by Eric Vall
I wanted to tell him I could never kill him, but I still couldn’t let his son be born because I was still born from The Hive.
I wanted to tell him I was just really confused.
“I’ll find the NHD,” I whispered. “Best result is that he is distracted, but there might be a chance he sees through my ruse.”
“I’ll be ready for him,” Tony said after he let out a long exhale. “Oh shit, I just realized. Shouldn’t I have a gun or something?”
“No,” I replied. “You are not trained. The likelihood of you accidently hurting yourself during your first real combat encounter is too high. I can not lose you.”
“You can’t lose me?” He smirked.
“Yes,” I said as I met his eyes again. “You know how I feel.”
“I know what you felt like this morning when we were making love,” Tony whispered. “I know what it felt like to hold you in my arms when we woke up. But then you said those things, and … Hannah, I get it. I know you are probably really conflicted about everything, but--”
“You do not know,” I snapped, and as soon as the words left my mouth, I regretted them.
“Yeah, yeah, shit,” Tony sighed. “I guess I don’t know. Sorry. Fuck. Well, let’s just do this, okay? We can take the scooters or the bus or--”
“Scooters,” I said as I double checked the set of the soft case on my shoulder.
Tony nodded, and then he swiped his card in each of the yellow scooter computers before we rode toward Carmichael’s. As we rode, I wondered if this would be the last time I ever saw Tony. There was a chance we would kill the NHD, but there was also a chance the NHD would kill me and then kill Tony.
Or, there would be a chance the NHD would just kill Tony and not me. If that was the outcome, then I would not mind following the Hive mother’s directive, and I would destroy myself afterward.
We stopped a few blocks from Carmichael’s, and we set the scooters down on the sidewalk before I began to check the rooftops of the nearby buildings.
“How long do you think it will take to find him?” Tony asked.
“Less than fifteen minutes,” I said as I glanced over at a nearby fire escape ladder.
“Okay. I’ll get ready to run into the store. Let me know as soon as you think it is safe.”
“Yes.” I nodded. “Best outcome is he leaves the area to find you.”
“But there is a chance he won’t … ” Tony’s voice trailed off.
“Then you will have to set the trap quickly,” I said.
“I’ll do it,” Tony said. “Sooo, uhhh, I guess this is goodbye for a bit.”
We looked at each other for a few moments.
And then I leaned forward and kissed him.
Our mouths devoured each other’s, and my entire body felt warm and content. His mouth still tasted a bit like the coffee we had for breakfast, but maybe I was mistaken, since my head was spinning a bit.
“Wow,” Tony panted when our lips finally parted.
“Be safe,” I whispered.
“You too, Hannah,” I heard him say, but I was already leaping up to the fire escape ladder.
Then I was climbing up the steps.
Then I was running on the rooftops.
And I was trying not to think about how much I was in love with the man I was supposed to kill.
Suddenly, a warning light flashed on my HUD to alert me of my body’s condition, and I skidded to a stop on the rooftop as all the air left my lungs.
Blastocyst has successfully implanted in the uterine lining.
My vision darkened. My chest felt impossibly tight. My legs felt as if they weighed two tons each.
“No,” I whispered to myself. “That’s … impossible?”
I engaged my system analysis utilities and examined the blastocyst with bated breath, but the message that flashed across my HUD was exactly what I already expected.
DNA match: Tony Amin and HFD-576
My cheeks felt cold, and I raised my fingers up to touch them. It was wet for some reason, and salty.
I was crying.
Was this joy I felt? Was it … anger? Outrage? I did not know.
“There are no paradoxes,” I whispered as I looked up toward Seattle’s setting sun.
The Hive had obtained the formula to keep that from happening. They wanted a consistent timeline. So, they had sent me, the perfect bio-human-android back in time to murder the parents of Alexander Amin.
But there were no paradoxes.
Because I was Alexander’s mother.
Chapter 17 - Tony
Being a power gamer often involved patience, and I was used to doing repetitive activities for endless hours to get that special in-game item to drop, or to surprise my opponents in which ever game I was playing. I really thought I was a pro, or at least, on the verge of being one.
But every minute Hannah was gone was pure agony.
I must have glanced at my phone twenty-thousand times in the first five minutes. Then I got a bit of a grip on myself and just looked at it every fifteen seconds or so.
Ten minutes passed, and then fifteen, and I really started to worry. Carmichael’s was a block down the street, and I kept wondering what would happen if I made a break for it. But that wasn’t the plan, so I continued to pace the sidewalk and pray for Hannah’s voice to come through my walkie talkie.
“NHD has left,” I finally heard Hannah’s static voice come through the handheld device, and I let out the longest exhale in the history of grateful exhales.
“Okay,” I said. “Meet me at Carmichael’s, and we’ll work on the breaker.”
“I will follow him for a bit,” she said. “I am suspicious he did not actually believe me, but for now, he is not watching the building.”
“Got it,” I said as I started to jog toward my work. “I’ll get the trap set up the best I can, but you should really come back.”
“I will return after ten or so minutes,” Hannah replied. “I just want to confirm.”
“Got it,” I said, and then I started to put my walkie talkie in my pocket.
