WINDOW OF TIME

by DJ Erfert

  “Are you okay?” Dusty asked.

  “Yes, I am.” Lucy let her gaze come to rest on Johnny’s worried face. He understood what happened, or what would have happened if they hadn’t taken a hard stop. He’d seen the deaths as clearly as she had.

  “How can you be?” Dusty said. “You lost your fever for a minute. In fact, you were colder than death.”

  Lucy straightened her back. “I’m sick, remember?”

  “Bull. Pneumonia doesn’t act like that. And how did you know about those cars racing at us?” He squinted. “Wait …” His blue-eyed accusatory stare went between Johnny and Lucy. “You knew about it the same way you knew about that gas leak yesterday afternoon, didn’t you?” he asked in a rush. “We would have died in a crash, but you stopped it from happening.”

  Gazing at Johnny, Lucy said quietly, “No, Dusty, we wouldn’t have died.”

  “But we all saw those cars,” Dusty said, arguing loudly. “There wasn’t any way we could have avoided them. We would have been hit by at least one of them.” He looked at Johnny. “Right?”

  “No.” Lucy took a deep breath and whispered, “They would have crashed into each other to avoid us, and all five of those teenagers would have died.” She leaned her face against the headrest.

  “And you know this … how?” Dusty asked.

  “Oh, Johnny,” Lucy quietly begged. “What should I do?”

  “Trust him, honey. He’ll keep your secret.” He grinned and said, “Or you can shoot him.”

  Lucy sat up straight. After blowing out a deep breath, she said, “I have a special gift. I see into the immediate future if somebody is about to be killed, and I have a chance to change the outcome.”

  Dusty sat back with his mouth agape. “That’s how you saw them. And Johnny didn’t actually see the man in the window yesterday—it was you.”

  Lucy nodded.

  “I knew there was something different about you,” Dusty said, rubbing the stiff stubble on his jaw. “There’s no other way to explain it.” He pointed at Johnny. “You have her phone, so I know her boss didn’t call her and clue her in before she grabbed the wheel from your hands.”

  “My phone? Why do you have my phone?”

  Lifting it up, he said, “It went off while you were unconscious. I looked at the caller ID.” Johnny gave it back to her. “It was Brockway.”

  “Oh, no! He saw what happened.” The phone vibrated again. “Johnny, I can’t talk to him. I just can’t.”

  “Doesn’t he know about your … whatever?” Dusty asked.

  “Her windows,” Johnny said softly.

  “No,” Lucy said. “This is something I tend to keep to myself.”

  “A window into the future. Yeah, I can understand why you’d keep it quiet,” Dusty said. “You’d be used.”

  “But not today. I’m here to do a job that I chose, and we better get back to it before it’s too late.”

  “Sunny.” Touching Lucy’s warm shoulder, Dusty slowly said, “If you can keep this radar thing of yours going, then we stand a better chance of getting her and Adam out of there, don’t we?”

  “Dusty, promise me you won’t tell anybody about this—please,” Lucy asked with her hand on his.

  He shook his head and let out a big sigh. “Hey, I know how serious you agents are about your secrets. And I’d rather not get shot.”

  Twenty-seven

  Growing up in Phoenix, Lucy saw a lot of palm trees used in landscaping, but they were kept trimmed, with only the healthy green palms left on. Most of the trees on the island had never met a gardener. When the old fronds died, they drooped down and layered on top of each other, creating wide, very dry bushes that got taller every rainy season.

  “Come to a stop, Johnny.” Lucy looked around at the thick foliage while she drank some water from the bottle he’d given her.

  Johnny jammed on the Jeep’s brakes, sliding to a jerking stop.

  “What happened?” Lucy asked, holding on to the dashboard.

  “You tell me,” Johnny said in a rush, touching her arm.

  Lucy groaned. “I just meant that we’re going to park the Jeep now, not that anything is wrong. I’m sorry I frightened you.”

  He sat back in his seat. “I’m okay,” Johnny said, wiping his sweaty face off with the back of his sleeve. He pulled off the road, inland, and stopped behind a grouping of three bushy trees. The dead fronds completely obscured the Jeep from the main road, but also from the side road that crossed in front of the compound. “I guess we’re walking in from here?”

