The Tower Grave (12 page)

             
“I think it was wrong, that’s all.”

             
“Wrong?” Jake exclaimed. “I’ve got no one to see, Charlotte.”

             
“No one?” she asked, looking confused and slightly sceptical.

             
“No one,” he half-shouted back at her. “My Mum and Dad died a year ago. I was working in...abroad...when they told me they had been injured. I could’ve come home, but to do so would’ve endangered some other agents out there. I stayed in the field to sort things out first, believing my parents would be ok, and I misjudged it. Both of them died before I could get back.”

             
Charlotte gasped as tears filled her eyes.

             
“The agents were both murdered anyway,” he continued. “My brothers haven’t spoken to me since.” He fell silent and looked at his feet sitting still below him. He felt Charlotte’s hand on his knee and looked up to see her watching him, closer than she had been before.

             
“What happened to them?” she asked.

             
“They were in an accident. They were driving late and they were hit by a lorry; the driver had fallen asleep. My Dad never regained consciousness and my Mum waited for me until the moment she died.”

             
His hands went to his eyes and Charlotte moved closer to put her arm around him. He looked at her as the first tear escaped his eye in a single, heavy drop. She lifted her hand, wiped away the moisture with her thumb and they paused, eyes locked together only inches apart. They waited, both noticing but not revealing an intense feeling in their chests.

             
Charlotte knew she had been attracted to Jake since the first moment he had embarrassed her as she arrived at the compound. She had never felt this way about him though, as his deepness and hurt caught her off-guard. She said nothing as she considered him. The cheekiness, the arrogance and the over-confident manner had gone from his eyes, and he now appeared both confused and amazed. She wondered if his heart thumped as hers did.

             
Jake too stayed silent. For the first time he noticed the shape of her eyes; almost circular and glistening with a captivating blue: metallic-looking like blue steel dashed through with blue sky and electricity. They came alive as the setting sun caught them through the window and were framed by long, dark lashes, breaking the contrast of their freshness against her warm, tanned skin. He found himself studying her face with awe as every inch of her suddenly fascinated him; the freckles of her nose; the soft taper from her temples to her cheeks; her full, soft, moist lips, barely darker than her skin with a crease in the centre at the bottom. He knew she was attractive. He’d noticed her on the first day with her red glow of embarrassment, then later as her brow creased with rage at their kiss and her smile, shy and dazzling, when he made it up to her. But she wasn’t just attractive, he saw. As he studied her face, and her expressions flew through his head, he realised that to him, she was beautiful. It was a feeling that caught him by surprise and one that he’d never felt before.

             
“Jake!” sounded a shout from behind the door accompanied by a few quick knocks. “Come on, mate,” continued the voice of Pete. “We need a hand moving some furniture.”

             
Both Charlotte and Jake shook themselves for a moment and looked once more. They shared a moment of understanding and smiled before Charlotte jumped up and opened the door.

             
“Charlotte?” Pete asked, shocked. “I didn’t expect to see you, pet.”

             
“Just having a chat,” she replied as Jake appeared at her shoulder.

             
“What’s up, Pete?” he asked.

             
“Just need a hand, pal,” he replied quietly.

             
“Give us a minute, mate, yeah? I’ll be right down.”

             
As Pete nodded his assent and walked off towards the lounge and bar, Jake looked back to Charlotte and watched her face. She watched him back as another gorgeous, curious expression crossed her eyes.

             
“Thank you,” he said.

             
“No problem. See you in the morning?”

             
He nodded, paused for a moment, then smiled back at her before walking off to the bar leaving her standing in his doorway. Smiling to herself, she walked to her room and slept; ready to change the world.

Eleven

25
th
June 2014

             
5:00am, 25
th
June 2014. John got dressed in his casual, medieval clothing and packed everything he needed in a secure, disguised bag. As he opened his door, he saw Chris sitting on the floor down the hall with his head in his hands.

             
“You ok, mate?” he asked.

             
“Not really,” he replied. “I can’t keep off the loo, I’m shaking and a little bit of me just wants to go back to the lab.”

             
“I know, mate, me too. But think how you felt with the bow in your hands; when you first held a controlled gallop; when you stopped and realised you’d save the world. We’ll be together, Chris. If we fight, we fight. If we run, we’ll run. Jake and Charlotte are solid, David is such an expert you’d think he grew up five hundred years ago, and you’re a sniper with that bow! We’ll work together, we’re from the future.”

             
Chris smiled and nodded.

             
“Cheers, John. Let’s kick medieval arse, eh?”

             
“All the way, mate. I’ll wake the others.”

             
As John knocked on the other doors, each was answered by a dressed up figure from a history book. He chuckled to himself as David answered his door in his well-dressed manner and blew through his cheeks with nerves. John and Jake were dressed in the tunic and hose of any knight expected to don his armour at the drop of a hat, so to see David in his pompous hose and shirt made John laugh. Jake joined him and giggled as he saw David, standing still and thoroughly embarrassed. He began to talk to John, when he stopped dead and looked past his shoulder.

