Edge of Time

by Susan M. MacDonald

  Darius crossed his arms. He raised one eyebrow. “Got a better idea?”

  “You’re crazy. The guy’s an alien. With like, superpowers. I’m just, uh, me.”

  “Sounds like your standard summer blockbuster, Alec. He may be the alien, but you have the home-world advantage. And as for powers, why do you think he wants you?”

  Alec scrambled for something to say. “Riley, help me out here.”

  “No can do,” Riley said. “Darius is right. Rhozan is after you. We won’t be able to run forever.”

  “Yeah, but …” Alec couldn’t believe this. “How do you know for sure?”

  “He told me.” She didn’t take her eyes off the road.

  “Who?”

  “Rhozan.”

  “What?”

  “’Fraid you’re not the only one with connections, bud,” Riley said. “‘Al’ was pretty clear about that back at the donut shop. Rhozan wants you to join him for world dominance et cetera, et cetera. I said you’d pass.”

  Alec laid his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. She was scared, too. He heard it in her voice and that rather pleased him. Maybe because it didn’t make him feel so alone.

  “Alec, we’re with you in this,” Darius said quietly.

  “For sure,” Riley chimed in. “I mean, it’s not as if you’re capable of winning without us, or anything.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence.” He felt his lips turn up. He caught Riley’s return grin out of the corner of his eye. “So just how am I supposed to stop him? Ask nicely? Threaten him with a ‘time-out’?”

  Riley giggled.

  Even Darius cracked a smile. “What do we know about Rhozan? He’s conquered other planets. He feeds off negative emotions. He can’t control our minds. He’s afraid of orbs. He’s made contact through Alec’s mind and is aware of what Alec is.”

  “We’re screwed,” Riley summarized.

  “No, we’re not.” Darius leaned forward, giving her a pointed look. “There’s something in that we can use. Some weakness we can exploit. I’ve been thinking it over, and–” He didn’t get to finish as they drove into airspace that had radio reception. The car radio suddenly changed from quiet static to a man’s frantic voice.

  “Stop here,” Alec ordered.

  Riley slammed on the brakes and the pickup skidded to a halt.

  “… And all highways are now closed, as of four o’clock today. Martial law has been declared. We repeat, all citizens are to remain home. Stay off the streets. Stay with your families …”

  The signal faded. Riley turned the channel.

  “Hey.” Alec lurched forward. “That was important.”

  “Alec, it was Chinese. How the hell are you understanding all these languages?”

  “I’m not, I’m just–” Alec stammered. He rubbed the back of his head, puzzled.

  “You’re in the right vicinity, just a bit lower and to your right,” Darius advised.

  “Huh?”

  “The implant. That’s its location.” Darius pursed his lips at Alec’s blank expression. “When you awoke in Med Ops, your head hurt, didn’t it? Just there.”

  Alec took in a sharp breath as the memory resurfaced. “They put something in me?” he gasped, not sure whether to be thrilled or horrified or both.

  “All Operatives have the implant.” Darius was nonchalant. “It’s a universal translator. Haven’t you ever wondered how we know what everyone is saying? Think I spent about a hundred years boning up on Earth languages before taking this assignment?”

  Alec paused. Actually, the thought hadn’t occurred to him at all. He glanced at Riley and was surprised to see her mutinous expression.

  “What’s your problem?” he asked.

  “I didn’t get one,” she snapped. “What’s the matter, wasn’t I good enough?”

  “Potentials are usually implanted after they’ve been screened for aptitude and ability. We hadn’t enough time to test all the Potentials, there was so much else going on. Alec was already unconscious and they had his scans available.” He gave Alec a half-apologetic look. “We’d been monitoring you for a while.” He turned back to Riley. “Sounds like we’re in the middle of a curfew, Riley. Don’t be surprised if we meet an armed convoy and they try to send us back.”

  “You mean the military? With guns and stuff?”

  “Yup.”

  “What do we do if they do?” She stared straight ahead.

  “Hope they’re out of ammunition,” Alec muttered.

