Chapter Twenty-Eight

Something was definitely up. Her face lost the little color it had as her mouth dropped open. She snapped it closed quickly, but this time, he wasn’t going to let her get away with fobbing him off. There was something she wasn’t telling him.

And it was time she started opening up.

“Come on, Mel. What happens in 2020?”

She pursed her lips. “Why do you think anything happens?”

He snorted. “Your expression, when I mentioned it. You were shocked. Why?”

“You’ve got to understand. This is so hard for me—talking to you like this—it goes against all my protocols. I’d lose my job and everything I’ve worked for. I could be prosecuted.”

“That won’t matter if someone else comes after us. We’ve been lucky so far. That won’t last.”

She looked away and he could almost see her mind working. Finally, she took a deep breath and returned her attention to him. “In 2020, there’s a global Cataclysm that destroys 95 percent of the Earth’s population.”

For a second, the words didn’t make sense. He swallowed. Did he believe her? He really wished he didn’t, but he had an idea that this was no lie. It explained her earlier shock. “What kind of global Cataclysm?”

“It’s not known. Most of the records of the time were destroyed. And anyone close enough to see what happened would have died in the blast. There have been a lot of theories, though. Most are some variation of a nuclear attack that escalated. The levels of radiation were high afterward. They still are, in many areas.”

He got up and paced the room a couple of times, then came back, stood over her and then paced some more. He headed over to the minibar and grabbed a small bottle of scotch, unscrewed the top and swallowed the contents in one go. He tried to think what to ask next. Tried to get his head around the idea that the world as he knew it was going to end soon. “Where? Who survived?”

“We don’t know where exactly, but most theories claim it happened somewhere in the United States. The whole of the northern hemisphere was decimated, wiped out.”

“And this is going to happen in two years’ time?”

She nodded. “2020.”

“You’re absolutely certain?”

She nodded again. “It’s a historical fact.”

This was crazy. He sank down on to the mattress beside her. “We have to find a way to stop it.”

She reached out and rested a hand on the bunched muscle of his thigh. “We can’t stop it. It happens. We can’t even try. That’s the sort of thing we’re totally not allowed to do. The sort of thing that could make the entire world implode in on itself. It’s too big.”

Now he could feel his anger start to rise. This wasn’t happening. He wouldn’t let it happen. There had to be something he could do.

“You’re saying everyone I know, everyone I love, is going to die. Hell, for that matter I’m going to die. And you expect me to do nothing. You wouldn’t have even told me if I hadn’t pushed it. Would you?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. What good does it do?”

He knocked away her hand and pushed himself to his feet. He looked around the room, found his boots and his T-shirt, and pulled them on.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

He ran a hand through his hair, pressed a finger to the spot between his eyes, trying to relieve the pressure so his brain would function, and he could think of a way out of this. “I need some fresh air.”

She blinked up at him with those huge eyes, searching his face. Finally, she gave a small nod. “Don’t be long.”

He left the room without another word. It was late afternoon and the air was cooling. He could feel the chill on his skin but didn’t go back for his jacket. Instead, he walked. The motel was situated downtown, and the streets were busy at this time with people on their way home from work. He opened his mind and allowed their passing thoughts to filter through his head. Simple thoughts. What they would have for dinner. A problem with their boss. One man planned to ask his girl to marry him. It was hard to believe that this could all be gone. He shoved his hands in his pockets and closed his mind. Time to get real.

What did he know?

Kane’s mission was supposed to take place in 2020.

The world and just about everybody in it was due to be destroyed in 2020.

Were the two connected? And if so, how?

Frustration clawed at his insides. How the hell was he supposed to know? He couldn’t do this on his own. He needed to talk to Jake and Christa. But he’d left without a phone. Or any money. And he needed to go back and talk to Mel. Find out what else she knew, and how much longer she had in this time. She’d said time was running out. Christ, she was going to vanish, just like the man this morning. Go back to her own world…and leave him here. Except not for long, because very soon he was going to die. He didn’t want to die. He also didn’t want Mel to go, didn’t want to lose her. But he’d lose her anyway, even if she stayed.

Somehow, he needed to save the world and everyone in it, while persuading the woman he loved—

He stopped short at the thought. Love? Where the hell had that come from? He didn’t do love. But once the idea had entered his head, he couldn’t get it to go away. It was all just heightened emotions. Too much danger. Nearly dying obviously did strange things to his head. Made him imagine things that weren’t there.

