Dissonance (The Machina of Time Book 2)

by Daniel R. Burkhard

  Jarod smiled and moved toward the leather sofa on the other side of the room. Wyatt watched him lower himself slowly into the sofa with a grunt. Clearly, that older Jarod was not ready for a fight.

  "What if no one comes for me?" Wyatt asked, hoping to draw more emotion out of Jarod. "Will you just keep me here?"

  With a shrug, Jarod leaned back in the sofa, his right hand hanging over the right end. He didn't respond to Wyatt's question, but he started to smile. That smile sent a chill down Wyatt's spine.

  "What are you waiting for?" Wyatt asked.

  "As far as the resonance is concerned, I've never felt it." Jarod shifted slightly on the sofa as he spoke, and Wyatt realized it was not an answer. "I don't believe it exists."

  "Then how can you be so sure I'll feel it?" Wyatt asked. Forcing his breathing calm, he scanned the room without moving his head. The brown leather sofa almost seemed out of place on the blue carpet, surrounded by the gray walls. No other furniture sat in the room.

  "You may not need to feel it," Jarod said.

  "So, let me get this straight," Wyatt said, after scanning the room. He leaned forward on the chair, placing his elbows on his knees. Pain from his scratches stopped him from staying there long. He straightened back up. "What happened to you after you sent me here?"

  Jarod smiled but didn't answer. "Try a different question."

  "This is stupid," Wyatt said. He glanced toward the window, feeling a bit of vertigo from that direction. It might have been resonance, but it could have been from the pain in his back. To cover it, he raised his voice a little more toward Jarod. "I don't want to play your game any longer." He rose to his feet.

  "Sit down," Jarod said. "I've been nothing but nice to you."

  "But you are keeping me here as a prisoner," Wyatt responded. He stood over Jarod, looking down at the older man.

  "Sit down," Jarod said. "It shouldn't be long."

  "No," Wyatt said, he balled his hands into fists and stared down at the older Jarod. "If sending me here really fixed it for your earlier version, you wouldn't need me here." He inhaled a deep breath and let it out in a gush with his next sentence. "Your earlier version must have lost me. When you tried to send me here to get me out of the picture, you messed up. The timestream you were trying to create doesn't exist, does it? All you've managed to create is a paradox, or time loop. And now, you think that trapping me here will bring the others and stop it. Why would they come after me? They already don't trust me. They want me out of their way in the same way you do." He glanced around the room, staring at the opaqued windows. The vertigo and dizziness had come from that direction.

  Jarod's right hand slipped around the left side of the sofa. It looked to Wyatt like he was going to activate some sort of recline function. He didn't understand why Jarod would be so calm after what Wyatt had said.

  "You need to go back over there and sit down," Jarod said. "I won't ask again. Either you realize you need to work for me, or I force you to work for me." His right hand came back holding something that fit the palm of his hand. It almost looked like one of the devices the earlier versions of Jarod had used to travel. But it was different. It was flatter and not as shiny. It looked like a piece of dull plastic.

  "I will not sit down," Wyatt said. "I'm going to leave."

  "Where would you go?" Jarod said, raising the black plastic device as if it were a weapon. "Think about it for a moment." He paused and pressed something on the side of the device with his thumb. An electric whirring began, and fear shot through Wyatt.

  He had heard that sound before. That was the sound of a taser.

  CHAPTER forty-four

  JAROD'S HOUSE

  WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2123

  "I see you recognize this," Jarod said. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to use it, but you don't seem to want to work with me." He waved the device back toward the chair and Wyatt glanced over his shoulder. "You can't leave. You need to stay here. Things only get worse if you leave."

  "You mean there is a chance I get out of here?" Wyatt asked, hoping to see an emotional response to his question. Just the way he held the taser seemed to indicate that was what he expected.

  Jarod raised the taser and leaned forward as if steadying his aim. "Get back in that chair. This will all be over soon."

  "Are you going to shoot me with that taser?" Wyatt asked and saw the smile growing on the old Jarod's face. That smile made him rethink challenging the old man, and he would have returned to the chair if not for the growing dizziness. He couldn't decide if it meant someone was coming, or just that his presence was changing things.

