Time and Again: A Collection of Crazy Chronology

by Michael D. Britton

Time

  and Again

  a collection of crazy chronology

  by

  Michael D. Britton

  * * * *

  Copyright 2011, 2012 by Michael D. Britton / Intelligent Life Books

  Seer

  Mateo Lopez smoothed his thin black moustache with his forefinger and thumb, then switched out the light and laid his head down beside his already sleeping wife. As he closed his eyes, he thought he saw a flash of lightning brighten their room for an instant. Two seconds later a crashing, thunderous boom rocked the whole farmhouse and brought Mateo to his feet, heart pounding.

  Maria moved quickly out of the room to comfort the crying children, while Mateo fumbled into his worn boots, threw on a shirt and headed out of the house, grabbing his shotgun on the way.

  The sky over their west Texas farm was perfectly clear, and millions of stars twinkled in the cool night breeze. Mateo smelled something burning, and turned upwind toward the barn.

  He passed his brand new 1947 Nash pickup truck, sliding his free hand along the smooth fender as he moved toward a faint crackling sound emanating from the back of the barn. He picked up his pace, hoping that the lightning had not started a big fire.

  As he rounded the back end of the barn, he saw that a medium-sized sycamore tree had been ploughed into the ground and was smoldering. He looked up again, wondering what kind of thunderstorm came with no clouds at all.

  Considering the damage to the tree, there were surprisingly few flames – just a crater with a small ring of fire about two feet across in the center – and it seemed to be burning itself out, rather than spreading. Mateo stepped into the crater and cautiously poked at the embers with the barrel of his shotgun. A few tiny sparks jumped upward and disappeared into the darkness.

  Satisfied that he had found the source of the unusually loud boom that had shaken his house and family, he stepped to the barn, leaned his gun against the door, and went inside to get some water from the horse trough. He carried a bucket to the impact site and poured it on what was left of the embers, causing a loud hissing sound, some pops, and a big puff of steam. As the foul-smelling gas cleared, Mateo had to rub his eyes to make sure he was seeing straight in the moonlight.

  At the base of the hole in the ground, a rocky ring glowed with a faint blue hue. It was about a foot across, and three or four inches thick. It looked like a fluorescent automobile tire.

  Mateo reached toward it, then drew back. Whatever it was, it must be hot, having just been at the center of a small fire. He strode back to the barn and grabbed a post-hole digger, then used it like a giant pair of blacksmith tongs to lift the curious object out of the earth and lay it on the ground. It was heavy, like a small anvil, and it continued to cast a pale glow – the kind that seems to disappear when you look directly at it.

  As he stood staring at it, he nearly jumped out of his skin when a hand came down on his shoulder.

  “I’m sorry!” said Maria, pulling her hand away reflexively at Mateo’s reaction. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “Don’t sneak up on me like that!” said Mateo, whispering as if to avoid disturbing his strange discovery.

  “The kids are asleep again,” she said. Then she pointed at Mateo’s find. “What is that?”

  “I don’t know. I’d like to take it inside and get a better look at it.”

  He reached down and extended his palm toward the object, testing to see if it was still hot. When he got a couple of inches away, he pulled his hand back, confused.

  “What – is it hot?” asked Maria.

  “No. It’s – it’s cold. Very cold – like a block of ice.”

  “Well, bring it into the barn, let’s see what it is.”

  “I’m bringing into the house.”

  “I don’t want that thing in my house – take it in the barn,” said Maria.

  “No, I need more light – I need to be able to see what it is.”

  Mateo squatted before the ring and reached toward it with both hands. He heaved it and held it like a steering wheel, resting the bottom of the wheel against his belly to help support the weight. The coldness of the object was intense, but not unbearable. As they walked back toward the house, Maria tied her long black hair in a pony tail, just as they passed their new truck.

  Without warning, a charge of electrical energy shot from under the hood of the Nash like a lightning bolt - clearly coming from the battery – and it struck the object in Mateo’s hands. A second later, as Mateo staggered and recovered from the surprisingly mild shock, another bolt shot from the tractor’s battery across the yard, also landing on the thick, heavy ring in his hands.

  With the second strike, Mateo felt a surge of energy run up his arms, and his head felt like it was swimming. His instinct told him to drop the object, but his hands gripped it even tighter than before. And for a moment, he thought he saw something in the hole of the donut.

  “Did you – did you see that?” he asked, panting as he recovered from the jolts.

  “Of course I saw that!” said Maria. “You were struck by lightning – or, something.”

  “No, I mean, did you see the picture – in the hole?”

  “What picture? What are you talking about? I think that thing’s dangerous, you should put it down.”

  “I can’t. I mean, I don’t want to. I have to see it again – I must know what the image was – what it means.”

  “Well, come on, let’s get into the house,” said Maria, shivering in the unusually cool August night.

  They shuffled into the house and Mateo hefted the mysterious round stone onto the kitchen table as Maria turned on the overhead light.

  “Get me a towel,” said Mateo, unable to take his eyes off the stone. “I want to clean off some of the debris.”

  Maria opened a drawer, pulled out a ragged dish towel and handed it to Mateo, who carefully smoothed the surface of the object, cleaning it as if it were a precious family heirloom. As he rubbed at it, flakes of ash fell away, and chunks of dirt crumbled to the table.

  “You’re making a mess,” said Maria, unimpressed with the rock sitting in her kitchen.

  “Shh,” said Mateo, concentrating intensely on his work.

  After a few minutes of rubbing and buffing, the item on the table no longer resembled a meteoric rock, but clearly looked like something that had been made by hands.

  Mateo once again gripped it like a steering wheel, and once again it glowed, an image appearing in the center of the donut.

  “What in the world?” said Maria, trailing off.

  “It is some kind of device,” said Mateo, his eyes wide. “I knew I saw something before.”

  The image was not just a static picture – it was moving, like a motion picture at the movie theater, only in color. And there was sound, but only Mateo could hear it.

  “Mateo, I’m scared,” said Maria, touching his arm. As soon as she touched him, she too could hear the sound that went along with the image. “Oh my!”

  Mateo slowly turned to her and smiled. “Amazing, isn’t it?”

  “Well, what are we seeing?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” said Mateo. “It’s like a movie, but it looks real. Those fellas are army men. One, two, three Jeeps. And look! They just passed the road sign for Slow Ranch Road! That means they’re somewhere near here!”

  The Lopez farm was the only destination on the dead end Slow Ranch Road.

  “Do you think maybe this belongs to them, and they’re coming to get it?” asked Maria.

  “Let me listen and find out!”

  The two stood sile
ntly, listening carefully to the sound associated with the image in the object.

  We are reading the Seer at one-half mile, Sir, over.

  Roger. You should expect to recover target with no resistance. There’s nothing out there but some farms, over.

  Will acquire and return, out.

  “They are coming to get this!” said Mateo.

