Part Five
“Home!” Mart cried exultantly, when the light returned.
“Not home!” Honey, facing the other direction, corrected him.
“No! I was wrong,” Vanda groaned.
“Well, we know where we are,” Brian decided, pointing to Crabapple Farm, “but when are we?”
Honey did a small twirl, showing off her smart dress and neatly coiffed hair. “The 1940s, I’d guess. The past, anyway, because look!”
She pointed up the hill to Ten Acres, the house looking tidy and well-kept in the late afternoon sunshine.
“But what are we doing here if we’re not home?” Trixie wondered. “What are you thinking, Vanda?”
All of them turned to the Traveller, whose face was a picture of concentrated thought.
“I don’t understand it at all,” she murmured. “This makes no sense.”
“We need to move,” Jim urged. “What if someone comes out of the house?”
Brian pointed to a path. “Let’s go this way. If we go at least as far as the crabapple orchard, we should be out of sight of most places.”
They found a quiet little clearing, just beyond the orchard, where no one was likely to disturb them at this time of the day, and gathered around to talk the problem through.
“Tell us again what you were doing when this started,” Trixie asked at the first opportunity.
Vanda frowned. “I was putting things back where they belonged, after Sef scattered them across times and places.”
Trixie’s eyes narrowed. “So, just go somewhere, pick up the thing he left and take it to the place it should be?”
“Not exactly. First, I went to fifth century Rome. I dropped off the item that had caused his whole joke to be discovered – it was just a low-value coin, but it was mint condition and he left it in someone’s coin collection in twentieth century England. We’re just so lucky the man was sick and didn’t notice. Then, I went and picked up the item that Sef had left in Rome and carried it with me to twenty-second century China.”
“That’s not where the item belonged?” Brian asked.
Vanda shook her head. “No. In fact, I’ve still got that item. It was supposed to be my last stop.”
“But why did she arrange it that way?”
“I don’t know.” She frowned. “You know, that always kind of bothered me. The rest of the jumps were in the reverse order of how he did them, but that one, I only dropped back an insignificant object that no one had missed, or would miss, and picked up one that might have puzzled them a little, but probably would just have been thrown out.”
“You should check it over,” Trixie suggested. “What if it’s not what it seems?”
Vanda reached into her pocket and took out a small box-like object. She turned it over in her hands for a minute or so, then gasped aloud.
“This isn’t real!” Opening it somehow, her face paled. “And I’ve been carrying this everywhere.”
“What is it?” Diana asked, leaning in.
“A bomb,” Vanda answered, in a faint voice. “Set to go off when I reached the place I thought it belonged.”
Involuntarily, it seemed, they all took a step backwards.
“What do we do with it?” Jim asked.
“We need a large amount of water,” Vanda replied. “Preferably somewhere quiet.”
“The lake?” Honey suggested. “Oh! But it belongs to the Spencers at the moment, doesn’t it? Will they be around?”
“The only other option is the Hudson River,” Brian pointed out, “and that’s not exactly quiet.”
“No, a private lake sounds much more like what we need.” Vanda glanced around at them. “If you can take me there, I’ll deal with it myself.”
As several people began to object, she hurried on, “I know what I’m doing. And I won’t be in much danger. Now that I know what it really is, I know what to do.”
“Oh, you do, do you?” a voice asked from behind them.
They all spun around to find Suletu standing close by, her face marred by a sneer.
Vanda’s chin came up. “Yes. I know you were the one who did this. You probably convinced Sef to play the joke in the first place!”
The other woman laughed. “All I did was tell him not to do it. It’s not my fault he’s suggestible.”
“But you’ll destroy everything we’ve worked for.”
Suletu shrugged. “I have come to see that there are other considerations to be made.”
“You mean, someone paid you?”
She shook her head. “There is more than one way to convince someone to change their mind. I will be more than comfortable in my new position with the Imperial Forces.”
Vanda stood still, frowning hard, her chest heaving with each breath. A moment later, she seemed to come to a decision. She handed the bomb to a wide-eyed Diana, who let out a squeak of protest and held it gingerly.
Then, without warning, she flew at Suletu, knocking her off her feet.
“Grab her!” she cried.
Six Bob-Whites sprang to her bidding. The older woman fought like a wildcat, but at length they subdued her.
“What now?” Jim asked, puffing a little.
After checking that her former boss was securely held, Vanda began to search her.
“First, I take away her ability to leave here unaided,” she told them. “Then… remember I said this device had a limitation we could possibly use? Well, we’re going to use it.”
“What do you mean?” Diana asked, while standing well away from any potentially flailing limbs.
“I’m sending you home.”
“With the bomb?” Diana demanded.
Vanda shook her head. “No. The bomb is going to have to stay here. None of us should take the risk of setting it off as we jump.”
“But we can’t really leave it here, can we?”
“I don’t think we have time to destroy it.” She made a helpless gesture. “I’ve sent out a distress signal and time is running incredibly short.”
“What do you want us to do?” Jim asked.
Vanda looked around. “That tree over there. Is it still there in your own time?”
Trixie nodded. “It’s a lot more gnarled, but it’s there all right.”
“Tuck the bomb into the hole in the roots. Careful, now.”
Diana squeaked a protest, then did as she was told.
“Now, when you get home to your own time, you’ll need to take it out. Take it to the lake. Drop it into the deepest part, right in the middle. Then get as far away as you can while still being able to throw in this.” She handed over a small, metallic token. “Then duck. It should go off, but it may take up to a minute. If all goes well, I’ll be along to check up on you within half an hour of your arrival. If not… well, we’ll just have to hope for the best.”
A voice began to slowly count down, starting at ten.
“Take this,” Vanda urged, holding her device out to Diana. “I’ve set it ready to take you home. But you’re going to arrive right here, okay? It will look almost the same.”
Suletu began to struggle wildly and yell, “No! I won’t let you!” as the voice reached five.
“You’re going to have to let go,” Vanda told them. “You have to be touching that when Diana touches the purple button. Do it when the countdown reaches zero. Okay?”
“Okay.”
As the voice counted, “One,” the Bob-Whites let go of the captive and lunged at their friend.
“Zero.”
Diana pressed the button as Suletu shrieked. A moment before everything went black, they saw the other two disappear.