Chills ran down Cody’s spine. This was the moment he’d warned Quinn about. Sure, he’d probably spooked her back at the apartment building, but maybe there was a chance she’d remember and believe him and act. Or maybe his actions only served to cause her to double down on her distrust of strangers. All he really knew for sure was that she was being asked to deploy to Mount Taloc as he’d predicted. Maybe she’d follow the orders, but he still held out hope that she’d believe what he told her. Maybe she’d already forgotten him. It had been almost two years since he’d visited her apartment, and even he was beginning to doubt that anything he remembered had ever really happened.
Lost in his thoughts and fantasies of rewriting history, Cody hadn’t even noticed a flashing, silent alarm going off on his tablet. Until Styles barged into his lab and yelled at him.
“Are you not seeing this?” Styles said.
“Seeing what?” Cody asked.
Styles swung Cody’s chair around and pointed at a security feed. There was a commotion outside the front gates to the air base. Several SUVs were visible, along with a group of men and one woman in civilian clothes, clutching rucksacks and what looked like weapons.
“Jesus,” Cody said, barely able to contain a smile. “She came.”
“You know who that is?”
Cody nodded. “It’s the Marines.”
Cody pushed past Styles, racing out of the silo.
Cody emerged from the silo and dashed between the outer buildings to the front gate, Styles and several other soldiers from the silo following close behind. He could see Quinn along with Hayden, Renner, Giovanni, Milo, and more of them up ahead. Part of him wanted to try to convince them all, to take the time to convince every single one of them he was right and knew what was going on—to a degree—with this time stuff and the syndicate… but not now. What purpose would it serve?
Quinn held her ground as Cody approached. She was busy arguing with the base’s guards when she spotted him, falling silent as he approached.
“Quinn,” Cody said, his voice barely above a whisper.
“Crazy guy,” she said, smirking.
“You believed me,” Cody said.
“Not about everything,” Quinn replied. “But then I started thinking about what you’d said, and it scared me.”
“Which part?”
“The part about the ink. I don’t have a daisy tattoo on my ankle, but I was getting ready to get one. How the hell did you know that?”
“Because I know you.”
“You keep saying that.”
Cody held her look, then pointed to the sky. “They’re almost here.”
“The aliens?”
He nodded. “Could you use any help?” she asked.
He smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Quinn stepped aside and Cody spotted a smallish form that had been hiding behind her. It was Samantha! She was alive and didn’t carry herself with the wise-beyond-her-years gait that he remembered from before. At least not yet. At that moment she looked like exactly what she was—a little girl.
“My daughter,” Quinn said.
“I know.”
“Will we be safe here?” Quinn asked.
Cody nodded. “I swear it.”
On my life, he thought to himself. I swear that on my life.
Down at the bottom of the silo, Cody and the Marines cordoned off into their own cliques. The Marines were on one side, and Cody and several of the other silo workers and soldiers who hadn’t bolted on the other. Quinn moved over and dropped to her haunches next to him.
“You should be a very rich man,” she said.
He looked up. “How’s that?”
“Seeing that you know the future and all. I gotta imagine you’re gonna make a killing with the lottery.”
She smiled. He didn’t. “There won’t be any more lotteries.”
“It was a joke,” she said.
He nodded, finally getting it.
“Look,” Quinn said to him. “I’m still not buying everything you said, but you knew things you shouldn’t have known about, and some of what you told me is coming true.”
“Because I’ve come back.”
“Yeah, again, you keep saying that, and I want to believe you, but I’ve got a daughter who’s counting on me.”
“She can hold her own.”
Quinn iced Cody with a look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means she’s a special little girl. You’re gonna be surprised what she’s capable of doing.”
Quinn cracked her knuckles, taking this in. “So what happens next?”
“The aliens attack.”
“Are you saying we can’t stop the invasion?” Quinn said.
“I am,” Cody said. “The best we can do is limit the damage. After they attack people will rise up. Soldiers, resistance fighters. I’ve done my best to let a number of small groups around the country know the truth. I’ve given them the knowledge about how to fight back by disarming the implants that the aliens are going to use.”
“Implants?”
He nodded. “The aliens make people fight for them in the future. I was forced to work for them, but after I met you—”
“In the future?” Quinn asked, incredulous.
“Yep. In the future. Once we met up, we figured out a way to disarm the implants and fight back, but we were still losing the battle. Hence going back in time. Now, the implants will be disarmed earlier and the Syndicate will have its hands full.”
“What good does that do us?”
“Gives me time to implement my plan.”
“Which is?”
“Better if I don’t tell you.”
“Seriously, Cody? I mean, you can reveal secrets from the future, but you can’t tell me what you’re planning in the present? I’m not about to risk my family on trust in a stranger.”
Her words stung and Cody was silent for a few heartbeats. He fought the urge to share all the other intimate details about their relationship together. Things he shouldn’t know about her. But it was likely she might not believe most of it. Saving her was more important than convincing her. “Fair point,” he said. “Maybe you should know.”
“You think?”
