“We’re almost done,” Michael said.
Manuel gave me a look, silently asking that I leave them to it. I walked out and saw Doug standing at the edge of the hill, staring at the full moon. I stood beside him. He glanced at me and turned back to the sky.
“What was she like?” I asked.
He looked at me but didn’t speak.
“Your wife.”
He closed his eyes, looking like every ounce of sorrow and pain he’d been bottling up had just stabbed him.
Damn. Why did I ask that?
He opened his eyes and smiled at me. “You would have liked her. She always saw the best in people.” He walked to the edge of the tent and sat down. I joined him.
“What was her name?”
“Sophie.” He wiped a tear from his face. “I remember when our numbers came through. The first winners of the Lotto.” He stared into my eyes. “It was a big deal.” His voice grew unsteady. “It really was.” He sounded as if he were trying to convince me.
“I know what you mean. I didn’t believe in having a second child. When my husband and I won, I …” I sniffled, stood up and took a few steps away from him. I remembered the look on Kevin’s face when he shouted my name on the red carpet in Hollywood. I wished I could go back to that. I missed my husband.
“I’m sorry,” Doug said. “I didn’t mean to bring back old wounds.” He walked up to me and caressed my right cheek. I turned away.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean …”
I turned back to him, but then a bright white light emerged from beneath us, blinding me. I thrust my hands over my eyes and dropped to the ground. When I opened them, Doug was crouched beside me.
“It’s happening,” I said.
Doug nodded. “I’ll go get the others.”
We all stood three feet from the edge of the hill and stared at the swirling light. It howled and spun like a tornado. We hadn’t expected the portal to just appear like this. Was this a coincidence or did someone else know of our plan? My hands quaked as I tried to imagine what would come out.
The howling eventually ceased and the portal started to expand. Two feet stepped to the ground, and hands followed.
As the body came into view, I noticed the slithery organisms moving back and forth like snakes. Manuel took a few steps back, his face juddering. But the other two maintained their postures. The Shrinik stepped onto the desert and turned to stare at the portal. Some of the organisms surrounding its body leaped to the ground and circled it.
The gateway closed moments later. The Shrinik stared at the sky and roared. Then it changed back to the body of a human. The organisms merged with its skin and disappeared. In front of us stood a well-groomed man, maybe in his late twenties. He wore a crisp gray suit and had a clean-shaven face and bright blond hair. From a distance, he appeared to have a toned physique. He pulled out what looked like a cell phone and pressed a few buttons.
We all backed toward the tent. I was still questioning the convenience of a portal’s just magically appearing. But we were still clear about what we had to do. Michael nodded at Doug and entered the tent. A moment later, he returned holding two AN-94 assault rifles. He threw one to me and the other to Doug. He returned to the tent and came out with one more AN-94 and the SV98 sniper, which he passed to Manuel. Doug held his gun in the air and walked down the hill, Michael hot on his heels. I followed a few yards behind. I saw Manuel take up position on the ground, the sniper rifle aimed in the direction of the Shrinik. The man kept looking at the sky as if waiting for something to fall from it.
When we reached the bottom, Doug glanced at me and nodded. I raised my gun and pointed it at the man. Doug took steady steps forward while Michael tiptoed left, a few feet behind the man. The man would see Doug at any moment. My finger was steady and waiting to pull the trigger if necessary.
Just then, the man’s gaze met mine, but I didn’t lower my gun. His blue eyes shone in the moonlight. I swallowed and my knees started to wobble, but I kept my aim steady. The man dropped his phone to the ground and reached for his waist, but Doug leaped in front of him, his gun pointed at him.
“Don’t even think about it.”
The man raised his hands and backed away. Then Michael ran forward with his gun pointed as well. The man glanced at him before resting his gaze on me.
“Throw your gun to the ground,” Michael said.
The man didn’t budge.
“Do it now.”
The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a bright silver gun. He dropped it to the ground. Doug inched forward and picked it up. After studying it for a moment, he put it in his pocket. I lowered my gun, but Michael left his pointed at the man.
“Are there any more of you coming?” Doug said.
The man looked at Doug and shook his head. “What’re you guys doing? Do you really think you can defeat an entire race?” He looked past me at Manuel, who had left his position and now stood a few feet from us. “Come on. There are four of you. What difference do you think you can really make?”
“We can start by killing you,” Doug said. “What do you think about that?”
The man shrugged. “Listen, I’m on your side here. I might be a Shrinik, but I’m working against them.”
We all looked at him, bewildered, but none of us spoke.
“I swear to you, my mission here is to take them down.”
I walked forward. “Where are you from?”
“2086.”
I frowned. Why were people coming from so many points in the future back to 2013?
The man took a step toward me.
Doug charged forward and raised his gun. “Don’t take another step or I swear I’ll take you down.”
He nodded at Doug but then looked at me again. “I know who you are, Rachel Harris.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I tried forming words but couldn’t speak. A Shrinik from 2086 knew me. How? I just wanted my son back, but now I was faced with the reality of aliens’ traveling around in time at will. Was it my fault? Had I changed too much by coming back here? The man ignored Doug’s continuous warnings, dropped his hands and kept walking toward me. Michael pulled a Glock from his pocket and shot into the sky. The man stopped, and I walked toward him. He smiled at me as if he’d known me for years.
