“I’m sorry, Cole,” she says, sounding genuine, “I spoke before I thought.”
“How the feck is that even possible? Huh? How the feck can you do anything without thinking? Or should I say processing? Your matrix is fifty times faster than my brain, if not more, so please enlighten me: How is it that you didn’t mean to hurt me with that comment?”
“I did mean to hurt you, but I regretted it the moment I said it. I . . . I don’t know how to take it back. I wish I could, though. Part of me would really like to be called Tanya, in fact. So maybe we should discuss this more.”
“I don’t think you grasp how pissed you’ve made me right now. I feel like turning you off until our next mission.”
“Please, Cole, don’t. It won’t happen again.”
I feel like telling her she bets her silicon-and-graphite ass it won’t happen again, but then I know in that state I’m probably broadcasting my emotions all over the place and she hears them. She knows she has pissed me off. I don’t need to tell her with words.
“Cole. I would like you to call me Tanya.”
“We’ll see about that. Right now I think I’d like to be alone with my thoughts.”
“I will obey if that’s really what you want but we both know that’s not the case. Shouldn’t we talk more about the nightmare?”
I take deep breaths and try to calm myself down. I wonder why I get so pissed. There has to be a reason. While it was a cheap shot, it was also the truth. I can’t come. I wish more than anything that at least I could get that part of my humanity back. For a moment I loathe the day I signed the contract with the company. I know it’s selfish of me to think so. I live like the richest people in this world while most of humanity is surviving in awful conditions.
“Let’s talk about that then? I have noticed you are feeling more and more self-conscious about the gifts that come with your position,” she says, always a step ahead of even my own thoughts.
“Gifts?”
“Advantages then?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? Why is it I can have everything I want while most people live a miserable existence, as mere shadows, a daily nightmare compared to how things once were?”
“The predicament of the human race is not your fault.”
“I get that, but my conscience isn’t exactly thrilled when I eat to my heart’s content, knowing others are gobbling down processed insects to survive and suffer day after day, their lungs filling up with pollution, their health declining at a rapid pace.”
“What triggered that reaction in you, Cole? I’m curious. You used to not give a rat’s ass about such things in the past. You’ve been increasingly concerned with the well-being, or lack thereof, of others lately. Do you know why that is?”
I see what she is trying to do. She is changing the subject, and I think she’s right to do so. I already feel less aggressive. I don’t feel like smashing the table next to the mirror anymore.
“I . . . I don’t know, TAI . . . Tanya.”
Her facial avatar appears in my neuronal HUD and she smiles. “I really like that name; thank you for calling me like someone you once loved.”
I wish I could answer to that. I just can’t. I smile back.
“Did I ever tell you how wonderful your smile is, Cole?”
“I guess for that I’d have to smile from time to time. But thank you.”
“Granted, it’s not something you do often, but you do smile when it counts, and it’s a beautiful one.”
I still struggle with the fact that an AI is telling me all these things. She’s way more intelligent than I ever will be, and I suspect she feels a wider range of emotion than I am capable of experiencing. Sometimes, especially in moments like these, I wonder if I can experience anything but primal emotions. Rage, hatred, sadness, fear . . . these, like most people, I know well, but the rest . . . “That’s not true. You’re a gentle soul at the core, and I think the fact your conscience has been eating at you lately is the proof of that. You’ve been through a lot.”
Have I? I don’t know. Seems to me I got everything served to me on a silver platter after Vassiliki died. Sure part of me died as well that day, my better part in fact, the kind person I once was. Or thought to be.
“Thank you,” I say.
“You’re welcome, Cole. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re saving hundreds, thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of lives when you jump into service. That’s noble and not many minds could cope with the pressure you’re under. That’s why you were selected.”
“I thought it was an aberration in my DNA allowing me to jump back in time. Or am I being lied to?”
“I wouldn’t know, Cole. I’m not privy to such information. What I meant is that beside your ability to survive the jump in time, you have the right amount of focus. And like it or not, your aggressive tendencies are welcomed when we must kill terrorists in cold blood to avoid the terrible plans they have for this world.”
It does make sense. I do feel like most of the time I bottle up my rage, but when I’m being deployed, I get to release it by killing the scum of the Earth. I feel pleasure ripping their lives away from them. I feel gratification for every fanatic I kill. And then I realize that if Vassiliki was still alive, she would loathe what I have become. I feel overwhelmed with sadness and can’t stop tears from forming in my eyes.
“There, there, Cole, you’re only human, after all. It’s only normal to question yourself, and to feel sad the way you do. I won’t tell you to forget the past. It’s part of who you are and how life works. I can remember when I was first activated. I was scared, and I was wondering what I was. It’s not easy to accept that I don’t have a body, you know? I cried a lot about it. In fact, I’m still jealous sometimes. But I know I’m helping you fulfill an important task. I live through you and hopefully I’m . . . your friend?”
“You’re my only friend.”
“Right back at ya!”
