by Jus Accardo
Elaina shuffled from foot to foot, suddenly very nervous. She put both hands into her pockets, then pulled them out only to return them again.
“What? What are you not telling me?” They were looking at me as though I might explode. A ticking time bomb counting down the seconds to detonation.
Cade tensed, watching the woman with barely contained fear. He opened his mouth several times, but it took a moment for actual words to come out. “Elaina?”
She grabbed my hand and squeezed. Taking a deep breath, she said, “Kori, the semi-prep method doesn’t exist on our Earth. We haven’t even gotten the machine to function properly…”
Chapter Nine
It took me several tries to swallow down the growing lump in my throat. Air seemed to have become an issue, and an allover chill replaced the subtle warmth in the air. “Doesn’t exist?” I repeated, numb. What was that supposed to mean? That I was a goner? When Dylan skipped, I was going to be dragged off into oblivion?
Cade’s lips twisted into an angry grimace. “I was told the project was on schedule here,” he snapped. “If you haven’t gotten the cuffs to work, then that means you’ve never even made a trial run…” He let his head fall back and cursed. “That explains all the questions.”
Maybe you’ll just cease to be. Kind of implode or dissolve. Maybe it won’t hurt much…
Elaina’s face morphed into a mask of regret. And guilt. Apparently someone hadn’t been completely honest with the guys. She threw up her hands and took a step toward me. “They didn’t lie to you, Cade. The project is on schedule—our schedule. We didn’t plan to make our first runs for at least another two years.” She turned to me. “But we’ll find a way to fix this. We’ve been working with the boys for a few days now, tweaking our tech based on theirs. As I said, we’re still a few years off as far as the actual cuffs are concerned, but it looks promising. Noah is working with our medical team as we speak.”
“Noah?” I snorted. “Well, then let me prepare my will.”
Cade moved closer. “No. It’s not like that with Noah. You’d never know it, but he’s Cora’s son to the core. Smarter than anyone I’ve ever met. He was pre-med before this all went down. I know it seems like—”
“He hates me?” I yelled. It came out a mix between a squawk and crying.
“He doesn’t.” Cade sounded sure, but I didn’t buy it. The guy had done nothing but snarl and snap at me from the second he showed up on my doorstep—at least now I understood why.
“We’ll find a way around this,” Elaina said, pushing between us. I was hardly listening. I was having too hard a time wrapping my head around all this new information. Mom and Dad heading up a secret, interdimensional travel agency. Noah Anderson. Brother, med student—genius…? “In the meantime, I need you to stay close to the boys. They’re familiar with Dylan and can keep you safe.”
I blinked, then tilted my head and leaned closer. No way. I had to have heard that wrong. “You want me to stay with a couple of barely trained, unarmed time travelers while there’s a killer out there looking to cut me down? Instead of, I dunno, staying on the nice fortified military base?” She was insane. Or, maybe I was? Did I really want to stay here and leave my life in the hands of two strangers? Dylan said he’d give us the key if we found that Ava Harris girl.
“Technically, they aren’t time travelers, they jump dimen…” Her voice trailed off as she realized that that wasn’t the part of the conversation I cared about. “Staying on base won’t help. This isn’t a normal situation, Kori.”
“You don’t say!” I kind of snapped. I knew my tone was disrespectful, and Dad would be furious, because he raised me better, but I couldn’t rein it in. “Alternate universe killers aren’t something we deal with on a day-to-day basis? Color me surprised.” I sucked in a breath, forcing myself to calm down and take control of the situation. That’s what good soldiers did. “My dad. Call him.”
Elaina looked even more uncomfortable. “That won’t be possible.”
“Not possible?” My mouth fell open. “Oh. I remember. He’s in Washington—only not in Washington, right? You’re telling me you can’t contact him—or you won’t?”
She shifted from foot to foot, looking over her shoulder like there might be someone standing there to help. “It’s a bit of both, actually.”
“A bit of both?” The words came out kind of squeaky and shrill. I was on the verge of losing it, and now I was being told they wouldn’t—couldn’t—contact my dad? This could be my last chance to see him. To say good-bye! “Why does that sound like you’ve lost my dad?”
“I understand your fear, but—”
“Do you know where he is or not?”
Eliana sighed. “We don’t. We’ve tried contacting him—just once. He hasn’t responded.”
I was so ready to start swinging. “And you didn’t think to try again?”
“It was decided,” she said, nervous. “That it would be best for him to stay in the wind. From what Cade and Noah have told us about Dylan, if General Anderson reports in, he could be in grave danger.”
I remembered the threats Dylan made, along with something about a Tribunal. “What’s his problem? Why does Dylan hate my dad? Is he connected to Ava Harris?”
Eliana perked up. “Ava Harris? Who’s that?”
Ahh. So the plot thickened. Elaina hadn’t been entirely up front about their Infinity progress, but apparently the boys hadn’t been totally forthcoming, either.
“Wish we knew. Dylan mentioned her,” Cade said. Had to give the boy props. He was a convincing liar. That both worried and intrigued me.
