Departure(59)

“We believe, however, that we may be almost out of time. A few hours ago Nick—the Nick you and I know—and Grayson made their way to Heathrow. We believe they were searching for the three of us. Nick and Grayson are with Oliver and Nicholas right now, who are no doubt feeding them misinformation, enlisting their help in a final assault.”

Don’t like the sounds of that. “Final assault?”

“They’re coming here, to Titan City. Their goal, as I said, is to destroy the quantum device, ensuring that the bridge can never be reset. Only one thing has kept them from destroying the city and the quantum device with it.”

I raise my eyebrows.

“You, Harper. You’re Nicholas’s one true desire; he would never risk killing you. So long as you’re here, Nicholas and Oliver can’t make a direct strike on the city. They’ll have to come in to extract you.”

“So, I’m . . . bait?”

“Leverage.”

Now we’re playing word games with my life.

“You’re the only thing that’s prevented everyone here from being killed already. I’ve told you all of this because I believe you might determine all of our fates. When the time comes, when Nicholas, Oliver, Nick, Grayson, and their Titans invade the city, you’ll have a decision to make.”

Oh, god, anything else. I put my face in my hands. I’d like a stiff drink about now.

“Harper, are you listening to me?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“No, you don’t. In a few short hours, you’ll have to decide whether the passengers of Flight 305 return to our time or stay here in 2147.”

Blimey.





33





I think Sabrina is as pained by our hour-long discussion as I am. We keep going back over the same things, debating, running through scenarios and what-ifs, but in the end it’s all quite simple.

It boils down to this: Once Nicholas has me, this whole place will go up. Game over. And the passengers of Flight 305 will never have any chance of returning home. Those hundred and twenty-one souls who didn’t get the vaccine, who either died in the crash or the outbreak after, will be dead forever, and the rest of us will be trapped here. It will be as if Flight 305 disappeared over the Atlantic. The world will assume it crashed, all passengers and crew lost.

We’ll never see our families again. They’ll bury us. Mourn. Move on (hopefully). But they might also avoid the pandemic that claimed every life on Earth in this time, save for the Titans who now wage a civil war over the fate of Flight 305.

And then there’s the other side, the possibility that Yul and Sabrina will succeed and we’ll all return to Flight 305, unaware that anything ever happened. I will have never met the Nick Stone I came to . . . know (I want to use another word, but I won’t let myself; it will only make my dilemma worse). Must keep emotion out. Must make a rational decision. So easy to say . . . but the Nicholas from this world and my future self, they . . . Okay, last time I’m thinking about that.

“What’s your decision, Harper?” Sabrina presses.

They’re anxious to know what I’ll do when Nicholas and friends arrive. I wonder if they’ll jail me if I say the wrong thing.

“I don’t know.”

“Unacceptable—”

“I don’t know, Sabrina, okay? I just need . . . some time, all right? It’s a lot to take in.”

“We don’t have time.”

I just stare at her.

“Very well. Perhaps some rest will give you the perspective you need.”

She walks to a cabinet and retrieves two notebooks I recognize well. “I believe these are yours.”

The tranquilizing burr is still stuck through my journal, and the Alice Carter notebook is as I remember it.

“Thanks,” I mumble. I glance around the lab, unsure where to go. “Can I . . .”

“You’re free to go anywhere you wish, Harper. This isn’t a prison.”

Sabrina runs down the layout of Titan City, which contains five towers, each dedicated to one of the original five Titan Marvels and shaped like a human finger, together forming a hand reaching out of the massive dam toward the sky, the ocean to its backside, its palm facing the new land the Titans created, waving. I’ll give it to them for originality.

Our current tower (finger?), which houses the labs, lies in the middle, rising slightly above the two on each side, to symbolize the central role of science and research. Facing the Atlantic, the tower to its left is a hotel; the ring finger represents the Titan union with humanity and visitors. The shorter, narrower tower closest to the African coast holds the Titan apartments. On the right side of the lab tower, the pointer finger holds an office complex, and the thumb, which points toward Gibraltar, is dedicated to support staff and storage.

I leave the lab tower through the double doors, and walk a while along the promenade that overlooks the waterfall, down the dam into the shadow of the five fingers, which I had been too close to make out before. There I stand for a long time, staring at the ribbons of sunlight that slip through the fingers. From here I can see the Atlantic all the way to the horizon to my left and the deep, jagged canyon the dam created to my right. The charred airships sit placidly at the base of the hand of Titan City, awaiting their final battle. My stringy hair blows around again, greasy strands lashing my mouth and eyes. I need a shower badly.