Survivor (Rewinder Series Book 3)

by Brett Battles

  I know the last part is a lie. If what Dumont did had really allowed that other me to already begin the journey to change history back, this whole place—including this version of me—would have been erased.

  Time travel. The quickest way to turn your mind into an undercooked pretzel.

  Dumont tries to mask her emotions, but I know what I said has struck home. She walks a few feet away and scans the deserted compound.

  “How do I fix this?”

  “You need to let Shim’s family live.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  WE ARE BACK in the hills near the Maryside farmhouse in February 1961. Per my suggestion, we arrived at two thirty a.m., and have spent most of the last half hour discussing how best to tackle the problem.

  As three a.m. approaches, I reposition to a spot in front of where we arrived the first time we came here. The other two hang back, sheltered by the brush.

  Right on time, earlier versions of Dumont, Langer, and me pop into existence and drop to a crouch. The second they realize someone else is here, they pull away, and I know the earlier me is about to tell his Dumont to use the chaser to jump them away.

  “Don’t go,” I say. “It’s all right.”

  To this point, I have been only a shadow. Upon hearing my voice—his voice—Earlier Me gets to his feet.

  I’ve met myself so many times now I’ve lost count, so my appearance is not a surprise to him. Earlier Dumont and earlier Langer, however, are unnerved by a second me and scramble a few feet backward.

  “Problem?” Earlier Me asks.

  “You’re about to cause a break,” I say.

  “How?”

  I look at earlier Dumont. “If you kill them, you’ll change more than you realize.”

  “This is a hoax!” she says, unsure of which version of me to settle her gaze on. “How did you do this?”

  My Dumont steps out from the bushes. “It’s not a hoax. We’ve seen what happens when I…you…kill them. It’s not what we expect.”

  Earlier Dumont looks at my Dumont as if she’s seeing the impossible. “More lies,” she whispers, but her tone is unsure.

  “Killing Shim’s family changes the future in ways we don’t want,” my Dumont says.

  “How?”

  My Dumont describes what happened after she murdered Shim’s relatives and we returned to the future. When she finishes, earlier Dumont is as confused by the results as my Dumont was upon discovering them.

  “But I have to stop her,” earlier Dumont says.

  My Dumont says, “I think I know where it can be done and not affect my work…our work.”

  “Where?”

  This is the part where things can go sideways. I’ve talked through several times with my Dumont what must happen, but she still doesn’t trust I’m being honest with her.

  In the pause that follows, I wonder if she’s decided not to follow the plan, but then she says, “It will take both of us to succeed. I need to do some checking so that we choose the right moment. When I find it, I’ll come retrieve you.”

  Earlier Dumont says, “You want us to stay here?”

  “Not here. Better if you return to the research center to wait.”

  “But the compound’s under attack.”

  “Return one hour before you left,” my Dumont says, exactly as we discussed. “The attack won’t have started yet, and I’ll time our return so we meet you within a minute after you get there.”

  Earlier Me and I share a glance. He’s experienced enough to see through the lie. He knows we won’t be coming for them, and instead will be doing something that will erase him and his versions of Dumont and Langer.

  I silently apologize.

  Though he’s facing the end of his time, he helps us sell our story by saying to his Dumont, “It’s standard practice for when there are multiples. It’s better for one to do a situation assessment before bringing in the other.”

  Though his Langer isn’t expecting it, he links one arm with hers and offers his other to the professor.

  Earlier Dumont’s gaze is still on her other self.

  “It won’t be long. I promise,” my Dumont says.

  I tense, wishing she said we instead of it, but earlier Dumont doesn’t seem to note the discrepancy. She links arms with Earlier Me and opens her chaser’s lid.

  As she does this, my Dumont’s eyes narrow. I wonder if she’s just realized there’s an easier way of getting new chasers than recreating them from scratch. She just needs to take them from her earlier selves.

  Not that I need it, but the possibility of her thinking this is one more reason for me to rid the earth of this reality.

  “Stay safe,” earlier Dumont says.

  My Dumont smiles, but says nothing.

  A second later the others are gone.

  “So the future’s right again?” Dumont asks.

  “There’s one way to find out.”

  __________

  WE DON’T JUMP to the farthest spot possible on our timeline, but rather materialize seven hours prior to when we left on Dumont’s idiotic plan to kill Shim’s family. We also don’t go to the research facility in the rain forest, but to a deserted stretch of South American beach just north of the Tanus protectorate. From there, we perform a series of visual hops—leaping to locations we can see from our departure point—until we’re hidden among the service buildings of an airfield on the east side of the city.

  A vehicle races into the aircraft holding area and stops next to a large, military-type rotor. Earlier versions of Dumont and Langer climb out of the vehicle and hurry into the craft. Once they are aboard and the door is shut, the rotor flies off toward the rain forest at the north end of the continent, where the Trinity research facility is located.

