"Destination?"
"Did you do that? Change the way the coin greets you?" Vega asked Greg, now an inch taller in his heavy-duty boots.
"Oh, yeah. The whole speech every time I used the coin was annoying," Greg answered. He stomped his feet to help break in the new footwear.
"Where else did you go before the orchard in 2002?" Vega said, concerned shadowed his voice. "It may be important. I had imagined you got caught the first time you made a jump. Where else have you gone?"
"Well, I didn't get caught my first time out," Greg shot back. "It was my second, and I didn't make any mistakes! I didn't even have a chance. Maybe my future self did, but not me."
"We are where we are. The rest is irrelevant. I know it can be confusing; how this all works- time travel and causality. It is especially hard to wrap your head around if you don't know the rules that govern time in this universe. Someone once told me that time travel is like a fog: it is easy to get lost if you are not sure of your way," Vega said. He drew his cloak back out from his bag and swung it around his shoulders. "Now, where else have you gone?"
"Back to the day I found the first coin. My brother took the coin as payment for the advice on what to do with the treasure. Once I figured out what that coin actually was, I went to see why he disappeared. I guess he did something similar to what I was about to do. Peter made a mistake and got himself captured..."
"That's it?" Vega asked.
"Well, one other time. I used the coin to take me from the street to the roof of a building. I needed a better spot to watch from," Greg answered.
"Interesting technique."
"Have you ever used one of these coins?" Greg said, confused. He wondered how could Vega have so much knowledge of time travel, but be surprised by something as simple as a short jump?
"I have never had a device of my own, but I have traveled with one. You will have to reset the scripted greetings for when it is recaptured. They must not think you have made extensive use of the device prior to your detention."
"Wait a second!" Greg said. "You are going to let them take me?"
"No, no. Calm down. I have considered that, but no. It is too risky. You might spill details that could compromise my further plans. We have to set this up just right. It will take an elaborate ruse to be successful. And being successful in this case seems to entail your freedom. Like I said, my good deed."
"Well, what about my brother? Is there a way to get him back?" Greg demanded.
"That is not in my plan. You are fortunate to have gotten free of that Enforcer at all. But again, the fact that we are free means that we are insured success," Vega said.
Greg could see past the stern face of his companion. There was more going on under the surface. He decided to push.
"No," Greg said back. He rarely spoke this way to adults, but he was emboldened by the thought of his brother serving a life sentence at the expense of him having a wealth of treasure. He wanted the chance to save Peter more than any gems or even his beloved truck. "I don't care what you say. I will save my brother if I can. I will make it my priority."
Vega chuckled. "You shouldn't put all your cards on the table like that. But you will learn. Fine, I accept your position, but I make no promises. Our first priority is to ensure that the Enforcer returns to the present with you and the lost time coin. After that is taken care of and we are in the clear, we can address your demands.
"So! Next step is to rescue a tool from decommission." Vega looked up at the time coin and spoke, "Take us to Twelve Noon, November the first, 2042, one mile west of the Grace Lake ballistic launch facility, near Yellowknife, Northwest Territory, Canada, North America."
"Placing you in five seconds."
They appeared in a grassy meadow with a lake far off in the distance. A cold breeze swept over them despite the clear day. Greg began to shiver and Vega turned to the right and began to walk.
"November?" Greg said. "In Canada? What are we doing here?"
"There is a decommissioned silo over there," Vega motioned. "In six years, they will destroy nearly a gross of advanced combat robots. We are going to take one."
"Then why are we here now, and not in six more years?"
"You just love to ask questions," Vega said. "I have deduced a few principals of travel which I know will aid us against capture. The central idea is to always make jumps forward so that we do not cross back over our previous path. Doing that may cause complications. Now, I am unsure of the exact date of the decommission, so we will have to figure it out carefully."
They walked on through the light dusting of snow on the grassy plain.
"Unfortunately, the most I know is the year and season that the robots were melted down to slag. You have to understand that this event was not made public knowledge, other than the fact that the robots were destroyed." Vega continued, walking ahead of the younger man. "So we will go in while it is, for the most part, abandoned. We then jump forward slowly and find the exact time."
"Huh... I guess I understand..."
Vega stopped and turned around to Greg. "You may want to take these free lessons to heart. If you truly desire to spring your brother from the present, this experience would be remarkably important to draw from. Don't count on someone else always being there to figure it out for you."
Greg saw the seriousness in the small man's eyes, and nodded genuinely. Vega turned and continued on, this time with nothing more to say. Greg stocked after him, keeping to himself.
Is this all crazy? Greg wondered. Had he really just gone with this stranger and jumped into the future? He should be thirty-three by now, not sixteen years old stomping through Canada about to break into some government facility. Was he capable of doing this? Should he even trust this stranger? The memory of the oddly human lizard lying on the ground and the weight of its unwelcome embrace floated to mind. This has to all be a dream...
