19
The next morning, I walk towards Clockmaker Court feeling physically and emotionally drained from the events of the night before. Both from our latest discovery down in the basement between our two shops, and also from what Adam shared with me about his past.
After we met, I knew quite quickly that Adam and I shared a connection.
I thought at first it was because of our great-grandparents.
But as time ticked by, I realised there was something else, something much deeper.
Until last night, though, I didn’t know what it was.
The question I now had, among the many others that were swirling around in my mind, was: would I ever be brave enough to share with Adam the secret from my past too?
As I walk through the streets of Cambridge, I don’t, unusually, notice the historic buildings I pass or the early-morning cyclists that pass me. Instead, as I make my way towards my shop, my mind is firmly focused on what happened last night.
Adam and I eventually left the secret room carrying both the strip of photos and as many of the files as we could manage between us. With the agreement we would both go home and read as much as we could manage, in the hope we could work out what was being described within the reports.
But after I read five reports and still couldn’t make head nor tail of what they were saying, I decided to look some things up on the internet, beginning with Project Eden.
But everything that came up only referenced the Eden Project in Cornwall.
Even when I eliminated Cornwall and gardens from my search, and put in Project Eden, Second World War , nothing of any relevance appeared.
Eventually all I was getting were reports about primary school projects dedicated to the biblical Garden of Eden.
It was only after I gave up and got ready for bed that lightning finally struck, and after that I lay awake tossing and turning as my mind went into overdrive.
Is Project Eden actually a reference to the biblical Garden of Eden, and does that mean Adam and I, with our biblically matched names, are more involved in this than I first thought?
No. I quickly tried to talk myself out of that theory.
It’s just coincidental, surely? But then our great-grandparents clearly knew each other …
My mind went round and round until, finally, around 3 a.m., I nodded off, only to be woken again by my 7 a.m. alarm.
But now, as I walk through the market square with most of the stalls already set up, and the traders having a chat and a gossip with each other before their first customers arrive, my mind is still whirring. Not only about Project Eden, but about Adam too.
I couldn’t shake what happened down in the office between us – the moment , I was calling it.
The connection wasn’t only the strip of negatives we were both holding.
When we held each other’s gaze, something stirred inside me, something that I thought was buried a long, long time ago.
Did Adam feel it too, or did I just imagine that?
After all, there was a lot going on. Maybe I got confused?
This felt like more than simply finding him attractive – it felt deeper, and it felt stronger. Much stronger.
I glance across at the bookshop as I arrive in Clockmaker Court and unlock the door to my shop, but there is no sign of Adam just yet. So I head inside and begin setting up for the day ahead. But I’ve barely set the till up when Barney comes wheeling through the door.
‘What are you doing here?’ I ask, surprised to see him. ‘You’re not working today … are you?’ With everything going on, it wouldn’t surprise me if I had got mixed up.
‘No, I’m just on my way to the lab and I wanted to call in on you first. Those books you gave me to look at? I think I know what they are.’
‘Go on.’ I wonder what he’s going to say. I had a couple of thoughts as to what might be happening, but they were so far-fetched that I quickly pushed them to one side. So I’m keen to know now what Barney’s theory might be.
‘OK, now hear me out first, all right,’ he says, looking a tad anxious. ‘Don’t shut me down before I’ve had a chance to explain.’
‘All right …’ Now I am getting worried. What if Barney has come to the same conclusion as me? A conclusion that simply can’t be true, however much the evidence is mounting by the minute to make it seem that way.
‘The diagrams and the equations seem to relate in physics terms to the theory of time travel,’ Barney says, confirming my worst fears. He waits to gauge my initial reaction to this.
‘Go on,’ I say calmly.
Barney hesitates, clearly not expecting this reaction from me.
‘I don’t know if you know, but the theory of travelling into the future is actually well documented in modern quantum physics. The theory behind it, obviously. I’m not suggesting anyone has actually attempted it successfully.’
‘Of course not.’
‘But if you look on YouTube, you can actually find people like Professor Brian Cox explaining for the lay person how time travel into the future could be achieved.’
