Erasing Time

by C. J. Hill

  “We’ll tell him he was wrong,” Taylor said. “We’ll tell him you don’t know anything about the Doctor Worshippers.”

  Elise’s lips trembled. “He won’t believe you. I’ll have to leave now, myself.”

  Taylor reached out and put one hand on Elise’s arm. “You can take us with you.”

  Elise didn’t answer right away. Her expression grew vacant. She was already far away, planning things and going over options. “I need to talk to some people. I need to explain to them, to ask them for help.” Her voice faded to a whisper. “It isn’t an easy thing. You need to have three days of provisions before you start out. Three days. You can’t get three days of food from a dispenser. They’ve got compulocks on them. They track everything you buy.”

  “Could Echo get around the compulocks?” Sheridan asked.

  Elise shot Sheridan a severe look. “Echo can’t know about this. He doesn’t want to help you. The Dakine hate the Worshippers. They’re the only ones who won’t bend to Dakine power.”

  Taylor glanced at the door. “Echo is expecting us to tell him some sort of plan. We’ll pretend we’re going to let him know, and then after he’s given us food, we’ll give him the slip.”

  “The slip?” Elise repeated. “We’ll give him underwear?”

  “We’ll leave without him,” Sheridan clarified.

  Elise bit her lip. Her words came out in a hurried rush. “It’s dangerous to admit to anything. And if something went wrong … If he insisted on knowing names or places before he helped … I have to consider everything.” She looked down at the time flashing on the top of her comlink. “I need to talk to someone. I’ll go now while I’m certain Echo isn’t tracking me.” She stood up, took two steps toward the door, then turned around.

  “My mind is frozen. When Echo and Jeth come back, they’ll wonder why I’ve left you here alone. I can’t go now.”

  “You went to get us more clothing,” Taylor supplied. “We wanted to try the new fashions, so you went to get us things.”

  Elise shook her head, making pink and lavender shimmers. “You’ll have to come with me for them to believe that story. But you can’t come, because even if we left them a message telling them we’d gone shopping, they’d most likely track my crystal and see we weren’t in a fashion district. Then they’d know.”

  Taylor stood. “I’ll go with you. Sheridan will stay here because …” Taylor waved her hand in Sheridan’s direction as though this helped with the excuse. “She doesn’t like shopping and doesn’t need to try anything on, because anything that fits me will fit her too. She’ll keep Jeth and Echo busy so they won’t have the time to check on us. And we’ll really have to come back with some clothing to make our alibi believable.”

  Elise nodded and walked quickly toward the door. Even panicked, she glided so that her soft shoes hardly made a sound.

  Taylor turned to Sheridan. “Whatever you do, don’t let them track Elise. And listen to some feeds on the computer while we’re gone. We need to work on our accents if we want to blend in.”

  Sheridan glanced at the monitor. “I don’t know how to work the computers.”

  Taylor sighed, walked back over to a computer, and typed on the control panel. “They’re simple once you’re logged in. Just say or type in what you want it to do.” She headed toward the door again. “You can listen to news stories.”

  Before Sheridan could ask anything else, the door swished closed behind Taylor and Elise. Sheridan stood for a moment in the silence, then slowly sat down.

  She looked over the keyboard. The computer wouldn’t understand her accent, but most of the symbols were familiar. She could figure out how to make it work. She had to figure it out, because she knew exactly what she wanted the computer to do: find information about Joseph’s and Allana’s deaths.

  chapter

  16

  “Show me information about the murder of Joseph …” Sheridan let her hands rest on the desk. It had taken an annoying amount of time to type out the sentence. The spelling had changed for half the words, so that every time she typed in something, the computer gave her a list of alternate words to choose from. Now she realized she didn’t know Joseph’s last name, didn’t even know if people had last names anymore. She went back to her entry, typing, the daughter of the chairman of trade.

  She believed Elise about the story, and yet she didn’t.

