Reversion (The Narrows of Time Series Book 3) Read Free Page B

cheek scars.”
    “Trust me, I’m used to that. I just wish my heart would stop racing.”
    “It’ll slow down once your anxiety lessens.”
    He hesitated, letting his heart rate slow a bit. “You could start by untying me.”
    “Not yet. I want to make sure you don’t freak out again. My kidney can’t take any more rights.”
    “I hit you?”
    “Couple times.”
    “Sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
    She finished lighting the last needle ball. “No worries. It’s understandable, given the circumstances. But you can see why I don’t want to untie you quite yet.”
    “Yeah, I do. But trust me, it won’t happen again. I give you my word,” he told her in his most sincere voice, peering down at his right hand. He didn’t see any swelling along his knuckles as expected, making him wonder if she was telling the truth about the punches. He thought about brining it up, but decided against it. She seemed calm at the moment and he didn’t want to upset her. Until she untied him, he was at her mercy and needed to choose his words carefully.
    He turned his thoughts to the mission. “If I’ve been here a day, that means that today is—”
    “Friday, December twenty-first.”
    “Yeah, 2012,” he added, realizing that the first window of opportunity to change the past was fast approaching. His other self and Drew would soon be prepping to run the antigravity experiment in their lab tonight. “I really need to go. I can’t be here right now.”
    “You’re not going anywhere with that knee.”
    “Look, I appreciate the concern, but I have something important I need to do. Lives depend on it.”
    “I’m sorry, but it’ll have to wait.”
    He was trapped, with no leverage to debate the issue. A super-hot Asian chick had him strapped to a table and was performing Zen-level voodoo crap on his knee. He needed to know more about her. Was he at the mercy of some wacko, or was she really trying to help?
    “Am I a prisoner?”
    “No, but if you leave now, you run the risk of a serious infection, and I can’t allow that. I know you said lives are at stake, and even if that’s true, you need to rest and let yourself heal. You can’t help anyone right now, not until you’re better. Then we’ll talk about what comes next.”
    Lucas let his head drop back to the table, exhaling. “This is unbelievable.”
    “Patience,” she said. “Let the medicine work. It won’t take long.”
    “What type of treatment is this?”
    “One designed for a snakebite. Once the healing medicine has been ignited, it works its way down through the needles and into your immune system, releasing powerful antibodies and other healing magic.”
    “Sounds like antivenom. Or should I say, magic antivenom.”
    “Something like that. Now relax. You’ll be able to free climb in a few days, once the swelling dissipates.”
    Free climb? Where did she get that from? Lucas thought about it for a moment, then remembered what he was wearing when he fell off the cliff. The Smart Skin Suit might look like some type of uniform to her. Possibly even mountain climber’s garb. She must have undressed him while he was unconscious and slipped on the white robe he was wearing.
    “Where was I when you found me?”
    “Under a stand of scrub oak, in a dry wash near the edge of a cliff. Not far from the Catalina Mountains. You were pretty dehydrated.”
    “And my clothes?”
    She pointed to the left. “I’ve never seen a climbing suit like that before.”
    He could see the gold and black material hanging over a chair. “Can I see it?”
    She went to the chair and returned with the suit in her hands. She held it up, just beyond the blaze of the needle balls. There was a section missing from the right knee.
    “What happened to it?”
    “I had to cut a chunk of it off in order to treat you.”
    “It’s ruined,” Lucas said, realizing that he wasn’t going to be able to return home, not without the nano-wire circuitry intact. The suit wouldn’t be able