know? What’re you not telling me?’

Just then she heard a scream. It echoed across the quiet mall, drowning out the soft burble of mall music.

Sal.

She was running across the toddler play area, kicking aside multicoloured plastic balls that had escaped the small ballpool.

‘ MADDY! ’ she screamed again.

Maddy stood up and waved her arm, directing her over. ‘SAL? We’re over here! What’s up?’

Sal corrected course towards them. Behind her she could see Liam and the others scrambling out of the mini-mart, crossing the space in the middle of the mall. Sal barged her way through the coffee-shop tables and stools set up outside beneath a fake pampas-grass sunshade as if this was supposed to be a coffee bar perched on the beach of some tropical island. Stools clattered, pampas-grass parasols wobbled and tipped over. Sal finally came to a rest, bent over a waist-high partition of fake sun-bleached wood, struggling for breath.

‘Sal? What’s up?’

‘They’re here!’ she wheezed.