"The block's experimental!" Annie retorts. "I don't trust it. It's tikker tech. Takes tenfold more energy than we've got to spare. Won't run forever."
"Then we're wasting time," Ty cries in exasperation. A cold has settled in his stomach. Things will go bad soon if they don't act. Annie has to feel it too. "Go!"
With a grudging shake of her head, Annie concedes, moving silently down the hall and out of the school. Ty has about five minutes before she's in position. The entire school is deathly quiet. He shivers, the gooseflesh rising on his skin. He wishes he'd remembered to grab his jacket, even though he knows it's more or less useless in fending off this kind of cold. Still, it gives him the illusion of warmth and anything is better than this, standing here, waiting, freezing with Zane holed up only yards away. He draws his stunner. The gun is heavy in his numb hands. He hasn't been this cold in all the years he's been at Timewise, hasn't been this cold since that day at the school when—
All of a sudden, he knows what day it is.
Knows what's happening at this very second just two rooms over. He should have realized it straight off. The school, the tikker, the boy, Zane, it all fits because it's already happened.
"Someone on high hates me."
"You're not supposed to be here!"
"Don't tell anyone and don't look back."
Crissakes, Tyler's here. Tyler is the hostage.
And Zane's got an electrical pulse which means that very shortly, any block Timewise manages to put on this place will be shot to hell when the power gets cut.
Even though he's expecting it, it's a shock when the door to the classroom bursts open and a scrawny Tyler Smith, hardly into puberty, tears through the hallway like someone lit a fire under his ass.
Ty freezes, watching the scene. The younger Tyler doesn't look back. The pulse Zane had tossed skids on the linoleum floor before landing at Ty's feet. The device is relatively silent, but the effects are immediate. The overhead lights flicker out. The block in Ty's pocket crackles and sparks, very nearly setting his pants on fire.
And then there's Zane, padding his way down the hallway toward him with his torn jeans, too-long hair and ancient eyes.
Ty keeps hold of his stunner. "Zane Tucker," he calls. "You have been charged with a grade-one timeline infraction. Under authority of the Timewise Agency, I am authorized to take you into custody."
"Step off it, Ty," Zane says. "You're not looking to arrest me."
Where the hell is Annie?
"You broke the law, Zane," Ty says, fighting to keep his teeth from chattering. "You went off grid and started changing time. You know the rules."
"Do you know what day it is?" Zane asks abruptly. His voice is syrupy sweet, almost hypnotic. Something Ty isn't used to hearing from him.
"'Course I know what day it is," Ty growls, his finger tensing on the trigger.
"Figured so," Zane says. "Got to remember this one. It's not so long pastside. Judged you age thirteen. September 2007. I knock a kid out of range of tikker fire. Kid would be dead not for me, another unsolved murder mucking up the time stream. Lucky I stepped in and mucked with your precious rules."
"You have no idea what kind of damage you're doing." Even as the words pass Ty's lips, he feels like a hypocrite.
"I stand back and that kid's lane up," Zane says.
The fire alarm blares just as Annie appears in the distance.
Zane raises an eyebrow. "I stand back and you die, Tyler."
Chaos erupts in the hallway. A blackout and a fire alarm within a minute of each other are bound to cause panic in even the best-run schools.
Tyler lowers his stunner. "Disappear," he says to Zane. "Get out fast as you can. Don't look back."
"Ty!" Annie screams over the blare of the fire alarm. "What's on?"
The halls are flooding with students and teachers. Ty sees a flash of red hair. He wants to think it's Ivy.
(it's not)
"You were a sweet kid, Tyler," Zane says and all of a sudden he isn't there anymore.
But Annie is, staring at him through the masses, her pale-blue eyes gleaming in the dim light. He pushes his way toward her.
"C'mon," Ty grunts above the whine of the alarms. "We lost him. Let's get back to Timewise."
The Timewise Academy has no graduation ceremony, no formal end of training, just a summons with his name on it tacked onto the door when Ty gets back from class one day.
He reaches for the piece of paper with shaking hands and pulls it down. The paper is thick and creamy. The ink is black. It is written in a heavy hand.
