Hi everyone! I'm back from my trip! Sorry I couldn't update for these past two weeks, but I had no Wi-Fi. But now that I'm back home, I'll update regularly again.
Thank you to all of you who have reviewed/favorited/followed this story, you're the best, guys. You can't imagine how euphoric I am every time I receive a review or a notification that one more person is now reading my story.
One scene has been taken from the series in this chapter.
Next update on Monday (as usual).
Please, tell me what you think about this new chapter. Don't forget to leave me a review ;)
Sons of Tyranny
The sun was rising. A golden orb flying throughout the pale sky, stained with cotton-like clouds. But in the house of the scientists, no one was paying attention to the beautiful sky of December that was illuminating the world, as they were arguing fiercely.
"We can't stay here anymore," Sarah repeated for what seemed to be the hundredth time. "We must depart before Gage arrives..."
"We still have months before we come to that," Yuri replied, sighing as his annoyance towards his colleague was rising a bit more every second.
"We must start to organize the departure now," Sarah insisted. "The time we'll need to send back all of our equipments and data, to finish our last measurements... we need to start preparing the journey back now, and leave in early February."
"Why so soon?" Yoko asked suddenly. "Gage is not supposed to arrive here before May. We'll miss months of work!"
"We can't take any risk," Michael replied. "If something goes wrong, or we need a bit more time than we had thought at first... We need to have some time still before Gage arrives."
"Why are you so scared of him anyway?" Yuri asked his three colleagues. "Maybe Gage would let us continue our research just as freely as Hutchinson does."
Sarah snorted wryly.
"Gage is not Hutchinson," she snapped. "He's a military man, not a diplomat. If he sees an advantage in us, he will do whatever he may think is necessary to use us as he pleases. Hutchinson was too afraid of us and our technology to make any really hostile move against us. But Gage will not hesitate. He'll arrest us, and probably torture us, if he thinks we have information that will interest him."
"You're so pessimistic about everything..."
"No, I'm not pessimistic, I'm realistic. Gage is not known for being a kind lamb. He's the hunter, not the prey. For our own protection, and for the sake of the timeline, we have to go before Gage arrives here and can force us to help him."
"Sarah is right," James agreed with a nod. "Yuri already messed up with the timeline to get Hutchinson cooperate. And don't try to deny it, we all know it was you," James added as Yuri was opening his mouth to protest. "Gage would do anything to know what is going to happen, and we can't take the risk to be in a position in which we have no chance but to reveal what we know to him."
"We must be gone before Gage arrives here," Sarah said, staring at Yuri intensely.
Yuri heaved a deep sigh.
"We can still wait till January to start to prepare the journey back," he said. "But we'll try to leave before the end of February, just in case there is a problem with the LHC. Is it fine for you?" he asked Sarah.
She nodded slowly, thinking hard.
"Yes, it should be safe enough that way. It will give us some time to finish what we're doing at the moment, and pack up our things."
They all nodded, and Yuri followed Sarah as she was heading towards the kitchen.
"Do you think you will be done with the measurements by the time we leave?" he asked her as she was preparing herself some coffee.
She didn't propose her colleague if he wanted something to drink, and merely prepared the hot beverage for herself.
"Of course," she answered. "And even if we're not done, it's much more important that we leave this period alive with an incomplete work than dead but with a full study of the wormhole."
Yuri shook his head.
"You can say it if you're homesick," he told her, and though he tried to sound kind, he merely sounded annoyed. "But don't give stupid excuses for your lack of ambition."
Sarah exploded with laughter.
"Well, stay if you wish," she replied. "As long as you don't make me stay to burry your dead body..."
"You talk about these people as if you knew them, but you don't. You don't know what their reactions will be towards us and our work. We have the protection of the King..."
"The King doesn't give a damn about us," Sarah snapped. "He's miles away, we're not telling him anything, we're not helping him to do anything, we're not building weapons for him, nor teaching him the secrets of his future, we are not useful to him. Do you really think that the King of England cares about what happens to people who are of no use to him? You're either naive, either lying to yourself. And I don't know which possibility is the worst..."
