Yesterday's Cat: Episode 1: Before the Storm (2 page)

Angie threaded through the lab benches toward the sound. It
was coming from Geek’s office. Geek was in his chair, slumped over the desk. No
blood, no obvious injuries.

“Shit!”

Angie ran to the desk, opened the top drawer and rummaged
until she found the medscanner that most people kept in their kitchens or
offices. She flicked it on, ran it over the still body, and held her breath. The
scanner beeped, and the display lit with one word: ‘DECEASED’.

She sighed. Geek had wanted to talk to her. Now goons had
broken in, and Geek was dead. But what had he known, and why had he contacted
her
? Was it to do with the
miscalibrated watch? She bit her lip, then searched the corpse as quickly as
possible. Sure enough, her watch was in his inside jacket pocket, along with a
datacube. Bingo. She scanned the office for other obvious clues, and shrugged.
In the real world, goons didn’t leave handy names and addresses in clear text on
a slip of plasti on the floor. Now she’d better vamoose before the firies got
here. Or the cops, if they decided they gave a damn.

She crouched low and ran through the lab benches, checking
the hallway for people. No one, yet. She ran out, wrenched open the fire door
yet again, and jogged quickly down seven flights of stairs. Then displaced
Random to get out her bottle of water and took a large swig before reassembling
the backpack and swinging it back onto her back. Then she opened the door at the
bottom of the fire stairs and looked out. It opened into a thick tangle of
bushes that looked as though they hadn’t been pruned in years. Brilliant.

“Come on, puss,” she said, and started off.

****

Back at her apartment, Angie took out the watch and
datacube and stared at them. She turned on the watch and checked its settings –
configured for a jump back to 2018 – Sydney, Australia. That was the jump she
should have made yesterday. It looked fine… but then, it had yesterday, too. She
was a time agent, not a calibrator. If the calibration was wrong… if enemies had
tinkered with it before leaving it in Geek’s pocket… she could end up anywhere.
The cone of an active volcano in the Jurassic period. The middle of a World War
I battlefield.

She placed the datacube into her apartment tablet. If it
was going to blow something up or riddle it with worms, let it be the one that
she didn’t depend on during field trips. The screen lit up:

Passphrase?

Damn, what would Geek program in as a passphrase? It must
be something that both he and she would know, and that he’d expect her to think
of in relation to him. His farewell. What was that overblown goodbye he used
when an agent was about to make a jump? Ha – of course. She typed:

Live long and prosper

Geek’s face appeared on the screen, a ‘play’ button
superimposed over it. She touched the button, and he started to speak.

“I hope we meet in person, but if not, I hope this gets to
you, sir. I’ve asked Agent Red to come to my office tonight. I hate to suspect
her, but here’s the thing – her watch has been recalibrated the last three times
she’s been out. The first two times, it was just to bring her back earlier than
she should have arrived. The third time was to completely invalidate her mission
– or maybe to complete a different mission in the guise of a failed one. I don’t
know, sir. I’m sorry to sound melodramatic, but if you’re viewing this and I’m
dead or injured, then it’s probably Agent Red who’s taken me out. I’ve included
detailed reports of the recalibrations, plus instructions on how to calibrate
the watches – just in case something happens to my entire department. The enemy,
whoever they are, already know how to do it, so I don’t think I’m risking too
much. I hope I’m being paranoid, sir. Good luck, sir. Live long and prosper.”

Angie sat back and stared at the screen. Well, that screwed
her up good and proper. Go to the brass with information that might put her in
the slam… or go it solo and risk borking up the situation even worse than it was
already.

“What do you think, Random?” she asked.

“Mrrr!”

“Oh yeah, food time. Gotta keep my priorities straight.”

One meal and a lot of thought later, Angie’s next move
still seemed unclear. She took the datacube from the apartment tablet, and
placed it in her backpack. Her preferred path was to dump the whole problem in
the lap of her boss and let
him
deal
with it. But if her boss had been compromised, she’d be playing right into the
opponents’ hands. Maybe a half-half approach was better. Maybe. Whatever she
did, it needed to be soon. Only people with the right clearance could
(supposedly) enter that office, but sooner or later someone would find Geek’s
body. And considering that she’d been the last person to log into the doorbots
on building and lab, she’d be prime suspect number one.

“Phone! Natan Jersey. Call,” she said.

A white, androgynous face – like that of an antiquated
store mannequin – appeared.

“I’m sorry,” it said. “Mr Jersey is not available right
now. May I take a message?”

“No, you may not,” Angie said. “Override
P-S-H-B-A-S-T-A-R-D.”

The face froze, then re-animated.

“I’m so sorry,” it said. “Mr Jersey is not available to
anyone, regardless of clearance level. May I take a message?”

“No, thank you,” said Angie. “Terminate call.”

Well, damn. Who could she call when the lab was compromised
and her boss was either dead or severely incapacitated? Those were the only
reasons she could think of for him not either answering his phone or rerouting
it to someone else. No one ignored an emergency override. There was her fellow
agent Jorge - probably the only agent she knew well… but she didn't have his
phone code programmed. Or, for that matter, his last name. She could go back to
the office and wait for someone to turn up – hopefully someone friendly. She
could call the cops – but they’d need access to the office, which meant someone
with a high level of clearance. Or she could… let herself be framed for murder
and worse. Damn. If she didn’t call it in to
someone
, her arse would be on fire soon enough.

