The Bureau of Time (31 page)

The headache flared sharply and she cried out in pain, her scream echoing to the heavens. She collapsed, face-first in the snow, and darkness consumed her.

Her last thought was a plaintive cry for somebody,
anybody
to help her.

There was no answer but the howling of the wind, like millions of lost souls all crying out for salvation.

THE CALM

“Remind me again why we can’t teleport?”

Shaun held onto the edge of his seat, struggling to hold down the meager nutrient bar he’d eaten before boarding this rusted tin can that masqueraded as a ferry. Sea water sprayed up over the side, drenching him completely, his dyed-white hair falling flat on his forehead. He spat out a mouthful of salty water, shivering as a cold wind whipped across Block Island Sound. Dark clouds rolled in off the ocean, ushering in a nighttime that was six hours too early – a sure sign that Zero and his Adjusters were nearby.

“Teleportation opens a hole in spacetime,” Hayden Miller explained, shouting over the roar of the boat’s engine. “It uses a large amount of T.E. to transport an object between two different points in space, and Adjusters are particularly sensitive to those changes. The element of surprise is the only thing we have going for us – we can’t afford to let Zero know we’re coming for him.”

Shaun grimaced and turned back to the approaching landmass of Block Island. The ferry hurtled toward the southwest part of the island, angling for Dickens Point. The high cliff was eroded by centuries of ocean waves, and across the island stood the shadowy outlines of scattered farmhouses and old colonial landmarks. A few lights twinkled in the darkness, and as he scanned the horizon, he saw their destination: a multistory building that stood a quarter-mile from the edge of the sandy cliffs – a square of steel and glass that seemed utterly out of place in the otherwise rural island.

“That’s it,” Miller said, pointing toward the building. “Eaglepoint Station. I can’t sense any Adjusters there.”

Shaun shifted uneasily on his seat. His Affinity was buzzing in close proximity to Miller and his men. The Adjusters sat in neat rows like tourists out for a Sunday trip. Instead of cameras, they held steel knives, and their waxy faces seemed to shine in the darkness.

“That doesn’t mean Zero hasn’t already been through,” Shaun argued.

“We can’t think like that.” Miller didn’t sound convinced though.

The small army had ‘commandeered’ the vessel from Point Judith, narrowly avoiding detection from dockworkers. The ferry seated almost fifty people and belonged to a tourist agency that shipped people back and forth across Block Island Sound. Now it had been repurposed as a vessel of war, ferrying an army of inhuman soldiers to their likely deaths.

“Hayden? Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Where do Adjusters go when they die?”

Miller seemed surprised by the question. It had been on Shaun’s mind for ages, since he had first encountered the strange creatures. Around the Bureau, there had been speculation about the Adjusters’ origins – but of course, nobody outside the Directors knew the full story.

“What you have to understand,” Miller said, picking his words carefully, “is that Adjusters aren’t particularly
human.”
He mouthed the last word, and Shaun threw a quick glance to the faceless soldiers. Their idle chatter was a background noise in his skull, pumped into his auditory senses via the NeuroHex on his temple. “They were human once, but the process to becoming like they are, well – their bodies are now intrinsically tied to the universe itself. When they die, they can no longer maintain control over T.E., and suffer the full effects of Temporal Dissolution. They become one with spacetime itself.”

Shaun couldn’t imagine a more horrible fate than simply dissolving into the nothingness of the universe, and fell silent.

They ran the ferry aground on the beach, and Shaun was the first off onto the sand, grateful for a firm footing. They wouldn’t be needing the ferry again – if they defeated Zero, they wouldn’t need to worry about teleporting to safety. And if things didn’t go according to plan—

Don’t think like that,
he told himself.
Focus on getting out of this alive.

“Check your weapons,”
Miller said, using his mental communication. The Adjusters inspected their equipment, knives reflecting the pale light of the sun as it struggled to force its way through the thick clouds.

Shaun broke the top of his revolver, six bullets shining back at him; he clicked the weapon back into place, checking the speedloaders on his combat belt.

“Ready?”
Miller asked. The Adjusters snapped to attention and offered him a salute. Shaun saluted out of habit, an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

White Tower’s army marched up the steep cliff, the ground treacherous beneath their feet. Shaun slipped several times on the incline and had to dig his heavy boots into the soft sand. He crested the cliffs, taking in the idyllic countryside before him. In the darkness, he saw the outlines of farms and the squat forms of old churches and towns from a bygone era.

