The Devil's Due (3 page)

“What does that say?” she asked.

Simon furrowed his brow as he translated the Latin phrase. “In the absence of light, darkness prevails.”

“That sounds like some sort of motto or creed,” Elizabeth said. “I don't recognize it though.”

Simon nodded, deep in thought.

“Maybe these were assignments from the Council,” Elizabeth offered. “Like the rabbi and the Golem? Light and darkness.”

“Possibly,” Simon said.

“Look at the handwriting. All the other names and dates were written by the same hand, but your entry, it's slightly different. It's not quite the same.”

Simon pulled himself out of the past with an effort and stared down at the list. “It's all his handwriting, but the spacing is odd, as though it was added to the top of the list after the others were written.”

“Maybe Sebastian found out you were going to be in danger and put you to the top of the list?”

Simon ran a hand through his hair and massaged the back of his neck. “But how did he find out? And who are these others on the list? What's the connection between us?”

Elizabeth put a comforting hand on Simon's arm. “I don't know. Maybe the Council knows.”

Simon's jaw clenched. Just the mention of the Council was enough to pique his anger. He'd always blamed them for his grandfather's death. Now, it seemed, there was more to it than just an assignment gone wrong.

“Sod the Council,” Simon said under his breath. He glared down at the list, willing it to give him the answers he sought. “Grandfather meant for me to find this, not them. He wouldn't have hidden it in the Kipling dust jacket otherwise.”

Simon stared at the yellowed piece of paper and then sat down heavily on the sofa. Elizabeth eased next to him and knew he was right. “This list meant something to him. It was important, important enough to hide from the Council. Important enough for him to risk his life.”

Simon ran a hand through his hair and nodded his head. “Yes.”

“These other names. Do any of them mean anything to you?” The names on the list felt random. The dates and locations spanned centuries and continents.

“No, I don't think so,” Simon said.

“Maybe they're all like you were? In danger from the dark? King certainly qualifies.”

“Yes,” he said with a deep frown. Simon hardly needed to be reminded of what King was or what he'd done.

“Yes, but Council rules are strict on non-interference; he was firm about that.”

“But then he did a fair amount of interfering, didn't he? With the Rabbi? With others? With you? And thank God he did.” Elizabeth put her hand on his leg. “I get the feeling the Council has two sets of rules and they break either when it suits them. I don't trust them, but I trust your grandfather. If he made this list, it meant something to him. You meant everything to him.”

“I'm hardly important,” Simon said and waved off Elizabeth's reply. “In the grand scheme of things.”

“I don't know. How many people have a watch? How many people in all of history have traveled through time? Dozens out of hundreds of millions? I'd say that makes you kind of important in the grand scheme of things.”

As unlikely and uncomfortable as he found the idea, she could tell he was considering the possibility.

“Maybe these people are at risk from the darkness? That absence of light thing,” Elizabeth continued. “Maybe the darkness is another way of saying some sort of occult phenomena that changes things, like King, like the Golem. Unbalances something. And Sebastian's list is a way to put things right? To light the darkness.”

Both she and Simon thought about it for a moment as they stared at the list. It was terrifying and exhilarating to contemplate the idea. If there was some dark force that was unsettling the balance of the world… Sebastian had specialized in the occult, which definitely qualified as darkness. She and Simon had battled something dark and unearthly in New York, and again with Madame Petrovka and even the Shard.

“It's possible,” Simon said, looking at the list.

Elizabeth grabbed her laptop and started researching the names on the list. It was clear it would take a lot more than some good Google-Fu to find out anything about most of them. One of the names could have been a French bakery owner or politician. Or maybe even an artist. Another name showed up in the search results for those lost in a disaster on the Mississippi. But, most of the other names brought up nothing. Considering the dates went back over two hundred years, it wasn't all that surprising. Unless the people were famous, it was unlikely there would be much in the way of records on the Internet.

There was one name, however, that Elizabeth recognized.

