by Robyn Nyx
Delaney snickered. Mason thought she was playing along, and Delaney wondered how pissed off she was going to be when she discovered Jackson was coming along for the ride.
Jackson hitched herself up on a nearby table and tucked her feet up. “I’m not saying anything to anyone about any of this.”
Landry leaned back in her chair and stretched out her legs. “Who’d believe her even if she did? But no, Elena hasn’t miniaturized the tech as far as I know. You should give her that idea when we get back. Something like that might come in handy for a situation like this.” She waved her hand at Jackson to give her permission to continue her line of questioning.
Jackson lit a cigarette then stubbed it out before taking a hit. “Sorry, I took up the habit to fit in with the Cagle Gang. Is there a correlation between the amount of time you travel back to the length of time it takes?”
Landry nodded. “There is, but I forgot the calculation almost as soon as it was wiped from the white board. Lots of x’s and y’s, and plenty of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin symbols thrown in. All that we need to know is the further we travel back, the longer it takes to get home. And we return to a point further along than when we left.” Landry held up her hand to stop the obvious question. “And no, I don’t know why that is, but we go home a day later for every year we travel back…or forward, depending on your viewpoint.”
“As fascinating as this is, and not at all tactless because I’ll never get to do it again, when are we leaving?” Delaney shared a look of understanding with Landry. She’d be the only one who knew she was covering up something far deeper with her flippant words.
“I’ve got the PRU. We’re just waiting on the all clear from our pseudo doc.”
Mason took up a position beside Delaney and began a check of her vitals, touching her here and there for God knows what reason. “Are you making sure I’m all right to travel, or are you just taking the opportunity to cop a feel of my rock-like physique?”
Mason laughed. “Impressive as you are, you’re a little too big and scary for my tastes, Delaney.”
Delaney tossed a look toward Jackson and appraised her from top to bottom. “Swimmer-like skinny more your type, Mason?” Jackson squirmed and averted her eyes.
“Maybe.”
Jackson might’ve missed it, but Delaney saw Mason’s eyes flick over Jackson, and a small smile played at the edge of her mouth, before disappearing quickly.
Landry grinned and mouthed Shit stirrer, before she said, “What’s the verdict, Mason?”
“Let’s see if she can stand first.” Mason took Delaney’s hands and guided her up.
The cold concrete shocked her naked feet. “Fuck, that’s freezing.” She steadied herself with the help of a nearby table. No dizziness. Other than the throbbing pain across the whole of her chest, she felt pretty good and navigated the room with Mason following in case she stumbled.
“Clear head? No blurry vision?” Mason asked.
“I’m fine. Good to go.” Go where? Without Pulsus, what direction would Delaney’s life take? A life as a soldier meant life was stable, reliable, and steady. Life as a civilian was mere survival and overwhelming powerlessness. That was all she’d known before she got away from her family. Full circle. The voices of Landry and Mason dulled and faded away. Maybe this was a chance to go back and put things right. Her father was dead. Perhaps her mom might have changed, and it’d at least be nice to see her brother again. Or was she kidding herself that the gaping hollow in her chest could be filled with relationships she’d run away from two decades ago? I’m grasping at straws.
“Delaney? Delaney?”
Landry’s voice pulled her back from her desperate thoughts. Usually, it would have been comforting, but all Delaney could focus on was that it would be one of the last times she’d talk to her at all. “What are we doing about Perry and Simson?” Fixing on another issue might temporarily stop the unending uncertainty and conjecture, since everything was out of her control anyway. Delaney wanted to give Simson the same treatment as Perry and hoped Landry would agree to it. She pulled on her socks and boots in the silence that followed her question.
Landry tilted her head. “We can’t take them with us, and it’s not right to just leave them here. You’re thinking we have a military funeral?”
Delaney nodded as she tied her boots. “Send Jackson out to the gas station for a couple of flags.”
Jackson folded her arms across her stomach and her eyes widened. “Whoa, slow down. What exactly are you planning on doing with their bodies?”
