Dissonance (The Machina of Time Book 2)

by Daniel R. Burkhard

  "Why are you here?" Aldan and Avery asked, almost in unison.

  Linda rubbed her face with both hands and sighed. "This wasn't quite how I was told it would happen," she said. "But I need to know when you came from before I start to answer."

  "We came from a time that is being completely destroyed," Avery said. "Our past is being ruined by someone."

  "By you," Jeremy said.

  Linda's smile returned. "No. It isn't something I did, yet."

  "What are you doing here?" Aldan asked, stepping closer. He almost towered over the blonde woman.

  Wyatt took that moment to scan the woman. Her overly thin figure and short, spiky hair almost gave her a boyish appearance. The large, thin shirt she wore hid her figure, including her small chest.

  "Okay," the woman said. "You know my name already. But you don't have any other information about me?"

  Wyatt glanced toward his wrist terminal. He would be arriving soon, and worried that would make it a bigger issue. It was already 12:48 am. "We only have a few minutes before my earlier version arrives," he said. "We should find a better place to talk."

  Linda nodded and glanced toward Aldan. "I'm happy to talk a bit, but he's right," she said. "We don't want to mess things up any more than they have to be." She motioned along the aisle between the shelves as she spoke. "Let's go back that way and we can talk."

  She stepped past Aldan and started walking that direction. Wyatt followed her, waiting for the others to fall in behind him. He hoped they would move soon because he hadn't seen them when he arrived at 1:00 am. That was only minutes away.

  "Hurry," Linda said over her shoulder.

  "You know Lenny comes to get everyone, right?" Wyatt said. "That happens shortly after I arrived here at 1:00 am."

  Linda nodded where she had stopped walking and waited for Wyatt to step closer. As he stood near her, he wondered at her age. She almost looked more than a few years younger than he and the rest. Asking her about it might cause more concerns, so he stored that thought away.

  Jeremy, Avery, and Aldan followed them as they walked in silence to the end of the aisle, and around the front edge. They were close enough to feel the resonance when Wyatt's earlier version arrived. Wyatt watched through the gaps in the shelving as his earlier version struggled against the effects of the resonance, but it seemed to pass as he had remembered it.

  The dizziness that had filled him as his earlier version arrived dissipated. He turned back to Linda.

  "How old are you?" Avery asked.

  "Do you mean, when was I born?" Linda asked, her smile still there.

  That smile reminded Wyatt of someone else, and he almost asked her if she were related to Lenny but stopped himself. "When were you born, and what is your subjective age?"

  "I think I was born in 2089," Linda said. "And I think I'm about twenty-seven, maybe. Everything is a little hazy the last few years."

  "Why are you here with our group?" Wyatt asked. Her age startled him. She looked much younger and almost boyish. He couldn't shake the thought she was somehow related to Lenny.

  "I was checking some things and needed a rest," Linda answered quietly as Lenny's voice echoed from near the dormitory entrance area.

  "He's coming to rouse the others," Wyatt said. "They leave in a hurry." He watched as his younger self watched that version of Lenny step into the dormitory.

  "This place won't be safe soon," Linda said calmly. "What safe place did you have intended for this trip?"

  "What?" Aldan asked. "We just met you, and now you think we'll share that with you?"

  "Who gave you a wrist terminal?" Avery asked.

  "It wasn't who you might think," Linda answered. Her smile returned and her voice remained calm.

  Wyatt turned from the dormitory entrance. "It wasn't Brooke, was it?"

  "Who is that?" Linda asked, and the inflection in her voice made it seem like she really didn't know.

  "Are you sure you haven't seen her?" Jeremy asked. "She smiles a lot and has a very fast laugh." He nodded to Avery as he spoke but dropped his smile as Linda frowned.

  "What are you doing here?" Aldan asked. "If you haven't made the changes, yet"—he made quotation gestures with both hands—"why are you here?"

  "I'm trying to save someone," Linda responded. "But his troubles haven't started yet."

  "Is it Jarod?" Wyatt asked. If that were the case, she had to know Brooke.

