New Atlantis Bundle, Books1-3 Page 30

  He didn’t pick up her teasing tone, and when he looked down at her with stunned unhappiness, she gave him his reprieve.

  ‘Julio, did you get any sense that I wanted you to stop, or slow down, in there? I seem to remember it was me who wanted you to pick me up and… well, you know. I think I’m a lot stronger than you give me credit for. I’m riding this wild ride that is this new life, and I’m enjoying every minute. I’ll let you know when I’m getting overwhelmed by it.’

  She leaned up and kissed his lips gently. It amazed her how easy these little familiarities with Julio had become so quickly. A few weeks ago, in another world, she had been tongue-tied and shy around him, the idea of touching him, so far out of her realm as to be impossible. And yet, here she was, talking to him, teasing him, and doing a heck of a lot more than just touching him.

  And it felt right.

  Chapter Twelve

  When they walked into Maggie’s kitchen some time later, looking like two bedraggled but satiated cats, the expression on their host’s face was classic. If they had any doubt that Maggie had heard them, that doubt was dispelled. Instead of embarrassed, Jane felt proud.

  ‘Sorry if we disturbed you,’ Julio said, his face stiff with mortification.

  Jane sniggered, and looked away when he glared down at her.

  ‘No worries. I just thought… well, you were concerned about moving too fast.’ Maggie seemed as embarrassed as Julio. Jane had to remember that, although Maggie looked like a young woman, she was a much older one, who might find their antics offensive.

  ‘Yes, I was, but …’

  ‘I understand. Don’t explain. It’s not my business. As long as you’re both happy with where this relationship is going, that’s all that matters.’ Maggie smiled stiffly at them, and began putting breakfast into the Kitchen Chef.

  They sat around the kitchen bench quietly, eating the food Maggie gave them.

  ‘You Jump tomorrow?’ Maggie was obviously searching for ways to bridge the strained atmosphere. She sipped at her coffee, trying to look interested.

  ‘Yes. London 1991. A little village in the outer suburbs called Totteridge. Our hope is that four year old Jeremy got lost in Darland’s Lake Nature Reserve – maybe fell in the lake…’

  Jane studied Julio’s closed face. He was just as tense about this Jump as he had been a week ago. They had clearly expanded their hypotheticals to include this lake, in the interim. But from Julio’s tone, she knew that the more optimistic prospects hadn’t changed his pessimism.

  ‘They would have searched the area at the time, surely. Maybe dredged the lake?’ Jane had to ask, even though her distress made her want to avoid the topic completely.

  ‘The Lake isn’t very deep. They trawled it, but didn’t go to too much trouble, as it was considered to be too far for a four year old to walk. Although it is a Nature Reserve, it’s not an easy walk, supposedly.’

  ‘But your team think it’s a good possibility?’

  ‘It is our best hope. If we see him walking off alone in that direction, we’ll Retrieve him.’

  ‘So, you hang around outside his house on the night he disappears, and watch for him to leave?’ Maggie put down her coffee mug to stare intently at Julio. She appeared to be troubled by the discussion, but also fascinated. Her only experience with Retrieving was her own. And it had been ‘staged’, once her Retriever had determined that she was neither suicidal nor likely to be targeted by a random murderer trawling the National Park.

  This waiting and watching, as the events went down, must feel very unpredictable to Maggie, Jane thought.

  ‘Yes. One of us will watch the bedroom window, and one will watch the front door, in case a family member takes him out that way. The back door leads into an enclosed backyard with no gate. We could plant disposable microscopic cameras in his room, but it’s unlikely we’ll be able to gain entry into the house.

  ‘My partner will try to befriend the mother, and try to get invited back to her home for tea. But as there was no mention of such a meeting in the interview records, and the police asked about strangers in the neighbourhood, it is apparent no such connection was made. We may try a break and enter, if the house is left unattended. But we won’t know until we are in-situ.’

