by Jill Cooper
Chapter Ten
I’m late. Nothing worse for a time traveler than that.
Nervous, I blow out a breath of air as I rush through TTPA security. I am dressed comfortably in jeans, a blue and white top with a high collar, and blue slip on shoes. I hope that my fancy earrings dress up my outfit a notch because I wasn’t thinking about having a business meeting when I left Donovan the night before.
Left him. I squeeze my eyes shut and try not to think about what that all entails. What I’ve done. What he’s done. Hopefully, we can fix it. If I’ll give him a chance. I want to give him that chance, but trust, for me has never come easy.
I step off the elevator on the top floor of the TTPA and head into the sprawling restaurant that overlooks the city. Colleagues and business people of all kinds sit and eat brunch over meetings, but what I’m doing here is dangerous.
Time for me to dance with the devil.
Over at a table by the window, Cameron stands. He gestures his hand at the table but doesn’t exactly wave. It’s more as if he’s ordering me over. His lips twist in a playful smirk as I approach. Slinging my bag off my shoulder, I accept his outstretched hand. “Mr. Kincaid, sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Lara, it’s a pleasure. Please, call me Cameron.” He gestures to the seat in front of me and I take it.
Sliding myself into the chair, I grab the blue cloth napkin and unfold it in my lap. Orange juice and coffee wait on the table. My eyebrow arches when I notice that my coffee already has cream in it. The perfect color and when I sip it…it has sugar, too.
Cameron follows suit. “I hope you’ll forgive me for my presumptuousness, but I took the liberty of ordering for you. Since you were running late. Imagine that, a time traveler….”
“Former time traveler.” I try not to let the anger growing in my chest show on my face. “And please, it’s fine. I’m curious to see what you’ve ordered for me. I guess you think you have me pegged already.”
Cameron swallows his juice. “It could be fun, couldn’t it? I feel I must apologize for yesterday. I know Delilah was a close friend of yours. And, well, I’ve surmised she never mentioned me. I’m sorry if it came as a shock. I never meant to step on anyone’s toes.”
“I’m sure you didn’t, but now we can get acquainted, right? Before I give you the tour of the facility.” I study his face as someone comes by.
“Breakfast already.” Cameron unfolds his napkin with a quick flip of his wrist. A waiter approaches and slips a bowl in front of me.
Oatmeal and a side of red gelatin.
I grip my armrest as a wave of memories wash over me. All of them are from my life back in the cage. Two years of my life wasted, and when they pulled me out of the virtual reality prison created just for me, breakfast was always served.
Oatmeal. Strawberry gelatin. Every time.
“Did I do that bad?” Cameron’s tone is playful, but I’m feeling anything but.
“It’s fine.” I glance up at the waiter and refuse to let Cameron see how spooked he has me. If he thinks I’m going to play into his hands, then he has another thing coming. “You forgot the raisins, though. Brown sugar, please.”
The waiter nods. “Of course, Ms. Montgomery.”
When he leaves, Cameron slides his fork through his sunny side up eggs. He doesn’t bring the oatmeal up, so what is his next move? “Soon to be Mrs. James, isn’t it? I caught a picture of you two on the socialite page.”
“Yes, in just a few weeks.”
Cameron thoughtfully chews before wiping his mouth with a napkin. “I read he’s made quite a few dollars for himself in the stock market. Fascinating.”
“You should know.” I picked up my coffee and balanced my elbows on the table as I leaned forward. “Since you helped him do it.”
Cameron chokes on his eggs and I take on the full brunt of his eyes. “Pardon me?”
“I know you wanted an introduction to Delilah Chase and I know what you gave Don. You want control of the TTPA. I just don’t know why.”
“Well,” Cameron put his fork down and leaned back in his chair, breaking the gaze between us. “I can see games with you aren’t going to be necessary.”
“If you think you can control me through Don, you can’t. I’m my own woman.”
“Perhaps, but we both know if you were going to go to the cops, you would’ve by now. If you did, Donovan would go down with me.”
