by KD Mack
“You’re being absurd,” Bendon muttered, “and as a prisoner, you certainly don’t have any say over how this mission goes, but I won’t drag dead weight with me. You can stay here. Your armlock will keep you in place as it is.”
“Won’t stop me from running towards that city,” Kreg hissed under his breath, but Bendon ignored him. Even Steff figured it was just a snippy, non-serious response.
“Steff?” Bendon said, looking at her. “I think we would be okay to wait until morning. Sure, its laurels for us if we could bring that place down ourselves, but they’re armed to the teeth and have most of our weapons.”
“They’ll be expecting us to come back,” Steff said. “We can’t just stay out here.”
Bendon shrugged. “Sure we can. They just said we couldn’t leave the canyon. They didn’t say when we had to return. Xavian will just figure we got spooked by the intensity of his organization. He considers himself some sort of freedom fighter. He won’t kill us until he has to.” She climbed in her sleeping sack, looking out at the canyon, clearly not that interested in talking any more.
Steff was secretly relieved. She wasn’t sure what was the right call here, and she absolutely had not wanted to try and bring Xavian in by themselves, or had to face the possibility of telling Bendon she wouldn’t back her up to her face. The rest of Chrono Corp. was coming. They would deal with this, and they would figure out what needed to be done. She didn’t need to make a call yet. She would be demanding answers from Matias as soon as they got back. There had to be a reasonable explanation, or at least some justification from Chrono Corp. Then she could decide if it was a good enough one or not.
“It’ll already be too late,” Kreg said quietly, suddenly.
Steff jerked her head up, “How did you –”
“Just a guess. You’re glad they’re coming to clean up this mess for you. That you don’t have to get your hands dirty. But we’re handing them over. If you decide they’re wrong, later, you’ll have to live with the fact that you let all those people in there go to a terrible fate.”
He looked out across the canyon. “Let Bendon take first watch. We need rest before we ruin a bunch of people’s lives.”
Chapter Four
Kreg was still up when Steff took her watch shift. When he was sure that Bendon had fallen asleep, he sidled up next to Steff.
“Do you trust me?” he asked, quietly. He sounded sad.
Steff stared out at the line of buildings, barely visible in the moonlight. “I don’t know,” she replied finally. “I don’t think so. Not yet. But I don’t distrust you. I think you really are trying to help.”
“Will you stop me from doing what I need to do?”
“You’re going to warn them, aren’t you?” Steff replied.
Kreg nodded. “I agree we don’t have the full scope of what’s going on here. And I won’t pretend like I harbor any good feelings for Xavian, given everything we remember. But he didn’t seem like the same person as before. Still just as foolhardy, sure. Still just as determined that he was right and the world was wrong. But I think he might be on the right side this time.”
“I don’t know,” Steff laughed quietly, her head in her hands. “I don’t know what’s going on, if I’m honest. Things are wrong, but how do we know that messing with this timeline isn’t the thing that’s going to have us end up with another apocalypse? What would that even look like? How do we even know that’s what’s coming? You keep talking about cycles, about things repeating, about how things are building up to how they were before, but I just don’t see it. I know somebody is out there, in the time stream, up to something. But does that mean we go against direct orders here and now? It’s like Bendon said. What reason would Chrono Corp. have for mistreating these people?”
“Even if it is just treatment, do they deserve to be forced into it against their will?”
“If they’re a danger to others, do they have the right to refuse?”
Kreg laughed. “Darling, we’re asking bigger questions than we’re going to get the answer to tonight. But I’m going to go down there. If you need to stop me, I understand. I won’t hold it against you.” He winked. “For long, at least. But I’m going. If you don’t stop me, I’m happy to tell Bendon I overpowered you.”
“She wouldn’t believe that for a second. You taking me down? Come on, I could beat you easily.” Steff looked back to where Bendon was sleeping. “She’s just trying to do what she thinks is right, too, you know. You’re too hard on her. For whatever reason, she hasn’t remembered the things we have. She doesn’t know what we faced before, not really.”
“I can’t help but be a little hard on anyone that willing to follow orders,” Kreg said, standing. “I’m going. The rest is up to you.”
Steff watched him clamber down the rock face. She should stop him. The stunning round from her gun would just knock him on his back, wind him long enough for her to catch up. There was no reason for her to disobey an order, or help someone else disobey it. But some part of this felt like the same thing she had done when she’d gone along with Bendon reporting their findings. The people around her were making the calls. She was watching, getting the information she needed.
“You can’t keep letting the people around you make the moves,” Steff muttered to herself. “You can’t have chased him down just to let him call the shots. Or gone behind Bendon’s back just to let her pull the strings now. You have to figure out what you want here, and do that.”
But every choice felt like it was going to spiral into the wrong one. The impact of little choices, little actions, little events and how big they could be was one of the first things they drilled into them in their training. Every move you made could result in an entirely different future.
Choice paralysis was not an unknown problem among recruits. It had never affected Steff before; she had always been sure she was on the right track. She figured eventually it had to catch up with her.
