The Bureau of Time (29 page)

A painful knot settled somewhere in her throat.
My dad. Trying to find me.
Fresh tears welled up in her eyes. It had been weeks since the Bureau had taken her away from Hermitage. She couldn’t imagine what grief and distress her father had gone through, but she could picture him sitting on that sunshine-yellow couch, exactly where she was now. She could almost hear him begging, pleading with an unseen power to return his daughter, his only child.

“I have to help him!” She stood up, blood pounding furiously in her ears. She wanted to rush to her father’s side and protect him the same way he had tried to protect her from all the bad things in the world.
How could Zero do this? Not my dad, please God, not my dad…

The Warden sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Not alone. I have taken the liberty of disrupting your teleportation, and your Bureau colleague too. There are no reinforcements, no allies left for you. You two are the best hope for finding your father and saving him from Zero’s wrath.”

She nodded, her heart hammering in her chest.
My father is a good person. He doesn’t deserve this. It’s not his fault that I’m a Timewalker. He shouldn’t be used as a bartering chip in this secret war.

Aloud, she said, “I can do it.
We
can do it.”

The Warden stared at her, dark eyes moving behind his thin-framed glasses. He was looking older every second, and now she could almost see
through
him, patches of wallpaper appearing behind his body.

“I believe you,” the Warden said, frothy blood spilling over his lips. “Many millions of lives are at stake, Cassandra Wright. I hope you realize that, for all of our sakes.”

The ground tilted beneath her feet and she grabbed the couch, but the couch wasn’t there, and she was falling, down through the infinite void. She screamed without a voice, the air sucked out of her body. There was a lurching sensation in her gut, ripping her through time and space—

*     *     *

Forward Operating Base Chester was a hive of activity when the White Tower forces teleported back. They arrived outside of the base with an explosion of energy that rippled through the world, temporal anomalies flickering away like tiny shards of glass caught in the light.

Shaun observed the entire base for the first time.

To his right, the refugee camp marched away in neat, orderly rows of tents and makeshift mess halls, with more being constructed in the far distance. A consistent haze of dust curled up into the sky from trucks and workmen.

The main facility was on his left, clinging onto the edge of a towering cliff, the outside painted with mottled green-and-brown camouflage. One side of FOB Chester faced the flat plain and the refugee camp, while the other side looked down over the cliff and a thick pine forest that became blacker the further he peered into its depths.

He breathed again, this time tasting salt –
the ocean.

“Where
are
we?” The entire compound was surrounded by dark-gray pylons, reminiscent of fence posts – except there was no chain between them. He could feel the force field though, an invisible barrier that rose overhead, protecting the base with an anti-Temporal dome of energy.

The shield let us through,
he thought, observing the dome’s faint shimmer.
Somehow it knows which Adjusters to keep out.

Hayden Miller squinted into the bright sunlight. “Rural Nova Scotia.”

“Canada?”

Miller shrugged. “It was less conspicuous than the United States. Besides, Zero has no interest with Canada – there was no Timewalker Program here.”

“Bet the Canadians are real happy about having you here,” he muttered. The group started toward the base, headed for a blastdoor in the cliff-side.

“They don’t know about the base,” Miller laughed. “Besides, you’re a difficult man to say
no
to. The
other
version of you, I mean.”

The blastdoor split apart vertically, allowing them into the cliff-side. The walls and ceiling glowed, provided a crisp but not overbearing light. The Adjusters walked together, serene and comfortable. Only when they were all together, like
normal
humans, did he realize that they weren’t so monstrous after all.

Another thought struck him, one that made his stomach churn.

“What am I like?” he asked, slowly, as though he wasn’t sure he wanted the answer. “In the future. Major Shaun Briars. He sounds important.
I
sound important.”

“You
are
important. You were a living legend in the Final War, and a great hero in the aftermath. You took control of White Tower, pieced together the crumbling remains of our government and brought something to the world that everyone had thought lost forever.”

“What was that?”

Miller’s voice was pained. “Hope.”

