Vortex (9 page)

“Why are there so many of them?” I whispered to Kendrick. She shook her head, and
her hands held steady on her gun. “And they’re not all in the database.”

Thomas turned his eyes on me and gave a stiff nod. “Jackson, nice to see you again.
I had hoped it wouldn’t be under these conditions, but … it’s always fascinating to
see how Agent Meyer’s only
son
is turning out.”

He put a slight emphasis on the word “son” that only Dad and I would pick up on.

“Quite a large group you’ve brought,” Agent Freeman said, then he turned his attention
to the chancellor and her crew, who I just noticed were standing behind us, recognizing
the threat but unsure what to do. Before anyone could move again, a bolt of lightning
crashed down onto a nearby tree and the thud of a heavy branch falling onto a piece
of the castle momentarily jolted our attention from the scene.

My heart pounded and I could hardly breathe, knowing we were outnumbered and this
was obviously a bigger deal than Chief Marshall had speculated.

“Don’t move unless I tell you,” Dad hissed into my ear.

Thomas held his hands up and walked closer to us. “We understand why you’re here,
and I say this with the utmost respect for your dedication, but you need to leave
and let this happen. The future will be better for everyone. I promise.”

“Why here … why her?” Dad asked Thomas, nodding toward the chancellor.

I couldn’t look at the group behind us, but I could hear them mumbling in German,
the two bodyguards holding out their weapons.

“She’s at the beginning of a complicated chain of events and we are morally obligated
to fix it. To shape the world ahead,” Thomas said, then his eyes burned into Dad’s.
“This was a direct mission from Eyewall.”

Dad sucked in a breath as if this meant something, but I had no idea what.
Eyewall?
None of us moved, and that must have been enough of an answer. Half of the EOTs in
front of us vanished.

Kendrick gasped beside me and when I turned my head, Cassidy was right behind her,
her elbow hooked around Kendrick’s throat. I didn’t even get a chance to attack because
my partner had her on the ground in seconds and quickly jabbed Cassidy in the neck
with the medication us nonmedical people referred to as “anti-time-travel drugs.”
Cassidy’s eyes fluttered shut and Kendrick looked up at me with panic on her face.

Thomas still stood in front of us as the others jumped to different locations. I knew
most of them wouldn’t be able to jump out of here and back again more than a couple
times before the heavy fatigue set in. Or at least I hoped they wouldn’t. Then again,
we all had thought there wouldn’t be more than four of them. That obviously wasn’t
true.

A gap opened up in the line of defense and I took my chance and tore away from the
group to try to get to the explosive. Kendrick was right at my heels, probably knowing
I’d need her help.

“Jackson!” Dad shouted, but an EOT with dark hair popped up behind him and Dad had
to throw him to the ground while ducking under Parker’s line of fire. Stewart took
off from her attacker and ran ahead of us, toward the tower where the explosive must
have been. Screams erupted from the chancellor’s group as Freeman and Parker dove
around, trying to cover all of them.

Thomas’s eyes followed Stewart, and suddenly he was gone. Maybe going after her?

“Get out!” Freeman shouted to all of us. I almost followed him and Dad.

From over Kendrick’s shoulder I saw a tiny person with red hair running toward the
tower where the explosive was.

It couldn’t be her … could it?

I shoved Kendrick in the direction of the exit where Freeman and Dad were headed.
“Go!”

She hesitated, then gave me one last fleeting look before running. I sped through
the long corridor and charged up two flights of stairs. I could hear Dad and Freeman
shouting at me, but I couldn’t leave. The second I reached the tower, I saw her. Emily.

Unfortunately, I was interrupted by the appearance of another EOT. A tall man with
blond hair. He landed on the step in front of me and reached for me so quick, I flung
myself sideways without thinking about the consequences. The man tumbled down the
stairs, finally reaching a flat surface, groaning and looking up at the sky.

I leaped down the stairs and retrieved one of the injections we all had to cart around
during a mission, hoping I could stab him in the correct location. I mimicked Kendrick’s
movement from a few minutes ago and stuck the needle into the throbbing vein in his
neck.