He was too far now, anyway. So, what was her next move? Pretend she had been asleep on watch?
Steff looked back at Bendon again, then lay out over her own bag. That seemed like the only choice. Bendon might even believe it, with how exhausted Steffi had been after the last few weeks.
She was surprised how quickly sleep took her.
Bendon woke her, frantically, a few hours later. Steff jerked awake, looking around in confusion.
“You fell asleep!” Bendon said, both concern and accusation in her voice.
Steff mumbled a groggy apology, rubbing her eyes.
Kreg was fixing breakfast. He smiled over at the two of them, proffering warmed coffees, having pulled out the cookstove. “She seemed really tuckered out so I didn’t bother waking her,” he said. “I figured I could pull some of my own weight and keep an eye out.”
Bendon’s eyes darted to the base. It looked quiet, undisturbed. She looked back at Kreg, suspicious. “Nothing happened last night?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t see anything,” he said, pushing a coffee into her hand. “Now we just wait for the cavalry.”
They didn’t have to wait long. The coffee was still hot in their cups as Matias and a surprisingly large band of agents showed up. Steff realized he didn’t want to take any chances. Matias waved the three of them down.
“Report?” he said.
“They have snipers,” Bendon replied, “but they haven’t fired on us. I’m surprised you appeared out from cover. I would have figured we’d be under attack by now.”
“I like a show of force,” Matias said. “And I didn’t want to deal with getting the entire group down the canyon and giving them time to run for cover. Let’s move in.”
Steff, Kreg, and Bendon fell in at the back of the line, and the ranks advanced slowly. Steff kept half-expecting Xavian and his men to open fire, but she reminded herself they were probably gone. She didn’t want to see Matias’ reaction when they got in there.
They made it to the main building without incident. Matia
s tried the door. It swung open in his hand.
The place was empty.
Matias sent the men to surround and search the place, to ensure people weren’t just tucked in somewhere. He turned to face the three of them, sucking on his teeth.
“An explanation. Now,” he said, slowly.
Bendon shot a furious look at Kreg, but before she could say anything, he stepped in.
“Honestly, it’s probably my fault,” he said, putting his hands up. “And for that, I apologize. I must not have fooled them as well as I thought.”
“Your meaning?” Matias demanded. Steff watched him.
“We made our way in by pretending we wanted to be a part of their organization. As someone who’s, well, a bit more skilled in deception than your loyal soldiers here, I took the lead. I thought they bought what I was selling them, hook, line, and sinker. They certainly told us all about their organization and their plans. And they let us leave, though they didn’t let us keep our weapons or leave the valley, probably out of fear we’d run off to grab people like you. But Xavian’s a sharp one. He probably saw right through my lies. Was just telling us about his work to brag. And then took off the second we were clear of the place. I bet they have tunnels that run all the way through this cliff to the mountains beyond.”
Steff realized she was holding her breath. Would Matias buy it?
He looked suspicious, his eyes moving slowly between the three of them before settling back on Kreg.
“Bendon.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Investigative jump. To yesterday, day before, maybe a week back as well. Just right in this position. Move quickly and check each spot, see if this space is occupied.”
“Yes, sir,” Bendon said, sounding a bit confused. She vanished from beside them, returning an instant later. Her face was pale. “Nobody here, sir.”
“Hmmm.” Matias nodded, looking around the space.
“Sir, if you think we lied about our discovery –” Bendon started, but Matias put up a hand.
“Nothing of the sort. They clearly saw through your ruse, which is disappointing. And Xavian didn’t want us to just be able to travel back to yesterday. Can you even remember what it looked like in here, full of people?”
Steff realized she was struggling to, even as she looked around. They had put their weapons somewhere. No, someone had taken them. But who? Even the conversation with Xavian was as muddled as her memories from the other timeline.
“He moved them. They were never here, or they only showed up here for him to skip them to a different place or time. That could mean that all the work he did here has been undone, or he just moved it to another space. I don’t know. But it means he is definitely willing to interfere with the timeline itself to get his work done. Which goes against all ordinances.” He pulled a device from his bag. “It will have created a big enough time signature that we should be able to track him.”
“We would be happy to, sir,” Bendon replied.
Matias shook his head. “Not you three. He already knows you’re with us, or at least, that you’re against him. I’ve had people working in your absence. We’ve picked up a few more anomalies. You are to visit them, observe, and report. There will be no interaction on your part this time, no matter what is going on. Is that understood? No intervention whatsoever.”
“Understood,” Bendon said, taking the device as it was offered. “Observe, record, report.”
“Good.” Matias looked at Kreg. “I’m sorely tempted to take you back with me, but I want both you and Steff here to ascertain whether the things you are going to encounter match up with the things you did before. Two accounts will make our case to do something about it stronger.” He smiled, a grin that did not reach his eyes. “But if any more targets go missing, I have a feeling we’re going to have to talk about whether your sentence will be removed at all.”
