“Let’s begin,” Leigh said, plopping a briefcase on the table and flipping its latches in one fluid motion. Wires jumped out, which she pushed aside. “First, we’re going to take some blood from you. We’ll study it back at home to see what our machines say.” She pulled a syringe from the briefcase along with four empty vials, each three inches in length.
“Go right ahead,” Martin said, sticking his arm out and pulling his sleeve up to his shoulder.
The others took out papers and scribbled notes while Leigh drew the blood. Strike and Tarik looked around, possibly bored, possibly anxious. Martin couldn’t tell for sure. Having his blood drawn had always made Martin a bit woozy, and this time was no exception. Tarik recognized this and left the room to bring back bottles of water for everyone.
As soon as she packed away the full vials, Leigh pulled the wires in front of her and separated them from the tangled mess they had formed. She flattened them across the table, creating what looked like a tree with bare branches spreading out. She stood, wires in hand, and shuffled behind Martin. “You can stay seated. I’m going to strap these to your head so we can measure your brain activity before, during, and after time is frozen.”
Martin noticed a slight elevation in her voice as she spoke this final line. Her fingers danced around his head, pushing down in random places as she pressed the wires into position. All of the wires converged at the base of his neck and twisted into a thick bundle that connected to a small black box.
“What does that thing do?” Martin asked after Leigh had sat down.
“That records everything going on with your brainwaves. The technology is the same in terms of how we measure, all that’s different is where that data is stored and sent. We have a laboratory full of scientists back in Europe waiting for this data to be transmitted so they can start analyzing. The video feed you’ll be on with Steffan will also be sent their way as soon as we wrap up today.”
“And when will you analyze it? I assume you’re the best if you came all this way.”
“We’re boarding the jet immediately after we wrap up here today, except for Brigham, of course. He’ll be staying back for the medicine. As soon as we arrive home, we’ll join our teams and analyze all of this data.”
“This is a huge deal, Martin,” Strike cut in. “This is the first test of this kind. We once had a chance to draw blood from an enemy who we learned was warm, but he died before we could run him through an experiment like this. We have no expectations, only hopes of learning something new.”
Martin nodded. So I’m the lab rat for Warm Souls. Be sure to put that in my obituary.
“I see,” he said. “Why haven’t you just studied Steffan, then?”
“We have. He’s not actually warm—just someone who can freeze time—so we didn’t learn anything valuable from his tests.”
“How do you know I can’t freeze time?”
“Can you freeze time, Martin?”
“Well, I don’t think so.”
“That’s how we know. It’s not an ability that lies dormant.”
Steffan nodded and stood up. “It’s more like a sixth sense, you could say. Enough with the questions. Let’s start!”
Megan strolled to the tripod, pushed a button on the camera and stood in front of the lens to speak. “Today is Monday, February 4, 2019. We’re in Denver, Colorado, at the Road Runner offices with Commander Strike, Tarik Sadi, Steffan Privvy, Leigh Covington, Brigham Kelly, and myself, Megan Privvy. Our test subject is Martin Briar, who we have confirmed is a Warm Soul. Blood samples have been drawn, and the pre-examination tests are complete on his brain activity.” She checked her watch. “I have a current time of 8:52 a.m., Mountain Standard Time.”
Megan returned to her seat and gestured to Steffan to begin.
“Martin, please stand and go to the back of the room,” Steffan said, his voice turning suddenly serious. “And take the black box with you.”
Martin rose, a slight tremble working through his legs as he grabbed the box off the table. A palpable tension hung in the air as everyone inched forward in their seats, watching Martin cross the room. He stopped about forty feet away from the group of scientists and the tripod.
“You’re good there,” Steffan shouted. “I’ll commence the freezing of time on my count of three. You will all be frozen, except for myself and Mr. Briar. You will not realize you’re frozen, as your current perception of time will be temporarily halted until I unfreeze it. Since I’ll be in direct contact with the camera, it will roll and capture our interaction. Are we all ready?”
He looked down the table of his colleagues, and each returned a silent nod, still not breaking their stares from Martin in the distance.
“Okay. On my count. Three . . . two . . . one.”
96
Chapter 3
Martin expected a rumble of some sort, but apparently the freezing of time was as uneventful as the passing of regular time. He watched Steffan place his hands on his head, eyes shut, giving his entire concentration to the task of stopping time in its tracks.
No rumble. Just the blank stares of three scientists and two leaders of the Road Runners.
Steffan put his hands down and stood, slightly wobbling.
“How are you feeling?” Steffan shouted across the room.
“I’m fine,” Martin replied. “What am I supposed to do?”
They could have been playing a prank on him by how fake they all appeared, looking like a panel of gawking judges on one of those shitty televised talent contests.
“Walk this way,” Steffan said, coming out from behind the table. He positioned himself in the camera’s view and turned to speak to it. “I can confirm that time is frozen. My colleagues are sitting at the table, unable to move. As you can see, Mr. Briar is mobile.” He looked over his shoulder as Martin approached.
