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28
Let Me Tell You A Story
Mimi
Idon'tthinkitwould have gone as well as it did if so much hadn't happened right at that very moment. Sergei had always escaped in the past, but this time, chaos helped us. I'm a little vague on the details, but as I crumbled to the ground, watching my parents' last moments of life, Sergei somehow saw Carrie's taser aimed at his back — maybe this Sergei expected the duplicity — and he rolled out of the firing line. In that second of confusion, Charles Crawford appeared in the Lunik's hatch.
Again, somehow, Sergei had anticipated that, and he continued his roll, placing himself just out of Charles's reach. I'm not sure the soldier liked that. But Carrie fired her taser, right then, missing Sergei and hitting Charles. And then Orion 2b winked into sight, blocking Sergei's escape path. Carrie shouted something. It might have beenoh, shitormy bad, or evensorry. Charles brushed the taser's effects off; God alone knows what sort of protection his SAS clothing had sewn into it. And Jessica Harding, of all people, appeared on the ladder of her Orion, right in front of Sergei Ivanov.
Sergei swore in Russian, Jess screamed in fright, and Mikaela Pratt stumbled forward from inside Orion 2b and accidentally — or maybe not; this is Mikaela Pratt we're talking about — pushed Jessica down the steps and into Sergei.
Their limbs tangled up, thwarting Sergei's retreat, and by that time, Carrie had recovered and was trying to decide if shooting her taser at Jess as well as Sergei was a good idea. I could have told it was, but at that moment, my parents' car hit the Neva River and started to sink. Carrie's hesitation meant Sergei was able to whack Jess over the head. Pratt didn't like that, so she thumped him one as he stood up.
But by this time, though, Sergei was free of entanglements, so Carrie fired. Sergei, the slippery snake that he is, somehow avoided the prongs. Pratt not so much. She danced and jerked in place, and then fell down on top of Jessica, making Jess dance and jerk beneath the dead weight of Mikaela.
The car began to sink. My parents frantically tried to unlock the doors, open the windows. Carrie screamed bloody murder. Sergei screamed putrid words back at her. Jack held me up, held me together, held me close. Held me through the nightmare. Sergei spat a few more Russian words at Carrie. She spat a few more different Russian words back. And then he was pointing a pistol at my sister as my parents disappeared beneath the surface of the river, and his finger rested on the trigger, about to fire the gun.
Carrie stilled. Jessica and Mikaela had stopped spasming. I was still crying.
And from out of nowhere, from the depths of the chaos, Charles Crawford silently advanced.
Jack held still. I sobbed quietly. Carrie was in a standoff with Sergei.
Behind the Russian cosmonaut, the British soldier wrapped an arm around his neck, unseen and unexpected. Sergei struggled, the gun wavered. A bullet went flying, but Charles was better than that. He twisted Sergei's body enough so the bullet somehow connected with the Lunik vessel, keeping the out-of-time projectile in its own out-of-time Vehicle.
Time would have approved of that.
It took about as long as I assumed it took my parents to die. Sergei did not go down without a fight, as my parents would not have given up on life without a fight, either. But Sergei was up against a SAS soldier who prided himself on his ability to incapacitate a target. And my parents were up against the Neva River and history having already been locked in by Time itself.
I watched it all. Felt it all. Lived it all. I died a little with my parents. I breathed a little easier with Sergei's capture and not death. Charles did what he said he'd do. In quick order, Sergei was hogtied, out cold, and received a kick to the ribs from Carrie. She followed it up with a globule of spit and a tirade of unfamiliar words in Russian.
The emotion those words conveyed were felt by all of those present. Even a recovering Harding and Pratt.
Orion 6b winked into sight, then, startling us all, I think. Murray Holt stuck his head out of the doorway and whistled. An overseer tried to push past him, but Dr Holt wouldn't budge an inch.
"You need a hand, Jack?" Holt called out in his Australian accent.
I felt Jack look down at me, but I wouldn't meet his eyes. My eyes were all for Carrie. And then from behind the Lunik, maybe from farther away, I'm not sure, my parents appeared, drawing my attention, squeezing my heart tighter. Their clothes were dry, their body language was unsure, their faces were frozen in a rictus of agony.
Agony on my behalf, I thought.
"Ah," Jack said. "Okay," he added. And then he looked around the street we were all on, noting the contemporaries coming out of the woodwork. Police cars were streaming toward the bridge now. Sirens sounded louder the closer they got.
"We need to leave," I murmured.
"Mimi?" He pulled away and bent down to look at me. I still refused to meet his eyes. Not out of guilt. Not out of anything other than if I looked at him, it would give me permission to break down. And I couldn't break down just yet.
"I'm okay," I said.Please believe me, Jack.
He didn't. But he did what Jack did; he let me set the pace.
"Murray, you take the elder Wyldes," he instructed. "Tether to Orion 2b. I'll disconnect our tether to your Vehicle when I'm back on board."
"On it," Holt advised.
"Drs Harding and Pratt," Jack went on in that authoritative voice of his. "Are you fit to fly?"
"Yes, Doctor," Jessica said as Pratt cracked her jaw and glared at Sergei Ivanov.