  How could Echo be capable of having his own brother killed? People just didn’t do that.

  Perhaps Elise had made up the story. Perhaps it was Elise’s way of getting them to confide in her and turn on Echo. If that had been the plan, it had worked perfectly.

  Maybe Sheridan was trusting the wrong person.

  Despite the lack of last names, the computer had no problem retrieving information about Joseph’s and Allana’s murders. Dozens of news links appeared on the screen.

  Sheridan clicked on one and listened as a plaid-haired reporter rattled off the facts. “Tragedy strikes the chairman of trade’s family as his daughter, Allana Arad, was killed outside the family’s apartment.”

  The video changed from the newswoman to a view of a street corner where four Enforcers carried a limp young woman into a waiting car. Her hair was bright silver, but Sheridan couldn’t see her features clearly. There was too much blood over her face, and the sight of it made Sheridan look away.

  She typed in the word end, but the newscaster went on, telling how the chairman of trade demanded the government unplug Dakine power from the city.

  She typed in the word stop, but before she pushed the Enter command, the newscaster moved on to cover Joseph Monterro’s death. Sheridan looked back at the screen.

  “The street cam captured the attack, another example of the growing problem the Dakine organization has become.”

  There, in perfect clarity on the screen, was Joseph. He had short blond hair and a small blue star on his cheek instead of a crescent moon, but besides those two details, he looked exactly like his brother. Echo walked next to him, shaking his head over something Joseph had said.

  Echo really had been there when it happened. This fact made the event all the more horrible.

  The computer video showed three cars simultaneously pull up beside the brothers. As the doors opened, the other people on the sidewalk scattered out of the way, darting down the street and into the doorways of nearby buildings. Somehow before the first weapon fired, the people on the street knew what was about to happen.

  Joseph said something to Echo. Sheridan couldn’t hear what, but as she watched his lips, she could think of only one phrase: I love you.

  Could those have been the last words Joseph said to Echo? Did Joseph know what his brother had done? Was it a plea for Echo to call off the hit men?

  Echo stood transfixed. Even from a distance, Sheridan could see the look in his eyes, the look of anger and despair, the look of an animal before it goes completely wild.

  The reporter talked over the sound of the video, but Sheridan could tell what Echo said back. He shouted, “No!”

  Joseph turned to run down the street. He’d gone only a few steps when men from the cars pointed black boxes at him. Flashes of light lit up the screen like tiny firecrackers; then Joseph fell to the walkway, red circles growing around him. The cars dispersed as quickly as they had gathered at the corner. None of the remaining bystanders, now peering out from the doorways, did anything to help. They simply watched from a distance—watched as Echo knelt beside his brother.

  Echo took hold of Joseph, held him in his arms as though it didn’t bother him to get blood on his hands.

  The reporter was saying something about the debate in city council over signal-jamming detectors that could forewarn of Dakine attacks. Sheridan didn’t hear it.

  She also didn’t hear the footsteps behind her. A hand reached over her shoulder and switched off the computer. She jumped, startled, then turned and looked into Echo’s face. He stood over her, rigid. “What are you doing?”

>   She pressed her back farther into her chair. “I just wanted to find out what happened to Joseph.”

  His expression vibrated pain and anger. Mostly pain. “Did watching that program feed fix your curiosity?”

  All the anguish in Echo’s eyes—it had to mean he was innocent, didn’t it? Elise had said she was only guessing about his involvement. She might have guessed wrong.

  Sheridan stood up. She wanted to hug Echo and squeeze her doubts away. Instead she put her hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry.”

  “I’ll forget it. Just contract with me you won’t do it again.”

  “I meant I was sorry about Joseph. I’m sorry he’s gone.”

  “Oh.” Echo let out a controlled breath. “I’m sorry too.”

  Sheridan ran her hand down his arm until her fingers touched his. “I know.”

  He didn’t take hold of her hand. “You don’t know. You couldn’t begin to understand.”

