by C. J. Hill
Ren turned to Lee and spoke in English again. “We know the QGPs’ probable locations. We can set explosives and take out those rooms.”
“Are you sure you can destroy all of them?” Taylor asked pointedly. “If they aren’t destroyed simultaneously, the scientists will protect the remaining ones. The only way to be sure you get them all is to send signals from the system they’re linked to. You need me for that.” She folded her arms resolutely. “In the new timestream, it’s part of your mission to rescue Sheridan. All I’m asking is that you do it sooner than you were supposed to.”
Lee raked a hand through his hair. “The new timestream is only a blur in my mind. I don’t remember what our contact’s name is or where we’re supposed to meet to rescue Sheridan. The orders I remember—those take precedence. Destroy the QGPs, and then we’ll figure out what to do about Sheridan.”
Lee didn’t remember their contact’s name? The dread tightening around Taylor’s stomach constricted into a painful, jolting knot. She turned to Ren. “Do you know the contact’s information?”
Ren ran his fingers across his eyes, thinking. “Her name started with a P. We’re supposed to meet her near the detention center somewhere.” He scowled, unable to retrieve more information. “After you destroy the QGPs, we’ll go to the detention center. Maybe seeing the building will congeal our memories.”
Maybe. It was as vague as the council’s promise of “try.” Too easy to get out of. Taylor had only one piece of leverage to save her sister, and she had to use it. “If you won’t rescue Sheridan right now, then I’ll go to the detention center and do it myself—and it’s your job to protect me.”
Ren let out a growl and strode back over to Taylor. His muscles were as taut as if he was about to go into battle. He seemed bigger, more menacing than he had before. “No. My job is to see that you destroy the QGPs and then keep you from being captured by either the government or the Dakine. Now you want me to help you—without any sort of workable plan—break into a high-security detention center?”
“Yes,” Taylor said.
Ren lifted his hands in a gesture of disbelief. “I was given orders to kill you if your capture looked imminent. I don’t see how you can break into a detention center without it looking like your capture is imminent.”
Taylor drew in a sharp breath. “You would kill me?”
Ren lifted his hands again, trying to show her the logic. “If I thought it wasn’t possible to rescue you, death would be better than letting someone torture you into using your knowledge to kill others.”
Taylor took a step back from him, indignation pressing her mouth into an open circle. “The council said your orders were to protect me.”
“Yes, well, we all have our secrets.” Ren shot her an impatient look. “Taylor, destroy the QGPs. Then, while Lee gets you out of the city, I’ll rescue Sheridan.”
“I can’t,” Lee said. He stood nearby, arms folded, watching Taylor. “As soon the QGPs are destroyed, my orders are to find and assassinate Reilly.”
Everyone turned and stared at Lee. Ren raised an eyebrow.
Lee shrugged. “As you said, we all have our secrets.”
Taylor glared at both of them. “I heard you promise President Mason—”
“To protect those under our care,” Lee finished for her. “We are. You can’t hold us to orders from the new timestream. We only partially remember them.”
Joseph stood and came around the computer terminal, his comlink in his hand. He took Lee’s comlink so that he could transfer the detention-center schematics to it. “Help me rescue Sheridan first, and then I’ll help you kill Reilly. I made that bargain with one of the sectors in Santa Fe. If Xavier saved Echo, I promised to make sure Reilly was no longer a threat.”
Ren shook his head in amazement. “You see, Brother Lee, this is the problem when factions don’t communicate—a redundant team member. You didn’t need to come along after all.”
“Oh, I needed to come,” Lee said with a forced smile. “Someone has to ensure the mission is a success.”
Ren still shook his head. “After all your father’s talks about peace being a way of life, you’re willing to kill Reilly?”
“You’re willing to kill Taylor,” Lee countered. “Which is worse?”
Echo walked to the computer terminal, a pair of the blue overalls covering his other clothing. “I’d like to point out that I’m not planning on killing anyone. I find that ironic since I’m the one with the Dakine membership.” He sat down in the chair Joseph had vacated and switched the screen back to Joseph’s program. “Tell me again why you can’t strain Sheridan?”
