by Melissa Faye
“Then maybe he’s right, June.” Ridge went to the kitchen to pour me a glass of water. “Maybe you back off this one. The man this morning chose to climb the bridge, too. Smith is causing trouble, but you can’t stop people from following him.”
“What about the other people like you? Your team? Who else can help?” Harrison’s pacing created lines of pressed-down rug under his feet.
“My team?”
“Yes, June. How are you involved with this? Who else is there? There must be more people than just you. Maybe someone else in the area?”
“There’s no one else, Harrison.” Ridge avoided making eye contact.
“No one that we know of, at least,” I added.
“You’re not part of...an organization? There must be travelers in other states, or around the world, right? Who takes care of them? Can’t you ask other...people like you...for help?”
I swore under my breath. Ridge knew more than anyone that I had to do this. If I didn’t, no one else would. And besides - letting this traveler stay here and mess around with people’s lives didn’t fit my job description.
“I don’t know if anyone else does this. It’s not like I was recruited.”
Harrison put his hands on the back of his head.
“There have to be others, June. Someone who can help...”
I huffed. I only had so much mental energy left, and wasn’t going to waste it on explaining things better for Harrison. I never met anyone doing what I did, guarding our Present, but Ridge and I figured there must be others. Otherwise the world would be overrun by travelers already. Then again, maybe they were all over the place and no one was the wiser. It didn’t matter. I had one traveler at hand who needed to be dealt with. I took a few deep breaths before speaking finally.
“Ridge, he told me where he’s going to be tomorrow night. The Four Kings. He practically dared me to find him again.”
Harrison threw his hands up in the air. “You want him to stop manipulating people, so you’re letting him manipulate you! Are you kidding me right now? Absolutely not. We are not going to that bar tomorrow. Someone else can handle Smith. You’re not even supposed to be out and about, June. You have a concussion.”
“It’s mild,” I snapped, narrowing my eyes. I also had some bruises and scrapes, but neither of the two men who thought I needed them taking care of me needed to know about that. “And you’re right. We’re not going. I’m going. You can go back to school and forget about it.”
Harrison gestured wildly to Ridge. Ridge was, as usual, amused.
“This one has a point, June,” he explained calmly. “You’re letting the traveler manipulate you. That’s not going to solve anything.”
“Then help me figure out what to do. Tell me! What else do I do?”
Ridge sat next to me on the couch.
“Give me the Face Finder. I’ll follow him around tomorrow. Maybe I can see what he’s planning.”
I leaned back and exhaled slowly.
“He’s using...something.” I hated not being able to use the Face Finder; it was such a basic and necessary tool. “He’s scrambling digital images of himself somehow. I can’t pick him up.”
“Then what about my map?”
Ridge’s Map. It was the other tool I used to track people around the city, except instead of using cameras, it tracked a person’s genetic materials. It was less exact, but it could work. I couldn’t think of any way Smith could disguised himself genetically.
Harrison passed me my messenger bag, and I got to work with some scotch tape, looking for Smith’s DNA. After several attempts traced my own genetic location to Ridge’s apartment, I found something. I passed the device to Ridge.
“That’s a nice hotel he’s staying at.” Ridge looked at me. “Exactly how much is he making on these bets?”
“He said something else. It’s easy for him to hack into the banks to pad his own bank accounts. The dares are just about having fun. He doesn’t care about the money he wins playing darts or climbing bridges.”
“I can help,” Harrison offered. He stared at the small device in Ridge’s hand. It was a metal box with a screen on top that pointed out the location of Smith’s hotel in midtown. “I can come with you tomorrow, Ridge, and June can stay in bed.”
“You should go to classes, son,” Ridge said kindly. “I’ll be fine.”
“Harrison, you have to decide. I’m going to find Smith tomorrow and try to send him home again. You can come if you want to help. But if you’re going to waste my time trying to convince me to stay home, don’t bother.”
Harrison scratched the back of his head again.
“Of course I’m going to help.”
Chapter 6
I emailed my professors in the morning to let them know about my concussion. The doctor recommended taking at least two or three days away from my classes, and I obliged. At least it would give me more time to figure out what to do about Smith.
I couldn’t shake Harrison all day. I lay on the couch in the suite’s common room, mumbling to myself about Smith. Harrison insisted that I stay off my technology – the doctor told me to avoid screens – so he fielded texts and calls from Ridge while I tapped a pencil against a spare notebook. The page was blank. I had no ideas.
“Ridge doesn’t think he’s doing a good job,” Harrison called to me from my bedroom. He’d been rifling through my trunk for an hour after I made him promise to be extremely careful and to definitely not press any buttons.
He appeared at the door of the bedroom and read Ridge’s stream of texts from my phone. “Lost track of him while he walked through Times Square. Sightseeing? Catching up with him again. He’s going to the bank.”
I noticed something else and sat up straight for a better view. “What’s in your hand, Harrison?”
He grinned and held up his hand. My heart skipped a beat. Harrison was holding the Shusher he wore to sneak up on a traveler last month. It was a thin metallic rectangle that the wearer snapped around his or her torso and shoulders. Does he know he’s worn that before?
