Disrupted (18 page)

Chapter 20

T
here must be many scenarios you’d played over in your head a million times.

If you’re a sixteen-year-old boy, and you’ve never known your father, there must be a million versions of how you’d imagined this would go.

Who would say what and who’d say it first. Denial followed by disbelief followed by incredulity. Would you hug, cry, smash out at whatever your fist found? Hurl accusations and then demand answers, or the other way round? 

But that’s just me, and I’m obviously not a sixteen-year-old boy and I’ve known my father since the day I first drew breath.

So maybe not.

Maybe Chris was doing what any other possibly dead sixteen-year-old boy would do when introduced to a father who’d supposedly leaped back a hundred odd years to subtly arrange his death.

Chris pulled me over to the corner furthest from the chained couple and huddled down with his back to them. “So, I’ve been thinking. If Callum Jade wants me dead and the Razoks have him chained up, does that make the Razok friend or foe?”

I just stared at Chris.

The Razok had left a moment before, slammed the door in our faces and left us with that horrible thin-lipped smile and the words, “I’m sure you two have a lot of catching up to get on with.”

This is probably the first and last time I’ll ever agree with a Razok, but I kind of saw his point.

“Chris,” I said, then swallowed hard and reached out for him with my good hand. I didn’t know where to touch. I wanted to stroke some grit into his placid jaw. I wanted to wipe my palm across his clear brow and leave a frown behind. I wanted to close my fingers over his shoulder, but I didn’t know if I wanted to pull him close or shake him.

Most of all, I wanted anger to crystallize his eyes silver, I wanted confused hurt to blend with hope and cloud the stone grey with... well, with anything at all.

But I didn’t know how to do that with a touch, so I dropped my hand and started again. “Chris, could it be true? Could he be your father? Maybe the Razoks leaped Callum Jade out of our time the same way Drustan leaped us.”

“That’s not the way Drustan tells it, Willow, and I like to think he’d have known.”

“Drustan doesn’t know,” came a deep voice.

My gaze shot over Chris’s shoulder. The man was standing, had come as near to us as his chains permitted. His trousers were similar to the black tunics worn by the Razoks (and the rest of Ni London’s fashion conscience crowd), but over that he wore a crumpled off-white shirt that hung loose to his thighs.

Chris was on his feet and turned about, just in time to see Callum Jade fold his arms and state with in a voice of grave sincerity, “I’ve never told Drustan… I’ve never told a soul about any of this.”

I got to my feet a little slower.

“Christian, will you please stand closer. We have little time and I’d rather not shout across the room,” Callum Jade said in a manner that reminded me of the tone my dad used on me when I was being what he called ‘difficult.’

“Am I supposed to care about what you would or wouldn’t prefer? I know you’re not my father, but are you even Callum Jade?”

Callum Jade tugged a hand through his hair, rich brown shot with plenty of grey. His beard was short and maintained, less grey, and shaped the classical lines of a face that might have been incredibly striking thirty years earlier.

“What the Razok told you is not important. Worry more about why he told you.” Callum Jade took a step toward Chris. The chain yanked his ankle off balance and his arms unfolded and flew out to steady himself. He didn’t go down. He glared down at the chain, as if only just remembering it was there, then turned his eyes up to Chris.

“Every minute you spend inside this room with me works in their favour. They’re not asking for much. Such a small thing, to strap that Xylex to your wrist and press the button to leap back.” His words came quick and desperate, low enough to stay inside the room and urgent enough to grab Chris’s attention. His eyes had darkened to hot slate. “You’re human, you’re just a boy, you don’t want the blood of another on your conscience. All you have to do is press a button and go back to where you came from, return everything to normal, leave the craziness behind. It doesn’t matter if I’m your father or a complete stranger, Christian, that’s just a seed of doubt to seal the odds.”

