Broken Protocols (2 page)

“There is no way. You can’t just yank a person forward a couple of centuries into our world. Look at what kind of trouble that got you in last time.” Got us, but he kept that bit quiet. Milo’s enthusiasm got him – them – in trouble every time. But every once in a while, he came up with something so earth-shattering that most people had no trouble overlooking the problems that came with Milo. Then again, they weren’t the ones having to clean up after him.

Milo walked over to the keyboard, his fingers dancing so fast, Levi could barely follow what he was doing on the screen. Colors and figures flashed at alarming speeds.

“Hey, stop. You can’t test this right now.”

“Sure I can. It works. I actually planned to test it tonight anyway. I just didn’t expect to have you here.”

Throwing his hands up, Levi gave an exasperated snort. “You were hoping that I wouldn’t be here. Right?”

Milo shot him a resentful look. “You never let me have any fun.”

“Fun?” Levi said ominously. “Going back in time, snagging up any female you want and slapping them down in our time is fun? You do remember what happened last time, right?” His glare deepened. “The massive power outage you caused?”

“I figured out how to stop the massive power surge. Besides, I only wanted to brainstorm with Marie Curie,” he said resentfully. “She was an intelligent woman. We’d have had a great time.”

“If you didn’t kill her in the process,” Levi snapped.

Milo spun around to face him, his grin once again splitting his face. “No, I fixed that. It’s safe now.”

“Says you.” Levi eyed his brother suspiciously. He didn’t know how to get this into his brother’s head. This was too important. “This is big. Like seriously big stuff. And the chances of you doing this successfully…you know the protocols are very specifi—”

“Ah, but the protocols are poorly written.” His elfish grin flashed and he added, “Besides, they are more like guidelines.”

He nudged his brother to the side. “You might want to get out of the way.”

“What? What for?” Levi spun around and caught sight of Milo reaching for a button on the side. “No.” And he knocked his hand away. Milo stumbled backward, tripped, and fell against his keyboard. The screen went nuts as Milo’s elbow smacked down onto the button anyway.

Immediately, a high-pitched whine filled the room. Levi slapped his hands over his ears even as his eyes stared in panic at the monitors dancing with flashing code.

“What’s happening?”

“Everything!” Milo danced, laughing like a loon. “But it’s nothing to worry about.”

A flash of light exploded in the center of the room, blinding them both.

D
ani glanced at
the clock, realizing she had just enough time for a cup of tea and a snack before getting dressed. She filled her teakettle and placed it on the stove.

She danced a quick jig across the living room. Perfect day, perfect date, and perfect evening to come. If there were misgivings that her bubble was about to burst, it had to be residual negativity left over from the year from hell. And that Murphy’s Law had been formulated specifically with her in mind.

But that was over. She was all about new beginnings. And that meant she could open the bottle of wine she’d been saving for a special occasion. She reached into the back of the fridge and pulled it out. Twisting the top off, she poured herself a glass and held it up to sniff it.

Charmin Marvin, her overgrown orange Persian cat, jumped lightly up onto the counter. She bumped the wine glass gently against his nose.

“Cheers!”

Meow!

She flipped her long blond braid behind her back and laughed. “Right back at you, big guy. Here’s to us.” Eyes closed, she took a large gulp of her wine. Still too buoyed to relax, she put her glass down and snagged Charmin up. Humming a tune in her head, she twirled him around.

“We’re gonna be just fine.”

Meow!

She laughed and twirled him again. She wanted to enjoy this moment. It had been a long time coming, but it was all good.

Her life was back on track. It had been a long painful struggle, but she’d made it.

Tonight was going to be good, too. Danny was a cute, single guy who had transferred into the company last month. Life was good again.

“I wish you could talk, big guy. Just think how great that would be.” She did a quick pirouette with him. Just as she slowed down, a white light exploded in her living room.

Waves blasted her, picking her up and throwing her back against the couch, Charmin clutched fiercely in her arms, his claws digging deep into her skin. Mist swam through her brain and her eyes burned. Her chest squeezed tight. She couldn’t breathe. Her ears rang and her lunch was crawling up the inside of her throat.

What the hell had just happened? She could only hope the property damage would be minimal. Otherwise, her landlord would freak.

She sat forward, clutching Charmin tight, afraid he’d take off and she wouldn’t be able to find him again. Moving slowly, her muscles heavy and unwieldy, her body in major shock, she struggled to her feet and headed for the doorway. Smoke filled her living room. She stifled a cough and covered her mouth with her sleeve to avoid breathing the reeking aroma.

She crouched low, gasping for air.

Had there been a gas leak? A bombing?

Then she heard voices. Oh thank God. She struggled toward them.

A strange voice cried out, “Damn it, Milo, what did you do?”

“Wowza.” A cackle filled the air. “Look, it worked!”

