Timesurfers (14 page)

“Technically he isn’t a Timesurfer
yet
, but he will be soon.”

How the hell did Zach hide
that from me all this time?

“He’s just got his
L
plates. It’s a very new thing.”

She eyed Jonah warily. “Can you read
minds?”

“No, I’m just perceptive.”

“All right, people, let’s finish up. Weapons
can wait for another night,” her mum called. The three boys whooped
with excitement.

“To be continued,” Jonah said as she wriggled
out from under him.

Her mother addressed Jonah. “Join me in the
kitchen while Cate showers.”

Jonah smiled. “I’d be happy to. Don’t hurry,
Cate. I’m sure your mum will keep me busy.”

Cate showered in record time and padded over
the floorboards to her closet. Through the bedroom window she
glimpsed Jonah with Balthazar. This could prove interesting. Jonah
was a head taller than Balthazar but not as heavily muscled.
Balthazar downed ten protein shakes a day.

The light from the fountain in the front yard
cast shadows across Jonah’s face, highlighting the spectacular
angles of his jaw and cheeks. He had awesome bone structure. His
hair remained perfectly tousled as usual. The two boys maintained
eye contact while Jonah spoke. Then they were laughing and slapping
one another’s back.
What the...?
There was
only one reason she could think of that would explain why Balthazar
knew Jonah. Tempus Falls was bloody teeming with Timesurfers. She
pulled on some jeans, wrestled her way into a fleecy, black hoody,
and rushed downstairs. Melchior and Gaspar were making an enormous
racket in the family room.

“You want to play?” Gaspar called. “We’re one
world away from saving Princess Peach from Bowser.”

“Tempting, but not right now. Do you know
where Jonah is?”

“Don’t know...” Gaspar said.

“Don’t care.” Melchior high-fived Gaspar.

“No!” Gaspar shrieked. “Look what you did!
Now we have to start again.”

She headed to the bay window in the lounge
and scanned the front yard for Jonah and Balthazar, disappointed
when she found neither. She threw herself on the new couch and
traced the intricate silver pattern of the heavy brocade
upholstery. It wasn’t as comfortable as their old floral one. She
had to find out what her future self had been up to. That meant
getting friendly with all the Timesurfers and understanding their
magical world. Well, everyone but Rose and Zach. That went without
saying. She sighed and closed her eyes. Austin’s handsome face
appeared, smiling that infectious smile, just for her.

***

“Dinner’s ready.”

Cate peeled her eyelids open and struggled onto her
elbow.

Jonah stood at the lounge door. “Dinner’s ready,
Sleeping Beauty.”

She banged the side of her head a few times
with the heel of her hand. “I fell asleep?”

“You were drooling.” He wiped the corner of
his mouth with his finger.

She hurriedly did the same. Drooling. Gross.
“Have you been watching long?”

“That’s for me to know and you to
agonise
over.”

He looked way too pleased with himself for
her liking.

“Dinner, remember?”

“Oh, right. Are you staying for dinner?”

“Unfortunately I can’t tonight. I have plans.
Let me help you up.” The blue inked numbers along his arm flashed
as he held out his hand.

“What are those numbers tattooed on your arm?
Austin and Rose have them too.”

“They’re my quantum indicators. One for each
year I’ve been a Timesurfer. Every Timesurfer has them.”

Balthazar didn’t have those, so he couldn’t
be a Timesurfer. “How do you know Balthazar?”

“We played poker last night. I like cards and
Balthazar runs the best game in Tempus Falls.”

His reply was smooth. He and Austin were both
excellent liars. Balthazar did run the best poker game in town
though.

Jonah seemed so normal for someone who had
planted a bomb on a bus. “I don’t understand why you would plant a
bomb to kill people, and why you would work with someone evil?
Nothing would make me do that.”

“I’m a soldier. In every war there are
casualties, but ultimately they give people freedom. I have my
reasons for being with Mortez and I’m at peace with my decisions
and actions. All of them.”

“So why didn’t you let me become collateral
damage?”