True. But can I really let that stop me?
“And if he goes, you’ll go down too. No one is going to believe you had nothing to do with getting stock information through time travel. I’m sure, after everything you’ve been through, you value freedom above all else.”
He’d threaten me so openly in the agency I helped build? “You don’t know anything about me. I value the truth over all else.”
Cameron laughs through his nose. “Funny.”
I don’t see what’s so funny about it. “How’d you get your hands on the stock market information without triggering the time travel alarms? Without the TTPA stopping you?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Cameron growls as if he’s going to lash out. His cheeks flush. It’s clear that whatever he thought was going to happen today, this wasn’t part of his plan. He didn’t expect me to be so forward, or to have pieced everything together. “If you want to know, I guess you’ll have to stick close to me, won’t you, Lara?”
“Did you kill Delilah?”
Cameron’s eyes widen. “Well, now I’m insulted. I would never…never hurt someone like that. And to kill? I’m afraid you give me too much credit.” He laughs. “Or too little…aren’t you going to add in your raisins?”
“He hasn’t brought…” My voice trails off as I gaze down at the table. My breath stutters. On the table is a bowl of raisins and one of brown sugar that wasn’t there before. I touch the small white bowls and gaze back at the kitchen. Cameron and I were engaged in an intense conversation. It’s possible that the waiter came and put them down when I wasn’t looking. That I had been so angry with Cameron that I didn’t notice…
I get a full-on headache in a split second. Groaning I grip my temple and flex my legs under the assault. A new image flashes in my mind. The waiter had just left. As he did, a waitress with a blond bun slipped brown sugar and raisins on the table beside me.
“Thank you,” I spoke the words, I recognize my voice but have no memory of saying them.
She nodded her thanks and was off again.
But that hadn’t happened. It hadn’t.
So how was I holding the white bowls in my hand?
“There are many possible outcomes in the universe, Lara.” Cameron stands and buttons his suit jacket. “Go right, go left, stay exactly where you are. For years, that’s been your…decision. Those choices are infinite and only one brain in the entire world has the power to comprehend them all. Someone just had to remind you of that.”
Cameron touches my chin. A gentle touch, but one that causes me to recoil. I jerk my head away.
“It’s a pity you stopped time traveling. Pushing your potential, instead of locking it in a cage. Now, it might be gone forever, but before…you could’ve become so strong.”
Was he right? Should I have kept pushing myself for more abilities? Time travel, alternate time lines past present and future. Who was I to play with those around me?
“You’re wrong. Time travel is dangerous. What you’re talking about….”
“Is brown sugar and raisins.” Cameron offers me his hand. “Why don’t we start that tour? I’d love to see how the monitoring systems actually work.”
I stand without taking Cameron’s hand and follow him to the elevator. Part of what Cameron said made sense. If he knows I had a flashback about an alternate timeline, he doesn’t say anything about it.
He might have suspected, but does he know? I doubt it. How could he? Could even Rex Montgomery control so much?
But if my mind could see something that an alternate Lara Montgomery
saw, maybe my powers aren’t so dormant after all. Maybe my powers, like a muscle, are just waiting to be flexed.
****
“And here is the security office.” I use my badge to swipe the door open. Inside, the overhead lights are dim, but the glow of computer screens and a giant world map light up the place. The room is sprawling with rows of terminals and workers.
I step to the railing and grip it as Cameron steps up beside me. “Fascinating, and that map? Is it in real time?”
“As real as it gets, so I’ve been told.” On the center of the map a small blip blinks off and on. “That’s us. The TTPA. Its frequency pulses out every few seconds and can detect any subtle changes in the timeline.”
“Based on what they gathered from your brain? When you time traveled?” Cameron asks.
“That’s right.” I don’t get what he’s getting at, but I figure he must be getting at something. This man, whether he’s my Uncle Rex or not, has an agenda behind everything he does.
