Annora Snow (The Girl Who Travelled Backward) (Kiera Hudson Series Four Book 1)

by Tim O'Rourke

  “Come on,” Noah said, reaching for Annora’s hand again. He led her to one of the carriage doors that miraculously swung open as he approached it.

  “Where are we going?” Annora asked, as Noah helped her up into the vestibule.

  “I thought you wanted to know whether Karl Potter was hot or not, didn’t you?”

  “Very funny,” Annora groaned as she stepped aboard the train.

  “We’re pushing forward to the year 2067,” Noah said. He climbed up into the carriage, swinging the door shut behind him.

  “But I thought you said you couldn’t push forward on a train,” Annora reminded him. “I thought you said there were no train tracks in the future.”

  “There aren’t,” he said, pulling down the carriage window. He poked his head out and shouted, “We’re all aboard!”

  Who is he talking to? Annora wondered? The driver of the train, perhaps? Slowly, the Scorpion Steam began to chug forward, gaining speed with each passing second. Noah shut the carriage window and turned to face Annora.

  “So?” she asked him.

  “So what?”

  “If there aren’t any tracks in 2067, won’t it be dangerous for us to travel there?”

  “Very dangerous.” Noah grinned before brushing past her and heading into the carriage.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  The year 2067…

  Karl had decided that he liked Lisa. Even though she appeared strong-willed, he sensed a certain gentleness about her. As he closed the door and she set off back toward the outpost so she could change into her uniform for the impending night duty, Karl hoped she would keep the secret he had told her. He didn’t want Sergeant Shaw nor Officer Selina Riley knowing about what he had seen in the bright white lights. It wasn’t that he was worried about their ridicule. Karl wanted to be sure of the facts so he could robustly defend his belief that Lucy May had been murdered and not died from a drug overdose. Before Lisa set off, Karl had asked her that, for the time being, to keep what he had told her to herself. He wasn’t ready to tell Sergeant Shaw what he believed—not until he had some tangible evidence to give to her. Looking into Karl’s eyes, Lisa had promised that she would keep the secret until he was ready to speak to Shaw himself.

  As Karl put on his own smart uniform, his mind turned to the kiss Lisa had suddenly given him. It had not only taken him by surprise, but left him wondering why she had acted so impulsively. Sure, they had flirted a little when he had given her the chat-up line, but that had just been a joke. It was one of the lines his father had so often used on Kiera, his mother. His father had been forever calling her sweet-cheeks, tiger, or other such things. His father had seemed to have an endless stream of corny chat-up lines that most would find cringe-worthy, but Karl had just thought them to be funny. In all honesty, so, too, had Kiera when she had been alive. And that was what Karl had only been trying to do with Lisa. To make her laugh. Or so Karl tried to convince himself, as he zipped up the front of his jacket and pulled open his bedroom door.

  Closing the door tight behind him, Karl then made his way along the landing. At the top of the stairs, he once more heard the steady thud and boom of music bleeding up from below. By the time he reached the bottom of the stairs, he could clearly see the Night Diner was in full swing again. And even though it was barely dark outside, the bar was busy. Karl made his way through those swaying on the dancefloor, and those who stood around the tables where holographic strippers gyrated to and fro and from side to side, slowly removing their clothes to the delight of the men and women gathered about the tables.

  A raucous line of drunks had already congregated around the bar area. Their number was so great, that it blocked out any sign of the bartender. Karl thought this was a shame, as he very much wanted to speak to him about the embarrassment he had caused in front of Lisa earlier that day. But the bar was so busy with customers, Karl knew that such a conversation would have to wait until a later time.

  Pushing his way through the crowds, Karl made his way to the exit. As he reached the door with the neon sign above it, he felt a hand close around his arm. Wondering whether he had been stopped by another drunk wishing to make another sordid offer of sex, Karl spun around. To his surprise, he discovered that it was the Bot who had hold of his arm. The pulsating lights illuminated the smooth and featureless chrome face of the Sexbot. Its huge, circular dark eyes stared at Karl. He tried to pull his arm free, but the Bot’s cold, metal fingers held his wrist tight.

