"Or at least, it should be," Jeremy said. "We went all over to get that tablet back from Jarod Whiting, and look where it got us? We're stuck with even more problems."
"Maybe we didn't stop Jarod," Wyatt said, leaning back and watching their reactions.
Aldan glowered at him, and Jeremy laughed. Avery looked from Aldan to Jeremy and shook her head laughing. She lowered her head as Jeremy pulled his arm off her back.
"What are you laughing about?" Wyatt asked.
"You can't think this is something that Jarod would have any involvement in," Avery said. "You tossed his older version through a portal into the year 2100. You sent his younger self back to another random time."
"But that middle-aged version of Jarod didn't vanish," Wyatt said.
"Do you think that is because whatever you did to his earlier version had already happened?" Aldan shook his head and let out a sigh. "This is silly."
"So is sitting here, wondering where Lenny is," Wyatt responded. "We could sit here all day and never understand what happened."
"I think Wyatt is right," Brooke said. "How much time do we wait for Lenny?" She bent over after asking the question and retrieved the lasagna from the oven.
The steam and the cheese smell of the freshly cooked food filled the kitchen. She placed the pan on the top of the range and gathered small plates for each of them.
"I really think part of the problems are because of what happened to Jarod," Brooke said.
"Don't start that again," Avery said. "I saw what we did to him. We didn't hurt him. And we had no other choice."
"I know," Brooke said then more quietly. "You may have just trapped him." Her last words were toward Wyatt.
Wyatt looked at her as she worked the lasagna out onto the plates she had gathered. He didn't like her seemingly sudden insistence that Jarod was harmed. "Jarod pulled a gun on me," he said.
"But only because he knew what you would do," Brooke said. "I'm sure he went into that experience knowing things were going to go wrong. Maybe he tried to fix it." She gathered four of the plates and walked toward the sofa to deliver them. Then went back for hers.
For the next few minutes, they sat on the sofas, eating. The food tasted good, but the burger Wyatt had eaten earlier left him without much room to eat. He took smaller bites and watched the others. Sitting around was not going to help them. Jeremy and Avery seemed ready to sit there without planning any action. He hadn't quite figured out what Aldan was after, but among all the questions flooding his mind, he had one important question.
"When I got into that car, where did you guys go?" Wyatt asked.
Aldan placed his plate on the floor at his feet and watched Wyatt. "We couldn't stay there," he said.
"Someone else was coming," Avery said from the other sofa. She finished her last bite of lasagna and rose, collecting Aldan's plate on her way to the kitchen sink. After rinsing off the dishes, she spoke again, but looked toward Jeremy and Avery as she did. "It might have been one of the versions of Jarod you dealt with."
Shock made Wyatt's breath catch in his throat. "You saw him too?"
"What do you mean?" Aldan asked. "How did you see him?"
"He was coming from the opposite direction you started driving," Jeremy said. "You couldn't have seen him."
"Not unless you saw him after," Avery said.
"So, what does all this mean?" Brooke said. She rose from the sofa, deposited her plate in the sink and turned toward the dormitory door. "I'm tired of waiting for Lenny. I'm going to go for a walk."
Wyatt watched her as she glanced over her shoulder toward him. Did she want him to go with her?
Avery seemed to notice and smiled as Wyatt looked back toward her. "Are you going to find Lenny?" Wyatt asked.
"No," Brooke said, turning to face him. "I'm just getting out of here for a little bit."
"Don't go too far," Aldan said.
"What, like to one of your havens?" Avery asked.
"They're not there any longer," Aldan said. "My haven is no longer reachable. I've tried a few different approaches. It's like someone has noticed and gone back to make sure a camera was there." He shook his head, rising to his feet. "I've even gone back at different times to try and destroy the camera, but that hasn't helped either. It's always there."
"Listen to us," Wyatt said. "Someone made a mess of our past, and now it is affecting us right now. No matter where we go, or what we do, we can't fix it."
"You don't think we can fix it?" Brooke asked, folding her arms near the door.