  "Who is coming?" Wyatt asked.

  "Sit down," Jarod said, waving the taser at him.

  With a sigh, Wyatt slowly lowered himself back into the seat.

  "I am disappointed in you," Jarod said. "After taking the time to clean your clothing and make a decent breakfast, the first thing you do is come after me?"

  Wyatt shook his head, watching the taser, with his hands wrapped around the wicker arms of the chair. It creaked with his grip. Freedom didn't seem an option. He didn't know the location of Jarod's house. Even if he could get away, where would he go? He had no idea how the world had changed in the intervening years.

  Thinking through possible scenarios, Wyatt wondered what it would take to hide something in this room. Assuming he ever escaped, he would need to hide something in the room that he could use now. He let out a sigh as he thought about the stupidity of that thought. The nearest he could approach this room was over two decades earlier. Surely it would have changed a bit in that time.

  "Where are we?" Wyatt asked after the pause had drawn on for a moment. "Does your earlier version know this place?"

  Jarod lowered the taser and shook his head. "From now on, you will not be asking any more questions."

  That sentence forced Wyatt to look closely at the taser before raising his eyes back to Jarod's. The old man had lost his smile. His eyes had darkened, and he simply stared at Wyatt. It seemed like he had been waiting for something that was taking longer than he expected.

  The dizziness and vertigo subsided. What did that mean? Had someone come after him?

  He turned his attention to the opaqued windows. The resonance sensation could have also been the earlier version of Jarod coming. That sent a thrill of fear through him, and he shivered.

  "Are you okay?" Jarod asked.

  Wyatt looked at him and decided he would use that question against him. "I think your time is over. The resonance is strengthening."

  Jarod leaned forward, straightening up and smiling. "Already?"

  "Yes," Wyatt answered, wondering what Jarod had been waiting for. "Who are you expecting?"

  Jarod stiffened and raised the taser. "Enough questions."

  Wyatt watched as Jarod's smile faded slightly.

  "Are you afraid of something?" Wyatt asked. He saw fear stretching the old Jarod's eyes and making him glance around quickly.

  "No more questions," Jarod said, glancing toward the door.

  "Whatever it is, isn't here when you thought he would be," Wyatt said, glaring at the old man. His comment made the old man look at him, confirming Wyatt's suspicion.

  Wyatt didn't think the old man would hit him with the taser. It seemed Jarod was using that only as a threat. He would have called him on it, but without any place to go, it wouldn't help. "Let me tell you what I think." He shifted forward on the wicker chair, releasing his grip on the arms. The entire chair creaked with his motion.

  "You sent me here, in the hopes of being able to trap me," Wyatt said, taking a breath to prepare himself for a possible attack. "But you know you can't fight me. Even with that taser you can't fight me. In fact, I think you brought me in here because you've already tried leaving me in the cold and that didn't change what you are trying to prevent." He watched the smile fade again and knew he had guessed right. "How many times have you sent me here? How many paradoxes have you created?"

  "Quiet," Jarod sai
d, aiming the taser at Wyatt's head. From that distance, it would not be a clear shot. The taser barbs would spread as they left the device. A shot might miss from that distance.

  Wyatt thought he had the older Jarod rattled. He pressed on. "How many paradoxes?" He watched the anger turn to wrath as the old man's face reddened. The taser wobbled in his hand. Jarod hadn't fired it yet.

  Wyatt needed to add to the man's discomfort. He took a deep breath to steady himself. "It's growing stronger."

  Jarod rose to his feet and stepped closer to the window. He held the taser in his right hand, pointed toward Wyatt as he stepped to the far side of the far window. He didn't open it, but just stood there.

  "You won't know what is out there until you open the shades," Wyatt said, and wished he had remained quiet as Jarod thumbed the taser back to life.

  "Stay where you are," Jarod said. He didn't make the window transparent.

  "You've been waiting for someone," Wyatt said. "How many times has this not worked out for you?"

  Jarod rounded on him and stepped a little closer with the taser raised. "This has not happened yet. The last time you were not in here."

