by Lola Dodge
Cipher sneezes and the high-pitched squeak triggers the alarm again; we ride the lift uninterrupted, but armed guards are waiting for us as the doors slide open—
Crap. “Dive!”
I pushed Devan out of the way just as the doors opened.
Bullets roared. My ears rang, but I still heard the strangled gurgles over the noise.
“Stay down!” The voice called from outside.
I was on the floor, but not hit. Tair—
He choked up blood.
No.
No, no.
Rewind. I had to rewind.
Gasping, I landed back in the tunnel again. The throbbing in my head cut a notch deeper on every trip through time, but the pain was a tad less sharp under the wave of relief as I hugged Tair’s ribs.
He let out a shuddering breath. “Ouch.”
“Uh. Guys?” Dex asked
I swallowed down the rising tide of nausea. This was going to be a day.
We tried, and tried, and tried some more. Ten more times, and no dice. Tair winced like his head was going to split open, but I was having trouble seeing straight, so maybe I was just projecting.
We weren’t making progress. Every route ended in blood.
And almost every time, someone took a bullet for me. None of them remembered except Tair, but that wasn’t the kind of thing I could shrug off. Cipher, Knight, Dex, and Devan were all putting my lives above their own and if I was going to watch them die time and again, I had to be worth it. I had to do something that made all of this worth that sacrifice.
Problem was, I didn’t see a way out. On one of our jaunts through time, I spotted a timeghostly Mona being dragged to her cell, so I knew we were in the right spot, but the security was deadly. Twenty-three time trips into the disaster, I was dry heaving and having trouble walking straight. I’d push through if I saw a way that we succeeded, but I just didn’t.
And at what point was that pure insanity?
Chapter Twenty-Six
ALTAIR
My head ached and dizziness made it difficult to focus as we strode through the atrium yet again. The next time we rewound, Quanta and I were going to have to have a serious talk. This strategy wasn’t working.
We snuck deeper into the building with each trip, but we couldn’t take the lifts without triggering security. I’d considered using climbing gear to belay down the center of the building in an all-out attack, but Quanta said that wouldn’t end well. It did sound desperate.
But we were desperate. I couldn’t check in on Quanta under her Kendrick disguise, but every time we rewound back to Roboloco, she looked more exhausted. My head ached just from the echo of Quanta’s power, so she must be feeling the effects even more.
We needed to try something new. As we neared the lifts yet again, I almost bumped into Devan.
She’d slowed and the light of her power flickered, the vibration just barely perceptible. She was losing her grip. I cleared my throat and nodded everyone to move to the side of the hallway. No one else was around, though the cams would still be watching.
I leaned into Devan’s ear, keeping my voice as low as possible. “Can you switch our disguises? Make us all Greens for as long as you can hold out.”
After a moment, the air shimmered around us. In an eye-blink, I was staring at a blonde scientist in a lab coat instead of a Black Helix. The others looked more like themselves—their features only slightly distorted instead of wearing full masks.
“Yes.” Quanta’s voice slipped out. She quickly clapped a hand over her mouth, but I could see the grin underneath. I hoped that meant we’d found a good timeline.
“Hurry.” Devan’s strain carried through the disguise, her face tightening.
She didn’t have to tell me twice. That costume change hadn’t been subtle, and someone would notice that we didn’t belong.
We made it onto the lift. Dex said the words yet again. “Research, Level Eight.”
My gut tightened as we began to descend. We’d entered the lift before, but exiting…
I watched Quanta, trying to gauge how this would play out. She still stood confidently in front of the doors. If she saw attackers in the future, she’d dive to the side.
But she might not see them coming. I kept tense and ready, just in case I had to pull her out of the line of fire.
When the doors slid open, no Helixes stood waiting. We couldn’t have much longer, though.
We slipped into the hall, blending with the other lab-coated scientists. We’d come out near Door 86. Following the door numbering system from the previous levels, I led the group clockwise. My pulse sped as we passed Door 85.
Could we really get to Cass on this timeline?
We were so close… If we could at least see her this time. That was all I needed. Even if it took a few more tries to get her out.
No one had attacked by the time we passed Door 81. My headache faded as adrenaline pumped through my system.
Door 80 brought me back down to reality. The security stand had both a retinal and hand scanner. We couldn’t pass either.
Dex reached for the handprint scanner. It was worth a try. There was a small chance he hadn’t been scrubbed from the Seligo logs and his old security clearance might carry us through.
But I knew it would trigger the alarm.
Next time, we’d—
Quanta grabbed Dex’s wrist before his hand touched the pad. She closed her eyes, and I caught the movement of her fingers as she counted down. Five. Four Three. Two—
The door clicked. Quanta grabbed it, pulling it all the way open as two Green Helixes exited. They cast us looks but didn’t stop walking.
Hope swelled, expanding my chest. We were in.
Quanta couldn’t help a grin as she slipped into the corridor. We followed her through, slipping back into our formation, but Devan moved even more slowly than before.
If we could just get to where Cass was being held—
The alarm blared.
