Robert’s eyes were transfixed on his hands, and he watched as they began to shine with a golden effervescence. He saw particles beginning to leave his fingertips and float upward, first very slowly and then accelerating to an intense speed and blinding light.
He lasted a good three seconds before unconsciousness overtook him.
CHAPTER 48
A few times in his life, Keegan had had a gun pointed at him. Growing up in Brooklyn in the ‘90s, it was going to happen, and since very few were going to attempt to take him on in hand-to-hand combat, when disputes needed to be settled over what was usually a woman, there were some in his neighborhood who were quick to draw. Nothing had ever happened, he was fortunate, but unlike Dipin, he surmised, he was no stranger to staring down a barrel.
But he’d never had seven, no, nine, no, twelve, guns pointed at him simultaneously. Especially when wearing a tunic. He threw his hands in the air, and felt Dipin do the same next to him.
Behind them, though he couldn’t see it facing the agents, the time portal was alive with activity, in the process of scrambling his teammates’ bodies into atomic matter, and shooting them into space. He didn’t know if the agents would have had any idea how to kill the system in the middle of its process, but Dipin’s quick and innovative thinking to distract them, even for 30 seconds, had saved the mission and probably their lives. More importantly for their present situation back at home, it had given them the necessary leverage to survive at least another 29 minutes. No matter how ruthless and determined the President was, no sane politician would opt to strand six of the world’s top scientists in the past to forward a political agenda.
Unless, it had occurred to him, they intended to just shoot everyone here who’d seen anything and call it a day.
Keegan could tell from the looks on the agents’ faces that they were interested in what was going on behind him, but were unsure of what it was they were seeing. As a result, the standoff lasted inexplicably long, and while he wanted to glance to see how far along the process was, he stayed staring straight forward, transfixed on the agent closest to him. In his mind, he calculated that the portal was nearly complete in its work, and that the team was well on its way.
Suddenly, the array of agents separated like the Red Sea and the U.S. Attorney General, who Keegan only recognized from his press conference the night before – though he was shorter than he’d appeared behind his podium – entered the room with a small entourage of suited men and additional agents. “Secure these terminals,” he demanded, pointing in various directions as though the consoles he was referencing were important at the moment. Then, he pointed toward Keegan, saying, “What are you doing here?”
The distraction finally allowed Keegan to turn briefly away from the agents, to find that the system was just about done. Assuming everything had worked properly, his six colleagues were now 10,000 years in the past, on the other side of the planet. Instinctively, he took a quick glance at the monitor to see that the charge for the system had dropped to 40 percent, meaning they needed a little bit longer to safely get them back. At the same time, the alarms set off by the halogen system stopped, providing a moment of clarity for him. “Experiments, sir,” Keegan said, quietly.
“Experiments?” he repeated. “What experiments?”
“Well, not knowing that you were coming today, sir, we continued with our work as scheduled.”
The Attorney General stopped for a moment, thinking. “A mission?” he asked. “General Reilly?” He looked confused and motioned the two closest agents toward him.
“He’s on the mission, sir.”
“And Robert Mulvaney?”
“Same, sir. Six of them in total.”
“And why aren’t you with them, Dr. McIntyre?”
“Someone needed to run the time portal, sir. I’m the engineer on the team.”
Again, the attorney general thought for a moment before turning his attention to Dipin. “What are you doing here? General Reilly told me you were in custody after that stunt you pulled at the press conference.”
“No, sir,” Dipin said quietly.
“Take these two in,” he said to the agents, who moved forward and grabbed each of them by the arm. “We’re taking control of the system.”
“Hold on, sir,” Keegan said. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“As a matter of fact, I-”
The commotion in the time portal suddenly stopped, leaving a deafening quiet behind. Keegan exhaled as quietly as possible, but still made an obvious noise.
The Attorney General didn’t pick it up, though. “By order of the President-” He stopped, interrupting himself. He looked at Keegan in a way he hadn’t been looked at since Sister Mary Catharine had chided him in elementary school. “What did you do?”
“With all due respect, sir, we have a team out there on a regularly-scheduled mission,” Keegan said, hoping the AG didn’t have the intuition to ask for the actual schedule on the spot. “They won’t be able to return without me.”
He looked at the agents surrounding him, then back at Keegan. He was clearly making decisions as he spoke. “You should not have sent them. The machine’s still running. Clearly, you were racing against our arrival. You sent Robert Mulvaney somewhere in time to hide him from prosecution. You’ve aided and abetted an alleged terrorist.”
“How dare you!” Dipin couldn’t help himself from saying.
“Terrorist?” Keegan said, startled almost to the point of laughing in his face. “I think you’re being melodramatic.”
“Well, the case remains, if Robert Mulvaney is stranded in the past somewhere, it’s through his own doing.” He turned to another agent behind him. “Shut it down.”
