“Then this Grant fellow it is. He’s full of passion.”
“Passion is a good thing. What's his background?”
“That's the strange part: up until a year ago, he was just some guy living at home with his parents. His father died a few months ago, just after he married. He took the money given him in the will to set up the charity.”
“You're kidding me!” Roger said as he reached across the desk to read the report Archer handed him. “It says here he’s already married. What do we know about her?”
“Nothing. She has no history, no social security number, no maiden name. She seems to have appeared out of nowhere.”
“Keep looking, John. I want people we can trust.”
Roger turned to leave. Archer cleared his throat. “There’s something else, sir.”
“Go on.”
“There have been some mysterious entries in the time-travel log in the past few days.”
“Oh? I thought someone had to have a security code to engage it.”
“They do,” he said. “It was your code.”
Roger shook his head and said: “Do you have the log?”
“Yes, sir, right here.” Archer handed him the paper. Roger scanned it and then crumbled it as he stormed from the office, tossing the paper into the waste basket on his way out. Once in the hallway, he touched his earpiece and said: “Val. Come to my office immediately.”
“
Be right there
,” she said.
He stormed down the stairs to the lower level and slammed his office door behind him. Val was already sitting in front of his desk. “You broke my trust,” he said.
“What are you talking about, Roger?”
“Your late-night trips through the time machine.”
“How did you know?”
“You should know by now that there is nothing on this ship that happens and escapes my attention.”
"So you spied on me?”
“I can’t believe you did this, Val. We are so close to making this all a reality. Tell me: what was so important that you couldn’t come and tell me about?”
She paused before speaking and shook her head. “I wanted to see Paul one last time. I only spent a month with him before he went to war and died.”
“What did you tell him? And don’t play games with me. You look different than you did before. Surely he recognized that. What did you tell him?”
She said nothing.
Roger finally sat behind the desk and opened a drawer. He removed a
small gun and set it between them on the desk. She stirred at the sight of it, unsure of his intentions.
“
So you went back in time and told someone where you were from. I’m sure you can see the problem you’ve created for me. And I don’t need to remind you what happens to people who stand in our way.
“If you’re going to shoot me, go ahead and get it over with. Otherwise, I need to take a shower.” She stood and walked to the door.
“Sit down!” Roger shouted.
She turned around with a scowl across her face and reluctantly sat down and put her feet against his desk.
“I’m not going to shoot you. But should you choose to remain here, you will do so as one of the civilians.”
“Are you kidding me? For
that
?” She stomped her foot into the desk and jumped back out of her chair. “I use the time-machine so I can see my husband and you turn me into a whore?”
He stood and came around to the front of the desk. He picked up the gun and placed it back inside the desk drawer. “With the saboteurs gone, we are down two people. I’m willing to give you one of those spots - with the provision that should things work out, you can rejoin the leadership. But my wife will have to decide that. She wanted one hundred civilians, and I want to deliver as close to that number as possible. As far as I’m concerned though, your job will be the same as all the others: make babies. Is that acceptable to you?”
She folder her arms in protest, stewed in anger, and fell into her chair. “Do I have a choice?”
He looked back the drawer with the gun and then looked away. “No, you don’t. You’ve seen more than anyone else on this ship, and I’m greatly disappointed in you.”
“Why don’t you just kill me then?”
He took a deep breath and sighed. “Promises are promises.”
Val’s
stomach was churning as the rage stirred. “So who is the other civilian?” she asked.
“Doctor Archer has his heart set on a philanthropist he found. At this point, I’m inclined to give Archer whatever he wants. I think he’s getting a little suspicious. There’s a problem: this Grant fellow is already married, and we know nothing about her. We can’t use her.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“We need him on board with the mission. I don’t want him to know everything; he’ll know as much as Archer does. I want you back at my side, Val. But I can’t overlook what you did. You’ve put us all in grave danger. So until you meet my wife, I’m setting up a contingency plan to ensure that you survive. That’s what Grant is all about; he is your ticket to my good graces. If Jennifer wants you as one of us, then so be it and we can dispose of Grant with Archer and the others.”
She hung her head and weighed her options. Although furious with Roger, she still believed in his goal.
“Here,” he said as he tossed her a wrist device. “You’ll need that to move about. Make this happen, Val. For your own sake.”
She strapped the device around her wrist and left his office.
Once she was gone, Roger touched the paging device in his ear. “Doctor Archer?”
“
Yes, sir
?”
“Please come to my office.”
A few moments later, Archer strode into Roger’s office and sat down. Skipping the pleasantries, Roger said: “This Grant fellow is going to work out fine. You can take a plane tonight and make him an offer to join us.”
“Why the rush?”
“His wife is dying,” he said.
“What about his partner for the mission?”
Roger smiled and said: “I have just the girl for him.”
Chapter 8
Genesis hustled about the kitchen to prepare dinner for James, who had just left his office and would be home any minute. Their new life together was just what she had looked for all those years wandering through the stream of time. The timer for the oven buzzed and Genesis reached for a glove to remove the food from the range.
She felt a slight pinch on her right shoulder and fell to the floor just as she finished placing the food on the counter. She never saw Val standing behind her with a syringe.
Just as the front door was about to open, Val disappeared from the Grant home as quietly as she arrived. James rushed to the floor to care for his wife and called for an ambulance. The next few hours beside her in the hospital would be the last they would share together. We would leave her side to join Archer with the hope of one day returning with her cure.
Archer stood behind Roger, who was seated at the desk in his office. In front of them was a young woman who could not have been older than twenty-five. Roger introduced her as Val, and Archer was eager to meet the girl Roger spoke so highly of. He was also intrigued to learn why Val would make a good addition to their expedition.
“Val,” Roger began, “I wanted to take a few moments of your time to introduce you to Doctor Archer who will be heading the expedition we spoke of previously.”
“I appreciate that,” she said meekly.
Archer cleared his throat and said: “And may I just say that I trust Roger’s experience in selecting you. He is an excellent judge of character, and I don’t just say that because he chose me.”
Val chuckled. Archer liked her immediately.
“Still,” Archer went on, “there is a young man that has just joined us. I think he will make a great addition to the Philanthropy team. I know your formal training is in another field, but Roger suggested you might prefer to work alongside this other fellow I’ve just recruited.”
Val smiled with delight. “That’s no problem. I believe in this mission either way. I’m just glad to be a part of it.”
Archer smiled in kind. “That’s what I wanted to hear. You see, the most important trait I look for in this group is altruism. Without a desire to help each other, this mission will never succeed!”
“I couldn’t agree more,” she replied with a wholehearted grin.
“Good then,” Archer said. He nodded to Roger. “Thanks for sparing a few minutes. I’ll let you get back to her paperwork.” Archer shook Val’s hand and
left
the office a moment later.
Roger looked at Val and smiled. “Now that that’s done with,” he said as he took her paperwork and tossed it into the garbage can beside his desk.