“QGPs identify people by their DNA’s energy signal,” Joseph explained. “The government inserted a chip into Sheridan that’s shielding her energy signal so that the QGP can’t pick it up.”
“How does it do that?” Echo asked.
“I don’t know.” Joseph handed back Lee’s comlink and then turned to get Ren’s. “I haven’t had time to study it.”
“And you don’t have time now,” Ren said, but he let Joseph transfer the detention schematics to his comlink.
Taylor walked over to the computer terminal and studied the screen over Echo’s shoulder. “Can we strain Reilly in here? We could leverage his life for Sheridan’s.”
Lee let out a grunt. “Two of us came here to kill Reilly. That’s not going to give you much leverage.”
“We don’t have Reilly’s energy signal,” Joseph told Taylor. “And even if we did, he probably has an antistraining chip in him.”
Ren pointed his scanner at the bay door. “Eventually, someone isn’t going to care if Helix is in here, and they’ll want to come in. The QGPs need to be destroyed by then, or we’ll have given our lives for nothing.” He gestured to the computer. “Run the destruction program. We’ll take an oath to try to help your sister.”
Try to help? This from the guy who had just admitted he would kill Taylor rather than let her be captured. What sort of help did he have planned for Sheridan?
Taylor looked at the Time Strainer. Purple and white lights blinked at its sides. It let off an electric sort of hum, waiting for further commands. “You all have your own agendas,” Taylor said. “I have mine too. I won’t destroy the QGPs until my sister is safe. That way I know you won’t just try to rescue Sheridan. You’ll do it.”
Lee turned to Joseph. “You can destroy the QGPs, can’t you?”
Joseph’s eyes met Taylor’s. He could. He had seen how she’d done it the first time.
“No,” he said. “Only Taylor knows how.”
This, she knew, was his attempt to make things right between them. Joseph wouldn’t take away her only bargaining chip.
Joseph turned to Ren and Lee. “If you can’t remember the plan to rescue Sheridan, we’ll come up with a new one. The DW will help us.” He held up his comlink screen so that the others could see the schematics he pointed to. “Sheridan’s cell is right here. If we can get inside the detention center dressed as Enforcers, we can bring her out before her memory wash is scheduled.”
Xavier had finished packing up his medical equipment and walked over to join the group. He took four gas masks from one of his packs. Working ones, Taylor supposed. He handed them to Ren, Lee, Echo, and her. “How were you planning on killing Reilly?” Xavier asked Lee.
Lee examined the mask as though he didn’t quite trust it. “Reilly has an apartment here at the Scicenter. After the mission, I’ll wait there until he comes home.”
Xavier took out his comlink and switched on the tracking function. “Men with Reilly’s rank have more than one apartment. It could be days until he shows up.”
“I know,” Lee said. “I’m patient.”
Xavier tapped through the screens on his comlink. “You don’t have to be. Joseph and I have a way to find him.”
Lee stepped closer to him and peered at his comlink screen. “Were you able to locate Reilly’s crystal signature?”
“No.” Xavi
er scrolled through the data on his screen. “My source has never even seen him. But I know the crystal signature of one of Reilly’s assistants. Which means I can tell you that right now Reilly is in the detention center.”
“He’s probably with Sheridan,” Taylor said dully. “Interrogating her.” Memories flashed at Taylor. Reilly’s face leering over her as he hit her.
“Help us rescue Sheridan,” Joseph told Lee, “then I’ll help you kill Reilly.”
Lee nodded, resigning himself to the new plan. “Agreed.”
The knot in Taylor’s stomach finally unloosened a bit. “Good. I’ll go with you.”
“Absolutely not,” Joseph said, at the same time Xavier and Ren added nos of their own.
Lee sent her an apologetic smile. “I would hate to see Ren shoot you.”
“Stay here with Echo,” Joseph told her. “I’ll message you as soon as we have Sheridan so you can destroy the QGPs. Then we’ll meet up at our contact spot.”
The Fisherman’s Feast restaurant. At least, Taylor hoped that was still the spot the DW had designated. Memories from the new timestream were dreamlike, with huge gaps.
