I blinked and did so. It was a story about a murder several states over. “What is this?”
Jane frowned. “You see the picture of the victim? He looks like you.”
I stared at it and couldn’t deny the similarity. “OK. So what?”
“The remaining New Hope Army members were behind it.”
Confused, I began scanning the report for an explanation. “What? It doesn’t say anything about—”
“They’re looking for you. They don’t have your real name but they’ve seen your face. So the next logical step is to go around killing people that fit your description.”
“You’re being paranoid. One dead lookalike does not make a pattern.”
“I know these people. I know how they work. How they think. Trust me. It was them. And there will be more.”
I opened my mouth to respond but was interrupted by a woman’s voice.
“Are you going to say hello or just keep avoiding me like you have been all weekend?” Anna said, calling my attention to her.
I turned around and saw the sight of a beautiful 5’6” African-American girl with long curly hair, a red jacket, blue dress, and white shirt. Anna Laurent was someone I’d had a crush on since junior high and had been lucky enough to start dating upon starting high school. I also trusted her more than anyone else in the world.
Even more than Jane.
“Hey,” I said, staring at her. “Listen, I can explain—”
“Who’s your friend?” Anna said, looking at Jane.
“I’m his cousin,” Jane said, automatically, narrowing her eyes. “You’re … Anna?”
“Yeah,” Anna said. “Funny, I don’t recall him ever mentioning a cousin.”
“I’m from far away,” Jane said, looking genuinely rattled. It was a look I’d never seen before on her. “Uh, I’m going to go get my lunch. I’ll just leave you two alone, OK?”
Wow, that was uncharacteristic behavior of Jane. “Sure, that’d be great.”
What the hell?
Anna punched me in the shoulder. “OK, what’s going on?”
I rubbed it, looking at her. “Listen, it’s complicated—”
“You just suffered through a very traumatic experience,” Anna explained. “I understand, really. It must have been hellish to be there when Butterfly ordered all those troopers into the crowd. I don’t think it’s that weird for family to come down to visit after something like that.”
It was the perfect lie.
I didn’t want to lie to her, though. I needed someone to talk to about the sheer insanity of all this, and that Anna was not just my girlfriend but my best friend. I didn’t know if she would believe any of it, but I hoped she would. Certainly, she had a more open mind than most people I knew.
She also hated Butterfly every bit as much as I did.
Yet, I still couldn’t tell her the truth. How could I reveal to her that her boyfriend was destined to become even more monstrous than the evil we’d been fighting? I couldn’t know for certain how she would react. So I bit my tongue, too scared to confide in the one person that mattered most.
CHAPTER NINE
It’s strange how one bad day could change everything.
In the weeks that followed, I tried hard to return my life to normal. Or, at least, as normal as it could be while a former assassin-turned-bodyguard from the future lived with me.
For her part, Jane managed her new life well. There are so many simple aspects of society that people take for granted, yet to Jane they’re part of a lost culture that was robbed from her in the future. I was surprised to find the hardened killer bingeing on fast food and video games every chance she could. She loved music and movies, too. Anything and everything that allowed her to finally experience the happy childhood she never had.
But each indulgence was only a temporary reprieve from reality. She wasn’t an innocent kid and forgotten luxuries could only go so far. Jane had a job to perform, which required her to truly blend in like the teenager she was.
Which meant studying.
“I hate school,” Jane muttered, staring at the geometry textbook as she lay on the floor of my bedroom while I sat on my bed.
“Why? You’re already getting better grades than I am,” I muttered. My attention kept darting to the German textbook Jane had brought with her. My laptop was closed next to it and I thought about popping it open again to go over my translations of its text.
“I can do math, science, and English just fine. They’re just useless on the battlefield,” Jane said. “I learned everything I needed to in the army.”
“I thought you’d be interested in history at least. I mean, it’s changing your perception of everything, right?”
“Yes,” Jane muttered. “Doesn’t help keep you alive, though.”
Well, that was a conversation ender right there.
I paused, looking over to a clipped newspaper article which detailed the latest murder of a boy sharing my general appearance. Jane was right. That boy’s murder she’d shown me was just the beginning. The New Hope soldiers were on a deadly road trip, killing people who looked like me across several states. Eight lives in two months, and that number was sure to grow.
“I wish there was something we could do to stop them,” I said, shaking my head.
“Killing them will stop them,” Jane muttered. “But I’m not going to leave you if you don’t want me to.”
“Maybe the police can stop them,” I said, not thinking they could in the slightest.
Hell, they hadn’t even connected the murders. Other than the victims sharing the same appearance, the murders had very little in common. In fact, the only reason we knew about them in the first place was because Jane had become obsessed. She scoured the Internet for any sign of our enemies’ activity, and based on their little killing spree, giving up just wasn’t an option for them. Still, I wanted to call in a tip or try to find them or something.
“We can’t let anyone know,” Jane said, looking up. It was like she was reading my mind. “Even if it prevents more murders.”
