Death in Time

by Robyn Nyx

  “No. She doesn’t work with us.” Delaney thought of Landry hung up back at their factory. She was certain Sledge would be immune to her mind games. She’d said she had behavioral training with the army, and she seemed bright enough not to fall for any of Landry’s plays. With Muniz in hand, all Delaney would need was the location of the PRU, and everything from there should be relatively simple. She’d hoped the threat of harm to Jade would’ve been enough to get Landry to hand it over, but it wasn’t to be. Simson would have her day, or more likely, days, because Landry wouldn’t break easy. And Delaney knew now she wouldn’t be able to watch or even be in the same building. She’d nearly lost it when she saw what they’d done to Landry while she and Sledge were scoping out this place. There was no way she could stand by when Simson began to work her over and ask questions. Her feelings for Landry were strong, and they weren’t going away. Nor were her feelings for Ilsa, but it seemed the two couldn’t be reconciled. She’d made her choice. Now she had to deal with it.

  “Is she law enforcement?”

  Delaney sighed. The conversation had taken a hard right into Dullsville. “She’s FBI, yes. But you don’t have to worry about her, because we’re holding her captive.” It occurred to Delaney that Nelida was buying time, but she wasn’t sure why. There was no other exit from the compound. Is there something I’ve missed?

  “I don’t understand how so many people know about me. I’ve been so careful—”

  “You’ve got fifteen seconds to open this door, or we’re blasting it open.” The line went dead, and Delaney tossed the phone back to Simson. She addressed Miller and Walker. “Is there another way out of here? Underground tunnels?”

  Miller rubbed her forehead as if to stimulate her memory.

  “I remember reading something once about a network of tunnels underneath Chicago, maybe sixty or seventy miles worth. They were for shifting coal and providing air for movie theaters. Phone cables were hidden down there too. I thought it was only downtown, but it makes sense that this place was connected.”

  Delaney shook her head. “And you couldn’t have dredged that little prize nugget of info up earlier?”

  Miller shrugged. “Sorry, boss. I didn’t think.”

  Shit. Delaney had been spoiled working with highly trained Pulsus employees. Miller and Walker were just gun whores. She could imagine what Landry would make of this fuckup, and none of it was good. God, I miss working with you. “Blow it.” Delaney positioned herself around the corner and out of the blast zone.

  The explosion was minimal, and the dust was quick to clear. The four of them entered the complex with flashlights and guns raised. They found Muniz in a particularly uncomfortable position, but there was no sign of Nelida Staton. She lived to kill another day.

  Chapter Four

  Brooke watched the taillights of Donovan’s truck disappear in the hazy evening light before assessing her surroundings. A used car lot. At least Donovan hadn’t left her in the middle of BFE, and she’d learned how to steal a car less than an hour ago. She looked around for an inconspicuous ride, something dusty and old that wouldn’t be missed for a while. She spotted an old beige Pinto with ridiculous racing stripes in the corner of the yard, conveniently parked at the front and not behind the locked metal fence. Time to put my new skill to use.

  Luck wasn’t with her, and the car was locked. She bunched her jacket around her elbow and smashed it into the rear driver’s side window. Annoyingly, it neither splintered nor cracked. It always works in the fucking movies. Brooke scanned the ground for something more solid than her now-throbbing arm, settled on a palm-sized rock, and accomplished the task with her second attempt. She hooked her arm in, popped the lock, and opened the door. Recalling what Donovan had done, and thankful she’d paid attention in shop class, Brooke repeated everything carefully. It took her a little more effort than it seemed to take Donovan to break the steering lock, but the audible crack came eventually, and Brooke was ready to chase down her tracker.

  Brooke’s phone indicated Donovan was heading northeast on the West Dunes Highway. The Indiana Dunes had to be her final destination. Brooke pulled out, and the Pinto fought back, unhappy it’d been disturbed from its rusty retirement spot.

  “C’mon, little car. Don’t let me down.” It chugged along for twenty feet before settling into a smoother ride, and Brooke stroked the steering wheel. “That’s my girl.” She smiled at the unexpected recollection of her dad always treating their cars better than he would most people, even when all they could afford were clunkers.

