by D. N. Leo
Ciaran pulled out the plastic bag with the blue syringe and checked for damage.
“Bloody hell. Guns. Goons. And drugs. Give me one reason not to think you’re a drug dealer.”
Ciaran shrugged. “I told you. This isn’t a drug. It’s a healing compound. It’s true we’re in the pharmaceutical business, but I wouldn’t say drug dealing is the correct business description.”
“That drug will get us killed. So you’d better make sure it can save lives or cure cancer or something like that.”
“It can do more than that.”
“Yeah, right.”
Suddenly two men charged at them from the bush. Ciaran gave Arik a hard kick to his abdomen, sending him to the ground. He pulled his guns out and fired at the attacking men. The exchange was fast, and the two men went down like tree trunks.
As Arik lay on the muddy ground, he felt a puncture on his neck, and then his world started to fade.
Ciaran crouched down and reached out his hand. “Come on up. I didn’t kick you that hard.”
Ciaran was moving so slowly—or maybe it was because Arik’s world was starting to blur, and things seemed to be moving in slow motion. He tried to say something about the pain in his neck, but no words came out.
Ciaran muttered some profanity and took a closer look at him. He turned Arik’s head, swore, and pulled something out of his neck. Standing, he ground whatever it was into the ground with his foot.
Arik felt tired. He thought maybe he should rest for a bit. Then he felt a slap on his face.
“Stay awake, will you?” said Ciaran.
Damn it, he just wanted to sleep for a while. As soon as he closed his eyes, Ciaran shook his shoulders violently. “Open your eyes. If you die, no drug will be able to help you.”
He opened his eyes and saw Ciaran had pulled off the cap of his blue syringe. He tapped lightly at a vein on Arik’s neck and injected some of the blue medicine.
Arik felt the cool liquid flow into his body and mind—a stream of life. He felt the light and spark of an inexplicable source of energy flood his body. He had never before had a clarity like this in his mind. It felt as if he was transforming into a different person.
In a short moment, he snapped back to reality and sat up. Two dead bodies lay on the ground, and Ciaran was sitting down, leaning against a tree.
“Feeling like a superman now?” Ciaran asked.
Arik touched his neck where he had felt the pain before.
Ciaran chuckled. “You were stung by a scorpion in France in the wet season. I think you should buy a lotto ticket.”
“You injected me with that blue drug!”
“Consider yourself a very lucky Guinea pig. It worked. You should buy two lotto tickets…” His voice trailed off.
Arik rushed over to him and saw blood seeping out from between the fingers of the hand Ciaran was clutching at his side. A lot more blood had pooled up on the ground, and Ciaran was white as a sheet.
“You’ve been shot.”
“My men are coming soon,” Ciaran muttered with his eyes closed.
“Are you sure they can find us in here?”
“No. But as you can see, I can’t carry you out.”
“Idiot. You could have left me here.”
No response from Ciaran.
Arik shook his shoulder. “Hey! Let’s get out of here.” He hauled Ciaran up off the ground and wrapped his arm around his shoulders. “Okay, one step at a time. You’ve got to help me out here,” Arik said.
Ciaran slumped to the ground. Arik straightened him up and took one more step. “Come on, we have to make it out of the woods. Now that you know your drug works, you have to get it out there. Save lives, right? Cure cancer. Be God!”
“I don’t want to be God. His job sucks.” Ciaran’s voice slurred, and he slumped down again.
He must have lost a lot of blood, Arik thought. “Whatever. Okay, you can tell me the formula. That way, if you die here, I’ll tell your people, whoever they might be.”
“LeBlanc Pharmaceuticals.”
“Okay, good, keep walking. LeBlanc Pharmaceuticals. And what’s in the drug?”
“Oleander.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a flower.”
“A what?”
Before Ciaran could say anything more, they heard footsteps.
“Could that be your men? How can I tell?”
Ciaran pulled out a gun and gave it to Arik. “Have you ever fired a gun before?”
“In video games.”
“If they’re my men, they won’t fire at us. But if they look like they’re going to shoot, you have to do it first. Aim at the head…” He slumped down again.
Two men walked out from the woods. In the dim light of near dusk, Arik saw them pulling guns. He was outnumbered. Ciaran was totally out of it on the ground. He had to think fast. No—he didn’t have time to think. He swung the gun up and fired two shots. The men fell before they knew what had hit them.
It was Arik’s first kill.
23
They had moved Madeline to a new location. Dinah could see it was much more secure than the previous place. She appreciated Ciaran allowing Cooper to stay inside to recover.
Arik had said nothing on the way to the location. She knew he had a lot on his mind, and she was still pondering the odd conversation he’d had with Ciaran. Whatever had happened in the past must have scarred their relationship badly, like an unhealable wound. She didn’t think Madeline even knew about it.
As soon as they arrived, Ciaran had made a beeline to the bedroom. Dinah went to check on Cooper, but he was asleep. She went to her room and saw her ruined jumpsuit in a plastic bag. She took the suit out. Ciaran hadn’t merely fixed it—this was a new suit that looked more like a jacket than the skintight suit she’d had before. This would be warmer, and she could tuck more weapons inside.
