(Disclaimers in the prologue)
The first thing that Sapphire became aware of was the chill. This place, wherever she might be, was cold. Without opening her eyes she sensed stone walls and loneliness and the distant echoes of suffering.
She wasn't alone. Another mind was close by; an empathic mind, a mind like hers. On reflex, Sapphire reached out to contact the owner, but as she drew closer she tasted the taint of another power and backed away.
She knew she had been unconscious. Where she had been brought, she had no idea. Whether she was amid friends or enemies, she couldn't tell. Worst of all, she could not recall her last memory before losing consciousness. Her head was a swirling mixture of apprehension and desperation and loss. All this left her quite terrified.
Sapphire's childhood was centuries distant, now, but she found herself recalling the sharp tang of childish fear. To be afraid of the unknown, of the dark - to close your eyes and decide that this act rendered you invisible and untouchable - all this flooded back into Sapphire's thoughts. She had to open her eyes and assess her surroundings but was held back by the need to hide from this new nightmare. Maybe if she refused to see it, it would all go away.
There was something else which was wrong, too. Something she had felt ever since returning to awareness. She was without some basic part of herself, as though she had lost a limb. Where there had once been understanding and support and strength and union, there was only a void.
It hurt. It hurt terribly.
As she examined this internal gap, memories began to reemerge. She remembered a partner, a man. They had shared a connection. Together, they could have faced anything.
Steel.
The moment his name appeared in her thoughts, other memories swept her into a torrent of pain and fear and loss. The café, the trap, and Steel's madness took a vivid precedence over any other thought. The memory of his strong hands squeezing her throat reminded Sapphire that she should be dead, and drew her attention to a physical pain at her neck, which she suddenly realised had been aching since she awoke.
All these thoughts rushed into her head in less than a second and she gasped with pain, sitting upright and opening her eyes in shock.
It took a frightening few moments before Sapphire could focus on her location. As the grey, blurred images gained clarity around her, she realised just how vulnerable she was. How incomplete.
She sat on a wooden pallet, covered with a coarse wool blanket. She still wore the blue dress from her last assignment, though her stockings were laddered. Sapphire looked around slowly. She was in a small room, with no window and a single door. The walls had been roughly plastered, but stonework showed through in many places. The floor was dirty and covered with debris. Aside from the pallet, a table stood against one wall and a lone wooden chair was drawn up to it.
The owner of the mind she had sensed was sitting in the chair and looking at her.
Sapphire recognised the mind, if not the form.
"Topaz," she said, or at least tried to say, but the word sounded rough and guttural. Sapphire drew a wary hand up to the ache around her neck and gingerly touched the painful area. The lightest pressure of her fingers confirmed the presence of severe bruising.
Sapphire tried not to let the discovery break her resolve. It was important that she remain strong and focused. Steel had tried to kill her, and she had lost her connection with him. Yet she was alive, and where there was life ...
"Welcome back, Sapphire," said Topaz, standing up from her chair. Sapphire shrank back, remembering the taint around the empath's mind. More of her recent memories were returning. The investigation with Silver at the service station which had revealed the presence of the Transient Beings. Although Sapphire could not remember why, she had the strongest feeling that Silver had demonstrated his treachery, somehow.
Topaz had not moved closer, after Sapphire backed away. The expression on the other woman's face was actually rather sympathetic. Sapphire frowned in confusion. They were supposed to be on opposite sides, weren't they?
"How do you feel?" Topaz asked her. The sound of her voice was chasing away the ethereal quality of the location and Sapphire reached out to touch the pallet and then the wall. "Your neck must hurt."
Sapphire nodded, afraid of speaking again. The fragile state of her voice was a clear reminder of Steel's attempt on her life.
"I'm sorry, I can't help you heal it," continued Topaz. "We're on minimal power, for the time being. None of us are using our skills. We're ..." She cast about for the right expression. "We're lying low," she finished with a small smile.
"Why?" Sapphire croaked.
"Well, we've - that's my group of associates, by the way - we've made a bit of an enemy. Hence the less than decorative surroundings."
Sapphire managed to convey her confusion without the need to question further, and Topaz sat back down on the wooden chair.
