Fate (Wilton's Gold #3) (3 page)

“Well, after a few successful missions, you ran.”

“I ran? What does that mean?” He glanced at Fisher again.

Fisher leaned forward. “It means you made an unauthorized trip using one of the time devices – a felony offense.”

“That doesn’t sound like me.”

“It sounds exactly like you,” Fisher said. “After you ran I learned about your little checklist of money-making projects.”

Jeff tried to keep his face expressionless. Fisher was referring to Dexter’s journal of proposed time travel missions – a collection of instances in history where the documentation of the event made them reasonably sure there would be vulnerable treasure for the taking. Apparently, he could rely on some things in this new reality being consistent with his own. Dexter must have turned the book over to them at some point, which was going to complicate things. “That doesn’t mean anything,” he said, though, dismissing Fisher with a shrug. “We scribbled some notes in a diary. We never did anything with them.”

“So it’s coincidence that one of the entries in your ‘diary’ is in the Sierra Nevadas, which is where we originally found your time device?” Fisher asked, his glare piercing through Jeff, who actually couldn’t answer the question because he didn’t know. It could have been coincidence or not – he hadn’t finished his research. Yes, Dexter had meticulously researched and documented one potential mission to travel back to the Gold Rush era and rid a traveler named Joe Wilton of 60 bars of gold in a narrow pass in the Sierra Nevadas, but he’d ultimately been scared off by some cloudy details so they never took the trip. At least, as far as he knew, they never took the trip with the intent of stealing Wilton’s gold.

Jeff shook his head. “Well, I can’t tell you if it’s a coincidence, but I didn’t put it there.” He wasn’t lying – he hadn’t put it there. A mysterious woman had tossed it into the forest. Jeff had seen her do it when he and Dexter, through some slick maneuvering before he headed to Russia, went back in time to investigate. He wasn’t about to divulge this, though, and hoped Dexter hadn’t at any point either. “So I ran. Where did I run?”

“Well, we don’t know,” Dexter said. “One of the flaws in the system. We’d instituted fail safes if one of the participants tried anything during one of the trips. Because the devices are secure at all times, we hadn’t considered the possibility that someone would take a device without being authorized and travel back in time, skirting the background checks.”

“Have to be somebody on the inside,” Jeff said. “I would think I would’ve thought of that.”

“You probably did,” Dexter said. “And then didn’t tell anyone so you could take advantage of the loophole yourself.”

He laughed. “That still doesn’t sound like me.”

“Or, you knew exactly what you were doing the entire time, and left a hole for yourself to take advantage of,” Fisher said.

Jeff ignored him in hopes of having a productive conversation. “So eighteen months ago, I grabbed a device and ran – you don’t know where – and then what? Did you look for me? Did you try to research to figure out where I might’ve gone?”

“It’s a big universe out there,” Dexter said, looking down at the table.

Jeff sat back in his chair and sighed. “Look, Agent Fisher,” he said. “Am I in trouble? Are you going to detain me?”

Fisher looked him in the eyes. “None of this is familiar to you?”

He shook his head. “Not a word of it. There’s obviously something going on here, and I’m more than willing to help you research and figure out what it is. You said, or you insinuated, that you needed my help. I’m
willing
to help… But I’m exhausted. I need a shower and something to eat, and then I need to sleep. I need some clean clothes. I’m not going anywhere. I don’t even have anywhere to go. But if you let me get to a hotel and have a meal, I’ll be back here in the morning ready to take care of whatever it is you need me to take care of. Or, at least do my best.”

Fisher clearly didn’t want to budge, maintaining his glare. Finally, though, Dexter broke the silence. “We can’t afford to just let you go,” he said. “But I understand where you’re coming from. I’ll go with you.” He looked at Fisher. “I’ll go with him.”

“I’m sending surveillance.”

“I don’t know where you think I’m going to go,” Jeff said, but he nodded calmly at Fisher.

