When the Walls Fell (28 page)

“Brilliant.”

He grabbed the other two vials and hurried across the office to the filing cabinet, but it was locked. Thank heaven he had two sets of acid. It would take something just that strong to open it.

Simon broke the tip of the first vial and was just about to pour it into the keyhole on the cabinet when a voice behind him said, “How did you do that?”

Simon jumped and nearly dropped the vial, but managed to keep it from slipping from his fingers. Barely. He spun around and didn’t see anyone at first. And then he saw a figure emerge from the darkness of the adjoining cell. The man wrapped his hands around the iron bars and pressed his face between them. “Can you help me?”

Olaf Karlsson.

“How long have you been there?” Simon asked. They’d last seen him on the streets in front of the Palace hotel where he’d helped them escape the mob.

Olaf shook his head. “It is all blurry. My head is not well.”

No, Simon thought, probably not. Olaf had taken a good crack to skull that day. And now he was here, stuck in this deathtrap because of it. Of course, he might have been arrested anyway. It wasn’t their fault he was here, was it?

Simon couldn’t afford to stand there and chat. Who knew when the guards might decide to check on them? He had to move. He had to get the watch and go.

Simon turned away from Olaf and faced the cabinet. He was just about to use the first vial, but his hand wouldn’t move. This time the little voice in his head wasn’t Elizabeth’s; it was his own.

“Damnit,” Simon whispered to the darkness. He couldn’t do it.

With a loud grunt, he stormed over to Olaf. “Stand back.”

Olaf did as he was told and Simon poured the first and then the second vial into the lock. The iron burned away just as the first had and Simon pulled open the cell door.

Olaf stared at the hole in the iron where the lock had been in disbelief and stuck out his hand to Simon. “Thank you.”

Simon shook it quickly. “We need to go. Quietly.”

Simon cast one last glance at the filing cabinet. He hated leaving the watch behind, but at least Elizabeth had hers. There was nothing to be done for it anyway. He couldn’t break into the cabinet now without trying to smash it to bits. But that would have taken too long and been far too loud. If only it hadn’t been his grandfather’s.

“Come.” Olaf had opened the door and was poking his head outside. “It is clear.”

The side door was just where Elizabeth had said it would be and Simon and Olaf slipped out of the building unseen.

Elizabeth was there, waiting for him, just as she’d promised. He smiled in greeting and she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. “All right?”

“I’m fine.”

“Thank you,” Olaf said.

Elizabeth pulled back startled. “Where’d he come from? Where’d you come from?”

Simon interrupted her. They had to get as far away from City Hall as they could. “I’ll explain it to you later. We need to go.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Sorry. My first jailbreak. Got excited.”

“Of course,” Simon said.

She turned to Olaf. “I’m sorry about before, Olaf. Please, get your family, if you have one, and get out of town. Tonight. The…the police will come looking for you.”

The big man nodded.

“Good luck,” Elizabeth said.

“And to you,” the big man said before he ran off into the night.

“Leaving, what a good idea,” Max said from the shadow of a tall elm tree. “Shall we?”

The trio hurried down the dark, empty streets, up one block and down another until they came to Max’s car. It was a miracle the entire city didn’t wake when he started the damned thing. But somehow they seemed to have the whole world to themselves. Max put the car in gear and they sped off into the night.

***

“What are we doing here?” Simon asked as they pulled up in front of Teddy Fiske’s house. “We should leave town now. The earthquake can’t be more than a few hours away.”

“The what?” Max said.

“We’ll explain later.” Elizabeth would have loved nothing more than to have piled Max’s car full of the people she’d grown to love here and get the hell out of Dodge. “We still have a few things to do.”

She got out of the car and hurried up the path to Teddy’s.

“What’s she talking about?” Simon asked as he and Max trailed along behind her.

“I’m just the driver. She’s the brains of the outfit.”

Knowing it would be left open for her, Elizabeth didn’t bother to knock on the front door. She pushed it open and ushered the two men inside. They made their way down the hall past the butler Donald, who was tucked in under an afghan and soundly asleep in his chair.

She led them down the hall to the library and smiled as she heard Simon’s intake of breath. “I know,” she said. “I want.”

She led them over to the bookcase and pressed firmly against
Memoirs of the Twentieth Century
and the wall spun away.

Simon paused at the threshold. “Does he know we’re coming?”

“He knows a lot more than that.” She and Teddy had talked about more than just how to break Simon out of prison the other night. They were fairly even on the secret swapping scale. He understood just how important what she was doing was and he’d given her permission for Simon and even Max to see his laboratory.

She led them through the hall to the other door and then down the winding staircase.

“Teddy Fiske, you mad genius, you,” Max said as they emerged into the lab. He left Simon and Elizabeth to Teddy and wandered around the lab trying to soak it all in.

Teddy, who was sitting on a stool and hunched over a table, turned and smiled sheepishly. “It…it worked?”

Elizabeth took Simon’s arm. “Perfectly. And the rest of it? Can you do it?”