             
“Hi,” he said, making John look round to see Charlotte walking up the corridor.

             
“Hello,” she replied, smiling.

             
John eyed them with curiosity, the previous night’s argument seemingly forgotten all of a sudden.

             
“How are you feeling?” Jake asked as he stepped past John and fell into step with Charlotte towards the lounge.

             
“So nervous but really excited,” she replied. “It’s just such an amazing thing to be...”

             
The sound trailed off as they disappeared around the corner, and John turned back to the other two, confused.

             
“Didn’t they argue last night?” he asked.

             
David shrugged. “I guess so,” he said.

             
“Pete said he went to get Jake to help move some things in the lounge and Charlotte was in his room,” Chris added quietly. “I guess they made up.”

             
“I guess so,” John replied, lost in thought and looking in the direction they’d walked.

             
The three men slowly made their way into the lounge area to get breakfast before the action began. John, unable to eat with such nerves, began to pack dry food into his bag and was quickly followed by the others. After an easy chat and many double-checks of their equipment and weapons, Derek walked into the room.

             
“Nearly seven o’clock, people,” he said with a smile. “Do you want to start going through?”

             
As the team got through to the portal, the lab was a hive of activity. The portal itself was opened wide as Jane led the first horse into the room through a wide door that John hadn’t seen before and secured it in the portal itself. The scientists worked in haste all around them and the general air of fear filled the room. John was still in awe of Jane’s toned figure as she smiled cheekily each time she led in a horse.

             
Once all five were loaded, she soothed each of them in turn and left the portal, joining John and his team to the side. Derek stood with them sweating and Jane held John’s hand as the portal doors were closed and the room came alive with renewed intensity. Glancing sideways, John could see the fear for the horses in Jane’s eyes and he gripped her hand tightly as she silently began to cry.

             
The portal remained silent as the team of scientists, including Rich Walker, suddenly stopped their frantic activity and stood quietly, watching the clock. John followed their gaze and his heart quickened as he saw the time was 07:28. The next minute went agonizingly slow as the room sat in silence, nerves and fear emanating from each and every person.

             
Rich glanced at the clock and then to his watch, taking a breath and then starting to count.

             
“Twenty, nineteen, eighteen,” he counted.

             
The room tightened as the clock counted down and the suspense built with every word. By the final seconds, Jane began to sob and Rich’s voice grew shaky as he finished the count.

             
“Four, three, two,” he said as he looked up at the red haired technician, “one, go,” he added.

             
With a grim expression, she turned and pressed a small, circular button on a panel behind her. Instantly, a familiar screech filled the room followed by both a crack and a pop.

             
“Check it’s worked,” Rich directed with urgency, causing a technician to run to the portal door. The moment he opened the door, the room was filled with the whinny of a distressed horse.

             
“Oh my god,” he said as he stepped back in fear and Jake’s mare stepped out snorting loudly and nervously, pawing her front hoof in the room.

             
Jane ran to the door and broke into tears as she stepped into the portal. The whole group surged forward, but only a few had room to move past the horse and see through the door.

             
“What’s in there?” Derek bellowed from the back.

             
“Only two have gone back in time,” Rich answered. “Three remain. One is here, one lying inside and one...Jane?” A cry emerged from the portal and Rich nodded. “And one dead,” he added.

             
“What the fuck has happened, Rich?” Derek shouted. “Why haven’t they gone?”

             
“Wait a minute!” called the first technician’s voice. “There’s blood, there’s a wound.”

             
Jessie, the red haired technician, stood up and joined the shouting.

             
“Rich, the results say they all went,” she said. “They all went. They’ve been and they’ve come back.”

             
“Fuck, I forgot they’d come back the same time they went,” he replied. “Even leaving there with you, John, they’d get back now.”

“The best handpicked team and none of you thought of this?” shouted Derek.

“Did you think of it, boss?” countered Rich angrily, surprising them all. “Either way, they’ve been and only three have come back with one dead. What’s happened back there?”

             
“Well let’s consider it,” answered John calmly. “Two are missing, one is fine, one is exhausted and there’s a lot of blood from the dead one. I guess you’ll find out in thirty minutes.”

             
He took a nervous glance from each of his team as Jane walked out of the portal and looked around, her cheeks wet.

             
“She’s got a huge puncture wound to her side,” she said. “Like a spear or arrow wound, I guess.”

“Where’s the spear or arrow then?” asked Derek.

“It wouldn’t have come back, it’s not from now,” answered Rich.

Jane
looked at John and the room fell quiet.

             
“Well, we’ll just have to be ready for whatever that is,” he said. “We can’t turn back now, and we can’t change what’s happened, we’ll have to fight. We know this isn’t going to be a picnic.” He looked at Jane, then the others. “We’ll get back, team.  We will. We know there will be an altercation by the portal on the way back. We’ll be ready for it. Let’s just go and get it done.”

             
“But whose horse was it?” asked David.

             
“What do you mean?”