  “I lost my family too.”

  His expression was distant, and she knew he was back on Plymouth Street. “You didn’t watch them as they died.”

  She didn’t want to ask the next question, and yet she had to. “Why did the Dakine kill Joseph?”

  Echo sighed, and with that sigh, the anger in his eyes turned to resignation. “It’s too complicated to explain.”

  She laced her fingers through his. “Try. I’ll understand.”

  He took hold of her other hand. “Do you know why people never talk about the Dakine?”

  “No.”

  “Because people who know too much about them are killed. Do you still want to know about them?”

  She kept her eyes on his. “If it will help me understand you.”

  He gave her hand a squeeze. “You’re a surprising strain. Did everyone in your century possess more courage than caution?”

  “You don’t want to tell me?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” He turned the full power of his blue-eyed gaze on her. “I can imagine better things to do while we’re alone.”

  He took her chin, tilted her face up, then kissed her. She had told herself she wasn’t going to kiss anyone until she knew them well enough to determine their natural hair color. Technically, she wasn’t breaking that resolve, since she’d seen Joseph’s blond hair in the newscast. And besides, she wanted to comfort Echo, to take away even a little bit of his pain. She slid her arms around him, felt his heart beating against hers.

  He kissed her for another moment, then let her go.

  He took a deep breath, reorienting himself, and stepped back over to the computer. “Where are Taylor and Elise?”

  The question brought Sheridan sharply back to reality. She was supposed to be covering for Elise. “They went shopping for clothes. I didn’t feel like going.”

  Echo’s hands moved across the panels of the computer the same way Elise’s had earlier. He was disarming the record function again. “Did you talk to Elise about her connections?”

  Sheridan hadn’t expected to answer this question. Jeth was supposed to have returned with Echo, which would have prevented this conversation from happening. She looked around the room. “Where’s Jeth?”

  “Getting authorization for more food credits for you and Taylor. Why didn’t you answer my question about Elise?”

  Because despite her attraction to Echo, she had no real assurance that she could trust him. Taylor and Elise didn’t, and for their sakes she shouldn’t tell him more than she had to.

  “Taylor is going to talk to her while they’re shopping.”

  He nodded casually, keeping his gaze on her eyes, and it seemed anything but casual. “Then why did Elise disarm the record function earlier?”

  How did he know that? Could he tell just by looking at the computer? Sheridan’s mouth went dry, but she tried not to show her discomfort. She refused to gulp. “Taylor asked her to. She doesn’t like being recorded.”

  Echo’s eyes narrowed. He was debating disbelief. “Jeth will wonder why it keeps malfunctioning.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Echo stepped closer to Sheridan, took her hand again. “Today you were talking to Taylor in phrases we couldn’t understand. What were you saying?”

  “Nothing important.”

  His thumb caressed the back of her hand, making lazy circles. “You need to trust me. You don’t understand the way things are now, all the dangers. I’m trying to help you.” His eyes fixed on hers. “Do you believe me?”

  “Yes.” And in that moment she did.

  A moment later her doubts returned.

  He leaned down and kissed her again, more gently this time. Was it his way of eliciting an attachment from her, of getting her trust?

  Despite her suspicions, she leaned into him until she was engulfed in his embrace. Well, who could blame her? Echo was gorgeous, and he’d said he wanted to specialize in her. He couldn’t belong to the Dakine. He wouldn’t have taken part in his brother’s murder.

  When Echo finally released her, she felt dizzy, torn in half. He took her hand and led her to a couch. “I forgot to tell you—I didn’t have any problems deleting the memory wash order. As long as none of the scientists check to see how it went, you’ll be safe.”

  She sat down next to him, nestled in the crook of his arm. “Are they likely to check?”

  “Right now they’re too busy going over data to see if and why the Time Strainer killed Tyler Sherwood. Once they fix that problem, they’ll retrieve the next scientist on their list.” Echo twined his fingers through the strands of hair that fell on her shoulder. “I’m glad you came through intact. Let’s hope Elise can connect us with the DW, so you’ll stay that way.”

