The Children Who Time Lost (22 page)

“Justin! … Justin!” I screamed.

He fell to the ground, but the feed continued. I held the tablet closer to my face and continued watching. I heard the Lypsos approaching. They turned his body over. I could see their robotic faces staring down at Justin’s corpse. Then Lorenzo arrived. He studied the body for a while before reaching for the smashed tablet on the floor. He spun it back and forth and tossed it away. Then he grabbed Justin’s glasses and earpiece and lifted the glasses toward his face. I could see his unsettling eyes. He must have known someone was watching. Then he smiled. “Hello, Rachel.”

I shuddered and yanked the earpiece out. After throwing it and the glasses against the wall, I put the tablet into my jacket pocket and ran up the stairs. I couldn’t believe Justin was dead. I peeked down the corridor when I reached the tenth floor. A man walking out of his apartment gave me a brief glance. I also saw a couple walking away from the elevators, but that was all. I ducked and squeezed my palms together to stop my hands from trembling. The man who had left his apartment walked over to me.

“You okay, ma’am?”

I looked up at him and nodded.

“You want some water or something?”

But of course, I was a hundred feet in the air. I could get a car. “Yes, please.”

He helped me up. I heard the elevator chime. It was probably one of Lorenzo’s men. I pushed the man through the minute he placed his key card against his door. We fell in a heap, but I quickly rolled off him and stood up.

“What’s going on?” he said.

“I’m sorry about this.” I ran down the corridor and into the living room. His balcony door was similar to mine. I pushed the switch at the top right-hand corner and it opened. I stopped when I heard banging on the front door.

“It’s the law,” a Lypso screamed in a mechanical voice. “Open the door at once.”

The man ran back down the corridor. I ran out through the balcony door but stopped almost immediately. Streams of cars flew in the air at astonishing speed. I looked in all directions before seeing one moving at a slower speed a few yards to my left. All four of its turn-signal lights flashed green. It was about to begin its descent. I ran to the edge of the balcony and jumped up and down, waving my hands. The flashing lights disappeared and the car approached me. I gritted my teeth as I waited. Then I heard a loud crash behind me, like an explosion. Lypsos were screaming at the man who’d helped me to remain calm.

The car reached me and the door swung open. A middle-aged woman stared at me. “Are you all right?”

I pulled my gun out. “Get out of the car.”

She looked at me with disbelief. I edged forward. “Now.”

I saw her push the white air-brake button in the center console before scrambling to the passenger side. Then she leaped onto the balcony. I kept the gun on her. “I’m sorry about this.”

“Rachel Harris,” I heard a mechanical voice shout. I looked right and saw two armed Lypsos standing outside the balcony door with guns trained on me.

“Get on the ground,” I said to the woman. Then I leaped into the car. Gunfire rocked the car. I lunged forward and released the air brake. The car dropped to the ground, but I grabbed the steering wheel, pulled the car back up and headed west.

Chapter Seventeen

T
he car I’d taken was a silver Chrysler. It still had the new-car smell. I shuddered, thinking of what I’d done to the poor woman who’d probably been on her way to meet friends or a loved one. Worse still was the danger I’d put her in. I didn’t even know that one of the many bullets meant for me didn’t hit her.

I landed the car on a quiet street and shut the engine off. I sat still for a moment before banging the wheel over and over. My friends were dead, too. It must have been the phone call I’d made. And Justin … I closed my eyes and sniffled. I didn’t have any plays left. I had to get to 2013 and find Dylan. But without Justin’s contacts, it didn’t seem possible. But I had to make it possible. I drifted to sleep soon after.

The moon was out when I woke up. I rubbed my eyes and pulled the tablet out of my pocket. I opened a Web browser and gathered as much information from the Internet as I could about the Lotto and its organizers. Then I kicked the engine to life and lifted the car into the air

I switched among four traffic enforcers in the space of an hour. I didn’t want any to take notice of my car. The stars were out in full force, but I didn’t have time to marvel at their beauty. I continued driving, waiting.

It happened twenty minutes later. A law-enforcement vehicle zoomed past me. The cars in front slowed to a crawl, as did the traffic enforcer. Then the car with the blue and red flashing lights flew to the right. I waited until the last minute and took a sharp right of my own. Kevin had told me many times about a pair of advanced binoculars that were capable of seeing through thick walls from great distances. Although one in three police vehicles were supposedly equipped with a pair, I had no choice but to take the chance that this particular one would. I increased my speed and kept up with it but allowed some distance. If they were after me, too, they wouldn’t be able to associate the Chrysler with me right away, even if the woman I’d taken it from gave them all the details. That would take twenty-four hours, a delay aimed at keeping the growing number of false reports down. But in the back of my mind, I believed that the people after me would not make it common knowledge that I was still alive. Doing so might mean my talking to the wrong people.

I passed a number of other traffic enforcers while trailing the law-enforcement car, but I didn’t stop. Although it was a legal requirement to travel only behind traffic enforcers, cars were allowed to travel for up to ten miles before joining one. I had gone only six miles but needed to get out of the air soon or my car would be marked and they would know if it had been reported stolen.

The car with the flashing lights kept going but started decreasing speed. I looked at my mile counter. I had done 9.1. When they started their descent, I sighed and followed them down. They parked opposite a large house and ran toward it. I parked on a side road and waited. After they went into the building and shut the door, I got out of the car and approached their vehicle.

