Guardians of Time (28 page)

And fell into utter darkness.

Math

T
he easternmost
tower of Caernarfon Castle burst upwards and out, raining debris on
the whole of the castle square. It was as if a giant fist had
punched up through the snow that was falling from the sky, and then
collapsed.

“Christ in heaven!” Math gazed up at the
balloon of dust, which was already settling on the ground to be
covered by a layer of snow from the swirling blizzard. He hadn’t
been with Dafydd when Canterbury Castle had been destroyed, but now
he knew something of what it must have been like.

Horror was etched on Anna’s face, and Math
wished she hadn’t been here to see this. Nobody had liked it when
Llywelyn, Abraham, and Dafydd had entered the castle, and Math
didn’t have any doubt that whatever had made Lee set off the
explosion before the Prince of England’s speech, effectively half a
day early, Dafydd had been in the thick of it.

In front of them, people ran every which
way, crying and screaming. Security men appeared out of avenue and
alley to converge on the castle. Sirens wailed in the distance, and
the four of them—Callum, Mark, Anna, and Math—stood and watched
from their vantage point over a hundred yards away.

“What just happened?” Meg’s voice echoed in
Math’s ear.

“The east tower of the castle blew up,” Mark
said.

Math was glad Mark had chosen to talk,
because he didn’t know if he could have found the words to answer
his mother-in-law. As he stared at the castle, he told himself that
he believed with every fiber of his being that if anyone could
survive such a blast, Dafydd could. It was whether or not he was
close to Darren, Llywelyn, and Abraham when it happened that was
the concern.

“David—” Meg said.

“They were in the castle when it went up.
That’s all we know.” Callum spoke clearly and without emphasis or
inflection. “We can’t raise any of them on their mobiles.”

“We couldn’t earlier because of the stone
walls, and now it’s what you’d expect if they were caught in the
middle of an explosion,” Meg said reasonably. “They would have
traveled
home.”

The lump in Math’s throat was huge, but he
managed to agree with Meg around it. “That’s right. Of course they
would. Dafydd would have seen to it.”

Anna, who was white as a sheet, had her
phone in her hand. She was dialing Dafydd’s number alternately with
Llywelyn’s. Math slipped an arm around her waist and bent so that
his chin was almost on her shoulder. He wanted to be able to hear
if one of them answered.

When neither did after another round of
tapping at the screen, he said, “You don’t need to do that, Anna.
Dafydd will either let us know he and Llywelyn are fine, or he
won’t be able to let us know because they aren’t here anymore.”

“What should we do, Callum?” Cassie
said.

Callum cleared his throat. “Stay where you
are for now. I don’t want you getting stuck some place you can’t
get out of. The only vehicles that are going to be able to get
close any time soon are either security or emergency. I imagine
Tate is going to want to speak to me sooner rather than later. I’m
going to send Anna, Math, and Mark to you. Get some food. Try to
rest. I will stay here to help.”

“But—” Cassie started to protest again.

Callum gentled his voice. “Give me a chance
to find out what’s happening.”

“Okay,” Cassie said.

“I’m staying with you,” Math said to
Callum.

Anna looked up at him, her expression
stricken, and she clung to his hand. He didn’t like the idea of
being separated from her either. Given the way the time traveling
seemed to work, another explosion in Anna’s vicinity could send her
home. The last thing he wanted was to be stuck here without her
while she took the others to the Middle Ages. But he needed to be
the one to find Dafydd’s body if it was in the rubble to be
found.

He put a hand on Anna’s shoulder. “Do you
know how to get to the Tesco?”

“We do,” Mark said.

Math wasn’t sure that Anna was aware of
anything but what was going on in her own heart, but Mark had shown
himself to be more than capable many times in the last year. And
Callum was right that they couldn’t be searching for signs of
Dafydd and Llywelyn in the destroyed castle with Anna beside them.
Beyond the personal loss, Math knew as well as Callum what a
disaster it would be for Britain to lose the King of England and
the King of Wales on the same day.

“Keep us apprised if you run into trouble,”
Callum said to Mark.

