Convergence Point (29 page)

Authors: Liana Brooks

I look at the sea and see the incarnation of eternity. Time, the elusive goddess wed to death, is present in every wave.

~ excerpt from
The Heart of Fear
by Liedjie Slaan

Saturday November 23, 2064

Cannonvale, Queensland

Australia

Iteration 2

A
pale moon hung low over the Coral Sea like a luminous opal. Mac parked his truck in the driveway of the only house with lights on without checking the address. According to Sam's e-Âmails, no one else lived in a three-Âblock radius. The sweet aroma of woodsmoke and charcoal pulled him forward. He walked up the terraced stone steps to the house and knocked on the door.

A ferocious bark made Mac step back.

“Down, Bosco! Sit!” The door opened to the thumping of a heavy tail on tiled floors. “Hi, Mac. I'm glad you made it!” Sam reached out with one hand and hugged him, pulling away far too quickly. “How was the flight?”

“The one up from Sydney wasn't bad. The one down here from New York was .Â .Â . long.” He watched the puppy smear his pant leg with drool. “He has a tail.”

“Yup, they didn't dock it when he was born. Watch it, it's lethal. Especially when he's happy.” She smiled fondly down at the puppy, looking happier than she had when she'd left him.

Mac reached down and rubbed Bosco's ear. “Did I smell the charcoal grill going when I pulled up?”

“You did. I was just about to put on some lamb steaks, and I have a salad I'm tossing in the kitchen.” Her smile was the warmth of sunshine after a long winter.

He reached for her, needing to know there was something for him. Needing to know she was really with him again. “Tell me you missed me.”

“Every day.” Sam walked into his embrace, resting her head on his chest as she wrapped her arms around him. “I kept waiting for you to call and say you weren't coming.” The fear in her voice broke his heart.

He kissed the top of her head, gentle and reassuring. “Why would I do that?”

“You could have gone anywhere. Vanished. Gone home to Idaho or joined one of the mercenary companies the news keeps going on about. You had choices.”

“You know I didn't want any of those. Not if there was a chance to be with you.” He squeezed her tight, then let her go.

Sam stepped away with a sigh. “It's been strange here without you, honestly. There are days I can wake up and almost pretend it was all a silly dream. Without any proof to hold except my own memory, I catch myself thinking the memory is faulty. Having you here with me makes it real again.”

“I'm sorry.” The words weren't enough. They had the ability to travel back in time, and some days he wished he'd stopped to tell his younger self not to tell Sam about Jane Doe's true identity. It was tempting to think that other choices would have led to an easier life, but there was always a shadow of doubt. A dark faith that any other action would have led to death. He couldn't put it in words, but he knew it in the same way he knew the sun would rise in the morning. There was only one way to get through this, and that was together.

“Don't be sorry,” Sam said. “Ignoring the problem won't make it go away. Come on, let's have dinner. We can plan for the future tomorrow.”

Dinner was a quiet affair. Sam filled him in on the few locals, her on-Âpaper-Âonly job as an on-Âcall manager at the boathouse in the harbor, and Bosco's training. She talked, he listened, and they danced around the difficult topics.

Sam cleared the table in silence, then said, “I forgot the cider.”

“What?” Mac ran a nervous hand over his jeans pockets.

“Sparkling cider. I bought it for your âWelcome to Australia' dinner.”

“We can have it for dessert,” he said.

She nodded. “And drink it on the porch. We have a beautiful view of the ocean.”

“I'll pour,” Mac said, jumping at the opening. He filled two champagne glasses with the bubbling golden cider and joined Sam on the wooden deck that looked over the edge of a hill to the sea. “Beautiful.” He handed Sam her glass.

“It is a gorgeous view.”

“I wasn't talking about the view.” He set his glass on the wooden railing and wrapped his arms around her. She leaned back into his chest, right where she belonged.

“I'm glad you're here.”

“Me too.” He'd lived for this night since the day she'd boarded the plane. Dreamed of her. Wanted her so much, it became a physical pain.

“You realize this is just the calm before the storm, right? It's all going to get crazy from here. We have time to plan, but reality is collapsing, and Emir isn't going to let his vision go without a fight.”

He held her tighter, breathing in the scent of the vanilla-Âand-Âcinnamon soap she'd used in the kitchen. Feeling their heartbeats falling into sync. “We'll be fine.”

