by Brad Raylend
“Well …” Bohden said as he stood up and made his way over to the main screen.
He pulled up an application that displayed the CIA emblem on the back of a black page. He went up to the top right -hand corner and typed in Todd’s full name, using a wireless keyboard. He pressed enter and the screen went to an extensive list of Todd Yorks throughout the world. He looked back at Todd. “Where do you live in 1986?”
“Laurinburg, North Carolina,” Todd replied, thinking about his lonely off-base home, a few miles from Fort Bragg.
Bohden thinned the search and found his name. He clicked on it and a load of information about Todd popped up on the screen. Todd leaned out of his chair to try and see some of the information, but Bohden was quick to skip straight to relatives. He found Todd’s father and clicked on him. A bio and police records came up along with a mug shot. Next to it was an updated photo taken in 2017, which quickly caught Todd’s eye. He hadn’t seen him since he was just a child and if he would have passed him on the street he would have just mistaken him for an ordinary old man.
“Here we go,” Bohden said, putting his hands on his hips. “Michael C. York, lived in Coral Terrace, Miami. Which is where he …” he paused, scrolling through the home records and police records. “Jesus Christ,” he said in astonishment. “This guy was … or should I say ‘is,’ in some serious trouble. Drug trafficking? I’m surprised this didn’t come up during your psychological evaluation during selection.”
“It did, I just didn’t know enough about him to answer any questions,” Todd replied shortly.
Kara walked into the room and sat down, placing a folder on the desk. She looked at Todd then at the screen. Bohden continued scrolling down through police reports, momentarily pausing to read key sections.
Kara spoke, spreading the papers out across the desk. “Your father was a suspected drug trafficker linked to the Medellin cartel during the 1980s. It was estimated that in one week the cartel could bring in over four hundred million dollars’ worth through several methods of offshore importing that included boats, private planes, and even tow trucks. Your father most likely utilized one of these methods to transport enormous amounts of illegal substances into the city. Miami used to be a vacation spot for senior citizens during the ‘50s and ‘60s. After the late ‘70s, however, it quickly began a transformation into a fast-growing drug-dependent empire fed by millions of dollars of drug and blood money. Starting in the late 1970s, individuals who would later be referred to as the cocaine cowboys would take advantage of the almost nonexistent law on the coast, transporting large amounts of marijuana. What started as only a few small shipments of cocaine with the marijuana eventually turned cocaine into becoming the primary shipment that even blue collar Americans sought.”
Todd stared at the picture of his father in disbelief. He had known that Michael had been involved with drugs when he was younger, but he’d had no idea it was to this degree. He found it hard to believe that this was the same man who had married his kind mother, but he also found it easier to understand how York would have no problem killing him, since he had been a complete screw-up his entire life.
What had Ann York seen in him? They wouldn’t meet for almost another twelve years, but how much could he have changed by then? And even if he did change, it was only temporary as his mother eventually would leave him, taking three-year-old Todd York with her to Colorado.
“How come he was never convicted of trafficking?” Todd asked. “They suspected him of it … he should have done some serious time for that.”
Kara sifted through some of the papers. “Apparently, the charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence.” She brushed a stray hair behind her ear. “This is odd.”
“What?” Todd asked.
“Well … during this time period, the mid ‘80s, a lot of traffickers are brought in, forcing a lot of big names like Escobar and Blanco to relocate due to the building pressure from government agencies such as the DEA and ATF.” She shook her head, looking down at the table. “I just don’t understand how he could have gotten away with it. Any evidence of affiliation would be enough to be incarcerated.”
“So not only will you have to find your old man … but you will also have to ensure that you don’t ever come in direct contact with him, in order to ensure you don’t affect the timeline in any way. All the while protecting him from your other self,” Bohden said, licking his lips and shaking his head in disbelief.
He pulled up a map of the United States on the monitor and studied it for a moment. He began drawing a line that started on the top corner of New Mexico and ended on the edge of Florida. Pulled up a calculations and conversation menu, he then typed a few notes on his tablet. He finished and turned to Todd.
“It’s almost two thousand miles from Albuquerque New Mexico to Miami. That’s almost a thirty-hour drive considering he doesn’t find a way to board a commercial airliner in the meantime. I wouldn’t put it past him, however, but it’s very unlikely.”
Albrecht entered the conversation. “With your injuries, I would recommend at the very least two weeks before going back out, but since we obviously don’t have that kind of time … we need to insert you as soon as possible.” He exhaled loudly. “How long do you need to prep?”
Todd sat back, rubbing his throbbing bandaged head. He thought for a moment, then answered. “I’ll need a few hours to plan an insert point with D and a suitable drop zone outside the city limits. I’ll need to pack light, considering I will once again need to blend in with the local populace. I will also need to be constantly updated on any information regarding his whereabouts using payment records, withdrawals, recorded phone calls … whatever you can dig up. The FBI was obviously watching him during this time so they must have something on his daily routines.”