  Brooke thought of all the sci-fi movies she’d watched as a kid and didn’t quite believe she was on her way to finding out if fiction had finally been realized into fact. Would she be disappointed if she got to Donovan and there was no fantastical fairy dust to transport her twenty years into the future? If Donovan were already gone, it wouldn’t particularly prove anything because she could’ve arranged for someone to meet her there once she’d dumped Brooke. Whatever she was going to find, she wanted it to be something. Other than saving Donovan’s life, she had to know if she’d hit the self-destruct button on her career for a greater cause.

  She noticed the tracker was no longer moving. It’d take ten minutes to catch up. Should she blaze in and demand to be part of whatever the hell this all was? Donovan probably wouldn’t appreciate that approach, and no doubt she wouldn’t take too kindly to the stalker behavior. Maybe she should watch from a safe distance and hope that Donovan might need her help again. Given Brooke had dropped a tracker in her truck, Donovan would probably suspect she was still working for Delaney and would knock her out, or worse. And while Brooke knew how to take care of herself, she was under no delusions that she could take Donovan down.

  Brooke took a left into the main park. Donovan’s truck still hadn’t moved, and she wondered if she was already too late. The trail took her away from the main parking lots toward a dead end. She pulled in, uncoupled the ignition and starter wires to kill the engine, and continued on foot using her phone as a light. At the end of the road, Brooke saw the stolen truck, but there was no sign of Donovan or anyone else.

  She sighed and acknowledged the rise of disappointment. Brooke saw herself looking Landry Donovan up on the FBI database while she was riding her desk waiting to be unceremoniously dismissed for abusing paper clips. She moved closer to Donovan’s abandoned vehicle and saw her bag was still inside. Shit. Was she just relieving herself in the bushes? Brooke shone her flashlight in a full circle, but there was no sound or movement. She reached in, turned the headlights on to illuminate the area more, and saw footprints in the sand that looked about the size of Donovan’s feet. Brooke followed them, but they stopped soon enough, and she walked beyond them to the edge of the trees, thinking Donovan might have jumped in there for God knows what reason.

  “What the fuck?” Brooke had turned back to the headlights, and they looked…shredded. She took two steps to the side, and the truck looked fine. When she moved back though, it was weirdly distorted. She reached out tentatively, hoping her hand wouldn’t disappear or become deformed in some way. The buckled air warmed her fingertips, and as she ventured more of her arm forward, it extended up to her shoulder. She sucked in a breath, closed her eyes, and stepped through it. There was no sudden vortex, and she didn’t disintegrate.

  When she opened her eyes, all she saw was the battered truck and its unblinking, unadventurous headlights glaring her down. She laughed. “No rabbit hole today, Alice.” She turned around and mapped the fragmented space to discover it was a perfect circle. A Donovan-sized circle. The air began to cool, and the strangely configured area began to fade. I’ve missed her by minutes.

  When it had completely dispersed, Brooke walked back to the truck feeling vaguely vindicated. Landry Donovan was a time traveler. Which meant so were Delaney and Simson. Their mission was real. Had they already secured Muniz? She checked her watch; Delaney had left them just under two hours ago, and if there’d been no complications, they migh
t already be back. She’d set up audio and visual surveillance in the building opposite, so even if they were, she’d still be able to find out what had happened. It would take Brooke maybe just over an hour to get back to the factory if she broke every speed limit on the way. The SUV seemed like the obvious option, so the little Pinto would get to rest some more. She wasn’t sure it would even start again anyway.

  Feeling like a pro thief, Brooke set the SUV into action. She checked the contents of Donovan’s bag, but there was nothing of note other than the roll of money she’d offered Brooke earlier. She slipped it into her pocket. I guess Donovan didn’t need it. As far as the FBI knew, she was still deep cover. As long as she reported to her handler as per the schedule, she might be able to keep up the charade. Brooke felt certain that Donovan would come back to get Muniz. He was important to her organization for some reason. While she waited, Brooke decided she should tail Delaney to make sure Muniz was safe. When Donovan returned, Brooke would be able to help her complete her mission, and maybe, just maybe, Brooke could convince Donovan to take her back to the future to start afresh.

