Just in Time: Portals of Time (7 page)

His comment brought Dorian back to reality and she started down the stairs. She stumbled and had to grasp on to the railing.

“Did you like the movie?” Helen asked her.

“Yes.”

“She’s never seen a
Mission Impossible
film.” Luke spoke from behind her. So only Dorian could hear, he mumbled, “Or any one.”

“Not everybody’s into cops and robbers,” Jess said easily. “I hope it was okay for you, sitting through all of them. We like marathons.”

“I enjoyed myself.”

“She stole some of my popcorn. I’m not sure she ever had that, either.”

Helen began, “Why wouldn’t she—” but Jess cut her off by tugging her down the steps.

Outside the theater, they waited for the rush of people to pass, then Helen walked down the street with Luke, and Dorian hung back with Jess. When they were far enough back from the other couple, Jess whispered, “You all right?”

“Yes.” She pitched her voice lower. “I have a thousand questions.”

“I’m sure you do. Let’s grab some dinner, and maybe later, we can catch some time alone.”

“All right.”

“What do you feel like eating?”

She placed a hand on her stomach. “My supplements. This food is not good for me. Or for you.”

He laughed. “Chinese. You might tolerate that.”

The theater was in downtown Brooklyn, and soon they came to a crossing of the roads. As they waited for the traffic to stop, she noted the many vehicles out at this hour but with few people in them. Why weren’t they at least filled with passengers?

The light turned to red—which meant the vehicles must stop—and all four of them stepped off the curb.

From the north, Dorian caught sight of a yellow automobile called a taxi speeding toward them. Her eyes widened and her heart raced. Instead of stopping, the vehicle picked up speed.

“Luke, the vehicle,” she yelled as she yanked Jess onto the sidewalk, the momentum carrying her back into a utility pole. Just before she hit the steel structure, she got a glimpse of Luke grabbing Helen and hauling her to safety, too.

As the taxi whizzed past them, Dorian banged her head against the pole and slumped down to the ground.

DORIAN LAY STRETCHED
out on Jess’s couch an hour after the renegade taxi had barreled toward them. She’d lost consciousness for a little while after she’d banged her head on the steel pole. Though she was achy, she was awake now. Everyone was grim-faced. To calm them, she said, “I’m all right.”

On the loveseat, Helen hovered next to Jess, and Luke sat on the edge of a chair.

“You seem better than you did an hour ago,” Helen commented. “Even the bruise looks like it’s healing.”

The discoloration and swelling would be completely gone by tomorrow if she could manage to be alone and use the Multisalve she’d brought from her time. Its healing powers were myriad.

“I told you there was no need for the medics.”

Luke sighed. “What do you think happened, Dorian?”

She couldn’t read his expression. “It may have been connected to the threats Jess’s been getting.”

“Duh? Of course it was.”

“That’s impossible.” This from Jess. Now that she was more aware, Dorian noted his ashen face and how he was furiously twisting his marital band.

“Why, honey?” Helen hadn’t let go of Jess’s hand since they’d returned to this dwelling.

“Because if the cab had hit us, you would have been killed and not just me.”

Suddenly, Dorian was fearful of the truth coming out, which didn’t make sense, since she’d requested that these two people be told.

Jess’s expression was wild-eyed. “It was only supposed to be me, right Dorian?”

“Ah…”

“That thing said just
me.”
His voice rose a notch. “And not until later in the summer.”

Luke assumed his cop glare. “What the hell are you two talking about?”

Shaking his head, Jess looked at his brother. “Her computer thing. It said I was supposed to die before the end of the summer. That’s why she’s here.”

“I don’t understand.” Helen clutched his arm. “Jess, you’re talking crazy.”

Luke eyed Dorian. “What’s going on? This whole bodyguard thing hasn’t added up from the beginning. Helen’s right. Now you’re talking gibberish. I want the truth. Who the hell are you, Dorian?”

“I’m who I say I am.”

“Jess?”

“She is. It’s just that she’s not from here. Not from now. Oh, fuck it,” Jess said running a hand over his scalp. “I thought keeping this from you would be best, but it isn’t working out that way.” He shot an apologetic glance to Helen, then faced Luke. “Dorian’s from the future.”