“This one,” Elizabeth said suddenly, running her finger along the name under Simon's. “Alan Grant, Hollywood, I know that name. It might be a different Alan Grant, but…”

She did a quick search and brought up a large image of a still from a movie - a handsome man, with sandy blond hair and pencil thin mustache, in his early forties. He was dressed as a buccaneer and using a dagger to rip through a giant sail as he sped down toward the deck of a large ship. He had a giant cutlass in his other hand and a broad, gleeful, wicked grin on his face.

Simon frowned. “Surely, it must be another Alan Grant.”

“
The Sword of the Seven Seas
! I loved that movie.”

Simon's expression was so flat it was almost concave.

“Alan Grant?
The Lost Musketeer
?
Midnight Masquerade
? He was a huge star.”

“I didn't watch many movies growing up. Once I was at school, it was mostly Monty Python.”

“And big points for that,” Elizabeth said. “But you don't know what you're missing. Those old movies, they were so much fun.”

“At some point it must have stopped being fun for Mr. Grant or he wouldn't be on the list, would he?”

“True.” Elizabeth did a quick search and found Grant's bio, but it wasn't very helpful. “His credits just stop.”

“In 1933?”

Elizabeth nodded.

Simon folded the piece of paper with the list and leaned back into the sofa cushion, letting his neck rest against the back of it, and looked to the ceiling. He looked tired. Heck, he was tired; she was tired. They'd been at this for hours and hours, and the emotional toll of discovering his grandfather's real reason for traveling to New York was starting to show.

“It's late,” Elizabeth said. “Why don't we go to bed and we can talk about it tomorrow.”

“We leave for Europe tomorrow.”

In the excitement of it all, she'd nearly forgotten about their honeymoon. “Right.”

She nestled closer to Simon. He reflexively put his arm around her and she put her head on his shoulder. They both stayed silent and still for a few minutes.

Finally, Elizabeth said, “We don't have to go.”

Simon lifted his head and peered down at her. “Are we talking about Europe or…”

“Either, both. I don't know.” She sat up and turned to face him. “I know I'm always the one pressuring you to go. And I don't want to do that. Not with this. As unlike me as it is,” she said with a grin, “I will go wherever you want to go. This one has to be your choice.”

Simon took her hand and caressed it. Finally, his fingers traced the edges of her wedding ring. “No, it's
our
choice. Together?”

“Agreed.” Elizabeth covered his hand with hers and then added, “You go first.”

Simon laughed and brought her hand to his lips. “I'm torn. I feel as though I owe it to my grandfather to finish what he started, but I owe you so much more. I owe you a life.”

“Just for a moment. Forget me; forget Sebastian. What do
you
want?”

Simon thought sincerely about the question for a moment and then said so softly Elizabeth could barely hear him, “I want to go.”

He looked at her and his expression and voice grew stronger. “A good man died to give me a second chance. I don't want to waste it being a tourist, when I can make a difference. If there is truly a darkness out there, and I believe there is, I can't walk away knowing I could do something about it. I don't know why he chose these people or made this list, but I want to follow it. And I want you with me wherever it leads.”

Elizabeth sat up a little straighter and smiled. “I was hoping you'd say that.”

Simon tugged on his ear in thought as he debated their choice. “We could, of course, go to Europe and deal with this when we return. 1933 isn't going anywhere.”

Elizabeth had considered that. “It would be like an itch we couldn't scratch though. We have a chance to live history, to be the light. The rest just kind of pales in comparison, doesn't it?”

“It will probably be dangerous.”

“No doubt.”

Simon frowned.

“We still have Teddy's key,” she said. Teddy Fiske's key allowed them to travel with the watch at will instead of waiting for an eclipse. It had saved their lives in London. “And it's not like there's a war going on or vampires lurking about.”

“That we know of.”

“Good point.”

Simon shifted to face her. “Who knows what sort of dangers Alan Grant faces; what sort of darkness there is there?”

Elizabeth smiled. “It's a good thing you're an expert then, isn't it?”

Simon tried to frown, but couldn't quite manage it. “We don't know anything about that time.”

“Ah,” Elizabeth said with a widening grin. “But we know someone who does.”