“Will do.” Mark gestured for Anna to come
with him.

Anna clung to Math, her arms around his
neck, and he gave her a quick hug and kiss. “We’ll take care of
this,” he said.

“What about Abraham and Darren?” Anna said.
“What am I to tell Rachel?”

“That her father has reached the Middle Ages
like he wanted, and she has only to join him,” Callum said, “by the
end of the day if we can manage it.”

Then the pair set off east towards the
Tesco.

Callum nudged Math as he watched them go.
“They’ll make it fine.”

“I know,” Math said. “If Dafydd and Llywelyn
were in that tower when it blew up, however, Anna may never be fine
again.”

“You doubt they would have
traveled
?”
Callum said.

Math took in a breath. “I have utter faith
in Dafydd, but what if he wasn’t holding onto his father at the
time?”

The thin lines around Callum’s mouth
deepened. “I wasn’t going to mention such a possibility out
loud.”

“We have always spoken the truth to each
other,” Math said. “Let’s not start lying now.”

“No,” Callum said. “Especially not now.”

Emergency vehicles had started arriving in
the square, and a host of people were streaming into and out of the
castle. Though only a short while had passed since the explosion,
the chaos was coalescing into something slightly more organized.
Caernarfon Castle had lost one tower, which was disastrous, but the
bomb hadn’t brought the whole thing down and couldn’t have killed
that many people. Math was almost more concerned for the people
who’d been standing outside the castle in the square, who could
have been felled by the flying debris.

Callum moved several yards along the walkway
so he could see the northern castle entrance more clearly. He
grunted his disapproval. “They should be stopping and questioning
every person who was in the castle, but they aren’t.”

“Can you blame anyone for wanting to get out
of there as quickly as possible?” Math said.

“No, but Tate should have been better
prepared.”

“He wasn’t in charge of the Prince of Wales’
security, was he?” Math said. “If he was only marginally interested
in your toilet theory, he may not have passed it on immediately.
Perhaps he was waiting to speak to you in person.”

“I hope he’s taking it seriously now because
we don’t want what happened when the twin towers fell to happen
here,” Callum said.

“What happened then?” Math said.

Callum turned to him. “In 2001, terrorists
flew airplanes into two sky scrapers—which are enormously tall
buildings—in New York City. Emergency personnel entered the
building, in order to save people and put out the fires, and were
subsequently killed because nobody was prepared for the towers to
collapse in the aftermath of the crashes.” Callum grimaced. “Though
in this case, I’m more concerned about a second explosion.”

“It would be good to know why this bomb went
off,” Math said. “If it was the only one, that would not correlate
with Lee’s previous methods.”

Callum’s phone sounded, and he looked at it.
“Tate.” He pressed talk and then another button, which Math knew by
now meant he’d activated the speaker.

He and Callum huddled close to listen.

“Callum, I need you here. Now.”

“Director Tate,” Callum said. “It’s good to
hear your voice. I’m glad you weren’t in the tower when it went
up.”

Tate tsked under his breath. “Where are
you?”

“Outside the castle,” Callum said. “We saw
it happen. Where are you?”

“Inside. I was near the front gate.”

“How can I be of service?” Callum said.

“A moment ago, I was informed that a
security guard heard a gunshot in the Queen’s Tower before the
explosion and ran with his partner to the scene. He radioed in that
he found one of our agents, Darren Jeffries, standing over a man he
identified as Lee Delaney along with a second terrorist. Jeffries
had subdued them both. The two guards were in the process of
bringing everyone in for questioning when the tower exploded.”

“You need to know that when I last spoke to
King David and King Llywelyn, they were heading towards that
tower,” Callum said. “Did the guard mention the presence of anyone
else?”

“No.”

“I hope you’re searching all the toilets
now,” Callum said.

“We are.” Tate paused before adding, “Most
of the tower ended up in the square. We’re looking for bodies
now.”

“That’s pretty quick, isn’t it?” Math said
to Callum, as an aside. “Isn’t everything on fire?”

“C-4 doesn’t start fires,” Callum said, “and
the castle is only stone now. It doesn’t have anything inside it
that could burn.”