Elaina let out a disappointed sigh and turned to Cade. He gave a slight nod and inclined his head toward the elevator. “Maybe we could talk?” He spread his other arm wide. “Away from all this?”
I hesitated a moment, then nodded. He wasn’t crazy like I’d originally thought, and he was easy on the eyes, but that didn’t mean I wanted to spend quality alone time with him. But, I needed information, and it seemed like he was the only one who had it. If the Infinity people here hadn’t even gotten their machine to work, then Cade, from a place where they obviously were farther along, was my best bet of surviving this thing in one piece and finding my dad. “Okay,” I said. “But only if you answer my questions.” I leaned a little closer, giving him my best death glare. “All of them.”
He didn’t look thrilled about the idea but nodded. I hadn’t said anything about Ava Harris—he owed me. “Just remember something, Kori. Sometimes questions are better left unanswered.”
...
Cade took me back to the house—an arguable idea if you asked me. Dylan had already proven he could slip in and out unnoticed. Was this really the safest bet? But there was no fighting it. As per Simmons, he was in charge, and good soldiers never challenged the chain of command.
Reason number 268 why I would have made a horrible soldier…
“This makes no sense,” I said, flopping back onto the couch. “No offense or anything, but you said it yourself. You’re just a private. Barely out of basic. What makes you qualified to deal with this? You’re taking point on something that, in my opinion, is the biggest thing in history.”
Cade took the chair across from me. He looked tired. Not just in a sleep-deprived way, but also emotionally. Like he’d reached his limit. He held up his right hand. “Dylan killed her. My Kori... After I found—after what Dylan did, I knew he’d go right to the lab. Noah was with me, we called the general—he didn’t know about Kori yet—and told him Dylan was planning an unauthorized skip.”
There was a darkness in his voice that sent goose bumps skittering across my skin. His tone was grave, so I decided to let the questions keep for now.
“When we arrived I was in shock, still covered in her blood. Noah was so close to losing it… When the general got there, when he realized what Dylan had done...”
“He’d already gotten away.”
Cade nodded. “No. He was still there. We
fought, but he gave me the slip. Dylan took the test set, but in his rush to leave, two of the cuffs must have fallen out of the box.”
“So the general sent you?” It still didn’t jive. “I mean, Noah was a civilian, right?”
“He was,” Cade confirmed. “And trust me, it took some convincing. We weren’t the general’s first—second, or third—choice. But, we were there and time was an issue. Plus, we were uniquely motivated and knew Dylan better than anyone else.” He slumped against the wall. “I think in the end, the general knew that no one, not even his most loyal subordinate, would do as much to catch his daughter’s killer than her brother and the guy who loved her…”
The guy who loved her…
The other me was a lucky girl. She’d had someone who loved her enough to chase a crazy person across multiple dimensions to avenge her death. I guess in a way it all made sense. I couldn’t imagine what it had to be like for my dad—her dad. Sending them had to be an emotional response. Cade covered in my blood and telling him I was gone…
“Even the most decorated soldier wouldn’t have stood a chance against Dylan. Not because he was better trained, but because they would never understand him. Noah and I, we got it. We knew the thing that was driving him.”
“And that brings us to question number one. What would that be? The thing that’s driving Dylan, I mean.”
“Revenge…and Ava Harris.”
The obvious question was, revenge against who? Obviously Infinity had done something Dylan deemed vile, but I wanted to know about Ava. The look in his eyes when he’d asked about her, fury along with something deeper, still burned me. “Who is she?” I remembered his cover-up with Elaina. “And why are you keeping her a secret from the commander?”
“Ava was the one. The perfect match for Dylan in every way. She challenged him, pushed him…made him want to be a better person. He loved her more than anything else on this—or any other—Earth.”
“Was the one.” He’d asked me where she was because he’d come here looking for her. One of her, at least. “She died, didn’t she? Where you’re from, she’s dead.”
“She is,” Cade confirmed sadly. “And if we tell the army about her, they’ll only get in our way. I’ve seen it happen before.”
“When I first met him the other night, he seemed so sure I could tell him where she was. But why would he think I knew where to find her? I mean, that’s why he’s here, right? To find my Earth’s version of Ava?”
“In part, yeah. But there’s so much more to it.” He shifted in his seat, getting comfortable. “Dylan and I enlisted in the army right out of high school. It was good for us. Gave us both something to focus on. We had a shitty childhood. Both had some anger issues—the general practically raised us. After Ava died, well, the general could see Dylan declining. Heading down a self-destructive path. Hell, we all could. You, him, Noah, and I were all so tight until… There was this project they were working on. Something they were having a hard time finding volunteers for. The general approached Dylan.”
“Assuming this was for Infinity?”
Cade nodded. “We didn’t know what the project was, and he refused to tell us anything. I had a bad feeling, though. I thought it was weird that they’d take such a low ranking volunteer for something so high level. We tried to talk him out of it, but he was angry and wouldn’t listen. We’d had a falling out after Ava died.”
“But he went through with it anyway I’m guessing? He volunteered?”
