Double-Back (Jake Waters Book 3) (4 page)

He Back-Tracked.

The Back-Track took him back to the moments of his arrival in Washington a few days ago.  He was just walking down the hallway after picking up his baggage and heading toward the car rental when the future memories settled in.  As the memories flooded his mind, he shifted direction and headed up to the upper level where he had a flight already booked to take him back to California.  He hoped he had time.  Now he wished he had come to Washington even earlier.

Eight hours later he was in California, and a half hour after that he was nearing home.  That was close enough and he made two successive Back-Tracks, each as large as he was capable of.  Nearly a month before the shooting, the Jake of that time swallowed three aspirin and considered his situation.  He hated living through all of this again, but it might be the only way.

"This is a surprise," Susan said as Jim Laney escorted Jake into her inner office where he took one of the comfortable chairs that were available.

They spent a few minutes working through the dialogue that Jake recalled from the last time he'd worked through this scenario with them.  At least he was getting close to the payoff point, when he'd learn whether his theory was likely or not.  The long days of working through the same events had become more of a chore as the years passed.  He used to take such things in stride, but now he found the whole thing frustrating.

"Someone shot me?" Susan asked when Jake finished explaining why he had come to Washington.

"Two snipers, operating from different locations he said.  He was making no attempt to follow the same dialogue they'd had the last time.  If he was right in his suspicions, soon enough they would be diverging from the script anyway.  Jim called me with the details a few days from now so I could bring the information back and place our people strategically and capture those involved."

"So you don't know who they are?" Susan asked.

"I know this sounds strange to you, but they are the same people who tried to kidnap you a few days ago," Jake said.

"That never happened," Laney said.

"Not for you, but it did for me.  And I saw a couple of the people you arrested both times.  The man you and I arrested before he could make the shot was one of the men you sent me pictures of from the kidnapping."

"I thought you said they were successful?" Susan asked.  "When was this arrest made?"

"This isn't the first time I've gone through this," Jake explained.  "After you were shot, I looped back and told you.  We set up and were able to catch both sniper teams.  That's when I had a chance to get a look at one of those involved."

"If we arrested him, you must know something about him," Jim insisted.

"Actually, I don't.  I decided it was necessary that I Back-Tracked immediately afterwards.  There was no time to gather any information."

"That doesn't make any sense," Susan said.  "If you were successful in apprehended them, what reason could you have had for Back-Tracking then?"

"The events associated with the kidnapping you and Jim are half-convinced never happened and believe are something my mind erroneously made up."

"I don't understand," Jim admitted.

Jake grimaced. 

"I made a second loop so we can attempt to capture the individuals this time around.  We have all the same information, but if I'm right, they won't be there."

Susan looked at Jake oddly.

"You're telling me that I was killed, and that you and Jim were able to capture those who did it, and now you expect that if we do exactly the same thing as before, this time it won't work? There will be no attempt on my life?"

Jake nodded.

"That's what I half expect.  I might be wrong, but that's what I see as the likely outcome."

"Jake, are you all right?" Jim asked, suddenly concerned.  "This kidnapping thing seems to have affected you somehow."

"Look, we have to assume the attempt might be made, since it was carried out successfully in the original timeline.  It's also the only opportunity we have at the moment to try to capture those who are making the attempt.  I might be wrong, and we might capture them just as we did the last time you and I did this.  In that case, I'm going to be as concerned as you about the older kidnapping event.  But if I'm right, we'll do all the preparations, and come up empty again."

"And you don't want to say why?" Susan asked.

"Not yet," Jake admitted.  "I'm concerned that revealing too much might have an effect on the outcome.  I can't see how, but I'd rather let things go to their conclusion.  I promise, however it comes out, I'll tell you what I am thinking."

Susan looked at Jim.

"What do you think?" she asked.

"Jake's right.  We have to take action, just in case.  He admits this could turn out either way, and if someone is actually after you, we need to put a stop to it right away."

Susan nodded slowly.

"I agree, but Jake, this is one of the oddest situations I've been in with you for a long time.  I feel like the first time we met and you told me to do things that didn't make sense not knowing about your ability.  I hope you know what you are doing."

They did the same exact things they had done the first time around.  When the day of the expected shooting arrived, they were ready.  Jake was perhaps the most surprised when the call to Susan for the luncheon meetings came on schedule.  They were in place at the time, but she contacted them via a special throw away phone Jake had purchased just for the purpose.  The fact the call had come made him wonder if he had this figured out as well as he thought.  He would have been willing to bet that the whole attempt would be aborted, and that included the unplanned lunch meeting.

Jim looked meaningfully at Jake when the call came through, but didn't say anything.  Agent Hardy, who waited with them, wasn't aware of the alternate aspects of the operation.

"We'll know soon enough if they are going to show," Hardy said.  They had been monitoring the stairwell for several hours, and unless someone had gone up to the roof unusually early, the place was deserted at the moment.

By the time the spotter indicated that Susan had arrived, there had been no action at either of the locations.

"This doesn't look promising," Laney said softly, earning a nod from Agent Hardy. 

Jake was suddenly confident once again that he had this read correctly.

"What will Agent Carlson do if we don't call her?" Hardy asked.

"She's supposed to go on with the lunch, but insist that it be held indoors."  There would be no opportunity for someone to take a shot if she was inside.

"Do you think they set up in the other building?" Hardy asked.

Jim knew that Hardy was referring to the only other building that had a view of the courtyard.

"Not a chance," Jake said confidently.  "The roof there doesn't have a view of the target area."

Jim looked at him sharply.  They had discussed the only other structure, but given that Jake was bringing after-the-fact intelligence, they hadn't gone there to investigate.