"I suppose I might as well tell you, now. Good a time as any." Topaz paused before starting her tale. "We were sent from the past, into the present. We couldn't move like that before, you know. The price of our release was to capture you and your partner." Sapphire nodded, her eyes filling with tears as she remembered Steel's rage. "It was a test, you see. We were to place you in a temporary prison and then ask you to join us. Your recent assignments had concerned some of the high-ups. You and Steel were considered mavericks, perhaps. They had doubts about you."
"Dewerton railway station," rasped Sapphire, as another piece of the puzzle fell into place.
"Well, I don't know anything about that," Topaz replied. "Anyway, we were just hired to capture you and maintain the prison, until the authority was convinced of your loyalty, either way. But we didn't get that far. As soon as you were both in the trap, our leader - you encountered him at the service station, remember?" Topaz continued at Sapphire's nod. "Well, he discovered that there was to be no test. We had simply been used to incapacitate you and Steel, so that the authority could destroy you and blame your deaths on us."
Sapphire froze. Topaz's words rang so frighteningly true that she could not disbelieve them. It was the perfect way for the organisation and those higher up in the chain of command to get rid of two agents who had become far too independent. To destroy them openly would cause considerable dissension in the ranks. But to disguise their destruction by using the Transient Beings: that would leave no resulting suspicion ...
Topaz finished her summary. "When we discovered how we had been used, I'm afraid we decided to rebel a little. You and Steel may have belonged to the organisation which fought for our imprisonment, but you were competent Operators who had simply managed to get on the wrong side of certain powerful figures. I think our leader saw something of our own situation in your plight. So he travelled back to the prison we had made for you, before the authority arrived to destroy you. There, he said he found Steel hunched up in a corner, wringing his hands and biting his tongue so hard that there was blood all over his mouth, and you were on the floor next to a toppled chair." Topaz shook her head. "He thought Steel had killed you, for one horrible moment, but you were still alive, just barely, so he brought you both here."
"Where is Steel?" Sapphire whispered.
"He's in another part of the building. Nitro's watching him. It's all right. We won't let him anywhere near you until he regains his senses." Topaz stood and finally walked all the way over to the pallet, where she pressed Sapphire's shoulder until the Operator was lying down, then gently covered her form with the blanket. "You've had a rough ride. Get some rest. You're safe here, for the time being."
Sapphire watched, still a little wary, as the empath moved away again.
"Oh, and I'd advise you not to draw too much power, for now. We don't want to attract attention to our location, do we?"
Topaz left the room, and Sapphire let her eyes fall closed. She needed time to think through the information she had been given. She needed time to heal.
But would there ever be enough time to grow used to the raw-edged hollow inside, which reminded her constantly of the fact that she was alone?
~~~
Topaz went immediately to her leader's side on leaving Sapphire's cell.
"She's awake," she stated, without preamble.
"Coherent?"
"Yes. Surprisingly."
"Does she have the correct memories?"
"Oh yes." Topaz allowed herself a small smile of vicious satisfaction. "She talks as though someone has just tried to strangle her. And she flinched when she touched her neck. She really believes."
"Good," the man crooned. "Did you lock the cell?"
"No I didn't." At the flicker of concern which crossed her leader's face, she added, "We're all supposed to be on the same side now, remember? Locking her in wouldn't exactly be the act of an ally. Everything else besides, it wouldn't be much of an obstacle for her!"
The leader nodded once in agreement. "Well, you'd better get back to the cell and watch her. She's a clever one, is Sapphire."
Topaz nodded and smiled at the man, surprised when he returned the expression. Everything was progressing exactly as they wanted.
~~~
Steel's awakening was less gradual than Sapphire's. He had slipped from unconsciousness into a rare sleep, haunted by dreams of Sapphire and Silver and their mutual passion. When the dreams became too much for him to tolerate, he dragged himself from this slumber almost violently, waking with a shout of denial. His body automatically adopted a defensive stance. When he realised he was alive, awake and crouching in a room which was strange to him, his aggression left him and he stared around in confusion.
The room was empty except for the pallet on which he had slept. It was cold, and he was in shirt sleeves. Well, a single shirt sleeve. His left arm was unclothed, but for a bandage which bound him below the elbow. At once, he remembered the blade opening his vein, the blood coating the white enamel sink, the dizziness and nausea.