"I'm not naive, merely trying to rationalize what you're trying to explain with your emotions," he interrupted her.
"I'm not using my emotions."
"You're just scared."
"Of course I'm scared. There will be a war!"
"A war that is still years away from us."
"No, war has already started. We're on the warpath now. There's no coming back anymore. And I don't want to witness it. Do you understand?"
"There will be no fight for years..."
"There has already been some fights..."
"The Boston Massacre was completely different..."
"It was the beginning. Soon there will be Red Coats everywhere, soon the Sons of Liberty will gather weapons and ammunitions, soon they will form militias..."
"We have plenty of time..."
"No, we don't! Open your eyes, for Goodness' Sake!"
She walked closer to him, their chests almost touching.
"I'm not being paranoid, Yuri. We are dealing with things that are too dangerous and too complex for us. We must leave while we are still free to go. Do you understand?"
Yuri nodded slowly, and Sarah walked out of the room.
It took Yuri several minutes to make his heart slow down again.
He spotted her easily on the docks. She was sitting there, motionless, staring at the infinite sea, the salty wind blowing in her long dark hair, the sun making her eyes shine with a bright blue shade. She seemed to be lost in her own thoughts.
"Do you want us to come with you?" Warren asked his friend.
Sam shook himself.
"No, I'll talk to her," he answered.
"Sure?" asked Revere slowly.
"Yes, I'm sure. Don't worry. I reckon I can survive five minutes with her."
Warren, Kelly and Revere exchanged a glance, as Sam was striding towards Sarah.
She started as she was hearing footsteps next to her.
"Mr. Adams?" she frowned as she was recognizing his stern figure. "Can I do something for you?"
"I just wanted to talk to you, if it doesn't bother you," he answered. "May I?"
He sat down next to her as she was nodding, still surprised by his presence next to her.
"What did you want us to discuss?" she asked him after a moment of heavy silence.
"Why did you intervene yesterday night?" Sam asked bluntly.
His voice was quite cold, but he didn't seem to be really angry. She looked away, and set her blue gaze upon the rushing waves that came crushing against the boats in the harbour. The sound of the sea moving back and forth was like a shout in the deafening silence between them.
"I heard Hutchinson had reinforced the surveillance on our house," she answered earnestly after a while. "We feared he would do the same throughout the town. We were scared you might get caught before reaching the docks."
"And we were supposed to reach the docks, weren't we?"
"Yes, you were."
"So you just did this to make sure that fate would happen as it happened in your version of History, right?" he said through gritted teeth, his voice bitter.
Sarah heaved a sigh, looking at him again.
"What am I supposed to answer to that?"
"Nothing, I guess," he whispered.
"We're not your enemies."
"You're not our allies either. And in this world, if you're not allies, you're enemies."
"You're dealing in absolutes..."
"Life deals in absolutes."
She looked at the sea again, her expression sad all of a sudden. He looked away as well. For a reason he didn't understand, the sight of pain on her face was making his heart ache.
"I am not free of following my conscience concerning the events that are happening here, Mr. Adams," Sarah said slowly, her voice barely louder than a whisper. "I have to do what must be done, and not what I want to do."
Sam clenched his jaws, shifting as he was feeling a sharp pain in his chest.
"Are you saying that if you had the choice, you would have helped Hutchinson catching us last night?" he asked, his voice slightly shaking despite his best efforts to keep it steady.
She looked at him again, and the intensity of her blue stare made him set his glance upon hers once more. When she spoke again, her voice was soft, and barely audible above the sound of the crushing waves.
"No, Mr. Adams. I would fight with you."
Sam's eyes widened a bit, and his lips parted slightly with shock. They remained silent for a while, merely staring into each other's soul.
The wind pushed suddenly her hair into her face, and she closed her eyes to avoid her dark locks to collide with her irises. Before she could lift her hand to chase the locks away, Sam brushed softly his fingertips upon her brow, pushing slowly her dark hair away from her face. His fingers lingered on her temple, calloused against her soft skin, going down to her cheekbone, and to her cheek, until they would rest upon her jaw, his thumb caressing the outline of her lower lip. He stared at her lips for a moment, both of them perfectly still.
