Infinity

by Jus Accardo

  I took the small plastic strips from him, doing my best to keep both hands from shaking, and moved to Noah.

  He stared at me like I’d lost my mind. “You seriously think I’m going to stand here and let you commit suicide? Because that’s what this is. Letting him walk—”

  I rose onto my toes and planted the softest kiss on his cheek. The action stunned him, and I used the opportunity to take his hands. “I’m glad we had a chance to meet. I know I’m not your sister, but as far as I’m concerned, you’re the best brother a girl could hope for. She was incredibly lucky, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous.” I wrapped the tie around his wrist and pulled it tight before he realized what I was doing. He opened his mouth—probably to tell me what an idiot I was—but I turned away and moved to Cade.

  “Please don’t fight me on this,” I whispered, and took his hands. Tears stung my eyes. “We lost both keys. I’m a goner anyway... It’s the right thing to do. For once, I want to do the responsible thing.”

  He was quiet for a moment, his eyes meeting mine with so much conflicting emotion. I studied the lines of his face. The subtle scarring and high cheekbones and lips too often twisted into a scowl. Cade smiled far too little. I hoped wherever he went after this, whatever he did, he found happiness.

  “You’re wrong.” He took a breath, held it, and released it through pursed lips. “About me.”

  “Oh?” I wrapped the tie around his wrists and let the edge linger at the loop. “How so?”

  “Earlier, you misunderstood the situation. You misunderstood me when I started to apologize. It wasn’t because I felt like I’d been using you to reconnect with her.” His jaw tightened, and I wasn’t sure he’d continue. With a quick glance at Noah, he said, “I don’t see her when I look at you. I might have in the beginning, but not anymore. I need to know you understand that. I was sorry because I felt guilty. What I felt for her doesn’t touch on what I feel when I look at you.” He leaned his head forward, resting his forehead against mine.

  I inhaled deeply, committing the scent of pine and leather to memory, though it would be a short one.

  “I see strength and bravery and talent that leaves me in awe. I loved her, but you…we could have been something cosmic if we’d been given the chance.”

  Hot tears spilled over, rolling downward and pooling at my chin in a fiery puddle before falling down the front of his shirt. I slipped the strap through the loop and slowly pulled it tight. “I think so, too.” It was the worst kind of truth. A profound, yet small admission that might have changed my life. A relationship with Cade—with Noah—wouldn’t have been impossible. It would have been amazing. Something that could have led me to open up again. To be a part of someone else’s life without erecting fifty-foot walls.

  I bit down hard on my tongue and turned to the last of them. To the hardest. Dad’s face was like stone, his lips set in a grim line. His hands were already bound, and that was a good thing. I wasn’t sure I could have done it.

  “You don’t have to do this, Kori.” His voice held the taint of regret and a whole lot of pain, but also pride. “We can make calls. Get the police department involved. The base. You don’t know that we won’t find it—if there even is a bomb.”

  “I assure you, General Anderson,” Dylan said. “There is. And if you don’t move things along, princess, I’m going to skip, and you’ll be out of luck.”

  I ignored him and focused on Dad. I didn’t want to die. There was still so much I wanted to do. So many things I thought I’d had all the time in the world to experience. I’d had a taste of life, and I desperately wanted more. But how selfish would that be? How many people would have to die so that I could go on?

  “We both know there’s a good chance they wouldn’t find it in time.”

  “You’re my daughter.” His voice cracked, and for the first time since Mom got sick, I saw the man beneath the hardened shell. The emotion and sadness he kept boxed away from the world.

  “I know. And that’s why I have to do this. Because you taught me better.” I threw my arms around him and squeezed as tight as I could. When I finally forced myself to let go and back away, I slipped my hand into my pocket, fingers dipping into the small hole in the lining where I’d stashed the key away. “I love you, Daddy.”

  Before any of them realized what I was doing, I jammed the key I’d told Cade I lost into Dad’s cuff. There was a loud snap, and it fell to the ground.

