CHAPTER NINE

Neville and Kittie were still adjusting to persons and other things appearing and vanishing in the blink of an eye, Neville wanted to ask questions, but was still to dumbfounded to do so.

“Noble sir Galahad, you and the mighty Paul Bunyan, along with Blue, will have the task of leading our fearsome warrior enemies one of the wildest chases of a lifetime.”

“Nay Mr. Chambers, the brave Sir Galahad, never runs from anyone!”

“Blue and me don’t run at all” Paul Bunyan added in.

“Gentlemen, please understand that your flight is not as a coward would do. It will be a vital part of our battle strategy. It will allow the fighters of this era to set a trap for them. However, even more importantly, as you are pursued you will be able to weaken your enemy and make the one in charge look like a fool.”

It is what Mr. Chambers said last, that made Sir Galahad, and Paul Bunyan, agree to hear out all of Mr. Chambers plans for them. He went on to give them the details, then as with the first two told them that when they were summoned again, they would then be sent to begin their “adventure.”

Mr. Chambers now turned to Sinbad.

“You sir will be with me, and our time tonight grows short. I needed you to hear the instructions that I gave to the other groups so you would know what kind of supplies they would need. As you are aware, some things will not come cheap.”

“Nothing is beyond the reach of Sinbad!” He said proudly.

“I am well aware of your resources, and I have not left you out of the action. However, I am short on time, so my friend, we will discuss this together next time.”

With a quick wave of his hand, Mr. Chambers sent Sinbad back to his time. Mr. Chambers then glanced at his watch.

 “That took more time then I was counting on. Conners is more than qualified to fill you in on what you two will need to do,” he stated and began to clean up.

“Now hold up their just one moment. You dragged us to this meeting, and you are not going to tell us why?” Neville stated a bit perturbed.

Mr. Chambers let out a sigh.

“Look kids, Charlie is determined to destroy me, and it has taken many centuries to figure out how she might be able to do this and gather what she thinks will do the trick, She picked earth as the place to do this battle, because she believes this is my base of operation, and the technology she has collected is far superior to anything any nations in this time period has,”

He paused a moment as he put all the mugs away.

“I am sad to have to involve anyone from this time period, but it is important that Charlie believes that she is only battling twenty first century technology.”

Mr. Chambers now came out from behind the bar,

“I know this is a lot to take in. Come back into the pub at 9am. today and Conner will make a lot of things a lot clearer.”

He snapped his fingers, and all the rolls of papers and boxes disappeared, and then with a wave of his hand, he did also.

“This has to be a dream,” Neville mumbled.

“A totally fabulous one,” Kattie added.

Neville smiled and looked at her.

“Come on, we only have a few hours before we will need to be back here to listen to what Conner has to say.” Neville said as he took Kattie’s hand and led her out of the pub.

He was back at her door at 8:30. She took a minute and put Bruce up and let Neville in.

“I am almost ready, as she invited him to sit while she hurried back into the bedroom to finish. He was quite on edge for a couple of reasons. First of all, he was beginning to question how much more pounding Kattie’s bathroom door would take by Bruce, before he would break through, However, he was more concerned about whatever it was that Mr. Chambers had in mind for them to do. He in no way felt that he was qualified to be any type of hero. Especially when he was still totally confused on what exactly was going on,

When Kattie came out from getting ready, Neville got a good look at how pretty she looked. Maybe it was because he had not gotten much sleep, or maybe his brain was still spinning from all the things that had happened to them recently, or another dozen reasons that could be used to explain an uncharacteristic action on his part, but he place his hands on her shoulders and gave her a long deep kiss.

When Kattie was able to speak, she whispered,

“That was wonderful, I want more.”

Neville now a little more in control, smiled and said.

“So would I but, we do need to get to the pub, and I don’t want to try to beat Bruce to the front door.”

Kattie pouted,

“Okay, go ahead out and I will let Bruce out, but you will not get off as easy next time.”

“Don’t worry, the next time it will be better planed out.” Neville said as he shut the front door.

The two of them did not talk much on the way to the pub, but their hands were held tight by each other, Conner unlocked the door for them and could tell by the look on the couples face, and the tightly gripped hands, that the two of them had began to get a lot closer.

“Listen you two, I certainly do not want to stand in the way of what comes naturally, However, what we are about to start is going to require your one hundred percent attention.”

“What are you talking about?” Neville asked.

Conner smiled,

“Look mate, I may not be human, but I have been around them long enough to know the emotion of love, and how it can wreck the attention of both males and females. So, until this thing is over, everyone is going to need to be completely focused on the instructions given us by Mr. Chambers. Is that clear?”

“Never any doubt,” Neville answered.

“Right! Well come on then, It is time to get started.” Conner responded, as he grabbed a box and headed out the back door, with Neville and Kattie.

“Hey, wait a minute, if you are with us, who is going to run the pub?” Neville asked.

“For the safety of the human race, Mr. Chambers has decided that the best thing to do is suspend time. In layman’s terms, to everything on earth will stop, caught in a second of time. When the battle is done, he will restore the natural time cycle. To humans as well as all other life, it will be as if nothing happened.” Conner explained.

“He can do that? Suspend time on entire planet? Kattie asked in amazement.

Conner chuckled,

“As simply as you turn a light switch off and on. Now, he we are, it is time to get busy. Now Kattie, if you will wait over there next to that group of computers, I will be with you in a moment.”

He then led Neville back over to his Grandfather’s equipment.

“What do you remember about these pieces?” Conner asked.

Neville gave him a sideways look.

“I was only four or five years old, that was a long time ago.”

He walked over and put his hand on one piece.

“This one he used a lot. I loved pulling up a stool so I could sit and watch him work with it. He always loved telling the story on how he used this to help when the war.” Neville said with a smile.

“Oh really? Did he ever tell you which war?” Conner asked.

“He fought in WWII, I guess he meant that one.”

“Odd that nothing in history ever mentioned your grandfather’s name or this machine.” Conner stated.

“Yes, father just said it was the babbling of a crazy old man.”

“What do you believe?” Conner asked.

“He was always kind and gentle with me. He was always trying to do what was right, At least to a five-year-old, he did not seem crazy.

“No Neville your grandfather was anything but crazy, His forward thinking and his willingness to go along with things that he did not fully understand, was what helped Mr. Chambers to strip Charlie of her powers.”

Neville was dumbfounded. The more he thought about it, the more he began to recall a lot more of what his grandfather used to talk to him about. He was amazed at the amount of memories that kept flooding back to him.

“Dwell on those for a bit, that will be of great benefit to you soon.” Conner stated, and then went off to give Kattie some instructions.