Paradox (Travelers Series Book 2)

by Claudia Lefeve

  Kyle Reese! “You know, I’ve often wondered about that.”

  Cooper’s eyes flicker in confusion. “You have? And who’s Kyle Reese?”

  “Well, yeah. From The Terminator. Every time I watch it, I’m always confused by the whole scenario.”

  He raises his eyebrows. “Really? So, the concept of causal loops is something you’ve actually thought about? Don’t tell me this is another one of your famous film reviews?”

  “Hey, don’t knock it. And yes, I’ve thought about it. In my last reality, you couldn’t turn on a network channel and not find one of the Terminators being aired. See, I always had a problem with the storyline…” I stop as I know I’ve lost both my dad and Cooper. Neither of whom have ever seen or heard of the film. “Okay, so hear me out. In the future, the world is run by machines when Project Skynet goes all viral and tries to wipe out humanity. There’s a human resistance that’s led by this guy, John Connor. Now, the machines send the T-800, who’s played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, to kill John Connor in different times in history—”

  “Arnold Schwarzenegger, as in the former president?” My dad cuts in, clearly bewildered. He’s finally back with us and decides to rejoin the conversation. I want to ignore him, after what he just admitted to me, but I put that aside for a moment and continue.

  “Oh, yeah, he was a politician in my old reality too, but he became a governor after he became an actor,” I explain, remembering that certain current events did not occur here in this reality. I guess the foreign born rule for running for president is different in this reality. “Anyways, they send the T-800, or the Terminator, back to kill his mom Sarah, before John Connor is born. But see, in the first movie, the humans somehow manage to send in Kyle Reese to protect John Connor.”

  “Okay, Etta. I don’t see how this is an example of a causality loop,” Cooper says, trying to bring me back to the topic at hand.

  I put my hand up to stop him. “I’m not finished. So, Kyle goes back in time to protect the unborn John, only he hooks up with John’s mom Sarah, who later gives birth to John, making Kyle the father.” I take a deep breath, having said everything in a rush, so as not to be interrupted again. “Now, here’s what I never understood, if the human resistance never sent Kyle back to protect John Connor, he would never have been born, thus no leader of the human resistance to send Kyle back to begin with!”

  The two of them continue to stare at me as if I had suddenly grown two heads. Cooper finally cracks up, breaking the tension in the room. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard the causality loop explained so, ah, eloquently, but essentially you’re right, if I’m to understand you correctly.”

  I smile, thankful for finally being able to understand something involving time travel that doesn’t require a chart to understand. “You know, maybe my knowledge of movies helped me come up with the idea in the future. You know, like sending someone back in order to ensure my safety.”

  My dad nods in appreciation. “I must agree with Cooper. The thought process in which you’ve come to analyze and dissect the theory of the predestination paradox is quite…ingenue.”

  I push my dad further for clarification. “And you think you can stop me somehow from fulfilling that future?”

  “You have to understand my position, Etta. It is my intent to stop you from going over to the other reality, ultimately forming a crusade against Thornberry. As Cooper pointed out earlier, we don’t know the outcome.”

  My body tenses up and I feel the familiar feeling of my blood pressure rising. The books behind my father begin to wobble in the bookshelf. How dare he suggest I just simply forget about everything. Does he think he can just prevent me from fulfilling my destiny because he feels guilty? If finding out I was the spark that spurred his drug trials made me mad, this is much worse.

  Cooper can sense my building frustration and takes my hand. This seems to calm me down a bit before I ask my next question to no one in particular. “So, this loop or predestination paradox, it can be broken?”

  “In theory, no. We are forever destined to repeat the same events over and over, hence the ‘loop’.” No matter what you try to do to change past events, it ends up looping back to the original point in time,” Cooper answers. “Everything that is supposed to happen, happens. It’s destined.”

  “Trapped.” Much like the Terminator franchise. The cycle of events continue, even when they try to kill John through the various stages in his life. Somehow, some way, even when they destroy the technology used to create Skynet, all the events still manage to occur.

  “In a manner of speaking, yes. This is why it is futile for your father to try to prevent you from traveling to the other universe. You’ll only end up repeating what is predestined. It may follow a different path, but the end result is the same.”

  “But it can happen,” I insist. I’m determined to get a straight answer. Is my dad capable of breaking that loop?

  “As in all theories, I guess it could, theoretically,” my dad admits.

  “And you’re trying to test that theory.” I’ve had enough of this conversation. I grab Cooper’s arm in an attempt to storm out of my father’s study. I take one last look at my dad before I leave. “We’re not done.”

  Due to my emotional state, I don’t think it’s wise for me to stay. I’m liable to destroy all the contents in his office.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Anything for a Friend

  The Year 2011

  Dominion Strategies, Inc.

  It’s been days and Jaime still doesn’t understand why she’s being held here in this place with her dad. One minute, she remembers enjoying a fun girls night with Etta, and the next, she finds herself in this god awful facility where she’s been locked up in a room. The first few days, she bawled and cried for someone to get her out, but after her futile attempts to get anyone’s attention, she simply gave up. After the third day, her father finally made his presence known and he offered no explanations as to why they were there.