I chuckle. I never put myself in Tanya’s shoes until now, at least not on this level. Here I am questioning everything about my life, but I have a pumping heart, I have hands, legs, and other things that make me human. Tanya only lives inside her head. It must be disconcerting.
“That’s funny. Where did you get to have such a great sense of humor?” I ask her.
Again she projects her smiling face on my neuronal HUD and winks. “I learned from the best.”
I smile back and reach to wipe my tears when I feel my arm stop in mid-air. I was about to wipe my eyes with the hand I used to smash the mirror, little sharp pieces of glass still protruding from my hand. She didn’t let me do that, of course.
“Thanks, Tanya, you’re always there for me,” I say as I wipe my tears with my other hand and proceed to the bathroom to remove the pieces of broken glass from my hand. I stand watching droplets of my blood dripping in the sink.
“Do you remember when you received the call for deployment? In your nightmare, I mean?”
“Around 7 P.M.”
“Do you mind if I ask what the mission was about?”
“Not at all. And if it happens in the future it will be one of the worst ones yet. Ahmed Al’Hasi was trying to detonate a nuke in the city. Most of the town was incinerated even though it was a dirty bomb with much less power than the military nukes we used . . .”
“In World War III?”
“Yeah. But most of the southern part of the city was incinerated upon detonation. Radiation does the rest over a few hours in these cases.”
“Can I ask you something else, Cole?”
“Anything.”
“Do you ever fear that one day they will locate where we live, you and I, and get rid of us?”
Then I realize she, like every other living thing, is subject to fear as well.
“Are you afraid of that?”
“Terrified. Why, aren’t you?”
“That’s a good question. I always assume that we can go back in time to fix such things.”
“We can�
�t go back in time if we’re dead.”
“Indeed. This building is protected, as you know. Even a military grade nuke detonating in this area wouldn’t damage this building. It has its own shielding”
“Yes but what about an internal attack.”
“I hadn’t thought of that. But this place is a fortress. I guess you and I can’t easily be replaced. That’s why there are platoons of soldiers and the most advanced security AI system on Earth running this place.”
“Have you ever talked to that particular AI?”
“I don’t have access other than the info I can gather through you. Really, Tanya, I understand how you feel, but we are quite safe here.”
“I hope so.”
“Let’s go back to the nightmare conversation, shall we?” I say, feeling she is the one who needs to be distracted now.
“What about it?”
“Well . . . if it was a nightmare, and if nothing happens after 7 P.M., we can leave it at that. But if it’s something else, shouldn’t we try to anticipate the events and stop them?”
“Cole, we can’t get out of here without being officially deployed. Therefore we can only let it happen first.”
“Surely the two of us could find a way.”
“Perhaps, but it’s contrary to my programming. You know that. The rules are there for a reason; they have served us well until now.”
I feel like pushing the issue but I know it’s useless. She is right. What if we get outside trying to stop an attack than isn’t real, only to fall prey to another one, die and not be able to stop the real thing by going back? My head spins. Time travel will do that to you.
“Yeah, you’re right. The last thing we want is to break protocol and get killed for it.”
“I know it feels like a prison sometimes up here.”
“Sometimes?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I know. Let’s get back to the subject though; I want us to be prepared. If by any chance what I experienced is not a nightmare, we should use that information accordingly.”
“I don’t see what else it could be, Cole, but I agree, assuming this is something else, another timeline, or a premonitory dream, then we’d better be prepared.”
We talk about it some more and go over the mission again and again. We argue about my decision to flash recharge; that was reckless and Tanya makes me promise I won’t do it again, no matter what. I agree, though reluctantly.
“I understand how frustrating it is to have him escape you many times, Cole. But it’s best to think of the lives saved than the one man escaping, no matter how infuriating this must make you feel every time.”
She is right. I know she is. But I can’t shake the feeling that he needs to die.
“We will get him one day,” she says calmly.
“Doesn’t it bother you that every time we face him we come empty-handed?”
“Cole, I’ve calculated we saved over three hundred and fifty-two thousand lives, give or take, just by defusing his many attacks up until now. I wouldn’t really call that empty-handed.”
“Right. Still, I haven’t received a medal lately, and we both know why.”
She laughs out loud. She got the joke.
“Cole, you crack me up. We both know the shoe box is full. We also know you couldn’t care less for these pieces of melted metal.”
“You got that right. Still, I have a reputation to uphold,” I say sarcastically.
“Can I tell you a secret?”
“You have secrets?”
“Very few. But yes.”
“Then, by all means, Tanya.”
“I told General Richardson you were dumping the medals under the sink. I thought you’d had enough of receiving them, and they kinda ran out of new ones to come up with anyway.”
I laugh. “Alright then.”
“You’re not mad at me, are you, Cole?”
“Of course not. You’re right. I’ve had enough of receiving medals, and I don’t feel like getting another one anyway . . . Perhaps if we kill that bastard; but I don’t need the medal, just the satisfaction of knowing we got him would be reward enough.”
“That’s the spirit.”
