My life might be sacrificed but I still have the chance to save his. It’s a long shot, but if he can play the dummy, he might be able to ride it out and I will have survived. Not the me that knows Iffy and her world, but a version of me nonetheless. That seems worth fighting for.
“I’m waiting,” Lady Williams says.
Sir Wilfred growls, “If you don’t want to voluntarily tell us what happened, we will find out another way.”
From the looks on their faces, I can tell they have no idea what occurred. Which means none of the others have returned yet. I can use this to my advantage.
“He doesn’t know anything,” I say, nodding to my double. “It’s my fault. I’m the one who shouldn’t be here. I created a break but was able to fix it without him knowing.”
Other Me’s right leg begins to bounce softly. It’s a nervous tick I get sometimes when I’m stressed.
Just hang on. I’ll get you out of this.
“Is that right?” Sir Wilfred says. “And what was this break?”
I need to be careful. The only power I have is the information in my head, and until I’m sure Other Me will be okay, I need to be judicious about how much I share. “I unintentionally affected the timeline of a subject I was observing.”
“That’s amazingly vague,” Sir Wilfred says. “How about you fill in the details?”
“I will, but only under certain conditions,” I say with far more confidence than I feel.
“Conditions? This isn’t a negotiation. You are in no position to—”
“Sir Wilfred, I’m very clear about my position. I will never leave this level alive.” I stare at them, daring them to contradict me, but no one does. “Here are my conditions. One”—I gesture toward Other Me—“he’s immediately released. Two, he is in no way to be punished for my actions. He knows absolutely nothing about this and should not pay for something he didn’t do. And three, he’s given the free choice to either stay here and continue as a Rewinder or return to New Cardiff and be placed in a position appropriate for his status as a Five.”
For the first time since he retrieved me from my cell, Sir Gregory speaks, his voice surprisingly calm. “You understand, Denny, um, A, that we can’t just take your word that he wasn’t involved.”
“Sir Gregory, those are my conditions. Once they’re met, I’ll tell you absolutely everything.”
“I find your attempt to save what amounts to your own skin comical,” Sir Wilfred scoffs. “What you have to tell us will unlikely be worth giving you anything.”
I lean back in my chair and look each of them in the eye. “All right. Fair enough. I’ll tell you this much. For a while, this world vanished. No empire, no institute, no time travel, nothing you know. And then I brought it back. I could make it happen again, too. Good enough for you?” I push my chair back and stand, defiant. “Let him go, and I’ll tell you the rest.”
Sir Wilfred’s face turns red. “You are a prisoner here. You don’t tell us what—”
Lady Williams places a hand on his arm. “Sir Wilfred, if I may.”
“Of course,” he says quickly.
When she looks at me, I can see she’s trying very hard to hold back whatever it is she’s feeling. It’s not anger, though, more like…excitement. “Younger A, we’d like to discuss the matter among ourselves. If you don’t mind, I think it would be best if we pick up this conversation later.”
“You’re in control,” I say.
The corner of her mouth ticks up. “I wonder if that’s true.”
__________
OTHER ME AND I are escorted back to the cellblock. As we walk, he whispers a question only I can hear. “It was you at the tavern, wasn’t it?”
I see no reason to reply. He knows the answer, just like he knows I’m the key to his survival.
I spend the rest of the day alone in my cell, pacing. Every minute could be the one when Lidia and the others return, ruining everything. When I finish with my dinner, I lie on my mattress, hoping to fall asleep, but it’s impossible. I can’t stop thinking. Ways on how to ensure that Other Me lives mingle with my now ruined plans. These, in turn, wrap themselves around memories of Iffy and my mother and Ellie and my time as a Rewinder before it all went bad.
If I were coming at this fresh, if I were at that tavern and the twelve errant seconds occur, given the choice of fixing it right then or doing what I’ve done, which would I choose?
I’m surprised the answer comes so quickly: exactly what I’ve done.
The only thing I regret since creating the mistake is being caught. Iffy’s world, even with all its faults, is so much better than this.
I don’t know how long I’ve been lying here when a voice whispers in my ear, “Don’t move.”
When I jerk in surprise, a hand touches my chest, not pressing down to confine me but lying softly, comforting me.
“Put your arms around me,” the voice says.
Perhaps I should be scared, but I’m not. I wrap my arms around my visitor and find a small body, a woman’s shape.
Gray mist, then dim light.
I’m no longer in my cell but in a room three times as large.
My visitor peels my arms off her back and pulls away.
Marie.
“Stay here,” she says. “I’ll be right back.”
She vanishes, and returns a few seconds later with someone else in her arms. Other Me, also still wearing the clothes he had on during the interrogation.
After giving each of us a quick look up and down, she focuses on me. “Well, seems like you’ve been having fun.”
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Yeah, what are we doing here?” Other Me says.
She raises an eyebrow. “Dealing with one of you was hard enough. I’m not sure I like this.”
“I wasn’t that—” I stop, realizing Other Me has been saying the exact same words I am. We look at each other.
