When I finished with the last one, I held the pouch upside down to show him. "Okay. Now what?" I asked.
"Now you sleep." He sheathed his sword.
"Will you at least tell me if Carter sent you to do this?" I asked once more.
"He did not."
My mouth dropped open, and for a moment, I couldn't summon words. The shock wore off quickly. "Then who did?" Taylor, my late husband from the eighteen forties, had once mentioned his people, an organization of time travelers who went throughout history to protect the natural course of events from people like Carter and those Carter sent back in time to alter history.
Maybe they found me. I fished out the cell from my pocket, starting to panic. It was one thing to know I couldn't trust Carter. It was another completely to fall under the influence of an organization I knew nothing about, one with the ability to do anything to me.
With agility that caught me completely off guard, the man was suddenly by my side. He snatched the wrist holding the phone and pried the cell away from me. Even his hands were gloved; I saw no part of him that might tell me who he is.
"Who sent you?" I repeated.
The world was growing fuzzy. Colors and objects blurred and ran together, much like I was underwater.
With some difficulty, I focused on the man and watched helplessly as he took my connection to Carter and stuck it in his pocket. He pressed something else into my hand, but my eyes had ceased to distinguish shape and only knew light and dark. I wasn't cold, though my limbs were no longer responding to my mental commands.
The world around me faded sense by sense until finally, even light was gone.
I slid into darkness.