Positioning herself so that we could both see the interface clearly, she visually sorted through the various categories and then halted when a dark space came into view.
“Are you sure that’s it?” I asked. “It’s totally black.”
“Yes,” she answered a bit testily. “It’s a linen closet. And it is nighttime. What do you expect?”
“I’m just not sure how you can tell this closet from some of the other dark closets you zoomed past. I could end up in Des Moines.”
“I’ve never been to Des Moines. I’ve been here, however. Your first left and then your second left should get you from the closet to the staircase. And from there, you just need to retrace our steps back to this room.”
I nodded and positioned my fingers over the controls, replacing hers. The display wavered for a moment and then sputtered out.
Katherine snorted in annoyance and pulled it up again. “Focus this time, okay?”
“Fine,” I said. “I like you better as an old lady. You need time to mellow.” It was true, but I reminded myself that it had been a pretty stressful day for her as well. She’d just learned she was pregnant and that the father probably wasn’t what he was pretending to be, and she was smart enough to realize that her world was about to change in major ways. That was a lot to digest, even without threats from a serial killer.
The display flickered again briefly when Katherine moved her fingers to make way for mine, but I was able to pull the image back.
“Okay. I’ve got it. Thanks, Katherine.
“Kiernan,” I said, keeping my eyes locked on the display, “I’ll be right back. Only a couple of minutes. Katherine’s really not as nasty as she seems.”
“I’ll be all right,” he said. “Be careful, Miss Kate.”
“And Katherine?” I added in a lower voice. “If something happens, I’m trusting that you’ll get him out of here. I know for a fact that he is not meant to meet his end in this hotel. You’ll tell CHRONOS he saw nothing and he knows nothing.”
“My God, Kate. What do you think I am?” she hissed. “The kid has been a major pain in my backside today, but I wouldn’t leave him with that monster.”
“So I have your word on that? You’ll do everything you can to get him to safety if I don’t make it back?”
“You’d better make it back, since you seem so convinced that the fate of the world depends on it. But yes—you have my word. Would you just go?”
I focused on the very middle of the black rectangle that Katherine claimed was the third-floor linen closet and blinked.
I’m not a fan of small, dark spaces, so I was relieved that the arc of blue light from the medallion illuminated most of the closet. Apparently CHRONOS hired only very thin historians, however, because the stable point was a tight fit even for my slight frame. My shoulder collided with a shelf as I turned, tumbling a large stack of linens to the floor. The stench of chemicals and something more earthy and pungent underneath assaulted my nose.
Out of habit, I bent down and started to pick up the sheets that I knocked over, but the smell was stronger near the floor. Fighting back a wave of nausea, I decided I really didn’t want to know what was under the stack of linens and pushed the door to my right. It wouldn’t budge and there was no handle on the inside.
I moved back two steps to see if I could get enough room to kick it in. That’s when I felt something round and hard poking my spine.
I bit back a scream. Then, after a few seconds of nothing happening, I glanced behind me and saw that my attacker was the doorknob to another, larger door. Relieved, I opened it and escaped into the hallway. I had no clue where the first door led, and given that the smell was stronger in that direction, I was very glad that I didn’t have to find out.
The light from the medallion was again very useful, since the gas lamps in the third-floor hallways weren’t lit. The corridors were confusing enough without having to feel my way along the walls in the dark. The entire floor seemed deserted, but I couldn’t shake the memory of the things that had happened behind some of these doors.
Of course, Katherine’s instructions were wrong. The first left did take me to a main hallway, but the second left along that corridor was one of Holmes’s amusing little dead ends.
Coming back toward the main hallway, I passed a door that, like the second-floor room where Katherine and Kiernan were waiting for me, had a bolt on the outside.
I knew Katherine would screech that I was violating the timeline—and she was undoubtedly correct that anyone in there probably wasn’t supposed to escape—but I really didn’t think much of the CHRONOS ethical guidelines on that front. I yanked the bolt back and opened the door.