Time Keepers

by Kate Allenton

  Anger pinched the man’s face, and his lips remained unmoving.

  Sarah lifted the gun and pressed it against his temple. “Time’s up.”

  “Wait…” the guy said, cradling his hand to his chest. “There are four of us, including Steed. He and the others went to commandeer the upper floors while I was setting the charges.”

  He was lying.

  “You’re lying. The bomb explodes from above.”

  “What bomb?” Jonathan asked.

  “The bomb Steed sets off trying to kill Sarah,” Ziggy answered.

  “How did you know?” the guy on the floor asked.

  “Where’s the bomb?” Sarah asked. This was going to call for more than a cleaning crew to pick up these pieces when everything was said and done.

  He didn’t answer, so Sarah cocked the trigger. “I’ll only ask one more time. Where. Is. The. Bomb?”

  Sarah pressed the barrel deeper into the man’s head.

  “It’s attached to the top of the elevator.”

  “Is it on a timer?” she asked.

  The man shook his head. “Steed has the dead man switch.”

  This was worse than she could have imagined. Not only was Steed’s finger the only thing keeping them all alive but he was holding Foster.

  Sarah grabbed a pair of handcuffs and used them on the man. A portal to the holding cell opened and pulled him through. “If we live through this, get him medical attention.”

  She grabbed several more handcuffs and stuffed them at her waist. Sarah opened up a portal into the secret room in the director’s office. She and Ziggy were the only ones that had access while they hunted down the sleepers hiding in their time.

  Ziggy followed her into the room, and Sarah stopped Jonathan from entering. “You need to find the bomb and figure out how to disengage it. Diana will help get everyone out of the building.”

  Diana nodded, and Sarah let the portal close behind her.

  She slipped the gun holster down her arms.

  “Sarah, you aren’t going in there unarmed,” Ziggy protested.

  She lifted her leg to show him she had on a transponder watch. “I’m not unarmed. I’ll grab Steed and take him to another time. He can’t blow the building if he’s not within distance.

  “So, what? You’re going to drop him off somewhere else? That’s not a good idea.”

  “We’re out of options,” she answered. She placed her palm in the reader while Ziggy put his pendant in the other one. The room lit to life around them. The lights above the pictures illuminated.

  She paused when she recognized a picture on the wall that she hadn’t before. Andrew was one of the sleepers, but it was a younger more dashing version of him.

  Sarah walked over to the wall and started up at his picture.

  “Hey, isn’t that the dude from the crazy place where your children are hanging out?”

  “Yeah,” she answered. “I just don’t understand how it is we’re going to meet.”

  “You can worry about that later,” Ziggy said, drawing her attention to one of the screens. It showed the director’s room, where Foster was beaten and bruised and on his knees.

  Worry seeped into every fiber of her being. “After I’m in there, when I give the word, I need you to hit me with enough energy in my transponder to instantly carry both Steed and myself away. I’m talking about hit me with all the power in the building.”

  “Sarah…”

  “Ziggy.” She raised her brow. “If I give him even a moment to realize what I’m doing, he’ll lift his finger off the device and blow the building. When I give you the alert, you hit me with enough energy that you send me back to the Ice Age. You understand?”

  He nodded. “Sarah, it could kill you.”

  Sarah pulled Ziggy into a hug and squeezed him tight. “I’ll come back. I promise, and until I do, you’ll be able to hear and see things with me,” Sarah said hopefully, as if to appease Ziggy.

  Sarah pulled Ziggy around the equipment and pressed his back against the wall. “I can’t afford for you to get shot when I walk through.”

  He nodded, and Sarah opened a portal on the wall and stepped through, closing it as stepped over the boundary.

  She should have looked at the monitors more closely to see where everyone was standing. She might have been prepared for the butt of the gun against her temple.

  Sarah blinked her eyes open as pain radiated through her head.

  “Nice of you to join us,” Steed said from across the room, sitting on the director’s desk. The director lay on the floor, his vacant dead eyes staring at the ceiling.