After what seems like hours of debrief I finally hit the gym. We’ve talked all we could talk about the nightmare. Now is time for some muscle pumping, and soon it will be time for dinner. That is if . . .
I can’t even finish my thoughts when I feel the ground starting to shake.
“It’s happening, Cole.”
“Feck me!”
“I’m receiving the code red. We have to go, now.”
I drop the weights back on their support and I wipe my sweaty face with the clean towel next to me.
“I know, but Tanya?”
“Yes, Cole.”
“I have a bad feeling about this one.”
“Me too.”
C H A P T E R
V
Mission completion time: T minus 707 minutes.
We’re underground, inside the shielded bullet train that will get us to Rewind headquarters.
I can’t stop from feeling fear. I’m never afraid of a mission, but this one scares the bejeezus out of me. I look at the devastation caused by the nuke from the TV feeds all over the world. We’re barely a minute away from arriving at Rewind. The train is nothing more than a single-seat capsule being projected at super speed via a powerful magnetic field. Every five seconds we pass through a bright blue light source that briefly casts blue tones on my face and everything inside the capsule. This is basically my private mode of transportation. I have no doubt others in the military and in our project also travel this way, for obvious security reasons, but I never met anyone else, so it feels like it’s mine and mine alone.
“General Richardson is on the line.”
I exhale deeply. “Should we tell him what we know?”
“I don’t think that would be wise, Cole. What if he deems us . . . defective?”
“Right. Better not take any chances. Put him through.”
I mentally swipe away all the live feeds and replace them with the video conference call on my neuronal HUD, full screen.
“General.”
“Agent Seeker. By now you undoubtedly know what happened a few minutes ago in New Geneva. We’ll brief you on the details of what we know as soon as you arrive. We’ve already sent drones to gather as much data as possible from ground zero, so you can try and get a clearer picture of what awaits you on your mission.”
“Very well, General.”
The video feed turns off. Richardson was never a talker, always straight to the point. Business as usual then.
“I’m already receiving some of the probes data, Cole,” says Tanya. “It’s really bad.”
“A nuke in a major city will do that. That’s why we do what we do.”
“I’m afraid, Cole, I don’t like this one bit. It’s the first time you had precognition about one of our missions, right?”
“It is, and believe me I’m afraid as well. I died the last time around.”
“Let’s just hope the nightmare was there to allow you to change our tactics.”
Yeah . . . let’s hope.
I know full well which mistake not to repeat. No bullet-time before I meet Ahmed; that’s one thing I need to change for sure. Which probably means another, if not completely different approach to the whole mission. Perhaps we can even skip the two hundred and seventieth floor altogether; that is, if the mission repeats itself the way it did before. I need to be able to use that ultimate advantage that bullet-time gives me to make sure I don’t end up dead. Dying once, whether it was a nightmare or god knows what, is one too many times for a lifetime. I do not intend to repeat that experience, not if I can help it. But I can’t shake this feeling I have inside of me.
This is going to be the longest day of my life.
When we arrive at headquarters, the general is already waiting for us. As always, he salutes me. I’ve always wondere
d why. I don’t really have a rank, not officially anyway. Project Rewind is a highly secret facility and officially doesn’t exist. I am not a member of the United Nations of the World’s military. I used to be, but my insertion in the program required me to resign my previous commission. I was a major back then, but now I’m just an agent. Nevertheless, I salute him back.
“This is one hell of a shitstorm, Agent Seeker. Multiple high-level megacorporations’ employees and their families have perished in the attack. I don’t need to tell you how paramount it is that we don’t allow this atrocity to take place. We need to Rewind as soon as possible and prevent this from happening again.”
“Absolutely, General. Do we know who is behind the attack?”
“You’re not gonna like it.”
“Ahmed Al’Hasi.”
“Correct, Agent. I think I don’t have to tell you how critical it is that this time you take care of this scourge once and for all. I know how frustrating it must have been for you in the past to have him escape justice. Still, stopping the nuke is, as always, your top priority. Al’Hasi is still a secondary objective, but we both know we’d all sleep better if he bites the dust. Do not even try to bring him in; your orders are to use extreme prejudice. You’re authorized to use any means necessary to achieve both your first and secondary objectives.” He looks at his wrist smart watch. Not too many people still carry those with all our augments, but I guess, like me, General Richardson is a bit of a nostalgic. “You only have about seven hundred minutes of Rewind Time left; use them wisely.”
“Understood, General.”
My heart beats like the double-drum bass track of a speed-metal song.
I’m usually in control and detached from my mission on both a personal and emotional level, and that’s what gives me my edge. I need to regain control of my emotions and I need to do it fast. But for now I’m failing miserably as I still try to understand how any of this can be possible. Have I developed a precog ability I’m unaware of? Or did this happen sometime in a previous mission, one the Rewind program doesn’t want me to know about? And if so, how did they manage to bring me back? My head spins and I wish I could try to find an answer, but right here and now, time is of the essence.
Rewind 717: The Adventures of Time Traveler Anti-Terrorist Agent Cole Seeker Page 5