Ren checked over the weapons on his belt. “We can’t leave Taylor here unprotected. One of us needs to stay with her.”
“Well, it’s not going to be you,” Taylor told him. “If Enforcers break in here, I know who you’ll shoot first.”
Ren rolled his eyes. “Yes, the Enforcers. Killing you would be a last and desperate option.”
“I’ll stay,” Xavier said. “I should be here anyway in case Echo has any medical problems.”
“You’re a surgeon,” Ren pointed out. “We can’t trust Taylor’s safety to you.”
Xavier tilted his chin down condescendingly, his expression reminding everyone that he was the oldest one in the group—the most experienced. “I’m a paramilitary surgeon. I can shoot as well as the rest of you.”
This seemed to satisfy Ren and Lee. Lee pointed his scanner toward the bay door again, checking how many people were in the hallway. “We can’t risk going outside through any of the building’s exits. If the guards notice we don’t have crystal signatures, they’ll lock down the building.”
Ren switched his comlink to scanner function as well. “We’ll find an empty room on the ground floor, cut through a wall, and then head to the mobile crystal on Charles Street. We’ll figure out how to get into the detention center while we get a car.” He didn’t have to explain why he’d suggested using a crystal that was farther away. He was leaving the closer mobile crystals for Taylor’s group to use.
“The hallway is clear,” Lee said, heading to the bay doors. “Let’s go.”
Ren turned to Xavier. “If something goes wrong . . .” He shot a meaningful look in Taylor’s direction.
Taylor bristled.
Xavier nodded. “I’ll make sure she makes it back to Santa Fe.”
Joseph took Taylor by the arm to get her attention. He kept his voice low and spoke to her in the twenty-first-century accent so that the others wouldn’t understand. “I’ll do everything I can to save Sheridan, but you need to destroy the QGPs as soon as we walk out the door. The last time Sheridan protected you, she told you not to let her sacrifice be for nothing. I’m telling you the same thing now.”
Then he turned and followed Lee and Ren out of the room.
Chapter 15
Taylor walked toward the computer, feeling as though her insides were unraveling. Joseph was right. She needed to destroy the QGPs now. Every second she didn’t was a moment she was gambling with danger. But then again, if a chance existed, however small, that she could find a way around the government’s antistraining chip . . . She should at least try to think of something first.
How could she get through the chip’s scrambling mechanism to get to Sheridan’s DNA energy signal? Taylor’s mind was blank, washed white by panic. Why—when she needed the whole genius thing to kick into overdrive—had her brain stopped functioning?
Xavier stood by the door, laser box in one hand, checking his scanner. Echo sat at the computer terminal, still looking over Joseph’s program. The entire time Taylor had argued with Ren and Lee, she’d hoped Echo would call out, “I’ve found a way to turn off Sheridan’s chip.” But he hadn’t.
Taylor should just destroy the QGPs, and trust Joseph’s team to rescue Sheridan. Taylor walked to the terminal, stopped short, and paced back over to Xavier. A glance at his scanner showed the hallway was empty. Apparently nobody wanted to be anywhere near the room where Helix was. She still had some time. Could she remotely disable the antistraining chip? Could she jam a jammer?
Instead of focusing on this, her mind went to Joseph, Ren, and Lee. What if she had sent them to do something impossible? What if they all died?
She forced herself to think of the problem at hand. Would an electromagnetic pulse knock out the antistraining chip? Was there any way to send one through the detention-center walls? The building probably had safeguards against that.
Taylor walked over to the computer terminal to see if Echo had made any progress. He was flipping through screens, taking in data and code with the same ease Joseph always had. “Having any luck?” she asked.
Echo didn’t take his attention from the screen. “Luck is only part of computigating if you don’t know what you’re doing.” More tapping. “Which in this case applies. So let’s hope so.”
“Do you have any ideas about overcoming the shield?”
“No, but I’m about to try something else.” He got up and went over to a nearby equipment station. This one had a clear tray and a scope that reminded her of a magnifying glass. Echo pulled something from his pocket, slid it into the tray, then tapped some numbers on its monitor.