The intensity in his eyes made her catch her
breath. “Mortez ordered me to disarm the bomb so I did.”

Light burst through the front window as the
sensor lights flooded the yard. Jonah’s grey eyes narrowed for a
second as he glanced over Cate’s shoulder. “You’re obviously tired
and it’s late. We can work on your calculus another night.”

“No, you should stay. I’m all good after my
power nap.”

“Another night.” He drifted out the door and
disappeared behind the bare jacaranda tree.

What plans did he have tonight?

Chapter 11

Catherine

C
atherine was waiting for Jonah when he arrived. She
probably hadn’t moved since he left two hours ago. He jogged over
and flopped onto the limestone steps. “Fancy meeting you here.”

Catherine punched him hard in the arm as she
checked his quantum indicators. “It isn’t like it’s a big secret
when and where you were going to turn up.”

“You waited here the entire two hours?”

She shrugged. “Not the entire time. No loser
Zach with you?”

He examined her arm and tapped the last
quantum indictor, which read 2017. “Why make his insides boil for
no reason?”

“You’re way more generous than I would be to
him.”

“It certainly wasn’t for his benefit. I want
to punch him repeatedly every second I’m with him because of what
he did to you. This was purely selfish. I wanted to have you all to
myself this return trip.”

He checked his watch. It was two o’clock in
the afternoon, so there was ten hours until the midnight reset.
Each completed trip took two hours in the present, regardless of
how long he spent in the past. The magic imposed a 10:00 p.m.
curfew on Timesurfing. You had to wait until after the midnight
reset to make your next trip. He had a maximum of four trips left
today.

“What’s the story back there?”

“It’s been a long few days. Cate broke Zach’s
nose the other day. It’s a deviation, but a satisfying one.”

Catherine’s eyes lit up. “Why did she do
that?”

“Well,
she
”—Jonah
raised an eyebrow—“took exception to Zach calling her a social
reject and suggesting they revert to item status.”

The afternoon sun slipped behind Winthrop
Hall, outlining the school buildings with a shimmering orange aura.
Buildings this beautiful made you want to learn. Not like the high
security, concrete jungles most schools had become. The irony made
him smile. Winthrop had more security than any school in the
country built into its gothic architecture. It was a detention
centre for teenagers who ended up on the wrong side of the law. A
brush with the law had not brought him or Catherine here though.
This was Command for Mortez and her Timesurfers.

The grounds were quiet. Most of the
Timesurfers would be sleeping. Their workday started straight after
the midnight reset. Mortez could see exactly what the state of play
was and it gave teams the maximum number of possible trips that
day. Until the reset they had no way of monitoring what impact the
work they were doing in the past was having. The Mortez in the past
actually knew more than Mortez in the present, because she saw the
changes to her time after each midnight reset. That’s how she knew
about the popularity charm on Zach.

“The initial idea to use Zach from the past
on this mission was disastrous.”

“So Cate hasn’t killed him yet?” She tapped
her front teeth with ragged fingernails she had been gnawing
ferociously since he arrived.

He shook his head. Catherine had been running
a hundred degree reset temperature for the last eight hours because
her past was being altered. It was getting more intense and clearly
wearing her down. That and the pressure of the world she knew
crumbling around her. “I understand you’re anxious...”

“Look at me.” She peeled her damp shirt away
from her chest and sniffed her armpit gingerly. “This isn’t just
some deviation. This is a complete rewrite that will impact
everyone I love. I’ve had a few reset temperatures from deviations,
but this is out of control. Mortez and the boys have started
running reset temperatures since you left last time.”

“Dial down the dramatics.”

“You’ll be running a temperature soon.”
Catherine drew circles with the toe of her black boot in the
gravel. “This is all my fault.”

“That’s rubbish. Someone is messing with
Zach. A stupid popularity charm is what initiated this deviation.
And then there’s my mission with the bomb at the bus stop.”

“That was on Mortez’s orders.”

“Yes, and you had nothing to do with any of
them. And before anyone started meddling with history, you have
loser Zach. He never should have tried to hurt you like that. It’s
inexcusable. You had every right to protect yourself.”