  Dad let out an anguished howl and struggled against the zip ties. I’d never seen his face so pale. So surprised and pained. “You—what have you done?”

  “I didn’t lose it,” I admitted, turning to glare at Dylan. “He needed to think I did. I couldn’t take a chance that he’d try to take it back. Then we both would have died.”

  Dad made a choking sound, giving his bindings one final test before deflating. I hated seeing him like this, so defeated and helpless, but it was for the best.

  Clapping filled the night, and Dylan let out a whistle. “I gotta hand it to you, Kori. You are not like the others. So unpredictable…”

  I turned to the boys. While Noah looked pale and hurt, Cade was downright furious. “You lied to me… How could you—”

  “I had to.” It was the only explanation I had. From the moment I had the key in my hand, I knew which one of us I’d use it on. The world needed Dad. He would go on to do good for a lot of people. This was my contribution. I had the opportunity to save hundreds of lives, plus ensure Dad went on to do all the amazing things he was destined to. As far as leaving a legacy behind, it wasn’t great art like I’d wanted, but it was one I could be proud of.

  One worthy of a soldier.

  Dylan cleared his throat. “Time’s up, Kori.”

  I whirled around and stalked forward, doing my best to ignore Cade’s and Noah’s furious protests. “Where is it? Where did you put the bomb?”

  “Ya know,” he said, flashing me a wicked grin and a wink. He slipped out of his jacket and dropped it to the ground beside him. “You’re the best one yet. I’m impressed—and trust me, that doesn’t happen easily. That’s why I just gave you a fighting chance.”

  A chance? He was insane. I’d never had a chance. He knew right from the start that we’d end up here. “Quit stalling. Where the hell is the bomb, Dylan?”

  “It’s in the loading dock at the mall. You have an hour and a half. Plenty of time to get the authorities there.” Pausing, he sighed. There was a flicker of something less angry, almost a twinge of regret, in his eyes. “You know, I did what I had to do. I didn’t want to hurt them, all those innocent people.” He stood a little taller, and the flicker passed. “But I would have. Without a second thought—because it’s what I had to do to see her again. To get her back.”

  He turned away from me and pressed his index finger to the back of the cuff, and just like that, in front of our eyes, shimmered, then vanished.

  I dug into my pocket and pulled out the blue keychain knife Dad had given me on my sixteenth birthday. It was small, and the blade was on the dull side, but after a few minutes of sawing, I managed to cut his ties. He in turn, cut Cade’s and Noah’s.

  “How much time do we have?” he asked Cade. I knew that tone. Determination. He still thought he could save me.

  Cade frowned. He refused to look either of us in the eye. “Not much, sir. Without the keys, she’s—”

  I tuned him out. I tuned all of them out, actually. Cade was yelling at me—Dad had joined him—while Noah paced back and forth with his hands threaded through his hair, for the first time since we’d met, stunned into silence. Their words were there in the background, but they became nothing more than incoherent sounds and static. I surveyed the area, taking in my last look at what had been my moment. That single, life-defining action that changes you forever—however long that might be. That’s when I noticed Dylan’s jacket, sitting on the ground in the mud not far from me. He’d left it behind, for some reason.

  But really, it wasn�
�t the jacket that caught my eye, but the small plastic thing poking out from one of the front pockets. Without a word, I sprinted for the leather, plunging my hand inside and pulling out a small syringe.

  “He did it on purpose,” I said, mainly to myself. “He took off the jacket and left it behind…” The others would disagree, but Dylan was smart. He wouldn’t have left the jacket sitting there if he hadn’t wanted me to find it. To have a chance to survive.

  I wrapped my fingers around the syringe and stood. Dad and Cade, who’d finally realized I wasn’t standing there listening to them yell at me, started over.

  Cade swiped the syringe from my hand. His eyes were wide, a dangerous spark of hope igniting. “Is that—”

  “Only one way to find out.” I snatched it back, turning it over several times in my hand. I’d always hated needles, but as I popped off the protective plastic cap and rolled up my sleeve, I’d never been so happy to be stuck with a pointy object. I jammed the needle into my skin, cringing as it broke the surface, and pressed down on the plunger. My arm was instantly on fire, followed by an all over, tooth-chattering chill.