You have been declared ready for Field Operations. Your new bunk is 503B. See Zane Tucker for your next assignment. — S. Peabody
Ty rereads the note twice before reaching for the doorknob. The door unlocks with a click and he pushes his way inside. Jones Longwood is already there. Ty holds up the summons. "You seeing this?"
Jones is carrying an armful of clothes. Ty realizes that he's cleaning out his dresser. "You too, huh?" Jones says. "Put me in scrubbing. You?"
"Field operations," Ty says. There's an odd thickness in his voice and he doesn't know where it comes from. "Report to Zane Tucker for my next assignment."
Dumping his armful of clothes onto his unmade bed, Jones straightens up. Ty's as tall as Jones. He remembers when Jones had towered over him as a father towers over his son. They were even now, eye to eye.
"Zane Tucker, huh?" Jones says. "Hear the guy's off. Damn near mute half the time. Doesn't play well with others."
Ty feels his lips lift into a smile. He knows paranoid ramblings when he hears them. Half of the stuff Jones comes up with is nowhere near truth.
(the other half is fact and that's what worries him)
"And I hear scrubbings is where they send all the conspiracy theorists and the nut jobs," Ty shoots back. "Suits you."
"Nut job, Ty? What's that then? Obsolete 20th century talk?"
"Means you're insane," Ty tells him with a smile. "If the agency threw you in scrubbing, they know you're insane. Probably think it'll make you trust them."
"You know myself, Ty," Jones says, returning the smile. "I still don't trust them. Hellside, I barely trust you and I lived with you for what is it now? Two years?"
"Nearing three," Ty says. "Slipping gets you a bit off the standard. Knew you were a crazy bastard from the start, Longwood. You grew on me."
"Look at you talking," Jones says. "Grew on yourself. About a foot if I've got my sizes right." He punches Ty in the arm. "Take care of yourself, yeah?"
"Sure," Ty says. "And the first conspiracy you turn over, come find me."
Jones grins devilishly and starts shoving clothes into a duffle bag. "You know Timewise, Ty. Bound to be some much here elsewise it wouldn't have lasted this long."
Ty shakes his head. Even when everything changes, nothing does. He starts to pack his meager belongings. Some jeans, white T-shirts, black T-shirts, a black leather jacket. He leaves the bed unmade.
Jones heads off, swinging his duffle bag over his shoulder and giving him a mock salute. "Have fun tromping pastside."
Ty throws a pair of rolled-up socks at him. "Have fun cleaning up my mess."
The door swings shut after Jones heads out. The room looks oddly empty without its second occupant, as if it were Jones Longwood's presence that made the place come alive. Ty has almost no belongings.
It's strange to think of living alone after years of rooming with Jones Longwood. Operatives have their own space and tend to decorate according to their native time period.
Walking into a Timewise operative's room is like walking into a living slice of the past. Ty is looking forward to making a mark of his own, but at the same time doesn't know how to shape a room. He has almost nothing from the past save a single picture of himself and Ivy that shouldn't exist but does. Val Teasley had delivered it his first Christmas at Timewise — the only thing that escaped his scrubbing.
Ty plucks the picture from his desk. It is in plain black
frame with the glass cracked in one corner. He stares at it hard. The picture is fading and Ty wonders why Ivy's hair is duller than he remembers, marvels at how blond his own hair looks. He's baffled by the shade of Ivy's skin and the impish smile on his face. He's fascinated by the way his arm loops over Ivy's shoulder and the way Ivy's arm dangles off his. He doesn't recognize his gap-toothed smile because somewhere along the way he's grown up. He's not that kid anymore.
Blowing out a puff of air, Ty wraps the picture in an old T-shirt and places it at the bottom of his duffel bag. He packs clothes on top of it. Everything fits without much problem. It's a sad commentary on his life that he can compress his belongings into a tiny battered duffel with room to spare. He shakes off the feeling, grabs the bag and walks briskly out the door.
The picture will remain forgotten in the bottom of that duffel bag for nearly two years.
