Dissonance (The Machina of Time Book 2)

by Daniel R. Burkhard

  "Now," Brooke started, "you said you saw Lenny speaking with an older version of Avery. What else did they say?"

  "I already told you along with everyone else," Wyatt answered. "I only caught some of their conversation."

  "Do you think you could be the man Lenny worried about?" Brooke asked, unfolding her arms and looked left and right.

  Wyatt knew how he would answer that question if he were being honest, but he wasn't sure he wanted to tell Brooke the truth just yet. With the way Hannah had told him she was acting based on his instructions, he couldn't deny Lenny may have had reasons to worry about him.

  "Why don't we check something else out?" Wyatt asked, pulling his wrist terminal out of his pocket.

  "You think he was worried about you," Brooke said. "What do you think would drive you to do it?"

  "What are you talking about?" Wyatt asked then as the smile fell from her face, he added. "What would make you ask that? Have you seen me somewhere I shouldn't be?"

  Brooke frowned and looked away. That was all the answer Wyatt needed. She had seen something, but he doubted she would tell him, yet. When her smile didn't immediately return, he remained quiet.

  "This time travel stuff is strange," Brooke said. "I think you somehow followed Aldan as he tried to prevent Hannah from coming into the warehouse. That's got to be why the truck didn't come into the correct place. But I think someone else is involved."

  "Is she blonde?" Wyatt asked without realizing he was going to ask it.

  Brooke's eyes fastened on his and she smiled coyly. "Who was it? Why were you with her?"

  That made Wyatt laugh, and she smiled at him for a second. Her frown returned and concern twisted her face slightly. "You really think I would know her?" he asked.

  She nodded, sending a chill down his spine. "I've seen you with her, dressed similar to what you wear now."

  Suddenly, he couldn't respond. He had seen the blonde woman a couple times but had no idea how she fit it. But the urgency behind Brooke's questions seemed to make pieces fall together. If Hannah had never come into the warehouse, but he went to find her, that could explain how she would find him in 2089. He must tell her about the experience. That would also explain why he would see her older version in the warehouse. But it didn't explain the thin blonde woman.

  "When do you think I would do that?" Wyatt asked, his voice quiet as she turned back to look at him.

  "You believe me?" Brooke said, a hint of a smile coming back to her face as she lowered her arms. "It seems like so much has changed. I don't know if I can remember how I was selected for this. I remember it happening at least three different ways."

  "Do you think I messed it up that much?" Wyatt asked. He tried to imagine what would drive him to make such large changes. Losing Hannah seemed plausible. He enjoyed spending time with Hannah. She had become his friend in that past which no longer existed, it seemed.

  Brooke shrugged and looked at him for a moment. When she did speak, her voice was quiet. "I think it was either you or Aldan who made the mess bigger," she said, reaching out to hold his wrists with both her hands. "But I think Jarod started it. We have to fix it, or everything starts to fall apart."

  Wyatt had to look away from her. "When you say fix it, what do you mean?"

  "See all of this?" Brooke said. "All of these shelves of supplies are all for helping the world. These changes may ruin that."

  Looking over his shoulder toward the shelves that were the fullest, Wyatt had another nagging thought cross his mind. He turned back to Brooke and raised his hands slightly as she still held them. "I think more than my actions cause these changes."

  She released his arms, and he folded them.

  "I know we've seen a lot of changes," Brooke said. "I wish we knew what the first one was."

  "We may never find out what started it," Wyatt said. He unfolded his arms and reach out to place his hands on her shoulders. She faced him. When she looked into his eyes, he continued. "That first event may have been someone else's doing. Think about it. The Machina exists and I didn't create it. Lenny was here as our supervisor, and we've never met him before. Everything changed for each of us the moment we were brought into this warehouse."

  Brooke inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. It seemed like he had said what she expected. The worry that she wore seemed to slide off her facial expressions as her face smoothed and she almost smiled.

