The Children Who Time Lost (42 page)

“It’s not as bad as you might think. They’re all locked up and shouldn’t cause too many problems if we stick to the plan.”

I leaned toward him. “Let’s get this clear. I’m here to get my son first. I don’t really care about the journal.”

“And I’m here for my wife,” Doug said.

“Guys,” Michael said, “let’s get in there first, okay? And then we can decide what to do. We don’t know how long we’ve got to do this.” He got out of the car and popped the trunk. The rest of us followed him, and he pulled out a large suitcase and grasped a thin metallic-black case that looked like my powdered-foundation case. He popped it open and I saw what looked like green paint: camouflage. Doug helped to apply the paint to his face, and after Michael returned the favor, he tossed it to Manuel, who did the same to Curtis. After Curtis applied it to Manuel’s face, he turned to face Mandy, but she lifted her hands.

“I’m not going in there, remember? That’s for you guys.”

Curtis turned to me. I glanced at the case and swallowed. Doug took it from him and walked toward me. “Here, I’ll do it.” He ran his hands back and forth across my face, the liquid coating my skin. It felt gross, but I stopped myself from heaving.

He stopped and smiled. “Perfect.”

I smiled. “I don’t even want to know how I look.”

Michael tapped me on the shoulder. “You look great.” He laughed.

Mandy handed us all earpieces the size of ear buds, with built-in micro transmitters. “We’ll be able to communicate with these.” She inserted one in her ear and faced Michael.

Michael put his in, too. “Testing, testing.”

Mandy held her right ear. “I hear you.”

The rest of us put our earpieces in and spoke. The signal was clear. Next, Mandy gave us infrared goggles. I put them on and jerked my head back. Everything around me changed to a deep shade of blue—the trees, the grass, the roads. Everything looked like incomplete CGI sketches.

“You okay?” Michael said.

I spun around a few times. “Fine. It’s just … Never mind.”

“Okay,” Doug said. “Manuel and Michael will cover the perimeter. The rest of us will go in.”

“No way,” Curtis said. “I can’t go in there. They’ll sense me right away.”

A cloud of doubt filled my mind. Was Curtis leading us into a trap? Maybe, maybe not. But there was a chance that Dylan was in there and I had to go.

Doug opened the car door, picked up another SV98 sniper rifle and threw it at Curtis. The Shrinik caught it and studied it for a moment. Then he nodded. He, like the rest of my team, looked weird through the goggles, like an outline of a featureless man.

“Then you stay out here with Manuel and Mandy. The rest of us will go in.”

Curtis nodded.

Doug pulled two M4 assault rifles from the rucksack and threw them into the trunk. He placed two more on the car hood and looked at Manuel and Curtis. “Just in case you need more firepower.” He threw a Glock to me and strapped the rucksack still bulging with the remaining guns and explosives across his back.

Manuel picked up one of the guns and grinned. “Nice.”

I put the Glock in my pocket and ran my hands across the AN-94 strapped over my shoulder. Then I checked the magazine and saw that it was full before putting it back in place.

“All right then,” Michael said, “let’s go.” He crossed the road, with Doug close behind. I followed them with my right hand holding my gun steady and the left in front of me. I glanced back to see the outline of Mandy entering the car with her annoying perfect figure. Manuel and Curtis caught up to us and we walked along the path until we reached the wide pathway surrounding the grass and trees. I watched the stocky outline of Manuel take his position on the ground beside me, fiddling with his two guns. I shifted my gaze a few yards to the right and saw Curtis do the same. I started to appreciate just how amazing these glasses were.

Then I smelled Michael’s aftershave. He grabbed my right hand. “If anything happens, you just start blasting, okay?”

“I can look after myself, Michael.”

I heard Doug walk past us. “Okay, let’s go.”

Michael went first and I followed close behind.

Chapter Thirty-One

“T
wo on the far right are moving toward your position,” Mandy said through the earpiece.

We all stopped and crouched. I heard distant footsteps and faint chatter that I couldn’t make out. Leaves brushed my face, but I didn’t move an inch in the pitch darkness. I could feel Michael’s heart beating as he leaned into me. I wasn’t sure where Doug was, but I knew he was close. The footsteps drew closer but then stopped. We just waited. After a few minutes, we heard them drift away until the eerie silence returned.

“Two by the house are moving right,” Mandy said. “I only have one left on my screen, but I don’t know where the other two are.”

“On it,” Doug whispered.

We remained still.

“Got them,” he said a few seconds later. “Two are still there. I can’t find the last guy.”

“Neither can I,” Mandy said. “He’s disappeared from my screen.”

“I see him,” Manuel said.

“Me, too,” Curtis said. “He’s walking straight toward you. You might have to take him out”

“Won’t that mess the plan up?” I said.

“Not if we move quickly,” Michael said. He backed away from me and I heard him draw a dagger from its sheath. “I’ve got this.”

He edged past me. Doug tiptoed forward and lay a few yards ahead to my left.

“Easy,” Curtis said.

Michael stopped.

“He’s ten yards away,” Manuel said.

My knees knocked against each other as I began to panic. There would be no turning back after this.

“Eight yards, … five, … four.”

I could see an outline of the man through my goggles, but I’d lost Michael.

“Three, … two. He’s right by you.”

We all stopped speaking. I squinted but still couldn’t see Michael.

“Michael,” Curtis said. Nothing came back.

Manuel called out to him, too. Still nothing.

“He might be hurt,” I said.

