Millennium Crash

by James Litherland

Matt was confused until he looked at his watch and saw it was already half past ten in the morning. “I’ll keep both rooms another day if I can.”

  “Will you be having another guest, sir?”

  Matt swung his feet over the bed and combed his free hand through his hair as his brain kicked into action. “Another? What about my friend Page in room 404?”

  “I’m sorry, sir. I supposed you knew the young lady had checked out.”

  Checked out? He’d told her to expect him in the morning to see if she needed an escort to the bank. What did she think when I failed to show?

  He said a quick thanks to the hotel clerk, hung up the phone, and started for the door. Not having undressed for bed, he was ready to go.

  Page could have gone to the bank already. She could’ve reunited with her friends, then forgotten about him. As Matt darted out into the corridor and headed for the stairs, he realized he hadn’t thought to ask when Page had checked out.

  The bank wouldn’t have opened until nine, so she might still be there. He hit the sidewalk outside and kept going. Since it was only a few blocks away, he’d probably get there faster on his long legs than by trying to catch a cab.

  Matt weaved swiftly through the throngs on the street, hoping to arrive at the bank before Page had left. Which meant he arrived out of breath.

  He didn’t want to run into the bank like that, so he stopped outside the entrance and made himself cool down, relax. At least he’d meet her coming out if he hadn’t already missed her. Then he remembered the locator.

  This was what came from starting his day without coffee. His brain was slow to move. He looked down at the device on his wrist and checked Page’s location. South. He didn’t know how far south, but she wasn’t in the bank.

  Matt was torn. He wanted to turn right around and go after her. But he didn’t know if she’d even been to the bank yet—she might be headed in this direction even now.

  His mind made up, Matt plunged into the chilly air-conditioned lobby and looked around. When he saw a familiar face from their previous visit, he was pleased and smiled at the secretary sitting far at the back at a wide desk. She didn’t seem to notice.

  He walked over and didn’t waste time exchanging greetings. “Has she been here? Did she make it okay?”

  Ms. Dervan glared at him. “If you mean Page, she’s been and gone already. You missed her.”

  “Did she say where she was going?” He had the locator device to track her by, but if she was headed any distance, it would help to know where.

  “She said you stood her up.”

  Matt sighed. Women sure stuck together on occasions like this. “I overslept.”

  “You men are always making excuses. Except for when you don’t even bother to do that. Go find her yourself.”

  She was right of course—he should be out looking for Page now. She might already be in trouble. “Thank you.”

  With a smile and a nod, he turned and walked across the lobby and out into the street. He checked the watch again and headed south. If he’d not been in such a rush, he could’ve used the device to start tracking Page from the hotel and saved himself time and energy. But that was past.

  At least he still had several hours or more until she could Travel again. She’d probably want to wait the full twenty-four hours needed for her device to finish recharging.

  He bet she would spend that time shopping. Or looking for her friends if they hadn’t already found her. He could keep speculating, but he didn’t know so he walked fast and worried all the while.

  Though it didn’t take long to find her. The locator app led him to a hotel across the street from the one they had stayed at last night—and as he neared the entrance the screen’s red bar changed to a blip. That would show him where Page was. He followed the signal into the lobby and through to a little café inside.

  She was sitting alone at a small table, sipping from a cup and staring into the distance. Her head lifted and she saw him coming toward her. Her face was blank, but he knew those wheels were turning.

  He rested his hand on the back of the chair opposite her. “Mind if I sit? I haven’t eaten yet.” He’d forgotten to eat last night as well.

  Page’s glance was cool. “I’m just finishing my morning tea.”

  “Sorry I overslept, but you got to the bank and back safely. On your own?”

  She squinted. “Of course. I had the desk clerk call for a car. Door-to-door service and I was perfectly safe. Without you to protect me. Matt.”

  He glanced at the small gray leather bag on the chair next to her. “You’ve already been shopping?”

