Chapter 23 – Storming In
"Father, I won't wait any longer."
He turned around to face his daughter. "But my dear, I only suggested that you wait until this afternoon."
"That's too long. I want this over with." Andrea flopped down on the sofa beside her counterpart and sighed heavily. "When are we supposed to do this, anyway?"
"Whenever you like," her counterpart replied. "If you want to go now, we'll go now." She smiled.
"Well then," Andrea decided, getting up and rushing past her father to grab her coat, "I say we get it over with." She pulled it on, smiling excitedly. "Now we must pay Doctor Folley and Markus a visit."
"And you're sure that she doesn't remember anything of the past week?" Bronev asked Emmy over the phone, biting his lip.
"Positive," Emmy replied. "She had the same symptoms as Desmond did when we went over to see him. Someone must be trying to make them forget things."
"Do you think Flora knew something about the machine that we didn't?" Bronev asked.
"Not likely. She got about as much access to the machine as we did," Emmy replied. "But I think her symptoms are worse than Desmond's were. She hasn't stopped vomiting and she has a splitting headache. But there's something else strange."
"Hmm?"
"Well, my younger self had a headache too and she said her mouth felt funny. Flora had those symptoms too."
"They must have been chloroformed to prevent them finding out who'd been doing this," Bronev said.
"Whoever did it must be sick. Poor Flora didn't even do anything! I thought Andrea was out to get me, not Flora!" Emmy sounded upset.
Bronev sighed. "It's not your fault, Emmeline. None of this is. We will get her and stop her, I promise." He paused as he heard heavy retching in the background on the other side of the phone. "I think you'd better go."
"Yeah. Bye, Uncle Leon."
"Goodbye, Emmeline." Bronev hung up and turned back to his younger self. "I think you'd better get over there, the littler Emmeline is sick."
"What?" Leon asked, looking exasperated.
"Young Flora was attacked, last night. A week's worth of her memory is gone and she's throwing up all over the show..."
"Oh dear," Celeste said, looking anxious. "Like Desmond sycamore? Do you want me to go over there and have a look at her and Emmeline?"
"Well, Layton thinks that Flora is just fatigued, and young Emmeline just has a headache, so all she needs is a painkiller. They'll probably be fine. But if Andrea attacked Flora, then the question is why did she not go for Emmeline if they were both in the same house?"
"I—" Celeste stopped at the sound of the doorbell. She sighed and got up.
Markus frowned. "I'm with you, there. I mean, if all she wants to do is get to Emmy then would she not just attack her and get it over with?"
"That's what I mean," Bronev said. "I—" he stopped as he saw who entered the kitchen.
Andrea stood before them, smirking in her usual fashion with a counterpart of her own at her side.
"Can we help you?" Bronev asked coldly.
"I need access to your machine," Andrea said coldly.
"And to which machine would you be referring to?" Markus asked.
Andrea scoffed. "You know which one I need. The time machine. Now, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way, Mr. Bronev. The choice is yours."
"And what happens if we say no?"
Andrea smiled. She clapped her hands twice and three large men in black uniforms entered. One was holding a peculiar helmet which was hooked up to a remote control. He stepped forward. The other two procured a rope and lunged at Leon. He put up fight, but was no match for the two of them as he was off guard, so they tied him to the chair. The first man placed the helmet on his head.
"What is that thing?" Leon demanded.
"This," Andrea said, patting Leon's helmeted head, "Is a memory eraser. So, if I just click this little switch here, everyone you ever knew or loved will simply disappear..."
"No..." Markus whispered.
"Yes," Andrea snarled. "You have ten minutes to decide what you are going to do. Let me at the machine, or disappear forever."
"And I'd advise you to get Layton over here," her counterpart added. "I want him to see the chain reaction which will make him disappear forever."
Uncle Leon thinks that they've been chloroformed," Emmy said as she entered Flora's bedroom.
The professor shushed her gently. Flora was asleep in the bed, her face still looking pale and washed out. Emmy looked at her piteously.
"Poor thing," she whispered, stroking Flora's leg. "It should be me getting sick everywhere, not you."
The professor took Emmy's hand. Emmy smiled as he stroked her fingers gently.
"Don't worry," he whispered. "We'll get to the bottom of this. I know we will."
Emmy's phone beeped and she answered it promptly. "Uncle Leon?"
"Get Layton and get over here as quick as you can," he said quickly. "We've got a problem." He hung up.
Emmy looked worried. Noticing her expression, the professor placed an arm around her. "Are you okay?"
"Uncle Leon said there's a problem at Celeste's," Emmy said. "We've got to get over there. Now."