THE FACTORY
“We’re being deployed today.”
Shaun looked up from his pile of scrambled eggs, the fork halfway to his mouth. Tallon thumped down into the chair beside Ryan, banging his tray on the table with a flat slap. The mess hall hummed around them, hundreds of voices talking and laughing, rising above the rhythmic scraping of knives against plates.
“I hadn’t heard anything,” Shaun said, surprised. He pointed to his pager, sitting beside his plate.
“You wouldn’t have,” Tallon shook his head. “Not yet, anyway. It’s just come in – I only heard about it because I was talking with General Lehmann.” His dark eyes lingered on Shaun for a moment longer. “The General told me you had a private meeting last night. Guess I missed the memo.”
Shaun flinched at the venom in Tallon’s voice. Since when did he develop emotions? Tallon was usually the complete embodiment of cold, military precision. But there was something dangerous in his glare, in the rigidness of his shoulders. He doesn’t like being kept in the dark. How is it my fault if Lehmann didn’t let him know?
Ryan arched an eyebrow at Shaun. “I didn’t hear anything about that either.”
“The General paged me last night, I didn’t ask questions.” Shaun offered his best nonchalant shrug and shoveled another forkful of eggs into his mouth. Through a mouthful of food, he added, “They just wanted my opinion.”
“What’d they talk about?” Ryan asked, nursing a cup of coffee.
“What do you think?”
“The new girl?”
“Yes, the new Timewalker,” Tallon interjected, tapping the table with his fingers. His commanding voice drew their eyes toward him. “Lehmann wants to assign her to Clockwork, with Agent Hunt on the detail to help protect her. Apparently he wants to test the girl in the field.”
His tone left no room for debate – he didn’t think it was a good idea, and neither did Shaun.
“Of course I’m sure Timewalker Briars agreed wholeheartedly with the idea,” Tallon added, scowling at Shaun. “I’ve heard what you did.”
A thrill of fear raced through his body. Does he know I was out past curfew with Cassie – no, that was over a week ago. Brightwood Ranch was a mysterious place, and although the walls didn’t have ears, they certainly had eyes. There were cameras everywhere, filming everything at all hours of the night. What if someone in Security saw us and let Tallon know?
“I – I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, feigning innocence.
“Drill Sergeant Mathers,” Tallon snapped, his thick eyebrows narrowing. “I had to hear it from Agent Flatley, of all people, that my star operator – a Timewalker no less – is scrubbing toilets in his break hour. Mouthing off to a Drill Sergeant? I thought you knew better.”
“I was standing up for her,” Shaun countered, his voice rising. “It was her first day. I couldn’t just let—”
“She is a soldier!” Tallon growled, banging his fist on the table. “And you are an operator. It is not your place to dictate how a Drill Sergeant trains her!”
A few curious heads had already turned in their direction. A hot flush crept up Shaun’s neck, and he wanted to be gone from here, to avoid this kind of confrontation – but he couldn’t leave now, not without making things far worse.
“Heads up,” Ryan murmured, nodding toward the entrance.
Shaun glanced over his shoulder to see Cassie enter the mess hall. His Affinity flared to life, her Temporal Signature burning brightly inside his mind. His heart leaped, a strange mixture of emotions flooding his stomach.
I always wanted another Timewalker, he thought, as Cassie collected a tray and helped herself to breakfast. I was terrified of being alone, of being the only person like me. Now she’s here…I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel. Not like this.
“She looks pissed,” Ryan commented. As Cassie made her way toward their table, Shaun saw he was right. Her mouth was drawn in a thin line, her cheekbones taut with clenched teeth, and her hair was pulled back in an unusually fierce bun.
Cassie sat beside Shaun and began eating.
He glanced at Ryan, an unspoken question passing between them, and received a shrug in response.
“How was training this morning?” Shaun asked. Drill Sergeant Mathers had divided the recruits into two companies, training them apart, separating Shaun and Ryan from her – no doubt a deliberate effort from the Drill Sergeant to stop the two boys from protecting her.
“Fine.” She ate her food, her eyes on her plate.
Shaun hesitated, watching her stab a piece of bacon as though it had personally offended her.
“Agent Hunt told me you’ve really improved in your sparring,” he ventured, like an estranged dad commenting on a school report card.
“I’m okay.”
Two-word answer. Okay, we’re making progress.
