They’d gotten inside? Part of him wished he’d been there. He’d thought he was past that, but how could he be? His whole life had been leading up to this point. He was allowed a little excitement. Kaitlin squeezed his thigh. “I’m sorry you weren’t there.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“I thought you’d want to see inside,” Christa said. Her face was replaced by a video feed. It started off first showing the door. Then whoever was carrying the camera stepped inside. He leaned closer. The camera panned around a circular room with very little in it. It settled on a console with a screen. The camera moved closer. It showed a time and a date and coordinates which he presumed were a location.
Then Christa’s face appeared again. “28th February,” she said. “We have to presume that’s the date when whatever is going to happen, happens.”
“And the coordinates?”
“I’m not sure yet. It isn’t anything I’ve seen before. We presume it’s a location, but I’m working on it, just to be sure. Don’t worry, I’ll get there.”
The 28th of February. Two months away. Hopefully that would be long enough for them to get everything set up in Australia, so there would be a safe place for anyone who wanted it. And at least it gave them a time frame. They could narrow down their search for whatever was about to happen. The location would be a huge help as well.
“There’s something else,” Christa said. Her face disappeared to be replaced again by the video feed. It shifted from the console and carried on around the small room. Then it settled on something, obviously not part of the time machine. It stoodaway from the wall, situated on some sort of trolley. It looked to be around five feet tall, three feet wide, two feet deep and rectangular. There were no marks or labels to indicate what it was.
“What is it?” he asked.
Christa reappeared. “We’re pretty sure it’s a bomb.”
“A fucking great bomb,” Jake added. “It’s nothing like we’ve ever seen before, but we’re doing some analysis—very careful analysis. It looks powerful enough to take out a city.”
“Nuclear?”
“Maybe. We’ll know more later.”
A city wasn’t most of the world, though. Maybe this wasn’t the source of the cataclysm.
“Presumably we—and I mean the original tribe—are supposed to take this bomb to the time and location shown on the console. And then what?” He’d thought the instructions would have been clearer. That all would be revealed. That they would finally know the answers. Instead, he was as much in the dark as ever. “Jesus, I thought it would be more straightforward.”
“We have a date,” Jake said. “And hopefully, soon, we’ll also have a place.”
“We also have a fucking great bomb and no clue what we’re supposed to do with it.” He took a deep breath and calmed his thoughts. Beside him, Kaitlin leaned forward.
“I don’t suppose there’s a user manual, is there? You know. Something like a How-to-Fly-this-Time-Machine booklet.”
She wasn’t still planning on stealing the thing, was she? He’d thought she was past that.
“Don’t fret,” she murmured. “Iampast it.”
“Past what?” Christa asked.
“Kaitlin was planning to steal the time machine,” Kane said.
“She was? Why?”
“That’s her business.” If she wanted to share, then that was up to her. She squeezed his leg again.
“I was thinking about going back and saving Sam. But don’t worry, it was a momentary aberration which has now passed.”
“Wow. Good. I think.”
Kaitlin grinned. “But it would still be cool to be able to fly the thing. Just think of the possibilities. Once we’ve saved the world, of course.”
“Well, we haven’t found anything yet, but we’re still investigating,” Christa said. “We’re proceeding slowly. I don’t want to inadvertently press a button and disappear to God knows where, never mind God knows when.” She gave a short laugh. “Jake insists on coming inside with me whenever I go in there. I think that if I do vanish in a puff of smoke, he’ll make sure he vanishes with me.”
“Good plan,” Kane said. “Anything else?”
“No, that’s it.” She gave him a sly look. “Except...Rose said they had to get you out of bed. YouandKaitlin.”