Now, Keegan pulled away from the agent who had his arm and ran to intercept the other agent, who had started in the proper direction, toward the one console that was equipped to disrupt power to the time portal. Weapons followed him as he did. “You heard what I said,” he said. “It’s not just Robert.”
The Attorney General stopped, frustrated, and sat on a nearby desk. “Who?”
Keegan was trying to count the minutes until they would need to return and realized he could only put up a childish resistance for so long. He thought about the order he should list the names to have the most impact, and figured they’d be most concerned that Reilly was on the mission. Though they would have to also deal with the fact that the Chinese rep was onboard, as well, which could lead to severe political repercussions if they acted imprudently. He decided to name Amy last. “Robert, Claire Devereaux, Landon Tripathi, Chester Davies, General Reilly and Amy Cheng.”
“Amy Cheng?” he repeated. Keegan had guessed correctly, and nodded. “When do they get back?”
Keegan had given some thought about how to answer this, but didn’t know how much about the time travel process the AG would have known. The public information on SATP and the time portal was basically the same information that was given to students on the 7th-grade tours. There were those in government who knew more, of course, but only those who made it a point to be involved. Given the AG and the President’s tenuous relationship with SATP, both would have far greater knowledge of the political aspects of SATP than the scientific ones. When asked about their return, Keegan knew he had some flexibility in answering.
He diverted first, though. “The first question most people would ask is where they went.”
“I don’t care where they went,” he said, approaching Keegan slowly. “I want to know when I get my hands on Robert Mulvaney.”
Keegan nodded. “Absolutely, sir,” he said. “They’ll be arriving back in the portal in…” He pretended to look past him at the monitor again. “Twenty-eight minutes. If you’re there waiting for him, you’ll be the first to greet him.”
The Attorney General motioned with his head to the agent. “Bring him.”
“Wait a minute,” Keegan said. “If you want Robert back in one piece, I need to be here. So does Dipin. There’s
normally a whole crew in here. We need at least two people to man the system.”
“Where’s the crew?” he asked. “I’d feel better with the normal crew in here, and you with me, Dr. McIntyre.”
“I don’t know where they went,” he said, believably. “I’m the project manager on this mission. I’d like to stay and see it through. I can get you to the portal, but you’d better hurry. It’s on the other side of this glass, but it’s at least a mile’s walk.”
The AG thought for a moment, then turned. “I want six agents stationed here to make sure nothing goes awry,” he said. “Agent Bates, you will assist Dr. McIntyre with anything he needs.” One of the agents moved forward toward Keegan. “Dr. Chopra, since you know this facility well enough to escape from security, you will guide us to the time lab.”
Keegan started to say something, but stopped. He hadn’t finished formulating his plans yet, and any further pushback would raise suspicion. Instead, he locked eyes with Dipin, who gave the slightest of nods. He couldn’t tell if Dipin was envisioning some sort of plan that Keegan, himself, should have also been envisioning, but he certainly felt like he had the go-ahead to proceed. Once he came up with it.
“We’ll be arresting the entire team as soon as they arrive, as political dissidents,” the Attorney General continued. “And then we’ll be back for you. Do we have an understanding?” Keegan nodded.
“Don’t forget two things,” Dipin said, holding up two fingers and counting on them for Keegan to see. “One, despite the security, they cannot reenter the time portal if anyone is in there. I will do my best to make sure that no one enters until they’re back, but if they don’t listen to me, you have to hold off their return.” That made no sense, as there was no way to “hold off” their return, because the cloaks were already programmed for a specific time and gone. Keegan started to say something, but Dipin cut him off. “And, two, don’t forget to reprogram the cloaks.” He looked at the Attorney General. “I’m sorry. Just some last-minute safety precautions.”
He nodded, then led two-thirds of the agents and Dipin out of the room, with those remaining taking positions near the exit.
After taking a moment to collect himself, Keegan addressed his new report. “Agent Bates,” he said, noticing the system charge as he approached the monitor again. It was at 51 percent. Just enough to get them home safely. But for what? “For all of this to work, I need to move quickly. What’s your level of confidence working with a new system?”
“I’m a tech engineer for the FBI, and served as a mechanical engineer for the 103rd infantry division in Kuwait,” he said. He spoke respectfully, not as someone babysitting a criminal in custody. “At first glance, your machines don’t look too much different from the APAX system we used to organize troop movements.”
“Probably built by the same Chinese manufacturer, huh?” Keegan said nervously. The agent didn’t laugh, so he continued, “Alright, I’m going to monitor their arrival, but there will be parameters that need to be entered at the appropriate time to ensure they’re safe. I need you to be on standby for those numbers at that terminal there.” He motioned to a terminal three down from his own. In truth, what needed to be done could be done from any of the terminals, and he was sure they’d be watching him anyway, but he figured keeping Bates as far away from himself as possible would have its benefits.
The agent sat down in front of the terminal and, as anticipated, another agent approached Keegan’s console, taking a position behind him. Keegan glanced at the charge. It was up to 54 percent. He estimated it would be close to 60 percent by the time the AG made it to the time portal.