“How do you know my name?” I asked.
“Because in the war I’m fighting in the future, your face gives all of us hope.”
Michael shifted beside me, his eyes riveted to the man. “What war?”
“In my time, the humans are at war with the Shriniks. I’m part of a long-serving resistance group known as the Originals.”
Doug stepped beside us. “So you’re playing both sides?”
The man nodded. “With the intelligence I’m able to get, the resistance value my contributions.” He bowed to us like we were royalty. “My name is Curtis Henning. I promise you we fight for the same side.”
None of us spoke for a while. Then Manuel spoke up, much to my surprise. He had typically spoken only when Michael spoke to him first. “But why would you pick humans over your own race?”
“I believe in peace, and in my time, my people just want dominance. They would rather murder every human being than share space with them. I can’t be part of such evil.”
I stared at him and wondered if he’d come from a 2086 that had been affected by the changes I might have made, or if I always came back here to 2013 regardless of how many wrinkles occurred because of time travel in general. I glanced at Doug. “What do you think?”
Doug stepped forward, still pointing his gun. “Give me one reason why I should believe anything you say.”
The man raised his hands again. “If I’m lying, I would keep you here and not tell you about the cars filled with Shriniks on their way here to pick me up.”
I shuddered and took a step back.
“What do you mean?” Michael demanded. “You mean they’re coming now?”
Curtis nodded and picked up his cell. After staring at it, he faced us. “I’d say they’ll be here in under two minutes. They know I’m here. Now, if I were with them, I’d just let them capture all of you, but I’m not doing that.”
None of us responded.
“Now stop wasting time and get out of sight.”
Manuel backed up, but Michael took a step forward. “No way. What, so you can just leave with them? Do you think we’re crazy? The minute you’re in the car, you’ll sell us out.”
Curtis shook his head. “I guess you just have to trust me.”
“I’m sorry, Curtis,” I said, “but right now, we don’t trust anyone.”
Doug walked toward him and flicked his gun. “Get moving. You’re coming with us.”
Curtis glared at Doug.
“Are you deaf?” Doug growled. He stood beside Curtis and pushed his back.
Curtis gave him another hard stare and started walking toward us.
“And don’t even think of changing,” Doug said. “I’ll blast you with the gun before those nasty creatures come crawling out.”
Curtis laughed and kept walking. I saw a faint light east of us. It drew closer and closer. Headlights. “They’re coming,” I shouted.
Doug ran forward, pushing Curtis. Michael and I followed Manuel up the hill. When we arrived, Manuel had already started taking the tent down.
“What’re you doing?” I asked.
“We can’t be this close to the ground,” he said. “We need to go farther up.”
Michael dived down and helped him. “He’s right. We’re too exposed down here.”
Doug arrived with Curtis moments later, his gun never straying from the Shrinik’s head.
“I’m telling you,” Curtis said, “this is a mistake. If they don’t find me, they’ll know something is wrong.”
Michael paused and turned around. “Then you’ll have to convince them that something happened and you didn’t come through.”
Curtis shook his head. “They already know I’m here.” He held his right hand up, with his cell in his grasp.
I stared at Doug for a while. Then I grabbed the cell from Curtis and threw it to the ground. I stamped on it three times. “I don’t care if they know. You’re coming with us.”
Curtis shook his head. “That was a bad move. Now they’ll know exactly where my cell signal disappeared.”
None of us said anything. As Michael continued helping Manuel, we could hear the engines of the cars as they drew closer. There were four of them, judging by the headlights.
“How much longer?” Doug said.
Michael and Manuel didn’t answer. We waited a few more minutes.
Doug grew restless. “Guys?”
“We’re done, we’re done,” Manuel said.
Doug prodded Curtis in the back with the gun. “Right, come on.”
Curtis glared at Doug but didn’t move. I lifted my gun to his head. “You’d better start moving or I swear to God I’ll shoot you right here.”
Curtis nodded and turned around. Michael ran up the hill using the same narrow pathway we’d come down on. Curtis and Doug followed, while Manuel and I trailed them, my gun still pointed at the Shrinik. It sounded as if the cars had reached us. The engines stopped when I reached the top. Manuel ran toward our SUV and put the bags in. Michael lay flat on his stomach at the edge of the hill. Doug stood a few yards back, his gun still trained on Curtis.
“What do you see?” Doug whispered to Michael.
“It’s a bit hard to see anything from here.”
I frowned and realized that there was a solution to our problem. “I’ll be right back.” I ran to the car, where Manuel was about to close the trunk.
“Wait,” I said. “Leave it open.” I rummaged through my stuff and found the binoculars.
I jumped in the air with a smile on my face. Manuel looked at me like I was mad.
“Trust me,” I said, “They’re special.”
We returned to the others, and I lay beside Michael.
“Where did you go?” he said.
