Dissonance (The Machina of Time Book 2)

by Daniel R. Burkhard

  "The past you are trying to protect never existed," Wyatt said. "I've been trying to fix what you changed. At least now I can prevent you from traveling."

  "You're wrong," Jarod said. "I think Linda will help me." He finally managed to rise to a seated position, still holding his left side. As he moved, Wyatt scanned the warehouse. The device showed he had come back after his last time in that aisleway.

  The device seemed to show it was 9:15 am. The date was April 11, 2090.

  "I should have made sure that car got you," Jarod said. He pushed himself to his feet slowly.

  Wyatt looked away, scanning the aisle. It had been almost an hour since the last time he had been in that section. Jarod's two large men were not in sight, and that worried him. He also didn't see Brooke. Full shelving on both sides of the aisle prevented him from getting a good look in either direction, but no one was in sight along both directions along the aisle.

  "Why did you set it to come back here?" Wyatt said, turning back on Jarod.

  Jarod just watched him. No answer would come out of him. In the back of his mind, Wyatt wondered how much of an enemy he had made with Jarod. Seeing Jarod in pain, he wondered if he should use the device and just send Jarod somewhere. He shook his head and backed away. That would be the same thing he had done to the older Jarod and look where that put him.

  "I'm not the only one out to stop the Machina's plans," Jarod said.

  "I figured as much," Wyatt said, stuffing Jarod's device into his pocket. "Is Linda working with you?"

  "Linda?" Jarod asked. "She was supposed to help. She arrived in the future to stop me from leaving."

  "That didn't work," Wyatt said, watching Jarod.

  "There are a lot of people who might help me," Jarod said, backing away along the aisle. "The Machina is the wrong control of time travel. You'll see. The Machina will fail. It doesn't prevent paradoxes."

  Those words from Jarod made him feel watched. Besides the cameras that hung above the aisles he felt like he was alone.

  He turned away from Jarod and look across the blue line in the aisle. On the other side of that line, it would be 2039. Brooke may be on the other side, and so would Hannah.

  "This isn't over," Jarod said, as Wyatt began to walk away. "It will never end."

  "You're right," Wyatt said over his shoulder. Jarod's last words hung in his mind. That must be one of the paradoxes. His mind chose that moment to replay what Hannah had told him. He still had to find her and give her the notebook and his wrist terminal.

  He pulled Jarod's device out of his pocket and thought about going back to stop himself from being sent to the future. He thought about going back and stopping Jarod earlier. Paradoxes. How big of a paradox could he create? If he acted out any of those, he might remove himself from existence. Even the future Jarod had tried a few times to capture him, but it sounded like those attempts had failed. He thought about the version of Linda that had arrived in 2123. She had tried to prevent Jarod from leaving. Was Jarod already trapped in a causal loop?

  That made his mind ache to think about.

  As he moved along the aisles, he couldn't shake the feeling Jarod would always be out to get him. He glanced over his shoulder as he crossed the blue line and lost his balance.

  Jarod had left. Without the device, he knew Jarod couldn't go far.

  His pulse quickened. It pounded in his ears as he moved along the aisle. At the next gap between shelves, he ducked across into the next aisle then the next. After moving two aisles over, without seeing anyone, he continued toward the warehouse entrance area, and the oddly stacked pallets. He moved quickly, jogging the last few minutes to get close. Before he neared the end of the aisle and the space in the middle, he saw other people.

  The scene played out the way Wyatt had already seen and experienced it.

  "No reason for a gun here," Gene's voice said. "That's not needed."

  It had happened so many times already, Wyatt thought he could recite the words. He watched as Gene stepped around that younger version of himself and pulled the notebook out of the pocket of his overalls.

  "The Machina needs to be stopped," Linda said, and Wyatt saw her standing to the left of where he hid in the shelving. "That notebook you have ruins everything. You should have never documented all of your location codes."

  "Put the gun down," Gene said.

  "How do you know what is on the notebook?" Wyatt's earlier version asked.

  Seeing it all unfold in front of him was both interesting and scary. What if this time, Linda's shot didn't miss? It forced him to remain quiet and watch the scene play out.

