by Jaxon Reed
At last he felt like he looked the part. He glanced in a window, one of the few not boarded up on this side of the street, and hardly recognized himself.
Then he went back to the alley, the place where it would all happen, and found the spot where the bum had been hiding.
He sat down and covered himself in trash until only his eyes peeked out.
An hour passed. This was the worst part, he thought. There was nothing to do without his implant. At least the smells no longer bothered him.
He stood up and considered scouting out Stormy’s building. But he decided against it. In his own personal timeline, they would invade the building and Stormy would get away. He would not learn anything useful now, after the fact.
He considered trying to wander down in the sewers along the escape route Stormy used after their attack. Could he figure anything out down there? Maybe see where she went? Or rather, where she would go.
No, he decided. Besides, he did not want to be caught. He wanted to be in this location when Bainer and the others came running by.
Time passed, and he still had nothing to do. His thoughts returned to the building and the sewers Stormy used to escape.
Could he plant something down there that would help them find Stormy four years from now?
No. He had not planned on trying to get Stormy, and he had made no preparations for the possibility.
Maybe they could come back on a future date and visit some other part of the timeline and set at trap for her.
Then he thought, maybe they already had? No, he decided. She got away. Or, will get away. So, obviously they did not succeed in stopping her. But what if they would in the future and his memories changed?
At that point, he got very confused trying to follow his hypothetical situations both past and future.
He gave up and settled back under his pile of trash to wait.
At last he heard the sound of hurried footsteps.
From his vantage point, he watched Bainer’s clone run past, heading for the alley’s dead end. He heard the clone climbing the fire escape ladder.
Moments later Collier rushed by, then Jamieson. They both hurriedly scanned the area with their guns, but neither noticed him under the trash.
He heard Bainer falling on top of the pursuers.
The first Boggs clone came running around the corner into the alley, and shot.
“Hey!”
Thoop!
Bainer snarled and picked up Collier’s weapon, firing back. Boggs raced forward, coming even with the hiding place.
Thoopah!
Boggs watched his first clone go down, nicked on the head and temporarily stunned.
Thoop! Thoop!
Bainer shot Collier and Jamieson, their clones popping away.
He walked up to the injured Boggs and aimed his gun.
Boggs the bum rustled in the trash pile and said, “Hey! Wha’s goin’ on here?”
That was enough to spook Bainer. He tucked the gun in his waistband and ran out to the street.
Boggs the bum stepped out of the rubbish pile.
“Ha! It worked!”
He nudged the first clone with his foot and said, “Wake up!”
Then he ran off after Bainer.
The first clone groaned and opened his eyes.
The second clone rounded the bend and ran hard for Stormy’s building. He could see Bainer bending over, holding his knees at the door and breathing hard.
Boggs stopped and pulled out his sidearm, aiming for center mass.
Thoop! Thoop!
He ran forward, hoping for another shot. Bainer went down but had not disappeared.
Edge produced a pistol and shot from the doorway.
Thoop! Thoopah!
Boggs tripped and fell, downed by the shots.
His second clone popped away as conscious thought left it.
-+-
Back in the present, Boggs opened his eyes and removed the dome over his head.
Hsu, Collier and Jamieson were all there, staring at him.
“Hey, Doc,” Boggs said. “If you never knew, the answer is, it works!”
“What works?” Jamieson said.
“I made a second trip back, in my clone. While I was in the past.”
“You what?”
Hsu nodded, recalling the incident.
“Yeah, I showed back up before you two got clobbered in the alley. I prevented Bainer from shooting my first clone, then I went and shot him with my second one.”
This led to a prolonged discussion about multiple loops, with everyone wondering how many times it could be performed.
“Theoretically,” Hsu said, “one could continue looping back so long as enough clones were left in the bank.”
Jamieson said, “Yeah, but . . . what if you go back to a time when there more blanks? Or fewer? And you just kept going back?”
Boggs said, “I’m totally confused now.”
Collier said, “Mortie, did you see Bainer’s clone disappear?”
“No. I shot him, but the big guy Sarge killed shot me before I saw Bainer pop away. In my second time around, the clone was not there when I retrieved the car. So yeah, there was a moment when Bainer was still at her door.”
“Then he was right,” Collier said. “Whatever he did, whatever he wanted to warn her about . . . he did it.”
Boggs said, “We could go back again and try to fix it.”
She shook her head.
Collier said, “No, the past is frozen. What’s happened has happened, and I don’t want to make it any worse. But we can still affect the future. Let’s focus on stopping Stormy now, in the present.”
Jamieson said, “If we mess up in the future, maybe we’ll come back into the past and then fix it.”
“Maybe.”
Everyone turned to look at Hsu, who issued this last statement in a doubtful tone.
He said, “I’m beginning to think creating this clone bank for quantum ocular projection cells was a bad idea. It . . . obviously allows for tampering with the timeline. And, its use has implications I never dreamed of, such as having one’s clone make an additional jump while already in the past.”
He stared at Boggs while saying this, who grinned back at him.
