Tempest (24 page)

She leaned forward a little and lowered her voice. “I’ve read every bit of Dr. Melvin’s research. It’s some crazy shit. But basically, time travel doesn’t work how you think it works.”

I wasn’t sure if she was going to provide me with new information or not. “What do you mean? Do you think they change stuff all the time?”

“It’s unlikely,” she said.

“Why?”

“Basically, before they jump for the first time—”

“The first time ever? How old are they?” I drilled.

“Melvin’s data says most have jumped by seven or eight years old, but it’s not controlled for a while, meaning they don’t know what they’re doing or where they’re going. It differs, depending on the person. Some are better. Some are worse. Like anything else.”

Wow. Seven or eight
. I couldn’t even imagine being a freak for that long. And were there little time-traveling Junior EOTs popping up in random places?

“Anyway,” Jenni continued, “before that first jump, think about their life as one long, thick tree branch. When a jump happens, a piece of the branch splinters off and keeps growing in a different direction.”

“And they can stay on the new piece of the branch … they can live there, right?” That’s what I had done.
What I’m doing now.
My jump from 2009 to 2007 had caused my branch to split off and grow a new arm. The other jumps didn’t seem to do anything.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Jenni said. “It’s kinda like a parallel universe.”

Not this again
. Adam still clung to this theory, and I hated it. It made the world seem less valuable. More lonely.

“Can they go back to another timeline once they’ve made a new one?” I asked.

“Some can,” she said. “Most of the ones we run into can. But the one thing very few can do is jump forward or backward within the same branch or timeline.”

“Which is why they can’t mess with too much shit in our world,” I added. “Except if they can just jump to another timeline and then jump right back to our world, couldn’t stuff be changed?”

“We don’t know for sure, but we think there’s some kind of physical repercussions for excessive time jumps.”

Yep. There sure is
. “Really … I didn’t know that.”

“Yep, and we don’t think they
want
to make these other timelines, but when they try to jump along the same one, it just happens.”

“But why wouldn’t they?” I said sarcastically. “More choice. Like having a summer house in Aspen and a time-share in Florida and an apartment in Manhattan.”

She smiled. “Do you want to hear Melvin’s craziest theory? I only know because I sort of … hacked into his computer.”

“Okay.”

“He believes that if they keep making all these new stems off the same branch, they could eventually collide, which may cause the world to end … or it may just cause the EOT’s brain to explode.”

“Wow … that’s a lot more than I can handle right now,” I said, half joking, half serious.

“Yeah, I’m hoping for the brain-exploding option,” she said.

“So, if they all have different levels of what they can do, there’s really no way to predict or prepare?” I asked.

“Agent Training 101, don’t make assumptions about anyone. Same basic rules apply to evil time travelers.”

“It’s possible one of them could just jump by accident as a little kid or whatever and then get stuck in some other timeline?” I asked.

“Yep.”

I didn’t ask any more questions. The last one was hard to swallow and I needed time to let it sink in. Maybe that’s why 2009 still felt like home to me. Or maybe it was guilt that made me think about getting back. Guilt for leaving and guilt for any happiness I’d had in this timeline.

And I wanted to be face-to-face with those men in Holly’s dorm. Find out who they were. I could picture the red-haired, shoe-print guy perfectly, but the other one, the taller dude, I couldn’t remember what he looked like.

“Having a nice chat?”

Jenni and I both looked over and saw Dad leaning against the mantel. He stared straight at her, his eyebrows lifted. She tossed the couch cushion back in place and returned to her computer.

“Can I speak with you privately, Agent Stewart?” Dad asked.

Her face was immediately stricken with fear. “Yes, sir.”

I almost felt bad for her, and would have if she hadn’t been such a pain in the ass the first time we met. I stared at her neglected computer resting on the coffee table.

The temptation was too hard to resist, but the second I hit a key to pull the last image onto the screen, she was right behind me, like some kind of ghost.

“I wouldn’t touch that if I were you.”

I jerked my hand back from the keyboard. “Sorry.”

