He’d patiently listened and waited while Sarah told them the same story she’d thrown at him in the car. Advanced weapon. Spaceship. Electromagnetic attack with particles of Negative Matter. Chicago gone.
They didn’t even blink.
And he thought his day couldn’t get any weirder.
“The Archiver and Celestina don’t know why. Their enemies have never targeted a specific city before.”
“Who’s Celestina?” Alexa leaned forward in her chair and focused her intense glacier-blue eyes on Sarah.
“The Seer. She is the one who sees all the attacks and tells the Archiver to find one of us. Didn’t you meet her when they sent you?” Sarah looked confused, her shoulders and lips tensing in alarm.
“I never met the Seer in person. They never took me to a spaceship. All I saw was white light. Then I hit the cold, and information dumped into my head. But I knew who she was. She spoke to me, told me stuff I needed to complete my mission. But her name was Helene, not Celestina. And the Archiver didn’t tell me half of what he’s told you. He didn’t tell my mother, either. And she was a Walker before me. I knew what I had to do, that’s it.” Alexa gestured at Tim in apparent irritation. “I didn’t know who my Marked mate would be, either.”
Tim frowned as his brain analyzed and processed everything they’d said, everything but one. “Did you say mate?” Sure, Sarah was attractive, and roused all of his instincts, but mate? A mate was for animals, not for him.
Sarah ignored him completely and Alexa talked over the top of him. “I didn’t know the release of the Red Death was orchestrated by aliens from another time. I thought it was just an idiot kid doing something stupid. They didn’t even know who was responsible or why. And they didn’t dump me in Luke’s lap like a gift-wrapped present. Why didn’t they tell me any of this stuff?”
“I don’t know.” Sarah shrugged and moved away from him in a small retreat of crossed legs and shifting hips. She hadn’t looked at him once since they’d all sat down. He didn’t like it. “My understanding is that Celestina sees what the Triscani are going to do, and then the Archiver grabs one of us to try to fix it.”
“Did they tell you how many of us there are?”
Sarah shook her head. “No. But I kinda got the impression there have been a lot. He did say they’ve been battling these guys, trying to figure out what they want, for hundreds of years.”
“An attack every few years, for centuries?” Luke whistled low and shook his head. “That would be hundreds of Timewalkers, plus all their descendants.”
Luke looked between him and Sarah as the silence stretched across the table and became a chasm in the small space between his shoulder and Sarah’s. Alexa studied her fingernails and Sarah studied the wood swirls in the table as a pink flush crept into her cheeks. Luke grinned. “He doesn’t know?”
Chapter Four
Sarah glanced at him quickly, like a moth dancing in and out of a flame. “I just met him a few hours ago.”
Luke’s hands sought the buttons on his white Oxford shirt. In a few quick flicks of his fingers he’d removed it, then tugged at his white undershirt until he pulled it over his head.
Tim stared. Sure, the guy was in decent shape, but that wasn’t what drew his eyes. The real reason Luke had disrobed was clearly on display. There, over his left pec, right above his heart, was a Mark exactly like the one Sarah had on her neck, the same symbol he now had on his. His Mark chose that moment to flare up and tingle like an army of tiny popsicles were racing under his skin on toothpick legs.
The Mark on Luke’s chest shocked him. The overload of new feelings in his long-numbed-out scar mocked his logic and rocked reality beneath him. This was no phantom pain, or phantom itch. And the physical sensations, the burning heat, continued to get stronger.
Luke pointed to his own neck, to the space where Tim had been Marked. “You’re hers and she’s yours. You better come to grips with that fast or you two won’t survive.”
The words didn’t have time to sink in before Luke asked another question he couldn’t answer. “What’s your gift? How are you linked? Have you figured it out yet?”
Sarah looked as confused as he felt. Alexa sighed and shook her head with a sad smile. “You’ll figure it out when you need to.”
“What was yours?” Tim met Luke’s gaze, unflinchingly. Science geek? Super nerd? Ripped abs and a time-traveling wife? This guy was not what he’d expected.