“Callum, please.” The softly spoken reprimand drew all our eyes to the woman. She was still sitting on the floor, her legs stretched to accommodate the chain linking her ankle to Callum Jade’s. “You’re scaring him. The boy has no idea what you’re talking about.”

Neither did the girl. But I wasn’t exactly scared. I’m not sure what I was. A lukewarm shiver rolled down my spine, and kept on rolling, as if it had somewhere to go. Because up until a few days ago, I knew of only one person who had actual grey eyes. Not faded hazel or watery blue. Grey. Now I’d met three whose eyes could turn from stone to silver to slate at the throw of an emotion.

Do the genetic sums.

“I’m not scared,” said Chris.

He didn’t sound scared. He sounded flat and empty.

Callum Jade looked back to Chris and they stood silent for a moment, staring at each other.

Then Callum Jade returned to the woman’s side and sank down to the ground. His eyes never left Chris. “The Razoks consider humans weak and ineffectual. They’ve examined our history, they’ve seen the emotional bonds of humanity override survival instinct time and time again. I need to know that you will prove them wrong. I need to know that you are strong enough to stand back and watch—”

The woman put a restraining hand on his arm that stopped him mid-sentence. She was a petite brunette, warm brown eyes, a softly rounded face, totally unimposing. She was much younger than Callum Jade, late twenties at a guess.

She spoke to Chris. “Do you know what a Xylex is?”

Chris shook his head and she continued, “It looks a little like a complex wristwatch, but it’s a remote device for accessing TIC. It’s also used to control leaping. Once the time coordinates have been activated, anyone in contact with the Xylex will be transmuted into the leap.”

“Drustan has one,” I said, remembering the fancy watch he’d fiddled with to zap us from TIC to his apartment.

The woman’s eyes flickered at me. Surprised to see me. Or maybe just surprised that I’d spoken. But she didn’t dismiss me or tell me to shut up.

“That’s right,” she said, giving me a smile before turning back to Chris. “What Callum is trying to explain to you, Christian, is that the Razoks cannot send you back by force. They can strap the Xylex to your wrist, but one of them cannot activate it, as that would leap him back with you. His sudden presence might distract Jack Townsend. He might even find himself between you and Jack’s knife. The Razoks have manipulated events far too well and accurately to take that risk.”

“Wait a minute.” Chris moved forward. He went down on his knees in front of Callum Jade. “Are you saying... I thought- Drustan said you went back to kill me.”

“Why the hell would—” Callum Jade stopped himself this time. He shoved a hand through his hair again. His sigh sounded more like a curse. “They used my Xylex to leap back, so of course Drustan would conclude it’s me.”

“So, you didn’t— You’re not the one trying to kill me?”

Callum Jade opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out. He looked at the woman, a helpless, trapped call for help.

What was the matter with him? A simple denial would be good. It was totally obvious that the Razoks, and not Callum Jade, had gone back to stamp Jack, but I really think Chris needed to hear the words.

I stepped up to stand beside Chris’s hunched figure. My fingers trailed his shoulder, and he didn’t shrug me off.

The woman put on another smile for Chris. It was strained, but not fake. “Christian, they’re going to try and make you leap back. They’ll do anything to trick you into pressing that button. What you need to know is, if you do that, you will die. Your death is already recorded—”

“I know that,” said Chris fiercely.

“Then we all understand each other,” said Callum Jade. “Pretend to go along with them, but listen carefully. There are two buttons on the Xylex. If you press the blue button, regardless of what time coordinates have been entered, you will be leaped back to very instance in time and space that Drustan pulled you from. Your soul is centred in that time and cannot double leap.”

My eyes went wide. My knees buckled. I went down, my fingers pressing on top of Chris’s shoulder for support as I slid to the ground, my legs tucked under me, my heart heavy.

“You will press the green the button,” Callum Jade continued, “and say the words, ‘Transmute to Drustan’s apartment.’ That is all. Do you hear me?”

I looked at Chris. He was white-faced. And nodding.

