Fractured Futures

by SY Thompson

  Apparently mollified by the answer, and spurred on by the remark that they remained targets, Sidney walked quickly into her bedroom for footwear. Sirens wailed in the distance as she reached into the closet for a heavy brown leather jacket and gloves.

  “Come on,” Ronan urged, a note of panic in her voice. “We have to go.”

  “Keep your shirt on,” Sidney mumbled sarcastically. She reached down, grabbed her briefcase and then stuffed a few items into it before indicating she was ready.

  They quickly walked downstairs and left the house by the back door, crouching low as they ran across the lawn headed for the trees. Manicured hedges hid their escape as police cars flew up the long drive. The police had the code to the gate in case of emergencies and it stood wide open. At least she didn’t have to climb back over. Sidney had the code in that instance, assuming she wouldn’t want to stand in the middle of the road and debate why she should open it.

  “My bike is at the front gate,” Ronan said with a steadying hand on Sidney’s elbow. “I hid it behind some trees earlier.”

  “Oh, goody,” Sidney retorted. “I finally get that ride I asked for. Why can’t we just get my car?”

  “The place is swarming with police.”

  The argument was sound, but Ronan thought Sidney deliberately reached for, and found, another reason to disagree with her plan. Looking balefully at the helmet she said, “That thing will muss my hair.”

  Ronan responded with a stern glare and Sidney finally relented.

  “Oh, all right. Calm down.” Testily, she snatched up the helmet and fiddled with it as long as she could until Ronan finally took over the task for her.

  “Ever notice how that suggestion never works?”

  The question was deliberately flippant as she hurriedly stuffed Sidney’s briefcase into her saddlebag. It barely fit, with Ronan having to turn the case up on its end and shoving for all she was worth to manage the feat. They could hear sounds of the police crunching through the brush and snow before they finished. Yet Sidney still found a way to delay them further when she saw the blinking lights of unfamiliar technology.

  She had another struggle on her hands when Sidney asked, “What’s that?” in a loud stage whisper, her voice muffled through the visor.

  Ronan fought not to roll her eyes at the woman’s timing. Now was not the appropriate time for twenty questions. “Just get on the bike so we can get to the ferry. I’ll answer all of your questions as soon as we’re clear.”

  Sidney climbed onto the large machine and wrapped her arms around Ronan’s narrow waist. “Looks like you could use a meal,” she mumbled through the faceplate.

  Ronan ignored the comment and Sidney had no choice but to hang on tightly as they sped off down the road. A few moments later, Sidney snuggled closer and Ronan felt her shiver. Even with the extra protection of coat and helmet, the night air was cold. Sidney was soft in all the right places and Ronan tingled where their bodies made contact. She remembered the earlier embrace and felt surprised that Sidney’s lean frame contained such strength. Then she recalled how she’d kissed her a few minutes before and her face burned. She wondered what she’d been thinking. As soon as the immediate danger passed, Sidney would fire her for inappropriate behavior.

  It was just the stress, Ronan rationalized as she concentrated on driving back to Brooklyn Park. She felt Sidney hug closer against her back and gasped from the sensation that shot through her.

  Can’t she sense the way she makes me feel?

  She had no other choice but to push aside her internal struggle and focus on the half-hour ride to the ferry. Ronan worried they’d be late and have to wait for the next conveyance. The Gibson Island Ferry left for Baltimore every fifteen minutes and they couldn’t afford to miss the transport since someone else could be following. Ronan wasn’t naïve enough to believe the stalker was the only one looking for her companion. Whether the psychotic stalker acted alone or as a pawn for Gentry or the government, now wasn’t the time to wonder.

  With only a few minutes to spare, they arrived at the Gibson Island transfer station. Purchasing tickets and the process of bustling the BMW onto the conveyance took up the spare time and saved Ronan from having to provide any explanations to her impatient friend. However, when they finally settled down and the ferry started to move, she ran out of time for excuses.

