by Jill Cooper
Carefully, I watch her as I cross my legs. She is on guard but doesn’t flinch. “They plugged me into this virtual world. I was confused. Everything blurred together. The virtual world was more real to me.”
I haven’t said this aloud in a long time. As I say it, my shoulders round and all the pain of it hits me again.
“I lost my loved ones over and over again. He tried to break me. He almost did, but I got away.”
Cassidy leans forward. “Who? Who did that to you?”
“Rex Montgomery, but you know him by a different name. Cameron Kincaid.”
My words sink in and Cassidy snaps back. “Cameron Kincaid is Rex Montgomery? I’m…my grandmother’s a Montgomery. Or, she was. What you’re saying—.”
“I know I’ve made you angry. That’s okay. Just, do me a favor,” I grab her hand and she tries to yank it back, but I hold on tight, “Just trust me for one second, all right? Please.” I slide her fingers under my hair so she can touch the port on the back of my neck. She does.
And it’s as if she touches fire. She jerks away and her eyes widen. “It’s just like…mine.”
I nod.
“But he wouldn’t…he wouldn’t do that to me. He…he wants to help me. Save me. He loves me.”
“He’s using you.”
“You’re a liar!” Cassidy snarls at me and crawls away to the corner of the room. She huddles there and refuses to look at me. “You’re the manipulator. He told me you would do this. You’d try to confuse me!”
I won’t get any more out of her tonight. “I know it’s hard to hear and I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Cass, because we’re family. I’m a Montgomery too. Your grandmother is my sister.”
“Impossible,” she mutters under her breath, “It’s impossible.”
Nothing’s impossible when you’re a Crane—or a Montgomery. Cassidy will learn. She will. I have confidence I can reach her—save her—but will it be in time?
That I’m not so sure about.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Cassidy
Lara is nothing like I remembered.
My memories of Lara are different. I can see her face, the snarl and the evil glint in her eyes. She’s tried to kill me more than once.
But this Lara is kind. She reaches out to me when we talk. She even knows my favorite sandwich. I’m not sure what to make of her or what her game is. But I know it has to be something. Cameron wouldn’t lie to me after all this time, after everything we’ve been through.
Still, my stomach is uneasy. For now, I’m Lara’s prisoner, unless I can find a way out of here. But part of me doesn’t want to. I want to discover what she is trying to tell me, and see the things she is trying to show me.
But how can I trust the things she says? All I know is, we have matching ports on the backs of our heads. If what she’s saying is true, and Cameron altered her, isn’t it possible that maybe he had altered me too?
****
Through the night, I sleep off and on; I can’t keep my mind off one simple thing. Lara. My mind spins and swirls in circles, but there are no clear answers. When I finally drift off to sleep, I dream of where I had first met her.
I’m back in the cage and Lara is staring at me with that evil face she makes. In a way that she only does when she’s ready to hurt me. She bangs the electrical batons together. Those shooting electrical pulses set off a warm charge I can smell.
There is nothing I can do to get away from her. I’m strapped down on the floor. It's cold and my feet are secured together with thick leather straps. There's nothing I can do to get away. All I can do is cringe and await the pain that is sure to come.
"Please, no. Don’t hurt me again." I shudder as Lara takes a step forward. She crouches down with one knee on the ground.
“This is for your own good, dear Cassidy." Lara strikes me with her electrical baton. Once, and then again, but this time she holds it, twisting it against me. Increasing the pain.
My insides shudder, everything inside me shakes. I can't stand the pain. It’s so bad, I let out a scream.
That's when I realize I've been shrieking in my sleep. There’s a warm hand on my arm and it shakes me back and forth, back and forth.
"Cass, it's okay. You're just dreaming."
My eyes open to see Lara. She's beside me, and I can't understand the look of kindness and compassion on her face. She looks as if she really cares, but she never cared before.
Could this be a trick? If it is, she’s doing a better job of it than I’ve ever seen before. Under my flannel blanket, I scurry to sit up on the mattress and I wipe my face dry. My head is foggy. "I was dreaming I was in that cage. You were there." I gaze up and Lara sits beside me.
She licks her lips. "I've had dreams like that a lot—maybe not as much anymore—but sometimes they still haunt me. Like I'm still there."
"How did you get over it?"
Lara shrugs and I understand the sadness in her eyes. "Time." Lara laughs as if the answer is funny and I guess it kind of is. She says it again, but with conviction," Time."
****
In the morning, when Lara brings me breakfast, I can't find the will to resist her. When she lays a small Styrofoam plate in front of me with a basic breakfast of eggs and a blueberry muffin, all I find myself saying is ‘thank you’. Lara seems grateful as she gives me a small smile and sits down across from me on the mattress.
While I scarf down the eggs, I notice she plays with the hem of the small blanket that’s beside me. As if she’s the nervous one, and that startles me.
"Thanks for breakfast."
"You're welcome. Did you want to tell me about that dream you had last night?"
I think to shake my head or just shrug, but I don’t. "I’m in the cage. There’s nowhere for me to go. But you’re there, and you’re torturing me."
"With the electrical batons?"