Then he turned his attention to Eaglepoint Station, a six-story building of glass and steel that silently watched over Block Island, gathering data from satellites and transmitting it back to Brightwood Ranch. Wind rushed over the Atlantic Ocean and slammed into the monitoring outpost, the white satellite dishes creaking atop the building. Bright searchlights mounted on the station illuminated a hundred feet around the grounds. The outpost was encircled by a twenty-foot-high fence with barbed wire, and even from this distance, Shaun could see guards patrolling the perimeter.

“We’re not too late,” he breathed, relief flooding through his body.

Miller gave a stiff nod.
“Everyone, follow my lead.”

The army marched down a dirt road forged through the wild grass. Fifty feet from the main gate, a new searchlight turned on, blinding White Tower’s men and forcing them to stop.

“Halt!” a voice shouted over a megaphone. “You are approaching a restricted United States military installation. Identify yourselves!”

Shaun cleared his throat, squinting into the light.

“Timewalker Shaun Briars, Bureau of Time!” he shouted. “This outpost is in danger, and you need to secure it immediately!”

A dozen soldiers poured out of the building, forming a line at the gates, assault rifles raised. Red lasers flicked over the Adjusters and they growled as the bright dots settled onto their foreheads.

The megaphone voice shouted back, “Identify the men with you, and lay down your arms!”

Shaun felt his stomach twist into a knot. The Bureau’s soldiers took another, more menacing step forward. There wasn’t time to explain that the Bureau had been wrong, that not
all
Adjusters were trying to exterminate the agency – just Zero and his brainwashed followers.

“My name is Captain Hayden Miller!” Miller yelled, standing beside Shaun. “I would gladly lay down my life to protect the Bureau, but if you want to keep yours, you need to defend this outpost!”

There was a momentary pause. Blood pounded in Shaun’s skull, his breath catching in his throat.
Come on, come on.

“We’ll need to confirm your identity with Bureau Headquarters,” the guard said.

“No!” Shaun protested. “There’s nobody there – the Bureau was attacked, and this outpost is next!”

Another stretch of silence, longer than the last. He bit the inside of his cheek, hot blood spilling into his mouth. He healed the cut without even thinking about it. Time was ticking by, time they didn’t have to spare.

“We can’t contact the mainland,” the guard announced, a slight tremor to his voice.

“That’s what I was trying to tell you,” Shaun argued. “You need—”

“Protocol dictates,” the guard said, cutting him off, “that we secure the facility, and attempt to contact remaining agents. If the Bureau’s Chain of Command cannot be reached, the agency’s responsibilities fall to Homeland Security.”

“Yes, I know that,” Shaun snapped, forcing the words out, “but we don’t have
time
to wait for Homeland to get here. We need to act
now,
or a lot of people are going to die! I am a Timewalker and an Operator, and I
demand
that you open this gate!”

Shaun let out a shaky breath, waiting for an answer.

A moment later, White Tower’s army let out a pained scream. The Adjusters bent over, clutching their foreheads, howling like injured animals. Miller screwed his face up in agony, thick tendons bulging out of his neck.

“What’s happening?” Shaun cried, pulling his revolver from its holster.

“Can’t you feel it?” Miller gasped. “I’ve never felt that before – such a massive amount of Temporal Energy. He’s masked his signature, I don’t know how, but he’s here, Shaun,
Zero is here!
”

“I don’t feel—” he began, but he never completed his sentence.

A colossal burst of energy tore through the countryside, throwing up a cloud of dust and grass. Shaun raised an arm to shield himself from the explosive light; he shut his eyes, but the inside of his eyelids turned red and he threw himself to the ground, trying to find some patch of darkness to hide in.

The wormhole collapsed, the light dying as Zero and his army emerged from thin air. Shaun peeled his eyes open, his vision distorted and blurry. The indistinct forms of the Bureau’s guards slumped to the ground, their heads severed from their bodies. A harsh, inhuman cackle rang out across the island, sending icy fingers up Shaun’s spine.

