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Clive still didn't fill in the gaps. He wanted me to say it. To admit it to myself. To embrace the knowledge.
The knowledge that this Sergei was not an older version of Sergei and so this Sergei had to be something else.
"Multiverse Interpolation," I said.
"Yes, Jack."
"Bloody fucking bollocks," I muttered. "He's a current version of himself, isn't he? Just a version from an alternate universe."
"Mimi killed our one, correcting the duplication as per Time's restrictions. But that still leaves us with the alternate Sergei."
I looked toward the storeroom where Alternate Bryan was recovering from his last interaction with our Sergei Ivanov. What would he do if he knew the man, the real man, responsible for his Sally's death, was still alive and in our universe?
"I'll deal with Sergei," I vowed.
Clive sighed, twisted his hands around the top of his walking stick; a nervous habit that he rarely displayed anymore.
"You can't kill him," he told me.
"I may have little choice."
"If you want those dreams of you and Mimi to stay the way they are, then you can't kill this Sergei, Jack. And neither can Mimi. Or Bryan or anyone else."
"What the hell are you talking about, Clive?"
"In the last realised dream I had of Carrie, she told me, this latest version of Sergei is connected to Mouse."
I shook my head. "No. That can't be right. Maybe Carrie doesn't really know everything."
"Carolyn Wylde is the most courageous person I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. She alone has given us a chance to beat Ivanov. She alone, behind enemy lines, has learnt more than any one of us at RATS who has studied Time and Sergei's motives and actions for years. Carolyn Wylde has had one goal in her life this past decade, and that is to save her sister, Mimi. Not her sister from her own universe, you must understand, but her alternate sister from ours. The love of a twin, Jack, is really something. It breaches time and distance and universes. She has played her part well. Sergei does not suspect her duplicity. But it has cost her dearly. She is tired, Jack. Exhausted." Much like Clive looked exhausted to me. "It's coming down to the wire now. She's so close to winning. But with exhaustion comes mistakes, and if Carolyn makes a mistake now, we could all be doomed. I will do everything in my power to aid her. And one of the things I can do is make you understand howvitalit is that this Sergei remains alive."
I still shook my head, but much more slowly now.
"You've been like a son to me, Jack," Clive said. "Your happiness is as important to me as my own children's happiness. Please, believe me. For your dreams to be realised — and they must be realised, you know that — Sergei must live."
"Why?"
"Isn't your happiness, your sanity, reason enough?"
Wasn't it? I couldn't bear to lose Mimi. If our dreams weren't realised, what would happen to Mouse?
"I need to understand," I said quietly.
"All I can give you is a guess. Carolyn never gave me a reason. One of Time's restrictions, I think."
"Then what's your guess?"
Clive stared at me for a long time, and then said, "He's her mirror. Or maybe a better metaphor is Sergei is what balances Time's scales in Mimi's favour. Without him, the scales of Time would be out, and Mimi would not exist."
I stared at my old friend, unbelieving. Not wanting to believe a word he said. It was just a guess. A guess.
But an educated one. In some way, Clive would be right. Sergei balanced Mimi. Time didn't like imbalances. If I wanted to keep Mimi, I'd have to let this Sergei live.
"It won't be easy," I said.
"Life never is."
I looked back into the storeroom where I could just make out Bryan sitting up in the bed and Sally sitting in the chair beside him, animatedly showing him something on her tablet computer. The way he looked down at the top of her head, ignoring whatever she was showing him on her screen, staring at her instead. The longing I saw there. The hope. The promise.
