by K. D. Mack
Ripples in Time
The Paradox Journals
K D Mack
Copyright © 2020 by K D Mack
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without written permission from the author. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any means without permission.
This short story is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Created with Vellum
Introduction
When Amy finds herself in the middle of a bank robbery, she must quickly decide if this is an odd coincidence or something more sinister at work…
Elliot, momentarily intrigued by Amy's smooth efficiency at dispatching the robbers, is jolted back to reality when he discovers what the real target was...
Now they must race amidst timelines where one misstep could create paradoxical chaos in time!
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Join Me!
About the Author
1
Amy walked into the bank in the middle of a robbery.
“Everyone get the hell down!” a ski-masked man shouted from the top of the counter. “And you!” he shouted to one of his fellow robbers. “Bar the damn door already!”
Amy dropped quickly, her hands folded over her head, glancing around the room to get the lay of the land.
There were three robbers dressed in bulky jackets, all armed. The bank itself was huge – one of the central banks in the city – and the lobby had nearly fifty other people who had also been going about their days before they were so violently sidelined. Most were on the floor like her; some were huddled on their hands and knees in the back corner. The tellers were piling money into duffel bags.
She could tell these guys were new. They were all gruff and blustered too much. One of them kept shouting at the people on the ground. Experienced bank robbers were efficient, in and out without even taking hostages. Amy knew dozens of cases where the thief had walked into the bank apparently empty-handed and out with thousands of pounds. The teller they spoke with was the only one who even knew a robbery was taking place. Those were the guys who got away. These robbers were acting out a movie scene.
A man was on the ground next to her, hands folded over his head. He was tall, had dark curly hair, and he was in a slim-fitted grey suit. He was calm, as if he had just happened to decide to lay down on the floor at that moment, not been ordered there at gunpoint. But the most interesting part was his work ID, splayed out on a lanyard next to him.
“Hey,” she muttered. “You work for Blaine Corp., too?”
He glanced over. “Yeah, I do. Elliot, Physics Research Division. You?”
“Amy, Major Field Operative. When did these guys show up?”
“About five minutes before you did. They just seem interested in the cash, thank goodness.”
Amy tweaked an eyebrow at him. “What else would they be interested in?”
He nodded towards the back and said in a low voice, “Blaine Corp. stores a bunch of its important documents in a own safety deposit vault back there. I was actually here to pick up some plans on the way to the lab.”
“Shouldn’t we have our own vaults and things on base?” Amy asked.
“We do, and we have stuff there, but Mr Zellow likes to split things up. We have stuff split between half the banks in the country, not to mention other hiding places as well. He doesn’t like things centralized. Honestly, we only keep our least important stuff or stuff that can’t be moved on base. He thinks it seems too obvious.”
“A bank’s security deposit box is definitely way more subtle,” Amy snipped. “Good thing they’re after the cash, then. Cops?”
“Tellers probably hit the panic button – these guys didn’t try to stop them. But you know how they are around here.”
“Central Police: We’ll get there when we get there.” Amy took another look around the room. “Okay. How much field training do you have?” She was already mapping out their exit routes: the door behind her, now barred, but not very well by the looks of it; a side door for the hallway with the bathrooms guarded by the first robber; and two doors behind the counter, leading deeper into the bank. The second robber was on the counter. The last was pacing back and forth through the terrified people.
Elliot grinned. “I’ve got enough training. Thinking of solving this problem? What’s on your mind?”
“Well, they aren’t smart. Took them several minutes to bar the main way into the bank. I think a bathroom switch trick will work on one. After that, we’ll have to move more quickly.”
“If you can get one in the bathroom and another to follow, I can take out the remaining one. I could possibly do two on my own, but I trust you more for that, being a field operative and all.”
Amy nodded. She shouted up at the robber on the counter, “Mister! I have to go to the bathroom!”
“Hold it!” he snarled back.
“I can’t,” Amy complained, trying to sound as urgent as possible as she stood up. “It’s an emergency!”
He looked her up and down. At five-and-a-half feet tall, looking slim in a nice turtleneck and work slacks, she hardly looked intimidating. He had no way of knowing her business casual outfit hid toned muscle and multiple scars that tracked her career better than her resume.
“Fine,” he groaned and rolled his eyes. “Tony, take her and guard the door.”
Amy suppressed a grin. These guys had to be new. She wondered if the guy shouting orders had come up with their plan or if he was taking orders from someone else. He didn’t seem like much of an idea-guy.
Tony escorted her and stood awkwardly outside the bathroom door. “Hurry it up,” he barked at her as she walked past him. Amy considered pretending to actually use the bathroom, but they were out of sight here, down a hallway, and time was running out. As soon as she was behind him, she grabbed his neck in a tight chokehold.
