Time Storm Shockwave

by Juliann Farnsworth

  “Can I ask you one question first?”

  “Of course,” she answered.

  “Did you jump off the boat to save Mark, or did you do it to kill Dierdra?”

  She smiled, and her eyes misted ever so slightly, “I jumped off the boat to save Mark.”

  “Alright,” he said, seeming satisfied.

  Ashlyn pulled Stewart’s blankets over him. He closed his eyes and was fast asleep before she had even left the room.

  Back in the salon, Mark had just finished cleaning up the glass from the broken coffee table. He turned to her as she walked in.

  “Thanks for taking care of him.”

  Her eyes drifted away, “I’m partly responsible for the treatment he got.”

  Mark didn’t understand entirely, but there was plenty of time for questions later. He studied her split lip and spoke quietly, “You look like you need a little first aid yourself.”

  She leaned against him and closed her eyes. He put his arms around her and whispered into her ear, “I love you too.”

  His delayed, yet timely, response made Ashlyn smile. She looked up at him, and when she did, he leaned down and brushed his lips softly against her cut mouth.

  When he pulled his face away back, she apologized, “Sorry I shoved you off the boat.”

  He almost laughed. He had actually forgotten about that in all the excitement. She put her arms around his neck.

  “I can’t believe you did that.” Then he spoke earnestly, “Do not ever—” he raised an eyebrow for emphasis and pulled her closer “—I repeat, do not ever stop me from protecting you again. Okay?”

  A tear rolled down her face, and she shook her head. “You don’t understand.” She followed her hands with her eyes as she ran them down his chest. Studying her them, she was silent at first. Then she looked up at him, “I can’t let her ever hurt you—” she paused and then almost choked on the words “—because she’s me.”

  She pulled away from him and walked out onto the aft deck. He waited for a bit and then followed her. He came up behind her and put his arms around her waist. He pressed his lips against the side of her head and kissed her hair, dry now, but still messy from her swim. It smelled of seawater and wind, and he breathed it in.

  He spoke softly into her ear, “She is not you, and she is nothing like you either; believe me, DNA means nothing.”

  When she didn’t say anything, he moved around in front of her. She had tears running down her face, and kept her eyes averted.

  “How did they …?” he trailed off, not knowing what to ask.

  When she didn’t respond, he led her to the sofa on the back of the aft deck, the very one that they had been hiding behind only hours before. He put his arms around her and held her tightly.

  After a few minutes, she glanced around nervously. “Do you have any kind of proximity alarms on the ship? Anything to make sure that Dierdra doesn’t show up, and murder us in our sleep, or worse.”

  He reflected on her statement for a second. He wasn’t sure what she meant by or worse, and somehow, he didn’t think he wanted to know the answer.

  “I do have an alarm system. I generally don’t use it when I’m out at sea, but I can turn it on.”

  “I think that it would be a very good idea. Also, we should make sure that the communication systems are working again.”

  “What do you mean?” Mark hadn’t known that Dierdra had disabled his radio and satellite telephone.

  “I tried calling you right after you left the harbor. I wasn’t surprised. The first thing I would have done is disable the communication systems,” Ashlyn answered.

  He felt violated. He hadn’t had time to process fully what had happened, and a shudder ran through him at the realization of what could have occurred.

  “I guess we had better check.”

  They went together into the pilothouse, and it didn’t take long for Ashlyn to find Dierdra’s sabotage.

  “That was quick.”

  “We do tend to think alike.” Ashlyn didn’t try to hide her disgust.

  “I guess that makes sense,” he said, however, nothing in the last few days had actually made any sense at all.

  When they were done securing the boat, Ashlyn asked, “Why don’t we leave this place?”

  She wanted to be as far away from this location as possible. Not only did Dierdra know where they were, but also it was where they had experienced the time distortion.

  “I don’t want to go far because I need to go diving here in the morning.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding—” Ashlyn was shocked “—there are people trying to kill you. Why does it matter so much?”

  “The very fact that they are is the reason that I have to go diving. I need to find what it is I’m not supposed to know.”

  “Aside from that statement making you sound deranged, what does this spot have to do with anything?”

  “I’m not sure. Why do you think they are trying to kill me?”

  Ashlyn sat on the sofa in the pilothouse and let out a long breath. “I don’t know. I only know that the people who created her sent her after you.”

  “And who is that?”

  “It’s quite complicated. I will explain, but you didn’t answer my question. What makes you think it has something to do with diving?”

  “Dierdra told me.”

  Ashlyn did a double take. “What did she say?”

  “She told me that I was getting too close, sticking my nose where it didn’t belong. She had my charts and my notes. She had been looking through them. I asked her what they had to do with anything, and she just mocked me for not having figured it out yet.”

  Ashlyn was sitting on the sofa staring out at the ocean.

  “Do you have any idea at all?—” he asked “—I mean, you know who she works for, right?”

  “It’s a bioengineering research company called Neuronex Pathtronix. They have some kind of connection to the military, I think”—Ashlyn threw up her hands—“I never got those details.”

