Katherine refilled her coffee cup, stirring in a bit of cream from a small porcelain pitcher on the table. “After Jim’s death, I started looking for CHRONOS keys, as I told you before. In looking for Evelyn and Timothy’s keys, I learned of their deaths, and eventually found out that Harry had been adopted by a couple outside of Milford. I introduced myself to the Kellers as a friend of Harry’s mother who had just heard about her death, which was true. I said the keys were keepsakes from a sorority Evelyn and I had belonged to in college. The Kellers hadn’t seen them, but I left a card with them in case they remembered anything.
“Later, when Harry began college here in DC, they suggested that he look me up. He had started wondering more about his biological parents and what they were like. His memories of them had faded and… well, I’d known them, so I met with him and we talked. I couldn’t give him the full truth, obviously, but what he really wanted to know was what his parents were like as individuals. I had worked with them for several years and I could give him that—anecdotes, little descriptions of things they had done.”
Katherine sat in the window seat, adjusting the cushion a bit. “We hit it off quite nicely and… well, I noticed that he was drawn to the medallion when I wore it. It isn’t vivid for him—the light is faint, not neon and glaring like it is for us. But it was enough that I started to think that maybe he and Deborah might—if they were to get together and…”
She trailed off and I just stared at her, unsure what to think. “You set my parents up hoping they would have a kid—me—so that I could… what? Go on a quest to find my long-lost aunt?” At one level, I could understand, but I was also beginning to feel a bit angry, even used. “Did you not understand what an unbelievable long shot that was?”
Katherine stood and put her hands on my shoulders, staring directly into my eyes. “Of course it was a long shot, Kate. But it was one that I had to take—can’t you see that? And the inescapable fact is that it worked—you’re here and you… well, I’ve never seen someone who was able to lock on to CHRONOS equipment instantly, like you did yesterday. It was nearly three months before I could see anything other than a blurry vision, and you… from what you’ve said, you were practically there—wherever there was—five seconds after you grabbed the medallion.”
I shook off Katherine’s hands. I couldn’t help but feel that Mom had been right to warn me. She’s manipulative and selfish. “Don’t you think they had a right to decide for themselves—to let fate take its course? My parents clearly weren’t meant to be together or they still would be. Maybe they’d be happier if you hadn’t interfered. They weren’t chess pieces or puppets!”
“Perhaps they would have been happier, Kate. But their feelings, as important as they might be to you, and yes, to me as well, really aren’t the issue here.”
“Yes,” I said. “Prudence. I know—this is about Prudence. But she’s been gone for a very, very long time. I’m sorry for your loss and for my mom’s loss, but I don’t really know what it is that you expect me to do to fix things—and I’m not sure that I’m willing to help. Maybe I’m being a bit selfish here, but someone held a freaking gun to my ribs on the Metro… and I would think you’d be a bit more worried about what is happening in the here and now than—”
Katherine banged her hand against the counter. “You’re missing the entire point, Kate! Yes, I would love to learn what happened to Prudence. I would love for her to know that I tried with all my heart to find her, to get her back. But that is not why I tried to get your parents together and it is not why I brought you here. The fact that Prudence could change that document you saw—not just my copy, but every copy and half a dozen other bits of history as well—that is the reason we have to worry. The temporal shifts—you felt them, you knew something was wrong, and everyone around you went about their lives as though nothing had changed. Like the problem was with you, right?”
I nodded once, still angry.
“But the problem was not with you. Changes have been happening for the past twenty years—the two that you felt were just rather… major.” Katherine took several deep breaths, making an effort to calm down. “Despite having the chosen gift, despite the best intentions of the trainers at CHRONOS, Saul was very good at hiding his real views. He and a group of friends, two of whom were connected to CHRONOS, all believed that the technology was not being used as it should be… that it was in the hands of weak individuals who lacked vision. Why simply study history? they asked. Why not make history—remake history?