  35

  Alec stared through the window without seeing anything. How on earth would he take on Rhozan and win? It was stupid, not to mention impossible. There had to be another solution.

  “Cripes, speak of the Devil,” Riley muttered under her breath. Up ahead, the highway narrowed as plywood barricades funnelled the several lanes into one. Numerous camouflage-coloured trucks and one tank were positioned at the end of the road. Soldiers were lined up behind the trucks, guns positioned and ready to fire. “Should I turn around?”

  “Slow to a crawl,” Darius advised Riley. “Don’t do anything that spooks them.”

  “As if,” Riley replied.

  “And let me do the talking.”

  “Sure thing,” she said as she brought the pickup to a complete stop.

  A soldier carrying an assault rifle walked out from the barricade and waved at them. With the barrel pointed directly at the windshield, the soldier advanced.

  “Put your hands in the air,” Darius said quietly.

  “I think the uniform makes her look fat,” Riley muttered.

  “Shut up,” Alec whispered. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the soldier’s rifle.

  “Get out of the car!” the soldier yelled. “Keep your hands up at all times. Throw any weapons onto the ground.”

  Riley leaned out the window. “Can I turn the engine off?” she shouted.

  The soldier nodded and Riley threw the gear into park and cut the engine.

  “Take your time getting out,” Darius advised. “No sudden movements.”

  Alec took a steadying breath, undid his seatbelt and stepped out into the stifling heat. He kept his hands up around his ears and hoped that the soldier couldn’t see him shaking. All he could see was the ugly, open snout of the gun and it was way too close for comfort.

  “On the ground,” the soldier shouted, waving her weapon.

  Alec couldn’t hear Riley’s comment, but he was sure it was scornful. He wished her nervousness didn’t manifest itself as vitriol. He pulled the sleeves of his shirt over his hands, trying to protect the skin, and carefully lowered himself to the scorching concrete, keeping the soldier in sight. Whatever she was going to do, he wanted to see it coming.

  He tensed as heavy, black boots surrounded him and the hot barrel of a gun pressed into the back of his neck. Harsh hands patted him down and he swallowed the retort on the tip of his tongue.

  “Who are you and where are you going?” the female soldier demanded. Her eyes were dark and glittering. A sudden fear surged through Alec. Was she an Emissary?

  “My name is Darius Finn,” Darius began, his voice filled with Tyon willingness. “We’d been travelling across country when we heard the news about what is happening here. Alec’s parents are frantic to be reunited with him. We must be allowed to pass.”

  Darius’ words were so persuasive. The soldiers’ faces gradually changed with each uttered word, from cold impersonality to uncertainty.

  “Please let us pass. We are of no danger to you or any person living within your boundaries. We wish to leave you in peace.”

  The soldiers holding Darius slackened their hold. The ones holding Riley let go of her completely. Riley caught Alec’s eye and winked.

  The soldier in charge seemed to be immune. “No one is allowed in or out of the city limits. The curfew remains in place. We cannot let you past.”

  “We must pass through. We are of no consequence. Please forget you have seen us,” Darius urg
ed.

  The hands fell from Alec’s body completely. Only the captain of the squad kept her gun, and her eyes, hard and unwavering, levelled at his chest.

  Ever so slowly, Darius slipped his hand into his pocket. Alec fought not to smile.

  “Let us pass,” Darius said. The Tyon power was magnified ten times with his hand on his orb. Immediately all the soldiers backed up several steps. Two even started to walk back to their trucks as if they had already forgotten their presence. “Put your gun down,” Darius directed his instructions towards the captain. “Forget you met us.”

  The captain blinked several times. Her gun dropped to her side. Several of her comrades followed suit. The captain turned to follow them.

  “We’re not going to get very far in this pickup,” Riley said as soon as the soldiers were out of earshot.

  “Uh-huh,” Darius nodded.

  “One of those army trucks would attract a lot less attention, if there are more soldiers inside, and I bet there are,” Riley continued.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “So, I think you should ask really nicely and see if they’ll let you borrow one.”

