Girl Gone Nova (44 page)

If she was expecting someone like her to come through that portal, she’d bring riot shields and she’d shoot to kill. She’d know that the first shot was the one that counted. If they missed they wouldn’t get a second chance. Only they hadn’t killed her, they’d banished her to Keltinar’s murky past. So someone
had
been shooting with a stun gun.

“I wish I could see it—”

The sudden shift inside her head made her stomach lurch again, as the peeps enlarged her view. She’d done this before, she remembered now. When she’d first met the peeps, when they’d pierced Conan’s shields. As before, she wasn’t just in one portal room, but in all of them. There weren’t security cameras. There were life sign detectors. Doc mentally homed in on Kikk. The view started aerial, masses of life sign dots swarmed against what had to be the first line of Major Loren’s outpost defenses.

“Delilah?” Hel sounded distinctly uneasy, in a very guy, very macho way, of course.

She held up her hand. Talking wasn’t possible. Too much of her mental resources were in this. She moved her view, like she’d move a mouse, over the outpost, swooping down on the building that held the portal. The swoop made her stomach drop, like a carnival ride.

She shifted inside, then headed down though the levels, though she took it slower this time.

“I do not wish to hurry you, but the Dusan are on the move.”

Suddenly she was there. It felt there, but looked like a floor plan inside her head. Seven life signs. Four of them were behind the four consoles closest to the portal entrance. That had to be the jarhead detail. Two dots were behind one console by the lift, one on the other side, also near the lift.

No way to tell which was Smith, but Doc was sure the lone dot was him. She felt it in her gut and she always believed her gut. There was one other interesting item of note there. The portal settings were set to Earth, not Keltinar. That ruled out accidental option. Someone in that room would change the settings in the next hour unless they stopped them. She yanked out of the outposts, back to the present. It hurt like she’d rung her bell.

“Did you see it?”

Hel nodded, his eyes on the HUD that tracked the approaching Dusan. The lift bringing four of them was almost to their level. Doc had left the doors open, so they had a clear shot. They backed to the edge of the portal. Doc flicked both weapons back to the kill setting. Pointed both at the soon-to-open door. Hel matched her moves, having extracted a second ray gun.

“I’ll take the side with four. When we come out of the portal, you’ll want to dive for the wall. That should give you a clear shot down the channel behind the consoles where our bogeys are.”

The door slid open. These Dusan were weapons hot, though not as weapons hot as they should have been. Light sprayed from their position by the portal into the confines of the lift.

It was overkill, but Doc didn’t mind overkill when it worked. She flicked her weapons back to stun and looked at Hel. “Shall we go kick some scientific ass?”

The difference between the two travel times through the portal was the timing. This one was a whole lot shorter. Time travel took longer, which felt both wrong and ironic.

Hel was on her left as they arrived back on Kikk. He went right and Doc went left, once again passing under his body. Her peeps spiked into the portal as soon as they arrived, expanding her view as she hit the floor. It wasn’t as good as looking through a security camera, but it didn’t hurt.

Her stun ray hit the first jarhead in the chest. As he went down, that gave her a clear shot of jarhead number two with ray gun number two.

Her back hit the stone wall with a thump, but she’d prepped for it. It didn’t affect her aim or her timing. The two geeks dropped before they had time to look startled.

Doc rolled to a crouch, prepared to back Hel up, but he’d done his work well. The lone bogey still conscious was Smith.

“You said you wanted to talk to him before we shoot him.” Hel had both ray guns pointed at the doc’s chest.

Smith looked scared—until Doc got to his eyes. She spun to cover their six and caught a guy coming out of the portal. He wasn’t Dusan or a jarhead. He went down just as hard as they did.

The silence in the portal room was a stark contrast to the distant—but not distant enough—sounds of the battle raging on the island’s surface. Inside her head, she could see the battle playing out, knew each explosion ended a life or lives.

Doc flashed a look at Smith. “Anyone else coming?”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t react at all. That was unexpected. He was a geek. He should have peed his pants. Doc studied Smith. He was as curious about them. His gaze flicked between them. Finally he settled on Hel.

“You are the Chameleon.”

That answered two of her questions. She thought of a response, but Hel said it.

