AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Of course, my friend. Have we not negotiated before this moment many times?"
"Usually, our encounters involve me chasing you down and correcting your mistakes, maybe thwarting your plans, upsetting your day. That sort of thing. Not negotiating."
"But at one time, we were friends, Jack."
"That time was a long time ago, Sergei."
"Water under the bridge," he said, and waved a negligent hand toward the Neva and the bridge above it. A bridge I had seen in a newspaper article, the barrier crumbled where a vehicle had lost control and crashed through it.
I glanced around again for Mimi's parents, but I couldn't see them. I knew today's date. I knew what was about to happen. Which meant if Sergei was playing loose with Time's rules and he brought the alternate universe Wylde parents with him to this meeting, there were now duplicates of both in this time and place.
Could Sergei be that reckless? Or could he actually be trying to avoid that fate?
I didn't know, and it threw me. I'd prided myself on knowing how Sergei thought, knowing how he operated. But this Sergei was slightly different from my Sergei, and I wasn't sure if I could guess right.
My eyes darted to Carrie. She held my gaze, not giving anything away. But the fact she met my eyes at all was promising.
"Carrie," Mimi said from beside me. "You don't have to do this."
Carolyn Wylde looked at Mimi and snorted softly. If it was an act, it was convincing.
"Come now, Mimi," Sergei said. "It is not as bad as you think. I bring a lot to the table. Hear me out."
"You have nothing to say that I wish to hear," Mimi told him.
"But I do. Oh, I do. The things I could tell you. The wonderful things I could tell you about the man at your side and the Academy you think so much of. So many wonderful things."
"I've heard them all before," Mimi said, conversationally. "And you bored me then, as you're boring me now."
Carolyn Wylde's lips twitched. I was watching her closely, so I saw the very brief movement. The look of pride on her face, though, was soon replaced with a sneer.
My eyes flicked to Sergei. He couldn't see Carrie's reactions from where he stood; she was a step behind his left shoulder and his eyes were all for Mimi. The greed he could not hide in his gaze was evident for all to see.
"What would you do," he said softly, "to save your parents?"
Mimi jerked where she stood. I heard the sound of a truck engine start-up, then, as if choreographed. Perhaps it was. A big truck; rough and loud and straining as the gears were changed laboriously. I couldn't see it, but from the sound of it, it was behind us, on the road that led to the bridge itself.
In an instant, I knew what Sergei would do. Had this been how our Sergei had sent them into the river? Or was their fate already decided, and this Sergei was adding a twist?
"You have a choice, Mimi Wylde," Sergei said. "Join me and your sister and save your parents. Or choose RATS and him and let them die."
Mimi's head swept between Sergei and me and back again. Then her eyes flicked up to the bridge, and I watched as comprehension dawned. Carolyn stood silently at Sergei's side, staring at her twin, waiting.
What did she expect Mimi to do? What was she counting on?
This was not the Mimi she once knew.
"Did you kill them?" Mimi asked Sergei.
"I can save them," he told her, which was not an answer at all. He lifted a cellphone up. A contemporary one, at a guess. He'd been planning this rendezvous for a while. "One press of a button and the truck swerves to the right. Failure to press that button, and it swerves to the left. You can work out the consequences, I'm sure."
A car appeared in the distance, on the other side of the bridge. We couldn't see its occupants, but I knew, as Mimi surely knew, that her parents were inside it. I don't know if she ever saw pictures of their rented vehicle. I assume she did. But Mimi stared at that car for longer than I thought her parents had.
When she looked back at Sergei, he almost flinched.
"Time has rules," she said, her voice barely carrying over the roar of the truck's engine now. "Rules, you continue to disobey. There are consequences, Mr Ivanov, to breaking Time's rules."
He frowned at her. "Come here," he said, snapping his fingers. "And I'll save them."