  It passed quickly, though, and left me with one very important question. “How long do we have? Is there enough time for it to do what it needs to?”

  “Already done,” Noah said. He was grinning from ear to ear like I’d never seen before. “The effects of the quick prep are instant. You’re packed and ready to go.”

  “Hadn’t planned on a trip, but I’ll take it.” I turned to Dad, who was still staring at me with a mix of anger and horror. “Dad, I need to know about Mom. Why didn’t you guys tell me?”

  “She was recruited right out of high school,” Dad said softly. His eyes sparkled, and he gave a small laugh. “I was there the first time they approached her. Her theories—her ideas—landed her at the top of their most wanted list. But she wanted no part of government work—or me.”

  That was almost too impossible to fathom. My parents had been so in love. The government thing, though… That I understood. While Mom had supported Dad and his career, I always got the feeling that she never trusted his superiors. “Obviously she caved.”

  He nodded. “She finally relented and I was assigned to her security team. She hated me, but I was a goner from the first time I set eyes on her. Each day I’d watch her work, and with every passing moment, I knew that there was only ever going to be her.”

  I smiled as his eyes sparked with memory.

  “Persistence paid off. For me, anyway. I won the girl, but the military, well they didn’t. Your mom confided in me. She said her work couldn’t be trusted in the hands of the government. In anyone’s hands, really. She said she knew without a shadow of a doubt that the world was not ready. She’d been working at the lab, but purposely not progressing.” He forced a smile. “I was torn. Duty to my country, or loyalty to the woman I loved.”

  A chill raced up my back. Infinity existed here. Did that mean he…

  “Cora was, and always will be, my life. It was her. Always her. I kept her secret and not once regretted the decision.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t understand. Then how did Infinity—”

  His expression darkened, and the fondness in his eyes morphed into something bleak. “I got sick. There was no name for it. No cure. I was dying, and there was nothing we could do.”

  Now it made sense. “Mom pushed ahead with the project…”

  “She threw herself into it. Night and day, she stayed in the lab, desperate to find a way to make it all work.”

  “She thought another Earth would have a cure,” Cade said, nodding.

  Dad smiled. “That was what she believed. She was pregnant with Noah at the time. She always blamed herself for losing him. Convinced it was the stress that did it…”

  “But this Earth’s Infinity Project isn’t functional.” Noah glanced around, then refocused on Dad. He was trying hard to make it seem like he was unaffected by Dad’s admission, but I could see it in his eyes. Sadness. “You’re still alive. They found a cure?”

  “They didn’t. I was nearly gone. Days away from dying. Cora never gave up, but something was missing. She insisted the project wasn’t progressing. I remember her coming to my room one night. It was late, and I was barely conscious. She kissed my forehead and told me how much she loved me. It should have been good-bye.” He shrugged. “The next day, I opened my eyes and walked from the hospital, an inexplicably healthy man.”

  “She lied,” I said in awe. “About the project not progressing. She figured it out, didn’t she? Found a cure on some other Earth…”

  Dad smiled at me. He pulled me close and placed the softest kiss atop my head. “She never confessed, but yes. I believe she figured it out. Found a way to make it work. She sought help, and saved me just as she’d promised.”

  “But she didn’t tell the government,” Cade said with a nod. There was a small smile on his face, and so much respect in his eyes. “She believed until the end that they couldn’t be trusted with her work.”

  Dad nodded. “When she found out she was pregnant again… She still continued her research, but backed off. She was so afraid to overdo it… Then, when you were born, she ended up delegating much of the work to her team, determined to raise you. She made sure to steer them in the wrong directions, I imagine. To ensure the Infinity project never came to fruition.”

  A lump formed in my throat. “And then she got sick.” I wasn’t bitter that she’d saved my dad, but why hadn’t she saved herself? Surely one of the Earth’s out there had cured cancer.

