The Prometheus Project (12 page)

“Did I mention that I still have a headache from being in contact with the Teacher,” quipped Regan.

Ryan smiled. “My point is that it gets pretty complicated and there are a lot more questions than answers.”

“To say the least.”

“But we do exist now,” Ryan pointed out. “So what happens if we change things so that we never did? What would happen to us?”

“I don’t know. I guess we would just vanish.”

Ryan frowned. “That’s my guess too. I was hoping you would come to some other conclusion.”

“If we vanish, what would happen to our other selves? Wouldn’t they continue on? No matter what happens to us, our other selves should be okay.”

“I agree,” said Ryan. “They’ll be us exactly as we were a day or so ago, but once we change things they’ll live a totally different future than we lived. They won’t remember anything we’ve experienced.”

They paused to ponder the implications of the situation they were in. The prospect of vanishing from existence was quite scary, even knowing their earlier selves would be just fine. But both quickly came to the same, inescapable conclusion.

“We don’t have a choice, do we?” said Regan softly.

Ryan took a deep breath and shook his head. “No. We don’t. Not if we want to save Mom. When we do, our earlier selves won’t go back in time and won’t become us. There is no way around it.” Ryan’s expression turned to one of steely resolve. “But it doesn’t matter what happens to us.”

Regan knew her brother was right. All that mattered was saving their Mom. Yes, their other selves would live a different future, but it would be a far
better
future. A future in which their other selves had a mother, alive and well. “We’re wasting time, Ryan,” she said firmly, her eyes now glowing with a fiery intensity. “Let’s go save Mom.”

Ryan nodded, his newfound respect for his sister growing even further. “After we save her we should help the Prometheus team as much as we can before we disappear. Hopefully we’ll stick around long enough to report everything we’ve learned about this city.”

They started walking in the direction of the building their parents were in. Five minutes later Ryan stopped in his tracks and said, “Wait a minute! I just thought of something. When we find the team, we’re going to have to explain ourselves before they’ll believe anything we tell them. Just like before, they’ll insist on knowing how we got in here.”

Regan shrugged her shoulders. “So?”

“So we’ll have to tell them—how we got past the fence and lasers, how we solved the passwords, how we tricked Carl, how we got sent back in time—everything. Then, when we save the day and vanish, they’ll have plenty of time to make sure we—meaning our earlier selves—never discover the city in the first place. They’ll know to look for the younger versions of us outside of the fence. We’ll change our past so that our earlier selves are stopped before they even get
close
to the Proact facility. Do we want that to happen?”

Regan frowned. “No we don’t. This city is fantastic. Good point, Ryan.”

“Yeah, we owe it to ourselves—well, our other selves—to still discover the city. But we have to save Mom.”

“I have an idea,” said Regan. “What if we go back outside and find our earlier selves and tell them everything we know. Then they can enter the city and save Mom. We’ll vanish, but they’ll already be in the city.”

Ryan thought about this for a moment. “Good thinking,” he said.

They reversed direction and began heading back to where they were now confident the entrance would be waiting for them. This was really going to be something, thought Ryan. How would it feel to talk to himself? Would the old him believe the new him?

The old him was in for the surprise of his life. He wondered where
that
Ryan was now. Still planning with Regan? Maybe hanging down from a tree expecting to be caught at any moment by security.

And with that thought he had one of the most startling realizations of his life. He stopped in his tracks, stunned.

“What is it?” prompted Regan.

“It’s not going to work,” he said with certainty. “We’ll never make contact with our other selves and the generator will still fall on Mom.”

“What?” said Regan. “Why do you say that?”

“Because it didn’t work the last time we tried it,” responded Ryan simply.

Chapter 23

A Race Against Time

 “What in the world are you talking about?” said Regan.

“They were
us,
” insisted Ryan. “The kids were
us
.”

“What kids?”

“The kids the guards were chasing. The kids who ran out of Prometheus Alpha. The kids who gave me the break I needed when I was about to get caught. They were
us
. It all happened before. Mom got hit by the generator, the nano-robots swarmed, we went back in time, we figured everything out and we tried to tell our earlier selves so they could warn Mom.
Just like we’re about to do now
. But it didn’t work. Remember when I was hanging in that tree? A guard saw two kids coming out of Prometheus Alpha. Who else could they have been? Our later selves must have been trying to warn us about the generator accident. But they failed. The guards chased them away from us. So we relived their history. Everything happened all over again.

“And we were just about to repeat history for the
third
time,” continued Ryan. “But now we can change things. The versions of us that failed the last time have at least given us the clue we need to change our plan this time. This time we won’t try to find ourselves before we’ve entered Prometheus Alpha to warn ourselves about the generator. This time we’ll go directly to the building Mom is in. We’ll just hide out nearby until we’re certain that our other selves are already in the city.”

“But if we do that, Ryan, won’t the other you be caught by that guard? The guard won’t have any reason to run off when you’re about to drop from the tree.”

“You’re right,” said Ryan. “You’re absolutely right. We still have to create that diversion for our earlier selves.”

“Wait a minute,” said Regan. “How did we get in the city the very first time this whole crazy time-loop began? The first time there weren’t any time-traveling versions of us to create a diversion. You would have been caught by the guard.”

“That’s a good point, too,” said Ryan. “I don’t know. I guess we’ll never know. All I do know is that we don’t have much time. Regan, we need to split up. You go and create a diversion for our other selves outside. Lead the guards on a wild goose chase away from where we entered the grounds.” He paused. “I’ll go and warn Mom.”

Regan nodded her agreement.