She stood in front of me, arms crossed, game face on. “How about we make a deal? You write a Spanish term paper for me and I’ll teach you to kick some ass like a real agent.”

“Did my dad put you up to this?” I asked, and she nodded. “How many pages is this paper?”

“Ten.”

I guess Dad was willing to keep his promise to teach me some stuff. “Single- or double-spaced?”

“Double,” she said with a grin.

“Deal.”

She sat down in front of the computer again. “Your dad wants me to show you the step-by-step diagrams of silent defense.”

“Silent defense?” I scooted closer to get a better look at the screen. I hadn’t realized, until the opportunity was presented to me, how badly I wanted to learn this. How much leverage I could have if I didn’t need so many people helping me out. Telling me which side to join.

“It means the most amount of force with the least amount of reaction. No sound, very little movement,” she said.

I watched carefully as she clicked through image after image of basic attack diagrams. “Are we only going to look at pictures?”

She shrugged. “I’m just following orders. Your dad seemed to think the diagrams would help. Personally, I prefer a more hands-on method.”

I laughed. “Maybe he didn’t think I was ready for that.”

Or maybe he knew I’d remember this. Like Toby’s combination. Wasn’t that what Melvin had asked me in his office the other day?

“What about a photographic memory? Can you recall pages from a book word for word, or possibly directions or maps?”

I hated that Dad and Dr. Melvin were able to get farther inside my head than I was, but if I could use this photographic memory to stay alive, to keep Holly safe, then I had no reason to complain about my recently acquired freakish ability.

“Honestly, I’m surprised he hasn’t taught you at least the basics of self-defense, given his position and everything. I guess yesterday was a wake-up call. It’s not like we couldn’t have predicted someone would use you as a target. Leverage to get to your dad.”

Have I always been a target? Was that why the EOTs were after me in Holly’s room?

I laughed nervously. “Definitely a wake-up call for me. If they hadn’t knocked me out, I doubt I would have slept at all last night.”

“Wimp,” she muttered. “And what the hell were you planning on doing with that pocketknife?”

“I have no idea. Exactly why we should get started now.”

She nodded her agreement and returned to explaining every diagram, in-depth. And I listened, like it was life-or-death information. It
was
life-or-death.

“What you have to keep in mind is … it’s not about strength,” Dad said, walking up behind us. “Take Agent Stewart, for example. She topped everyone on the last trial run. She’s light on her feet and has the ability to reduce her sound levels more than the others. Walking through a mission unheard is a huge advantage. And it helps that she never misses the exact point of attack. If you get that right, down to the centimeter, strength doesn’t matter.”

Jenni Stewart looked absolutely elated with Dad’s compliment, but tried to hide it. “Take a second to look at the picture and then let’s try it.”

I studied the man on the screen hitting the other man behind the knee and squeezing the throat at the same time. The victim’s weight falls onto your foot, making less sound, and the squeezing of the throat keeps the victim from yelling or even talking.

After shoving the coffee table aside, I did it perfectly on the second try. “Junior’s got a little secret agent in him after all,” Jenni said.

“This is just basic life skills,” Dad said to her. “Things every teenager should know, right?”

“Sure,” she said.

“Why don’t you try the same move with me instead?” Dad said to me.

I hesitated long enough to get a laugh from Jenni, which made me determined to succeed in attacking Dad. “All right.”

I focused on his face, imagining Holly standing behind him, or Courtney, and then the frustration of him keeping secrets from me, lying. Pretending. All of it made my temper flare and something just snapped into place. Seconds later, he was sinking into the carpet, gasping for air.

“Not bad, Jackson. Not bad at all.” His expression showed that he was impressed, but I could see the hurt flicker in his eyes, just for a second.

I reached out a hand to help him up. “Let’s do it again?”

Dad nodded, and this next time he got me on the ground before I could react. We spent another hour, back and forth. He won, then I won, until we had gone through every single method of defense in the diagrams, several times each.

“What else do I get to learn?” I asked him.

Dad actually smiled a little. “I can show you how to search for listening devices.”

