"Where?" Avery said.
"When we were in the warehouse, looking for Lenny," Wyatt said. "You and I went on ahead and that other figure speaking with Lenny was an older version of you."
Avery's eyes angled upward for a moment before she looked down at him. Confusion twisted her thin eyebrows upward. "It couldn't be," she said.
"Your older version was the one that tried to collect me from the earthquake," Wyatt said. "I forced her away, but she tried at least two times before another person got me out of that apartment." He paused for a breath and decided he would lose nothing by continuing. "That other person was a version of Hannah. It had to be."
Aldan laughed and threw his hands in the air as he turned back toward the kitchen. "I think I've heard enough of this."
"You saw her in 2089," Wyatt said, shifting his legs off the bed and onto the floor. "You sat with her at that burger place and talked. You know she can travel."
"That's not the piece that bothers me," Aldan said, turning back to Wyatt. "The piece that bothers me is that everyone close to you seems to eventually turn on us, even though they say they are doing only what you told them to do." He sighed heavily and walked into the kitchen.
Wyatt heard the refrigerator open and close. Avery and Jeremy exchanged a glance as Wyatt pulled on clean socks then his shoes. He felt like his exhaustion would never go away.
"Come on," Avery said. "We need to find Brooke."
A few minutes later, they were all gathered around the kitchen area. None of them sat on either of the sofas. Jeremy leaned on the counter, the light from the kitchen catching the bags under his eyes. Aldan drank from a water bottle, while Avery moved around him to get a glass and fill it with water from the tap.
After downing it, she placed the glass in the sink and turned to the refrigerator. She brought out a polished aluminum can of soda. Its labeling had been removed. It fizzed over when she popped the top, forcing her to turn back toward the sink.
"We need to talk about this quickly," Jeremy said, gesturing for Aldan to speak again.
"Hannah, Brooke, Lenny, and who knows how many others," Aldan started, "are out to help or hurt you." His words were directed to Wyatt and sent a chill down Wyatt's spine.
"Don't forget Jarod," Wyatt said, feeling the overwhelming despair threatening to fill him. "I haven't yet told Hannah to do anything for me. I didn't tell Brooke to do what she did."
"But you didn't stop her either," Aldan said, placing his fists on the countertop and leaning across it toward Wyatt.
"I didn't know what she was going to do," Wyatt lied without thinking about it. He struggled to keep his eyes focused on Aldan, but they flinched away as he finished speaking.
Aldan smiled and leaned back slightly.
"What really happened?" Avery asked, stepping closer to Aldan. She seemed to be trying to diffuse the tension. She looked at Aldan. "I think we need to find a way to stop it."
Wyatt watched all of them for a moment, before turning back to Aldan. He knew Aldan would want to know what Brooke had found on his wrist terminal, but that might ruin what she found.
"Why did she take my wrist terminal?" Aldan said. "And how did you get dirty?"
Wyatt looked down at his shoes without thinking and realized they were covered in the dust from the dirt road. He had walked nearly two miles on that dirt road.
"Where did you go?" Jeremy asked. "We need to know." He backed from the kitchen area toward the sofa and took a seat. Wyatt didn't think he could keep all that had happened from them for long. Aldan already seemed to know where he had been.
Aldan moved to sit opposite Jeremy on the other sofa as Avery shrugged.
Feeling alienated by his own unwillingness to speak, Wyatt watched the two men for a moment. Telling them what Brooke had done would help, maybe. But he worried it would make things worse. As he stood there, Avery stepped around him and sat on the sofa beside Jeremy. Now all three of them were looking at him. Well, that wasn't exactly accurate. Aldan was fishing something out of his left front pants pocket.
Wyatt started moving toward the sofa where Aldan sat but stopped as Aldan pulled the white shape out of his pocket. He fastened it around his left wrist.
"Where did you get that?" Wyatt asked. "If Brooke took it, how do you have it?" He stood directly in front of Aldan, his frustration welling.
Aldan laughed lightly and shook his head. "Just think of it as insurance. We all need a little bit of it lately."