His arm still throbbed and he staggered back to the pallet, picking up a blanket and wrapping it around his shoulders.
The sleeve had been torn from the shirt. He supposed it had been ... well, messy. Spots of his blood were apparent on the rest of his clothing and he shuddered. He had wanted so desperately to die. Perhaps he still did.
Sapphire ... and Silver.
He realised, as he considered his partner ... former partner ... that he had lost his link with Sapphire. The connection which had always been no more than a thought away was gone, utterly severed. This loss hurt almost as much as watching Silver make love to her had done. Steel had not realised how much he drew on that link for support and comfort until it had been taken from him.
His head jerked up as a knock came on the door to his room. That was a surprise. He had thought that he was in a cell; the crumbling walls and freezing air hadn't exactly suggested safety. Unsteadily he clambered to his feet again.
"Come in," he ventured, uncertainty in his tone.
The door opened and Nitro strode in; a good foot taller than Steel remembered him, but otherwise unchanged. Nitro, who had deserted the organisation and joined with the Transient Beings ...
What was he doing, knocking on doors?
"I'm glad you're awake," Nitro was saying. "You had us all worried, for a time, back there." The former specialist's gaze tracked down to Steel's left wrist. "You lost a hell of a lot of blood. You're healing much more slowly than usual. Almost down to human standards."
"Where am I?" Steel asked, trying to assert as much calm authority as he could in his voice.
"Cumbria," answered Nitro, gesturing the end of the pallet with a questioning glance. At Steel's nod he lowered himself down to sit. "Northern England. The present, I think."
"And how did I get here?" Steel remained standing, though the room was starting to spin slightly.
"Our leader brought you here. Found you in the café, the prison, unconscious and just about dead."
Steel slumped down onto the pallet, exhausted by this confirmation. He had been in the café. He had seen Sapphire with Silver, and he had tried to end his own life.
"He might not have been doing me a favour," he muttered.
"Oh, come on Steel!" Nitro admonished, with obvious concern in his expression. "You may feel that way now, but at least give yourself some time. Perspective is a wonderful thing."
Steel wondered about launching himself at Nitro in a fit of anger, but discarded the idea when he recognised how very tired he was. He rubbed at his face with his good hand, and sighed. "Perhaps," he observed, dubiously. Steel swallowed and his voice tightened. "Where's Sapphire now?"
"She's in a cell at the other end of the building."
"In a cell!" Steel was surprised enough to look at Nitro. "Aren't you on the same side?"
"Actually, no. We aren't." Nitro shifted his position to face Steel. "In return for the ability to break out of the past, our remit was to capture you and Sapphire. You were both to be tested, by a higher authority than any of us here. They weren't sure of you."
"So we were to be offered a job with you again, but this time with something else looking on and listening to our answer?"
"Right. That was the deal. We just had to get you into the trap."
"And if we gave the wrong answer, you could safely destroy us on behalf of this authority and there would be no repercussions in the organisation." Steel saw the order in this plot.
"Actually, we were never hired to destroy you."
Steel barked a short laugh. "Of course you weren't! You and your associates are well-known for your kindness to the aged and charity work with orphan children."
"I think you've mixed us up with some other group," Nitro observed mildly. "Steel, I know this is hard to believe, but we really never had any intention to destroy you. But the authority did. They lied to us about their plan. There was never going to be a test. They just wanted you in a place outside the organisation's jurisdiction, where you were powerless to protect yourselves."
"They wanted us sitting ducks," muttered Steel, angrily.
"No. They wanted you a sitting duck. Sapphire was working with them."
"What?!"
"Think about it, Steel! Sapphire had nothing to do with my own group's plan, so how did she and Silver manage to leave the café?"
Steel felt winded. Sapphire's betrayal on a personal level, choosing Silver over himself, had hurt him deeply. Her betrayal of him as an agent, however, left him convinced that the jaws of death would have been sweetly welcoming.
Nitro was continuing the tale. "We found out about the plot. We found out that we were being used as scapegoats, to take the blame for your destruction. What did we have to gain from that? The organisation would have been out for our blood, wanting to destroy those who had killed Steel, a fine and upstanding member of their community. Never mind that it was a higher authority which had really caused your death. So we decided we weren't having it. Our leader, the man from the garage, he went back to the café to retrieve you before the authority showed up. And we captured Sapphire and Silver before they got back to the Hub."