“Tony.”
“Yeah?”
“I need to ask you a question.”
“What’s up?”
“I … I …”
“You there?” I stopped walking and held the walkie talkie up to my ear. A few pedestrians gave me odd looks, but this was Seattle, so they didn’t really care.
“When we were outside the gun boutique, and I … well … we kissed, and … fuck. Why is this so hard to talk about?”
“Did you just say ‘fuck?’” I gasped.
“Yes, I fucking said fuck. Fuck!”
“Hannah, everything alright? You don’t have to chase that asshole, just come back.”
“Do you love me?” Her words were so out of the blue, they caught me off guard.
“Uhhh yeah?” I said. “I mean, the whole ‘I’m going to kill any woman you have sex with’ is kind of--well, I get that, but the time we have spent together are some of the best times I’ve ever had.”
“There will not be any more threatening to kill other women,” she said, and her voice sounded a bit strange.
“Uhhh, you sound kinda weird. Are you okay?”
“But you love me?” she asked.
“Yes,” I admitted, but my stomach kind of flip flopped at the words, since Hannah was a perfectly built assassin robot from the future that was supposed to kill me and the mother of my child, and I’d never been in a successful relationship before her with any ‘normal’ woman.
“Tony, I love you, too,” she said.
Then everything suddenly felt right in the world.
“That’s awesome,” I gasped as I felt my eyes start to blink. “Uhhh, just come back so we can do this.”
“I will,” she said. “I will turn back after ten minutes.”
“Okay, I’ll get started,” I replied, and then I put the walkie talkie away and entered into Carmichael’s.
A quick glance around
showed me the store was pretty quiet. Stacey, one of the usual cashiers had her back to me and was sorting the display case by her register, but there weren’t any others on duty at the moment. I saw Sam, the household appliance guy, at the other side of the store talking to a young couple about a washing machine, but other than that, no one else was on the floor.
This was going to be easy.
I didn’t actually pretend to be a ninja, but I thought about what a ninja would do if he had to sneak to the back of the store without being seen, so I kept my walk a bit lower than I normally would, and I weaved through the aisles I knew normally didn’t get a lot of employee traffic,
I almost had a close call with Roger, the hipster guy who worked the music instrument part of the store, but he didn’t see me, and I safely made it to the back door that led to the breakroom, storage rooms, and the main electrical service panel of the building.
Then I came face to face with Renee.
“Hey Tony!” She smiled happily at me as she waved her clipboard. “Didn’t you have the day off today?”
“Uhhhhh.” My brain searched for the right words to say, but I suddenly couldn’t think of any lie to tell her.
“You know,” she said, “I’m glad you are here. I’ve been wanting to talk to you about something.”
“Okay?” I said.
“Can we … well. The spare office?”
“I kind of have to do somethi--”
“Will just be a second, I promise.” Renee grabbed my hand, and then she tugged me down the hall and into the small room Darren made all the assistant managers use so he could have his private space.
“So, listen,” Renee said as she gestured for me to sit in one of the generic fake-leather high backed office chairs we had in the room while she took another. “I feel like there has been this … you know … ‘thing’ between us, and I think I approached it wrong the other day.”
“What?” Fuck. I really needed to get to that service panel and figure out how to set up the trap. I didn’t have time to talk to Renee about how she thought I was a loser.
“I said some things that … well … I’m not proud of. You didn’t deserve it, Tony. Like okay, Hannah was right to be a bit jealous. I know I said I thought you were like … cute and all, but that wasn’t really the truth.”
“Renee, is there anyway we could have this talk tomorrow?” I asked. “I kinda need to get--”
“Oh, just let me finish,” Renee groaned, but then she playfully slapped my knee. “Anyways. The other day, when you were playing that game, and everyone was watching, it was just … like really cool … I think I get it now. People are into those games, and you are really good.”
“Well thanks,” I said with a shrug. “But I really have--”
“So, you and Hannah,” she interrupted, “I know you both went on a date, but she didn’t seem like … well she kinda seemed not happy about things. Are you both still seeing each other? Because if you aren’t, I uhhhh … well … you know. I’ve changed my mind. I’d like to spend more time with you. I’ve always thought you were good looking, but I’m just kinda turned on by you now. What do you say?”
“Wow,” I sighed as I palmed my face.
“Yeah,” she laughed. “Sorry. It’s kind of forward. Maybe because Hannah’s around, but I’m thinking I’m missing something good with you. So, if there is any chance that--”
“I’m in love with Hannah,” I interrupted, “and she’s in love with me. I’m sorry Renee. This is just the wrong time and wrong place for us. I’ve been into you since the first day we worked together, but … I guess sometimes people just miss each other.”
“I see,” Renee sighed as she stared into my eyes, but then she let out a slight laugh. “Well, it’s my own damn fault. I should have … I dunno. I said I didn’t want to date co-workers, but I guess I was more afraid of it working out. I said stupid shit to you yesterday. I’m sorry, since it looks like I’m the one who is going to miss out on a wonderful guy.”
“There is someone out there for you,” I said as I patted her leg. “You are really pretty, smart, funny, and you know all about electronics.”