"How did you get that?" Avery asked. "I never saw anyone give it to you." As she spoke, she shifted forward on the sofa, almost glaring at Aldan.
"Hannah gave it to me," Aldan said.
"When?" Wyatt asked, and his mind began sifting through the memories he had of the older version of Hannah. "Was it the older version of Hannah?"
Aldan leaned back in the sofa and smiled. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
"Come on," Wyatt said. "If you want me to tell you what I know about Brooke, you need to tell me how you got that."
Aldan placed his arms behind his head and looked up at the ceiling. "Good point," he said. "Okay." He lowered his hands and leaned forward.
Wyatt watched Aldan take a deep, slow breath, and let it out. It seemed like Aldan was ready to tell him how he got that wrist terminal.
"Actually, I don't think I should," Aldan said.
"Which one of us are you worried about?" Avery asked, and Wyatt turned to face her.
"I think he's worried about you," Wyatt said. "Your older version has been around a couple of times. Maybe he is worried about you knowing too much."
"That's silly," Avery said.
"I think he is right," Jeremy said, sliding to the front of the sofa as he spoke. He shifted to his right, away from her as if he were watching her reaction. "If your older version has come around, we need to make sure we know why."
"He's right," Aldan said.
Wyatt suddenly saw a chance to get past what he had been about to tell the older man. "I shouldn't say anything either," he said.
Aldan rose from the sofa and motioned for Wyatt to follow him. "Come with me."
Wyatt followed Aldan through the front door of their dormitory. In the background, he thought he heard Avery say something derogatory about their leaving together. But Aldan pulled the door closed before Wyatt could make sense of Avery's words.
After shutting the door, Aldan led Wyatt into the hallway behind the other door. He closed that door behind Wyatt and rounded on him.
"It was that older version of Hannah that gave this to me," Aldan said. "It might be my wrist terminal, but I don't know how she got it. Honestly, this whole thing kind of messes with my mind."
"I know how you feel," Wyatt said. "Brooke used your wrist terminal to take us somewhere you have gone. Or maybe somewhere you will go."
"Can't you be sure which it is?" Aldan asked. "That's kind of important. Do you remember the location code?" He folded his arms and waited.
"R720RS," Wyatt said. "Does that ring a bell. And no, I cannot tell if you have already been there." He didn't want to mention that he had seen an older version of Aldan.
Aldan shook his head while smiling and staring at the light a little farther down the hall.
"Sorry," Wyatt said. "I thought it was where you went when we tried to see your father delivering the truck at the loading docks." He backed from Aldan, whose eyes latched onto his.
"My father never arrived?" Aldan asked.
"No," Wyatt said. "I thought that was because you stopped him from coming. Where did you go?"
Aldan shook his head. "I can't tell you that."
"That's a phrase I hear too often," Wyatt said, frustration growing again. "What do you expect me to do to help when you won't tell me where you went?"
"It's more dangerous than that," Aldan said. "In the same way I don't think I can trust Avery completely, I'm not sure I can trust you."
"Her older version has come around," Wyatt said. "We've seen her."
Alda
n raised his eyebrows. "You don't see it yet, do you?" He waited for a moment before continuing. "Every person you come in contact with and get close to disappears."
"That's not—," Wyatt started, but Aldan cut him off.
"True?" Aldan asked. "That's what I thought you would say but think about it. You go back to meet with Hannah, and now she is gone. Your friendship with Brooke grows, and now she is gone. How long before the rest of us disappear?"
The question stung. Wyatt looked down at the floor and tried to make sense of what he had experienced. Aldan was right. How many people close to him would be lost? Then he thought about Lenny and the group that had left the dormitory before Aldan and the others arrived.
"There is more going on," Wyatt said, stuffing his hands into his front pants pockets. "I don't understand it myself. I don't think I am the cause of it."
"I think you are why it is happening," Aldan said, unfolding his arms. "Everything is happening near you. I don't know how to stop it."