“I can sense Alexa’s presence and track her anywhere in the world. It was a skill I needed to save her life. The Archiver must have chosen you for a reason, something you will need to master to help her.”
Sarah wouldn’t look at him.
“I’m nothing special. I’m an Army pilot. Not some kind of superhero with special powers.” Tim tried to make them see reason.
Alexa shook her head. “Those are skills you already had, just like Luke knew about the virus and how to deal with it.”
“I’ve studied physics.” An understatement, but he couldn’t resist throwing out the bait, see if Luke bit. He didn’t.
Luke shook his head. “It’s not enough. The Archiver chose you for a specific reason. Do you have any kind of E.S.P.? You know, telepathy or clairvoyance? Something really unusual?”
Tim raised an eyebrow and buried the flash of disappointment and disgust deep. He’d been really close to believing the whole thing. But this hit too close to home. What did Luke know? What did Sarah know?
He studied Sarah’s profile, thoughts reeling. Electromagentics. Negative Matter. Advanced theoretical physics. Advanced weaponry. His research. Oh, and by the way Tim, are you psychic?
Yes, this “Archiver” person knew just what to throw in his path, just the bait to use, to draw him in. Someone had gotten their hands on his research all right, and his military records. Now he had to stick around so he could find out who was setting the trap and eliminate them.
The tingling in his neck amped up another notch as Sarah wrung her hands in her lap, twisting them until the fingertips were stark white.
The hanging light flickered then popped above their heads. Sarah flinched.
“Sorry.”
Alexa looked from him to Sarah. “You can’t control it?”
Sarah shook her head, her lost expression darting between the Mark seared into Luke’s chest and his hand, wrapped around Alexa’s. “Not all the time.”
Tim leaned forward. “First, put your shirt back on, champ.” Sarah looked at him, a question in her eyes. “Assuming you three aren’t out of your minds, then there is a significant threat out there that we need to eliminate. And that threat is coming from the air.”
Sarah nodded.
“Sarah, you told me you could feel energy, could possibly find their ship.”
“Yes, I believe so.”
“Then we need to get you into the air. I’m not flying with bottled lightning on board. Your lack of control is too dangerous. You could short out the electrical and we’d be in trouble. But we need to get to high ground. And nowhere is higher around here than the Skydeck at Willis Tower, or the Hancock Observatory.”
Luke nodded in agreement. “The Hancock Observatory isn’t quite as tall, but it’s got giant broadcasting antennae on its roof and it’s closer to the water. It’ll give you a great view of the city and the lake, and it’s not quite as busy with tourists.”
Sarah put her hands in her lap and stared him straight in the eye “Hancock then, if it’s closer to the water. The attack is going to come in from the north, over the lake. At least, that’s how it happened in my visions.” The defiant tilt of her chin dared Tim to doubt her.
He believed it was possible that she’d had a vision. That was one area in which he had firsthand experience. But whether or not the vision was her own, or a psychic plant was yet to be determined. The Casper Project could have made her see whatever they wanted her to see. Even make her believe it. But these people didn’t need to know that just yet. “Let’s go.”
&
nbsp; “You two aren’t quite ready for that.” Luke leaned back in his seat, shirt back on. Thank God, because Tim really didn’t want to have to hurt him.
“Do you have a better idea?” Sarah closed her eyes, and Tim noticed the dark circles beneath them, the way she suddenly swayed in her seat. The Mark on his neck zinged with new life right before the whole house buzzed with an electrical surge. The microwave popped in the kitchen behind them and the refrigerator kicked off, then back on.
“You’ve got to learn control, Sarah. And I think Tim is the key.”
“What?” Tim rubbed his scar absently.
“You grimaced before each of her power surges. You could feel the power building in your Shen, couldn’t you?”
Tim thought about it for a second. The first time it had acted up was right before she’d blown up his T.V. Then he’d been in a constant state of buzzing pain until she blew the light and now the fridge. “Yes.”