  A thug yanked Sarah off the ground to kneel on the floor before holding a gun to her head.

  “I would have been here sooner had I gotten the invitation,” Sarah answered, turning her glare to Foster.

  “Yes, well, I knew he was getting soft on you,” Steed said and gestured to the man holding Foster. He punched him hard. Foster grunted before spitting blood from his already busted lip.

  Sarah started laughing, earning a confused look from Steed and getting him to hop off the desk.

  “You enjoy watching Foster get hurt.”

  Sarah shrugged with a glint in her eyes. “I am my father’s daughter.”

  “Sarah, no,” Foster whispered.

  Steed moved closer, and that was when Sarah was sure. Sarah had missed the signs. They shared more than the same eye color. They shared the same stubbornness to have things their own way.

  There was only one way that Foster and Sarah would walk out of this both alive, and it wasn’t together. There was only one way Steed would leave the others to live. If her plan didn't work, she would lose more than everything and everyone she loved.

  Sarah narrowed her eyes. A small smile split her lips. "You think you've won?"

  Steed leaned down to stare in her eyes while the bodyguard pressed the barrel of the gun harder against Sarah’s temple. She may have been down, but no way was she out. "I already have, Miss Weston."

  “Sarah, don't.” Foster’s eyes pleaded with her.

  This could've been the cataclysmic beginning of it all, and maybe it was, but none of them were dying here. Not if she had an ounce of breath left in her body.

  "I know about Francesca."

  "You should; I'm the one that told you about her."

  "You have no clue, do you?"

  Steed crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you think you know that I don't know?"

  "You think it's a coincidence that we share the same eye color?"

  Stephen remained speechless and steadfast. Not even a twitch of his eye.

  "I have your eyes and her dimples… You do the math."

  "She’s lying. No way is she my stepsister. Let me just kill her." The guy with the gun held to Sarah’s head cocked the trigger.

  Steed pushed the barrel toward the floor. "Tyler, if anybody's going to kill, it's going to be me."

  "Tyler.” Sarah chuckled. “Well, aren't we just one big happy family.” Sarah glanced up at the man that had called himself her brother. Tyler was getting angrier by the minute as Steed was getting more confused. If there was ever a right time, that time was now. Sarah glanced at Foster and winked. "You have some explaining to do, but I'll catch you on the flipside in about a year. Do it now, Ziggy."

  Sarah grabbed her Tyler and Steed’s leg, just as Foster screamed, “No!” A blue electricity shot through the transponder around her ankle. It flowed through her to Tyler and Steed. No one knew where the other would end up. Sarah was the conduit taking her family for one hell of a ride to God knows where. She just knew where they wouldn’t be, and that was all that mattered.

  One by one, quickly, they all disappeared around her except Steed and Tyler. She refused to let go until the energy subsided and her body couldn’t handle anymore.

  Sarah blinked her eyes open and stared up at the aurora borealis. The real one. She shivered as snow seeped into her clothes. She eased herself to sit up and stared arou
nd her, confused that Steed wasn’t anywhere to be found. The only other person lying unconscious on the ground was Tyler. Ha, serves him right, she thought. She used her elbows to pull herself across the snow in her brother’s direction. She grabbed his arm and took his biofeed off, stuffing it into her pocket. He wouldn’t be jumping even if he did wake.

  She tried to stand and felt woozy. Pain radiated from her side. She glanced down to see a branch stuck into her skin.

  “Crap.”

  “Sarah. Thank God.” Ziggy’s voice was music to her ears.

  “Ziggy, where am I?”

  “Your last transmission has you jumping into the year…oh, Sarah, this isn’t good. If there was ever an out-of-bound area for you, that year would be it.”

  “Just tell me, Ziggy.” She hissed as she pulled the twig from her body. Blood covered the tip.

  “Sarah, it’s eleven months prior to the day that your mother gives you to Natalie. You’ve gone back twenty-eight years. I don’t think Francesca has even found out she’s pregnant yet.”