  “There’s a very nice little shop in that hotel you took me to. This purse is pretty, and I wanted something for a thief to steal. It’s empty, of course.”

  Matt grinned. “Of course. And I’m pleased to see you’re taking more precautions.” Which would be his own influence on her, but he thought it better not to bring that up right now. “Still, I’ll worry less once I know you’ve got your friends looking after you—have they not found you yet?”

  “No. They’ve all left, even my own helpers. Last evening when we arrived, I saw your blip but no red bar to indicate that any of my colleagues exist in this time period. They’ve all Traveled away. By the way, this morning when I checked again, I noticed your blip and the room you’d taken down the hall.”

  She had known where he was this morning and could’ve knocked on his door, but she’d chosen this. Not only going to the bank by herself but moving to a different hotel. Now she was alone.

  “Cheer up. I’m here. I’ll help you find them.”

  Page frowned down at her empty plate. “These devices can’t track each other across time. So how could we find them?”

  “The old-fashioned way, research. Despite how I act, I’m no dummy. Which makes me wonder—why didn’t you stay at the other hotel?”

  “The old-fashioned way? I had Verity reserve a room for me here. Where I wouldn’t be just a blip on the device you’re still wearing.”

  Matt grinned. “The research may take a while. Did you think I wouldn’t come looking for you?”

  Page stared at him. “After you stood me up this morning, I wasn’t sure what you’d do.”

  He caught the eye of the waitress that was floating around and signaled. He’d need to eat if he was sticking with Page. It seemed she had no objection to that, which was good, because he felt like he was still a long way from figuring her out.

  Chapter 15

  Destination Unknown

  October 7th, 1991 The Bronx

  SAM lay across the thin, hard single mattress in the cheap motel room they’d rented, and listened—to someone picking the lock on the door. They hadn’t wanted to make things too easy for Kirin and whoever she’d brought with her.

  Neither had they wanted to make it impossible, which was why they’d stayed in this time instead of Traveling. They didn’t want to make it difficult at all, so they’d chosen to stay here. Where Sam might make a tempting target. Though they now had the resources to stay somewhere nicer.

  Kirin wouldn’t know that, though. It had taken the woman three months to have her work done and convalesce and finish laying whatever plans she had for getting rid of the thorn in her side.

  Which was Sam. She felt sure Kirin would want to be on hand to see the deed done, if not to commit the crime with her own hand. And according to the locator app, the woman had come.

  Sam’s leader device was the one that could expose Kirin’s approach, and it showed she’d come in the wee hours. Probably since the woman thought Sam was alone and couldn’t keep vigil while she was sleeping. She couldn’t, but Bailey had.

  While she had slept, he’d had the leader device and kept an eye on the locator screen to have some kind of warning when Kirin came approached. When the woman had come, he’d woken Sam to let her know. Now they waited.

  A faint click. Sam opened her eyes and couldn’t see a thing in the dark room, but she could hear the do
orknob turn and the slight swish as the opening door brushed against the rough carpet.

  The night outside was dark, too. And with the drapes pulled to block out the few lights there were at this place, she could only make out the vaguest of shapes as a couple of people moved into the room. She wondered if the whites of her eyes were shining in the darkness to betray that she was awake.

  The lights came on suddenly and forced her to blink and refocus. She sat up on the bed, taking in the scene before her—a grizzled man with a hairy arm filling the entrance and his arm still stretched out toward the light switch on the wall. And Kirin halfway between the door and the bed with a knife in her hand.

  The woman jerked her head at the thug behind her. “Close the door and make sure we’re not disturbed.”

  Seemingly trapping the two women in the room together, Kirin’s muscle retreated outside, shutting the door as he went without a word. Maybe she cut out his tongue.

  Sam stared for a long, drawn-out moment. The plastic surgery must’ve been expert indeed—even the harsh light of the motel room couldn’t detract from Kirin’s beauty. The woman had been restored to her old self. Unfortunately.

