Edward Graves: Temporal Detective

Fluxing in a car wasn’t that much more difficult than Fluxing with another person, but it did require a lot more co-ordination and focus.

Jessica kept her eyes screwed shut as she focused on entering Timespace and moving towards Edward, while also focusing on the car and its other occupants. She felt her body begin to move with the familiar vibrations of Timespace and with a great effort of will, she felt the car began to flicker with the same resonance.

She chanced a peek and saw the interior of the car bathed with a light blue glow, with wisps of energy swirling around, lightly touching her skin.

“We did it,” she said, looking out at the garage, now washed with blue light and vibrating, just as she herself was.

“Hold on tight,” said Archie, “this is the fun part.”

Before she could ask what he meant, he slammed his foot down and the car lurched forward with incredible speed. Jessica screamed instinctively as they hurtled towards a wall, only to pass through it with a puff of blue haze.

Melanie laughed at Jessica’s expense, but she paid her no heed. Instead, she looked out at the shifting temporal landscape, looking even more surreal than before, as they sped through. People and buildings came and went all around them, even inside them as they skidded round corners and ploughed through living rooms.

“So how come you still need to drive?” asked Jessica. “Shouldn’t we be drawn there automatically?”

“Can someone else take this one?” asked Archie, “I’m trying to concentrate.”

“It only works on Archaics,” said Ahmed, “or articles that are attached to us. By using a vehicle, we’ve negated that effect, so we’ve got to move through Timespace manually.”

Archie took a tight turn as a glamorous hotel lobby came into existence around them; millions of people, criss-crossing through the car and one another, only to disappear into the distance again.

“So how does he know where he’s going?”

“The pull is still there, drawing us to our destination, Archie just has to hold onto that and follow it.”

Jessica took another look out the window and realised that they were now zipping across the ocean, without so much as a splash from the tyres.

“OK,” said Archie, “we’re nearly there.”

They were on an actual road again and in the distance, Jessica could see a fierce fire of intense, deep blue energy that stood out amongst the dense trees that surrounded it.

Her body slowed down in its resonance and she could see the world around her settling down into a solid state, the blue light receding until they were completely present and fully formed.

They continued down the grey road, lined by beautiful trees on either side, for about ten minutes. They didn’t pass a single car or see another person, but then it was quite dark and they were out of the way.

Jessica felt the hairs on her neck and arms stand up and she convulsed as a wave of energy passed through her body.

“We just passed through the first line of defence,” said Solomon. “So far, so good.”

A few minutes later, Jessica could see lights peering through the distance, presumably from Crawlfield’s mansion. Archie pulled over and trivial as it may seem, Jessica was bothered by the fact that he didn’t use a blinker.

“Alright, Jess, Melanie and Ahmed, this is where you get out. Remember to keep in touch through Timespace if anything goes wrong.”

Ahmed opened his door and got out, holding it open for Jessica, while Melanie got out on the other side. It occurred to Jessica that, seeing as they were now in America, they were on the wrong side of the road. Oops!

Archie and Solomon wished them luck and then pulled back out onto the road.

It was dark but the road was lined with street lights, so they could see just enough.

Jessica began to shiver and it wasn’t just because of the cold.

“Are you alright?” Ahmed asked. “You seem a little anxious.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” she lied. “It’s just, you know, becoming real. Pretty soon we’re going to be inside a heavily fortified mansion, filled with bad guys with guns. I’m still getting used to it, I guess.”

“Don’t worry, Archie won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

Melanie made a scoffing sound which Jessica was pretty sure that she was supposed to hear.

“Yes, Melanie?” she said.

“Nothing, I just hope that you’re not going to hold us back in there. The last thing that we need is for Archie or anybody else being distracted by some misplaced sense of chivalry, and protecting you when they should be focusing on the mission.”

Jessica leaned right in on Melanie, fully illustrating the height difference between the two. “Listen here, I don’t know why you hate me so much, but I can handle myself well enough without Archie’s protection, or your approval. So do us both a favour, get that chip off your shoulder and pull your head out of your - ”

“OK ladies, let’s settle down, we’ve got a job to do. Neither of you are doing Edward any favours, standing around bickering all night.”

Jessica straightened up without a word and she took great joy in the subtle signs of surprise on Melanie’s face. She averted Jessica’s gaze before folding her arms walked on up the road. Jessica smiled and hoped that her confidence boost would help against hulking men, three times Melanie’s size, carrying automatic weapons.

She fell in with Ahmed while Melanie maintained her distance. A light breeze rustled through the leaves, nothing to drastic, but cold enough for Jessica to zip up her jacket.

“What is her problem anyway?”

“It’s not you,” said Ahmed. “Well it is. But it isn’t your fault.”

Jessica cocked her head, but he kept looking straight ahead. “That’s insightful.”

“I’m sorry, it’s not my place to say. But don’t worry about it, she’ll get used to you.”

“Get used to me? You make me sound like a wart or something.”

Ahmed laughed. “Just be careful, she’s not as tough as she makes out. Beneath the cynical, gothic facade, she’s just as lost and scared as the rest of us.”