Shaun’s pager vibrated intensely, and from the startled expression on the others’ faces, he realized theirs had gone off too. He reached for the device, his palms suddenly sweating. A thick lump formed in his throat as he read the message, first silently, then aloud:
“Units Clockwork, Blackforest; and Support Personnel, report to Ops Room One immediately. Temporal Spike detected. All Timewalkers required.”
“Told you,” Tallon murmured. All three men stood in unison. Cassie remained seated, no longer eating, just staring at her plate.
Tallon cleared his throat. “All Timewalkers. That means you Cassie. They want you with us.”
Her pale skin had gone a shade lighter again, and a rosy blush crept into her cheeks – not an embarrassed flush, but an angry one.
“Cassie, you coming?” Shaun asked.
Her hands formed into fists and she looked at him, her eyes blazing fiercely. “Are you sure you want a liability on your team? I wouldn’t want to ‘slow you down.’”
His stomach dropped, ice flooding his veins.
“You heard.” It wasn’t a question.
“I heard,” she spat, getting to her feet. Now there were quite a few people looking at them, and conversation at the nearest tables had fallen quiet. She didn’t seem to care; she stormed around the table, her face bright red, her eyes piercing him.
“Cassie,” Shaun said, putting his hands out defensively. “I’m sorry, I was just—”
“Just what!” she shrieked. Tears welled up around her eyes, and her bottom lip trembled. She’s not angry. She’s hurt. “You don’t believe in me? Is that it? You don’t think I’m capable of doing this?”
“No! It’s nothing like that, I just – don’t make me the bad guy here, Cassie. You told me you didn’t even want to be a soldier!”
“I don’t want to be!” she screeched. “But I have to be!”
From the other side of the mess hall came Blackforest Unit, led by a towering ex-Marine with a rust-colored beard. The rest of the unit were just as large and dominating, never intimidating but always on top of their game. Captain Clay, part-man-part-beard, stepped between Cassie and Shaun.
“All right, all right,” he rumbled, his voice thick with a Southern accent. He looked pointedly at the agents and operators who’d been unashamedly watching the argument. “What are y’all looking at? There’s nothin’ to see here.”
Nobody argued with Clay. The hurried scraping of chairs and plates masked the next exchange of words.
“I don’t give a damn about whatever little teenage breakdown y’all are havin’,” Clay growled, towering over Shaun and Cassie. “But I won’t be toleratin’ any of it in the field, understand?”
“Yes sir,” Shaun said, the words automatically falling out of his mouth. Clay turned his mountainous body around, a black shadow falling over Cassie.
“You have a powerful gift, darlin’,” Clay said, lowering his voice. “You have an ability to help protect people, an ability that people like me and my soldiers can only dream of. An’ you have a responsibility to use that gift.”
“I can’t use my powers though,” Cassie mumbled, her answer barely audible. Her eyes were downcast, red-rimmed and puffy.
“Not right now, sure. But nobody expected that of you. The agency is tryin’ to build you up, tryin’ to make you better. You have to trust us, trust the Directors, and your superiors. Believe in yourself, above anythin’ else.”
Cassie nodded, looking down at the floor for a long moment. Then she took a deep breath and held Clay’s gaze steady, her blue eyes shining with a fierce intensity that resonated with untold power. Temporal Energy started gathering around her body – not in great enough quantities for her powers, but strong enough for Shaun to sense with his Affinity.
“Okay,” she said, loud enough for the whole mess hall to hear. She looked at both Clockwork and Blackforest Units, matching the operators’ gazes without flinching.
“Come on then,” she said, pushing past Shaun as though he wasn’t even there. “What are you waiting for?”
Shaun turned to watch Cassie stalk out of the mess hall, her red hair swishing behind her back.
“Is it just me,” he wondered aloud, “or is she kind of hot when she’s angry?”
Ryan cuffed him on the back of the head, and he gave a startled grunt.
“Playtime’s over boys,” Tallon said. “Looks like we’re going on a mission.”
* * *
The helicopters set down in an empty parking lot, the blades whipping up a storm of dust and loose leaves that billowed toward the abandoned cement factory. The old building looked eerily haunted as dark clouds gathered overhead, threatening a storm. The asphalt of the parking lot was potholed and tearing loose in places, weeds growing through the uneven cracks.
