Cordelia felt as if she'd been dealt a blow in the stomach. Of all the people in the world, in her old world, these two were the last she would have expected to do this. Leo and Merana had always been so incredibly kind to her. Leo wasn't entirely mentally stable. He had always struck her as an oddball because he followed his big sister Merana like a puppy. At times Cordelia had thought Leo was really in love with Merana.
"Merana? Why would she..." Cordelia reached out to David and took hold of his arm. She was too confused to believe all this. "That's impossible. They cared about me!" Cordelia looked at the two men. "I am not going to listen to any more of your lies. Whatever game you are playing, it's not going to work. Come, David. We're leaving."
"Miss Brown," Agent Parker said before they got into the STAR. "We are telling you what Mrs Orwald told us to relay to you. If need be, we can arrange a meeting with her. We will let you know."
That was the last thing Cordelia wanted; another encounter with these lying bastards. If she were to agree meeting them in another place, they'd probably be all over her and David with too much manpower to fight off, and then they would be at their mercy.
"Don't you dare come near my house again," Cordelia said as she had one foot inside the STAR already. "I'm going to fortify it so badly that you will be incinerated if you just get into the street!" It was a big bluff because she wouldn't have access to the hardware required, but it felt good saying it. After that she got in and saw David at the controls already.
"Sit. We're going home," was all he said after handing her the gun. Moments later they were away from the Chinese mountain top.
~
"If you need to talk about this, I am here to listen." David turned to her after returning to the cellar.
"You need to power down first," Cordelia automatically said, "or the batteries will get drained. I will have to go up to recharge soon anyway but I do want to make there safely." David didn't ask what she meant by that but turned back to the console and slowly switched off all the systems.
"I'm sorry, David, I didn't mean to snap at you like that. It's just... arghhhh... these people got to me so bad that I want to strangle them and stuff their lies down their throats."
"That is an interesting way to take revenge," he said as he got up and took the Skreller-gun from her. "Where does this go?" She pointed at the cabinet and he hid the weapon.
"I think I need to tell you a bit or two about my past," she said as they climbed the stairs. "And I need a glass of sherry while I do so."
Once they were seated, she with sherry and he with tea, she told him about the family of Monroe Branson who had been very kind to her. "Merana, his sister, almost treated me like a sister. That was when everything was still really good. Monroe, my boss, remember, often joked that he would rather have me as a sister than her because she had tried to get a degree in temporal physics so she could make a name for herself in the STAR-project, but she never managed to get that degree. I always felt sorry for her and offered to help her but she always refused." Cordelia thought back to the amazing rooms in the Branson mansion and the unreal views that were projected onto the windows. And she recalled Leo.
"Leo is their youngest brother. A bit of a weird bird. He didn't seem to have much of a brain and he always followed Merana around. As if he was part of her. Sometimes it was as if he was madly in love with her. Wouldn't surprise me..." Cordelia stopped talking. She wasn't sure she should tell David of her suspicion that Leo and Merana would often sleep together. She had no proof of that and she was glad about that.
"They sound like a strange family," David agreed, "but not the kind that would hire someone to kill you. And what about this Mrs Marybeth?"
"Marybeth is a sweetheart," Cordelia said. "How she got married to Monroe Branson is anyone's guess. I guess it was an arranged marriage because she didn't particularly love him, that much was clear to me. The fact that she kept her own name says a lot too, doesn't it?"
David nodded. "So why would these two people, Parker and Hendrix, come to you and tell you all of this in the name of Marybeth when you know it is false? Who would pay them to tell you those lies? Do you think there is an actual bounty hunter after you? That might be a lie too then."
Cordelia sipped her sherry. "I don't know. I really don't know. No one that I can remember would have a reason or the money to do this. Sending a few people on a trip with a STAR is an expensive thing, especially if they have to look for someone for a while, like these agents had to, to find me." She didn't believe the story that the actual police had simply closed her case. This was all a trap, a set-up. It also meant they would have to be even more careful and probably relocate... but that would present another problem. She still had stuff hidden all over time. If they were to leave this town and time, the ones who had put their trust in her would never be able to get their belongings back. She didn't mind that for the bad people, but there were a few items that belonged to good people too. Cordelia had given them her word to look after those items and she now was caught by her honesty and loyalty towards those people. Most of them would expect their items back by the end of this year or the next, which meant they'd be stuck here until then.
She explained her predicament to David, hoping he would know what to do next, even when that went against her better judgement. She was the one in charge, the one who knew most about the intricacies of time-travel and her life here.
