The Bureau of Time (12 page)

Shaun opened fire, the gunshots deafening in the close confines of the room. Cassie’s ears rang and the muzzle flash blinded her. Courage deserted her, replaced with sheer terror. She stumbled backward, her heart threatening to burst out of her ribcage. Through the red haze dancing before her eyes she saw the Adjusters snarling, knives slashing through the air. Shaun retreated, his mouth opened in a shout that was lost in the noise of the raging battle.

Inky blood splashed against the concrete walls; silver flashed through the air, then a bright arc of red and Shaun cried out, his left arm falling limp. A lightning bolt shot through the back of Cassie’s mind, her Affinity responding to his pain.

The electric shock cut through her fear, and she brought her gun around, aiming at the nearest Adjuster.

The monster turned to face her, its uniform embroidered with white threads, a strange symbol on its shoulder – it looked like a rook from a chess set. Cassie squeezed the trigger and flinched, readying herself for the gunshot and the recoil.

Nothing happened.

The Adjuster’s mouth opened into a cruel smile.
The safety’s still on.
Cassie fumbled with the handgun, stumbling backward in the small room, trying to buy herself time. There was a blur of movement and Shaun slammed into the monster, the pair of them going down in a flurry of fists.

Shaun’s carbine clattered away into the corner, beyond his reach. The Timewalker struggled, now on his back, the Adjuster pinning his arms with its knees, trying to force its blade down onto his throat.

“
Shoot!
” he bellowed, looking at Cassie, his eyes wide with fear. “Shoot, pull the trigger!
Now!
”

She froze. She was paralyzed, watching the fight like an outsider seeing through somebody else’s eyes. It was just her, Shaun and the Adjuster – the other monsters had already been vanquished, nothing left of them except their blades and their black bloodstains.

Shoot,
she told herself.
Squeeze the trigger. It’s that simple.

“
Shoot!
” Shaun roared, his voice breaking. He slammed his knees into the Adjuster, trying to push the creature away, but it held on tightly. Shaun’s arms were streaked with rivers of blood, soaking into the tattered remains of his fatigues.

Why can’t I shoot? I should kill the Adjuster. If I don’t shoot, Shaun will die. It’s simple.

She
wanted
to shoot, but she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t pull the trigger. The Adjusters were not human – the Bureau had told her that. She shouldn’t feel bad for killing these monsters. They looked human, but they were not. They were inhuman beasts that had hunted Timewalkers for years, shadows that had stalked her and ruined her life.

So if she knew all of that, why was it so hard to pull the trigger?

“Cassie! What are you waiting for?!”

A gunshot cut through the air, a single bullet. But Cassie hadn’t fired.

The Adjuster tumbled sideways, a hole blown through its skull. The creature crumpled into a maelstrom of darkness and vanished from the world. Natalie Hunt stood in the doorway, smoke rising from the barrel of her Glock. She lowered the weapon, her face grim.

Shaun let out a shaky sigh and slid down the wall, groaning. He kept his eyes low, ignoring Cassie. She stood there, frozen, looking at the gun in her hand. She hadn’t fired. Shaun had almost died, and she hadn’t helped him.

What’s wrong with me?

He spat blood onto the ground, a ripple of T.E. coursing through the universe as he Timewalked his injuries. The jagged cuts on his arms faded into white scars, leaving a mottled patchwork of red and black blood smeared across his skin.

“Is everyone okay?” Natalie asked, stepping into the room, her boots scattering the expended bullet casings.

“Fine,” Shaun snapped. He pushed himself upright and retrieved his gun. He ejected the spent magazine and slammed in a new one, racking the first bullet. “We need to regroup.”

As if on cue, Ryan and the Captain came running into the room, their eyes widening at the carnage.

“What happened?” Tallon demanded. “Adjuster attack?”

“Three of them,” Shaun replied, wiping his mouth. He deliberately avoided Cassie’s gaze as Clockwork Unit left the Holding Cells. “That wasn’t the Temporal Spike we were looking for though.”

“How do you know?” Tallon asked, his eyes narrowing.

“I can
feel
it. I think those Adjusters were scouting out the Spike, like we were.”

Shaun stooped to pick up a discarded piece of paper, angling his tactical light over the page. “What is this, Captain? Why is this talking about Timewalkers?”

