Time Crossers 01: The Final Six Days

by Agster, Joe

  They work their way to the bar with Fisher in the lead. Friend is more focused on the games, while Cassie is studying the patrons.

  “I need to speak to the lady,” Fisher declares to the bartender.

  “Why did Figura take seventh at the Stewards’ Cup?” the bartender asks softly, looking away. Friend realizes this is some type of coded language.

  “d’Oro tripped and fell in the final leg,” Fisher responds to the necessary check.

  Moments later a woman emerges from behind the bar through a closed door. She is tall, blonde, probably in her mid-forties but with a unique muscular build. She wears a tight blue shirt, enough to fully reveal the shape of her breasts. She sports several tattoos of Chinese symbols, dragons, and various animals on her left forearm and more near both shoulders. Her tall stature, muscular tattooed frame, and cold stare from her green eyes radiates an intimidating vibe, blotting out all doubt that she is in charge.

  “Come, let’s talk privately.” she tells Fisher, donning a passive smile, waving on Cassie and Friend as well.

  The office is small and dark, with brick walls painted a creamy white and covered with various knock-offs of famous cubism art pieces. Along the right wall sits a mostly empty bookshelf to the right. She sits at her dark oak desk, looking on to the group as they find various seats along the wall near the door.

  “Rosa, I need some intel on a company called Huludao,” Fisher explains. Rosa looks concerned, not sure how to handle the direct request.

  “Ooh. I don’t know. They’re very mysterious and secretive. I’ve seen a couple executives of their come through my parlor.” Her face reveals a look of pain that she cannot help out in any way.

  Friend detects an imperfection in her bodily expressions. Her face had the look of fear the moment the word “Huludao” came off his lips, alluding him to believe she may be fearful of them. It seems apparent that she is holding something back, afraid or unwilling to divulge a key detail. After today’s events his sensory perception is heightened, sensitive for him to pick up on this.

  “Do you at least have a name? I need to give the agency something,” Fisher responds, frustrated and desperately trying to remain courteous.

  “No, sorry,” she sighs.

  Fisher stands up in utter disappointment, opening the door to exit, and to his surprise are several large men, guns drawn on Fisher. As he raises his hands at the sight of the barrel of all those guns, he hears a loud pop, then something penetrating through his back, like an iron rod caught on fire. His vision almost instantly turns blurry as he stumbles to the ground.

  Rosa stands up, continuing to hold the gun that shot him in the back. “Sorry Al, I can’t have anyone asking questions, including someone from the agency.” She watches as the remaining life drains from his body. She then turns the gun on Friend and Cassie. Friend goes to help him, but some of the men have grabbed him and already pulled him away as the rest have their guns drawn directly on him and Cassie.

  “Why?” Friend asks, looking right at Rosa as she points her weapon toward him.

  “Unlike the American government, China is doing what it can to save its people. Your dead friend over there spent an entire career putting his nation first, and he doesn’t even have a bunker assignment.”

  “You’re with Huludao!” Friend yells in realization.

  She gives him a look of despair, knowing she cannot cover that secret any longer. “Kill them both. I’ll call the boss. We need to get everyone evacuated before more of them come.”

  Friend goes to grab Cassie’s arm so they can teleport, but the lead henchmen yanks her away. They are lead out into the main hall, where all the players have been expelled. Cassie is forced to kneel on the ground, arms bent behind her head, ready to be executed. A henchman pulls out a gun, and just before he can do anything with it, Friend teleport-jumps right into him, knocking him back, away from Cassie and to the ground. The other henchmen immediately fire their guns at him, and he is forced to stand momentarily flustered. Not being able to deflect bullets with a distorted field, he instead is forced to absorb several bullets, rapidly healing himself by ejecting the bullets before ducking behind a table.

  Fully healed, and distracting them just enough to continue to fire at him, he stands up as if to give himself up. As the bullets begin to rain down on him, he teleports to Cassie, grabs her, then vanishes out of there.

  They return to the mansion, adrenaline still pumping through their veins. Cassie cannot recall at any moment in her life having so many bullets whizz by her without hitting her.

  “Well that was a dead end.” she exclaims, still trying to calm down from the fracas. In her own mind she quietly muses at the pun, even if she feels bad for her companion.

  “Not exactly,” he replies, “She is connected to Huludao somehow, so we learned something.”

  “Fisher is dead. And I’m not sure I want to go back to Hong Kong after this.” she responds with a fluster, wedges in between deep, panicky breaths.

  Friend pats her on the back to sooth her. “Do you think it is possible that Huludao orchestrated the whole thing, with or without China?”

  “I can’t see how a single company can pull something like this off.”

  Max, who had been stationed at the house the whole day, safe from the FBI pursuit, enters the room. He had been in the office researching the whole day, and looks eager to let out what he knows.

  “One company can pull it off, especially if they have huge backing by the Chinese government.” he states, steadfast in his words, “I’ve been researching. Besides China, Huludao is partially owned by international conglomerate General Industries among other backers. And Space Onyx wasn’t the only asteroid company they owned. They own dozens of them, at least pieces of them, enough to put a board member or two and exact influence over its CEO. Many of these companies are China state-owned as well. When it comes to the vast web of asteroid mining and space colonization companies, Huludao is just a cog in the machine. China’s meddling influence cannot be overlooked.”