“This way!” Quanta veered off the long main hallway. I followed close, not knowing where the attack would come from. The ceiling panels hadn’t dropped, but they would soon. They always did.
Devan stumbled, gasping and our disguises flickered away. Dex swung her onto his back, barely missing a step as we sprinted down the corridor. We passed door after shut door.
Ahead, one door stood open.
“They’re in th—” Quanta’s voice choked off.
Feeling victory close by, the others kept running, but I skidded to a stop at Quanta’s side. “What’s wrong?”
The instinct to run to Cass fought my creeping suspicion. This was too easy. On every other floor, every other attempt, we’d been ambushed and gunned down. We shouldn’t be able to run free.
Unless we were being allowed to.
A hint of blue light flickered around Quanta as her features widened in horror. “He’s here.”
“Who—”
The man himself stepped into the doorway.
Doctor Nagi.
He wore a tie under his neatly buttoned lab coat, and the smug smile on his face shot my heart into overdrive.
We were exactly where he wanted us.
Gunfire rang out beyond him. Yellow and blue lights flared and went out.
Quanta gripped my arm. I stepped in front of her, trying to shield her from Doctor Nagi’s view, but I could already hear the running boot steps echoing down the hallway behind us.
“Rewind.” If we waited any longer—
A hum kicked up at the edge of my hearing. Then the high-pitched noise sharpened and I gripped my temple at the flash of pain.
Quanta cried out, dropping to her knees. She held her head in her hands.
Doctor Nagi’s grin made me shiver. “Why leave so soon?”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
QUANTA
Hands dragged Tair away from me. I couldn’t think. Couldn’t fight. Couldn’t see the timeghosts.
Everything was white static.
/> Fuzz.
My brain couldn’t focus over the noise that was more than a noise. A whine that fried my circuits.
I’d felt it before. Not this much, though.
It was stronger. The white noise waves.
I had to rewind.
But I couldn’t see the past.
Couldn’t even see the present. Just shapes.
My feet slid across the floor. I was being dragged.
Toward something. Tair was—
I couldn’t see. But I’d seen the future before the fuzz kicked up.
Everyone dead. We didn’t survive this time.
I cried out as the noise kicked up an octave.
Fire.
But hands kept me from gripping my temples.
It was already too late.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
ALTAIR
“Quanta!” I bucked against the Helixes closing in on me. I ripped an arm free and landed a punch, but when one guard fell away, two more oozed into his place. They pinned my arms behind me.
I strained and threw my body as they tied my wrists and ankles with cords.
Black Helixes were dragging Quanta away from me.
“Quanta!”
Doctor Nagi stepped in front of me, cutting off my view.
I lunged for him. Now that I was bound, the Helixes simply let me go.
Momentum carried me into the floor. The breath heaved from my lungs. I clawed for him.
Doctor Nagi’s mirror-shined shoes retreated a step. “Get him to the freezer in one piece. I don’t want any damage to his tissues.”
The Helixes hauled me back to my feet. Rage and horror throbbed through my body. “You won’t win.”
“Altair.” He took a step closer and patted my shoulder with a smile that made bile rise in my throat. “How could you possibly topple my forces at this late juncture? I won this war decades ago, and now that Eva must admit her defeat, no one can challenge my system.”
He spun on a heel and headed for Quanta.
All I could do was buck and rage.
She could still rewind us. It wasn’t too—
A stretcher wheeled past. I glimpsed a cloud of dark curls and the air rushed from my lungs.
Cassie.
Already dead.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
QUANTA
The hum blanked everything else from my brain. White, white static.
Red pain. Flash after flash.
I couldn’t stay lucid. But I felt the dread. In the little breaths of clarity, split-second timeghosts flickered in before the pain and static ripped them away.
Tair dead. Cassie dead. Cipher and Devan about to join me as test subjects.
Knight and Dex and Oliver. All dead.
I had to do something, but shapes were still dragging me. Who. To where. I couldn’t tell anymore.
Finally, they tossed me in a room. Nagi would come. I saw it in the flashes.
After everything, he wanted me alive. I was valuable.
My powers were valuable. But they meant nothing right now.
Not with the fuzz machine blocking me. I could barely see as the high-pitched noise pounded my ears.
I curled into a ball, trying to anchor to my body. My limbs were still there. That was good.
Both my hip holsters were empty. No weapons—
No. One. The little pocket knife I’d stuck in my bra.
What to do?
Pain flared. The noise wasn’t stopping.
I gritted my teeth. Focus. I had to get the machine off. Clear my head.
But Nagi knew what I could do. He wouldn’t let me go now.
What if I was dying? Did he want me alive badly enough?
I couldn’t see what happened next, but I’d take the risk. I’d rather die than live the future alone and suffering.
My fingers felt disconnected from my body. Slowly, fumbling, I pulled out the knife.
The good news was, I wouldn’t feel the pain. I couldn’t possibly.
I heard the knife click open. The cold metal in my hand.
All I had to do was slice.
I traced the blade from wrist to elbow, pushing deep. Blood ran out like warm water. It felt like relief.