"Trusting you is too dangerous, for all of us," Sam finally said after what seemed to be an eternity.
He sounded like he was trying to convince himself of an absolute truth that seemed obvious to everyone else, but of which he couldn't understand the meaning somehow.
"I won't do you any harm, Sam," she answered slowly.
He looked at her eyes again, but she looked away all of a sudden, clenching her jaws.
"It won't remain a concern of yours for long now anyway."
He frowned slightly.
"What do you mean?" he asked her.
"We're leaving at the end of February," she answered, still fleeing his intense dark glance.
Sam dropped his hand, starting, as if her skin had burnt him. His eyes grew wide.
"What?" he breathed.
"We're going back in our time by the end of February," she repeated slowly, her voice a bit hoarse as she was struggling to control the lump that was rising in her throat.
Sam looked down at his knees.
"You've finished your work?" he asked her.
"I guess we can put it that way," she answered elusively.
Sam nodded, his jaws clenched again. He felt tears blurring his vision, for a reason he failed to understand, and he stood up, hiding his reaction from her. Sarah looked up at him.
Sam remained standing still next to her for a moment. Now that she was about to go, he regretted these past few years he had lost in her company, because he had been too stubborn to listen to her, and to forgive her for doing what she had no choice to do. Now that he was about to lose her, he didn't want her to go...
"You'll be welcome in the Green Dragon, if you ever want to go there..." he told her slowly, and he felt her stare upon him more intense than before.
When he looked at her again, she was smiling.
"Thank you," she answered in a shaky voice.
"Only you though," Sam added, " and your two colleagues who helped us last night. I don't trust the others, especially the German."
Sarah's smile turned into a grin.
"Well, I would advise you not to trust him in fact," she said.
Sam smiled slowly, and nodded.
"Well, you can come by whenever you want."
"Thank you."
He stared at her for a moment. He wanted to tell her he was sorry. He wanted to tell her he regretted to have been so stubborn during these past few years. He wanted to tell her he regretted to have missed three years in her company. He wanted to tell her it was all his fault, and that if he could rewind, he would not do things the same way. But when he opened his mouth to speak, his heart racing in his chest, other words formed on his tongue, and somehow, he immediately regretted them.
"Have a good day, Ms. Hugo," he said, his voice neutral.
"Good day, Mr. Adams," she answered, her grin flinching at the sound of his tone.
Sam walked away, leaving the scientist alone in the harbour again.
"So, the scientists are welcome here now?"
"They are indeed. But not all of them."
"Yeah, only the three who helped us, right?"
"That's it."
Amos couldn't help but frown.
"I don't trust them though."
"I've never said that I trusted them," Sam replied, drinking up his beer.
"Why have you invited them then?" Kelly asked him.
Sam stared at his empty pint.
"They're leaving in two months. I don't reckon it will do us any harm if we spend an evening or two in their company."
"So... it's just because it's harmless for us?" Revere asked him, propping up an eyebrow.
"And who knows... Maybe we could learn something useful," Sam added.
"There's no other reason?" Joseph asked, a small smile curving his lips.
"Of course not," Sam defended himself.
"Of course not," Revere repeated, sharing an amused glance with Warren. "It's not at all because of this lovely woman..."
"Paul, shut it," Sam snapped, glowering at him.
Warren laughed.
"Do you think they will come?" the doctor asked Sam.
"I don't know," Sam answered, shrugging.
"Well, she came anyway," Kelly told his friends, as he was staring at the front door.
They all turned around, following Kelly's stare, and Sarah walked slowly towards them, clearly feeling a bit uncomfortable.
"Gentlemen," she nodded to them.
They all nodded back as she was taking the seat Warren was offering her between him and Sam.
"It's good to see you two talking to each other again," the doctor smiled at Sarah and Sam.
Sarah merely laughed, whilst Sam was discreetly glaring at his friend.