"Is Hannah doing it?" Wyatt asked and saw Aldan's face tighten as he shook his head. He held up his hands and continued before Aldan could say anything. "Okay. Forget I said that and think about this. I'm not the same version of myself that arrived with you guys. I arrived earlier to try and see what Brooke would do. I almost tried to stop her." He lowered his hands and shook his head. "But I noticed something strange."
Aldan stood with his hands on his hips and his feet in an even stance. After a quick glance over his shoulder, he refocused his attention back on Wyatt. He gestured with his chin for Wyatt to continue.
"Lenny was here," Wyatt said, watching Aldan's face. Aldan's face slackened and his eyebrows raised. "But that isn't all. He came into our dormitory, roused each of us and urged us to leave."
"Where did we go?" Aldan asked.
"That's just it. I don't know," Wyatt said as the door behind Aldan opened and Avery stepped in.
"Listen to me, before you tell me to leave," Avery said, holding the door open. "I don't know what is happening here either, but I don't like it. Have you ever thought that my older version is here trying to fix things? Have you seen her make a mess of things?"
Wyatt shook his head and Aldan sighed.
Avery shrugged and looked back through the doorway as Jeremy joined her. "I'm not the cause of this," she said.
"Neither am I," Wyatt said. "In the time and place I just came from, I saw Jarod. He took Brooke." That silenced her and drew all their attention, so Wyatt continued. Before he spoke, he took a deep breath.
"Have any of you heard the name Linda?" Wyatt asked. "I think she is the one that used that other bed."
"That doesn't make any sense," Jeremy said. "We've never seen her. I don't see how she could use that bed."
"Wyatt just told me that Lenny was here before we arrived at 2:00 am.," Aldan said.
"And so were all of you," Wyatt said. "I mean so were all of us."
"What about this Linda?" Avery asked. "Was she there also?"
"I couldn't see far enough into the room to find her," Wyatt said.
"Where did you come from?" Jeremy asked.
"That's not important," Aldan said. "The important piece is that he saw something strange here right before we arrived."
"Why would Lenny do that?" Jeremy asked.
"Maybe he got lost in time," Aldan said.
"Maybe we find him in the future," Avery said.
"Do you think the versions of us that he"—Aldan pointed at Wyatt as he spoke—"saw came back to this time to rest."
Wyatt shrugged in answer. Jeremy stepped into the hallway and pulled the door closed behind him.
"Can we get in to see what the Machina knows?" Jeremy asked.
"We don't have the red and white cards," Wyatt said. "I don't think we'd get the door to open."
"Do you really think the Machina is still in charge?" Avery asked.
"Let's start with Lenny's office and see what we can find," Aldan said.
Wyatt agreed. He turned toward Lenny's office, deeper in the hallway. All the while, his mind replayed the last time they had approached the Machina. "If we cannot find those red cards, we're stuck," he said.
CHAPTER twenty-seven
LENNY'S OFFICE, NEAR R333PS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2090, 6:02 AM
"Anything?" Avery asked as Wyatt dug through Lenny's dark wooden desk. They had been digging through the office for several minutes, with no luck. None of the drawers in the desk were locked and it seemed mostly empty.
"Nothing yet," Wyatt said. "Every drawer is basically empty. Why would he have a desk here without any of the items that we saw the last few times?"
Avery shook her head and leaned against the now empty bookcase behind the desk. She folded her arms and watched Jeremy and Aldan.
"Something isn't right," Aldan said.
"No," Jeremy added. "It certainly isn't right."
"Do you think we should try a different approach?" Avery asked. "I mean, come back here at a time we knew the items were here."
Aldan frowned and looked away. He didn't respond immediately. He kept looking at the floor near the door. Wyatt stood where he was behind the desk and tried to see what had caught Aldan's attention.
His mind seemed to recognize something was different, but he couldn't place it yet. While he watched, he stepped around the desk, brushing past Avery.
"The line is gone," Avery said quietly as he brushed by.
Wyatt stopped moving. "What line?" he asked but shook his head. He already knew the answer. The line across the office entryway no longer appeared to be there. The office was in the same time period as the hallway and their dormitory. "Never mind. I knew I didn't feel any resonance stepping in."