  Linda smiled and nodded her head.

  "Were you in there waiting for him?" Wyatt asked. "Or were you waiting for us?"

  "She was clearly waiting for us," Avery said.

  "I'm not going to answer that type of question," Linda said. "But if we don't get out of here soon, Lenny and the others will find us."

  "What happens then?" Aldan asked.

  "I think we should tell her where we are headed," Jeremy said, then shrugged when Aldan and Avery both looked at him. "What else are we going to do?"

  "We don't know if we can trust her," Aldan said.

  "I don't trust her," Avery said.

  "You're going to have to," Linda said. "I'm the one that knows what will happen."

  "Then tell us and we'll deal with it?" Aldan said.

  Wyatt felt the contention rising and looked from Linda to Aldan. He needed a way to calm things, and all he had were the words of the older Aldan. "I was told you were the key to all of this," he said, directing his words at Linda. "Someone I trust told me you were the key to getting all this sorted out." He turned back toward Aldan and Avery. "I think we should trust her."

  Aldan shook his head. "Some of us don't trust you."

  "Please," Wyatt said, feeling his anxiety growing. "Your versions that were sleeping in the dormitory with her may be coming this way." He knew those versions would leave but hoped to spur Avery and Aldan to action.

  Aldan looked toward the dormitory door through the gaps in the stocked shelves. Wyatt couldn't tell if he was looking at that version of Wyatt that stood near the door or something else.

  "It will be harder to leave if we don't get away soon," Wyatt said. "That version of me there only felt the resonance as our versions left with Lenny and again as we all showed up. Let's not mess that memory up."

  Aldan smiled and nodded. "Okay," he said. "Tell her where we should go."

  Wyatt turned toward Linda, who stood with her face still broken with the smile. She looked a lot like Lenny, he realized. Her face was thinner, and her hair was blonde. But even though she smiled in the same way, he decided she only looked like him because she was thin.

  "Are you related to Lenny?" Avery asked.

  Linda smiled back quizzically at her but didn't give any positive or negative response.

  "R720RS," Wyatt said, deciding that if the older version of Aldan trusted Linda, he could. "Saturday, November 3, 2040, 6:00 am." He caught the way Jeremy and Aldan turned their worried gazes on him and added. "Someone I trust told me she was a key. This will help."

  "Got it set," Linda said. "Now we should wait until we begin to feel the resonance before we leave." No sooner had she finished than the portals began to open, and their group emerged into the dormitory entrance area.

  Taking that as her cue, Linda activated her portal and the rest followed. Wyatt watched each of them step through before activating his and following.

  CHAPTER thirty

  DIRT ROAD, R720RS

  SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2040, 6:00 AM

  The cold, brisk air struck Wyatt right before the full effect of the resonance hit him. Avery and Aldan coughed to his left, and Jeremy crouched in front of him. It took a few seconds to find Linda, and when he did, he wondered at his choice to bring her along.

  Linda stood in the middle of the dirt road her arms spread wide as she faced them. Her smile still planted on her face.

  "Doesn't the resonance affect you?" Wyatt asked as he rose shakily to his feet. "Don't you feel the changes you are making?" He stepped backward over the lip of the dirt road and waited for the other
s to rise. In the east the sky had brightened slightly, and he thought he could see his earlier version walking along the road where it angled to the south around a hill. After watching for a moment, he realized it was just a dog or some other wild animal.

  "That's why I'm here," Linda responded, but it wasn't quite the answer Wyatt was looking for.

  "How would you know something is wrong if you can't feel the resonance?" Avery asked.

  Linda licked her lips and lowered her hands. "You have to trust me," she said. "A lot will happen in the next little bit, and you need to trust me. I can fix it. Just trust me."

  "Is this some kind of trap?" Aldan asked, glaring at Wyatt. "We shouldn't have trusted you."

  "Whatever it may look like to you," Linda began, "it is not a trap. Think of it more as an adjustment."

  "An adjustment?" Wyatt said. "But I was told you were a key to all of this. Is that an incorrect statement?"