  Sidney dug in her heels and crossed her arms over her chest. “Hold on,” she said in her lowest register. “I’m not going any further until I get some answers.”

  Ronan looked around the cramped deck in frustration before she finally grasped her by the arm and urged her over to the railing. If she told Sidney everything now she’d have another battle on her hands. With the deck of the ferry crowded with people, she didn’t want to get into that now. She would just have to appeal to Sidney’s sense of reason.

  “Look, I can’t answer you now. There are too many people around. All I can tell you is that our meeting was not an accident and that your life is in danger. You already know that from the stalker’s attack. But I can promise that I will answer all of your questions as soon as we are on the plane.”

  “The plane?” Sidney asked. “Why on the plane? Are we going somewhere?”

  “Please, I’ll answer you then. Trust me?”

  Chapter Ten

  SIDNEY DIDN’T KNOW why, but she did trust this woman. As she gazed into the ice blue eyes of someone that had saved her life twice, she suddenly found that she was willing to grant a little leeway. “All right, until we’re on the plane but then I’ll want some answers.”

  “You’ll have them,” Ronan assured her with a sudden grin that seemed to make the watery moonlight just a little brighter.

  They left the ferry with no problems and soon the Avantgarde roared into the hangar at Brooklyn Park. The noise reverberated so intensely in the metal structure that Sidney thought her eardrums would explode even through the protection of the helmet. Then Ronan braked hard enough to slam Sidney against her and caused their helmets to bump before she switched off the engine. Sidney noticed the open engine cover and the tools scattered all around. It looked as though someone had stopped what they were doing and ran.

  How exactly had Ronan known something was wrong? Sidney fumbled with the chinstrap and pulled the helmet off while she watched her friend and employee through narrowed eyes.

  Ronan calmly closed the cover and picked up the scattered tools. She gave every appearance at being unconcerned with Sidney’s surveillance. Sidney wasn’t stupid and the words Ronan had spoken to her on the ferry came back to her. She said their meeting wasn’t accidental and she recalled their first encounter. She first saw Ronan on the night when two assassins attempted to take her life. She’d come out of nowhere to rescue Sidney, and from the appearance of the hangar now, she’d somehow known she was in trouble again.

  “You knew he was coming for me,” she stated with certainty. “How?”

  Ronan ignored the question, and walked past her. She removed the saddlebags from her motorcycle. “Unfortunately, we will have to leave the bike behind. The weight will slow the airplane too much.”

  It was an obvious attempt to change the subject and it worked. The comment effectively deflected Sidney as she tried to work out how much the weight of the bike would slow them or why Ronan would care since the Falcon 2000 traveled at 528 miles per hour.

  “So? I’ve had as many as ten people on that plane and it never ‘slowed us down’ before.”

  “That was before you were running for your life,” Ronan retorted and walked past Sidney to the door of the pilot’s cabin. She turned back a second later and noticed Sidney still standing glued to the spot as her comment hit home.

  “Coming?”

  The gently mocking question caused Sidney’s hackles to rise and she ground her teeth together as she climbed in behind her. Wordlessly she took her seat and locked the harness in place while she watched Ronan run through the preflight protocols.

  RUNNING THROU
GH THE procedures quickly, and skipping half of them, Ronan entered a false flight plan before she contacted the tower for a clear runway. The flight plan was a ruse in case Sidney’s assailants were capable of tapping into the FAA’s computers and discovering their direction of travel. Once they were airborne, Ronan would circle back and fly directly toward the Florida Keys. Sidney was unnaturally quiet, and Ronan cast a worried glance toward the woman occupying her thoughts. She wondered how much longer she would be able to put off answering Sidney’s questions. The feisty woman deserved to know the truth where her own life was concerned, but Ronan just wasn’t sure she could make Sidney believe her.

  What could she possibly say? “I came from three hundred years in the future to save you from your ex-husband”?