PART TWO
(Past)
Later, Ty will remember laughter. Huge resounding booms of laughter that swelled to a crescendo in the hall. He will remember laughing until his chest ached and he could taste the salty tears running down his face.
Roughly half the Timewise Academy class of 2401 is sitting together in the middle of the hallway playing a card game that is a blend of strip poker, Truth or Dare? and Go Fish. No one but Stace Lemond seems to remember the rules but by this point it doesn't matter.
Jones puffs out his cheeks in a hilarious impression of the professor. Ty's sitting cross-legged on the carpet down to only his boxers. He folds his hands over his chest in a failing effort to hide his scrawny torso. Stace is grinning brightly, her black hair falling out of its tie and into her face. The twins, two dark-skinned girls with dirty-blonde hair, giggle over their cards in a sort of bubbling echo.
Ty doesn't know it then, but things are winding down to the end. In three weeks, they won't be academy students; they'll be field operatives and scrubbers and desk jockeys, fated to live in the real world, to work, to protect the fragile timeline from the threat of tikkers.
But right now, they're kids, a group of teenagers from different points in time. Like any normal kids, they're silly and reckless and pumped full of hormones.
Stace Lemond frowns at her draw. To the wolf whistles of the surrounding guys, she starts to peel her T-shirt off. Ty laughs so hard his chest hurts and his eyes start to water. Jones Longwood collapses onto the floor wearing the biggest smile Ty has ever seen on his face. Stace smirks and tosses her shirt into a growing pile of clothes and while one of the twins draws a card.
Looking back on it, Ty will realize it is the last time Timewise feels like home.
Ty Smith's first proper introduction to Zane Tucker is remarkably underwhelming compared to his previous meetings. Zane has a military-style haircut. He wears faded blue jeans and a slightly baggy black T-shirt. His appearance is safe. Jeans and a solid colored T-shirt are universally accepted attire for the timeframes covered by Timewise. Short haircut aside, nothing sets Zane apart from the crowd. He is Ty's size and more or less the same build. He's got the light-brown skin that is all but universal after 2200. His face is entirely unremarkable. He has sunken, dull-brown eyes, hollow cheekbones and a slightly hooked nose. There's a faint white scar on his left cheek but even that is nearly invisible.
Zane is eating dinner in the mess hall when Ty catches up with him, shoveling down some type of processed protein without enthusiasm. Ty slides into the seat across the table from him. It takes a full minute for Zane to even notice he's been joined. He gulps down half a glass of water.
"You'd be Tyler Smith then? New recruit?" Zane looks him over, up and down. "Early 21st century by looks."
"Yessir," Ty says.
Zane wrinkles his nose in disgust. "Don't yessir at me. I'm your partner, not your boss, Tyler."
"Actually, it's Ty."
Scooping up another spoonful of protein, Zane nods thoughtfully. "Nice. Short. Works well." He resumes eating as if Ty isn't even there, but after long moments lifts his gaze again. "Look, new partner, I know mystery abounds. Let me save your troubling. Whatever you've heard about me – strange, off, antisocial, borderline sociopath — it's probably true."
Not knowing what else to do, Ty picks up a fork and starts on his own plate of food. Twenty silent minutes later, Zane smiles at him. The difference it makes on his face is amazing, lighting it up so he actually looks his age rather than like a ninety-year-old man.
"You stuck around," Zane says. "Can already tell you'll last a few ticks longer than the last guy."
Ty sees the summons as soon as he wakes up. It's flashing on his mirror when he's brushing his teeth. A paper copy is hanging from his front door.
Case suspended. Report to S. Peabody immediately.
He closes his eyes, not sure whether to trust them, but the summons is still there when he opens them again.
Case suspended.
Wide awake now, he rips down the paper summons, grabs his jacket, shrugs it on and moves into the hallway before he even changes out of his pajamas. He pads across the hall, bare feet sinking into the carpet.
All the operatives live in close quarters, segregated from the current time period. It's like something out of a military barracks, but at times like this Ty doesn't mind in the slightest. Annie's door is one floor up and three doors down. He makes it there in less than a minute.
