Time Will Tell [Complete]

Chapter Ten

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She thumped the clock down on the dining room table. "There," she said.

By the confused expressions on most of her companion's faces, Lizzy knew they shared her very own first opinion. Initially the clock didn't look like much; it was plain reddish-brown stained mahogany, with next to no detailing. The real design lay inside.

Lizzy opened the back of the short, rectangular clock and turned it around so the others could see it. She smiled when their expressions turned from confused to blank.

"Uhh," said Jack. "What are we supposed to see here?"

Lizzy raised an eyebrow at him, then turned to everyone else. "What you see here – or rather, what you don't see here – is the expertly crafted, virtually unbreakable system of the clock maker's codes – or Donovan's codes, as they are widely known, even though the originator of this way to send information was not, in fact, named Donovan. It was his alias, although it is how most knew him."

Alexander smiled, and Marjorie and Amanda nodded. Jack still looked like he didn't understand completely, but he was staring at the clock with an intensity that Lizzy had never before seen on his face. Suddenly he pointed at several gears on the inside of the clock.

"Those spell something."

"The gears do?" Lizzy turned to look inside. To her surprise, she saw lots of little letters on the gears and one little arrow pointing down. She looked at the bottom of it and immediately identified it as false. "How could I have never notice this before?" she muttered as she pressed it open.

There was a tiny little cavity between the gears and the mahogany on the real bottom. Inside there was a slip of paper that had a collection of numbers and letters, amongst other things.

"This is a code," Lizzy breathed, showing the others. "A real, authentic Donovan code!"

"So, the letters correspond to it," Finn assumed.

"I suppose," Lizzy said, concentrating on deciphering the coded message. Jack was also focused on them, and he got the answer before Lizzy did. "Time will tell," he said. "The message is 'time will tell'."

"So, wait, it's a riddle inside a coded message?" Amanda said. Lizzy began to reply before she realized Amanda hadn't affected her German accent, and now everyone was staring at her in shock. By the expression on Amanda's face, she was just recognizing her mistake as well. "Uh – I mean," she stuttered, her eyes wide.

Lizzy knew something needed to be done, but she wasn't sure what. She was trying to figure out whether or not to do something completely offhand and drastic when Patrick wobbled into the room.

"Uhh," Lizzy said. "Patrick? You're not supposed to be – oh, whatever."

"I heard some excitement over here and I didn't want to miss it," he said, winking at Lizzy. She sighed in relief. She mouthed 'thank you' to him and he smiled.

"So, um , Patrick, remember that thing a few days ago, when I said that I couldn't let them get something, but wouldn't tell you what?"

"Oh. Yes, of course I remember!"

"And you know about the clocks that are used to send coded messages?"

"Mm-hmm. Brilliant idea, by the way."

"Well," Lizzy said. "I have one."

Patrick's mouth dropped open and his expression was of pure disbelief. "Wait, so... what?"

"We think it has information that MNT needs," Finn added. "And...

Patrick stopped short, then his knees buckled and he dropped into a chair that was, conveniently, right behind him. He put a hand over his mouth. "Riley," he said, barely whispering. Then he looked up at Finn. "Where does MNT live?" he asked urgently.