“Yes, I think so. I’m guessing on a few things, but this really is a remarkable thing.” He turned back to his worktable and Simon’s eyes went wide at what he saw. Teddy was working on her watch.

“You do good work,” Elizabeth said. “Or you will.”

Teddy giggled and started to reattach the case.

“Elizabeth?”

She knew Simon wouldn’t be happy about her apparently complete and utter disregard for the timeline. “Try and think of it as a minor spoiler,” she said hopefully. “I mean, Teddy would have seen a watch soon anyway when he invented it.”

He gave her
that
face; that “we are not amused” face that seemed to come included with every Englishman. “I did what had to be done, Simon. Need I remind you that I couldn’t have saved you without Teddy’s help.”

She knew she had him with that one.

He nodded grudgingly. “Thank you for that, Teddy.”

Teddy didn’t look up from his work and waved a hand over his shoulder in acknowledgement.

Before Simon could argue further, Elizabeth played her trump card. “A wise man I know once said that we simply have to assume everything we’ve done is meant to be.”

“Sounds like something an idiot would say,” Simon grumbled.

“Call it determinism or destiny, if it makes you feel better. I’m calling it saving our butts.”

She could see that Simon didn’t like it, but he conceded the point. They were too far into it now to back out.

“What’s he doing with it?” Simon asked. “It’s the only one we have now.”

His words hit her like a fist to the solar plexus. The only one?

“What do you mean? Yours is…” and she put it together. “Ooohlaf. You used the second set of compounds on his cell door, didn’t you?”

“It seemed like the proper thing to do at the time.”

“Proper? Oh, Simon,” she said taking hold of his arm. He was such a doodle sometimes.

Simon frowned uncomfortably. “As long as your watch works,” he said, “it doesn’t really matter.”

She felt a sudden rush of swelling panic and the tingle of adrenaline coursing through her system. She hadn’t considered that her watch would be their only means of escape. She’d just stupidly assumed that Simon would have his. Now, they were going to be stuck here.

Oddly, the prospect didn’t frighten her as much as she thought it would. All she’d wanted since this crazy business had started was to have Simon safe and by her side. If they survived the night and had each other, none of the rest of it mattered. At least, it didn’t matter to her.

“It will work, won’t it?” Simon asked.

“Oh, it’ll work, sort of,” she assured him. “But it just won’t be working for us.”

“What exactly do you mean ‘not for us’,” Simon said pinching the bridge of his nose. “I think you’d better explain to me what’s going on here, Elizabeth. From the beginning.”

“Right.” She pulled one of the stools out from under the table. “You’ll probably want to sit down for this.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

M
ax parked the car on a side street near the park. Elizabeth had trouble letting go of the seat and it wasn’t because of Max’s driving. As she’d told Simon about her plan, the enormity of what was at stake hit home. Again. Simon’s life was still at risk. And so was Mary Graham’s and her child’s. And Max’s.

After Max pulled on the emergency brake, Elizabeth turned to him and said, “You don’t have to do this.”

He smiled. “I know.”

“But you don’t even know what this is all about and yet—”

“I like you,” he said simply and then cast a glance at Simon and raised an eyebrow. “Both of you.”

He opened his car door and stepped out. “I learned a long time ago that life is vastly more interesting when you say yes to it.” He smiled that winning smile. “Even when no one asks the question.”

“Thank you,” Elizabeth said, knowing it was hardly enough to give to someone who was about to risk his life for her.

They made their way across the street and into the grove of trees that lined the edge of the park. It was less than half an hour until the earthquake. The building anticipation was fraying her already well-frayed nerves. She could only hope that Travers had been right about Mrs. Eldridge’s house surviving the quake. She’d ordered Teddy to take his butler Donald there and wait until she returned. She wasn’t sure if she believed in God or not, but she prayed to whomever might be listening for their safety.

The park was beautiful, but eerie. It was always strange to be somewhere deserted that was usually so filled with life. In that last hour before dawn, it felt as if nature itself knew what was coming and forced itself be still in anticipation. They slipped in and out of the trees, as Max led them toward the Temple of Music.

They emerged from the grove of trees onto the large open music concourse. Several rows of large shade trees lined a wide path that led to the base of the Temple. It was impressive, but not the best place to ride out an earthquake. The Temple, an outdoor music theater, was really an immense marble colonnade. Corinthian columns lined either side of a large inset band-shell, a sort of coffered-arch shaped stage.

Three figures stood at the top of the steps – Madame Petrovka, Stryker and Mary Graham. Elizabeth felt her heart pounding against her ribcage. This was it. She and Simon and Max walked forward. The gravel under their feet seemed absurdly loud in the quiet of the park.

They stopped about ten feet from the bottom of the stairs. Elizabeth’s throat was dry and her voice sounded strained. “Are you all right, Mary?”

Mary Graham was visibly shaking, but appeared unharmed. She started to step forward, but Stryker grabbed her arm. “I’m…I’m fine,” Mary said.