  Mark had been standing against the command desk, back to the window, facing her. He moved across the small room to sit on the sofa next to her.

  “You think there’s a military connection?” The idea was troubling, but he wasn’t naive enough to think that the government didn’t cover things up now and then.

  “I don’t know—” she answered slowly “—but I do know that there was a Navy admiral involved at some point. I saw him a few times. I don’t know whether he was on official business for the Navy or just corrupt.”

  Mark sat there thinking for a few minutes. “There is a naval base near here called AUTEC, on Andros Island. It’s supposed to be for some kind of research and development pertaining to undersea warfare, but I’m not sure.”

  “Well, they wouldn’t have sent Dierdra after you if they didn’t want you dead. I know that much.”

  “How did you find me Ashlyn? It can’t be coincidental that you have a clone that just happens to be trying to kill me.” He shook his head slightly as if he was trying to wake up from a bad dream.

  She paused only for a second before answering, “I have been trying to track Dierdra down, but every time I have gotten a lead she’s disappeared just before my arrival. This time I got lucky and got there before her.”

  “You found something”—he was unnerved—“I mean something that had to do with me?”

  “I found the hotel she had been staying at, and there was a crumpled note on the floor that somehow missed the garbage.”

  Sardonically he mused, “It’s a good thing that they did such a bad job of cleaning the room.”

  “Yeah”—she let out a deep breath—“anyway, it had your name written on it and Nassau, Bahamas. I learned as much about you as I could and then I came. It took me a few days of questioning people, but I found out that you were supposed to be meeting someone at the restaurant on Paradise Island.” Guiltily, she admitted, “I paid him not to show up.”

  Mark sat forwa
rd, surprised by the revelation. “Why didn’t you just tell me right then that someone was trying to kill me and that you wanted to protect me?”

  She cringed. “I wasn’t trying to protect you—” she turned away “—I was trying to find Dierdra.”

  She loathed the way she had used him, but spoke honestly, “I knew if I was with you, eventually she would come to me. I concocted a story to get onboard your ship. At that point, I didn’t know you, or if you could be trusted.”

  He eyed her warily, “So Stewart was right, you didn’t just accidentally meet me?”

  She nodded.

  He felt sick about the way he had treated Stewart, his best friend, whom he now knew had only been trying to protect him from his own gullibility. Mark sat there for a while, wondering whether to ask her if her declaration of love had been true.

  He decided to start with something else. “So the story about being raised in Hawaii and your grandfather’s boat, that was a lie? The reason you didn’t seem to remember it when I mentioned it later?”

  “It’s complicated. Part of it was true, especially living on the boat, only he wasn’t my grandfather. I will answer all of your questions. I don’t want any more secrets.”

  Mark clinched his jaw. Enough time passed that her heart began to pound. Then he finally spoke, “You told me that you loved me, was that a lie too?”

  The question took her by surprise. “No, absolutely not; I do love you”—she assured him—“please don’t ever doubt that.” She searched his eyes before continuing, “I never expected to fall in love. Everything about our relationship is true.”

  He felt relieved that at least part of what he knew of her was real. The whole thing was so complicated that he wasn’t even sure where to start his questions.

  “How did you get involved with the company in the first place?”

  She took a deep breath and then looked away.

  “Ashlyn—” he moved closer and turned her face toward him “—you’re safe here with me, and I love you no matter what.”

  She still didn’t answer.

  “I need you to tell me,” he spoke more forcefully.

  She pulled away slightly and averted her eyes.

  A little afraid of her answer now, he asked, “Don’t you trust me?”

  She met his eyes; sadness filled hers. “Yes, I trust you.”

  “Then talk to me,” he implored.

  She sat back and leaned her head onto his shoulder. Then she pulled her knees up close to herself and buried her face against him.

  “I’m sorry. It’s hard for me to talk about this. I’ve never told anyone before.”

  He put his free arm around her so that he could hold her tightly. This was strange indeed. She had seemed so strong and so composed for the short time that he had known her. This behavior seemed completely out of character. He didn’t doubt her courage; she had not hesitated to risk her life to save him. However, now she was curled up against him as if she were a child.

  “My biological parents put me up for adoption—” she began slowly “—I never knew them.”

  She didn’t look at him while she spoke, pushing her forehead deeper against his neck. A confused expression covered his face, but it went unnoticed.

  “The corporation adopted me.”

  “What?” He had been trying not to interrupt, but he couldn’t help it, and he pulled back for a moment to look her in the eyes. “I didn’t know that could happen? What corporation?” He couldn’t connect her answer to his question.

  “The same corporation—” she hesitated “—the one that’s trying to kill you.”

  He furrowed his brow. “Why did they want you?”

  “Experimentation,” she answered flatly.

  He opened his mouth a bit but didn’t say anything right away. He couldn’t quite process the information. “I can’t understand how any judge would allow that to happen.”