“This one was calling out to me.” He held it up to the light and his own eyes twinkled. “What does it do?”
“If you put it on, you’re completely silent. Nothing you do makes an audible sound.”
Harrison swung it around so it sat on his back. It was upside down, so I helped him fix it and snap it on. I felt the same déjà vu he did – I had to hook it onto him last time too. I laughed at his face when I switched it on.
“This is incredible!” he mouthed. He hopped up and down on the creaky floorboards, but there was no sound. He ran around the room, knocking on our doors. I laughed until he suddenly stopped, looking down at the straps on his chest. He looked back at me quizzically. I helped him turn off the switch and he slipped it off his back.
“June, I’ve worn that before.”
I pursed my lips. I thought the Swiper Spray was 100% effective, but I never used it on someone I knew before. I’d only used it a few times, and always on strangers who saw something they shouldn’t have seen.
“Right, June? You said something about rice, and helping you, and that I met Ridge before. I don’t remember helping you before, but I remember other things. Like this.” He held up the Shusher.
“I’m sorry, Harrison.”
He sat down with me on the couch.
“What did you do? What did I do?”
“It was before classes started. Ridge was hurt, and I didn’t know how to help him. You helped me figure it out. But I couldn’t let you know more. I erased your memory of the day.”
Harrison sat back on the couch and crossed his arms. It felt like ages before he spoke again.
“The day before classes started, right? Because I remember that day was messed up. It was like it didn’t really happen. I got up for my first class that next day and everything was a blur. My roommate thought I must have been...on something.”
“I’m sorry, Harrison.”
“Are you goin
g to do that again? After we figure out how to stop Smith?”
I turned and faced him directly.
“No. I swear. You helped me out last time, and I couldn’t have saved Ridge without you. And you were incredible last night. I hated doing that to you, and I won’t do it again. You can keep helping me if you want, or you can stop, but I won’t mess with your memory ever again.”
My phone buzzed from the bedroom and Harrison went to get it. I pulled a pillow to my chest and squeezed it tightly while I listened to the distant tapping of Harrison texting back and forth with Ridge.
Harrison reappeared at the door.
“Ridge says Smith visited three different banks. There’s no evidence of him doing anything, but we have to assume he’s moving money around to pay for that hotel room and whatever else he’s doing. Then Ridge says he almost lost him again. Ridge complains a lot, doesn’t he?” I wasn’t sure how to respond – was I was talking to someone who was furious with me or to my new partner? “The map says he’s headed back to the hotel, so Ridge is going home too.”
Guilt seeped into my chest as Harrison joined me on the couch again. My head ached. I couldn’t meet Harrison’s eyes, but I tried to look at him discretely. He had been so excited to be a part of this, and I may have broken his trust permanently. I thought about what it was like the night before when he crouched over me, protecting me from the onlookers who’d seen me get slammed into a wall. And how he sat on the hospital bed with me, and insisted on coming with me to the MRI.
“We can go to the bar a little later.” Harrison’s tone was flat, but at least he still wanted to help. “Do you want to sleep or something?”
“I guess I should.” I was reluctant to get off the couch for fear of Harrison leaving and not coming back.
Instead, he pulled me into a warm hug. Does this mean he forgives me? He brushed his hand against the back of my neck and I could feel the metal of his watch band. I pulled away.
“Harrison, did you notice Smith’s bracelet last night?”
He frowned. “I don’t think so. What was it?”
I took my phone from his hand and searched for the news footage from the courthouse. Sure enough, he was wearing the same metal band around his wrist that I noticed when he grabbed me the night before. I showed Harrison.
“It’s some technology. I knew it when I saw it.” Harrison squinted, leaning in towards the phone. The band wasn’t clear; Smith’s image was still fuzzy. But I saw the glint of silver and knew that must be it.
“That doesn’t surprise me. If he’s from the future, he must have all access to all sorts of technology. Kind of like you, right?”
I shook my head. “No. Sometimes the travelers wear wristbands, but they don’t look like this. This does something else.”
“Maybe it’s how he disguises himself from cameras?”
I grazed my left wrist with my right hand and tried to remember exactly what the band looked like.
“Maybe,” I said. “But why would he bother with it? Why would he care if he’s recorded? He can easily scrub camera footage away if he needs to. He can jump back to his own Present if he wants to escape anything.”
“So what else does the band do?”
“Let’s find out.”
FOUR KINGS WAS IN MIDTOWN near Bryant Park. It was another seedy bar like the Pearl, but a little bigger with a larger crowd. The bouncer wasn’t interested in us, and we walked right in. Ridge had already sent us a string of texts – apparently he was texting directly with Harrison now, too – insisting that we be careful and update him constantly. He sent me articles about taking care of oneself after a concussion.
Stop sending these. I’m not putting this off, Ridge.
I shoved the phone into my pocket.
“I’ll talk to Smith,” I told Harrison. “He wanted me to come, and he’ll like taunting me. You make a play for that bracelet.”
Harrison slipped into a booth with me, and we ordered food while we waited for Smith. The loud music made my headache worse. Harrison slipped me another pain killer.