The three of them stood and headed toward the exit. Jeff went through the door first, then turned back to them. “Hey, am I the only one who’s ever run?”

Without answering, Dexter closed the door behind them and they headed for the front of the building.

Agent Fisher slammed shut the passenger side door of Dexter’s car, causing the car to jolt. “Geez,” Jeff said. “He’s got issues.”

Dexter looked at his old friend. He’d honestly believed that he would never see him again. It had been a year-and-a-half since he’d received the emergency call that the inner sanctum of the USTP had been breached. Of course, there weren’t many who had access to that part of the building, so the immediate response had been to treat it as an inside job. He remembered racing along I-95 to get to the facility, never imagining it would’ve been Jeff breaking his own code of ethics.

Now here he was, returned from wherever he’d gone. Dexter had believed he had a handle on what Jeff had been up to at the time, with his obsession to find out how his device had ended up in the Sierra Nevadas, but there’d been no way to confirm his suspicions. He’d researched to see if he could find some trace of Jeff’s actions, but as with anything in history, if someone’s existence wasn’t written down somewhere, the chances of it being passed on as historical record were slim. Until he’d gotten a call from Agent Fisher that Jeff had called him from Moscow, he’d dismissed the idea that he would ever resurface at all.

The ride from USTP back to Andrews AFB had been quiet. He guessed that Jeff had been doing his best not to incite Agent Fisher, knowing that he’d have time to sort things out with Dexter after they’d gotten out of the SUV. Now, as he pulled away from the parking lot, he felt comfortable dropping his guard.

“I’m sorry to have surprised you like that,” he said.

“Um... I’m living in a dream world here, Dexter. I have no idea what’s going on.”

“Look, I think you’ve gotten past the first line of questioning there, and that’s good. But you can be up-front with me.” He paused for a moment. “Why did you do it? It was so risky.”

“Dexter, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have missed the past three years,” Jeff said slowly. “I went back in time to 1983, and when I returned I skipped three years into the future. You saw me off when I left. You met me at the airport. You took me back to 1849. You got shot in the leg and I took you to the hospital. Then we went back to the airport and parted ways. That’s the last I’ve seen of you until this morning.”

They pulled past a series of white box buildings, through a set of security gates, and were off the base. The hotel was close by – they weren’t going to allow Jeff to go far. “Let’s get you settled, then we’ll grab something to eat and talk. Alright?” Jeff nodded.

Dexter pulled the car into the parking lot of a Marriott about a mile from the base. He knew there was a burger place inside. As he parked, he noticed a black sedan with darkened windows pull in behind him and settle into a spot in view of the front doors of the building. “They’re worried about you,” he said, motioning over his shoulder with his thumb. “Right behind us.”

“Are you surprised?” Jeff asked. “Apparently, I’m a famous time runner. Is that what they’re called? Because it’s a cool name.” His frustration was starting to show through. Which was interesting because Dexter had been impressed by his demeanor so far.

They entered the hotel and Dexter covered the room for him. Jeff hopped in a ten-minute shower while Dexter ran to the gift shop and bought him an Air Force golf shirt and some bathroom necessities. When Jeff finished showering and dressed, they headed down to the restaurant and grabbed a table.

Once they’d each ordered a beer, Dexter set his menu down and started over again. “Tell me about this trip back to 1849.”

Jeff looked at him strangely from across the table. “Not you, too,” he said.

“Jeff, I never went to 1849.”

He shook his head subtly. “Why did you show them the journal? You all but handed me over to them by doing that.”

He shook his head. “Well, I didn’t show it to them. They confiscated it. Everything. Everything in your lab. Everything in your house. My house. They didn’t leave many stones unturned.”

“So, how did we get to where we are right now? In the car you told me I can be straight with you. I am being straight with you.”

“Look, Jeff,” Dexter said. “I know where you went when you ran. I know you went back to find out what happened in 1849. I’m not going to tell them that, but I know you well enough. And, believe me. I understand why.”