Ryan put a hand on his sister’s shoulder. “Regan. I sometimes give you a hard time and I’ve never admitted it before now, but I think you’re pretty amazing in a lot of ways. You have more courage and more brains than most kids far older than you. I’m lucky to have you as a sister.” With that Ryan gave her a bear hug, surprising her nearly to death.

“Thanks, Ryan. I can’t believe you just told me that.”

“Well, I knew this was a great time to be completely honest with you.”

“Because we’ve been through so much together?”

Ryan smiled thinly. “Well that . . . and the fact that in a few hours we’ll vanish, and your other self will never know I said any of this.” His expression turned sincere once more. “But I want you to know that I mean every word of it.” He paused. “Good luck, Regs,” he said.

“You too, Ry,” she replied. She turned and began walking toward the entrance to the city.

Ryan was a pretty great brother himself, and she would tell him this one day, but she wanted to be certain when she did that he actually
would
remember it.

Ryan turned in the direction of the building his mother was in and focused all of his concentration on the task in front of him. He was starving, his throat was parched from lack of water, and his brain still hurt from the connection with the Teacher. But none of that mattered. All that mattered was saving his mom!

But as he walked on he began to become alarmed. Nothing looked familiar. Was he going in the right direction? Thirty minutes later his stomach was tied in knots and he was forced to admit the terrible truth to himself.

He was lost. Totally and hopelessly lost.

It couldn’t be! After everything that had happened, after everything they had been through, it just wasn’t fair! He should have paid more attention to where he was going as he searched through the city.

He began to run in panic, searching frantically for something he recognized. But still there was nothing.

And he was running out of time.

In just a little while history would repeat itself. Carl, the head of security, would lead the other Ryan and Regan to their parents. They would learn about the Prometheus Project. And then they would try to convince Dr. Harris to let them be part of the team.

And finally, his other self would be forced to watch what he had watched; a generator coming loose from a pole and plunging down to fatally injure his mother.

“Nooooo!” he screamed in frustration at the top of his lungs to the uncaring city. He had better find his bearings, he thought, and he had better find them soon. If not, he would surely fail to save his mother’s life— again.

Chapter 24

History Repeats Itself

“This is truly a horrible situation with no easy answers,” said Carl. “This does not involve criminals, spies from other nations, saboteurs, or terrorists. That would be easy. No, this involves innocent kids who are the children of two of our key scientists. Not to mention that Ben here just made an incalculable contribution to this project. Yet the importance of keeping this project absolutely secret could not be greater.”

“We won’t tell anyone,” insisted Regan. “We swear.” In the corner of her eye she saw Ryan nod in agreement beside her.

During the last hour they had breached a razor-wire fence, solved passwords, tricked guards and found the greatest secret in the world. It had been the most exhilarating hour of her life. But now that Carl was deciding what to do about this security breach, exhilaration had quickly become nervousness. Her mom gave her a reassuring look but Regan sensed she was equally nervous.

Carl had been thinking silently for some time. “Although I believe it is a great risk,” he said at last, “it may very well be that trusting you to keep this absolutely secret is the best option we have.”

Regan brightened. Had she heard right? She had feared
far
worse than this.

“But kids are terrible at keeping secrets—even if their intentions are good,” said a plump woman with glasses.

Stay out of this,
thought Regan crossly.

“We don’t have a choice,” said Carl. “Not a real one, anyway.” He sighed and turned toward the two siblings, his expression deadly serious. “Listen very closely,” he said. “I need for you to understand just what is at stake here.”

Regan listened carefully as Carl laid out just how important this particular secret was. She gulped hard. There could be devastating consequences if they failed to keep the secret.

But they would not fail—of that she was sure. Minutes later it was all settled. Everything had worked out.

But how could you
know
about something this fantastic, this important, without wanting to be a part of it? Without
having
to be a part of it. She knew the chances of Dr. Harris letting them help were near zero, but she had to try. She was willing to beg if she had to. She opened her mouth to speak only to find that her brother had beaten her to the punch.

“Now that this is settled,” stammered her brother, “can we . . . well, can we help you explore the city?”

Dr. Harris shook his head. “What? Are you
kidding
?”

“Ah . . . no,” said Ryan. “Why not? It’s a huge city and you have a very small team. We would stay out of your way and I know that we could help.”

Good going Ryan,
thought Regan. “Ryan’s right,” she said quickly. “We
could
help. You could think of us as assistants. We could do whatever you told us to do.”

“We promise not to cause any trouble,” insisted Ryan.

The discussion continued. Some of the scientists actually thought it was a good idea. Perhaps they had a chance!

She held her breath as Dr. Harris said, “I’ve already acknowledged that these kids are very impress—”

“Mom, move!”
came a frantic shriek from across the room, interrupting Dr. Harris.

Amanda Resnick looked up in shock. It was Ryan! Sweating and gasping for breath. She recognized her son instantly. But Ryan was standing in front of her. How could that be?

“Look up Mom! Please!” pleaded this new Ryan Resnick from across the room, breaking into tears.

This show of raw emotion was the only thing that could have broken her out of her stunned daze. She had never seen her son so upset. Something was terribly, urgently, important to her boy. Finally, instead of pondering how there could be two Ryans, she focused on what he was saying.

She looked up. A heavy generator that had been bolted to a pole above her was just popping free as a faulty bolt slipped completely from its threads.

She froze in horror as she realized the deadly weight was now hurtling directly toward her head.

Chapter 25

Seeing Double

Amanda Resnick dove to the side—crashing into a scientist sitting a few feet away from her on the wispy stairs as the generator-meteor whizzed by her head so closely that it brushed her hair on the way down. She had broken out of her temporary paralysis just in the nick of time. Her husband rushed to her side and helped her to her feet.