The 13th Hour

EPILOGUE

JULY 28

10:13 P.M.

SHAMUS, ZACHARIAH, AND PAUL Dreyfus stood in the parking lot of the hospital holding their respective keys. The two mahogany cases were the sole objects in the open trunk of the BMW. The locks on each had been released. Both cases were custom-designed and built by Paul; the box on the left was the final product, while the one on the right, identical in its construction, was the prototype.

Shamus reached out and lifted the lid of the dark wood case on the left. The dome light of the car’s trunk was absorbed by the black velvet compartment of the open box. Dreyfus reached into the case and withdrew the gold watch, staring at it, admiring it.

Nash’s brow furrowed in curiosity, as if he were a child who had just witnessed Houdini conjuring a rabbit from thin air.

“If that’s the watch we prevented from being stolen,” Nash stopped himself as he looked upon the closed mahogany case on the right, “what did Nick have?”

“The watch you gave him,” Shamus said, as if it was obvious.

“But I never gave it to him,” Nash said.

Shamus smiled. “Actually, you did, just not in our time line.”

Shamus lifted the lid of the case on the right, the one they had just carried down from the hospital room, and placed in the trunk of the car. Laying his cane against the car, he reached in and withdrew an identical gold watch.

“This one?” Nash pointed to the watch in Shamus’s outstretched hand.

“This is the watch that you gave Nick,” Shamus said. “The one that he used to prevent a horrible future, the one that he used to remove the reason to ever give him the watch in the first place. They are one and the same, a paradox brought on by violating the laws of physics.”

“So, you’re saying…?”

Shamus flipped open the watch cover to reveal the engraving. Fugit inreparabile tempus. “It’s identical, down to its smallest particle, as if it were the offspring of the original timepiece.”

“So, does this mean…?”

The three of them looked back and forth between the identical watches.

Shamus finally looked up… “Now there are two.”