She looked away when both Delaney and Landry fixed their gazes on her.
“This building is built around an overgrown grass quad.” Delaney pointed her thumb at the window. “We can bury them out there.”
“Shovels?”
Delaney nodded at Landry’s question. “Yeah. There’s a small utility room along the corridor with all sorts of tools.” She grinned. “We can always blast a couple of holes with some C4.”
“Because that wouldn’t attract any unwanted police attention at all.”
Jackson’s tone irritated Delaney slightly, and Mason stepped between them as if she’d read Delaney’s expression like a book. She offered Jackson a roll of money.
“If you wouldn’t mind getting two flags, as big as you can find.”
Jackson took the money, and Delaney saw their fingers touch and linger a little longer than was necessary for the exchange.
“Sure.”
“You’re in no shape for that kind of exertion, so it looks like it’s the Chief and me are going to work up a sweat while the sun rises. I’ll see if I can find those shovels.” Mason headed out.
“Thanks for this.”
Landry shrugged. “It makes sense.”
“And you’re okay with affording the same dignity to Simson?”
She bit the corner of her lip and rubbed the back of her head, which Delaney knew meant she wasn’t totally comfortable with the prospect.
“She was a soldier, just the same. She was a prize-winning asshole, too, but I wouldn’t deny her this. And I hated leaving Perry dumped in that room the last time I was here. This is a good solution for everyone.”
“I’m sorry about that, too. I’m sorry for an awful lot of things I’ll probably never get the chance to say.” Words that would usually stay thoughts were tumbling out unchecked now that everyone else had left the room.
Landry put her hand on Delaney’s shoulder, then drew her into a soldier half-hug. “You’ve done enough apologizing, Dee. You’re family. You get to fuck up and then we move on. That’s how this works.”
Delaney tried to swallow around the lump of sorrow mixed with regret, anger, and desperation that had formed an emotional fur ball in her stomach and was climbing its way up her throat. If only I could turn back time. That’s how I ended up in this mess in the first place.
Chapter Twenty-six
Aside from the near constant excited jabbering of Muniz, everyone else had been silent on the ride to the Indiana Dunes. The makeshift funerals had been somber and surprisingly emotional. There hadn’t been an overt show of feelings or even tears, but chins trembled relatively freely and that was the soldier equivalent of sobbing and wailing. They’d placed the flag on each of the bodies before covering them over and disguising the burial site with rubble to ensure they weren’t discovered. Delaney had said she’d paid Frankie for the premises for another two days. Landry assumed they’d return sooner than the lease was up once Miller and Walker shared their far-fetched story of time travel, a serial killer, and “Sledge’s” disappearance. She didn’t want them or the police digging up their bodies.
She checked the rearview mirror. Muniz looked as happy as a sex addict in a whorehouse between Mason and Jackson, though she suspected it had little to do with them and everything to do with his destination. She turned her attention to Mason, a little surprised she hadn’t asked why Jackson was still with them since it would’ve made sense to leave her in the city.
It was feasible Mason might be wondering about her coming back with them. Jackson had asked a lot of questions and hadn’t been all that subtle. And there were definite flashes of a mutual attraction that Mason would soon get the chance to explore…if she wanted.
Landry stopped the SUV in front of the battered pickup she’d left there on her previous jump.
“That’s what you escaped in?” Delaney slowly emerged from the backseat and motioned toward it. “You took a risk. I’m surprised it made it.”
Landry swung the door shut behind her. “I didn’t have much choice. My actual ride had been totaled in a crash a few hours before.” She rubbed the back of her skull where Diane Kelly had knocked her out.
“How is your head?” Muniz asked.
“There’s nothing her mom can’t fix.”
“Mom? Elena Donovan is your…oh, of course she is.” Muniz threw up his arms. “You’re Donovan.”