The other arm? I tried to move the knife to my other hand. The blood was slippery. My fingers wouldn’t close.
I heard it clatter.
The door slid open.
I blinked. A figure stood highlighted.
Shock widened his plastic mouth in an O. But his anger crashed down fast. Nagi whirled, yelling. “Medic!”
I heard footsteps. Hands touched me. Still the static.
More warm water poured from my face. Blood or tears?
I’d gambled wrong. This was the end.
Voices mumbled as what little I could see faded.
“My head.” Would they hear me? Were my lips even moving?
Someone shouted.
Then the switch flicked. The static cut.
Pain burned through my arm. I gasped as my vision came back. Med techs had me strapped to a table, and Nagi looked on, his finger hovering over whatever button he’d just hit to free my mind.
Our gazes locked.
Rewind.
I grabbed the moment in the past before he changed his mind.
But I was weak. Brain still sluggish.
Time froze. Nagi’s stare was all the urging I needed to get my act together. The more time I wasted, the harder reversing would be.
I focused on the reset point. A glowing, golden, and very alive Tair. Everyone alive, standing tense in the tunnel, all innocent with no idea what nightmare was coming.
Time roared. My head was hammering, and this part was never easy, but now the unseen forces crashed against my raw nerves. I would’ve screamed, but I couldn’t.
Back. Back was the only way.
I had to turn the pages back.
It felt like ripping myself in half, but I gutted through moment by moment. Reality rewound by agonizing seconds. I rolled pack, unslicing my arm, being dragged back to Tair, all of us running, back up the lift, out of the atrium—
My grip started to slip.
For a terrifying second, everything turned upside down. Other times and universes called out to me with siren voices. If I just let go, could I pull us all somewhere better? To a timeline where we actually survived? Because this one wasn’t working.
As my resolve wavered, so did my grip on the reset point. I was slipping and I wasn’t sure I cared.
Quanta.
Tair’s voice echoed over the screaming of the pasts and futures and whole other worlds.
Not now. I couldn’t give up here.
What was wrong with me? I couldn’t give up ever.
I doubled down, forcing myself back through time. At last, I came out gasping on the other side.
My legs collapsed, and my vision blanked out again. Tair caught me before I could fall. My whole body shook. I gripped the arm I’d sliced, needing to feel that I was whole. Tair squeezed me into a death grip hug.
“Uh. Guys?” Dex’s question sounded distant. Instead of answering, I concentrated on Tair, slipping my fingers to his neck so I could feel his pulse and his rapid breaths.
“What happened?” Knight asked.
I bored my forehead into Tair’s chest. I didn’t want to face reality anymore.
How could I tell them?
Nagi knew we were coming and was just waiting to stop us. Oh, and by the way, all of us die.
My head was splitting, and I couldn’t find the energy to stand, let alone mount another attack. What would be the point? Did we just throw ourselves against the same obstacles again and again until we got pulverized?
I couldn’t sign up for that. But where was the choice? If we didn’t fight, our friends were lost.
“Seriously.” Cipher’s voice cut through my internal downward spiral. “What happened?”
I was surprised Tair hadn’t explained. He was much better at translating the past t
han I was. I pulled away so I could see his face.
He wore a blank stare that froze my blood. I’d never seen him look so out of it. So desperate. I cupped his chin with shaking fingers. “Tair?” He managed to blink, but he wasn’t all there. Because he’d died? I could hear the panic in my own voice. “What did you see?”
My own pain evaporated and my focus was a laser again. I let down my aching mental walls. I had to see what he’d seen. The recent past was so urgent it practically jumped in front of my face.
“Quanta!” Tair screams and struggles against the army of Helixes binding his wrists and ankles. The pain in his voice stings.
Doctor Nagi steps in front of him and Tair lunges. The Helixes let him go and he thumps to the floor but doesn’t stop crawling for Nagi. The Doctor retreats a step. “Get him to the freezer in one piece. I don’t want any damage to his tissues.”
The Helixes heave Tair back up. Veins stand out on his neck as his face twists with pain and horror. “You won’t win.”
“Altair.” Wearing a sickeningly familiar smirk, Nagi pats Tair’s shoulder. “How could you possibly topple my forces at this late juncture? I won this war decades ago, and now that Eva must admit her defeat, no one can challenge my system.”
Nagi turns, walking calmly down the hallway. Tair’s glare sears across the space between them, but other shapes are rushing toward them. Tair turns as a stretcher is rushed past.
Cassie’s limp arm dangles off the side. Her glassy violet eyes stare up at the ceiling.
Tair goes limp and the Helixes drag him down a hallway filled with four more stretchers.
Mona. Oliver. Both dead before we can get to them.
A lab tech sticks drug patches onto Tair’s skin as the Helixes heave him into a locker-sized freezer. Still staring numbly ahead, he disappears in a cloud of frigid vapor.
I drew in a shaking breath. He’d seen Cassie dead, me ripped away from him, and his own fate closing in…
But that wasn’t real. All of us were alive right now, and there was still a little bit of a chance. “Tair. It didn’t happen.” Still, he stared. “Tair!”
