Shift (ChronoShift Trilogy) (26 page)

He searched his pack and found the third shifter.  He held it out to Ty.

“If you put this on, it’s on for good!  You will not be able to get it off again!”  He shouted over the gunfire.

Ty nodded that he understood.  Mark pulled him close and hurriedly explained how to use the watch.  Then Ty was off into the brush.

The first thing Mark noticed was that Hog was no longer down.  It was an odd thing to see history unmade in front of your eyes.

Next, several grenades among the VC went off almost simultaneously.  A few moments later, Ty staggered back.  Vomit covered the front of his uniform.

“Does this thing make you sick?” he croaked.

“Yeah, but you'll get used to it.”

The enemy fire was dying off now.  The VC were in retreat.

“Time Gives Good Counsel”

                        ~ Anonymous

September 12
^th
, 2012, Boston, MA

Ty and Hardy sat before Mark in leather-backed chairs, a thick, cherry wood desk between them and him.  More than ever, Mark was struck by the sheer irony of the situation.  Originally, Hardy and Ty had recruited and trained him.   Then, after they’d disappeared, Mark had hired Ty and Hardy and was now beginning
their
training.

The question was: 
Who
really started the company?
 Who had hired whom?

The paradoxes involved were mind-boggling.  Mark could philosophize with the best of them, but when things needed getting done, he didn’t ponder such questions long.  If the answer wasn’t obvious, he moved on.   There would be time to dwell on it later.

“Good to see you both, gentlemen.”  Mark smiled sincerely.  It
was
good to see them.  They were his only real friends left in the world, even if they didn’t know it yet.

Hardy piped up with a hesitant “You too....Sir.”

Ty remained silent.

“No need for formality.  Call me Mark.  Hardy, this is Ty Jennings.  Ty, meet Hardy Phillips.”  They shook hands awkwardly.

“We’re all ex-military here.  Ty and I are both Marines, Hardy is Delta.”  That made the men a little more comfortable.  “I think you both understand that the devices I gave you are time-travel machines, correct?”

They both nodded.

“One thing that
is
different for the three of us is our home times.  I am from 2012, Hardy’s from 1987, and Ty’s from 1968.”

Ty broke in, “Why me...well, I mean, why us?  Out of all the people you could have picked.”

“Gentlemen, due to the nature of these watches, I was obviously privy to information about both of you that neither of you could possibly know about yourselves yet.  I will not elaborate more than that at this time, other than to say that you
will
understand some day.”

Hardy’s blank expression belied his deep contemplation of what Mark was saying.

“I’m not sure I can accept that,” he said.  “I just don’t get it.”

“Believe it or not, neither do I,” Mark replied smugly.

Mark was thoroughly enjoying turning the tables on Hardy with cryptic answers, confusing the Delta man even more.  A little payback wouldn’t hurt.  He might even shrug a time or two just for the heck of it.

“Tell us about the watches.”

“I call them “shifters”.  You’ll notice your shifter has an upper and a lower digital display.  The two displays will always represent two different moments in time.  One will be the time you are currently in, the other is the time you will go to upon pressing the red button underneath the displays.”

“The settings do not switch places as you switch times.  In other words, if you are in 2012, and the upper display reads 2012, then the upper display represents your current time.  Let’s say, in such a case, the bottom display read 1987.  That would be the time to which you would shift.

“If then, you did shift to 1987, the numbers would not shift positions.  So, 2012 would remain in the upper display, but now it would represent the target time you would shift to, not the current time, and 1987 would still be in the bottom display, now representing the current time.

“That feature can save your neck.  If you ever shift and there turns out to be some urgent reason why you need to shift back immediately, you only have to hit the red button again.  No need to reset any dials.

“Each display has a series of 6 numbers followed by a letter and a dash, and then 8 more numbers.  The first six numbers represent the time in terms of hour, minute, and second.  The letter will always be a “P” or an “A”, reflecting PM or AM.  The last 8 letters represent the date.  Month, day, and year, in that order.”

Both men were staring at the watches on their wrists, fingers playing with the miniature buttons on the sides, changing the displays to random dates.

“Don’t do any shifting yet, not until I’ve explained more.  You can easily get yourself into trouble.”

“Who made these?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I mean, I don’t know.  Really.  I don’t know much more about them than you do, other than what I’ve learned through experience.”

“Who gave them to you?”

“Nobody.  I just found them.”

“Where?”

“In the woods.”

Hardy grunted.

Ty slapped his knee.  “You’ve got to be kidding me.  So, this really isn’t a government project?”

“Nope.”

Ty wore a bizarre kind of smirk on his face.  Hardy stared at the floor.

“I’ll tell you what.  Why don’t you both finish listening to my little orientation seminar?  Think you can keep your yaps shut till then?”

They grinned, happy to hear the assertive tone in his voice.  Being military, strong leadership made them comfortable, weak leadership, uneasy.

“When you shift, you’ll notice your body being yanked around some.  Most times, it’s quite subtle, but every now and then, you’ll feel like you’re on a roller coaster.