He finally turned around and headed back the way he had come. Maybe he’d find she had already vanished, gone home, where he couldn’t follow. He didn’t realize he was holding his breath as he pushed open the door. For a second, his heart stopped. She wasn’t there. Then he heard a humming from the bathroom. He closed the door behind him and headed over to the doorway. She was standing there, still wrapped in the white towel. She’d obviously washed out her shirt and was drying it with the hairdryer.

She glanced across at him warily. “Are you okay?”

He shrugged. “As okay as anyone who’s been told they only have a couple of years to live.”

“I’ve been thinking. You can come with me.”

“Come with you where?”

“To the future. We have the second transponder.”

“Isn’t that changing stuff? Won’t I self-implode? Or be prosecuted or…” It wasn’t going to happen anyway. He couldn’t run away and leave his friends to die without trying to save them.

“Maybe, but I think I could swing it. I could make an argument for bringing you back. It’s a minor change. I need you to help me locate the time machine and couldn’t risk leaving you. I don’t know, but I’ll come up with something.” She sounded almost desperate, and some of the tension inside him loosened a little. She couldn’t turn her back on him so easily. She might not be ready to admit it, but she cared about him, too. He reckoned it had taken her by surprise, but he was no longer just part of a job.

“I can’t go with you,” he said gently. “I can’t leave my friends to die.”

“You’d rather stay and die with them?”

“If I have to. But I’ll die trying to save them and the rest. The future is not set—you said that. We can change it.”

She gritted her teeth. “If you did manage to stop it—which is impossible—if you did change things, chances are I won’t exist. You’ll take away my future.”

“So what happens? You’ll disappear in a puff of smoke?”

She frowned. “I don’t think so. I think I would still continue to exist in this time. But everyone I know and love would be gone. They would never come into being.”

He hadn’t thought of that. “Christ, it’s enough to make your head explode.”

She turned away and dropped the towel, pulling the shirt on over her makeshift bandage, then picked up her pants from the floor and tugged them up. He followed her out of the bathroom and flung himself down on the chair by the bed.

“What do you think happened?” he asked. “Where did the original tribe come from? And what is Kane’s mission? You know, maybe they were sent back to stop whatever it was that happened.”

“Or maybe whatever this mysterious mission is precipitates the disaster.” She frowned, tugging on her lower lip as she did when she was thinking. “That may be the way to justify you coming forward with me. We need to find out more.”

“I can’t go with you.”

“You can’t stay.”

Suddenly he was tired, and his stomach rumbled. “How long have you got, before you get pulled back or whatever you call it?”

She glanced at her wrist—she’d put on one of the transponder devices. “Six hours.”

“Plenty of time to come up with a plan. Let’s go out for dinner. Forget all this for a little while and maybe the answer will come.”

She studied him for a minute, her head cocked to the side. Then he heard a clear rumble from her stomach. The world might be going to end, but they still had to eat. “Let’s go,” she said.

They had dinner in a small restaurant a few blocks down from the motel. A typical American burger and fries sort of place that managed to come up with a vegetarian option for Mel. The food was good and by unspoken mutual consent, they didn’t talk about anything important while they ate. She asked him about everyday things in his world and he asked about hers. “What’s it like? Earth in your time?” he asked.

She gave a little shrug. “I haven’t actually lived there since I was five. That’s when my parents and brother were killed.”

“War?”

“Sort of. They were caught in the crossfire of an intergalactic war that has gone on for thousands of years. A stray blast destroyed a dam, and the valley where we lived was flooded. Everyone drowned except me.”

“That’s why you’re scared of water.”

“I’m not scared.” But a visible shudder ran through her.

“This war—who’s fighting who? Who are the bad guys and who are the good guys?”

“The Federation doesn’t take sides.”

“Of course you don’t. All the same, you must have opinions.”

She changed the subject. “Can I have some ice cream?”

“You can have whatever you like.” He raised his hand and the waiter came over.

“Vanilla and chocolate ice cream, please,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Tell me.”

She rested her chin on her hand as she considered what to say. “The war is between two different species from the same galaxy, though it’s thought they have a common ancestor somewhere way back. The Bhaxians are a warrior race, the Krellians are…more peaceable, at least on the surface. But they’re scientists and can be just as destructive. They actually invented time travel and so are responsible for far more deaths than the Bhaxians. A few thousand years ago, the Bhaxians destroyed the Krellians’ home planet and they’ve been nomadic ever since. Supposedly, they had a mothership at one point—everything they had saved from their planet—but no one knows what happened to it. The common theory is that it was destroyed by the Bhaxians. Anyway, whenever the two get within shooting distance, fighting breaks out. But the Federation doesn’t interfere unless their fighting impacts other planets.”