"Gallagher!" he cries, pounding on her door. "Crissakes, Gallagher, get out here!"
She appears at the door after a long moment, rubbing at the dark circles under her blue eyes. Her hair is a knotted mess of bedhead. She's wearing white men's boxer shorts with blue pinstripes and a huge T-shirt imprinted with the word TIMEWISE, like some sort of declaration of loyalty. "What's on, Ty?" she asks through a yawn.
"They've suspended the Tucker case." Ty hands her the summons and steps past her into her room. It's a wreck. Clothes are scattered on the floor, and yesterday's dinner is on the table next to a half-filled glass of curdling milk.
Annie leans up against the wall like she's ready to fall asleep where she stands. She touches her hair self-consciously and scowls in his direction. "Don't usually expect company afore the sun's up."
"You hear me talking at you? They're shutting us down!" Ty points toward the summons in her hands.
Annie takes her time reading the summons and hands it back to Ty, eyes averted. She wraps her arms over her chest in an almost defensive position.
"Annie," Ty says slowly, for the first time realizing there is no message on her mirror, no paper on her door. "Where's your summons?"
"I don't have one," Annie says quietly.
The silence is so thick, Ty has problems slicing through it. "Annie," he manages finally.
"Case isn't suspended," she says, raising her eyes to look at him. "You are."
She keeps talking after that, but the sound cuts out until all Ty can hear is the sound of his breathing and the drumbeat of his heart. "You sold me out," he says, cutting her monologue short. "You went to Peabody and you got me tossed."
Annie raises her delicate eyebrows. "Ty, I saw you and Tucker. You had him stuck, right there in front of you. And you let him go. What was I supposed to do?"
"You were supposed to talk at me!" Ty yells. "You were supposed to trust me! I'm your partner."
"Did you trust Zane Tucker?" Annie asks abruptly.
Indignation flares in Ty's stomach, straightening his back and puffing out his chest. "That's not fair, Anne. It's not the same and you know it."
"But you did trust him," she says with an air of authority, of righteousness. "You trusted him and he stabbed you backside."
"I trusted you too," Ty snarls, "and you just betrayed me."
"I saw a security breach and I stitched it," Annie says, raising on her tiptoes to take herself closer to Ty's height. "How can you argue with that?"
"You got me pulled out my case!" Ty leans closer to her so that they're nose to nose. "Because that's what it was. My case. You should have talked at me afore
going ahind my back to Spense."
"Sure then, Ty," Annie bites out, sitting down amidst the pile of laundry on her easy chair. "Enlighten me. Just what were you thinking when you let Zane Tucker slip through our fingertips?"
Ty blinks, taken aback. "It's complicated," he says finally.
Annie stands up, laughing harshly. "Complicated? You mucked it up, Ty. At most, you're still partnering with Tucker. And all you've got is complicated?"
"Annie," Ty starts.
"Sounds like Spense wants a see you ASAP." Annie says. "Best be off."
Ty doesn't move, just stands rooted to the spot, staring at her.
(she isn't the person he thought she was and the realization stings a lot more than it should)
"Right there, Ty," Annie says, grabbing him by the shoulders and manhandling him toward the door. "That was the polite way a saying go hellside. Take a clue."
Ty stumbles into the hallway, and Annie slams the door in his face. He has the sinking feeling in his gut that this is the end of something. Of a friendship, of faith. He feels like he's falling, like events are no longer in his control.
He doesn't want to contemplate what will happen when he hits the ground.
The first time Zane Tucker goes missing, Ty devotes his entire life to finding him. He starts volunteering for missions, diving head-on into known tikker territory because maybe Zane's there. But Zane never is. Zane's not anywhere. The tikker made off with him while Ty's guard was down, leaving a gaping hole in Ty's chest where there should be closure.
It would have been easier if the tikker had killed Zane outright. Ty thinks he could have handled that. But without a body, Ty can't let himself give up hope. So he takes the hard missions, the solo ops and sweeps through time looking for any sign of him.
Zane has to be dead, of course. No one has ever survived a tikker onslaught. With Zane's reputation, Ty doubts he'll get any mercy at enemy hands.
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