  “Get your hand off me,” Karl hissed through clenched teeth. “Being in your company could cost me fifty credits, and…”

  “I’m sorry,” the Bot said, its dark eyes beginning to shine bright. “I just want to help you…”

  “Yeah?” Karl sneered. “Then why don’t you go and tell the bartender that we just talked the other night—that we didn’t have any humpty-dumpty.”

  “Humpty-dumpty?” the Bot said flatly. “I’m not sure I know what that is.”

  “Sex!” Karl almost screamed in frustration. “That guy thinks we… you know… had jiggy-jiggy…”

  As Karl tried to convince the Bot to speak with the bartender, light began to bleed from its huge, circular eyes, creating the illusion of Annora Snow’s face again.

  Seeing Annora staring back at him, Karl tried to yank his arm free. The sight of her face, although beautiful, was unnerving. It was kind of creepy to be looking at her, knowing she was dead. Once more, he wished he had never shown the Bot the picture of Annora. The lights that continued to flash overhead and around the bar illuminated her long, blonde hair with life. The illusion was uncanny—too realistic. It really was as if Annora had come back to life.

  Karl glanced down at the Bot’s hand that still had hold of his wrist. It no longer looked made of metal, but human flesh. The fingers that circled his wrist no longer felt cold and stiff, but warm and soft. And for the first time, the Bot now wore clothes over its chrome and sexless form. The Bot was wearing a Temporal Officer’s uniform, identical to the one Annora would have worn when they had gone out on patrol together.

  The sight of Annora standing before him was beginning to freak Karl out. He tried to yank his arm free again. “Get the fuck off me,” he barked over the sound of the thumping music and roaring crowd.

  With its fingers still tight about his wrist, the Bot, now looking identical to Annora, stared at him and said, “I just wanted to give you something, that’s all.”

  “Give me what?” Karl said, just wanting to get away. He needed some air. He suddenly felt as if he couldn’t breathe, and that the walls of the bar were closing in on all sides. Fearing that an approaching blackout was coming, followed by the flashing lights, Karl took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the smoky air that permeated the Night Diner.

  “I want to give you something that will keep you safe,” the Bot said, not only looking like Annora, but now sounding like her, too.

  Karl wanted to ask the Bot how it was able to mimic Annora’s voice. He understood how the Bot was able to look like her, but not sound like her. The Bot had seen a picture of Annora, but had never heard her voice. But before he’d had a chance to ask, the Bot placed something into his hand, and then uncurled its fingers from around Karl’s wrist. Karl looked down to discover that he was now holding a small umbrella. It was the kind where the handle could be pushed in, so the umbrella became small enough to be placed in a bag or pocket. The fabric of the umbrella felt leathery, and a silver point jutted from the top.

  “What the hell?” Karl said, glancing up.

  To his surprise, the Bot was no longer standing before him. While he had been looking at the umbrella, it had managed to disappear into the crowds of people that filled the Night Diner.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  The year 2067…

  Dressed in her black military-style uniform, Officer Lisa Scott pushed open the front door of the Temporal Station and stepped inside. Sergeant Clio Shaw and Officer Selina Riley were already at their workstations o
n the opposite side of the counter. On hearing the door swing open then shut, both Shaw and Riley glanced up to see Lisa come around the counter toward them. Taking the cigarette from the corner of her mouth, Sergeant Shaw blew smoke up into the air before speaking.

  “So?” she asked Lisa as she approached the workstation.

  Even though Sergeant Shaw’s question consisted of only one word, Lisa knew exactly what she was asking her. Switching on her work monitor, and not making eye contact with either Sergeant Shaw or Selina, Lisa said, “I paid Potter a visit at the Night Diner today just like you told me to. In fact, I was there less than an hour ago.”

