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Byzantine Institute, Albuquerque, NM
Phen had searched three rooms to find the perfect spot for the computer with the time portal once he had it in hand. He needed somewhere that no one would disturb him while he waited on Rayen and her group to return. The perfect location for containing all three of them as soon as they showed up.
Did Rayen’s powers function here in the past?
He should have tested her somehow before she left again. It didn’t matter. He’d bind her hands, her feet, anything that she could point at him. MystiKs pointed at something to throw their power, right?
How was he supposed to know?
Scouts were trained in isolated areas and taught to ask no questions. He wouldn’t have known about what his father heard at work if Phen hadn’t snuck around at home.
No one risked talking. SEOH scared everyone with his ability to get information. One wrong word and Phen would have landed in prison.
Wait. How would that be any worse than being sent back in time to historical hell?
“Phen.”
He turned sharply at the sound of a familiar voice. “What are you doing here, Kurt?”
“Same thing as you. SEOH sent me here.” Kurt had a year of age and about twenty pounds on Phen. His brown hair had been clipped into the new flatter style, rather than the crowned look most TecKnati scouts wore, and his eyes were too small for his wide face.
“When’d you get in?”
Kurt looked up, thinking. “Four, maybe five hours ago. I can’t get used to this time change.”
Had that been a joke?
Phen kept questioning him. “Why’d SEOH send you here? You screw up something?”
“No. I think it’s because I was in the Sphere. I haven’t heard of anyone going home from there.” Kurt scratched his chin where it sprouted a few hairs. “SEOH used me to send a message to Brown about a schedule change.”
If SEOH was so smart, why couldn’t he figure out how to send a message back without needing a body to deliver it? Phen didn’t really care. When he got home, and there was no question that he’d make Rayen take him to his world, he was finding somewhere to live far away from SEOH and his insanity.
Kurt had mentioned a schedule change. Phen asked, “What’s going on back home? Why the change in schedule?”
“Thylan is in the Sphere now. He volunteered, no less, to test a new laser grid system that SEOH has kept secret.”
That was news. SEOH’s middle son was rumored to be a special level of degenerate. One you didn’t want to get caught facing on a dead-end street after dark. Phen held his thoughts, letting the silence force Kurt to keep talking.
“Thylan used the grid to capture Callan of the Warrior House. Slick job doing that. Then he offered to trade Callan for the Genera-Y computer. That girl intruder brought a computer to Thylan, but Thylan doesn’t believe it’s the Genera-Y unit.”
Phen suppressed a grin. Thylan had been denied the computer because the Genera-Y that SEOH wanted was here at the Byzantine Institute. Rayen and her two cohorts were using it to travel to the Sphere. “What’s SEOH going to do with the computer when he gets it?”
“He just wants to destroy it.”
“What about the prophecy crap?” Phen asked.
“SEOH seems to think that after the BIRG Con tonight, no that should be yesterday ... uh, no that’s wrong.” Kurt scratched his head. “I have no idea how to figure the time difference.”
Phen did. He’d been keeping track since he needed to get back before SEOH sent the K-Virus here. He cleared up Kurt’s confusion. “The BIRG Con starts at sunset back home and that’s in less than an hour here.”
“Got it. Anyhow, SEOH believes once the ceremony starts the MystiKs will no longer be a problem. He’s got something up his sleeve.”
Just the way Kurt said that alerted Phen that Kurt had not shared everything. “What message did you bring back to Brown?”
Kurt hesitated, his gaze straying from Phen.
“Listen, Kurt. You and I are screwed in this deal. SEOH sent you back with no plan for you to go home. They know that neither of us is a threat here in the past.” At least, not in SEOH’s mind.
That convinced Kurt, who started talking so fast there was no doubt he’d wanted to share what he knew with someone. “SEOH’s message was strange, but Brown seemed to understand. I told him the next TecKnati to come back will arrive tomorrow and that person will carry a final message. He’ll be sent as soon as SEOH is done with the Sphere.”
Phen felt the blood drain from his face. SEOH was injecting someone with the K-Virus and sending it to this world in twenty-four hours. That had to be what Brown was talking about this morning. “What about Rayen?”
“What do you mean?” Kurt cocked his head in question.
“The intruder girl. What happened after she gave Thylan the computer? Did she go back to the MystiK village with Callan?”
Kurt snorted. “Do you really think Thylan would let any female go? I heard she traded herself for that MystiK warrior. She’s not ever leaving the TecKnati camp, not as long as Thylan is there.”
Phen’s palms were getting damp. “What about her powers?”
“Thylan buried a laser grid around the perimeter. It corrupts their power. She’s caught.”
Phen could hardly listen as his last hope of finding a way home and stopping the release of the K-Virus vanished. He had only a slim chance of survival and that depended upon timing.
How was he going to watch the TecKnati portal spot outside the school compound and guard the room for Rayen’s return at the same time? Kurt would have to help, but without knowing why, because Kurt might be one of the mindless TecKnati who thought he was supposed to report everything to Brown and Maxwell.
Hard to tell which TecKnati were susceptible to the brainwashing.
Phen had always been careful to never let on that he was no robot. Keeping calm so Kurt wouldn’t figure out anything was up, Phen told him, “We should keep an eye on that portal landing spot to see who else SEOH sends back. Why don’t you do that and let me know as soon as he or she lands?”
“Can’t get in. Brown sealed the location and has put it under guard. We’ll see the next TecKnati soon enough. I’m going to find a place to crash. I’m starting to come down from the charge that crazy time travel gave me.”
Phen nodded and shrugged. “See you later.”
Not being able to prevent the person being sent back with the K-Virus from infecting this world changed everything.
As soon as Kurt walked away, Phen took the service elevator to the floor where he’d hidden in the storage room earlier while Brown and Maxwell had walked by talking. On the way there, Phen pulled his lizard out, stroking its scaly head. Once the elevator spit him out, he went to the storage room and closed the door softly. He flipped on the light and turned to where a ladder was still set up next to tall metal shelves.
A heavy-duty shelving construction that could hold a lot of weight at the top, where it stopped about two feet short of the ceiling. His gaze tracked to the two commercial-size gallon cans of tomato sauce.
Someone had thought they were clever.
Phen had been smarter.
He stroked his lizard one more time and let it hop to the floor where the lizard stretched and shifted, hair replacing scales until a large black dog stood there, flicking his tail back and forth.
Phen patted the dog’s side. “Took me a while to figure out why you were so excited about that ladder. Nice job. You stay here.”
Phen climbed quickly. When he stopped three rungs down from the top and pushed up, he was eye level with the computer he’d found earlier. The same three circles—silver, bronze, and gold—continued to swirl on the monitor. Someone here had called it a laptop.
Who’d want to have that heavy thing sitting in their lap? He missed holograms. He missed everything about his life.
Reaching over, he pulled the laptop to him and carried it down to place on the floor.
His sentient beast padded around happily. Its eyes glowed at times. Phen had wanted to keep him and now he could.
He curled his hands into fists that needed a target. SEOH’s face came to mind with a crosshair in the center of his forehead. “If I can’t go home, then no one else is either.”
He lifted his foot and stomped the laptop with everything he had.
