I’ve already programmed the date and time into my Chronoband, and Alora should have done the same. “Are you ready?” I ask.
“More than you know.”
Over the last few days, we studied an old set of floor plans for the DTA building that I downloaded from the DataNet. The plan is to make our way to the staircase on the western side of the building, the one closest to our destination. The elevators are a no-go; they ask for a code to get to the ten floors that are for personnel with special clearance.
“Ready on my mark. Remember, we need to arrive fifteen minutes early to give us time to reach our target. I’m picturing the date and time in my mind.” I pause to let her do the same, while I think the same date over and over. August 10, 2126. 8:45 a.m. “And go on three. Two. One.”
I press the button on my Chronoband and enter the Void. I wish I’d taken Alora’s hand again before entering. That would have made this a little more bearable. But at least I don’t hate this part as much as I used to. Living as a shell of a person makes you not care so much about feeling like one for a minute.
The past materializes as a swirl of senses. Colors. Smells. Noises. All faint, until everything crystallizes at once.
I look to my right again.
Alora isn’t there.
19
ALORA
AUGUST 10, 2126
A knot forms in my stomach as soon as I emerge from the Void. Bridger isn’t with me, and I’m no longer in the lobby.
The room I’m in is stark white, with what looks like medical equipment scattered around it, and a woman in a white uniform is attending to someone strapped to a bed. My legs grow weak when I take a few steps closer to the bed and get a glimpse of her patient.
It’s my dad.
Tears spring up in my eyes. I was thinking of him as Bridger and I shifted—thinking of how he looked in all the pictures I’ve seen of him, both in the past with Aunt Grace, and now, with Mom. My professors in Chicago were training me to shift back in time and through space simultaneously, but I hadn’t mastered the skill yet when I came here. Of course, it had to work this time—when I have to stay with Bridger.
But strangely … I’m glad. This is the first time I’ve seen Dad in person since I was little. It’s so surreal, watching him as he sleeps. He’s so still, so lifeless. He appears to be in his in his early twenties, with no wrinkles. This must be sometime soon after he was cloned. Buy why is he strapped down if he’s only sleeping? He’s obviously been sedated, but for what reason? And where are we?
Taking a few steps closer, I whisper into my comm-set’s mouthpiece. “Bridger, can you hear me? I accidentally shifted to my dad.”
I expect him to reply, but I only receive silence. I try to call him a few more times, but still nothing.
I should shift back to Bridger right now because he’s probably freaking out, but I get the overwhelming urge to hold Dad’s hand for a moment before I go. I hurry to the opposite side of the bed, wondering why the woman is attaching so many electrodes to his head and bare torso. He’s already hooked up to a machine monitoring his vital signs. A screen built into the wall behind him displays the stats.
My fingers tremble as I reach out and touch his hand. It’s freezing. Then I place my hand against his forehead, and it’s just as cold. I frown. That’s odd, since the room is warm. It’s as if he’s been kept in a refrigerator.
I wish I could stay with him longer, but I know I can’t. This version of my father belongs to 2126, and he can’t know about me yet. I have to keep looking for the one that exists in 2147, wherever he may be.
And that means getting back to Bridger immediately.
I lean over to kiss Dad’s cheek and whisper, “I’ll keep looking for you. I promise.”
Just then, a screeching siren pierces the silence. The woman across from me looks around the room in alarm. Her DataLink, a slightly clunkier model than mine, beeps. She checks it and a man’s voice barks, “We just performed a security scan. There’s an Unknown in the room with you. Secure the specimen.”
“Understood,” she answers in a curt tone. She reaches under her tunic and withdraws what looks like a small gun from a holster. The woman’s eyes dart back and forth and she takes a few steps away from the bed. “Whoever you are, show yourself,” she commands.
My heart is beating so hard that I feel lightheaded. I have to get out now. I squeeze my eyes and concentrate on Bridger’s face.
Please work. Please.
A few moments later, I appear just behind him. We’re standing in a stairway, and he’s looking through a narrow window in a metal door. The stupid siren is still blasting. “Alora, can you hear me? Please respond.”
I lean over to grasp my knees, taking deep breaths. “Oh my God, I made it.”
Bridger whirls around with a panicky look on his face, then his shoulders sag when he realizes it’s me. “Where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you for almost five minutes. And now something’s triggered an alarm.” He takes a long look at me, realization dawning on his face. “It was you, wasn’t it?”
I lower my eyes, realizing I shouldn’t have lingered so long. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I appeared in the same room with my father, and I tried to reach you but couldn’t. And then for some reason they performed a security scan while I was in there.”
Bridger places his hands on his hips. “That’s not good. We need to get to our target right now.”
“Are we at least on the correct floor?”
“Yep, but we’re stuck in here,” he says, pointing to the biometric scanner next to the door. “I need you to shift to the other side and see if you can open it.”
He moves aside so I can peek through the window, since I need a specific location to focus on when I shift. I’m looking at a grim hallway, with dark-gray carpet and light-gray walls. I concentrate on the area just ahead of me, picturing it in my mind, then close my eyes and shift.