"Thank you, for the little help yesterday," Revere told her in a nod.
"You're welcome," she answered in a smile.
"So what happened last night was supposed to happen, right?" Kelly asked her.
"It was indeed, yes," she answered.
"It must have been important, if you got involved," Amos added.
Sarah chuckled, drinking up a gulp of beer.
"It is a very famous event actually."
"Really?" asked Joseph, propping up an eyebrow.
She nodded.
"The Boston Tea Party," she said.
They all exploded with laughter.
"What the hell is that name?" Paul asked, still laughing.
"That's how we call it."
"Anyway, it pissed off Hutchinson just right," Amos said with a smirk. "I've heard that he sent a letter to London this very morning, gone with the first ship that was heading there."
"I'd like to see George's face when he hears about what we've done with his tea!" Kelly laughed.
"By the way," Warren told Sarah. "Sorry, we offered you a beer, but maybe you would have liked some tea or..."
Sarah merely laughed.
"Beer is perfect. And anyway, I wouldn't expect you to have tea. Aren't you boycotting English tea or something?"
"We are indeed," Warren admitted with a laugh.
"I'm afraid you won't find much of English tea for a while in town anyway," Paul said with a smirk. "Hope you weren't drinking too much of it."
Sarah let out a laugh.
"We are boycotting as well, don't worry," she reassured them.
"Really?" Sam asked, propping up an eyebrow.
Sarah nodded.
"James had trouble keeping up though," she admitted with a chuckle. "He drinks lots of tea. But with Michael and me around, he had no chance to smuggle some into the house, for sure."
"You look very at ease in an inn like this for a lady," Amos pointed out.
Sarah laughed merrily.
"Well, clearly I'm not that much of a lady," she answered.
"I'm sure someone had a terrible influence on you in the past," Warren predicted.
"Michael without a doubt," she nodded. "He's the one who's always dragging us in bars and pubs in the first place."
"You seem to hold your liquor quite well," Paul smiled as he was handing her a second beer.
"Definitely Michael's fault again. It's also his fault if I'm good at fighting. I've stopped counting the number of times he got involved in a fight, and James and I had to get him out of it."
"Well, remember us not to piss you off then," Warren laughed.
The conversation went smoothly for a long while, and when it drifted back on more serious topics, the sky was already full of stars.
"Sam told us you were leaving," Warren told slowly Sarah.
"By the end of February, if everything goes smoothly," she nodded.
"So... you're done with your work here?" Kelly asked.
Sarah flinched for a second, before answering naturally again.
"Yes. Time to go home."
Sam and Revere exchanged a frown.
"Why are you leaving?" Sam asked coldly.
She looked at him again.
"Because it's time for us to go. We've been here long enough, don't you think?"
"You're homesick? That's it?"
"Of course I am."
"What are you hiding?"
She shook her head, snorting.
"The truce never lasts for long with you, does it?" she asked him, and her voice sounded annoyed.
Somehow, it was painful for him to hear this tone in her voice while she was talking to him.
"Never mind," he mumbled, drinking up some beer.
Sarah looked at her watch.
"It's late already, I should go. Good night, gentlemen."
"Good night," they answered in unison.
As she was exiting the inn, plunging into the falling snowflakes, Kelly turned towards Sam.
"They're hiding something," he said.
"Yes, they are," Sam answered slowly. "Something is going to happen, that's why they're leaving."
Sam heaved a deep sigh, finally tearing his stare away from the door through which the scientist had disappeared seconds before. He finished his drink in one gulp.
"I don't like it," Revere mumbled.
"Whatever is going to happen, it won't be good for us," Sam agreed, nodding.
He looked at the snowflakes colliding onto the window, freezing the glass, as the dancing flames in the hearth next to him were reflecting their light upon the frost. He didn't know what was coming, but if the scientists were fleeing it, he had to get prepared for the storm to come as well.
Benjamin Franklin was sitting in the middle of the room, the Ministers staring angrily at him, as if he alone was the source of all their troubles.
"This is yet another incident in a long line of treasonable acts committed by a childish and insubordinate colony!"
