Wyatt leaned back from the desk and looked at Brooke. She smiled at him and nodded slightly. "We should go there," she said. "Maybe we can see who is making these changes."
"We already know who is making these changes," Avery said. "How will that help us?" She stood between Jeremy and Brooke, with her eyebrows knit in concern.
"You think you know who is making the changes," Brooke said, glaring at Avery. "We don't know anything."
"That business park is one place you remember," Lenny said. "Each time you travel, your memories will be manageable for a few more minutes."
"Are you saying it's like a game?" Aldan asked.
"You could think of it that way," Lenny said. "If someone is messing with your past, you should all be feeling the resonance. That's why you were chosen as future fixers."
"Yeah, we feel it," Wyatt said, inhaling deeply. He turned toward Aldan and watched as Aldan stepped out of Jeremy's grasp. Aldan appeared to be specifically not looking at Lenny as he stepped back toward the door. His right hand moved over his wrist terminal.
"Do you remember the time?" Lenny asked. "You were all sent there at 5:45 pm. The location was—"
"R259PS," Aldan said. "I remember. July 7, 2089. We should go there at 5:00 pm." He activated his portal.
Before Aldan stepped through Lenny raised his voice. "Go see what you see then come back here at 3:00 pm, today. That is April 2, 2090. Let me know what you find."
Aldan nodded and waved as he stepped through without another word.
"You had better catch up to him," Lenny said. Stepping around his desk and holding out something toward Wyatt. "You will need this again."
Wyatt looked at the small black band and laughed. "How did you get that?" he asked.
"I don't think I should answer that, but you need to take it," Lenny said.
Wyatt grabbed the band, held it in his hand for a moment and placed it on his forehead, right below the hairline. "Thank you," he said as Brooke opened her portal and grabbed his left arm.
"Stay together," Lenny said. "If things get really bad, travel. That will protect your mind."
"How bad will it get?" Wyatt asked, but all he had in answer was Lenny's smile as Brooke pulled him through.
CHAPTER twelve
BUSINESS PARK STRUCTURE, R259PS
THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2089, 5:00 PM
Wyatt stumbled into a narrow street surrounded on both sides by high rise buildings. The air felt like an oven, but slightly more humid than the warehouse. The resonance doubled him over as Brooke let go of him. Both managed to make their entry into that time quietly. Neither of them retched or vomited. The resonance pounded Wyatt's head and he could barely stand, but it passed.
"We're all here?" Aldan said. "It felt better to travel that time, didn't it?"
Wyatt nodded as he was finally able to straighten up. "Why would that happen?" As he opened his eyes, the connection band Lenny had given him burst with information. Advertisements and information, including street names, filled his vision. It was too much right after the resonance from their travel and Wyatt removed the small band from his forehead.
"The resonance gets really bad when we travel closer to 2039," Brooke said, pushing her dark hair back behind her ears and smoothing her shirt down her stomach. "I tell you it has to be something to do with Jarod."
Forcing himself not to stare at the way her shirt stretched tight over her chest, Wyatt nodded and looked around the street. The empty sidewalk where they stood was lined with what looked like old fashioned parking meters. But they were something else. Each of them was a charging station for electric vehicles.
"The street is still clear?" Avery said. "And we have forty-five minutes before we arrive here." She stepped closer to the building. The sunlight glinted off the fourth and fifth floor of the building on their side of the street, but even though they were in shadow, the heat radiated from everything.
"Gotta love the middle of summer heat," Jeremy said. "Where do you think we are?"
"Considering most of our last several missions all seemed to be centered around Salt Lake City, I assume we're still there." Aldan stepped closer to Wyatt. "Put on that connection band and let's go find a good place to watch."
Wyatt pulled the connection band back out of his pocket and placed it on his head. As soon as it rested on his head, his vision filled with information overlays. The street names, business names, and other details. It took several seconds for his mind to calm down and his eyes to stop jumping around the added information. He had trouble reading any of it because there was just too much. He almost pulled the connection band off his forehead but forced himself to breathe through it.