  He missed some of the interaction because of two large figures that approached from behind him. They moved along the aisle toward the growing conversation.

  "Put the gun down," Gene said. "I could hand this over to you." He held up the notebook Wyatt had seen earlier.

  Wyatt reached toward his back pocket and relief filled him as he felt the notebook still there.

  "Where did you get that?" Linda asked.

  "Is that the same notebook?" Hannah asked.

  "It doesn't matter where I got it," Gene said, focusing his attention on Linda. "Don't you see? The more you worry about time travel getting out, the more control you think you can gain." He coughed a couple of times and lowered his right hand.

  "Give me that," Linda said, turning the gun toward him.

  "It won't help you," Gene said. "You say the Machina ruins time travel, but you're wrong. It is only the first to generate the ability." He coughed again.

  It all played out how Wyatt remembered. He saw Linda step closer to Gene, aiming her gun at him, and heard his earlier version speak. "Don't shoot him. It's not worth it."

  Wyatt watched as that version of Hannah with Wyatt moved around in front of him. He took a quick glance behind and couldn't see the two larger men who approached. With luck, they wouldn't see him.

  "What are you doing?" Linda said, bringing Wyatt's attention back to the scene. She turned the gun back on that younger version of Wyatt.

  What if she really shot him? Wyatt felt his fear rising and his adrenaline bursting into his body. He wanted to act, he wanted to help. Seeing Linda's aim with the pistol from that close distance to his earlier self, he couldn't let her shoot him. But if he stopped her, would he change his present?

  Seeing the fear widening his younger version's eyes, Wyatt reacted. He dove out of the shelving and raced the few steps toward Linda as the resonance ballooned and his earlier version backed through the portal.

  Linda's gun went off, but because of Wyatt's impact with her, the bullet didn't strike its mark. Was that how it happened before?

  Hannah screamed, and Gene moved closer as Wyatt pinned Linda on the ground.

  "Get off me," Linda said, twisting the gun as if she were trying to get a good shot off at him. "You're ruining everything."

  "That's all your doing." Hannah said.

  Linda's struggles to get the gun turned back on Wyatt made it fire once more. Shouting came from the direction she fired.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Wyatt saw another man approaching. The way he walked it had to be Jarod. A moment later, he saw the two large men flanking him. But Jeremy and Avery followed them.

  "Get off me," Linda shouted, firing two more times. The top of a pallet near Gene's head exploded, and he stumbled backward, grabbing his left shoulder.

  The resonance bloomed from somewhere nearby. Hannah shouted something. Wyatt felt its disorienting wave wash over him, threatening to undo his resolve.

  Wyatt focused on Gene. He couldn't tell if Gene had been shot or just struck by shrapnel, but the older man had dropped to his knees and Linda managed to shift herself onto her back, knocking Wyatt off balance.

  "Don't do this," Wyatt said, struggling to remain on top of her. "I don't know who you are. But you are not making anything right."

  Linda's eyes shot to his as she raised her gun toward Wyatt's side. "Get off me."

  Wy
att looked from her face toward the gun and climbed off her. He got to his feet but slowly, while holding his hands out.

  "I know what you want," Wyatt said. "You've said what you are after."

  "Shut up," Linda said. She looked around as if waiting for others to show up. "I'm trying to save someone."

  Hannah stood behind her, crouching down near where Gene had taken a knee. No blood was visible on Gene's shoulder, at least, not yet. Jarod approached from the direction Wyatt had come. He stopped twenty feet away from Wyatt.

  "All the work you have done," Linda began, "has ruined the past. This is not the way this is supposed to be. The Machina was never this powerful." Her right hand shook with the gun.

  "Do you hear yourself?" Hannah said. "You're like me. You can't feel the resonance. How do you know any of this is wrong?" She stopped as Linda spun and pointed the gun at her.

  Without thinking, Wyatt stepped closer to Linda. It was only a step before he realized what he had done.

  "Don't come any closer," Linda said, shifting to stand sideways and swinging the gun back in his direction.

