Vortex (23 page)

“Is the other me?” I finished for her. “What do you mean, I can’t make more timelines?
I thought that was what all the EOTs were doing all the time … except a few of the
exceptional ones. So, they can make dozens of alternate worlds and I can only make
one? And sometimes … I don’t really understand the threat from the Enemies of Time.
If they all jump around to these different timelines, then why are they so determined
to alter the world I came from … in 2009? Why don’t they just jump back to the dinosaur
age and fix everything?”

“Jackson, do you understand what my contribution to Axelle was?”

I shook my head. The only part I had heard was the giving-birth part. This must be
the big information she’d been afraid to tell me a few minutes ago.

“Right now, in this year … very few time travelers have been seen. As a teenager,
I studied Dr. Melvin’s research, which dated back to the 1950s. We understood how
time travel worked, how the gene showed up in random people, and that actually being
able to jump through time and survive it was truly rare. But making a new timeline,
an alternate universe … that was my theory, except it wasn’t possible.” Her face lit
up with a strange excitement only a brilliant and slightly mad scientist could pull
off. “In fact, it’s still not possible in this year.”

Huh?
“Huh?”

“You thought the half-jumps were what made you different, but that’s just your body’s
way of protecting itself when you attempt the complete jump and fail. At least I’m
assuming that.” She paused for several seconds. “
You
are the only one who can make a new timeline. Not Thomas … not any of the others.
It was a gut feeling I had. If I mixed the cloned time traveler with a normal man,
we’d have branches splitting from our main world. A way out … if you needed it.”

I tried to swallow this new information, but it just got stuck in my head. “Wait.
So, all the stuff everyone else in Tempest believes, about the EOTs making new timelines
constantly because they can’t do complete jumps … it’s not true?”

“Think about it, Jackson. Suddenly the EOTs are everywhere, when before we had only
seen a few, and rarely at that. Maybe you haven’t been given that data, but from what
you’ve told me, the world has changed a lot since you took that jump back to 2007.
Like you opened a door and they can go through it now. All the ones with the Tempus
gene that weren’t strong enough, skilled enough to do the complete jump, didn’t even
know they could time-travel and suddenly they can. It’s like a crutch you’ve provided.”

The vision of the line of EOTs in Heidelberg, appearing out of nowhere, sprang into
my mind. Everyone was shocked by the increase in numbers. I opened the door … They
were bouncing off the world (or worlds?) I created.

That was when I remembered Dad, Dr. Melvin, and Chief Marshall scrambling to answer
my questions in that 2007 timeline. They were seeing Eileen’s theory come alive for
the first time.

“But why would you want that?” I couldn’t help asking.

“I didn’t exactly plan for the others to be able to follow you, but now I’m seeing
that it’s possible. I thought it would be a way for you to escape them, if needed.
Go somewhere that they couldn’t.” Her eyes started to tear up again and she covered
her face for a second with her hands. “I never wanted you to be a weapon, Jackson.
Never wanted Courtney to get sick … but when Emily came to tell me you would be a
part of this and possibly a part of the solution, I knew that I’d have to accept it.
Let it happen. Do everything I could to make you the kind of person who wouldn’t stop
searching for the right answer.”

As crazy as this information seemed, it almost made sense. She knew Courtney and I
would be surrounded by people who could take control, try to use us. So she gave us
a way out. A choice. A little bit of free will.

We were interrupted by the phone ringing. At three in the morning. Eileen jumped,
looking startled, and then said, “I’m sorry, I have to get that.”

She took off for the kitchen and I could hear her say, “Kevin!”

I stood up, shaking out my stiff legs, then walked over to the patio door. Rain pounded
against the balcony outside. Rain that I might have caused with my last jump. I closed
the blinds, feeling way too exposed, and moved toward the fireplace. It was lined
with pictures I’d never seen before. Dad holding me on his lap, playing the piano.
Dad asleep in a rocking chair with Courtney snoozing in his arms. She looked so little,
maybe a year old.

“Yes, the kids are fine,” Eileen said, still on the phone with the younger version
of Dad.