“Drop the weapon,” she hissed as he gagged for breath. He quickly obliged, shock sending tremors through him. Amy kicked it back behind her, struggling to hold him tight as he grasped and grappled at her arm. He threw himself back against the wall, catching her off-guard and knocking her breath out.
“Nice one,” she wheezed, kicking in the back of his knees, taking him down to the ground amidst his yelps of pained surprise. “But I’m not letting go.” She pushed against the pressure point at the base of his chin until he slumped in her arm, then dragged his unconscious form into the bathroom. One quick costume change later, she was leaning out and shouting down the hallway, pitching her voice as low as she could.
“Mayday! I need help in here, guys!”
In a minute, one of his colleagues – looking angry, even with the mask on – rounded the corner.
“What do you need, man? I can’t leave him out there all alone –”
“Come here!” she shouted again, ushering him towards the women’s bathroom. “You gotta see this!”
He sighed loudly and ran up. “Dude, I don’t want to see any gross bathroom stuff, just get her back out here. Others are begging to go now too.”
As soon as he was in range, Amy swung her newly acquired gun around with as much force as she could muster. It clocked him across the face and he staggered backwards, grabbing the side of his head.
“What the –”
She swung aga
in, before he had time to think, and landed another blow before he lifted his hand, waving slightly, trying to aim his gun. She jumped forward and dropped, dragging his arm down with her. The gun went off and shot the floor, cracking and shattering the faux granite beneath them.
A scream snapped out from the main hall in response. Amy gritted her teeth and brought his arm up against him, twisting his wrist and wrenching the gun from his hand. He made a noise similar to a dog when someone accidentally steps on its tail.
“Alright, your turn to get down,” she panted out, aiming both guns steadily at his head. He quickly got on the floor, hands raised up. “And you’re going to stay right there while I check on things. Got it?”
He nodded mutely.
“Great.” She backed down the hall, keeping her eyes on him, and one eye on the door. No real counting on when the other one might wake up. She tried to hit hard enough to take them out, but not long enough to do any lasting damage. Amy crossed her fingers against one of the guns. Elliot better have done as well as he promised; there was only one left for him, after all.
She was pleased to find him lowering the third knocked-out robber to the ground as people around him cheered. Amy quickly pulled up her ski mask with one hand so he’d realize it was her.
“I’ve got two more in the bathroom if you have anything we can secure them with.” Amy grinned at him. “Can anybody help us out?”
A dazed security guard came forward, brandishing handcuffs, “I’ve got these, “ he offered.
“Great, thanks,” Amy said. No reason to call him out on not doing his job. His partner was just sitting up shaking the cobwebs from his head. Amy continued, “One back there is still conscious, but he shouldn’t give you too much trouble. The other is taking a nap in the bathroom.” The guard nodded and hurried off.
Elliot turned from a quiet conversation he was having with one of the tellers. “Amy, come with me,” he said as he stuck the leader’s gun through his belt and headed behind the counter, deeper into the bank’s vaults system. He led her through a dizzying series of secure doors, entering with varying combinations of ID, fingerprint, eye scans, and other biometric tests.
“I know the robbers were just up front,” he explained as they walked along, “but call me anxious. Anyway, I want to get the documents and get out of here before the police and the news crews finally make their appearance. No need to wait around and get Blaine any more involved in this mess, yeah?”
Amy nodded. The final door – a heavy metal affair that opened with a hiss – swung open.
“What were you here to do, anyway?” he started asking, before turning to face the room and catching his breath. “God, they’re gone.”
“What’s gone?” Amy asked, taking in everything – a stark, empty room, a biometric scanner just past the entry door, and then a small panel on the interior of the room that looked disabled – probably the keypad for a laser or pressure security system.
“All of it,” he circled slowly, “There should be a safe, in here, double-locked. The whole thing is gone, with everything in it. All the documents for the device. We’ve only got a handful on site with it.”
“How long do the sensors stay disabled for, after you enter the code?” she asked, following him into the space.
Elliot turned, distracted. “It’s set to ten minutes.”
“Then someone was here less than ten minutes ago,” she said, pointing at the sensor, “and there’s more going on. What exactly did they take? What’s the device? A weapon?”
His face was pale. “Our biggest project’s plans: Blaine Corp.’s first functional time-travel device. I have to call the lab. They’re going to want to talk to both of us.”
2
Amy had never felt tensions this high at a meeting. The room was packed with most of Blaine Corp.’s top brass. Every department was represented; everyone looked like some variation of distressed or angry. As soon as they had arrived at the main building, she and Elliot had been ushered to the room in which they were seated towards the front.