“Cate killing him was an overreaction.”

“You can’t overreact to someone assaulting
you like that. Are you going to persist with talking about yourself
in the third person?”

“I’m Catherine and she’s Cate. It’s less
confusing and in the grand scheme of things isn’t worth spending
another second discussing.”

“Have it your way. I will happily kill Zach
for
Cate
. However...”

“I know, I know. That mightn’t bring the
deviation back into line. At midnight when history resets we could
all still wake up to a world we don’t
recognise
.”

Jonah shrugged. “It might be a better
world.”

“Or not. I’d convinced myself I would alter
Zach’s death if I could. Now the opportunity is here I’m not sure.
I’m actually disappointed in myself. I’m an even more dreadful
person than I
realised
.
Mortez and Naitanui are both committed to ensuring something I’ve
regretted all my life happens and I’m standing apathetically by and
watching.”

“This is purely about you maintaining your
historical path. Killing Zach may or may not have been a defining
moment.”

“My current reset temperature would be a
strong indicator it’s a defining moment. Zach and Cate aren’t even
together back in the altered time line. They won’t go out for her
birthday and he won’t try and take advantage of her. She’ll never
murder him in cold blood to get things back on track.” Catherine
dragged her hands down her face.

“Leave getting Cate to kill Zach to me. First
decide if that’s want you want to happen.”

“I raise the dead, Jonah. Name me one time
you’ve ever seen that used for anything other than evil. I’m right
where I should be with Mortez. I’m a despicable person.” Tears
rolled down her flushed cheeks. “It’s too much.” Her shoulders
shook with giant sobs. “Maybe everyone would be better off without
me.”

He put his arm around her and pulled her
close. “My world would suck without you. Our friendship is the
oasis in the middle of the barren desert that is my life.”

“That’s corny even for you.” She choked out
between sobs. “You chose Mortez for noble reasons. Not like
me.”

“We’ve all done things we aren’t proud of.
I’ve lost count of all mine.”

“You only left Naitanui to join Mortez to
save your family from death and to help protect Rose’s family.
You’re selfless
and
brave.”

“You conveniently forgot the bit about me
using Mortez to alleviate my migraines so I didn’t need to take
drugs anymore. There’s nothing selfless about that.”

“You’ve been clean since the day you stepped
into Command, and you endured those debilitating migraines for
years before you succumbed to taking drugs. I’ve been tempted after
less than half a day of this reset temperature to visit Cleopatra
for some of her
30BC
medicinal narcotics.”

Jonah poked her thigh with his finger. “Don’t
even joke about that. I took the drugs because of the migraines.
Decide how you want this to go and I’ll make it happen.”

“That’s easier said than done. How’s it going
in 2014?”

“Hard to say. I do think Cate’s into me.”

“Really?” She gave him a fierce glare.

“Well.” He was perceptive enough to
realise
he had opened a
humongous can of worms, and changed the subject. “Only ten more
hours to go and your temperature will be gone.” Jonah patted her
shoulder.

“And possibly the world as we know it.”

“Could you be any more melodramatic?” His
fingers twirled her rainbow hair extensions. “You do wash
these?”

She slapped his hand away. “Yes! Cate would
definitely
not
be into you. Not
that
way.”

Catherine was his best friend in the world,
but they had never been friends with
benefits
. He loved only one person that way. He made
no secret of his feelings for Rose. The separation from her since
he defected to Mortez had been excruciating. Catherine deserved
someone who could love her completely. She shouldn’t be his or
anyone’s second choice.

Her unconventional powers were not conducive
to a rocking social life. Only two men had even dared to befriend
her. He was one and
Austin
was the other.
Catherine had had a clandestine relationship with Austin for
months. She didn’t know that he knew about it. It ended abruptly
because he and Rose erased all traces of the relationship from
Austin’s mind. They did it to protect Austin and Catherine, but the
guilt from having betrayed Catherine again gnawed at his heart
every waking moment.