As the added information calmed, he looked back at Aldan.
"I think you are right about us being back in Salt Lake City," Wyatt said to Aldan. "State Street is the next street over, but there is so much other information that I don't know what the cross-street number is."
"That's okay," Brooke said. "All we need to do here, I guess, is see if all of us show up."
Wyatt glanced along the empty street. The future was an odd place. Many of the areas looked to be ready for electric vehicles but many of those areas were empty. No cars lined the street. It looked the same as the last time he had come to this business park.
"Where should we wait?" Jeremy asked. "If we have almost forty minutes, I don't want to stand in this heat for all that time."
"Is anyone else hungry?" Wyatt asked as his stomach grumbled. "I don't know if I should be, but it looked like there is a small restaurant up there." In his connection band augmented vision, he saw the crossed spoon and fork that seemed to indicate a place of food. Whether it was a restaurant, or a fast-food establishment was hard to determine. Its name in his augmented reality was just a symbol of a red, half-eaten burger. "It looks like they have burgers."
"Burgers," Aldan asked. "Do you think we will be able to pay for it?"
Wyatt shook his head and removed the connection band from his forehead. "You're right," he said. "That just sucks."
"Now that we are all hungry, where should we hide for the next forty minutes," Jeremy said.
"I say we check out that restaurant and see what it looks like," Avery said. "Maybe in this future, we won't have to pay." She smiled and laughed at her own joke, but she was the only one that laughed.
Brooke and Aldan stepped across the empty street and Wyatt followed. Jeremy and Avery followed him. Over the next few minutes, they moved along the street in the direction of the burger place. The smell of that area of the street became less pleasant as they crossed a narrow alleyway. It was littered with red parchment wrapping paper soiled with the leftovers of what were probably burgers.
Wyatt's mouth watered at the sour smell of the greasy discarded wrappers in an alley to the side of a four-floor building whose ground floor seemed to be the restaurant. It was angled, as if cut back from the corner. Nine black metal tables with four chairs each filled the large sidewalk space to the corner of the street.
Three couples sat at three of the five tables nearest the building, but a lone figure sat at the table by herself. From a block away, Wyatt couldn't help noticing the white coat draped over a black metal chair to her side. She sat with her back to them, watching something in the distance.
"That's got to be Hannah," Wyatt said, slowing to stop and pulling Brooke back with him.
"No," Avery said. "She can't beat us here." She stepped across in front of Aldan and Jeremy, turning to face them. "If she sees us, it might ruin everything."
"Or it could fix it," Wyatt said. Their earlier selves were nearly run over by a sedan that had come from this direction. If she were really trying to destroy them, was she the one who had sent that car?
"I don't think her seeing us will fix any of this," Brooke said. "I don't think she is making the changes." She held her hands as she turned to stand beside Avery.
"We don't know why she is here," Wyatt said. He wondered if he could help by approaching he
r.
"We don't need to know why?" Aldan said. "We just need to stop her from taking a car and trying to kill our earlier versions. Let me go and talk to her." He stepped closer to Avery.
She sidestepped out of his way, and Aldan began walking alone along the street as the rest of them crowded into the alley.
"Do any of you feel any resonance?" Brooke asked.
"Not any more than we already felt in the background," Wyatt answered as Jeremy and Avery nodded.
"Good," Brooke said. "If that changes, then we know that he's making a change to our past."
"That's your idea?" Wyatt asked. "Doesn't that seem silly?" He couldn't be the only one who worried about changing their past while they tried to correct it. That version of Hannah may not even be the same one that had caused the issues. But she did have the white coat, in the middle of July. He shook his head and stepped back from the corner.
A small piece of wrapping paper crunched under his feet and the sickly-sweet odor increased. It smelled as though the restaurants of 2089 hadn't changed much in their usage of oil and grease. They smelled the same as the restaurants he would visit on 2039. Fifty years without any changes.