I knelt down and picked up a puzzle from a stack on the floor. These toys were proof
of my childhood with her. Evidence that I had a mother. At least for a little while.
A wave of sadness suddenly hit me, knowing that the only memories I had of Eileen
were five minutes in a sandbox and a few puzzles.

And tonight. I had tonight.

“Jackson’s been wearing your tool belt around night and day,” Eileen said. “He can’t
wait for you to come back.” She paused for a long minute. “No … no, everything’s fine …
I’m just a little tired … and I miss you.”

Tears trembled in her voice. I wondered how the dad on the phone would handle that.
Then a weird idea formed in my head, probably because I hadn’t seen him for so long.
And I really wanted to … or at least hear his voice. I tried to remember when, exactly,
Eileen had said he’d left. And when I couldn’t recall, I just picked a random date
in the past. Then I closed my eyes and focused on that day. I nearly yelled out loud
when I felt the splitting-apart feeling. It had been a long time since I’d done a
half-jump and it seemed worse than I remembered it.

OCTOBER 5, 1991

My reward for withstanding that awful sensation was the wonderful, blissful feeling
of not feeling that pounding headache or the results of the mild beating I had taken
before jumping to 1992. I was in the kitchen again and I could hear music.

A Billy Joel song.

I crept slowly out of the kitchen and into the hallway. I couldn’t hear any talking,
but when I peeked around the corner into the living room, Dad was there.

A very young Dad. Like my age now. He was lying on the carpet right in front of a
blazing fireplace, his eyes closed, but he was tapping his fingers to the music. I
remembered the way he seemed to know I had been hiding in that coat closet the time
I jumped to 2003 and ended up in his office. I’d have to be careful here if I wanted
to observe for any length of time.

A bedroom door opened down the hall and I sprang back into the kitchen, pressing myself
up against the counters as Eileen breezed past, not even glancing in my direction.
I returned to the hallway, listening in.

“Sleeping on the job,” I heard Eileen say.

Then Dad spoke. “If I lie here and close my eyes, it almost feels like … like I could
be anywhere.”

“Anywhere? Like forty years in the past?” Eileen asked softly.

Was that totally random, or were they talking about time travel?

“Maybe,” Dad said.

The song stopped and I held my breath, wondering if he’d heard me or something. A
few seconds later he said, “I like this one.” And another song started.

More Billy Joel
.

Their voices got softer and the music louder. I crawled on all fours behind the couch
and peered around the end of it. I could see both of them now, lying on the carpet
side by side. Then Dad rolled onto his side and propped himself up on his elbow. I
held my breath again, sure that he must have seen me. But his eyes were focused on
Eileen.

“What is it?” he asked her suddenly.

“You,” she said with a smile. “You confuse me … maybe because I know your secret now.
I just don’t know what to do.”

Secret? What secret?

“About what?” Dad asked, and I could hear the alarm in his voice.

Then Eileen whispered something I couldn’t hear, but it made Dad’s face change from
worried to amused. He leaned down and kissed her. “So, you’re worried that I’m just
an innocent boy that can’t handle being seduced by a beautiful woman.”

Oh, God … I know exactly where this is headed.
Now I’d have to figure out a way to erase that image from my memory.

Eileen laughed and then Dad was kissing her, his face buried in her neck, mumbling
things I couldn’t hear. I fought the urge to slap a hand over my eyes when he started
fiddling with the buttons on her shirt. It was hard not to be creeped out and slightly
offended watching your “parents” about to
get it on,
regardless of the circumstances.

I took a chance and emerged a little more from behind my hiding place, to get a better
look at Dad’s face before jumping back. It felt like an eternity since I’d seen him
in France last week. He lifted his head for a second and stared at her, both their
faces gleaming with the light from the fire. And I knew my assumption was right.

She really was Dad’s Holly. And it really was a beautiful moment to see up close …
creepy … but still beautiful.

But this was the nightmare every teenager fears. Watching their parents have sex.
If I stayed any longer, I’d be scarred for life.

