Preserving Will

by Alex Albrinck

  “That would be inadvisable at the moment,” Eva replied. “We have a very precise schedule for the next seventy-two hours. If throngs of Alliance come to see Will here, it would significantly impede our progress against that schedule, far more than the Hunters.” She shook her head. “There will be time enough for Will to reunite with everyone when everything here has finished, and we can tell others our stories of what we have witnessed as well.”

  Judith glanced at Eva. “I still think we should tell Hope.”

  “I rather suspect Hope sensed that Energy burst,” Eva replied, a trace of irony in her voice. Her eyes narrowed. “And I further suspect she did not need an Energy burst of that sort to know that Old Will has been alive all this time.”

  ●●●

  Adam retained his Cain Freeman appearance after his meeting with Will. He wanted to be very noticeable in leaving town, so that no one would wonder where he was when he failed to return after several days, and he’d allow word of his sudden resignation from Stark Enterprises after Will’s death to explain Cain’s permanent departure from Pleasanton. He’d drive to the safe house in West Virginia, where he’d meet Millard Howe in a few weeks. He could teleport back and forth as needed, including for quick forays around the city over the next few days to check in on Gena’s safety. The drive began to become monotonous, as flat fields of grass gave way to other flat fields of grass, with only minor bends in the road giving any relief from the boredom of driving the route.

  The tsunami of Energy coursed through him, a wave of power that eliminated the need for the artificial heater in his car. Yet that warming Energy still chilled him to the bone, far more than any air conditioning system or cryogenic chamber ever could.

  He knew it had come from Will. There was no other explanation, and certainly no other Energy user who could generate something like what he’d just experienced.

  He’d watched as the Hunter stabbed Will decades earlier, had watched the man collapse, near death, before teleporting far away. His initial assumption as the sole eyewitness to the event had been that Will must have died from the injuries. Over time, though, he’d begun to doubt what he’d seen, and the lack of tangible proof of death, along with the intelligence suggesting that the Hunters themselves doubted he’d perished, had swung him to the camp that believed Will had survived, and had been in hiding ever since.

  There was no doubt now. Will had made an appearance, and a dramatic one at that.

  His first thought was of Hope, who’d lived as a widow for decades before marrying Young Will. Had she sensed the Energy burst? And where had it originated from, in any event? It was bound to draw the attention of Porthos; bursts far smaller would bring the Hunter scurrying forth from beneath whatever rock he called home. It was strange timing on Will’s part, because if the Hunters went to investigate this Energy burst, then…

  Adam’s eyes widened. He pulled to the side of the road, allowing his breathing to stabilize.

  Will had done it on purpose. He’d known he would need to do what he’d done. Yet somehow, he’d never seen fit to tell Adam, the man responsible for coordinating all of this activity, the organizer of the plan meant to keep the young, very human Will, alive.

  Adam felt a surge of anger that shocked him.

  It vanished quickly.

  None of the clues contained in the diary entries had mentioned what, exactly, had prompted the Hunters and Assassin to visit Pleasanton that specific day. The human Will Stark had long been a very public figure, and the fact that he’d not come to the attention of the Aliomenti before now was, frankly, stunning. All of the future communication suggested Will might well be dead, but the wording was oddly ambiguous. And nothing in those communications suggested that Will would not only live, but perform the equivalent of setting off an Energy bomb to lure the Hunters to Pleasanton. The team had never discussed what might trigger the Hunters’ journey, outside a vague idea of creating a machine that would generate a synthetic burst of Energy coded to match Will Stark. Peter had suggested sending an anonymous email to the Aliomenti, noting that Will Stark, leader of the Alliance, was flaunting his massive wealth among the humans and lived in Pleasanton with his wife, but that idea was shot down. The Aliomenti had made mistakes in the past, but they’d never be so foolish as to chase an obvious attempt to draw them to a specific spot on a specific day, encouraged by an anonymous source who knew of their special interest in the man. His idea, though, had put the idea in Adam’s head that some type of Internet search or TV news story about Will, likely initiated by Porthos, would be the trigger to get the Hunters to Pleasanton.

  And foolishly, they’d never discussed that triggering event again.

  Adam cursed his own stupidity. That had been a tragic flaw, an unspoken assumption that the trigger had been a natural occurrence beyond their control, and that the Hunters had stumbled upon Will through happenstance at just this precise moment in time. They’d allowed nothing else during this entire cycle of history to happen by chance, whether ensuring Will survived the car crash that claimed the lives of his parents, to nudging his people to say certain things and drive down specific roads so that Will had to visit the Diner the night his future wife was on duty and had an open table.

  That turned Adam’s thoughts back to Hope.

  Had she known that Will had survived? And if so, how long had she known?

  He wouldn’t suggest that some secrets in life weren’t meant to remain between husband and wife, and that had been their relationship status for centuries, even if it hadn’t been confirmed in a traditional ceremony. But he struggled with the idea that Will and Hope had privately agreed upon the need for Will to bait the Hunters to Pleasanton. It was far too critical a decision not to share, and Will had never in the past left people in the dark about information they needed to do their jobs. It could only mean that Will had realized what he’d needed to do after his apparent death at the hands of the Hunters.

