by E W Barnes
Sharon jumped up, ignoring her aching head. She didn’t know how much time she had. She went to the desk and saw Yorga’s email program open in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. There was a message awaiting a “send” command. When Sharon opened it in the message box were the fateful words:
The debt is now due
Sharon left the message open while she searched the rest of Yorga’s email account, focusing on the trash file. The TPC’s email system automatically cleared the trash files daily. Yorga no doubt expected that these messages would be gone within a few hours. She had not counted on a nosy agent - or former agent - shifting in from the future.
She was back in the chair when Yorga returned with a cup of water.
“You’re looking better,” she said suspiciously.
“Oh, yes, I’m feeling much better,” Sharon said with a broad smile. “I wonder when Caelen will be back.”
“Perhaps you should wait for him outside,” Yorga said after handing her the water and returning to her desk. She noticed her computer screen and her mouth dropped.
“What’s going on?” she asked herself as she tapped the screen several times. Her tapping must not have produced expected results as her face grew angrier, her brows contracted, and her lips pulled together in a scowl. She looked at Sharon.
“Did you do something? Did you touch my computer?”
“You mean did I delete the email you were planning to send into the past to change the timeline? Yes, yes I did.”
Yorga’s face reddened.
“How dare you?” she hissed, standing again. Sharon hoped Caelen would be back soon. Suddenly she didn’t want to be alone with Yorga.
“No, how dare you?” Sharon asked with more bravado than she felt. She pushed the chair away from Yorga’s desk and stood, too, breathing rapidly.
“Who do you think you are? Plunging the world into terror and martial law? Changing the mission of the TPC? What gives you the right?” Sharon asked, almost in a whisper.
Yorga stopped her advance around the desk and laughed.
“What gives me the right? I work for truth. It is a fortiori, as your friend Miranda would say. Truths built on truths resulting in superior morality.”
Sharon scoffed. “Right. What truths? How’re you morally superior in any way?”
“Oh, not me. The people I work for. There’s is a superior morality, a superior philosophy.”
“The Chestnut Covin,” Sharon said disgustedly.
“The Chestnut Covin,” Yorga said nodding. “Operating in the TPC for years, right under Director Veta’s nose, under yours, the vaunted Chestnut Covin expert.”
“What about President Rickert? Is he part of the Chestnut Covin, too?”
Yorga shrugged.
“I don’t know. I'm not privy to the member list. It’s not like we have regular meetings,” she said, sneering. She shrugged again. “He might be. Or he might be simply gullible. Either way, he serves our purpose.”
“What about Natalie Johnson?”
Yorga’s eyes grew wary. “How do you know that name?”
Sharon smiled a cold smile. “I’m the vaunted Chestnut Covin expert, remember?”
Yorga took a deep breath. She looked around her office. Something seemed to settle within her and the red blotches on her face faded. She stepped back around her desk and sat again folding her hands in her lap, appearing calm.
“I don’t know who you are talking about,” she said.
“There’s no point in hiding it.”
“There’s nothing to hide. You deleted the email. The system will clear trashed files within minutes. You have no evidence of anything.”
Sharon heard people coming down the hall. Caelen was returning, hopefully with reinforcements.
But it wasn’t Caelen who stood in the doorway, it was Director Veta.
“Director,” Yorga said in a sweet voice. “How can I help you?”
“Hello, Yorga. Sharon, what a pleasant surprise.”
Sharon got to her feet at the director’s entrance but said nothing. She had the dreadful thought: What if Director Veta was involved? She didn’t know who to trust anymore.
“Yorga, I just received a most peculiar communication from Agent McGregor,” Director Veta started. Sharon felt a flutter of excitement. Agent MacGregor was the current head of Temporal Security for the TPC.
“Oh?” Yorga said, her voice trembling only slightly.
“Yes,” Director Veta continued. “It seems one of our agents, Caelen Winters, came to him with a remarkable story about a conspiracy to change the timeline.”
“Remarkable,” Yorga sounded like she was swallowing the word. “Is there any evidence to back up this story?”
“Unfortunately, Agent Winters had no evidence to offer Agent MacGregor.”
“Perhaps it’s nothing then,” Yorga said looking calmer now. “Agent Winters and Agent-in-Training Gorse here just appeared in my office during a training shift. Apparently, there was some kind of temporal amplifier malfunction. Perhaps Agent Winters is experiencing some… confusion from the incident.”
“Hm, yes, that’s what I concluded, too,” Director Veta answered. Yorga appeared to relax until Director Veta continued. “That is until a few moments ago when I received a series of forwarded emails from your account which corroborate Agent Winters’ assertions.”
Yorga looked nauseated as she stared at Sharon in disgust. She heard Caelen and others arriving, standing just outside the doorway. Yorga was trapped. She had nowhere to go.
“In my time, we don’t delete important items without backing them up,” Sharon said smugly.
Within seconds Sharon realized her gloating was premature. Yorga leapt up from her desk and before Sharon could react, Yorga had Sharon in a choke hold, standing behind her, grinding her teeth in Sharon’s ear. Sharon tried to pull away but Yorga was stronger.