  What we have just witnessed is the beginning of the journey I saw end when the rotor arrived at the facility, not long before I was brought in to see Dumont and the prototype chaser.

  It’s proof that the timeline is back on Dumont’s track.

  “If we stay here much longer, someone might find us,” I say.

  Dumont nods, and from her notepad, enters the location number and the time I worked out for her earlier. With one more look toward the shrinking dot in the sky, she presses the go button.

  __________

  NIGHT WRAPS US like a familiar blanket. We are on a darkened hillside, and below us are the twinkling lights of the fractured metropolis of Saint Jakup. We’ve traveled over thirty-four hours backward, and several thousand miles to the north-northwest.

  The plan I’ve helped Dumont come up with involves ridding herself of the Shim problem at a much later date than her previous attempt. While it’s riskier than shooting her rival’s would-be mother in a quiet house nearly sixty years in the past, she now sees the value of minimizing the ripple effect of her actions.

  What I see is what may be my best—and likely last—opportunity to make my move. Dumont is now relying on me in a way she hasn’t before. I can hear it in her tone. Her mistake has rattled her, and the skepticism she showed me previously is gone.

  And Langer? She has been rocked even more than her boss, and seems barely aware of our surroundings as we make our way down the slope.

  Starting in a field next to a quiet road, we utilize visual hops to reach an alley near our ultimate destination. The street beyond it is as sleepy as the others we’ve seen—a moving vehicle now and then but no foot traffic, not at this hour.

  “There it is,” Dumont says, gesturing down the block.

  Seventy yards away, on the other side of the street, is the start of a tall concrete wall that runs away from our position farther than we can see from this angle. Strung across the top are several wires, making the structure at least twenty feet tall, while bright lights illuminate a closed mesh gate farther along the wall.

  “Where inside, exactly?” I ask.

  “The place was a farm a hundred years ago,” Dumont says. “The original house has been converted into the commander quart
ers. She’ll be in there.”

  She opens the chaser.

  “What are you doing?”

  Without looking up, she says, “Getting us on the other side of that wall.”

  “You can’t see where we’re going. You could put us right in front of someone, or inside a building.”

  “I’ve been there before, remember?”

  “So you know the layout well enough for a precise entry? You know where every guard is at this exact moment?”

  Her fingers pause and she looks at me. “You have a better idea?”

  “A million times better. We see where we’re going first.”

  “And how are we supposed to do that?”

  I look back around the corner and scan the buildings along the street.

  “There.” I point at the tallest building on our side of the road. It’s a six-story structure about three quarters of the way toward Shim’s base. “From the roof, we should be able to see enough of the inner grounds to pick out where we can safely jump.”

  Dumont checks it out but doesn’t look convinced. “We can’t risk someone seeing us walk down there. And what if the stairs don’t go all the way to the roof?”

  “Who said anything about stairs? We’ll just hop there.”

  “To the top of the building? That’s possible?”

  I nod at the chaser. “May I?”

  She gives it to me without any hesitation, and I smile inwardly. She’s not seeing me as a threat at all now.

  If not for the persuader remote in her pocket, I would run with the box.

  Patience, I caution myself.

  I use the jump calculator to determine the position of the building and the approximate height where we need to arrive. If I guess too high, the jump will abort and we’ll be back where we started, but if I’m within a foot or two, it will drop us where I want, with perhaps a bit of air under our feet.

  Once I enter the location number, I hand the device back to Dumont. “That should do it.”

  She and I lock arms. I look over at Langer but she’s several feet behind me, not having moved since we arrived.

  “Min!” Dumont whispers harshly.

  Another second passes before Langer looks up.

  “Pull it together,” Dumont orders. “Let’s go.”

  Langer shuffles over as if in a fog. The moment she links with me, Dumont pushes the go button.

  I’ve indeed done my job well, and we arrive on the roof no more than a quarter inch above the surface.

  “Stay here,” Dumont tells Langer.

  I don’t know if Langer has heard, but she doesn’t move when Dumont and I sneak over to the three-foot retaining wall that runs across the front of the building. Slowly we rise enough to peek over the top.

  A strip of land running along the near side of Shim’s base is hidden from us by the buildings surrounding the large compound, but most of the grounds is visible.

  “Where’s the house?” I ask.

  Dumont studies the base. “Left side, midway back. Two-story gray building. See it? Just in front of that building with all those communication discs on top.”

  I nod.

  “We could jump to its roof, right?” she asks.

  We could, but there are three problems with that. The first two I tell her. “I don’t see any way inside from there, and even if there was one, someone inside might hear us walking around. There’s no reason we need to take that chance.”

  She considers that, nods, and starts looking around for an alternate location.

  The reason I’ve kept to myself is the one most important to me. Jumping to the roof of Shim’s quarters puts us that much closer to achieving Dumont’s goal. I won’t let things get that far.

  “There,” she says. “That dark building farther to the right. Across the parking area from the house.”