“Like Earth.”

“Yes. It was declared a no-war zone.”

“Why?”

“I wasn’t involved—that’s politics—but my guess is that they wanted to give the planet a chance to recover, grow stronger, so it can compete on a more even footing.”

“So these Bhaxians and Krellians—are they like little green men?”

She smiled, amusement flashing in her eyes. “The Bhaxians are blue and they are far from little. Other than that, they are humanoid. The Krellians are similar, just not quite as…big.”

“Nice.”

Her dessert came at that moment and he sat back and waited until the waiter had left. “So where did you grow up?”

“Mostly on spaceships, wherever my father was stationed.”

“Hell, I always wanted to go to space when I was a kid.”

“It was…different. I guess I was a little weird.” She licked at her spoon. “They don’t have ice cream in the future,” she said.

“That’s it then. You can’t go back.”

She ignored the comment and he was glad, because it was nice just talking—almost like a normal couple. If you discounted the actual content of the conversation.

“Was your father happy that you joined the Bureau?”

“I joined the Federation first. I started off doing a lot of liaison work—it was interesting—but I’d always been fascinated with the idea of time travel. But no, I wouldn’t say he was happy. The job has its dangers.”

Which he reckoned she’d totally played down.

“But he agreed in the end. He was head of the Bureau by then, and I got a little teasing in the academy for favoritism. But it was nonsense and talk finally died down. Then my father was offered the job of overseeing the Bureau on Earth. It was a sort of step down, but I think he took it because he believed I needed to get to know my own people. My own world. Then he made sure I got a transfer.”

“You don’t sound pleased.”

“I was, and I wasn’t. I’d worked hard to make sure he didn’t interfere with my job or give me any preferential treatment. At the same time…I wanted to come home. Something drew me back here.”

“Do you have anyone? In your time, I mean.” Christ, she could be married with children for all he knew. Maybe to a Bhaxian and they’d have lots of little blue babies.

She frowned. “Anyone?”

“A man? Boyfriend? Husband?”

Her face cleared, and she smiled. “No. There’s no one. It’s not the same in my time. People have relationships, but they are more like business arrangements. There’s no such thing as love. Maybe it died along with most of the population of Earth.” She scraped the bowl and put down her spoon, looking at him a little warily. “What now?”

He studied her tense figure, the set of her shoulders, the guarded cast of her beautiful eyes.

“Now, I’m going to take you back to our room and show you that love does exist in my world.”

Her eyes widened, but Quinn didn’t wait for her to say anything else. He rose to his feet, tossed some money on the table to cover the bill, and held out his hand.

Her palm slid into his and that now-familiar tingle ran up his arm. They walked slowly, hands entwined—he didn’t want to let her go. If he held on tight enough, would she not be able to leave? If he never let her go, would she be stuck here with him? Or maybe she’d drag him along wherever she was going. After all, she had one transponder on her wrist, the other in her pocket. He almost tugged free at that point. No way was he leaving here until he’d gotten word to Jake and told him what he knew. Whatever Mel said, there had to be a way through this.

But before they continued with that particular argument, there was something they needed to do.

As they came through the door into their room, he took her in his arms, lowered his head and kissed her. He didn’t want to talk right now. He wanted to make love and forget just for a while. She was with him all the way, and within minutes, he’d stripped off her clothes and she was naked. Then he took care of his own. For a minute, they stared at each other. He took in the long slender lines of her, her breasts firm but full, the nipples already hard. She still had the towel wrapped around her as a bandage, but it was clean, without any blood. She was watching him in return, and his cock, already half hard, thickened and twitched until it was almost vertical against his belly. Her gaze wandered down over him and her lips curved. He reached out, rested his hands on her hips, then turned her and placed her palms flat against the wall, his gaze caressing the curve of her spine. She had a beautiful ass and he shaped it with his hands, trailing his fingers down the crevice, then over her hips, up to cup her breasts and squeeze, playing with her hard little nipples until a groan was torn from her throat. He lowered his head and bit the soft spot where her neck met her shoulder, then licked it with his tongue. His dick got even harder, pulsing, and he couldn’t wait any longer. Time was running out.