“You think you’ve won?" she hissed in Sharon's ear. "You think stopping me will stop the Chestnut Covin? You know nothing. You don't understand what you’re dealing with.”
Sharon could see Caelen standing over Director Veta’s shoulder. Agent MacGregor was behind Caelen, instructing security guards to stand back and make no sudden moves.
“See how precious they think you are? I could snap your neck and they know it. And I’m tempted to, very much tempted,” Yorga whispered.
“So why don’t you?” Sharon’s voice wavered, her attempt at bravery failing. She was terrified and her body showed it.
“Someone else wants that privilege. Your death is promised to another,” Yorga said.
“Natalie Johnson?” Sharon blurted. She felt Yorga’s hands freeze, her body stiffen.
“You know nothing,” Yorga said again and suddenly shoved her away.
Sharon stumbled over a chair, hitting the floor hard. Yorga pulled a small device from inside her sleeve activating it as Agent MacGregor pushed into the room followed by Caelen and the security guards. They were too late. Yorga vanished as they reached for her.
She was gone.
◆◆◆
Caelen and Sharon sat in Ferhana Veta’s office waiting for the director to return. Unlike in Yorga’s office, the director’s windows overlooked the atrium. Sharon could see the grounds through the atrium windows, but the primary view was of the people going about TPC business.
The scene said something about Director Veta, Sharon decided. Yorga had chosen the best, most impressive view from her office window. Director Veta had selected a view of the heart of the Temporal Protection Corps - its people.
When the director returned, she was accompanied by medical personnel. They evaluated Sharon for injuries after Yorga’s assault, and thoroughly questioned Sharon and Caelen because “no one had ever emerged from observation mode before.”
Director Veta shooed the medics out after they pronounced Caelen and Sharon healthy. Their obvious curiosity about the observation mode miracle promised follow-up questions.
Others arrive
d bringing fruits and cheese along with water and coffee. Sharon was still a little shaky and unabashedly helped herself as the director closed her office door. She waited patiently for them to ease their hunger. Director Veta was in no rush—she had cleared her calendar for the rest of the day for this very unusual debrief.
“If you’re ready, let’s start from the beginning,” she said when they’d finished eating, though Sharon continued to nibble from the tray.
Caelen went first, describing the training session to the 21st century in observation mode, how they saw Director Veta during the snow rescue, how she gave him a box as a child, and how when they returned to the present, the timeline had changed.
“I was there?” the director asked, her eyebrows raised.
“Yes,” Caelen answered. “The box contained a hologram of you which ordered us on a mission to restore the timeline. It also had this.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the Director’s Prerogative device. She took it and turned it over in her hand solemnly.
“Is this what I think it is?”
“The program device contained the Director’s Prerogative protocol, yes. You gave it to us so we could make five shifts without the temporal mainframe tracking us.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask… how did I know to give you this information?”
Caelen looked uncomfortable. “Bootstrapping, ma’am.”
Director Veta let out her breath in a whoosh. “Oh, dear.”
“Yeah,” Caelen said.
“Well, what was the alternative? Is the alternative. Will be. Whatever. What other choice was there?” Sharon asked.
“I had no other choice if I opted to engage in bootstrapping,” the director said.
“There are bigger issues,” Sharon said. Director Veta blinked in surprise. What was more important than the TPC director violating policy?
“What issues?” Director Veta asked politely. Before Sharon answered, there was a tap on the door.
“Yes,” the director called out.
“It’s Miranda Noon,” Miranda’s voice was muffled through the door.
“Please enter,” Director Veta said.
Miranda slipped in, quietly closing the door before she sat in a chair next to Sharon. Sharon took her hand and Miranda squeezed it tightly as if to say I’m glad to see you, too, before letting go.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, Director.”
“Not at all, you are very welcome Agent Noon. Agent Gorse, I believe you were about to explain what issues are more important than violating TPC policy?”
Sharon grinned before answering. Just like that, she was an agent again. It felt good.
“Director, when I confronted Yorga about the email, she confessed she was operating on instructions from the Chestnut Covin.”
“We believe President Rickert may be involved, too,” Caelen added.
Director Veta stared at him for a moment and then walked to the window overlooking the atrium.
Sharon tried to imagine how the director must feel. The president was her superior. Yorga was her immediate subordinate. Director Veta had abruptly found herself acutely alone, her position isolated between two people whose true agendas had been deceitfully concealed. She turned her back to the window and leaned against it, clasping her hands in front of her.
“If I will engage in bootstrapping to stop the change in the timeline and thwart the Chestnut Covin, we must discuss your mission in detail. I need to know everything you did, everyone you talked to, every step you took from the moment you saw me on the snowfield in the 21st century to the moment I walked into Yorga’s office.”
“We need Jonas Fernley, too, he can be a great help with the details," Sharon added.
“No, we can’t get Jonas,” Miranda said.
“What do you mean?” Caelen asked.
“Now that we have restored the timeline, isn’t he here somewhere? The Jonas here now would have no memory of the other timeline, right?” Sharon asked hopefully.
