Chronomancer

by Mackenzie Morris

  He shook his head. "Niki isn't a terrorist. He's not a murderer."

  "Jack, do you understand the severity of the situation you've found yourself in? The charges you could face will put you away for life. Capital punishment is on the table. Do you know what that means?"

  As hard as he tried to stay strong, his eyes brimmed with tears. "You'll kill me."

  "So you understand the gravity of what we're discussing. I don't want you to be locked in a cage, Jack. You're not a murderer. You're not a criminal. You are a boy who got caught up in something way over your head. I'm here offering you a way out. You can go back to your life, however it is now with the way the world has changed. We can get you professional help that doesn't have you locked in a cage with dangerous men who could end up abusing you again. We have contacts with a juvenile mental health facility where you will receive treatment. It's not as bad as it sounds. You'll have freedoms. You'll make friends. You'll get back to doing things you love. After five years of therapy, you'll move into a transitional home where you will learn how to get a job and find a place to live on your own as a productive member of society."

  "You think I'm crazy?" Jack asked, wiping away tears.

  "I never used that word. You are a boy who has been hurt by people. You need help to understand and to cope with that abuse. It's to help you. It's a gift."

  "And what do you want in return?"

  She stood from her chair, placing her phone in her pocket. "Talk to Niki. Get him to take the plea deal."

  "Plea deal? He's not guilty. He didn't do anything wrong."

  "Speak with him. Tell him this is what's best for you. If he loves you like you think he does, then he will do this for you." The agent took out a remote control and pointed it at the plain wall to Jack's left. Two hidden panels slid open, revealing a television screen. It flashed on, showing a hospital room where a young man with white-tipped black hair was hooked up to machines. His wrist was secured with handcuffs to the railing of the bed. "I'll leave and let you two talk. Remember what I've told you, Jack. You can make this right."

  Jack stood, but the shackles stopped him from moving.

  "Oh, I almost forgot." Marjorie came over, knelt down, and unlocked the shackles. She removed them then stood and placed her hand on Jack's shoulder momentarily before she left, shutting the door behind her.

  With his eyes fixed on the screen, Jack stumbled closer until he was inches away. He knew that face that was looking up at him from that hospital bed. "Niki?"

  Niki leaned forward as much as the cuffs and wires would allow. His voice was raspy, but strong. Some time in a modern hospital had done him some good. "Jack. Jack, can you hear me?"

  "I can hear you. You're awake. How long have you been awake?"

  "Couple of hours, I think. They woke me up with something, a weird medicine that they keep giving me to keep me awake. I'm in a lot of pain. They've been keeping pain meds from me."

  He covered his mouth. "They can do that?"

  "They're the government. They can do whatever they want. Where are you?" Niki asked.

  "FBI place somewhere. They've been questioning me."

  "What did you tell them?"

  Jack placed his fingers to the screen, trying to touch his friend's face. "The truth."

  "Good. I know why they're letting you talk to me. The agent's gonna be back soon and I know what they're gonna try to do. I don't want you to watch this."

  "Watch what?" Jack asked. "Niki, what are you talking about?"

  "Listen, this isn't a petty crime. It's not shoplifting or vandalism. This is the FBI, Jack. Special task forces and everything. We're caught now and there's nothing we can do to get out of this. I have to do my duty and what I know to be right in my soul." Niki glanced to the side when a door opened. "Agent Hasan is back. They put a Turkish man on my case, thinking I'll open up more. Racists."

  The noticeably Arabic agent entered the screen, his face stern. He slapped a red folder against his thigh as he stepped up to the hospital bed. "You've been talking with Jackson?"

  "Yes."

  "Are you ready to talk, Nikolas?" Agent Hasan asked. "I'll let you have painkillers if you do. I know you're hurting."

  "I don't have much choice."