“Really?”
“Ridge told me to bring some.”
I still wasn’t sure if Harrison had forgiven me, so I accepted the medication without further argument.
Smith finally arrived. The bar patrons recognized him immediately, and within minutes he was surrounded by another rowdy group. They set him up with a pool table in the back of the room, and someone pushed him to show off his skills. I couldn’t see what he was doing, but plenty of cash was exchanged.
The group quieted down as the night wore on. Harrison beckoned towards Smith, and we made our approach.
“I’m glad you came!” Smith called to me. His eyes glanced quickly up to the stitches on my head, then fluttered back down to my eyes. “Oh, and you brought your friend again. And your bag of tricks!” He reached out for the messenger bag, but I swung my shoulder back. I couldn’t help it; my hand slipped into the bag automatically.
“Uh uh uh!” Smith tsked. He wagged a finger at me. “Friends, don’t you think this girl and her friend might be too young to be here at this bar with us?” Several people looked over and laughed before returning to their conversations.
Harrison’s eyes followed Smith’s forearm. The metal band gleamed even under the dark lighting in the bar. I noticed he was still wearing those sneakers with the red glow. How does no one else notice those? I wondered.
“Are you here to see what else I have planned for me and my friends?” Smith smirked. “Tonight’s going to be good. I, for one, cannot wait.”
“Try it,” I sneered. “I’m on to you. You can’t keep doing this.”
“I love it.” Smith looked around for a crowd to entertain with his mocking, but people were mostly absorbed in their own conversations. “You meet me here like a hero coming after the villain, but you can’t do anything. Isn’t that right? You would never attack me in front of all these innocent people in your Present. Wouldn’t want anyone knowing what’s really going on, right?”
I shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
Smith leaned over and whispered into my ear. “I bet you want to take advantage of this Present the way I do. I know your type. You think you’re above doing what I do, but deep down, if things got really rough, you’d make the same choices I make every day. What does it matter? If you can do it, what’s stopping you?”
I shivered. June’s Rules of Time Travel covered my behaviors almost as much as the travelers’. June doesn’t travel. And June doesn’t use her advanced skillset to her own advantage. I thought I would never do anything like Smith was doing, but the idea that one day I would be tempted was terrifying.
Smith’s face brightened as my face fell.
“That’s right. You probably like watching me at work. Don’t you want to know what I have planned for tonight? I bet you want to know. I dare you to ask.”
“I’m sure I’ll see it if I stick around.” I watched Harrison out of the corner of my eyes. He slipped forward, closing the space between himself and Smith. “Or do you want to ruin the surprise for me? Maybe I’m a VIP?”
Harrison’s hand flashed past me. His fingers flew forward towards Smith’s bracelet. Smith’s reaction was too fast for me to catch. Instantaneously, he had Harrison’s wrist in his hand and jerked it upwards.
“I’m disappointed,” he told me. Harrison’s face scrunched up in pain. “I told you not to mess with me. I told you to stay away. Was this your entire plan?” He pulled Harrison’s wrist backwards until Harrison let out a growl.
“I told you, June Moore from Queens. City University of Technology. Is that where you’re learning all about me and my Present? I don’t think you’ll be there much longer.” Smith fluttered his fingers against the cuff on his ear while holding Harrison in place. I watched in horror. Something bad was happening – I could almost feel it in the air – but I had no idea what it could be.
Smith threw Harrison’s wrist down hard, pushing him into a nearby table. T
he group yelled as Harrison tipped over a pitcher.
“Leave and don’t come back, or I’ll do more than get you kicked out of CUT.”
I backed away and reached for Harrison. He grasped his wrist and let me pull him along. We snuck to the side of the bar, as far as we could get away from Smith, and I held onto Harrison’s arm.
“Let me see your wrist!”
“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Harrison clasped onto his wrist but wouldn’t let me touch it. “What did he do? He touched his ear. How does that get you kicked out of school?”
“No clue.”
My phone buzzed. It was an alert from the bank where all of my parents’ life insurance was stored. That was the account that paid for college.
I pulled open the app and logged in, muttering to myself under my breath. It took too long to load. Harrison watched as the loading symbol circled on the screen.
Finally, a message popped up.
ACCOUNT BALANCE BELOW MINIMUM.
The account had a minimum balance of $100, so that message wouldn’t be triggered unless...
I opened the savings account.
$0.00
I turned the screen towards Harrison. “Smith didn’t get me kicked out of college. He just stole thousands of dollars from my savings account, and now I can’t pay for school.”
Chapter 7
I marched out of the bar, ignoring Harrison’s pleas for us to slow down and talk about it. I needed time and space to think this through on my own.
No, what I really need is money.
I came into reasonable amount money when my parents “died.” Their life insurance helped my grandparents take care of me on their social security budget, but most of it was dog-eared for college. CUT was expensive, but the life insurance would pay for it. Ridge said it was lucky, and I knew it. It wasn’t just that I didn’t have to pay for college. I wouldn’t need to pay back student loans after I graduated. I wouldn’t have to take any money from my grandparents. It freed up my time to guard the Present.