  “Well, if it’s theirs, we should give it to them,” said Maria.

  “I don’t think it is theirs,” said Mateo. “Do you see ‘U.S. Army’ written anywhere on this? I think that I found it on my property and so it’s mine.”

  “Mateo, we shouldn’t argue with them – maybe it’s some kind of top secret experiment.”

  Mateo watched the image. “They have just come through our main gate. I don’t want to give this to them, but I think it’s too late to get away. So, they’ll just have to take it from me.”

  “Mateo! Don’t be like that. Just hand it over to them.”

  “No!”

  Maria stared at her husband. He rarely raised his voice, and she didn’t like what she saw in his eyes. She decided to back down, letting go of his arm.

  “Alright,” she said quietly. “You handle this as you see fit.”

  Mateo watched as the object showed him an image of the Army Jeeps rolling up the gravel driveway and coming to stop with squeaking brakes. Two men got out and knocked at the kitchen’s screen door. The knocking at the door repeated, with more force the second time.

  Maria opened the door to a square-jawed man in fatigues.

  “Evenin’, Ma’am. I’m Major Hinds with the U.S. Army, Special Operations Unit S-9. Mind if we come in for a minute?”

  “Yes – I mean, no. Come in,” stammered Maria.

  “Thank you,” said Hinds, stepping into the humble kitchen with large, shiny boots and at least two holstered weapons around his waist. “This is my associate Sergeant McAllister,” he said, indicating the shorter, stockier man who stepped in behind him and nodded curtly.

  “What brings you here at this hour?” asked Mateo, his hands still gripping the stone he’d found.

  “The item in your hands, Sir,” said Hinds.

  “This? Why?” asked Mateo.

  “It’s the property of the United States government. We just came to retrieve it. We don’t want any trouble,” said Hinds, gently placing his hand on one of his weapons as a subtle warning.

  “I’m sorry, gentlemen,” said Mateo. “This is actually mine.”

  “Sir, you don’t even know what that thing is,” said Hinds, his voice staying calm. “Now, why don’t you just hand it over, and we can all get some rest.”

  “What is it, then?” asked Mateo, refusing to let go.

  “That’s classified, Sir. It will be much safer if you just let go of it and let us take it from here.”

  Mateo started to wonder if this was a fight he could win. He slowly released his grip, and the stone immediately stopped glowing.

  “What the-” said McAllister, looking over at Hinds.

  Mateo gripped the stone again, and once again it glowed. He released it once more, and as before, the glow faded away.

  Hinds stepped over to the table and tried gripping the stone, but nothing happened – it remained a dark, inert rock.

  Hinds stepped back again. “Mister, um,” said Hinds.

  “Lopez,” finished Mateo. “Mateo Lopez.”

  “Mister Lopez, you’re going to need to come with us,” said Hinds.

  “Why?” asked Maria, getting worried.

  “It seems your husband is the only one who can operate the Seer.”

  Maria had no choice but to stay behind with the kids as Mateo was led out to one of the Jeeps, still clinging tightly to the stone donut. He looked back at her as she stood at the door with her hand to her mouth and tears in her eyes. He tried to give her a reassuring look as he climbed into the back row of seats and was sandwiched between Hinds and McAllister. The Jeep bounced off down the gravel driveway into the midnight darkness as Maria began to sob.

  ۞

  The only words spoken on the road trip were a brief report spoken into a radio, announcing that the “target” had been “acquired.” Mateo watched the road signs as they traveled, but had no idea where they were – only that they were traveling west and had crossed out of New Mexico. It was after dawn when the Jeep convoy rolled through the gate of a military installation. The sign on the chain link fence was a simple numerical indicator – a five and a one.

  After the security checkpoint, the Jeeps entered a giant hangar through a narrow gap in the huge front doors, which promptly closed behind them with an echoing boom. The inside of the hangar was brightly lit and spotlessly clean. The Jeeps pulled to a stop and everyone hopped out but Mateo.

  “C’mon, Mr. Lopez,” said Hinds. “There are some people I’d like you to meet.”

  Mateo climbed out a little awkwardly due to the weight of the stone in his hands. He refused to hand it over to anyone, but did accept some help from Hinds, who grabbed his arm to help steady him as he stepped from the Jeep to the shiny floor. Hinds and McAllister led Mateo into a room that resembled an office, but had the air of some sort of laboratory. Inside, they all took seats and waited for a few minutes in silence.

  An interior door opened and a man with thick-rimmed glasses and a white lab coat emerged. His bushy eyebrows and kind demeanor softened his imposing height.

  “Hello,” he smiled, extending his hand to Mateo, “I’m Doctor Embley.”

  Mateo smiled nervously and nodded, but did not remove his hand from the stone in order to shake the doctor’s hand.

  “Doctor Embley is actually a colonel,” said Hinds, “but he prefers the title of ‘doctor.’ But don’t worry – he doesn’t bite.” This was Hinds’ way of encouraging Mateo to show some respect and shake Embley’s hand.

  Mateo shifted the rock against his body and gingerly took Embley’s hand.

  “You see?” said Hinds. “Nobody is going to rip the Seer away from you if you let go of it. In fact, why don’t you put it over here on this table. Believe me, we have no intention of separating you from it.”

  Mateo placed the stone on the table, and as he cautiously let go, the blue glow faded away, as it had back in his kitchen.

  “Fascinating!” said Embley, grinning with satisfaction and lighting up a cigarette.

  “Great, isn’t it?” replied Hinds, taking a cigarette offered by Embley. “It only works for him. Just like it was with Fordham.”

  “Cigarette, Mr. Lopez?”

  “No thank you – I don’t smoke,” said Mateo.

  Embley passed the cigarettes to McAllister and cleared his throat. “Mr. Lopez, I assume you’ve seen . . . what the Seer can do.”

  “I – I have seen things, yes. In the stone, I saw your Jeeps coming to my home.”

  “That’s right,” said Embley, exhaling a hazy plume of smoke. “The Seers can show you the future.”

  “Seers? This is not the only one?” asked Mateo, his brow creasing.

  “Um, no,” said Embley with a wry smirk as he casually tapped his ash. “This is actually the third of three.”

  “How did you make them?” asked Mateo.

  Embley glanced at Hinds and McAllister. McAllister got up and pulled the shade down on the window in the office door.

  “Mr. Lopez,” said Embley. “What I am about to tell you is very privileged information. Although this facility is beyond top secret, there are things here that only a select few know about. Certain information about the Seers is restricted to a group of nine of us, a group called the Seer-Nine. We don’t strive much for creativity in our designations,” he said.

  Mateo’ face remained as placid as the stone on the table.