“Yeah,” Renee laughed as she cleared her throat and blinked at me a few times. “I’ll find someone. Thanks for being so cool, Tony. I … uhhh, I should have known this whole time. Well, I did know, but I didn’t act.”
“It’s fine,” I said as I gave her my best smile. “But I have to take care of something in the back--”
“Tony!” Hannah’s voice came crackling through the walkie talkie, and Renee and I both turned to look at my pocket.
“Is that Hannah?” Renee asked as I fished it out of my pocket.
“What’s up?” I asked into the walkie talkie, but from Hannah’s urgent voice, I kind of had an idea already.
“The NHD is coming back. I do not think he knows I am following him, but--”
The radio went dead, and I hit the button on the side as my head started to spin.
“Hannah? Hannah! Hannah!”
“What’s going on?” Renee asked. “She sounded really scared.”
“Get the trap ready!” Hannah’s voice came across the radio, and then I heard the percussive snare drum sound of a gun being shot.
“Fuck!” I growled as I jumped to my feet, turned, and ran toward the door of the office.
“Tony!” Renee shouted after me. “What’s going on? Were those gunshots?”
“Not now!” I hissed as I opened the door, but then I realized that, even though the sun had set a few minutes ago, the store was still open.
If Hannah was taking the NHD here, a lot of innocent people were going to die.
“Renee, I need your help.” I spun to the pretty blonde woman, and a waterfall of words escaped my mouth. “This is crazy, and you’ll think I’m crazy but in like, five minutes, Hannah is going to run into the store, and there will be a killer-time-traveling-robot from the future chasing after her. He’s trying to kill me because my kid becomes this great general in the future, but anyone in the store might get killed, so I have to set a trap by running extension cords from the electrical service panel to the middle of the store so we can electrocute the fuck out of it. Will you help me?”
Renee blinked her brown eyes half a dozen times as her mouth hung open. Then she cleared her throat, stared deep into my eyes, and took a long breath.
“You know, if we can trigger the fire alarm the right way, it will get everyone out of the store, turn on the sprinklers, and make it easier to electrocute this thing. Carmichael’s is insured out the ass, so I don’t think the owners will care that all the inventory gets ruined.”
Well, that wasn’t the answer I expected, but it was a fucking awesome idea.
“Can you do it?” I asked.
“Sure,” Renee said. “I just need to get some smoke up into the sensors. I’ll set a trash can full of paper up on top of one of our aisles near a sprinkler and then light the paper on fire. I don’t know how long it will take to work, but I’ll get started. You said you needed extension cords?”
“Yes! Do you know where they--”
“There is a box of them in the storage area, like left corner by the cardboard compactor. I think it’s the second shelf. Should have blue tape on it.”
“I’ll go get them! Thanks Renee!”
“I’ll set the fire. Meet you at the panel!”
We split from each other, and I ran back into the storage room with my walkie talkie in my hand. The place was dark, dreary, and filled wall to wall with tall metal shelving loaded with boxes that carried the excess inventory.
“Hannah, are you okay?” I asked as I jumped over a cardboard box and skidded to a stop where Renee had hinted the extension cords would be.
There was no response, and I felt my heart hammer inside my chest as I reached for the box on the second shelf with the blue tape on it. I tore the flaps open and then let out a gasp of joy when I saw it was loaded with a dozen or so hundred foot lengths of cord.
Then I saw the labels and let out a groan of frustration.
The cords were fourteen gauge.
I didn’t know a ton about electrical stuff, but I knew homes used fourteen gauge wire in the outlets and could only handle fifteen amps.
Didn’t Hannah say we needed around a hundred and eighty or something to zap this guy?
I did an exact count of the extension cords and got twelve.
“This will have to work,” I said as I heaved the box up and started to walk toward the service panel.
“He … stronger … than I thought!” Hannah’s voice came through my radio, and I fumbled the box of cords as I reached for the device.
“Are you okay? How far away are you? We are setting up the trap, but we need a bit more time!”
I stood there for a few seconds waiting for Hannah to respond, and then I groaned and picked up my pace toward the service panel.
My hands were soaking wet, and my heart was racing in my chest.
This was fucking crazy.
I dumped the box on the ground in front of the service panel and then ripped the door open. There must have been a hundred breakers inside, but only ten of them said they were over fifteen amps. Still I guessed the panel could support over a thousand amps, so I just needed a way to splice these cords into the main switch so we could turn the wires off and on.
Since the storage room was filled with cardboard boxes, there were plenty of box cutters, so I easily found one and then cut the three prongs off the end. Then I sliced down the length about six inches and pulled the rubber off. The black, white, and green wires underneath were what I wanted, and I trimmed the rubber off those as fast as my shaking hands would let me.
Fuck, I was going to have to do twelve of these?
Then I realized I couldn’t. I was going to have to run the cords out to the main floor of Carmichael’s. I didn’t know exactly how far away that was, but I imagined I’d need at least two hundred feet. I was going to have to plug some of these cords into each other to get there, but how many? If it took three lengths, then I’d only have four strands going out there total, and I guessed that would only deliver sixty amps before the wires melted. Even if we could do it with only two hundred feet, it would only be ninety amps total.