chapter 47
TEAM 1 & 2, YEAR: 1200
Time Remaining: 6 hours, 14 minutes
Jake awoke with a start at the sound of his name being yelled. Wondering what new hell he was about to be presented with, he threw on a t-shirt and sweats as he slid into his sandals. As he stepped out of the trailer, he saw the overhead door of the work shed open and Tyler and Clint inside. As he approached, he saw one of Riley’s zeno ray guns lying on the floor between them. He heard his name called and looked back to see Riley charging toward the work shed.
“What’s going on, Jake?” demanded Riley. Like she had some kind of internal alarm system alerting her to trouble, she had raced from her trailer before she could grab a sweater. She stood in the overhead door frame, wearing nothing but a black sports tank and baggy, olive green cargo pants. One of the guns lay on the ground with the modified cartridge clip in several pieces beside it. “What the hell happened?”
“As you can see, we’ve got a problem,” said Jake. He saw Lexi striding toward the work shed. “Lex, get everyone up. This day is starting now.”
Jake and Riley returned to their trailers to dress. They reappeared in the work shed after only minutes, wearing matching field op uniforms. Within fifteen minutes, the full team had congregated inside the work shed around the broken gun. Ben had hobbled in too, against Maya’s advice—he refused to stay in the trailer when there was an emergency going on. Still sporting a sore torso and leg brace, he moved very slowly.
The rear of the work shed, where Team One had left the guns set up and ready for use, was now empty. The tripod belonging to the gun on the floor lay bent beyond recognition. The remote control, the two remaining guns and their tripods were nowhere to be found in the work shed. Finn collected the gun at Tyler’s feet and began assessing the extent of its damage.
“Who would do this?” asked Finn, as he peered into the base of the gun where the cartridge clip fit.
“Our mystery guest,” said Tyler. “Clint and I were patrolling. I was on the south side, Clint was at the north. I guess while we were at opposite ends of the camp, he snuck into the work shed. We didn’t notice at first because the light was off. Clint heard crashing sounds and got there first. I didn’t hear anything, but when I saw Clint running to the work shed I followed him.”
All eyes moved to Clint and he nodded. “Before I could get to the shed, he came tearing out and ran east through the bushes. We took off after him, but he was long gone. He didn’t even show up on the heat register. That bastard would have to be damn-near an Olympic sprinter to get beyond the scanner’s range that quickly.”
“So what’s the plan? What kind of shape are we in?” asked Lexi, inspecting the battered tripod. “This looks really bad.”
“The guns being operational is the key to the success of Operation TimeShift,” said Jake. “Until those guns are found and are proven operational, Riley will be in charge of everyone, including myself.” He looked at Riley. “What do you need us to do?”
Riley had remained silent at the back of the group throughout the meeting. Her mind was in high gear; assessing the situation, determining their options and contemplating their probabilities. Finn had only seen her look this angry a few times, each time because someone interfered with her op.
“We’ve got a long day ahead of us. The short and sweet version of what we need to do is find the missing pieces: the guns, the remote control and the tripods. We need to fix whatever is broken and test them again.” She saw the overwhelmed look in everyone’s eyes and she softened slightly. “It’s not that bad. We know our way around these guns pretty well at this point. We’ll only have a real problem if he took the guns to wherever he’s hiding.”
Riley looked at Finn and Owen. “You guys, start fixing what’s broken. Whatever you need, let me know, and give me updates at the top and the bottom of the hour. Jake and Lexi, Clint and Darren, Tyler and I will partner up to look for the missing equipment. Maya, you and Ben go down that tunnel and make sure nothing’s disrupted. When you’ve found it clear, you’re on sentry duty at the entrance. Take your plasmaqs with you. Set them to INCAPACITATE. If you don’t find the tunnel clear, or if you feel threatened, you have my authorization to use deadly force. I don’t care what happens to this asshole, but if we can get our hands on him, I’d be interested in providing him with some incentive to tell his story.
“Do you think he’ll be back?” asked Maya.
“If he’s this hell-bent on sabotaging this op, absolutely he’ll be back. I’d bet my life on it. On that note, no one works alone. Everyone’s in pairs all the time. If your partner is in the bathroom, you’re handing them toilet paper.”
Time Remaining: 5 hours, 49 minutes
Riley felt something drawing her toward the lake. As she and Tyler walked in its direction, they scanned the bushes, Tyler with his VersaTool and Riley with the more powerful MultiMatter Scanner.