  “Yes, we are.” Lucy reached for her sat phone when it vibrated. She figured she couldn’t avoid her boss forever, and she might want more help from him during the mission. What she didn’t expect to see was a text message from Sunny’s number.

  <>

  “Is that your boss again?” Johnny asked.

  “No, it came from Sunny’s phone,” Lucy said quietly as she digested the meaning.

  “Sunny?” Dusty asked loudly. “What does she say? Is she okay?”

  “Keep your voice down,” Lucy said with her voice low and calm. “I can hear you just fine through the ear piece. It said ‘I need you.’ But Sunny didn’t send the message.”

  “What do you mean? Who did then?” Dusty asked.

  Lucy turned in her seat and touched Dusty’s knee. Somehow she needed to reassure him Sunny was alive and well. Maybe she needed to reassure herself it wasn’t too late to save Sunny and Adam. “They’re probably messing with Sunny’s head right now,” Lucy told him. “She’s being questioned, and they found her phone. Now they’re trying to see who might be with her besides Adam, probably because she isn’t telling them anything. But since we aren’t carrying our personal phones, we only have each other’s numbers inputted and our names aren’t listed with them.”

  “Are you going to answer the text?” Johnny asked.

  Lucy nodded. “I think I just might be able to mess with their minds with the right response. What shall we have Sunny and Adam doing out in the middle of a Bahaman island?”

  Johnny suggested, “How about … ‘Sorry, but we couldn’t hold the boat any longer. We took the party to Jim’s place.’”

  Lucy quickly returned the text. “I’ll add…‘I’ll send Daddy’s boat back in the morning.’ ”

  “So they’re here partying,” Dusty said. “That could work with the way they were dressed.”

  “That could be the reason they were seen, too,” Lucy said very quietly.

  “I thought it was a bad idea,” Dusty said. “But Sunny insisted they look like tourists instead of agents.”

  Lucy shook her head and waited to see if her text would be answered. It quickly vibrated again.

  “Is it from Sunny?” Dusty asked.

  “No, from my boss. He got a text from Sunny’s phone too, and wanted to give me a heads up.” Lucy replied to Brockway:

  <>

  “Let’s get going. Leave the key in the ignition.” Tucking her phone into her vest, Lucy grabbed the bag at her feet and climbed out of the Jeep. As she reached to take another bag, Johnny stopped her.

  “We’ll take these bags.” Johnny lifted one of the backpacks, as well as his jump bag. Dusty took his medical jump bag and Lucy’s other backpack.

  “I’m perfectly capable of taking on this mission by myself,” Lucy said a little sharper than she intended.

  “Under normal circumstances I’d agree with you,” Johnny said. “But you’re working with a concussion, and you have a fever and probably pneumonia. This time, you may just need our help.”

  Being stubborn had helped Lucy get through some of the most difficult periods of her life. The times when she had wanted to quit Taekwondo because her body hurt so badly, she willfully worked her way through until she achieved each painful goal. Spending hours each night studying just to get ahead had taken a toll on her, mentally as well as physically. Even being a kid with a curse—or gift—for being in the r
ight place to change a death took a stubborn dedication just to get through the day. But maybe, on this one occasion, her new partners might be right.

  Lucy took the backpack from Dusty’s hand and set it on the hood of the Jeep. Inside were two packages of strawberry Pop Tarts. She took one and passed the rest of them to her partners. They didn’t ask for the snack, but Lucy hated to eat alone. As she munched, she took out the special gun that fit in the holster on the front of her vest.

  “What is that?” Dusty leaned down and looked closer. “Is that a dart gun?”

  “It is.” Lucy took out a canvas pouch and unrolled it. Tucked into slots were a dozen loaded darts. Her vest had little compartments specially designed to hold them individually.

  “What kind of sedative are they carrying?” Johnny asked.

  “Ketamine.” Lucy took another bite of pastry and started sliding the extra darts into her vest.

  “Horse tranquilizer?” Dusty asked. “That’s heavy duty.”

  Lucy nodded. “I want to make sure one shot does the trick.”

  “One shot will drop a full grown man before he realizes he’s been hit.”

