Taylor read the words memory wash in Sheridan’s file with numb horror. Right now Sheridan was alive and knew who she was. She remembered Taylor and their life in the twenty-first century. In a few more hours, that wouldn’t be the case. The sister Taylor had known would be completely gone. “We have to rescue her now,” Taylor told Ren and Lee.
Ren looked upward in exasperation. Lee was still rubbing his forehead as though he had a sudden, persistent headache.
“I won’t go back to Santa Fe without Sheridan,” Taylor said. She could hear the panic in her voice but didn’t care. “If that means delaying the QGPs’ destruction, so be it.”
Joseph said nothing. He had accessed layouts of the detention center and was copying them onto his comlink.
Ren’s dark eyes fixed Taylor with a stare. “Destroy the QGPs now.” He gestured in Joseph’s direction, piercing the air with his forefinger. “If Joseph found a way to combine the QGPs’ energy to make them work, the government can too. They’ll use that power to kill innocent people.”
Taylor shook her head. “Joseph is smarter than anyone the government has working for them. They won’t be able to figure it out.” Even as Taylor said the words, she wasn’t sure it was the truth. Reilly was smart enough that he’d managed to build a time machine. She turned to Joseph. “You didn’t leave any record of Echo’s reconfiguration on the computer, did you?”
“No,” Joseph said.
Ren didn’t appear to be reassured. He stalked off toward the Time Strainer, switched into a language Taylor didn’t understand, and let out a stream of angry-sounding words. Probably cursing her. Lee switched to another language as well. It might have been the same one or a different one, but the two of them clearly agreed about something for once.
While Xavier helped Echo dress in his laser-deflecting clothes, he gave Echo a brief rundown of what had happened—including the fact that his rescue had rearranged events so that Taylor’s sister was in a detention cell. Echo shot a few sympathetic looks in her direction then, which Taylor ignored. Echo looked so much like Joseph that she couldn’t help but be angry at him too. Or maybe that wasn’t why she was angry at him; maybe it was because his life had cost Sheridan’s freedom. At any rate, he could keep his sky-blue eyes and model-perfect face to himself.
Ren turned to Lee and spoke in English again. “We know the QGPs’ probable locations. We can set explosives and take out those rooms.”
“Are you sure you can destroy all of them?” Taylor asked pointedly. “If they aren’t destroyed simultaneously, the scientists will protect the remaining ones. The only way to be sure you get them all is to send signals from the system they’re linked to. You need me for that.” She folded her arms resolutely. “In the new timestream, it’s part of your mission to rescue Sheridan. All I’m asking is that you do it sooner than you were supposed to.”
Lee raked a hand through his hair. “The new timestream is only a blur in my mind. I don’t remember what our contact’s name is or where we’re supposed to meet to rescue Sheridan. The orders I remember—those take precedence. Destroy the QGPs, and then we’ll figure out what to do about Sheridan.”
Lee didn’t remember their contact’s name? The dread tightening around Taylor’s stomach constricted into a painful, jolting knot. She turned to Ren. “Do you know the contact’s information?”
Ren ran his fingers across his eyes, thinking. “Her name started with a P. We’re supposed to meet her near the detention center somewhere.” He scowled, unable to retrieve more information. “After you destroy the QGPs, we’ll go to the detention center. Maybe seeing the building will congeal our memories.”
Maybe. It was as vague as the council’s promise of “try.” Too easy to get out of. Taylor had only one piece of leverage to save her sister, and she had to use it. “If you won’t rescue Sheridan right now, then I’ll go to the detention center and do it myself—and it’s your job to protect me.”
Ren let out a growl and strode back over to Taylor. His muscles were as taut as if he was about to go into battle. He seemed bigger, more menacing than he had before. “No. My job is to see that you destroy the QGPs and then keep you from being captured by either the government or the Dakine. Now you want me to help you—without any sort of workable plan—break into a high-security detention center?”
“Yes,” Taylor said.
Ren lifted his hands in a gesture of disbelief. “I was given orders to kill you if your capture looked imminent. I don’t see how you can break into a detention center without it looking like your capture is imminent.”