  Embley rolled his eyes and continued, the attempt at humor failing to break the ice. “Since this Seer is somehow connected to you, I’m going to go ahead and explain a little about it. It all starte
d six weeks ago, when our radar identified something in orbit. We couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but it was clearly moving under its own power. At first, we suspected the Soviets, but eventually ruled that out. Its movements seemed impossible for any known aircraft. The speed and agility were astounding. Then three weeks ago, as we were still studying its movements on the radar, the object suddenly exploded. A large chunk quickly found its way to the ground, near Roswell, New Mexico. Some smaller pieces stayed in orbit until they finally fell as well, one at a time. Unfortunately, some of them were lost in the ocean, but three significant finds were recovered from across the southern states. We lucked out with this last one – your farm being only a few hours’ drive from this site.”

  “So, if it wasn’t the Russians, then – what was it?” asked Mateo.

  “You’re going to find this difficult to accept,” said Embley. “But the large chunk that fell near Roswell was clearly the remains of some kind of alien space vehicle – a spaceship. And the other three pieces, including that stone over there, were part of it.”

  Mateo gulped. After having witnessed images of the future in the stone, he fully believed this story. And that was the scariest part – he had no doubt that a piece of alien spacecraft had landed on his property and literally wound up in his hands. It was a fantastic and sobering thought.

  “At first we thought the stones were just pieces of a meteorite that had collided with the spaceship and blown it up. But then we realized the stones were not just iron and nickel, like many meteorites, but actually had some unusual alloys in them, and that the alloys were embedded in precise geometric patterns. Further study revealed that they absorbed electrical power, so we assumed they were part of the spaceship – perhaps some kind of navigational device or a component of the propulsion system. And then it happened.”

  “What?” asked Mateo, inching forward in his seat.

  “One of our scientists, Major Fordham, touched both sides of the stone, holding it like a steering wheel, and it absorbed a charge of energy from a nearby junction box. At that time, Fordham saw images in the rock.”

  Hinds exchanged glances with Embley, and received silent permission to take over the telling of the story. “I was with Fordham at the time. He didn’t know what he was seeing at first, but it soon became clear that he was looking into the future. It was amazing. The problem was, the stone only worked with Fordham. And now he’s dead.”

  Mateo gulped.

  Embley continued the tag-team storytelling. “We continued to track the space debris, and determined that the final of the three stones would touch down tonight,” said Hinds. “We had the location pretty much pinpointed, which was why we were able to get to your farm soon after you discovered the Seer. What we didn’t anticipate was that you would be an Operator.”

  “That’s what we’re calling people like you and Fordham, who can use the Seers,” said Hinds.

  “What happened to him – to Fordham?” asked Mateo.

  Hinds looked to Embley. “He was killed in the line of duty,” said Embley, his jovial face briefly hardening.

  “What do you intend to use the Seers for?” asked Mateo.

  “First, we just want to figure out how the darn things work,” said Embley. “We’ll let the boys upstairs worry about putting them to use.”

  “So far, all we could figure out was that the stone somehow fused itself with Fordham’s brain chemistry, bonding with his neural synapses,” said Hinds. “We don’t know why, but some people are compatible for the integration and some people aren’t. Mostly, people aren’t.”

  “In fact,” said Embley, “you’re only the second one we’ve seen.”

  “What can you tell us about how it started – when you first saw with the stone?” asked Hinds.

  “Well,” said Mateo, “I was carrying it back to my house from where I found it. Suddenly, a lightning bolt shot from the battery of my truck, and then another from my tractor. The power went into the stone, and I felt it, but I was not burned, and the shock was not too bad. It was then that I first saw it.”

  “Sounds like the stone needed a power source to function, and actually drew the power of its own accord,” said Hinds to Embley. “Perhaps the Seer was somehow programmed to seek a power source, as some kind of backup system.”

  “And it sounds like the energy it absorbed also helped it form its connection with Mr. Lopez. That tracks with what happened with Fordham,” said Embley.

  Mateo found it a little unnerving the way they started talking about him as if he were not even there – or like he was a lab rat. Then he had a thought, and voiced it.

  “What about the other two stones? May I see them?”

  “That’s exactly what we had in mind,” said Embley. “From an experimental perspective, it will be useful to see if you are able to operate the others.”

  The mysterious military men led Mateo through the door by which Embley had entered the room. It led to a larger laboratory room. On two separate tables lay two rock-rings identical to the one Mateo had brought in. But unlike Mateo’s stone, neither of these glowed. Mateo was glad for the relatively fresh air of this room, the tiny office they’d been in having filled with smoke.

  “Let’s try something,” said Embley, stubbing out his cigarette. “Major Hinds, pull a battery from one of the Jeeps and set it next to Seer-2. Mr. Lopez, I’m going to have you grip Seer-2 as you did the one you found.”

  Hinds quickly returned with a battery, and Mateo did as he was asked. Immediately, a charge of energy leapt the small gap between the battery and the stone, a distance of only a few inches. The stone glowed in Mateo’s hands, and an image appeared in the center.

  “It’s working!” said Hinds.

  “Remarkable,” said Embley.

  The two men moved closer to get a look at the image. McAllister stayed where he was, but took out a small notebook from his back pocket and started jotting down observations.

  “What do you think we’re seeing here?” asked Hinds, talking to Embley.

  “Hard to say. Mr. Lopez, can you exert any control over the image?”

  “What do you mean?” asked Mateo.

  “Are you able to make the image change, by thinking about it? Before we lost Fordham, he was starting to make progress in guiding the Seer through his own will – altering the perspective, changing the location of the view – things like that.”

  “I’ll try,” said Mateo.

  He stared at the image, which simply showed some people walking down a street. He used his thoughts to try to expand the view, so he could better tell where this place was. With just a little effort, the scope of the view expanded, and it was clear he was looking at the town nearest his farm.

  “It’s Gamerco,” he said.

  “Good,” said Embley. “Now, can you move the view to show a different location?”

  Mateo concentrated on the image, and was able to direct the view to show the south end of Gamerco, then southward to Gallup, and then all the way to Albuquerque. At Albuquerque, he practiced zooming in and out, and then he moved on. It was as simple as reading a map.

  “Incredible!” said Embley. “Now, all we need to do is determine the time frame we are looking at.”

  Mateo achieved this by zooming in on a calendar visible though a store window on Lomas Boulevard, and then panning and narrowing the view to show a clock.

  “Looks like we’re seeing five o’clock in the evening, day after tomorrow,” said Hinds.

  “Here’s the real test,” said Embley. “Can you alter the time frame – say, jump ahead a week, or a month?”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” said Mateo, who was actually starting to enjoy this amazing power. With the image showing the calendar, Mateo used his mind to skip forward through the days. He went faster and faster, scanning forward by months, until he was looking at a time and place nearly two years into the future.

  “That’s as far as I can go,�
� he said.

  “That’s alright,” said Hinds, “you’ve done a swell job. Now let’s see what you can do with Seer-1.”

