chapter 41
TEAM 1 & 2, YEAR: 1200
Time Remaining: 13 Days
Owen awoke to find Riley propped up on her elbow, watching him. They had become so immersed in the operation that neither of them had found the time to bring up the approaching conclusion of their relationship. Waking before the crack of dawn, working late and frequent night-time catastrophes had sapped them of energy. When they did finally get to bed, they fell asleep before any words could be spoken.
Owen wrapped his arms around her and kissed her neck. “This op is going to be over in less than two weeks,” Riley whispered.
“I try not to think about it.”
“Me too. We’ve been so busy that it’s just kind of snuck up.”
“How do you feel about it?” asked Owen.
“Well, lots I guess. I mean I love what we have, and I love you. The thought of this coming to an end is devastating. I haven’t been thinking about it because I need to focus on the op. But I am quite upset about it. I think we could have really had something.”
Owen sighed heavily. “I feel the same. The thought of not being able to be with you… well, it’s the heartbreak of a lifetime. Meeting you, spending time and falling in love with you has been the best experience of my life. I don’t want this to end.”
“But there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Owen fell silent for a moment and looked thoughtful. “Why don’t you come back to 2016 with me?”
“You know I can’t do that,” Riley said, poking him in the ribs.
“Why not? I mean, really, why couldn’t you?”
“It’s highly illegal for one. It’s like being an illegal immigrant. Worse actually, as I’d have no way of proving where I’m from. It’s messy and it’s just too dangerous. Plus, I’d really miss my grandfather. He’s the only family I have, and I know he’d be devastated. I would suggest you come to 2097 but that would be just as illegal, and I wouldn’t want to ask you to leave the job you love or your life behind.”
“Riley, you are my life. The job is just a job. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but I’d trade it in a heartbeat if it meant I could be with you.”
Riley sat on the edge of the bed and held her head in her hands. She had specifically left these thoughts buried for this reason. If left to fester, they would compromise her ability to concentrate on the mission and there was no room in Operation TimeShift for someone distracted by a broken heart. Owen pulled her back into bed and held her close, her head tucked under his chin.
“I don’t want to leave you,” she said finally, “but there is nothing we can do about it.”
Owen kissed her on the top of her head. “We’ve still got a couple of weeks. Let’s just enjoy them.”
Jake awoke with a start, expecting catastrophe. Realizing all was well, he lay back in bed and stared at the textured pattern on the trailer’s ceiling. His expectations had fallen so low that he treasured every minute that passed problem-free. He went to the dining room where Riley joined him and told him Owen’s theory. He was initially sceptical, but after mulling it over with a bowl of oatmeal, he started to wonder if it had merit. It was more logical than anything else he had come up with.
By noon, Ben, Tyler and Finn had Mole1 repaired, tested and ready to be deployed. Tyler and Lexi manoeuvred the drill into place and filed into the control room. Together, they fit into the cramped room better than Jake did alone. They shared a nervous glance as Lexi hit the ignition button. When the engine fired up with no reports of problems, they smiled with relief and eyed the monitoring screens as Tyler engaged the drill. As the massive drill head began to spin, they heard the motor slow under the heavy load. When the drill head got up to speed, Tyler held up crossed fingers as Lexi inched the massive machine forward. When it connected with the rock, the dull scraping sound of the drill head biting into the rock was drowned by cheering.
Time Remaining: 10 Days
“We’ve got the perimeter cut around the deposit, but it’s not as close as we’d hoped,” reported Tyler.
Jake listened as he lay half in, half out of an engine compartment of Mole2. “It’s alright,” he called back. “At least we didn’t have to blast it all manually.” He extricated himself from inside the compartment and tossed the tool he had been using onto the workbench. “Well, I don’t need to waste any more time on this damn thing then. Double up the stabilization sensors in that perimeter tunnel. We’re going to have to do a lot of blasting, and we don’t need the ceiling falling in. I’ll get Lexi and Finn to start pulling out the explosives and…” he stopped, hearing Lexi cut over him, the urgency in her voice unmistakable.
“Jake, you have to see this!”
Jake parked the Mole outside the work shed where it would remain for the rest of the op, no longer needed. It could rust at the bottom of the lake for all he cared—he never wanted to see a Mole ever again. He jogged to Mole Control, eager to see what had Lexi so worked up. She stood as he entered, grabbed his hand and pulled him into the chair at the monitors.
“I’ve been scouring the video from the other night.” She knelt on the floor at Jake’s side, pulling the keyboard controls toward herself.
“I thought you said you didn’t find anything?” asked Jake, confused.
“No, this is the video from when I was attacked.” She backed the video up several seconds.
Jake was surprised at Lexi’s grit. He had looked over this video himself, not wanting Lexi to have to watch herself be assaulted again and again, looking for clues about her attacker. “Lex, you didn’t have to do that.”