"He's talking to her," Avery said, drawing Wyatt out of his thoughts. He stepped back toward the sidewalk and peeked around her. Aldan sat at the table across from Hannah, facing their direction.
"I want to know what she is telling him," Brooke said.
"Do we need to worry about Aldan again?" Avery asked.
"He did say he had trouble getting to his haven," Jeremy said with a shrug. "Do you think he is somehow involved?"
Wyatt glanced toward Avery as she nodded. He didn't understand why Avery hadn't seen her older version talking with Lenny. Her older version had to be involved in the changes somehow. How else would she have come to his apartment that night before the earthquake?
As that thought faded, it was replaced with another. The woman who had pulled him from his apartment in the moments before the earthquake had been a version of Hannah closer to the version that had taken his wrist terminal.
His mind swam with the changes. All his theories tied themselves up in knots. Aldan could have been working with Hannah, due to the way they still sat and discussed something at that table. He found it harder to trust Aldan. He already didn't trust Hannah. The version that sat there talking with Aldan didn't seem like she was worried, which grated at his nerves.
"There has to be something else going on," Wyatt said. "I need to know what she is saying."
"Don't go out there," Brooke said, trying to slow him by grabbing his arm. He shook it off.
Aldan didn't notice his approach until it was almost too late. When he did notice, he looked up and shook his head. Hannah turned around and stared at him.
She had the same dark eyes from when he had seen her earlier, but her auburn hair had begun to gray a little at the temples. She wore it pulled back. "Wyatt?" she asked, smiling. It was the same smile she used to give him.
"Why have you done this?" Wyatt asked as he stopped a few feet away from her table.
"If you are going to accuse her of something," Aldan started, "at least have the decency to join us at the table."
Wyatt didn't know if he could. Seeing that older version of Hannah and the smile she had stopped him. He froze for several seconds.
"I'm not sure what you think I have done," Hannah said. "Why don't you sit here, and we can talk about it."
"You took my wrist terminal," Wyatt said. "That's how you have been doing all of this." He waved over his head as he spoke, trying to show her how much had changed.
"Sit down," Aldan said. "Before the others come to help you."
Wyatt glanced behind at the alleyway where Jeremy and Avery stood watching. Brooke leaned against the building on the other side of the narrow alley he had left. He barely saw her standing on the sidewalk watching him.
With a shake of his head, Wyatt pulled out the nearest black powder coated chair and sat. The chair squeaked slightly under his weight as he noticed Hannah's partially eaten French fries. The smell of the oil and salt they were cooked in hadn't changed from the fries he remembered in 2039.
"Do you want a fry?" Hannah said. "I'll share."
Wyatt swallowed and hadn't realized he had been staring. He shook his head and leaned back in the chair. "What is going on?"
"You tell me," Hannah said.
"She said she doesn't know anything about changes," Aldan said.
"And you believe her?" Wyatt asked. He sighed and shrugged. "Of course. You trust her. She's your cousin."
Hannah smiled at that and glanced toward Aldan. "He thinks you trust me," she said.
"I did," Aldan said.
"So, where do you stand now?" Hannah asked. She smiled at Aldan as she retrieved a fry from the paper tray in front of her and placed it into her mouth.
Wyatt couldn't help noticing the lines around her mouth and the crow's feet that seemed to hold her eyes in place. He wondered at her age but was too afraid to ask. She seemed to catch him looking and grabbed another fry.
"Are you sure you don't want a fry?" she said, holding the fry out for him.
The fry looked good, but the smile she wore worried Wyatt. He didn't know this woman any more than he knew the older version of Avery. "No thank you," he said.
She plopped the fry in her mouth with her right hand as her left hand moved up onto the table. He had expected to see his wrist terminal on her wrist, but she had either removed it or this was not the same version of Hannah that had stolen it.
