Nomad

by JL Bryan

  The two security agents tensed, waiting for the formal order to roast her alive.

  The heavy oak door to Henry's office swung open and the other two agents from the future entered. Like the two already present, their helmets and face shields were collapsed, and they wore black data goggles. One of them was female, but she had a shaved head like the others, and her face wore the same flat, blank expression.

  "I told you two to wait outside the door!" Henry snapped. "Leave us!"

  "Keep going," Logan said as he followed the two agents through the door. Logan wore an annoyed scowl on his face. "Seriously, Henry? You're going to lock me in a room in your house? By the way, you've got a broken window now." Logan saw Raven, naked and handcuffed in the high-backed ironwood chair, and hurried to her side. "What the hell is going on? Are you okay, Riley? Get her clothes," he told one of the agents standing behind Henry.

  "And my other belongings," Raven added.

  "Yeah, get all of her stuff." Logan glared at Henry. "What are you doing to her?"

  "Logan, you do not fully understand the situation. Don't get her things!" Henry shouted to the agent, who'd stepped out from behind Henry's desk, heading for a row of large drawers built into one wall. The agent stopped.

  "Do what I said," Logan told him. "Henry, you forget that these are my men. My family owns Providence. I am Secretary-General Carraway."

  "Don't be stupid," Henry said. "I locked you away, very briefly, for your own protection. It will take a great deal of time for me to explain what's really happening. I already told you her identity is false, but I have now learned the truth about her--"

  "I already know," Logan said. "I'm way ahead of you."

  "Then you know she is an assassin, and her mission is to kill you." Henry gestured at the data cube on his desk. "I have all the information here. Security footage. She is a terrorist and an enemy of Providence Security."

  "Wait right there," Logan instructed the guard approaching with Raven's clothes and backpack.

  "We cannot return her weapon," Henry said. "Or her time-travel device. Think rationally, Logan."

  A wicked smile flashed across Logan's face. He brought out his cell phone, aimed it at Raven, and took a snapshot of her.

  "What the hell, Logan?" she asked. "You're taking pictures?"

  "You like taking pictures, don't you?" Logan grinned.

  "She intends to kill you, Logan," Henry said.

  "No, I don't. You have to believe me, Logan."

  "Of course I believe you." Logan pointed to the one armored agent who still stood behind Henry. "Open her handcuffs."

  "Logan, she will kill us both!" Henry stood up behind his desk. "Don't unlock those cuffs."

  "Do what I said!" Logan shouted at the agent, who scurried to obey his young dictator.

  When the agent released Raven, she grabbed her clothes and hurriedly pulled on her jeans, shirt, jacket, and sneakers. She threw her underwear and socks into her backpack and checked that her plasma pistol, data cube, and timepiece were inside.

  "Oh, look," Logan said. "She's just hanging out, not killing us at all."

  "That is simply because we have four armed agents here in the room," Henry said.

  "You four, step outside," Logan told them. "Close the door behind you."

  "Wait!" Henry shouted, and the four agents slowed their exit, but continued on their way toward the open door. "Do you really trust this strange girl so much, Logan? More than me? More than the man you've known all your life, a trusted adviser to your family?"

  Logan looked at her, and the agents slowed their exit even more. One raised the plasma rifle in his hands.

  "You're right, Henry," Logan said softly, and Raven felt the muscles in her stomach tighten. She readied herself for a fight, though with four Providence agents in the room, her odds of surviving would be very poor. "I have known you all my life. I know your future, too. I know how far you're willing to go to control me. Go on out, guys, this is a private conversation." Logan waited while the agents departed.

  Henry looked fearfully at Raven, clearly expecting her to attack. She gave him a cold smile.

  "Henry, we need to talk," Logan said. He looked to Raven for support, and she slipped an arm around him.

  "Let's talk without the girl," Henry replied.

  Raven felt the fear in Logan's trembling hand, though he kept it hidden from his face.

  "Go ahead," she whispered. "Make your choice."