Martin took cautious steps, feeling like he had magically stepped into a photograph. Even though the others were in the room, it seemed more that he and Steffan were the only two people in the world. Gooseflesh broke across his body at the thought. He reached Steffan’s side and joined the scientist in front of the camera.
“Martin, how are feeling?”
“I told you I feel fine.”
“I need you to elaborate. Are there any kinds of side effects you’re experiencing? Light-headedness, dizziness, wooziness?”
“No. I feel completely normal. How I always do.”
“I see doubt in your eyes.”
Martin pursed his lips, his brows furrowed at Steffan’s accusatory tone. “This is hard to imagine as real, but I thought the same thing about time travel when I first experienced it.”
“Is your memory still intact? Do you know where you are, what you’re doing here, et cetera?”
“Yes. I’m in Denver, at the Road Runners’ office, and we’re testing my warmth.”
“Very good. I want to take the camera out to the office, and perhaps out of the building. Martin, I want you to go out and interact however you see fit. Let’s take these wires off your head so you can roam more freely.”
Martin looked at Steffan with a cocked brow as he reached over and started tugging the wires off, stashing them next to the black box on the table.
“It’s fine,” Steffan assured him, and grabbed the camera from the tripod. He held it in a shaky hand and gestured for Martin exit the conference room. “We’ll put them back on when we return.”
Martin shuffled by his frozen colleagues, reminding him of those wax museums where you can hang out with Elvis and Michael Jackson, only these were people he actually knew. And they definitely weren’t wax.
As he passed them, he swore Tarik’s eyes followed him, but chalked it up to paranoia. The pictures of Jesus Christ in his mom’s old house had the same effect and always made him walk a little faster down the hallway. He did the same thing now and leapt toward the door, pulling it open to reveal the rest of the office.
Martin stopped in the doorway.
The office looked exa
ctly the same: monitors flashing, Road Runners at their desks, knee-deep in work. But no one was moving, and a deafening silence blanketed the room. Martin’s heart raced a tad quicker at the sight.
“It’s okay, go ahead,” Steffan said from behind, camera held high to record Martin’s first interaction with the frozen world.
The scene reminded Martin of a haunted house around Halloween time. They often had several characters set up that looked fake, but there was always one who was real, waiting to jump out and scare the shit out of you. He waited for someone to make a sudden head turn and send him running back to the conference room, but it never happened. Everyone sat or stood exactly as they were.
“Did they know they were going to be frozen?” Martin asked over his shoulder, refusing to break his gaze ahead.
“No. There’s no need to telling someone they’re being frozen. They don’t realize it, and when I unfreeze them, they just continue with what they were doing, unaware they ever stopped.”
Martin stayed against the wall as he shuffled toward the kitchen. A man had apparently been speaking with a woman, pouring a cup of coffee from the pot, the brown liquid frozen in mid-air.
“So this is all normal?” Martin asked.
“Sure is. Pretty cool, don’t you think?”
Martin didn’t think it was cool, but rather disturbing.
“How many people have this power to freeze time?”
“Twenty-three that we know of for sure.”
“And how many are warm like me?”
“You are the fourth known instance of someone being warm without the capability of freezing time.”
“I still don’t understand how the abilities are different.”
“Those who can freeze time remain mobile when they perform the action. If someone else freezes time, that same person is not immune. If a Revolter were to freeze time, I’d be frozen right along with everyone else, unlike how I’m mobile now because I caused this.”
“Doesn’t this seem kind of dangerous? Does Chris have the ability to do this?”
Steffan nodded and shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah. It has its frightening parts, but that’s why we’re trying to figure this all out.”
“How did you do it—freeze time?”
“It’s hard to explain. It’s sort of a telekinetic power, I guess. I have to completely concentrate on it until it happens.”
“And you were born with it?”
“I dunno. It didn’t start until I was in college. Fortunately, that’s when I met Megan, and she was already a Road Runner.”
“Right. You guys said you’ve been together for 30 years?”
Steffan cackled. “Yeah, that always gets a good reaction from people because we’re both only 27. We met in 1987. I became a Road Runner, and we’ve been traveling through time ever since, never aging.”
“So you never go back to your original time?”
“Rarely. We both lost our families to Victor—he’s Chris’s counterpart in Europe—so we don’t have any reason to go back. We’ve built a life together trying to keep the world safe and wouldn’t have it any other way. So, yes, it can be scary knowing this capability even exists for our enemies to use, but we suspect they’re also figuring out how to use it to their advantage. I know Victor once made an attempt to assassinate our leader, Commander Blair, by freezing time, but failed because he is also warm—one of the four that we know of.”
“Who are the other two?”
“One is a Revolter in Africa, and the other is an ex-Revolter who now lives in the middle of a forest in China. We tried recruiting him, but he swears to a life of neutrality and doesn’t want to be bothered. He sleeps with guns in both hands, waiting for anyone to try and tell him otherwise. And there’s also Chris, but we don’t count him for obvious reasons.”
“So I’m the only one in the U.S. that has this ability?”
“You’re the only one on this side of the ocean that is warm. That’s why Chris won’t stop until he gets you. Your ability is something he’s only ever heard of.”
“But isn’t he hiding?”