Nature had long since reclaimed the factory. Thick ropes of ivy encircled the rusted iron gates, and long grass grew all the way toward the rough brick front. The glass windows of the front office were shattered, their jagged teeth grinning wickedly. Tall silos stood in various conditions – some still whole, others almost completely destroyed. The whole place should have been condemned and demolished years ago, but now the industrial complex simply stood there, waiting for the passage of time to grind it into the earth.
Shaun jumped out of the helicopter, his boots jarring against the hard surface. It had been an unpleasant journey. Cassie maintained a frosty distance from him, refusing to talk. I shouldn’t have called her a liability, he scolded himself. Then again, she shouldn’t have been eavesdropping.
He threw a sideways glance at her. She looked terrified to be on her first operation, but she was holding up better than Shaun had. His first deployment had started out with vomit-splattered shoes and hadn’t ended much better.
The operators and Timewalkers were all dressed the same – black-and-gray combat fatigues without patches or identifying marks. They each had a communication device clipped into their ears, linking them up with Brightwood Ranch. Cassie had been issued only with the standard Glock, while the rest of the soldiers carried a carbine.
Shaun tightened his grip on his M4A1, the gun fitting naturally in his hands. He flicked the safety off and clicked the weapon into semi-automatic mode. The weight of the gun always soothed him – having something physical to hold onto calmed his nerves before a mission.
Tallon and Ryan stepped down behind him, followed by Natalie Hunt, her Kevlar vest stamped with the word AGENT on the back. Shaun had worked with her before – she wasn’t fully trained like an operator, but she could hold her own with the soldiers.
Blackforest Unit disembarked from the second helicopter, looking every bit like a Delta Force squad. Their presence did nothing to ease the tight knot in his stomach – the Operational briefing had been short, and frustratingly vague, but deploying two units to investigate a Temporal Spike wasn’t good news.
Eaglepoint Station didn’t know why the abandoned factory was experiencing a Temporal Spike, but if the Adjusters were active in the area, then the Bureau had to investigate. Might be a stray Adjuster, he thought. Or another – no. No. It’s probably just an Adjuster.
“Clockwork, Blackforest, this is Brightwood,” a clipped voice said through his comm device. The voice repeated the same information they’d been told in the twenty-minute Ops brief: “Eaglepoint confirms, impending Temporal Spike nearing maximal discharge. Expect resistance from Adjusters. Secure the facility and identify the source of the Spike. How copy, over?”
“Brightwood, this is Clockwork Lead,” Tallon said, gesturing for Clockwork to fall in behind him. “Good copy. Clockwork out.”
Shaun kept his head on a swivel as they passed through a gap in the gates. The wrought-iron groaned, sending a shiver down his spine. Blackforest split apart from Clockwork, heading to the four crumbling silos on the left side of the factory. Tallon led his operators to the front office, the faded lettering above the door naming the company as ‘Slater & Son’s Cement.’
“Single-file, Wright and Hunt at the rear,” Tallon said. “Briars, take point.”
Shaun nodded, preparing to use his Timewalking powers at a moment’s notice. He pushed through the front door, the hinges shrieking like tortured ghosts.
Clockwork entered the building.
Boots crunched on pieces of glass. Decaying pieces of paper stuck to the concrete, and a thick layer of dust covered the floor and desks. Grime smeared the few windows that remained in good condition, the shattered panes letting a cold draft through the long hallway. The facility was completely dark and as they moved away from the windows, Shaun flicked his tactical light on, painting the corridor white.
He gripped his gun tighter and edged around a blind corner, finding a closed door at the end of the hallway. He reached out with his Affinity, searching through the shifting energy of the universe. In such close proximity to Cassie, his innate ability to sense T.E. was being disrupted, almost entirely blocked.
“Breaching in three,” Shaun said. Ryan pressed his back against the doorframe, one foot hovering above the ground. Shaun stood in front of Tallon, gun pointed toward the door, with Cassie and Agent Hunt directly behind the Captain.
“Three, two, one, BREACH!” Ryan slammed his foot into the door, breaking the hinges. Shaun rushed into the room, hugging the right-hand wall, Tallon coming through on his left. Shaun aimed down the carbine’s iron sights, one finger wrapped around the trigger, the tactical light chasing away the shadows.
“Clear!” he shouted. The room was more than clear – it was completely empty. No windows, no desks, no other doors. A smooth concrete floor and rotting sheetrock on the walls. There must have been a leak somewhere in the ceiling, because water was dripping onto the floor with a maddeningly slow pace, like the ticking of an old grandfather clock.
