Chronomancer

by Mackenzie Morris

  When Jack opened his mouth to cry out for help one more time, water filled it. He swam up through the darkness, but his grasping hands only found the ceiling with no pockets of air remaining. Jack held his breath until he felt Ellie's lifeless foot brush against his thigh. He brought her to him and cradled her against his chest as he let the freezing water ravage his body, resigned to his fate. They would go the way Ellie wanted . . . holding hands.

  Chapter 29

  He wasn't expecting the blood.

  Dean drew his Glock as he entered the performance hall of the Royal Opera House. The curtains had been torn down, twelve bodies of Syndicate agents lay mangled and gutted on the once pristine stage, and shell casings glittered among the seats. He stopped to run his fingers over the hundreds of bullet holes that had defaced the hardwood wall at the end of the stage.

  Was this the right place for the wedding? Had it already happened? Dean turned to the doorway behind him and waved for Bradley Chaucer, the inquisitor who brought him there, to join him. Once his son's red-haired fiance was next to him, Dean made his assessment of the situation.

  "There was a fight here. Whoever was fighting against the Syndicate was greatly outnumbered, yet they were determined to not give up easily. It has to be someone who cares personally for Elizabeth Dawson. I think Jack was here."

  "Well, where is he now?"

  "No idea. I don't think the Syndicate would kill him, but I never know with them. Looks like no one's still here."

  A rage-filled yet muffled roar came from the left side of the stage. It was primordial, instinctual, and raw like that of an injured wild beast. Whatever the source, it didn't sound human. A crash followed along with the rapid popping of automatic gunfire.

  A dark tan young man with a shaved head and black stubble stumbled out from the side of the stage with a Tommy gun in his hands. His blue and tan shirt had been torn in multiple places, showing his bruised and cut skin underneath. He was covered in a sheen of sweat, his muscles rippled, and his eyes burned with a fury. Drool trickled down his front from the ball gag secured in his mouth.

  "Niki!" Dean lowered his pistol and placed it on the stage. He then held up his hands. "Niki, put the gun down. It's me, Dean Amethyst. I'm here to help you. I'm not your enemy. I'm a friend. Listen to me, Nikolas. I can help you. You're safe now."

  Niki fell to his hands and knees, breathing heavily through his nose while saliva poured out of his mouth from around the gag. His muscles visibly clenched and cramped, twitching across his body. Blood oozed from his nose and his eyes like crimson tears.

  Dean cautiously approached the boy with his hands held out to show that he was no threat. "That's it, Niki. Calm down. I'm going to remove the gag now, Okay? I have to touch you to do that, all right? I'm not going to hurt you."

  Niki nodded his head.

  Keeping his eyes on the gun to make sure the enraged Time Knight didn't pick it up again, Dean reached behind Niki's head and unlatched the buckle.

  Niki groaned when the ball was pried out of his mouth. He yelped then grabbed at his jaw. He opened and closed his mouth, mewling with every torturous crack and pop.

  "There we go. Now you can breathe. Just breathe."

  Bradley crossed his arms on his flowing white robe. "You went berserk. There's a reason Avelayans make good bodyguards. They don't all have it, but the ones who do can enrage like you did. They go into a blind fury where even normally fatal injuries don't faze them. Your body went into overdrive. Has this happened before?"

  Niki trembled. "No."

  "Not even during the stuff in the freezer? That's odd."

  Dean knew the reason, it made sense. "He didn't enrage then because he didn't try to fight back. Did they hurt you?"

  "They didn't have a chance."

  "We should get out of here before the Syndicate returns with reinforcements." Bradley rolled up his sleeve. "I can warp with both of you as long as I have a place to recover on the other side. Warping with two people usually ends with me passing out for a couple of days."

  What about Nathan? "I can't ask you to do that to yourself, Bradley. You need to get back to Nathan as soon as possible."

  "Lance is out on a mission, so Nathan isn't in danger. Besides, I'm not about leave you or Nikolas here. I'll be all right. I'm taking us to a safe place in Mana Glen where some allies are already waiting to receive us. Shay is there with Leonardo Valentino and a sage boy.