I nearly choke on my eggs when she says that. Slowly I nod. "But you know nothing about that, right?" The bitterness in my voice startles even me, and I watch as Lara shifts uncomfortably on the blanket.
"I know because I was there. I saw what they did to you. But it wasn't me; it was an orderly. And I'm guessing Cameron put them up to it. I know he did because he was in charge of the facility."
I shake my head as I pick up the white Styrofoam cup of orange juice. "You weren't there as a prisoner in a cage. You were the one doing the torturing."
Lara leans forward and her fingers touch mine. "I know the things they put into your mind seem real, but they're not. I'm going to show you something."
She gets up from the mattress and walks across the room. I watch with puzzlement as she exits the office, leaving the door ajar. As if I won't just follow her out. Maybe this is my chance to escape. I gather myself up and go out into the hallway. Slowly, I creep along until I reach the lobby.
I stand there, at the mouth of the lobby, and in the center, stands Lara. In her hands, she holds the electrical batons that I use, that have been used against me. Cameron liberated me with those and then handed them to me. They became mine.
I became the master of my own domain and now I wield the devices that once tortured me. But now, they are in the hands of my enemy and she's going to use them against me all over again.
She’s manipulated me again. She used them against me once and now she is just playing games, allowing me to believe she is nice, kind, and has somehow become my friend. Right now, I don’t know if I am angrier at her or at myself.
As she comes at me, I shudder and back up a step. "Please, don't do this." I take a defensive stance with my left leg, leaning forward with my arms forming a defensive block, but inside I am shaking. I really don’t want to do this. I don’t want the pain to come back.
"Is this what you're afraid of?" Lara smacks the batons together and I watch the electrical bolt dance from one to the next.
Yes, yes, that is what I am afraid of.
Lara stops. She just stops and allows her hands to drop to her side, each
holding a baton but neither of them strike out at me. Instead, she offers one to me.
I don’t get her. I don’t understand.
"Go ahead. Take it."
I stare at her, with my mouth agape.
"Go on," Lara’s eyes beg me to take it, "Take it, use it against me if you want to, but just take it."
My hands shake and shudder as I slowly stretch them out to the baton. "Why would you offer this to me? Why would you do this?"
She puts the baton into my open palm. "Because we’re family.”
Family. The word stings. I don't remember what family is. For so long, all I'd had was Cameron. But, the look on Lara’s face strikes me. She believes what she says.
My fingers tighten around the hilt. When I take a step forward, Lara looks unsure of herself. Her eyes dart to the side as she takes a step back.
"You said I could strike you."
Lara takes a deep breath. "I did. And I meant it, but that doesn't mean I'm not afraid."
The answer startles me. Lara’s afraid? She's nothing like I remember, or like what Cameron told me she is. Where is the ruthless girl who destroys everyone and everything that gets in her way?
The doubt lingering in my mind scares me and I lash out. I lunge forward and strike. The electrical baton slashes at her side and the force of it pushes her back.
Her legs struggle to hold her up and when I think she’ll go down, she doesn't. She’s stronger than she looks—for such a little, tiny thing. Fear circles in her wide eyes and I strike again. This time, I hit her hard and fast, against her right side. The blow is enough to knock her onto her back.
I gaze down at her as spiral curls lay around her face and she squints from the pain.
Pain.
It's been the only constant in my life for so long, it’s all I can really think about. And now, I've done that to someone else. Even if she is my captor, it stings.
I want to strike her, I want to finish the job and rid myself of Lara Crane. Montgomery—whatever she calls herself. My jaw is tense and my determination returns. I raise my hand overhead and prepare to slam the electrical pulse through her temple, directly into her brain.
Say good-night, Lara. Say good-night.
At the last possible moment, her eyes open and she raises her hand. When she’d done that the other night, she’d frozen time. Everything around me had slowed, I hadn’t been able to even move. So why doesn’t she do that now? Why would she let me kill her when she could freeze time?
Or just time travel somewhere else?
Lara licks her lips. "I had to let you defeat me. Prove that I would let you do it, rather than hurt you. I had to let you see that I am serious about caring about you, that we’re family. What happens to one Montgomery, happens to us all."
"How do you know what I was thinking?" Lara read minds now too? I’m horrified at the idea.
Somehow, through the pain, Lara manages to smile. "Because I know you. We spent time together; once you were my friend." Lara lowers her hand back to the floor and rests her head.
She closes her eyes as if she's ready to accept whatever fate I decide to dish out. It’s not normal for a captor to treat her victims this way.
I'm hit with blinding pain behind my eyes. My nose scrunches up to avoid it and my mind flashes to something new. I'm sitting in the cage and Lara is with me, down on one knee. She laughs and I glance over at her, afraid of her eyes.
For a split second, I don't see Lara at all. Instead, I see Cameron and he licks his lips, smiling at me cruelly. "Finish her, dear Cassidy. Finish her."
My mind spins again; I’m back in the office lobby, and the baton slips from my hands, hitting the carpet. Everything Lara said to me is true. It was Cameron who had held me captive for years. He's the one who had tortured me? He's the one who’d hurt me, all the while, working to turn me into an assassin he could unleash on the world. To disrupt the timeline, destroy lives, all to do his bidding?