On his screen, Keegan pulled up a destination window, and began calculating an array of coordinates.
CHAPTER 49
Nothing.
Nothing is what Landon saw when he regained consciousness.
Not nothing as in a barren landscape, such as the middle of the desert, but nothing. Nothingness, to be more exact. He could see his colleagues, five of them, somehow suspended in infinite blackness the same way he was. It was horrifying and exhilarating at the same time. He couldn’t describe the sensation as floating, but then there was a definite absence of the pull of gravity on him. Air, oxygen, didn’t seem to matter, because he wasn’t breathing. Or, rather, there was nothing to breathe.
He remembered the last moment before blacking out in the pod, the rhythmic shaking growing more and more intense. Just at the moment the pressure was overtaking his body in the most grotesquely agonizing way, he knew he’d lost consciousness. Which was a strange sensation, because he’d blacked out a few times in his life – once after breaking his ankle playing football as a teenager – and it had always snuck up on him before. This was firmly planted in his memory, the feelings he was experiencing right up to the very moment. He didn’t know what had happened to him in between passing out and ending up here.
Even though it currently felt as though there was no such thing as here.
He tried to talk to Claire, who was closest to him, but no words came out of his mouth. In fact, as he tried to move to face her he realized that wasn’t possible either. He didn’t know if she could see him, or if any of them knew that the others were present.
Fear gripped him, and the thoughts of the most unimaginable Greek mythological punishments ran through his mind. He couldn’t move, so there was no way to put on the time travel cloak. No way to return from wherever they were.
Then he saw a light. A minute orange speck. It appeared to be far in the distance, but there was no distance. It was just… there. Had he been able to, he would have reached out to touch it. But instead, he just gazed at it with wonder. Had he missed it initially? No, it had definitely appeared out of nowhere. Which was the only place from which it could have.
He had no sense of time, so no way of knowing how long he was staring at the speck of light. But he found he couldn’t bring his focus anywhere else. He had no bearings of his surroundings, even to the point where he’d forgotten whether Claire was nearby or not. The light mesmerized him. It gave him peace, somehow. Comfort amongst the darkness and nothingness.
Suddenly, the speck of light pulsed, ever so briefly. It intrigued him, forcing him to peer more closely at it, waiting for another movement.
It exploded. A flash of light blinded him.
Landon felt intense cold, replaced immediately with blistering heat.
For the first time, he felt he could move, and used his right arm to shield his eyes from the burning glow.
Then, he was falling.
CHAPTER 50
Claire wasn’t certain what was rousing her – the smell of nature or warm morning dew from the grass against her face. The sun was hot and peaceful, and she was overcome with a compelling feeling to spend the entire day laying exactly where she was. Between their fast-paced schedule and the decidedly urban design of the SATP campus, there was seldom time or opportunity for them to just relax and bask in the sunshine. In fact, Claire couldn’t remember the last time she’d done it. As a teenager, maybe? No, she went to Spring Break in Jamaica just before senior year of college. Now long after, she’d been whisked away to graduate school. It was a “last hurrah,” of sorts.
Trying to envision the last time she’d taken a break filled her mind with thoughts of the craziness of her current life. She made a distinct choice to keep her eyes closed and enjoy this moment for however long it could possibly last.
It wasn’t long, though, as something brushed against her face. It felt crusty, like bark, perhaps, but also warm. And it was just for a moment, before it was gone. Unwilling to bring herself out of her sanctuary of peace, she turned and pretended she hadn’t felt it.
Something touched her again, only this time it was soft and comforting. Someone’s hand. One of her colleagues was rudely disturbing her solitude.
She opened her eyes. The sky was bright and it took her a moment to adjust. First, she saw green silhouettes of tall trees above her, pristine deep blue sky behind
them. She blinked several times to focus, and then saw the most joyous sight she could have seen.
Keegan.
He was standing over her, extending his hand to help her up. She looked to her left and right and saw other members of her team rustling in the wet grass, waking from the same slumber she’d been experiencing.
Rather than take Keegan’s hand, however, she was suddenly filled with energy and leapt to her feet on her own, wrapping her arms around his neck. “You made it,” she said. “I’m so glad you made it.” She felt Keegan awkwardly put his right arm around her and squeeze her before releasing. She let go of his neck and looked at him for a moment, smiling. “I knew you wouldn’t just let us go.”
“How on Earth did you get here?” Reilly asked to her left. Claire turned to see him getting to his feet and purposefully wiping the dew from his tunic.
“Same as you,” Keegan said.
“How was there enough charge?” Reilly asked. “Are we going to be able to get back?”
Keegan started to say something, but Robert jumped in, interrupting him. “You’re assuming he came back immediately after us,” he said. “It’s time travel. He could have come back any time and arrived at the same destination.”
Reilly let out a condescending laugh. “Why don’t you let him answer for himself?”
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