  She shrugged and shook her head slightly. “I really don’t know—” she searched his eyes before continuing “—NP was based in Hawaii, but I pretty much lived in the lab. That’s why I couldn’t answer your questions about my childhood.”

  “I can’t even imagine—” he strained his mind to wrap it around the outlandish things she was saying “—“what’s NP?”

  “That’s what they called the company for short—” she hesitated before continuing “—they were experimenting with methods of activating dormant parts of the brain to create a human-computer interface.”

  He felt ill at the implications of her story, especially when he considered that there might be a connection to the government.

  She sat forward and let out a sigh. “I try not to think about it much.”

  He put his hand on her back. “I don’t even know what to say.”

  She smiled weakly, “You don’t have to say anything.” She stared at nothing. He waited patiently.

  “They hooked me up to lots of machines and did tests—” she let out a long breath and met his eyes “—I guess I thought it was normal. Anyway, I didn’t know anything different.”

  “This is all so bizarre but—” he gave her a reassuring half-smile “—it’s not your fault. You know that don’t you?”

  “Maybe you should hear it all before you decide how you feel—” she wrung her hands together “—they genetically altered my brain with some kind of a retro virus. It created an interface, and then they taught me things by direct transfer.”

  “They actually made it work?” He could hardly believe what she was saying, but the evidence was too compelling. People were definitely trying to kill him to hide some mystery.

  “I didn’t have to read or practice—” she recoiled at her own words “—they programmed me, like a computer. They call it DMDT, Direct Mind Data Transfer.”

  He raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

  “I speak pretty much every modern language, and some not so modern. My brain is crowded with all sorts of trivial minutia about anything and everything, except I’m a little weak in science. They even taught me how to fight via computer link. I feel like a freak.”

  “You’re not a freak!—” he pressed his forehead “—it’s just a lot to take in all at once.”

  “I wish I could feel that way—” she looked away “—we can take a break if you want.”

  “No—” he laughed mirthlessly “—I can handle it, and I’m sure you need someone to talk to about all this.”

  She nodded and tears clouded her eyes. “You have no idea how true that is.”

  “So why do you think they left out the sciences?”

  She contemplated that for a moment. “I’m not talking about all science—” she furrowed her brow “—I know the basics, things that would be taught in any high school.”

  He was silent.

  She made a sweeping gesture with her hands. “Plus they gave me a lot of information about technology, but things like genetics and physics—” she shrugged “—they just left that out. It has always bothered me. That’s why I spend a lot of time reading informational books. I want to see what else they left out.”

  “So you never went to school at all?” he asked, amazed.

  “Nope,” she answered unhappily.

  He studied her face, and then he flashed a broad smile. “You know most people would love that, including me.”

  She eyed him strangely. “I don’t think you would really like it if you had it—” she cocked her head “—think about it, you live for discovery.”

  He considered that. “You’re probably right for the most part, but I can think of a few professors that I would have loved to never have dealt with.”

  They both laughed at that, and it seemed to ease the tension a bit.

  They sat quietly for a moment before she went back to the topic. “I’ve speculated about the science issue a few times, and I think that maybe they didn’t want me to know more about myself then they did. Besides, I didn’t need much science for what they wanted me to do.”


  “Which was?”

  She hesitated for what seemed an eternity. “They trained me to be an assassin.”

  “Like Dierdra,” he asked carefully.

  She studied his eyes. The fear of rejection was obvious, but he didn’t say anything, and so she continued, “They trained me to fit in with any culture, that way I could kill foreign dignitaries, or whoever else they wanted dead; black ops stuff.”

  The black ops elements suggested that the Navy admiral had not been operating as a rogue, but as part of a government entity. The thought sickened him.

  “Doesn’t sound like he was operating on his own,” he said sadly.

  “I do know that the government was their biggest funding source—” she sighed “—makes you feel safe, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” he answered sarcastically.

  “So why did they create Dierdra if you could do everything they wanted?”

  Ashlyn didn’t answer; instead, she suggested, “Let’s go up to the flybridge. I’m worried Dierdra will come back.”

  He agreed, and they changed location. He was certain that he had hit a nerve with his question. I wonder how many people she has killed. An involuntary shudder went through him.

  Up on the flybridge they could see for miles, unobstructed. It had been a great idea, and he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of it himself.

  The water was unbelievably clear. The blue was so intense that it seemed almost make-believe. The weather had cleared, and the sea was now quiet and serene. It had been around 10:00 am. when they had fought Dierdra, it was now nearing sunset.

  “I refused.”

  “Refused?” He had forgotten his question.

  “I refused to be an assassin—” she met his eyes “—they wanted a trained monkey, to kill on command, without remorse.”

  He took her hand in his and said, “I’m glad.”

  She let out a long breath. They both sat down.

  “I was their big investment—” she paused “—I guess they had spent too much money on me to let me say no.”

  “I don’t understand. If Dierdra is your clone, why doesn’t she just say no as well?”

  Ashlyn shrugged, “I don‘t know. Maybe they tweaked her DNA somehow; took out the morality part.”