  Chapter Five

  June 27, 2076—Pulsus Island

  “For the love of all that’s fucking holy, will someone please tell me where Kondo is?” Landry had emerged from the regenerative pod in newly perfect condition, and her first thoughts were of Jade.

  Her mom and Jenkin sat opposite her in the debriefing room looking as confused as she felt.

  “What does Kondo have to do with any of this?”

  Landry could see that Jenkin stopped herself from a bombardment of questions, and it was completely understandable. Landry had come back from a sixty-million-dollar mission without her team and probably more importantly for Jenkin, without Muniz. But until she knew Jade was safe, Landry couldn’t settle in for a full debrief. “I’ll explain everything, but I need to make sure Jade is okay.”

  Jenkin shook her head. “What does Jade have—”

  “Call her, Pumpkin. Please just make it quick.”

  Landry smiled at her mom as she handed over her phone. Her smile grew wider when she saw that Jade was on her favorites contact list. Hope swelled when she also saw her mom had spoken to Jade earlier today. She’s safe.

  “Landry.”

  Her heart jumped at the sound of Jade’s voice. Strung up like an animal ready for the slaughterhouse, Landry had wondered if she’d ever hear her again. “Hey, sweet lady.” She didn’t ask if she was okay or if she’d noticed a big, ugly creep following her. Now wasn’t the time to worry her, not when she was on the mainland and Landry would probably be stuck here for the next few hours. All that mattered was that she was safe. She could only hope that Kondo was nowhere near her.

  “When are you coming home for your hero’s welcome?”

  Heroes come home victorious. I’ve come home empty-handed. “I’m hoping to be back in the city by early evening. Can you ditch training?”

  “I’m in the middle of copping a double session right now so I can be free tonight. Meet you in the restaurant? I won’t be eating; you’re the only thing I’m hungry for. I’ve missed you.”

  Landry wanted to wrap Jade up in her arms, but knowing she was safe would have to be enough for now. Her mom motioned for Landry to wrap the conversation up. Jenkin was pinching the bridge of her nose hard enough to crush it. She was clearly barely in control of her frustration.

  “Sounds perfect. I have to go. I’ll see you soon.” Landry handed the phone back. “Thanks, Mom.”

  She put it on the table and set the recording device in motion. “Tell us what happened…”

  Landry recounted the sorry story, from Perry telling her of Delaney’s plan to take over Pulsus and hoping to recruit Landry, to him being murdered by Simson, her own capture, and her aided escape by an undercover FBI agent, Brooke Jackson. Jenkin made notes while her mom simply looked stunned.

  “We knew something was wrong when our memories of Delaney, Perry, and Simson began to fade and muddle. It became obvious they were all dead, but we never would’ve predicted something this disastrous.”

  Jenkin had taken the mission summary far better than Landry thought she might. Landry had come home to Pulsus as she’d left it, the opposite of which had been the fear playing hide-and-seek at the back of her mind. She’d wondered if Delaney had decided to go after Jenkin and her mom in 2055 and somehow failed. Landry’s chest tightened, and she struggled to breathe normally. She leaned back in her chair and massaged its arms in an effort to calm herself. What’s wrong with me? Grief. Some part of her was hoping to find Delaney at Pulsus on her return, twenty years older and full of remorse for her actions in Chicago. Instead, she was dead, and Landry didn’t know how.

  She steadied herself and concentrated on thoughts of a serene rock pool to bring her back into the room. It wasn’t the kind of ridiculous woo-woo trick Landry would usually use, but the last thing she needed was Castillo signing her off active duty due to perceived psychological issues. “Are there any records? Do you know what happened?”

  Jenkin shook her head. “When it became clear they were dead, our researchers began searching the archives, but they’ve yet to come up with anything. There are so many unidentified people who die every day, adequate records aren’t maintained. Over one hundred million died in the US between your mission and now. Delaney and Simson weren’t of that time period, and no one reported them missing. Tracking two Jane Does has thus far proved impossible.”