Jessica didn’t say anything after that, neither of them did. They just kept to their own thoughts, punctuated only by the crunching of gravel and the snapping of twigs beneath their feet.

“Will he be alright?” she said, without even being aware that she was going to say it. “I mean, realistically. None of this, ‘he’s strong, he’ll be fine’ stuff. Do you honestly believe that Edward will be alright when we find him?”

Ahmed didn’t answer immediately, in fact, Jessica didn’t think that he would at all.

“Let me tell you a story,” he said finally. “Many years ago, my partner and I were trying to catch a man who was trying to steal weapons from our time, so that he could sell them in World War One, it was one of my first cases as a History Enforcer.”

“Which side was he trying to sell them to?”

“Both, he wasn’t particularly picky. Anyway, during our investigation we ran into Edward, it was the first time I’d met him, but we all knew him by reputation. It turned out that he was working on a case that was running parallel to ours. We’d been trying to find this guy for ages, but got nothin’, not even a name. Then Ed shows up and tells us how this McLintock guy’s behind it all, but nobody believes him but me because Edward has a lot of enemies in the Council and McLintock had a lot of friends. Long story short, we both got ourselves caught by McLintock who shackled us up in this old mineshaft, ready to kill us.”

He began to laugh, like he was remembering a funny joke. “So, Edward starts carrying on about how stupid this guy’s plan is, about how the clues were so obvious that Ray Charles could see them. He said that he knew every detail of his plan. Now that made Mr. McLintock mad, he started yelling about how perfect his plan was an then started laying into Edward like a beast from hell! I thought he was mad for provoking him on like that.” Ahmed stopped to catch a breath. “You see, Edward egged him on because he knew that McLintock was the kind of man to snap when tormented.”

“But why did he do that?” asked Jessica.

“Two reasons. One: so that during the beating, he could use his teeth to grab the key to our shackles. Two: To get the guy to confess in blind fury and reveal his plan. It turned out that Edward had no idea what McLintock was actually planning to do until then. The point is that Edward can take care of himself and no matter what’s happened to him in that house, he’ll be alright in the end.”

Ahead of them, Melanie had stopped, allowing them to catch up. The mansion, stood tall before them and they moved over into the trees. It was dark and if all had gone well, the guards should have been taken care of, but you can never be too careful.

The gates were wide open and the Jag was parked just outside of them, but there was no sight or sound that told them anything of what was happening beyond the gates.

“OK girls,” said Ahmed, “this is it, now or never. Good luck.”

Jessica swallowed hard, hoping that it would be fear that she was swallowing. But it wasn’t. Still, she followed Melanie through the gates, sticking as close to the walls as possible.

The Temporal defences made it difficult to reach out through Timespace so they couldn’t rely on sensing others in the area, they had to keep watch the old fashioned way.

When they got to the double doors, one side was open, hopefully thanks to Archie, not as part of a trap. They pressed their backs to the closed side of the door and Melanie held up a finger before sliding cautiously to the edge and peeking round the corner. Jessica took a shot at sensing through Timespace, but to no avail. She thought it was worth a shot.

Melanie gave an all clear signal and they entered.

The small guard’s desk by the door was vacant, as was the entrance hall and the grand staircase before them. Jessica did her best to tread quietly on the marble floor, but every now and again her foot would come down just a little too hard and Melanie would shoot her an accusing glare.

Suddenly Jessica stumbled back and she had to stifle a gasp as a flash of blue hit her like a shock wave and a voice began to reverberate all around her.

“Jessica, Melanie, it’s Archie. We’re all in the mansion and most of the guards have been incapacitated, sorry but we decided that it was best to keep moving.” She realised that although it sounded like the voice was coming from all around her, it was actually inside her head. “You should receive this message once you make it into the house, the Temporal Defences aren’t as strong inside as out. Solomon and I have taken the West Wing and the twins are checking the central structure. You two can take the East Wing, split up to search more than one level if you’d like, but please be careful. Stay in touch and be safe.”

Jessica shook her head a little and saw that Melanie was doing the same. Suddenly she felt Melanie’s voice inside her head.

“Did you get that?” said Melanie’s echoing voice.

Yes, thought Jessica, but Melanie didn’t seem to hear her.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes, “Really, you don’t know how to communicate through Timespace? Just think of me as a beacon in time and focus on pushing your thoughts towards me. It should be easy since we’re right next to each other, even for you.”

Jessica closed her eyes and saw Melanie as a specific point in time and space, focusing on pushing her thoughts towards her. Then she thought something very rude and immature about Melanie and sent it out to her. Judging by the angry look on her face, it worked.

Melanie opted to search the ground floor, while Jessica searched the second so that they could then meet in the middle on the first floor.

They split up and Jessica began climbing the stairs, alone and in the dark. Even though she didn’t get along with Melanie, at least she’d been some company and offered some help. But now, it was all up to her to look after herself and to do her best to find Edward.

All she had to fight her fear was faith. Faith in her friends, faith in Edward, but most importantly, faith in herself. She just hoped that it would be enough.