“You only have one chance to get today right.”
~ Elosia Travkin I3—2061
Thursday April 3, 2070
Fort Benning, Georgia
Commonwealth of North America
Iteration 2/ The Nova Prime
Director Loren watched the live feed of Agent Rose’s exit with a frown. Agent MacKenzie had gone with her, just as the file said.
Now he was waiting for the second event. Or for death. He wasn’t sure what that would look like. How it would feel if he suddenly ceased to exist because this iteration failed. The notes hadn’t been helpful.
It was a quarter to five in the morning, and he was losing hope. The machine was crippled. The silence of the facility was daunting. But better the sepulcher silence than the screams of people dying because he told them to hold the line against the impossible.
He must have drifted off to sleep because a barking dog jolted him awake. The sun was barely warming the horizon, which meant it couldn’t be much past seven. Loren stretched, stood, and opened the door.
There, two frazzled agents and a dog were trying to open the barricaded door. “Agent Rose.”
She turned slowly. “Director Loren?”
“You look worse than when I last saw you.”
“Which was when, sir?” She stepped closer. This Rose was older, a little beaten, and perhaps a little more fragile-looking. She wasn’t yet the cold woman he’d seen in his office, and she wasn’t the young woman he’d seen rush through the portal a few hours earlier.
With an enigmatic smile, he pointed two fingers at Agent MacKenzie and Agent Rose. “You two, into my office.”
The dog followed after, looking cheerful despite the hunted looks of the two agents.
“Cute dog. Is this Hoss?” Loren asked as he held the door open for them.
The dog licked his hand and went to sit beside Rose.
“Hoss was shot, sir. I picked up Bosco five years ago in Australia.” She opened her mouth. Shut it. Shook her head. “Sir, I don’t think I can explain.”
“We could try,” MacKenzie offered. “You just won’t like what we have to say.”
“I’m aware of that,” Loren said, retaking his seat. “Two days ago, a woman broke into my office leaving a file and a mild threat. I let things play out. And you did exactly as she predicted, Agent Rose. You left the bureau and broke into a government facility.”
Agent Rose winced. “It seemed like the only choice at the time, sir. I’m fairly certain I’d make it again.”
“You did,” he confirmed. “Both of you went through the portal. It’s damaged. I’m told it might not be repairable, but it was enough to tether you. Which leaves us with two problems.”
“Whether or not to arrest us?” Rose guessed.
Loren nodded. “And what to do with Hoss. You, that is the Agent Rose who just left, gave custody of Hoss to Agent MacKenzie, who left a timed note to me telling me to take care of the dog.”
“Hoss!” Agent Rose smiled for the first time. “I’ll take him back.” She caught herself. “That is, if you aren’t arresting us.”
“We have a house in Australia,” MacKenzie said suddenly. “We could go back there. We’re legal citizens. We’ll tell the neighbors we had a vacation, and that will be the end of it. No more intrusions. No more questions. It wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
“He has a point,” Rose said with an eager nod. “We both resigned. If you don’t tell anyone we came here, then there’s no reason to arrest us.” Her smile was pathetically optimistic.
Loren leaned back in his chair. “Australia sounds nice.”
“The house is in Cannonvale,” Rose said. “You could visit if international tensions ever eased up.”
He shook his head. “I can’t let you go. Not back to Australia, at least. Your resignations are denied.”
“What?” Rose demanded, standing up. “Do you know what hell I’ve just been through? They kidnapped my husband. They ruined my life. I am done playing nice. I am going home, with my husband and my dog. I already saved everyone from their mass stupidity. Twice. That’s my lifetime limit.”
Loren laughed.
Rose’s shoulders sagged. “Why are you laughing?”
“You said almost the same thing when you came to the office two days ago. You said we were about to go up in a pile of smoke and stupidity.”
She looked at MacKenzie, then back at him with a shrug. “Well, I wasn’t wrong. You almost did.”
MacKenzie tugged on her hand, and she sat back down.
“Love, I think what Director Loren might be suggesting isn’t returning to Australia or being arrested.” The quiet man raised an eyebrow. “You have something else in mind?”
“A new assignment,” Loren said. “For a new branch of the CBI. We haven’t named it yet, but Dr. Troom is willing to work with us.”