"I looked," Jake said, letting Jim know there was more to this than he knew.

"It's been too long," Jim said finally.  "Susan has been in the restaurant for ten minutes.  If someone is waiting, they'll realize she isn't going to come outside where they have a shot at her.  The other stakeout is reporting no activity either.  I think we should check the roof and be certain no one is there."

"Let's do it," Jake agreed as he withdrew his Sig from his holster.

Jim informed the other group of their plan, then the three agents made their way to the rooftop.  They set off the alarms when they pushed through onto the roof, but as suspected, no one was there.

"Bad intelligence," Hardy said as he looked over the edge toward the distance restaurant.  "No one's been up here recently."

When the second team of agents reported a similar lack of success, the agents explained to management who they were and then left for Headquarters.

More than an hour and a half later, Susan Carlson returned to her office where Jake and Laney waited.

"Nothing, as you predicted," she said, looking at Jake.  "Are you sure this was ever real, Jake?  There's no evidence there was ever an attempt anymore than there was with the kidnapping that didn't happen."

"That's how it has always been," Jake reminded her.  "Whenever I told you of one of these events, there was no evidence.  It's all in my head.  I can't bring anything physical with me.  But in the past, it has always worked out just as I warned you.  Now, two times it hasn't, and you're no longer certain of what I'm telling you."

"It's not that, but . . .  Ah, hell, I just don't know what to believe," she said as she slipped in behind her desk and took off her holstered pistol

"How about the meeting?" Jim asked.  "Was that legitimate?  Maybe there's something we can trace back from those involved."

"The meeting was real.  The man I met was given the assignment by the White House chief of staff.  We were met by an informant that will be critical in the case we have to make.  If Jake is right and there was to be an attempt, somehow someone learned of the meeting, or helped make it happen, but it wasn't the people I met."

Susan turned toward Jake.

"Okay, you promised to tell us what you have been thinking, however this turned out.  I think it's time.  You owe us an explanation, revealing what you are thinking about all of this."

"Yeah," Jim said eagerly.  "What's the explanation for what's going on?"

Jake could tell his friend was wondering if he might be having problems of some kind.  Karin had also questioned if longer Back-Tracking loops might be having some effect on his memory when the kidnapping hadn't materialized as he'd warned.  It was time to see how they reacted to his theory.

"It's pretty obvious once you realize the likely possibility," Jake replied. 

He stood where he could watch both of them to gauge their reaction to what he was about to say.

"It's either something wrong with me, which I'm convinced isn't the case, or there's someone else who can do what I do.  There's another Back-Tracker.  And that person is working for those who are after Susan."

Neither Susan nor Jim said a word for a long moment.  Jake could see they hadn't even considered the possibility.  Finally, Susan spoke.

"Jake, that's a little hard to believe?"

"Why?" Jake asked.  "You know what I can do.  Why couldn't there be another like me?"

"You don't think we would have some indication of such a person?" Jim asked.

"Not if the person was careful," Jake replied.  "You would never have known about me if I hadn't been pushing the situation to deal with problems that couldn't be solved any other way.  If the person is only interested in protecting his identity, then there's little to give him away."

"How would he gain his ability?" Susan asked.

"How did I gain mine?" Jake countered.  "One day I just realized I had it.  It could be the same with whoever this is."

"Wait," Jim protested.  "Explain to me how you come to this conclusion."

"Good idea," Jake agreed.  "See if you can find fault in my logic.  Let's go back to the kidnapping situation."

Jake stood and walked over to the white board that Susan kept handy for making notes when she and Jim brainstormed.  He drew a horizontal line across the middle and place a dot on the line two-thirds of the way across.  This he labeled kidnapping.  A short distance more to the right he placed another dot and labeled it with the words, 'Jim informs Jake'.

"Let's assume for the moment the kidnapping took place as I described.  Up until this point, where the kidnapping took place, none of us had any knowledge there was a plan to make the attempt.  Afterwards, Jim and several agents knew, and at this point, marked by this dot, I became aware when Jim called."

"According to you, you then Back-Tracked a few days and called us," Jim said.

"After you gathered some preliminary information to aid our planning," Jake agreed.  "That would put me here, and at this point, now a couple of days before the attack, where the three of us were aware what was going to happen."

"But it didn't," Susan protested.

"Actually, it did," Jake corrected her.  "We went through the routine to capture the perpetrators, and while neither you nor Jim recall, you caught four individuals who made the attempt.  Jim later transmitted their pictures to me in California."

Jake could tell that Jim wanted to protest, but he cut him off saying, "Hear me out."

"Okay," Susan said. "Then what do you think happened?"

"Then, just by chance because I had something to do for Karin, I Back-Tracked again, a full six weeks, and that's what made all of this interesting.  When I relived those weeks, and came back to the time I informed you about the attempted kidnapping that was about to happen, we did the same planning, except when the day came, there were no kidnappers.  That's what you and Jim recall."

"So what happened?" Jim asked.

"I wasn't the only one who Back-Tracked.  Suppose someone who was involved in the attempt, realized that they had been discovered and the people caught, so he Back-Tracked far enough to call off the attempt.  Say to a point here," and Jake drew another mark on the line with a loop from after the attempt to several days before.  He also added a point far to the left to show where he had gone with his loop to help Karin's problem.

"Now what happens?" Jake asked.  "This time as I travel through the days, I still retain my memories of what happened, but when we get to the point where the kidnapping is to take place, nothing happens.  That's because the bad guys are aware they would be caught, and no longer make the attempt.  To you and Jim, this is the only time these events have taken place, and it seems like my prediction is false.  I know otherwise, because I looped back far enough to retain my memories of the original events.  Had I not made that special trip for Karin, I would have been caught just like both of you."