The older man directed Shaun down a corridor and through two more doors, his words filled with a powerful emotion. “You were, and still are, an influential leader. There are some that disagree with your leadership, fed poisonous lies by the rebels; but for millions of people, you are a symbol of mankind’s ability to endure adversity and return stronger than ever.”

Shaun swayed a little on the spot. He head was throbbing, and he felt nauseous.

“I’m not that man,” he murmured, shaking his head. He looked away, unable to meet Hayden’s eyes. They were the same eyes he had seen in his nightmares; only they had been glassy and lifeless, staring into his soul and judging him for letting a twelve-year-old boy die.

“I’m not a hero,” he said, his voice breaking. “I’m – just a screwup. I’ve messed everything up. You saw that, back there. The Bureau, it’s
gone.
I should have been there. I shouldn’t have left. They didn’t deserve that. Cassie—”

“She’ll be safe,” Miller said firmly. “My soldiers will take care of her. She won’t be a prisoner, but under our protection while Zero is still out there.”

“That doesn’t make it right! The person you claim I become, the person you
want
me to be – that’s not me! I’ve made mistakes—”

“And Major Briars made mistakes too,” Miller hissed. They were alone in the corridors, but he lowered his voice, his tone furious but hushed. “Listen to me, Shaun. I
know
you. I know who you are. We are friends in the future, colleagues and comrades. Whatever differences there are between our worlds, we are still the same people. You can’t escape fate.”

Shaun’s blood turned to ice. “Zero once said something very similar to me.”

Miller grimaced. “And who do you think told
him?
Shaun, whether you like it or not, one day you’ll have to accept responsibility for what your counterpart did. You can’t hide from his choices…you might have to make those decisions a second time around.”

“What do you mean?”

“If we don’t stop Zero,” Miller said, turning on-heel and leading Shaun further through the base, “he will eradicate the Bureau of Time – the only hope you have of protecting your world against his forces. He might not have much of an army left, but it’s enough.”

“Isn’t destroying the Bureau enough?” Shaun demanded. “What’s he trying to do?”

Miller stopped abruptly and turned around. “It doesn’t end with the Bureau. He was the first Adjuster to be sent to this universe. He thinks this place is an abomination, an affront to the laws of nature. He wants to destroy your world, one way or another – starting with Timewalkers and anyone linked to them.”

Miller resumed walking, passing through another blastdoor and into an armory.

Shaun let out an appreciative whistle as he entered the weapons room. Dozens of assault rifles and handguns hung from steel racks on the walls. Low benches ran around the room, laden with cartridges of ammunition that he didn’t recognize. He pulled a handgun from the wall and ejected the magazine – instead of bullets, it contained a single battery cell.

“These are the best military-grade weapons in the world,” Miller said, holding a shotgun with practiced ease. “Most of it is surplus from before the War, but White Tower manufacture a few of our own weapons. I even have gun especially for you, from the Prime universe.”

Miller crossed the room, approaching a locked safe. He punched in a six-digit code and the door swung back, revealing a six-shooter – not an old-fashioned piece from the Old West, but a top-of-the-line military variant, polished and gleaming silver.

“This was yours, in the Prime.” Miller retrieved the gun, holding it with an almost holy reverence. “The famous weapon that hunted the First Adjusters and sent nine of them to their graves. It was your – Major Briars’ – intention to destroy Zero with the same weapon, before he escaped to this world. Perhaps
you
can fulfill that wish, after all.”

Shaun took the gun, heavy and cold in his hand. The long barrel was smooth but the grip had been intricately carved with names and diagrams. The six-shooter was an unconventional top-break model, and when he flicked the cylinder down, he saw .45 rounds shining back at him. He clicked the chamber back into place, marveling at how the gun fit so smoothly into his hand, as though it was
meant
for him.

“That weapon saved your life, and mine, more times than I can count,” Miller told him. “It won’t let you down.”

Miller pointed out the gear they needed for the mission. Minutes later, Shaun was fully dressed in fresh clothes – black cargo pants and a tight-fitting shirt – with a heavy belt around his waist. The six-shooter sat holstered on his left thigh, with several speedloaders ready to reload the gun at a moment’s notice. He eschewed Kevlar in favor of maneuverability – he could always Timewalk his injuries.