Bridger waves at me through the window, then points at the sides of the door. I check and, seeing that there are no scanners or anything else, quickly open the door. Bridger sprints out, and we start to advance down the hallway. We make it past several doors before six soldiers emerge from a room about halfway down the hall, all of them holding some sort of device that I’m not familiar with. The one in front speaks into his DataLink. “Project Firebird room is clear.”
One of the soldiers takes up a post outside the double doors. The others turn left and head down the hall, then enter the next room. Then the elevator opens and two women dressed in navy-blue officers’ uniforms exit. The soldier outside the door salutes to them as they enter.
Bridger cringes. “That’s the room we need to get into.”
“We’re still cloaked. We can just walk right by them.”
“No, we can’t. Those things they’re holding are a type of scanner that will reveal our cloaks. It’s similar to the tech in our comm-sets.”
I groan. “Jeez, we can’t catch a break. So how do we get inside?”
Bridger thinks for a moment, his forehead scrunched up, then stands up straighter. “We can’t, but if I can draw that soldier away, you can get inside.”
Fear floods through me. “No! You can’t leave me. We have to do this together.”
“I wish we could, but there’s no way we’re both getting into that room. You can’t shift in because you don’t know what it looks like, so you’ll have to go in through the doors. And you can’t do that with the soldier scanning the doorway.”
I want to argue with him, but he’s right. And we’re running out of time. Ellis’s note said to be in the room at nine o’clock. It’s now 8:55.
“Okay, I’ll do it. But how will you get out?” I ask.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m going down the stairs. All I need to do is get back to the lobby, and then I can shift. Easy enough.” He tries to laugh, but it sounds hollow.
I give him a hug and whisper, “Thank you. I’ll shift back to the alley and meet you there s
oon.”
He pulls away and bangs his fist against the metal stairway door before opening it and slipping through. Instantly, the soldier stationed outside the door takes off running toward the stairway, yelling into his DataLink that he’s in pursuit of an Unknown. A few seconds later, three of the soldiers in the next room rush out and follow the first.
I press my back against the wall to let them pass before hurrying toward the now unguarded room. I manage to make it inside just before another soldier takes up post outside the door.
Trying to slow my breathing, I duck into a back corner and scope out my surroundings. It’s a large conference room, nearly twice the size of the one back at the Academy. A long, white-topped table with silver legs stretches down the center of the room, surrounded by twenty comfortable-looking black chairs. Three of the walls are white, while the wall opposite me is made entirely of glass. Outside, the New Denver skyline stretches below us, while the sky overhead is a clear blue. It looks so serene, so unlike what I’m experiencing in here.
Twenty men and women, all in navy-blue uniforms, are seated around the table, chatting in animated tones. I guess it’s not every day that a security break happens here.
Several minutes pass, then the lights overhead dim, while at the same time the glass wall darkens until it’s a smoky gray. The silver-haired woman sitting at the head of the table stands and walks to a narrow white podium.
“Welcome, members of the Project Firebird Oversight Committee,” she says into a sliver of a microphone. “I want to apologize for the delay. I’ve been assured that the Unknown is no longer on the premises.”
Some of my tension drains away when she says that. At least Bridger is safe.
The woman continues, “Today I have the honor and privilege of presenting to you someone who will become a very important part of our future. In the days since our scientists stumbled upon the creation of the Talents as a by-product of genetic modification, we’ve always wondered if, somehow, multiple Talents could be merged into one person to produce a Dual Talent. But so far, scientists have failed to create such a person on their own. And after one of our earliest trips into the past revealed a natural-born Mind and Time Bender who died in the year 2022, we developed Project Firebird with the goal of finding more Dual Talents in the past, relocating them to our time upon their deaths, and introducing their unique genetic sequences into our population.”
Many of the audience members nod, as if this is old news, but several, who I presume are the new members, look astonished. I know how they feel—my mind is reeling. So this is why they cloned my father. My instructors taught me that cloning was outlawed because clones always become unstable, but the DTA chose to risk it in order to create more Dual Talents in this time.
“So far, we’ve collected three natural-born Mind and Time Benders and two Mind and Space Benders. Today, I’m delighted to share that we have finally, after many years of searching, located a man who was a natural-born Time Bender and Space Bender.”
The room explodes in excited chatter.
“What year is he from, General Carter?” one man shouts.
“Has he been cloned yet?” someone else asks.
Suddenly, one of the members shoots to his feet. I stare at him in shock. Even though he appears to be in his early forties, I recognize him as the same man who ordered my memories to be wiped. He was even in the room with me when it happened. I’ll never forget his condescending smile, his reassurances that it was for the best.
General Carter gazes at him with a distasteful expression. “Major Anderson, take your seat immediately.”
He stands a few seconds before he complies, but then he says, “I object to this. I’ve already stated in prior meetings that introducing Dual Talents into our society could be disastrous. And creating Space and Time Benders would be a thousand times worse. With their skills, they could become a danger to society.”
Another committee member sighs heavily. “And why would you think that, Thomas?”
