I already knew about the bathroom thing, but I felt sick to the bone, thinking of those hideous things having sex.
Michael coughed and scratched his head. “So what exactly did this guy who helped you say?” he said. “What are these Shriniks planning?”
Doug shrugged. “He wasn’t completely sure, but it’s something big.”
“He wasn’t completely sure?” Michael said. “That doesn’t really help, does it?”
Doug took a step forward but stopped when Michael held the gun up. He backed away and raised his hands. “Look. All I know is that I thought my wife was dead when she never returned to 2022, but he told me that she didn’t die. Instead, she was sent here to 2013 with all the other winners. They just wanted to get the children here.”
“What?” I said. “You mean they’re still alive?” I paused and bit my bottom lip. “But why? What do they want with our babies?”
He half-smiled at me. “Don’t you get it yet?”
I said nothing.
“Not all of the babies sent back were human.”
I chewed my fingernails and backed away, shaking my head. No. That couldn’t be right. Dylan wasn’t a Shrinik or whatever these things were. I’d held him in my arms. I saw his smile. It was real. The emotions I felt were real. He was human. He was my son. “You’re lying. I don’t believe you.”
“Why would I lie?”
“But my… my son isn’t a Shrinik.”
Doug frowned. “Your son? Why would your … My god. You won the Lotto, too. But why are you here? How did you find out about them?”
“They took her son,” Michael said. “She heard them say that they were bringing him here to 2013.”
“Why?”
“Because they thought I found out about them,” I said. “They came for my whole family, but I escaped. I’m just here to get my son back.”
Doug scratched his head. “Look, lady, I don’t know about your son. All I know is what the guy told me.”
“Which was what?” Michael said.
“Well, he said that of all the children sent back in the Lotto, one in five were Shriniks. But he thinks that all the children sent back with my wife to 2022 were Shriniks. They were doing some sort of experiment to acclimatize their younger species to our climate.”
I gasped. “Oh my God.” I paused to consider my words. “Don’t you see? Dylan might be wherever they are.” I looked at Michael. “We have to find them.” I grimaced. Dylan’s being with them would mean he was a Shrinik. But he wasn’t. Maybe Doug’s contact was wrong. Maybe the children who time lost were human. Maybe they’d been kidnapped, too.
“I don’t know if they’re alive,” Doug said, “and I don’t know anything about your son, but if I were you, I’d do what I did a long time ago. Stop hoping. I don’t believe I’ll ever see my wife again, and so should you with your son.” He gave Michael a hard stare. “Another thing: The man who helped me was also a Shrinik. He didn’t want any part of whatever they were planning, so he gave his life so I could get here and fix things.”
“Fix things?” I asked. “How?”
He nodded at Michael.
“But I still don’t understand. What’s Michael got to do with your wife getting brought here by the Shriniks?”
“The Shrinik that helped me told me something else. The infertility problem didn’t happen by accident or as a result of the meteor that landed yesterday. No, it was the work of humans—two, in fact. One of them was named Russell Jacobs, and the other person was Michael Galloway.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
We stood in silence for nearly a minute. I stared at Michael with a blank expression most of the time.
“I don’t understand,” I said. “It can’t be. Michael wasn’t involved. I came here to find him.”
Doug gave me a sarcastic snigger. “I don’t know where you get your information, but this guy is bad news.”
“From the future, actually,” I said. “He wrote a paper about this stuff. About the aliens and cover-ups. I read it in the future. That’s how I knew who he was.”
His smile disappeared, and I gave him a quick recap of the message that had come back with Dylan from the future. And everything that happened afterward.
He frowned and grabbed his chin. “I don’t get it then. None of it makes sense.” He nodded at Michael. “Why would my guy think you caused all of what happened.” He paused for a second. “And how did the Shriniks get your name?”
I shrugged and looked at Michael. He hadn’t uttered a word since Doug’s shocking revelation. Instead, he looked at the sky as if waiting for something to fall from the heavens.
“Michael?”
He stared at me with hollow eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“Doug is right. I might have something to do with all of this.”
“What? How?”
He frowned at the ground. “It’s complicated.”
Doug walked up to Michael. “Then uncomplicate it. Tell us what you’ve done or what you’re about to do, because right now we have a load of questions and no answers.”
Michael grimaced, turned around and wiped sweat from his forehead.
I moved closer to him. “What is it? What have you done?”
“I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but now Doug mentioned my name, it’s suddenly hit home.”
“What, for heaven’s sake?” Doug growled. “Stop talking in riddles and just tell us.”
Michael turned around and swallowed. “Three years ago, the government approached me about creating some new wonder drug that would change everything. It was meant to purify normal tap water to a level never seen before. Some even said it might be able to cure some of the deadliest diseases, like smallpox and cholera. But its main purpose was to act as a permanent form of contraception for women, without the need for complex operations.”
“So you’re telling me that this pill, if it worked, could make a woman permanently infertile?” I said.
Michael nodded. I stared at the ground. I could see where the story was going.
“But it was expensive,” Michael said, “and they couldn’t fund it using the taxpayers’ money. So they offered my company a huge percentage of the profits if we helped them.”
