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Charles looked at Jack and waited patiently for him to talk. The look on his face, though, said he expected Jack to talk; to say what needed to be said.
"It's good and not so good," Jack finally said. "We think... Clive thinks... Bloody fucking bollocks! Your sister, Carrie, thinks that you're Sergei's mirror. That for you to exist, he must exist. And vice versa."
"What?" I said, well and truly stunned now. Carrie thought this? My Carrie? Alternate Universe Carrie, I corrected. No, still my Carrie, I decided. Carrie thought this?
Jack let out a long breath of air. "As far as I can make out, Carolyn has been helping Clive, slipping him information from behind enemy lines. Your sister hasn't defected, Mouse. She's, well, I guess you'd call her a spy. Everything we know, she's learned at Sergei's side. Carolyn Wylde may well be the world's foremost knowledge on Time now."
My sister? Goofy, adventurous, no-holds-barred Carolyn Abigail Wylde? I couldn't help smiling. "Of course she is," I said, sounding proud.
Jack smiled back at me.
"But why am I Sergei's mirror?"
Jack's smile dimmed. "I don't know. But I do know Time wants you back in the 23rd century to balance him. This means Time also wants him in the 23rd century, too. I haven't figured that part out yet. Why Time wants Sergei there and not back where it all started. But I have figured one thing out."
He hesitated. I leaned forward. Charles remained statue-still and silent.
"What?" I said. "What have you figured out?"
"Whatever Sergei is doing is big. The type of big that upsets Time. And the only thing I could see upsetting Time so much that it has prepared for this very moment for centuries is Sergei destroying Time itself."
Oh, double crap.
"Whatever happens, we have to stop Sergei," Jack went on. "But we also have to keep him alive or we'll — I'll — lose you. And I can't lose you, Mouse. I simply can't."
No, he couldn't. He'd go crazy with PDR withdrawal, not to mention a broken heart. Me, too, or maybe I would simply forget him, or simply cease to exist. In any case, I couldn't allow that to happen.
"So, we stop Sergei," I said. "And I don't kill him dead again. Easy-peasy."
Jack's handsome face broke into a beautiful grin, and he threw back his head and laughed.