Through the mist, she spied two men…or at least, she thought they were men. The one in a purple and turquoise skin suit with a green Mohawk bounced in front of her, a maniacal laugh coming from his mouth. Then her shocked gaze landed on the second man. Lawrence.

And that couldn’t be.

Her heart slammed against her ribs, and then she really couldn’t breathe. She gulped for air as she stared at the one man she’d loved and hated – and had spent the last year trying to forget – who now stood in front of her.

Unbelievably, after all this time, anger rose in a red haze. She stepped into his personal space and smacked him – hard.

His head flipped to the side, then came back around slowly, a red mark quickly rising on his cheek. Shock lit the deep dark depths of his eyes.

Uh oh.

She took a step back, her ribs frozen and locked.

He took a step forward.

Finally, her lungs expanded. She took a deep breath, spun around, and ran.

She raced out the door and headed toward the elevator. And somehow got turned around. There were no walls of elevators. Nothing looked right…nothing looked normal. Blindly, she ran from door to door until she found one leading outside and bolted through.

And came to a skittering stop. Her mind couldn’t process what her eyes were seeing. She was on a balcony – a very high up balcony. And that couldn’t be, either. Her apartment was on the 3rd floor, whereas from the scenic panorama laid out before her, she had to be at least sixty floors up – if that was even possible.

The view in front of her was like nothing she’d ever seen before. It appeared to be a city. Or rather a metropolis on steroids. Buildings rose in weird space-agey looking domes, and there were rail cars on big circular runs. And God help her – there looked to be vehicles flying high above her head.

It looked nothing like Vancouver, BC, where she lived. In fact, as she shuddered and leaned back against the closed door behind her, this didn’t even look like her planet.

*

“Where did she
go?” Milo cried out. He spun around and said, “She’s gone.”

And damned if he didn’t look like he was going to cry. Levi threw up his hands and snapped, “What did you expect? You snatched her out of her world and dumped her here. We have to find her.”

“Find her? Where else can she go?” Milo dashed up beside Levi. “She can’t go anywhere. That’s the beauty of this.”

“Really? I think you forgot to tell her that.” Exasperated, Levi raced out of his brother’s design room and into the short hallway. There were several more doors ahead and he could only hope she’d gone in a straight line. Actually, he could hope that this disaster was just a bad dream, but knowing his brother…

“We have to stop her before she goes outside.” To lose her in that jungle would be a tragedy. And he had had enough of those on his hands with this damn technology as it was. If the government got wind of Milo’s latest experiment, they could both be thrown into jail and the technology confiscated, never to see the light of day – unless those in power wanted to use it for themselves.

And that would be disastrous.

The Council had too much power now. Who knew what they’d with something like this technology? Knowing how corrupt the Council was – it would be nothing good.

Levi couldn’t believe Milo had finally succeeded with his time travel project. His kid brother was a genius like none other, sure…but to be able to do something like this…Levi kept moving forward and opened every door he came to, and still there was nothing to find. He raced for the front door, his heart sinking. Please don’t be outside. Please…

“Wait—”

Too late. Levi had already barreled ahead and made it outside before his brother’s words infiltrated his frustration. “Okay, this is bad.” Levi said. As he watched, the line of buildings in front of him slowly went dark one after the other. Just like last time. “So very bad.”

“I didn’t do that.” Milo said when he caught up to his brother. He held up his new SXC4500 fingerboard computer, and shouted. “I have her on the camera.”

Levi spun around. “Where is she?”

“She came back inside.” Milo flipped the comp around so Levi could see.

“Really?” That stopped Levi in his tracks. He peered at the screen. “That was actually a really smart move.”

Milo grinned. “Yeah. See? I didn’t choose a bimbo. We need someone with enough brains to handle this type of switch in her life.”

“That’s not measured by brains. There is so much more involved here.”

“Oops,” Milo said, looking back down at the screen. “She’s on the move.”

Milo’s new rocker boots clicked as he raced behind Levi back into the facility. Levi shook his head. Milo needed a keeper himself. How could he possibly determine the type of woman that would not go crazy from his damn experiment? Retracing their steps, they tracked her through the building. Minutes later, they ended up back in Milo’s office with still no sign of her.

“She’s in here somewhere.”

Levi searched behind the chairs and under the desks. “Please tell me you can send her back.” Levi turned to his brother. “That you can reverse this process.”

“I don’t think so.” Milo threw him a sideways grin. “Besides, we don’t want to send her back.”

“I do,” Levi snapped. “And I’m sure she wants to go back, too. She has a life, remember?”

“Hmmm. According to my research, Dani Summerland doesn’t have much of one.” He clicked through his fingerboard computer and started reading off the list. “No partner. No career to speak of. Failed business after one year. Managed to stay gainfully employed. No marriage. No children. No long-term friends on record.”