The man let out a half groan, half laugh and shook his head. “You can fight as hard
as you want this way, Jackson, but it’ll never be enough. You have to use it … your
abilities.”

I pressed my foot to his chest, planning to hold him down until the drugs kicked in
and he passed out. “Why? So I can blow up the world? It’s not like I can change anything.
Only one person can do that.”

The man shook his head vigorously. “No, no … you’re wrong. There are others like Thomas
and there are also other ways to alter the future. Think about it … you’ve already
done it.”

His eyes fluttered shut and I felt my head pounding so hard I couldn’t think for several
seconds. What did he mean?
You’ve already done it
. The imaginary clock counting down for the explosive practically ticked inside my
head, jolting me back to reality. I charged up the stairs to the tower and she was
still there. Definitely not a figment of my imagination.

The little eleven-year-old girl was busy leaning over this complex and massive explosive.
“Emily!” I had to step over one of the fallen branches just to get to where Emily
sat.

She looked up at me for a second and then her hands were moving fast, pulling pieces
apart. Stewart was right. This explosive was weird, made of glass, with clear tubes
and vials of colored liquids running in all directions. Maybe Mason got to study these
in his specialty training in Futuristic Technology, but I had never seen anything
like it before. No wires. Nothing familiar from the basic deactivation training I’d
been given.

She mumbled to herself and I could see her hands shaking as more tubes ended up beside
her, outside of the massive glass case. Finally, she let out a breath and sank back
onto her heels, one hand clutching her chest. “Twenty seconds to spare.”

I knelt down across from her and reached for one of the tubes with a light blue liquid
sloshing back and forth. She grabbed my hand to stop me. “Don’t touch anything … trust
me.”

“What are you doing here? And how did you know how to do …
that
?” I asked.

She stood up and dusted off the knees of her jeans. “We have to destroy this, we can’t
let anyone see it. The technology is too … advanced.”

“How do we destroy it?” I asked frantically.

Then I saw another victim of the sudden lightning storm lying at the bottom of the
steps I had just come up to get to this section of the tower. Not a human victim.
Another thick branch, like the one I had just stepped over to get to Emily, this one
with tons of smaller branches and bright green leaves stemming from it. I could clearly
see sparks and the first sign of fire near the end of the branch.

I jumped over the branch again and yelled to Emily, “Pull this right over the explosive …
and put as many leaves in the center as you can.”

After racing down the steps, hurdling over the EOT’s body, I carefully extracted the
piece of tree on fire, holding my hand in front to block the wind and rain from putting
it out. It was possible this was a very bad idea and I should have just handed over
the bomb to Dad and Freeman so we could study it, but I had to trust her at least
a little. She might have been taking orders from another me.

The second we had some good-sized flames going, Emily and I raced down the stairs
and clear to the other side of the castle. She leaned against a wall, catching her
breath. “Jackson … I don’t know what’s happening, but things keep changing.”

“In the future?” I pressed.

She nodded. “Just be careful … about jumping … I think someone has already changed
things since your last jump.”

“What things?”

A pained look crossed her face and then disappeared right away. “Just stay in this
timeline, okay? Promise? No matter what you find out?”

“I’ll try,” I said. “I promise I’ll try.”

She gave me a quick squeeze around the waist and whispered, “I’m sorry … that I can’t
tell you more … but I have to go.”

Her hands dropped to her sides and she was gone. Like a figment of my imagination.
I heard Dad’s voice coming through my earpiece. “Jackson! Where the hell are you?”

“West tower, Dad,” I answered, speaking directly into my wristwatch.

“We think the explosive might be inactive now. Apparently Thomas has decided to set
an entire section of the castle on fire.”

An entire section?
It hadn’t looked
that
bad a few minutes ago.

Sure enough, when I looked over at the farthest end of the castle, black smoke drifted
toward the sky. It was going to take a lot more than this rain to put out that fire.

“What’s the new cover story? Are we drugging the witnesses?”

“We’ve already gotten the chancellor out safely. Freeman’s taking the whole delegation
to our third command center. Hopefully in twelve hours they won’t remember a damn
thing.”

