Vortex

by Julie Cross

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “Damn!” Dad’s voice.

  “This is your fault, Agent Meyer!” Chief Marshall.

  Chief Marshall stood beside Dad, his hands raised in the air. Dr. Melvin stared at the empty space on the other side of the room. No one even noticed me.

  That was when I saw him. Lying at their feet. The man named Harold … supposedly one of Dr. Ludwig’s clones. I couldn’t be here, could I? My eyes traveled to the couch, and sure enough, she was there. Passed out. Hair falling around her face.

  007 Holly.

  The empty space Dr. Melvin stared at … that was where the other me had vanished … the exact moment I’d left 2007 and finally made it back to 2009.

  I barely heard Dr. Melvin clear his throat, trying to get Dad and Marshall to notice me. This moment, the fact that I abandoned this Holly, had never left my mind. Everything was exactly how I’d envisioned it: Holly still lying here, waiting for me to come back.

  “Jackson?” Dad said.

  I looked up at him absentmindedly, before remembering how much I’d wanted to see him. All the days that had passed with virtually no contact. The only problem was, based on the events from this version of 2007, I knew I had landed in a different timeline. Not what I’d intended to do at all. But it wasn’t much different than seeing him in a half-jump.

  “His clothes are different,” Chief Marshall said, scrutinizing my face with his X-ray vision.

  “Uh … yeah,” I muttered, then walked closer to Holly.

  “Jackson, you need to give us some time to explain everything before you try to do anything else,” Dad said, moving toward me. “I promise Dr. Melvin will tell you all about Axelle.”

  I looked at Dad again and then at Dr. Melvin, trying to figure out what he meant. “I already know about Axelle. Why—” Oh, wait. Now I get it. They were under the impression that I was both scared and not trusting any of them. Hadn’t I done a half-jump out of this exact moment with Chief Marshall’s hands around my throat? The jump that led me to that hospital room with Courtney. Seemed like years ago. “It’s fine, Dad. I understand.”

  “You do?” Marshall asked.

  “Yep.” I knelt down in front of Holly. “Dr. Melvin, how long is she going to be out?”

  He gaped at me, his mouth hanging open. “Uh … a couple hours, probably … are you all right?”

  “I’m fine.” I shook her shoulders a little. “Holly? Hol?”

  She mumbled something incoherent and rolled toward me, but her eyes stayed closed. I wasn’t sure what, exactly, I wanted to tell her, but I hated the idea of this moment being suspended. Hanging by a thread while I lived a different life in another timeline.

  I shouldn’t be forced to choose … or maybe I shouldn’t be allowed to choose.

  Dad knelt beside me. “Jackson … where did you come from … just now?”

  “2009.”

  “Again? Or for the first time?” Dr. Melvin asked.

  I sat down on the floor in front of the couch. “Again, but I’ve already been here … I mean, a lot of stuff has happened since I’ve been here.”

  “Like what?” Dad asked.

  I laughed under my breath. “Like me being a Tempest agent.”

  Dad and Dr. Melvin started to talk at the same time, but Marshall held up a hand to stop them. “Don’t tell us any more. You need to return to that other timeline. It’s the best way to ensure everyone’s safety.”

  I stood up and nodded. “I know how it works … I was actually trying to do something else…” I glanced at Dr. Melvin again. “The complete jump, or whatever you call it … Obviously it didn’t work.”

  “So your mission wasn’t to end up here?” Marshall asked.

  I shook my head. “No. Am I allowed to ask questions?”

  Marshall raised his eyebrows, but Dad nodded.

  “What if … hypothetically, I haven’t seen you in a while? Like if Freeman lost contact with you. Should I be worried?”

  Dad’s and Dr. Melvin’s faces tightened, then Dad said, “No, never worry about me until there’s something to worry about.” He faked a smile. “No news is good news, right?”

  “Right.” Clearly, he didn’t realize I’d been trained as a human lie detector for the past three months. “When did Senator Healy become a Tempest agent?”