“I don’t think so,” Miranda said. “She and Jonas shifted away before the temporal nexus shut down.”
“Jonas left with Yorga?” Sharon couldn’t believe her ears.
“Wait,” Caelen interrupted. “How are you able to remember that timeline? When we stopped the email from being sent, that timeline ceased to exist.”
“I put myself in temporal isolation,” Miranda answered. “After the Yorga in the other timeline warned TPC staff of the impending temporal nexus shut down, I knew I needed to be able to remember the other timeline to assist with the director’s bootstrapping mission.”
“Temporal isolation?” Director Veta asked with alarm.
“We heard Yorga talk about that - what is it?” Sharon said.
“A device that allows a person to insulate themselves from changes in the timeline,” Miranda said.
“Do you have the device?” the director asked.
“No, I only had time to use the temporal amplifier it was connected to. I set it to shift back to the day we all traveled to 2167 in the hopes the timeline would be restored. When I arrived, the device was gone.”
“Yorga and Jonas must have taken it with them,” Caelen said.
Director Veta looked grim. “A useful tool and a dangerous weapon,” she said. She tapped her computer screen. “I’ve made a note for Agent MacGregor to inform him of its existence; and I have requested a meeting with the head of Temporal Engineering to discuss a means of tracking such a device.” She looked up. “Anything else before we discuss the bootstrapping mission?” They shook their heads.
“Then let’s begin.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Soon after Miranda arrived, Agent MacGregor joined them.
“We could not track Assistant Director Zintel,” he informed them. “I’m sorry Director. I don’t understand how she could leave the building with no record of her destination.”
“She shifted away, didn’t she?” Sharon asked.
“Yes, but there is no record of the shift on the temporal mainframe. We don’t know when she went.”
“What about the other Yorga?” Sharon asked. “The one from the other timeline. The one that shifted away with Jonas. What happened to her?”
Agent MacGregor’s mouth drew a thin line.
“We believe that Yorga Zintel shifted to a future time frame,” he said. “There are now two Yorga Zintels in existence: The one who fled from her office and the one that fled to the future from the other timeline.”
“Which is possible because the temporal amplifier protects against paradox,” Sharon said. “Great.”
“Precisely. We’ll send notification through the temporal mainframe to TPCs in the future, telling them that Yorga is a wanted agent, of course. I expect they will apprehend her in due time.”
“And then what? Do they both come back here and get thrown into the same jail cell?”
“Depending on when she is apprehended, it’s possible the Yorga from our time frame will merge with the other Yorga upon her return and the other Yorga will cease to exist.”
Sharon scrubbed her face with her hands. Just when she thought time travel complexities could no longer give her a headache….
“I apologize for the delay,” Agent MacGregor said to Director Veta. “It took longer to complete the search on the temporal mainframe than I expected.”
“It’s unusual for a search on the temporal mainframe to take more than a minute or so. Is the delay a cause for concern?” Director Veta asked.
“I don’t think so, Director,” Agent MacGregor answered. “It may be there was an unusually high load on the search function when we made our request. I will look into it, however.”
“Any other updates Agent MacGregor?”
“Not at this time, Director.”
“Very good. Please remain, Agent MacGregor,” she added as he stood to leave. “This matter concerns TPC security and I would have your counsel.”
They discussed each step of the missio
n starting with the training on the snowfield in 2167 in observation mode.
“What made Agent Noon and Agent Fernley join you on the training shift,” Director Veta asked Caelen.
“We were there to support Sharon,” Miranda answered.
“Was there something special about this training shift that required additional support?”
Caelen shifted in his seat. “It was my idea,” he said. “There were some in the TPC who were not accepting of Sharon as a new agent. Sharon was aware of this. Miranda, Jonas, and I thought our all going together would show our support of her.”
“Some in the TPC,” the director nodded. “You mean like Yorga Zintel.”
Sharon looked at her hands in her lap and did not answer.
“Agent Winters,” Agent MacGregor interjected. “How did you decide to go to the snowfield that day in 2167 for the training shift?”
“Uh, actually, it was the Director’s suggestion.” Director Veta was nodding. “She suggested taking Sharon to a memorable time in my childhood.”
“So, she did not tell you to go to that exact date?” Agent MacGregor clarified.
“No, I had chosen the date only earlier that day,” Caelen responded.
“Why does that matter?” Sharon asked.
“Because it helps us understand the parameters of the bootstrapping,” Director Veta answered. “The less tampering with the timeline, the better. Now I understand that all I need to do is go back into Agent Winter’s past, not direct him there, too.”
Sharon, Caelen, and Miranda walked through everything they could remember, from their escape from the TPC to their detailed planning in Sharon’s home, and all three shifts made to attempt the mission.
Director Veta and Agent MacGregor asked many questions about the TPC in the other timeline, and how much they interacted in both the 1215 and 1948 time frames.
When they described their exchanges with Agent Berg, Agent MacGregor interrupted.
“Astrid Berg?” he said, eyebrows raised.
“Yes,” Sharon answered. “Yorga Zintel contacted Director Constantine and asked for his help to find us. He assigned Agent Berg to investigate. What makes you ask?”