  Cassie retorts, “Let’s say China, using Huludao as a front, arranges it so KM91 collides with Icedragon. Does it make sense then that a whole government would plot this? Why, to attack the United States? Even with the most precise calculation, down to a millimeter change in velocity, they still wouldn’t be able determine the exact impact point that far in advance. In other words, the asteroid would have had as much chance of hitting China as us. None of this adds up.”

  Friend remarks, “Huludao takes over Space Onyx, the CEO goes into hiding and other executives that stayed behind are killed. My intuition tells me Huludao is involved somehow, and those executives that died knew something.”

  Max chimes in to respond to Cassie, respecting her deep intellectual appraisal. “You are right young lady. It’s impossible to know the exact impact point, the asteroid can be perturbed in its orbit by gravitational forces or the Yarkovsky effect. We didn’t even know exactly where it will hit until a month and a half ago. But what if China or Huludao doesn’t care where it impacts? Whether it’s here or there, the devastating after effects will be the same. Our planet will go through a transformation phase no matter what.”

  “It still makes little sense. And thank you Max, in my one year at Caltech I did pay attention,” She responds with a smile.

  Friend adds, “She mentioned something about a boss. This could be the key person, directing this whole thing. Someone decided twenty years ago they were going to crash this asteroid into Earth. That means that there is someone there from the beginning, all these years, pulling the strings.”

  Cassie adds, “Probably someone well connected, someone in the Chinese military. China wants to look like the benevolent country, one that wants peace. So they outsource their dirty work to Huludao.”

  Friend doesn’t say it, but he doesn’t have to. There is a mastermind, and this mastermind is connected to Huludao. The goal: find this person.

  24

  Iteration 46 />
  He looks at a reflection of himself in the mirror as he gets dressed. A pinch of fear takes him over, as he is reminded that somewhere in the world a man who looks just like him is plotting his demise. He feels it now. It’s not his physical presence that he feels right at this moment, but his worldly influence has dramatically increased since they last encountered each other.

  During the last iteration they returned to Hong Kong just in time to escape the asteroid impact. It was later in the evening, where hundreds of sky watchers packed into the Kowloon Pier, watching as the fire trail streaked across the sky. Immediately after, Friend had wondered how long they would survive. But a couple hours later, as they looked south upon the harbor, they saw something they didn’t expect. The waves of the sea had been gradually growing in size and furor, but suddenly they grew meters high and began crashing onto land, forcing everyone to flee.

  Chaos ensued as everyone scrambled inland toward higher ground. Just then, they witnessed as off to the distance a towering tsunami came in view, closing in fast, this one as high as a building. As it approached at a frantic pace, Cassie grabbed Friend’s hand, urging him to teleport away. But he could not. As he was wonder struck by the giant wave rapidly nearing, he moves to the front of the rail to embrace it. She finally relented, embracing her fate along with his, grabbing him and wrapping his arms around her and letting him hold her tight. It was only seconds after that the monstrous wall of water engulfed them.

  After the brief moment of being enthralled at reminiscing on the new type of death, he turns his focus to update the clearboard. He pulls up a map of Hong Kong from the network, and using his finger, draws circles and dots, tracing his route through Hong Kong so far. They had spent days walking its streets, taking busses and rideshare cars, all these modes of transportation still operating despite the news of the world’s impending doom. He commits the map to memory, then clears the board so that he can restore his original notes.

  Satisfied, he jumps into nonspace, traveling to a new designated spot inside Cassie’s apartment. He inserts himself into her living room, to the corner near the entry foyer that she designated. He now feels once again connected to her, making him feel comfortable in her sanctuary of a home. They are soul mates after all, understanding now what that means. Soul mates are not simply two people that meet and fall in love, no, it’s two people who are inexplicably liked together throughout all space and time. He often ponders if they are even the same soul, manifested in two separate bodies.

  He continues to muse on the existentialism of it as he hears her in the shower. While patiently waiting, he looks around, analyzing her habitation habits. Everything is so spotlessly clean and efficiently organized. Her décor is a mix of Asian artifacts, artwork and sculptures of dragons, and lots of pictures of her and her friends, all themed in red and black colors. There are a couple older pictures with her dad. He is a Caucasian man, lighter skinned and a bigger build. It’s apparent this is where Cassie gets her slightly taller and larger frame than her mother. Friend delights at the resemblance of her to her father, as they are boasting the same smile.

  As the flow of water in the shower ceases, Friend prepares for the inevitable encounter. He sweats this part, even though the linking process has become easier, as just locking eyes with him kindles the moment of déjà vu, the sudden awareness of his existence. Without the eye contact, there would be no link, and she would be blissfully unaware that he ever existed. The foretold prophecy by her father of a man appearing at a critical moment in her life would be relegated to a mere passing curiosity.

