‘What thing?’ asked Liam.

Foster turned to him, raising a finger to his lips to hush them.

‘A seeker. It should’ve faded by now… It musthave been leeching power somehow, just enough to keep it alive.’

The old man reached up with one hand and found a switch on the brick wall. He snapped it offand instantly the bulb winked out, leaving them in complete darkness.

Sal’s small voice cut the silence softly. ‘Er… it’s dark.’

‘Shhh, it’s all right,’ Foster whispered. ‘We’re going to sittight for a little while. As long as we’re still, we’ll be just fine.’

A long silence stretched out, disturbed only by the sound of their ragged breathing. ThenLiam saw something faint moving in the darkness, the slightest glow, barely an outline…of… something.

‘A seeker,’ Foster uttered quietly. ‘It’s very weak now — onits last legs.’

Maddy stirred. ‘It looks like a ghost.’

‘We don’t know what they are exactly,’ replied Foster, ‘but every nowand then when you open a time portal… it’s possible to attract one, accidentallytrap one of them and bring it back with you.’

The undulating outline pulsed and flickered like a loose cluster of fireflies, embers dancingabove a campfire.

‘That’s what happened here. The last team…’ Foster’s whisperquietened to nothing.

‘The last team what?’ asked Maddy.

‘I must have brought one back with me… the last mission I took into thepast,’ he replied. ‘I went out for some food, came back a few hourslater…’ He paused for a moment, considering how to continue. ‘What was leftof them wasn’t very nice to look at.’

Liam heard Maddy’s breath hitch.

‘They’re pure energy. But they can take physical formif they’re charged up enough. It’s not good when that happens.’

The pale blue cloud drifted across the darkness in front of them, a spectral form like a lostspirit in a graveyard, a wisp of morning mist in a deep, dark wood.