Dr. Lathrop could wait, he decided, turning to head back inside to spend every last dollar in his wallet on the young talent. However, when he told his legs to move, they refused. Something else had control of them. Then, almost as if on cue, the vision of her sweet nipples entering his mouth disappeared and was replaced by mounting guilt. That damned phone call! He couldn’t believe the timing. His Viagra-inspired erection wilted, turning him around and sending him to his Lexus. He got in and drove west out of the parking lot.
He decided to wait at least ten minutes before calling the president of the university back, just in case someone was tracing the call. With the recent terrorist attack and the urgent nature of the president’s phone call, anything was possible at this point, especially with NASA’s secret facility located directly under the campus.
If Alvarez was right, the NSA was probably involved by now, so he needed to play it safe, even though this was his last day as a lawyer for the University of Arizona. That’s assuming he could stop Lucas Ramsay and his experiment tonight. If successful, he planned to type his letter of resignation, sign it, and stuff it into the mail slot on the president’s door before meeting his wife and friends for dinner. A last supper, he thought. After that, all he needed to do was pick up the rest of the money from the technology buyer tomorrow.
Play it cool. You’ve got this.
He needed to remember to stop by Griffith’s lab to drop off the material sample for lab analysis, otherwise his brother-in-law would be pissed. He couldn’t afford for that to happen; not with the way today was starting to spin sideways.
Just then, a memory flashed in his mind. It was from a few minutes ago when he was walking out of the strip club. His memory replayed the sound of the DJ’s voice blasting over the PA system, calling out the list of dancers due on stage. First up was Paige, then a girl who’s stage name was Jasmine.
General Alvarez had a daughter named Jasmine—a beautiful sports-aholic, who attended the university. But Alvarez said she worked as a bartender for a different gentleman’s club in town. Not this one. But he also knew young girls kept secrets from their fathers, especially from overbearing blowhards like Alvarez.
Larson’s heart skipped a beat, wondering if it could be her. Dancers and bartenders move around constantly, so it was possible. Shit, did his niece by marriage just see him drinking and carousing in the club? If she did, the general would soon find out, and so would Larson’s wife.
He thought about it a little more, but decided it couldn’t be Alvarez’s daughter. Why would Jasmine switch clubs and then decide to start pole dancing? Bartenders made great money and they got to keep their clothes on and the customers’ paws off. Plus, why would she dance using her real name and not a stage name? No, it couldn’t be her. Must be a coincidence. He shrugged the idea off and shut down the paranoia.
A minute later, his phone rang. It was the university president.
“Fuck. I can’t catch a break today,” he mumbled, pressing the call recorder icon to start the app. He pressed the answer button after the second ring. “Hello?”
“Larson, is that you?”
“Yes, Dr. Lathrop. What can I do for you?”
“I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for the last hour.”
“Sorry, sir. I was at lunch and left my cell phone in the car by accident.”
“I left an urgent message with your wife. Did you receive it?”
“She just called. I was about to call you. Is there an emergency?”
“You could say that. Something has come across my desk. Something that must be dealt with, immediately.”
“What is it?”
“Not on the phone, Larson. When can you be in my office?”
“I’m ten or fifteen minutes away, depending on traffic.”
“Be here in ten,” Lathrop said, ending the call.
Larson terminated the audio recorder and put the phone on the console between the seats, wondering what the hell was going on. Maybe his boss knew about his proclivity for young strippers, or his drinking during lunch, or his selling of university secrets to the technology buyer. He slowed the car and changed lanes, turning into the parking lot of an apartment complex on the north side of the street. He cruised slowly, circling the lot, deciding whether to make a run for it now or continue west and meet with his boss.
What could Lathrop possibly know? Larson had been extra careful, but maybe he’d missed something. If he had, he’d better grab the wife and kids and disappear for good. He might have enough money saved, if they lived frugally and off the grid somewhere. Alaska or Montana would work, as long as it was near water.
But what if his boss didn’t know squat and he left town for the wrong reason? He’d certainly be fired and lose his pension, all for nothing.
Then he thought about the five hundred grand waiting for him in the morning. He couldn’t pass up the bounty. Besides, he was much smarter than everyone else, so there was no chance he’d missed anything.
They can’t possibly know shit. It must be something else.
He drove the car back onto Broadway and stomped on the gas pedal, heading toward campus.
13
Lucas rubbed his sore knee, trying to determine if its flexibility was getting better or worse. He wrapped a palm and three fingers around the swollen kneecap to measure its circumference. It was the size of a grapefruit, same as before. Based on her claims and the lessening pain, he thought it should’ve been smaller by now. However, all the walking and bending probably wasn’t helping with the healing process. Time to sit on a three-foot-tall rock and take a break, he decided.
He studied the terrain along the side of the mountain, wondering how Masago was doing in her search. He’d lost track of her position fifteen minutes earlier when she’d climbed past the sheer rock face near the midpoint. He was amazed at how quickly she’d traversed the mountain, taking very little time to select her path and work her way to the first mini-plateau. She was definitely one of those girls who thrived on adrenaline, rising to meet any challenge head-on.