“Nothing here,” Tallon said. “Intel suggested old tunnels underneath the factory. That might be where the Spike originated.”
Shaun lowered his gun, nerves firing in his body, short zaps in his fingers and down his spine. He was ready for combat, expecting an Adjuster to appear at any moment. Adrenaline flooded his system, his heart pounded in his chest; but there was nothing here, no threat except the decrepit building itself.
“Form up,” Tallon ordered. “Wright, you coming?”
Cassie stood in the middle of the room, focused on the dripping water. She hesitated, then said, “Wait.”
Shaun turned, following her outstretched finger. Water gathered on the floor, drops splashing down from the ceiling.
“It’s a puddle,” Ryan observed.
“No,” Shaun said suddenly. He fell to his knees, swinging his carbine around to his back. “Look at the water.”
The concrete floor ran slightly downhill, water trickling across the rough surface and vanishing into a thin crack in the ground. The rest of Clockwork knelt beside him, inspecting the strange anomaly. Shaun pulled his combat knife from his thigh, digging it into the crack and sliding the blade back-and-forth. The knife hit something solid with a metallic ping, and with a gasp of stale air and dust, the trapdoor released.
Shaun seized the hidden cover and threw it back, revealing a ladder down into complete darkness.
“Nice find, Cassie,” Ryan said, flashing her a warm smile. Cassie blushed, muttering something under her breath that sounded like ‘It was nothing’, or maybe ‘Thank you’.
Shaun reached into a pouch on his combat belt, retrieving a chemical glow-stick. He snapped the plastic tube and shook the stick until glowed bright green. He tossed the glow-stick into the hole, watching as the light grew smaller until it hit the tunnel floor below.
“Thirty feet?” Ryan suggested.
“About right,” Shaun grunted. It was too far to drop, so he took the ladder. The rungs were slippery, and copper-colored rust came off on his gloves. The air was stale, and he wondered if his powers could protect him from asphyxiation. Several rungs were missing altogether, forcing him to drop the last five feet, the sound echoing down a long, sloping corridor that led further under the cement factory.
“All good!” he shouted toward the small square of light high above. He took up his carbine again, the tactical light shining down the tunnel. There was nothing but smooth concrete walls, ending in a T-junction at the far end.
A few minutes later, Clockwork Unit had gathered at the base of the ladder.
“These tunnels don’t look like they were built for the factory,” Ryan said, voicing Shaun’s own thought. As they reached the branching corridors, he shone his light at words printed on the wall, the paint faded and peeling.
“Shipments, left,” Shaun read, straining to make out the words. “Holding Cells, right. What the hell is this place?”
“Damned if I know,” Tallon muttered under his breath. He pressed a finger in his ear. “Brightwood, this is Clockwork Lead—” he swore and yanked the flesh-colored device out, static squealing from the speaker. “Shit. The comms won’t work underground. We’re going in blind.”
Shaun looked each way, weighing their options. The branching corridors both ended in a sharp turn, disappearing into the darkness. There were lights in the ceilings, but no way of turning them on.
“What could the Adjusters want down here?” Ryan asked.
Nobody answered him.
“We have to split up,” Tallon said, taking command again. “Briars, with Boreman; Wright and Hunt with me.”
“No!” Shaun said sharply, surprising even himself. “I want to go with Cassie.”
He expected Tallon to argue, maybe pull rank and overrule him. Instead, the Captain only nodded, his expression hidden in the contrasting light and shadow. Cassie glowered at Shaun with something just shy of disgust, and his stomach sank.
“Okay,” Tallon said. “Boreman with me, we go left. Briars, Wright, Hunt, take the right-hand corridor. If you find anything, yell out. If you a reach a dead end, circle back and wait for everyone else here. Understood?”
A unanimous ‘yes sir’ echoed down the long hallway. As the last shout rang out, Shaun felt something stir through the Temporal Energy of the universe. Cassie must have noticed it too, because her eyes went wide, and she gripped her handgun tighter.
Just an anomaly, he told himself. Two Timewalkers close together, we’re bound to stir something up.
Aloud he said, “Let’s keep moving.”
Clockwork split apart, Shaun leading the way down the right-hand tunnel toward the ‘Holding Cells’. They rounded the corner and started sloping down again, then took another right, followed by a left, before the tunnel opened into a much wider corridor, with various doorways and corridors on either side.