  “Do you know where Kondo is?” He wasn’t holding Jade captive, but he was still part of something they needed to know more about.

  “We don’t know. Two days after we sent you on the mission, he gave me his resignation letter and nothing I could say or offer him would change his—”

  “Is that when you started to have déjà vu experiences of the rest of my team?” Landry found it hard to say Delaney’s name. And all she wanted to do when she thought of Simson was spit fire.

  “It’s certainly when we articulated them to the board and raised it as a concern,” replied Jenkin.

  “He must’ve run when his memories began to warp, and he realized Delaney’s plan hadn’t worked. He knew I was still alive, and he couldn’t risk being here when I got back.”

  Jenkin moved forward in her chair and looked at Landry as if she held the key to the gates of heaven.

  “What’s your concern?”

  “My concern is how deep the rot goes. I was told about Kondo, but they didn’t mention anyone else. We could naively hope that’s because no one else was involved, but we have to explore the possibility that there are others.” What would I have done if I’d wanted to take over? “The plan was to gain control of the PRU, come back here, and take over the organization. Even if she intended to bring back the goons she hired in Chicago, I’m not sure four of them and Kondo would have been enough.” Landry stood and walked to the window overlooking a jump room. She thought of the missions she and Delaney had come back from. All in the past, and her memories of Delaney were already beginning to slip away. Will that make it easier when I go back to face her?

  Her mom came up beside her and gently put her hand on Landry’s shoulder. “You think she organized an army before she left?”

  “Maybe not an army but certainly some key players.” Landry turned back to face Jenkin. “Kondo was your personal guard. Perhaps it was their intention for him to take you hostage as soon as they emerged from the time circle. I guess with you secured, they wouldn’t need a lot of people.” Landry moved around the room as if it were happening in front of her. “They’d gain control of the jump room and seal off all communications. With you in hand, they’d call a board meeting. They wouldn’t even have to announce what was happening. Delaney would take a position on the board and the missions would be directed by her.”

  “What does that mean in terms of the rot?”

  Jenkin’s question brought Landry back into the moment. “We have to bring Kondo back to the island and interrogate him. W
e need to know who else Delaney and Simson recruited. If anyone, I expect it was mainly operatives. You don’t think anyone on the board might’ve been swayed? Has anyone else left without warning?”

  Jenkin and her mom exchanged a look Landry couldn’t decipher. “This is no time to keep secrets. Right now, the three of us in this room are our only guaranteed allies.”

  Jenkin nodded, as if to give permission to Landry’s mom to speak. “After the board meeting Delaney attended, Jolene Dudley seemed to think Delaney had a point that we should explore. But no, there’ve been no other resignations.”

  “Good. Dudley’s the environmental psychologist, yeah?” With so many names and multiple positions of power, keeping up with the board members hadn’t seemed important before now.

  “She is. And she’s the only one who might have been swayed by Delaney’s rhetoric. Jolene’s been a friend for a long time, but she only came on board once we’d managed the first successful mission, bringing Elena back to us.”

  Jenkin sighed deeply, and Landry wondered if this responsibility was beginning to take its toll. She was looking older than her fifty-six years. Landry thought she would’ve taken advantage of the regen tech and rewound a few years. That Jenkin hadn’t done that reinforced Landry’s belief that Jenkin had the best intentions and wasn’t in this for her own selfish reasons. If only Delaney could’ve seen that.

  “You should bring her in right now and find out. Mom, you were working on a serum that acted against the brain’s capacity to maintain silence under duress. Where are you with that?”

  “A so-called truth serum? I’m afraid not. We were trying to stabilize the effects of sodium thiopental, but I stopped work on it some time ago. We wanted to concentrate on more important things…”

  “Anything you want to share with me?” Landry felt the need to know everything Pulsus was developing. She wanted to be sure that being forced into a choice between Pulsus and Delaney hadn’t camouflaged a third option of leaving both of them behind to simply be with Jade.