"Do you remember seeing yourself here?" Jeremy asked.
Avery looked from Jeremy down to Wyatt then nodded. "Yeah," she said. "I remember that, but I don't remember anything that was said."
"That's probably for the best," Wyatt said. "I think we're in trouble. I think we've been after the wrong person. I wonder if Brooke was right. Do you think Jarod is behind this?"
"What about that thin blonde?" Jeremy said. "Could she be involved?"
"You remember that other woman?" Avery asked.
"What do you mean?" Jeremy asked, squatting down to be on Wyatt's level. He rubbed his temples with both hands and sighed.
"I think we're in a lot of trouble," Wyatt said. "We need to remind ourselves of what we know, before we lose all our memories."
"You mean," Avery said, trailing off as she scanned the alleyway around them. After a moment she dropped to a crouch also. Jeremy rested his right hand on her knee as Avery dropped to sit on the cool concrete. For a second, her eyes seemed to stare blankly at Brooke.
"I agree with Wyatt," Jeremy said after Avery didn't continue. "We're future fixers, right?"
"That's right," Wyatt nodded his head as he responded. "And we have stopped a man named Jarod Whiting from ruining the Machina's control of time travel."
"It seems like we haven't done that well of a job," Avery said, her eyes losing their blank stare as she shook her head. "Whatever has been doing this to us seems to be focused mostly on you."
"I agree," Jeremy said, looking down at Brooke. "She is kind of our canary in the coal mine, though. When the resonance comes on that strongly, she seems to be the first one to feel it."
Wyatt touched the left side of Brooke's unconscious face and brushed her hair back behind her left ear. When he realized what he was doing, he pulled his hand away.
"Don't worry," Avery said. "I think she likes you anyway."
"That's not the point," Wyatt said, inhaling deeply. "Look at her hair. Look at her pants." He gave them a moment. "I think she traveled a moment ago to someplace dusty."
"You mean like Aldan does?" Avery asked.
"That is harsh," Jeremy said and looked at Avery. "Do you feel that resonance?"
Wyatt watched him for a moment, trying to make sense of what he was talking about. The headache was still there, pounding in his head.
"The headache stopped a little," Jeremy said. "Can't you guys feel it letting off a little?"
"I feel it letting up," Avery said, leaning over Brooke.
Wyatt tried to remember the name of the auburn-haired woman. Her name was right there on the tip of his tongue, it seemed, but he couldn't bring it out. He shook his head and thought he smelled cigarette smoke. That should have reminded him of something, but his headache prevented him from remembering anything useful.
"Do you feel it letting up?" Jeremy asked, bracing his hands on the concrete floor and pushing himself back up to his feet.
"I don't know," Wyatt said. "My head really hurts." The cigarette smell seemed to come closer, and he thought he saw a shape moving behind the stacks of goods on the shelf to his left, back in the direction of the rollup door that had been opened.
"Can you smell that?" Wyatt asked, keeping his voice quiet.
"Old cigarettes," Avery said just as quietly. "That's not good."
A name floated in Wyatt's mind, and he focused on it. "I think that is Gene," he said.
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Jeremy asked.
"Normally it is a bad thing," a gravelly voice said from behind Wyatt.
Wyatt spun and almost fell onto Brooke with the effort to turn around. Gene, the old man who liked to smoke, stood less than ten feet away.
"Normally, it is a terrible thing to see me," Gene said, taking another two long drags on his cigarette. He pulled it away and shook his head. "Are you the travelers making all the changes?"
With popping knees, Wyatt pushed his way to his feet and turned to face the old man. He remembered seeing him in the warehouse in 2039 but struggled to remember why he had seen him.
"Don't all speak at once," Gene said, taking another puff of his cigarette. He held in the smoke for a few seconds before blowing it out to his right side. "You took something from me. And I think you are the only people who can bring her back."
"What do you mean?" Jeremy asked. He folded his arms and looked from Wyatt to Avery then back to Gene. "Who did we take?"
"I lost a friend," Gene said, dropping his cigarette and rubbing it out with the toe of his left foot. "I think you took her from me."