  "Henry..." Logan hesitated as he met the older man's eyes. He drew himself up to his full height, and his voice became hard. "You're fired."

  "Excuse me?"

  "You're not going to work for my family anymore," Logan said. "Thanks for your years of service, and whatever other bullshit people say when they're firing somebody."

  Henry barked a laugh and sank back into his chair. He reclined, trying his best, looking serene and confident. "You can't fire me. You're only a child."

  "I can, though." Logan took a step closer to the desk, and a touch of malevolent glee appeared in his electric green eyes. "I'll tell my father and my grandfather how you locked me up in your house, and I had to break a window to escape."

  "They won't believe a story like that." Henry's smile was wide. "It's absurd."

  "Then I'll tell them you kidnapped my girlfriend, stripped her naked, and handcuffed her to a chair in your office," Logan added, and the smile vanished from Henry's face.

  "They certainly won't believe that. Logan, you are in far over your head now--"

  "They'll have to believe it when I show them." Logan held up his camera and displayed the picture of Raven handcuffed to the chair, with Henry sitting just across from her. "Riley can tell them how you treated her."

  "I'll have a fantastic story to go along with that picture," Raven said. She smiled at Logan, genuinely impressed with him.

  Henry's mouth opened, but he seemed to have no idea what to say.

  "This picture, by itself, is enough to make you a political liability to anyone, not just my family," Logan continued. "I can release it to the media any time."

  Henry's face paled, but he tried to smile again. "And how would your precious girlfriend feel about the entire world seeing her like this?"

  "I'd be happy, if that's what it takes to get rid of you, Henry. We can take more pictures if you think it will help, Logan." Raven unzipped her jeans.

  "I think one is enough," Logan said. "Don't you, Henry? One image, one soundbite, any more is too much. That's what you always say."

  "I have many ways of destroying your family," Henry growled. "I know where acres of bodies are buried. You know nothing about the real work involved, Logan, or how dirty the Carraways truly are. Would you like to hear a sample of the sordid details?"

  Logan hesitated a moment, then he said, "You have twenty-four hours to sever all ties with my family, to resign any position you hold with us--politics, business, even our charities and foundations. Gone. Out of our lives. I mean it."

  Henry stared back at him for a long, tense minute, as though trying to work out a reply that would change the situation.

  "Gone," Henry agreed quickly, averting his eyes. "You should reconsider, Logan. Your family needs me in ways of which you are unaware. Take this decision to your grandfather first."

  "I won't change my mind, Henry. I've seen what my future is like. It's better without you in it." Logan walked to the door, and Raven followed.

  "Stay here," Raven told Henry. She noticed the data cube still on his desk and doubled back into the room. She reached over his desk toward the cube, holding her open backpack in her other hand. "I'll have to take this with me."

  Henry's arm rose from under the desk, and he pointed a Smith & Wesson revolver at her face. Raven froze as she looked down the barrel of the gun.

  She gradually stood up in order to ease back from him, letting her free hand drift a bit closer to the open mouth of her backpack. She should have noticed him surreptitiously reaching for the gun. Life in 2013 truly
had made her soft.

  "Leave the cube," Henry said, his voice flat.

  "Okay, I'm sorry." Raven spoke gently, as though to a dangerous, nervous animal. "I really do need the cube, though. If you try to shoot me, I'll burn you down. You'll be nothing but a pile of ashes on your carpet."

  Henry glared at her, his gun hand tensed, and Raven dropped to the carpet as he pulled the trigger. The shot sounded like a thunderclap in the closed room. It struck the wall behind her and shattered a framed photograph of Henry shaking hands with a former President at a White House reception.

  Raven rolled across the floor as she drew the plasma pistol from her bag. She popped up at one side of his desk, rather than in front where he might have expected her.

  Henry rose from his desk chair, pointing his gun toward the spot where she'd fallen. When he saw her, his thin lips parted as if to scream. Raven pulled the trigger.