In a different life, he imagined her as a fighter pilot—high speed, low drag—dedicated to the mission and to her teammates. She may have been limited in size, weighing in at a hundred pounds dripping wet, but her fortitude and never-say-die attitude more than made up for her lack of stature. If he had to sum her up in one word, it would be survivor. Or maybe deadly warrior was better. Okay, both defined who and what she was, so why quibble?
Other people, especially those who might never have taken the time to get to know her, might’ve prejudged her, labeling her as wacko or demented. While he could see their point, he could sense she was much more than a flamboyant recluse. There was definitely something stirring just beneath her facade. Something genuine and pure, driving her to be more than she was.
His mind drifted to the moments just before she’d started her climb, replaying the words he’d said in anger. They were harsh and vengeful, each one barbed and meant to hurt. He wasn’t sure why his lips let them out. She didn’t deserve it. It was almost as if—
A whirling sound broke him out of the daydream. It was coming from above and rising in volume. A single beat later, a thud landed next to him. He turned. It was Masago, grinning from ear to ear.
“Did you miss me?” she said, unhooking the climbing rope from her harness. She took her gloves off and flexed each finger.
“Holy shit!” he said, peering up. The rope was dangling from somewhere near the top of the rocky slope.
“Fast roping is my second-favorite thing. I’m tempted to climb back up and do it again. You should try it sometime.”
“No thanks, I’ll pass. I’m not a big fan of heights. Or terminal velocity, for that matter.”
“Okay, but you don’t know what you’re missing.”
“I’m a scientist, remember? I prefer to have my feet planted firmly on the ground at all times.”
“Lucas. Sweetie. You need to step out of your comfort zone once in a
while and try something new. You know, get that heart pumping. It’s good for ya.”
He nodded, wanting to get something off his chest. “Look, I’m sorry about how I acted earlier. I was way out of line when I snapped at you for no reason. You didn’t deserve that. Sometimes my mouth gets the better of me. I wish I could blame it on growing up in foster homes, but the truth is, I can be an asshole at times. I don’t know why. It just sort of happens. It’s something I’m working on to better myself, but I’m afraid I’m still a work in progress.”
“Already forgotten,” she said, giving him a firm hug and a peck on the cheek. “Guess what I found?”
He smiled. “Seriously?”
She gave him the Google Glasses. “Someone must be looking out for you.”
“Why would you say that?”
“It was just dumb luck I found them. I sat on a rock to clear a few pebbles from my shoe when I happened to glance at the base of a scrub oak. Something reflected and caught my eye from underneath. I stuck my hand in and found them.”
“Where?”
“Thirty feet from the top. You must have dropped them as soon as you went over the edge. They probably bounced around and got wedged under the branches.”
“I can’t believe they were still there,” he said, thinking of the machine guns tearing apart the plateau. “Alvarez and his men must have scoured the place after the slaughter, looking for clues.”
She leaned in toward the glasses, inspecting the device more closely. “Those would’ve been easy to miss. If I hadn’t been sitting precisely where I was with the sun at my back, and at that exact time of day, I would’ve never seen the reflection. It was a million-to-one shot I found ’em. Seriously.”
“You’re right. Dumb luck.”
“But that’s not all I found.”
“You went up top, didn’t you?”
She nodded furiously, like a six-year-old waiting for a freshly baked batch of chocolate chip cookies. “There were blood stains buried in the dirt. Someone tried to cover them up, but did a crappy job. Probably in a hurry.”
“Anything else?”
“That’s it.”
“Damn.”
“Expecting something else?”
“I was hoping for a few body parts lying around.”
“Why? To gross me out?”
“No, so you’d believe me.”
“Of course I believe you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be helping you right now,” she said with a tense look on her face. “Don’t forget, I gave up my way of life for you. I gave up my home and all my possessions for you. I gave up any chance of ever seeing my father again, just for you. So, yes. I believe you. How can you possibly doubt that? Not after all we’ve been through.”
“I’m sorry. You’re right,” he said, fiddling with the glasses. He checked the structural integrity of the frame, sensors, and technology. Everything appeared to be intact. He put the glasses on, hoping to activate the optics, but the heads-up display didn’t power on.
“That figures,” he said, taking the glasses off to inspect the unit.
“What’s wrong?”
He opened the battery compartment. The electrochemical graphene cell was full of fluid, but its color had faded into a murky white. It should’ve been a bright-yellow color.
“Battery’s dead. Bouncing around on the rocks must have caused the internal sulfur-based cooling system to malfunction, draining the energy core.”
“Can you recharge it?”
“Not sure. This technology hasn’t been invented yet. Not for another four hundred years. Give or take.”
“Then how are you going to communicate with your friends?”
“I can’t,” he said, thinking through his options. They were dwindling. “I might be stuck here for good.”