  “Senator Healy?” Chief Marshall said. “No, not possible.”

  “He’s not the backup chief? Not even in a different timeline?” I asked desperately. How could they not know this? “And it’s two years in the future.”

  “I suppose it’s possible,” Dad answered slowly, but all of them looked doubtful.

  Maybe this alternate world was really different than the one I came from. Maybe Thomas had been fooling around with that other timeline.

  I knew Marshall was right. I needed to go, because the side effects of time travel would hit me hard after last night. Except Dad was here. And one of my Hollys … a version of her that actually liked me … was here.

  Dad rested a hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Jackson … about everything. Your life is complicated, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care.”

  “I know, Dad. Really, I do.” I wanted to ask him about the bribe or whatever Healy had mentioned in 2009, but not in front of Chief Marshall.

  Then I did something I hadn’t done in years … I hugged my dad. And a small part of me expected him to be defensive or reluctant, but he hugged me back without asking any questions.

  “Take care of Holly … and Adam,” I whispered to him before letting go. “Just in case I have to come back here or … Just because … okay?”

  He let go of me and stepped back. “I will.”

  The dead guy on the floor caught my attention again and then I looked down at Holly, before deciding to move her somewhere else. “I’m going to get her out of here … in case she wakes up soon.” Her head hung limply over my arm after I picked her up and I had to be careful not to ram her into a wall. None of them said anything or even followed me as I walked to my room.

  Adam was out cold, lying sideways across the bed. I set Holly down by the pillows and covered her with a blanket. She’d wake up next to Adam, who would know exactly how to explain the situation to her, except she wouldn’t know why I’d kissed her … and let her read my letter to Courtney and then abandoned her, leaving her to go hook up with David or Brian “the jock strap” in a few months.

  It doesn’t matter. It didn’t matter. What I needed to do right now was to be an agent on a mission. Hold it together and not let myself sink into the reality of this timeline. It’s not personal, it’s business.

  And the memory of Courtney’s letter gave me an idea. I grabbed some paper and a pen and sat down at my desk. I could at least leave Holly with something.

  “Oh, God … who hit me over the head?”

  I jumped and then sighed with relief when I saw Adam attempting to sit up, squinting from the bright desk lamp. It wasn’t until he was completely upright, staring at me, that I realized how long it had been since I’d seen him. Much longer than Holly.

  Don’t do it, Jackson. Don’t get sucked into this world where you have friends and people who might have to die for you.

  “How do you feel?”

  “Like shit,” he mumbled. “Fucking hell. Did I really drink that much?”

  I couldn’t remember. “Well, I think the CIA may have drugged you. They gave Holly something.”

  He crawled toward the other end of the bed and picked up her foot, tapping it lightly. “She’s got no reflexes … What the hell happened? Another attack, like Friday?”

  I turned to face him and took a deep breath. “Sort of, but for me, last night was a really long time ago … months, actually.”

  Adam shook his head and banged it lightly against the back of his hand. “Damn … is this a half-jump? I’m really getting sick of hearing about these and not remembering anything.”

  “No, it’s real. You’ll remember it. But when I leave
and go back to that other timeline, none of this will have happened there.”

  He straightened up. Comprehension seemed to hit him all at once. “What about the other you? The one that I partied with last night. Did you … live through that already?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t think that me is coming back—”

  “Hold up a sec,” he said, jumping off the bed.

  I waited while he walked into the bathroom and splashed water on his face. “Okay, I’m awake. Now tell me everything.”

  Just leave. Leave now before this gets harder. But I couldn’t. Not yet.

  It didn’t take as long as I had anticipated to explain the very basic events of the last few months. Adam hadn’t taken a handful of caffeine pills this time, either, so he wasn’t constantly interrupting with more questions. And I left out a lot of details.

  “I can’t believe you’re working for them … And this experiment is totally creepy. How do you know for sure they’re not—”

  “I just know, okay?” I interrupted. “Trust me.”