“You have to help her control it. I don’t know how, but you two need to figure out how to work together.”
Alexa studied him for a moment and broached a subject no one had dared in months. “Your scar, it’s an electrical burn, isn’t it?”
Sarah gasped and Tim nodded.
“Now it all makes perfect sense.” Luke chimed in, then got up and walked around to stand behind his wife’s chair.
“Not to me. Why did we need to come here? I would have helped Sarah without your involvement.” Tim rubbed his neck in an attempt to stop the buzzing pain.
“Would you?” Luke studied him like he was a rat under a microscope, like a disapproving father inspecting the horny teenage boy picking up his daughter for the prom.
“Yes.” He would have. Despite his grumbling, he realized he couldn’t have walked away no matter how crazy Sarah had sounded. He could rationalize it all he wanted. He had a responsibility to make sure his work didn’t ever reach fruition in the world. He’d been young, ambitious and naïve. But a deeper, more primal part of him admitted that it simply wasn’t in him to leave a damsel in distress. Especially one so…tired. God, she looked like she was going to drop right there onto the coffee table.
“Good.” Luke’s hands caressed his wife’s shoulders as naturally as he was breathing. Tim looked away. “We’ll take you two out on the lake tonight, or hit a farmer’s field a couple hours out of town. You need to work on calling the energy and directing it. See what it will take for you to power up and maintain control.”
“I don’t need to do that.” Sarah chimed in. “I can feel more than enough power now. The city’s electrical grid, even the movement of the air in the room, everything feeds me power if I want it. I don’t need a power source.”
Alexa’s eyes widened in shock. “Wow. You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“As a heart attack.” Sarah crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back into the sofa when Alexa sat back in alarm, fear widening her eyes for the first time.
Tim changed the subject. “Let’s hit the Hancock Observatory tonight, after it’s closed, and see what Sarah can do from there.” He glanced at Sarah, who nodded in agreement, before continuing. He’d spent several hours with her now, and the worst thing she’d done was short out his T.V. and blow a breaker in Luke’s house. “I just don’t know how we’re going to get in without being on a hundred security cameras and setting off alarms. I’m sure they don’t welcome overnight guests and we’ll need some privacy.”
“Got it covered.” Alexa laughed, then squeezed Luke’s hand. Smiling like a couple of Cheshire cats, they vanished into thin air.
Tim shot to his feet and had Sarah wedged behind him before he registered her delighted laugh. She patted him on the shoulder and tried to wiggle free.
“It’s okay, Tim.” She left her hand on his shoulder and he relaxed enough to let her breathe, but blocked her when she attempted to squeeze out into the open. Her warm breath tickled his cheek as she beamed over his shoulder at the now empty space. “Alexa, that was awesome!”
“I’ve been practicing.” The voice came from nowhere, and Tim left his hand on his knife, just in case.
“Don’t kill them, soldier. Invisibility is her gift.”
Luke and Alexa reappeared as if by magic. Alexa’s smile was irresistible, so Tim grinned back.
“Handy.” It would have saved his ass a lot of trouble on more than one occasion in the field in the early days, before he’d been stuck like a sitting target in the chopper, making those damn comm calls to get his teams out of trouble. He’d always known when they were walking into trouble. Let them die, or expose his secret talents.
Letting those boys go down on his watch had never been an option, and his instincts accounted for one of the highest success and survival rates of all the ops teams. At least that was what his CO had told him. Tim figured the spook attached to his unit had turned him in. Damn spook was in on every mission, heard every word. Tim hoped the guy would just keep his mouth shut. No such luck. The survival ratio led the Casper Project’s commander, the Rear Admiral, to make a couple calls to his unit commander. Wanted to meet him, talk about a transfer…
That meeting had scared the hell out of him. The Rear Admiral scared the hell out of him. Tim had gotten out a few weeks later. Gone civilian when his time was up. Believed himself out of the Rear Admiral’s reach. What a joke that had turned out to be. Tim now believed they’d been trying to recruit him into some sort of specialized unit. Perhaps these three were part of the plan.