“Who just spoke?” Tate said.

Math grimaced, silently apologizing to
Callum.

“Lord Mathonwy ap Rhys, sir,” Callum
said.

Tate grunted, taking Math’s presence in
stride and not asking for clarification, which showed how far he’d
come in his acceptance of the time traveling and everything
associated with it.

“It looks like the bomb was PE-4, what the
Americans call C-4, wouldn’t you say?” Tate said.

“I agree, sir,” Callum said. “That would be
why there’s no fire.”

“What can you see from your side?” Tate
said.

“The dust is starting to settle, what hasn’t
already blown away in the storm,” Callum said. “We would like to
offer our assistance in retrieving any bodies.”

“One moment—” Tate left the line open as he
spoke to someone else. Math had a hard time understanding
conversations over phones. Although Tate had spoken clearly enough
when talking to Callum directly, Math couldn’t understand a word of
the side conversation.

Callum frowned at Math. “Did he say
four
bodies have been found?”

Tate returned, having overheard Callum’s
question. “Yes. Four. We’re combing through the rubble now for
survivors.”

“What about body parts?” Callum said.

“Not yet—and that would be unlikely unless
someone was right on top of the bomb,” Tate said.

“As in standing over a toilet, sir, checking
it for a bomb?” Callum said.

Tate grunted his assent, his only
acknowledgement that Callum had been right, and Tate should have
listened to him an hour ago. “Such a person might have been
vaporized, but even that is unlikely if the bomb was located in the
toilet shaft on the outer wall of the castle. The wall of the
castle collapsed, as you saw, but much of the bomb’s energy was
expended into the air.”

“Have you identified the bodies?” Callum
said.

“One moment.” Tate gave some grunting
breaths, implying that he was walking briskly or climbing
stairs.

Math breathed shallowly, listening hard. It
was several hundred heartbeats before Tate’s voice returned to the
line.

“We found two men in security gear and two
men in Caernarfon Castle uniforms,” Tate said.

“Are you there now?” Callum said.

“I’m standing over them.”

“Can you send me images of their faces?”
Callum said.

Mark reappeared at Callum’s right shoulder.
“You don’t need to do that. I’ll go to Tate. I was part of the
deal.”

Callum spun around to look at his friend.
“Mark—

“I said I’d go.” Mark’s face was set into
grim lines. “You need me to stay here with MI-5. I can testify that
Lee was in Cardiff. Tate needs eyewitnesses, and you all need to go
home.”

Callum didn’t speak, simply gazed at his
friend.

Then Tate’s voice came out of the phone.
“Mark is right, Callum.”

Callum appeared to shake himself. “Was
anybody else injured?”

“The floors above and below the bomb were
destroyed or partially collapsed, but not pulverized,” Tate said.
“So far, we have a woman with a broken leg, and a man with what
might be a concussion. Nobody else was in that tower. The tourists
were interested in saving places in the courtyard to watch the
prince’s speech.”

“Good job the bomb went off early,” Mark
said.

“One of the handcuffed men was found with a
trigger in his hand,” Tate said. “We presume him to be Lee, though
we’re still working on facial recognition. His face is badly
damaged by flying stone and shrapnel.”

“That’s why I’m on my way to identify him
for you,” Mark said.

“I should come too,” Callum said.

Tate cleared his throat. “I cannot believe
I’m about to say this, but while I accept Mark’s assistance and I
realize that I am contradicting myself, you don’t want to come in,
Callum.”

Callum glanced at the others and then said,
“Why not?”

“Because you will be asked questions you
cannot answer, or have answers to questions people do not want to
hear. They’re going to want to know what you were doing here, why
you gave me advance warning about the toilet and, quite frankly,
why I didn’t follow up on your warning right away. It will imply
that I had reason not to trust you.”

“But the bomb was in the toilet,” Callum
said.

Tate paused before saying, “They are going
to wonder, given that Lee was on the bus in Cardiff and has
reappeared here just as you did, if you didn’t bring him. They will
wonder about your advance knowledge of the bomb and if you had a
hand in it.”