STEALING EDEN Part Eight

  Julie was accustomed to being the first one in the office in the mornings and the last one out at night. Such was the lot of editors, and she sometimes wondered how Lynda managed to thrive on the work for the years she sat in the big chair. Life was a lot less fun now; this was for sure. The lights were already on when Julie arrived, and Sarah was sitting in the editor's chair paging through some papers on the desk.

"Anything interesting?" Julie asked.

Sarah looked up with a decidedly ominous frown on her face. "You're up to something, aren't you?"

Julie shrugged. "I just got here. I haven't had time to cause trouble yet." She sat down in Tiddler's chair, and Sarah tossed the papers across the desk at her.

"Looks like Billy spent the night snooping about for information on Leslie McDowell. He was nice enough to send it through to your printer, which I happened to notice on my way in this morning."

"What of it?" Julie said nonchalantly. "I don't trust her any more than I do Colin. I at least know Colin, and when I read these, I'll know a little more about Leslie."

"Yeah, and I'm the Queen Mum. I don't suppose Kate and Kevin are in America on holiday, either. A bit of an expensive jaunt for our budget."

"Where did you come up with that idea?"

"Kate phoned Colin to get some money sent over. Colin didn't know what they were doing there, and phoned me. I phoned Kate."

"I bloody well told him! He wanted to go himself, the cheeky bastard." Julie's calm was beginning to break down.

"Let me get a few things straight here. You are editor, and to the extent that you can run this paper in the interests of our readers, you have editorial control over what goes in the paper. Snooping around in the owner's past and the past of his associates is out of bounds and it stops now!"

"Sarah," Julie said, "if the owner is something other than what he claims to be, it is the public's right to know. So far, nothing about him adds up and everything points to something odd going on around here. If you'd quit looking at him with those adoring eyes of yours, you'd see that."

Sarah looked like she'd been slapped. "I know considerably more than you or anyone else does about him, and I'm not at all worried about the situation."

"What HE says about it, Sarah. Is that the truth? Give us a chance to find out and if we find nothing to worry about, we'll gladly agree with you." Julie shook her head. "The Sarah I used to know hated violence and guns. Look at you! You're benefactor is an Army officer (of dubious rank) who has his associates wandering around the office packing pistols. And you say nothing. Not a damn word of protest. He looks at you and smiles and gives you a job and some baubles, and you sit up and beg for him."

"I grew up," Sarah said with more force than conviction. "Things are different for him..."

"Yes, they are. Did you ever ask yourself why?"

"On occasion," Sarah answered, "when not trying to figure out what I'm going to do with Lynda today."

"Today?" It was Julie's turn to feel uncomfortable. "I had assumed she was going to take sometime to recover her senses. She's not well."

"Mr. Marriner seems to think she is well enough to plead her case. I don't know what he will decide. I have stated my position on the issue, and he's going to decide for himself, but he wanted to hear her side of the story." Sarah cracked a smile. "Any evidence she has that your conduct has not been satisfactory will be listened to with great interest."

"She has no evidence, Sarah. Nothing. Kerr will back up everything I say, just as he did at when Lynda first started spouting that nonsense."

"That's what HE says about it," Sarah said with a faint air of amusement. "And she has far more knowledge than is really safe for her to have. So do I. So do you, Julie. Watch your step."

"Is that a threat, Sarah?"

Nervous laughter from Sarah met that question. "We're in over our heads, all of us."

Leslie McDowell sat at a vanity brushing her hair when she realized a face other than hers was reflecting in the mirror. She recognized it immediately from the photographs in the newsroom: Lynda Day was in her bedroom.

"What are you doing here?" Leslie hissed. "Breaking into my hotel room isn't going to win you any points."

"I need information, not lectures." Lynda said bluntly. "I want to know what's going on here. I've got a meeting with your boss in ninety minutes, and I want to know how to handle negotiating with an alien."

Leslie's face turned a ghastly white. "Alien?" she whispered. "You must be joking."

"I don't think so, and you know it. You lived across the fence from the Marriner house in 1972. You've had a ringside seat for the whole thing from day one, and that's why you're on the payroll. How much did it cost to buy your silence, Leslie?"

"Enough to know not to say anything to you."