"That's strange," Avery said.
"That's terrible," Jeremy said. "How do we get into this office when those cards are there."
"I don't think we can," Wyatt said. "Too much has already changed."
"Don't be so pessimistic," Aldan said. "We just have to return to a time when the office entrance is set up that way." He stepped around behind the desk, running his right hand along the desktop. "Maybe there is something in here that activates that line."
Wyatt shook his head and stopped in the doorway. After a moment, he opened the door and looked along the hallway. He had never seen Lenny's office without that blue line. It bothered him.
But that wasn't the only thing.
The earlier group that Lenny had met with in their room had to have something to do with it. It was like they had fallen out of sync with the rest of reality.
"What do you see out there?" Avery asked. She had stepped closer to him as he stood with the door open.
Wyatt shook his head and lowered his right hand from the door. "Nothing," he said. He wanted to say more but wasn't quite sure where to begin.
"Say what you are thinking," Avery urged, stepping around him with a glance back toward Jeremy and Aldan.
"It almost feels like we've slipped out of our reality," Wyatt said. "Now there are people being talked about that never existed in my memory, and we were all there in the dormitory, but Lenny wanted to get them out before you arrived."
"You've already said that much," Aldan said.
"You're right," Wyatt said, his mind filling with scary thoughts. "We can't find the key cards to get into the Machina's server room to find the answers. We have no idea who is causing the changes"—he held up his hands—"or at least we can't agree on it. I think we need to come up with a better plan."
"We just need a plan," Aldan said. "This jumping around and finding bits and pieces hasn't helped any of us." He sat on the corner of the desk, watching Wyatt as he continued. "You went with Brooke to R720RS on November 3, 2040. Why did you go there?"
Wyatt swallowed, trying to steady himself as his anxiety grew. He watched Jeremy, who crossed to stand near Avery. All three of them were on the opposite side of the desk from Wyatt. Before answering the question, Wyatt closed the office door. It seemed strang
e to speak about what he had experienced with that door open.
"Brooke found that code on your wrist terminal," Wyatt said, after another deep breath. "She woke me from sleep to tell me that someone had been inside the dormitory. She lured me out into the warehouse, activated the portal to R720RS, and we stepped through." He left out that he had seen two versions of Brooke.
"Doesn't that seem odd to you?" Avery asked. "I mean, it sounds like you have been in that dormitory in at least two instances."
"Yeah," Wyatt responded to her question as she paused.
"Who gave her the wrist terminal?" Jeremy asked.
"She took it from Aldan," Wyatt corrected him.
"She did," Aldan said. "I just happened to have been given one by that older version of Hannah."
"Can this get any weirder?" Avery asked. "I feel like we're stuck in some strange horror movie where the answer should be right in front of us, but it isn't." She folded her arms and looked at Jeremy.
"I feel the same way," Jeremy said.
"But at least you don't have people disappearing around you," Aldan said. "Wyatt seems to lose people."
"Are you saying we shouldn't stay around him?" Avery asked.
Aldan looked toward the ceiling light panel and shook his head. "I think we're stuck too deep now."
"So, let's go over what we know," Avery said, unfolding her arms and stepping around in front of the desk. She faced sideways, leaving Wyatt on her left, near the door, and Aldan and Jeremy behind the desk on her right. "Someone has been messing with our past. We each have at least two memories of the business park, one of those not as pleasant as the other."
Wyatt shuddered as his mind replayed the image of being run over by the car he had also driven.
"That's good to point out," Aldan said, "but it doesn't help us much. We don't know who is doing this."
"We have some ideas," Wyatt said, raising his hands to slow their responses as he organized his thoughts. He couldn't help looking at Avery as he thought of her older version's interactions. Telling her that her older version might be responsible seemed like it would frustrate her, but he had no other option. He kept his eyes on Avery. "You're not going to like this. I think there is an older version of you out there that is causing some of this. Jarod is also involved."
Dissonance (The Machina of Time Book 2) Page 24