I nod.
‘So it’s not just for science-fiction films and television shows. It’s actually a proven … well, not actually proven, but a well-known theory.’
‘OK …’
‘You’re taking this a lot better than I thought you would,’ Barney says suspiciously, tilting his head. ‘Are you all right?’
‘I’m a bit tired today, but nothing to worry about. Go on.’
‘Right, so as far as I can see, the notebooks are trying to prove the same theory, but with the addition that time travel into the past might be equally as possible.’
I swallow hard. ‘And do any of the notebooks actually prove this theory? Or is it just conjecture?’
‘That’s it – I don’t think they could prove it. All the equations are trying to, but they never quite get there.’
‘I see.’
‘All right, what’s going on?’ Barney folds his arms. ‘I’ve just told you that someone was trying to prove that time travel could be achieved in some secret notebooks you and Adam discovered, and you’re not even a little bit shocked? I expected sceptical at the very least.’
‘As strange as this may seem, Barney, I think you might be right.’
I explain to Barney what happened last night. About us figuring out the combination, and then getting into the room, and finally what we found.
‘This is insane,’ Barney says when I’m finished. ‘What have you both uncovered?’
‘I really don’t know, Barney. Whatever it is, I’m getting more and more worried by it all as each day passes.’
‘Morning,’ Adam says, putting his head around the open door. ‘What are you two discussing so intently?’
I quickly catch Adam up on Barney’s theory.
‘I hate to admit it,’ Adam says, like me remaining much calmer than expected. ‘As crazy as it sounds, the thought has crossed my mind too.’
Barney looks between the two of us. ‘I can’t believe this,’ he says, shaking his head. ‘I thought when I came here today, I was going to be laughed out of the shop. But instead I find the two of you are agreeing with everything I say!’
‘The whole thing is mad – yes,’ Adam says, looking at me. ‘But I don’t think either of us can deny the evidence. Can we, Eve?’
I shake my head.
‘The question is, what are we to do with all this information? We have the notebooks that you’ve deciphered for us, Barney, the combination to the lock on the hidden room, all these reports – that didn’t really make any sense to me – did they to you, Eve?’ he asks, turning to me.
‘Not a lot.’
‘And finally some strange photos of both our great-grandparents. So what do we do with all this information?’
‘Do we have to do anything?’ I ask. ‘You know I love history, but sometimes things are better left alone. We’ve found out what is behind the locked door now. Perhaps we should leave it be.’
‘But what about the story , Eve?’ Adam says.
‘You told me you loved the story behind items from the past. This has more of a story here than in one of your old tea sets over there. In fact, there’s not only a story, there’s a whole great mystery.
Don’t you want to find out what it is and put the story to that painting over there, and that clock.
’ He gestures to them both. ‘And what about the hidden room – there must be tons of stories of things that went on down there. It was clearly something top secret. Everything we’ve discovered has been related to the Second World War or earlier. ’
I think about this.
‘Did you say before that the numbers to open the locked door were both your birthdays, plus the 616 I’d told you about?’ Barney asks suddenly.
‘Yes, they were,’ Adam replies. ‘You were spot on with that comic-book reference in the doodle.’
‘But I told you that Earth wasn’t referred to as 616 in Marvel comics until the eighties. So unless those numbers are referencing something else, that combination can’t have been set on the door until then, maybe even later.’
Adam and I both think about this.
‘And,’ Barney continues, ‘if you remember, we discussed the doodles in the notebooks were drawn in ballpoint pen, likely much later than the original notes written in black fountain-pen ink.’
‘So that means,’ I say, still thinking, ‘that even if the room was used in the forties and the reports we found last night were typed then, someone much later set up the combination lock on the door and added to what was already in the notebooks.’
‘Someone that wanted someone else in the future to discover what was going on, and so left them a trail of clues so that they might discover the room.’ Adam looks at me, as everything crazily begins to drop into place.
‘And it appears,’ I say quietly, ‘that that someone wanted the people who discovered it to be us.’