Fugitives of Time: Sequel to Emperors of Time (12 page)

“No…” Tim said.

“Neither had I.  Lucky for me, there was a bush under
mine.  Kind of cushioned the fall, but also did this,” Billy lifted up his
pant-leg a bit and revealed a number of scratches and abrasions on his lower
leg.

Tim’s head was still spinning.  “I don’t think you
should stay here, either, though.  Probably the reason you got found out
was that you did things the guy you were impersonating wouldn’t have done, or
didn’t do things he would have, right?”

“I guess so,” Billy agreed.  “But I find it too
coincidental that all this happened the day after I found out who one of the
people being controlled was.”

“Well, either way,” Tim continued, “I think it would be out
of character for my guy, Russell Sage, to have a long-term male guest staying
in his room…  Especially when everyone knows that you own a boarding house
in the city.”

Billy cocked his head to the side.  “I guess that makes
sense.  What were you thinking instead?”

“Well, Julie’s house, of course…  She has a lot of room
there…  I don’t think anybody would notice, once you’re in there… 
It’s just that here there are so many people coming and going all the time,
you’d practically have to hide in the wardrobe every time I opened the door,
and you couldn’t make any noise during the daylight hours,” Tim said.

“You’re right.  I don’t want to leave right now,
though.  I definitely wasn’t followed when I came from my boarding house,
but Fuller could still be looking for me.  Wouldn’t want to give him a
break by walking around in broad daylight,” Billy pointed out.

“Right,” said Tim.  “So, I’ll walk you over there after
dark, then.”

Hiding
Mr. Cooper

Billy and Tim decided that someone ought to go tell Julie
they’d be meeting at her house instead of Billy’s that night and explain recent
events to her.  Since Billy wasn’t allowed out of the house, that meant
Tim found himself walking through the streets of Washington DC toward sunset
that evening. 

Tim lived on Georgia Avenue, and the route he took over to
Julie’s house on Second Street took him past Pennsylvania Avenue and the
President’s House.  This was the first time that Tim had passed the
President’s House during daylight, except in his own time.  Even though it
was smaller than it would be, the building was still quite impressive.

As Tim was passing the building, he let his mind wander to
the man who was occupying that house in this year, 1854.  Franklin Pierce
had been a Brigadier General in the Mexican-American War in 1848 and rode to
the White House largely on popularity gained by helping to win this war. 
He was from the North, but he was a Democrat and had no sympathy for
abolitionists, believing that they didn’t have the best interests of the nation
at heart.

The repeated realization that he was traipsing the streets
of Washington DC in 1854 was almost enough to make Tim forget his current
problems.  But not quite.

When he got to Julie’s house, he used the knocker to bang on
the door.  Julie opened it, looking a little frazzled.  First, she
looked puzzled as to who could be knocking at her door, then worried and
concerned once she recognized it was Tim and saw his facial expression.

“What’s the problem?” Julie asked.

Tim looked over his shoulder.  “Can I come in, first?”

“Of course,” Julie said, and opened the door wider.

Once Julie closed the door behind him, Tim said, “Billy has
been compromised.  He’s at my boarding house right now.  On the
bright side, he’s discovered one of the Emperors’ mind-control
experiments.  On the not-so-bright side, if he’s found, he’ll be killed.”

Julie whistled.  “That’s quite a lot of news.  And
all I’ve done today was compile a list of congressmen that this Macphearson
woman knew so that I can have them over for tea and cookies or something
soon.  Well, that and visit Rose” 

Tim rolled his eyes.  “Well, we can’t
all
nearly
get ourselves killed on the same day.”

“You’re so wise,” Julie returned sarcastically.

“Anyway, we decided we’ll have him stay over here with you,
since you seem like you have some space,” Tim said.

“I think we could squeeze him in, yes,” said Julie, after
putting her finger to her chin and pretending to do some mental calculations.

“So him and I will come back around 10 this evening. 
We think it’s best to move him under cover of darkness.  We’ll have our
next meeting then,” Tim said.  He paused for a second.  “Well, that’s
all I had to say…  So I’ll see you tonight then?”

Tim began to turn toward the door.  “Wait a second!”
Julie protested.  “You walked all this way.  Why don’t you stick
around for a minute?  I can make you some tea…”

So Tim and Julie had tea.  Since there was no need to
worry about eavesdroppers, they had a relaxed conversation in which they didn’t
even have to care what century their slang came from.

They talked about random stuff, including how the tea tasted
and what was the best hot beverage.  They eventually agreed on hot
chocolate, although Julie insisted that the proper name for it was
“cocoa”.  Then, they talked about everything from how weird it was to look
at themselves in the mirror with their disguises on to whether it was weirder
to sleep in a house full of people you didn’t know, like Tim was doing, or to
sleep all alone in a giant house like Julie had been doing.