There was another flash of light, and Zero appeared a few paces away from Shaun. Behind him stood more Adjusters than he’d ever seen before, almost one hundred of them, their blank faces contorted in vicious grins. Scarlet armbands stood out proudly against their black jumpsuits.

Standing next to Zero, a cold gleam in his dark eyes, was Carl Tallon.

“Tallon?” Shaun gasped. He staggered upright, his mouth hanging open in shock. “What – what you are doing here? What the
hell
is going on?”

“I’m sorry, Shaun,” Carl said, emotionless and dry. “I know you can’t see it, but we’re trying to help your world. You just have to trust us.”

“No,” he breathed, shaking his head. “No, it can’t be right—”

“YOU!” Miller bellowed, struggling to his feet, his face contorted in rage. His eyes had gone wide, and he pointed an accusatory finger at Tallon. “
This
is where you’ve been hiding, all this time?”

“Do you know each other?” Shaun asked, his head spinning.

“Yes,” Miller spat, the word laced with venom. “He was part of White Tower. He vanished right after war. We thought he was dead. But it seems like he was just another
traitor
who was fooled by Zero’s
lies.
”

Zero spoke, his powerful voice booming across the island. “Carl was one of my best spies. Rather unique, too. He has the ability to block any Timewalker’s Affinity.”

That’s what I’ve felt,
Shaun realized,
when my Affinity went silent. I felt it after I fought Zero, as though I had suddenly lost his signature. Tallon had been blocking my Affinity.

He was working against us the whole time.

“Miller, I see you’re still fighting for a lost cause,” Tallon retorted. “Ever the Major’s lapdog, aren’t you? Remind me, why
did
the Major send you to this God-forsaken universe? Something about sleeping with his—”

“
YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH
!” Miller roared. He took a step forward, only to collapse on all-fours with an agonized scream. His outstretched arms shook uncontrollably.

“Now, now,” Zero said, with a casual wave of his hand. “Don’t do anything you will regret.”

Shaun raised his gun, ready to take Zero’s head off with a single shot – but an invisible force suddenly gripped his shoulders, slamming his body into the ground and pinning his wrists in place. He gasped, forced to kneel in the dirt. Behind him, the Adjusters mirrored him, their heads bowed.

“That’s more like it,” Zero drawled, swaggering forward. “
Kneel before me.
”

The unnatural cloud formation overhead finally succeeded in extinguishing the sun. Now there was nothing but the suffocating darkness, only broken by Eaglepoint’s searchlights. Mangled bodies lay behind Zero, arranged in unnatural positions, blood spilling into the dirt.

“I offer you this!” the monster shouted. “Abandon White Tower, empty your mind of their hollow lies. Join me, join the Resistance! Together we shall return to the Prime universe and liberate our people from their oppressors!”

“Don’t listen to him!” Miller snarled, forcing his head an inch higher, sweat beading along his forehead. “White Tower is
helping
people!”

“The Prime world is one of ash and despair! White Tower has doomed my people and tries to rule over the crumbling remains! The Resistance fights to free its people, while White Tower seeks only to enslave!”

“Lies!
All lies!
”

Shaun struggled against his bonds, his limbs trembling as he tried to push himself upright, but it felt as though a weight had been placed on his back. His elbows slipped out from underneath his body and he sprawled on the ground, tasting blood.

“The Timewalker tries to challenge me?” Zero laughed, crouching in front of him. The monster lifted Shaun’s chin with one skeletal finger, their faces inches apart, one flushed with anger, the other smooth and featureless except for an abnormally wide mouth.

“And what of you, Shaun Briars?” Zero asked, his breath foul and rotten. “Adjusters and Timewalkers share so much. We were both made, created like machines by White Tower. You served the Bureau of Time, an Operator for them – a human weapon. You were not a person to them, you were an
asset.
You know what the Bureau was capable of. If they were allowed to grow unchecked, they would have destroyed your world as they destroyed mine. So I stopped that from happening.”

Zero’s voice softened, now sickly sweet.

“I am here to
help
your world,” he promised. “I am here to
protect
your people. In the Prime, nobody stood against White Tower. We allowed them to condemn our world to the fires of nuclear war, allowed them to level entire cities with an army of Timewalkers. And now they come for your world. They will come with the pretense of saving their
refugees,
but then their soldiers will follow and the cycle will repeat.”