Extracted (30 page)

“Whoa!” I yell, jumping back from the window and pointing at it. “There’s something swimming around in there.”

“Lemme see,” Stein says, pushing past me. She cups her hands around her eyes and leans up against the window. “I don’t see—holy cow!” She jumps back, pointing to the tank. “It’s like a huge electric eel. Is that his sick idea of a pet?”

I shrug. We exchange an eww face before walking over to the sitting area in the far right corner. The ornate Oriental rug is the only thing separating this space from the rest of the lab. The lounge area has two leather chairs and a small table holding a large gas lamp between them. The chairs are so well-worn I can see the butt imprint in the seat cushion. Carefully, I light the lamp so we have a better view of the books on the shelves. Some are so old the names have worn off the spines, and others are leather-bound notebooks stuffed haphazardly with papers.

I start on one end, and Stein starts on the other. Carefully we pull each book out, open it, and stuff it back in place.

“All these are boring lab notes,” Stein says after a few minutes. “I can’t understand even a tenth of what is written in these things.”

“Lucky you.” I hold the journal up in my hands. “I think I stumbled on the insane ramblings section.”

“Nice.”

I sigh and shove it back on the shelf, then grab the next book. It pulls the book next to it as well and they both fall to the floor, pages flying everywhere. Stein puts her book back and comes over to help me.

The larger of the two books is a handwritten journal. And it’s fallen open to a page with a rough sketch of something that looks a lot like the Dox.

“Wait, this might be it,” I say, folding myself into a sitting position as Stein continues cleaning up the mess.

I flip a few more pages. Not what I was hoping for. “This might be the early notes, but the actual Dox designs aren’t in here. This looks like something from before, an early draft, maybe.”

I look over. Stein is shoving the fallen notebook into the pocket of her leather coat.

“Stein,” I say. I’m all set to warn her about stealing from this library, to remind her about the consequences of altering the past, but the look on her face stops me short. She looks paler than usual, and a slight sheen of sweat has broken out across her forehead.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

She shakes her head and stands up, squaring her shoulders. “Nothing a nice frontal lobotomy won’t cure. Come on, let’s get this finished.”

Above us, a door slams. “Hello?” a man calls out in a thick British accent.

Inside the stream, something is churning. Normally, the time stream only moves in one direction—forward—and we are either swimming with it or against it. This is different. I’m rolling helplessly end over end, as if I’m being beaten against the rocks in a churning sea. I can’t get my bearings. There is no backward or forward, just the relentless rolling. My stomach pitches, threatening to lose its contents. It’s all I can do to keep them down. I feel something damp rolling down my neck. Reaching up, I touch it, then bring my hand to my ear, and open my eyes just long enough to see that the tips of my fingers are covered in blood. I’m bleeding from my ear.

I’m on the verge of hysteria. This shouldn’t be happening. None of this makes sense. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. I scream, but no sound comes out. All I can hear is the wind rushing past my ears.

Something slams into me and I stumble back, landing on a hard, wet surface. I lie there for a while, just trying to breathe. When the dizziness eventually fades, I blink and look up to see Ethan standing over me. He’s panting, and sweat has soaked through his shirt. Nobel is on his knees next to me in the grass outside the Tower.

“Lex, can you hear me?”

There is a loud ringing in my ears, but I can just make out the sound of his voice.

“Yeah. Sort of.” My hand smacks the side of my head, but it only makes the ringing worse.

“I think you blew an eardrum, but you’ll be fine.” He looks to Ethan who, I notice, has a similar trickle of blood leaking from his nose. “What happened?”

Ethan’s still panting, so I answer. “There’s something really wrong with the stream. Are Ember and Stein back yet?”

Nobel shakes his head. Ethan falls to his knees, closing his eyes as he pulls patches of grass into his fists. I don’t know if he’s praying or just sick, but I close my eyes and say a prayer. They are going to need all the help they can get.

“We need to make a decision here. Do we take him out or hide from him?” I whisper.

“I say we take him out,” Stein decides, the smile returning to her face. It’s as if hitting something will make her feel better.