  It’s a good choice. The building looks administrative, so there shouldn’t be more than a few people inside at this hour. Also, there are plenty of bushes and trees around the structure we can hide among. The closest manned position is the guardhouse at the back end of the parking area, between the target building and Shim’s home. Under normal circumstances I’d consider this a negative, but not tonight.

  “Good eye,” I say. “That’ll work fine.”

  Without me even suggesting it, she hands me the chaser again and I work out a location number that will put us near the hedges at the front right corner. When I hand the chaser back, I see her glance at Langer, and for a moment I think we’re going to leave the other woman behind. But even in the professor’s focus to destroy Shim, she hasn’t turned stupid. She motions for me to follow her back to Langer.

  “Min!” Dumont whispers as we approach.

  Langer doesn’t move.

  Dumont sets the chaser on the roof and grabs her assistant by the shoulders. “Snap out of it! We have work to do!”

  Like a wild animal awoken from its sleep, Langer jerks back, knocks Dumont’s hands away, and runs toward the back of the building.

  Dumont curses, says to me, “Help me,” and takes off after the other woman.

  Good thing she doesn’t look back, because she’d see me staring at the chaser she’s left behind.

  Grab it! A voice yells in my head.

  I want to. Oh, do I want to.

  But rekeying the device takes time, and before I could finish, Dumont would realize something is up and would set my nerve endings on fire with the touch of a button. Maybe if the surrounding buildings were as tall as this one, I could race across them and get out of range of her remote. But they’re all several stories shorter so I’d have nowhere to go.

  I need to stick with my plan. It’s my only hope.

  I take off after Dumont, but my damaged leg means I don’t run like I used to, so I’m still far behind when the professor tackles Langer.

  “No. Let me go,” Langer says, struggling to get out from under her boss. “I have to get out of here. I have to go!”

  “Min. Stop it.”

  “Let me go! Let me go!”

  I arrive as Dumont slaps the other woman across the face. My attention is drawn, however, to the top of the persuader remote sticking out of Dumont’s jacket pocket.

  “Hold her down,” Dumont says to me.

  I drop next to her, bumping the side of my torso against hers. She’s focused on Langer and doesn’t seem to notice.

  “Grab her arm,” the professor orders.

  I grab Langer’s arm and pin it to the ground. The woman rocks back and forth as Dumont slaps her again.

  I edge my free hand back along my rib cage, until it’s close to Langer’s pocket.

  “Min, stop it.”

  Langer’s twists and turns are weakening so I know I have only seconds. When Langer tries to pull her arm away again, I act as if the effort is stronger than it really is. I bump against Dumont, snatching the remote as I do.

  I stop breathing, sure she’s felt the device slip from her possession, but she continues looking at Langer. Carefully I slide the device into my pocket.

  Langer tries a final time to break free before stopping. Tears welling, she says, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

  From the look on Dumont’s face, I know she hasn’t a clue what to do.

  To heighten her concern, I say, “She’ll expose us if we take her.”

  “She’ll expose us if we leave her here. We’re too close,” Dumont counters, jumping to the exact conclusion I hoped she would.

  “What if we leave her in the hills where we first arrived? She won’t be a problem there, and since we already have the location number for inside the compound, we can just jump straight in from the hills.”

  As Dumont thinks about this, I worry she’ll become concerned that my suggestion means she’ll be alone with me.

  Quickly I say, “If you want, I could also stay and watch her.”

  This has the desired effect. “The hills are a good idea. Help me get her up.”

  Langer puts up no
struggle as we guide her back to the chaser. I help the professor save the information for our future jump into Shim’s compound, and then bring up the location number for the hills.

  One moment we’re in the city, the next we’re back in the darkness of the countryside. We find a good spot for Langer to wait and help her sit. From the look on her face, I doubt she’ll move an inch.

  Now comes the moment of truth.

  “We’ll be fine,” I say. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t go anywhere.”

  When Dumont takes more than a second to respond, I think I’ve overplayed my Mr. Helpful hand and she’ll simply nod and leave.

  But she says, “She’ll be fine on her own. Bring up the jump.”

  She holds out the chaser for me to work the screen, and again the voice in my head screams at me to grab it and run. The remote is in my pocket now, and I’m no longer restricted by a roof. But I do have a leg that doesn’t work as well as it should, and no doubt in my mind that Dumont could catch me. While I give myself a good chance at winning any ensuing fight, I can’t risk damaging the chaser in a scuffle.

  I still need to be patient. If what I have in mind works, there’s a much better opportunity waiting for me on the other side of the jump.

  I bring up the number for Shim’s compound.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  ONCE MORE, MY calculations prove to be dead on. We arrive tucked against the hedges at the northwest corner of the administration building, leaning down so that our heads don’t stick above the top of the bushes.

  We creep to the northeast corner of the building, where we get our first view of Shim’s quarters.