It was a lonely, eerie place to have to search for a missing friend.
Margo glanced at her watch. How long had they been searching, now? Four hours, twenty minutes. Time was running out, at least for her and anyone else heading down the Britannia Gate. She bit one lip as she glanced at Shahdi Feroz, who represented in one package very nearly everything Margo wanted to be: poised, beautiful, a respected professional, experienced with temporal gates, clocking in nearly as much down time as some Time Tours guides. Time Tours had actually approached Dr. Feroz several times with offers to guide “seance and spiritualist tours” down the Britiannia. She’d turned them down flat, each and every time they’d offered. Margo admired her for sticking by her principles, when she could’ve been making pots and kettles full of money. Enough to fund her down-time research for the next century or two.
And speaking of down-time research . . .
“Kit,” Margo said quietly, “we’re running short of time.”
Her grandfather glanced around, checked his own watch, frowned. “Yes. Skeeter, I’m sorry, but Margo and Dr. Feroz have a gate to make.”
Skeeter turned his head slightly, lips compressed. “I’m supposed to work that gate, too, you know. We’re almost directly under Frontier Town now. We finish this section of tunnels, then they can run along and play detective down the Britannia as much as they want.”
Margo held her breath as Kit bristled silently; but her grandfather held his temper. Maybe because he, too, could see the agony in Skeeter’s eyes. Kit said only, “All right, why don’t you take that tunnel?” and nodded toward a corridor that branched off to the left. “Dr. Feroz, perhaps you’d go with Margo? You can discuss last-minute plans for the tour while you search.”