“I’ve developed an EMP-like device, specifically designed for Syndicate technology.”
“What makes you think that’ll work on them, or that they haven’t thought of it already?” Quinn asked.
“They won’t see it coming, because I’ve got a suspicion about something that gives me an edge.”
“What’s that?”
“I was forced to work for them before the invasion. I don’t know how they abducted me before they arrived, but they did, and I designed a lot of weaponry to use against Earth.” Cody hung his head. “They told me the purpose was to save lives. To minimize the damage. They said they needed as many humans as possible to protect the Earth. I think it was all propaganda. I mean, they were invading Earth, right? But working for them gave me a chance to see how their tech works on the backend, and I found a few flaws in their operating systems. I can go in the back and come out the front.” He paused. “I hope.”
Right as he finished speaking, buzzers, alarms, and klaxons began sounding. He looked over at Styles who was peering at a computer monitor. Styles’ mouth dropped open and then the silo shook and the sound of ordnance thudding into the ground could be heard.
Cody’s eyes found Quinn’s. “The invasion has started,” he whispered.
Cody and the others sat silently at the bottom of the hole in the ground, listening to the echo of bombs falling for hours. The hours turned into days and before the internet was lost, they saw images of the death and devastation. It was particularly difficult for Cody who’d been forced to experience the same horrors twice. But in the darkness, there were glimmers of hope. People had not only heard Cody’s words, but taken them to heart.
Word spread that hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people, had taken up arms a
round the world to resist, accomplishing things that Cody hadn’t remembered happening before. They’d amassed weapons and set up defensive positions and made ready to greet the invaders. He’d done it, Cody thought to himself. He’d given humanity a means to fight back against the invaders.
Still, after several days, the Marines began to grow restless. Hayden and the others were barking about the failure to fight back, that they were cowards for hiding down in the silo. In the semi-darkness, he heard someone mentioned his name. He imagined that the Marines were conspiring against him, but he bided his time, keeping his eye on Quinn and Samantha, waiting for the right moment to reveal that he had a way forward.
“That’s it,” Renner said after sitting in the hole for five days. “I’m going outside.”
“If you go out there right now, you’ll never come back,” Cody said.
“Better to die fighting outside, than live sitting down here listening to the world die.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Cody replied.
Renner hesitated, then bulled toward him. “What the fuck did you just say?!”
“Did you not hear me?”
“No, I heard you. I just wanted to make sure you could hear me before I beat the bitter piss out of you,” Renner hissed.
He pulled back his fist and Cody threw up his arms. “STOP!”
Renner did, if only for an instant. Cody backpedaled, shooting looks at the others. “Fine, okay, you want to go out there, we’ll go out there. But not right now.”
“When?” Renner said, seething.
“In two days.”
“Why two days?” Milo asked.
“Because that’s when we’ll do it.”
Hayden rose. “Do what?”
Cody held Hayden’s look. “You may not believe it, but I’ve got a plan. And it does not involve the lot of you running off into battle, wasting your insurmountable skills on pyrrhic victories. Although they’re satisfying, what we really need is to take out the beast’s head. And that is what I’ve been keeping from all of you. That I need the best Marines on Earth to carry out this mission. The real question is not whether you should do battle. You will, either way. The real question is whether you’re bold enough to accomplish the impossible.”
“Whatever it is, I’m down,” Renner said. “I’m stir crazy. I need to blow some shit up.”
“Me too,” Giovanni said with a nod. “It’s time to take the fight to the enemy.”
“Do I get a say in all this?” Quinn said, rising up. “Or are you going to decide for me.”
“I’d prefer to,” Milo said.
Quinn silenced him with a look. She stood, Samantha behind her, trading looks with everyone gathered. “First things first, Cody. Let’s hear your plan.”
Cody beamed. “We’re going to steal an alien vessel, a craft that’s called an arc glider. We need that glider.”
“For what reason?” Hayden asked.
“Because we can use it to infiltrate the heart of the Syndicate fleet. We can’t wait for them to come to us, we have to go to them. We have to go up there and figuratively shove it down their throats.”
“Now you’re talking,” Renner said, smacking his hands together.
Hayden shook his head. “Hold up, troop. You’re saying we’re gonna do that with one goddamn glider?” Hayden looked to Milo who snickered.
“Yes,” Cody said. “I can do a lot with a little.”
“Gonna need more than that this time,” Quinn said.
“There’s a weakness in their defenses. I can shut off their engines with a single swipe across one touchscreen. If I’m close enough to the other ships. I helped build their defenses in my timeline, so I know how to use the backdoor. But I’m not exactly a fighter, which is why I need you all to secure the glider and pilot it.”
“Why couldn’t you pull that off before, Mister Time Traveler?” Quinn asked, with suspicion.
“Because they closed the backdoor when I escaped.”
“So why haven’t they closed it this time?” Quinn countered.
Cody smiled. “Because, if I’m right, they don’t know I’m here.”