“So when it came down it, it was all about money?” Doug hissed.
I waved my hand. “Let him finish.”
“I actually said no,” Michael continued. “I wasn’t sure it would work and if I’d want to do it all myself. Anyway, a few months passed and they told me that another big hitter in the pharmaceutical field also wanted in. A company called Rivnico.” Michael looked at Doug. “The other guy you mentioned, Russell Jacobs—he was their CTO. He oversaw the entire project and was my counterpart over there. We helped manufacture it. At the time, we went with Crixanipam as the name. All looked good, but there were too many complications, and the government abandoned the entire project. We destroyed all our research and any trace of what we synthesized.”
I frowned and shook my head. “What about this Russell guy? What if he kept some of his research and continued working on it.”
Neither of them spoke.
“Think about it,” I said. “What if this was the drug that caused global infertility? It makes sense. And if it was, it’s the reason children started coming back from the future. For all we know, Russell could have been working with the aliens.”
Michael shrugged. “I have no idea. I haven’t seen Russell for almost a year. We didn’t keep in touch.”
Doug paced around us, frowning toward the sky every now and then. “Someone must have carried on with your work. The only person with access was Russell.” He paused and looked at both of us. We nodded. “So you agree then?”
“It makes sense,” Michael said. “But whatever he did, he might not have done it yet.” He looked at me. “When did the infertility begin?”
“Three years after the meteor crashed,” I said.
Michael scratched his head. �
�That means Russell is probably still perfecting it.”
I moved closer to Michael. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Darn straight,” Doug said. “We need to find Russell before the aliens do.”
Michael nodded and headed out of the alley.
I walked beside him. “Do you have a picture of Russell?”
He pulled his cell phone out and did a Google search for Russell. A number of images came up. I reeled back, shaking. I saw the same shocked look on Doug’s face. “You recognize him, too?”
“Yes,” Doug said. “In 2022, he’s a university biochemistry professor. He’s world-renowned for coming closest to discovering a cure for cancer.”
I faced the ground, shaking. Michael held my shoulders. “What is it, Rachel? How do you know him?”
“He’s been my doctor for the last ten years. I know him as Jarrod Conway. I can’t believe this. He looks just like he looks in 2043, and …”
“What?” Doug said.
“He’s with the Shriniks. He told me as much.”
“Guys,” Doug shouted, and Michael and I looked up at the same time. A man in a blue suit stood facing us at the end of the alley, a gun at his side. A black sedan was parked beside him. I shuddered. It was Willie, the officer from Barstow. Doug backed up toward us as Willie took a step forward. Then the car door opened and Sergeant Briggs got out, along with the man I hadn’t recognized at my parents’ house. But where’s Lorenzo?
“The other officers must have called it in,” Doug said. “But I don’t think they’re here to tell us to move along.”
All three plainclothes officers took slow steps into the alley. Doug stood beside Michael. “I need my gun.”
Michael hesitated.
“We don’t have time for this.”
Michael made no move to return Doug’s gun.
“For God’s sake,” Doug said. “We’re on the same side here.”
Michael nodded and pulled the gun out but stopped to stare at its bright silver finish, almost white.
“It’s from the future,” Doug said. “The Shrinik that helped me gave it to me.”
Michael handed it back. Doug raised it and fired into the air. A giant explosion preceded a blinding flash of white light. “Run,” he shouted.
I charged forward. I heard footsteps close by and knew Michael and Doug followed. Then I saw a man’s frame appear at the other end of the alley. He held what looked like a hand cannon. It was larger than a shotgun and twice as thick. The wind made his long hair brush against his face. Lorenzo.
I felt hands tugging at me.
“Move,” Doug said.
I leaned left. He ran past me and fired a shot. Chunks flew from a building beside Lorenzo amid another explosion. I saw Lorenzo crouch on the ground, still in his human form.
Doug lunged at Lorenzo and kicked him in the midsection. “You two, go,” he shouted.
I bolted west and Michael followed. We ran past a number of startled and scared onlookers. I kept looking back and eventually saw Doug running behind us. I ran as fast I could. We weaved among scores of people on the road and took a right onto another road. I heard an explosion behind me but didn’t turn around. Then I heard another, and another after that. Michael had drifted ahead of me. Screams filled the air, with people scrambling and ducking. I still didn’t know what was going on behind me or if Doug was still alive.
Michael pulled out his cell and put it to his ear. I grew dizzy and wanted to stop to catch my breath but pushed myself on.
“I need your help,” I heard Michael shout into the phone.
He listened for a few seconds, and just then a fleeing man bumped into us. We fell to the ground in a heap, and my back hit the hard pavement. I grimaced and looked around. Commotion surrounded us, with people dropping to the ground in fear. The explosions were still coming. Then with blurry vision, I saw Doug pick me up with sweaty palms. He shook me a few times.
“Are you all right?” he said.
