Paradox (14 page)

Dr. Ryger looked off to the side. Zac
couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but he knew it was hitting a nerve with the
rest of them.

“If you just sit here and do nothing,
you’re just as guilty as the people who did this,” Zac said.

“That’s not fair,” Emilee said. “It’s not
that simple of a decision.”

“Really?”
Zac
said, surprised at his directness with her. “Because I think it’s such an easy
decision and you’re all just afraid to make it.” He started toward the door.
“Well, I’m at least going to decide for myself. I’m going down to the platform
and I don’t know how, but I’ll find a way to reactivate it.”

“You can’t just go pressing buttons,” Chen
said. “If you don’t calibrate it properly, it’ll tear you up when you step into
the pentagon.”

“Then
help me
. You know how to get
it started. Do the right thing, Chen. You said that when you sent us back and
Rock was attacked that you did everything right. I believe you, and I want you
to do it again.” He was at the door now, turning the handle. “Redeem yourself.”

“You don’t even have another Wand,” Emilee
said.

“Doesn’t matter,” Zac said. “A random one
worked for me last time. Maybe another one will, too. But no matter what, I’m
at least going to
try
.” He turned his back and walked out the door,
closing it behind him. He was just a few feet away from the entrance behind the
bookcase when he heard someone behind him, running to catch up.

“Wait for me.” It was Chen. “I’ll do it.
I’ll reactivate it. Your dad is going to throw a fit in a few minutes, but I
can at least get you started.”

Zac smiled, and they walked down the long
hallway together toward the TEMPUS machine.

Chen pulled a chair up to the computer and
started typing in a mad rush. Streams of words and numbers scrolled across the
screen, and he hit a button hard with finality,
then
sat back.

A bright blue light lit the room around
the corner, and Zac knew it was on again. He patted Chen on the shoulder.
“Thanks,” he said. He walked over to the case containing the Wands and tried to
open it. It was locked. He banged his elbow against the glass, but it didn’t
budge.

“Wait,” a voice said. He turned to see
Bryce coming down the walkway with a set of keys. “I’m going with you.” He
opened the case and took out a Wand.

Zac reached for one, but Bryce held his
hand back.

“No,” he said. “You need to use your own.”

“But I don’t have one,” Zac said.

Bryce picked one up out of the case and
handed it to Zac. “Actually, you do. Your dad was planning on having this one
assigned to you so he could figure out why the other one was messing up the way
it was. But then after the wormhole malfunctioned the other day, he shut the
project down without having this one programmed for you.”

“Does he know you’re doing this?” Zac
asked.

“Yes and no,” Bryce replied. “Chen
basically told your dad that he was going to make sure you didn’t mess things
up. I told him I’d check up on you, and then I grabbed the keys. Now come on,
let’s program your Wand.”

Zac followed Bryce to the computers and
then watched as Bryce entered some commands into the computer.

“Okay, press your thumb down on it, like
you’re standing on the pentagon and trying to turn it on,” he said. Zac pressed
down. Bryce hit a button on the computer, and the lights on the side of the
device illuminated. “You can remove your thumb now,” he said.

Zac held the device up and looked at it.
The last Wand worked by accident; this one was
designed
to work for him.
He smiled,
then
walked into the chamber to prepare.

“Give it about three more minutes,” Chen
said. “Then it should be stable enough to use.”

Zac turned to face Bryce, who stood
outside the glass doors. “Okay, so what’s the plan?”

“Plan?”
Bryce
asked. “I’m following
you
this time.”

Zac crossed his arms and breathed heavily,
thinking. “We need to get to the subway station and look for anything
suspicious. The news said it wasn’t a suicide bomber, so whoever did it planted
it and left. We can have Chen drop us somewhere on the subway platform. I think
we should look for someone at the station right before it detonated.”

“How do you know they got on at that
station and not an earlier one?”

“I don’t,” Zac said. “But here’s what I’m
thinking… security is tight on public transit, right?” Bryce nodded. “So if
whoever put the bomb on there really wants it to go off, they’re not going to
give the
authorities
time to find it first. If they
put it on the subway car right before they want it to blow up, there’s a good
chance no one will notice it in time.”

“They have video surveillance they can
just look at, though,” Chen said from around the corner. “Why not just let them
identify the bomber that way.”