  Lucy slid another dart into her vest. “That’s what I’m hoping for.”

  “So you’re thinking we’re going to be able to go in and get out without shooting a real gun?” Johnny asked.

  Lucy thought about how much she should sugar-coat her answer. But sugar tended to get sticky and burn under heat. In this case, truth would be the best thing for them. “No, of course not. I don’t think those people are going to willingly give up Sunny and Adam. And they won’t like us coming in and messing up their plans, whatever they are. Darts are very fast acting, even if I don’t get a clean first hit.” Lucy continued to load her vest. “Our guns have silencers on them, but we’ll use them when needed.”

  “What are you going to do with the explosives?” Dusty asked.

  Lucy lifted her gaze to the ex-Marine. “I’m going to get rid of the compound, just like I said I would.”

  “Out of revenge?” Johnny asked softly.

  Lucy paused for a moment, her hands stilled from rolling up the empty pouch. Was her motive simple revenge? Or was there something deeper. She looked at her boyfriend’s worried eyes and asked, “Have you ever had a … a feeling in the back of your head that keeps—keeps niggling at your mind, but you can’t understand what it is, yet you know that you can’t ignore it?”

  “You’re talking about gut instinct,” Dusty said. “Lucy, have you had one of your, uh, windows about that compound? Is someone going to die?”

  Lucy shook her head. She could hear the stress in his voice. His worry about Sunny was obvious. She had a limited amount of time to get in and rescue Sunny and Adam before they became a liability. “I haven’t.” Lucy looked in the compound’s direction. “But whatever they’re doing in that place cost Gabe his life.” She suppressed the images of the other dead bodies on the staircase and freeway who would’ve died, too. “They came after me three times already, all because of what he found in that compound. I’m not waiting for bureaucratic red tape to clear to get permission to destroy it. One way or another, I’m going to put an end to what’s been going on there, even if it costs me my job.”

  Tossing the empty pouch onto the floor of the Jeep, she said, “Let’s move.” Lucy turned and headed for the side road. She didn’t wait for them to follow. Before Johnny could object, she hoisted her pack around and slipped it onto her shoulders and moved to the edge of the dirt road.

  Without stepping out into the open, Lucy knelt down, took out her small binoculars, and set it to night-vision. “About five hundred feet that way, the front gate to the compound parallels the road. I want to see if there are any guards looking this way before we cross it.” Lifting the binoculars to her eyes, she said, “With Sunny and Adam so recently being caught, I would think they are guarding their fences a little tighter tonight, as well as the road that leads into the compound.” Lucy carefully panned along the desert landscape. “Everything’s quiet. That’s weird.”

  “You think they’re expecting us?” Johnny asked.

  “I don’t know.” She lowered the binoculars. “But I don’t think so. They may be confused with who they found, especially if our people aren’t giving up anything.” Lucy gazed at Johnny in the darkness. “I want you both to stay behind me, and we’ll blend into the night.”

  The huge moon shone brightly just above the horizon, sending out dramatic shadows in which Lucy could hide her team. She knew the darkness would work for their benefit instead of against them. Sunny had done her surveillance during the afternoon, which wasn’t the smartest thing to do as evidenced by their being caught.

  They maneuvered their way around the compound, slowly working closer to the fence, all while Lucy took pictures with her binoculars’ digital camera.

  There were five identically-shaped, rectangular, single-story block-walled buildings, similar to doublewide mobile homes. They sat at an angle from each other, fanned out, with a big common courtyard anchoring them together like a pinwheel. The layout made it more difficult to see all of them from one side, but Lucy didn’t plan on being stationary for long.

  The three buildings across the courtyard had lights burning behind curtained windows. One of those buildings had smoke curling slowly from a pipe in the roof, and it smelled like deliciously spicy meat.

  Lucy dropped down onto her knees in the sand and looked into the compound with her binoculars. “I see movement. Stay still,” Lucy whispered into the microphone lying against her cheek. Her heart accelerated when she saw five people walk out of one of the buildings. Two of the men had rifles. Lucy telescoped in on the other three, hoping Sunny and Adam were being moved. No such luck.