Cameron edges closer. I’m flustered as he puts his hands on the railing on either side of mine. “I’m just saying, Lara,” his voice tickles my hair in a way that revolts me, “what if the frequency of time travel isn’t always the same as yours.”
The implications… That’s the answer, isn’t it? Someone is traveling in time and the system can’t detect them. If it’s true, the TTPA is worthless. If it’s true, I might as well consider my life fair game, because whoever this traveler is, she can get to me anytime she wants.
“Do you mind backing up?” My voice wrestles with fear. “I need more personal space than this.”
“A thousand pardons.” Cameron stands beside me, leaning against the railing. “Hypothetically speaking, I’m surprised no one has thought of this before. I know the original Rewind was invented around your mother’s brain waves and then later, your own were used to expand monitoring services. But it’s possible, isn’t it? That someone invented a machine that uses a different frequency?”
Anything is possible and that’s the scary part.
My phone rings and it jars me back to reality. “Excuse me a second.” I step out into the hall with a relieved breath. The less time I have to spend with Cameron, the better. My first step, proving he’s Rex. But how? If I accuse him now, I’ll just sound like a raving lunatic.
I put my phone to my ear. “Hello?”
“Lara?” It’s Dad. “Don’t….careful.”
My brow furrows. “Dad, you’re breaking up.” I plug my other ear with my finger as if that will help me hear. The background noise is congested as if he’s close to a construction zone in the city. Wouldn’t exactly be a surprise considering we live in Boston. “Dad, is everything okay?”
“Lara…don’t! Trust…”
The fear in his voice sets me on edge, it’s like a thousand pinpricks. “Don’t trust who, Dad? Dad!”
Click.
The line’s gone silent. I redial his number, but all I get is a series of fast beeps. He could’ve been in an area with low signal strength, but the way my stomach sours, I doubt that’s the case. I redial his phone and wait impatiently for him to answer. “Come on, Dad. C’mon.”
Someone picks up. I can hear breathing on the other end. “Dad? Are you okay?”
Heavy breathing continues and it’s all I can hear. I suspect it’s a woman. “Hello?” I turn and rush for the elevator. “Dad?”
The line goes dead. Dad’s in trouble. Big trouble. I need to find him. I need to get to him. Maybe he’s fine and at work, but I must find out for myself.
When the elevator door opens, Marcus steps off and I’m relieved. I rush on as he steps off.
“Lara, what a pleasure—.”
“Marcus,” I don’t have time to chit chat. “I need to go. Personal issue. Can you keep an eye on Cameron? He’s observing right now. Nothing more.”
“Of course.” Marcus nods with a pensive look. “I haven’t seen you this rattled in a long while. Everything all right?”
I sure hope so, but I fear it’s not.
Chapter Eleven
Dad put his life back together after his time in prison. He has a nice apartment and a good job. Maybe it wasn’t anything fancy, but he liked doing tech support at a local prep school. The dad I remembered made extra money doing odd jobs, repairing toasters, and working on electronics in our rundown apartment building.
It turns out his abilities never left him. Not even after prison.
By the time I arrive at Charlestown Prep, I’m at a full on run. I slam through the double glass doors, and I can barely draw a breath. I can’t remember the last time I’ve run so hard. Trying to recover, I nod at the receptionist, her hand hovering over her phone.
“Ms. Montgomery?” Good ol’ Betsy remembers me from my visits and that’s good because I can barely talk.
I nod and push my hair off my shoulders. There was a day when I could’ve sprinted those two miles without breaking a sweat. I’m going soft. “My…Dad?”
“He was called away.” She points a well-manicured finger toward the door. “Science lab, third floor. Something about a printer network problem. Printers, right?”
Printers. I nodded again and push off for the doors. Betsy follows me until I pass over the threshold. “I do hope everything’s all right, Ms. Crane!”
A shiver runs up my spine when she says it, but I take it for a slip of the tongue. A mistake. I don’t have time to believe it’s anything else as I slip into the well-oiled stairwell. Taking the steps two at a time until I’m on the third floor, I push my shoulder into the door until it squeaks open.