“We can make a positive identification
much more quickly,” Zac said. “We don’t have to rely on video footage to get
the details; we can see them up close. We can watch for signs of someone acting
suspicious. If we can figure out who did it, we can tell the authorities who to
look at on the footage, help them narrow down their search time. I think it’s
worth a try.”

“Okay,” Bryce said. “But I just want to
make sure we’re doing the right thing. If something goes wrong and we’re on the
subway train when the bomb goes off, it’s over for us. And I don’t mean the
machine will just bring us back here.”

“I know,” Zac said.

“And another thing: if we call in
information about the bomber, how are we going explain what we know? This is
different than the types of observations we’ve done before.”

Zac shrugged. “Maybe it’s time to let more
people know about TEMPUS. Maybe my dad might have to give up his secret.”

Chen called from around the corner. “It’s
stable,” he said. “I’ve got it set to place you in a crowd, so be careful. That
location’s so crowded in the morning that no one should notice you suddenly
appearing, but you need to recover right away.”

“Got it,” Zac said. He walked into the
chamber. Bryce followed him. “Here we go, I guess.” He held up the Wand and
prepared to activate it.

Bryce grabbed his hand. “Wait,” he said.
“You realize that if your dad finds out we lied, he’s going to shut this down
for good, and he won’t let us have access anymore. So hopefully he doesn’t come
down here and find us gone before the machine brings us back five minutes from
now.”

“Yeah, I know,” Zac said. He paused. “And
sorry for that comment I made about your mom in the conference room.”

Bryce looked away momentarily. “That
was
pretty low,” he said, “but you made a good point. So let’s do this and get back
here before your dad finds out.”

They pressed their thumbs to the Wands and
vanished.

Zac’s stomach churned as his feet hit
something hard. He opened his eyes and saw that he was in the back of a crowd.
In front of him, people stood waiting for the subway in what felt like an
underground cavern. Ancient yellowing lights cast a glow all around him. This
part of the subway was in an older tunnel. That was probably why the terrorists
chose it, he thought. Its structure would be weaker, causing more damage.

He felt a tap on his shoulder. Bryce
whispered into his ear. “What are we looking for?” All around them were
travelers with laptop cases, backpacks, briefcases, and purses. How could they
identify a lone person with a suspicious bag?

“Start walking around and looking,” he
said. “Hopefully whoever did it is still here somewhere. Look for someone who
is acting strange. If you think you found the suspect, meet back over here.” He
glanced up at the digital clock on the wall.
“Looks like we
have about eight minutes before the subway train arrives.”

They split up and began searching. Zac
made his way through the crowd, trying to look as casual as possible. His eyes
searched individuals up and down. No one looked out of the ordinary. A few
people checked their watches, but that was nothing unusual. People were
impatient.

Zac looked up at the clock. Four minutes
left until the subway train arrived. Time was running out. He turned to check
behind him, to see if anyone was coming down the stairs, but they were empty.
He saw no sign of Bryce, either.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed
something. A man was carrying a normal, black leather briefcase, but something
was different about him. Zac moved closer.

He was wearing blue jeans and a dark blue
windbreaker. A black baseball hat covered his head, short brown hair sticking
out of it. He wore ear buds like most travelers, listening to music, but it was
the side of his head that caught Zac’s attention the most. Running down the
man’s temples and across the bridge of his nose were droplets of sweat. The
subway tunnel was cold, but the man was sweating like it was the middle of the
summer. He rose up and down on the balls of his feet like he was nervous. The
man gripped the handle of the briefcase with two hands, one over the other, and
held it in front of him. His fingers shook slightly.

The strangest thing, Zac thought, was that
he seemed to be staring straight ahead, as if he didn’t want to draw any
attention to himself.
Like he was the only one down there.

The man’s eyes moved to the side and
caught a glimpse of Zac, then quickly focused straight in front again.

Zac looked away, then began stepping
forward, casting a glance sideways. The man’s eyes met Zac’s, and he turned his
head with a jerk, looking away.

A loud vibrating noise filled the tunnel,
and the train pulled into the station, slowing down with a hiss of air brakes
in front of the platform. A voice came over the intercom announcing the next
stop, and people began surging forward.

“Zac, over here!”
He turned to see Bryce motioning for him, and walked over. “See anything?”