Tallon glanced at the yellowed page. “I don’t know. I’ve never heard of White Tower before.”

His tone was short and clipped, more abrupt than his usual drawl. Dark, contrasting shadows threw his features into a contorted mask, but for a brief moment, Cassie could have sworn that Tallon was lying.

“Come on,” Ryan said, hefting his rifle higher. “I don’t like this place. We need to get out of here.”

“Not until we identify whatever caused the Spike,” Tallon countered, leading Clockwork Unit out of the Holding Cells. They made their way back up the sloping corridor toward the first, largest area.

“We need to call the attack in,” Natalie pointed out, from the middle of the procession.

“We can’t reach Eaglepoint from underground,” Ryan reminded her. “We have to get back to the surface.”

The conversation passed over Cassie’s head without making an impact. Her hands shook uncontrollably, and the handgun trembled in her grasp. Her head buzzed with adrenaline and shock, her thoughts gone haywire.

I didn’t shoot. Shaun almost died, because of me.

Clockwork emerged into the open room, where dried bloodstains coated the walls. Shaun stopped at an upturned desk, rifling through the drawers.

“Briars, what are you doing?” Tallon asked, halting in the middle of the room.

Shaun seized a stack of paperwork from another desk, his tactical light dancing over the wall.

“It said
Timewalker!
” he shouted, kicking a chair aside and breaking the wooden leg. “I don’t know what this place is, but it has
something
to do with Timewalkers – with
us!
”

Cassie stood in the doorway, shivering in the cold air. It felt far colder than it had before. Goosebumps ran along her arms, and her teeth chattered. Her breath came out as a white cloud.

Then she saw the snowflakes curling through the air.

It only took her a moment longer to realize that the buzzing in her head was from her Affinity.

She opened her mouth to shout a warning, and at the same moment, Shaun cried out and staggered forward, clutching his head. The others turned around, their weapons instinctively up at shoulder level. The world flickered like a television changing channel, and a rush of Temporal Energy rippled through the universe.

Intense pain shot through her skull and she collapsed to her knees, but instead of hitting rough concrete, she sank into a foot of snow. She sucked in a startled gasp, the frigid air burning her throat and leaving her with a taste like ash in her mouth. A pale light turned the world gray, and a bitter wind tugged at her clothes.

The factory had vanished.

She kneeled in the snow, the roof open to the sky – a sky covered in thick gray clouds. Where the cement factory should have been, there was a ruined building of glass and steel. Windows were smashed and black smoke billowed toward the heavens, carrying with it embers and the stink of death.

The ceiling immediately above Cassie had been caved in at some point –
no, destroyed.
Chunks of concrete and broken solar panels were submerged in the snow, and a large slab of the roof was angled against the wall, forming a makeshift ramp.

She blinked, and a man stood before her.

She fumbled in the snow for her handgun, for
anything
to defend herself with. Her right hand closed on a shard of glass, slicing through her skin. Crimson blood stained the snow as she pushed herself against a wall.

The man looked to be somewhere in his late twenties, with greasy black hair and thin-framed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. He wore a jet-black suit that perfectly fitted his narrow shoulders and complemented his olive complexion. He fixed Cassie with a penetrating glare, his eyes an unnaturally bright shade of green. T.E. rolled off his body, vibrating through the air. Bright anomalies flickered in and out of existence, shards of light that appeared for a moment then vanished a second later.

“You shouldn’t be here,” the man said. His voice was deep and powerful. “There are some things best left unknown. White Tower is one of them.”

Cassie was shocked into silence, her mind whirling.
Where am I? Where is everyone?

The man’s head whipped around and he stared at a closed door in the underground room. His entire body flickered, as though he wasn’t actually there. For a brief moment, he looked shorter and far older, in his sixties. Then the moment passed, and he was young again, his face paler now. “They’re coming. You do not have long.”

He turned his piercing gaze on her again. “Your friend is buried in the snow, twenty yards from the surface.” He pointed up the makeshift concrete ramp. “This Bridge is highly unstable. You will return to your universe soon.”

Loud noises – shouting and crashing – came from the closed door. The man in the suit turned to walk away, brushing snow from his shoulders.