Boggs said, “Hey, you have to admit that was a good idea.”
Hsu said, “What else have I not thought of? There may be far more serious repercussions if this project remains operational.”
Collier said, “It may be a bad idea. But if we could request you leave it up and going a while longer, at least until we know more about what’s going on and how to stop this terrorist, AOJ would greatly appreciate it, sir.”
Hsu nodded, reluctantly and said, “I will leave it on until your investigation is complete, at least.”
He sighed and said, “I had hoped to try it myself, you know. It seems everyone else has.”
He gave them all a wan smile.
“Cheer up, Doc,” Boggs said. “Before you destroy it, you can send yourself back to tell yourself to destroy it . . . or not. Or something like that.”
Collier said, “That’s actually not a bad idea, sir. Don’t cancel the project until your future self comes back and tells you it’s okay on a certain date or something.”
Hsu warmed up to the idea.
“My future self will tell my past self whether or not it should be decommissioned. I like that. Then when I reach that point, I’ll know what to do.”
“You see?” Boggs said. “Problem solved.”
29
Like most people, Gianno Escabedo had a varied ancestry. In his case, it was mostly Greek, Italian and Spanish.
He had latched onto the Spanish side of his family with great interest, discovering in his research that they hailed from Catalonia.
Gianno was not much for history, but he read up on Catalonia and sympathized with their past leanings toward independence from Spain.
Other than that, Escabedo did not think about Old Earth and his a
ncestors, nor did he care about those who came before him or from where they came.
Instead, he was very much interested in earning money by fulfilling contracts for the Order of Aristarchus.
An encrypted email notification popped up in his mind’s eye, and he wandered over to the anonymous node used for communications from the Order.
He wiggled his eyebrows when he decoded the unencrypted text. A hundred thousand was enough to interest him.
The Order must really want that arms dealer dead, he thought. Dirk obviously ticked off somebody at the upper levels.
He could pocket 70 percent of that fee for himself and give ten each to his henchmen. That would make them happy. His lackeys did not have access to a terminal, and never knew the full amount the Order offered on contracts.
Escabedo liked it that way. It allowed him to keep the lion’s share of the profits while making them do most of the work. That setup had made Escabedo a rich and successful assassin during the war. He decided it was once again time to take on another contract.
He opened up a map of Octavia on his personal holo.
“Let’s see now, Lost Dragon Gaming Center. There it is. And, bus stops? Aha. Bus schedule?”
After studying things he touched his implant, making an all call to the men working for him.
“Guys, we’ve got a hurry up job. The mark is probably in a bus near Eastside. Meet me at the car with your gear and I’ll explain more on the way.”
A few minutes later, Escabedo’s large blue car sailed over Octavia heading toward the bus stop on Erstwhile and Presser Street. He explained his reasoning to the three men with him as they sat and listened in the car.
The thugs were thick-necked, brawny, and low on the IQ charts. In another time and place they might have put their muscle-bound bodies toward a profession involving physical labor. Instead, they chose to be contract killers working under Escabedo.
He said, “Dirk is looking for something, or someone. Probably whoever took out that contract on him. He’s going to need transportation. He’ll avoid autocabs which don’t take tokens and require an implant. So, he’ll take a bus. It’s the cheapest anonymous transit outside of walking. There are two leaving the stop right about now. I just need a look inside them both and we’ll find out if he’s there. If he is, it’s payday.”
The three big men grunted agreeably. Like Escabedo, their skin tone was brown, although it varied in shade from light to dark. To a man, they were all taller than him by several centimeters. They accepted his role as the brains of their outfit, provided he continued paying them for their services.
The car approached a tall public parking garage, and Escabedo set it down on the top level. The height afforded excellent views in all direction. All four men piled out. The three thugs followed Escabedo to the side facing Erstwhile Street.
He pulled out a small clear rectangle, an optics device, and connected it mentally to his implant. Then he called up his personal holo. It appeared in the air in front of him.
“You might call this thing a set of modern binoculars,” Escabedo said. “Only, it can do more than just magnify the view.”
He spied one of the buses making its way down the street below as it left the bus stop, and he aimed the rectangle at it. The magnified view appeared on his personal holo. Everyone watched it closely.
The image zoomed in on the vehicle at his mental command. Then it penetrated the bus, showing its interior and all the passengers.
One of the thugs said, “Hey, ain’t that one of the gadgets you bought from the arms dealer we’re after?”
Escabedo nodded and said, “Yup.”
“Shame we have to off the guy. He had lots of neat stuff like that.”
“A contract is a contract, Gav. He’s not on that bus. Where’s the other one?”
Gav pointed it out, heading the other direction down Erstwhile. Escabedo duplicated the procedure, zooming in on the distant vehicle then peering inside.
“The older fellow with light hair in the back,” he said. “See him? That looks like Dirk.”
Gav said, “I recollect Dirk had dark hair. I seen him that time you took me to buy something from him.”