Riley ran through her knowledge of the intruder’s movements and actions so far, in hopes of getting a snapshot of the man’s personality and motive. A little insight into the man’s modus operandi could give clues as to what the intruder may be more likely to do with the stolen equipment. It was obvious to Riley that the man was methodical and well-planned—dressing like one of the team and avoiding the cameras. But if he was a stowaway, he would have had nothing but time to observe the camp and hone his plan of action. He framed Clint, but to what end? In addition, most of the setbacks they experienced were minor; nothing he had done had terminally crippled the mission. Riley felt like he was taunting them. If that was the case, stashing the guns and other items in places where they could be found but not retrieved seemed like a gratifying outcome for someone bent on watching them fail.
They arrived at the water’s familiar edge where so many warm summer days were spent swimming and basking in the sun. In the dark, cool morning, the area felt far less inviting. No longer sheltered by the forest, the wind blowing off the lake chilled them to the bone. Riley scanned the water with the MMS and as if she knew it would all along, the scanner picked something up.
Tyler heard Riley’s scanner beep and he looked over her shoulder at the screen. There, twenty-seven feet below, sat a metal mass dangerously close to the underwater ledge. She continued to scan the water and her heart sank. Tyler swore under his breath. Another mass of metal lay at the bottom, forty-one feet down.
“How are you at free diving?” she asked, half-joking, half-serious.
“I’ve snorkelled lots, that’s about it,” he said shrugging his shoulders. Goosebumps broke out on Tyler’s arms.
“Same here, plus some scuba work, but nothing like this.”
They stripped down to as little as possible. Before removing the earpiece from her ear, Riley brought the team up to speed regarding their discovery. She removed the small red earpiece and tucked it inside her shoe.
“Is this thing waterproof?” asked Tyler, flipping the scanner over to inspect its casing.
“It should be. All field-grade electronics are designed for total submersion, but to what depth, I couldn’t tell you. I guess we’re about to find out.” Riley looked at the sky and shook her head. “This would be a lot easier if the sun was out.”
“It would definitely feel a lot less ominous,” said Tyler. Riley nodded in agreement.
Riley and Tyler discussed their plan to recover the guns. Riley, the stronger swimmer, volunteered to retrieve the deeper gun, and they would go individually in case there were any problems. Tyler took the scanner and hiked up the side of the rocky cliff as they had done so many times before. The moss and lichen, once prickly, was now worn away from their frequent treks over the summer.
Riley watched Tyler from the rocky shore below. He gave her the thumbs up and dove in. Riley watched him land with a splash and kept a close eye on her watch. After thirty seconds had passed, she wrapped her arms around her waist and watched the water’s surface intently. Forty seconds. Fifty-five seconds. Unable to do nothing any
longer, she waded down the rocky shore that sloped into the water, hoping to see any sign of Tyler. As she reached waist depth, Tyler broke the water’s surface gulping heavily for air. She swam out to meet him and took the gun from him.
Back on the shore, Tyler leaned over and rested his hands on his knees while he caught his breath. Riley looked over the gun. It showed no signs of physical damage. She wondered what kind of damage could be caused by its prolonged submersion in water. Tyler, his chest heaving, held the scanner out to Riley. “It’s not… as easy… as I make it look,” he said, his sentence broken over several rasping breaths.
Riley set the gun down beside their clothes and took the scanner from him. She pressed the power button and felt relief when it powered up. She patted Tyler’s wet back and climbed up to the top of the cliff.
Riley was an avid snorkeler and had done some scuba work on the occasional op. However, she typically associated these activities with warm sun and clear, sparkling water. This was different. Although the eastern sky was beginning to turn a rich navy blue, the blackness overhead loomed oppressively. The lake water, normally brown and murky, at this hour, now matched the same inky black as the vast open expanse above. In addition to this, the depth far exceeded anything Riley had ever dived without an oxygen tank and she would be blind, not having the luxury of a mask or goggles. She closed her eyes and rolled her shoulders to shake off her anxiety. Just because she had never done anything like this before did not mean she was incapable of doing it. She pushed the doubt from her mind and wrenched a large rock free from moss and tree roots where the forest ended at the edge of the rocky face. She scanned the water one last time for her target, held the scanner tightly against the rock and dove in, rock first.