She gave him another hug, this time wrapping herself around his arm, lingering a bit before she let go. “That’s not all terrible, is it?”
“No, but I have a mission to complete. A lot of people are counting on me. More than you could ever imagine.”
“You’re a smart guy. You’ll figure it out.”
He wanted to tell her about the massive energy domes that would soon appear in Tucson and spread across the globe, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it. Not when his younger self was responsible. At least he knew when and where they would appear. He could keep Masago out of the path of destruction until he could figure out a way to fix the glasses and travel back to an earlier date in history. Then he should be able to fix the timeline so everyone who was about to die, wouldn’t. He just needed to stay the course and get the glasses working—and the suit repaired. No reason to complicate things with the whole truth.
“I suppose I might be able to fabricate something. If I had the proper tools and equipment.”
“I’m sure there are several places in town that have what you need. My father left me a sizable emergency fund. I’m thinking it’s time for a little power shopping. What do ya think?”
“Thanks for the offer, but I can’t let you do that. What I need is very expensive. It would drain your account. Your father left the money for you, not me.”
“I don’t mind, really. The stash isn’t far. I can take you to it.”
“Stash?”
“Yeah. A hidden stash. What where you expecting? A bank account? My father didn’t trust the banks. Neither do I.’
“Can’t blame you there,” Lucas said when a vision of the professor popped into his brain. “There’s another choice. But I was hoping to avoid contact with him.”
“Who?”
“Dr. Kleezebee. My boss who lives on campus.”
“The University of Arizona? Or Pima Community?”
“U of A. He’s the dean of the Astrophysics Department. At least he used to be, assuming my incursion hasn’t altered the timeline around that fact.”
“What are the odds of that?”
“Small, probably. Then again, when I first arrived and could still communicate with Fuji, he mentioned the possibility of ripples of time flowing backward. If that’s true, there’s no telling what’s changed. But I have to believe, even if there were changes in both directions along the timeline, Kleezebee must still be involved and in charge. His presence is too important and too prominent in this slice of space-time.”
“See, even you have faith.”
“Well, faith in science. Not the other stuff.”
“That’s a start.”
“If you say so.”
“I’m guessing all the extra Lucas copies didn’t help the timeline, either.”
“No, certainly not. It might be beyond repair already.”
“But we still have to try, right?”
“We?”
“Yeah, we. I’m in this now. To the end.”
Lucas didn’t know how to respond. It would be better if she didn’t tag along, but the more he got to know her, the more he realized she was one headstrong chick. Smoking hot, but stubborn.
As far as his own history was concerned, she wasn’t supposed to be directly involved in this timeline, not during its previous iteration.
He took a few seconds to evaluate all that had happened, trying to calculate possible near-future outcomes. But he couldn’t focus his thoughts enough to find a solution. Not with her standing there watching him.
Her gaze penetrated his defenses, reaching deep into his soul, exposing who he really was—a shallow, weak-minded man whose emotions lurked just beneath the surface, ready to take control away from his logic, sending him down a path of self-destruction and self-doubt. He wasn’t sure what to do—a common theme lately.
What if he made the wrong decision and even more people died this time around than previously? The ripple effects of everything he’d done since arriving and everything he was about to do would have lasting consequences, especially now. He’d missed the chance for a simple meet and greet with his former self to nudge history along a different path, or to stop himself from running the experiment altoge
ther. Changes to the timeline would’ve been much easier to control if he could’ve just popped in, made a small change, then popped out. All hope for a simple reversion was shredded, along with the Lucas copies, when Alvarez opened fire.
Looking at Masago and thinking about his life up until now made him miss Drew more than ever. Sure, there was a younger Drew running around this timeline somewhere, but he needed his version of Drew—the one who’d been at his side since the beginning. The one person he trusted more than anyone else.
Making solo decisions was not his strong suit and he knew it. He was better in a group setting, where he had the support of others. The support of people with more conviction than him, like Drew—and Masago—hell, just about anyone else. It’s not easy making choices when your failure rate runs high, haunting you from the shadows.
“Lucas? Did you hear what I said? I’m in this now. To the end.”
“Yes, sorry. I got lost in my head for a second.” He gave her a firm ten-second hug, then let go. “Thank you. Thank you for everything. I can’t do this alone. Especially not with this knee.”
“How’s it feel? Any better?”
“Maybe,” he said, flexing the leg. It was improving. “Hard to tell for sure, but I think so.”
“We should go see your boss: Professor What’s His Name.”
“Professor Kleezebee. But I’m worried once he learns of my presence here, it’ll further contaminate the timeline.”
She didn’t say anything.
“Eventually, all these changes will have a compounding effect. If they reach critical mass, I won’t know what’s coming next.”
“Doesn’t sound like we have much of a choice.”
“There’s always a choice. I could choose to do nothing.”
“Then your mission fails.”
He shrugged. “Then I guess it fails.”
“How can you just give up like that?”
Reversion (The Narrows of Time Series Book 3) Page 11
