The Time Travel Chronicles Read Free Page B

past-self,” I said, leading Abi down a wide corridor jammed wall-to-wall with filing cabinets and administrative assistants bustling about with the sort of lackadaisical enthusiasm only mind-numbing paperwork can inspire. “So in one timeline I flicked your ear. Your body didn’t like that and released a burst of tachyons, transporting your mind back before the assault, which is why you ducked the second time. You knew it was coming because you remembered it. Same goes for the pain; you always remember the pain.”
    “That’s dumb. What’s the point of blinking if you still get hurt?”
    “Time heals all wounds,” I said, navigating the labyrinthine maze of halls and administrative office space. “You ever stubbed a toe?”
    Abi grinned. “Nope.”
    Oh yeah, déjà vu. Lucky.
    “Well, trust me, it hurts worse than childbirth.”
    “You have a kid?” she asked with surprise.
    “No, that’s hyperbole. I’m trying to make a point.”
    “Oh.”
    I stopped at a pair of thick, blast-proof steel doors. “Anyways, the memory of pain isn’t quite the same thing as pain itself. It still hurts, but time dulls the edge.”
    “Uh huh.” Abi nodded absently, her mind thoroughly absorbed by the imposing doors.
    “And that’s blinking in a nutshell,” I said, waving my personnel badge across a security sensor. A red light blinked twice before turning green. The doors slid open and a mechanical voice filled the hall, “Welcome, Agent Kaelyn Kwon.”
     
     
    Chapter Three
     
    NOW
     
     
    “Did you ladies see that?” Maddix said, trotting over to where Zoe and I had landed, his rifle clutched in one hand while he gesticulated madly with the other to where his discarded parachute flapped like a plastic bag in the breeze. “I nailed the landing!”
    I fumbled at the chest straps tethering me to my own nylon jellyfish with shaky fingers; adrenaline-soaked muscles aren’t ideal for tasks requiring fine motor skills.
    “Also worth noting,” Zoe said, already free of her chute, “is the fact that you didn’t get shot this time.”
    Maddix’s scowl ruined his pretty boy looks. “You wound me.”
    “Nope, you can thank the bad guys and their bullets for that,” Zoe said.
    “Speaking of the bad guys,” I said, finally splitting on semi-amicable terms with my parachute. “You’re up, Maddix. Shake a leg.”
    Maddix sighed and rolled his neck, the corded muscles around his throat bulged as vertebrae popped. “Ya know, charging straight into enemy territory is probably the reason I get shot so often.”
    “Somebody’s got to take one for the team,” I said.
    “And we love you for it,” Zoe added.
    “You’d better.” Maddix smiled and said to me, “Start the timer.” And then he fast-forwarded through time and space, disappearing in a blur of color that kicked up a stiff breeze and tugged me forward half a step.
    My guts were kinked into impossibly tight coils. Maddix liked to play it cool, but we all knew how much was at stake. Haven was Crask’s headquarters, home to hundreds of his fanatical chrono-gifted soldiers. Men and women he’d brainwashed into believing they were God’s chosen.
    After putting Jiang Jintao atop the Chinese throne four years earlier, Crask had set up his base of operations in the air over Hong Kong, effectively putting him out of Central’s reach while fighting holy wars around the world to the highest bidder.
    Crask was the leader of his own religious movement, but he was first and foremost a businessman.
    Our presence on Haven could spark a war, but Crask had taken one of our own and, consequences be damned, we were going to get her back.
    Eleven seconds after he’d left, Maddix’s voice crackled through my radio-piece. “Oh god, this place is enormous. This is gonna take forever.”
    “Quit complaining. It’s not like you’ll remember any of it,” Zoe said, keeping her rifle sighted on the stairs, ready for any soldiers with more bravery than common sense to