The angry Minister glowered at Franklin as his tone was both passionate and cold, outraged as he was by the behaviour of the people of Boston.
"It was a simple protest," Franklin tried to temper him. "One that admittedly got a bit out of hands but..."
"Nineteen thousand shillings of Royal Merchandise dumped into the harbour!"
"Mr. Wedderburn..." Franklin tried to calm the minister down.
"And when they commit this heinous acts of terrorism," Wedderburn went on, ignoring Franklin, "their Governor does nothing! Let it all happen, right under his nose!"
Franklin leaned forward on his chair towards the Ministers before him, lined up behind the long wooden table, as if they needed the furniture to protect themselves from Franklin and his malice. Despite how much he could hate doing this, trying his best to make them open their eyes to things that seemed so obvious to him and foreign to them, Franklin knew he didn't have a choice. And with his most patient tone, he tried one more time to explain what he had been trying to explain for months, years even.
"The people of Boston are merely reacting to a policy in which they are forced to purchase..."
"Nobody is forcing the colonists to behave in this way!" Wedderburn interrupted him, more outraged than ever. "They seem quite content subverting the King's authority on their own accord."
"They are simply defending their natural rights as Englishmen."
"Englishmen?!"
The Ministers laughed, mocking the so naive Colonist in front of them. And Franklin could see his chances of convincing them vanishing slowly, disappearing a bit more every second. And he desperately needed to convince them to abandon this folly if he wanted to protect Boston and its inhabitants.
"These Colonists," Wedderburn went on, taking great care at stressing the word 'Colonists', noticing thus Franklin about what he thought of the matter, " are committing treason. They are thugs and outlaws, the sons of Tyranny. They should be beaten into submission!"
The Ministers all approved, clapping their hands against the table in their cheers.
Franklin stood up, staring at the Prime Minister. He couldn't convince Wedderburn and the others, but maybe he could put some sense in North's head...
"Suppose you were to send an additional military force into Boston," he said slowly. "What do you think the reaction would be? Your soldiers won't find a rebellion there but... they may inspire one."
He let his words sink in for a moment, before resuming his speech, his voice still calm, but convincing and determined.
"If you make martyrs of these men, the people of Boston won't see them as sons of Tyranny. They'll be seen as sons of Liberty."
There was a deafening silence for a moment, broken by the Lord Wedderburn as he was turning towards Lord North.
"Mr. Prime Minister," he said, his voice shaking with anger. "Is there nothing to be done to quash this insurrection?"
Still staring sternly at Ben Franklin, the Prime Minister stood up.
"I believe there may be," he answered.
Throwing glares at Franklin, the Ministers all walked away without another word to the elder man standing there in the middle of the room, motionless. When all of them were gone, Franklin turned slowly around to walk out of the room as well, his expression determined all of a sudden.
What was coming was more than a storm, it was a hurricane. And Franklin had to get back to Boston before the hurricane would strike his home.
"We're already late Yuri!"
"Sarah, relax."
"No, I'm not calming down! We were supposed to leave in late February, and now it's early April, and we're still here!"
She had raised her voice against her colleague, and his teeth gritted at the sound of her furious tone.
"We still have time."
"We have to go in two weeks, whether our research is complete or not."
"Why are you so eager to go back home anyway, it's not like you're not having fun here!" Yuri snapped angrily.
Sarah narrowed her eyes, her fists clenched.
"I beg your pardon? What is that supposed to mean?"
"You and your friends, I've seen you hanging around at the Green Dragon, don't try to deny it."
"I can have a social life, as long as it doesn't endanger neither or mission, nor the timeline."
"Maybe. You're right. But I don't get why you're so willing to go home when you clearly have lots of friends here."
"It's not about being homesick or not. It's about the timeline. It's about Gage arriving in a month. It's about the war coming!"
"Even if we miss the next opening, it won't be a big deal."
"It will be!" she roared. "You heard what they said, our team there, in our time, will not be able to open the bridge for six weeks after the next opening."
"Yes, maintenance..."