Blaine Zellow himself took the first seat at the table. All conversation ceased as he came into the room. Amy had only interacted with him twice: when he recruited her from MI6, and when he had given her and a fellow agent an award after a particularly difficult retrieval mission. His face, normally genial during morning announcements, was drawn. Amy wondered where his head was. He didn’t operate along the lines one would expect. That’s what made him him. It’s what made this whole place possible.
His expression was strange. It was anger on someone who wasn’t used to being angry because he expected his employees to do their work well enough. Thin lines on a thin face were topped by graying hair shot through with moments of its old fire-red. He was clean-shaved, well-pressed, and could have been preparing to give a speech to the whole nation in a moment of crisis. Amy wasn’t quite sure how old he was. Mid-sixties, probably – based on the size of what he’d built and everything he’d accomplished – but he looked like he could be as young as fifty. He definitely struck her as a bit of a prodigy-type.
Two surveillance agents – Amy remembered them from the break room, but couldn’t recall their names – took a stand near the front. A projector beam clicked to life across the room and a half-focused picture of a young man in a lab coat filled the far wall.
“We have managed to determine that the culprit is Sam Mathews, an agent and researcher we recently dismissed.”
Amy heard a sharp intake of breath from Elliot. “I knew him,” he whispered. “Weird guy.”
The agents continued, pointing at the image of the tousle-haired blond man, whose eyes were eerily pale. “Sensors within the laboratory indicate that a time travel device was used. We initially assumed he had gained illicit access to the building to utilize the one here, but there’s no evidence a trip was made. This either means he has his own machine or has not yet used the one in the building. However, the time distortion we detected is unmistakable. We assume the bank robbery was a part of it, a diversion so that Mathews could rob the vault in the meantime.”
Blaine interrupted the briefing. “Physics, what does this mean for the project?”
Elliot stood and cleared his throat. “Sir, this is a huge blow. We’ve been using the bank’s security for the whole project. Originals, or at least copies of everything, were there. Anyone with those schematics could recreate the device, though it would take them some time. We were due to run the first trials today. That could still happen, but without some of the documentation, it will not be as safe. We’ll need to take more precautions before we move forward.”
Blaine nodded at him and turned back to the presenters. “What else has changed?”
“Pardon, sir?”
“What else has changed? The man has a time machine, what else has he changed?”
Amy grinned despite herself. Of course. Why would a man steal a time machine just to steal a time machine? He would be doing more, changing more.
“We’re unsure at the moment. No major changes have happened yet, as far as we know. We’re assigning the physics department to track the time distortion and see if they can learn more.”
Elliot nodded. “We should be able to figure out the exact point of initiation, and at least detect other periods that he may have interacted with or changed. There will be overlap.”
As he finished his sentence, the conference room’s door swung open. A panting woman with cropped brown hair, wearing lab clothes, looked panicked at the tense meeting. Amy gave her a small wave – it was Rebecca, her closest friend at the corporation, a researcher in the Biologics Division.
“Mr Zellow, sir,” Rebecca gasped. “The specimen has been stolen. We went to retrieve it from the sealed chamber and it was gone.”
Chattering broke out in the room. Blaine raised his hand, and silence fell again. “So, his plans begin. Thank you for informing us, Ms Wayne. I assume it was the bovine specimen?”
“Yes, it was basically ready for ful
l-scale testing. I don’t know why he’d take it. It’s basically just the healthiest version of cow that could ever exist. I don’t know how that would help his time travel plans?”
Elliot interjected, “There’s a lot of things someone can make go their way with the right object in the wrong time. Even as something as innocuous as a cow where there wasn’t supposed to be a cow. Or a piece of technology that makes someone in a less-technological age think they’re a god. Think of someone who proves to medieval peasants that human flight is possible, that the bubonic plague could be cured. On one hand, you might save lives; on the other, someone like Mathews will probably just use it to control them. Or us. Or whatever his insane plan is.” Amy saw the troubled shadow pass over his face.
Blaine stood. “We can’t sit around here all day while he runs rampant through time and our own organization. Elliot and Amy, you were both at the scene, and managed to secure the robbers – who we learned vanished before the police actually decided to arrive. More of his meddling, of course. Amy is one of our most talented agents sand Elliot has been hard at work on this project for several years. I’m assigning both of you to spearhead this project. The securities division will up protection and surveillance throughout his entire building. Do not leave any records of what you are doing or what procedures you take – nothing he can easily track down, take with him, plan with. If he hasn’t travelled yet, we have time to stop this. Get our machine in full running order. Guard it 24/7. Figure this thing out.”
As people stood to file out of the room and hurry to try and patch up this emergency, a thought occurred to Amy. “We have to keep some notes,” she piped.
Blaine turned to look at her. “Notes are evidence trails he can follow.”