Wyatt shrugged and looked away from her. The problem was that no matter where he looked, he saw the others. Jeremy, Avery, and Aldan were all looking at him.
"When did you start thinking that way?" Aldan asked.
"When I last saw Hannah," Wyatt answered. "That last time, everything had changed. She was nervous about everything. Then I saw her in 2089, and she says I gave her my wrist terminal." He shrugged again. "I don't remember it that way."
He worried the rest of them wouldn't believe him, but after a moment's silence, Avery spoke first. "It's like the trip to that business park," she said. "I remember it two ways. I think one way was with Jarod driving that car. I'm not sure who else it would be. The other was with you driving that car."
"Did I run anyone over?" Wyatt asked.
"What kind of question is that?" Brooke asked, lowering her hands. "Of course, you didn't run anyone over."
"Was I there with you guys?" Wyatt asked, and horror filled him as he looked at each of their faces. None of them looked at him.
Aldan and Jeremy exchanged a look with Jeremy shrugging and Aldan shaking his head.
"What is it?" Wyatt asked, his voice cracked with the fear of what they might tell him. "I remember being there, so don't try to say I wasn't."
Aldan shook his head toward Wyatt and moved into the kitchen. He retrieved another bottle of water. Air escaped noisily as he opened it and took a drink.
"I don't see how you can drink soda water like that," Avery said. "That would be awful."
Wyatt turned away from them as frustration filled him. He caught sight of Brooke's eyes as she turned and faced the door. Their reaction didn't make sense, or he didn't want it to. He had felt the sedan strike something as he moved along the street, but he hadn't seen any sign that he had struck anyone.
"Brooke," Wyatt said, stepping closer to her. "What is it no one else wants to talk about. What is the moose on the table here?"
She smiled at his idiom, but the smile lasted only a moment before she turned back toward the door.
"Come on," Wyatt said, stepping closer to her. "I need to know what happened."
She shook her head. Wyatt let out a heavy sigh, trying to ease his growing frustration. He glanced back toward the others. Aldan was the only one watching him, and he raised his bottle of soda water in a salute.
Wyatt shook his head and turned back to Brooke, who reached for the door. Her hand rested on the knob, but she didn't turn it.
"Did I get run over?" Wyatt asked.
Brooke shrugged, and he thought he saw her frown toward the door.
"Go ahead and tell him," Aldan said from the kitchen area. "He won't stop until he gets the answer he is looking for." His words caused Brooke to turn around and face Aldan.
"I don't think we should," Brooke said. "Too much has already changed." She turned her head toward Wyatt. "I'm worried about you and your interactions with Jarod. I'm worried you are part of the cause of this." She spread her arms wide to take in their current reality.
The soft tone of her voice as she said it worried Wyatt even more than Aldan's urging her to tell him. She worried about telling him the truth. "How can you all think I am behind the changes?"
"Think about it for a moment," Aldan said. "I've spoken with the older version of my cousin and heard what she says happened. I didn't want to believe it at first, either, but—"
"What did she say to you?" Jeremy said, cutting Aldan off.
Al
dan placed his hands on the countertop and stared at Jeremy. "She said Wyatt gave her his wrist terminal and asked her to fix things," Aldan said. "But she wasn't sure what she was fixing." He looked back at Wyatt. "She said you started out looking worried because someone was following you around, and the next thing she knows you told her to go and make things right."
"Did she give you any details?" Wyatt asked, trying not to become angry. It sounded absurd. Hannah had never spoken to him that way. He had never sent her to fix anything.
"She didn't say much," Aldan said, raising his hands. "But I didn't feel like pressing her either."
"That's because she was acting different than the last time you saw her, right?" Wyatt turned to better face Aldan and folded his arms.
Aldan lowered his arms back to the table as Avery and Jeremy watched. When he did speak this time, his voice was quieter. "She hasn't been the same since I brought her here."
Wyatt took a breath and let out a sigh. He wished he had his own wrist terminal back. Lenny seemed to notice but had not offered a replacement. Could that mean there weren't any replacement wrist terminals?