“You think so.” She sounded amused.

“I know so.”

Sam's chuckle vibrated against him. “I have a million questions about the future.”

“Really? I only have one.” He reached into his pocket and pulled a ring. Black opal ovals were defined on two silver infinity signs on either side of an Asscher-Âcut diamond.

“Sam, will you marry me?”

THE END

CHAPTER 25

Nothing changes faster than the future.

~ excerpt from
A Brief Summary of Time
by Dr. Henry Troom I4âÂ2065

Day 187/365

Year 5 of Progress

Central Command

Third Continent

Prime Reality

C
ommander Rose moved around the quiet command room. The lights were at 30 percent, mimicking night and discouraging anyone from lingering after their shift was over. She was alone with the soft hum of data collection interrupted only by the occasional chirp of a computer spitting out data.

This was the very center of the universe. Her fingers brushed across the synthapaper scrolls that showed the constant sine wave of time. With training, she'd learned to read each dip of the iterations. Here, the birth of an einselected node. There, the tragic outcome of an event that crushed a million iterations and left only four struggling forward.

The future had a unique brilliance. During the times of expansion, all of time looked like a rainbow fracturing into infinite color. Now the lines of possibility were thickening, collapsing. Decoherence was drowning the rainbow in brutal black.

Quietly, the machine drew the newest line. Tomorrow shifted into view.

Her Prime iterationâÂthe master control of the iterations, heartbeat of the universeâÂappeared as a thin black line at the base of the sine wave. The scroll rolled out, and the black line surged up like a wave, following the possibilities of the lesser iterations. Hour by hour, ink drop by ink drop, the future appeared. She held her breath as the wave crested and crashed down, back to where it belonged at the baseline.

But this time, the Prime iteration didn't crash far enough.

Heartbeat stuttering with an unpleasant rush of fear, she watched another iteration take its place. Another line touched the baseline and took dominance as Prime iteration. Someone was stealing her future.

Rose went to the communications board and dialed a number she thought she'd never need to use.

After a moment, the screen shimmered as the stern visage of a world leader appeared.

“Dr. Emir, my apologies for calling at this late hour, there's been a mishap here at the command center.”

He raised a bushy white eyebrow. “A mishap? A flood perhaps? Did you run out of synthapaper? You're a commander. You are supposed to be able to handle these things on your own.”

Rose bristled at his tone. “There is a problem with the machine, sir.” She only barely managed to keep her tone respectful because she knew how easily commanders could be replaced. There was no place for dissenters in the world now.

“Impossible.” Emir sneered. “The machine is infallible.”

“If that is the case, sir, than we have lost our place as the dominant iteration.”

“Impossible!”

“Then the machine is broken. Sir.”

Emir's scowl burned through the screen. “Prepare a hit team. I'll be there in two hours.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I
t takes a village to raise a child and it takes no less to create a book. I want to thank everyone who was in this from the beginning. Amy, Derek, Dave, Jason, Christina .Â .Â . just to name a few. You got me through the early drafts. Special thanks to my battle buddy Samantha for loaning me her name for a character (love you!), my agent Marlene for believing in me even when I didn't, and my editor David for all he does.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

LIANA BROOKS
is a full-Âtime mom and a part-Âtime author who would rather slay dragons than budget the checkbook any day. Alas, Adventuring Hero is not a recognized course of study in American universities. She graduated from college with a bachelor's degree in marine biology, a husband, and no job prospects in her field. To fill the free time, she started writing. Now her books are read all over the world (she says she's big in Canada) and she's free to explore the universe one page at a time. You can find Liana on the Web at
www.lianabrooks.com
, on Twitter as @LianaBrooks, or on Facebook under the same name.

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ALSO BY LIANA BROOKS

Time & Shadows

The Day Before

Convergence Point

Heroes and Villains

Even Villains Fall In Love

Even Villains Go to the Movies

Even Villains Have Interns

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

CONVERGENCE POINT.
Copyright Â© 2015 by Liana Brooks. All rights reserved under International and Pan-ÂAmerican Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-Âbook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-Âengineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperÂCollins e-Âbooks.

EPub Edition NOVEMBER 2015 ISBN: 9780062407665

Print Edition ISBN: 9780062407689

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