“Why?” I asked.
“The last thing we need is someone connecting the dots and making this a national news scandal,” Jane said, her voice calm. She’d clearly thought about this a lot. “If the cops or reporters find out the connection between the victims, it will lead them directly to you and then you’ll become their target.”
“It makes me afraid,” I admitted. “For myself and the others.”
The murders also made me feel guilty. Everyone who died was a kid, just like me, and was killed through no fault of their own. It was mine. I ran away. I decided to hide and, even worse, forced Jane to stay and protect me when she wanted to hunt them down. Every new victim weighed on my conscience a little more, and it made me wonder how I could ever become someone responsible for the deaths of billions.
“It shouldn’t. As long as you focus on not becoming the Scorpion, you’re saving billions of lives,” Jane said, choosing the weirdest possible way to console me.
“I’m not going to become the Scorpion,” I said, frowning. “I’m avoiding all of the signs.”
If tracking my would-be assassins became Jane’s obsession, the prophesized future became mine. Jane, of course, was my best source of information, yet she was surprisingly reluctant to talk about the world she came from. She would occasionally give me general impressions, sure, but was sparse on details and wouldn’t even explain why. I couldn’t tell if it was because she was afraid telling me about my future would make it more likely to come true or if the nightmare she called home was better left in the past … her past, at least.
I looked over the German textbook again. From the very first night Jane stayed at my house, I engrossed myself in her book so much that the website I used to translate had become my web browser’s homepage.
“There’s more to being the Scorpion than just avoiding historical events,” Jane chided me.
“Yeah, but it’s a start,” I muttered.
“I’ve taught myself frigging German trying to wrap my head around all this.”
Jane frowned. “You really shouldn’t expose yourself to it. That kind of information is dangerous.”
“According to you, not exposing myself to it led to the worst possible future.”
At first, I wanted to read about my future self and find out how bad he really was … or will be, I guess. But after opening that page and seeing the picture of him … or me … I just couldn’t bring myself to translate the words. I was too afraid of what I might’ve learned, so I started on page one instead.
I began by translating whole chunks of text. I typed entire paragraphs and had them translated in a single shot. But as I read further into the book I found the amount of material I was translating at one time became less and less. Soon they were just sentences. Until finally I only needed to learn words. And then I didn’t need the website at all. It only took a few weeks, but I had become familiar enough with the language that I just read the book like any other.
I brought the thing with me wherever I went. Jane wasn’t too happy about it. She thought it would be dangerous if the book fell into the wrong hands, but never tried to stop me from leaving the house with it. If I wasn’t at school or with Anna, I had my face buried in the pages and scouring over every bit of information.
A lot of it made sense and could’ve easily been predicted. Things like global warming and species extinction played out exactly as people thought they would. Other events I learned about were complete surprises, the African invasion of South America and Asia’s ban on seafood being the most drastic. Even the decline of the world’s interest in soccer was most unexpected and would be ridiculous to think of today.
From the very first time I began reading there were facts that seemed off about today’s current events. For instance, there was supposed to be a riot in Eastern Europe that never happened. Instead, Monarch signed a new defense contract with NATO and deployed a troop surge in the region. That was just one of the small yet notable differences in the timelines. Small companies that were supposed to go bankrupt were now thriving. Sports teams were losing when they were supposed to be winning. And celebrities that were supposed to die just … weren’t.
There was something about the inconsistencies that had me worried, but I honestly didn’t know why. It wasn’t like I had any stake in the future depicted in the book. And besides, there weren’t any major differences. At least, not yet anyway.
“Not the worst possible future,” Jane said. “Besides, things are already changing.”
“Yeah, that worries me,” I muttered.
Jane blinked. “Why?”
“It means we don’t know what’s causing events to shift. What if the other members of your squadron are trying to alter time?”
“The future’s always changing,” Jane said. “My just being here means things are going to play out differently.”
It was the same answer she gave as to why she couldn’t go back, and it made sense … I guess.
But then that got me wondering about my future and if Jane changed it simply by telling me what I would … or will … become. Was it really that simple? Could I stop my dark fate simply by being aware of it?
“Yeah,” I said, leaning back against my bed’s headboard. “What was he like?”
“Who? The Scorpion?”
I didn’t answer immediately. “I figure if I knew him better then maybe I can avoid the mistakes he made.”
Jane was silent for a long time. “Maybe you’ll also be attracted to making the same mistakes.”
“Come on, Jane, you’re like a sister to me. We’ve been living together for almost two months. Do you really think I’m the kind of guy to burn the world and kill billions?”
“He didn’t always seem that way either,” Jane muttered. “But fine, I’ll give the rundown on him if for no other reason than you’ll stop obsessing over that book.”
“No promises.”
I already had a grim picture of the man going in, but Jane fell way short of describing just how despicable he was. The text made note that no one quite knew who he was or where he came from, but as Butterfly and the other megacorporations suspended governments to tighten their authoritarian hold on the world, the Scorpion seized control of the H.O.P.E. resistance, the very same organization Christine founded and that I was a part of today.