“That was kind of creepy,” he says.
“Agreed,” I reply.
Marie focuses on me again. “Tell me what happened.”
I’ve always been able to trust Marie, but maybe it’s my confinement that makes me say, “Why? So you can go back and tell Lady Williams?”
“Do you really think I would do that?”
I don’t, but my defense is still up. “Why do you want to know?”
“Because maybe I can help.”
“I’m already taking care of it,” I say.
“Yeah, by sacrificing yourself to save me,” Other Me says.
“I’d love it if I were in the position to save myself, but I don’t think that’s an option,” I tell him.
Other Me looks around. “Well, we’re not in our cells now, so it seems to me all options are on the table.”
He’s right. I turn to Marie. “Where are we? Can we leave? Is there any way I can get my Chaser?” Maybe I can actually finish my plan, but I’ll need my device to do that. All my location coordinates are stored in it.
“Relax,” she says. “We should be safe here. This is a storeroom that hasn’t been used in years, out by the stables.”
Instead of calming me, this increases my anxiety. “We’re still on institute grounds?”
“If I try to take you beyond the walls, chances are greater we’d be discovered. Here, I can unlink and hop without anyone knowing. Besides, no one’s looking for you yet. We’re three days in the past.”
“So we can leave,” Other Me says.
“I want to know what happened first,” she says, her eyes on mine. “I’m your friend, Denny. I’m not going to use this information for anything other than helping you. And the last people I would ever tell are Lady Williams and Sir Wilfred.”
I believe her, but am still not sure I should say anything.
“I know about the offer you gave them,” she says after a few moments. “I know you’ve said that whatever happened created a whole new history.”
“How do you know that?” I ask.
She s
tarts to open her mouth but the answer comes from behind us.
“Because I told her.”
Both Other Me and I turn as Sir Gregory steps out from behind a stack of boxes near the far corner.
Whipping back around to Marie, I say, “You did sell me out.”
“She did nothing of the kind,” Sir Gregory counters as he joins us. “Your little tidbit of replacing this world with another is probably something you should have kept to yourself. They’re curious now.”
“Don’t you mean you’re curious?” I say.
“Of course I am,” he says, “but not for the same reasons Lady Williams and Sir Wilfred are. Don’t you see the potential of what you’ve handed them? If what you say is true, then you’ve found a switch. Turn it on and our world is gone, turn it off and it comes back, fully intact.” He pauses. “It is intact, isn’t it?”
“It’s the same,” I say. “It has to be.”
“So you have found a switch.”
I don’t reply, but the description is accurate.
“Do you see the power that controlling this switch would give someone? He could steal whatever he wants from one world and bring it to the other and be the richest person in both. And you have just planted that seed in the minds of two of the greediest people in the empire. I can’t let them have it.”
“But you’re part of the institute, too,” I say. “You’re one of the leaders.”
“Denny,” Marie says.
Sir Gregory raises his hand a few inches. “Your point is taken, Denny. If I’d known the full extent of what they’ve been doing, I would have never accepted the position.”
“And you’d still be in your cells,” Marie says.
“I have a question for you,” Sir Gregory says to me. He returns to the boxes he was hiding behind and picks something up off the floor. When he comes back, he’s carrying my satchel. “What happens if I give this back to you?”
“Is my Chaser in there?”
“It is.”
I take a few steps toward him and hold out my hand, but he keeps my bag out of my reach.
“Answer my question first.”
There’s no reason for me to lie. “I’ll erase this world and never bring it back.”
“I thought as much,” he says, still keeping my satchel out of reach. “Is this other place so much better than here?”
“It’s not perfect. But, yes, it’s better than here.”
Sir Gregory tosses the satchel to me.
I look inside. Everything is there. My Chaser, my clothes, some money, even the newspaper I pulled out of the bin.
“I think it might be better if we don’t know when and where the switch is,” Sir Gregory says. “That’s something you should always keep to yourself.”
“You know what it means if I go,” I say.
“I do.”
“But why would you—”
“Humanity’s been on a downward spiral for over a hundred years,” he says. “I and a few others have been fighting as best we can, but we’ll never turn the tide. You, though, have found the answer I’ve been hoping for.”
“You mean you’ve been waiting for something like this to happen?”
“Not waiting, more like dreaming.” He pauses. “You’re wasting time. You should go.”
I look at the other two. Marie nods while Other Me looks scared.
As I retrieve my Chaser and activate the screen, I say, “I can give you an hour’s cushion before the change takes effect. Use it to jump back before…” I pause. Sir Gregory is right—it’s better if I’m the only one who knows when the switch is, so a seventy-five-year cushion should be enough to prevent its discovery. “Before 1700. You’ll be safe there.”
I realize I’m not the only one who knows when the switch is. Other Me might not know the details but he does know when it happened. But I trust him completely.
Sir Gregory holds out his hand.
“Good luck,” he says as we shake. “I’m not sure I’d have the mental strength to do what you’re doing.”
I walk back to Marie. We hug.