“We can’t risk being seen by Flynn or Catherine,” I remind her gently. “Or alerting Tesla to our presence here.”

“Yes, Mom,” she agrees, looking only too eager to kick the living crap out of whoever it is.

“We’ll take out whoever it is as quickly and quietly as possible. Then we’ll stuff him in that broom closet.”

We wait behind the large steel vat at the base of the stairs. I’m pretty content to let Stein have her way with the poor guy. Better his face than mine.

Sure enough, a single, unsuspecting grunt lumbers down the stairs. I can tell immediately that it isn’t Tesla, Flynn, or Catherine. He’s too thick, too tall, and too heavy. Stein steps out calmly.

“Hey, over here.”

He turns and she roundhouse kicks him in the face, knocking him on his back. Not letting up, she kicks out again, catching him in the side and sending him rolling across the wood floor. I leap out, roll him over, and jump onto his back, hog-tying him with a coil of wire I found behind the tank. Stein moves in for the final blow.

“Wait, don’t knock him all the way out,” I say, a slight tremble in my voice from adrenaline. “Maybe he knows where the Dox is.”

We roll the frightened lab assistant onto his back. Stein slaps him in the face until his eyes fly open. He struggles, but the wires hold him tightly. He is easily six foot six, broad-shouldered, with dark, straight hair pulled back into a ponytail at the base of his neck and dark-brown muttonchops adorning his cheeks despite the fact that he’s probably only in his twenties. He’s in a brown vest, dark pants, and a dirty lab coat. He could be Nobel’s long-lost twin—or a janitor. Whichever.

He stops struggling and sits there with his head down—like a kid who has just been caught with his hand in a cookie jar.

“We aren’t going to hurt you,” I say.

“Hey! Do you know where the Dox is?” Stein demands, slapping him again. I pull her hand away.

“Well, we aren’t going to hurt you more. We just need the Dox. Then we will leave.”

Stein throws her hands in the air. “This is nuts. We should just toss him in the vat of electric snakes and find it ourselves.”

When she moves, I see his eyes flicker with recognition. Surprise spreads across his face like a light going on. I look at her, then back to him, sure I’ve never seen this person in my entire life.

Catching her eye I mouth, “Do you know him?” and nod in his direction. She shakes her head.

“I think so,” he says finally. “I can show you.”

I hesitate, debating Stein’s suggestion about dropping him in the eel tank. Part of me thinks she’s right, that it might be the smart thing to do, but I can’t bring myself to do it. Besides, we need the Dox. Time is running out, and whatever damage we’ve caused being caught by this guy, well, that’s a problem for another day.

“All right, then. Show us,” I say. I unwind the coils of wire but watch him carefully. He doesn’t take his eyes off Stein, which is more than a little unsettling. My muscles are tense. Every nerve in my body is on high alert, just waiting for him to try something.

He leads us over to a set of tall electrodes at the far left side of the lab. Without hesitating, he walks between them. A storm of lightning sparks through the room, but he doesn’t hesitate. I cringe. I’m positive I hear Stein gasp, but nothing happens to him. He kneels down on the ground and twists a latch hidden in the floor. With all his might, he heaves a large floor panel open. Holding up the hinged trap door with his knee, he waves us in.

We carefully walk through the veil of lightning bolts emitting from the Tesla coils. They make the hair on my arms and head stand out but never directly strike us. It kind of feels like swimming in a pool of toothless piranhas.

The stranger is the first one to climb down into the pit while I hold the trap door. When we reach the bottom, he helps me off the ladder by holding out his hand. Stein just glares at him. She doesn’t trust him. He doesn’t say much. He doesn’t have to say much. With a sweep of his arm, he gestures around the room as if to show off his prized possessions. The shelves are wooden and completely makeshift. They hold many items that look intriguing, but I figure, since I have no idea how to use the one item we came for, I should probably leave the other tech untouched.