Jane was silent for a few moments.
“Jane?”
“I’m gathering my thoughts,” Jane muttered. “I didn’t get to know him as well as I might have wanted. He was always distant, consumed by the war, but you could tell he was certain of what he was doing. That’s what I remember most about him—the certainty. He believed it was absolutely the right thing to do. All of it.”
Everything I’d read about him had been a laundry list of horrors starting with ruthlessly efficient terrorist attacks followed by the fall of whole nations, then the purging of huge parts of humanity. The Scorpion had believed the megacorporations were too embedded into society and that humanity was too far gone to be saved. And so, the only way to purge the corporations completely was by razing civilization to the ground and building it up again.
It wasn’t a new concept. I’ve seen bad guys in movies and comics try it all the time. Only problem with the Scorpion was that he pretty much succeeded, and no amount of rationalization could make me feel better about who I would become. Even if it was still an uncertainty.
“I still don’t understand,” I said.
“It’s better you didn’t,” Jane said, frowning. “Everyone started to realize toward the end just how lost he was. All his atrocities were justified with the promise it would lead to a new world. His charisma convinced everyone to go along with it until it was too late to turn back. He’d convinced himself he was the messiah and that only going further would make everything right. Make all the sacrifices worth it.”
“How did it end?”
Jane paused. “Badly. We were left with a war-ravaged world which would never recover, a decimated population, and a hundred different people who hated each other for the Scorpion’s excesses.”
“What happened to the Scorpion?”
Jane didn’t answer. “That’s enough.”
“All right.”
Never had I dreamed of hurting someone, and now here I was, picturing piles of bodies every time I closed my eyes. My father was too self-absorbed to notice, but Anna thought I might’ve been sick. I tried to play it off and just tell her I was tired. Of course, she didn’t believe me. But what was I supposed to do? Tell her the truth? No. I couldn’t risk losing her.
Anna had been texting me all day, wondering if I was going to a local H.O.P.E. meeting tomorrow night. I hadn’t been to any since Jane’s arrival, another reason my girlfriend felt I was being distant. And rightfully so.
“You need to tell her you’re taking a break from protesting,” Jane said, seemingly knowing what the texts were about just by my expression.
“I can’t,” I said, justifying myself more through my connection to my friends than logic. “She’s my girlfriend. I’m allowed to spend time with her. Besides, I believe in what H.O.P.E.’s doing and want to help. Just because horrible things are going to happen in the future doesn’t mean there are not horrible things happening now.”
Jane never got angry at me when I used that logic, but I could tell it ticked her off. “Let’s forget the fact that there are well-trained killers after you and attending H.O.P.E. rallies pins a target on your back. There are certain inevitabilities of this era. One is that Monarch will come into conflict with the citizens it oppresses. There will be a reckoning one way or the other, but you don’t have to be a part of it.”
“I read the textbook. Millions die. It’s like World War I followed by World War II right after.”
“Yes, and if we could prevent one but not the other, it’s still a great victory.” She sounded like she was trying to convince herself rather than me.
I wasn’
t sure if I could agree with Jane’s rationale. “Christine wants to get ahead of things in the media, but she’s leaving it up to local H.O.P.E. chapters to come up with plans for their own communities. Anna’s holding a meeting about it in a couple nights and wants me there.”
“You can’t,” Jane muttered, going back to her book. “It’s too dangerous.”
“I thought you were my bodyguard. Not my chaperone.”
“After the assassin threat is dealt with you are free to do whatever you want, but I still think it’s a bad idea for you to be active in the very organization you’re destined to turn into an army. There are plenty of other activist groups out there if you really wanted to protest.”
I frowned. “Yeah, none of which are run by my girlfriend.”
“Coincidentally, the very person who hates me.”
“Anna doesn’t hate you,” I said, fudging the truth.
It was complicated. While Anna continually pushed me to join her and be more active in H.O.P.E., Jane only shared her opinions in private. She never tried to argue with anyone really, probably because she just didn’t need the drama. But Jane seemed particularly reluctant to engage Anna in a debate, especially when I knew how she felt.
Even without Jane speaking her mind directly, Anna still had her suspicions that my “cousin” was responsible for my recent change in behavior. And it made sense. After all, I started distancing myself from H.O.P.E. the same time Jane showed up. But it was hard to be overtly angry at someone who never engaged you. And so Anna’s feelings towards Jane would only show through in a series of passive-aggressive stares, every one of which Jane would avoid making eye contact with.
“Why don’t you just break up with her already?” Jane said flatly.
I did a double take. “Wait, what?”
It was the first dating advice I’d ever received from Jane and it was like being told about romance by the Terminator.
“It’ll solve all your problems,” Jane muttered, looking away as if embarrassed. She then shook her head and closed the textbook in front of her. “I’m going to go see if I can track down those soldiers on the Internet again. Don’t disturb me.”
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