“That’s because whenever you shift to another time, there will be slight variations in the elevation of the terrain, location of plant growth, etc.  Buildings and floors settle over the years as well.  Things change.  Most of the time, this is no problem.

“However, every now and then, your position in your target time will be occupied by another object you weren’t expecting.  Your shifter is somehow able to detect this and moves your physical position along with your temporal to compensate and prevent you from appearing in the middle of a tree, or a wall, or something else unexpected.  When this happens, you’ll experience a severe wrenching sensation as your body is moved to an unoccupied position.  It is
not
pleasant when that happens, but it normally doesn’t hurt either.  Usually, just leaves you feeling very disoriented.

“This not only works horizontally, but vertically as well.  Once, I shifted to a time when the ground was about twenty feet higher than the time from when I’d shifted.   It felt like I was being ripped to pieces as it yanked me upward.  It did hurt that time.  Try to avoid doing that.  I’m not sure what the shifter’s limitations are.  There may be a limit to what it can handle and you could wind up shifting into the middle of a fifty foot pile of dirt.  Not fun.

“Another time, I shifted to a future year where the hill beneath me had been strip mined.  If I hadn’t been able to shift back at the punch of a button, I would have fallen to my death.  So, be careful.

“You can only shift six times successively within one hour, or eight successive times within twelve hours.  After about the third time, you’ll notice yourself becoming increasingly nauseous with each successive shift.  After six times in a row, I guarantee you’ll be heaving your lunch.  And your watch will shut down.  The displays will flash red and you won’t be able to shift again for about twenty-four hours.

“Any questions?”  Mark leaned back in his chair, fingers interlaced behind his head.

“What about your clothes?”  Hardy asked.

Ty snickered.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean....why don’t you show up naked when you shift?”

“Not sure.  The best we can figure is the shifter is somehow able to detect the dimensions of the person it’s attached to along with any small objects touching that person.  Of course, you never lose your clothes when you shift, or the fillings in your teeth for that matter.  The change in your pocket stays with you.  Small to medium-size objects you hold in hand will go with you.  I’ve transported all kinds of things with me, weapons, money, papers, electronic devices.”

“Can you take another person with you...one who doesn’t have a shifter?”

“Uh....not sure.  Never tried that.”

“Might be worth a shot.”

Mark nodded.

Now Ty spoke up, “So, why are we here?  What do you want from us?”

“Guys, I’ll be frank.  The devices I’ve given you are
yours
.  Even if I wanted them back, there’s no way to get them off your wrist short of cutting your hand off.  Obviously, you can do all kinds of amazing things with them.

“If you want to get rich, it's easy as pie with these shifters.  I can show you how to do it the simple and quick way.  Heck, if you prefer, I’ll give you however many millions you want.  I’ve already made billions and it just keeps increasing.

            “What I'll tell you though, is that after I accumulated all my wealth, something was still missing.  I felt empty.  I wanted....I needed something more.  I knew I had to use this thing to help people.

            “Millions of tragedies happen every day on this mess of a globe, and I decided I was going to undo some of them.  It's a heck of a thing to see a widow’s tears dry up, a lost child brought back to life, to see life spring up where there had been only death and suffering a moment before.  I'm trying to make this world a better place.

            “That may sound corny, but I know what it’s like to lose somebody.   I lost my own kids several years ago.  Drunk driver.”

Hardy let out a low whistle.  “Man!  That must have been awesome, being able to go back and save ‘em.  That's cool!”

Mark’s jaw quivered.  His eyes swiftly welled with tears as he struggled to maintain composure.  The two men sensed the grief he was holding in.  Against his will, a lone tear broke rank and trickled down his cheek.  He quickly wiped it away with his sleeve, trying to pretend it hadn’t happened.  He made a couple of failed attempts to speak again, but could only manage a muffled choke.  Hardy’s exclamation had taken him completely off guard.

“You mean....you didn’t save them?”  Hardy asked.

Mark shook his head.

“Why not?  You’ve got the only tool in the universe capable of such a thing.”

Mark fought to relax the constricted throat muscles preventing him from talking.  After a minute, he regained control.  “Not everything....” he croaked, “Can be changed.”

Ty leaned forward.

“What do you mean ‘not everything can be changed’?”

“I mean I tried everything under the sun to save my kids and nothing worked.  I just can’t bring them back, all right?”

“Okay, okay.  Sorry.  We didn’t know.  We’re new at this.”

“I....I know.”

“Do you mean like....your kids....that they were somehow fated to die?”

“Something like that.”           

“I don’t get it.  How can we change things in the past if they were fated to happen?”

“I don’t understand it myself.  All I can tell you is that there are a lot of things I’ve been able to change, but there are a few things....I couldn’t.”

“And you want us to help you change history?”

“Pretty much.  There’s a lot to do, and I can’t do it all by myself.  I had two extra shifters, and I knew you two were the right guys for the job.”

“What if we just walk away?”           

“You won’t.  I know you better than you think.”

Ty and Hardy looked to each other and then back at Mark, big grins plastered on their mugs.

August 9
^th
, 2012, Washington, D.C.