They’ve just got somewhere to go this direction. Nothing to worry about.
A bus rumbles past but doesn’t slow. A single old man is staring into the night from the illuminated interior, lost in a daydream or his own reflection. I’m nearly at the corner and, other than my skulking shadows, all pedestrians seem to have evaporated. Isn’t this supposed to be the city that never sleeps?
I’m just considering breaking into a run when a smoke-black Cadillac materializes from the side street. It oozes to the curb at the corner ahead of me and, as I approach, hearty chuckles trickle from the darkness of the open rear window. “Benjamin, Benjamin, Benjamin. We’ve been looking all over for you. You had us worried, my friend.”
The door swings open and the dome light illuminates the plush interior and the lounging figure of a substantial, well-dressed man in his forties. His glossy hair matches his Burt Reynolds mustache. I’ve never seen him before. “You shouldn’t just go wandering off around here, Ben. The locals can get territorial in the wee hours.”
I stoop to peer into the car. The driver is a hulk in a suit coat. The man in the back pats the seat next to him. “Get in.”
“I don’t know you.”
The man’s eyes narrow, but then his face lightens and he gives me a cheek-stretching grin. “I forget how young you still are, Ben. Of course! This is your first time meeting me.” He extends a hand. “Gioachino Amadeus. But call me Geo.” I let his hand linger in midair. Finally, he pats the seat next to him. “Come on. We’ll get you out of here.”
I glance back down the sidewalk. My flock of followers has stalled out mid-block and is idling near a barred grocer’s shop. A few of them are involved in subtle conversation, but the tall one is still just staring at me.
“How did you know where to find me?”
Geo stretches his arm along the back of the seat with a knowing smile. “We time travelers have to stick together, Benjamin.”
“Mym sent you?”
“You don’t think she’d just leave you out here on your own do you? You can trust me, Ben. We’re destined to be great friends.”
“Most of my friends drive themselves.”
“Well then, it looks like you’re moving up in the world. Now hop in. We’ve got places to be.”
I take one last look at the city skyline, blending vaguely into a motor oil sky, and climb in. The Cadillac ebbs back into the street, and as the dome light fades, we are swallowed by the ocean of night.
Continue the adventure now! You’ll find The Chronothon available HERE.
books2read.com/u/4AgO10
Also by Nathan Van Coops
In Times Like These
The Chronothon
The Day After Never
The Warp Clock
Clockwise & Gone
Other Series
Sword Fight: Kingdom of Engines
Faster Than Falling: The Skylighter Adventures
In Times Like These Recap
Previously, In Times Like These
Benjamin Travers has been electrocuted. What’s worse, he and his friends just woke up in the 1980s. With little money and no idea how they’ve gotten there, the friends seek out Robbie’s grandfather; a widower they know does not have long to live.
Investigation into their predicament reveals they aren’t the only persons displaced in time. A dangerous killer also shares their fate. The friends gain help from Malcolm Longines, the sleuthing assistant to renowned scientist Dr. Harold Quickly. They learn the deadly consequences of toying with time when Malcolm discovers the remains of others who didn’t survive the journey.
Dr. Quickly trains the five friends to jump through time, using watch-like chronometers, and anchors in specific places and times. After a training mishap, Ben finds himself confronted by Elton Stenger, the killer from their own time. The near-deadly encounter at a gas station forces the friends to decide whether to deal with him and risk their own return home, or flee to the future. Ben is caught between his best friend Blake’s obsession to get home to his girlfriend, and Robbie’s desire to save his grandfather.
Things get more complicated for Ben with the arrival of Dr. Quickly’s worldly, time-traveling daughter, Mym. Sensing she knows more about their future together than she is letting on, Ben is eager to know her better. Robbie’s grandfather’s stroke sends the group to the hospital where they witness a newscast showing the lab on fire. Ben and Carson race back in time to retrieve items vital for their trip home, and encounter Stenger inside the lab. Ben opts to flee the scene and rejoin his friends. With Dr. Quickly and Mym’s disappearance, the group is on their own. Robbie and Carson stay behind, intending to catch up later, while Ben, Francesca and Blake make for home.
The plan derails in Boston when the trio realizes they are missing an important tool for getting back. Seeking out “Guy Friday,” a drunken time traveler from the future listed in Dr. Quickly’s journal, the three hope for help, but are left worse off when Guy and his brother rob them of a chronometer.
A photo from Montana leads the three to a younger Mym, and Cowboy Bob, her burly companion. Hitching a ride to 2009 in Bob’s hot air balloon, the three return home, but while Blake proposes to his girlfriend, Francesca and Ben realize they’ve got the wrong timeline, a timeline where they never left. Scrambling to find their mistake, Blake considers offing his duplicate self to be with the woman he loves, while Ben struggles with guilt upon learning that Carson has died, a victim of the killer he failed to deal with.
Determined to right the wrongs, the three return to the eighties, but the plan to stop Stenger fails. Blake gets shot and Francesca is taken hostage. Desperate to find her, Ben searches the lab, but instead discovers Malcolm bound and gagged. Before Malcolm can warn him, Ben triggers an incendiary device, trapping the pair and forcing Ben to once again flee using time travel. Alone in the desert and fearing he has condemned his friends to a fiery grave, Ben struggles to face his failures. Encountering an older version of himself in the desert, Ben trains to defeat his fears and master his time traveling skills.
With new confidence in his abilities, Ben plunges back into the lab and finds Francesca. Tackling Stenger out a third floor window, the climactic fight ends at high speed on the freeway, when Ben knocks the villain into traffic.
The reappearance of Dr. Quickly means the group can finally return home, but once there, Ben is not eager to go back to his old life. Luckily Mym has other plans and invites him to join her for more time traveling adventures.
About the Author
Nathan Van Coops lives in St. Petersburg, Florida on a diet comprised mainly of tacos. When not tinkering on old airplanes, he writes heroic adventure stories that explore imaginative new worlds. He is the author of In Times Like These, The Skylighter Adventures, and a new alternate history series, Kingdom of Engines. Learn more at www.nathanvancoops.com
Copyright © 2020 by Nathan Van Coops
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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