ALISHA WALKED INTO
the hotel room after running out of inside. Though she was jaded about the current society, having researched it for decades, the ability to go out in real air and run, work up a sweat, was mind-boggling. But she had bigger things to deal with. “Something’s happened,” Alisha said without greeting.

Celeste, seated at a table, looked up from the book she was decoding. “Hello to you, too.”

“The cat’s out of the bag.”

“Once again, I have no idea what that means.”

Alisha held up her new cell phone. “It means Jess told Helen and Luke Cromwell who Dorian is, more to the point,
when
we came from.”

Celeste set down the book. “It was Jess’s decision
not
to tell them. What changed his mind?”

“There was an incident.” She described how Jess was almost hit by a taxi. “Dorian called as soon as she could to tell us.”

“Oh, Nord, Lisha, was that…was that when he was originally killed?”

“I don’t know because of the corrosion of the chips. He could have been killed earlier than the end of the summer, for all we know. But Helen would have died this time, too. Luke dragged her back. The computeller says she had a child, and we know for certain that hasn’t happened yet.”

“Seems coincidental to me.” Celi’s brow furrowed. “Maybe our very presence here has changed history.”

“Or maybe it’s related to one of those time paradoxes we discovered at the Institute. If we weren’t here, both of them would have died yesterday. So it’s like we were supposed to come and stop that, too. Nothing else happened, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well…” Alisha wasn’t sure how much to share with Celeste. But she missed having Rhea and her other institute workers to examine ideas with. Again, she thought back to their meeting with Rhea, which had haunted Alisha…

“Returning to 2514 poses problems,” Rhea told the group when they received their assignment. “You need to know this before we reveal your specific tasks. If you don’t want to participate after you hear this, the exact content of them will be kept from you.”

“Why wouldn’t we want to if society needs us?” Celeste asked.

Her eyes on her offspring, Rhea said, “There is a ninety-eight point six percent probability that if you do change the past, we won’t be able to return you to the present. If things are different in our time period, which we’re
hoping
will happen, we might not even exist as we are now, or our technology may be different. Time travel may not have ever been perfected.” Rhea sighed heavily when she finished with the bleak news.

Celeste smiled gently at her. “It’s all right to feel bad that you may never see me again.” She stood and went to her donor, squeezing her hand. “My love will always be yours, Rhea, no matter what happens.”

“You don’t have to go, Celi.” She scanned the group. “None of you do.”

“If the positions were reversed, would you?”

Rhea only nodded…

Now, Alisha decided to share her real feelings. “I guess I’ve been hoping that if we do change the future and the Domes go away, we’d overcome the odds and the Guardians would somehow know that three of us had backtracked to this time period. Maybe we
could
return to our own time.”

“Oh, Lisha, I’m sorry you had this hope. The probability is so small, I accepted right away that we’d never return.”

“I know, I think Dorian did too.”

Celeste rubbed her fingers on her temples. “Thinking about all that gives me a pain in the head.”

“We both need some sleep. We’re going over to the Cromwell house at dawning to see if we can help. I wanted to make the trip by taxi tonight, but Dorian said it was too late. Let’s get some sleep.” Without waiting for a response, Alisha grabbed her sleeping clothes and went into the bathroom, not feeling well herself. Her stomach was reacting to what could be a very complicated development.

THE NEXT DAY
, Alisha sat at a real wood table in the eating space at the Crowell’s dwelling. She sipped her tea—one of the few kinds of sustenance in this time period that she liked—and thought about the events of the morning. She and Celeste had arrived at eight a.m. and found the Cromwells with Dorian in this very room. Poor Jess seemed disoriented and his spouse Helen distraught. Dorian showed severe signs of fatigue. And Lucas Cromwell was nowhere in sight. Dorian had told her he’d stormed out of the house after a night of unproductive discussion and intermittent sleep. After they’d been introduced, she and Celeste had spoken with the Helen and Jess for over an hour, then they retired to their bedroom. Dorian had said she’d try to rest, too.

But after only fifteen minutes, she heard Dorian climb the steps from the lower level and come into the room.