  “You were there all day?” Selina asked, coming from around the workstation. She folded her arms over the front of the ballistic vest she wore. Her long, auburn hair had been pulled into a ponytail, which shone like a stream of liquid lava in the glare of the strip lighting that hung overhead. It did nothing to brighten her dark eyes. “What did you find to do to pass the time?” She smirked at Lisa.

  “I needed a reason to stop by,” Lisa started to explain. “I couldn’t just show up there without a good excuse for doing so.”

  “So what did you do?” Sergeant Shaw asked her, cocking one perfectly plucked eyebrow.

  “I went on the pretext of fixing his car,” she said. “As he drove to the Night Diner last night, he mentioned that the thrusters on it were no longer working, so I thought that if I fixed them for him, it would be a good way for us to become friends.”

  “And did Potter buy it?” Shaw asked.

  Lisa nodded her head back. “Yes, completely.”

  “Perfect,” Shaw said, stubbing out her cigarette in a nearby ashtray that was close to overflowing. She lit another almost at once.

  “So, don’t keep us in suspense any longer,” Selina said. “What did you find out about Potter?”

  “Like I told you last night, I’m not so sure that he buys the whole overdose thing with Lucy May,” Lisa said, staring at the monitor before her. “Karl knows she was murdered. He saw it take place.”

  Hearing this, Sergeant Shaw’s piercing blue eyes grew wide. “So he does have his mother’s gift of seeing then?”

  “I’m not sure,” Lisa said, glancing up from the terminal where she had started to type.

  “What do you mean, you’re not sure?” Selina asked, stepping away from her desk and heading across the office toward Lisa.

  As she continued to type, Lisa said, “Karl told me he has blackouts. And in these blackouts he sees bright lights, and it’s in these lights that he sees things. That’s why he was unconscious on the floor of the container. He hadn’t fainted at the sight of Lucy May’s corpse. He was seeing.”

  “And it was in these bright lights that he thought he saw Lucy May be murdered?” Sergeant Shaw said, wanting to clarify the point that Lisa was making.

  “Yes,” Lisa said, glancing up before returning to her work.

  “Did Potter say if he saw the faces of the people he believes murdered the May girl?” Selina pushed, wanting to know every detail.

  As she continued to type, Lisa shook her head. “No, but he said he saw three people. Two held her down while the other slit her throat. He also noted that there was no blood at the scene of her death.”

  Selina and Sergeant Shaw shot each other a look before turning their attention back to Lisa once more.

  “How could he be so sure there wasn’t any blood?” Selina asked. “It was dark in there last night.”

  “Karl went back to the shipping crate today,” Lisa said, glancing up, peering at her colleagues over the top of the monitor she was working at.

  “He went back?” Sergeant Shaw said, now sounding rattled. “Why did he do that?”

  “Because, like I’ve already said, Karl is convinced that Lucy May didn’t die of any drug overdose,” Lisa said. “I tried to tell him that we cleaned the blood away once we had moved the body, but I don’t think he believed that.”

  “What else do you think he knows? What else might he have seen?” Selina asked. “Do you think he knows about us? Do you think he knows what we are?”

  “No,” Lisa said with a shake of her head, her long, blonde ponytail swishing down the length of her back.

  “So what else did he say?” Shaw asked. “What other information did you get from him?”

  “He used to work with a Temporal Officer named Annora Snow,” Lisa said, peering at the monitor and frowning. “He thinks that perhaps they were lovers, but he can’t be sure.”

  “What?” Selina scoffed. “How can he not know whether he was banging her or not? Perhaps Potter’s not as hot as he looks.”

  Lisa ignored Selina and said, “They were in a car crash together while out on patrol. She died in the crash, he was left in a coma for eleven months. But on waking, it seems that he can’t really remember her or what they shared…”

  “Wow, the sex must have been mind-blowing,” Selina muttered under her breath.

  Sergeant Shaw heard her remarks and scowled. “Be quiet and let Lisa talk.” Shaw turned her attention back to Lisa. “Go on.”

  “It’s since waking from his coma that Potter has been able to see things,” Lisa continued. “Since coming out of his coma, he’s been suffering from blackouts and seeing the flashing lights.”