  Sheridan shifted on the couch. What would she say if he asked, “What’s taking them so long? Let’s check on Elise’s location.” She needed to change the subject. In her hurry to do so, she said the first thing that came to mind. “Did they catch the people who shot Joseph?”

  Echo stiffened. “No.”

  She didn’t like making Echo uncomfortable but knew if she didn’t ask now, she’d never ask. “Isn’t there some record of who uses the cars? I thought they didn’t work unless you scanned your crystal in.”

  Echo’s voice sounded calm, but his eyes were fierce. “The Dakine have ways of jamming their crystals’ signals. And besides, even if people were traced to the crime location, it wouldn’t mean a conviction. The Dakine are too powerful. People who interfere with them end up at funerals. Either their own or their families’.”

  Was that what had happened to Allana and Joseph? Had Echo interfered with the Dakine, so his girlfriend and brother paid the price?

  “With the technology you have now, there must be a way to catch the Dakine.”

  Echo shook his head. “The government is slow to implement anything new, and the Dakine makes sure it has people who can manipulate technology as it comes.”

  Computigating. That was what Jeth had called Echo’s skill. And that was what the Dakine needed to help run their organization.

  As Sheridan sat leaning against Echo’s side, his arm draped across her shoulder, she felt, with a leadlike sensation in her heart, that Elise’s guess was the right one. Echo was part of the Dakine.

  chapter

  17

  A short while later, Jeth came back to the office. When he saw Sheridan and Echo sitting close together, a grin spread across his face. She wondered if this was because Jeth liked her, or whether he was just happy to have one more area to study—dating rituals of the early twenty-first century.

  As he sat down, Elise and Taylor bustled into the room carrying neon-bright shopping bags.

  “Guess what I got you?” Taylor said, setting her bags down on one of the coffee tables. She pulled out a metallic purple-and-red smock shirt with matching striped pants. It looked like an outfit that only someone in a circus would wear. “Isn’t it cute?” Taylor chimed.

  Taylor and her sick sense of humor. One day Sheridan would repay her fo
r choosing that outfit.

  “Yeah. Cute,” Sheridan said.

  “I found a few other things I thought you’d like, but I wasn’t sure. Elise says we can go back tomorrow and do more shopping.” Taylor sent an apologetic smile to Jeth. “You don’t mind if we go out again, do you?”

  “No. I’ll go with you. It will be informative to see your reactions to things.”

  Taylor gave a half laugh. “You can’t come with us. Men and women don’t shop together unless they’re married.”

  “Really?” Jeth cast a glance at Echo, perhaps to see if he knew about this taboo. “Not much was recorded about the shopping habits of the old twenties, but I don’t remember reading anything that indicated it was segregated....”

  Taylor folded the purple-and-red outfit and handed it to Sheridan. “I’m surprised the practice hasn’t lasted. I mean, I can’t imagine trying on clothes or picking out items with just anyone. It’s such an intimate process.”

  Jeth’s eyebrows pinched together as he considered this. “But in the entertainment programs from your time … I’m sure I saw men and women in the same store together.”

  “They must have been married,” Taylor said. “Or it was around Mardi Gras or Christmas. Then the rules didn’t hold and everyone went out together. It was wild.”

  “How fascinating,” Jeth said. “Tell me more about your shopping rituals.”

  It was Sheridan who ended up continuing the tale. Taylor asked Echo to help her learn more computer functions, and they retreated to the desk, while Sheridan answered questions about malls, grocery stores, and internet shopping. “My mom goes to garage sales nearly every weekend,” Sheridan said, then stopped herself. “I mean, she went.”

  Funny how such trivial memories could slice through her, could bring back the loss. It felt like that world should still exist—like if she went to Tennessee, she could bring it all back. Her street, her house, the family portraits hanging on the wall.