Jeff was shaking his head as Dexter spoke. The server returned and set their drinks in front of them. “You’re not getting it,” he said. They stopped for a moment to order, each selecting the restaurant’s signature burger and curly fries. Then Jeff looked up at him again. “Whoever you worked with to set up the Time Program – it wasn’t me. I don’t know if it’s some filthy trick of time travel or what, how things could have gotten screwed up like this, but it wasn’t me.”

“Alright, well tell me what happened to you, then.”

“Yes, let’s do that,” Jeff said with a sigh. “I left you in the airport and you limped away. I got on a plane with Ekaterina.”

“That’s the Russian girl?”

“Yes – the younger version of the older woman. You remember?”

“Tell me about the older woman,” Dexter said.

He could see Jeff processing, then he pointed at him. “Yes, you’re right. The old woman doesn’t exist in this reality.” Dexter grimaced, but let him continue. “Anyway, we were supposed to go back to 1983, and Ekaterina was going to assassinate the man that the other version of herself had already assassinated. But she balked, and tricked me into jumping to the future. Three years beyond my own present time. This time… right now. Only without the assassination having actually taken place, the world was very different. The Soviet Union had not fallen and was a world military power with time travel capabilities. I was able to jump back to 1983 where Ekaterina – the original Ekaterina, I know this is confusing – then completed the job of assassinating the general. I was under attack, so in haste I jumped back to this present time where the original reality had been restored, without having time to set the device to put me back where I’d started, which was 2015. So, now I’m three years in the future of
my
original present time. And I’m apparently a fugitive of the law.” He paused, shaking his head. “I admit, I knew that a lot of things could change in three years, but I didn’t expect this.”

He stopped talking, but Dexter remained silent for some time. The history that Jeff had just given him was incredible, but other than the end, it was nothing he hadn’t heard. Except for one specifically interesting piece of the story: “You said I got shot?”

“Yes. In the leg. In 1849.”

“I think I’d remember that.”

Jeff threw his hands in the air. “Well, clearly some change that I made along the way has affected everything else. I know a history that you don’t, and you know a history that I don’t. Why don’t you tell me your version?”

Dexter laughed. “Not sure where to start.” He had no way of knowing what Jeff knew and didn’t.

“Start with the government tracking me down and commandeering my experiments.”

“The government found your time travel device in the middle of the Sierra Nevadas,” he said. “They tracked you down at your lab. They made you an offer and you accepted.”

“They made me an offer? Who? This Brenner guy?”

“Bremner. Yeah, you were kind of stuck. There was no way they were going to let you operate independently, and you’d been fudging your financials to cover the time travel experiments. You didn’t have much of a choice. Plus, they understood the dangers of time travel.”

The server returned with their plates, setting an enormous burger in front of each of them. She asked if they needed anything else, then left.

“Hold on a second,” Jeff said, raising his finger at him. “I’ve been waiting too long for this.” Dexter couldn’t help but smile as his friend took a bite and set the burger down, the greasy juice dripping down his chin. He savored for a moment, then wiped his face with his napkin. “Too good. So they made me an offer... What? Some kind of mission?”

He shook his head, picking up a curly fry from his own plate. “No. Just come work for them or cease your experiments.”

“Okay,” Jeff said in realization. “I think we’re in unison up until there. Maybe it happened a little bit differently, but we still ended up working for the government in some capacity. Then, what I’m hearing, things got screwy. So I took the offer and it ended up that we – you and me together – started this U.S. Time Program?” Dexter nodded. “When did we go to 1849?”

“I told you, I never went to 1849. You became immediately obsessed with how your device got to California. Of course, you and I knew what was going on because we’d planned the mission. But we hadn’t actually taken the mission yet. You bugged me and bugged me about it. You had some plan where you only needed a minute with the device and you’d sneak away.” Jeff was laughing, so Dexter stopped. “What is it?”