  “So who was this Annora Snow that he can’t remember whether he was shagging or not?” Selina asked, that perpetual smirk on her lips.

  “Check her details on the database,” Sergeant Shaw said.

  “That’s what I’ve been sitting here doing,” Lisa said, looking up from the terminal at Shaw and Riley.

  “And what intel is on the database about her?” Shaw asked. “What does it say?”

  “That’s the strange thing,” Lisa said. “According to the database, there aren’t any records for a Temporal Officer by the name of Annora Snow. It’s like she never existed.”

  Sergeant Shaw took a step closer to the station where Lisa had been working. She too glanced down at the screen. “Have her details been erased?”

  “But why would anyone do that?” Lisa asked. “What would be the point?”

  “Perhaps the point is that there never were any files to erase in the first place?” Selina said, now joining Sergeant Shaw and Lisa at the terminal. She glanced down at the screen, then back at her colleagues. “Perhaps this Annora Snow never really existed. Perhaps Potter is lying to us?”

  “Then I want you to find out, Selina. Get close to Potter,” Shaw said looking at her.

  “But I thought I was the one who you wanted to get close—to befriend—Potter,” Lisa cut in.

  “I’ve had a change of plans,” Sergeant Shaw said. “Maybe Selina can be a little more persuasive than you were.”

  Selina smiled at Lisa. “There’s no maybe about it. I’ll find out the truth about Karl Potter.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Between years…

  Annora followed Noah into the carriage, which rocked and listed from side to side as the Scorpion Steam gathered speed. She was not too surprised to discover that the inside of the train was decorated as lavishly as the outside. On each side of the aisle was a table that had been covered with an intricately woven tablecloth. Set upon each table was silver cutlery and china cups with saucers. Steam spiralled from the spout of a teapot and Annora couldn’t help but wonder if someone or something had known that they were going to be passengers aboard the Scorpion Steam. The aisle was carpeted and at each of the carriage windows hung red silk curtains. Decorative lamps were fixed to the walls, and each of them had a delicate china shade.

  As Noah dropped down into a comfy-looking seat and removed his cap, Annora glanced along the aisle, but couldn’t see any other passengers nor ticket collector. She and Noah appeared to be the only people riding the train.

  “Take a seat and make yourself comfortable,” Noah said. He gestured toward the seat on the opposite side of the table from him. He then poured two cups of tea, adding a splash of milk to bo
th.

  Annora sat down, picked up the china cup, and took a sip. She looked at Noah over the rim of the cup. There was still so much she wanted to ask him. So many questions she needed to be answered. She tried to make a coherent list of them in her head, but it seemed impossible. Not knowing how long the journey would take on the Scorpion Steam to the year 2067, Annora suspected that any pressing questions she did have, she should ask before she ran out of time to do so.

  Not for the reasons that Noah suspected, Annora wanted to know more about Karl Potter. Not because Noah had said that she and Karl had been lovers, but because if she was heading into the future to partner up with him and help defeat vampires and werewolves, she thought she should try and find out as much as possible.

  Setting the cup back into its saucer, she said, “Back at the house, you refereed to Potter as junior, what did you mean by that?”

  Noah poured himself another cup of tea. “Karl’s father, Sean, was also called Potter. No one ever called him by his first name, though,” Noah started to explain. “Karl’s father was an obnoxious, arrogant, foul-mouthed, chain-smoking, and violent thug.”

  “You sound like you really liked the guy,” Annora said dryly.

  “As it happens, I liked him a lot,” Noah said, reaching into his tunic pocket and pulling out a bottle of the black stuff. He unscrewed the cap and added a few drops of it to his tea. He replaced the lid, then tucked the bottle back into his pocket. “Potter—Sean Potter—could be a difficult man to get along with, but he was fiercely loyal to his friends and to his wife, Kiera Hudson. He worshipped her.”

  “Was Kiera Hudson Karl’s mother?” Annora asked.

  Noah nodded his head. “She was a very good friend of mine. I’ve never had another friend quite like her.”