The Children Who Time Lost (52 page)

“In position,” Doug said.

“Okay,” Curtis said. “I’ll send him to you.” I listened for a few seconds before hearing Curtis speak to someone I assumed was the guard he was stationed with, by the kitchen. “Did you hear that?” he said.

“No, I didn’t hear anything,” the other person said.

“You go check it out,” Curtis said. “I’ll wait here.” Only silence came back. “He’s coming to you,” Curtis said to Doug a few seconds later.

The screen beeped. I looked to see a green light scroll up and down like a scanner. Carrie’s thumbprint was accepted. She leaned forward and placed her left eye by the reader. Just then, I heard more scuffling noises through the earpiece and then silence.

“The guard’s down,” I heard Doug say.

“On my way,” Curtis said.

The screen beeped again, and the door clicked open. Identification was complete. Carrie stepped in and stood by the door. I remained where I was.

“You coming?” she said.

It wasn’t time yet. We were ahead of schedule.

“Guys,” I heard Michael say through the earpiece, “how are we looking? Rachel needs to go in now. Are you in position?”

“Two minutes,” Doug said. “I’m changing into the guard’s uniform now.”

“Are you coming?” Carrie repeated.

“Go in now, Rachel,” Michael said. “Otherwise, she’ll suspect something. Just say anything to her until Doug’s ready.”

I smiled and walked in. I saw the guard fold his arms and turn around before the door shut. The room was large and quite contemporary in design. The walls were white like the rest of the house, with plenty of mahogany bookshelves. The coffee table was metallic, and the rug was Persian. The room carried a strong vanilla smell, like her perfume. I glanced toward an enclosed section where her bedroom probably was.

Carrie walked to a liquor cabinet in a corner of the room and grabbed a bottle of vodka. She set two glasses on the table and filled them halfway.

“How do you take yours?” she asked.

“I don’t drink.”

She frowned.

“Take a drink,” Michael said. “Use it to kill time.”

“On second thought, I’ll have one neat.”

She dropped the bottle onto the table and brought the glass to me. Then she took a gulp from hers, leaving only a third left in the glass. I took a much smaller swig and grimaced, fighting the urge to cough. I only drank wine. My body didn’t agree with spirits.

I set the glass on the table and walked around the room. “You’ve got a beautiful home.”

“I don’t know where your son is, Rachel,” she said.

Where are you, Doug?
I smiled at her and continued looking at the many paintings on the walls. I couldn’t get straight to the point. I was still at a disadvantage. “You’re a bad liar, Carrie.” I stopped and stared at her. “The man who took him works for you.”

She sighed and looked away. I continued walking around the room. She slammed her glass on the table. “What’s your game, Rachel? What is this really about?”

I faced her and hardened my face. “I’ve already told you. I want my—”

“Enough of this nonsense. Please. You obviously know who I really am, so stop pretending. I know what you’ve been up to since you escaped from your apartment in 2043. I also know you paid a visit to the facility in Sacramento.”

“But we got nothing,” I said. “And you made sure all the evidence was wiped out by blowing it up.” I moved closer to her. “How in God’s name do you people cover all these things up?”

She smiled and paced around me. “Stop playing the fool, Rachel. It doesn’t suit you.” She stamped her feet on the floor. “Now tell me what this is all about.”

I swallowed and just stared at her, wanting to ask Doug where he was.

“Keep talking,” Michael said. “Doug, we really need you there now or Carrie will break her.”

“On my way now,” Doug said.

“Okay,” I said. “You want to know what this is about? I want my son back.”

She nodded.

“And I want the children. All of them.”
Please, let her buy it.

She frowned at me. “The children? What’re you talking about?”

“You know who I mean. The children who time lost. I know they’re alive. And you’re going to tell me where they are.”

She gave me a confused look. But then it appeared to hit her. She sniggered and coughed, as if in hysterics. “I understand you wanting to save Dylan, but you want me to believe that everything you’ve been doing was also to save a bunch of children you don’t even know? Children that aren’t even human?”

I nodded. “They’re innocent. What you did to them and the mothers was wrong.”

“And what about Dylan?”

I clenched my fists. “What about him?”

“You ever wonder if he was human?”

I hissed and moved forward.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Rachel,” Michael said through the earpiece. “Remember, she can kill you in seconds.”

I paused and rubbed my nose. “What’re you saying?” I said to Carrie. “Is he one of you?”

“And if he was?”

“He’s still my son. Human or Shrinik, he can’t help what he is, just like the other children.”

She threw back her head and laughed. When she stopped, a broad smile lingered on her face. “You know, for a minute there I almost bought it. You caring for Shriniks like they were just normal children.”

I just stared at her without speaking.

“Stop with the lies, Rachel.” She walked forward, anger now on her face. “I know exactly why you’re here.” Her voice took on a nasty tone. “You want the journal.”

I swallowed. I had to give her something else to throw her off the scent. “I don’t know about any journal, but I’ll do a trade with you.”

She laughed and folded her arms. “I’m listening.”

“Tell me where my son and the rest of the children are and in return I’ll give you information you’re dying to have.”

Carrie cocked her head and studied me. “I’m curious now. What could you possibly know that I’d even care about?”

I took a step forward. “What if I could give you the name of a rogue traveler in your inner circle? Someone you trust.”

She lowered her hands and seemed to shudder. “How do you—”

I held my hands out. “I know more than you think. But first, do we have a deal?”

She gulped down her drink and sighed. Then she folded her arms again. “No. No deal.”

Although my ploy had been in the interest of time, I thought she’d genuinely want to know about a rogue traveler working right under her nose. Unless we were completely wrong in our assumption that it was Jarrod. Or maybe she already knew who it was and was handling it her own way. I gave her a confused look, hoping she wouldn’t see how false it was.