  "She's right," Jarod said as he stepped around a pallet to Wyatt's left. His voice made it sound like he was straining against the pain in his ribs, which was good, Wyatt thought. That meant he was the same version of Jarod that he had been with a moment ago. He pointed toward Wyatt. "All your actions have ruined all we have worked for."

  "You've messed up the past," Wyatt said. "That was not me."

  "The changes were all because of you," Linda said, swinging her gun around to face Jarod. "The past has to be corrected to save him." She motioned toward Jarod.

  "Killing me won't do that," Wyatt said. The sweat stung where it ran down the scratches and scrapes of his back. Linda's right hand twitched as she regripped her pistol. Whether that was because of what he had said, Wyatt couldn't be sure. He decided to press on. "I don't understand why you are doing any of this."

  "You know nothing about me," Linda said, swinging her gun back toward him. She stepped a little closer, and Wyatt backed away. "You know nothing of paradoxes. You all go wherever the Machina tells you to and think everything is fine."

  The shelving behind Wyatt prevented his retreat. His left heal impacted the bottom level painfully.

  "Give me that notebook," Linda said.

  "What is so important about that notebook?" Hannah asked.

  Jarod stepped forward and spoke again. "That notebook is the key to knowing where the Machina has controls. With it, we can get places you can't."

  "I bet you wish you hadn't kept it," Gene said, placing his copy of the notebook back in the pocket of his overalls. No one seemed to notice he had stepped around behind Linda.

  All of them seemed to circle Linda as she held her gun pointed at Wyatt. Gene stood behind her and to her right, with Hannah to Gene's left. Jarod was on the other side of Hannah, nearly twice as far away.

  With Linda's attention focused on him, he wasn't sure he could get close enough to catch the gun again. Another shot from this range could kill him. Linda's temples were covered in sweat as she watched him.

  "Give me that notebook," Linda said.

  "Are you really going to kill me for it?" Wyatt asked. "Won't that ruin everything?" He watched the way his words hit her before she shook them off. That moment of distraction was enough for Hannah to step closer to her.

  Wyatt tried not to look at Hannah, but his eyes shifted momentarily in her direction.

  Linda saw it. She rounded on Hannah quickly and Wyatt jumped. Without thinking, he again landed on Linda. Linda fired the gun wildly.

  The bullet ricocheted off the shelving and someone shouted. Wyatt managed to secure her gun arm under his and hold it tight against his body as he dragged her to the ground. She fired again, deafeningly. Her gun hand was just below his left armpit as he held her.

  Pulling her to the ground, he wrestled the gun free of her hand and pushed himself to his feet. Hannah took his place as Linda screamed at him. Her legs flailed in his direction. Just his quick hop backward kept him out of reach of her feet.

  Now he had the gun.

  Gene stood to his right, with Jarod on his left.

  "Nicely done," Jarod said, clutching his left ribs still. "But we should put that away. You haven't solved anything." He grimaced at the pain speaking must have caused him.

  Wyatt spun the gun toward Jarod, stopping Jarod's approach. "Stay back." His mind replayed the injuries he had received from the sedan in the business park. He thought about the shot the younger Jarod had fired in the future he had just come from. This Jarod had no problem with trying to kill him. Maybe that would be the best to stop all this madness.

  His anger and frustration were growing. He gripped the pistol tightly and began to pull back on the trigger. If he killed Jarod, the man would stop harassing him. It would break him out of the loop. It felt so clear in his mind.

  Someone moved heavily behind him.

  "Put the gun away," Gene said from his right side. "Killing him won't fix it."

  "Go ahead and use it," Jarod said, glancing over Wyatt's shoulder as more heavy footsteps approached. "It's probably better than stranding me in a paradoxical future loop." His eyebrows lowered as if he were stealing himself for the shot.

  CHAPTER forty-six

  NEAR WAREHOUSE ENTRANCE, R549PS

  TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2039, 10:25 AM

  "Don't," Hannah said. "It's not worth it."

  "Listen to her," Aldan's voice said from behind Wyatt. His voice was different and prompted Wyatt to look back over his shoulder.

  The resonance exploded in that area and the dizziness struck Wyatt.