  “Are you sure you have to go back?” he asked.

  “Pretty sure.” I stared down at the blank page in front of me. “Do you think the other me, the one that disappeared from Spain, will just appear again?”

  “That’s the most logical answer… except a few weeks have gone by. Will your other self wonder what happened to all those days?” Adam asked.

  “Yes.”

  We both turned around and saw Dad standing in the doorway. “Really?” I asked.

  Dad walked in the room slowly and sat down on the couch. “Dr. Melvin and I were just discussing how to handle this situation. We have a few options. One, we create a cover story for the seventeen-year-old Jackson. An accident that resulted in a three-week coma with memory loss. Or two, we tell him everything about Axelle, about his future abilities. I feel a little more confident presenting this option now that I’ve seen how well you’ve handled the information.”

  “But if Jackson doesn’t know he can time-travel, or that he’ll be able to time-travel,” Adam protested, obviously not trusting Dad or the CIA, “that might be pretty hard to believe.”

  Dad continued to watch my face carefully. “There is an option three … You could just stay here.”

  The idea was appealing in a way that I knew wasn’t right. Holly and Adam were at risk around me. They needed to go back to their lives and forget about me. And I had too many puzzles to solve in 2009.

  I already let her go. If I stay, I’ll have to go through all that again … eventually.

  I was still deep in thought when I realized Dad was looking at me expectantly. “You want my opinion?” I asked.

  He smiled a little. “I figured you’d know yourself better than we would.”

  Adam snorted really loud. “Uh … no, he doesn’t. Given the fact that you lied to him his entire life.”

  So true. Seventeen-year-old me had no idea what was coming a year from now … that first time jump … but Dad and Dr. Melvin had some idea, even before I landed in 2007 for the second time. “Go with the accident story,” I said reluctantly. “But tell the truth after it happens … the first time jump … and maybe some of that other stuff we’ve talked about.”

  The lines on Dad’s face deepened, but he nodded and I knew he understood what I meant: talk to me about Courtney … maybe Eileen. Don’t let two years go by with a wall between us.

  “Wait … we’re friends, right? In that other timeline? You updated that me and everything?” Adam asked, panic rising in his voice.

  I could feel my heart race and I tried to slow it down. Dad would notice, but I doubted he’d say anything. I faked a grin, raising my head to look Adam in the eye. “Yeah, of course. That’s the deal, right?”

  To my relief, he returned the grin, looking even younger than I remembered. He’s only sixteen … a year younger than Mason in 2009. I got up and sat beside Holly, picking up one of her hands and squeezing it.

  “What should I tell her?” Adam asked quietly.

  His words hung thick in the air, and the thought of him telling Holly I was gone hurt so much that I forced myself to shut down again, to rationalize, like I had done these past three months—until the mission in New York. “You’ll tell her that I took off … maybe to Spain or somewhere else across the world to comfort a dying relative. She’ll be upset … She’ll probably cry and get pissed at you for not waking her up.” I swallowed hard and kept my voice perfectly even. “Then she’ll get over it.”

  And then she’ll go out with David or Brian … go to college …

  “Just like that,” Adam said, shaking his head in disbelief.

  “Yep. Just like that … It’s statistically proven. The CIA collects this type of data all the time. When an agent builds a relationship with a potential source and then abandons them, eighty-five percent of sources show no signs of grieving or change in emotional behavior beyond two weeks.” I went back to the desk and picked up the pen again. “I’ll even write a note, help with the cover story.”

  Dad stood up and walked toward the door. “I’ll let Dr. Melvin and Chief Marshall know what the plan is. Come see me before you—”

  “Sure,” I said, cutting him off. “If that’s what you want.”

  Adam’s eyes were clearly fixated on me as I began to write. “Dude, what’s going on with you?”

  “You mean, besides the obvious,” I said, not looking up from the paper. The flat emotionless tone that came out of my mouth surprised even me.

  “Fine … whatever,” he grumbled, flopping back onto the bed. “It’s not like I could ever help you with anything.”

