A Chronetic Memory (The Chronography Records Book 1)

by O'Hara, Kim K.

  Dani nodded. “You’ve heard our slogan, ‘It’s not just seen,’ and all that?”

  “It’s heard, it’s smelled, and so on,” Marak supplied.

  “It’s PastPerfect!” added Kat.

  “That’s right. Well, it turns out that it’s not just seen and heard and smelled. It’s used. And the worst thing about that is that it’s used up. Not just for PastPerfect purposes, but for everybody. For those moments of its existence within the time frame in question, it’s just not there any more. It’s erased.”

  “We suspected something like that,” said Marak.

  “The moments are usually so brief, it doesn’t matter. If someone notices, they’d look again, and it would be there, and they’d wonder about it, but nothing really changes. Sometimes, though, it does matter. It matters a lot. If we erase a key object at the moment it plays a part in an event, major or minor, the ripples begin. And this is not merely an alternate timeline. The object at that moment in time is erased throughout all potential timelines. That’s what I meant when I said used up.”

  “What do you mean when you say ripples?” Marak’s eyes had narrowed. He was honing in on everything she said.

  “Well, there’s a story behind that word,” said Dani. “I have a lot of things to share with you guys, actually, not the least of which is where I was last night and what I learned there.”

  “The moonlit walk?” asked Kat, smiling.

  “The moonlit walk, yes.” Dani laughed. “But not just that. The most important thing I want to tell you about is that it might be possible to do exactly what you told me you wanted, back in the lab. Put the world right again. But how do you really feel about that?”

  Kat answered slowly. “I said before that it would feel like giving up my memories so some other Kat could have her son back. But as wonderful as those memories are”—she squeezed Marak’s hand—“I watched that other Kat, and she felt like me. This world has felt wrong to me for a long time, in ways that I couldn’t put my finger on. I thought it was just that we really wanted a baby and couldn’t have one, even though we tried so hard. But other people go through that too, and I’d be stupid to think that everybody else’s difficulties were because of some time disturbance somewhere.”

  Dani interrupted. “And they aren’t. This is the only one that has occurred of this significance.”

  “You can tell that?” asked Marak.

  “Yes. I’ll tell you more later. Go on, Kat.”

  “When I sat there in that observation box, the things I saw felt right in the same way some of the things I’ve lived feel wrong. Not you, Marak. Being with you has always felt right.” She smiled at her husband.

  “Likewise, babe. But Dani, I felt the same thing. I wouldn’t feel like I was sacrificing myself for another version of me. I’d feel like I was going back to a life that I was meant to live all along.”

  “So I have your blessing to pursue this, both of you?”

  “Absolutely,” said Kat.

  “You bet,” said Marak.

  Just then, Dani looked up and saw Anders at a table across the room. He had probably seen her with company and hadn’t wanted to interrupt. She gestured toward him. “That’s Anders. I want you two to meet him. Finished eating?”

  They were, so they picked up their trays and dropped them off on their way over to his table. Kat and Marak hung back to let Dani go first.

  Anders looked up, then quickly dropped his eyes back down to his food.

  “Anders? Are you okay?”

  “Dani, I can’t talk to you,” he muttered.

  “What?” she dropped her voice. “Why?”

  “Just leave, please. They’re watching me. They have something on my brother, and I can’t let them ruin his life. I wouldn’t care if it was me. You understand?” He looked up at her, just for a second, but she could read the agony in his eyes.

  She nodded, then moved away quickly.

  She was fuming when she got to Kat and Marak. Kat knew her too well to ask why. Dani would talk when she got some semblance of control back.

  Dani was expected to see them past the security gate before she went back to work. They walked through the big doors and let the irisscan check them and open the exit gate.

  Finally, Dani spoke. “They got to him.”

  “How?” asked Kat.

  “They’re blackmailing him with something they have on his older brother. He and his brother are really close. We have to stop this!” She almost growled as she said the last sentence.

  “If the time disturbance can be repaired, will that stop it?” asked Marak. “I’m guessing this blackmailing existed in your reality too?”

  Dani pondered that. “I can’t say for sure. I know that before everything changed, there were high school kids clamoring to have their privacy protected, Anders willing to dig to see what he could find, and you, Kat, demonstrating outside the institute every weekday, rain or shine. So I think there was some concern, yes. But I don’t know how far it went.”

  “Then we have two possibilities,” Marak continued. “Either it didn’t exist, and reality fixed means no more blackmail, or it did exist, and fixing it here won’t have any effect on the correct reality. Either way, whatever we do here won’t help us there. Am I right?”

  He was making perfect sense. Dani nodded.

  “I have another question, in that case,” said Marak. “Will we remember anything from this reality’s last nine years, and more specifically, from these last three days, if the timestream is repaired?”

  “No, not unless you are in the observation box when it happens.”

  “So everything we find out here has no effect there.”

  He was right. The three of them looked at each other, speechless, and feeling completely powerless to do anything to help.

  RIACH TUBE STOP, Alki Beach, Seattle, WA. 1710, Friday, June 9, 2215.