  Darius smiled. “You don’t ask for much, do you?”

  “If you don’t ask, you don’t get,” Riley reminded him with a tight smile. “We’re going to need every advantage. I’d take the tank if it had air conditioning.”

  Darius and Riley ducked under the barricade unchallenged and Alec followed. He found himself giving the tank a wide berth. He’d seen hundreds in his on-line games and he was pretty familiar with them as artillery, but playing pretend had never relayed just how fearsome a weapon they were. Darius headed directly for the smaller truck. He stopped at the cab and peered up at the driver, a young man who’d barely begun to shave and looked like he’d rather be anywhere else.

  “I need your truck,” Darius said with a gentle, disarming grin.

  “Uh,” the boy soldier moaned. His eyes widened. His jaw went slack.

  “Let us have your truck,” Riley said pleasantly.

  A frisson rolled down Alec’s back. Where had she learned to do that?

  The soldier handed the keys out the window.

  “Make sure you stop anyone trying to come after us,” Riley added as she pulled the door open and put one foot up onto the step. She leaned over his nametag. “Do anything you have to, Jeff.”

  From the other side, Alec climbed up into the stifling heat of the truck’s cab. Fuzzy dice swung from the rearview mirror. Darius got in beside him and closed the door.

  “Leave, before he changes his mind,” Darius advised.

  “He’ll throw himself in front of a train before he lets anyone come after us,” Riley said smugly as Jeff walked away as fast as his legs would take him. “You know it.”

  “And you know that wasn’t necessary. Don’t let this power corrupt you, Riley. We have to be kind to lesser beings, not play with them. With great power comes great responsibility.”

  “Yeah, yeah, Superman,” Riley muttered as she put the truck into gear.

  “Spiderman, know-it-all,” Alec corrected.

  Riley stuck her nose in the air and steered the lumbering vehicle down the wide multi-lane highway. They manoeuvred carefully around the worst of the debris and crunched over the smaller stuff that couldn’t be missed. They passed under multiple overpasses, all empty of life. It was the eeriest thing Alec had ever seen. A post-apocalyptic world, straight from the games he loved to play. Except this was real. And, somewhere inside this hell, his mom was hiding.

  36

  Riley pulled off the highway and entered the city. It was late afternoon and the trip, which normally would take forty minutes, had stretched into hours. There had been several other checkpoints to pass through and several detours because of burned-out vehicles blocking the road. So far they hadn’t found anything to eat: every fast food joint was either empty or destroyed. Alec was getting progressively grumpier with every minute and even Darius’ stomach was growling. They ought to rest too, she decided, before engaging in any combat with Rhozan.

  She steered the truck down the wide thoroughfare that changed from industrial to retail in a matter of a couple of blocks. She slowed as she spotted a possibility: a pizza joint on the other side of the street. A latticed metal blind still completely covered both the window and the door. Riley made a U-turn and pulled up onto the sidewalk, leaving minimal space between the side of the truck and the storefront. She cut the engine. Darius hopped out and jimmied the padlock open with a bit of wire.

  Inside, the little take-out was in surprisingly good shape. The smell of yeast and pepperoni still clung to the air. Riley washed her hands and splashed water over her face at the kitchen sink. The humidity was stifling. Not wanting to overload any circuits, Riley turned on the ovens, left the air conditioning alone and forced herself to ignore the heat. She ordered Darius to take a seat in the front room and keep an eye out for trouble. She gave him a cold can of cola and a clean glass and gave a rueful shake of her head at his overly pleased expression.

  She and Alec worked side-by-side, rolling out the dough that was in the freezer until it had thawed enough to form the correct shape. Alec had proven himself unacceptably dangerous with the vegetable peeler, so she gave him the bacon to fry.

  She watched him out of the corner of her eye. The way his hair flopped over his forehead and he kept having to push it back with the back of his hand was kind of endearing. She watched him eyeing the telephone as he finished with the meat and sprinkled the last generous handful of cheese over what she had labelled “his pizza.”

  “Thinking of calling your folks?”