Albrecht nodded in approval. Bohden stood in the corner with his arms crossed, lost in thought. Todd could tell he disliked the entire situation. Not only was he concerned with the timeline, but he was also depending on Todd to be successful so that his very existence may continue. He didn’t like the idea of his life being in the hands of someone who he saw as possibly incompetent. He had known York for almost seven years and was aware of his abilities to complete a job. Todd, however, had proven nothing to him and had given only reasons to doubt him. If he had to place money on who would find their father first, it would be York.
“Well they don’t exactly have social media right now, so finding his exact location in the next thirty hours could be extremely difficult … but I’ll see what I can do.”
Albrecht rubbed his thumb over his lips in deep thought. Todd could tell something was troubling him.
“You okay, Brian?” Todd asked.
Albrecht sighed, then looked up at him. “I need to talk to you … in private,” he said, looking over at Kara and Bohden and clearly hinting for them to leave.
The two stood up and made their way to the door. Kara and Albrecht exchanged a small smile as she softly closed the door behind her. Albrecht pulled his glasses off, setting them on the table. He rubbed his eyes and leaned back in the leather chair. The aircraft hummed quietly and Todd patiently waited for him to speak. He turned in his chair and stared out into the night sky.
“Todd … there is something you need to know. Something that I haven’t had the courage to tell anyone else. Something … I fear could make people lose hope if they knew.” He inhaled, then let it out loudly. “I have been hiding from the future for six years now. Sitting … waiting for the news that we all have been waiting for. Waiting for you to save us from it.”
Todd looked at the professor questioningly. Albrecht held his soft gaze. “This world is as harsh as it is humbling,” he said, shaking his head. “I started the program in early 2010; the technology was already ready for testing by then, but it would be a couple more years before the DOD finally gave Bohden the green light to start. Not long after however World War III began, they forgot about my little science project.” He chuckled, then
his face went stern. “It took me almost twenty years to finally crack it … two long decades. Me and my partner.”
“Partner?” Todd asked.
“Yes … Garrett. He was the smartest man I ever knew, and he was my best friend. He was a British student attending Cambridge whose theories complemented my own, and little did I know, we would change the world together.”
Todd nodded. “Was he killed in the initial attacks?”
“No … no. He died a long time ago. Heart disease in 2003.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
Albrecht nodded. “I remember spending countless hours doing calculations with him, staying up all night arguing over whether or not it was going to work, whether we had just been wasting all those years of hard work on something that was unachievable.”
He stood up, picking up his glasses and placing them back on. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and leaned up against the wall. “It’s funny … we both wanted the same result, but we disagreed on almost everything. I put my trust in science, the physics and the calculations. Why not? Why couldn’t we use a worm hole to travel to the past and alter what had already happened? Garrett, on the other hand, had a different opinion. Yes, he wanted to succeed as much as me, but he disagreed with the notion of altering fate. He preferred faith as his reasoning to back his theories. He used to always say ‘everything happens for a reason, Brian. No matter what we do … the end result will always be the same.’” He shook his head. “I never wanted to believe him, especially after he died. I finally finished many years later; the power of time travel was finally at my disposal. Yet nothing could change the fact that his death was irreversible. I realized then that he was right.”
He looked up at Todd, his lips pressed firmly together. “Before he died I made him a promise. That I would take care of his infant daughter, and that I would finish what we had started, give the people around me hope. Because above all else, if we lose hope, we lose everything, Todd.”
“Why do you do this to them?” Todd asked. “Why don’t you take the students somewhere else … to another time; get them out of that Godforsaken frozen wasteland and let them live?”
“Because that’s not what his daughter wants,” Brian said firmly.
Todd canted his head and his eyes sharpened. “Kara?”
Albrecht nodded. “Yes, Garrett Dennick was a single father; she meant the world to him. Now … she is everything to me. Everything I do is in an effort to give her a chance at being happy, to give her a better life. Everything from pursuing the alternate future, to bringing you back. I won’t take her to some pre-war era where she will live out the rest of her life in solitude, reading and separating herself from everyone else. It’s all she knows, but I know that’s not what she wants. She deserves better.”
Todd swallowed, looking down at his hands folded on top of the table. He felt an awful feeling inside of him as the words left his mouth. “York,” he said. “He’s what she wants.”
Albrecht sat back down across from him, placing his hands on the table. “Listen, Todd. I’m not exactly sure what she wants; maybe she doesn’t even quite know. But what I do know is that when you are here, something changes in her. I may be the only one who notices it because I’ve known Kara her entire life, but I can see it every time she looks at you. And above all else … that is why I found you and brought you here. If I were to go back a hundred times and find a hundred versions of you, you’d still be the greatest man I’ve ever known.”
PROPOSITION
Todd walked into Kara’s dark cabin to find her sleeping. He approached her, stopping beside her bed. He felt he was being too forward, and it made him uncomfortable, but he knew that he had to give it a try. She lay on her side facing him, curled up beneath the thin white blanket.
“Kara,” he said softly.