  She only held Sam’s gaze for a brief moment before flicking it around the dingy room. “Have you not accessed the trust funds yet? Or did one of the others get to this year’s stipend first?”

  “I told you I wasn’t interested in the money. I only withdrew enough from the stipend to meet my needs. As long as you can’t get your hands on the rest, I’m satisfied.”

  “Well, I’ll have to thank you for leaving the bulk of the funds for me. Which I’ll have access to once I have the leader device back.”

  Sam squinted at the woman. “You think I’ll just give it back to you?”

  Kirin sighed. “If you’re smart. You offered me a deal—now I’m offering you one. Give me back the leader device. I’ll keep your helper device as well so you can’t track me anymore. Then I’ll tell Marco to leave you alive, after he pays you back for my accident. Or I can just take what I want off your dead body. How’s that for a deal?”

  “You’re so confident of handling me all by yourself that you left your goon outside?”

  The woman bared her gleaming white teeth. “I know you don’t have the killer instinct. You proved that yourself.”

  “And you’ve shown you are a killer. Did you really have to murder poor Harold?”

  “It was more convenient that way. And if it had not been for you...”

  “The only witness.” Sam smiled. “I’m rather surprised you’re willing to let me live. I could find a way to get a message to the others, tell them what you did. Maybe I already have.”

  Kirin narrowed her eyes. “I don’t believe it.”

  “I believe your so-called deal is a fake. You just want to avoid a confrontation because you’re afraid of me.”

  “Of you?” The woman gestured with the stiletto in her hand. “A gunshot might attract attention. In this kind of place, though, no one will listen to your screaming. And I want to see you bleed.”

  Sam’s smile turned grim. “Then you should’ve kept Marco with you.”

  Kirin snorted. “I told you I’m not afraid of you.”

  “You should at least be afraid of the authorities. You left your fingerprints all over the knife you used to kill Harold, and the police will have them on file. Someday that will catch up to you.”

  “Silly Sam. I’ll just make sure I have an unimpeachable alibi when the time comes. Between that and my wealth, I’ll be untouchable. And you won’t be around to be a witness.”

  “That’s what I thought. That’s why you’ve left me with no choice but to see justice done myself.”

  Kirin laughed. “And how do you think you can do that?”

  “Well, if you must know...”

  The woman’s attention had been so fixed upon their conversation, she hadn’t noticed Bailey slipping out of the closet. Not until he had knocked the knife out of her hand and sent it sailing across the room. Then she yelped.

  The door began opening from the outside, and Bailey threw all his weight against it. Crushing the man who had started to enter into the door jamb. The thug Marco moaned. Bailey opened the door again and drove his fist into the man’s stomach.

  Sam started off the bed toward Kirin, then away again as the woman slashed her long, sharp fingernails at Sam’s face. Bailey was busy shoving Marco into a heap in the hallway outside.

  Kirin lunged at Sam again. But as Sam jerked back from the attack, the woman turned and ran for the door. She rammed into Bailey’s back, pushing him through the open door and sending him stumbling over her own goon.

  Kirin was a fool if she thought she could outrun Sam. The woman might’ve brought more help than the one thug though, so Sam didn’t rush headlong after her. It might be a trap.

  She ran after the woman with careful attention to her surroundings.

  Kirin kept glancing behind her, and the fear on her face looked real enough, but it could have been meant to lure Sam onward. Sam chased the woman down the corridor, gaining on her all the same and following around a corner—toward the landing and the stairs down to the second floor. Kirin turned to glare as she started down the steps.

  She caught her heel in the rusty metal grating and launched into the air, tumbling down one flight and bouncing over the railing.

  Hurrying down the stairs, Sam leaned over the same railing and saw Kirin lying on the asphalt in the middle of an empty parking space below.

  Descending the rest of the steps with less haste, Sam heard a soft moan. But when she walked over to where the woman lay and saw how half of Kirin’s head was dented in, there seemed little doubt. Sam listened for last words that didn’t come.