Wyatt remembered the woman with the auburn hair. He almost asked what the woman looked like, but Jeremy caught his eyes and started speaking first.
"How can you be so sure we took her?" Jeremy asked.
"I feel it," Gene said. "I know something has changed, but I don't know all of it."
"How do you know you lost a friend," Jeremy asked.
"What kind of friend?" Avery asked.
Gene shook his head and folded his arms. He only kept them folded for a moment before he fished in the front pocket of his blue overalls and retrieved a package of cigarettes. "It's getting so hard to find these," he said absently. He pulled one out, returned the pack to his pocket, and retrieved a lighter. That lighter looked ancient, compared with what Wyatt had seen.
"If you can't remember what kind of friend it was, how do you know they are gone?" Wyatt spoke the question slowly and tried not to give away that he knew the friend was that woman with the auburn hair.
"You know her," Gene said. "I remember seeing you talking with her." He motioned toward Wyatt with his right hand holding the lit cigarette in his right hand. His left hand held something black in the front pocket of his overalls. That was the same thing he almost gave Wyatt earlier.
"I don't remember her name." It was an almost involuntary statement. Wyatt didn't realize what he said until it came out.
"Hannah," Gene said, shaking his cigarette at Wyatt. "I think her name is Hannah."
That name seemed familiar. Wyatt glanced down toward Brooke on the floor as she rolled to her back and slowly opened her eyes. The headache he had felt seemed to lessen more as he remembered Hannah's name.
"Why did you take her away from me?" Gene said.
"We didn't," Avery said. "We haven't done anything to ruin that."
Wyatt looked over his right shoulder as the truck that had been near the rollup door began to pull away with a hiss of air brakes releasing. The rollup door began to lower. If Hannah had been on that truck, they had missed their chance.
"You have to be the people ruining it," Gene said. "I haven't seen other travelers come this way."
"If you haven't seen others," Wyatt started, "how do you know we are travelers?" He folded his arms as he turned back toward the smoking old man.
Gene put the cigarette back into his mouth and inhaled deeply. The lit tip of his cigarette brightened as he inhaled and darkened as he let out the smoke. "I know a bit about the Machina," he said. "I know it uses travelers to fix the world and preserve its control. But you guys have been changing things."
Wyatt watched the old man for a moment and finally shook his head. "How do you know it is changing?" he asked.
"Can you feel the resonance?" Avery asked as she bent down and helped Brooke sit up.
The headache was now mostly gone, but so was the memory of Hannah. Wyatt couldn't remember her being in the warehouse. He knew he had visited her but couldn't remember it.
"I don't feel it the way you do," Gene said. "But I'm old, and I know I've lost someone. I know I've lost Hannah." He took a few quick puffs on his cigarette and glanced past Wyatt.
It seemed to Wyatt that he saw something in the distance. At that same moment, the dizziness and sickness of the resonance struck Wyatt. Watching Brooke and Avery, he realized it was the resonance from something happening behind him.
Before he could turn around, he heard Aldan cough and retch. It sounded wet, and he didn't want to look that d
irection. This time Aldan coughed several times, and he thought he heard the man drop to his knees.
"Are you the one making all the changes?" Gene asked stepping around Wyatt.
This time Wyatt looked back toward the head of the aisle, and saw Aldan, dressed in the same clothing he had worn when he left. His face looked different, but Wyatt couldn't determine what had changed. As he straightened up, Wyatt noticed his pants and shoes had the same dust that he saw on Brooke's. It was like they had been in the same place.
It bothered Wyatt, but Brooke moved closer, distracting him.
"Are you making all these changes?" Gene asked. "I was told an older man might be doing it."
Aldan didn't answer Gene's question as he stepped closer.
"Where did you go?" Avery asked as Brooke stepped closer to Wyatt.
Aldan wore an expression that might have been anger. His eyebrows lowered down over his eyes and his lips were pressed tightly together. He looked at each of them, before turning his gaze back on Gene. "I'm not making changes."
"Someone has taken her away from me," Gene said, stepping closer.
Wyatt only noticed he stepped closer because of the cloud of smoke that seemed to follow him. The cigarette was almost gone now. Gene faced off against Aldan.