David agreed that this was a problem. They didn't know the truth at this point, and with Cordelia's personal commitment to her 'clientele', they would have to stay here. He did try to convince her to move away but she didn't want to consider that.
"At best we move away and come back here several times per day to see if someone left a pick-up request," she said, "but that will put a big strain on the STAR and its recharging process. Which I should do again soon." Cordelia didn't really feel like going up in the bulky space-suit but she knew she couldn't leave that to David. He wouldn't know what to do, and since this was, technically, her STAR, it was her responsibility. To postpone the actual thing, she explained to David what she meant by recharging the STAR. She also took him to the cellar to show him the space-suit, detailing why she would need to wear that. "And yes, it is too big for me, but it was the best I could get. Okay, the only one I could get."
He understood most of it. "And what can I do in the time you are gone?"
"Sit and wait. Read a book if you want. Hope that those two people don't show up."
"And what if someone else comes to the door?"
Damn, he had a point. She never knew when someone would come so this could be a bit of a risk. She decided he shouldn't open the door.
"They'll come again if they really want something," she knew. A heavy sigh found its way out of her as she pulled the space-suit from its stand. David helped her to get it inside the STAR. "Thank you, my dear," she said. "I would prefer it if you don't wait to see how I get myself into the thing. It's not flattering."
"But if I could help you, wouldn't that be easier?"
Cordelia looked at him. "Ehm. Oh. I hadn't thought of that." She had been messing with this thing on her own for a few years now and it had become a habit. With David holding up most of the suit while she got into it, it all went much faster and somehow it felt as if some parts of the suit fitted better as well. "Thank you. That was good."
"You are welcome. You look very strange this way," he told her, and winked. Then he leaned over to her and kissed her. "Hurry back."
"I'll tell the universe to make it snappy," she said as she laughed. "I'll be back for another one of those before you know it."
David left the STAR and she closed the hatch. After the usual extra checks before going into near-space, she set the coordinates. "Okay, Norbert, here we go again. Keep your antennae peeled. There could be another STAR around and I hate surprises of that kind." After hearing Norbert's "affirmative", she screwed on the helmet and pressed "Go".
~
Spending time on the edge of space, waiting for the STAR to recharge, had never felt longer to Cordelia. She counted down the time by the seconds. When Norbert finally informed her that the energy-cell was full, she rapidly made the machine return to the cellar. David wasn't there, which didn't surprise her. He had no idea how long this procedure would take and the cellar wasn't an uplifting environment to spend time waiting.
Cordelia lay down on the floor and squirmed herself out of the spacesuit which she then hurriedly put into its place. She threw the black sheet over it and rushed up the stairs.
"David, I'm back!"
The silence that ensued told her something was wrong. When she came into the living room and found a terrible mess, fear jumped to her throat. The couch and the coffee table were pressed against walls, the chandelier had been ripped from the ceiling and lay scattered all over the floor. This could only mean that a STAR had appeared here.
"David!" Her mind already knew that he wasn't in the house any more, but her heart made that she searched all over. In a daze she returned to the living room and flopped down on the couch, which had suffered extensively from the brutal treatment. "David... where are you?"
This had to be an act from those two agents, she was convinced of that. But why had they destroyed her house with the STAR? How had they managed to navigate it so precisely, or had it been sheer luck? She couldn't believe that. In a bout of rage she grabbed a cushion and flung it through the room. Only then did she see the note; it had been hidden beneath the unfortunate cushion. It was written on grellum.
"We got your man. If you want to see him again, come to the following coordinates. You'll figure out the right day." What followed was a location in March 2199. Cordelia frowned. The note had been printed, like the previous one, but this was in a totally different style. Could this be the bounty-hunter that Parker and Hendrix had mentioned? But if so, then why did the note say "we got your man" and not "I got your man"? And why was there nothing else on the note?
Cordelia suspected a trap but she couldn't just leave David to his fate. She took a deep breath to regain her composure and went down to the STAR, note in hand. "Norbert. Was there anything special going on in March of 2199?"
"There was. In that month, on the twenty-third, the first permanently manned station was founded and opened on Phobos, one of the moons of Mars."
"Oh." That made it clear why the bounty-hunter, or whoever had left that note, had picked that date. There would be huge festivities going on everywhere, so that person (or persons) could hide in the crowd. Cordelia wasn't sure how that person would be able to find her in such a mass of people, but it was clear she had to go there.
"There is someone at the door," Norbert said, shaking her out of her thoughts. At her question who that was, he said he didn't know the person in question.
Cordelia looked at herself. She wore the jumpsuit as that had been the only thing allowing her to get into the spacesuit. She'd have to improvise so she ran up to her bedroom and put on a wide gown that could pass for something a lady in her own house might wear if she didn't plan to go out. Lacking time to do more, she went to open the door.