She put the suit back into the bag and took it to the living room, where she found Arik standing by himself and staring out the window. Approaching him, she asked, “Want to help me with this?”
He turned around and smiled, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes.
She pointed at the bag. “My new weaponry suit.”
Arik nodded without enthusiasm.
“Look, I know you’re worried, but Ciaran is very confident they won’t harm your mother until they get what they want from you.”
“What if I can’t give them what they want?”
“So you know what they want?”
“I should call Grace. I didn’t come back to the house to have lunch with her as I’d promised. It’s been a few hours. She must be worried sick.”
“Arik, that was yesterday.”
“What?”
“We went to the market, and Cooper was shot. Ciaran brought Cooper back here. Then we didn’t hear from you. He put out a search for you, and that activated the chip I planted in your pocket. But that was yesterday.”
“I had planned to get to the airport in under forty minutes. Yes, I had an accident, but that couldn’t have been yesterday.”
Ciaran approached them from the corridor. “What’s up?” he asked.
“Arik lost a day.”
“I just left the market for the airport. How is it possible that I was hanging around all night without knowing it?”
Ciaran’s wrist unit beeped, and he engaged.
A voice said, “Report of a possible attack last night on the outskirts of Oxford.”
“In what form?” Ciaran asked.
“Fire sparked by lightning.”
“Casualties?”
“Twenty humans.”
“No creatures?”
“We can’t confirm, sir.”
“Why are you concluding it’s a supernatural incident?”
“Our device picked up traces of multiversal energy in the affected areas. Local authorities are working to identify the site. We can’t get any more information until the humans are cleared from the area, sir.”
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“All right. Keep me informed,” Ciaran said and hung up.
“Was that me? Did I do that?” Arik asked. “How could that happen? I haven’t even had the second heatwave yet!”
Ciaran narrowed his eyes. “So you’ve had your first one? When was it?”
“After you guys got drunk and had a fistfight on the street,” Dinah said. “So what happens? You have a certain number of heatwaves like that, and you turn into lightning?”
“I don’t know. It can’t be me!” Arik exclaimed.
“It’s not you,” Ciaran said. “The last thing we need now is you freaking out.”
“You never knew what it was that I could do—or could have done.” Arik turned and walked toward the door.
Ciaran grabbed him from behind. “If you leave, we’ll never figure it out.”
Arik whirled around. “Don’t grab me! There’s nothing you can do even if we do figure it out. And you don’t have to figure out anything anyway. It wasn’t your fault.” He walked away once more.
Ciaran grabbed his shoulder again. Arik threw a punch, and Ciaran caught his fist. “I left you alone in the past, Arik. But that was a lifetime ago, and you still can’t deal with it. So let’s sort it out now.”
Arik shoved Ciaran away.
Ciaran grabbed his collar and pushed him against the wall. “It is my fault. And I’m going to fix it whether you like it or not so that you can go on and live your selfish life however you want.”
“Selfish? Are you saying I didn’t try? I went through regression hypnosis. I tried every kind of psychiatric test shit available on Earth. And they had no clue what’s going on.”
“Can someone fill me in?” Dinah asked.
Ciaran looked at Arik, then at Dinah. “I think you might be able to help. He was stung by a rare poisonous scorpion. To save his life, I injected him with a new healing compound I developed. It was made primarily from oleander, a toxic Earth flower. He claims there’s a side effect of the compound that makes him time travel whenever he experiences three heatwaves. He has no memory of the events whatsoever but says he always causes something catastrophic to happen when he travels.”
“When I travel to the past, that is,” Arik growled. “Ciaran’s never seen any of my heatwaves. But you did, Dinah.”
“It never happened when I was around. I can’t babysit you,” said Ciaran. “If you would have allowed my experiment, I could have triggered a heatwave and measured it. We could have had a solution a long time ago.”
“I am not your lab rat. And I’ve had it under control. I stopped it five years ago.”
“And that was about the time you stumbled upon the apertures?” Ciaran chuckled. “It seems you jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.”
Arik staggered back, leaning against the wall. “Why are the heatwaves coming back? I can’t afford to time travel now. They’ve got my mother. I have to be here. I can’t control it. What if I never come back?” He was breathing heavily. “I need to be alone.” He shoved Ciaran out of the way and rushed down the hallway.
Ciaran felt the shoulder where Arik had just touched him and said to Dinah, “He’s heating up now. He told me the second one is worse than the first.” He looked at Arik, who was at the end of the hall. “Hey, Madeline’s in there!” But Arik had already slammed the door shut and locked it from the inside.
24
Madeline bolted out of the bed when Arik stormed in. She had heard the commotion outside and was prepared to go out to check. She thought she was recovered, but Ciaran was overly cautious and insisted she stay for one more day.
Arik’s face was as pale as a ghost, but the skin on his face was the only part of him that didn’t look like it was burning. For the first time since they had met, she could read his mind. What she heard was horrifying. It didn’t sound like speech. Distorted, mangled words merged together as if space creatures were holding a conversation. Some of the words seemed to be in English, and there was a kind of rhythm or beat weaving in and out of the words.