I closed my eyes and felt myself pulling back together. Joining the part of my body
that had remained in 1992.

*   *   *

“Jackson?” I heard Eileen call from behind me.

I shook my head, feeling all the fatigue and pain hit me at once. “Uh … yeah … I’m
here.”

When I turned around to face her, she had her arms crossed, eyebrows lifted. “Did
you just do something?… The half-jump, right?”

“No,” I lied.

She rolled her eyes. “Nice try. Want to tell me what you just
had
to see?”

I shrugged. “Nothing important … you and him. It was only a couple minutes. I left
before it got R-rated.”

She blushed a little but held my gaze. “Is he … okay? I mean, in the future?”

A whole new idea took over. A brilliant plan. I straightened up and my voice came
out louder than I had planned. “I can take you! Why the hell didn’t I think of that
hours ago?”

Her eyes were suddenly huge and she shook her head. “No, Jackson … we can’t do that.
It’s too dangerous.”

But you’re going to die anyway,
I wanted to say, but I didn’t. “You said my mind would keep from hurting someone …
that I’d control it.”

“This isn’t a situation of great need,” she said. “Plus, think about how that would
work … I disappear from this date and reappear in the future. Your memories and life
will be altered. We don’t know the effects it will have.”

I reached for her hand, but she pulled it behind her. “He needs you. I know he does.”

“Jackson, think about what you’re saying.” Her tone had changed, like she was trying
to talk a suicidal man down from a ledge.

“But you love him and he doesn’t have anyone now,” I said, moving closer.

For some reason, I wanted this so much. For Dad, for me. This was something I could
fix. And she knew things Dr. Melvin, Dad, and Marshall didn’t know. I grabbed her
hand and held it tight.

For the first time since my gun had been placed on the table, Eileen looked scared.
Very scared of me. “Please don’t do this, Jackson.”

We stared at each other for several seconds while I spun the idea through my head.
Wasn’t this a benefit of my superpower? I should be able to get something I want from
this, right?

Eileen spoke again, softer, less afraid. “It’s not meant to be … Trust me.”

And for some reason, I did trust her. But it totally sucked. My heart sank to the
pit of my stomach, knowing the brilliant plan wouldn’t be played out. I dropped her
hand and let out a frustrated breath. “Fine … whatever.”

“Jackson, it’s not that I don’t want to be with Kevin.” She reached up to touch my
face again. “I love him … more than you could ever know. I hope you believe that.
But all you can do … all anyone can do … is love who you want to love, while they’re
here. Whatever obstacles come with that. Even if you know what happens in the future.
Take the time that you’re given and enjoy it.”

“That’s it?” I said almost sarcastically. “Not exactly very scientific.”

“Most things don’t need to be analyzed or put under a microscope. Either it is … or
it isn’t.”

Another, less desperate idea formed. “Let me tell you how it happens and then … you
can stop it … you can survive.”

She nodded slowly. “Okay, tell me. Tell me what happens that day.”

That was too easy … way too easy. “You’re not going to stop it, though, are you? But
how could you just … if you knew … There’s no way you wouldn’t avoid the situation—”

I stopped suddenly, running through the details of tonight. A sadness and frustration
cold as ice washed over me. “You wrote things down. Someone like you would easily
remember the conversation without taking notes.”

She dropped her hands from my face and sighed. “Yes, I’d remember.”

“You’re gonna take something,” I concluded. “Memory-modification drugs. You’ve got
the details you absolutely need, and the rest … me … you’re just going to erase it.”

“Yes,” she said, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. A beeping sound rang through
the quiet living room. Both of us glanced at the front door. “It’s Agent Freeman.
You should go …
now
.”

I nodded and watched the door as it started to slide open. I snatched my gun from
the table and closed my eyes to jump back.

What kind of side effects would I have from this return to the future alone? Without
the use of another time traveler’s mind to protect my own…?

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

JUNE 16, 2009, 11:18
P.M.

I was in the exact same corridor that I’d left and I felt like hell. Times two. My
wobbly legs trudged back down toward the main room. Stewart screeched to a halt at
the end of my path.