  Nor did he think Hope knew that Will would do this; she’d no more leave Adam guessing about critical information of that sort than Will would. But Will was pretending to be dead, and Adam couldn’t help but wonder once more if Hope had known he was alive before the events of this day, and had elected not to share that information.

  To be sure, the diary entries had made repeated references to Will saving Hope and Josh from the Assassin, a point which raised Hope’s ire every time it came up. They’d all assumed it was there to keep Will’s spirits up as the end approached. After his disappearance, they’d speculated that his saving Hope was metaphorical, that it was the continued efforts to live to Will’s example, working to better the world, which would save Hope from any unforeseen calamity. Hope seemed to appreciate that idea, noting time and again that she could teleport two people a hundred feet without any help.

  But none of them believed their own words.

  None of them wanted to be the one to say aloud that time during this cycle might have changed, that Will was never meant to die in 1994. What if Hope did need help? Who would save Hope and Josh on that fateful day?

  But now? It seemed the words from the future might be literal. Will was alive. He could save Hope and Josh from the Assassin, if it proved to be necessary

  Perhaps that was why Hope had been so angry for so long at the idea of Will saving her life. She’d known Will was very much alive and, therefore, in a position to come to her rescue. Since the words from the future were therefore literal, not metaphorical, they suggested some type of weakness or failure on her part. Adam didn’t think it was weakness at all, but recognized he wouldn’t win that argument with her.

  He thought back, starting with the immediate aftermath of the Hunters’ casino attack and his return to report on what he’d seen. While she’s seemed to show genuine grief at the news Adam delivered, she’d stabilized quickly, and at some point over the next several months her good humor had returned. Her face showed some level of pain when she overheard stories about Will, but she’d seemed to adjust re
markably well for someone who’d lost a spouse she’d been with for centuries. When he’d thought about it, Adam had reasoned that she’d known the day was coming almost since she’d met him, and thus had plenty of time to adjust her mindset to accept that fate.

  Now, though, he wondered if she’d known he hadn’t died the whole time, and knew they’d be reunited again in mere decades. And not just through her meeting and marrying the younger Will.

  Adam pulled back onto the road. He’d have to talk with Hope later. Find out what she’d known, when she’d known it… and why she’d seen fit to hide that knowledge from the people putting their lives on hold to protect hers.

  ●●●

  Hope had felt the surge of Energy, just as the others had, and it was like an alarm shattering a deep, restful sleep, catapulting her from a relaxed calm to a state of panic.

  It was really happening.

  Josh was reading a mystery novel and glanced up at her. “What was that, Mommy?”

  Hope’s weak smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “It was something that means things are about to get very interesting.”

  The little boy gave her puzzled look. He was laying on his stomach, propped up on his elbows, holding his face in his hands, his inquisitive, Energy-rich ice blue eyes absorbing the expression on her face. He didn’t like what he saw, his mother’s face lined with worry and concern, and his brow furrowed. He stood up, padded across the thick carpet in his socked feet, and stared out the back window.

  And he watched.

  And he waited.

  He watched as people with the faces of strangers but the Energy signals of friends moved into the trees. He watched as they milled about, searching for something he couldn’t identify in the thoughts that seeped in through the scutarium-lined infrastructure of his home. Then they moved with haste toward a single spot, and a moment later, he watched as they carried the inert form of a man through the trees.

  “Mommy! Look!” He pointed.

  She didn’t dare move, didn’t want to see what her son saw. Yet some maternal instinct forced her to her feet, and she moved across the carpet slowly.

  Josh opened the window, just a crack, and gust of frigid air burst into the house.

  Something more than air rushed in as well… and more important, something rushed out.

  She raced forward to close the window.

  ●●●

  Will could sense everyone around him as he rested on the bed in Eva and Aaron’s home. To them, he appeared a man worn to exhaustion by a massive release of Energy earlier that day, a man who was sleeping or unconscious as a result.

  In reality, he’d never felt more energized and alive. The feedback effect, an Energy replenishment and growth technique he’d discovered centuries earlier, had worked wonders. Perhaps he’d imagined it, but the effect had seemed stronger than ever before, possibly because he’d not practiced the technique in centuries. Regardless, the approach had been effective. He felt more Energized now than he had before he’d issued his summons to the Hunters.

  Energy responded to emotion and direction. He felt no malice, no destructive impulses, just a desire to communicate in his own fashion with the men who sought to deliver death to his home. His Energy release was felt as a small tremble in the ground nearby, detected by more powerful Energy users in the vicinity, and would make its presence felt with the Hunters soon, if it hadn’t already. But the emotion behind the release, one of passive intent to communicate, meant no harm had been done, no destruction rendered. Had he been angry or vengeful, De Gray Estates and the city of Pleasanton would, in all likelihood, be nothing but rubble now.

  The powerful effects of Energy feedback weren’t what left him feeling so strong at this moment, though.