  Linda's smile faded and she glanced toward the sky for a moment. "I guess we still have a little time to discuss this," she said. "I want you to trust me. That is the only way we are going to fix anything you have already seen. Adjustments have to be made to stop the paradoxes."

  "Okay," Avery said, stepping closer to Jeremy. "We're listening. How do we fix this?"

  "What have you seen so far?" Linda asked and held her right hand up to slow their answer. "That's important because I need to determine how far along you are."

  "How far along we are?" Aldan asked. "What are you talking about?"

  Wyatt thought her words seemed to go along with what Brooke had said. "Hey guys," he said. "I think we need to listen to her."

  "Trust me," Linda said, folding her arms, evidently now feeling the chill of the air. "What is the first change you remember? For me they tend to be circular and paradoxical. I don't know if I remember where I started."

  Wyatt tried to think back as far as he could, but the first change he could remember happened in the business park. "We were in R259PS on July 7, 2089. That was the first batch of changes I remember."

  "We're not going back there," Aldan said. "That was too dangerous." He shot a glance toward Wyatt and Wyatt had to look away.

  "We were first sent there to block the street," Avery said.

  "The Machina sent us to act as future fixers," Wyatt added. "But we got there, and the street was empty. Nothing moved, except one car that either ran me over or almost ran Avery over. I have both memories." He left out the fact he might have been the driver, but Aldan didn't.

  "Wyatt also drove that car," Aldan said, scanning the dirt road from left to right. "But that was in a later time."

  "One of the times I drove it," Wyatt said. "But that was only because no one else was there." He tried to glare at Aldan but couldn't hold it long. As he looked away, Avery spoke.

  "But I saw no one in the car, either time," Avery said.

  "That doesn't matter," Jeremy said. "Those cars were semi-autonomous. They could drive themselves."

  Wyatt remembered his struggle to drive the car in manual mode and not be seen. The guilt that came with that feeling weighed heavily on him.

  "You drove that car because you had to, right?" Linda asked, shifting to stand directly in front of Wyatt, but a few feet away.

  Wyatt looked at her for a moment then glanced toward the others before he answered her question. "Our memories had already been changing by that point. I didn't want to ruin it more."

  Linda nodded. "That sounds like something I would do," she said. "You jumped in the nearest car and made the memory play out the way you remember it." She folded her arms for a moment. "You didn't even stop to think of the changes that would bring." She shook her head.

  "What changes did it bring?" Wyatt asked as his mind began to fill with theories. He didn't need her to answer, but her answer reflected what he had thought.

  "Whoever drove that car, now missed that car," Linda said. "What other effects has it caused?"

  "Are you saying I messed all this up?" Wyatt asked, feeling anger growing. Part of that anger was at himself. Not only had he messed up his own memories, but he ended up with extra memories.

  "Every action has an effect," Linda said. "Imagine your next action here leading you back to where you found me, only to come back here with me to have you do that same action to lead you back."

  Wyatt's mind spun at that thought. He glanced toward the others.

  "That doesn't happen," Jeremy said. "Time is better than that."

  "Do you really think so?" Linda said, unfolding her arms.

  "We would remember it if it had happened that way," Avery said.

  "Why?" Linda said. "Wouldn't it get to a point where you would simply exist? After you entered that loop, your continued existence would perpetuate it."

  "So, we would just change what we have done," Avery said. "It seems pretty simple to me."

  With a broad smile, Linda turned to face him. "Do you trust me yet?" she asked.

  "Are you trying to fix a loop like that?" Wyatt asked, remembering the way Brooke had talked about Jarod being stuck in a loop. "You're not fixing it for you"—he shook his head at Linda—"You're fixing it for Jarod."

  "You see it," Linda said, smiling broadly. "Now do you trust me?"

  Aldan shrugged and looked at Avery. Avery looked at Jeremy. All three of them looked at Wyatt. He couldn't tell if they were waiting for him to answer that question or not. Wyatt knew he had to say something to ease their concerns, but he wasn't sure he was ready to tell them about Aldan's older version.

  "You seem to have more reason to trust me than the rest," Linda said. "Could you tell them who told you to trust me?"

