There were benches on three sides, with the path running by the fourth.
He watched them approach without speaking or moving, his face devoid of expression.
Rita had the odd feeling she’d seen him before, but without context the memory refused to surface.
Stella went to a bench to one side and without speaking, Rita followed Con to the other bench.
No one spoke for what felt like a very long time, while time snarled around them, sometimes edging close enough she felt its chill touch her back.
“Where is it, Alastor?”Stella asked, finally breaking the silence.
He fumbled in the pocket of his dusty and somewhat tattered suit.He looked like he’d tumbled down a mountain-side or something.
He extracted a small device and set it on the bench next to Stella.
Stella picked it up and lifted the top, letting Rita see the crack running down it.It looked like it had tumbled down that mountain, too.
“So I was right,” Stella said.
“Aren’t you always?”His voice had a harsh, but resigned edge.“I just wanted…”
“To find your daughter.I don’t know why it took me so long to realize that.”
Rita exchanged a look with Con.She’d given up her daughter, she’d said.For this.Yeah, she should have figured it out sooner if it was about daughters.
Rita had sensed something in the way Stella had said his name, but this meeting was devoid of under currents.It was flat as, well, a pancake, she thought, pulling the analogy out of one of the places she’d visited.Almost idly she wondered why they didn’t have that many analogies in the future she came from?Possibly because they didn’t have pancakes?
It was as if both had been drained of emotion and most of their live force.They’d landed, not on a safe shore but thrown into a place of desolation.
Rita didn’t know why she did it, but she rose and took a couple steps to Stella, holding out her hand for the device.Was this The Butterfly device Stella had mentioned?It seemed likely.
Stella hesitated, then shrugged and handed it over.Rita resumed her seat, studying the device as she asked, “What happened to your daughter?”
She shot Alastor a look under her lashes.He blinked and managed a very slight look of surprise, but the effort seemed to cost him.
“She disappeared.”
“Could you expand on that?”Rita asked.At her side, Con rose and began to stroll around what had been a mildly pleasant plaza between the buildings.Now it wasn’t even mildly pleasant, verging closer to downright creepy.
Alastor appeared to gather strength or perhaps his thoughts.“She had a tutoring session with a boy.They both disappeared.”
He looked up, his heavy lids lifting so his gaze could meet hers.She felt the chill of it to her toes.
“He’d built some kind of time machine for his science project.He must have tried it out.They were both just gone.”
“I’m sorry,” Rita said, knowing the words weren’t adequate.“But did you have to destroy all of time?”
He almost smiled.“I was frustrated.”
So his problem didn’t seem connected to hers, or so it seemed.Setting her up as bait to catch Jack and the others wasn’t part of this?Had Stella known about Alastor’s daughter, about the time travel?
“Did you know?”she asked Stella.Who knows?She might answer.
“Not about the time travel,” Stella said.“It wasn’t in the official record.”
“If it had been in the official record, they wouldn’t have let me anywhere near the project.”Again, Alastor looked almost amused.
Con walked back, stopping on the walk facing the three of them.