“Yeah,” Zac said. “There’s something
suspicious going on with that guy.” He turned and pointed, but the man was
gone. “Wait; he was there a minute ago. Where’d he go?”

“Did you get a good look?”

“Sort of,” Zac replied, “but I want to see
if he leaves that briefcase of his. Go ahead and return to TEMPUS, and I’ll
leave in just a few seconds. I want to get another glance.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.
It’ll only
take me a minute. And technically, I’ll be arriving back at the same time you
do anyway.” Bryce nodded and went into a secluded corner. When he thought no
one was looking in his direction, he pressed the top of the Wand and was gone.

Zac moved along with the crowd, searching
for the man in the windbreaker. Where had he gone? He scanned the crowd for
anyone wearing blue, but he couldn’t find anything. He neared the subway train
as the rest of the people were boarding, and looked into the windows. He pulled
out the Wand and prepared to activate it.

He felt a hand grab his hair and slam his
face against the outside of the train. His head was pressed against it
sideways, and all he could see was the tunnel snaking off into the distance. A
voice whispered in his ear.

“You think you’re clever, don’t you? You
think I don’t know a badge when I see one?” He dug his hands into Zac’s hair,
pulling it at the roots. He used his other hand to pin Zac’s arm behind his
back. Zac gripped the Wand.

“I’m not a cop,” Zac said through gritted
teeth, trying not to focus on the pain. “I’m just a teenager. I don’t know what
you’re talking about.”

“Don’t play dumb with me,” the man said.
“I saw you eyeballing me back there. You think you seen something? What’s
this?” he asked, and pried the Wand from Zac’s hand.

Zac’s eyes widened with fear. He had to
get it back before it was too late. “I know what you’re planning,” he said,
taking a chance. He could hear the crowd thinning out as everyone got on board.

“Oh, really?”
The
man let go of his hair and spun Zac around to face him. They were eye to eye
now. Zac could feel the man’s breath on his face as he spoke. “You think you’re
gonna stop us? This is just the beginning. What is this thing, anyway?” He held
up the Wand.
“Some kind of tiny camera?
You taking pictures or something?
I’ll show you what you can
do with your little pictures.” He threw the Wand through the open door of the
subway train and watched it roll across the floor, between the feet of the
passengers and out of sight. The man shoved Zac forward through the door.

Zac spun around, hearing a hiss as the
doors closed, and he could see the man on the outside, watching him. The man
waved, and Zac could feel his weight shift as the subway train began to move.

He searched the floor for the Wand, but he
didn’t see it. Passengers gave him dirty looks as he scrambled around their
feet, excusing himself and looking under seats. One woman screamed, and he gave
a fake smile. “Sorry,” he said. “I dropped my, uh… pen…” He crawled along the
floor to get a better look, trying not to think about how filthy it was. It
smelled like someone had recently vomited on it. But that wouldn’t matter in
the next few minutes if he couldn’t find the Wand. Somehow it had gotten kicked
around in there, and time was running out.

He began to wonder if he’d get out of this
alive. Under one seat, he saw something slender and black and reached for it,
stretching until his fingers were barely touching it.

The train lurched to the side and the Wand
moved, rolling out of reach. Zac cursed under his breath and got up on his
knees, looking around. He said nothing, but he looked to the other passengers
as if pleading for their help. Then he saw it.

The Wand had stopped at the feet of a
passenger with small shoes that sparkled and lit up every time she moved them.
Zac’s glance moved up, and he saw that it was a little girl. In her hands, she
held a stuffed giraffe.

The child bent down to pick up the
pen-like object. She stood up to take it to Zac, but her mother started to pull
her back down. The little girl slipped from her mom’s grip and handed Zac the
device.

“Thank you,” he said, grabbing it with his
right hand. A sick feeling formed in his gut as he realized what was about to
happen.

A voice came over the intercom, announcing
that they were approaching the next stop. The bomb would detonate any minute
now, maybe in a matter of seconds. Zac took one last look around at the people
around him, oblivious that these precious few seconds were about to be their
last. No final goodbyes to their loved ones. No time to prepare to face their
Maker.
Just death.

Unexpected, violent,
unnecessary death.
He placed his thumb on the top of the Wand and took a
deep breath.

“I’m sorry,” Zac said, a tear forming in
his eye as he watched the little girl cuddle the stuffed giraffe. He hesitated
a moment.