  Mateo disengaged from Seer-2 and took hold of Seer-1, and Hinds moved the Jeep battery closer. Like the other ones, the rock drew its power from the battery by sucking a bolt of energy right through the air, and then started to glow. Mateo ran through the same kind of test as he had with the other stone, but this Seer had a different range. He could see across the world and for a period starting two years out and going forward for decades.

  “Astounding,” whispered Embley. “It appears, then, that the three Seers have staggered ranges. Seer-3, recovered tonight, is very close-range, both in time and space. Seer-2 is mid-range, and Seer-1 is virtually unlimited. Lakeland is going to be very interested in this.”

  “Who?” asked Mateo.

  “General Victor Lakeland,” said Embley. “I report to him. I think he’ll agree that the United States government will find a good use for being able to see world trends in future history.”

  Mateo’s heart leapt as the reality sunk in and he started to think about the repercussions. “I could help prevent disasters! Avert wars! Save lives!”

  “Well, those are decisions that someone else will have to make,” said Embley. “For now, why don’t you get some rest.”

  “Can I telephone my wife?” asked Mateo.

  “Um, not right now. I need to review some clearance protocols first – but I promise you can talk to her soon.”

  McAllister led Mateo out of the lab and down a dimly-lit hallway to some quarters where he could get cleaned up and sleep for a while.

  Hinds examined the batteries next to the Seers. “We’re going to need to find a better way to supply power to these things. These batteries are almost completely drained.”

  “We’ll experiment with other energy sources later,” said Embley, lighting up a cigar. “Right now, I have a report to make, and we need to get some guidance on how to proceed with Lopez. We don’t want to end up with another Major Fordham situation.”

  ۞

  “Lopez has settled in well,” said Embley.

  He sat in the office of General Victor Lakeland, the top dog on Seer-Nine. Lakeland puffed on a huge cigar the size of a cucumber.

  “Good. You were able to get his family moved onsite, without any security compromises?”

  “Yes, Sir. Lopez refused to cooperate with us until we brought his family.”

  “What about his farm?”

  “His younger brother agreed to take over running the farm on the pretense that we were providing Lopez with some specialized medical treatment. You know he served in the Great War?”

  “He looks too young.”

  “He lied about his age to get enlisted. Put in nine months in France when he was just fifteen. After the war, he got out and eventually took over his father’s farm.”

  “That makes him, what? Forty-five? Doesn’t look a day over thirty-five. Hmm,” Lakeland grunted, taking another puff of his cigar.

  “Well, his service record helps with the cover story at any rate,” said Embley. “His brother bought the idea that the Army owed Mateo a favor, so the story is we’re helping him with a heart murmur using some experimental technology. Lopez told everyone he knows that he’ll be out of touch for a while.”

  “Alright. Speaking of experimental technology, have your boys figured out a better way to power the Seers?” asked Lakeland.

  “We’ve had Lopez working with the stones basically every waking hour. Major Kilgore – you know, the historian – he’s cataloging all the future events that Lopez is imaging with Seer-1, forming a global timeline that we can then analyze. Meanwhile, Hinds and his team have brought in some hardware from the Los Alamos – you know, the Manhattan Project.”

  “Atomic energy?” said Lakeland, sitting up.

  “Yes, Sir. It seems the Seers are very compatible with fission power, and it’s proven to be the most efficient and stable source.”

  “Very well,” said Lakeland. “Whatever works. What’s your estimate for when we’ll have a clear military and political history outline of the next sixty years?”

  “We’re up to 1991,” said Embley. “We should reach 2007 by the end of the month, and I’ll file an update report then.”

  “No,” said Lakeland. “At that time I will want you to make a full presentation of the results to the whole Seer-Nine, as well as my contact in the Administration.”

  “Yes, Sir,” said Embley.

  ۞

  “I don’t understand why we must keep everything so secret,” said Maria, as she settled into bed in what had now become her new home on the base. “It would be nice if I could call my sister and talk with her.”

  “It has to be secret,” said Mateo, “because the knowledge we obtain from the Seers is too powerful. If it got into the wrong hands, it could be disastrous.”

  “Sometimes I wonder if these Army men are the right hands, Mateo.”

  Mateo didn’t answer.

  “So, what does that power feel like?”

  Mateo squinted as he thought about it. “It is very seductive. If you are not careful, it can start to consume you. It makes me wonder what happened to Major Fordham, the first Operator.”

  “Are you doing all right?” Maria asked, touching his hand.

  “Yeah, I think I can handle it. Besides, they take good care of us here, don’t they? The kids are getting top-rate tutoring, we have all the food we need, and they are paying me ten times what I could make on the farm. And, I get to see the future!”

  Maria sighed. “I suppose you’re right, Mateo. But how much longer will this go on? Despite all of their accommodations for us, I am starting to feel a little like a prisoner.”

  “I should be done with this phase of the project tomorrow,” said Mateo. “Providing nothing major happens on the last day of 2006, we will finish cataloging that year, and then there will be some sort of presentation, I heard.”

  “Tell me,” said Maria, “what’s the world look like in the year 2000? Did you see the kids? Our grandchildren?”

  “No, Maria. They are not having me look at individual citizens – at least, not ordinary people like us. I am scanning the world to track civilization – the politics, the wars and other conflicts, the standing of our nation in the global picture. In some cases, they have me listen in on crucial conversations taking place in the White House, or other places in the world.”

  “So, you’re a spy? A spy of the future?”

  “In a way. But it’s all in the interest of what’s best for America.”

  “Are there more wars ahead?” asked Maria.

  Mateo’s face grew somber. “So many will die,” he said quietly. “But maybe, after we report our findings, they will figure out a way to avoid it, to prevent all that death and destruction that I saw.”

  “Is it hard – having to see all that misery?” asked Maria.

  “It has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Even harder than serving in France in 1917. Back then, I only saw the carnage in my immediate vicinity. Now, I see so much – so much blood.”

  He fell silent for a few moments.

  “But,” he added, brightening, “it is not all bad. I also get to see some triumphs, some amazing things. The future is dangerous, but it is also a wonderful place. The marvels I have seen – perhaps, by having advance knowledge, we will find a way to erase the evil and leave only the good.”

  “Tell me one of the good things,” said Maria, wrapping her arms around one of Mateo’s arms.

  “Well, in 1969, we will send men to the moon!” he said, recalling one of the most astounding visions he had seen in the Seer’s portal to the future.

  “You’re making a joke,” said Maria, waving her hand dismissively.

  “No, it is true! And by the late nineties people use tiny computers to talk to each other, with all kinds of information availab
le instantly, anywhere on the planet.”

  “Well then, if we can do such extraordinary things as that, maybe there is hope for the world,” said Maria.

  ۞

  The Seer-Nine met in a windowless room deep in the bowels of Area 51. General Lakeland sat at the head of the table; to his left was the only man in the smoky room wearing civilian clothing – his Administration contact, a man named Henry Carson.