But the cold wind on his upper arms assured him it was not. Moving helped somewhat, but he was still cold. Greg was hit with a wave of fear and apprehension the moment he saw the tall razor-wire fence that marked the boundary to the facility. If he couldn't make himself go through with this, how was he going to be able to save his brother?
"I'll just wait here, and you can go in without me to get the robot," Greg said as they reached the fence.
Vega wrinkled his brow and touched the doubtful boy's shoulder. "Flip the coin," he said. "Let's try your trick."
"But..."
"Flip it," Vega commanded.
"Destination?"
"Same time. West twenty feet."
"Placing you..."
On the other side of the fence, Vega took his hand away, continuing to give Greg a skeptical look.
"Tricky, small jumps. I like it."
He walked on, and Greg followed, not wanting to be left behind.
Greg scanned the large buildings in the distance. The miniature forest they would have to cross left him feeling very nervous. The pair followed a path along side an irrigation creek that was very obviously broken through the landscape by heavy machinery. The trees were not thick, but the undisturbed wild land felt like a king's hunting ground and they were trespassers to be shot on sight. The woods were silent except for the roar of the creek as they marched in the direction of the defense facility.
Vega sensed the boy's fear as they crossed an I-beam bridge, "Don't fret. We will disable the security cameras an hour ago, after we find the information we need inside. The guard force will probably not notice it until later today. We have nothing to worry over."
Greg desperately wanted to stop, walk off the path and sit among the weeds, back against a tree, and just breathe. Every step felt like a mile further beyond the point of no return. A small black cricket jumped across his path and Greg consciously avoided stepping on the little bug. What a brave little creature, he thought. It hopped across the cold rocky ground in search of a new place it had probably never been before.
Greg let out a little sigh, wal
king on. He was that cricket. He was venturing outside all known realms, following a complete stranger, and hoping not to be stepped on by the all-seeing eye of the Keepers of Time. His brother may not have faired so well, but he seemed to be doing okay. He gave his head a little shake and felt much better. There was something about the Vega's walk that settled his feelings of displacement. More than anything, Greg was curious about his rescuer. He couldn't lose much sticking around to see what may come from this plan. And, Vega had made one good point. Peter was still missing and this experience could be the key to saving him.
The pair broke from the tree line and walked across crab grass to an off white building. A few hundred meters away, surrounded by grey gravel, were concrete levees. Greg's first glimpse of the underground silo was short lived. Vega approached a steel exterior door leading into the facility and turned the knob. It was open.
"Looks we just created a tiny paradox," Vega said as he and Greg stepped in the dark corridor. Vega locked the door behind himself as Greg kept his hands stuffed in his pockets. His hand was wrapped tight around the time coin.
"Aren’t you worried about fingerprints?" Greg asked, not wanting to touch anything.
"Not at all. That's why we keep jumping forward rather than back: we are always ahead of background checks. Plus, I doubt this facility would have that kind of priority for trespassers," Vega said as he strolled down the lackluster halls. "Ahh, a fire escape map!"
Vega studied the floor plan and thumped his middle finger down on a second story office. "That has got to be it, the site director’s office. A corner spot, a private bathroom and it's big. This is where the head guy will come when they repurpose this place. I can just feel it!"
Greg shrugged, but followed Vega as his cloak streamed behind him. They made their way upstairs and found the office. This door was also not locked.
"I don't get it," Greg whispered as Vega studied the room. "So, we go forward in time to find out the date they melt down the robot we want to steal, and then come back an hour ago and leave these doors unlocked, right? That is the paradox we created. If we can do that, why don't we just leave ourselves a note on the outside door, telling ourselves the time we are looking for?"
"I can't answer that. My idea is to get to the bottom of the silo where the robots are, but we need to do it from the past. It will be much more difficult if it's guarded and primed for ignition."
Vega paused, considering Greg's question. "Why not then, just do it all? Get everything we need to trick the Keepers and leave it for ourselves in the past? I'll tell you why! Because, someone has to do the initial work of the paradox. Maybe that's us; the first leg of the cycle. Doomed to keep repeating our actions.
"I am no master of the temporal sciences," Vega continued thinking aloud. "People better than I have made those thoughts their life work. This is the best way I know to go about this. Now keep in mind, I may not be the smartest individual, but I will make maximum use of what I have. If that means doing things slightly harder, rather than smarter, so be it. I've already made this plan much more complex than it needed to be. I'll keep this as simple and concrete as I can."
Greg came up empty with counter arguments. He was forced to agree, feeling he was in over his head as well. He changed the subject, in an attempt to bring things back to their present predicament. "So do we stay in the office? Or should we find a closet?"
"How about the private bathroom?" Vega pointed. "I doubt anyone will be in there at midnight as we jump randomly up the next six years."
Greg nodded and they both fit inside the half bathroom reserved for the top facility commander. There was a gust of wind through a small window that let in the cold, fall air. The breeze was abruptly cut off as Greg flipped the coin, sending himself and Vega five years and twelve hours into the future.
It was dark when the pair popped into the bathroom. Greg opened his eyes wide to adjust to the darkness of the room. The only illumination was a faint streetlight-type glow distorted by the bathroom glass.
