“Who said we’re firemen?”
“We have a fire truck. Makes us firemen,” he says, “So we’re going to burn this miserable place down.” He stares at the long line of gasoline he poured earlier, then throws a cigar into it. I remember that cigar. It’s the one from when we were in Mushroomland. “Hang tight. I’ll speed up.”
“Pillar.” I nudge him as the truck hits bumps on the ground. “You’re overreacting. I’m not sure those mad people want to kill me.”
“Of course they do. They know who you are.”
“They know I am Alice? Why would they want to kill me, then?”
“Because you left the compound.” He turns the wheel. “You see, the Wonderland Compound belongs to the richest of the rich. The ones who left the world to rot after Black Chess won the war and ruled the world.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“Black Chess, being the greedy Wonderlanders they are, spared the rich, like it always happens, and gave them immunity in exchange for their money and resources on the planet.”
“Resources?” The truck bumps again. In the rearview mirror, I see the streets are in flames behind us.
“Black Chess needed to know about every conspiracy theory the humans held in the past. Where they hid Hitler’s gold, who really controlled agriculture, if there’s such a thing as UFOs, etcetera, etcetera. And only the rich knew about it.”
“So they collaborated?”
“Yeah.” He suddenly stops the truck. Had I not used my hand as a shield, my head would’ve bumped against the dashboard. I raise my head to see why he stopped. And now I see it. “Do me a favor and pick up that dog, Alice.”
Immediately, I jump out of the truck and rush to pick it up. It’s a German shepherd, but it seems to be either wounded or extremely hungry.
Back in the car, I rest the dog in the back as the Pillar takes off again. It’s not wounded, so I shelter it and give it water and food the Pillar has stacked in the back.
I get back into the passenger seat. “You drive madmen over and save the dog?”
“Madmen had a choice to be either mad or sane. Hell, they had a choice to win the war or lose it. The dog didn’t.”
Again with the Pillar’s logic. “So if what you’re saying about the Wonderland Compound is true, why do I live there? Shouldn’t I be one of the masses who lost the war? Why would I make a deal with Black Chess?”
Another bump in the road. “Later, Alice,” the Pillar says. “Now tell me, did you receive the note in the envelope?”
“You know about that, too?”
“I’ve been here for a couple of days. I asked around, and killed a few people. I even blew up a bridge on the River Thames for the fun of it.”
“Fun of it?”
“Like I said, we can always go back in time and correct the future. I’ll send a note to Inspector Dormouse once we go back. I’ll warn him of me blowing up the bridge in fourteen years. Happy? Now what’s the address in the note?”
“Oxford University, which means we shouldn’t have left and burned the street behind us.”
“Oh.” He raises an eyebrow and turns the wheel. The truck loops back a hundred and eighty degrees. “I love how I have the streets all for myself to play with.”
Once we’re in the right direction again, I don’t let him drive further. I grip his hands on the wheel as tightly as I can. “Pillar. How the heck did you know I’d be here? What’s going on?”
Chapter 18
“Okay.” He sighs, his white-gloved hands on the wheel. “Remember two weeks ago when Margaret fooled Fabiola into thinking she is her insider in the Queen’s palace?”
“I do.”
“When I figured it out, I found a way to listen to a meeting in Margaret’s office in Parliament. I heard her talking to unknown members of Black Chess about the next step to get the keys. She proposed using Mr. Tick and Mrs. Tock to make you time-travel and locate them.”
“I assume you know Mr. Tick and Mrs. Tock from Wonderland.”
“They’re the worst of the worst. Exceptionally mean. But you can’t do anything to them. They don’t die.”
“Because they’re time itself.”
“That’s right.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because they wouldn’t approach you until everyone thought I was gone. I’m thinking this isn’t just about the keys, but something much bigger. So I let them think I was gone, and followed you here to help you. After all, it’s not a bad idea to find the keys all at once.”
“I’m sure you have your own devious intention to have them, as always.” I eye him. “But how did you time-travel yourself?”
“I used the Tom Tower. It was risky, but I had a secret parchment with a secret formula by Nikola Tesla — you know who that is, right? — about how to use the tower for time-traveling fourteen years into the future.”
“Why fourteen years? What’s with the number?”