  She thought Sidney must be weary from the recent escape and wasn’t even sure what to ask. Silence settled and Sidney laid her head back against the seat. Then she sat up and reached for her carryall behind the pilot’s seat. She opened the case and retrieved an item Ronan had watched her hastily stuff inside. From the age and resemblance of the two figures captured on film, she guessed the people in the photo were Sidney’s grandparents.

  Sidney’s eyes drifted from the photograph and rested on blinking amber, red and green lights. She seemed especially curious about the plane’s control console and Ronan wondered if she’d ever been in the cockpit before. Ronan considered it a possibility that Sidney’s curiosity was on high alert considering all they’d gone through in the last few hours. Sidney didn’t say anything and eventually her focus returned to the photograph.

  Allowing a quiet sigh of relief, Ronan concentrated on the instruments before her and eased the craft into a slight turn. With the turn complete, she gradually allowed the plane to descend to be out of the way of normal traffic. Their true course wasn’t recorded anywhere and she didn’t want to run into anyone. She wasn’t paying attention to what Sidney was doing.

  “Okay, care to explain?”

  The dangerously worded question caught Ronan’s attention completely. With a fatalistic sense of dread, blue eyes turned to see what Sidney had discovered. Her small, elegant fingers wrapped around a data analyzer, a serious bit of 24th century industry. Ronan swallowed a groan and she wondered how she could possibly explain the advanced technology. Somehow, she knew that she had just run out of time. She would have to give Sidney at least a partial explanation.

  Ronan fixed her eyes back on the windscreen and answered slowly and casually. “It’s a tracking device.”

  That was the truth, it just wasn’t all of it. Ronan didn’t think Sidney could handle the fact that the device could track, scan for medical problems, analyze bio-signatures, and even analyze the molecular breakdown of the atmosphere.

  “Well, I admit that I don’t know everything about modern technology. But this device certainly seems a little...advanced.”

  Her words pointedly invited Ronan to reveal more than she had.

  “It’s a prototype,” Ronan hedged, falling into the necessary deception.

  The display clearly showed readouts of atmospheric temperature in one corner and several buttons for inputting information, but there was nothing to indicate that it was more than Ronan had said it was. Still Sidney didn’t seem convinced.

  “Is this how you found me?”

  Ronan had allowed the inspection of the analyzer to go uninterrupted. The more information that Sidney ingested by herself, the easier Ronan’s tale would be later. As long as she remained calm and matter of fact, Sidney would listen.

  “Not so much,” she answered. “I know that you have a penchant for taking off without telling anyone so I put a device on your Jaguar that would activate as soon as the engine started.”

  Ronan held her breath, waiting for the explosion that was sure to come.

  Sidney surprised her when she responded. “I guess it’s lucky for me you already knew where I was going. Why else would you take the Gibson Island Ferry instead of trying to intercept me on the highway?”

  Ronan stayed quiet for the moment since she realized the question was rhetorical. It saved her from having to explain about the onboard interface built into the motorcycle.

  “You said we hadn’t met accidentally, that you knew someone was...trying to kill me,” Sidney continued, hesitating. “You show up on two separate occasions, just in the nick of time to save me. The advanced technology you possess...this,” she held up the data analyzer. “The motorcycle. I’ve never seen anything like that bike. Are you a government agent?”

  Ronan bit the inside of her cheek and fought the hysterical laugh that wanted to burst from her chest in relief. Of course, that was the most logical assumption: a female James Bond. It was certainly a lot easier than seeing the truth that was right in front of her, that Ronan was from the future.

  “Not exactly,” Ronan admitted a moment later when she had regained control of her mirth. “Sidney, what I have to tell you will be very difficult to believe.”

  “No doubt,” her companion responded sharply in her smoky voice, causing Ronan to finally take her eyes off the view and look into Sidney’s eyes.