  Alec picked up his overloaded extra-extra large and slid it easily into the wide-mouthed oven. He closed the door and shrugged. “As soon as we find one that works.”

  “Better ask Darius first. Just in case.”

  “In case what? I doubt Rhozan’s listening in.”

  “You can’t be sure. You don’t know what Rhozan’s capable of.”

  “Do you?”

  “Well no. I don’t,” Riley conceded. Why did every conversation with this boy turn into an argument?

  “Maybe you ought to phone your own parents. Won’t they be worried about you?”

  Riley turned away and grabbed at a cloth. She began wiping down the counter. “My dad’ll be at the hospital. There’re probably lots of injured people flooding the wards and every doctor and nurse will be on duty. He’ll be too busy to worry about me.”

  Alec stood in her way, blocking her from rinsing out the cloth under the faucet. “What about your mom?”

  “Move, Alec.” Riley gave him a little shove. It was like shoving a mountain. She took a shocked step back as something fluttered inside her and slipped away.

  “You do have a mom, don’t you?” he pushed.

  “Yes, I do. She just isn’t around.”

  “Where is she?”

  “Africa,” Riley snapped. “Somewhere in Africa. Doing relief work. I don’t know where, exactly. It’s been at least five months since I’ve had a letter.”

  “Whoa,” Alec breathed. “I’m sorry.”

  Riley blinked back the tears that threatened. She wished she didn’t always start to cry when she thought about her mom; it had been four years since she’d left. Surely it shouldn’t still hurt so much?

  She was about to turn away when Alec’s arms encircled her and he pulled her into a warm and rather awkward hug. He rested his chin on the top of her head. For a long moment, Riley didn’t pull away. It felt so comfortable, so comforting and so right.

  Good grief, what on earth was she doing? He was just a kid.

  Gathering all her resolve, she pushed her hands against his chest, shoving him away. “Get off me,” she snapped, her face flooding with a telltale burning.

  “Jeez, no need to take a fit,” Alec snapped back, his own cheeks now on fire.

  “If I wanted to be mauled by some kid, I’d ask for it.” The words were out of her mouth be
fore she could stop herself. “Keep your damn hands off me from now on, you hear me? Stick to babies your own age.” She whirled around, catching a glimpse of his stricken face, and ran out of the room.

  Alec didn’t follow.

  Darius was standing at the side of the window, staring out past the bulk of the truck to the road. “He’s trying to be nice to you,” he said quietly. “Why do you insist on hurting him every time he does?”

  Riley picked up a cloth and began furiously wiping the counter.

  “I should make you walk back in there and apologize,” Darius began, holding up his hand at her sharp intake of breath to stall her reply. “But I won’t. You’ll decide how and when you’ll tell him how you really feel. You’re not a child any longer and neither is he. Work this out between you with the minimum of wounds, Riley. Life is fleeting and unpredictable. Don’t waste time on pride.”

  Tears spilled down her cheeks and she angrily wiped them away. Without a word, she dumped the cloth next to the cash register, yanked open the glass door of the drinks cooler and helped herself. The gas hissed as she popped the tab. She swallowed eagerly, the cold fizz soothing the burning in her throat but not easing the lump that had lodged there.

  37

  Alec licked the last of the pizza sauce from his fingers and sighed with contentment. He couldn’t remember ever eating a better meal. Riley might be unpredictable and beyond annoying, but he had to admit she could really cook.

  He was trying very hard to ignore her, but it wasn’t easy. Darius sat between them at the counter that faced the window and all three of them hardly spoke while they ate. Darius kept giving the two of them intent looks, and Alec had the feeling that he was trying to impart some telepathic message to him. Too bad he didn’t have the skill to pick up on it.

  Darius apparently had never eaten pizza before and had mooched pieces from both Riley’s and his pie as “experiments in cultural appreciation.” It had been worth losing the food to see his expression as he bit into the overburdened crust with every single topping available in the store. He’d stifled a laugh as Darius picked off the remaining anchovies before finishing the slice.