  ‘It’s scary but exciting,’ Maggie announced, as she stood up and took her mug to the sink.

  ‘Adrenalin flows from the moment you Jump. There are so many variables to be factored in. I don’t know how the single Jumpers of the past did it. As it is, I feel like I’m cut adrift in unknown waters. I know I can activate the Portal anytime, and come back. But that’s a worst case scenario. We’re out there alone.’

  ‘Who is your partner? Not Dorothy, I hope!’ Jane had heard all about the clash between Julio and Dorothy. They were oil and water.

  ‘No, Dorothy has left the program. She had an issue with another partner on the last Jump, two days ago. She feels that the laxity of the program is not suited to her.’

  Jane laughed loudly, before covering her mouth with her hand. ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t laugh. I never met the woman, but she did seem a bit of a stick in the mud, for this kind of work. I would think Retrievers require strong gut reactions and the willingness to follow them. Like spies. Sticking to Protocol, the letter of it, would be counterproductive.’

  The look Julio threw her way was one of amazed appreciation. She couldn’t help feeling stroked by his obvious, unspoken praise.

  ‘Your intuition is your second most important resource on a Jump. The first is thorough, intensive, and painstaking planning. But once you have that done, then the unpredictability of events, as they play out, means you rely heavily on your gut, as you call it.’

  ‘I couldn’t do it.’ Maggie shuddered, as she loaded her mug into the instant dishwasher.

  Jane wanted to agree with her new friend, but there was a part of her that found the whole time travel rescue thing appealing. But she couldn’t stand back and watch some paedophile take a child, no matter how predestined it was. So she would not choose that career. But a researcher in other times? That appealed to her on so many levels. But there would be a lot of years of study before she would be considered suitable for such a role. And Jumpers often spent a whole lifetime in-situ. There was no way she was spending that sort of time away from Julio.

  She caught herself. When had she started to see herself and Julio as a couple? Because that was what she had envisaged, as the thought of leaving him for years at a time, came to mind. She wanted to live with him. She wanted to be with him in every way there was.

  So they had only known each other a few weeks. They had been the most pivotal weeks of her life. And Julio was the axis around which every event turned. Without him, her life would be empty. Just as it had been before he came into it. But back then, she didn’t know what she was missing. Now she did.

  If anything happened to him in-situ, she wouldn’t be able to handle it. People here saw her as strong. She had surprised them how well she had adapted to the changes wrought in her life. But her strength was underpinned by Julio. Always Julio. If her axis was removed she knew she would spin off centre, destroyed by the fractured pieces of her grief.

  To steady herself, she reached across and took his hand. He looked a question at her, and she smiled her reassurance back. But inside, her heart had begun to beat frantically, and her vision was off kilter. Dizzy, she focused on his face, willing herself to calm down.

  He would be all right. They hadn’t lost a Jumper since they introduced the partnership Protocol. Even the Researchers Jumped in pairs these days. There was nothing to worry about. He was a strong and capable man. Nothing bad would happen to him.

  But though the dizziness passed, the sickness in the pit of her stomach didn’t. Thank goodness it would only be a matter of seconds that he would be away. If she had days to worry about him, she would have been a jabbering mess by the time he came back.

  Julio spent the night with Jane at his place, not wanting to offend Maggie
’s sensibilities further. The idea of sleeping separately never crossed his mind. But it did hers. He could see the questioning looks she threw him, as she allowed him to lead the way into the unknown territory of their new relationship.

  The fact that she deferred to him amused him. As if he had any idea what to do. He might have lived hundreds of years longer than she had, but he was as inexperienced as she was in romance. He was operating purely on instinct. And instinct told him to keep his woman by his side. Instinct told him to protect her from all threats, even imagined ones like the admiring glances she received from any man she passed.

  On the morning of the Jump, there was no possibility that she wouldn’t be there at Start Point, waiting for him. For her, it would mean no interruption to her day. He would be gone no more than a few seconds, on this time-line. But for him, just knowing she was there, waiting, made the thought of the return journey all the more longed for.