“You’re not supposed to know that.”

She felt his protective instinct like a warm wave. He didn’t want Smith to know she was the Chameleon. Sweet, but dangerous for him.

Smith didn’t react. Again.

Doc felt his curiosity, felt the detachment in it, as he studied her now. Neither of them was real to him. Neither of their lives meant anything to this man. She saw it in his eyes. On the outside, he looked like a middle-aged scientist, with a bit of wear around the edges—as long as she didn’t look into his eyes. They reminded her of her eyes. Hyper alert, cool, assessing everything. His training went beyond his PhD.

She felt Hel get it, too, saw him tighten his focus on Smith.

“I’ll cover him and the portal while you secure his friends.”

Doc pulled out flex cuffs and started securing wrists and ankles, beginning with the jarheads. They were the most dangerous. She needed DNA tests, she decided and the peeps agreed. She patted them both down, but didn’t find anything that shouldn’t be there. The two geeks weren’t armed with anything but their intellects—which was also a comment on those intellects. Maybe Mensa should also test for common sense. Started a DNA test on them, too. Before she could check the portal guy, she got a warning from the peeps.

Incoming.

Doc kept a weapon trained on Smith, the other on the portal. Hel got the alert, too. Feet braced she fired at the moment of arrival and another body fell out of the portal. They both fired at the next one. No time to play eeny, meeny, miny, moe with Hel. She waited a few beats, but that seemed to be it for now.

Who were those guys and where had they come from? She crouched to cuff and search them, and the peeps went in to test their DNA, too. Their weapons were very interesting. Stun/ray guns, but the design sleeker and lighter than the ones they’d brought back in time with them and they had more buttons. Doc held one up so Hel could see it.

“You ever see anything like this?”

The first crack in Smith’s calm appeared. He twitched when she tossed it to Hel. He caught it easily, managed to study it without losing his focus on Smith.

“Nice.” He fiddled with the settings and pointed it at Smith, who visibly paled. It upped Hel’s hotness factor by twenty. Doc didn’t fan herself, but she wanted to.

Smith kept scanning the area, as if he expected someone to pop out of the walls or ceiling. She’d been told this place was too deep for transport in or out, but she never believed what she’d been told.

Time to cuff and search him. Her gut told her to approach him with caution.

“Hands on back of your head,” Doc said. After a hesitation, he complied. “Move to center of the room and kneel.”

He didn’t like it, but he did it, his eyes killing them with each step.

“Now lay on your stomach, hands still behind your head.”

He didn’t move. “You are making a mistake. If you don’t return my weapon to me, you will regret it.”

“I could taze you. It hurts like a bitch, and you don’t get to pass out.”

He complied, his eyes now lit with a murderous glow. Doc cuffed his ankles, then his wrists. When she’d searched him—depriving him of a couple of thumb drives and another über ray gun—she added some peeps for DNA analysis and put some distance between them again. One weapon indicated confidence in the outcome, or he’d trusted his backup too much. And he’d thought he had the element of surprise on his side. He had to be the one who’d got the drop on her and that pissed her off.

“We need him conscious,” Hel reminded her.

She gave Hel a look, while her brain considered what else she’d learned about Smith. He might look paunchy, but when she patted him down she learned it was all muscle. Guy was built like an ox. She’d suspect him of being on the Major’s payroll, but if he was, she wouldn’t be here. The Major was a miser with his resources. Besides, he had an über ray gun. If he worked for the Major she’d have one, too.

His gaze flicked between them. It was like looking at her eyes in the mirror. Creepy.

“Who are you?” Doc asked the question without any real hope he’d answer.

“Doctor Tobias Smith.”

His DNA said he was more than that. How could he be a mix of Gadi and Dusan? The two bogeys had close to the same balance in their DNA. The jarheads and the scientists were from Earth.

A faint crease formed between Hel’s brows.
How is that possible? There has been no intermarrying for seasons past counting
.

“The Chameleon works alone.” For a guy tied up and kissing floor he was pretty confident.

Hel nodded to Doc, like they hadn’t been peep-talking. She holstered her weapon and pulled out a syringe.

“That isn’t necessary. Ask your questions. I’ll answer them.”