Her eyes opened beneath her amber bangs, and she sat up quickly; the automated light on the nightstand turned on along with the clock, which displayed the early morning hours.
“Todd … what is it?” she asked, flicking her hair to the side and crossing her arms in the cool room. She wore only a white spaghetti-strapped top and thin black sweats.
Todd sighed. “I need to ask you something. Something that you need to really think about before you answer.”
“What?” she asked in almost a whisper.
“Will you come with me … to find my father?”
Her eyes widened, and she looked at the door, then down at her hands.
“I know it sounds crazy, but I think it’s the only chance we have at making York come to his senses.”
“What about your father?” she asked.
“York won’t do it … not if you’re there.” Todd knelt down, eye level with her. “He won’t reconsider for me, but I guarantee he will for you.”
“What makes you so sure?” she asked, raising a thin eyebrow.
“A hunch.”
“But the professor …” she proclaimed.
“I’ve already spoken to him,” he interrupted. “He’s uneasy about it, but he agrees that it will work; plus, I assume he would prefer that I don’t kill York. And I think you feel the same way.”
She sat motionless, deep in thought for several moments. No doubt nervous to answer either yes or no.
“Come on,” he grinned. “You’ve spent your entire life studying history. Don’t you want to experience it for yourself?”
She stared down at her folded hands resting atop her crossed legs, then rubbed her hands up and down her bare arms nervously. He leaned forward, placing his hand on hers.
“I’ll keep you safe, Kara. I just need to get you to him. Because if I go alone I will kill him, no questions asked. He has hurt good people who mean a lot to me.”
She looked up at him, the moonlight shining through the small cabin window glinting off her eyes. He had a tough time reading her and couldn’t tell whether or not she was thinking of saying yes, or trying to find the right words to turn down his request. He pulled his hand from her shoulder and stood up, turning to face the door.
“I’ll go,” she said. She stood up and walked over to him on small, bare feet. “I will, I’ll come with you.”
He looked out the window at the bright moon partially concealed by the thick cloud cover. Suddenly he felt a rush of worry overwhelm him. He not only would have the challenging task of finding his criminal father in a pre-technological-era city ridden with crime, he also would have to protect him from York, all the while keeping Kara safe from whatever danger he would surely encounter. He wanted to ensure she understood what she was agreeing to. He turned back to her, and saw by her sharp eyes and confident stance that she’d made up her mind. Her pale skin glowed from the moonlight. There was no going back now; she was coming with him to the city with the highest homicide rate in the United States. He nodded, turned, and left the room.
* * *
After a few hours of deep, uninterrupted sleep, Todd awoke to the sun shining through the cabin window. He quickly got dressed and made his way out to the lounge where several familiar faces were delighted at his presence. Kevin and Amber quickly greeted him as he entered the room. He sat and ate breakfast with them, telling them of his adventures in the Old West and his encounters with York. They were surprised to hear how it had turned out, and they were saddened to find out that he would be leaving again in a few hours to continue pursuing his same-self.
Amber stood up to get a drink and Todd leaned in close to Kevin.
“Thanks again for that parting gift,” he said with a grin.
Kevin smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “Come in handy, did it?”
“I wouldn’t be here right now if I didn’t have it.”
Amber returned to the table and sat down close to Todd. He could tell she was excited about something but he wasn’t sure what it was. She looked around the room with a smug expression, then back at Todd.
“So … is it true?” she said in a whisper, her big brown eyes wide.
“What?” Todd asked.
“That you’re taking her with you?”
Todd chuckled. “Man, word sure gets around. Yes, I think she is the only person on earth who could change York’s mind.”
She smiled excitedly and fidgeted in her chair. Todd could feel himself blushing and awkwardly looked around the room, scratching the back of his head.
“So, what was it like being in the Wild West?” Kevin asked curiously.
“Unreal,” Todd smiled. “Yet very … real. It’s hard to explain it, but … it felt like I was just visiting another place, not another time. The people were very interesting.”
Todd looked up to see a large group listening in on his conversation. The students seemed intrigued by his experiences which surprised him.
“I’m sure you guys have heard it all before though,” Todd said, rolling his eyes.
“No, it’s actually nice,” Amber said.
“Why?”
“Because,” she said looking down at the table. “Nobody ever comes back with good stories to tell.” She shook her head. “There is so much good in history, yet it seems like York only visited the worst of it and came back angry.”
“It’s a shame that something as incredible as time travel would be used in such a way,” Todd said, shaking his head. “Who knows how much we could learn with such power, yet we use it only to try and fix mistakes that we are destined to repeat.”
The room fell silent for a moment as the students all pondered his dark statement. Todd looked up at them; their faces displayed the hopelessness that Albrecht had fought so hard to rid from their hearts and minds. He didn’t mean to speak so earnestly, but he didn’t agree with the professor when it came to giving them false hope. He knew however that it wouldn’t be long before the professor finally would give up on the future. Todd wanted to slowly shift their focus to different dreams.