He parted her with the fingers of one hand, found her hot and wet and more than ready for him, then pushed inside, flexing his hips to fill her, his other hand sliding around her waist to pull her flush against him. His palm stroked down over her stomach, over the soft, smooth skin of her mound, then between her thighs. Tension ran through her as he found the little bundle of nerves, massaging gently as he pulled out, then pushed back in. She quivered beneath his touch, and he knew she was close. He increased the pressure and quickened his movements, loving the feel of her wrapped so tight around him, dragging him back into her, her muscles clenching around him.

Her breathing was fast now. She was so close, and he pinched her clit between his finger and thumb, feeling her fall apart against him. He released the last of his control, pumping into her, the pleasure building in his belly, his balls, shooting along his dick until he exploded inside her. For an age, his hips kept moving. She pushed back against him, wriggled, clenched her inner muscles, and he kept right on coming. Finally, he collapsed against her, burrowing his head in the side of her neck. He kissed her skin, breathing in the warm musky scent of their lovemaking. Then he raised his head and whispered into her ear. “I love you.”

Her body went rigid in his embrace.

He didn’t want to pressure her. They might not have love where she came from, and maybe he could never hope to have his feelings returned, but the words had to be said. Whatever decision they came to, she needed to know he loved her.

It was crazy. He’d never expected to love.

“I love you,” he said again, the words louder this time. He was still inside her and he pushed himself away. Pulled free. Then he rested his hands on her shoulders and turned her gently to face him. For a moment, she kept her head down, staring at his chest, and he held his breath as he waited for some sort of reaction—expecting dismissal, but hoping for…what, he wasn’t sure. Just some indication that he was more than a job to her. More than some sort of weird anomaly that had to be cleaned up.

Then her chin lifted, and she gazed into his eyes. Hers were filled with wonder, but her lips clamped together, as though she was afraid of the words that might fall out. She inched closer, closing the last of the space between them, then wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek against his chest. “I can hear your heart beat,” she murmured.

They stood like that for an age. He pushed aside the nagging worry that the hours were passing quickly and gave her the time she needed. Finally, she raised her head. “I love you, too.” She smiled, her face softening.

At her words, something tightened inside him, as though the stakes had suddenly changed and maybe there was a chance that she might stay and fight for him. For them.

“I love you,” she said again. “It’s weird and nice and…” She trailed off, gnawing at her lower lip.

“Terrifying?” he suggested. “Loving someone with the end of the world on the horizon is pretty damned scary.”

“Yes.” Her palm rested on his chest where her cheek had been. “But it doesn’t have to be.” Her tone was low, urgent. “Come with me to the future. We’ll be safe there. There will be something useful for you to do. A job with the Federation. You can see space like you always wanted.”

For a second, he wondered if she’d only said the words “I love you” to try and persuade him to go with her. But he knew that wasn’t true. He hadn’t known her long, but she was as straight as it was possible to be. She might lie for her job, but she wouldn’t lie about love.

So where did that leave them? He couldn’t go with her. And she wouldn’t stay. Maybe love wasn’t enough. Trouble was, she genuinely believed they could not stop whatever was going to happen. Not only could not, but he suspected she would not, even if she knew of a way. She might love him but, weighed against the possible destruction of her whole existence, it probably wasn’t enough.

And he could see her point. She was protecting the people she cared for, just as he was trying to save everyone he loved.

Wandering off to the future and living happily ever after while all his friends died? That wasn’t going to happen.

He held her closer for a second and then let her go and stepped back. “I can’t go with you.”

She bit her lip, searched his face and gave a small nod. “I think I knew that.”

“Just give me a second to clean up.” He needed a moment alone. “Then we’ll talk.” Say goodbye.

He walked away, closing the bathroom door behind him. He stood staring into the mirror. His face so familiar, with no evidence of the cataclysmic change he’d been through. He was in love. For all the good it would do him.

It’s better to have loved and lost…

He spoke the old saying in his head but couldn’t finish it. On the up side—he wasn’t going to have to be miserable for long. Two years. He couldn’t even try and persuade her to stay. What if he did and she died along with him, all because she’d had the misfortune to fall in love with him?

Christ, what a mess.

But he had to get out there. If they only had a few hours left, he wanted to spend them wrapped around her.

With one last sigh, he ran a hand through his hair and opened the doors. She’d closed the curtains and the room was in darkness, the only light spilling out from the open bathroom door. He saw no sign of movement and a niggle of foreboding tapped at his mind.

“Mel?”

He stepped into the room, sensed someone behind him but had no time to do more than turn slightly when something slammed into the back of his head, and he crashed down to his knees. He tried to push himself up, but another blow smashed his face to the carpet and everything went black.