  "They're alive?" Dean asked, a smile breaking through his seriousness.

  "They are. Be aware that there are others there as well, some of which you may not want to be around. However, we're all banding together for the greater good. With the present in the state it's in, we need all the help we can get, no matter where that help comes from."

  "Who's there?"

  "A member of Sand, named Barry Garcia, Cleopatra, and Sasha Light. Sasha has her hands full trying to keep Police Chief Daniels from having a heart attack."

  Then his smile went away. "Daniels is there? Bradley, this isn't going to go well. Daniels has it out for my head. He wants me dead or at least in chains."

  "Trust me, Daniels is there to help us. We've managed to forge some steady yet temporary alliances involving many different factions, some of which have rocky histories. They've all agreed to work together to stop Xander."

  Niki grabbed Dean's arm. "Opal. Where's Opal? They had her, but Xander will use her to get to them. Is she still alive? Where is she?"

  "We can talk about Ms. Arrington once we're in Mana Glen."

  "I didn't forget about her. I didn't. I have to find her."

  Dean held onto Niki's shoulders to keep him from freaking out more. "We know. You've had to focus on your own injuries. No one blames you, no matter what happens or has happened to Opal."

  "You don't understand. I love her."

  "I know, Gunner. I know. We can find her. We'll find Jack and Ellie was well. We will do everything in our power to get everyone back safe."

  "That monster hurt Ellie. Why were you late?" Niki asked. "You could have helped us stop the wedding."

  "The invitation we received had the wrong time. I can only speculate that Xander meant to kill you and Jack and leave the mess for us to find here. He obviously wasn't counting on you enraging."

  Niki began hyperventilating. "Jack warped away and took Ellie with him. They're out there somewhere without me. I can't protect Jack if I'm not with him. And Ellie isn't his bonded Time knight. He could die. What if he becomes an echo? Oh, God. We have to find him!"

  "Niki, calm down. You're only going to hurt yourself by not resting. Then you definitely won't be able to protect him."

  "Okay." The Time Knight took a few gasping breaths before moaning. "I need those meds, Dean. I'm feeling it."

  "We'll get them for you. Bradley, we're done here. Let's go."

  Bradley cut into his hands then repeated the process with Dean and Niki. Once their blood was mingled on the hourglass tattoo, he joined arms with them both. "All right, you know the drill by now. Just close your eyes and hold your breath and we'll be back in the present in a heartbeat."

  Dean shut his eyes as the darkness enveloped his mind. Red lightning streaked across his vision and a warmness tingled into his lungs. There was a burst of colors with a rainbow on the edges before the smell of coffee and a cold tile floor against his face eased him back into reality. When he opened his eyes again, he was face-down on the strangely yellow floor in a familiar building with Bradley and Niki unconscious next to him.

  He groaned as he sat up. He knew this place. The brown ceiling fans, the peeling wood of the receptionist's desk, the blue vinyl chairs with the stacks of old magazines, and the broken television against the awkwardly green walls. The old Mana Glen Police Department.

  Leonardo Valentino and Shay Terringer picked up Niki and carried him away into an interrogation room. Dean blinked away the fog in his eyes. "Where are you taking him?"

  Instead of answering his question, the two of them returned an
d carried Bradley into a room on the other side of the hallway. A dark-haired woman in a curve-hugging white dress with golden arm bands helped him to his feet. "Dean Amethyst, right?"

  "And you are?" Dean asked.

  "Cleopatra. You can call me Cleo."

  "Cleopatra, as in the Queen of Egypt?"

  "The same. It's a pleasure. Do you need a room, too? They've been repurposed into makeshift medical rooms and bedrooms."

  "I'm fine. I need to check on Niki."

  Cleopatra winked at him. "My cream puff will be fine for a bit. We can check on him in a few minutes. Let Leo and Shay get him tucked in while we have a meeting with our new ally."

  "Ally?"