  "So, if there really wasn't anyone in our dormitory, and now we have had the chance to talk, what do we do now?" Wyatt asked as he lowered his hands from her shoulders and backed up into the aisle. "We can't go and follow Aldan, because I don't think we will get close enough to him. We can't follow that older version of Avery because she went to 2100. We can't reach that time. Have you gone somewhere and seen Jarod?" As he spoke, Brooke placed her hands in her pockets and her smile broadened.

  "What are you smiling about?" Wyatt asked.

  "You aren't the only one I tried to wake up this morning," Brooke said without answering any of his questions. Pulling a wrist terminal out of her front pocket, she held it up for him. The band was too large for her.

  "Whose is that?" Wyatt asked. But before she could answer, it dawned on him. "Did you steal that from Aldan?"

  "We need to know where he went to stop Hannah," Brooke said. "Don't worry, we have plenty of time to get back into the dormitory and hide after we do this." She smiled and let the wrist terminal swing in front of him.

  "We don't fit in that bathroom," Wyatt said, remembering the small bathroom closet. "As much fun as it might be to hide there with you, I think we would be found out pretty quickly."

  She looked at him quizzically, her smile not fading. Then, as what he said dawned on her, she seemed to blush slightly. Her cheeks reddened beneath her darker skin.

  "You mean just to hide, right?" Brooke asked.

  "Well," Wyatt started and stopped, realizing how it sounded. He tried to guess what she might be thinking, but it was hard. She almost seemed to laugh as she recovered from his earlier comment. He needed to change the subject. "How do we determine where Aldan went?"

  Brooke lowered the wrist terminal and worked at its settings with both hands for a few seconds. She shook her head a few times as she scrolled through its history. After a little bit, she looked up. "I think I found it." She held up the wrist terminal and he saw the date and time were November 3, 2040, at 2:00 pm. The location code looked different. "R720RS?" he asked.

  "That is the location code he used for that date," Brooke said. "We should start there and see what he does. I think we'll see Jarod."

  "You mean just spy on Aldan?" Wyatt asked. That sounded simpler than trying to change things, but it also worried him. "How many times do you think we will have visited that time?"

  "We can't jump to an unknown time without any preparation," Brooke said.

  "Why not?" Wyatt said. "We do that at other times." He knew she was right but wanted to see what she would say.

  She shook her head. "If we jump blindly, we could make things worse."

  Wyatt nodded and retrieved his wrist terminal out of his front pocket. He rolled it around to the setting to match Aldan's trip.

  "Go an hour or two earlier," Brooke said. "Let's go together. Shoot for 1:00 pm."

  Wyatt adjusted the time, and a terrifying thought filled him. "What if he knows we are going to do this and found a place where a truck or something runs us over?"

  "The Machina sets the location codes to protect all of us," Brooke reminded him. "But I think we should travel through your portal."

  Wyatt nodded as she stepped closer, and he activated his portal. A part of his mind wondered if he would regret that decision somehow, but it was too late. They stepped through.

  CHAPTER twenty-two

  UNKNOWN, R720RS

  SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2040, 1:00 PM

  The resonance hit Wyatt first, but dust filled his mouth shortly afterward. Rather than standing on the concrete of the warehouse, he knelt on du
sty ground in crisp air. As he coughed away the resonance, he saw his breath.

  Beside him, Brooke laughed. Her breath almost hid her face for a moment, but Wyatt was glad to see she had come with him.

  As he focused on their surroundings, he realized they could be anywhere. To the left and right, mountains stood in the distance, but they found themselves on a dusty road, surrounded by sagebrush. Stones and dirt were visible everywhere.

  They were in a high desert. He had seen this type of place before.

  "Interesting," Brooke said. "Have you ever been here before?"

  "I think this is central Utah," Wyatt answered. "I've never been here in 2040, but it looks familiar. I know Interstate 15 runs north and south through Utah, but I've never really driven along it." He rose to his feet and scanned the dirt road they stood on.

  "I think this explains why Aldan has come back with dusty pants before," Brooke said. She slapped the lower portion of her jeans and dust flew off. Her jeans were cleaner than they had been before, but still the same color and style.