Greg felt like he should crawl on his knees to sneak back into the office, but Vega was out the door before he could effect any action. Staying in place, Greg decided to wait until he got a signal to join...
"No real change," Vega said in full volume, startling Greg, still hiding in the shadows. "Let's try three months further up the line."
The bathroom had not changed from the last moment they stood in the dark room. This time Greg ventured out with Vega, who strode into the office, just as brash as before. "Ahh, look at this," Vega said, the lights coming on.
Greg instinctively launched himself toward the floor and looked around in panic. Vega stood at the light switch. He shook his head at Greg, then walked over to the desk.
"The office is inhabited this time! And take a look at this. Just like most military men, despite the technology of their time, he has a desk pad calendar! It is so much easier to jot down items rather than input it all on your computer. And that's a good thing for me; I'm no good getting into locked computers. Another reason we need that robot..."
Greg craned over the side of the desk to read the annotations on the large pad. "I don't see anything this month. Just deliveries, meetings... I don't know what half these acronyms mean."
"So we try the next month!" Vega said, arching his eyebrows. He shut off the office light, and the time travelers jumped again.
It did not take long to find the right time period, but they had to make several jumps forward spanning over five months to get it right.
Greg glanced around and knew a few months had elapsed during the few seconds it took them to return, a lamp had been added to the desk.
Their next jump they discovered an officer asleep on the couch.
They backed away slowly, and went further in time. This time they appeared in the bathroom at two-A.M., and the office was free to be explored by its monthly ghosts.
They were in the building less than five minutes in total.
"There it is. He marked it as D-day. How clever," Vega said.
This time, Greg jumped in the commander’s leather swivel chair and struck the space bar on the keyboard of his computer. The screen, that was held by an attenuating arm mounted into the granite toped desk, came to life. The default screen popped up, requesting ID insertion to unlock the account. Greg hunted around the desk, pulling open the drawers at his knees. Inside one of the pencil trays was the picture badge of a full-bird colonel in the Canadian Air-Force. Greg Pulled it up and showed it to his cohort, amazed.
"They are not very serious about security around here..."
"I would agree," Vega said "That, or they think they are very secure and there are never any newcomers to this facility. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had barracks on the grounds. Do you think you can find the exact scheduled time of the melt down?"
Greg popped the ID in the slot on the side of the monitor and found the shortcut for the Colonels schedule on the desktop. Vega was right, the Colonel liked to keep it simple. "There is a full timeline! It says that the thermite charges will be in place in a few weeks and they will melt down the silo at thirteen hundred on the 18th of July. Two days of fire standby's to make sure everything burns out... fill in and capping... Then there is a bunch of entries for the tear down of different buildings... It looks like they are turning the grounds over to be used as housing."
"Excellent. We have our date. Now, let's get to the bottom of that silo and snatch us a robot!"
Greg's smile was genuine as he pulled the ID and dropped it back in the desk. Greg slid the coin over to Vega and climbed from the comfortable chair.
Vega waited a second for Greg to join him, and in one motion of his hand, he spun the coin like a top on the slick surface of the commander’s desk. The midnight phantoms left the office, leaving the desk lamp on and the computer counting down the minutes to go back into hibernation.
"Destination?"
"Eleven Thirty A.M. November first, 2042. Same Location."
/> "Placing you in five seconds."
On the way out of the building, the pair stopped by a closet marked CORE on the map. Inside, Vega pulled a Co-Ax cable leading into a computer stack and left. Greg snorted to himself how easy this all was. He remembered to leave the doors unlocked on their way out.
Across the gravel expanse was the poorly painted concrete hole. Huge slabs on tracks connected to cables and wenches covered the outlet. Most of Canada's missiles had been decommissioned years ago, and the former silos were left unused and forgotten. A concrete stairway led down to the token underground bunker. The hinges for heavy steel doors were left to mark the spot that impenetrable defenses formerly stood. The place was a bone yard, stripped down and forgotten since the bullet had been removed from the gun.
Vega and Greg made their way down the catwalks, through empty, dark concrete rooms and cobwebbed passageways. The bottom of the silo was grated with heavy steel lacework; a water pool beneath. Off to one side was a door in the wall. Greg opened the door by its simple handle. A large worn orange sticker read in French and English that this closet would not protect against exposure effects from launch. A beat-up mop and bucket were abandoned in the darkness.
"That should be perfect. If we jump forward in the middle of the room, we may be jumping into the middle of a bunch of deactivated war robots about to be melted down," Vega thought out loud.
"So what is the plan anyway? How are we supposed to bring this robot with us? How big are these things supposed to be?" Greg asked, nervous now that they were ready for the final jump to steal their prize.
"I will give us three minutes. That should be plenty of time to pick one out and get it out of here. At three minutes until detonation, there should be no one left in the bottom of the silo. Are you ready? Just follow my lead."
Inside the maintenance closet, Greg activated the coin, taking the pair over five years into the future.
CHAPTER 10