  The agent placed the open folder on Niki's lap. "This is the plea deal. It's the best you're going to get. You confess to being an active enemy combatant of the United States and a high-ranking member of the terrorist group Sand. You will be transported to Guantanamo where you will cease to exist. No one will miss you. You will vanish. You should know that conditions at Guantanamo have plummeted in the recent years. It's not what it used to be. If you thought the torture accounts were gruesome before, you have a surprise awaiting you, Valentino. We've progressed as a nation. Due to the state of the world being what it is, there are no restrictions to what they can do with you now. The ban on torture is completely lifted. We need all the information we can get and we need to keep the demons like you subdued. I call it progress. Few are actually sent there, but the government has kept it operational for those who are considered too dangerous to house on U.S. soil. Congratulations. You've made that very short list."

  "And Jack?" Niki asked.

  "Jackson Carter gets five years in a mental health facility."

  He shook his head. "No deal. I said Jack goes free."

  "We can't do that."

  "He wasn't a part of this."

  "How do we know?" Agent Hasan asked. "If you want him to walk, you have to tell us why he was a victim in this. Give me something, Valentino."

  Niki hesitated. "I . . . I . . . damn it. Turn that camera off."

  "It stays on."

  He took a long slow breath. "Jack wasn't a part of it because I . . . I've been raping him since he was a toddler. We grew up like that. I dominated him. See those bruises on him? I put them there. I'm a monster and I can't stop hurting people."

  Jack froze. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Why was he doing this?

  "Are you confessing to the murders in Mana Glen and to participating in the attacks overseas?"

  "If Jack goes free. He was my slave. I made him obey me. He's a victim in this just as much as everyone else. He never touched anyone. I set him up so the cops would find him around Ellie's apartment. I wanted them to pin it on him. I wanted him to go down for it, but I realized I care for him too much. I'm a rapist and a murderer. Jack goes free."

  The agent nodded his head. "Jack goes free."

  "I go to Guantanamo."

  "You vanish."

  Niki's hands clenched into fists. "Okay."

  Agent Hasan held out a black recorder. "Speak into the recorder. State your name first."

  "My name is Nikolas Kaveh Rahim Valentino. I confess to the killings in Mana Glen on November third. I confess to orchestrating the bullet train attacks. I confess to working with Sand in the Eiffel Tower bombing. I confess to the eleven bank robberies across the southern United States. I confess to helping with the hijacking of Air Force One and the murder of Present Fleur. I confess to the bombing at President Tomlinson's mansion. I confess to the attacks in Russia. I confess to the bombings on the aircraft carriers."

  The agent held the recorder closer to Niki. "And?"

  "And I confess to years of raping Jackson Carter."

  Jack cried out, shaking his head and grasping at the sides of the television. "No. No, no, no! Niki, no. Why?"

  Agent Hasan took a pen from his breast pocket and handed it to him. He pointed to a line on the bottom of the paper in the folder. "Sign here, please."

  With a timid, pain-filled smile to Jack through the television, Niki took the pen and signed the paper. "There, you vultures. You got what you wanted."

  The agent took the folder and grinned. "Very well. You will be processed and transported soon."

  Niki shoved the pen back into the agent's hand. "I want to say goodbye. Alone."

  "You have two minutes."

  Once the agent left the hospital room,
Niki stared into the screen. "Jack, are you still there?"

  Tears poured down Jack's face. "Why?"

  "Don't talk."

  "You didn't do any of that. You never hurt me. You're not a rapist or a terrorist!"

  Niki leaned back against his pillows and closed his eyes. Only his uncontrollable trembling revealed his inner terror at an unknown future. "We don't have time for this. Just listen to me. Okay? Stop crying and listen. Jack, we're never going to see each other again, but I want you know something. Everything I've done and everything I'll go through . . . I do it for you. Live your life. Find Ellie. Get married. Have babies. Tell them about me. Please don't let me be forgotten. You're everything to me. I hate goodbyes, Jack. You know that. Just know that I love you, brother. Live."