  "Haven't you been here before?" Wyatt asked. Trying and failing to wrap his mind around her clothing's seemingly sudden change.

  "What would make you say that?" Brooke asked, her eyebrows knit together with confusion.

  Wyatt pointed toward her pants as he was about to point out the dust she had before, but a new thought struck him. "Never mind," he said. "I just thought earlier tonight I had seen the same kind of dust on your pants but more of it."

  Brooke shook her head and smiled. "The double memories strike again, I guess. I've never been here before."

  "Where do you think Aldan would go?" Wyatt asked, he spun around and spread his arms wide. "For this to be something the Machina knows about, it would need to be monitored by a camera. So, where are the cameras?" He didn't see a camera around, but the dirt road was well maintained.

  Brooke shook her head and scanned the area also. After a few seconds, she looked up and pointed. "Is that a drone?" she asked.

  Other than the contrails of several jets that moved through the air, Wyatt thought he could see the shape she indicated. It was hard to determine how big it was, but the object hung in the air probably a half mile away. The buzzing of its four rotors was barely audible.

  "That has to be how the Machina knows this area," Wyatt said, nodding. "Now, we need to find a good place to hide and keep ourselves away from Aldan."

  "Do you think that is what Aldan was talking about when he said someone added cameras to his haven?" Brooke asked, staring in the direction of the drone.

  "I'm not sure I would call this his haven," Wyatt said. "But that would make sense."

  The dirt road had been built up on a slight embankment above the surrounding ground. It was wide enough for two vehicles to pass easily. They stood at a slight curve in the road, but beyond that in either direction, the road traveled straight. Due to the low hills covered in sagebrush, it was hard to tell if they were close to a city or town.

  "Do you really think this would be Aldan's haven?" Brooke asked as she stepped to the outside of the curve in the road and down into the sagebrush.

  "It might be," Wyatt said. "I think we must be close to a small town." He pointed toward the drone. "It's hard to imagine that drone sits there all the time." He followed her off the road surface and into the sagebrush. On the outside of the curve, the ground dipped into a natural drainage ditch. The path of the water was visible, but it was dry.

  Brooke stepped down into that area and looked at her wrist terminal. "We might have arrived a bit too early," she said, rubbing her arms with her hands. "This is cold out here."

  "Yeah," Wyatt agreed. "I think this would be a good place to hide and watch what happens." He scanned back in the direction of the drone and saw a plume of dust rising. "Is that a car coming along the dirt road?"

  Brooke stepped close to him. "That's what it looks like," she said, her breath cloudy in the cold.

  Wyatt wrapped his left arm around her to help her keep warm and she almost glared at him before letting him hold her. It felt good to hold her. He thought he could feel her shivering under his arm but tried not to focus on it. Instead, he watched the approaching dust cloud.

  Minutes passed as they waited in the ditch. The sagebrush around them stood higher than their heads, guarding them from view. Wyatt thought they were close enough to the road to overhear anything that might transpire. That approaching vehicle had to be coming for Aldan.

  "Get down," Wyatt said as the approaching vehicle resolved itself into a pickup truck. To Wyatt, the white pickup appeared to be a Ford from the late twentieth century. It slowed to a stop just before the curve in the road, and a few hundred feet from Wyatt and Brooke.

  "Can you see who is driving that?" Brooke asked. "It looks like an older version of Aldan."

  "That's probably his father," Wyatt said, but as the truck neared, he thought differently. A quick glance at the time on his wrist terminal indicated they might be in trouble. "That truck is too early."

  "What do you mean?" Brooke asked.

  "If Aldan comes here at 2:00 pm, why would that truck be here thirty-seven minutes before then?" Wyatt watched his question roll through her mind and saw the moment when it struck her.

  "Oh no," Brooke said. She looked upward in the direction of the drone they had seen earlier.

  "Wyatt and Brooke," Aldan's voice boomed across the sagebrush toward them. "We need to talk."

