Page 2 of Time of the Druid (Stones of Scotland #7)

Chapter 2

“I ’m going to need your help with something,” Norah said, leaning around the office door. Jack tilted his head back to look at her, one eyebrow raised.

“Anything to get me out of this office,” he said, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck and nodding at the clutter on his desk—half-written reports, multiple monitors blinking with data, and a cold mug of coffee sitting beside a half-eaten protein bar.

The office hummed with the low background noise of machines, a soft buzz that had long since faded into something ignorable. The air smelled faintly metallic, like overheated circuits, and the light from the ceiling panels gave everything a washed-out, overexposed look. Norah stepped in and let the door slide shut behind her. She didn’t uncross her arms.

If anyone hated being stuck indoors more than Norah did, it was Jack. But unlike her, he usually managed to stay out of the office. As chief security officer, he was normally out in the field—his energy better spent in motion than behind a desk.

“I’ve got a mission,” Norah told him. “Another one of my special tasks.”

That got Jack’s attention. He sat bolt upright, swivelling his chair to face her.

“Who the hell authorised that?”

Norah leaned her shoulder against the wall, arms folded tight, her voice low. “Edmondson dropped by. The man himself, apparently not dead after all. Although I’ve no idea where—or when—he is now.”

Jack blinked, then slowly turned back to his desk, absently tapping his fingers against the mug as if trying to ground himself. “When was this?”

Norah exhaled through her nose and pushed away from the wall. “About twenty minutes ago.” She moved further into the room and perched on the edge of a neighbouring desk, flicking a glance at one of the security feeds. “I’ve been trying to investigate the feasibility of this mission. And basically, the conclusion is that I need your help.”

Jack’s expression sharpened. “Details.”

“Iron Age Scotland,” Norah said, rubbing her thumb against the corner of her palm. “I need to poison a druid.”

“Hell, no!” Jack exploded, jumping to his feet. “Norah, I’ve met a few of these druids. You need to keep as far away as you can. A few sneaky little poisons will not help you against a druid.”

Norah’s stomach sank even further. That was not exactly encouraging to hear.

“Come on, Jack,” she said. “I thought you liked a challenge. And even druids have got to be better than a desk job, right?”

But Jack shook his head firmly.

“I know I face death for a living,” he said. “But, truth is, I like being alive, and I think you do too. Turn this one down, Norah. Another mission will come up.”

But not another life , Norah thought. She might be good at what she did, but she wasn’t irreplaceable. Edmondson would crush her like a bug if he thought she’d outlived her usefulness. She knew too much.

“I have to take this mission,” she said. “Please help me. You’re right—my poisons won’t be enough. But I bet you would be.”

Jack groaned.

“I’ve never understood your urge to throw yourself into danger,” he said. “And all this messing around with poison! Just get a bigger gun. It’s stupid, Norah. The time machines can’t even go that far back.”

“The Professor said it will work,” Norah insisted, pouncing on the one potential flaw in Jack’s argument. “He should know what he’s talking about.”

Jack fixed her with a long, heavy gaze.

“You’re determined to do this, aren’t you?” he asked at last.

Norah nodded.

“I need to,” she said. Her tone was even, but final—no explanation offered, and none invited.

Jack sighed heavily.

“Fine. Then I guess I’m coming with you, just to make sure that you don’t get your stupid self killed. But we do this on my terms, understood?”

Great. Jack and his ‘terms’.

“What are the rules this time?” Norah asked, only just restraining from rolling her eyes like a teenager about to be grounded.

“No going off on your own,” Jack said, counting the rules off on his fingers. “No poisoning anyone without asking me first. No doing anything stupid. Oh, and you better carry a gun at all times.”

“That’s not exactly historically accurate,” Norah pointed out. “And I have to go off alone occasionally.”

Jack kept on glaring at her.

“Fine,” Norah said, throwing her hands up in the air. “I’ll obey your stupid rules. Just keep me alive.”

“I’ll do the best I can,” he said gravely. “Now what’s all this about reaching the Iron Age? The machines don’t even have a date setting for that far back. Look, I’ll show you.”

Before Norah could protest that she knew the time machines very well, Jack was on his feet and striding past her. She trailed after him until they reached the travel chamber, where he scanned his ID card, punched in the security code, and threw the door open.

“Look at this,” he said, pointing at the huge selection of dials that allowed the date to be calibrated. “The year 0. That’s as far as these machines are set up to go. And you know well enough that even that date is pure theory. We’ve never gone that far. Edmondson is mad to ask this of you.”

Norah sighed. It was hard to debate Edmondson’s madness, after all she’d seen him do. He definitely wasn’t sane. But he held her life in his hands, and she had to do what he ordered.

“If Edmondson says it will work, it will work,” she said. “He hasn’t even told me the exact date. I guess he set up the machine himself.”

Jack eyed all the dials dubiously.

“I suppose he might have done,” he said. “I better make sure that no one else uses the machine before us, or we’ll be royally screwed. When are we setting the departure date for?”

Norah hesitated. She could wait a few days—Edmondson hadn’t given her a firm timescale. A few quiet evenings at home, a chance to visit her parents, maybe even sleep in for once—it was all within reach. She could catch her breath, recharge, remind herself of the version of Norah that existed outside this job. But the thought faded as quickly as it came.

No. This was the last of the special missions, and she wanted it done. The longer she waited, the more it would gnaw at her. She couldn’t rest until it was over. The career of Norah the Assassin was almost at an end, and that end couldn’t come too soon. Every mission had cost her something. Her resolve, her conscience, her sense of who she was—they were all worn thin. She could almost taste her precious freedom now, sharp and clean like cold air on a mountaintop. One final job. That was all.

“We leave tomorrow,” she said. “Edmondson wants this done fast. And it’s just a quick poisoning job. You know I’ve done a dozen of these. What could go wrong?”

Jack shook his head, a deep frown creasing his brow.

“You’ve never met a druid, have you? Believe me, anything that could go wrong, they will make go wrong. Be prepared for the worst, Norah.”

Norah stared at the flickering lights of the time machine, covering the whole wall of the laboratory. The glow shifted and pulsed, each blink a subtle reminder of the leap she was about to make. Her breath fogged faintly in the chilled air of the lab, and she rubbed her arms without thinking, trying to shake the crawling unease that crept along her spine. The worst?

What could be worse than literally having her life in the hands of a sadistic madman who forced her to murder on his command? What could be worse than knowing your next heartbeat wasn’t your own, that it could be ended with the shattering of a stone? Maybe death was easier. Maybe failure wouldn’t be the worst thing after all. But Norah couldn’t let herself think that way.

For her, the worst had already happened.

“It will be fine,” she told Jack. “Get packed tonight. Nine AM departure. See you in the morning.”

Then she strode out of the laboratory before he spotted the trembling of her fingers.