Taylor drew in a sharp breath. “You would kill me?”
Ren lifted his hands again, trying to show her the logic. “If I thought it wasn’t possible to rescue you, death would be better than letting someone torture you into using your knowledge to kill others.”
Taylor took a step back from him, indignation pressing her mouth into an open circle. “The council said your orders were to protect me.”
“Yes, well, we all have our secrets.” Ren shot her an impatient look. “Taylor, destroy the QGPs. Then, while Lee gets you out of the city, I’ll rescue Sheridan.”
“I can’t,” Lee said. He stood nearby, arms folded, watching Taylor. “As soon the QGPs are destroyed, my orders are to find and assassinate Reilly.”
Everyone turned and stared at Lee. Ren raised an eyebrow.
Lee shrugged. “As you said, we all have our secrets.”
Taylor glared at both of them. “I heard you promise President Mason—”
“To protect those under our care,” Lee finished for her. “We are. You can’t hold us to orders from the new timestream. We only partially remember them.”
Joseph stood and came around the computer terminal, his comlink in his hand. He took Lee’s comlink so that he could transfer the detention-center schematics to it. “Help me rescue Sheridan first, and then I’ll help you kill Reilly. I made that bargain with one of the sectors in Santa Fe. If Xavier saved Echo, I promised to make sure Reilly was no longer a threat.”
Ren shook his head in amazement. “You see, Brother Lee, this is the problem when factions don’t communicate—a redundant team member. You didn’t need to come along after all.”
“Oh, I needed to come,” Lee said with a forced smile. “Someone has to ensure the mission is a success.”
Ren still shook his head. “After all your father’s talks about peace being a way of life, you’re willing to kill Reilly?”
“You’re willing to kill Taylor,” Lee countered. “Which is worse?”
Echo walked to the computer terminal, a pair of the blue overalls covering his other clothing. “I’d like to point out that I’m not planning on killing anyone. I find that ironic since I’m the one with the Dakine membership.” He sat down in the chair Joseph had vacated and switched the screen back to Joseph’s program. “Tell me again why you can’t strain Sheridan?”
“QGPs identify people by their DNA’s energy signal,” Joseph explained. “The government inserted a chip into Sheridan that’s shielding her energy signal so that the QGP can’t pick it up.”
“How does it do that?” Echo asked.
“I don’t know.” Joseph handed back Lee’s comlink and then turned to get Ren’s. “I haven’t had time to study it.”
“And you don’t have time now,” Ren said, but he let Joseph transfer the detention schematics to his comlink.
Taylor walked over to the computer terminal and studied the screen over Echo’s shoulder. “Can we strain Reilly in here? We could leverage his life for Sheridan’s.”
Lee let out a grunt. “Two of us came here to kill Reilly. That’s not going to give you much leverage.”
“We don’t have Reilly’s energy signal,” Joseph told Taylor. “And even if we did, he probably has an antistraining chip in him.”
Ren pointed his scanner at the bay door. “Eventually, someone isn’t going to care if Helix is in here, and they’ll want to come in. The QGPs need to be destroyed by then, or we’ll have given our lives for nothing.” He gestured to the computer. “Run the destruction program. We’ll take an oath to try to help your sister.”
Try to help? This from the guy who had just admitted he would kill Taylor rather than let her be captured. What sort of help did he have planned for Sheridan?
Taylor looked at the Time Strainer. Purple and white lights blinked at its sides. It let off an electric sort of hum, waiting for further commands. “You all have your own agendas,” Taylor said. “I have mine too. I won’t destroy the QGPs until my sister is safe. That way I know you won’t just try to rescue Sheridan. You’ll do it.”
Lee turned to Joseph. “You can destroy the QGPs, can’t you?”
Joseph’s eyes met Taylor’s. He could. He had seen how she’d done it the first time.
“No,” he said. “Only Taylor knows how.”
This, she knew, was his attempt to make things right between them. Joseph wouldn’t take away her only bargaining chip.