  The plasma bolt struck his chest and spread rapidly, engulfing him in white fire. Henry's flesh turned to charcoal against his bones, leaving a softly molten skeleton behind. It sprawled across his walnut desk, which blistered and cracked with the heat. The softest breeze would have scattered his remains in a plume of black dust.

  "What happened?" Logan ran back into the room surrounded by the four security agents, who seemed awed by him. He looked from Raven to the skeleton smoldering on Henry's fire-scorched desk. "You killed Uncle Henry?"

  "It was his idea. He tried to kill me first." She pointed at Henry's revolver, which had fused with the bones of his hand from the intense plasma heat.

  "Fuck me blind..." Logan circled the charred body and desk. "What did you do?"

  "Just one small plasma round." Raven waved her gun, and he stared at the strange weapon from the future, clusters of steel chambers around a core conducting rod.

  "I can't believe you killed him." Logan wiped his eyes, and she tried to imagine what it might be like for him, the death of someone who'd played such a large role in his life. She thought of the last time she'd seen Colin Taggart, the man who'd rescued her as a child, then brought her into the time-travel mission years later, when the world had turned into a dangerous, desperate place. He'd been coughing and choking, his lungs filled with tumors.

  "He shot at me," she said. "What else could I do?"

  Logan stared in horror at Henry's remains. "What now? Do we...hide the body? Are you guys good at getting rid of bodies?" he asked the security agents from the future.

  "They're good at it," Raven said curtly.

  A few minutes later, they stood on Henry's back lawn, on the shore of the Potomac River, watching the four security agents dump the black ash of his remains into the water. They'd unceremoniously gathered his body with a broom and a vacuum cleaner.

  "You need to get out of here," Raven told Logan. "You can make it back to New Haven by morning, and nobody will even suspect you left town. I'll wipe Henry's security-camera footage."

  "Why does it sound like you're not coming with me?" he asked.

  "I can't. I can't change you, Logan. I've already tried that, and I've seen where that future leads. You're going to have to figure it out for yourself."

  "I want you in my life," he said. "You can't go. Where would you go?"

  "Home, Logan."

  "Home could be with me." He wrapped his arms around her. "Couldn't it?"

  "No. You've hurt me in more ways than you'll ever know...Secretary-General Carraway." She thought of her parents, and everyone else she'd lost to his war, and she pulled away. "I know you too well. I hate you too much. I wouldn't be the right choice for you."

  Logan stared at her with his mouth open, speechless.

  "We've disposed of the body, sir," the lead agent said as the four of them approached, brushing ash from their armor.

  "You have to block the coup," Raven told Logan, ignoring the security agent. "Protect the elected President, protect the country. That's your mission now. Don't forget it, or I will find you. I can be anywhere, anytime, Logan."

  "You're threatening me?" he asked. "When I've got four armed guys right here?"

  The security agents leveled their plasma rifles at Raven.

  "Go ahead," Raven said. "Who are you really, Logan? What will you choose to be?"

  "Lower your guns, everybody!" Logan said, frantically waving his hands at the four agents. "Hey, I was just kidding, I didn't mean to cause an international incident."

  "Send them on their way, Logan. Back where they belong," Raven said. "You don't need them anymore."

  "Do I have to? I was thinking it might be cool to hear stories about the time when I was a crazed dictator--"

  "Send them back," Raven said.

  "Okay, okay." Logan sighed. "I guess you guys are dismissed, or whatever. Game over. Uh, good effort, team."

  "Yes, sir. Prepare for return protocol, everyone." The agent who'd spoken addressed Logan directly. "Requesting permission to speak freely, sir."

  "Oh, yeah, bro, go ahead," Logan said.

  "Speaking for myself and my team, sir, personally serving you in this time-displacement mission has been the greatest honor of our lives."

  "Hey, hear that, Riley? The greatest honor of their lives." Logan beamed.

  Raven rolled her eyes.

  "We are prepared to serve you and the new order in any possible way, sir."

  "Aw, can't we keep them around a little longer?" Logan asked. "They want to serve me and the new order, Riley."