Fear struck me with every step I took. I had never broken the law in my life, and I was just about to commit a serious crime. But under the circumstances, I didn’t see that I had any other choice. I crouched when I reached their car and edged to the passenger door. I heard shouting from the house. Then four shadows entered a lighted room. I placed my hand by the door’s handle.
Please be open.
It was a well-known fact that law-enforcement officers didn’t lock their doors. It seemed irresponsible, but then again, who would be stupid enough to break into them?

I held my hand still and heard a click. The door swung open. During the car’s weekly inspection, they would identify me by my fingerprints, but hopefully I’d be long gone by then. I climbed into the front seat and placed my hands against the metallic glove compartment. It flashed red.
Damn. Why would they lock this and not the car?

I tried again, but the red light returned. I gritted my teeth and bit my bottom lip. The house door slammed open. One of the officers stepped out. He fiddled with a computer tablet as he walked without looking up. I swallowed and looked right. There were bushes ten feet away, but I wouldn’t make it to them in time. I eased the door shut and leaped into the back. I lay flat on the floor, but the tight space hurt my shoulders.

I heard the door click open, and the officer sat in the passenger seat and pressed a few buttons. The entire interior lighted up. A bright blue light on the floor shone in my face. I moved my hand over it and kept still. The radio crackled, and then a mechanical voice that sounded like a Kyso’s came through. The officer listened in silence. It sounded like gibberish to me. The voice just talked about codes and vectors. After a few minutes, he turned the radio off and fidgeted. Then I heard a click and a rattling sound. He had opened the glove compartment.

He rummaged through it for a while. I wasn’t sure if he was taking things out or putting stuff back. He closed it a few minutes later, but I didn’t hear a second click.
Please be open
. He opened the door and I heard him place a foot on the ground, but then he stopped.

I grimaced in fear as I waited. Then I heard the door close, except I could still hear him shifting in his chair.
What’s he doing?
He continued fidgeting until I saw part of his head leaning toward the backseat. My face shook and sweat dripped down my forehead. He stared at the backseat for a while before his head disappeared.

I prayed he would go, but bright white light filled the car. My legs had gone numb, and I shifted. Then I heard the familiar slithering sound.
He’s one of them.
The shadow of the organisms that had covered the alien’s body filled the car. I heard shuffling again and the snarls of the creatures. I held my breath and lay still. I heard loud sniffing every other second. He probably sensed I was there but couldn’t be sure.

My lungs tightened, and I felt as if I were going to pass out. The slithering grew louder. I could hear the organisms banging against the dashboard as the alien moved. I couldn’t hold my breath any longer, and I sucked in air through my nose. The alien had a putrid stench like compost in the making. I fought against the heave trying to burst through. Then the smell vanished and the slithering stopped. I couldn’t see the snake-type shadows on the car’s roof anymore. The door opened, and footsteps followed, growing fainter by the second. I sat up and saw the now human-looking officer entering the house.

I gasped and opened the door. I wanted to vomit, but nothing came out. I gagged for a few seconds before feeling slightly better again. I opened the front door again and hoped for good fortune. This time, I got a green light when I placed my palm against the glove compartment. I opened it and rummaged through it. I saw lots of paperwork on small glass tablets and a couple of flash grenades, but I still hadn’t found the binoculars.

I glanced at the house but didn’t see the light I’d seen before.
Where are they?
It didn’t matter. I had to find the binoculars or my plans wouldn’t succeed. I continued searching but found nothing, and no one had left the house either. I threw everything from the glove compartment to the floor. It didn’t matter that my prints were everywhere. They’d know I’d been there eventually anyway.

Then I found the binoculars. They were silver, with a blue lens and even lighter in weight than the tablet. I placed them in my jacket pocket and returned the things I’d thrown to the floor. I was reaching for the door handle when the house door opened again. I didn’t move.

The officers marched outside, holding a tall muscular man by the neck. They stopped a few yards from the house and spoke to him, their backs to me. The man frowned at the pavement. A woman stood beside the officers, trembling with fear. I crept out of the car and eased the door shut. Then I crouched and tiptoed back to my vehicle. The officers walked the arrested man back to their car and lifted off. I waited until the woman had returned to the house before I started the engine.

I docked the Mercedes in the last free parking pod a hundred feet above Fifth and Grand. The right side of the car was sucked into place against a magnetic metal station. I was lucky to get a dock without a roof and a clear view of L.A.’s skyline. I looked deeper into the tunnel-like parking structure, which ran maybe a mile deep. I saw people coming up sky elevators from the ground and onto a wide platform that led to their cars. I switched my lights off and sat for a few minutes. No one gave me a second look as cars flew past mine and out of the lot. Even the Lypsos that escorted some older drivers to their cars didn’t stare at my Chrysler’s license plate.

I studied the buildings in front of me. I put the tablet on my lap and stared at the skyscraper on my screen. It was five hundred feet high and had a bright blue neon light running down the right side from top to bottom. I looked into the dark skies again, this time with the binoculars. A number of buildings filled my line of sight. I turned the silver knob on top of the binoculars and marveled as I saw through the walls of the building in front of me and into a brightly lighted living room. A mother and daughter sat on their floating sofa, watching TV.