"Or what?" Lynda said, looking Leslie squarely in the eye. "Leslie, I have a meeting with him. I have a certain alien artifact which I have reason to believe he wants very badly. Do I fear him or not?"

"Alien artifact? You?" Leslie got up from the vanity and walked to where Lynda was standing. "What exactly have you got?"

"A book I took from the Doctor. Not that it will mean anything to you."

"On the contrary, it does," Leslie said. "Does this book have something to do with the future?" Lynda nodded. Leslie shook her head. "God help us if that's what this is all about. You stupid fool, why would you bring this down on our heads?" she shouted at Lynda.

"Bring what? What have I done? I did this for Spike, not to---"

"Don't apologize to me. You'd just as well apologize to the wall. Paul wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that damn book of yours. The Time Lords want that book back, and if they don't get it, they're liable to take it out on all of us who ever got to know Paul over his lifetime. He only barely talked them into letting him survive when they discovered he existed. You have done some snooping to find out about me, and now that I know, they'll probably know. When they know we all know, maybe they'll decide to just erase all of us."

"You make it sound like they are gods or something," Lynda said. "Say the magic word, and 'poof' we disappear."

"Lynda, they can go back in time and tweak it enough so that my parents never met and I would never have existed. That scares me--does it scare you? Look in the mirror, Lynda, and you might see yourself for the last time. No Lynda, no Spike, no Leslie, no Paul--no Earth, if they had a particularly bad morning and woke on the wrong side of the bed. How is this for a negotiating position, Lynda Day? Get on your knees and beg for your life and hope to God in heaven that it is enough."

"And yet you work for him."

"I have no choice. My parents lived next door, and he and I played in the sandbox as children. When it happened, I was there. Not my choice. I saw Angelus kill his parents. Four years old, and twenty years later I still see that at night. Paul can pay me all the money in the world and it still won't make that vision go away or stop me from screaming. Paul was arguing for my life as well as his own, and I owe him everything. I could never turn my back on him, and if I did, I'd lose the only safety net I have, weak though it is."

Lynda could no longer look Leslie in the eye. Leslie was fighting back the tears, and losing the battle she'd fought for ages.

"I exist in the future," Lynda said to herself.

"You do now," Leslie said. "That is no guarantee you will always."

Lynda gazed at her own reflection in the mirror. "All this for three little words," she said softly.

8 AM came and the newsroom came to a complete stop. Tiddler was at her desk, and looked up to see Julie's eyes flick towards the door. Sarah and Marriner walked in together, with Marriner stopping at Frazz's desk to whisper something in his direction. Julie's expression soured, and Sarah glared a warning back at her that Tiddler interpreted as "Stay out of this." The pair walked over to Sarah's office and began having a discussion that was mostly out of earshot, although Tiddler thought Marriner was trying to get Sarah to stay out of the interview as well. She refused pointedly, and this seemed to upset him. Two of Marriner's female guards were lurking about the newsroom, setting everyone on edge.

Slightly two minutes later, Lynda and Spike walked in, hand in hand. Spike looked his old self, and his smile brightened more than a few faces. Lynda was a different matter--she appeared nervous, in a way the old Lynda did when she had much on her mind. The two of them exchanged words and Lynda kissed Spike. Sarah, Marriner, and Lynda walked into the meeting room and closed the door.

"Have a seat, Lynda," Sarah said.

"Is this a formal interview on my future with the Gazette--or just a formal interview on my future, period?" Lynda asked as she sat down.

"Rather the latter, I'm afraid," Marriner said. "You've read the book, I suppose."

"Might as well have," she said. "I'm bored being at home with nothing to do."

"Figures you wouldn't leave me an out," Marriner said, shaking his head. He reached inside his suitcoat pocket and pulled out a small handgun and pointed it at Lynda. Sarah opened her mouth to protest, but nothing came out. He then dropped the gun on the table and pushed it towards Lynda, who picked it up and put it into her lap. Sarah relaxed.

"We have an understanding now," Marriner said. "Whatever happens, happens because we work it out together, not by force. I don't know how we get out of this mess, but I'm open to ideas."

"Leslie said all of us are at risk now. That was never what I intended," Lynda said.

"I know. Time travel is a tempting proposition. I wanted dearly to go back and change something so that my wife would be alive now, but I don't know enough about this business to do it right. Maybe something good that came out of Jennifer's death outweighs the value of her life. I don't know, and I don't have the right to decide that. Only God does."