I looked past him and saw four people chasing on foot. Lorenzo was a few yards ahead of the others, his gun held in front of him. Then a white light flew from it straight at us. I pulled Doug to the ground. The light flew past us and knocked chunks out of a nearby building. Doug spun around and fired three equally potent shots from his own gun. Our pursuers ducked as the bullets smashed nearby windows and blasted even larger chunks from buildings. I stood and pulled Doug to his feet. Michael was a few yards away, still on his phone.
“Just trace my cell,” he screamed. Then he hung up and returned the phone to his pocket. We kept going.
“Who was that?” Doug shouted.
“My driver. We need help.” Michael took another left but stopped dead after we’d run a quarter-mile.
“What?” I said. “Why are we stopping?”
Michael stared at a large boarded-up building. “Horace’s Gym” was written at the top of the door, but it looked as if it had been closed for at least a year, judging by the dust on the plaque.
“We need to get in here.” Michael didn’t sound too sure of himself. He grabbed Doug’s gun and aimed it at the door. I leaped to the ground and took Doug with me. He shielded me with his body. I heard the explosion and felt debris graze my face. I stood up with Doug and we dusted our clothes off. There was a gaping hole where the door had been. Michael ran through and we followed. We went past what used to be the reception area and down a long corridor, dust and cobwebs everywhere. We reached a large swimming pool a minute later. The water still looked clear.
“Why are we in here?” Doug asked.
“It’ll be easier to lose them in here. And Manuel needs to triangulate our position.”
We heard the echo of footsteps behind us. I shuddered. I hated not having a gun to protect myself. We could have gotten separated at any moment. Doug took his gun back from Michael and ran to the edge of the corridor to listen. He returned to us a few seconds later. “We’re not alone in here.”
“We need to split up,” Michael said.
Doug frowned. “No, we need to stick together.”
Michael shook his head. “Together they can take us out, but apart they can’t harm us until they get us all.”
“How do you figure?” Doug said.
“We all know their secret. So if just one of us gets out of here, that’ll be bad for them.”
Doug still didn’t look convinced, but I agreed with Michael. They needed all of us together. They must have assumed that Michael and Doug knew everything I did.
“Just trust me, okay?” Michael said. “I have an idea how people like this think.”
Doug nodded. “Okay. I’ll head over there.” He pointed to a corridor west of the swimming pool. “You two go.”
Michael gave him another cell phone. “We keep in touch with this.”
“Fine.”
Michael hesitated and stared at the entrance as if he had changed his mind. I grabbed his hand and ran toward the eastern corridor. “Come on. This isn’t the time for second thoughts.”
Michael followed me and I released his hand, but Doug called out to us. “I’ll see you guys soon.”
I nodded. “But remember, if you find a way out, take it. Don’t wait for us.”
“Okay. The same goes for you.”
Michael and I ran down the corridor. We came to a door to our right and he pushed it open. It looked like it had been a giant sauna room, but the walls had surrendered to termites. It also smelled of decay. I held my breath. Michael pushed a door to our right, but it didn’t budge. An explosion rang in our ears. It sounded like gunfire.
“That’s Doug,” I said. “It must be.”
He looked back in the direction we’d come from but then pulled his gun out. He gestured for me to move back. He fired at the door’s lock and it flew off. He kicked the door open and we ran into the largest locker room I had ever seen. It was half the size of a football field.
“Come on,” he said. “We’ve got to hide somewhere.”
I grabbed his hands. “What about Doug?”
“He’ll be fine.”
“But—”
I dropped to the floor amid an explosion against a nearby wall. I spun around and heard someone running toward us. I closed my eyes but then felt Michael pulling me by the arms. My whole body felt numb, and the floor hurt my skin. I stopped moving after a while. I sat up and looked around. Michael came into a view with a finger over his mouth. I nodded and inched beside him. We were behind a large set of lockers, although I didn’t know where in the locker room we were.
I heard a set of footsteps. But whose? We sat still and listened. After a while, the person spoke.
“I’m in the eastern locker room. I had them, but they’re gone.”
It was definitely Willie. My guess was that he was talking to Lorenzo.
“Okay, I’ll keep looking.”
We sat with our backs against the lockers. I faced lockers across from us, unable to even glance right, toward the entrance. The footsteps drew nearer but then stopped. I waited but heard nothing. Then I heard them again, but they seemed to be drifting farther away. I heard a ringing cell.
“Yes.” Willie paused. “No, they’re in here, all right. … Okay, I’ll wait for you.”
His footsteps drifted even farther away until we couldn’t hear anything.
I sighed and ruffled my hair.
“They’re coming here,” Michael whispered.
“I know.”
He grimaced and stared into space.
“They’re gonna get us, aren’t they?”
He drew his gun and pulled out the clip.
“How many bullets do we have?”
“Enough,” he said. “Them coming here for us either means that Doug has escaped, is caught or is dead.”
“Don’t say that.”
He held my wrist. “Listen, we need to face facts. This is happening. We’re cornered. Now, I don’t care what happens to me, but you have to live.”
“What’re you saying?”
“I can keep them here, and when the coast is clear, you can escape.”
I stared at him, unable to speak.
The Children Who Time Lost Page 23