  His sarcasm really pissed me off. This was hard enough without Adam making me feel guilty. He had other friends besides me. He’d be fine. I was going back to a place where I didn’t trust anyone. Even that version of Holly had been playing mind games with me at Healy’s ball. I knew that was different than having a highly trained agent screwing with my head, but still … it was Holly.

  “Everything’s gonna be fine. You have nothing to worry about. Both of you will be placed under the best protection the CIA can offer,” I recited mechanically.

  “Great. A real comfort … especially after witnessing your transformation from my friend to some order-following robot.”

  I ground my teeth together and reached for a new piece of paper. He wasn’t going to get to me. Not here in this timeline where I knew I couldn’t stay.

  He walked closer and started reading over my shoulder. “Dear Holly. I apologize for leaving so abruptly. A lot of things in my life are complicated right now. This wasn’t an easy decision for me … You forgot to say, It’s not you, it’s me.”

  I covered the paper with my arm and looked up at him, keeping my face as calm as possible. “This is personal.”

  He groaned and shook his head. “No, it’s not, man … not even a little.”

  Ouch. I ignored him and went back to writing, but a couple seconds later he pulled the paper right out from under my hand. I stood up, reaching for the letter. “Seriously, cut it out.”

  Adam’s face twisted with anger and he ripped the page in half before I could stop him. “She loves you!”

  “Don’t—”

  “Holly loves you and you expect me to give her this bullshit letter and wait for her to just forgive and forget … That’s the most demented thing I’ve ever heard.” He dropped the pieces onto the floor and threw me a disgusted look. “I told you not to mess around with her … but that’s all right … You can go back to whatever version of Holly you’ve got waiting for you and I’ll take care of this one.”

  He was so close, staring right at me, and I couldn’t cover it up. My heart sank and the grief was all over my face. Adam’s anger dissolved in about two seconds. “What happened…? Did she get shot again, or…?”

  I shook my head but didn’t say anything else.

  “Come on … you gotta tell me. Is something going to happen here, like, in the future?” He gras
ped my arm, forcing me to stay right in front of him.

  “The only thing you need to do is keep her away from the other me,” I said a little too forcefully.

  Adam stepped back and dropped his hand. “I just don’t get it. You were so pissed that your dad lied to you … and you just told him to keep you in the dark until the time travel starts. How do you know telling the other you about what you’ll be able to do in the future won’t help it to happen earlier … or maybe you won’t think it’s that crazy? And maybe I could help that version of you, and tell Holly about some of it. She could at least see the other you that way.”

  “No!” I said. “Do you know what that version of me would do to Holly? Because I have a pretty good idea. He has no reason to talk to you, either.”

  Adam’s arms folded over his chest. “So that’s what you really think … that if you weren’t trying to figure out why you could time-travel in 2009, you would have never become friends with someone like me? You talk about that guy like he’s a different person. It’s still you, Jackson.”

  I didn’t know if he was right about the reasoning behind our friendship. There was no way to repeat that process and find out for sure. But I couldn’t even attempt to swallow the idea of 007 Holly hooking up with the seventeen-year-old me. I knew exactly what went on in his head.

  “Don’t do it, Adam,” I pleaded. “Promise me you’ll let it go.”

  “Okay, fine … so you’re not with Holly in the future alternate universe or whatever. I get it,” he said, more exasperated now than angry. “But you’re alive. You can keep jumping. How do you know there’s not some tiny sliver of hope that it’ll work out? Don’t you want to leave her with something better than that garbage you wrote, just in case you come back?”

  Hadn’t I just said that to Dad a few minutes ago, when I told him to take care of Adam and Holly?

  I sighed and rested a hand on her cheek. “I don’t know. I just don’t know what’s better,” I admitted.

  “She won’t hate you for leaving. Neither will I,” he said. “Do you ever think maybe it’s just meant to be … that Holly’s always going to love you … all those versions of her … and even someone with superpowers like you can’t keep it from happening?”