  “Oh God, that’s right. She came back in time to deliver me, and I set the transponder to Francesca’s date to warn her she’s a sitting duck,” Sarah whispered as fear crept down her body. “I didn’t save anyone; I brought them straight to her.”

  “Suck it up, Sarah and your badass self, and take care of this. Only you can do it now.”

  “I appreciate your faith in me.” Sarah dropped to her knees as darkness started to claim her. “But I don’t even know where to look for her.”

  “Sarah, just use your transponder and come back.”

  Sarah fell over into the snow, her gaze pegged on Tyler. “I can’t come back, not until I find Steed and make sure neither him or my brother is a threat to my life…well, the baby’s life. Hold down the fort, Ziggy.”

  Sarah’s eyes slid closed.

  “Sarah, don’t go to sleep. You’ll freeze and die. You have to find help.”

  Those were the last words Sarah heard as the darkness consumed her. Her entire body turned numb as visions of Foster and her future children rooted in her mind. It was a dream she’d gladly stay in.

  Her nose twitched, and she turned her head.

  “Wakey, wakey,” a woman’s voice commanded.

  Sarah’s eyes slid open to find a woman standing over her, holding smelling salts beneath her nose. Not just any woman. Francesca.

  “Mom?”

  Just as quickly as Sarah had woken, her eyes rolled in her head and the darkness consumed her again.

  Chapter 20

  Sarah kept her eyes closed as she snuggled into the warmth of the blanket around her.

  “Who is she?” a familiar man’s voice asked from across the room.

  “I don’t know. There was a spike that was off the charts, so I went to investigate to make sure it wasn’t an unauthorized experiment.”

  “If it was the same blue energy and the spike was big enough, she and the man could be time travelers,” he said.

  “If they are, how did they find us out here? No one is supposed to know where we are. Especially Stephen,” Francesca said.

  Sarah’s eyes slid opened, and she rolled toward the voices, ignoring the stabbing pain in her side. “Stephen knows you’re pregnant.”

  The man who had been speaking was Andrew. Sarah had to stifle her smile of recognition. It was apparent he was important in her life too. No wonder he stayed in the off-grid facility.

  “Francesca, you’re pregnant?”

  “No.” Francesca shook her head. “I’m not.”

  “Is it possible?” Andrew asked.

  Francesca dropped her gaze to her stomach and rested her hand against it. “I guess...I don’t know.”

  “You are because I’m your daughter, Sarah,” Sarah said while pushing to sit up on the bed.

  “Sarah was my mother’s name,” Francesca whispered.

  Sarah raised her brow. She’d never known where the name came from. There were a ton of things she didn’t know, including where in the hell Steed would have disappeared to.

  Sarah rose from the bed and grabbed the bedside table to steady herself. “I traveled with two men. One was Stephen Steed and the other his son.”

  “I had two children?”

  “Just one with him. I think the other guy is my stepbrother.”

  “You don’t know for sure?” Andrew asked.

  “It’s a long story. Where’s the man who was unconscious?”

  Andrew glanced over his shoulder to a bed across the room. Sarah grabbed her gun from her boot and a pair of handcuffs.

  Francesca gasped.

  “What are you going to do to him?” Andrew asked, moving Francesca behind his back.

  “I’m sending him to a holding cell,” Sarah answered and tossed Andrew the cuffs. “Put these on him while I keep my gun trained on him.”

  Sarah’s brother didn’t even twitch. He must have still been out cold. With his hands bound, she punched in the coordinates and dates to a portal.

  “Ziggy, I need you in containment. This guy is going to need medical, and be careful, he’s dangerous.”

  “Who’s Ziggy? Is he your husband?” Francesca asked.

  “I’m waiting in pod C with armed guards.”

  “He’s my coworker and a very important trusted friend. One you visit in the future…past…whatever.” Sarah answered Francesca. It was all starting to get confusing. A portal opened to the pod. Ziggy stood across the threshold and tossed her another pair of cuffs. “You might need those too.”

  “Thanks.”

  Ziggy waved like an idiot until his gaze dropped to the blood on Sarah’s shirt.

