Unhappenings (50 page)

had no idea that was going to happen. For starters, I still hadn’t worked out how I was going to unhappen Carlton, what time I would need to visit to accomplish this, or how I would even determine either of those things. Once I had a chance to adjust to the time shift, I realized that what little I had spoken aloud was probably more than sufficient for my module implant—still operating on verbal commands—to do my planning for me. “Too smart,” as I recalled the scanner telling me. I certainly had no complaints about its intelligence.

Attempting to get my bearings, I determined I was in some sort of office complex, and did my best to look like I knew what I was doing. It took me a few minutes to establish that I was in the dean’s office at Amherst College (which I learned by stepping outside to read the sign) and that it was January of 2139. This would have been Helen’s sophomore year, which meant she was probably nearby that very moment, and nineteen. A year from now she would be studying abroad, where she would meet my nemesis.

Unless I sabotaged that right now.

I sat in the reception area with my tablet, very much hoping not to be noticed, and set it for manual input. The same software that allowed me to hack into Ainsley’s data in seconds would also let me access—and hopefully alter—Helen’s records. Deny her request for exchange to France. It was a great plan, stymied only slightly by the discovery that what took seconds in 2086 would take hours in 2139, as my hacking app would need to cut through layers of encryption several generations more advanced than what Ainsley could ever have hoped to use. I left the program running, tucked my tablet discretely under my chair, and went for a walk.

Underdressed for the Massachusetts winter, I sought shelter in a local café. I would while away the afternoon over coffee and baked goods. It was nearly two hours later that Carlton strolled in, ordered tea and a cookie, and sat with me.

e dropped my tablet without fanfare onto the table. The screen was black, and a hole had been drilled straight through it. The polished cherry case was cracked and covered in scorch marks.

“I found the damnedest thing in the dean’s office,” he said, before sipping his tea. He drummed his fingers on the table. “This is where you ask what I’m doing here.”

I picked up my tablet and looked at him through it.

“I’d say it’s pretty obvious why you’re here.” My bravado notwithstanding, I continually reminded myself that I could flee in an instant using the module. This was much more frightening than I had prepared for, so when he slammed his hand on the table I jumped at the bang.

“No!” he cried with an unexpectedly smug grin on his face. “That’s the best part! This thing isn’t why I’m here.” He punctuated this statement by brushing my tablet to the floor. I flinched as it clattered. “I didn’t come here to stop you. I came here to do the same thing you’re trying to do: interfere with Helen’s travel plans. Do you have any idea how many ways I have tried to keep the two of you apart? Nothing works. I even burned that library to the ground a week before her job interview. Planted incendiaries. Twelve people died. And for a day that was history. The next day it had apparently grown back, and the past was back on course for the two of you. Can you appreciate how frustrating that is? So, here I was thinking that if I went back further, sabotaged my own relationship with her, then she would never end up in that town at all. And here I find you trying to do the same thing. Most curious.”

“Then why did you stop me?”

He laughed again.

“Because you know something I don’t! You always have, I think, which is why none of my games ever seem to stick. Whatever inside track you have on this idea means it must be the wrong thing for me to try. So,” he said, leaning forward with just a touch more menace, “what do you know?”

“I know that I don’t like you,” I said. “That’s enough. No secret master plan at work here. Just trying to keep you the hell away from my girl.”

“Well, you failed again.” He kicked my tablet toward me and it hit my foot. “Oh, please tell me that device was your time machine. Could I be that lucky?”

I said nothing. The last thing I wanted him to know was that I wore my time machine inside a bone. I doubt he would have any compunction about stealing it from me, even if it meant walking off with my severed forearm.

“Fine, keep your secrets. They won’t do you any good. I never quite expected you to go on the offensive like this. Now that I know you have teeth, this game is going to the next level.” He produced a crude, boxy device from his coat pocket. It was the same one I had seen his older self use earlier, about half again as big as the wrist modules, and many dozens of times larger than the bead in my arm. Keying some instructions into it, he said, “Good luck fixing this next one.”

A crackling orange halo enveloped him, and it buzzed to a crescendo for a full three seconds before shrinking to a dot that took Carlton with it. When I turned around to see if anyone had noticed that garish display, I found the café empty.

As was the entire town of Amherst.

wandered the Amherst College campus for an hour looking for signs of life, and was greeted instead with endless boarded up windows, doors off of hinges, abandoned and rusted out cars, and half demolished buildings. Where there had been hundreds of bustling students and abundant signs of affluence earlier that day, what I saw now was a collection of long forgotten ruins. Beyond the campus, the town was much the same. Businesses with smashed out front windows, looted clean. Restaurants patronized only by vermin. Dilapidated and vacant houses. There were no indications of recent human activity whatsoever.

Athena had suggested that Carlton was making broader attacks, in an attempt to wipe out my relationship with Helen in a way that precision attacks were failing to accomplish. That’s why he altered my past to put me into a relationship with Wendy, and that’s why he later framed me for Wendy’s rape and murder, to put me in prison and send me to the gallows. If what I saw in this town was Carlton’s doing—the only plausible explanation at the moment—then it appeared his attacks had grown considerably broader still.

Huddled in the doorway of the decaying Amherst Town Hall, I considered my options. It seemed very unlikely that the barren state of this community was limited to one New England town. If this was a statewide, national or global state of affairs, then traveling back to 2146 would be pointless. This was the result of something he had done in the past, so the past was where I would have to go. How far back I would have to travel was the question. Some of these buildings looked like it may have been many years since they last saw human occupants, and even under the January snow the overgrowth of brush was obvious.