  Carson, who wore thick-rimmed glasses and a thick moustache to offset his receding hairline, sat with pencil in hand, poised to take copious notes. Word had it that he reported directly to President Truman, though even Lakeland wasn’t sure how that worked.

  “Let’s get down to business,” said Lakeland. “Colonel Embley has been working on the Seer project for nearly a year now. He will be providing the report today. Embley?”

  Embley stood and moved to the front of the room and stood before a table that was covered by a sheet - under which lay the Seers - and addressed the small conference room.

  “Good morning. On the table behind me lay the most powerful devices ever known to man. The Seers, a gift from above, if you will, offer us a window into the future of man.” He whipped the sheet off the table, exposing the three stones. “As you all know, the three Seers have varying ranges and scopes. In an attempt to plan for post-war trends, we had our Operator use Seer-1 to view the coming years.”

  “Your Operator – you mean the civilian, Lopez,” Carson interjected.

  “Yes. He can be brought in here later, if we need him,” said Embley. He continued, “We started out planning to look only fifteen years into the future, but the more we saw, the more we needed to see, to put things in what we are calling future context, or futext,” he said. “We soon realized we needed accurate projections as far as sixty years out.”

  “The year 2007?” asked Carson, incredulous. “Why so far out?”

  “You’ll understand in a moment,” said Embley. He stepped around the table to a chalkboard that covered the end wall of the room, and began scribbling dates while narrating the timeline. “Thanks to Major Kilgore’s painstaking recording work with the Operator, we have a thorough history of the future. Here’s what we saw as the primary demarcations of the latter twentieth century: Russia tests its first atomic bomb next year, in 1949; later, we have a war in Korea, a war in Vietnam, and war in the Gulf; all under the shroud of the Cold War and the Space Race. Then the Terror War, which really starts around 1979, even though we won’t realize it until September 2001.”

  “How can you not realize you’re at war?” asked Carson.

  “It’s all explained in the written report. In your handouts you will see brief explanations of all the terms I just used, as well as a much cleaner timeline than the one I just sketched out on the board.”

  Embley stood silently for a few minutes while the group shuffled papers and scanned the data in the written reports.

  “So, you see now why we needed a futext of some range – why we needed to look as far as the year 2007,” said Embley as Carson slowly looked up from the reports.

  “Yes,” said Carson, stubbing out the cigarette that had burned down to his fingers as he studied the papers. “So, we’re talking about millions dead as a result of Communism? And an expensive, drawn-out Cold War? Domino effects? There’s a lot to take in here.”

  “Yes there is,” said Lakeland in his deep, gravelly voice. “It could take years just to provide a thorough analysis of the next half-century of history. But we recommend that we act now.”

  “Act?” asked Carson. “Am I missing something?”

  “Why, of course,” said Lakeland, as Embley took a seat and lit up a cigar, seeing that his boss was taking over the discussion. “The Russians are about to develop an atomic bomb of their own. From there, you can see where things lead. We need to take out the Soviets now, before any of those things can happen. We need to take destiny into our own hands.”

  “What you’re suggesting?” asked Carson, unable to finish the thought.

  “Part of the mandate we were tasked with included providing policy recommendations, Mr. Carson. And that’s our recommendation,” said Lakeland, jabbing his finger toward the folder in Carson’s hands.

  “This will be a hard sell,” said Carson, shaking his head as he stared at the papers. “We simply do not have the military infrastructure right now. The Russian forces greatly outnumber us. The war against the Axis devastated us. Our allies are in no shape to fight. And public opinion will never support another military action at this time.”

  “We know better than anyone what kind of a hit we took in the war,” said Lakeland, sitting up a little taller, his swath of medals catching the light. “That’s why we propose - if you turn to the back section of your folder - a more surgical tack.”

  Carson flipped to the end of the report, to a section titled Implementation and Projected Results. After a brief skim of the document, his eyes widened and he choked on his own cigarette smoke.

  “Drop atomic bombs on Moscow and Leningrad?” he exclaimed. “Expected casualties, three million?”

  “That’s a much lower figure than what we’ll see if we don’t do it,” said Lakeland. “In fact, it’s not much different than the number they’ll kill of their own people over the next few decades. But this way, we’ll take control and prevent a whole world of hurt over the next half-century.”

  Carson gulped and closed the folder. “I’ll take this to the president right away. Gentlemen.” He stood abruptly and gathered his notes. “We’ll be in touch.”

  “One more thing,” said Lakeland. “In addition to gaining a strategic advantage, the Seers also provide us a tactical advantage, in terms of technology.”

  “Explain,” said Carson.

  “We can see what kinds of weapons and communication devices will be developed in the future. As a result, we can work on developing them now – get a head start. In the future, they call it reverse engineering. We call it EFE – Extreme Forward Engineering. It will make the task of subduing our enemies a lot easier, since we’ll always be several steps ahead.”

  “Further,” Embley added, “any ground fighting that may occur following the atomic assault will be quickly and easily won with the predictive aid of Seer-2 and Seer-3.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind when I present this to the president,” said Carson, hurrying out of the room as if trying to escape the hard facts he had learned and the tough choices those facts presented.

  ۞

  “So, they didn’t even invite you into the meeting?” asked Maria, sitting down to dinner with Mateo and their three children.

  “No. I was surprised – I thought they’d at least want a demonstration.”

  Maria picked at her meal, then put her fork down and looked across the table at her husband. “I want one.”

  “One what?”

  “I want a demonstration. I want to see the wondrous things you’ve been seeing. I only got to see it that one time, in our old kitchen at the farm. I want you to show me the future, Mateo. Can you do that?”

  Mateo pondered. “I want to. I’ll have to figure out a way to sneak you in. I’m always brought into the Seer room under armed escort.”

  “What about your uniform? You’d look more official if you were wearing that. You could pretend to be my escort.”

  “That uniform is thirty years out of date, Maria.”

  “Perhaps you could just ask Hinds?”

  “He won’t allow it. We’ll just have to figure out another way to get you in,” said Mateo.

  The next day, when Major Kilgore took a bathroom break, Mateo disengaged from Seer-1, the long-range Seer, and went over to Seer-3. With this one, he could look into the very near future, in the immediate vicinity. He took careful note of when the guards would change, and looked for an opening for when he could sneak his wife into the Seer room.

  He found one.

  It would be later
that evening, when the Seer-Nine group convened offsite with Carson to hear the president’s response to their recommendation. At twenty to six, one of the night guards would use the restroom, and the other, impatient for more smokes, would leave the door unguarded for two minutes while he went down the hall to the cigarette vending machine. That would be their only chance.

  When the time came, Mateo brought Maria into the Seer room and carefully closed the door. For their purposes, they wouldn’t even need to turn the lights on.