  To see those beautiful eyes smiling at him, when he walked clear of the shimmering curtain of the Portal, would be enough. He hoped it would help him handle whatever aftershocks were to come from the Retrieval.

  Because they would come. At some deep, visceral level, he felt the clash was coming; a clash between his damaged child within and the dutiful citizen of New Atlantis. Who the winner would be, he didn’t know. But whatever side of his nature won, there would be fall out.

  Standing in the cavern at Start Point was always exciting. The size of the underground space was awe inspiring, as were the rippled threads of light that covered the walls, ceiling and floor. The huge stone doorway stood at the centre of the upraised dais. Covered in ancient glyphs of the original Atlantis, they added a mystical quality to the pure science that was Quantum Physics.

  Alice Cornwall stood at the bottom of the stone stairs that led to the square gateway. A black skinned beauty, who looked no more than thirty, but was actually twenty years his senior, was his partner on this mission. He liked her. She had a no-nonsense pragmatism that appealed to him. Yet she had a kind heart, which yearned to bring the missing children to safety. Not a stickler for Protocol, he felt that he might be able to bend her to his purpose, if it was necessary.

  He introduced Jane to Alice as they made the last minute check before the Jump.

  ‘Look after him for me,’ Jane said to his partner, her voice wobbly with emotion.

  Julio pressed her to his side, and kissed her forehead. ‘There won’t be any need to look after me, Querida. We are just ghosts observing a family. In and out in a matter of days. Nothing to worry about.’

  Alice beamed at Jane, her bright white teeth so stark against her ebony skin. Her thigh length straight black hair was woven into thin, micro braids with tiny crystal beads dispersed along its length. The braids were then bound tightly in a looped tail at the back of her head, leaving her face unrelieved. The effect was subtle but stunning. She wore jeans, black T shirt and denim jacket – perfect for the early 90s in London.

  ‘Do not have a care Jane, Julio knows how to look after himself. We will be back before you know we are gone.’ Alice’s voice was deep, rich and melodic, carrying the neutral inflections of the New Atlantean accent overlaid on an older, more regional accent that was probably Cornish. He had to ask her one day.

  Julio dismissed Alice’s origins from his mind and turned to Jane. Drawing her in for a deep kiss, he then rested his forehead against hers. What was there to say? He would miss her? His mind replayed that last day in the Sydney shop.

  ‘I will miss you…’ she had said. And those words had meant so much more. Now they carried the same weight for him. Nights spent in his lonely bed, craving her body next to his. Days focused on work, but images of her slipping in when he least expected it. Yearning for her. Missing her. Needing her like an addict needs his next fix.

  In the end he kept it simple. ‘See you soon, sweet Jane.’

  And then he was moving away from her, up the stairs to the stone gateway, with Alice at his side, blinking rapidly to keep the stinging tears from falling. He never cried. Not since he was six years old, and he realised that tears achieved nothing. So why was he feeling them now? It made no sense.

  The buzz of the open Portal filled the cavern as the showering curtail of sparks flowed down the full length of the gate. The room brightened significantly. He dare not look back. If he did, he might not leave. Straightening his spine, he stepped through the portal. Alice was close on his heels.

  Jane couldn’t breathe. It felt like all the air had been sucked out of the cavern. Julio didn’t even look back as he squared his shoulders and stepped into the curtain. Then, the loud buzzing sound, which had echoed around the cavern like angry bees, was silenced. The sparkling curtain blinked out of existence as quickly as it had appeared.

  If it had been someone else Jumping, Jane would have been fascinated by the process. The rows of computer terminals, fanning out like spokes on a wheel, were all alive with phantom images flickering above them. Jane knew that each terminal’s human counterpart was accessing billions and billions of pieces of information, trawling for suitable Targets for Retrieval. She knew it took weeks of this kind of intense trawling to throw up a single candidate. And then longer, as members of the program analysed the data and drew up plans for Retrieval.