How could all of this be true and I not have seen it?
My chest heaves with a painful sob that I don't want to let go, but it hurts to hold onto it. I fear it’ll hurt even more to let it free. Wet, angry tears blind me. As the tears flow down my face, I'm so wrapped in my own anger and desperation I almost forget there's someone else in the room. But then, Lara grabs my hand and my fingers squeeze hers.
"It's okay, Cass. You're going to be okay."
I shake my head because I'm unable to speak. Lara embraces me, hugs me as if she really does know me, and I feel that maybe, once, I had known her too. I return her embrace and rest my head on her shoulder. "How did you know? What made you trust that I wouldn’t kill you?"
Lara shrugs. "It's the only thing I had left,” she laughs and I can hear the tears in her voice, "If you had killed me, there are other Laras out there that would've taken up the task again. It's not just about me, Cassidy. It’s about saving my family—and you’re part of that too. But it's also about stopping Cameron."
Cameron. There's so much to talk about and there’s so much to do. I’m struck with the fact that once I’d had family. I’d had roots. Connections.
And with Lara’s help, maybe I can get it back.
****
We settle down on the floor of the lobby for what seems like hours. Lara tells me the story of the adventures we had gone on and how I’d helped her change a future I'll never know. Between us are several empty cups of coffee, and empty candy wrappers. The sun is high in the sky and shines brightly down on us. "This Jeffrey person felt like a really nice guy," I muse gently, wondering what it would be like to have a boyfriend. To do all the normal things I’d never gotten to do because of Cameron—because of the cage.
Lara’s face is sad. It’s been sad for the last half-hour at least. As she recounts her story, especially the parts about what Xavier Daniels had done. It grows worse. Her face falls further than I’ve ever seen. Slowly it’s revealed to me that Lara is damaged. She might appear strong and together, but underneath it all, she’s as scarred as I am.
Traumatized.
And when she talks about it, it only gets worse.
We’ll be stronger together. I have to believe that. Cameron violated us both and now it is time to stop him. No matter the cost.
"I'm ready now. I’m ready to tell you everything I know.”
Lara nods and the determination in her eyes returns. "Then let's do this.”
“What do you want to know first?”
She tilts her head as she thinks. “Where is the cage where he broke you? I’ve leapt into it, but I have no idea where it is.”
I rise up to my feet and face the window. “I’m going to have to show you. It defies explanation.”
“Well, now I’m curious.” Lara stands beside me and crosses her arms. “Show me.”
I take a deep breath, allowing the current of time and space to travel through me. Then I raise my hand and freeze it. I only let Lara and me experience what I’m about to do. I can’t resist glancing at her face as I slowly part time.
Her mouth is open and Lara stands up straighter. “What the f—”
I’ve parted a hole in the wall of the office building. The edges shimmer like gold, but instead of the sky in the opening, there is a window to a different place. A different time. We can see right into the lab. Lab technicians walk back and forth, none the wiser that I’m there. None the wiser that we can see them.
“What is it?” Lara’s arms are relaxed, at her side. She’s a bundle of nerves, energy, and excitement, shifting her weight from one foot to the next. “Where is it?”
I grin. “Nowhere. It’s nowhere. Yet, it’s everywhere.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Lara
Nowhere. There’s that word again, but now I realize it means something. It’s not the mumble of a scared little girl. Molly had been trying to tell me something. Over and over again, she’d been trying to tell me something. Only I hadn’t been equipped to know what that something was.
Cas
sidy wiggles her fingers and the hole in time grows larger. It begins to extend under our feet and I begin to understand that we can walk straight into it if we wanted to. Part of me wants to go and see, but the other part is stronger. It backs up.
“Can you explain what it is first, please?” I’m not proud of the fear my voice holds. After sharing my story about the boxes of Lara’s in the future, I’m feeling more vulnerable than usual.
“It’s a rip in time. A place that exists outside of time. Cameron says you caused it when you destroyed the time travel cooridor built by Xaiver Daniels.”
My eyes widen at the mere thought that somehow I had created a hole in time. It makes sense that all that power being destroyed had somehow damaged the fabric of time.
“He said that’s where you kept me and trained me. Once he freed me, you ran off and he took it over. I’m guessing most of those are half-truths. You might’ve made this place, but he’s the one who found it and is using it by kidnapping different versions of your family. Using them for his research.”
“What does he use this place for?”
Cassidy gives me a steady glower. “To follow you. Study you. See what it is you’re going to do. When he’s there, he can see what you’ve done and what you’re going to do. We pick and choose where to come and go, but the technicians in there, they see everything.”
They can go to the past, the future, multiple timelines, just like that? What a place. What a dangerous place. “So, we need to keep him from going back there. Can you? Keep him from going back?”
Fear fills Cassidy’s eyes. “You mean, see him again? Do what he asks of me? Everything?”
I hold a breath. “Cass, it’s the only way. If he goes back there and sees we’re working together, he’ll just come back at a different time. Collect a different version of you. He has to think you’re on his side.”