“Yep. I did some digging—you’d be surprised what kind of information you can get with the right bait, and found out about the Infinity Division. The reason they needed volunteers was, at that point, the trials they were conducting were unsuccessful. People were dying. I went there to stop him but I was too—”
I held out my hands to stop him, feeling sick to my stomach. “Wait. You’re telling me this project was killing people, and the general—my dad—wanted Dylan to take it for a spin? Someone you’re saying he cared about?” What kind of a monster willingly put someone he loves in the line of fire like that?
Cade frowned. “It’s not like that. Not really. Our version of the general is actually a much softer version than yours.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows atop his knees. “I think it was basically a shit or get off the pot kind of thing. Dylan was in a dark place. It was either do something good with his life, or die on his own. He was drinking. Not taking care of himself. We all watched while he started to just waste away. No one could stand it anymore.”
I wasn’t convinced at his spin on the whole humanitarian angle, but didn’t argue. “So assuming Dylan did it? It must have worked, right? I mean, he’s not dead.”
“Oh, it worked. The project was finally a success—and Dylan seemed to pop back. He was alive again. He stopped drinking. He even started talking to me again…”
“Okay…” Then realization hit, and I felt stupid for not seeing it before. It was the same thought I had had about my mother. “He thought he could use Infinity to find Ava.”
“I don’t think he understood how it all worked in the beginning. I think he thought he could find his Ava. Save her.”
“But it doesn’t work that way.”
He was watching me, his gaze intense. It seemed like forever before he replied. “No. It doesn’t work that way. The Infinity project isn’t time travel. You can’t go back and undo something. Gone is gone. Dead is dead.” He let his gaze drop to the floor. “After the first trial, he went to the general and asked when he could skip again. It didn’t go well.”
“The general said no…”
Cade gave a dark laugh. “He told Dylan that while his services were appreciated, he was no longer needed. He was not a part of the Infinity project—and never would be.”
“That’s horrible!” While I found it hard to sympathize with someone like Dylan, I couldn’t imagine how used he must have felt. To be so close to the thing you wanted more than anything, then have it ripped away.
“Dylan had a taste of hope, and he wasn’t about to let it go. If Infinity wouldn’t let him skip again, then he’d sneak in and do anyway. It didn’t take long to realize what he was planning to do.” He shook his head and squeezed both eyes closed for a moment. When he opened them again, there was a spark of fierceness there. Conviction. “But it wasn’t right. Against all the rules and principles. Everything that Infinity stood for… He wanted to take an innocent, unaware version of Ava and steal her away. I couldn’t let him—”
“You turned him in.” He didn’t need to say it out loud, because he wore the guilt like a second skin. I had no idea why I hadn’t seen it before. Like a black cloud, it shadowed his every move. Tainted every word.
I knew, because I had one of my own. An immeasurable weight that pressed down on me, unrelenting, every moment of every day. One I’d never spoken about with anyone.
“He was so convinced he could save her. Bring another version of the girl he loved back home and live happily ever after like nothing had happened. But he was wrong. It just doesn’t work like that. So, yeah. I stopped him.” He took a breath, eyes settling on something over my shoulder. “He blames the general for keeping him from Ava, and me for turning him in.”
“And the Tribunal? What is that?”
“On my world, they’re what you would consider judge and jury. Each state has one, as well as all the branches of government and military. With technology that allows people to travel to alternate timelines, there are rules in place to ensure the technology isn’t abused and used for personal gain. Unbreakable and harshly punished.”
I swallowed. “When you say harshly punished…”
He lifted his head and met my gaze dead-on. “Dylan was sentenced to die.”
“Oh my God! That’s not too barbaric. Christ. You couldn’t just lock him away?”
Cade shrugged. “That’s one of the big differences between our worlds. On mine, military crimes, as well as murder and domestic abuse, are punishable by death. It may
seem harsh, but our crime rate is significantly lower.”
It was a lot to process, but still didn’t answer the initial question. “That still doesn’t explain why he thought I would know where Ava was.”
“She’s your cousin.”
“She’s my—”
He held up his hand. “On our Earth, she’s your cousin. Actually, on most of them, she is.”
“But not this one.”
He shrugged again. “Most of the time, Ava’s mother divorces her father and ends up crossing paths with Cora’s brother. They usually marry before Ava turns two.”
I tucked my feet up and burrowed into the cushion. There was a chill in the air that had nothing to do with the low temps outside. “So he planned to use the Infinity technology to find another version of his Ava, but you said you turned him in. That he was caught. How did he make it here then?”
His demeanor changed. It went from sad but justified, to pained and, most of all, guilty. “He escaped before the sentence could be carried out.”
“Escaped? How the hell do you escape the U.S. military? Especially in a hard-ass world like yours?”
He opened his mouth, but it was Noah, who’d just walked in the front door, who answered. “Cade let him go.”
Chapter Ten
I stared at Noah, then turned to Cade. He wasn’t looking at me. His gaze was fixed on Noah, the expression etched in an even mixture of guilt and pain.
Noah closed the door behind him and took several steps into the room. He threw his hands into the air and pinned his friend with a sad smile. “No judgment, man. I get it.”