“Wait!” Cassie cried. She tried to push herself up, but her injured hand gave out and she fell on her side. There was another ripple through the universe, and the stranger disappeared, leaving no trace of his existence. The crashing grew louder, and the door shuddered dangerously – someone was trying to break it down.

Desperation and fear seized her, and she used her good hand to struggle upright. She tripped, then regained her balance, and hurried up the slope.

Aboveground, ash and smoke mixed in the air, forming a toxic cloud. Cassie coughed, her lungs rejecting the choking smog. Around her was nothing but rolling countryside, submerged in snow and ash. The skeletal remains of military tanks dotted the landscape, black crows perched on the mounted guns. The birds let out a mournful cry and took to the skies in a flurry of feathers.

“Shaun?” Cassie yelled, not caring who heard her. “Shaun?!”

She started digging in the snow, panic setting in. She heard a resounding crash from behind her, the door finally giving out. Her injured hand left a ribbon of pink as she searched for Shaun, her desperation growing with every passing second. She felt something solid and warm beneath the surface just as the Adjusters teleported into existence. The explosions of light reflected off the white snow, blinding her, but she held onto Shaun’s arm, trying to tug him out of the frozen grave.

The faceless assassins snarled at her, red sashes tied around their arms. They formed a circle around her, waxy hands gripping the hourglass-shaped handles of their knives. Cassie threw all of her strength into one mighty heave, and Shaun breached the surface, his slate-gray eyes shooting open.

“HEY!”

A voice rang out across the snow, and Cassie whipped around to see three people struggle up the slope. They were human, wearing gas masks and thick fur-lined coats. Weapons hung off their clothes, and they wore the same red sash as the Adjusters. The leading figure shouted behind himself again: “Hey! Marissa, get over here!”

Then Shaun was on his feet, coughing and spluttering, his handgun drawn. He grabbed Cassie and pulled her close to him, wrapping one arm around her. A flood of Temporal Energy coursed through his body and into hers, and she felt her hand knit together, the cut fading into a white scar.

“Stay back!” Shaun roared, turning in a circle, pointing his handgun at the Adjusters. “Get
back!
”

They were outnumbered – Cassie knew that, and Shaun must have too. She felt his heartbeat thundering, his chest rising and falling rapidly. The other humans approached, strange-looking assault rifles pointed at the Timewalkers. Behind them came a young woman without a gas mask. She looked young, perhaps in her late teens or early twenties, and her raven-colored hair streamed behind her back. Her skin was pale and her expression severe, matching her sharply angled eyebrows.

“Marissa!” One of the men addressed the black-haired girl. “Look what we found – I think they came from that Spike!”

“
Hey!
” Shaun roared, pointing his gun at the others. “I said
back the hell off!”

“You don’t scare us, little boy,” the woman called Marissa drawled. Her voice carried a distinctive Russian accent. She sauntered forward as though she was on a catwalk, not in the middle of hellish landscape of ash and snow. “There are too many of us, too few of you. Put your weapon down before somebody gets hurts.”

Cassie gripped Shaun tighter, praying against all logic and hope that something, somehow, would save them.

And though she would never have called herself a religious believer – something her father had long criticized her for – her prayer was heard, and salvation delivered. A ripple of Temporal Energy coursed through the world, and everything flickered uncertainly.

Marissa’s cocky expression vanished and she let out a vicious snarl. “They’re going to disappear!
Get them!
”

Her men were too slow to react, and the Adjusters were backpedaling, mewling like injured cats. The world flickered again, a bright light swept across the horizon, enveloping Cassie and Shaun. She squeezed her eyes shut—

—and suddenly they weren’t standing in the snow.

Cassie stumbled forward, her knees weak. A strong hand grabbed her arm and kept her upright – Captain Clay from Blackforest Unit. The massive man towered over her, his unit of ex-Marines crowding around them both.

“Holy shit,” one of the operators exclaimed. “You saw that, right? They just…appeared outta’ nowhere.”

They were outside the cement factory.

The ground was grassy and wet beneath her feet, and it was starting to rain. The glass-and-steel building was gone, its place taken by the crumbling remains of the abandoned factory. The Adjusters, the other humans, and the man in the black suit were all gone, and where the decaying tanks had been, there was just the carpark and the Bureau’s helicopters.