  She’d lost track of the days, but she knows it’s been at least a week. Ever since her father came to check-up on her, he’s been formal and curt. Not that he’d ever be nominated for a ‘father of the year’ award, but back at home he was at least civil toward his daughter. Now, he was beginning to scare her. Aside from him sending people to bring her food, she got very little attention from her father.

  Today, he appeared a little less stiff as her father entered, what she liked to call, her own personal hell-hole. She wasn’t even afforded the luxury of showering on a daily basis and there wasn’t even a mirror in the room. Jaime knew she probably looked like crap, but then again, she didn’t receive much by way of visitors, other than her father, those who brought her food, and some medical looking people who checked her vital signs every couple of days to administer some kind of treatment. That’s what her father called them, treatments. But for what, Jaime had no clue.

  “Hello, Jaime. I trust you are doing well today?”

  “Dad, please tell me what’s going on. What am I doing here?” Every time he stopped by for a visit, she’d ask the same questions. “When do we get to go home?”

  “Soon, soon. I promise. Now, I know you must be confused as to why you are stuck here in this room, but all will be explained. You have to understand that your father is a very important man and sometimes, well, there are dangers in this world that can threaten a man in my position. All this here is a way for me to protect you, to protect us.”

  She sniffled. Just when she thought she couldn’t cry anymore, tears began to spill again. If they’re in so much danger, why isn’t her mother with them? “But what about Mom?”

  “Your mother is fine. Don’t worry about her. I’ve made the necessary arrangements to ensure her protection. But you, Jaime, are very important to me. I have you here to make sure you’re extra safe,” he assured his daughter.

  Jaime calmed somewhat, upon hearing that her mother was safe. Her mom wasn’t winning any best parent award
s either, but she was the only mother she had. Thinking of her only made her well-up again. She just wanted to go home.

  “But I also need your help. I’m working on a very top secret project and you are exactly the person to help your father see it through,” he tells her.

  Jaime just sat there in the cold and sterile room in fear. She still had no idea what her father was talking about. She’d spent the last week in a place she’d never been, but yet, seemed oddly familiar to her. Almost like she was back at Dominion Hall, but not quite.

  “Now, this is what I want you to do,” Oliver told his daughter, taking a seat in the metal chair next to her bed. “I am going to be sending you to another reality. One in which I expect you to succeed this time.”

  “Succeed in what exactly?” She stammers. And what did he mean by ‘this time’? She didn’t recall ever being asked to do anything for him. Just what did her father expect her to do? And going to another reality? Did he flip his lid? He’d always been strange and aloof, but she didn’t know he was crazy.

  “Jaime, dear. You have no idea just how important you are to me. Your participation in this mission is essential for me to triumph. Don’t you want to help your father?” He asked this as if Jaime were a child, trying to coax her into eating her vegetables.

  After everything that had occurred the last few days, she knew things could become worse for her if she didn’t agree to whatever it was her father wanted her to do. “Sure, you know I will.”

  Oliver beamed. “I knew I could count on you.”

  “What do I have to do exactly?”

  He takes his time to explain. “Well, it has to do with your best friend.”

  “Etta?” She sprang up from her position on the bed, eager to hear about what her father knew of her friend. She was so worried about her. Was she and her family in danger as well? Are they here too? Jaime wanted to ask, but the look in her father’s eyes made her keep her mouth shut. She still wasn’t sure he was working with a full deck. She knew better than to make him mad.

  “Now, you know how close her father and I are. It has come to my attention that your friend is in danger from some very undesirable characters. The same people who are after us. I need you to intervene and prevent that from happening. Do you think you can do that?”

  Etta’s in danger? Of course. She’d do anything to help her best friend, she thought. Jaime wasn’t always the model figure when it came to friends—she was pretty selfish actually, but she truly loved Etta and she didn’t even have to think twice about coming to her aid. She’s the only one who forgave her self-centeredness and knew the true Jaime who lurked inside. But she’s just a teenager, she thought, how in the world did he expect her to do something so dangerous as to stop these bad guys from hurting her best friend?

  “Who’s after her?”

  “A gentleman by the name of Cooper Everett. He has been sent to kidnap Etta.”

  Jaime sat there and continued to listen to her father’s instructions on how she was expected to help. What was her father mixed up in? She knows Cooper. He’s the one that’s been hanging around Etta lately. He just showed up one day. He didn’t seem dangerous, at least not to her.

  “I know you are confused and it’s quite understandable for you to question the things I am explaining to you. A few years back, Victor and I were involved in various experiments that delved into the field of time travel and alternate dimensions. Nothing ever came of it, of course,” he lied. “But this is an opportunity for us to use what we do know of interstellar travel to our advantage. To save your friend.”

  She could only nod at what he was saying and took everything he said at face value. Her father was the Secretary of Defense, for crying out loud. Surely, he was involved in top secret experiments that dealt with time travel, she figured. In fact, she kind of suspected her dad knew a whole lot of confidential government secrets. “So, what do I have to do?”

  Her commitment pleased Oliver. “For starters, I am going to send you to a place where I want you to keep watch of anyone Etta comes in contact with who’s a stranger. Should she meet this man Everett, I want you to intervene and do whatever you can to make sure she goes nowhere with him. Simple enough?”