Landry nodded absently. Her mind had wandered to thoughts of Priscilla with Delaney’s declaration. They were jumping forward to almost three weeks after she and Mason had left. Caitlin hadn’t said good-bye when she left her apartment. That hurt, but Landry understood. Lizbeth made excuses about her being at home doing a stock order, but her lies were as obvious as her longing for Priscilla. She stood in front of Landry, but she was a ghost. With the pressure of the menace of death and the crippling uncertainty, Lizbeth had all but buckled.
“Elena can fix everything?” His question dragged Landry from her speculation.
“I hope so.” While the irrepressible hero within wanted to be the one to carry Priscilla back to Lizbeth, fully healed and one hundred percent healthy, Landry also wanted to return to find her safely ensconced with Lizbeth and Caitlin. She wanted their suffering to be over. She wanted Priscilla to greet her at the door of the restaurant as she always did, with a bright exclamation of “Lan Lan” and for her to wrap her arms around her neck so she could breathe in that beautiful aroma of innocence and purity.
“How is the kid?” Delaney must have registered Landry’s disappearance into her head.
Landry rubbed her eyes and sighed. “I honestly don’t know.”
Delaney grabbed her shoulder and squeezed. “Kids are fighters. She’ll be fine.”
“I need to speak to Jackson.” Landry motioned to a spot twenty feet from the truck where its headlights started to fade. “Get yourself ordered for me.”
Mason appeared to hesitate. She looked at Jackson like she wanted to say something but held back and simply nodded at her. Jackson returned the nod with a smile.
“How much do you weigh?” Landry asked Jackson quietly. Mason and Muniz would know soon enough that Jackson was relocating her life to Pulsus, no need to rush it.
“A hundred and forty pounds, I guess, give or take. Why?”
“We go through the tunnel in weight order, least to most. I need to make sure you’re in the right place or it could fuck up the whole journey.”
Not for the first time when they’d talked about the actual time travel element, Jackson looked slightly terrified. “What would happen?”
“We’re not certain, and as long as we follow the rules, we’re not likely to find out.” Landry shrugged. “It’s possible that the whole tunnel could collapse and crush all of us.” She suppressed a grin at toying with her, but she appreciated that Jackson didn’t try to affect a false machismo for what really was a pretty scary process. She slapped Jackson on the back. “Don’t worry. The first jump is always a shock.” Especially when you’ve had no training simulation. “You might feel nauseous on the other side, and if you need to be sick, let it come out. The techs on the other side are used to it and have buckets standing by. Some travelers never get used to it.” Landry grasped Jackson’s shoulders so she could face her. “Hold tight to your string, and everything will be fine.” Jackson nodded and cleared her throat. “Are you absolutely one hundred percent certain you want to do this?” Jackson had said she’d wanted a big adventure, and it didn’t get any bigger than time travel and leaving your whole life behind. Particularly when it’s uncertain how well her presence will be received.
Jackson’s expression changed, and her green eyes darkened slightly. “I’m positive. I want this. I’m just a little nervous about all the science of it, that’s all.”
“And that’s completely understandable. This is new territory—I have to be sure.”
Jackson nodded. “I’m ready. I won’t let you down.”
Landry tapped her on the cheek gently with an open palm. “I know you won’t.” She pulled out the PRU and opened the dialogue box to reprogram the fifth string to Jackson’s weight. “A hundred and forty, yeah?”
She shoved her hands into her jacket pockets. “Yes.”
“Okay.” Landry strode over to the rest of her group. “Mason, have you given Delaney her meds?”
“I’ve got it here. I was waiting until the last possible moment to give her maximum chance of a pain-free re-entry.”