  A few minutes pass, and he hears a little humming and singing through the wall, an indication of no haste to get ready. She may very well be still getting dressed, or perhaps attending to personal feminine hygienic needs. He wonders if he should barge in. After all, it’s not like has hasn’t seen her naked before. But this may rekindle a passion for her, one he cannot afford to pursue, and moreover it may create an aura of resentment from her that may last the rest of the iteration. He concludes he has no choice but to wait.

  She eventually emerges from the bedroom, dressed in the same dark jeans and black top she wore when he visited her apartment last time. As she spots him standing near the door she lets out a panicked yelp, and in a single passing moment they are once again linked. It seems the process becomes slightly faster each time, and he wonders if maybe it will converge to a point where she will simply abandon her plans and just seek him out from the start.

  “Cassie,” he calls out, confirming her familiarity with him.

  She embraces him with a long hug, one of a reuniting after a long, distant time apart. This is how he felt the last time when he knocked at her door, but as seeing her just twenty minutes ago as they were engulfed by a crashing wave, his palette of adorations is still full. But he embraces her in kind, not fully understanding her state of mind. Just go with it, he tells himself, a phrase he has heard more than once.

  Friend also picks up Max and Fisher and brings them to the mansion, eager to show them the updated clearboard. As they sit on the couch, perfectly at ease after the initial contact, already been briefed by everything on the clearboard, he is ready to provide additional details, being as blunt and forthcoming as he can.

  “Cassie and I arrived in Hong Kong. We discovered that Len Wang committed suicide, so we are now focusing our efforts on finding a key insider at Huludao, someone with a connection to the Chinese government, like a high ranking official. We believe this person has been there from the beginning, setting this grand plot into motion. Our goal is to uncover their identity and locate this person.”

  Fisher interrupts, “There is an agent in deep cover there, she will have some key information.”

  Friend retorts, “I’m sorry, but your agent contact Rosa turned on you. She’s with Huludao now.”

  Fisher sits in contemplation, unsure whether to believe what he is saying. “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because I watched her shoot you in the back. I watched the look on her face too. She didn’t even bat an eye. It was as if she was prepared for you.”

  “What if we can capture her by surprise? Bring her back here and interrogate her,” Fisher wonders. But after bringing Lisa Zhao to the mansion, Friend frowns on the idea, believing now that bringing anyone here, no matter how benign they seem, could compromise his hideout.

  “Yes… we could. But we cannot bring her here. I need to let you all in on another danger, something far worse than being killed. There is another me, a dark version of me, with the same powers.” Friend tells the group, as their faces sour in the news. He continues, “This ‘other,’ as I call him, is involved with Huludao or China somehow. As soon as we showed up in Hong Kong we were already being chased by triads.”

  “Put me on the ground then in Hong Kong. I’ll arrange a safe house. Then I’ll contact you,” Fisher responds with the updated plan that Friend can agree with. With Fisher operating alone without Friend, it takes him away from the Other’s possible detection.

  Cassie puts Fisher’s contact information on her device, as Fisher does likewise. Friend brings up the map on the clearboard, and they discuss where this safe house might be. Fisher studies the map before deciding on one of the scribbled dots, a Buddhist monastery near Lion Rock mountain. Without hesitation he grabs Fisher’s arm, transplanting him there before returning.

  Day 2 – December 27, 3:55

  The Mansion

  The ringing sound from Cassie’s device was enough to wake everyone up in the mansion. Friend emerges from the master suite, pacing down the hallway toward Cassie’s room where the source of the piercing sound continues to originate. Perhaps it’s Friend’s inability to really engage in a deep sleep that causes him to hear sounds that easily. Even when he thinks he’s asleep there’s a part of him that is still conscious.

  Out of respect for her personal space he casually knocks on the door, reminding her that they were expecting to be contacted by Fisher around this time. As s
he moans and grumbles, the sound ceases as she is heard talking to him on her device. Moments later the door finally opens, revealing a weary girl whose face is weathered from sleep. Her dark eye bags starkly signal to him she’d rather return to her bed.

  As she fights herself to finally rise, she checks her device for his latest message. “Fisher has set up a safe house. It’s a condo in Fat Tseung Plaza, in Kowloon. He wants us to meet him there.”

  He opens the map again, carefully studying the arrangement of dots that represent teleport points, before finding the correct point. Cassie walks up next to him, now fully dressed. He grabs her hand, clinching it in a nervous squeeze, taking a deep breath, before they disappear.

  It appears to be an aged living complex, gold in color, with a small shopping complex at its base. They enter and wade through the series of shops, some gated up as they are closed for the evening, as they take the elevator to the 22nd floor. The building and the elevator car have a smell of old age, a vintage odor that is the sum of a hundred years of cologne, perfume and human sweat.

  They tread down the hall at a rapid place, and as they approach the door, Fisher opens it, inviting them in. His expression is one of consternation, as he is quietly hoping to clarify how exactly to extract the other agent Rosa without getting himself killed.

  “Explain it again what happens,” he requests of Friend.

  “We enter the Parisian restaurant, descend into the basement where there is a secret, illicit mahjong parlor. You give the bartender your spy code phrase. We enter her office, and she stalls for time while her henchmen clear the parlor room. Then they ambush us.”