A Time of Shadows (Out of Time #8) Read Online Free PDF Page B

chair.
    “How did you know about that?” Simon asked Travers.
    Travers merely shrugged. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you that either.”
    Simon scowled at that.  
    “It’s for your own protection,” Travers added.
    It did little to quell Simon’s obvious frustration.
    “That sounds a little like something the Shadow Council might say,” Jack offered.
    Travers blanched, and then nodded with a sigh. “Nonetheless.”
    Simon grunted and looked down at Charlotte. Her eyes shifted nervously from him to Elizabeth.
    “It’s all right,” Simon said. “We just have a few questions about your visits from Teddy.”
    “I don’t know how much I should say.”
    Simon sighed. “Not you, too.”
    Charlotte sat up straighter. “Daddy told me not to. Protect the Prime Directive,” she added with a Vulcan salute.
    “I doubt I did that,” Simon grumbled and Elizabeth tried hard to suppress her smile.
    “We just need to know a few things, no details about your life, our life, in the future, just about your talks with Teddy,” she explained. “That’s all.”  
    “He comes to visit sometimes. We play games, tell stories, read. He’s fun.”
    Simon knelt down next to her chair. “I’m sure he is. Did he ever say anything about a watch?”
    “Oh, all the time. He made them.”
    “Yes,” Simon said. “But did he say anything about a specific watch? The thirteenth?”
    Her forehead wrinkled in thought. “Yeah, but it didn’t make sense.”
    “What do you mean?”
    Charlotte shrugged. “Teddy’s different.”
    Simon’s eyebrows went up. “Yes, he is. Special.”
    Charlotte nodded. “He tells me stories about the day I’ll get my own watch.”
    “Does he?” Simon said, unable to hide a flare of temper. “A bit presumptuous,” he muttered, and Elizabeth agreed. As Charlotte’s expression grew worried, he let it go and hurried to apologize.
    “I’m sorry,” he continued. “What did he say?”
    “That he trusted me. We’re blood brothers.”
    She held up her thumb.
    Simon’s mouth opened, ready, Elizabeth was sure, to lecture on the dangers of such a foolish and dangerous ritual, but he controlled his temper this time.
    “And the thirteenth watch? Did he tell you where it was?”
    Charlotte nodded.  
    That sent a silent shockwave through the room.  
    “Where?”
    “I don’t know.”
    Simon sighed. “Charlotte—”
    “I mean, he told me, but I don’t understand what it means.”
    “What did he say?” Elizabeth asked.
    Charlotte scrunched up her forehead as she tried to remember. “WP-9368.”
    The shockwave of revelation dissipated.
    “WP…?” Simon said.
    “9368.”
    “What does that mean?” Simon asked.
    Charlotte shook her head. “I don’t know. I told you.”
    “Are you sure you didn’t forget something? Did he give you a name or a place? Anything?”
    Charlotte huffed a breath in exasperation, much like her father. “I told you.”
    Simon sighed and stood back up.
    “I asked what it meant and he said when I needed to know, I’d know,” Charlotte said. “He talks like that sometimes. Twisty.”
    Elizabeth patted Charlotte’s arm, her own fond memories of Teddy returning. “That’s a good description.”
    Charlotte beamed at the compliment.
    “Why would he tell our child and not us?” Simon asked no one in particular.
    “Maybe he did,” Jack said. “We don’t know what he told future you. You might even know what it means.”
    Simon nodded thoughtfully. “For all the good that does us.”
    “I’m sorry,” Charlotte said.
    Simon knelt back down next to her and squeezed her shoulder. “Nothing to be sorry for. Without you we’d have nothing to go on at all. You’ve done very well.”
    Jack leaned back in his chair, laced his hands behind his head and stuck his long legs out in front of him. “Now, we just have to figure out what it means.”
    “If it’s all right,” Travers said, “I’d like the Crosses to sink their teeth into that. I think they’re