The rest of the assault team gathered in the open room where Shaun had first met Miller. Forty Adjusters stood in rows, steel knives sheathed by their sides, their black jumpsuits fresh and neatly pressed. The white rook sat proudly on their shoulders, their faces and bodies identical like their clothing.

They were men and women,
Shaun thought, his spine tingling.
Soldiers who sacrificed their lives…their bodies…for what? For a broken promise that White Tower would turn back time and erase a war from history. And now they’re just fighting to survive, to preserve what little they have left of their own world – and to defend mine, too.

“Here, take this,” Miller said, handing him a small hexagonal device.

“What is it?” he asked, turning it over in his palm. There was an adhesive pad on the back of the device.

“Just put it on,” Miller said. “It’s a NeuroHex, designed for silent communications and neural enhancement. Adjusters struggle to talk – it’s very uncomfortable for them – so this will help.”

Shaun hesitated, then ripped the plastic cover off and pressed the device to his temple.

“I can’t feel anyth—”

A wave of Temporal Energy coursed through his body and he let out a startled gasp. Dozens of voices washed through his skull, like he was standing in the middle of a bustling New York street. Miller’s voice came through strongest, but his mouth was closed in a thin line.

“At attention!”
his voice cracked through Shaun’s mind, and the chattering died down. The Adjusters shifted on the spot, turning their eyeless faces toward their leader.
“I’ve gathered you all here for an emergency operation to defend the Bureau of Time’s last remaining facility, an intelligence outpost called Eaglepoint Station. Our Most Wanted, Zero, is
en route
to attack the base, and we must do everything in our power to defeat him.”

Shaun realized his mouth was hanging open, and he quickly closed it.

“You’ve all sacrificed a lot to defend your own world,”
Miller continued, his mental voice somehow taking on a somber tone.
“I realize I’m asking a lot for you to defend a world that isn’t your own.”

He hesitated, throwing a guilty look at Shaun, before facing the soldiers again.

“But this world,”
he said, strengthening his mental voice,
“is the only hope we have of evacuating our people, our loved ones, who are dying in the ruins of our universe. If this world falls, we fall with it. So we must fight, we must defend our future and our freedom! Will you fight?”

A resounding chorus of
“YES SIR”
blasted through Shaun’s mind with enough force to rattle his teeth.

“Form up!”
Miller ordered the men. Aloud, “We’ll teleport to Rhode Island and take transport to Block Island. We can’t afford to alert Zero by arriving directly outside Eaglepoint.” Quieter, perhaps to himself rather than anybody else, “Let’s hope we get there in time.”

Shaun placed a hand on his six-shooter, the metal cool to touch. His stomach churned nervously, but he forced his fear down, replacing it with a single, burning desire – to fight, to survive, to
triumph
.

An image appeared in his mind, detailed and sharp as though he was actually seeing it right there in front of him. Zero kneeled on a concrete floor, his face bloodied and bruised, his mouth stretched into a wicked grin that revealed his teeth broken into jagged fragments. That image burned its way into the back of his eyes, haunting him all the way outside, every step forward another step closer to destroying that monster and eventually, somehow, finding Cassie and mending their broken relationship.

Of those two goals, Shaun knew which would the hardest – and it didn’t have anything to do with Zero.

THE HOSTAGE

A dizzying array of lights, her own private galaxy of constellations bursting into life then dying in an explosive shockwave. The lights blurred past her, then faded to black. Her entire body was being compressed, squeezed into an impossibly narrow tube, crushing the air out of her lungs. Rational thought was driven from her mind as Temporal Energy roared past her,
through
her, pulling her body apart and pushing it back together again.

Then she slammed into the hard ground, sliding backward across a grassy field.

She sucked in a lungful of crisp air, her chest burning in protest. There was another explosion of light, and Ryan materialized beside her. He staggered, his arms jerking out as though fighting off invisible attackers. He stopped twitching and stood gasping for air; then he saw Cassie and helped her upright with a single, strong pull.