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"And yet," I said, rubbing my chest distractedly, "I feel like a clock is ticking down and we're running out of it."
Rafe nodded. "Your instructions?"
"Get Bryan out of the infirmary. Jones will help you. I think you're going to need all the help you can get. Get him and Crawford together. The two of them against Anderson." I huffed out a breath. "The man doesn't stand a chance, really."
"This room here's good," Dean said. "It's not on any of the records in the system, and Technical doesn't use it often, if at all. Half the guys don't even know it exists."
"This place is like a rabbit warren," Sally said.
"That's why it's perfect for us," Dean said. "Sal and I can get some supplies in here for 'em. They can come and go through the garden if they need to. We can keep 'em hidden, Dr Evans. Not sure what good it'll do us, but we can do it."
I nodded in acknowledgement. "Where's Orion 0?" I asked Rafe.
"I brought it here when Dean told me about the place. It's hidden in the garden. Do you know that not a single window in the building overlooks that garden? Not a one. There should be a window above us, but there isn't. An explosion in a room two floors above this one took out the windows that overlook this garden four years ago. They were all blocked in, covered up, and the rooms turned into storage. How's that for convenient, eh?"
"It wasn't convenience," I murmured. "It was Time."
"Say what now?" Rafe asked.
"Time knows everything. Everything that's happened and will happen. It can therefore plan ahead. Four years ago, you say? Just long enough for everyone to forget about it, I think. I know I had."
"But perfect for us when we need it," Dean finished.
"You think Time is sentient, Jack?" Rafe asked.
"I never have before, but you can't deny that there are times when Time interferes in a manner that defies logic. What's to say that Time doesn't comprehend what's happening and its reactions aren't just physics at work but calculated retaliation."
"That's some heavy shit, right there, Jack."
"We're in some heavy shit, Rafe."
Dean and Rafe guffawed at that. Sally covered her mouth and giggled. I looked at them all one last time. Friends, each and every one of them. I was aware it may well be the last time I ever saw them again. Sergei was dead, but RATS was still in trouble. They would face danger, as would I. Time was a part of this now. Very much present and watching every move we made.
Time had an agenda. For now, it would use us. But if we failed to read its warning signs, if we failed to do what it needed us to do, I had no illusions that Time would not react. And react harshly.
We were tools to Time, as Surgeons of Time always had been. But I had never been more aware of that fact than right now. Feeling a kinship with these three people. Feeling worried about their safety.
"Take care," I said. "All of you."
"You too, Jack," Rafe replied. The others nodded their heads.
I stepped through the external door and looked up at the building. Rafe was right. The windows that would have overlooked this garden had all been boarded up in some fashion. I remembered now when that decision had been made. We'd been dealing with one of Sergei's more aggressive attempts to fuck with us and simply didn't have the time or manpower to re-glaze them. Once the crisis had passed, the windows had been forgotten; the rooms already turned into storage.
Shadowship was an extremely old building. Originally theRoyal Hospital for Seaman at Greenwich, and later theRoyal Naval College, Greenwich, it had been around in one form or another since the 17th century. It was now over six centuries old. It had secrets galore. Rooms blocked off. Passageways, undiscovered. Hidden gardens, long forgotten.
Time had been planning this for centuries, maybe millennia. Everything was coming down to the wire. So much was riding on what we did next.
"You won't do anything rash, will you, Jack?" Rafe asked me.
I didn't look back at my friend. Just soaked up the sun that dappled through the old apple trees in this garden. I noted then that the garden had been planted with edible flora. Apples and oranges and pears. There were other plants, hidden by the unfettered growth of vines and such, that I couldn't identify, but I was sure there would be berries or other edible fruits in amongst it all.
Had Time been planning for a siege? I certainly hoped not. And what of the items stored in the room itself?
I glanced back through the door and looked at them in a different light. There was a bed and mattress there, stacked up against the wall. A box labelled 'Linen'. More boxes with labels I couldn't decipher. The desk and several chairs. Cabinets that would probably be filled with equipment we might require.
"Jack?" Rafe pressed.
I looked at my friend.