“Don’t give me that look.” She lowered her arms again and stepped forward, this time with more urgency. “You think we don’t know where you’re getting your information? You think we don’t know you’re working with Curtis? At first we thought something had happened to him. We even thought your pathetic team might have killed him. But then we started hearing that you all escaped our guards at the facility because one of us turned and fought for you. Who else could it be but Curtis?”

I just stood there, not speaking. She moved closer to me.

“Doug,” Michael said through the earpiece, “we need you in there right now.”

“Twenty seconds,” Doug said.

“She might not have twenty seconds.”

I backed toward the door with each step Carrie took.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.

“Don’t lie to me,” she roared. “If you know about the rogue travelers, Curtis must be with you, which means you know about the journal. And you obviously know it’s in here somewhere. But what I wanna know is how you plan to get it. The only person who can open it is…” Her eyes widened as if she had just realized what we were planning and why I’d insisted we meet in her room. She gasped. “How could I have been so stupid? You—”

The door slammed open. The guard who had been outside was on the floor. Carrie staggered back and a bright white light surrounded her head.

“She’s changing,” I shouted.

Doug ran into the room and fired a tranquilizer dart into her chest. Carrie grimaced and dropped to the floor. Then the light around her head faded.

I sighed and squatted. “About damn time,” I said.

Doug shrugged. “What? I had to make sure no one saw me.”

“Is she down?” Michael said.

Doug rolled Carrie onto her back. “She’s out.”

“Remember,” Curtis said, “you need to tie her hands and legs as tight as you can to stop her from changing.”

“Got it.” Doug pulled thick rope from the black bag over his shoulder and bound Carrie’s arms and legs. Then he pulled the downed guard into the room. After binding his hands and feet together, Doug gagged him with duct tape.

The guard’s radio crackled. Then a voice came through. “Everything okay in there?” It sounded like Lorenzo’s voice.

Doug picked up the radio and deepened his voice. “Everything okay here.”

“Roger that,” Lorenzo came back.

Doug put the radio into his pocket. “I’ve got to go back or they’ll miss me.”

I looked at him in shock. “No one told me that. You mean I have to do this on my own?”

“We’ll be right here,” Michael said.

“But that wasn’t part of the plan,” I said. No one said anything. “Why didn’t you guys tell me?”

“Because we knew you wouldn’t go with it,” Michael said.

I grimaced and squatted again.

“Doug,” Michael said, “I think your boss is looking for you. You need to get back to the bar now.”

Doug nodded toward the guard. “I’ll answer any calls on his radio that come through.” He took the blazer off and grabbed his vest from the bag. After putting it on, he handed me the Glock he’d probably taken from the guard he’d knocked out earlier with Curtis. He ran out and shut the door.

I walked around the room, eyeing the downed guard and Carrie.
You can do this, Rachel. You’re so close now.
I sat in the chair behind the study table and waited, praying no one would come looking for Carrie. All it would take was for Lorenzo to suspect that the voice he was hearing on the radio was an impostor’s. Carrie’s laptop made a beeping sound. I leaned forward and flipped the screen open. I saw a number of names on the left side of the screen, but none of them were familiar. I focused on the first name on the list: Joshua Franks. To the right were four radio buttons marked “age,” “sex,” “year” and “status.” I clicked on the first two. Joshua was male and three years old. Then I clicked on the “year” button and 2050 popped up. I waited a moment before clicking on “status,” but nothing happened. I clicked it again and again before the screen went blank. I just waited. Then the spreadsheet reappeared, except this time, beside the “status” button for Joshua Franks, was the word
deceased
.

I shuddered and went through more of the names. The years varied, but everything was after 2022. It must have been children won as part of the Lotto. Michael and Curtis called out to me a few times, but I ignored them. When I was twenty rows down on the spreadsheet, most of the statuses had read “deceased.” Why were there so many dead children? Was it acclimatization issues? It couldn’t be. These babies were human. Or were they? I continued going through the names, skipping over a few. Then I saw Dylan Galloway in Row 80. I quivered and took my hands away from the mouse and keyboard. I sat there and stared at the screen. This was the moment I’d been waiting for since I came to 2013. I was about to get information on Dylan. But was I ready for the truth? I leaned forward and moved the cursor over Dylan’s name. Then I heard moaning to my right. Carrie was waking up.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

“R
achel,” Michael said through the headset, “you okay?”

I ignored him and kept the cursor over the “status” button beside Dylan’s name. I heard more moaning from Carrie but didn’t look at her. Michael called out to me again, and Doug did the same moments later, but I didn’t respond. I ruffled my hair and moved to press the button on the mouse, but my eyes drifted ten rows down. A child’s name wasn’t written this time. Instead, the entry said “Children of 2022.” I stared at it for a second and then it hit me. It had to be the children time had lost. It was the only entry of 2022 and it didn’t have a name. I clicked the “status” button and the screen didn’t freeze this time. A new screen opened with seven rows, each containing numbers listed in ascending order, starting at one. It had all the same radio buttons that had been on the previous screen. The children were all from ages three to five and a combination of male and female. The year was 2022 for all of them. I now had no doubt that these were the children Sophie had begged us to save with her dying breath.

I heard Carrie tug against the rope that bound her hands. “I should have seen this coming,” she said with disgust.

I ignored her and remained focused on the screen.

“What’re you doing?” she said.

I turned and saw her glaring at me. Michael called out to me again, but I didn’t answer. I twisted my head back and pushed the “status” button. Every entry came back as deceased. I gasped and lurched backward. My chest tightened.