The woman rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes. As if her job was done and she could now relax.

“Good,” said Callum Jade, and kept his gaze steady on Chris.

I didn’t know who the woman was. I was pretty sure Callum Jade was Chris’s father, however screwed up the practical time line was.

I did know that neither of them knew the first thing about what made up Christian Wood.

“He won’t do it,” I whispered. God knows why. Maybe I thought Chris wouldn’t hear if I spoke really quietly. “You have to make him understand.”

“Shut up, Willow.”

I ignored Chris. Just like he was so determined to ignore his destiny. And repeated, “You have to make him understand why he can’t go back until Drustan’s set everything right, no matter what they threaten.”

Callum Jade flashed a silver stare into me. But he didn’t argue. His face paled beneath his beard, losing every drop of life blood, and then hardened to granite as he drove that stare into Chris. “The Razoks will put a gun to my head and order you to press the blue button. But you won’t give in to them. You won’t care what they do to me afterwards, Christian. You won’t give a damn, because I am your father. I am the man who killed your mother and abandoned you.”

“Callum, no!” shrieked the woman.

Chris lunged forward, connecting fist with bone as he landed a glancing blow underside Callum Jade’s jaw. The man’s head jerked back violently, then bobbed forward again. He didn’t put his hands up to defend his face. He said nothing. Waiting for Chris to strike again.

“Christian, do not listen to him,” said the woman, her voice desperate, pleading. “Your father did not—”

“Roslyn,” barked Callum Jade. “You know the truth as well as I do.” His jaw edged up at Chris. “I stood back and watched Gemma die and that’s—” The next blow snapped his head against the wall. Callum Jade calmly shook the pain from his jaw and faced Chris again. “And that’s exactly what you’re going to do to me.”

Chris jumped up and spun away. I shot up as well and put my arms around his back. Holding him tightly. I wasn’t trying to restrain him. He could beat the crap out of Callum Jade for all I cared. I was trying to hold in the violent trembles racking Chris’s body.

“Chris, don’t listen to him,” I said soothingly. “God, Chris, we don’t even know who he is.” The lie came easily to my lips. Maybe not even a lie. If Callum Jade had once been Chris’s father, he was no more. Father’s didn’t say things like that. They didn’t do things like that.

I said a lot more to Chris, nonsense words that stroked and smoothed as I held him, as he’d never allowed me to hold him before. After a while, the trembling eased slightly. And I spoke some more, words neither of us would remember afterward, words we couldn’t even hear as the argument behind us heated.

“You go too far,” said the woman.

“I told the truth.”

“It didn’t happen like that.”

“You weren’t there,” hissed Callum Jade.

“My mother was, and you know she told me everything.”

“Then you know I killed Gemma and abandoned Chris. Those are the facts.”

“This isn’t about facts,” shouted the woman. “For goodness sake, Callum, what about Christian? Do you think this is going to save him?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’re a fool.”

“And a world will still exist to suffer fools.”

“Honestly, Callum, right now I’d happily watch you get your head blown off. You may have just saved Christian’s life, but you’ve killed his soul.”

I turned my head against Chris’s back to look at her.

She caught me looking and lowered her voice. “You’ve changed his destiny and you did so more surely and irreversibly than the Razoks could possibly have hoped for. You’re a fool, Callum. In condemning yourself, you’ve condemned the world with no chance.”

I’d mistaken the softly-spoken woman as a docile, caring sort, but the steel-tipped edges of her heart had ripped through that exterior. I’d thought she was concerned for Chris, but now I realised she’d crucify him quicker than Callum Jade if it suited her purpose.

I didn’t show my anger, though.

That wouldn’t help Chris.

“You’re both fools,” I said coldly. I lifted my bandaged hand from around Chris’s waist and pointed it at Callum Jade. “All the Razoks have to do is break a finger on my other hand and Chris will do anything they say, because that is just who Chris is. So do us all a favour and go to hell with your confessions intact.”