The water’s darkness pressed in on her, muddying the blurry orange object on the sensor’s screen. She fought the water trying to rip the scanner from her hand as she kicked down toward her target. The weight of the rock helped her pass the depths more quickly. The pressure in her ears soon turned to aching pain as she sank deeper into the water. The fuzzy orange blur on the scanner’s screen grew and the device beeped as she kicked hard toward her target, all momentum from the dive now spent. The beeps became more frequent as she approached. She felt a heaviness beginning in her lungs and the cold water stabbed at her skin. The blurry orange mass nearly filled the scanner’s entire screen as she neared the object. She estimated she could be only one or two arm’s lengths away. To her horror, the object disappeared from the scanner screen as did the power indicator light. She dropped the rock and hit the scanner with the heel of her hand. The screen flashed white and then nothing. She cursed inwardly, tucked the scanner into her bra strap and began groping around blindly, her hands cutting through the cold water. Finally, her hand grasped a rock and then another. Urgently, she felt around until her hands fell on the smooth metal of the gun’s barrel.
She wrapped her hand around the base of the barrel and pulled, but it would not budge. She ran her hand along the barrel to the back of the gun, down the handle and felt the tripod. She wrapped both her hands around the tripod and pulled at it violently. She could hear the gritty, distorted and high-pitched sound of rocks moving over metal and other rocks as the tripod budged. In one swift movement, she pushed hard off the rocky floor and pulled the tripod free. The air in her lungs felt like barbed wire. The tripod broke free, then jammed again on something else and the assembly tore from her hands. Her sense of calm had disappeared; if she could not disentangle the gun soon, she would need to swim to the surface and dive again. She never wanted to come down here again. She fought the momentum she had just created and swam back down, groping around desperately in the freezing darkness. Her hands swished through the water. She could feel her body being pulled to the surface and kicked hard to propel herself downward. She felt around frantically and she smashed her hand against one of the tripod legs. Not willing to make the same mistake twice, she grabbed the tripod firmly and shook it violently to free it from whatever had caught it. She kicked hard again off the floor toward the surface. Although lighter than it would have been on land, the tripod’s substantial weight and gun’s cumbersome shape created resistance in the water. She could see the faint light of the sky above her and wondered if it was her imagination. A flash in her mind showed her the tunnel after the rock collapse. She saw Owen in the shower with his purple, swollen knee. The video of Lexi being hit in the head. Her lungs felt as though they were in a blender and she fought hard against the autonomic urge to inhale. As she neared the surface, little stars appeared in her vision and her head began to feel pleasurably light. One more kick. Okay, one more. Just one more. She felt someone grabbing her. Owen? Was it her imagination?
Riley broke the surface of the water. Tyler had swum out, convinced he would be recovering her body. She had been under the water for well over two minutes before he swam out to find her and estimated three minutes before she surfaced. He scooped one arm around her limp form and caught the gun assembly as it slid out of her hand. Unable to use his hands, he kicked hard toward the shore, barely able to keep afloat. It felt like an hour had passed before his foot connected with the rocky shoreline. He dropped the gun in the shallow water and pulled Riley onto the shore. Barely able to breathe himself, he started CPR, sharing with her what little breath he had to give. The sounds of voices and footsteps around him were white noise as he focused all of his remaining energy on Riley.
Jake and Finn skidded to a halt at the sight of Riley’s lifeless body. Owen leapt off his crutches at full speed, ran toward her and fell to her side, ignoring the pain that shot through his leg. He grabbed her wrist and felt a pulse. A small wave of relief flooded over him and he took over for Tyler, pale as a ghost and wheezing like an old man with a severe cough. Within seconds, Riley snapped awake, spraying herself, Owen, Tyler and Finn with the water she had inhaled. Her eyes bulged with panic as the last few memories of her consciousness returned to her. She shook violently from the shock and grasped madly for Owen, who grabbed her fiercely and wrapped himself around her shivering body. Jake passed Owen her sweater and he slid it over her head. He held her tightly to transfer his body heat but mostly because he never wanted to let go of her ever again. Finn kneeled on Riley’s other side, his face drained of all colour. He pulled his own sweater over his head and dried her legs with it. Unable to restrain his relief, he wrapped his long and powerful arms around her and Owen and squeezed. Riley’s wits returned after a few moments.
“Okay, Dude, too close,” said Owen, when he and Finn bumped heads.
Riley extracted herself from the two men and stood slowly, Finn and Owen each at an elbow. She regained her land legs after a few steps. She slid back into her clothes and squeezed the water from her hair. Seeing Tyler slipping into his shoes beside her, she pulled him into a hug. “Thank you. I’d be dead if you hadn’t swam out to me. I don’t even remember breaking the surface.” Jake’s watch beeped and Riley knew it was the top of an hour. Which hour? How long had she been out?