  Chapter 18

  Jack walked beside Agent Marjorie out of the elevator on the fourth floor of the luxury hotel in what he believed was Seattle. He had never been there and no one would answer his questions, so he went on his hunch. He brushed the melting snow from the ill-fitting puffy lime green coat that was given to him out of the lost and found at the secret FBI offices. Even though he was no longer shackled, the leather band around his arm remained locked in place, preventing access to his Chronomancer tattoo. His well-worn boots thudded against the polished marble floors, past trickling rock fountains and elaborate golden doors.

  Marjorie glanced to him as she headed down the hallway. "We will have more questions for you tomorrow and I'm sure you have more for us, but for tonight, you'll stay here. We'll have agents outside your door and in the lobby to keep you safe. If you need anything, they will be happy to oblige. The Sand agents who you claim are your friends are in custody. We need to know more about them."

  "Am I free to go or . . ."

  "That was the plea deal Nikolas took. You've been cooperative with us and I was able to talk my superiors into honoring that plea deal on your end even without you or Nikolas having a lawyer. You know why I'm putting my job on the line for you? Because I honestly believe you are a victim in this. You had nothing to do with the attacks or murders. Also, I knew your father."

  Jack stopped below a warm white light. "You knew him?"

  "A little better than I should have."

  "At the newspaper?"

  "No, not his convenient cover-up job." Marjorie took his hand and patted it. "Jack, I know about that mark on your arm."

  "You're Syndicate."

  "I'm an undercover spy for the Syndicate, stationed in the FBI. You were told that you would be contacted by an agent about joining us. I am that agent."

  He yanked his hand away. "Oh."

  "You should know that I was on the committee that voted to go after Samuel when he left the Syndicate. I was the only member of that committee that voted to let him go back to his civilian life. My vote was thrown out, anyway."

  "Why?"

  Marjorie sighed as she continued walking towards the end of the hallway. "The others determined that I was too biased based on a personal interest in the subject. I'm here to make it up to him. You're going to be all right. You'll have a clear record with the government and you'll be welcome with the Syndicate. I know you don't trust us, and I understand that. I do. After getting the report about the plane crash . . . I thought about running like Sam did. I hated them. I hated everyone in the Syndicate for what they did to him and to the rest of your family. But then I heard they left you alive."

  "What were you to my father?"

  "If I tell you, you won't like me anymore."

  They stopped at the last door near the snow-speckled window at the end. Jack watched her as she slid the keycard through the slot on the door. "You loved him."

  "We had an affair."

  "While my mother was pregnant with me?"

  Marjorie pushed the door open into the warm room. "I know it was wrong and I know you're upset."

  "It's fine."

  "Sam was a hero. He was one of the best men you could ever meet. If you want to be mad at someone over it, be mad at me. He was dealing with so much stress as Director and I took advantage of that. I was younger and dumber at the time. I know it's no excuse, but I never intended to hurt anyone."

  Jack entered the hotel room. The hot air from the vents in the ceiling soothed his weary muscles. He went past the kitchenette, the expansive living area with the massive television mounted on the wall, the chandelier in the cream and dark green dining room, to the bedroom. He shrugged off his coat then fell backwards on to the king-sized bed, sinking down in the foam mattress and the mountain of down feather pillows.

  "Jack?"

  "I'm not mad. I never even knew him. I didn't know my mother, either. I really don't care about any of that right now." Jack stared at his reflection in the mirror above the bed as he took long breaths of the sweet cinnamon-scented air. "Is it true what goes on in Guantanamo? I saw online where soldiers were torturing prisoners. I thought all of that stopped years ago, but it was from a few months back."

  "Congress lifted the ban on torture and enhanced interrogation techniques for prisoners deemed to be enemy combatants. According to the government, prisoners there don't exist. They aren't humans. I'm sorry about your friend, but he confessed."

  "It was a lie. He lied to make sure I could go free. Niki didn't do any of that stuff. What's going to happen to him?"