Chapter Five
Matias ensured the place was cleared out before he and the rest of the team left, leaving the trio to make their jump. Matias had logged several points and organized them in the order he wanted them to make the jumps. He was always exacting with this sort of thing, which made missions quite clear, but it could be intimidating when you got the whole list of orders.
Bendon looked between the two of them. “I want to get to the bottom of this, too,” she said, once Matias left. “So for right now? I’m going to believe you, Kreg. I’m going to believe that the class act you put on back there wasn’t enough to get past Xavian’s radar and he got wise and left. I’ll believe you didn’t see anything last night. But if more unexplained mess ups start happening? I’m not going to extend that courtesy.”
“Class act?” Kreg said, surprised. “Why, Bendon. I didn’t know you thought so highly of my skills.”
She sighed and rolled her eyes, then quickly tapped into his restrictor band and the three of them headed into the vortex. Steff felt herself relax as they entered the swirling portal. Out there, she wasn’t sure what was the right call to make. But here, in the vortex, you had a clear destination. A clear goal. And it felt as natural to move through to her as a fish through water. She smiled.
Something shifted up ahead. Not their goalpost, something. A figure. Steff cried out and pointed, and as they moved through, it grew larger and larger. It didn’t seem to be running, though it was fuzzy around the edges, shifting in focus. Bendon clutched her weapon at her side. Xavian had taken most of their weapons with him, but they still had the small side-arms Bendon had left back at their campsite just in case.
And then, too soon, before they should have reached it, it was in front of them. No, not it. Her. She stood there, looking at them, confused. Panicked. Her clothing was ragged, a strange jumpsuit with a variety of readouts on the front that were long-dead. Her hair was in disarray. She looked like she was trying to say something, but Steff realized the woman wasn’t looking at them, but something beyond them. Steff turned to try and follow the woman’s line of sight but she couldn’t see anything. She turned back in confusion while Bendon tried to communicate with her. The woman didn’t seem aware of their presence. What was she afraid of? Was whoever they were chasing here in the timeline? Was Xavian chasing this woman? She looked like she had been in some sort of firefight.
Bendon and Kreg were both calling out to her now, their travel stopped short, and finally Kreg reached out and touched her arm gently, but it seemed to send a shock through her. She looked at the three of them, aghast, then let out a cry and was yanked away in front of them.
Only, she was yanked out of the timeline, like a tear had opened in the wall and sucked her through. Kreg made a move to go after her, but Bendon grabbed his arm, yanking him back. “We don’t know where, when that is!” she exclaimed. “We don’t know where it leads or who pulled her out!”
“We have to figure out what’s going on!” he yelled.
“Observe, record, report,” Bendon snapped, looking to Steff for support. This time she was on Bendon’s side, as much as she wanted to know what was happening.
“She’s right,” Steff said. “We can’t just go leaping out of the timeline without knowing what’s going on. She could have been bait. We don’t know what our enemies are working with here. Though –” she furrowed her brows for a moment “– the logo on her suit, did that say Blaine Corp.?”
Kreg paused for a moment, then nodded furiously as he recalled it. “It did. It did!”
“I don’t remember her.” Steff shook her head. “She seems kind of familiar, but also, not? I remember Amy, Elliot, some of the other people. But who was that? And her suit was in such bad condition – did it look the same as the others did? I can’t remember.”
“New timeline, new suit,” Kreg replied. “It makes sense if you –”
“Can we get to where we’re going?” Bendon snapped. “We can hem and haw over what’s going on after we’ve reached our destination. It’s not safe to stay here this long.”
“Right. But you captured our posit
ion?”
“It’s logged. I marked it. We’re moving on,” Bendon said, and in no time at all – quite literally – they were stumbling out into a meadow.
“Well, this is more idyllic than I expected,” Kreg said, looking around. “Are we taking a little country vacation?”
“According to the reports, there’s a chapel near here – no, a church – that we need to stake out,” Bendon said. “But we need to figure out what we just saw, first. Blaine Corp. You both mentioned this place in your talks with Matias and the other leaders.”
“Talks is a rather pleasant way of describing them,” Kreg replied. “But, yes. It’s the company that Chrono Corp. takes a lot of its own inspiration from. I’m relatively sure that the CEO of Blaine has some descendant working in or over Chrono, honestly. They rebranded after some mergers a while back, and then finally decided to take responsibility for letting the time travel tech get out to the public. When it started giving people more powers, well. They really felt like they had to step in.”
Steff led them over to a small group of trees where they could talk comfortably away from any passersby.
“So, someone from Blaine Corp. is stuck in the timeline with busted gear. Or just got yanked out of it,” Steff said. “That wasn’t a normal hop out. It really looked like something pulled her. I didn’t even think that was possible, without being in the vortex with someone and sort of yanking them with you when you disembarked. Could someone really target someone already in the vortex with enough accuracy to yank them out while they’re moving beyond, through time, or whatever?”
“I don’t think Chrono Corp. has that ability,” Bendon said, “or we would have used it on time skippers by now. Why not pull them out of the time stream before they can do their damage?”