“It was hard to watch the first couple times but after that, it just seemed like it was a scene from a movie. ” She slowed the video to regular speed. A figure was running forward to the right edge of the screen. “I went through this frame by frame. This guy makes a point of looking away from the camera as he’s running from the trailers. It’s like he knows it’s there. Okay here, look. I’m just running past Mole Control and you see the guy pop out, right?”
She pointed at a black outline barely visible on the screen. “The figure walks into the light, but again, he’s not facing the camera. Okay, here, he hits me. Bastard. That really freaking hurt. But here it is! You can see something on his arm on the follow-through of his swing.” She advanced through several more frames, froze the screen and zoomed into the man’s arm. “At first I thought it was the sleeve of his shirt—but look! It’s a tattoo!”
Jake leaned into the screen. Sure enough, as Lexi crumpled to the ground, frame by frame, the sleeve of the attacker’s shirt slid up to reveal a thick tattoo encircling the attacker’s upper arm.
“And that’s not all. Look at the initials on the shirt!” Lexi advanced several frames. As the attacker’s swing followed through, his body turned just enough so several embroidered letters on his dark sleeve were visible. The initials “NRD” stood out clearly.
“What the hell? That’s no field op uniform. And that’s not what he was wearing last time.” Jake scrolled through the footage several times. He called into the com-sys. “Hey Rile, you’d better come see this.”
The group was equally stunned when they saw the tattoo, and even more so when the initials NRD flashed across the screen.
“Looks like Owen’s theory was right.” Every member of the team had filed into Mole Control to see the new evidence Lexi had uncovered.
“What the hell?” said Tyler, shaking his head.
“I guess this means that Clint is off the hook,” said Lexi.
“It definitely helps his case, that’s for sure,” said Jake. “Lex, pull up the video of the night the tools were stolen and see if we can see that tattoo.”
She pulled up the video and fast-forwarded to the time in question. The group watched in silence as she advanced the video frame by frame. The man in the video opened the shed door.
“Zoom in, Lex. I want to see every hair on that guy’s goddamn arm,” said Jake.
Lexi zoomed in until the int
ruder’s shoulders and upper body filled the screen. She advanced the video slowly. As the man reached inside to override the light switch, the sleeve of the shirt slid up. For only a few frames, the tattoo became visible. The camp lights generated just enough light to distinguish the black tattoo from the darkened sleeve of the shirt. Zoomed out and at full speed, the tattoo became camouflaged as part of the shirt’s sleeve.
“Lex, can you capture an image of that tattoo and clean it up?” asked Jake.
“Sure. Give me a sec.” Within minutes, Lexi had a picture of the man’s arm isolated and enhanced enough to show the distinct pattern of the tattoo.
“Does anyone know if Clint has this tattoo?” asked Jake.
“I don’t think so,” said Riley. “We would have seen it at the lake.”
The door to Mole Control opened and Owen entered, stepping gingerly off his crutches and into the trailer. “Sorry. It’s hard to get anywhere quickly on these crutches when you’ve got coffee. What’d you guys find?” He looked over at the screen and saw the arm and tattoo. “Hey, I’ve seen that tattoo before.”
All eyes turned to Owen.
“You mean you’ve seen one like this before?” asked Riley, looking back at the tattoo. “I’m pretty sure there’s no way you’ve seen this particular one before.”
“No, I have. Definitely.” He took a sip of his coffee and looked thoughtful for a moment. “Dammit. I don’t remember where. I feel like I was busy at the time. The memory’s really fuzzy. It might have even been before we met.” He thought back to the gym or that maybe he had seen it on TV but failed to place it. “Ever since I got my armband tattoo I’ve always made a point of seeing what other people have.”
“Owen, there’s no possible way you’ve seen this tattoo before,” said Riley.
Owen shrugged. “Well, maybe not. Nobody’s got the market cornered on armband tattoos. I guess there could be a lot of people out there with the same one. I seem to recall only getting a quick glimpse of it, but it stuck out in my mind because it’s quite traditional, except the artist took a little creative license with part of the design here.” He leaned towards the screen and pointed to a particular pattern within the tattoo.
“This tattoo stood out in my mind because I was rather partial to this same pattern, except for those little swirly bits, so I went with a different pattern. But when I saw this tattoo, wherever it was, I recognized the pattern instantly. I remember thinking that the modifications to the design were done quite well. I’m a little jealous, actually. It’s a really unique design. I’ve never seen anything like it.” He set himself down gingerly on the couch, easing his bad leg out in front of him. He thought about it for another moment as he sipped his coffee. “Damn. Now it’s going to bug me. I wish I could remember where I saw it.”
“I guess Clint’s off the hook,” said Lexi, looking from the tattoo on the screen to Jake.
Clint lay on the cube’s bottom bunk reading the August 2076 issue of Popular Science magazine.