Taylor watched him. “What are you doing?”
“This is a DNA scanner,” Echo said. He headed back to the computer terminal.
“What did you put in it?”
He didn’t answer, just sat back down at the main computer terminal and typed in commands.
“What are you doing?” she asked again, making sure to emphasize the modern accent. As soon as she repeated herself, she realized it was pointless. Echo had studied the twenty-first-century accent with Joseph. He could understand her either way.
“Back in the twenty-first century,” Echo said, keeping his gaze on the monitor, “parejas had the custom of exchanging rings, didn’t they?”
Parejas? That was one of those Spanish words the twenty-fifth-century English was now sprinkled with. Taylor had taken a crash course on the new Spanish vocabulary when she’d first arrived at Santa Fe and now translated most of it without thinking. This word escaped her. “Parejas? What’s that?”
“You don’t know what a pareja is?” He shook his head. “You must have lived a secluded life.”
“I don’t know what the term means,” Taylor clarified. “I probably know the concept.”
“Couples,” Echo said. “Boyfriends and girlfriends. People in love.”
“Okay, so people exchanged rings when they got married. What does that have to do with DNA scanners?”
“People here exchange rings too. Not only when they get married. Anytime they’re in love. The first ring you exchange is usually braided from your hair.”
That was either charmingly sentimental or creepy. “What does that have to do with Sheridan?” Taylor asked.
“Nothing.”
Taylor stepped closer to the monitor, this time searching it in earnest. Echo had it open to the Time Strainer control panels. Why? Before she could ask, the Time Strainer let out a humming noise that startled Taylor so much, she whirled to look at it. A light at the top of the cubicle glowed. Xavier left his position at the door and edged toward the strainer, laser box in his hand. “What’s happening?”
Echo didn’t answer. Instead he got up and walked over to the Time Strainer chamber.
“What have you done?” Taylor demanded.
He still didn’t answer. Which meant it was
n’t a good thing. Taylor sat down in front of the computer, watching data flash onto the screen. Graphs showed the fluctuating levels of energy, matter, and time. Then she noticed the tab of archived news stories on the bottom of the screen. She opened it and found a report on Allana Arad, murdered by Dakine assassins.
She inwardly groaned. Great. Just wonderful. The Time Strainer had now become a way to reunite the lovelorn. Joseph hadn’t cared about ripping apart the seams in the fabric of time; why should Echo?
Taylor scanned the Time Strainer commands again. Was there a way to stop it? The light at the top of the chamber grew brighter, threw sparks shimmying downward along the length of the booth. She cursed herself for ever leaving Echo alone with the controls. Who knew how much damage he’d done, what he had changed now.
Jaw clenched, she slid her chair closer to the computer. It was her fault for not destroying the QGPs sooner, for hoping she might discover a way to retrieve Sheridan.
Well, Taylor wouldn’t wait any longer. While light from the Time Strainer chamber filled the room, flashing out pulses like a lightning storm, Taylor uploaded her QGP destruct command into the computer. Right before she left the room, she would navigate through Reilly’s program, forcing the Time Strainer to send signals to the QGPs that instructed them to turn their own casings into energy. They’d be destroyed in the process. Immediately after that, the Time Strainer would update its signal settings, saving the corrupted data so that it couldn’t contact QGPs in the past anymore.
Each keystroke felt painful; each was the death of the hope that Taylor could reorder time for Sheridan. Taylor had wanted to spare her sister all the pain Reilly had delivered and the emotional trauma accompanying it.
Now it would be unalterable. This was the timestream they were all stuck with.
Chapter 16
Joseph, Lee, and Ren made their way to an unused room on the first floor without anyone paying much attention to them. Joseph felt numb as he followed the others inside. He felt detached from this building and everything he was doing. His mind reeled between worry and grief. What had Reilly done to Sheridan in the last month and a half? All the time Joseph and Sheridan had spent in Santa Fe together—it was gone. In the new timestream, she didn’t even know he was Joseph and not Echo. Back when she’d been captured by the Traventon government, everyone thought he was Echo.