“But will you answer them truthfully?” Hel asked, skepticism adding a hint of texture to the cool indifference of his voice.

“If you are the Chameleon, you will know if I’m lying.”

He had a point. Major called her a human lie detector—when he wasn’t calling her names not fit for polite company. Doc kept the syringe out to keep the pressure on.

“Let’s start with something easy. How do you know about the Chameleon?”

A slight smile, a hesitation as he considered his answer. “The Major could not resist the urge to write his memoirs.”

The chill heading down her back wasn’t because the air started to circulate again. She didn’t waste breath asking how he knew what he knew, not with the portal at her back, the portal she’d used to travel back in time. The Major she knew didn’t write anything down that didn’t have a built-in destruct code, but then he decides to write his freaking memoirs sometime in the future?

“You’re not from Earth.” It wasn’t a shock. Not after the DNA test, but he didn’t know about that. Doc let amusement trickle into her voice when she added, “And you believe he told the truth?”

The first hint of uncertainty crept into his expression.
Cause and effect.

One of the jarheads’ radios crackled. Doc grabbed it and listened to Major Loren giving the order to begin the evacuation through the portal. They were running out of time.

How is this possible?
Hel’s crease deepened, while Smith watched them with increasing frustration.

Unless Conan succeeds in blasting it out of existence in two years, there’s no reason to think this portal couldn’t outlast all of us. It’s been remarkably durable so far.

It was annoying. They could leave the jarheads and scientists where they lay and risk the time line, or they had to figure out how to manhandle ten bodies through the portal into the future without losing their upper hand. It was complicated by the fact that she and Hel had to travel together. And she couldn’t guarantee they’d all arrive at the same time, upping the challenge factor by a number she didn’t have time to run but was sure to be astronomical.

She crouched with care in front of Smith. Those flex cuffs wouldn’t have stopped her. He still looked convinced the situation would spin his direction. Hel caught the thought and focused on both lift door and portal, though he wasn’t obvious about it. Guy might talk if he thought he’d soon have the upper hand. She wouldn’t. Wouldn’t write any foxtrot memoirs either. And if she made out of this, the Major wouldn’t be doing it either.

“Who are you really?”

His eyes showed awareness of how they were alike. He almost smiled. “I think you know.”

It was the truth. “Why mess with our past?”

“I didn’t.”

There was a measure of truth in the statement, but a large helping of lies, too.

Doc looked around. “I don’t see anyone else in this room from the future.”

“The changes aren’t permanent,” Smith said, quickly, as if he needed to delay them, his gaze studying places without doors again.

“So you messed up our lives for the hell of it?”

For the first time, he hesitated. “Time is persistent. Like water seeking to be level,
true
time asserts itself.”

That sounded like the truth, but she wasn’t reassured. She knew that look. He was hunting. Did that make him a good guy or a bad guy? He’d been careful not to reveal his real name. Did that mean he was afraid they’d go mess with his life? That they could?

“It’s a trap,” Hel said it aloud, plucking the thought from Doc’s head.

“He’s using the time instability as bait,” Doc finished. Unless the Chameleon was the bait? Or was she part of the prey? This trap had been fashioned for her, too.

Now Smith looked concerned. “How—” He stopped, but not in time.

“We’re gifted.” Doc didn’t have to exchange significant looks with Hel. They were synched better than her iPod to iTunes. It was time to go.

She yanked out a knife and cut the restraints off their people. It wasn’t a great plan to leave them behind, but it was their only option. “Why bring Keltinar into the mix? Why speed up their technology development?”

His slight smile sent another nasty chill down Doc’s back.

“I slowed it down.”

“Hotel foxtrot sierra.” She looked at Hel. “We gotta get back.”

“We’ll take the time travelers with us.”

“You can’t—”

Doc pulled a stun weapon and shut him up. He’d done it to her or he planned to do it to her.

Topside the battle went quiet, like someone had clicked a switch. Maybe someone had. The battle shouldn’t be over yet. Doc activated a console as a HUD. Nothing moved anywhere, in space or on the outpost. It was as if they’d been frozen. A sudden, painfully bright beam of light filled the room. She snapped her shaded visor down and had a Luger in her hand without even thinking about it. When the light faded, two figures stood by the lift doors.