The Time Shifter (9 page)

Amelia was about to call down to him when Tom limped out from the common room. ‘Have they gone?’

‘Yes,’ said Dad. ‘They’ve gone. Perhaps now you might tell me why we lied to one of the top three Control agents on Earth? Not only that, but one of the only
two
agents in the whole organisation that is on
our side
. Why didn’t we trust her with the truth?’

‘Because some truths were never meant to be told,’ said Tom. ‘And that canister was never meant to be found. Even more than the recursor, what’s in that tin has the power to overturn the universe as we know it.’

Dad blinked and his anger fell away from him. ‘So what is in it?’

Tom looked away. ‘I don’t know.’

‘You. Don’t. Know.’

Tom huffed. ‘Look, it was hidden in that safe years ago – not just before Control was assembled, but years before the war.’

Amelia’s stomach flipped over.
The war?
What war? Is that what Tom had been referring to as the
trouble?
Had they been fighting against these Guild people?

‘Hidden by whom?’ said Dad.

‘I don’t know that either.’

‘Oh, come on, Tom!’

Tom glowered. ‘I don’t know, I said! Your guess is as good as mine. Swervingthorpe? Who knows? But that safe is late nineteenth century, and the canister has been in there, as far as I know, since then.’

‘But –’ Dad said.

‘Look,’ Tom talked over him. ‘The Keeper – the one the kids call Leaf Man – told me the safe’s contents were to be kept secret. I’ve spoken to him today. Just before Rosby arrived, he came through the gateway and I thought he was going to tell me that the recursor had set off some crisis in the Nowhere, and now the gateway was going to collapse or something. But no. He didn’t even
mention
the Nowhere until I had promised him the canister was safe.’

Amelia saw Dad’s face phase through about a dozen different expressions as Tom spoke, and she knew his mind was already racing, trying to imagine the maths that would explain the recursor. The physics of the Nowhere! You could see how excited he was, how many questions he had for Leaf Man, how curious he was to know
exactly
how the Nowhere had reacted to the repeated time-shifting …

But Amelia could also see the sheer frustration in Tom’s face, that Dad was totally missing the point.

‘Scott! Listen to me – what’s in the canister, why it’s here, who put it there: none of that is our problem right now.’

‘It’s not?’ Dad blinked. ‘Then what is?’

‘The Guild!’

That sobered Dad instantly. All the beautiful possibilities of pure science fell away from him, and he came back to the bleak facts. ‘The Guild …’ he said. ‘Control never mentioned …’

‘No, well, they wouldn’t have,’ Tom said. ‘You heard Rosby – they’ve all been in denial, pretending nothing that bad could happen twice in one universe.’

‘But now?’

‘Now we know that the Guild are back. We know they want that canister so badly they’re prepared to break time to get it. And we know they never give up. We stopped them this time, but they’ll keep on sending people – thieves, mercenaries, soldiers,
assassins
– until they get it. Which means we have to deal with the canister
first
. And quickly.’

Amelia and Charlie gaped at each other, Amelia imagining an infinite queue of Hkryk and Breel lining up at the gateway, waiting their turn to attack the hotel. They’d been unbelievably lucky this time – Tom and Charlie had actually cheated death – but how long could their luck hold for?

Amelia hugged herself, mouth suddenly very dry. She and Charlie were hardly breathing – both of them too shocked to say a word, too frightened to move and too anxious to hear what Tom might say next.

Dad let out a ragged sigh, his shoulders sagging. He muttered, ‘It’s happening too fast … I thought Control said …’

Tom snorted in contempt.

Dad gazed at him, white-faced. ‘I never would have brought the kids here, if I’d known.’

Tom looked away, and Amelia felt a guilty twinge. From the very start, Tom had been weirdly angry about her and Charlie and James being around. She’d thought he was one of those horrible, bitter old men who hate kids for no reason. But he’d been telling them all along, hadn’t he? If only they’d bothered to listen, they’d have heard his warnings loud and clear:
the gateway is dangerous
.

Dad shook his head, then said briskly, ‘Right. So, what do we do with the canister now? Will you take it?’

‘No!’ Tom was shocked. ‘It can’t be anywhere near the gateway!’

‘No, no, of course not … but then, where? Will the Keeper take it?’

‘I doubt it. He used to come and check on the safe once in a while, but even through the thick, lead-lined door, whatever’s in the canister made him sick for hours afterwards.’

Dad got that faraway look on his face again as he thought over what that might hint about the canister’s contents, and then Amelia saw the hotel’s main doors open. Lady Naomi slipped inside. Tom turned to see her, and his expression softened.

‘Oh, Lady Naomi – just the person I wanted to see.’

She smiled wryly. ‘Really? Sounds as though you’ve got a job for me, Tom.’

‘I do.’ He put his hand inside his coat and pulled out the black canister. ‘I need you to hide this.’

‘Where?’

‘That’s the point – I don’t want to know. I don’t want
anyone
to know where you put it.’

Lady Naomi nodded and held out her hand for the canister. She looked at Tom solemnly, her face calm and perfectly detached – a strange look of trust and obedience mixed with understanding that the less she knew about what she was doing, the better for everyone. The
safer.

As Lady Naomi wrapped her long fingers around the canister, though, that calm seemed to flee from her. Her eyes widened, her mouth dropped open in a gasp, and if Lady Naomi had been a cat, Amelia was sure her tail would have been sticking out straight like a bottlebrush.

‘Lady –’ Tom stepped toward her to take the canister back, but Lady Naomi pulled herself together and tucked the canister under her arm with a short, shaky laugh.

‘I’m OK – really! I’ll –’ She smiled tightly at Tom. ‘I’ll take care of this, I promise.’

And without another word, she walked out of the hotel and into the night.

Amelia and Charlie gazed at each other.
What was that?

Amelia’s mum, Grawk, Tom, Trktka, Frrshalla – none of them had reacted in any way to the canister. But Leaf Man did. And now Lady Naomi …

Dad was right: everything was moving way too fast. Secrets were unravelling all around them, and each secret was bigger than the last.

A
war
had come to Forgotten Bay once. And now Amelia had seen with her own eyes the canister that might very well start a new one.

The Time Shifter
published in 2016 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au

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A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia

eISBN 9781743583999

Text copyright © 2016 Chris Morphew, Rowan McAuley and David Harding

Illustration and design copyright © 2016 Hardie Grant Egmont

Illustration by Craig Phillips

Book cover design by Latifah Cornelius

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