I scan the room. Stein is standing at the bottom of the stairs, her arms folded across her chest, just waiting for the stranger to make a wrong move. Displayed among Tesla’s other crazy inventions is the last remaining Dox. Only it isn’t the last. There are two. One completely assembled, and one still in pieces. Sitting next to them is a leather-bound lab notebook. Rushing to it like a kid on Christmas morning, I quickly flip through its pages. The directions for using the device are scrawled in Tesla’s handwriting. Tearing an empty page from another book, I swiftly scribble down the instructions, then stuff the book back on the shelf next to the unassembled Dox. I’m about to turn when something else catches my eye. There is a shelf with six rings. Each ring has a small stone affixed to it and copper wire inserted into the stone. I grab one and slip it into my pocket. I’m turning into a Hollow. Stein catches me grinning at the thought.

“What?” I shrug.

Stein slides an identical ring out of her back pocket. “You’re not quite the seasoned time thief I am. Found this one upstairs.”

I can’t hold back the chuckle.

She returns it to her pocket. “I think I’m a bad influence on you.”

I smile. “It’s a Babel Stone ring. A piece of Tesla tech we use.”

“What does it do?”

“It lets the person wearing it speak any language. But mostly, it just reminds me of home.” I frown and tap my pocket.

“Well, I just wanted it because it could cause some wicked damage to someone’s face in a fight.”

“I’m sorry,” the strange man says, “I couldn’t help but overhear. Are you a Rifter?” He takes a step forward, looking at me for probably the first time.

Stein and I exchange a glance. What am I supposed to say?

“Um, yeah. Something like that,” I say, turning away from him so I can shoot Stein a look without him seeing.

“It’s all right,” he says. “I’m a Rifter myself, you see.”

“Great, one of Tesla’s devoted minions,” Stein grumbles.

I turn back to them just in time to see him staring at her like she’d committed the worst kind of blasphemy.

She shifts her weight and squints at him. “What? Do I owe you money or something?”

He reaches out to grab her, but I’m already moving for them. She’s faster, though, and slaps his hand away an instant before nailing him in the face with a right hook that buckles his knees.

“Try to touch me again,” she threatens, “and I’ll rip your arm off and beat you with your own stump.”

“I’m so sorry,” he says, surprisingly calmly. “It’s only, you remind me of someone.”

I stare him down, trying to decide if I should knock him out cold before we leave. My hand twitches. The idea has its merits.

He holds up his hands, looking completely apologetic. “Please. I won’t tell anyone I saw you. If anyone asks, I’ll tell them I broke the Dox while I was cleaning and threw the pieces away.”

Stein narrows her eyes. “Why would you cover for us?”

He looks from her to me, as if the answer was obvious. His brown eyes are sincere when he says, “Because we are Rifters. We are family, are we not?”

I realize he’s talking about something more than our common genetic ancestors. It’s like being at the Institute or being a Hollow. We’ve become family. A big, insane, dysfunctional family that sometimes tries to kill each other.

I pass the Dox to Stein and hold my hand out to the stranger, helping him to his feet.

“Yeah. I suppose we are. Thanks for your help, whoever you are.”

He shakes my hand fervently and says, “My name is Lenard Claymore, and you are very welcome.”

Behind me, Stein gasps.

It is raining now, and I can’t help but feel like Mother Earth is urinating on the ruins of my home. The charred remains of our beloved Tower sit in a smoky, black heap on the lawn. It’s only a matter of time before that little game of hide and seek with the paradox ends on a bad note. I am afraid that it will catch up to us soon. The bubble of safety that once engulfed the Hollow Tower has failed. I can see it in the distance. A tall barbed wire fence has gone up around the grounds. Judging by the derelict signs hanging from it, it’s been there for some time. I wonder what part of time we have woken up in. Not that it matters now. What’s left is nothing but ruins.

Nobel and Sisson are busy trying to board up the remaining windows. They have already scrubbed any trace of our existence from the rooms inside. A wooden crate with a handful of junk in it is all that’s left now.

It’s hard to focus on anything. My thoughts are jumpy and frayed. I wish the girls would get back already. Knowing they’re safe would really go a long way toward making me feel better right now. The idea of losing them now—I can’t even let myself dwell on the possibility. Beside me, Ethan is carefully picking up chunks of debris and taking them to the bonfire Nobel has built. The wind blows the smoke across the front of the yard. It looks like something out of a horror movie.