Those kinds of thoughts filled Wyatt's mind as he glanced from Aldan to Brooke. Her face was drawn tight in what was probably fear, but he wasn't sure if she was afraid of him or something else.
"Did I run myself over?" Wyatt asked. "Did I hit someone as I drove that car?"
Brooke turned away from him and shook her head.
"I think what she wants to say is," Avery began, but stopped.
"We think you ran over yourself, but we don't know for sure," Jeremy said. "Some strange things happened a little away from where we stood in that street."
"It happened so quickly, we didn't get a good look," Aldan said. "And with the changes, our memories are messed up enough, I don't trust mine." He stepped around the counter and stopped near the sofa where Avery and Jeremy sat. He shook his head. "And before you suggest it, I don't think going back there again would help."
"Even if I said I'm sure I saw Jarod there?" Wyatt asked. Standing close to Brooke seemed to worry her. He didn't like seeing Brooke that worried, so he stepped back toward the empty sofa.
"This is silly," Avery said. "So, we think Wyatt started something with Hannah and that is where the changes come from, but now you say you saw Jarod again in that business park. Do you guys think they are somehow connected?"
Aldan nodded his head and folded his arms. He didn't look at Wyatt for a long moment, and neither did the others. It left Wyatt wondering at what he had experienced and what they might do to fix it. In the back of his mind, he wondered at going back to find Hannah when she was first dropped off. Maybe preventing her from being a part of the problems would help them.
"What if we stopped Hannah from coming into the warehouse in the first place?" Wyatt asked. It sounded even stupider as he said it. He thought furiously to produce a supporting argument, and the only thing he could think of was the resonance. He held his hands up to stop their comments and trudged on. "We feel the resonance, and we remember the various memories. If we think she is part of this problem, what if we remove her."
"You're talking about my cousin as if she is a threat," Aldan said, but he didn't unfold his arms. In fact, he started nodding his head.
"I wonder what would happen if we went back and prevented her from coming to work in the Machina's warehouse." Wyatt felt like he was on a roll. "We could see if that makes any difference."
Avery sat shaking her head, but she remained quiet. Out of the corner of his eye, Brooke watched him again, with her hands on her hips.
"That's the stupidest thing I've heard," Jeremy said.
"But it might work," Aldan said. "I remember what it was like to bring her here that first time. I brought her to the warehouse to give her some stability."
"You would actually do that?" Brooke asked, turning to face the others. "I don't think removing her would stop the changes. Do you"—she looked at Wyatt—"think that would suddenly give you your wrist terminal?"
"I'm not sure what it would do." Wyatt shrugged.
"I think we should," Aldan said. "Wyatt thinks the changes are because she is after him for some reason."
That comment made Wyatt wonder about the older version of Avery he had seen. At that time, even Avery couldn't recognize herself. He didn't want to bring that up.
"If we stop her from coming in," Wyatt said. "She would never know me."
"And she could never take your wrist terminal," Avery said. "I think that is something I would be willing to try."
Brooke folded her arms and shook her head.
"My memories will be ruined," Wyatt said.
"You'll be okay," Aldan said. "Just look at all that has already changed. We'd remember all of it, even it was only slightly." He smiled.
"When and where?" Jeremy asked. "If this doesn't work, can we stop ourselves."
"I never thought we would discuss changing our own past," Brooke said. "The Machina wouldn't approve. I don't think it will work?" She folded her arms again.
"I think the Machina only has whatever control we give it," Aldan said. "I've already lost my haven, because of the changes."
"Maybe Lenny is gone because the Machina wants us to make this change," Wyatt said and watched Brooke shake her head.
"Where do we go?" Avery asked, rising from the sofa. She grabbed Jeremy's discarded plate and took it and hers to the sink. After running some water on them, she turned back. "Well?"
"R142PS," Aldan answered. "Head for Saturday, November 3, 2040. I guess we should aim for 4:40 pm. That's near when I brought her here."