"Would giving the book back help?" Sarah asked.

"Not if she's read it. Maybe we could talk them into erasing her memories of it." Marriner said. "It's something I can put forward as a deal, if you give the book back in exchange."

The newsroom was not totally still now. Spike and Frazz were talking amongst themselves. Tiddler noticed Leslie McDowell wander in much later than usual and go immediately into the bathroom. The two guards outside the door stood silently watching over the sea of faces looking back at them. After a minute, Leslie emerged and went into Colin's office, carrying a strange plastic gadget. Jane walked into the bathroom, and a scream soon rang out from inside. Spike, Frazz, and the guards ran for the bathroom, as did Julie and Tiddler. Nobody saw Leslie emerge from Colin's office and enter the meeting room, and when she closed the door, Marriner looked at her sadly.

"The first victim, Thriptos?" he asked.

"The end-game begins, Marriner," the thing that had been Leslie said with a smile.

"Distraction?" Marriner asked sadly.

"To draw Sophie and Laura away from the door. I really like these holographic image projectors of yours. They work like a charm, and I don't have to wear a mask." Thriptos said, briefly turning off the projector and revealing his own face for a moment.

"You didn't have to kill her. Those projectors would have given you any image."

"Oh, but this one is so much more painful. Wouldn't you agree, Lynda?"

Lynda said nothing. Thriptos grinned even wider now. "So David Jefford was bad as a memory? Look at my face, Lynda Day. You have very little time left and what little you have is going to belong to the late Leslie McDowell, whom you really did have a part in killing."

"I didn't kill her. You did."

"Why are we all here? Your little book, which you stole. Your own insecurities rising to consume you. Your worst nightmares come to life."

"We were negotiating a way out of this, Thriptos. I can still get you a decent ending if you'll only let me." Marriner said.

"On terms that will yet again give you and your friends an out. We can't leave any more loose ends to trip over in the future." Thriptos reached into Marriner's pocket and pulled out another gun. "Note how much he trusts you, Lynda Day."

"Note how much I trust you, Thriptos," Marriner said. "I think that more relevant."

"Any last words before dying, Marriner? Sarah? Lynda?"

Marriner got up and pulled Sarah up from her chair. Marriner looked sadly into her eyes. "Wish it could have ended better for you. I'm sorry."

"Me, too," she said, stifling a tear. "I was almost ready to believe in miracles."

"I'll trade you my life for theirs, Thriptos. I'm the one you've always wanted." Marriner said, not looking at him at all, but staring deeply into Sarah's eyes.

"Too late for deals now," Thriptos said, cocking the trigger.

"Close your eyes, Sarah," Paul said and kissed her. "See you on the other side." She never felt the bullet that sent her to the floor, nor saw the bullet that tore through Paul Marriner's body. They fell to the floor together, and together they lay in a growing pool of blood. Thriptos fired at Lynda, but she ducked and the shot missed. The door to the meeting room flew open and Spike and the two guards barged in. Thriptos turned to fire at Spike, but suddenly fell forward with a look of surprise and hit the floor. Behind the body, Lynda stood transfixed at the scene unfolding before her, holding the gun Marriner gave her in peace, and dropping it to the floor unconsciously as a last act of war.

The guards looked at the body, saw the projector, and suddenly began firing into the corpse.

"What the hell are you doing!" Spike screamed at them, as he checked Sarah's body for signs of life.

"Aliens can be hard to kill," Sophie shouted back.

"Is she---" Lynda stammered.

"Not yet." Spike shouted. In the background, screaming was heard. A siren was wailing in the distance, growing louder by the second.

The guards had ceased their gruesome task and were checking Marriner's body. Both were crying, and both screamed when the body spoke one last word. "Circles," it said. Then before the eyes of Sophie and Laura and Lynda Day, who stood frozen from shock and could do nothing, the body bleeding on the floor suddenly shimmered and rippled and renewed itself in the blink of an eye. The blonde hair turned black, and hazel eyes turned blue. The body seemed to grow taller. One hand reached out and gripped Sophie's, clutching it tightly. "The future is in Frazz's hands now," it said in a voice that sounded more tenor than Marriner's deep bass. The grip loosened, and the body slumped.

On To Part Nine