"Where were you?" Avery asked again. "We had a plan and you ruined it."
Aldan shook his head and kept his eyes on Wyatt. "He did," he said.
Wyatt's breath caught at those words. He felt his heart racing. Why was Aldan accusing him? He hadn't done anything strange.
"I didn't do it," Wyatt said.
Aldan stepped closer. "But you will," he said.
"What does he do?" Gene asked, taking a long last puff on his cigarette. He tossed it onto the floor and stomped it out.
"This has gone too far," Avery said. "We were supposed to stay together. If you would have stayed with us, you would have experienced the same thing we did."
"Where is Hannah?" Gene asked, interrupting Avery with a louder voice than Wyatt had ever heard him use. He looked between Wyatt and Aldan, glaring as he took a couple more puffs of his cigarette.
Wyatt looked from Gene to Brooke, who had slowly backed away. She looked more worried of Gene than Aldan. Her eyes remained fixed on the older man. He could use that. He stepped around and toward her, approaching her slowly.
"Why do you suspect us?" Aldan asked. "He's the one who messed up Hannah." He pointed toward Wyatt.
"Why are you attacking Wyatt like that?" Avery asked.
"What kind of evidence do you have that he caused this?" Jeremy asked, stepping between Aldan and Wyatt. Avery and Jeremy's actions seemed odd. Wyatt would have never expected them to stand in the way of a fight.
Gene backed away, his left hand still holding the black item in his overall's pocket.
"We've already seen the way he ruined the events of that business park," Aldan said, facing Wyatt. "Now he has somehow ruined this." He motioned around the warehouse. "Only one truck came this way, and it was not the truck my father drove."
That suddenly made sense to Wyatt. He squared off against Aldan, looking past Jeremy and Avery to do so. "You think I convinced your father and your cousin not to come here?"
"You must have done something," Aldan said, but it seemed like he had no tangible evidence.
"You're just guessing?" Jeremy said, folding his arms and sidestepping to block Aldan's view of Wyatt. Jeremy wasn't as tall as either of them, so he had to block the view through distraction also.
"Stop guessing," Avery said, with a glance toward Wyatt. "If you know that he is the one that did this, prove it, or else we should head back to our dorm."
"Why would we go back to our dormitory?" Aldan asked. "Do you want to go back there and wait for Lenny? Do you think he will ever arrive?" He stepped closer but looked at Jeremy.
Wyatt turned toward Brooke, saw the fear widening her eyes, and wished he had his wrist terminal. "Will you help me?" he asked Brooke quietly.
"What else have you changed?" Gene asked, from Wyatt's right.
Wyatt looked at him and felt a hand on his right arm. Everything was falling apart. He had been in that kind of situation before, but never when he wasn't sure what he had done wrong.
"I don't know what I have changed," Wyatt said, glancing over his right shoulder back toward Aldan. "But he seems to think I do." He turned his back on Brooke, feeling her hand slip from his right forearm as he did. "Aldan, I did not give her my wrist terminal. I did not tell her to fix anything. That was not me." He watched the anger blossom in Aldan's face. He wished he could take back the frustration he had expressed through the tone of his words.
"What have you changed?" Aldan asked.
Avery turned sideways and seemed to look beyond Wyatt. She had to be looking at Brooke who seemed to be standing a lot closer to Wyatt. Avery seemed to nod once, before turning back to Aldan. "This is not the place to have this argument. We need to get back to our room."
"You're right," Jeremy said. "Let's get back there and discuss it."
"You're playing with things you can't control," Gene said. "I may not feel it as strongly as you, but I know you are changing things. You're all caught up in this."
"It's all his doing," Aldan said, gesturing toward Wyatt. "I'm trying to stop him."
"And your attempts to stop him are making it worse," Avery said. "We have to work together to fix this."
Aldan shook his head, but before he could say anything, Jeremy spoke.
"We need to go back to the dormitory," Jeremy said, his voice directed at Aldan. "This is not the place for us to discuss this."
"You've already ruined everything," Gene said. "Hannah is gone."