  Cleopatra led the way down the main hall to a utility door at the far end. She held it open for him to enter the coolness of the concrete walls and the top of the stairs that led into the basement. Below the bare pipes along the tops of the walls, twelve computer monitors lit the area, their screens covered with strings of data, pictures of Memphis, and identification photographs for various Syndicate agents. Robot arms, disassembled vacuum cleaners, wrenches, and bundles of blue and red wires lay scattered across the floor.

  "Dean, meet Barry."

  A short man in overalls with grease smeared across his round cheeks turned around from where he had been tinkering with a cell phone on a workstation counter. He flashed a bright smile. "Hey. On behalf of everyone who's not insane in Sand, I apologize for what Xander has done. I had no idea he was capable of this kind of stuff. So, I apologize to every new person who comes here. Anyway, I'm glad everyone's here now. It was six days in the present while you were in London, so we've formulated a plan of action. Step over here to the computers, and we'll go over the info."

  "Info about what?" Dean asked, taking in the information on the screens.

  "The game plan." Barry took a remote and zoomed in on a tall tower in Memphis, directly on the shore of the Mississippi River. A purple neon hourglass glowed on a massive screen at the top. "This is the newest addition to the Memphis skyline. Zurvan Tower."

  "When did they build this?"

  "No telling. Someone, I won't name names, has been messing around in the past. As you should be aware of by now, the slightest change of something in the past has the potential to wildly alter the present. And no one normal would realize the differences. In the eyes of those who aren't Chronomancers, Time Knights, or those who have time traveled, that tower has always been there."

  "So, it's some kind of Syndicate base?" Dean asked.

  "Yes. I have run numerous scans of the structure and I've found two weak points that could send the entire thing toppling with two specifically-placed explosives."

  Was he suggesting what Dean thought he was suggesting? "Are you . . . no. That's crazy."

  Cleopatra patted Dean's shoulder then started up the steps. "Dean, I'll be upstairs. Just listen to the plan and to what you know is right . . . for everyone. I'll let you two talk in private."

  What had happened in those six days? How had people from different groups and different times come together to do this? More immediate, though, were the questions regarding Barry and this plan with Zurvan Tower. Dean already knew what they had planned, he simply wasn't prepared to go through something like that again.

  "Mr. Amethyst, I have two bombs that I constructed. They are finished and ready to be deployed inside and on top of Zurvan Tower. We need volunteers to plant them. This will include riding into the city under the cover of night, infiltrating Zurvan Tower, and planting the devices. The duo will then need to escape before they go off. It will deal a devastating blow to the Zurvan States of America."

  "The what?"

  Barry sighed. "Things have changed, as I'm sure you already know. Under Xander's leadership, the Zurvan Syndicate has created a new government. President Nolan Fleur is alive and well. They're holding him hostage, making him address the populace like he's on board with everything the Syndicate stands for. Co-President Larmer the one with the real influence. Fleur is a figurehead. Xander, despite his impressive ego, likes to run things from the shadows. He's a puppet master who pulls everyone's strings and tells them how to dance."

  "I'm not a murderer."

  "Well, you kinda are. You did kill members of Congress with the bomb you left at your friend Gin Tomlinson's mansion. This is the same kind of operation, only the people being killed are definitely only going to be Syndicate agents. The tower is filled with enemies. Those enemies want nothing more than to kill all of us. You know what they're capable of. Look at that poor young knight upstairs. They did that to a teenager. What do you think they'll do to us?"

  "So you want me and someone else to ride into Memphis, skip into that tower that is packed with armed men who want to kill us, then plant deadly explosives?" Dean asked.

  "In simple, terms, yes. And not just someone else, Mr. Amethyst. We believe that Nikolas will want the chance to get revenge. I know if it was me in that video, I would be begging to make those people pay. Listen, I know you were a police officer. You were supposed to protect and serve people, not do this. But, Dean, if a gunman had a store full of innocent people held captive and was going to kill them, wouldn't you take the shot if you had it?'

  "This isn't the same."

  "It is, Dean. If we don't take out the Syndicate, they are going to continue on their rampage. If we take them down, millions of lives will be saved. Take the shot, Mr. Amethyst. Put an end to this. It's time."