“Phone! Scramble visual, disguise audio. Route through
IP-blocker. Police, emergency.” A large, kind-looking face appeared above the
desk. An AI construct, Angie figured. There was always something unnaturally
still about the face that gave it away.

“Good evening – what is your emergency?”

“Dead man in my workplace,” she said.

The face disappeared, and was replaced with another. This
one was actually alive, Angie figured.

“Did you say there’s been a death?” he asked.

“Yes. I’ve medscanned him. A co-worker of mine. Government
department – we’ll need someone with N-level clearance to investigate.”

“I understand. Are you at the address?”

“I’m not. I needed to report to someone else first. Here’s
the address:” she rattled it off. “My name’s Agent Red. I’ll call again when I
can, in case your man has questions for me.”

“Wait, we need to know-”

“I’m sorry, that’s all I’m authorised to share at the
moment,” she said. “Terminate.”

Right, she’d called it in, and appended her code name to
the report, at least. She couldn’t think of anyone else to call, and mail was
probably insecure if someone could get access to lab logins.

Random jumped to her lap and settled down, purring.

“Well, buddy, looks like we’re on our own here. Everyone’s
gone quiet.”

Random purred and kneaded her leg.

“Yeah, I get it. Relax while we can, right? I have a funny
feeling we’ll be ducking and running again soon enough.”

She put her feet up, leaned back, and fell asleep.

She woke to a paw patting her face.

“What’s up, puss?” she whispered.

Random’s ears were back, and her tail was switching madly.

A scratching noise was coming from the doorbot.

Angie stood quietly, snatched the watch from her backpack,
and put the watch and backpack on. Random jumped onto the backpack. Angie took a
deep breath, and pressed the button combination that activated the watch.

As the present-day faded from her surroundings, she saw two
men in black clothing and balaclavas burst into the room.

****

A library faded in around Angie and Random. It looked
shabbier, less cared-for, than it had the last time they’d been there.

“Well, that was close,” Angie said to Random. “Hmm… I think
they had a skin taboo back in this period. Maybe I should be wearing clothes.”

She checked her backpack – nothing. Well, she could use the
hide circuit on her watch, and hopefully blend into the background until her
prey arrived.

“You came back. You actually came back.”

Angie spun around. There he was, standing next to a shelf
of books, staring at her and shaking his head.

“Of course I did,” she said, smiling. “I’m a woman of my
word. And I don’t kiss a man lightly.”

“So you’re some sort of… time traveller?”

Angie blinked.

“I didn’t expect you to figure that out. I thought you’d
decide you’d imagined me last time.”

“I wasn’t sure… but then you appeared out of thin air
again, and I didn’t hallucinate anything in the intervening time period.”

She nodded. Logical. As she’d expect from a man like him.

“What do you want with me?”

“To take you back to the future with me.”

He laughed. Angie frowned, puzzled. Why would that, of all
things, be the statement that was ridiculous?

“It’s a movie. About a time-travelling teen. Before your
time, I’m sure,” he said.

She smiled.

“Will you come? I’m authorised to seduce you if necessary.”

“Well,” he said, frowning. “I was about to say yes, but if
you need to seduce me to get me to agree…”

She laughed and held out her hand.

“Come on, brave traveller.”

“Wait –
why
?”

“Can’t explain. But it’s vital to my organisation that you
come. At least… never mind. It’s vital. We need you.”

He blinked.

“Sure, what the hell. I guess Heidi Klum will just have to
wait on our dinner date.”

Angie paused.

“We don’t have to go right now,” she said.

He laughed.

“I’m kidding. Let’s go.”

Angie took his hand, then thought.

“There might be trouble when we get back. Umm… get ready to
duck, OK?”

“What? What sort of –”

She pressed a key combination on her watch, and the library
faded from view.

They materialised in Geek’s lab.

“Oh, thank everything happy,” breathed Angie, both because
they weren’t in her flat, where anyone knowing the standard settings on a
time-travel watch would be waiting right now, and because Geek’s corpse had been
removed.

So, Geek had reprogrammed the defaults to bring her to his
office. As a trap of some sort? For himself to use, in case he had to escape
from her? Or maybe he hadn’t suspected her at all. Too many possibilities, too
few known facts.

“Where are we?” asked Wayne in a quiet undertone.

“My workplace. Sort of. It’s complicated. You’re in the
year 2105, by the way.”

“Oh wow.”

“Angie?” said a voice from the door of the office.

Angie turned.

“Jorge! Oh, thank everything it’s you. What the hell is
going on?” she said.

Jorge frowned.

“What do you mean, ‘going on’?”

“The break-in? The boss being unreachable?”

Jorge shook his head slowly.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Geek walked up behind him, and stopped in the doorway.

“Uh… hi Angie. What are you doing in my office?”

Angie’s mouth hung open.

“Holy shit,” she said, once she could find words. “What
year is this?”

END OF EPISODE ONE

Episode Two coming soon… all two of them. A time-stream split occurs, and
future episodes are split accordingly into
‘Timeline A’
and
‘Timeline B’
.

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