  “Alright, Maria, come here,” said Mateo. “Today, I finished the task set before me, seeing all the way to the end of 2007. Would you like to look beyond that?”

  “Yes,” said Maria, smiling like a school girl on a first date. “Let’s see something new, together.”

  Mateo took hold of Seer-1, as he had done every day for the past several months, and the rock started to glow a gentle blue. Moments later, an image resolved. Maria wove her arm through her husband’s, both to get closer to him, and to be able to hear the sounds that accompanied the image of a future so distant she would never live to see it.

  “Something’s wrong,” Mateo said. “This doesn’t look anything like the 2007 that I saw earlier today.”

  “What – what’s different?”

  “First off, look at the technology. It is far more advanced than what they’re supposed to have in 2007, impressive as that is.”

  In his practiced way, he skillfully panned the image to Washington D.C., and zoomed in on the White House.

  “And that is not the same president!” he said. “I don’t understand. Every day I do this - I pick up where I left off the day before, and everything is consistent. But now, everything has changed.”

  Maria pondered for a moment, then an idea came to her.

  “Mateo! What if the Seer-Nine have convinced the president to do something – something that changes the history of the future?”

  “That may well be what has happened,” said Mateo. “There’s only one way to find out.”

  He moved to Seer-2 and used his mind to tune the Seer to track what would happen in the next few days and weeks and find the point of divergence from the future with which he was familiar. What appeared in the rock’s window into time made his knees buckle, and made Maria raise her free hand to her mouth in shock.

  “They dropped atomic bombs on Russia,” he whispered. “Why would they do such a thing?”

  Overhearing news reports from the near future, Maria repeated a statistic in disbelief. “Four million dead.”

  Mateo’s mind reeled as he thought back on all the visions he had seen, that Kilgore had recorded.

  “The futext,” said Mateo. “They put it all into futext and determined this was the best way to save lives.”

  “By taking them?” Maria protested.

  “Let’s move forward through time to see if they obtained the desired result,” he said. “Or if they made things worse in the long run.”

  Mateo returned to Seer-1 and moved the image into fast-forward, stopping at key points along the way to make more detailed observations.

  “Maria, will you take some notes? I want to be able to present this to Hinds.”

  Maria grabbed a notebook and pencil that were lying on a nearby table and started to jot down Mateo’s words.

  Occupation of Russia by U.S. forces begins, December 1948. Anti-imperialist movement arises in the United States, 1951. Large-scale government crackdown on Communist sympathizers in United States in 1952 leads to internment of Russian Americans. U.S. troops in Russia clash with Chinese along Siberian border. Tensions mount in 1960s as China develops atomic weapons. Chinese launch atomic strike on America’s European allies – London and Paris destroyed. U.S. retaliation destroys Beijing, Chunking, Shanghai and Harbin. Middle East discord goes unchecked as U.S. involved in war with China, resulting in genocide in Israel at the hands of Iran. By 2007, the world is divided into three superpowers bent on mutual destruction – the U.S., China, and something called the Caliphate. Total death toll from this new futext: 120 million.

  Mateo marched to the telephone at the desk.

  “What are you going to do?” asked Maria.

  “I’m calling Hinds to protest. This has to be stopped.”

  ۞

  Major Hinds was paged out of the Seer-Nine post-recommendation meeting by an urgent phone call.

  “Hinds.”

  “This is Lopez. We need to talk.”

  “I’m just wrapping up a very important meeting. What’s the problem?”

  “I’ve seen what happens – I’ve seen the result of Seer-Nine’s policy recommendations to the president.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I snuck Maria in here to show her what I’ve been doing all these months. I’ll take full responsibility for that, and any punishment I have coming.”

  Hinds took a deep breath, suppressing his growing agitation. “No punishment, Mateo. All you had to do was ask. Go on.”

  “I started by looking at 2007. Things were very different.”

  “That’s to be expected,” said Hinds. “We are, after all, going to defeat communism now instead of forty years from now. Obviously things will be different in 2007.”

  “You don’t understand – things are much worse. You need to see our annotated history – the new time line. You think you’re doing the right thing by attacking the Soviets now, but it’s a huge mistake. The horrors that take the place of the true history must be stopped. I cannot be responsible for creating this nightmare.”

  “There is no ‘true history’ Mateo – only the destiny we choose for ourselves. And you’re not responsible – you were just doing your duty to the United States by taking a look ahead for us. You’re just the augur – the oracle – not the one making life-or-death decisions. It’s out of your hands, Mateo – it’s out of Seer-Nine’s hands now, too. The one making the tough decisions is the one we elected to do so. We completed our final recommendations to Carson hours ago, and he’s already taken it to the president.”

  “But – but I’ve seen the–”

  The voice was cut off abruptly.

  “Mateo? Lopez? Are you there?”

  Hinds heard the phone drop, heard Maria let out a surprised scream, and could hear another man’s voice over the line, coming from somewhere in the Seer room.

  “Just back away from the Seers,” said the familiar voice.

  “What are you doing,” Hinds could hear Mateo ask.

  “Creating my own future,” said the other man.

  Hinds heard some muffled noises, followed by a few moments silence. Then Mateo came back on the line.

  “Hinds? Hinds? Are you still there?”

  “Yes, what’s going on there?”

  “It’s McAllister – he’s stolen Seer-2.”

  ۞

  Mateo and Maria sat in on their first meeting with the full Seer-Nine – minus McAllister.

  “He just came in and took it at gun point,” Mateo summarized.

  “He must think he can operate it,” said Embley. “And we should function under the assumption that he has somehow learned to do so – or it wouldn’t have made sense for him to take it. But what could he hope to accomplish?”

  “Any number of selfish ends,” said Hinds. “He could easily use it to get rich, by placing bets he knows he’d win, or, better yet, making no-lose investments.”

  “Why didn’t we see this coming?” growled Lakeland, chewing hard on his cigar as his fury simmered just below the surface.

  “The Seer-Nine were all carefully vetted, Sir,” said Embley. “This is a shock to us all. I think that rather than second guessing ourselves or trying to determine McAllister’s motives, we need to focus on the recovery operation.”

  “Agreed,” said Lakeland. “Suggestions?”

  Mateo piped up. “I am the only one who can track him, using the other two Seers.”

  “He’s r
ight,” said Hinds. “Lopez can look a step or two ahead and we can catch him.”

  “All right, get on it,” said Lakeland.

  “Wait,” said Mateo. “I will only help on the condition that I will be included in policy recommendations. I don’t want to be your lackey anymore. I want a say in what we present to the president. And I want my most recent findings presented to him immediately.”

  “What findings?” asked Lakeland, sitting up.

  “I’ve seen the consequences of your recommendation to drop atomic bombs on the Russians. The idea was sound, in theory, but there are unintended consequences that the president must know about before going forward with that plan.”

  “Very well,” said Lakeland, knowing full-well it was too late. “But first, you need to get hooked up to those Seers and get Seer-2 back before McAllister creates a-whole-nother mess.”

