Two (Countdown Book 5)

Chapter 6

We settled down in Wyatt's office that was being remade into a bedroom. Two of the classrooms were being kept, because Boston insisted that we all continued our education. It'd be like a real, small, private school.

"You know, you're the last one to be briefed." Boston said, as we sat down at the desk, opposite each other.

"I'm honoured." I muttered under my breath. I didn't like Boston and I wasn't going to sit here and pretend like we were best friends. He had made my life a hell since my twelfth birthday, and I was the sort of person to hold a grudge.

"Well, I suppose we better get down to it," he said, opening a laptop and turning it on.

"I guess so." I said, as he seemed to be waiting for a response. "Is this going to take long? I want to get to bed early tonight."

Boston chuckled. "Of course. This won't take more than an hour or so at most."

"Great." I mumbled.

"While we've got a minute, I want to tell you about the Cure," Boston said eagerly. "Part of our arrangement here is that I will ensure that you Six don't disappear. We have the Cure, but it has to be administered by a specific dose of once a month for a whole year. Of course, it'll stop your powers, but at the age of eighteen, you will still be here. We believe that, despite the time it's taken to get set up, we can even save Mackenzie. But, like I said, the dose has to be taken once a month. After twelve doses, it completely takes the powers of the Elemental."

"As long as we're not dead," I muttered. "I don't mind."

"Our contract..." Boston cleared his throat. "You work for us until you're eighteen, then we give you the Cure and we part ways."

"Sounds alright." I mumbled.

By this time, the laptop had loaded up. He opened a document, and turned the screen towards me. I tried not to be eager to look at the bar charts, information and readouts, as I scrolled through, but I was interested in spite of myself. "What is this?" I asked eventually.

"Two months ago, we started to get wind of weird happenings." Boston started, leaning back in his seat. "Inexplicable events. There were Ancient Greeks in Portsmouth. Pirates in London. A few people even claimed to have seen Shakespeare wandering along a road in Brighton. So, we looked into it. It turns out, that whenever and wherever these sightings were reported, there were massive spikes in energy, that looked like this." he pointed to one of the charts. "Although we're not one-hundred-percent sure, we believe that these energy spikes are portals into the past."

I literally burst out laughing. For almost a whole minute, I couldn't control myself, laughing to the point where I thought I was going to wet myself. I wiped a tear from my eye. "Portals into the past." I set myself off again, and didn't stop laughing for around two minutes this time, so when I eventually stopped I was gasping.

"Eli, I'm being serious." Boston said irritably.

"Oh, sure," I gasped. "Y'know, just the other day, I saw Queen Liz the first in Asda stocking up on baked beans-"

"Eli!" Boston slammed his hand down on the desk, sobering me up a bit. "This is not a joke. We have had a lot of spikes since, so we sent people out to check them out." he took a deep breath. "They arrested someone. I personally met Winston Churchill."

"You arrested Winston Churchill?" I raised my eyebrows. "For what, winning us the war?"

Boston gave me a look to show that he was tired of my sarcastic remarks. "This is a serious threat. You don't think we'd be coming to you without hard evidence?"