  "Why is he shouting at us?" Wyatt said. That man was not the same version of Aldan they had left in the dormitory. This version had some gray hair and a bit more of a paunch to his belly. He wore a button-down blue shirt over pale blue jeans.

  "This is just getting stranger," Brooke said, with a laugh. "Do you think that is Aldan or his father?"

  "I don't think that is his father," Wyatt said, at the same moment Brooke stood and began stepping out of the drainage ditch. "Wait. Don't go out there."

  It was too late. Wyatt still reached for her right arm and missed. He wasn't ready to race out there after her. At least, not without some preparation. He crouched back down as that older version of Aldan shouted something he couldn't quite make out.

  Adjusting his wrist terminal back to R333PS, Wednesday, April 5, 2090, he set the time for 1:00 am. That should get them back to the dormitory entrance before they started to arrive there around 2:00 am.

  "Wyatt," Aldan shouted. "This is urgent, and we don't have much time."

  He thought he heard Brooke say something, but whatever she said was short and too quiet. A little dizziness filled him, but that was to be expected. Seeing an older version of Aldan might cause a little bit of resonance, he thought, until it strengthened.

  Someone had opened a portal nearby.

  Shaking his head, he rose to his feet and started walking toward the truck. He kept his right hand on his left wrist. Ready to activate his wrist terminal at the sign of any trouble. In the back of his mind, he reasoned that if there were trouble, he should see himself soon. It seemed the timestream was fragile, but it felt good to think that he would see himself if he really had to react a certain way.

  The white Ford stood on the dirt road, with a little remaining dust hanging in the air. As he climbed back toward the road, he tried to see Brooke or Aldan. Neither were in sight.

  The truck stood there, without any feet or heads visible around it. No one hid behind the truck. It sat empty. Brooke's footprints, or at least the footprints he thought were Brooke's moved toward the road and stopped when they reached it.

  Had Brooke stepped through a portal? Where would she have gone?

  He wondered if Aldan had been waiting for them because Brooke had taken his wrist terminal. That might explain why she had called out, but it wouldn't explain the resonance he had endured. Someone had opened a portal, and that had to be where that older Aldan and Brooke had gone. It didn't seem she would have left Wyatt voluntarily.

  He stepped closer to the white truck and peered in through th
e driver's side window. The floor of the truck had some dust as did the seat. One receipt rested on the floor under the dash, and under the clutch, its white color stood out against the dark gray of the truck's interior.

  The door was unlocked as Wyatt opened it. He pulled the receipt out and looked at it. The writing on the receipt was faded, and he couldn't read it. It made him wonder how many years that receipt had been sitting there.

  He pushed the door closed and leaned against the truck. That was two times he had seen Aldan rush off without knowing where he had gone. Brooke had done that recently also, he realized. He hadn't noticed it, but there had been times. She had hidden her wrist terminal when he came back from having his taken. The dust on her pants earlier was another clue.

  His mind froze for a moment as another piece seemed to set in his mind. The Brooke he had come here with couldn't be the same version he had been with earlier in the day. That other version had more dust on her pants and seemed more concerned with Jarod. This version that had just left him seemed a little calmer and more innocent.

  Was it possible Brooke had been working with Aldan on something?

  That question was a tough one to wrap his thoughts around. Brooke had said something, but she hadn't screamed. He checked his wrist terminal. He had just over fifteen minutes before Aldan would come to this time.

  Opening the truck's door again, he felt around the steering wheel to see if the keys were in the ignition. It was empty and he almost closed the door before checking a few other places. He climbed into the seat to reach the glovebox. It was empty.

  His wrist terminal showed it was only a few minutes before 2:00 pm. Aldan would be arriving soon. Wyatt didn't like the way he felt sitting there in the truck. Before climbing out, he pulled the sun visors down in a final effort to find the keys.

  Nothing.

  The version of Aldan that had left with Brooke, must have taken the keys with him. Wyatt climbed out of the truck and slammed the door. Its hinges protested as it swung shut.