  Dani had finished her afternoon assignments as quickly as she could so she could be out at the tube station early. If anyone was watching her, she wanted to know before Dr. Brant came out—assuming she got the note and made it to the meeting. Dani really didn’t know what kind of limitations they had placed on her movements. Perhaps a walk to the tube station would be seen as different enough to get her in trouble. If she didn’t see the doctor in another fifteen minutes, she would just go home.

  In the first fifteen minutes, the time since she had first sat down, there had been no sign of anyone watching or paying any attention to her. Everyone who had been waiting for the tube when she first got there had left. She even saw Anders, and he had walked right past her to get on his tube car. Their eyes had met only once, and that was enough to know he wouldn’t be stopping to talk. She hated the hurt she saw in his eyes. There had to be some way to help him!

  Two minutes before Dani was going to leave, she saw Dr. Brant, walking purposefully toward the bench behind Dani’s, carefully avoiding any kind of eye contact that might give her away. They sat, back-to-back, two casual travelers waiting for a tube car.

  “I got your note,” Dr. Brant said quietly. Her enunciation was indistinct. Dani suspected she was trying not to move her lips.

  Dani pretended to tap her temple to call someone on the nexus. That would disguise her own lip movements. “I’m glad you got it. I wasn’t sure how to pass you a message.”

  “How do you know about Vashon?”

  “We have mutual friends on Vashon who wanted me to help you communicate more easily with them.”

  “I think you are too obvious when you walk down that hallway. There’s a camera there. But this is a good place to meet.”

  “Not daily, though,” Dani said, and gestured as if to pull an image up on her eyescreen to show to her caller. She laughed to cover up her nervousness. She had a lot to learn about this espionage stuff.

  “No, not daily. We should have a signal. That laugh sounded almost convincing.” Dr. Brant was almost laughing herself.

  “What do we both see every day? Someplace
with no cameras.”

  “We both go in and out of the main entrance. If I need to see you, I’ll place a tiny bit of red tape on the right edge of the viewwall border. If you see it, remove the tape.”

  “If I can’t meet for some reason, I’ll leave the tape there.”

  “That’s fine.”

  “And if I need to see you to pass on a message from Vashon, I’ll leave a piece of blue tape.”

  “That will work. I’ll watch for it.”

  “Dr. Brant? May I ask you a question?”

  “You may ask, but I don’t know if I can answer.”

  “Don’t you have any friends at the institute you can go to for help?”

  “Friends.” Her tone of voice took on a slightly bitter tone. “My old friends are gone, and I’ve been advised that it would be in my best interests not to have any personal relationships with any of the current employees.”

  “Not even Dr. Calegari or Dr. Tasman?”

  “They are so guarded with me that they may well have been advised the same way I was. Sometimes a new intern or someone on the support staff will stop to try to chat with me…” She stopped abruptly. “You did that, I think.”

  “Yes, I did. More than once.”

  “But I never know who might have been hired to spy on me and report back.”

  “That sounds awful.”

  “It is. And they won’t let us do any real research any more.”

  “Why don’t you just leave? Work with…” Dani stopped herself before she said any names. “I mean, work on Vashon?

  “I can’t. The blackmailers know…they would tell…” She struggled for words. “It would hurt someone I love, very badly. I can’t explain. I know you don’t understand. I’m sorry.”

  But Dani did understand. “Please, don’t apologize.”

  They sat in silence for a few minutes, then Dani had an idea. “I know someone on the board of directors. I could ask him to help you.”

  Dr. Brant laughed, but it was a hopeless, hollow sound. “Oh, I know board members too, and I don’t need their kind of help. Trust me. I’d stay away from the board of directors if I were you.”

  Dani understood. It was almost certain the blackmailers were associated in some way with the board of directors. She reminded herself that Uncle Royce had said he was mostly a figurehead. Even if he was, as he said, trying to have some influence on the rest of them, he was probably as helpless as she was. Well, at least he had been able to get Kat and Marak visitors’ passes. That was something!

  “Watch for my signal. I have to leave now or they’ll be wondering where I am.” Dr. Brant was standing. “I want to tell you, though: It’s nice to have someone to talk to.”

  Dani nodded, then pretended to continue her connexion. After a minute, she told the imaginary person on the other end, “I do too! Bye! Later!” and pretended to disconnect.

  She waited for a while until she felt it was safe to turn. Dr. Brant was almost at the entrance to the parking garage, thirty meters away. A tube car was coming, and Dani was ready to go.

  It wasn’t until she was inside the car, speeding away, that she realized she hadn’t seen the clock tower—taller, shorter, or whatever—at all. Was she that oblivious to her surroundings?

  25

  Neutralization

  HUNTER’S OFFICE. 1800, Friday, June 9, 2215.

  The institute was quiet. The employees had gone home. It had been a good day, with many secrets learned and used effectively. He put on a lightweight overcoat and waved his hand at the controls to fade the lights.

  As he walked out the door, he made mental notes about his progress. Four payments of various sizes had been received, totaling 600 million credits. Three new possible sources had been identified, and eight suitable objects retrieved for scanning on Monday.