Every time there was a pause or silence, Tim wondered
whether he should bring up their conversation from the first day in the bunker,
about whether they were dating or not.  But each time, he’d hesitate for
just long enough that Julie would come up with another topic of
conversation.  By the time he left, Tim decided that he made the right
decision not asking her.  Maybe it was best just to leave things up in the
air for now.

Billy and Tim arrived together at the house later that
night.

“So, basically, we have one of the mind-controlled minions
identified, but we don’t know how many others there are,” Billy said, after he
had finished summarizing the events that day from his point of view for Julie’s
benefit.

“But what about the mind-control machine?  Do you
figure we ought to go after the one we’ve already discovered right now?” Julie
wondered. 

“I don’t think so,” Billy said.  “First of all, Fuller
knows I’m on to him, so chances aren’t great that he’s even going to keep it
there after today.  Since I saw it at night, I think he has to use it
then, but that doesn’t mean he has to stay in my inn.  I bet he
will
keep
going to Congress, though, so Tim could tail him after tomorrow’s session, or
Monday’s, if we haven’t gotten the information another way by then.”

Tim didn’t want to arouse Fuller’s suspicion before he had
to.  The Emperors might well have told him through the mind-control
machine to be on the lookout for more than one person who might try to sabotage
the Emperors’ plan, and now he should be on high alert.  After Tim told
them he’d do it on Monday, they read Rose’s letter that Julie had picked up
that day. 

It was a fun letter, because it was from Rose, but wasn’t
particularly informative at all to their goal of finding however many other
controlled congressmen there were.  The highlights included the fact that
she had gone horseback riding that day, as part of her general education as a
well-to-do American young lady and had decided that she rather enjoyed it,
especially when she wasn’t doing it in the exercise room of a super-sized
survival shelter.  Besides that, her nine-year-old brother Jonathan had
apparently developed quite a fondness for scaring her six-year-old brother
Randall, and had actually resorted to jumping out from underneath Randall’s bed
late the previous night.  Long story short, this had caused a crying
Randall to insist once again on sleeping in his big sister’s bed.  Rose
allowed this, but only after he changed his pajamas, which he had unfortunately
wet in his panic.  Rose had made it her own personal mission to figure out
how to get back at Jonathan on Randall’s behalf without using violence, even
though that option was sorely tempting. 

They also decided that they would put off Julie’s tea party
plan to gather different congressmen there, at least for now.  It seemed
dangerous to have anyone in her house now that Billy would be hiding in a room
there.  Besides, they had seen earlier that day how someone being affected
by the mind-control apparently reacted when they were cornered, so inviting
potential candidates into her house didn’t seem quite so prudent anymore.

Walking home, Tim missed the time he’d gotten used to
spending with Julie every night after the ten o’clock meeting.  But, with
all the walking and excitement he’d had that day, Tim was so tired that he fell
asleep immediately when he went to bed.

With the long rest, Tim actually woke up a bit before his
alarm the next morning, Friday, and got an early start on the day. 
Finding himself with some extra time on his hands, he bought a newspaper with a
large cent he had in his pocket.  Once he reached his now familiar desk in
the House Chamber, he opened it up and began to browse through it, just for the
sake of curiosity.

Aside from some information on the slow debate about the
Kansas-Nebraska Act in the House, there was nothing of particular interest to
him until he had reached past the front page and into the insides of the paper.

The headline announced, “Local Boarding-House Owner Reported
Missing.”  Skimming over the article, Tim noticed that although the
disappearance was being considered suspicious because there had been damage
done to Cooper’s bedroom door, there were no primary suspects, but
investigations were underway.

When he read this, Tim’s jaw dropped.  Somehow, none of
them had considered the fact that Billy going missing was going to provoke
suspicion.  More importantly, until now, Tim hadn’t thought about the fact
that there would be an investigation into the disappearance.  But,
currently, the last place that Billy had been seen was not at Cooper’s own
Boarding House, but going up to Tim’s, or Sage’s, room at Miss Peinture’s Inn.

The last thing Tim, or the mission, needed was for anyone
else to find out that Mr. Cooper and Russell Sage were connected in any
way.  As annoying as it was that they didn’t know who the other people
having their minds controlled were, this had been balanced so far by the fact
that the Emperors’ minions didn’t know who they were either.