  It all then depended on the skills and qualities of the Jumpers. And Luck. No one talked about Luck, but it was as much an ingredient as any other, in the process. Luck – that they saw something significant and realised what they saw. Luck – that their target was in a receptive mood. Luck – that no one paid too much attention to the ghosts in their midst.

  How lucky she had been, that Julio had been curious enough to come check her out. Even luckier, that Maude Robbins had insulted her in front of Julio that first day, and he’d felt challenged to cross her. No plan could have taken those factors into account. And yet, were they not fated to happen? She would never have been on that Ferry that day, if Julio hadn’t befriended her, and put the idea of a birthday treat at the beach into her head. Luck or Fate, it was all the same. She was here living the dream, the Old Jane a fading memory.

  The buzz broke into her musings. It had been no more than ten seconds. The portal was opening again. She stared at it expectantly, her heart racing. Please, Julio, be okay!

  Chapter Thirteen

  Alice stepped back out of the shimmering curtain, looking no different from when she had entered it. Close behind her was Julio, carry an ebony-faced, four year old boy. Her heart gave a little jig of happiness. It had been a success. They had brought another child back!

  But, as the curtain blinked out, the tension on the dais became apparent. Alice strode down the steps and brushed past her without giving her a second look. Her face was tight with fury. Julio walked down the stairs a few steps behind her, his stance one of challenge, as if he was ready to take on all comers, to defend the child in his arms.

  Jac must have entered the cavern sometime during the preparation, because he was now standing about ten feet behind Jane, looking intently at his two Jumpers.

  Julio strode past Jane without a sideward glance, and handed the frightened child to Jac. ‘Here’s Jeremy Barnet, safe and sound.’

  Ignoring all the other curious gazes, he turned to leave the cavern.

  Part of Jane wanted to call out to him, and rush to his side. Another part, felt lost and rejected. This Julio who had returned was a stranger. There was no recognition in his eyes when his gaze had slid over her. It felt as if he’d stuck a knife into her chest.

  ‘Debrief, Jumpers, now!’ Jac ordered loudly, as he strode toward the lift. His two Retrievers were already falling behind as his long strides ate up the distance. The child in his arms began to cry.

  Jane waited until all four of them were gone. She felt numb as she watched the cavern settle back into its natural rhythm. It was as if the excitement just passed had never happened. Finally, when she was sure that she wasn’t going to cry, she headed for the lift that would take her
back to the surface.

  She had no idea what she should do. The drama that was unfolding had nothing to do with her. Julio had shut her out, as surely as if he had turned his back on her. What she didn’t know was why. Had he fallen in love with the beautiful Alice during their intense time together? Did the anger she had seen on Alice’s face have something to do with what had happened between them?

  Even though they had only been together a few days, Jane had thought they were serious. She’d never considered that Julio might not want to see her again after the Jump. If he had felt that way, he wouldn’t have brought her to the cavern, would he? But he hadn’t looked back when he walked through the Portal. And when he came back, he was a stranger. Something had changed for him while he was away, that was certain.

  What if it wasn’t about her? What if it was about Jeremy? He had expected the Retrieval to go wrong. He’d had a bad feeling about it. Could ignoring her simply have been because he had more important things on his mind? What had he seen? What had he done? Why were both Jumpers so emotionally volatile?

  If it was something on the Jump, it was clear Julio didn’t want her getting in his way while he sorted it out. And if it was that he no longer cared for her, then he would definitely not want her getting in the way.

  But what if he needed her? She dismissed the thought as soon as it entered her head. Why would he need her? She was simply a woman he had saved, and then lusted after. There had never been mention of anything serious between them. No one had used the word love.

  And really, wasn’t it too soon for such a word? They had known each other just over five weeks. They were little more than strangers. Julio had given her insights into his past, but they still knew next to nothing about each other. And he had the right to move on, or to lose interest in her after a short separation. He owed her nothing.