  The two figures Wyatt had seen stood beside the older version of Aldan that had come from the dirt road. Behind them stood the younger version of Aldan that had been with Wyatt's group. The older Aldan spoke as Jeremy and Avery steadied each other. One portal closed behind them, and Wyatt thought he saw the two large figures disappear through it. Avery smiled broadly and Jeremy dusted off his hands.

  The two large men were gone. Avery and Jeremy had gotten rid of them.

  "This can't happen this way every time," Jarod said, drawing Wyatt's attention back toward him. Jarod looked down at Linda. "They're gone. They were prepared for both men. You were supposed to fix this paradox. You failed."

  "I will fix this paradox," Linda said as Hannah pressed down tightly on her, strangling her voice.

  "What paradox?" Wyatt asked, realizing he had lowered the gun. He glared at Jarod and brought the gun back up. "You never stop trying to ruin everything we have here."

  "Don't answer that," Linda growled from below Hannah. "He doesn't need to know."

  "Death would be better than living this way," Jarod said.

  Wyatt shook his head, still leveling the gun at Jarod. "What paradox?" Even as he asked the question, he remembered the way Jarod had arrived in the future holding his ribs. The Jarod in front of him also held those ribs. He remembered striking them during the fight.

  "End this for me," Jarod said. "I can't go any longer." He spread his arms wide and watched Wyatt.

  It wasn't making sense. "Who are you?" Wyatt asked waving the gun in Jarod's direction. "Are you the Jarod that I stopped once?"

  "You need to kill me," Jarod said. "It's the only way to stop it the causal loop."

  "Don't," Linda said from the floor. "Please. It won't fix it."

  "She's right," the older Aldan said.

  "Better listen to her," Gene said, stepping away from the older Aldan. He fingered the front of his overalls with his right hand as if he really wanted a smoke.

  "Shut up," Jarod said to her then turned back toward Wyatt. "End it."

  The frustration and anger at Jarod built inside Wyatt. His mind played through the scene in the future. If Jarod was stuck in a loop, Wyatt had perpetuated it. This version of Jarod would arrive in the future where that version of Wyatt attacks him and brings him back only for that same version of Jarod to slip
back to the future somehow.

  He didn't know if that was the original paradox Jarod and Linda had tried to prevent, but it had to be similar.

  Would death be the best way to end it? Wyatt suddenly felt sorry for Jarod. He lowered the gun slightly and remembered the pressure of Jarod's device in his front pocket.

  "Wyatt." It took a moment for his mind to register the new voice that had called his name. "Don't do this." It was Lenny's voice. "The Machina indicates his loop is smaller."

  Time travel was a mess. He couldn't shoot Jarod because that could mean Jarod would never arrive in the future. It seemed likely this version of Jarod existing outside of time in only those few places. He traveled to 2123, fought with Wyatt, who brought him back only for him to travel back.

  Wyatt held the trigger firmly and continued to aim the gun at Jarod. "I don't know if I can do it."

  "You have to," Jarod said. "You don't have any other choice."

  A weight of guilt settled over Wyatt, and he hadn't even fired the gun. He recited what had happened, trying to make himself feel better. "You pushed me in front of a car. You shot at me. You've been trying to kill me this whole time. But I can't do it."

  "That earthquake should have killed you," Jarod said. He stepped closer, stopping within ten feet of Wyatt. "You are the reason I'm in this loop. Go ahead and finish it. You've already taken my past and my future."

  "Don't," Brooke said. "You're not a killer."

  Wyatt blinked as his mind struggled to come to terms with it. "How many times?"

  Jarod shook his head. "An eternity. I've lost count."

  "Wyatt," Lenny's voice shocked him. It had been so long since he had seen Lenny that he wondered if that were his imagination. "Don't shoot him unless the Machina tells you to."

  "Like the Machina communicates with me," Wyatt said over his shoulder toward Lenny.

  "Do it," Jarod said, pleading in his voice.

  "Don't shoot him," Linda said. "Don't ruin everything. I can still save him."

  Jarod looked directly toward Wyatt, his eyes seemingly pleading with Wyatt to shoot him. "I need you to end this loop. It has gone on long enough. The pain is worse each time."