“Will I see you again?” I whisper.
“Count on it,” she says.
“Santa Monica Pier. June 20th, 2015, at noon.”
She looks at me funny.
“You’ll figure out where that is.”
When we release each other, I glance at my Chaser’s screen. The power level has gone down a couple hundredths of a percent since I last checked. I’m not sure it’ll be enough to complete all I need to do. “Do any of you have a charger I can take?”
None of them do, so Marie says, “I’ll fetch one and be right back.”
But as she retrieves her own Chaser, the population of the room suddenly triples. Most are security men, but right in the middle is Sir Wilfred.
“Denny! Go!” Sir Gregory yells.
Sir Wilfred spins around, looking for me, but my fingers are already depressing the emergency escape combination. I’m now ten feet from where I was and fifteen minutes earlier.
I want to jump to my room and grab Other Me’s charger, but I can’t be sure Sir Wilfred’s men won’t already be waiting there. Instead, I quickly adjust the location and time and jump clear across the continent to the cemetery in New Cardiff, an hour and fifteen minutes ahead. This time pad will give Marie, Sir Gregory, and Other Me the extra hour I promised. I hope they’re able to escape Sir Wilfred’s men and use it.
As much as I don’t want to look, I check the power level again and see it’s dipped below five percent.
One of the functions of my Chaser’s calculator is to estimate energy use of an upcoming trip. The only other time I’ve used it was in my instruction room when Marie and I were going over the various functions. I’m scared to use it now, but I need to know if I’m going to have enough power to finish my plan.
Most of the jumps I have planned are of set lengths, so I have little to no margin to play with. I input these first and am shocked to see there’s very little power left to work with. I then do calculations for two additional jumps.
The results are heart-wrenching. Making both jumps will be impossible.
I guess I should be happy that at least I don’t have to make a choice between them. Only one will fit within the parameters of my remaining power, and even then I won’t be able to go as far back as I’d like.
Since this will be my first stop, I enter the location number and set the date back eight years, pushing the time back as much as I dare.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
IT’S THREE IN the morning when I appear in the empty lot down the street from my family’s house. A few minutes later I’m at the bottom of the steps that lead up to our door.
The house, like all the others around it, is dark. I can see the window of my room where twelve-year-old me should be sound sleep. There’s also the window to my parents’ room—well, my father’s room, since at this point it’s been a year and a half since my mother passed away. Neither of these is the room I’m interested in, though.
I carefully move around the side of the house until I can see the window of my sister’s room. Using the location calculator to home in on the hallway outside her door, I make a jump of thirty seconds.
The floor creaks as I appear so I hold my position, fingers hovering over the escape combination in case my father decides to check out the noise. When all remains silent, I pad quietly into Ellie’s room.
The strongest memory I have of Ellie is of when she was fifteen, not long before she died, with hair chopped short, her skin ashy white, and bones showing everywhere. She’s asleep on the hospital bed, and I’m sitting on the mattress holding her hand. Father is by the window, looking outside as the doctor finishes his prognosis.
“The truth is, Mr. Younger, there’s little else we can do here,” he says. “Home would be the best place for her now.”
My father says nothing, so I decide to speak up. “But there are treatments. I’ve read about them in the paper. I even found a
book at the library that—”
Looking embarrassed, the doctor says to my father, “If you have any questions, you can always contact me.”
“I have questions,” I say.
“Denny. Quiet,” my father orders. “Thank you, Doctor.”
After the doctor is gone, I say, “But there are treatments. We can—”
“Not for us,” Father says. “Pack your sister’s things. We’re going home.”
If we’d been Fives like I am now, it would have been different, but we were Eights, and our options were limited to waiting for her to die.
Tonight, that day is well over a year away, and she lies before me with her hair still long and her face full of the promise of the beautiful woman she should have become.
Tears roll down my cheeks as I stare at her.
My God. It’s her. My sister, alive.
I ache at the sight of the pills on her nightstand that help her sleep. The illness that will waste her away has started to move in. I hoped to come before that happened, but the Chaser’s lack of power meant this was as far back as I dare go. Still, the disease is in its early stages. I know from the research I’ve done on the subject after reading about the medical documentary that there’s an excellent chance it can be stopped. But not here. Not in this world.
I grab the pill bottle and shove it in my pocket. After prepping my Chaser for the automated series of hops to the next destination, I kneel next to Ellie, gently wrap her blanket around her, and then climb in beside her. She stirs slightly as I put my arms around her but doesn’t wake.
“Everything’s going to be fine,” I whisper, and then we jump.
__________
THE LAST HOP takes us into the copse of trees about a hundred yards from the Three Swans Tavern, where everything started.
“What’s going on?” Ellie mumbles, her lids barely parting.
Wincing from my post-trip pain, I whisper, “Just sleep.”
“Dad, my head hurts.”
Dad? Does my voice really sound like his? “Hold on.” I remove one of her pills from the bottle and slip it between her lips. “Chew it up, then rest. I’ll return soon.”
Rewinder Page 20