"It means that they will open the bridge again when Gage will have been here for at least three, maybe four weeks!"
"Nothing harmful will happen in four weeks! We still have years before the war begins."
"You know it's not true. It will soon be upon us. We must go now! We must go when we still have the chance!"
"What do you think Gage will do anyway? They're all freaking out whenever we wave a piece of shiny equipment at them! He won't make a move against us anyway."
"Gage is not Hutchinson!" Sarah snapped, her voice shaking with fury. "And we're not fighters, we're not killers. If he sends his men here, we won't be able to protect ourselves. He will do whatever he wants with us if we give him the opportunity by staying here when he arrives!"
"You're overestimating him. He's a cautious man, for sure. He won't try anything when he has no way of knowing what all our equipment is about. We could still threaten him..."
"Gage is not a cautious man," Sarah protested. "Have you read any History book about what is supposed to happen here? He won't hesitate to destroy the whole house to be sure that we have no way of attacking him. And he will be the one to threaten us, in order to have information. And we can't give him any!"
"Why not? In the worst scenario, why couldn't we cooperate just the time for us to find a way to get back home?"
"BECAUSE HE'S NOT SUPPOSED TO WIN!" she howled.
Yuri flinched.
"Because with our knowledge of the events, Gage will without a doubt have such an advantage that he will tear the Sons of Liberty into pieces! Because if we talk, and we tell him what will happen, we will change the future!"
She took several deep breaths, struggling to steady her shaky voice, but she gave up quickly, her blood boiling way too much in her veins anyway.
"If Gage destroys the Sons of Liberty before the war begins, there won't be a war. It will start in Boston, but then you can be sure that Gage will hunt down every single man who is friendly to them, wherever they may be in the Colony. And if there is no war, there is no Independence, and with no Independence, there is no United States!"
She took a step closer to him, her voice begging more than angry now.
"We could be the reason for a whole nation to disappear. Now, for sure the United States are not perfect in our world, it doesn't mean that they don't deserve to exist."
"I've never said I didn't want them to exist," Yuri defended himself. "I have no harsh feelings towards Americans."
"Then why are you behaving as if you wanted the British to win the war before it even begins?"
"I'm not grounding for the British. And I'm not grounding for the Americans either. This whole thing we're studying is extraordinary. We are revolutionizing the way we understand the world, we are revolutionizing physic! And I for one am ready to take a few risks as long as it allows me to do my job properly. We have a duty towards our own time as well..."
"Don't start giving me your bullshit about moral and duty!" Sarah snapped, fury burning in her eyes again. "I know you don't have any sense of duty and honour, you don't have any moral! You are merely a selfish prick who is ready to do anything as long as it serves his own interests! You don't want to bring knowledge to our world, you only want everyone in the community to look up at you as a great scientist, a great mind of our time. Well sorry Yuri, but you're just an arse!"
She turned around to get out of the room, but Yuri stopped her, holding her forearm firmly.
"Oh, I'm an arse, really?" he asked, furious.
"Yes, you are just a moron!" she went on. "If you think that a couple of equations are worth to endanger the lives of billions of people throughout two entire centuries then yes, you are definitely the dumbest person I know!"
She freed her arm from his grasp and strode out of the room, heading upstairs to her room. Yuri remained motionless for a while, standing still in the middle of the living room, surrounded by screens, and devices, and books, and papers, and long lists of calculations that most of the time led nowhere.
Perhaps she was right, perhaps he wasn't anything more than what she had just described. Maybe she really didn't see anything more in him, and would never see anything else in him. Maybe she would always see an enemy in him, a dark figure standing in her path, that she couldn't get rid of as she so desperately longed to do. But maybe she was just angry. Maybe it was just fury talking, and not her. Maybe one day, when all this would be over, she would change her mind about him. He let his fingers roam upon her desk, feeling the soft wood upon which she laid her arm when she was working, and the screen that her deep blue glance was staring so often at, and her glass upon which her soft lips were resting...
Maybe one day she would change her mind, and see in him what he saw in her.