  What she saw was a sharp-minded woman who had the tenacity to work through even the most confusing problem and find the solution. For the first time, Ronan believed she could tell Sidney everything. Still, she had to be careful not to introduce too much too soon. The human brain could absorb only so much outlandish information at once and she knew this would be a lot to take in.

  “I’m a homicide detective,” Ronan began. When she saw she had surprised her friend yet again, she pushed on. “I...came across information that an attempt would be made on your life because of your husband.”

  “Roger,” Sidney broke in. “But we’re not married anymore and why would someone try to hurt me because of him?”

  Ronan took a deep breath before she took the plunge. “I have come to believe that he is the one trying to have you killed.”

  “What?” Sidney burst out. “That’s ridiculous. We may not have had the most civilized divorce in history, but it’s hardly any reason to kill me.”

  “I know this is going to be difficult for you to hear, but I’ll try to tell you everything I know.”

  “This better be good. I’ve known Roger since we were in college and it’s going to take a lot to convince me that he was behind this.”

  “I’m aware that your marriage was initially one of convenience. You’re very famous on the society front and Mister Gentry used you to further his government contacts. Once he developed his own circle of associates, he had no further use for you. Now I will admit that in itself isn’t reason to kill you, but I believe that you have sensitive information in your possession that he can’t afford to have become public knowledge.”

  Sidney looked at her as though she thought Ronan mentally unstable. “And exactly what is this information that I’m supposed to have?”

  “I didn’t say that you knew what the information was, just that you have it, even if you aren’t aware of it.” Ronan shot Sidney an angry look before making some minor corrections to her navigational board. “Whatever it is, it’s something concerning how this country’s government will develop. It’s also large enough to affect the world, and that is something you do not want to see happen.”

  “How do you know?”

  Ronan didn’t have an easy answer that would satisfy her companion and chose to remain silent. After a few moments, Sidney tried a different track and impressed Ronan with the change in topic.

  “And your superiors are aware of this plot? They’ve authorized you to protect me and stop Roger?”

  “No. I resigned to protect you.”

  “You did that for me?” Sidney asked in a small voice. “Why? Why would you do that, give up everything for me?”

  Ronan simply looked at her and the expression in Sidney’s eyes showed how touched she was by the gesture. Sidney held her gaze for only a moment before she reached back into the briefcase. Ronan thought
she was looking for a distraction in something familiar. The case wasn’t heavy, containing the few items Sidney had stuffed into it before they left the manor and she lifted it easily onto her lap.

  Sidney picked up the photo she’d looked at earlier and studied the scene. The photo of these people seemed to calm her. A man and woman sat on a checkered cloth on the ground with their arms around each other and smiled into the camera. As nice as the photo was, something else caught Ronan’s eye.

  “What’s that?”

  “My grandparents,” Sidney answered the soft question as she drew her fingertips lovingly over the glass. “I took this picture when I was just a kid. We went on a picnic one summer at the Rock Hall property.”

  She reached over Sidney’s hand and into the briefcase. “Not that. This.”

  Ronan held a small computer disc that Sidney looked at as though she had never seen before.

  “I don’t know. It’s been a long time since I used this case, but I’m sure it wasn’t in there last time. It’s probably something Roger tossed in there. He used to borrow the briefcase when he’d forgotten his own. But it can’t be what you were talking about earlier since that disc had to have been in there for almost a year.”

  Ronan let it go, sensing Sidney had reached the limits of her endurance. “Why don’t you try to get some sleep? I’ll let you know if anything happens.”

  For a moment, Sidney just stared into Ronan’s cornflower eyes and then shook her head in disbelief. “I just guess I’m going to have to get used to someone caring about me.”

  “Is that so hard to believe?” Ronan asked, frowning. “That someone could care for you?”

  “More than you might believe.” Sidney stood up and rested her hand briefly on Ronan’s shoulder. “See you in a couple of hours.”

  Ronan knew there was a luxurious bedroom in the rear of the plane, cordoned off from the passenger seats, and she hoped Sidney could get some decent rest despite the troubling events of the night.