“Henry survived?” Rose sounded a little surprised. “I was worried about how his run-in with Gant would go.”
Loren raised an eyebrow. It would be very interesting to hear what history these two remembered. “Dr. Troom survived. Gant is in jail. Donovan, Gant’s companion, was shot last night while attacking a police officer named Ivy Clemens. The CBI agent in charge, that would be you, Rose, ruled it an accidental misfire on the part of Donovan. Officer Clemens isn’t facing consequences.”
“I know her,” Rose said. “She’s a smart woman. The force is lucky to have her, and the bureau would be better if we could steal her away.”
“Yes.” He drummed his fingers on the table as a theory formed. “You don’t know where she got a gun, do you? She’s a clone, and it’s a very strange weapon.”
Rose’s face suddenly became still and expressionless as glass. “I can’t imagine where that weapon came from, sir.”
“You’re a very bad liar, Agent.”
“It’s been a very long day, sir. A long series of bad days, even.”
He smiled. “I’ll get to the point then. You’re being reassigned, effectively immediately. I’m not giving you a choice.”
“Where are you going to set up the labs to test and control this?” MacKenzie asked. “There’s no safe place in the Commonwealth. The MIA is explosive. And it’s an open invitation for trouble. We’re better without it.”
“We’re opening a new lab in the interior of Alaska,” Loren said. “There’s nothing but tundra for hundreds of miles. Anyone who wants to try invading can deal with the arctic weather.”
Rose shook her head. “Absolutely not.”
“It’s not a bad idea,” MacKenzie argued. “They can’t injure anyone this way.”
“It’s a terrible idea! Alaska is not Airlie Beach. It’s not Cannonvale. It’s not warm.” Her words had the cadence of a familiar argument.
“We can arrange for you to have a home in Hawaii, on one of the smaller islands,” Loren said. “I’ve already looked into it.”
Rose kept shaking her head. “Our stuff is in Australia. My good wedding ring is there!”
He considered the problem. “I can offer to work on our relations with Australia?” Loren shrugged. “That’s the best I have at the moment.”
“I’ll get you another ring,” MacKenzie said, reaching for her hand.
Loren hid a smug smile. He’d guessed right. The bureau could be a demanding mistress, but sometimes the demands built strong couples. Friends or lovers, it didn’t matter. He’d built both kinds of relationships over the years, and it was gratifying to see that the two people he needed on the upcoming project were already committed to each other.
“Take it as a win, Sam,” MacKenzie said in a soft voice. “We’re alive. We’re together. We have jobs. This beats anything else that could have happened. We can’t just go back to Australia and pretend nothing happened. You couldn’t leave the CBI alone when we were there, and things were calm. Let’s take this, run with it. We can make it work.”
She sighed. “Fine. I hate this idea, but fine.” She glared at Loren. “Are you coming to freeze to death with us?”
Loren sighed. “Sadly, yes. My family and I will be relocating up there in about two months. The bureau wouldn’t let me recommend starting a new branch unless I was willing to take full responsibility for it. I considered the limited range of options and decided I could handle this. After all, retirement is only four years away.”
Sam let Mac take Bosco’s leash as they walked into the Georgia sunshine. “I think my car is still parked somewhere nearby. We can go find some food. Check in to a hotel and get some sleep.”
“And you still have the place in Florida.”
“You still have the one in Chicago,” she said. She closed her eyes as her brain sprinted ahead of her, gathering problems. She groaned. “Two weeks to pack isn’t enough. I don’t even know if I want to go back to the Florida apartment.”
“We ought to at least check in on everyone.”
Sam wrinkled her nose. “Let’s save that for later in the week. I need to read my emails before I try to talk to Brileigh, or this whole operation is going to be declassified faster than you can say ‘gossip.’ ” She leaned on Mac’s shoulder. “Don’t hate me, but I think I’m going to miss the tourists. Cannonvale was boring, but it was a good kind of boring. You know? Nothing we did changed the future of the world. I like easy choices like that.”
Mac wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead. “I know. But we’ll be okay. We’ve been through worse.”
She smiled up at him. “There’s one big question that you haven’t thought of yet.”
“Oh? What’s that?” Mac asked as he stole a kiss.
“Where are we having the wedding?”