Simon folded his arms and leaned back against the kitchen counter. “It's a terrible idea.”

Jack expected that. Cross was full of don'ts and shouldn'ts and you'll put an eye outs. But, they needed him. He could sense it. And, if he were honest, he needed them.

Since they'd saved his life in 1942 and brought him back to the future with them, his life had been a series of amazements. The future was a lot to take in for a man from the forties.

They'd offered to return him to his own time. They could have safely deposited him away from the fire that nearly killed them all at Madame Tussauds and he could have resumed his life there. But, Jack was above all else, an adventurer and he couldn't pass up the opportunity to explore the future. And, if he were honest, three years of war had taken their toll. The Navy and then the OSS had been a great adventure, but war was, as they say, hell. And he didn't relish the idea of going back to it. After all, according to the history books, the good guys had won that one. They didn't need him. No one did really. It was an odd feeling for someone who was used to being indispensable.

The future had plenty going for it though. He might find a place here. Eventually. It was all he'd ever imagined and more. Buck Rogers had nothing on NASA. Man walked on the moon, talked to each other on phones without wires and waged war in ways he would have rather not known.

“I don't think it's wise,” Simon said as he leaned back against his kitchen counter and crossed his arms over his chest.

“I can help,” Jack said, hoping he could get through to him. “If this darkness or whatever you call it is real, don't you think having back up is a good idea?”

Simon frowned and spoke as though he were addressing a small, backwards child. “Need I remind you that there is already a
you
there?”

Jack frowned and chewed his lip. “Ah-ha!” he said, waving his finger in the air triumphantly. “You said April.”

Simon's eyes narrowed. “I did.”

Jack grinned. “I'm not there. I mean, I'm there, just not right there then, at that moment. In April 1933 I was getting the hell beat out of me in Arizona filming
The Dirtiest Trail
and
Si Si Senorita
.” He opened his mouth as wide as it would go and pointed inside it. “I even lost a tooth.”

“As compelling an argument as your missing tooth is,” Simon said, “It's still too much of a risk. If you should alter the course of your own life…”

“What?” Jack said, worried for the first time.

“The repercussions could be disastrous. You could cease to be or worse.”

“What's worse that?” Jack said.

Before Simon could give him a list of things that were more important than he was, Elizabeth stepped in. “If he's careful to avoid places he used to go and keeps a low profile, it could be pretty helpful to have someone there who knows what is what.”

Jack gave Elizabeth a thankful smile. She was a good kid and, he knew, she understood him. She knew he needed more than being a sightseer in the future or a relic in the past. He needed to matter again.

“I could be helpful,” Jack offered. “I
want
to be helpful. I'm not the kind of man who can sit still, you know, especially if there's something out there that needs doing. If there is a darkness like you said, I want to do something about it as much as you do.”

Simon might be a pain in the posterior sometimes, but he was an honorable guy and he respected that in others. Jack could see from Simon's expression that he had a chance. “I don't know…”

“Simon, if Jack promised to avoid his usual haunts and women,” she said with a pointed glare at Jack, “he could be a huge asset. He is a trained spy, after all. He knows the town; he knows the studio. We might need help just getting close to Alan Grant. Think of him like a time Sherpa.”

“If things go sideways,” Jack said, playing his trump card. “And let's face it, the odds are pretty good they will with her along.”

“Hey!”

Simon nodded, conceding the point.

“She's got a gift for finding trouble.”

“Yes, she does,” Simon said.

Elizabeth waved her hand. “Standing
right
here.”

Jack smiled apologetically. He loved her like a little sister and more than needing something to do, needing to feel useful again; he wanted to make sure she made it back in one piece. “Having a little backup might be—”

“Prudent.” Simon agreed and pursed his lips in thought.

“Still here,” Elizabeth muttered.

Simon frowned. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any of that as a commentary on your abilities. It’s just that we…worry.”

Her indignation fizzled in the face of Simon's obvious and genuine concern. “Yeah, I know,” she said.

“Good. And you understand about the timeline,” Simon said to Jack.