Part 4 (2/2)
James looked away from her. ”No,” he said in an oddly strangled voice. ”None of my people survived.”
”Oh, G.o.d,” she whispered. ”James, I am so sorry--none of them'”
”Every friend I ever had is gone,” he said bleakly. ”Every last one. I was the only survivor. And my enemies won't rest until I am destroyed as well.”
Annie shut her eyes for a moment against the pain in his voice. Having lost her husband, she knew what bereavement was like, but she could only guess at the way James felt. The magnitude of his tragedy was overwhelming. Every friend, every family member, every one of his people--all gone.
James seemed to put the past aside with an effort. ”We must leave this place,” he said, his voice harder than she had ever heard it. He pushed the car door open and stood. ”Where else can we go'”
Annie stood up as well, noticing that there was a strange burn mark on the side of her car. She supposed that was the kind of mark a ray gun left on metal. James' voice echoed in her head: The gun was not set at full intensity. If it had been, we would not be here now.
”Why do we have to go anywhere'”
James looked at her impatiently. ”Think, Annie. They know I am here. I should have been watching for her, but I was distracted by my surroundings. I now realize she was waiting for me this morning outside the house. She followed us through the mall. And when we left she followed us-- and tried to force you to give me up.”
”It doesn't make sense,” Annie said. ”Why didn't she come up to the house and try to break in' For that matter, why didn't she just knock' Why chase us in a car'”
”It is difficult to say. She may have just located me as we were leaving the house. Or she may have been merely doing surveillance, following me to see what I did, and thought the opportunity of forcing us off the road was too good to pa.s.s up. By the Bureau's rules, she should not have fired at you, even on a low setting, but the woman who is after me does not always play by the rules.”
Annie remembered the woman's wild, angry eyes and shuddered. ”No,” she agreed, ”she doesn't look like she gives a d.a.m.n about rules. But how did she get here' For that matter, how did you get here'”
”I used the temporal displacement module--”
”Is that a fancy way of saying time machine'”
He nodded as they entered the house. ”I broke into the facility where it is kept and used it. Only a very few people are permitted to use it, for obvious reasons. If someone were to return to the past and alter it in some way--”
”It might change the future. Yeah, I can see that.”
”Scientists use the module for sociological study occasionally, and the Bureau uses it as well.”
”The Bureau'”
”They are the ones who are chasing me. I am not the first person to try to escape the brutality of the present by hiding in the past. But the others have all been hunted down and destroyed by the Bureau. They will stop at nothing to destroy me as well.”
”How did they find you'”
”The settings on the TDM no doubt gave away my approximate location. When I used the module, a portal through which others could follow was created.”
”Are you saying my kitchen is a door to the future'”
”Not precisely. There are too many variables. But they were probably able to discern the correct time period and area in which I arrived. With a good deal of time and effort, they found me.”
Annie frowned. ”That doesn't make sense, James. Once they figured out where you were, why didn't they just go back to the moment you arrived and catch you then'”
”It is not possible for a person to exist twice in the same time period.”
Annie thought about this for a moment. ”Why the h.e.l.l not'”
”It is difficult to explain. Time and s.p.a.ce are two aspects of the same thing, and it is no more possible for a person to exist twice in the same time period than it is for two objects to occupy the same s.p.a.ce. At any rate, time travel uses an enormous amount of energy, so much so that sending more than one set of agents to an era would be economically infeasible. It is more practical for them to use the agent or agents who are already in this era to find me and kill me. They want to destroy me as quickly as possible, lest I alter the past in some way.”
Annie frowned. ”I still don't understand how they found you. The earth spins at a pretty fast rate, and it moves as it goes around the sun. Even the universe is expanding all the time, isn't it' Even if a person came through the time machine just a few seconds after you did--”
”His location should be quite different,” James agreed. ”But the module is calibrated to correct for that.” He looked down at her. ”Annie, we must discuss this later. We do not have time to talk at this moment. She has probably not been incapacitated, despite the damage you did to her car, and it will not take her long to follow us here. We have to get away.”
Annie stared at him with shock. She was horrified to discover she was actually considering going with him. After what she had just been through she felt she would rather not be alone.
”I'm not going anywhere,” she said firmly, willing herself to retain her sanity. This entire situation, with an escaped convict from the future being pursued by a ray-gun wielding cop, was too bizarre to be believed. She wondered if she'd somehow wandered into a bad Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. ”I've got to get to work on Monday.”
”Work'”
”Yeah, work. Someone has to pay the mortgage on this place. Anyway, these Bureau people seem to play hardball. I really don't want to get mixed up in this any further.”
”Annie,” he said gently, ”you are already, as you put it, mixed up in this. The Bureau knows you are
a.s.sociated with me. I can't predict what they might do to you.”
She stared at him. ”Do you mean they might kill me'”
”They have already tried to drive you off the road,” he pointed out.
”You said she wasn't trying to kill us!”
”But surely you perceive that she could have easily killed you by accident, had your car rolled. She
wants me so badly that she has grown extremely careless. At any rate, if I get away, she may take out her frustrations on you.”
Annie was silent.
”If I leave, and you do not,” he went on, ”the Bureau may capture you in order to gain information. They
may even torture you in order to extract that information.”
”Torture me'” she gasped. ”Why'”
”They hurt people simply because they can.”
The stark sorrow in his voice cut to her heart. Abruptly she remembered the ugly burned gash on her car.
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