  “She wouldn’t have wanted this for you.”

  He was wrong. While not exactly the way she’d meant it, Mom wanted me to live my life. Find adventure, love, and happiness. She wanted me to do great things. By skipping with Cade and Noah, I could accomplish that tenfold. I could help them track a dangerous criminal, and I could save lives. I could see not one world, but many. And if I had any say in it, no Kori Anderson on any world would lose her mother to illness. I would scour realities if need be. I would save her like she’d saved Dad.

  “I love you, Dad. And I promise I’ll be back. As soon as we find Dylan and get these cuffs off, I’ll come home to you. I swear.”

  He straightened and gave me a sharp nod. There was nothing he could do and he knew it. Without another key, I was leaving whether I wanted to or not. “I’m proud of you, Kori. I always have been. She would be, too.”

  I couldn’t help the candy-eating grin I knew was plastered across my face in that moment. Dad loved me. I knew that. But he’d always been disappointed at my lack of initiative. Of drive. To have these be his last words to me—at least for a little while—was more than I could have ever asked for.

  To Noah, he said, “I am honored to have gotten the chance to see the man you would have become. I know your father is proud, because I am.”

  I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I saw a shimmer in Noah’s eyes. He straightened his back and offered Dad a firm salute.

  I took his hand in my left, and Cade’s in my right. I didn’t know if skipping hurt, and I didn’t want to admit that I was scared. Terrified, actually. As the tingling started, and my vision grew watery, I realized I was being given not only a second chance at life, but an extraordinary opportunity. I now had the chance to do real good by helping get a killer out of circulation, all while getting to know the brother I’d never had.

  And then there was Cade. We were bound together now. Linked by Dylan and the cuffs. By what some might call fate… I didn’t know where any of this would take us, but I was looking forward to finding out. To getting to know him better.

  But aside from all that, and probably the most important—I had a chance to see my mom again. I knew it wouldn’t be real, and any encounter I had with her couldn’t last as long as I wanted. Cora Anderson was the heart, mind, and soul behind the Infinity project. Even if I was able to have just one more conversation with her, I would get my closure.

  I had no doubt
that I would make it home one day. We would find Dylan. For now, though, I had a feeling I was in for the adventure of a lifetime. I was going to keep my promise.

  I was going to live my life in vivid color.

  Bonus POV

  Cade

  “And he didn’t say a word?” Noah replaced the gas cap on the jeep, then popped the last chocolate chip cookie into his mouth whole. Wadding up the small package, he tossed it into the trash beside the pump and rounded the vehicle. How the guy didn’t weigh eight hundred pounds was a medical miracle.

  I tossed him the keys. “He kind of glared at me, then left.”

  More crunching. “That’s not like him…”

  He was right. My brother had never been a turn-the-other-cheek kind of guy. Cursing, threats—dramatics—Dylan didn’t do anything silently. And after what I’d done to him… It wasn’t every day that your own brother turned you in and set you on the path to execution. “Tell me I did the right thing.”

  Noah shook his head. He slid behind the wheel as I settled into the passenger’s seat. “Can’t do that.”

  “Because you think I made a mistake.” And I had. I’d made a huge mistake. I’d broken the law, something I’d sworn on my life that I would uphold and protect. I’d let him go.

  “Because it’s not my place, man.” The engine sputtered, then roared to life. One of these days the ancient jeep was going to give out. It was on borrowed time. But, Noah loved the thing. Named it and polished its rusted body every damn Saturday. “You did what you had to do. I’ll back you no matter what. You know that. Just be careful. If Dad finds out it was you…”

  I let my head fall back and squeezed my eyes closed. “Yeah.” His father—General Anderson—was not only my superior, but the closest thing to a father I’d ever known. If he found out how I’d betrayed him…

  “I get it, you know. If that was Kori, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it.”

  “Kori would have never done anything to get herself sentenced to death.” Then again, even if she had, her brother wouldn’t have turned her in like I had. “Speaking of—head to your place. She texted me while I was inside paying for the gas. Said she had some big news to share.”