The young woman standing there stepped back in surprise. Clearly she had expected someone dressed a little more appropriately. "Miss Lexington?"
"That would be me. Who is asking?" Cordelia tried to make up with air what she lacked in appearance.
"Mr Barting asked me to bring this to you as soon as possible, miss," the young woman said as she pulled folded envelope from a pocket and handed it over. "He emphasised it is of some urgency. Thank you, miss." She dropped a curtsy and walked off.
Cordelia closed the door and examined the envelope. A small and by now familiar Royal shield was in a corner. This meant serious business. With her mind with David she opened the envelope.
"Miss Lexington. You are requested at Location C. Stop. Tomorrow morning eleven. Stop."
"What..." She didn't have time for things like that because she had to go and save David, but for that she had to go to 2199 and she didn't want to rush in there like a fool. She wanted to go in prepared because any mistake or slip-up could harm David. This put her in a tight spot because she wanted to do something, but both rescuing David and going to Location C needed some preparation. Cordelia uttered a word that no one in this period would have recognised, but the sound of it would be unmistakable. She tucked the telegram back in the envelope and started to do the only thing that made sense. She started cleaning up the living room and salvaged what was possible.
~
The STAR appeared in the basement of the official building. Cordelia shouldered the Skreller-gun before stepping out of the machine. The gun wasn't necessary here but it would leave a good impression. To her surprise, there was nothing edible on the table, and her contact was already present, in the company of two soldiers whose eyes had trouble staying inside their heads. They had seen the STAR appear out of nothing.
"Miss Lexington..." The older man nodded. He didn't look at all surprised or shocked. "I am glad you could come here at such short notice. We may require your assistance on short notice and for that reason I would like to inform you ahead of time about several facts. Would you please sit down with me?" He gestured at the table where an oil-lamp was burning.
After sitting down, the man took a deep breath. "As you are undoubtedly aware, the Queen is also the Empress of India. Word has reached us, through a letter, that someone is manipulating some ledgers with respect to certain goods that should be sent to England." He looked at the two soldiers and waved his hand. "You can leave. I am in no danger."
"But sir..." one of the soldiers started. Cordelia's contact waved his hand again and assured the man there was no reason for them to stay here. That told her he had something to say that no one else should hear.
Only after making certain the soldiers had left - the older man got up and checked the door for that - did he tell Cordelia what might be needed of her. "There is a rich area in India that produced a lot of diamonds up to almost a month ago. Then production dropped dramatically, to almost half of what is normal. This coincides with the replacement of the local overseer. The previous one had fallen sick to some exotic disease. We suspect that the new overseer is meddling in the production of the diamond mine. We may need to get two people to that area very quickly in order to catch him red-handed. Do you think you and your amazing machine are able to do this?"
Cordelia knew better than to laugh. Of course the STAR would be able to do that, but the older man didn't know that. "You just have to tell me when they need to be picked up, sir, and I will see to it that they are transported to India very quickly. It would help if you can tell me where in India they need to go, so I can prepare for the journey, if it has to be done."
The man nodded. "I understand, but we are not that far into our investigation, Miss Lexington. You will learn the location, if necessary, through another telegram. If that reaches you, you will know the journey has to be done."
"And the telegram will also contain the information when? Or will there be another communication for that?" Cordelia liked to be prepared and while she couldn't rush the older man, she did try.
"I am afraid I cannot say that at this time. My apologies that you have questions to which I can't supply the answers."
"Very well, sir. I'll await the telegram then. Thank you for your trust." Cordelia got up as she had heard all she was going to hear. She had to find a way to find and save David while these people were working on their problems.
"Thank you too, Miss Lexington." He got up and made a small bow. "Until we meet again, I wish you godspeed."
"Good luck with your investigations, sir," Cordelia said. "Oh... there is one small thing. It might be that the delivery person finds no one at my home. Please inform them that they should slide the message under the door instead of leaving it in the mailbox. I don't check the mailbox that often."
The man frowned. She knew what he thought. She should be available 24/7. Then he nodded. "Very well, Miss Lexington. As long as the Empire can count on you."
"Certainly, sir." She positioned herself near the hatch that led into the STAR and waited. She wanted the man out of the cellar before leaving here, as was usual. The man smiled and walked to the door. She noticed he had a limp she hadn't seen before, but since he seemed to get on well, she didn't mention it. It wasn't her business; he probably had the best medical care in the country.
After he had left, Cordelia entered the STAR and set course for her cellar. She had to think about what to do next so she could get David back.