"How?"
"I'm sorry?"
"How did you capture Sapphire and Silver?"
Nitro's brow creased for a moment, and Steel was gripped with the certainty that Nitro knew a lot more than he was letting on. When the explanation came, however, Steel could only accept it.
"We have another recruit. Another agent has defected to us, whose speciality is inter-dimensional travel. He rounded up Sapphire and Silver and dragged them back here."
"Mercury," Steel nodded. His shoulders heaved. "So what happens now?"
"We wait," replied Nitro. "We keep our heads down and draw no attention to ourselves and wait for you to regain some strength. Then we'll decide whether our plan should be offensive or defensive. But don't worry, Steel. Nobody here intends you any harm. And while we're here, they can't get at you. Get some rest, old friend." Nitro stood and sauntered over to the door. "The more of us who can fight them, the better the chance we stand."
With that, the former specialist left the room. Steel listened for the sound of footsteps and was surprised to hear them, walking away down a passage. He wasn't being guarded. He entertained the idea of exploring the building, but remembered how simply standing for a few moments had left him dizzy and drained. So he swung his legs back on to the pallet and lay down with resignation, aware that Nitro had been right. Until he recovered his strength, he was no use to anyone, least of all himself.
And the gnawing hole where Sapphire's essence had once touched him served as a permanent reminder that he, himself, was all he now had.
~~~
"I had to tell him about Mercury," Nitro told his leader, as he reported on Steel's return to consciousness.
The man frowned. "Why?"
"He wanted to know how we had 'caught' Sapphire and Silver. It was the best explanation I could come up with."
The leader nodded his understanding. "And Steel now believes we have Sapphire and Silver captive?"
"That's right."
"And that we're his only allies?"
"I wouldn't go that far," Nitro observed. "I've laid the foundations with the story, but it will be some time before Steel overcomes his natural paranoia and begins to believe in us."
The man smiled. "Well, work on him, then. You knew him, before you joined us. Play on that connection. Reminisce about old times. Be there for him."
Nitro smiled his understanding.
"We'll be bosom buddies before you know it," he promised, and left the room once more.
~~~
On the Hub, Silver and Diamond sat with Jet in her retreat, anxiously waiting for any kind of news. Hours had passed since Mercury's escape and the authority had offered no new information on the traitor, nor on the supposed location of the two missing agents. The only thing that they knew for certain was that the prison which Silver had visited had gone.
Diamond had attempted further contact, stretching with his senses to any and all locations where Sapphire and Steel might be held, but had drawn a blank.
The three waited together, seeking comfort from the presence of friends. At first they had tried to pass the time with conversation, but their concerns had soon made talking too difficult. They sat in silence, now, all aware of a growing conviction that as each hour crawled by with no further news, the likelihood of a safe return for their two colleagues decreased.
~~~
Whilst their associates watched the two captives, the man and his fellow true Transient waited in a central room. They discussed further details of their plan; how to maximise the damage to the organisation when revealing Sapphire and Steel's defection; how to rid themselves of their current dependence on the device in order to travel forward in time.
Their attention was suddenly drawn to a disturbance within the corridor of time itself, and their eyes flashed a cold blue as, in unison, they reached out to this irritant and pulled it to them.
Mercury's form coalesced between them. As soon as his body had materialised, the diminutive agent collapsed to the floor with exhaustion, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
"Ah, Mercury," observed the man, paying no heed to the newcomer's crumpled form. "Just the chap! This device of yours that we've been using, it's getting to be a bit of a millstone. So we thought you could assist us in coding its function. Permanently." The leader tapped his forehead. "Up here."
Mercury raised his head to look at the leader. "You can do that? Integrate the functionality of a machine into your own consciousness?"
"Of course. And so can you, now. And when we've done it, we'll have time, real space and all other dimensions at our disposal." The man turned to his brother and smiled. "Quite an intoxicating thought, don't you agree?" He reached into the inside pocket of his suit jacket and brought out the slim box, which he handed to Mercury. "You can start right away."
~~~~~~~
Continued in Chapter 9
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