  "Say good-bye to your friends, Logan," Raven said.

  "Okay. Keep going, guys." Logan sighed. "I liked having minions."

  The agents climbed onto their armored bikes and drove them to the center of the lawn. Behind them, past a thin stand of ornamental trees, the Potomac River glittered under the night sky.

  The lead agent opened a panel in the armor over his chest, and the others copied him, revealing what looked like small moonstones concealed in their breastplates.

  "No wonder you never take off that bracelet," Logan whispered.

  "I still liked the necklace," she told him.

  The lead agent activated the unit's hologram display, which looked like glowing concentric circles in different shades of blue, just like Raven's. He clicked an icon that looked like an arrow curving back on itself.

  His device must have controlled all of them, because all four agents glowed with an intense golden light, then vanished together in a bright flash of lightning, leaving Raven alone in the dark with Logan.

  "There," Logan said. "I did what you wanted, so there's no reason you can't stay with me. You're good for me."

  "You should get driving," Raven said.

  "Are you coming back to New Haven?"

  "No, I'm done playing college student. I have to move on."

  "So when do I get to see you again?" He looked worried, and he reached for her. She let him hug her a moment before she backed away.

  "I don't know, Logan. Whenever I choose."

  "And that could be a while?"

  Raven looked him over. "Do yourself a favor, Logan. When you're back in New Haven, call Macey Ingersoll. I think you were happiest with her. If Henry Sheffield wanted her dead, she must not be so bad."

  "I wish you would come."

  Raven had nothing else to say to him.

  She followed him to his car and watched him climb inside. They did not say good-bye. She waited until his tail lights had vanished into the night, and then she closed the heavy front gate behind him.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Raven had more work to do, but she was exhausted, and it occurred to her that she had Henry Sheffield's spacious mansion to herself for the rest of the night.

  She returned to his office first, where she found the server that stored the feed from his security cameras and deleted everything, and then she shut down all the cameras.

  She locked up the house, turning out lights as she went, pausing in the kitchen long enough to create and consume an enormous turkey and pickle sandwich on wheat bread. She
scavenged his house for valuables and came up with a few thousand dollars in cash.

  She picked the largest guest room for herself, locked the door, and moved a wardrobe and a writing desk to barricade it. She enjoyed a long steam shower in the rock-lined private bathroom. She stretched out on the bed, on top of Egyptian cotton sheets.

  Raven had no qualms about eating the dead man's food or sleeping in his house. She had killed him, so by the law of the jungle, his possessions now belonged to her. This man in particular had helped plant the jungle in which she'd grown up.

  She awoke late the next morning to someone banging on her door and shouting in Spanish. It was her cue to travel away through time.

  Her first stop was only a slight hop into the future, to midnight. She visited her house in New Haven, now a blackened wreck surrounded by yellow police tape. The site of the fire would have been declared the scene of a homicide once they'd found Kari's body stabbed through the neck. Raven wondered what they would make of the girl's futuristic power armor.

  Raven ducked under the police tape and climbed up the scorched, crumbling structure of the external stairs. The roof of her apartment was gone, along with most of the walls. The doorway was a blackened rectangle in one remaining chunk of wall. Raven eased her way through it, stepping lightly on the burned trusses, which were all that remained of her floor. She could see into the art students' burned apartment below.

  The remains of Audra's record player rested on two of the floor trusses, the last record melted and hardened over it like candle wax. Audra had been just a few feet from here when she'd died.

  Raven activated the timepiece on her wrist. She locked onto her current space coordinates, then set the destination. Pascal had told her that intervention in time needed to be precise and surgical. Eliad had said that interfering with one's own past could be dangerous, and for this reason a future self of Raven had sent Eliad on her behalf.

  Risk didn't matter to her at the moment. Only the mission mattered.

  The world glowed gold around her, and she felt the scorched truss crack beneath her shoe. She pushed off from it and jumped into the air to avoid falling, and then the device swept her back in time.