  Marjorie took a bottle of vodka from the mini fridge and opened it. After removing her gun and badge from her belt, she jumped up onto the curved dresser to sit. "You don't need to worry about that. It's over now."

  "No, it's not. You're from the Syndicate. You know what he is to me. He's my bonded Time Knight and I need him. We've never been apart for more than a couple of weeks. I can't do this. Tell me what they're going to do to him. At least let me know what his life is going to be in there."

  "You don't want to know. Trust me on this. You don't want to know. If you think you had it bad at Base Mark 16 in that isolation cell, you can't handle knowing what will happen to Nikolas. It's not a pretty place, Jack."

  "Why won't you just tell me?" Jack sat up just in time to catch the can of iced coffee that the agent tossed to him. "You think I haven't already had waking nightmares about it? What will they do? Beat him? Starve him? Sensory deprivation? Sleep deprivation? Waterboarding? Drug him? Force feeding? I've thought of it all."

  "All of what you said, plus more horrors you can't imagine. I'm sorry, but this was the only way to appease my superiors while keeping you out of prison yourself."

  He looked out the sliding glass door to the balcony that was quickly becoming caked in snow under the pink neon lights of the nearby nightclubs that filled the winter night with constant low thudding of music. He set the can on the bedside table. "If I had gone to a normal prison, would Niki have gone to a normal one as well?"

  "It's best if we focus on what we need to do now."

  "Which is?"

  She took a long drink. "Getting you back to full health. You're falling apart."

  "Like I've never heard that before."

  "I mean it. There's a hot tub in the bathroom with jets and bubble bath, aroma therapy stuff, too. They even have heated towels. This is a chance for you to relax and recover."

  "Before what?" Jack asked, digging his fingers into the golden silk comforter. He felt the embroidered roses crush in his grasp. "You want me for something. My initiation into the Syndicate?"

  "Yes, that. Oh, I almost forgot. Sage boy, come on out here. Come to your owner."

  The walk-in closet door opened and Thyme stepped out of the empty space, looking tired and scared. He held his tiny arms around his bare chest as he tiptoed closer with bare feet. He came to the bed and knelt there in front of Jack on his knees that were exposed in his cotton shorts. The boy held up his hands, palms up and ready to be caned.

  "Where are his clothes?" Jack asked, frowning at the boy's shivering.

  "I don't know. He was delivered here by other agents."

  "It's snowing outside." Jack rolle
d his eyes as he scooted off the side of the bed and picked up his coat. He covered Thyme with it then lifted the boy up onto the bed. "Hey, buddy. Have you been in the closet all day?"

  He nodded his head.

  "Are you hungry?"

  Marjorie slid off the dresser and untucked her navy uniform shirt. "I'll order us all some room service."

  "You're staying the night?" Jack asked.

  "For a while, at least. I have to make sure you're taken care of. You are still a minor, Jack. You need an adult guardian to tend to you."

  "I've lived alone all my life. I can take care of myself, I assure you."

  Marjorie pushed her hair away from her shoulders. "Let me do this, okay? Just let me be here with you. I know you think I'm your enemy, but I'm the farthest from that. Please. I'll go order us some food. What does your sage eat?"

  "I have no idea."

  "Do you let him eat solid food?"

  Jack recoiled in disgust. "What?"

  "Some Chronomancers keep them on liquid diets to keep them compliant."

  "He's not my slave. He's a little boy. Get him real food."

  "I will."

  Jack waited until he heard Marjorie speaking with room service from the other room before he turned his attention fully to Thyme. "We need to talk, okay?"

  The boy nodded his head. He offered up his hands again.

  "No, not that, Thyme." Jack took the boy's hands. "I am never going to hurt you. Never. I want to get to know you now that we have some time. I want to be your friend. So, Thyme, what is your favorite color?"

  The boy only blinked.

  "Mine's blue, like my fiance's eyes. A deep, rich blue like the ocean or a cloudless sky. Do you like blue?"