I heard the guard whistle. He’d turned around and started heading back when Michael rose from the ground in a flash and wrapped his hands around the man’s neck. I shifted and rose to my knees. The man shuddered before his hands fell to his sides. Then I saw Michael pull the blade from his neck and ease his body to the ground.

Doug helped him move the corpse. They covered it with leaves, and Michael wiped the dagger on the ground. I hated that yet more people had to die in order for our plan to work, even if it may have been a Shrinik that Michael had just killed.

“Rachel,” Doug said through the earpiece.

“I’m coming.” I stood up and walked to them. We stood still, listening.

“The two on my screen are now coming your way,” Mandy said.

Doug confirmed it with the binoculars. We waited as the footsteps drew nearer.

“Damn,” Mandy said. “They’ve stopped.”

We crouched and waited but didn’t hear any more footsteps.

“What’re they doing now?” Michael said.

“Nothing,” Curtis said. “They’re just standing there.”

“We’ve got to go to them. Take them out.”

“That’s too risky,” Manuel said. “From that distance, the other two will hear and might call the others.”

Two minutes went by, but the guards still didn’t move. “I’m telling you guys, if we don’t make a move now, we might not get this chance again.”

“Michael’s right,” Curtis said. “But we’ve got to take them all out at the same time.”

“Can you get the guys by the house from your positions?” Doug said.

“That’s the thing,” Curtis said. “Maybe not.”

This was it, my time to step up. And why shouldn’t I? They were here to help me save my son, after all. “You and Michael can get the ones by the house,” I said to Doug. “I can take the two closest to us.”

No one said anything for a moment.

“Let’s do it,” Michael said.

“You sure about this?” Doug said.

“Why not?” Michael said. “She’s part of the team, right?”

Silence returned. I moved toward Doug. “I need the sniper.”

Doug screwed the silencer onto the SV98 and hooked an infrared scope to the top. He placed the gun in my hand, and I moved a few yards to the right and lay on the ground.

“Okay, guys,” Mandy said, “you need to do this now. The men on the other side of the perimeter are moving closer together. The window will soon be gone.”

Michael lay on the ground beside me. “You sure you’re okay to do this?”

I looked at him for a moment. I probably wasn’t completely okay, but I was going to do it anyway. “I’ll be fine.”

Michael stood up and moved toward Doug. They took steady steps before I saw them duck. I took my goggles off and looked through the infrared scope. I could feel my hands quivering, and my breathing grew ragged. I lowered the gun and waited for their signal.

“You okay, Rachel?” Curtis said through the earpiece.

“I’m fine.” My breathing started slowing down. I’d had enough practice to be confident about hitting my target, but something else bothered me. Was I really doing this? Was I about to start killing humans as well? I kept telling myself that there was no other way, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized there wasn’t. They would have killed me if given the chance, without a moment’s hesitation. I looked through the scope again. My two targets were inches from each other. I kept my aim on the head of the man to my left and waited. The night was humid, with no trailing wind. Perfect shooting conditions. The bullet wouldn’t shift left or right unintentionally.

“Okay, Rachel,” Doug said after a few seconds. “We’re in position.”

I lay still and waited. Neither man had moved.
Come on, Rachel. Hold it steady.
I closed my eyes for a few seconds and then opened them. “I’m ready.”

“Okay,” Michael said. “On three.”

I dug my feet deeper into the ground when Michael started his countdown. When he reached three, I fired the first shot. The bullet sailed through the air sounding like someone spitting loudly. I saw blood fly from the head of the first man. He slumped backward. I shifted my aim right, but the second man was tilting his head from side to side. I squeezed the trigger again. This time I hit the man square in the neck. More blood spurted out and he fell to the ground. But his fall made more noise.

“They’re on to you,” Manuel said into the earpiece. I gasped and looked ahead. Four more shots disturbed the silence, and then all was quiet again.

“They’re all down,” I heard Michael say.

I sighed and tapped my head against the ground.

“No one else is moving to your position,” Mandy said.

“You gotta go now, peeps,” Manuel said. “We’ll keep watch here.”

I put my goggles back on and stood up. Then I moved toward Michael and Doug. After I returned the SV98 to Doug, he put it back in the weapons bag. The AN-94 was still strapped over my shoulder. Michael and Doug had finished hiding the bodies of the two men I’d killed. Then they did the same with the two they’d killed.

After the cleanup, Doug stood by the massive metallic black door and pressed against his right ear. “How do we get in here?”

“Push the small green button,” Curtis said. “The keyword is
moonwalk
.”

Doug stared at the button to the right of the door for a moment. It looked like a standard doorbell. He looked at Michael, nodded and pressed it. Nothing happened at first, but then a small speaker beneath it crackled. “Password,” a mechanical voice said.

Doug moved closer to the speaker. “Moonwalk,” he said.

The door clicked open, and there was dim lighting behind it. Doug removed his goggles, put the binoculars to his eyes again and wound the knob right. He cocked his head left and right, the green paint over his face now smudged. Then he dropped his hands.

“What do you see?” Michael said.

“We need to get in there,” Doug said.

Michael and I nodded and took our goggles off. Then Doug pushed the door open and we went in.

The hall in front of us was enormous. The ceilings were at least twenty-five feet high. Thick vines hung from some parts, except they were not all green. Some were a grayish-black color like fungus. Dim fluorescent lights flickered, and a strong manure stench filled the room. I feared what awaited us, but the possibility that Dylan was here kept me going. If he was, I had to save him. This was no place for a child.