Out of Time 01 - Out of Time

thought of it sooner. He pulled his watch from his pocket. “The eclipse. When it comes, I can set the watch to the day before yesterday and save Elizabeth. It’s so simple.”
    “Also impossible, I’m afraid.”
    “Why?”
    “A failsafe built into the watch. Once you travel through a time, you can never return to it. I’m sorry.”
    “Maybe you’re wrong.”
    “Don’t you think I tried when Nora was killed in the accident? No man can resist that temptation. The Council knows that. The failsafe is designed to protect the timeline. Certain things are meant to be.”
    “Not this.”
    “You have to consider the possibility. The Council—”
    “Sod the Council and sod their bloody timelines!” Simon yelled as he slammed his fist down on the table. He took a breath and straightened. “This is Elizabeth. And I will do whatever I must to get her back.”
    “Now, Simon—”
    “Don’t coddle me! I’m not a child anymore.”
    “No, you’re not. You’re man enough to know that what you want isn’t always what’s best. There are rules, Simon. I’m breaking the rules I’ve lived by for forty years just talking to you.”
    “Why?” Simon demanded.
    Sebastian cleared his throat and set down his teacup. “Because I couldn’t stand to see you lying in the gutter.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I love you, of course.”
    “And I love Elizabeth.”
    Sebastian took a deep breath. “You should have been a barrister,” he said and then gestured to the chair.
    Simon huffed out an impatient breath and then sat.
    Sebastian ran his hand through his shock of white hair and sighed. “There’ll be hell to pay for this when I get back. The reports I have on King are detailed, but there are gaps. No one wrote a living history of events, so my information is bodged together from various sources. Not all of them necessarily reliable.” He paused and looked around the small room, clearly stalling for time.
    “Go on.”
    “It was reported that King died today. Some time this evening.”
    “That’s the first good news I’ve had in a long time,” Simon said.
    “Yes, well. It seems he was killed in some sort of explosion or fire. The details are rather sketchy. He was last seen this evening on a yacht, the Osiris, at a small marina in New Jersey.”
    Unbidden, images from Simon’s nightmare of Elizabeth in her small rowboat flashed before him. “A yacht?”
    “Yes, his destination wasn’t clear. But,” Sebastian said, his grey eyes growing troubled, “everyone on board perished.”
    For the first time since Elizabeth had vanished, Simon felt a faint glimmer of hope. If only he could get there in time. “What marina? Do you know the specifics?”
    “It isn’t necessarily reliable information, Simon,” Sebastian said as he plucked at the cuffs of his jacket.
    “What aren’t you telling me?”
    “Things will play out as they should. I’m only trying to spare you.”
    “Tell me.”
    Sebastian took a sip of tea and made a face. “Gone cold.”
    “Grandfather, please? I have to know.”
    “There was a report of a woman on board. It could have been someone else, there’s no guarantee it was your Elizabeth. Perhaps it was another body.”
    Simon’s mind reeled. It was just as it had been in his dream.
    Sebastian leaned forward and rested a hand on Simon’s knee. “There are certain things we have to accept, lad.”
    “Not this,” Simon said and stood. “What marina?”
    Sebastian sighed. “Brown’s Point Marina in Keysport,” he said as he got to his feet. “We’ll go together.”
    “No. You have to promise you’ll stay here,” Simon said. “In this room until the eclipse.”
    “Balderdash. I’m not letting you run off to face King alone. Don’t be ridiculous.”
    “You don’t understand. You have to stay here. Promise me you will?”
    Sebastian squared his shoulders and jutted out his chin defiantly. “Out of the question.”
    The unstoppable force glared at the immovable object. The future and the past pulled him in opposite directions, until Simon thought he would be split in two. “Don’t make me force you to stay. By God, I will if I have to. I can’t have your death...”
    “My death?”
    “Please? I couldn’t bear it if...Stay here.”
    Sebastian released Simon, his eyes impenetrable. He stared at him for a long moment and then nodded. “You’d better hurry, son.”
    “Thank you,” Simon said softly and then it dawned on him: this would be the last time he would