  He had a point, but was it worth it? "How do you know taking down the tower will make any difference?"

  "Xander Sutcliff will be there tomorrow night. According to the Sand spies who still remain loyal, he will be attending a watch party of Opal Arrington's execution that will be televised live. And before you ask, no, we have no way of getting to D.C. to stop it from happening. It is regrettable, but trying to save Opal will result in far too many causalities. She knew what she was getting into when she joined Sand. It is a shame, though, that Xander manipulated her into taking the fall while she had no idea about his true plans."

  "You're sure Xander will be there?"

  Barry turned back to his tinkering. "Ninety-eight percent sure. The remaining two percent is there to cover acts of God and other craziness. Trust me. He's going to be there, unsuspecting and vulnerable. Now is our time to strike."

  "Before I agree to anything, I need to know the truth. What kind of success odds are we looking at here? Be honest with me, Barry. Is this a thinly-disguised suicide mission?"

  "All missions have risk. From the calculation and simulations we ran, both members we sent into the tower came out alive in eleven percent of the scenarios."

  "Eleven percent?" Dean asked, his stomach tying itself into knots.

  "Yes. I know it's not great, it's frankly not even decent, but that tower is packed full with armed agents and they have soldiers and-"

  There was only one answer. "I'll do it."

  "What?" Barry spun around, his eyes wide. "Really? Are you sure?"

  "I'm sure. I'll go speak with Niki and see what he wants to do. While I hate the idea of putting him in harm's way after all he's been through, I don't want to take this chance away from him. If anyone deserves revenge against Xander, it's that poor kid."

  "I'll have everything ready tomorrow afternoon. We'll go over the strategy and what's expected at that time. I'm working on a specialized visor for motorcycle helmets."

  Dean grinned and his heart skipped a beat. "There's a bike involved? Now you're speaking my language."

  "Not any bike, Mr. Amethyst. Your bike. I found her and made some repairs. I also built one for Niki."

  "My baby survived?'

  Barry waved his grease-smeared hand. "Yeah, yeah. You can have a mushy reunion later. Go talk to Niki. See what he has to say. I will state this again. You don't have to do this. No one's going to force you."

  "I know. I don't have to, but I need to. I have a feeling Niki will need to as well. Thanks, Barry. It's nice to meet yo
u."

  "Think it over."

  Dean headed up the stairs then went towards the door to Niki's room. He stopped when he saw the heavyset bald man with the dark skin, blue shirt, and wrinkled khakis. Police Chief Daniels. It was the first time Dean had seen him since before he was arrested for assaulting Olivia Morningstar. While he was in jail, Daniels refused to see him. Now there he was, drinking coffee and waiting for him.

  Daniels moved in front of the doorway, blocking him from entering. "Dean Amethyst. It's been a while."

  "Chief."

  The police chief's normally booming voice was instead soft. "Listen, I need to apologize."

  "That's not necessary, sir."

  "Just let me do it while I'm feeling like it. Dean, I've been informed of a lot of stuff that has been going on with these supposed time travelers that doesn't make a whole lotta sense to me. You know me. I'm a simple man. I go to work, I go home to my wife and kids, then I do it all over again. While I'm not sure if I fully understand, it has become apparent that you were caught up in something where violence was the only way out of it. I know now that Morningstar is one of the criminals threatening the lives of the citizens we swore to protect. I had you arrested without hearing your side of the story and you sat in jail while I went on, business as usual. I'm sorry. I could have pulled some strings and gotten you out of there, but I was so pissed off at you over the Mana Glen case that it blinded my judgment. That falls on me."

  "Sir, I-"

  Daniels cut him off. "Just accept my apology, Dean."

  Dean lowered his head.

  Daniels held out his hand. "We good?"

  With a mix of confusion, gratefulness, and joy, Dean shook his boss's hand for the first time. "Thank you, sir."

  "Don't let it happen again. Next time something's going down, I expect you to come to me first thing. We'll deal with it together. And Dean, after this is settled and we get the city back to normal, I still need a detective."