Finally, he squeezed his eyes tight, a
tear running down his cheek. He pressed the sensor on the top of the Wand, and
as he did so, he felt a burst of heat and could sense a bright light through
his closed eyelids.

Zac arrived back on the platform and
collapsed. Bryce stood next to him and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him up.

“You okay?” he asked. “What happened?”

Zac pushed past him and walked out into
the open room. He paced back and forth, eyes clouding with tears, and he
reached up to wipe them away.

“Zac, what happened back there? Is
something wrong?”

“Yes!” Zac shouted and spun around, fist
slamming into the thick glass pane. It shook but did not break. His words
echoed off the walls. “Everything’s wrong!” He shook his head. “Children,
Bryce… innocent
children
were killed today, and I couldn’t do a
thing
about it.” He gritted his teeth and continued pacing, his feet landing hard on
the concrete. “I had to look this little girl in the eyes… she… she walked
right up to me… and…” Zac struggled to find the words to say, “…and she was
holding her stuffed animal, so small and sweet and then…” He took a deep breath
and continued talking and pacing, not looking up to meet Bryce’s stare. “Why
couldn’t I even save
one
child? Would it really matter? Why couldn’t I
just… why couldn’t I do what you and Emilee did to save me and Rock, just take
her with me? Would it really make a difference?”

Bryce listened in silence.

“I just don’t get it,” Zac said. He rubbed
his eyes. “I mean, you should have seen the way she looked at me. She had no
idea that her life was going to end in a matter of seconds.” He laughed to
himself. “It’s my own fault, really. I went into this situation knowing what
would happen to those people.
But to see them all looking at
me, their eyes…
And I was helpless to do anything.” His shoulders sank.

He looked up, not realizing that Chen had
left the computers and had stepped into the room.

“Sorry,” Chen said. “Did you get what you
needed?”

He nodded, still feeling sick to his
stomach. “I think so. This guy, he confronted me and thought I was an
undercover police officer.” Zac left out the part about almost losing his Wand
and not making it back.

“Just give me the description,” Chen said,
“and I’ll go call it in. You just need to calm down right now.”

Zac told him what he could remember, what
the man looked and sounded like, and Chen left the room.

“I know how you feel,” Bryce finally said,
speaking softly. “It’s miserable. And I’ve seen far more than you have.”

“But nothing this bad,” Zac said. “You
guys have been able to
stop
crimes from going any further. I had to
watch this little girl and all these other people face their last minutes
before being blown to bits. I stood with them, and I was able to escape, but
not them. It’s not fair.”

“I know,” Bryce said, “but I don’t think
you really realize all that the rest of us have seen while we’ve worked on this
project. You’ve been here for only a week. Try doing this for a year or two.”

“I don’t know if I can,” Zac said. “Not if
it’s going to be stuff like this. I’m starting to wonder if it would be better
if this whole TEMPUS thing was never built in the first place. I’m starting to
think maybe it’s all a big mistake.”

“Zac,” Bryce interrupted, frustration filling
his voice, “you’re not the only person to have these doubts. You’re acting like
you’re the only one who has seen anything horrible or who has had any doubts
about it all. You think it’s easy for
any
of us to see these things? You
think you’re the only one who would love to go and change the past?”

“I think—”

“You’ve witnessed something horrible, but
at least it’s not someone you know.” Zac had never seen Bryce this agitated.
“I’d
love
to go back and see my mom one more time. I’d
love
to
change the last thing I said to her. But instead, I get to watch her die over
and over and over again while
you
sit and talk about how you want to
find ways to change things in the past. But it’s
not going to happen!
You have to face the fact that you’re using a
time machine
. You crossed
that threshold when you stepped onto the platform and used that Wand.” He
thrust his finger at Zac. “You volunteered to join the team, and you need to
realize that there are some things that just are a part of the job. You’re
going to have to see things you’re not going to want to see, and you need to
deal
with it. There are times I wish I’d never set foot in this building, either.
But it’s too late.”

Zac avoided eye contact with Bryce,
choosing instead to gaze down at the floor. Something had set him off.

“I know you want to go back and save your
mom,” Bryce said, “but at least you had a good life with her. You don’t live
every day with the regret of your last words to your mom, replaying them in
your mind every time you watch her die.”