"Okay," Avery said. "If this doesn't work, we should come back here." She looked at her wrist terminal. "It's almost 2:30 pm, right now, so if we leave quickly, we can get back here at 2:35 pm." Jeremy and Brooke nodded in her direction.
Aldan watched Wyatt for a moment and seemed ready to say something. Whatever it was, it seemed he forgot it as Brooke stepped closer to him and activated her portal.
"Come on," Brooke said, her voice angry. She pulled him through.
CHAPTER seventeen
WAREHOUSE LOADING DOCK, R142PS
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2040, 4:40 PM
The loading dock was cold as Wyatt stumbled to his knees and braced his hands on ground. The resonance came on him strongly, and he thought it felt like more had traveled than just his group. To his left Brooke coughed several times, holding her stomach.
Aldan stumbled off the edge of the loading dock with a shout. Avery and Jeremy laughed as they both retched and coughed. Avery vomited into a nearby plastic garbage can that stood between two of the large rollup doors of the warehouse. The sky was gray and overcast. It smelled like rain, but the ground felt dry.
"Are we all here?" Aldan said as he pulled himself back onto the dock. "That hurt." He laughed at his clumsiness, but when no one else laughed, his smile faded.
"We're here," Brooke said. She rose to stand near Wyatt, but she kept her distance. Wyatt found himself missing her earlier closeness.
Jeremy and Avery stood together almost ten feet away from them. Avery seemed to be watching something in the distance. The worry or whatever it was seemed to fill her face for a few seconds.
"What did you see?" Wyatt asked.
She shook her head.
"Come on," Wyatt said. "We're all working together. If you see something, let's talk about it."
"It was nothing," Avery said, rubbing her cheeks. She let out a breath in a cloud in the frigid air. "It was just a worker."
"Are you sure?" Jeremy asked, stepping beside her, and looking in the same direction she had looked.
Wyatt looked that way and didn't see anyone. The loading dock seemed empty.
"Alright," Aldan said. "If I remember right, my father gets here with a truckload in a few minutes. He will have my cousin with him."
"Do you ever miss having your father with you?" Avery asked. "Or doing what he did?"
Aldan shook his he
ad and turned to lead them along the dock "We shouldn't wait out here. He comes into the fourteenth door from the corner back there."
Wyatt followed the others as they followed Aldan. Brooke seemed to keep her distance as they moved along toward the smaller man-sized door leading into the warehouse between two of the rollup doors. Aldan held it open as they entered. He watched Wyatt closely, and again looked ready to say something but let out a sigh instead.
The shelves inside the warehouse were full. Boxes of supplies wrapped in cardboard and plastic sat near the doorway where they entered. In the distance, Wyatt heard the diesel motor of a forklift, probably several rows away. It beeped as it backed up. Between the two nearest rows of shelving, pallets were lined up in the middle of the floor. Another load ready to go to a disaster somewhere. One of the pallets had a code on it, reading 576891, with the date of November 5, 2040. He wondered if that code corresponded to a location code the Machina gave them, but without his wrist terminal he had no way of seeing if it could be entered.
Wyatt and the others jumped at the sound of an electric rollup door opening two aisles over from where they stood. He heard his pulse pounding in his ears and took several deep breaths to calm himself.
"It shouldn't be that dangerous," Brooke said from beside him. "We're only here to see if we can stop Hannah from ever coming into the warehouse."
"I don't think that is the truck," Aldan said, but he said it like he no longer felt sure of it.
Wyatt watched as several younger people, dressed in blue overalls swarmed around the end of the truck that backed into the loading dock just outside the open doorway. He thought a few of them looked familiar, but that may have been just that they were all dressed in blue. Two in the group were older men, and one of them had white hair sticking out of an orange stocking cap.
"Is that Gene?" Wyatt asked the others as they stopped near the aisle where the group of workers gathered.
"Why would he be there?" Aldan said then turned on Wyatt. "Unless someone told him to stop us."
Wyatt shook his head and backed away a step. "I didn't do that," he said.
"What if we can't stop your cousin from being dropped off?" Avery asked.
Dissonance (The Machina of Time Book 2) Page 15