Tim hadn’t missed any part of a congressional session yet,
except for his bathroom breaks, but he now decided to break that trend. 
He got up and began walking quickly back toward his own boarding house. 
By the time he arrived, he had a bit of a stitch in his side, and his legs were
aching.  Still, he started searching for Miss Peinture just as soon as he
got into the house.

When he found her, tidying up in the kitchen, he accosted
her immediately.

“Were you the only one who saw my friend, Mr. Cooper, when
he was here yesterday?” Tim asked.

Miss Peinture was surprised by the question.  Tim
figured this worked in his favor, since it meant she probably hadn’t already
seen the article herself yet.  He would be best off if he could spin the
news as he told it to her.

After thinking for a moment, Peinture said, “Yes, I think
so.  He had been here for over an hour, but you were the first one to come
back yesterday evening.  I remember being relieved that I didn’t have to
explain to any of the other guests why a panic-stricken looking man was sitting
at my kitchen table.”

“Yes,” Tim said.  “Well, Cooper and I resolved
everything yesterday, but unfortunately, he had to go out of town for a
bit. 

Miss Peinture seemed justifiably puzzled.  “Why would
that matter to me?”

“Well, it doesn’t, that’s my point,” Tim said
hurriedly.  “Which means you’d have no reason to supply any information to
anyone, even the police, about seeing him yesterday.”

Miss Peinture’s eyes narrowed, as if she was doing some
mental math.  “Wouldn’t have any reason not to, either,” she said
measuredly.

Tim had thought about this.  “I can give you five
dollars today and five dollars in a week if you can keep quiet about it.” 
Tim hoped it wouldn’t be a problem after that.  Maybe he wouldn’t even be
there in a week to pay out the second five dollars.  He had a good bit
more than this in his desk upstairs, but he also knew that the ten dollars he
was offering was worth a lot more in 1854 than in his own time. 

Miss Peinture considered these numbers.  “You’ve got
yourself a deal,” she said.  “Or you will have one anyway, once I see the
money.”

“Just give me a moment, then,” Tim said.  He bounded up
the stairs and opened the drawer in his desk. 

He counted out five dollars.  Then, he thought for a
moment and decided to grab the rest of the money.  He realized that Miss
Peinture had a key to his room.  If she wasn’t above taking a bribe, she
might not be above stealing all the cash, so he’d better leave it at Julie’s
house. 

He went back downstairs, where Miss Peinture was waiting for
him.  He’d brought down a three dollar note from one bank and two ones
from other banks, so there wasn’t much counting to do.  Miss Peinture
smiled faintly and put the money in the pouch of her apron.  “Of course,
if I get approached personally by the police and they ask me anything specific,
I’m not going to lie about it.”

Tim rolled his eyes slightly, wishing that five dollars
would buy him a slightly better deal.  But there shouldn’t be any reason
that the police would pick Miss Peinture’s house to go to.  Nothing about
Mr. Cooper made it seem like he should have any contact with Russell Sage or
Peinture, so there was really no reason to bicker.  “Wouldn’t expect you
to,” Tim sighed.  “Just wouldn’t want you concerning the police with
irrelevant information.”

“Call it what you like,” Miss Peinture said with a shrug.

Tim nodded and gave Miss Peinture a curt goodbye.  He
headed back to the House Chamber and found the session already in progress.

Today, the tide had begun to turn a little bit within the
House.  It was the first time when someone Tim knew was meant to vote for
the bill in the original timeline actually got up and spoke against it. 

David Stuart was a Democrat from Michigan, who voted for the
bill in the original timeline.  However, Tim watched as he got up and
delivered an impassioned speech about how the solidarity of the Union was more
important than petty debate over slavery.  Tim had to keep himself from
rolling his eyes at this.  He had a pretty strong feeling that the
nation’s more than three million slaves would disagree with Stuart’s
characterization of the debate over their freedom as petty.  Stuart
continued by saying that the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850
must be honored in the case of Kansas-Nebraska, although he hoped that these
noble compromises would be kept up to date and perhaps revisited as new
territories after Kansas and Nebraska became states.

Tim realized that if those in favor of compromise were
making these sorts of speeches now, it was perhaps only a short amount of time
before they would have gained enough traction to close debate and hasten a vote
that would reject the Kansas-Nebraska Act and set events on a track leading
toward the timeline the Emperors desired.

If they were going to stop the Emperors from succeeding,
time was running out.

He also wondered what the chances were that Stuart himself
was one of the original proposers of the plan, or if he was just someone that
the Emperors’ mentally influenced drones had convinced to their side.  He
wasn’t sure that he could just outright ask him whether he was one of the
initiators, though.  By the end of the day, it was with a renewed sense of
urgency that Tim decided to speak with one of his fellow New Yorkers as he left
the Capitol.