“It’s just unbelievable that I would’ve had the same exact plan. That’s exactly what we did. We snuck into the restroom at the airport and pulled off that exact job, but you were with me, and that’s when you got shot. Unbelievable.”

“Well, I’m glad you got to do it and I’m glad you made it back,” Dexter said, chewing on a mouthful of fries. “You’ll have to give me a little leeway. I’m trying to wrap my head around you saying I went with you when I never actually did.” Processing Jeff’s story weighed against his own was starting to fatigue him.

“Well, you’re in a different reality,” he said, taking another bite. Dexter could see him figuring out what he was going to say as the words were coming out of his mouth. “Because the event that was changed happened in 1983, whatever changes took place there affected us now. The government approached me three years ago, originally, because the Russian woman had told them we needed to go back to 1983. In your reality, because we’d eliminated her, that stimulus wasn’t there. But they did still find my time device in California – they just didn’t need me for any mission. Which is why Fisher was never involved, because he was connected to the Russian woman. But someone going back in time and leaving my time device there actually did happen; so that history is the same.”

“If you say so.”

“I do,” he said. He was nearly jumping out of his seat with excitement. “So, what happened then? How’d you get involved?”

“Well, you roped me in as a key member of your team, and with my knowledge of history the Time Program put me in charge of research and security.”

“You? Security?”

“I received training,” he said, looking down at the table. Jeff was right. It had felt like a strange choice at the time. “The logic was that the first and foremost priority was preserving history, not taking down a potential runner. It was decided that historical acumen was preferable to fighting skills.”

“I’d say both are probably important.”

“And I would agree with you,” he said, not hiding his real opinion on the matter. “Anyway, the program moved forward and went along without incident until you decided you couldn’t help yourself anymore and took off for the Gold Rush.” He held his hands up. “I assume the Gold Rush, to be clear. I really have no way of knowing, for certain.”

“Weren’t parameters put in place to protect against that?”

Dexter laughed. “Well, nobody had access to the devices without security authorization except for a few people. Nobody expected an inside job.”

“You would think they’d have been a little more cautious, with the dangers inherent.”

“Not if the person creating the rules had ulterior motives.”

Now Jeff laughed. “Ah. I see. And who creates the rules now?” He gnawed on a curly fry while Dexter tried to determine what he was insinuating. But Jeff continued, “I suppose figuring out what my motives are would be pretty important – especially since it appears that I never came back.”

He nodded. “Though we thought this was you coming back. You have to understand that it’s really difficult to accept that this is not you. Or, the you that we knew... You know what I mean.”

Jeff ate for a moment in silence, then took a swig from his beer. “Alright, I think I have a good idea what happened – or, at least a train of thought I can follow. What’s the situation you need help with? I’m assuming it’s a runner – another runner, besides me – since you didn’t answer that question when I asked.”

Dexter took a deep breath. “A businessman named Benjamin Kane paid the USTP to visit 1930 to see the Empire State Building while it was being constructed.”

“Wait – just for context – how many of these trips have been done?”

“Sixteen.”

“Okay.”

“As soon as we arrive, Kane hits me over the head with a bottle, takes my gun, and disappears into the crowd. As I’m searching for him, I hear a gunshot and run across 5th Avenue to see a man lying on the sidewalk, bleeding from his stomach. Kane had disappeared. The man, who eventually died, was an industrialist whose company competed with the Kane family for over 80 years.”

“He wanted to eliminate the competition?”

“So to speak, yes.”

“You know this for sure? About the guy being a competitor of this Kane fellow?”

Dexter sighed and shook his head slightly, staring past Jeff and out the window toward the parking lot. “No. I know their companies were competitors in the 1930s. I found that out while I was there by talking to a bystander, though it hadn’t come up in my research. But I never had reason to connect Kane to George Mellen, the man he murdered, before making the trip.”