  Mateo nodded and approached Seer-3. He took hold of the device, and focused his mind on locating the errant Army man.

  “I see him,” he said. “He’s hiding in a house twenty miles west of here. He has the Seer, and he’s using it.” Mateo concentrated hard and zoomed in on McAllister. “Okay, we have a problem. He’s using it at its shortest range, to watch us. He’s trying to make sure we don’t catch him, by seeing how we intend to apprehend him.”

  “Well, then, we’ll just have to set up a decoy recovery operation,” said Hinds. “Trick McAllister into thinking we’re coming after him at point A, when we’re really ambushing him at point B.”

  “Make it happen,” barked Lakeland. “And get Lopez and his wife out of here.”

  “What?” asked Mateo. “You agreed to let me be a part of the decision making from now on.”

  “I lied,” said Lakeland, stubbing out his cigar. “Didn’t see that one coming, did you?”

  Mateo fumed.

  “I will not be extorted – by you or anyone,” Lakeland continued. “If McAllister is an Operator, we’ll just use him from now on, since he’s going to be in our custody before long.”

  As two of the Seer-Nine came toward Mateo and Maria to evict them from the room, Mateo had an idea.

  “Wait,” he said. “You’re going to want me to use Seer-3 to confirm that your plan to catch McAllister will work.”

  “He’s right,” said Hinds. “One thing about messing with the future is that there can be unintended consequences.”

  “Fine,” Lakeland said. “Do it.”

  Mateo took hold of Seer-1 and scanned the future. It soon became clear that there was only one thing he could do.

  He had to help McAllister.

  According to what Mateo was seeing, McAllister’s meddling actually ended up righting many of the wrongs caused by the president’s decision to bomb the Russians. A chain reaction of events, caused by both some wise and unwise choices by McAllister, would mean significant changes to the horrific time line established earlier that same day by the Seer-Nine’s report to the president. By helping McAllister to escape, Mateo could undo the damage yet to be caused.

  So he lied.

  “Your strategy to apprehend McAllister won’t work,” he said. “You need to let him get away from where he is now, and then head him off at his next stop, which is Las Vegas.”

  “You’re sure about this?” asked Embley. “We should wait, and catch him in Vegas?”

  “Yes,” said Mateo, letting go of the Seer. “That will set things right.”

  This time, he wasn’t lying.

  ۞

  McAllister actually headed east from his hideout, using the Seer to subtly affect the world around him. He understood that knowledge was power, and the knowledge he held was enough to help him establish a power base and begin anonymously influencing events on a greater and greater scale, by foreseeing event catalysts and preemptively altering outcomes.

  At first, he’d only been interested in using the Seer for personal gain, but it wasn’t long before the power of the Seer started to drive him mad. The more he tasted of it, the more omnipotent he felt.

  Ironically, his own selfish actions and motivations led to incidental changes that prevented a host of tragedies. And the more McAllister played with the future, the more impact he had, until he was eventually affecting the large-scale futext.

  ۞

  When the Seer-Nine recovery team had failed to apprehend McAllister in Las Vegas, Lakeland had come down hard on Mateo. He had forced him to get back on the Seers and help track down McAllister, but Mateo claimed that McAllister had learned to use Seer-2 defensively, as a proactive escape mechanism, and was now unobtainable. Lakeland sat at his desk and listened to Embley’s report with his teeth clenched.

  “This is unacceptable,” said Lakeland, slamming his fist down on the desk and causing his ashtray to flip over, scattering butts and ashes. “We need to get that Seer back!”

  “I’m sorry, Sir,” said Embley. “Hinds has been working with Lopez, but it’s no use. McAllister has slipped away and there’s just no way to track him. It may be possible to stumble across him by accident, but any intentional attempts to find him are blocked somehow.”

  Lakeland glowered.

  “But there is some good news,” said Embley. “Major Kilgore has been cataloguing the new futext as Lopez has been searching for McAllister.”

  “Go on.”

  “Although the president will go ahead with the atomic bombs on Russia, some strange results are occurring. McAllister’s use of Seer-2 is having some ripple effects – and Lopez’s initial projections are turning out much better.”

  “You mean, no war with China?”

  “That’s right,” said Embley. “And some other things, too. In the private sector, technology advances will move even faster. Must be that McAllister leaks some information to try to make a profit.”

  Lakeland considered for a moment. “Ripple effects,” he mumbled, staring intently at his subordinate. Then he made a command decision. “I’m changing the nature of this operation. Since it’s supposedly impossible, we’ll stop looking for McAllister and start focusing on tracing the time lines. I want detailed daily reports of all time line alterations from now to 2007. I want to know each possible iteration – that is, I want Lopez to provide a perpetual loop of observations, where we know what happens under each scenario. Every time McAllister uses Seer-2 to make a change, the time line beyond that point alters. As we track those changes and compare the results, we’ll be able to figure out at what point McAllister’s actions become a serious problem.”

  “But if we can’t find him, then-” Embley said.

  “Somehow I have a feeling that if things take a turn for the worse – if McAllister causes some kind of disaster - Lopez will step in and manage to find a way to locate him.”

  “You think Lopez is holding out on us?” asked Embley.

  “I think he knows more than he’s telling,” said Lakeland. “And it’s clear from the demands he was making before that he wants a measure of control. So, I’m willing to let him have it. For now.”

  ۞

  Mateo watched as yet another new futext played out before his eyes. The visions were beginning to feel less and less real to him, as each new version of reality diverged slightly from the last in a daily continuum. The repetition, and the need to watch carefully for signs of change, was starting to become mind-numbing work.

  But his senses were awakened when he saw some startling changes in the latest loop of time. In the futext he was now looking at, things had taken a serious turn. As in many of the other alternate realities he’d observed, there had been no cold war, no Korea, no Vietnam, and no war with China. But in this one, there was a war brewing with Iran. Terrorist factions had perpetrated a series of deadly strikes on the U.S. and her allies, and clear connections had been drawn to indicate the Iranian regime had sponsored the attacks. Mateo had seen all that the last time around, when he had used the Seer the day before, but this time, instead of a hawkis
h U.S. president, McAllister had somehow changed things so that a different president had been elected in 1996. And this other president had chosen to appease the aggressors, rather than take a stand and fight. As a result, by 2006, things were looking very grim. And then, in 2007, it happened.

  “Sir,” said Mateo to Major Kilgore, “I think you’re going to want to report this to Lakeland and Embley right away.”

  Kilgore looked up from his notes. “What is it?”

  “They did it. The Iranians actually did it,” said Mateo.

  “What?”

  “Simultaneous nuclear strikes on Israel and New York City,” said Mateo, his hands trembling slightly as he let go of the Seer.

  ۞

  “So,” said Lakeland, “have you managed to find a way around McAllister’s blocking technology?”