“Okay,” I said, following him into the kitchen.

“Don’t forget about the party tonight,” Jenni called after us. “Your girlfriend already confirmed she was coming.”

I stopped and turned around. “Holly’s coming over here, tonight?”

“That’s the plan,” she said.

“I thought you were kidding about that,” I said to Dad.

He was digging in a kitchen drawer now. “Seeing a few CIA agents mingling and having dinner like normal people will help alleviate any anxiety she might have. All we’ve done so far is expose her to a terrorist attack and then stuff her into a car and tell her not to tell anyone.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t modify her memory or something,” I said bitterly as the memory of the poisoned rag being pressed to my face returned.

“I thought you wouldn’t want that.”

“I don’t,” I said, trying to make my feelings very clear.

Dad nodded. “Okay, and we’ll leave Adam Silverman alone as long as he stays quiet.”

My stomach dropped. They knew about Adam. “Um … he’s completely harmless. Seriously, it’s not his fault that I told him all this shit—”

Dad held up his hand. “I just said we’ll leave him alone. But it’s possible he could be a good resource for you, if you want to learn some new skills. Just a thought.”

Yep, Adam could teach me all kinds of science-geek stuff. I just had to get a minute alone with him so he could hear the whole story from yesterday up until now.

Dad placed a small flashlight in my hand and opened the cabinet under the kitchen sink. “The CIA has a million devices to help find bugs, but I like to start old-school. Pretend you’re stranded somewhere with nothing but the contents of the average man’s pockets.”

“Yeah?”

He stuck his head under the sink and I did the same. “Your recent plumbing and maintenance experience should come in handy. I once found an explosive inside a pipe at the Plaza, when I was assigned to search the President’s room. Either one of the Secret Service agents planted it or I caught something they missed.”

Okay, my dad was officially much cooler than I’d ever imagined. Even if he was a big fat liar.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Not only did Holly actually show up for this staged party, she also brought Adam along.

“I really didn’t expect you to come,” I whispered to her after taking her coat. “I thought my dad scared you.”

She smiled but still looked fairly nervous. “You can be scared and curious at the same time.”

“Don’t I know it,” Adam muttered under his breath.

When I’d had a few minutes this afternoon, I emailed Adam several scanned pages of handwritten code, explaining how I learned his highly secure method of communication. It took a while to give him the full update without screwing up his process and telling him something completely wrong. It’s possible he was more scared than Holly after hearing the details that I couldn’t tell her.

“I can’t believe you live here,” Holly said, glancing around the foyer. “Do I get a tour?”

“Sure.” I took her hand and led her through the living room, where at least twenty people wandered around, drinking wine and cocktails. The only guests I recognized were Dr. Melvin, Chief Marshall, and Jenni Stewart. I had no idea where the other people came from.

“Dude, are these all agents?” Adam asked quietly so no one would hear.

I shrugged and continued to walk Holly through the house while Adam struck up a conversation with Dr. Melvin.

I saved my room for last, not sure if she would be comfortable going in there. “Do you want to see my room?” I asked tentatively.

“Oh, yeah,” she said with a smile. “I’m immensely curious to get a look at the room of a rich, delinquent teenager.”

I laughed and flung the door open. “I already told you, I’m not a criminal.”

Just a guy who’s already seen the future you naked. Nothing creepy about that at all.

“I know. I’m just teasing you.” She glanced around the room before turning to face me. “Nothing too exciting in here.”

“Of course not. I keep all the psychopath stuff in a different room.” I picked up one of her hands and laced my fingers through hers. She blushed and took a step back from me. “I was kidding.”

She smiled. “I know, it’s not that. It’s just … something else.”

“What?”

“Okay,” she said, diverting her eyes away from mine. “Jana has this theory … She thinks second kisses are weirder than first kisses because … you’re expecting them, but not really comfortable with the person yet.”

I tried not to laugh, but it didn’t work. This was her problem? She gave me a little shove and I laughed even harder. “Sorry, Hol. I just figured it was something bigger you were worried about. I’m glad it’s an easy one.”