  That did sound pretty easy, she thought. Don’t let Etta go off with strangers. Besides, she already knew what he looked like. Piece of cake. “I guess I should ask where you’re sending me.”

  “You’ll be sent to a reality not so different than this one. You will be living in a place called Dominion House for Girls. In the reality where I am sending you, your cover will be an orphan, in which your mother and I never adopted you,” he said. “In truth, we do foster and adopt you in that reality, but there should be no problem with running into yourself. I have made the necessary steps to ensure that does not happen. All you have to do is play the part of an orphan and keep Etta away from Cooper Everett. You’ll be given a sizable trust, to make sure you have anything you need at your disposal.”

  “How am I supposed to keep her away from him?” In a way, she was kind of excited about the prospect of playing cloak and dagger. She’d never done anything interesting or dangerous before. That, and she’d be able to get out of this room.

  “By being a good friend. Everett is young, good looking, and very dangerous. He’s exactly the kind of person who would interest your friend. You must make her believe that he is a threat, even if he does not appear to be so. Do you think you can do that?”

  “Yes, I think I understand.” Jaime still wasn’t sure about the assignment her dad was sending her on, but she’s glad Etta will be wherever he’s sending her to.

  “Good. This isn’t the first time I’ve sent you to intervene, but with a few tweaks, I’m sure you’ll be successful this time around. I’m counting on you. And in order to ensure your success, you will be meeting with one of my most trusted associates. She’ll be able to better brief you on your assignment.”

  The door opens and for a second, Jaime is confused. Why is her physics teacher, Miss Stone here, she wonders.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  If You Leave

  With most of my questions asked and answered, I decide it’s time to retire for the evening. I’ve finally calmed down enough to take stock of everything. Not that I understand much of what was just discussed, but I have a clearer picture of what’s going on. So, even though our date ended with a visit with my dad, I still hate to see the evening end. I have a feeling something’s on the horizon and I’m not going to like it. It’s my women’s intuition kicking-in again.

  I walk Cooper to the door to say goodbye. I stall a bit, not wanting to let him leave so soon. “So, when is it my turn to head to Thornberry’s reality?” As much as I hate to admit it, I’m beginning to miss the gang we spent all week recruiting. Even the twins.

  Cooper begins to look uncomfortable. “You can’t come with me, darlin’.”

  I just stand there dumfounded. Then what’s the whole point of recruiting everyone, if I’m not allowed to go? “That’s absurd! Of course I go. Didn’t we just spend the last half hour with Victor, discussing how this is all predestined and how I’m supposed to lead everyone?”

  “And you do. Just not now,” he says.

  “Then when?” It never occurred to me to ask Cooper when it’d be my turn to join them. Everyone else is ready for me to take my place in the other reality. Aren’t they? I just figured I’d be joining them sooner rather than later.

  I can tell Cooper is trying to find the right words. This isn’t good. “Uh, well…in five years,” he mumbles.

  “Five years?”

  “Well—”

  “You knew this the whole time? When were you going to tell me?” I have to wait five whole years before I get to jump over to the other reality? I can’t believe this! “You told me you’d never leave my side!”

  “And I never do. I’ll always be with you. Things are always complicated when it concerns you, darlin’. I never know how much or what information to tell yo
u. Not to mention it’s usually my wife calling the shots.” He tries in vain to joke about the situation, but it’s not working this time and he knows it.

  “Yeah, and that’s me,” I say, without the least bit of humor in my voice. “Aren’t I entitled to know these things?”

  “I suppose you are, but you don’t know my wife. She gets pretty angry when I go around her instructions,” he says with a nervous laugh, continuing to lighten-up the mood.

  “This isn’t funny, Cooper. Why five years?”

  “Because that’s when you travel to that reality. Everything follows the destined timeline. Despite what you think, this isn’t a decision I made. It’s just the way things play out. It’s not your time to come with me now. It would create a paradox. Which means—”

  “Yeah, I remember what a paradox is. So, basically what you’re telling me is, I won’t see you again for five years.” It’s the future there, I have to remind myself. Hell, he has a wife in that reality, in that time. It’s not my turn yet, so what am I supposed to do in the meantime? Sit around and twiddle my thumbs until it’s time for me to go?

  “I’m afraid so, darlin’.”

  “Ugh, I hate it when you call me that!”

  “Yeah, I know. That’s why I do it.” He tries again to cut the tension.

  “What will the others be doing?” I can’t imagine it’d be much, without me there. “Where exactly did you take them when you jumped them from their realities?”

  “To Thornberry’s reality. You know that. Only in present time. They will need that time to be debriefed and trained. By the time you arrive, they will be prepared. In the two years following your arrival, we’ll successfully be able to travel and that’s when the future you sends me to retrieve you from your orphan reality.”

  Seven years, total. It takes seven years for us to begin the resistance against Thornberry. But what Cooper’s telling me is crap. Plain and simple. If the others can go ahead of me, why aren’t I allowed? “I’ll ask you again, why can’t I go now and prepare like the others?”