Her psychic ability wasn’t useful now because she couldn’t make sense of what she was hearing.
He was surprised to see her, but he was out of breath and couldn’t utter a word to explain why he had stormed into her room.
Ciaran banged on the door. Madeline knew Ciaran’s extreme concern regarding her security had just bitten him in the backside. For her safety, he had coded the door so that if it were locked from the inside, no one—including him—could break in from the outside.
Arik leaned against the wall then slid down to the floor.
She approached him and could feel the incredible heat coming from his body. His eyes were glassy. Ciaran could help. She darted toward the door to open it for her husband. Arik grabbed her foot as she walked past, sending her to the floor.
“Don’t. He can’t help,” Arik said.
“I can’t help either, Arik. And you look like you need some help.”
“This is the second and…the third combined… It’s never happened this way before…” His eyes rolled back.
“Second and third what?”
He closed his eyes.
“If I don’t come back…please tell my mother…I’m sorry…”
“Hey!” Madeline grabbed him by the shoulders before he fell to the floor. As she did so, she heard Ciaran’s voice coming from outside the door.
“Don’t touch him, Madeline, whatever you do!”
She looked back at Arik and saw his image flicker. Her hands, which still gripped his shoulders, also flickered. Then the world went blank.
In a flash, Madeline found herself standing next to Arik in the middle of a busy coastal port. It was grim and dark as if a storm had just moved past. People rushed around, going about their business, and no one paid attention to the fact they had just appeared out of nowhere and were dressed like no one else around them.
“We’re in the fourteenth century,” Arik said.
“What?”
“On your right is the port of a seacoast line, a busy trading business because shipping goods by water is more affordable in the middle ages.”
Madeline looked toward the port. Boats with single sails were moored to the dock, where people raced about carrying goods in containers, parcels, and cages. Hearing a quack and a high-pitched squeal next to her, Madeline jumped and moved aside as a man wearing a dirty knee-length tunic and thick shoes and pushing a cart of live animals walked past.
“Up the hill, you might be able to see some carriages,” Arik continued. “People of their class dress a bit nicer. Those of prestige won’t come near the dock.”
Madeline looked up the hill. It was exactly as Arik had described. As she looked back at him, he shrugged and said, “I specialize in the history of the middle ages.”
“Ciaran said you specialized in mythology.”
He chuckled. “What can I say? I have multiple interests.”
“So what’s next, Arik? This isn’t our time, so it’s obvious we’ve time traveled. How do we get back? It seems like you’ve done this before.”
He smiled. “Once or twice.” His smile was so sad it worried her. Not only did she want to get back to her own time, she also wanted to get back to her universe, to Eudaiz, where her children were waiting.
“I don’t know what will happen to you, Madeline. But whenever this happens to me, I can’t remember a thing when I get back. I am fully aware of what I’m doing now. And I know what I did on my last trip. I know I’ll feel really bad when I get back—but I never know why.”
She nodded. “As long as we can get back.”
“We can always go back, but the question is—in what state.”
“I don’t know anything about time travel, Arik, but I know one thing—we’re not supposed to change the past. Things happen for a reason. The universe operates in a sequence of cause and effect. It’s all a big chain reaction. If we change anything in this time, things will be changed when we get back, and it might not be a good change.”
“You sound exactly like Ciaran, Madeline.”
She shrugged. “We’re married. You hadn’t noticed?”
“This time travel happens for a reason. I know whenever I traveled in the past, something catastrophic happened. I never know why, and I can never remember if I did something to cause changes to occur.”
“Where did you go in your last travel?”
“1931. The China flood. It killed millions. I saw it happen with my own eyes. I don’t know if I did something to cause it. I did bring a vase back with me—a rare antique that proves I was there. But still, I can’t remember what I did. I meant to show that vase to Dinah. But we didn’t have time.”
“Maybe we should find a discreet corner and wait there for the right time to return. You promise you won’t do anything drastic?”
Arik nodded. They walked across the dirt road and stood at the corner of what looked like a small trading station. On a low bench outside the place lay a range of butcher knives and other tools of slaughter.
Madeline rolled her eyes. “How charming!” she said and tugged Arik’s arm, hoping to find another place to wait. Before they had a chance to leave, a man stepped up to them from the dock. He looked Madeline up and down. She knew her face was feminine enough, but she was wearing jeans, not exactly the style of clothing women wore in that era. Arik pulled her back behind him and gave the man a stern stare.
The man grinned, showing his crooked teeth. “Flowers for the beautiful lady.”
She noticed now that he was carrying a large basket full of all sorts of flowers. Most of them looked like wildflowers, pulled from a field nearby. Maybe he was taking the flowers to the market. He pulled out some purple flowers and handed them to Madeline. As she accepted them, he nodded with respect, and then walked away.
Arik grabbed the flowers and threw them to the ground.
“They’re just flowers, Arik!”
“I’ll buy you buckets of them when we get back.”
From around the corner, they heard men’s voices.
“Thank you very much for your understanding. Here is a token of my appreciation.” The voice had a thick French accent. Arik peeked around the corner and saw that the French man had left.