  It was good to have successfully taken the young man, Peerson, out of the picture. There would be no more digging into the financial business of the institute. He hadn’t even known about his brother’s teenage indiscretions, but he certainly knew now. What a surprise it had been!

  At first, Peerson hadn’t believed it. “I know my brother, and my brother would never do that.” The boy had been defiant. So he had described the dog and the car in great detail, and revealed the specifics of how the dog had died, and identified precisely what his brother had been carrying in the back seat. He had told him the two people, a girl and a boy, who were with his brother and what his brother had said. He had described what his brother was wearing: the color, the fabric, the cut, and how he wore it with rolled up sleeves.

  He had provided such specific detail that the young man had grown pale and silent; the defiance had melted away. He had pointed out that any kind of trouble over making and marketing illegal substances would not be good for a new pharmacist and his young family. But Peerson’s mind had already reached that conclusion. Finally, when he was done, the young man had said, “What do you want?”

  He had been quick to reassure Peerson, of course, that he would guard the evidence carefully, and his brother would never know he had it, as long as Peerson’s own equally illegal, unauthorized accesses to company records ceased immediately. The young man was bright. He had agreed to cooperate. And given enough time, and enough regular reminders of his brother’s vulnerability, he would come around and learn to tolerate the intolerable. Managed properly, he might even prove to be a valuable asset.

  He had passed his first test. Asked about the young woman whom he had eaten with, he readily revealed the extent of her involvement. It had turned out that his association with her had been nothing more than a harmless flirtation. She knew nothing about the financial reports. Nevertheless, he would continue to keep an eye on her. Perhaps she too could be useful.

  26

  Information

  WEST SEATTLE HIGH SCHOOL, Seattle, WA. 1000, Saturday, June 10, 2215.

  As Dani stepped onto the slidewalk in front of the high school, she considered how much to share with the Political Action Club members. She really only had knowledge of one specific person being blackmailed, and she wasn’t going to mention Dr. Brant by name. She wondered if she should talk about what she and Anders had discovered. Would that be considered corporate espionage? She couldn’t recall anything in her contract that said she couldn’t talk about what went on at the institute; in fact, part of her job description had been to be a mouthpiece. She was supposed to talk.

  Of course, she was pretty sure the intent was to promote good will, not to expose criminal behavior. Some ambassador she had turned out to be. But the momentary feelings of guilt were swept away by indignation. She wasn’t the one who had chosen to turn this amazing new technology into an instrument of greed! And she was still just stubborn enough to believe that most of the employees at the institute were there for the good they could do. Some could be victims, like Dr. Brant and now Anders. A very few people could be running this whole scheme themselves from the top of the org chart.

  Ms. Harris came to the door to admit her. “It’s locked on the weekends,” she explained.

  “Who all is here today?” Dani was a little cautious. Since the change had removed Jored, she had no idea whether the club members were made up of the same people or not. Lexil had assured her that the timestream had a tendency to repair itself, so most things should be the same. He was just guessing, though, and had been honest enough to admit it. She glanced around the school to get her bearings. The posters looked familiar, with a couple of exceptions. She wondered whether she had just missed those before, or if they were timestream changes. It was also possible that the students had put up some new ones in the last four days.

  The principal led her down the hall toward the same room where they had met before. “Two of the club members, Meredin and Beck, couldn’t make it because next week is exam week. They have a chemistry final first thing Monday morning, and they are meeting with a study group this morning. Alanya is on a weekend trip with her family. The rest are here, though. Joph, Ja
zz, Shard, Lora, and Ronny. Oh, and Ronny asked his grandfather to join us today.”

  “His grandfather?” Dani vaguely remembered that he had talked about his grandfather, but she couldn’t remember what he had said.

  Ms. Harris nodded. “Yes, the detective grandfather. You remember? The one who says to follow the money?”

  “Oh, yes. I remember now.”

  “He’s quite a character. He comes along with Ronny about once a month. Tells us stories, some of which even have something to do with politics.”

  “Nothing like keeping on topic!”

  “Exactly. Here he is now. Detective Tom Rayes, this is Dani Adams.”

  The detective’s broad, good-humored smile faded abruptly. “Adams? Danarin Adams?” At her nod, he reached back for something—she had no idea what. Handcuffs? Gun? “Young lady, I’m afraid you’ll have to come with me. You are under arrest for—”

  Dani couldn’t say anything. Her mind raced. What had she done? Was the digging she had done with Anders illegal? Was the Dani from this timestream involved in something else?

  At her shocked expression, he laughed and smacked her on the shoulder. “I’m just kidding. Never fails to get a reaction! Pleased to meet you!” He stuck out his hand.

  She smiled back, a little uncertainly, and shook his hand. “And you. Um, I think,” she added doubtfully.

  The kids were all grinning, even though they tried to hide it by pretending interest in the fruit and cheese on the refreshments table.

  “Don’t worry, Dani.” Lora comforted her. “He does that to all of us, or something like it.”

  “You get used to it.” Jazz had taken her plate and was already sprawled over the arms of the chair at the end of the table, which was automatically attempting to adjust to her awkward position.

  That girl really put demands on her chairs, Dani thought. She must wear them out once a month.