  Mateo stood before the general. He’d been working for this man, and the rest of the Seer-Nine, for nearly four years now. They still called it the Seer-Nine, since Mateo had essentially taken McAllister’s place. Mateo felt a pang of guilt gnawing at him as he stood there, and decided to come clean.

  “Sir, I can find McAllister without a problem.”

  “Good,” said Lakeland, striking a match to light his cigar.

  “Sir,” continued Mateo, “I must confess. I have always been able to find him. I just -”

  “I know,” Lakeland cut him off, puffing out a big cloud of smoke. “I’ve known all along, Lopez.”

  Mateo gulped. “I don’t understand.”

  “I needed you to cooperate, and you needed to feel a measure of control. We both got what we wanted. And I knew you’d help us find McAllister when the time was right.”

  Mateo shook off his surprise and continued. “You’ll need to stop him before he influences the ’96 election. I recommend you make plans to apprehend him in ’93. I’ve known for a while that he has his operation based on the seventy-third floor of the World Trade Center, suite 7369. He’ll be there on February 25th, 1993. That seems to be latest date before things start to go crazy.”

  “Then we’ll be waiting there for him,” said Lakeland. “I’ll arrange for a team to capture him at that time. Shouldn’t be too hard – he’ll be seventy-one years old.”

  “You’ll need to have the team use caution – he’s got a lot of security protocols in place. I recommend a full undercover infiltration of his staff, so he doesn’t see it coming.”

  “We’ll slip operatives into his outfit one at a time, starting in the mid-eighties,” said Lakeland, his mind fully comprehending the long-term nature of the mission. “By ’93, we’ll have him surrounded.”

  ۞

  Mateo smoothed his thin, graying moustache with his forefinger and thumb, then switched out the light and laid his head down beside Maria.

  “Did they do it?” asked Maria, turning onto her side to face Mateo.

  “I watched it today, and everything looked fine,” said Mateo. “In 1993, the Seer-Nine team – all young operatives who’d taken over for the current team – converged on McAllister and seized Seer-2. Everything went as planned. It was amazing to see a decision made yesterday get played out decades in the future.”

  “And the nuclear attacks? Were they prevented?”

  “I haven’t looked yet,” said Mateo. “I’ll know tomorrow when I look again.”

  “Do you think they’ll ever finish with you – the Seer-Nine?” asked Maria.

  “Well, having prescience gives me an advantage,” said Mateo. “I have to tell you – I’ve looked ahead for us.”

  “And what does my prophet-husband see in our future?” Maria asked playfully.

  Mateo frowned and sucked on his tongue. “It’s not good. The Seer-Nine can’t find another Operator. They insist I stay and work for them. Seeing no choice, I stay. But you – you take the children and leave.”

  “Mateo, I would never -”

  “But you did. I mean, you will.”

  “How long – how long have you known this?” Maria asked.

  “I looked at our future a few weeks ago. I just didn’t know what to do – how to tell you.”

  “Well, there must be another way – another answer,” Maria pleaded.

  Mateo pondered the various pressures that lay on his mind and heart. He felt a duty to serve his country, but he couldn’t bear the thought of losing his family. Maria was right – there had to be another way.

  ۞

  Mateo entered the Seer room unguarded, as had been the protocol for the last year and a half.

  Looking around, he saw nobody else. Kilgore wasn’t due to arrive for another thirty minutes. Carefully, he hefted Seer-1 and Seer-3, placing them into a crate he’d brought in and left under a table the day before. He covered the alien devices with a blanket, and prepared to leave.

  “Mateo.”

  Hinds stood in the doorway, weapon drawn and leveled at Mateo’s head.

  Mateo froze. “Hinds. You wouldn’t shoot me, would you?”

  “To protect the Seers, to protect the nation – yes, Mateo, I will shoot you. Just like I had to shoot Fordham.”

  “Fordham?”

  “The power of being an Operator drove him mad,” said Hinds. “He tried to steal one, and there was a standoff. I had to shoot him dead. He was my friend, too, Mateo.”

  “I don’t want the power,” said Mateo, “I just want my life back. And I don’t want to lose my family.”

  “If you don’t put those down, you’ll lose more than that,” said Hinds, his gun held steady as a rock.

  “I knew you’d say that,” said Mateo. He heaved the heavy crate at Hinds. Hinds’ finger touched the cocked hair-trigger, and blasted the Seers into tiny shards of stone as Mateo ducked out of the way, taking cover under the table.

  Hinds slowly holstered his weapon as Mateo crawled back out and stood.

  “The Seer-Nine will have to wait until 1993 to see any more futext,” said Mateo, panting. “And you’ll need to get yourself a new Seer at that time.”

  Hinds looked at the ashes of the Seers in dismay.

  “This is a real shame, Mateo. I should shoot you right now.”

  “But you won’t.”

  “No, I suppose you saw that coming, didn’t you?”

  “I wouldn’t have tried this without using Seer-3 first, to ensure it would work,” said Mateo. “But from now on, we’re all just going to have to get by the way we used to – without being able to see the future.”

  The sound of a gunshot caused Mateo to jump. Hinds’ eyes widened with surprise, then turned glassy as a circle of crimson spread outward from the center of his chest, darkening his uniform as he sunk to his knees. Standing behind him, McAllister kept his smoking gun trained on Mateo.

  “I saw this coming,” McAllister said, “but it looks like I arrived too late.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Mateo.

  “I knew that one Seer stone would never be enough. That’s why the aliens created them in threes. I needed them all! And now you’ve ruined it,” he snarled.

  “McAllister, the stones – their power – it drives a man mad! We’re not meant to-”

  The bullet struck Mateo in the shoulder, throwing him backward against the wall. As he slid to the floor, McAllister stepped toward him and raised his service revolver, aimed for the head, and squeezed the trigger.

  ۞

  Mateo released his grip on the strange round stone and let it drop to his kitchen table with a heavy thud. Shaking and wide-eyed, he slowly turned to Maria.

  “What – what is it? What’s wrong Mateo? Did it shock you again?” she asked.

  “The things I have seen . . . ” the words could barely escape his trembling lips.

  “What?” What are you talking about?”

  “I just saw – in the stone – all the things that will happen because we found this thing. It was all so fast – but it all entered my mind. Maria, it is awful – this stone wields
such power, so much destruction. I must destroy it before it destroys us.”

  Without hesitation, he lifted his shotgun and pointed it at the stone.

  “Mateo, what are you doing?” Maria cried.

  “Choosing my destiny,” he said, echoing the words of Major Hinds. “Some things are better left unseen.”

  He pulled the trigger, and shattered the rock into a million shards that scattered all over the kitchen, breaking dishes and settling on the counters and floor. As the dust settled, he could hear his children crying in another room.

  A moment later, three Army Jeeps rolled up the gravel driveway.

  THE END