Free City of Time by Eoin McNamee Page B

and there was a sparkle. Martha went over to her and took her hand.
    "It is a key," Mary said.
    "What?"
    "It is a key." Martha looked at the hairpin she still held in her hand. "Take it over to the clock and open it."
    Martha did as she was told. The clock case opened easily. Martha gazed at the clock face and it was a moment before she thought to look down. Her eyes widened. The infinity within drew her, the blue-black depth without end in which tiny lights glinted.
    "Is this it?" she said, hardly comprehending the words coming out of her mouth.
    "Close the case and lock it," Mary said. Martha did so. "It is what you think, an entrance into time itself. An ingress, it is called. I have guarded it."
    "But why didn't you tell--"
    "Whom would I have told, Martha? And what good would it have done, except to betray its location to Johnston, perhaps? But my time is very short now and I can't explain everything. The Navigator must go to the City of Time."
    "The Navigator ..." Realization dawned on Martha's face. "No! Not Owen. He is too young."
    "Young, perhaps, but also brave. There are things
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    you do not understand. Your mind was put to sleep because it was frozen and wounded. You were not properly awakened until tonight. I am sorry that it took so long."
    "Owen isn't ready!"
    "He has already fought and beaten the Harsh once while you slept. He is ready. And in your heart you know that the Navigator is the only person who can heal this world. He must go to the City of Time. It is the only place he can find what he needs. He may already have gone," Mary said. "Diamond. Dr. Diamond will realize that there is no other way."
    "No!"
    The light was fading from Mary's eyes and her voice was weakening. "Listen to me," she said urgently. "Keep the key safe. It will be needed. The Workhouse will need you. It is badly manned."
    "But Owen ...," said, and there was anguish in her voice.
    "Is the Navigator," Mary said. Then her breathing changed.
    "Mary?" Martha bent over her, but the old woman's eyes had closed and she did not answer.
    Martha ran to the phone and this time nothing stopped her from making the call. She sat down to wait for the ambulance, her mind in turmoil. Owen was the Navigator? His father's quest to be the Navigator had done terrible damage to all their lives. What would happen to his son?
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    Chapter 10
    Acurious groaning noise awoke Owen. It sounded like an old sheep. He heard it again. He swung his legs out of the bunk and slipped on his boots. Outside it was still dark. He went around to the cab, where Dr. Diamond was sitting at the wheel. As Owen reached him he heard the noise again, but this time there was a spluttering sound, then with a gout of smoke from under the hood the engine burst into wheezy, clattery life.
    Dr. Diamond beamed down at Owen. "Breakfast!" he shouted over the noise of the engine. "Quickly. Then we go."
    Owen wakened Cati and they made hot chocolate on the stove and had bread and honey.
    "I still don't really understand where we're going," Cati said.
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    "I'll tell you what I know on the way." The doctor's voice was light but Owen could sense worry underneath it. He realized that the scientist had not slept.
    They clambered through the hatch and into the cab, which was roomy with one long bench seat. "Here goes." Dr. Diamond started the engine and put the truck into gear. It lurched toward the open gates beside Gobillard's shop.
    The truck cleared the gate, the tunnel walls throwing the engine clatter back at them, and they plunged downward. Dr. Diamond turned on the headlights.
    After a while the tunnel leveled out but continued to curve to the left, so they couldn't see far ahead. As the tunnel widened, the truck's headlights cast eerie shadows. Peering through the gloom, Owen could see abandoned vehicles at the sides of the tunnel. Trucks like the one they were driving, what looked like motorcycle sidecars, and odd, old-fashioned-looking cars.
    After five more minutes the tunnel began to