"Come on Aldan," Avery said. "The changes are too much for Wyatt to make on his own. You saw the others in that business park."
Aldan held up his hands. "Stop talking about it in front of this man," he said. "He doesn't need to hear any of it."
"I think he knows more about it than we do," Wyatt said. He looked at Gene, who seemed to start pulling the black object out of his overalls. He only pulled it out slightly, and Wyatt thought he recognized the notebook's design. But before Gene's hand pulled it out of his pocket, Aldan interrupted the silence.
"I've had enough of this," Aldan said. "Let's get out of here."
Wyatt looked over his right shoulder and saw Brooke standing right behind him. She shook her head at Aldan's comments and possibly the others.
"Let's get back to our dormitory and make a plan," Jeremy said. "Wednesday, April 5, 2090, 2:00 am. Does that sound good?"
Aldan sighed but nodded. "Okay," he said, working his wrist terminal. "Let's go."
"Don't ruin anything else," Gene said as Jeremy and Avery opened their portals and stepped through.
Aldan watched Wyatt and Brooke. His eyes focused on Wyatt's for a moment before he turned back toward Gene for a second. Finally, he opened his portal.
The resonance filled the area as Brooke grabbed Wyatt's right arm and pulled him back through her portal.
CHAPTER nineteen
WAREHOUSE ENTRANCE, R549PS
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2039, 10:30 AM
Stumbling to the concrete floor surrounded by shelving that wasn't bare, Wyatt struggled to figure out where he was. The nausea and dizziness filled him as he remained on his knees.
"Where are we?" Wyatt asked as Brooke coughed beside him.
"I'm sorry," Brooke said. "But Aldan seemed too upset."
Wyatt watched her and couldn't help laughing. "So, where have you taken us?" He scanned the shelving around him, seeing it both empty and full at the same time. As the resonance wore off, so did the memories of the full warehouse shelving. The shelves stood empty.
"I took us back to the warehouse entrance," Brooke answered. "I wanted to see how much we had actually ruined things."
"You don't think I ruined them?" Wyatt asked, pushing himself back on his knees and watching her.
Brooke pushed her hair ou
t of her face and watched him. "I saw the older version of Hannah and the younger version who told you to drive that car." She laughed and smiled at him. "Something else is going on. No offense, but you aren't that good at this."
"Have you seen Jarod do anything?" Wyatt asked, testing her reaction.
Brooke started to shake her head then stopped. She looked at him. "You don't think he is behind this, do you?"
"All the evidence seems to point to Hannah," Wyatt said.
"Or you," Brooke added. "But I don't think you could make all the changes we have seen."
Wyatt returned her smile and brushed his hands off on his pants. "What date and time did you take us to?"
With her smile growing, Brooke rose to her feet. Her pants, just above her ankles still wore the dust. He wanted to ask her about that, but she smiled at him. Her smile stopped him.
She motioned for him to come closer as she held out her wrist terminal.
"Why October 15, 2039?" Wyatt asked. "That's—"
"That's the last day you saw Hannah," Brooke said. "This is the date she took your wrist terminal."
Scanning the shelving, Wyatt nodded once, then shook his head. "But it has changed since then," he said. "That time, the shelves had been full."
Brooke's smile faded and she motioned for him to follow her. "That's not good," she said. "Come on."
"What?" Wyatt asked.
"We don't want to be here when you arrive again," Brooke said. "We only have about twenty-five minutes before then."
Wyatt couldn't help laughing as he followed her along the aisle. No one else seemed to be in the aisles nearby, which bothered him a little bit. But being away from Aldan helped him remain a little calmer.
"This is different than that the time when she took my wrist terminal," Wyatt said as they entered a small gap between shelving.
Brooke turned and looked at him, leaning her back against the shelving. They were not hiding very well. Since the shelving was empty in the two rows to either side of where they stood, anyone would be able to see them.
"This is not a good place to hide," Brooke said.
"That's what I'm saying," Wyatt said. "More of this has changed since I was last here." Even as he said it, he struggled to remember exactly which memory was right.
Dissonance (The Machina of Time Book 2) Page 17