  Wyatt watched her blue eyes for a moment. As her smile faded slightly, she looked older. She matched his gaze in an almost challenging manner.

  The first to look away, Wyatt turned toward Aldan. "An older you told me to trust her," he decided to start with just enough to get Aldan to believe him.

  "That is weird," Avery said. "When was that?"

  Wyatt glanced toward his wrist terminal, saw it was 6:13 am., and let out a laugh. "Probably in just a few minutes."

  "Where?" Avery asked and Wyatt pointed along the dirt road toward the hill.

  "Back around that hill," Wyatt said, watching Aldan as he spoke.

  Aldan's face tightened as he stared into the darkness in that direction. Wyatt decided Aldan knew more about this area than he had let on. That thought ruined his earlier thoughts about Brooke. He had no idea if the wrist terminal she had used had actually come from Aldan, but with the way Aldan acted, he couldn't dismiss the thought that Aldan had come here before.

  "You've been here," Wyatt said, as he stepped toward the center of the road. He realized he had his back turned toward Aldan and said it again as he turned around and faced Aldan.

  "How would I have come here?" Aldan said, spreading his arms wide. "I've been with the group every place that we have gone."

  "No. you haven't," Avery said. "When we went back to stop Hannah from entering the warehouse, you didn't come with us."

  "Yes," Aldan said. "I did."

  "What moment are you talking about?" Linda asked, her smile gone.

  "Don't give her that information," Aldan said as he stepped closer to Wyatt. "I don't trust her."

  "But you will, it seems," Linda said. "What harm could it do?"

  "You don't feel the resonance," Avery said. "If we tell you that time, what would you do with it?"

  Linda frowned slightly, before smiling again. "So, what are you going to do now?" She wrapped her arms around her thin frame as if to keep warm as the dawn breeze picked up around them. "It sounds like each of you remember the experiences differently. How do you know what is real?"

  "Stop," Aldan said. "I'm not doing this here."

  "Just tell us where you went when we tried to stop Hannah," Avery said.

  "He doesn't want to tell us because he came here," Wyatt said. "But it gets worse. Jarod was here later today." It felt awk
ward to talk about things that had both already happened and not quite occurred. He struggled with what tense to use as he spoke.

  Linda smiled, seemingly at his words, and looked up toward the sky which had lightened more. "I think you're right," she said, her eyes still trained on something in the dark sky. "That may be what I needed. Maybe it changes today."

  "What are you talking about?" Aldan asked as Linda looked at her wrist terminal.

  Wyatt watched her, inching closer until he realized she was not activating a portal. She seemed to be just looking at the time. Above the time he saw 5:50 am.

  "What happens today?" Avery asked.

  "The end of your struggles," Linda said. "Your memories will be fixed today. The paradoxical loop will stop." She smiled broadly and looked directly at Avery.

  The confidence that small woman showed as she spoke seem misplaced on her small frame. Wyatt found himself thinking back to the way the older Aldan had spoken about Linda. That older version had not said she was a key. That older version had simply said she was quite important.

  He felt his anxiety build as he looked back toward Linda. Her eyes caught his and she pressed her lips together for a moment, before baring her teeth in a smile again.

  "Are you here to help us, or harm us?" Wyatt asked, shifting away from Linda until he bumped into Aldan.

  "Why do you suddenly not trust her?" Aldan asked. "What changed?"

  "Linda," Wyatt said. "You seem to have known we were coming here. How?"

  Linda stared at him, her smile didn't fade, but her eyes narrowed slightly. It looked like she had not been expecting that response from him.

  "Who are you really?" Aldan asked.

  "How long did you stand there waiting for us?" Avery asked, pointing toward Linda's wrist terminal.

  Her words brought back the numbers Wyatt had seen above the current time. He cursed himself for not understanding it earlier. The 5:50 am. above the current time on Linda's wrist terminal was the last setting she had activated.

  Aldan stepped closer to her, his eyes watching her hands. "If you reach for that wrist terminal, I'll break your arm," he said with a smile.