  The three people were dressed in drab hospital scrubs and wore hats with wide brims, probably to keep any passing satellites from taking their pictures. Their heads hung down, and their shoulders were slumped. They walked like they had given up on life. When the only woman lifted her head, Lucy got a good look at her face. She looked familiar.

  Lucy whispered. “I know her.”

  “Who is it?” Johnny asked in a voice so low Lucy almost missed the question.

  Lucy focused in on the two men walking along with the woman. When she caught a look at their faces, they seemed haggard and tired, but she remembered seeing their pictures, as well as the woman’s, in agency alert bulletins over three months ago. Now if she could just put names to their faces. “Hilda … Helga, Helga Van, Von … Von Strauss.” Lucy kept her eyes on the trio being moved, and said, “Dr. Helga Von Strauss and her three colleagues were reported missing about three months ago by the German government. I wonder where the other man is?” Lucy set the binoculars down and gazed at Johnny. “Von Strauss’s husband has had a reward out for any information on her whereabouts since they disappeared.”

  “You just found them,” Dusty said.

  “No,” Lucy said. “Gabriel Greene found them over a week ago, and I dropped the ball.”

  “And Gabe didn’t tell you anything when he gave you the film?” Johnny asked.

  “He only asked me to stay for a drink. Maybe if I would have stayed, he might have talked about his mission, and I would have been there when those creeps in gray …”

  “Lucy,” Johnny whispered, “you can’t keep blaming yourself for Gabe’s death. You can’t save everybody.”

  “I know. But I’d like to try.” Putting away her binoculars, Lucy got up and darted to the next clump of palm trees. “Come on, guys. We need to go rescue a few people.” She headed down the fence line. She wanted to see which building the prisoners had entered. It didn’t take long before she found the guards standing outside a door. The prisoners were gone—most likely inside.

  Lucy set her pack down behind a bushy tree and reached for Johnny’s sleeve when he stopped next to her, turning him around.

  Lucy slowly unzipped the backpack he wore and lifted out her first specialized piece of equip
ment she needed to use before she would even consider breaching the fence. After screwing the long extension onto the shorter barrel, she pulled the coiled CO2 line from inside the pack and attached it to the gun. A snap of a small hopper onto the top of the stock and the gun was ready.

  “Lucy,” Dusty whispered, “Is that a paintball gun?”

  “Uh-huh. There’s a surveillance camera I want to mask before we continue.” Lucy took aim at a palm tree’s trunk and took a test shot. The sound of air expulsing was minimal, but the benefit outweighed the slight noise the gun produced. “That’ll do,” she murmured.

  Taking aim at the closest camera suspended on the overhang of a building, Lucy used Johnny’s shoulder to steady her arm. The black ball hit its mark, breaking apart and bleeding thick goo over the glass lens.

  “Good shot,” Johnny whispered in their ears. “What happens if someone comes out to check on their cameras?”

  “Then they get to sleep for a while, but we’ll deal with that if we come to it. Let’s go.” Lucy pocketed the gun into the backpack and quickly made her way to the fence. Unzipping a side compartment, she found a small box with two wires coming out from the bottom. The wires had metal tips. Crouching down next to the fence, Lucy turned on the voltmeter and held the leads in one hand like chopsticks.

  “You think the fence is electrified?” Johnny asked, leaning closer to her.

  She touched the fence with the metal tips. “Not anymore.” Looking up, she wrapped the wires around the box and placed it back inside the backpack’s compartment. “Since they didn’t have any razor wire on top, I thought they might be smart enough to at least make touching the fence painful for unwanted visitors. But I guess not. Dusty, get out the bolt cutters from your backpack.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  A pair of folding bolt cutters were in the main compartment of his bag. He opened the handles.

  “Cut up from the bottom about four feet.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Dusty began at the bottom and clipped each link while Johnny held the fence, stopping the loud chinking the cutting would have otherwise produced. They went through the opening one at a time with Lucy going in first. She waited until Dusty had squeezed through last before handing him four carabiners. The metal loops, normally used to keep mountain climbers from falling, had spring-loaded gates and would hide their entrance while still giving them an easy exit. “Let’s close this up until we need it again, guys.” While both men worked to disguise their entrance, Lucy looked around for any cameras that could be seen from that vantage point. There weren’t any.