Scanning her, Alisha frowned. “You appear even more tired than you did before you went to lie down.”

“I couldn’t sleep.”

Seven hours of uninterrupted slumber was essential to health and Alisha worried about Dorian missing it. In the future, none of them experienced sleeplessness.

“You should go running with me like we planned.”

“Probably not. Is Luke back?”

“No.”

“Then I couldn’t go anyway. I have to guard Jess.”

Alisha shook her head. “It isn’t logical that his brother still doesn’t believe you, even after I confirmed everything.”

“Hearing the person you love most dies in the near future would muddle anyone’s mind. He said he had to clear his head and went out for a drive.”

“I still think he could have handled this better.”

Alisha nodded to the basement entrance. The Cromwells had purchased the huge house yearlings ago, for a much lower cost than its selling price today. There was an entire bottom floor equipped with three separate rooms and a common area. Helen and Jess had offered all three women use of the lower spaces now that there were no secrets. “Is Celeste all right? Does she need anything?”

“I looked in on her. She’s not feeling well.”

“Her stomach has been upset from consuming their sustenance, and with all the emotion swirling around in the air today, she became ill with it.” Alisha shook her head. “I’m glad I’m not a sensitive.”

Dorian leaned against the counter. “Why don’t you go running alone? I’ll lie down on the sitting conformer and close my eyes.”

“All right.” Alisha stood. Hesitating, she stepped closer and embraced Dorian. Alisha wasn’t a hugger but she felt sorry for her friend. “Try to get some rest.”

Running out of inside brightened Alisha’s mood, though once again the sunshine made her eyes hurt. The powerful rays beaming right down on her with little obfuscation by the ozone layer forced her to put on the shaded glasses. She didn’t like them because they impeded her vision. And because she couldn’t see well and was preoccupied, she collided with someone when she reached the paved path in front of Jess’s just as he did. “Oh.”

The man grabbed for her shoulders. “Easy there.” He had a deep voice and firm grip.

Alisha slid her glasses to the top of her head. “I seek your forgiveness. I didn’t see you.”

Now that she did, she took in details. He was about four inches taller than she was, broad shouldered, and slim hipped. His face was…interesting. Not as classic as Alex Lansing’s or as rugged as Luke Cromwell’s, but…nice looking and kind. And his hair had…curls, another anomaly of her time.

Then her gaze dropped lower. “What’s that around your neck?” she blurted out.

His hand went to the white ring inside a black shirt.

“This? It’s a collar.” When she frowned, he added, “I’m a minister. Helen and Jess’s minister. Helen called and asked me to come over. She said it was urgent.”

Alisha took a moment to recall what she knew about clerics of the time. Spiritual leaders. Heads of congregations. Confessors.

Confessors.
Unholy godheads, they couldn’t divulge anything to this man!

She said, “My name is Alisha. And I’ll go back in with you.”

DORIAN STARED ACROSS
the table where she now sat with Jess and Helen. They were unable to rest and had come out to the eating space thirty minutes ago for tea. But when Jess served her some, Helen began weeping and he sat down and slid his arm around her. Celeste had gotten misty-eyed sometimes, but Dorian had never seen women leak tears openly like this. It fascinated her, made her wonder if she could do it.

“Shh, sweetheart, it’s okay. I told you over and over, I’m going to be all right. Dorian came here to save my life.”

Burying her head in his shoulder, she murmured, “I still can’t believe you’re supposed to die.”

Dorian tried to keep her voice even, but the events of the last twenty-four hours had upset even her. “I’m here to preclude his death, Helen.”

The woman raised bruised eyes to her. “What if you can’t?”

“It’s all hard to comprehend, I know. But as I said, we have evidence to prove we can change the future.”

“And you want to? You’ll make everything different.” Helen sniffed as she asked the question.

“Yes, we want to because by our calculations, society as we know it ends in 2589. I already explained this to you.” Several times. To her and Luke.

“I can’t take it in. Neither can Luke, which is why he left.”

Apprehensive, Dorian glanced up when she heard the front door open. “Maybe that’s him.”

Instead, a man wearing a black shirt, a white neck-circle and gray pants stepped inside. With him was Alisha, her expression even more dour than usual.