"Hannah," Aldan said, drawing her attention away from Wyatt. "Tell him what you told me about the changes you have seen."
"I don't feel the resonance that you guys feel," Hannah said, nodding toward Aldan. "I don't notice the changes around me the way you would."
Wyatt couldn't help wondering how her explanation would help him. He wanted to prod her on, but she stopped for another fry. This time, Aldan waved his hand toward her to get her speaking again.
"Sorry," Hannah said. "I like coming here and eating these."
"What have you done with our timelines?" Wyatt asked loud enough the neighboring couples looked over. One of them rose from their table near the restaurant doors and left. The other two couples remained in their seats after looking over quickly.
"I haven't done anything," Hannah said. "You left me."
"What?" Wyatt asked as Aldan leaned across the table. Wyatt continued. "You took my wrist"—he looked around and quieted himself—"terminal."
Hannah shook her head. "That is not the way I remember it." She leaned onto the table, placing her right hand over the edge of the table near him.
Wyatt wished he had never joined her at the table. It didn't make any sense. He had been so certain she was the one making a mess of things. A quick glance toward Aldan worried him even more. He seemed to be okay with her explanation.
"I don't understand," Wyatt said and Hannah shook her head. "Don't just shake your head. I need to know what is going on."
"You understand this stuff better than I do," Hannah said. "What do you expect?" She grabbed two fries and stuffed them into her mouth before she rose from the table. Her chair slid back noisily, and she turned and started to walk away.
"Where are you going?" Aldan asked. He rose from his chair and stood in front of her.
"I have a car coming," Hannah said. "I have to be somewhere soon."
"Wait," Wyatt said. "Are you even the same Hannah I used to visit?"
Hannah smiled at him and laughed. "That was many years ago, it seems." She turned and left the outdoor eating area after collecting her white coat. "It's time for me to get out of here."
Aldan moved to step in front of her, but she must have given him a look that prevented him from stopping her departure. He stepped out of her way, and she walked past. As she left, Aldan moved back toward the others who were still waiting in the alley or near it.
Wyatt watched the other couples at the outdoor t
ables, before rising and following Aldan. None of them seemed to look at him. He took one last look back in the direction Hannah had left as a wave of resonance hit him. He almost fell to the ground but managed to remain on his feet as he reached out to hold the wall.
Brooke said something as she doubled over in front of him. He didn't hear her words, but knew she was talking about the resonance. He raced to her side as his dizziness faded and beyond her saw something that terrified him.
"We're here," Wyatt said, pointing along the street. "What time is it?"
"5:45 pm.," Aldan said, stepping back to the sidewalk to watch their earlier versions in the distance. They stood on the street, dressed in bright orange as if prepared for a race.
"Does that mean it wasn't Hannah that left?" Wyatt asked, glancing over his shoulder toward the metal tables.
Brooke straightened up and stepped closer to him. "This isn't good," she said.
"What isn't?" Wyatt asked as she directed all of them back into the alley.
CHAPTER thirteen
BUSINESS PARK STRUCTURE, R259PS
THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2089, 5:45 PM
"I mean you may have sent away the woman who tried to run us over," Brooke answered as they stood in the alley. "This is bad."
"It's worse than bad," Wyatt said. "She didn't have my wrist terminal."
"That really doesn't matter right now," Aldan said. "Our bigger problem is that our earlier selves are standing out there, but I don't remember anything happening."
"We almost get run over," Avery said, folding her arms. "A car comes after us."
"Was anyone driving it?" Wyatt asked, as he thrust his hands into his pockets and felt the familiar shape of the connection band he had pulled off. He thought about putting it back on his head, but Jeremy's next words stopped him.
"How do you know that was our earlier selves?" Jeremy asked. "I don't remember ever being here."
"You don't," Aldan said. "I remember being here, but not much else."
Dissonance (The Machina of Time Book 2) Page 11