“What do you guys want?” asked Clint, not looking at his visitors. He turned the page of his magazine.
“We’re here to talk,” said Jake, taking a seat at the table. Jake kicked the chair opposite him away and motioned to the seat. Riley stood behind Jake, leaning on the door, her arms crossed and observing.
Clint sat up lazily on the edge of the bed, making a show of doing things on his time. His eyes moved to Riley and, seeing her expression, he stood quickly and sat down across from Jake.
“What now? Did one of your precious subs get attacked again and you’re here to blame me for it?”
Jake remained silent. After a moment, he spoke. “We’ve been reviewing the video of the night Lexi was attacked for clues…”
Clint cut in. “But I didn’t do that!”
Jake closed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose as he sighed. When he spoke, his voice was calm and even. “Clint, please let me finish. We reviewed the video from that night and we found some clues about the attacker.”
“What kind of clues?” Clint’s eyes narrowed.
“He has a large tattoo on his left upper arm. It’s visible in a few frames of the video, right after he hits Lexi. After finding this, we reviewed the video from the night the tools were stolen, and again, the tattoo is visible for a fraction of a second. It’s not immediately obvious in either video, and if you didn’t know to look for it, you’d probably never see it. It just looks like the sleeve of the shirt. But what’s also mystifying is that, on the second video, there are the initials NRD embroidered on the sleeve of the guy’s shirt.”
“What? Who is it?”
Jake shrugged and shook his head. “We don’t know. You’re welcome to watch the video if you’d like.”
“Oh, so you’re letting me out now? I’ve sat in here rotting for days with no visitors and you’re going to just let me out like nothing ever happened? Am I just supposed to forget about all of this?” Clint looked enraged.
Riley exploded and she lunged at Clint. Fear filled his eyes like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. Her forearm connected square across his chest and she slammed him and his chair over backward. The chair made a muffled metallic clunk on the ground as Clint’s weight landed on it. Riley bent over him, half-kneeling on his chest, half-squatting beside him, with her nose nearly touching his.
“If you want to continue working on this op, you’ll thank Jake kindly for letting you out. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t even let you out of this cube before the leap home. I’d leave you in here like an animal. If you want to press charges when we get back, you’re more than welcome to, my last name is spelled M-O-R-G-A-N. But good luck, you don’t have a leg to stand on. If you give me, or anyone else, even a hint of your bullshit or your attitude, you and I are going to have a talk—just you and me. If I hear another word come out of your mouth that is negative, passive aggressive or something I just plain don’t like, we’re going to chat in this cube, and next time Jake won’t be here to chaperone.”
Riley stood and resumed her place by the door. Clint rolled out of his chair with as much dignity he could muster. As he stood, he righted the chair.
Jake crossed his arms and looked at his sub searchingly. “Clint, you have to see how your attitude and the way you’ve treated people has led to the mistrust that contributed to your being here.”
Clint was silent for a moment. “So now what?”
“So now, you’re free to leave and resume your productive duties. I’ll bring you up to speed with what we’re doing in a moment. Riley, do you have anything to add?”
“No, I’ve made my points.” When Clint looked at her, his pale face registered fear like she was an angry hornet whose nest, he realized too late, he had shaken one time too many.
Time Remaining: 9 Days
After ironing out the Clint situation, Jake felt an urgency to keep the team moving. The constant interruptions had drained the group of time they could not afford to lose.
The first day of blasting went well, though the progress had not been what Jake had hoped. Only Owen and Clint had worked directly with explosives before and nothing about explosives could be expedited in any way with simplification tools. The VersaTools made removing the debris fast and easy; the shrunken boulders were tossed effortlessly into a dump bucket and then carried away. The day ended on a high note with a fraction of the deposit finally visible.
Clint’s post-cube integration into the group went better than Jake had expected. Everyone put on a happy face and Clint managed to complete the day with no offensive behaviour, perhaps because he said very little to anyone. Optimistically, Jake hoped that Clint’s improved performance was a result of him having taken a good look inside during his time in the cube. Realistically, he suspected it was Riley’s promise to personally return him to the cube that truly motivated him. Either way, Jake needed productive days going forward because the nights were about to get much longer. With concrete proof of a dangerous, unauthorized i
ndividual roaming the camp at night, security needed to be increased. Taking no chances so close to the operation’s end, Jake assigned two-person patrols at all times after dusk.
Owen and Riley took the first shift. By eleven o’clock, both patrollers ached with hunger. Meatless meals failed to sustain a body working eighteen-hour days. They patrolled the camp looking for anything or anyone unusual. With their VersaTools set to NIGHT VISION, they scanned the bushes beyond the perimeter of the camp. The tool emitted an invisible, heat-sensing field that would project a ghostly green outline of whatever warm-blooded organism it picked up. The first glowing rabbit Owen saw nearly startled him backward off his crutches.