“This is that moment. Let’s go.” Mason administered the last shot of morphine to Delaney. She’d be behind Landry so there’d be no way of knowing if she managed to hold on until they emerged on the other side. The force of the time circle made it all but impossible to make even the slightest movement, like closing your eyelids against the onrushing air. “Hold on, buddy.” Delaney nodded, but Landry could see there was little commitment to the affirmation. She was returning to Pulsus, but it wasn’t the way she’d imagined, and it meant a change to her life she didn’t want. Landry had plans to talk to Jenkin about her options when they returned, but if Delaney didn’t have the motivation to stay connected, there’d be no point. She moved to Delaney. “I think I’ve got a way around this mess. Stay with me, okay?” Delaney’s eyes sparked and made Landry hope to God she could pull it off.
Landry held the PRU in front of her and outlined a circle with a diameter slightly larger than she was tall.
“Wow.” Jackson looked on open-mouthed as the inside of the circle shredded the view of the trees beyond it.
Muniz held up his hand as if to gain perspective and sighed, seeming immensely content. Their blue luminescent light threads eased out of the now three-dimensional tunnel and remained mysteriously suspended. Landry pocketed the PRU. “Take your threads.”
Mason motioned to the fifth filament that snaked out of the circle. “Simson’s string has still materialized, Chief.”
Landry rolled her neck and the internal crunching of muscle and bone made her grimace. “No, it hasn’t. That one’s for Jackson.”
The mix of emotions that streaked across Mason’s face were too numerous to name. She seemed to settle on confusion mixed with excited anticipation.
“Jackson’s coming home with us?” She looked at Jackson, who half-smiled before looking away.
“Yeah. Are you good with that, soldier?” Landry didn’t expect any more questions. Everything on these missions was on the clichéd need-to-know basis, and the extractor always knew more than his or her operatives.
Mason frowned, puzzled at the question. “Of course. You’re the extractor.”
Landry smiled at Mason’s professionalism and nodded at Jackson. Mason’s approval was obviously important to her given her look of relief.
Delaney and Mason grabbed the lines closest to them. Muniz tentatively touched his like it might shatter into nothingness if he startled it. “Wrap it around your wrist. It won’t bite.”
He did as Landry instructed then grinned. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Believe it. And hold on tight—your life actually depends on it.” Landry looked to Jackson. She was already in position. Landry took her place between Jackson and Delaney. “Lead the way, Mason.”
She began the procession and disappeared into the tunnel. Muniz paused for the briefest of moments before stepping in, holding his empty hand in front of him to touch the gateway before he entered. Jackson followed with no hesitation. Landry took one last look behind her an
d winked at Delaney. “It’s going to be all right, buddy.” She wanted to add, “I promise,” but she’d promised a few too many things in the past few months that she couldn’t guarantee. She turned away from Delaney’s expectant face. All she had to do was convince Jenkin that it was worth taking another chance on Delaney. Her arguments were already in place. She believed them. Hopefully, so would everyone else.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Brooke stepped into the distortion faking a confidence she didn’t feel. Part of her wished she was behind Makenzie. If she could just hold on to something solid and real, it might make this easier. Muniz was solid too, but taking hold of him wasn’t half as appealing. She tried to look down at her hand holding the bright blue string that was somehow her link between 2055 and a new life in 2076, but the force pushing in the opposite direction made it impossible. She managed to cast her eyes downward, though it was uncomfortable. The thread was about the thickness of decking rope. It felt warm, and she was sure she could feel it almost vibrating in her grasp. At the very least, it was humming a steady tune that reverberated throughout every cell and fiber in her body. Beyond her feet was a luminous moving blanket of light, but her feet didn’t seem to be in contact with it. She was touching nothing but the time thread and its irresistible pull toward her future.
Her arm was also shaking with the intense grip she had on the cord. She brought her eyes back up. Muniz was barely visible in the distance, as if he were somehow traveling faster and covering more ground. She realized that must be why they entered in body mass order. If it wasn’t so, the lighter people would…would what? Simply push through the traveler in front of them? Or knock them clean out of the circle and into the depths of time limbo? What was even out there? She tried to look to the side, but it made her feel nauseous. She could make out dark as death blackness and miniscule slashes of starlight that refracted at impossible angles as they approached the time tunnel and jarred away and beyond them.