  “You’re hurt? You need to come with him so we can get you into the infirmary.”

  “I can’t leave until I find Steed.” Sarah shook her head and pressed the button, initiating the cuffs to transport Tyler into the infirmary holding cell.

  The portal closed, and Sarah turned to find Francesca’s mouth parted and Andrew holding a gun pointed at Sarah. “Who are you, and how do you know about Steed?”

  “I brought him here from the year 2018,” Sarah answered. “He was about to blow up STEM Corporation, and it was the only way I could stop him.”

  “STEM Corp. That’s where Natalie works,” Francesca whispered.

  “There’s two Steeds here, an older one that knows about time travel and a younger one, the one you...got busy with.” Sarah gestured to her mother’s flat stomach, fighting her urge to toss her cookies knowing that she, too, was pregnant and hadn’t told Foster. “Without telling you too much…”

  “And stepping out of bounds,” Andrew said. “I’m in legal, and we’re making the laws before any more jumps are made.”

  Sarah smiled. “Exactly, and because of stepping out of bounds and altering things, I can’t tell you much, only that your life is doubly in danger now, and so is mine.”

  Andrew lowered the gun he’d had pointed in Sarah’s direction. “That’s exactly why you need to leave with the others.”

  “The others?” Sarah asked. Had she happened to arrive at the exact moment when the fake witness protection people, aka terrorist squatters, landed at STEM Corp?

  “Others that need to hide to stay alive,” Andrew said.

  Francesca hit his arm. “You’re telling her too much.”

  “She already knows if she works with STEM Corp. People from her organization showed up and recruited all of you with promises of keeping you safe if you worked for them.”

  The butterflies in Sarah’s stomach turned to stone. STEM Corp had recruited those people?

  “What’s wrong?” Francesca asked.

  Sarah snapped her mouth closed and cataloged the information for later. She’d have to figure out why they’d lied. “Nothing. You do travel with those people.” Sarah met Andrew’s gaze. “And you do, too, although you aren’t Francesca’s protector but someone else.”

  “That’s not possible,” Francesca said, turning toward Andrew. “You
can’t leave.”

  “I made the commitment this morning. Someone has to be close enough to keep you safe,” Andrew announced and glanced at Sarah. “She does stay safe, right?”

  Chapter 21

  “I’m sorry, but what is your dynamic to Francesca? Are you two related?”

  “No,” Andrew announced. “I’m just a family friend. Francesca and I grew up together. She’s best friends with my wife, Natalie, and she’s Foster’s godmother.”

  “That’s exactly why you shouldn’t go. They need you here,” Francesca said.

  Sarah’s mouth parted, and she covered it with her palm. Andrew was Foster’s father.

  “I’m not leaving them. They're coming with us,” Andrew announced before glancing in Sarah’s direction. “So tell me, does Francesca stay safe if she goes?”

  This was one of those defining moments, but she decided to be honest since no one had ever been honest with her. “I don’t know what happens to Francesca. She gives me to an employee of STEM Corp to raise, a trusted stranger, who Natalie and Francesca picked out because Francesca worries about my safety and Steed finding me and killing me.”

  “You know about Natalie?” Andrew asked. “That means we’ve met in your future?”

  “Why would I give my child away?” Francesca asked.

  Sarah’s gaze traveled down to the Band-Aid at Francesca’s arm. “Steed knows about the stabilizing agent. You leaving him changes him into a man filled with rage and hate.”

  Francesca covered her Band-Aid with her other palm. “I just took it today. How did you know?”

  “You’re pregnant with me. I have the same agent running through my DNA.”

  Francesca almost dropped to her knees, but Andrew caught her. “Had I known I was pregnant I would have never taken the drug. If Steed knows I took the drug before destroying the rest of it, he’ll chase me to the ends of the earth to extract it from my DNA.”

  “You destroyed it?” Andrew asked.

  “The first batch he made was too powerful for any one person. I got rid of everything including his notes.”

  “But you injected it into yourself?” Sarah asked as anger bubbled up inside her.