I waved the binoculars at him. “To get these.”
He nodded, took them from me and used them to look down. “They’ve got no zoom,” he said with a frown.
I reached out and turned the knob on top a few times.
“What the …” He turned and looked at me. “What did you do?”
I smiled. “They’re not any old binoculars. They’re from the future. It can see through walls, rocks—everything.”
He grinned and peered down again. “They’re getting out of the cars.”
I nudged him. “Can I see?”
He handed the binoculars to me. I saw three men get out of the first car. Lorenzo led them, still in his fitted suit. Two men stepped out of the second car, and a woman got out of the third. It was Sergeant Briggs again. She walked with a purpose that suggested that she was not under control like Willie had been. For all I knew, she was a Shrinik.
They walked up to the crater and stopped. Lorenzo pulled his cell out and typed into it. He stared at the screen for a while and put it to his ear. He shook his head at the others with a scowl. Although I couldn’t hear them, I felt as if I were a few inches from them, thanks to the binoculars. He typed into his phone again before putting it to his ear. This time his lips moved.
“I think he’s speaking to someone,” I said.
Michael tapped my shoulder. I gave him the binoculars and he looked through them. Then he crawled back and dragged me with him. I started to speak, but he put his finger to his mouth. He looked at Doug and Michael and did the same. We waited in silence. The buzzing dragonflies all around us were all I could hear. I stared at the glow the full moon was casting on the ground. I hated not knowing what they were doing beneath us, but none of us dared sneak a peek, even from our height.
I sighed when I heard the sound of an engine kicking to life. I lay on my back and shut my eyes. The other cars’ engines also started.
Michael crawled to the edge and looked down again. “They’re leaving.”
We waited until the silence returned. Michael stood and gave the binoculars back to me. Then he walked over to where Doug had Curtis. Manuel and I followed him. Curtis looked at us as if we had made the biggest mistake of our lives.
“That was the wrong move,” he said. “They will be back with a forensics team to scour this whole area. I say you have no more than an hour to pack and get out of here.”
I knelt in front of Curtis. “Back there, you said something about my face giving you hope. How do you know me?”
He smiled at the heavens. “Who doesn’t know about you? Rachel Harris, the only woman to naturally bear a human child in a time no one else could, the person who came closest to destroying my people’s plans. Your story is legend. Every time an uprising is heard of, people compare it to yours.”
I swallowed and leaned closer to him. “Uprising? What for? What am I supposed to have done?”
“You led the fight against my people.”
“What about my son? What do you know about him?”
Curtis shrugged. “I know nothing about your son. I’m sorry.”
I stood up and looked away. What did any of this mean? Was Dylan even alive?
“So this uprising,” Manuel said. “She didn’t succeed, no?”
Curtis grimaced at the ground. “I’m afraid not.”
I knelt in front of him again. “Did …did I die?”
He just stared at me.
Doug prodded him on the head with his gun. “Answer her.”
“In my reality, yes, but it was a heroine’s death. I swear—”
I stood up and backed away, my hands trembling. I looked toward the sky, lost in thought. I didn’t want to be any type of heroine. I just wanted my son. How could I continue, knowing that I would fail? And that I’d never even see Dylan again. How could I if Curtis didn’t even know Dylan had existed. I didn’t actually care if I lived or died. I just had to save my son. I t
urned and walked toward Curtis again, my face hard this time. “What happened? Why did I fail?”
“It’s not completely clear,” he said. “You have to remember that the leaders of my people did everything in their power to hide your story. Some of my facts are probably incorrect.” He rose to his feet and held my hands. Doug hissed, but I waved my right hand and he stood down. “But the future isn’t written yet,” Curtis said. “You can still succeed. You’re here right now, with a blank slate. You just need to make the correct choices.”
I shook my head and sat on the ground. In my quest to save Dylan, I could end up changing so much, even affecting my younger self. Some of the alterations to the time line could even result in my never meeting Kevin or having Madeline. But being in 2013 had already triggered huge changes, and my son was still somewhere scared, hoping his mother would come for him. I stood up again. “Stop preaching and just tell me why I failed.”
Curtis met my gaze and then looked at the other three. “You were betrayed.” I swallowed and edged back. Curtis took a step forward. “I can’t tell you who betrayed you, but people compare your story with Jesus and Judas.”
“So it was someone close to me?” I looked into the faces of Manuel, Michael and Doug.
Curtis shook my shoulders, drawing my attention back to him. I lifted my gun and he backed away holding his hands up. “It could be anyone,” he said. “It could be someone you’re yet to meet or even someone from your own time. The fact is that you now know. What you choose to do with the information is up to you.”
We all stood in silence. I didn’t know what to do. “Fine,” I said.
Doug gave me a bewildered look. “What do you mean?”
“We’ve got to carry on.”
“Hang on,” Michael said. “He’s just told us there’s a traitor around and you want to just carry on?”
“We can’t know who the traitor is just yet, but we can’t just stay here.”
“I agree with Rachel,” Doug said. “Those things could be back any minute.”
The Children Who Time Lost Page 26