Page 24 of Time of the Warlord (Stones of Scotland #5)

S adie could not remember ever having been so scared, even after everything that had happened. These two men terrified her - and worse, they clearly terrified Norah. They had tied the two women up without much effort. Sadie hadn’t put up a fight - how could she, with a gun pointed at her head? She had to do whatever these men told her. After a long, painful trek across the countryside, she and Norah now sat bound and gagged in a corner of a ramshackle old cottage.

“I told you we should never have got the woman involved,” the first man was saying.

Sadie recognized him now. His name was Jack Alderton, and he had once worked for Professor Edmondson. The employment records suggested he had left his job years ago - but his presence here suggested something very different. The other man was Henry Waters, who was supposed to be working at Edmondson’s lab as an engineer. In the darkness of the cottage, with his unwashed hair and unshaven beard, dressed in a shapeless tunic and baggy trousers, he didn’t look much like an engineer to Sadie.

“We needed her, and you know it,” Henry snapped back. “We should simply have been quicker at disposing of her afterwards.”

Just like he’d tried to on the boat, Sadie thought with a shiver.

“You know I can’t risk going anywhere near Dunadd,” Jack retorted. “Mrs Edmondson is still there, and if she lays eyes on me I’m done for.”

“Well, what do you propose we do now?” Henry demanded. “We’ve enough trouble with these missing person cases as it is. A second sister missing? There’s no way we’ll escape investigation.”

“We could get her back to Arran,” Jack suggested. “I’m positive she was the one I saw over there. We could dump her body somewhere below a cliff around there. Make it look like a suicide.”

“Good idea,” Henry said, a little too eagerly. “This whole mess might finally be over.”

“With nothing gained at all,” Jack growled. “The boy’s still missing.”

“He’ll turn up,” Henry said, sounding confident. “He’s still a child. He’s hardly going to wander around a different time period forever, all alone.”

Sadie thought they might have underestimated Matthew, but she could hardly say anything, not with this rancid old piece of cloth stuffed in her mouth. Was that what all of this had been about? Kidnapping Matthew? After seeing the ease with which he could travel through time, she was not entirely surprised.

“Still, Norah’s not the worse employee we’ve ever had,” Jack said. He turned to glance at the two women out of the corner of his eye. To Sadie’s utter astonishment, he winked at them before turning back to Henry. “And identical twins would be handy. We could play a lot of tricks with those two on the team.”

“We won’t be playing any tricks at all without the boy,” Henry snapped. “We barely have enough power to get us both home. And you know what happens once we’re out of power. No more gold, no more money. You can forget that oil deal. And once the Professor catches up with us, we’ll have nowhere to run.”

Gold? Oil? Sadie could barely believe what she was hearing. Were they exploiting the past for its resources? Seizing control of natural resources, centuries before other people had a chance? It was a big, bold goal. No wonder they needed Matthew’s power.

“The Professor is not going to catch up with us,” Jack said, his voice suddenly icy. “And even if he did, he would be more angry with some people than others.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Henry demanded. “You don’t know anything more than I do.”

But Jack cut him off, one hand raised as he listened.

“There’s people outside,” he said. “I doubt they’ve come for a chat.”

Ciaran . Sadie couldn’t say how she knew, but she was suddenly very, very sure that it was Ciaran outside the cottage. Had he come for her? Or was he chasing Matthew?

“Get rid of them,” Henry said. “We don’t need any witnesses.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Jack said, reaching into one pocket and producing a small, round object.

Was that a grenade ?

Sadie screamed through her gag, the noise loud and sharp despite the muffling fabric. Once again, Jack winked at her, the expression completely at odds with his touch exterior. Then he ran to the window and wrenched the shutters open, throwing the strange object as he did so. It erupted into clouds of white smoke, billowing in through the window. A smoke grenade!

Hands reached for her bound wrists as the smoke thickened, blocking everything from sight. Sadie’s hands and feet were free, then the gag was pulled from her mouth.

“Get out of here,” Jack murmured in her ear. A familiar hand fumbled for hers - Norah was free as well.

Sadie took a step in the direction of the door. At least, she thought that was the direction of the door. In all this thick smoke, it was almost impossible to tell.

And then a gunshot ran out, loud and unmistakable. Someone screamed. Sadie clung harder to Norah’s hand and ran for the door. They had to get out of there! But her hand met blank stone. She fumbled to either side, desperately reaching for a way out.

“You’re surrounded!” a voice called from outside. “No more tricks!”

It was Ciaran! Sadie could have wept with joy and relief. She reached a little more to the side, and there it was at last - the door. But then Norah froze, her hand gripping Sadie’s so hard that it might bruise. Sadie was pulled to a halt.

“I advise you not to take another step,” Henry’s disembodied voice said through the smoke. “You see, I have my gun pressed to the back of your sister’s head, and I won’t hesitate to shoot.”