“Are you not using your brain?” he asks. “Think of all the power that such individuals could wield over the general population—hell, even over the rest of us!”
“You’re fear-mongering again, Thomas,” General Carter snaps.
“Am I, ma’am?” he asks in a voice dripping with disdain. “I’ve already explained how a Dual Talent Space and Time Bender from a foreign government could shift to any time period from any location, while now we’re all forced to travel to our target location before shifting to the past. Imagine what intel they could steal from us. Their agents could shift straight into our secure buildings without ever leaving their home countries. Think how easy it would be for rogue Dual Talents to take over our own government, from the inside. It would be a disaster!” A few other committee members nod when he says that. “I move that we terminate this subject. There are too many unknown variables at this time, and frankly it’s too much of a security risk.”
General Carter stands up straighter and narrows her eyes at the major. “Motion denied. Now, I want to turn the meeting over to Colonel Rashida March, who will be responsible for training and integrating the subject into the ranks of our military.”
The general gestures to a woman sitting across from her empty chair. She has to be Professor March’s mother—even though she’s a lot shorter, they have the exact same smile.
Once the colonel takes General Carter’s place at the podium, she presses a button on the DataPad she’s placed on its surface. A round glass tube suspended from the ceiling lights up, and then an image is projected over the table. It’s a hologram of my father in his old army uniform.
“Our subject is Nathaniel Walker, a private first class in the former United States Army,” the colonel says while focusing on the image. “He was killed in action while serving in Iraq in 1994, which is where we sent our operatives to retrieve his DNA sample and upload his consciousness.”
The image of Dad is replaced by a holographic video. My heart starts to race. I should look away, but I can’t. The Time Bender recording this, along with a second Time Bender, is standing a safe distance away from a military convoy as it drives through a desert terrain. The first truck suddenly explodes. The operatives immediately break into a run and head to an area just outside the truck. Shouts come from the others in the convoy.
And then they find what’s left of my father.
Oh God, no. No. I squeeze my eyes shut, bile rising in my throat. I wish I hadn’t seen that, but it’s seared into my memory now.
“Moving on to the next part,” the colonel says, as if she hadn’t just watched someone die.
I peek through my lashes, terrified of what I’ll see. The hologram is showing a live feed of the room I was in earlier. Dad is still lying on the bed, unmoving. More medical personnel are in the room now, some checking various machines, others working directly around him. The feed zooms in, and I’m shocked that I recognize one of the people working on him. She’s younger, but it’s definitely the blond woman who tried to take me away from Mom when I was six years old. The one who Bridger later told me was Vika’s mother.
“This will be quite exciting for you,” Colonel March says. “We retrieved Mr. Walker a few months ago, and his cloned body just finished its growth cycle last night. So today, my friends, we will witness the resurrection of Nathaniel Walker!”
Applause breaks out among the committee members who seem to support the project, while Major Anderson and his allies sit in stony silence. I want to scream. That was why Dad was so cold and still. It was just his cloned body lying there, not him. How could they do this? It’s bad enough to know he was mistreated by the DTA, but to know that he went through this … this is degrading. It’s almost as if they don’t even consider him human.
The colonel presses a button on the podium and says, “Dr. Liu, are you ready to proceed?”
A woman with black hair streaked with bright red is checking the equipment next to Dad’s bed. She glances up at the camera. “Affirm
ative, Colonel March. We’re ready.”
She smiles. “Excellent. Let’s begin.”
A part of me thinks I should leave now. I’ve already learned why my father was brought back to life. I don’t need to see it happening. But another part tells me I need to stay; I owe it to him to witness what his rebirth was like.
I focus on the video feed above the table again. Everyone in the room with Dad is now surrounding his bed, watching him.
Dr. Liu checks a few of the electrodes on his head, then taps the screen of her DataPad before saying, “Here we go.”
Small blue dots light up on all the electrodes. I half expect Dad’s body to surge up in the same way I’ve seen people being revived in movies, but he remains still. Nearly a full minute passes this way, and I allow myself to almost relax. Maybe this won’t be so bad.
But then Dad’s eyes fly open and he screams. It’s not the scream of someone who’s scared; it’s the scream of someone in agony. Someone in overwhelming pain. He begins to writhe and fight against the restraints. I want to close my eyes again, but I make myself to keep them open. I have to see what he went though.
One of the nurses says, “His blood pressure is spiking.”
Dr. Liu checks her DataPad again. “It’s fine. He’s almost finished downloading into the body.”
And then it’s done. His screams stop and his body sags back onto the mattress. Tears flow from his eyes as he searches the faces staring at him. “Please, somebody help me.”
I can’t do this anymore. I’ve seen all I can take. I adjust the date on my Chronoband, close my eyes, and shift back to 2147.
20
BRIDGER
AUGUST 10, 2126
My adrenaline kicks into high gear as I race down the stairway. I have to hang on to the railing as I run to keep from falling down. I’m just passing the twenty-third floor when the door I went through crashes open and footsteps pound on the steps. The soldier shouts, “Stop where you are!”
On Through the Never Page 14