“This is definitely not part of the factory,” Hunt said, holding her Glock down low. “Looks like it was used a lot at some point.”
Shaun panned his tactical light across the room, casting long shadows against the walls. Loose sheets of paper were scattered across the floor, the concrete stained with brown marks that reminded him of dried blood. A heavy miasma of stale air and decay clung to everything around them. Agent Hunt and Cassie turned their own flashlights on, illuminating the room fully.
Hunt retched and twisted away, coughing violently. Shaun grimaced, his stomach churning.
He had been right – it was dried blood.
The brown stains covered the floor and walls, dried flat as though someone had sandblasted the blood into the concrete. There were no bodies, though he saw several abandoned pens and nametags, and scrunched in the corner, what looked like a white doctor’s coat. Shaun took several tentative steps forward, his Affinity searching through the cloud of T.E. to find something, anything, to indicate why there had been a Spike here.
Cassie picked up a metal nametag, reading the name aloud.
“Doctor Walter Sharp. Doesn’t say what kind of doctor he was.” She tossed the nametag away, and rubbed her arms. “It’s freezing down here.”
Shaun hadn’t noticed the temperature, but both Cassie and Hunt were shivering. They were at least fifty feet underground now. He flicked his tactical light onto the ceiling, revealing air ducts. That explained how the people – whoever they were – had survived down here. He turned his light onto another wall and froze.
“Adjusters,” he said, the word sounding like a gunshot.
“Where?” Cassie exclaimed, whipping her gun around, as though expecting them to come barging out of a doorway.
“Not here,” Shaun said. “And put that gun down, you’ll take my eye out.”
Cassie lowered the weapon, but not before giving him another scathing look. He ignored her, and pointed at the wall. “This blood, it’s black. There were Adjusters here, and I’m willing to bet they killed these people.”
The walls were smeared with a substance like ink, running in long fingers down to the floor. Now that he looked around, several of the stains he had originally taken as brown were actually closer to black.
“This place must be older than the factory itself,” Agent Hunt said, speaking for the first time, her tone wavering. “Was the factory built on top of these tunnels?”
“Don’t know,” Shaun muttered. Then louder, “We have to choose a direction. Hunt, scout out what you can through there.” He pointed to what looked like offices. “Cassie, with me, down here.”
He gestured to a corridor marked ‘Holding Cells’ again. Reluctantly, the agent followed his orders, the sounds of her footsteps retreating as she explored the offices. Cassie said nothing as they moved down the hallway, following another twist back to the right.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, though down here, his voice was amplified much louder. “I’m sorry that I called you a liability. I – I was just…” He drifted off, unable to find the right words. I was worried about you. Worried that something bad might happen, and that I’d lose you. That I’d lose another Timewalker. Because this time it would be worse than losing Hayden. I didn’t know him. But I know you.
He couldn’t translate his thoughts into words, so they kept moving, the silent gap between them widening further.
They entered another open room – the Holding Cells. Six doors surrounded them, each made of solid steel, windowless with only a small slot. One of the doors teetered on a single hinge, and as Shaun swept his light over the ground, he saw more loose paperwork, as though somebody had knocked over an entire filing cabinet.
He knelt to pick up a piece of paper, detaching the tactical light to use it as a regular flashlight. Cassie squatted down beside him, her eyes darting over the lines. The text had clearly been printed from an old typewriter, one of the keys – a y – slightly elevated from the rest.
“White Tower Subject Manifest,” Shaun read. “What the hell is ‘White Tower’? I’ve never heard of it. Look at the date: October 17th, 1989.”
He frowned, and continued, “Subject 16 shows increased paranormal activity, including ability to correctly predict the order of a shuffled deck of cards…I can’t read what that says, it’s too faded. Here – no other notes, save for Subject 23. Great improvement in cellular regeneration. Subject is capable of—”
Shaun stopped dead. He re-read the same line again, just in case he had missed something the first time. A sour taste spilled into his mouth, burning its way down his throat. His mind was sent spinning like a top and he had to place one hand on the ground to steady himself.
“What is it?” Cassie shot him a concerned look, trying to read over his shoulder. “What does it say?”
Shaun swallowed past a thick lump in his throat and read the paragraph aloud, each word echoing in the cramped room hidden beneath the crumbling ruins of a cement factory.
“Great improvement in cellular regeneration. Subject is capable of healing most non-life-threatening wounds. I consider Subject 23 to be the first successful Timewalker.”