Joseph turned to Ren and Lee. “If you can’t remember the plan to rescue Sheridan, we’ll come up with a new one. The DW will help us.” He held up his comlink screen so that the others could see the schematics he pointed to. “Sheridan’s cell is right here. If we can get inside the detention center dressed as Enforcers, we can bring her out before her memory wash is scheduled.”
Xavier had finished packing up his medical equipment and walked over to join the group. He took four gas masks from one of his packs. Working ones, Taylor supposed. He handed them to Ren, Lee, Echo, and her. “How were you planning on killing Reilly?” Xavier asked Lee.
Lee examined the mask as though he didn’t quite trust it. “Reilly has an apartment here at the Scicenter. After the mission, I’ll wait there until he comes home.”
Xavier took out his comlink and switched on the tracking function. “Men with Reilly’s rank have more than one apartment. It could be days until he shows up.”
“I know,” Lee said. “I’m patient.”
Xavier tapped through the screens on his comlink. “You don’t have to be. Joseph and I have a way to find him.”
Lee stepped closer to him and peered at his comlink screen. “Were you able to locate Reilly’s crystal signature?”
“No.” Xavier scrolled through the data on his screen. “My source has never even seen him. But I know the crystal signature of one of Reilly’s assistants. Which means I can tell you that right now Reilly is in the detention center.”
“He’s probably with Sheridan,” Taylor said dully. “Interrogating her.” Memories flashed at Taylor. Reilly’s face leering over her as he hit her.
“Help us rescue Sheridan,” Joseph told Lee, “then I’ll help you kill Reilly.”
Lee nodded, resigning himself to the new plan. “Agreed.”
The knot in Taylor’s stomach finally unloosened a bit. “Good. I’ll go with you.”
“Absolutely not,” Joseph said, at the same time Xavier and Ren added nos of their own.
Lee sent her an apologetic smile. “I would hate to see Ren shoot you.”
“Stay here with Echo,” Joseph told her. “I’ll message you as soon as we have Sheridan so you can destroy the QGPs. Then we’ll meet up at our contact spot.”
The Fisherman’s Feast restaurant. At least, Taylor hoped that was still the spot the DW had designated. Memories from the new timestream were dreamlike, with huge gaps.
Ren checked over the weapons on his belt. “We can’t leave Taylor here unprotected. One of us needs to stay with her.”
“Well, it’s not going to be you,” Taylor told him. “If Enforcers break in here, I know who you’ll shoot first.”
Ren rolled his eyes. “Yes, the Enforcers. Killing you would be a last and desperate option.”
“I’ll stay,” Xavier said. “I should be here anyway in case Echo has any medical problems.”
“You’re a surgeon,” Ren pointed out. “We can’t trust Taylor’s safety to you.”
Xavier tilted his chin down condescendingly, his expression reminding everyone that he was the oldest one in the group—the most experienced. “I’m a paramilitary surgeon. I can shoot as well as the rest of you.”
This seemed to satisfy Ren and Lee. Lee pointed his scanner toward the bay door again, checking how many people were in the hallway. “We can’t risk going outside through any of the building’s exits. If the guards notice we don’t have crystal signatures, they’ll lock down the building.”
Ren switched his comlink to scanner function as well. “We’ll find an empty room on the ground floor, cut through a wall, and then head to the mobile crystal on Charles Street. We’ll figure out how to get into the detention center while we get a car.” He didn’t have to explain why he’d suggested using a crystal that was farther away. He was leaving the closer mobile crystals for Taylor’s group to use.
“The hallway is clear,” Lee said, heading to the bay doors. “Let’s go.”
Ren turned to Xavier. “If something goes wrong . . .” He shot a meaningful look in Taylor’s direction.
Taylor bristled.
Xavier nodded. “I’ll make sure she makes it back to Santa Fe.”
Joseph took Taylor by the arm to get her attention. He kept his voice low and spoke to her in the twenty-first-century accent so that the others wouldn’t understand. “I’ll do everything I can to save Sheridan, but you need to destroy the QGPs as soon as we walk out the door. The last time Sheridan protected you, she told you not to let her sacrifice be for nothing. I’m telling you the same thing now.”
Then he turned and followed Lee and Ren out of the room.