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Mac stared at Harper, his heart pounding. “I don’t believe you.”
“No surprise, but please, allow me to enlighten you.”
“Why? Why tell me the whole underhanded plan to take over, when I’m only going to stop you.” If I get out of here alive.
“Perhaps, if you know the truth, you will join me, instead of hindering me. Allow me to tell you why I am here, and we may become allies instead of enemies.”
“Not damn likely, but, hey,” Mac stepped back, toward the intersecting hall. He hated to run, but he would. No one else here gave a damn about finding Kane, and he refused to leave his friend out there, with no way home. “Give it a shot.”
“We are attempting to reshape the future. You see, Macaffrey, the future we are creating, at this moment, is going to destroy us all if we do nothing to change it.”
“What?” Mac expected just about any excuse, any dark, selfish take-over-the-world plot. But not this.
“He’s telling the truth, Mac.” Colette stepped out of the hall, her pistol aimed at him. “My order to kill you didn’t come from Harper.” She glanced over at Harper, and dread shot through Mac when the rat bastard nodded. Damn it—he was right. He couldn’t trust her. “I wasn’t lying when I said it would be easier to kill you if I didn’t like you. I was bracing myself to finish the job when Harper stopped me—almost too late.” Mac closed his eyes. “Please, Mac, you have to believe him. The portal, what we’re doing here—it’s going to kill us all.”
“You’ve been working for him, all this time.” She stared past him, her jaw clenched as she nodded, once. That knowledge was bad enough. Worse was knowing the rat bastard saved his life, and now he—damn it all to hell, now Mac owed him for it. “And Carrie?”
“She doesn’t know anything! She just likes you, and considers it her job to help people who need it. I shouldn’t have dragged her into this.”
“She will not be harmed, Sergeant.” Harper straightened his suit. “As long as she knows nothing of the organization, she is perfectly safe.”
“And I’m not,” Mac said.
Harper studied him, those cold blue eyes unreadable. “You could be—useful. But only if you believe me, and understand that helping us means you have to put aside your project to retrieve Kane and his companion.”
“What?” Shock jolted him. “No—hell no. He’s our best agent. He understands the portal more than anyone I know, including me.”
“Then he will be able to find his way back on his own. I will welcome him, Macaffrey, have no doubt. I understand how valuable he can be to our mission. But I need your complete focus on this.”
“If I say no?”
“You will be asked to leave TimeSearch.”
Mac nearly staggered at that. He helped shape the project, building more than one of the machines that controlled—he always thought barely contained—the alien technology. It was his life now.
“How much time do I have to decide?”
Harper looked at his watch.
“Five minutes. Starting now.”
Mac stumbled back, until he hit the wall. A hand touched his wrist, and he looked up to find Colette next to him.
“We need you, Mac. The reports Harper showed me—” She shuddered. “We have to stop what happens. You can do more than anyone to make that possible.” She moved closer, slipped her hand in his. It took all his control not to jerk away. “I’m sorry I lied to you, but it was meant to protect us both, from whoever wants you dead. And what Harper didn’t tell you is that most of what we’re trying to prevent happens in our lifetime. It’s our future we’re trying to save. Please help us.”
He swallowed and closed his eyes. If what she said was true, he didn’t have much choice. But saying yes meant leaving Kane and Elizabeth out there, on their own. A man he respected more than anyone he ever met, and a courageous woman who gave up everything to help him.
He couldn’t do it.
He had to do it.
He would find a way, to do this and help Kane. It would probably get him killed.
“Damn you, Harper. I’m in.”