I spun around in a circle, looking at the flames and the perimeters. Dad was nowhere
in sight. However, I could see the back of Thomas’s head as he ran after Parker. Blood
pumped twice as fast through my veins. The urge to kill him that I’d had earlier today,
after the memory gas, returned with a vengeance. The image of him tossing Holly off
the six-story-high roof flashed through my head and I shook it out.
Focus. She’s not here.

I ran fast, gaining ground on him, but just as I got about three feet from Thomas,
he was gone.

“Damn!” I spun around, looking for any others. The wind picked up and blew the thick
black smoke directly in my face. Tears streamed down my cheeks and I coughed out the
smoke.

I almost retreated, but Stewart’s voice came through my earpiece. She was giving her
coordinates and requesting backup. And of course she was right in the middle of the
flames.

Why the hell did she go in there?
Did someone tell her to get the explosive out? None of us had come equipped for fire.

I pulled my shirt over my face and ran into the fire. I expected to see Thomas, but
it was just Stewart tied to a pole.

Someone tied her to a pole with a rope?

I could barely see in the midst of all the smoke and flames. Stewart’s head bobbed
around as she lost consciousness. I snatched the pocketknife from her hands and started
on the section of the rope that she had already begun sawing apart. Water streamed
out of my eyes and I could hardly breathe. Finally the rope dropped to the floor and
I picked Stewart up before she fell over, then I charged up the nearest staircase,
hoping that a helicopter was on its way.

I had to admit, I was glad Stewart needed rescuing instead of Kendrick because she’s
four inches shorter than my partner. With my lungs ready to collapse and three flights
of stairs to climb, those four inches and fifteen fewer pounds made a big difference.

“Where the hell are you?” I shouted to Dad through my coms unit.

“We can see you. We’ll be right there. Helicopter’s on its way.”

Magic words.

I reached the top of the final staircase and put Stewart on the floor and collapsed
next to her. Her eyes were still closed, but she continued to cough. Parker was the
first to reach us.

“What the fuck happened to you guys?” he said, dropping beside her, loosening the
buttons on her shirt.

“She got tied up, literally, in the fire,” I said between coughs. “I don’t know how
long she was down there.”

Feet pounded against the stairs next to us and then Dad and Kendrick appeared. Parker
and I both looked up at the sky where the helicopter hovered nearby. It turned sharply
and headed in our direction.

Dad pulled me off the floor, his hands clutched around the front of my shirt. “Don’t
ever go against my orders … understood?”

He didn’t sound angry. He sounded like me after 007 Holly had climbed across that
swing set and flipped off of it. Only worse.

“I’m sorry,” I said. But I wasn’t, and I couldn’t tell him that because I’d never
told anyone about Emily. Not even Dad.

“The fire must have deactivated the bomb,” Kendrick shouted over the approaching helicopter.
“Otherwise it would have exploded by now?”

All of us stared at each other, and it was obvious we were thinking the same thing:
What the fuck just happened and why did Marshall throw us to the wolves tonight?
Nobody said a word, but it was a mutual, silent question.

I picked up Stewart again and got her in a seat first before digging for an oxygen
mask. Her head fell against the window and Kendrick handed me a mask to slip around
her face. Her eyes barely opened.

“You’re all right,” I shouted to her over all the noise. “It’s over.”

“We’ll head back to headquarters. Have Dr. Melvin meet us on the ground,” Dad yelled
to the pilot.

Medical attention was a must for this group right now. Dad had a cut across his forehead
that would probably need stitches, and Parker was pulling off his shoe, revealing
a very swollen ankle. I had several cuts and scrapes on my face and arms, but nothing
else.

Kendrick sat in front of us and started removing the streaks of black from Stewart’s
face with alcohol wipes. “Her breathing doesn’t sound too labored.”

I decided now might be the time to break the news to her. I pointed at Dad’s now-oozing
cut. “You have to stitch that up. It’s your task.”

She looked up at me and her eyes were huge. “No … please … anything but that.”