Or were Alexa, Luke, and Sarah for real and Chicago’s nine million residents in grave danger? Did the Casper Project know, if that were the case? And if Tim called, would they believe him? Or just lock both him and Sarah in a cage for the rest of their lives?
Luke grinned and kissed his wife full on the mouth. “Yes, very handy, and it’s how we’re going to get to the top of the observatory tonight.” Luke’s attention shifted away from his wife to the two of them. “Stay here for a while Rest. Eat. We’ll leave at eighteen-hundred hours.”
Just like that Tim was committed hook, line and sinker.
Sarah wrapped her arms around her middle as Alexa chipped in, “We’ll stop and get you some clothes, Sarah. And shoes that fit you.”
Tim shook his head. World-ending disasters afoot, leave it to a woman to worry about clothes.
Luke pulled Alexa close and wrapped his arm around her waist. “There’s a storm blowing in tonight. Sarah, you look like you could use some rest. I’ll do some research on Negative Matter, and what kind of theoretical weapon you could be dealing with. Then we’ll head over to the Hancock Observatory and see if Sarah can ride the lightning.” Luke’s pathetic joke did nothing to ease Tim’s mind.
They needed a game plan. In the field he’d counted on the top level guys on his team to analyze the opposition and the dangers of the mission. Strengths. Weaknesses. Tim had known every guy on his crew, trusted them with his life. He’d known the personalities of all the players. He knew who to talk to when the crazy visions started going on in his head, who would listen to his warnings and who wouldn’t. But he never went it alone. Never tried to argue logistics on the ground or outsmart the toughest sons of bitches on the planet. He got them in and out, and he watched their backs.
But this time there was no clear enemy and no team to brainstorm. No spook to give them a hint about what the hell was really going on. No information. And no control over the game. That was the most frustrating thing of all. He wasn’t used to being completely in the dark. He hated being out of control. That was one of the reasons he was a pilot. He loved the feel of directing the machine, even if his rational mind told him that all control was an illusion, with a stick in his hands and his seat rumbling beneath him, rationality was easy to ignore.
He was totally in the dark, surrounded by people he didn’t know. And worse? He sat next to a woman who couldn’t sneeze without potentially blowing something up. That he’d seen for himself.
Where had she come from? Really? What was goi
ng on here? A lightning strike and alien manipulation of her DNA? Good God. How was he supposed to wrap his head around that?
And he was more convinced than ever that someone had stolen his work. Even if that wasn’t the case, and these “aliens from the future” were for real, who better to understand their technology than him? He’d been on the brink of creating that kind of device himself, until the spooks became his personal shadows and he gave up his last ounce of hope that his work would be used for good. That was why he’d corrupted his own work and destroyed the rest. This kind of thing shouldn’t be created. Some things humanity should just leave alone.
Nine million people needed him to figure this out. Fast. And all Sarah could do at the moment was stare blankly at a whorl of stained wood in front of her and hold back tears. It looked like she could barely move, let alone come up with a rational plan.
She was an asset, a weapon. A piece on the chessboard he needed to learn how to play. At the moment, she wasn’t much better than a mannequin with red-rimmed, glassy eyes, lead-filled limbs, and a vacant, frozen face.
She looked both exhausted and scared to death.
Not sure if the overture would be welcome, he placed his hand gently over hers where it rested in a fist against her thigh.
Sarah sighed, and the Mark on the side of his neck warmed, like a hot, soothing hand rested on his skin. After the constant and slightly painful tingling and humming beneath his scar, the sudden shift of sensation left him wary. And eager to touch more of her.
“I was afraid of that.” Alexa’s whispered words echoed in the eerily silent room. She nodded her head in Sarah’s direction. Sarah’s head had fallen to the side in an awkward angle wedged against the back of the couch, asleep. “When was the last time she slept?”
Tim shrugged. “I have no idea. She was unconscious this morning for about fifteen minutes when I pulled her out of the lake.”
Silver Storm: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 2 Page 6