Steffan snorted laughter. “Please. He’s probably in Denver as we speak. I’m not convinced one bit that he’s still in his house. He probably froze time and walked out the front door. And now everyone is in a panic. There’s an infinite number of places to hide if you’re Chris, and his silly mansion is at the bottom of that list. Enough with all of this talk – let’s go for a walk outside.”
Martin didn’t realize how long they had been talking, and had no way of knowing for sure, either, as the clocks on the wall remained still, not ticking the day away. They had an entire conversation in the middle of the silent office, their words falling on literal deaf ears.
Steffan pushed by Martin and led them to the stairs. They went up, crossed through the marketing office that held a similar scene of employees mid-conversation, and rushed out the building.
A short flight of four stairs descended from the building to the sidewalk below, but Martin stayed at the top, keeping his back to the building as if it protected him. The scene outside reminded him of zombie apocalypse films where the roads were filled with cars, either abandoned or occupied by corpses.
Vehicles always lined the streets for metered parking downtown, but seeing dozens of cars in the middle of the road, drivers staring out the windshield, was both chilling and surreal.
“What the fuck?” Martin whispered under his breath, as Steffan jumped down the steps and ran into the middle of the street.
“Isn’t it fun?” he shouted, twirling the camera in circles to capture the frozen world. A group of pedestrians, clearly all downtown office workers, filled the sidewalk. Some had their cell phones to their ears or held in front of them as they looked down. Others had grins on their faces as they enjoyed the fresh air. “Come down here!”
This is your reality now, Martin thought before going down the steps with the caution of tiptoeing through a minefield. The back of his mind still waited for one of these frozen people to jump at him.
When he reached the sidewalk, Martin looked up to a flock of birds frozen in flight, their dark V-shape contrasting against the bright blue sky. The nearest tree on the sidewalk stood slightly tilted, and he could only assume there was a strong morning breeze blowing its way through town.
“Wanna play hide-and-seek?” Steffan called from across the street, a cheesy grin on his face as he ducked behind a car.
The air was silent, so Martin heard him cackling like a teenage boy telling dirty jokes. As uptight as everyone in the Road Runners seemed, it was refreshing to see one of them enjoy life with childlike wonder. Steffan may have been alive for 50 years (or however the hell he calculated it), but he knew how to bask in the small pleasures in life.
I wonder how often this guy freezes time and goes playing in the middle of the street.
The thought of Steffan dancing in the middle of the cobblestone roads in Europe forced a grin.
“I’m not gonna come find you,” he shouted back. “But you’re right, this is pretty cool.”
Martin approached a car in the middle of the road, noticing the driver through the rolled down window. It was an older man with a cigarette pinched between his lips, his left hand on the wheel, and his right hand on the radio dial, the gray clouds frozen still from the orange embers on the cigarette’s tip. He debated plucking the cigarette from the man’s mouth, but couldn’t find the courage to do it. All of the people looked eerily dead with their lifeless stares and eyes that never blinked.
But they also looked so alive. This wasn’t a zombie apocalypse; these were people on their way around town.
Steffan came out from behind the car, grin still splattered across his face, camera pointing at Martin. “So what do you think?”
“It’s definitely weird, but I can see why you like to have so much fun with it.”
“Yeah, I suppose it’s like any great gift. It can be used for good and fun, but others will use it for evil an
d selfish reasons.”
“I can see that. So what exactly are we trying to figure out here?”
Steffan flipped the lid over the camera. “I don’t know, man. It’s a total shitshow. All of the Forerunners are losing their mind over Chris. They don’t know if he’s home plotting some great massacre, or hiding in an underground tunnel waiting for the search to die down. They’ve done some digging—literally—around the mansion, but have come up empty. And now they have you to consider, and everyone has an opinion on how to best utilize your skill. Commander Blair wants to send you into Chris’s house with loaded guns and shoot everything in sight while it’s all frozen. Commander Guang—from Asia—wants us to freeze time and have you infiltrate the Revolters’ hideouts one by one and take whatever information you can gather. And Commander Strike is clueless. I think she’s still losing sleep over the whole Sonya debacle. Maybe we should have just frozen time and let you slip that poison into her drink. She would’ve never known you were there.”
“Why didn’t you suggest that?”
“I did. I spoke with Julian while he was out in Europe for a trip. He thought it was brilliant and said he’d take the idea to Commander Strike. I never heard anything back, so figured she vetoed it, or he never told her.”
“I don’t see how she could veto that. She made the choice to move forward with the assassination, and never presented that as an option.”
Steffan looked around as if one of the frozen people might be eavesdropping. “Look. Between you and me, Commander Strike isn’t exactly the best fit for her position.”
Martin’s eyebrows shot all the way up to his slowly receding hairline.
“Don’t get me wrong, she’s an incredible woman, confident most the time. But when it comes to difficult decisions, she’s extremely indecisive. It’s like she waits for someone to make a choice for her, or wait for matters to play themselves out. You haven’t been in the closed-door meetings since we arrived. She has no input, just defers to Tarik and lets him guide the discussion.”
“Interesting. I don’t get that impression at all.”
Wealth of Time Series Boxset Page 56