  She did hear Bailey’s heavy feet pounding down the stairs behind her. He stepped ahead of her and knelt down to press his fingers to Kirin’s throat and shook his head.

  “She’s fading fast.” Then he looked up at Sam, which felt strange to her. “Now she’s gone.”

  Sam nodded and said a silent and possibly useless prayer for Kirin’s soul. Who knows what might have been in her heart at the end? Whatever Kirin’s ultimate destination, it wasn’t up to Sam.

  “Bailey, take the device off her wrist. Search for the other one, too. We don’t want the natives discovering it.” Kirin should have both her own watch and Sam’s.

  “We don’t want them discovering us either. We should leave now.” Still he took the time to remove the watch from the dead woman’s wrist and hand it to Sam, then do a quick search of the body. But he didn’t find the other device.

  Sam glanced around at the night, but there was no one. “What if she had other hired goons? Will they come after us?” And where in the world is that other device?

  Bailey rose to his feet and began herding Sam out of the parking lot. “Paid thugs wouldn’t still be hanging around after this. After all, if they’ve been paid they can take their money and run—now that she’s dead. Though that Marco may not be in any shape to run. Speaking of which...”

  Sam nodded. They had left nothing behind in their hotel room, so she started walking fast toward the street. Bailey matched her pace, out to the sidewalk and headed for the subway. Only a few blocks away, thankfully.

  It wasn’t until they’d reached the steps down to the station that either of them said a word. Bailey looked to make sure no one was listening before he spoke his mind. “Now that that business is finished and we have the leader device, we can begin Traveling back to the summer of two thousand.”

  Sam shook her head. “It’s not completely over and done with. Especially since we’re not going to go looking for the others.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She stayed quiet, listening to her heart. When they reached the platform, she led him to an empty patch of ground where they could talk undisturbed while they waited for the next train.

  “We’re going back to Manhattan and staying in some place a bit nicer than that d
ump.”

  “That’s not what I was talking about.”

  “I know.” Sam was still thinking about how she needed to avoid the kind of luxury Kirin had sought.

  Dismissing that from her mind, she tried to decide how to explain to Bailey what she was going to do. She looked up into his face and wondered how he would take it. Will he try to take the leader device back?

  “Something’s wrong, Bailey.” She turned and stared out at the empty tracks and waited until the meaningless squawking over the loudspeakers had ceased. “The way we were all scattered. Maybe the professor or someone will come looking for us, but they haven’t yet. And until they do—”

  More garbled metallic speech screeched from above, and Sam waited until the noise had abated. “With Harold and Kirin both dead, I’m the only one left of our research team. That makes me leader, so I’m going to make my own decisions about where to go and what to do.”

  Bailey stayed silent for a long moment, looking at her. “How will we know what’s wrong if we don’t go back? And we need to tell the others about what happened, about Harold and Kirin and us.”

  “That’s why I said it’s not over and done. Yet. If you want, I can drop you off in two thousand, and you can try to look for the others to let them know. Find Page—she’s your leader. But I have another idea how to leave a message.”

  Bailey’s blank face turned away, in thought, she hoped. Sam realized she wasn’t anxious about what he’d decide to do, only curious. But as the minutes passed and the man remained quiet, she started to get annoyed.

  She had other things she needed to talk about. So while he made up his mind, she talked. “I don’t like the idea of keeping this extra device.” Or that there’s another one on the loose. “Since it expands the range, it’d be too dangerous to carry around. At least when I’m Traveling. I might accidentally take someone with me. The way Kirin did.”

  He continued to stare out into the dark.

  “Bailey, I’m going to send this extra watch back to the others. If you’re going to stay with me, you’ll need to stick close.”

  He turned and nodded at her. “You’re a leader now, and I’m a helper, and as you said, no one has come looking for us. So since Page isn’t here to lead me, I might as well follow you.”