  That was encouraging. Adding that to the fact that Jarod had yet to fire the taser, Wyatt figured he was a little safer. He leaned back in the wicker chair and watched the taser. Somehow, this older version of Jarod had been warned about the way this played out.

  "So, this really isn't playing out like you thought it would," Wyatt said. "That's good to know that your perfect past doesn't exist either. How many changes did you cause by bringing me here?"

  "You're alive," Jarod said. "I could have left you out there to die."

  "If you don't feel the resonance, how do you know your past even exists?" Wyatt watched the anger tighten Jarod's face as it flashed across his eyes. His white eyebrows creased, narrowing his eyes.

  Wyatt was getting to him. "Are you the one trapped in a loop?"

  With a shake of his head, Jarod kept his voice low. "You stay there and keep quiet. The time of your usefulness is passing."

  "Passing because you don't know what to do with me?" Wyatt asked. "Or is it passing because every other time you tried to kill me, and it didn't work?"

  The taser trembled in Jarod's hand.

  That seemed a cue that Wyatt had to act soon. If not, Jarod would hit him with the taser, and it would be over. Jarod was almost close enough for Wyatt to attempt to reach the taser, but he needed to have a moment without Jarod's eyes on him.

  "I want you to sit there and be quiet," Jarod said, spittle flew from his mouth as he spoke.

  "It's too late," Wyatt said. "Whatever you are waiting for isn't going to happen." He stared down the taser, expecting the old man to give up on him any moment.

  "Quiet," Jarod said, backing a step back.

  Wyatt shook his head and let out a moan as he brought his hands up to his temples. It was time to give Jarod a show he wouldn't forget. "The resonance is growing," he said as he clenched his teeth.

  "Really?" Jarod said, turning back toward the window. The anger slipping from his face for a moment. Wyatt hoped Jarod would change the windows back to transparent, but he only looked at them for a few seconds before turning back toward Wyatt. "How do I know you aren't lying."

  Wyatt forced himself to cough as he slid out of the chair. "It's bad this time," he said, wishing he had a way of making himself vomit to show it. With his hands over his face, he watched Jarod through his fingers. He just needed the old man a little closer. "It's already too late for you."

  "No," Jarod said. "I should have let you die out there." He backed away from Wyatt but reached his left hand toward the window control. As soon as he touched it the sunlight came through the window. Jarod shielded his eyes with his left hand.

  That was the distraction Wyatt needed. He launched at him.

  Impacting the older man, he pressed him against the window as Jarod fired the taser. The metal barbs shot past Wyatt's right ear, but the trailing wires draped across that shoulder. He waited for the jolt of electricity, but the barbs didn't contact him, and the circuit never completed. He had gotten too close.

  Jarod let out a yelp as his face impacted the now bright window.

  "Drop it," Wyatt said, slamming Jarod's right hand into the window. The glass shuddered but didn't break as Jarod dropped the taser.

  Wyatt spun him around and tossed him on the sofa.

  "You have no idea what you are doing?" Jarod said.

  "I need to get back, and you are going to tell me how to get there," Wyatt said.

  Jarod laughed through the pain as he rolled from his side to his back and stared up at Wyatt. Before stepping closer, Wyatt gathered the taser from the floor and aimed it at the old man. He still worried about the slight resonance he had felt earlier, and wondered who had come, if anyone.

  "This is the end of things," Jarod said. "It doesn't get any better than this. It never does. You should have never been a future fixer." His voice raised in a crescendo as he continued. "I've been here for twenty-three years, and nothing good has come of it."

  "Your imagined past is useless," Wyatt said. "You don't know what the past really was."

  "This is supposed to be different this time," Jarod said. "I can feel myself slipping from the world."

  Wyatt ignored him as a sound came from the garage.

  The door to the kitchen burst open and a younger version of Jarod entered. He raised his right hand with a familiar revolver Linda had fired at Wyatt earlier. His left hand clutched his ribs as if he were injured. He fired the pistol wildly as Wyatt turned toward him. A bullet struck the wicker chair before passing through and hitting the wall.

  The grimace on younger Jarod's face showed he was injured already.