“He’s lightened it to help disguise his looks. But I recognize the face, even with makeup. Alright. You and Teddy will get on the bus and take care of him. Herb, you’ll stay out on the street as backup, but I doubt they’ll need it. I’ll stay in the car to give you all some air cover.”
The three grunted in acknowledgement.
Dimly, they were aware that air cover would be the last thing needed for this assignment, and that Escabedo would remain out of the line of fire should things turn south.
But, he was the boss and in charge of their pay. So no one said anything.
Escabedo hurried back to the car with the other three trailing slightly behind.
When they got in, he gunned it, shooting above Erstwhile Street to fly ahead of the bus. He found a parking spot near the next bus stop and landed near the curb.
The three got out, pulling their suit coats tight so the bulges under their arms were less obvious to anyone looking.
Gav and Teddy joined the small number of people waiting at the stop while the one called Herb began walking down the street, preparing to follow on foot.
Escabedo nodded in satisfaction, then took off, flying back up in the air to hover as the bus trundled down the street.
-+-
Dirk sat as far back in the bus as he could. Teenagers occupied the last two rows on both sides, so he chose the third to last seat on the right.
He kept an eye on his surroundings, but he doubted anyone already on the bus would be out to get him. That was too random.
Those coming on later he resolved to watch carefully.
The bus slowed to a halt, the third stop since he climbed aboard. The vehicle had no driver, controlled instead by one of PLAIR’s many traffic subroutines.
Two older ladies came aboard. One dropped credit tokens into a slot, the other flashed her bus pass holo. They made their way to the first empty seat up front and shared it, continuing an earlier conversation.
But the next two men looked right at Dirk as they came through the door.
Dirk tensed, watching them. They deposited tokens and maintained eye contact as the door closed and the bus reentered traffic.
He ducked below the seat, coming back up just high enough to shoot.
Thoop! Thoopah!
Gav and Teddy fell to the floor amidst screams of terror. The bolts sailed over their heads, and blew out the front windshield.
The bus’s interior lights flashed red and it immediately moved to the curb and out of traffic.
PLAIR put in a 911 call, requesting immediate police assistance.
Gav stood and peppered the entire third of the bus with bolts from his weapon.
Thoop! Thoop! Thoop! Thoop! Thoop!
A young man who did not duck fast enough fell to the floor, bloody and dead. His friends screamed.
Teddy stood up behind Gav and zeroed in on the seat from where Dirk had fired.
Thoop! Thoop! Thoop!
Pandemonium spread as the bus stopped and opened its doors, dome lights still flashing red. Everyone scrambled for the exits at once, including the back door.
Gav and Teddy kept their guns aimed at the third seat from the rear, ignoring all the passengers streaming out.
Something flew at them in an arc from the seat.
Gav shot blindly again, chunks of upholstery fluttering up with his blasts.
Thoop! Thoopah! Thoopah!
A tiny object the size of a lipstick tube clattered and rolled to a stop at Gav’s feet. He and Teddy stared down at it
FWWWWAPP!
A blinding light flashed from the little cylinder.
They threw up their arms, shielding their faces . . .
And nothing happened.
Cautiously the two thugs peered out from between their fingers and elbows before pulling down their
hands and relaxing.
Gav patted his chest to make sure he was uninjured.
Dirk stood up from behind his seat, smiling and casually aiming his blaster at them.
Gav and Teddy aimed and squeezed their triggers simultaneously.
Click! Click!
Dirk said, “That was an EMP grenade, boys. Only affects the area about one meter around it. Handy little things. Portable, too.”
Their mouths dropped open as they stared at him. Teddy clicked his gun again, stubbornly. But awareness slowly spread across Gav’s face.
Dirk’s grin grew wider.
He said, “Now it’s my turn.”
Thoop! Thoop!
30
Dirk stepped out the bus’s back door, figuring the emergency exit would be safer than the main one up front. It was located behind the last seat, and opened onto the sidewalk.
Police sirens wailed in the distance as OPD vehicles neared. Fire trucks would not be far behind, he thought. Ambulances, too.
He looked both ways, trying to get his bearings. He was intent on blending in with the gathering crowd before police arrived.
On the sidewalk Herb covered both exits, but he stood closer to the front one. He saw Dirk go out the back and pulled out his gun.
Herb did not know what occurred on the bus. All he knew was their mark walked out instead of Gav and Teddy. That was not good. Herb did not know much, but he knew Gav and Teddy should be walking out, not the other way around.
But he did not spend much time thinking about it. They had a job to do, and if Gav and Teddy failed it was up to him to finish the assignment.
He headed toward Dirk, gun at his side. He tried to hide it from view by keeping it close to his thigh.
Passengers crowded around on the sidewalk. Pedestrians gathered, wondering what all the commotion was about. The interior of the now mostly empty bus continued flashing red.
Someone saw the gun in Herb’s hand and screamed a warning. Everybody nearby scattered.
Dirk saw him coming. He fired first, landing a bolt on Herb’s shoulder. He ducked just as Herb shot, an energy streak flying over his head.