  As they’d carried him away, he’d felt something, an Energy so pure and powerful that it overwhelmed even the thick vibration of his own massive Energy storm. His mind matched the pattern to one in his ancient memories, one from a man who’d made him feel unwelcome against his will, in order to ensure he felt motivated to leave the future to travel back in time to fulfill his destiny, an Energy signal that mapped to one he’d learned to recognize again in the present.

  It was Josh.

  They must have opened a door or a window with Josh out of the restraints of Hope’s Shield, a combination that allowed Josh’s Energy to make its first public appearance in the world. It wouldn’t last long; Hope would close whatever opening Josh had found for his own protection, as she should.

  He wouldn’t get another chance, and he’d fired off a telepathic message of love to his only son. It wasn’t words, it wasn’t something he could sign and put his name to, it was just a powerful Empathic push of love and pride of who his son was and would become, and an understanding that no matter how bleak times might seem, no matter how distant he might seem, his father was out there protecting him. And he loved him more than anything in the world.

  The reply was instantaneous, but brief. Like many children, Josh didn’t recognize the signs of a deeply emotional message from others, and with his “young” father still with him all the time, the message might not have the same power it would hold in future years. And thus Josh took the opportunity, not to respond to the message of love and the imparting of strength for the boy’s future trials, but to pass along a message to his father. And it wasn’t a message of love.

  It was a warning, and a plea for help.

  Something’s wrong with Mom. Help her.

  XVII

  Altered

  January 5, 2030

  Adam completed his drive to the West Virginia safe house. He parked the car in an underground garage they’d built, its entry disguised with dirt and underbrush. He waited until after sunset before teleporting back to his home in Pleasanton.

  That had been a mistake. He’d spent weeks talking about his trip and made a point to be seen leaving in the car the previous day. Now, he was back in Pleasanton… without the car. He covered it up as best he could, using the garage opener to partially raise and then lower the door several times so that his neighbors would hear the sound and assume he’d returned for some reason in the middle of the night. That would lessen the surprise of seeing him walking around the city when he was supposed to be hours away on vacation. There was the option of using his natural appearance, one unknown by the human population in this town, but he was far more concerned about the Hunters mistaking him for his long-deceased father. He didn’t have time to invent a new image, either. Best to invent an excuse for his temporary return that would interest no one than make a mistake on the more critical project. He checked the mirror to ensure he still bore Cain’s face, and then slept.

  He wasn’t sure when he’d next get a chance to do so.

  Cain left the house very early in the morning. He saw a couple of his neighbors and explained that he’d realized he’d left a few items behind that he needed for his trip and couldn’t replace on the road, and as such he’d turned around and come back home, arriving in the darkest hours of the night. No one seemed interested in his story. With his breathing misting the cool air that kept him awake, he set off toward De Gray Estates, the spot he suspected would draw the Hunters upon their arrival in Pleasanton as the men surveyed the landscape and decided the best way to go about capturing their prey.

  Today, he needed to find out what the Hunters were up to, and what, if anything, they knew about Gena. He must ensure she was safe from their attacks… and, by extension, ensure the safety of Deron MacLean’s family as well.

  He could run the five miles faster than he could legally drive his car in the city. But that would garner attention he wanted to avoid. Teleportation in a city about to play host to the Hunter Porthos was a similarly bad idea. He alternated a brisk walk with a jog at human-level speeds, and managed to make the trip in around ninety minutes.

  Cain walked along the sidewalk toward the sole entrance to the De Gray Estates. He could feel the Energy here; even a day later, it hung heavily in the ai
r, generating a crackling noise any Energy user could detect. He suspected that humans would experience some unexplainable sensation as they moved by this place, and wondered how—and if—the human news might explain the phenomenon. He walked slowly along the sidewalk, entertained by the formation of water vapor as he exhaled each breath, until he neared the guard station at the formal entrance to the community.

  And then he froze.

  Porthos was there.

  The man was dressed in a business suit, his long brown hair pulled back and hidden beneath the heavy overcoat he wore to protect himself against the chill in the air. He made no effort to hide his Energy, which didn’t surprise Cain. The Aliomenti never bothered to mask their own Energy; they only restrained the Energy of people they wanted to punish. Making up his mind, Cain moved slowly forward, making a point to put two fingers on his wrist as if checking his pulse. His enhanced hearing picked up the conversation.

  “—thought he was supposed to be working here today and wanted to come by and say hello,” Porthos told the guard through the speaker.

  “He’s not here today,” the on-duty guard replied. “Perhaps you misunderstood him?”

  “No doubt, no doubt,” Porthos said. His eyes focused on something inside the guard station. “Who’s that in the picture?”

  The guard frowned at Porthos. “You don’t recognize a picture of your friend’s fiancée?”

  Cain felt his stomach turn. Porthos had identified Gena.

  “Sorry, my eyes are a little fuzzy right now. Long, late night on the town, you know. He’s probably spending time with her, then.”

  “I don’t think he spends his off days at The Diner,” the guard said, laughing. “I mean, yes, he loves Gena quite a bit, but you can only stand sitting in that place for so long, right?”