I spit out into a hallway. Through the row of glass lined classrooms are more rows of students in uniforms and teachers in fine pressed suits. It was so different from what Dad was accustomed to, I had to wonder why he picked this school. Was theirs the only offer that came in? Had he been trying to impress me?
The printer lab is empty except for one faculty member and a few students loitering around the desks. In the background, the hum of printers going through reams of paper greets me.
But no Dad. Nothing seems broken unless he already fixed it and left.
Disappointed, my tongue clicks inside my mouth. What now?
Just as I’m about to leave, the teacher in his white lab coat and bow-tie greets me. “Can I help you with something, Miss?”
“Looking for my father. John Crane. Was he here?” My questions come fast and are clipped.
“To fix the printer.” The teacher nods. “He came and fixed some Bluetooth connection problem we were having. A real wizard, but when his phone rang, he left again, I’m afraid to say.” The teacher sighed as I took a deep breath.
If Dad was okay, why the phone call? Why couldn’t I reach him? Maybe I was panicking over nothing.
“You’re not Lara, are you?”
I stood up straighter and studied his pinched eyebrows. “Yes, hasn’t he mentioned me?”
“Oh, it’s not that.” The teacher reaches into his pocket and pulls out a folded piece of paper. “It’s just, this printed this morning…well…you’ll see.”
With a gaping mouth, I take it from his clammy hands. Unfolding the piece of paper, my nerves on edge, I make out the bold, black font printed on the paper.
Give this to Lara when she comes in at 2:12 pm.
I have what you’re looking for, Lara. You better hurry. Warehouse 36. East Pier Aquarium.
You have fifteen minutes.
Tick Tock.
My face is wet with perspiration. I gaze up at the clock as it ticks over to 2:13 pm. This person, this woman, whoever she is, knew exactly when I’d be here. She knew exactly what would happen and when.
The time travel assassin has my father, that’s the only answer.
Now I’m the one at a disadvantage and I’m the one the clock races against.
****
In six years, I’ve learned a lot.
Not to be so spontaneous and quick to judgment, or action. Control my emotions,
steady my hand. I resisted the urge to time travel for so long, it’s gone dormant. I can’t access it anymore no matter what I try.
With my dad in danger, maybe being held against his will, all of that goes out the window. My mature brain rages at me as I flag down a taxi. Call the police. Get help. It wants to be rational in an illogical situation.
Time travel is real. It’s being used against me.
Once, I was the only one who could stop it, but times are different.
By the time I pay the driver, I have two minutes left on the clock. Racing across the pier, I’m spritzed with water that sprays from over the side. I step between two buildings and the number thirty-six is in thick, bold letters above the entrance. With barely any time left on the clock, I sprint toward the door, using the full weight of my body to get inside.
It’s dark.
The door slams shut behind me; it echoes through the tomb of a warehouse. Shivers go up my spine as I hear high heels clicking on the cement floor. It sounds as if it is coming from everywhere at once. I can’t get a bead on its location, but I know it’s not my steps. I’m still in my ballet slippers.
My feet pause so I can get my bearings. Slowly, my sight adjusts to the dark. In the background, I make out what looks to be a chair. Coming toward me is a silhouette…a silhouette of a woman?
Run!
My insides scream in terror. I’m in real danger. I duck as the area is lit up with the blinding light of electricity. It’s the woman who killed Delilah. She stands in her silver catsuit wearing a helmet with blinders. She holds two electrical rods slamming them together to produce the bright glow.
I roll away and off to the side. “What do you want with me?” I scream at her, but there’s no response.
Now I wish I had called someone to tell them where I was going. Old habits die hard and if I was unlucky, that wouldn’t be the only thing that died that day.
She pivots on her heel, following me as I rise up on one knee and punch her in the stomach. I can make out the shape of a man in the chair behind her, but the image fades to black as the woman uncrosses her electrical rods. Everything’s dark again.