  Wyatt threw his taser at the younger version of Jarod, striking him in the face even though he tried to deflect it with his gun hand. In that same moment, Wyatt jumped at the younger version of Jarod.

  "Don't go with him," the older Jarod said, his voice barely audible.

  Wyatt heard the gun clatter off into the kitchen under the counter.

  Climbing on top of the younger Jarod was simple. The younger man let out a yelp as Wyatt's right knee struck his left side. Something had injured the younger Jarod. Wyatt pressed his knee tightly against the ribs and watched the way Jarod squirmed.

  "Get off him," the older Jarod said from behind Wyatt. "Don't do it this way. Don't trap him."

  Wyatt pressed his right fist down on the younger Jarod's ribs as he turned and looked over his left shoulder.

  The younger Jarod let out another yelp of pain.

  As Wyatt looked back at the older Jarod, the younger Jarod threw several punches that struck Wyatt in the right side of his head. He turned back toward the younger Jarod, as another person came through the garage door.

  "We have to break the paradox," the older Jarod said. "You're ruining things."

  Wyatt struck the younger Jarod in the lower ribs of his left side as hard as he could. Three strikes later, his head spun with the blows he had taken from Jarod's fist, but Jarod's punches didn't come as quickly or forcefully.

  "Stop fighting," Wyatt said, spitting blood from his lip onto the floor near Jarod's head as he struck Jarod another time in the ribs. He felt something pop as he struck that time, and the younger Jarod cried out.

  That seemed to knock the fight out of him.

  "Where is your device?" Wyatt shouted in the younger Jarod's right ear. He thought he felt it against his left leg where it pressed against Jarod's thigh. Without waiting for an answer, he thrust his left hand into Jarod's pocket and felt the plastic device.

  "Don't give it to him," Linda's voice shouted.

  Wyatt glanced up in alarm, saw her standing there, weaponless, her thin face drawn tight with fear. It was only a quick glance, but Wyatt thought she expected him to stop. Wyatt didn't.

  "What are you doing here," the older Jarod shouted from behind him as Wyatt withdrew the device. The younger Ja
rod's pants were tight, but the younger Jarod was in enough pain to keep him from reacting. A quick look showed the device was set for April 11, 2090, at 9:50 am.

  "Don't," Linda said, her voice almost a scream. "Don't leave me. I'm trying to save you."

  Wyatt activated the younger Jarod's portal.

  "Stop," the older Jarod shouted as the portal opened in the kitchen counter. "Listen to her."

  Wyatt grabbed the younger Jarod and rolled through the portal. The younger Jarod didn't resist, probably because of the recently injured rib. Falling through that portal was a relief.

  CHAPTER forty-five

  NEAR DORMITORY ENTRANCE

  TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2090, 9:50 AM

  The concrete was cool against Wyatt's injured back. The gauze helped keep the pain low as the younger Jarod rolled over top of him. The resonance ruined his vision, his head ached, and he had no idea where he was except for the concrete and the shelving.

  Jarod coughed to his left as Wyatt rolled to his right. He vomited breakfast onto the concrete under the blue shelving.

  "I'll get you for that," Jarod said, his voice straining as he coughed. "You were supposed to leave me there."

  "Join the club," Wyatt said to counter the first statement. He rolled to his left and rose to his hands and knees.

  Jarod held up his right hand in a pacifying gesture as his left gripped his ribs. It seemed the fight had gone out of him, but his pain-filled face watched him. "You should have left me in the future. Now you've ruined it."

  "What good would it have done?" Wyatt asked as the resonance passed and he managed to reach his feet. "You have been trying for so long to prevent me from changing the past, when you have actually been trying to save something that never existed."

  Jarod swallowed and closed his eyes. He rolled to his back. Something besides the pain in his ribs seemed to slow his motion. "This will never end now. It's not over. Don't you see."

  "I'm sure it isn't," Wyatt said. "Would you like me to toss you back without this?" He held up Jarod's device.

  "No," Jarod said, but it wasn't with the force Wyatt would have expected. Jarod's voice was soft enough it almost sounded like he considered the offer.