“I mean every word I just said. Where are you going?”
“I’m done here.” She turned to the door and went to open it. “When did you lock this? Let me out of here.”
“Not until you listen to me, Heather. At least hear me out before you make your mind up. Once you’ve heard the proposal, then you can decide.”
“This isn’t a proposal. This is a joke wrapped up in a lab coat.”
“What makes you so sure about that?”
“Seriously? You need me to answer that? You say you have a key that can send me back in time and you want to know why I’m a teeny bit sceptical? Unlock this door.”
“No.” His voice lowered to a whisper and though he never stopped smiling his eyes had turned icy cold. “I will prove it to you. After that, if you want to leave, fine.” His voice returned to normal. “Give me one minute of your time, that’s not asking too much, is it?”
She let go of the door handle. “One minute.”
“Excellent. Sit down, won’t you?”
“I’ll stand. Fifty five seconds.”
“We will shortly go through to the lab. The door is waiting. You will unlock the door with the key. You will walk through and on the other side will be 1300. Just like that. You simply walk into the laird’s room, pick up his knife and then bring it back here. Then you’re done.”
“So I unlock a door, go back in time, steal a knife and that’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“So when I unlock the door and nothing happens because time travel is impossible, what then?”
“If that’s the case, then you walk away.”
“I think I’ll walk away now, thanks.”
He stood up. “Think about it, Heather. You know exactly what I’m talking about. Gavin MacGregor stabbed poor old Mungo Frazer with the knife. Take away the knife and everything changes. I’ve had people working on the math for years. Change one event and the twenty year war it sparks never happens, Scotland finds peace centuries sooner. The country changes for the better. Your family history changes for the better. Just bring back the knife and it’s all different. Won’t you do it for your family?”
“What do you know about my family?”
“I know a lot more than you’d think. I know you’ve worked ten hour days since you were fourteen. I know your parents did the same but still died on welfare. I know how cold they were to you, as cold as their parents were to them. Your family could do so much better, be so much warmer. You could be happy. You could change so many lives. All you have to do is go back and pick up the knife. Then use the key to unlock any door and the boys in white will do the rest. You’ll be back here in an instant.”
“Say I believe you, which I don’t. Say I go back and steal the knife, which I won’t. What’s to stop him picking up another one and stabbing Mungo anyway?”
“Because he only does it with that knife. I’ve had boffins way smarter than you or me working on this for long enough to be absolutely certain. Take that knife away and it can’t happen. History will change for the better. Your history will change for the better. Think about your life, Heather. Don’t you deserve better?”
He walked past her, unlocking the office door. “I’m going left here. What do you want to do? Follow me and see if I’m lying? Or turn right and go back to your car, back to your old life to spend forever wondering what if?”
Heather said nothing for a moment. It was ridiculous of course. Some kind of test to see how she handled this kind of situation, like a convoluted job interview that combined fortitude and psychometric in one insane scenario. “All right,” she said, following him left out of the office. “But if nothing happens, I get one heck of a raise. Deal?”
“Deal.” He glanced back over his shoulder. “Good decision by the way.”
Swiping a keycard through another door made it open with a hiss like an airlock. On the other side banks of computer screens covered an entire wall, men in lab coats scurrying back and forth in front of them. On the far left a set of steps led down to an empty room. Empty except for a door in the far side. “That’sthedoor,” Tony said, pointing down the steps. “We have period clothes for you to put on. All you do is take the key, go through-”
“And get the knife, I get it. Listen, I’m not changing clothes for some prank on the new girl. I can’t wait to see the look on your face when I unlock that door and nothing happens.”
“So you won’t put the dress on?”
“I’m happy wearing this, thanks.”
He shrugged. “One last thing. We’ve calibrated it all as best we can but we can’t guarantee exactly where you’ll come out or when.”
“So I might step out straight into the Arctic in the sixteenth century BC?”