Quinn and the Marines traded looks. Quinn peered down at Samantha who smiled and nodded. “She’s in,” Samantha said. The other Marines laughed and nodded. They were too. Cody folded his arms across his chest and sighed. It was time to get to work.
7
Kill ‘em All
Quinn found Ms. Bishop down at the lowest level of the building, working in a small circle of lamplight at a desk. She reacted to Quinn’s footfalls, rising from her chair. An awkward silence ensued and Quinn had the sensation of being back in high school, standing tall before the principal for some disciplinary infraction.
“Many centuries ago, Tampa was inhabited by the Tocobagans people,” Ms. Bishop said.
“Indians?”
Ms. Bishop nodded. “They buried their dead in mounds out in Pinellas County and placed a blessing on them. The people of this city used to think that’s what protected them from all the terrible things that were happening to others.”
“Looks like the blessing was lifted,” Quinn answered.
Ms. Bishop held Quinn’s look for several uncomfortable seconds. “I assume you witnessed the spectacle.”
“Not every day you get to see the sky fall,” Quinn replied with a nod.
“It’s a shocking thing to see.”
“Along with nobody panicking.”
“Does that surprise you?” Ms. Bishop asked.
“A little.”
“And the fact that our community is strictly female. Does that surprise you?”
“Quite a bit.”
“Things were different originally and we tried to make it work. But in those first few, horrible weeks when the world turned over, we discovered that the men were … too emotional. They just weren’t able to handle the end of everything and so it became impractical to let them stay. I still find it fascinating that we turned out to be better equipped for the invasion than them.”
“Makes sense if you think about it,” Quinn replied. “My mother always used to say women are used to trauma. Looking over our shoulders every day, constantly waiting for the other shoe to fall. But guys? They aren’t used to that at all.”
Ms. Bishop nodded. “After it became apparent that things would never be the same, they just … broke.”
“Are they the ones who attacked me outside?”
Ms. Bishop pursed her lips. “Possibly. There are others. Scavengers. Bandits. Rogue resistance elements. You see, when the atmosphere went away, the planet started getting bombarded with increasing amounts of radiation. The ones outside? Their brains are poisoned and they don’t even know it.”
“Doesn’t really matter, does it? I mean, they’ll be frozen soon.”
Ms. Bishop nodded again. “It’s cold now, but soon it will be hundreds of degrees below zero outside. Maybe even down to the freezing point of oxygen.”
“Everything will die.”
“Not everything,” Ms. Bishop replied, returning to her desk. “The planet will remain warm from radioactive decay for a billion years. Things underground will survive. Microbes, tiny creatures down in the ocean, kept warm by deep sea vents. They’ll all keep chugging along, at least for a while.”
“And you and your people?”
The levity faded from Ms. Bishop’s face. “We’ll make do, at least until our central power source shuts down.”
“You’re heating off a MODNUC aren’t you? A nuclear reactor.”
Ms. Bishop looked up. “You’re familiar with them?”
Quinn nodded. “I’ve been around the modular kind.”
“Well ours was built once upon a time by General Electric. We’ve got a turbine generator with a net maximum output of 885,000 kilowatts. God willing it will be enough to power our little outpost here for a good while. Of course, when the sun was taken away, so was its gravitational pull.”
“Which means?”
“We’re cut loose from the leash. As we speak we’re hurtling through the solar system like a runaway train. It’s only a matter of time before we run into something.”
Quinn was about to ask what would happen next, but she already knew the answer to that.
Ms. Bishop sucked in a breath and flicked her wrist at Quinn’s armor. “So … where did you get that from? Inquiring minds want to know.”
“I stole it from the Syndicate.”
“How and when?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
Ms. Bishop’s gaze smoked into Quinn’s. “The sun’s been taken away, the ocean is frozen, and the sky has literally just fallen. There’s very little I wouldn’t believe these days, so try me.”
Quinn hesitated, then decided to give Ms. Bishop the quick and dirty. “The Syndicate has a time ship that my unit boarded and tried to manipulate.”
“Are you joking?” Ms. Bishop asked.
“Do I look like I am?”
“When did this occur?”
“I can’t precisely answer that, but our goal was to go back to the days before the invasion. If we could do that—”
“You could change the future?” Ms. Bishop breathlessly replied.
Quinn nodded. “The problem is there are … temporal loops … parallel worlds I guess you could say. We just assumed we’d be sent back to the right one.”
“That’s quite an assumption.”
“Assumptions are the starting point for any analysis.”
“And what did your analysis show?”
Quinn massaged her face. “I don’t know how to answer that, but clearly, something went wrong.”
Ms. Bishop paced before Quinn. “Let us assume you were to find your way back to that ship.”
“Talk about assumptions…”
Ms. Bishop smiled. “There are still functioning sensors out on the ice, Quinn. They were hidden by the resistance at various strategic locations when the ocean first froze. We still have the ability to monitor some of them. We saw you and your friend out there.”
Quinn was dumbfounded. So that’s how Ava knew they’d been out on the ice and seen the forest of frozen people. “You knew where we came in, didn’t you?”
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