chapter 62
YEAR: 2097
It killed Jake not to go home with his family, but he needed to brief Mitch. Over an hour later, Jake left Mitch’s office showered, cleanly shaven and wearing one of Mitch’s uniforms. The shoulders of the shirt strained to cover Jake’s broad frame.
In the hallway, Jake found Lexi waiting for him. She looked haggard and he felt for her. He supposed the last few days would have been an emotional rollercoaster ride for the whole team—learning about their new lives, good or bad, in addition to the loss of a friend.
“Lexi, I’m sorry about how hard this must have been on you.” He was unsure if he should hug her, pat her on the back or do nothing. He pulled her into a hug.
She smiled, pulled away, crossed her arms and looked at the floor. “It was hard on everyone, but it’s alright. I’m just happy that you’re back and in one piece.” She wiped a tear out of her eye. “And I’m so happy you have your family back. You must be over the moon.”
Jake nodded and smiled at the thought of his beautiful wife and children. “I’ve got no words for it. It never occurred to me that I could get them back. I was so busy trying to get over the grief of losing them. It was all I could do to just get through each day, one at a time. I didn’t dare think about my future because a future without my family was one I couldn’t bear the thought of, so I just lived day by day. But it makes sense. If that accident never happened, then logically, yeah, they should be alive. But, I tell you, that was a bigger shock than learning I was going to be marooned in the year 1200. I thought I was seeing things.” An awkward silence fell between them. “Lexi…” Words eluded him. They had no relationship beyond friendship, but still he felt bad. He settled for generics. “I’m just really sorry.”
Lexi turned red. “It’s alright. I had a little crush on you, but at the end of the day, we’re friends. We were there for each other when we both had some tough times, and I care about you more as a friend.”
Jake pulled her into a hug. “Let’s go find our team,” said Jake.
The three teams congregated at the twins’ favourite bar, Way Off Base, for post-op drinks. With the team fully reunited, it seemed only fitting to celebrate their success. Jake and Lexi arrived at the bar to find the group sitting around a large round table, taking in every word Clint was saying. They still had yet to hear the rest of his story after Ian stole the detonator out of Clint’s pocket and blew up the tunnel.
“So I wake up and find myself tied up with that nut job standing over top of me. When he saw I was awake, he sat me on the rock and hid. He passed the time by telling me how easy I’d made it for him to frame me. How the wedge I’d driven between myself and everyone else made me a perfect target. He knew that no one would believe a word I’d said. I guess it was a bit of a reality check. Actually, it was just really weird.” He took a sip of beer, his throat dry from talking.
“Weird how?” asked Maya.
“Well, here’s this guy, clearly off his rocker, giving me life lessons. It was a bit of a wake up call. If some lunatic who barely knew me could tell all of this, what did that say about me?”
Ben patted Clint on the shoulder. “Ah, breakups can mess you up for years. I remember a girl dumped me once and I threw out all of my clothes and bought a whole new wardrobe. I thought I’d go goth. It cost me nearly three months’ salary to replace my original wardrobe once I came to my senses.”
The group listened eagerly as Jake told them how he spent his time while marooned in the wilderness.
“What I don’t get is, how come it took you nearly two months to find the pack?” asked Lexi. “I sent it to arrive when we left. It should have appeared when you were standing right there.”
“Are you kidding me?” asked Jake. “I found that thing in the bushes purely by fluke. I literally tripped over it in the forest,” he said pointing to the gash on his forehead. “I thought it was a trap set by Ian until I saw it was the pack I had worn during the explosion.”
“No… That’s impossible. I punched in the co-ords myself,” said Lexi in disbelief. She rattled off the longitude and latitude.
“I think you transposed the two last numbers there, Lex,” he said smiling.
Lexi looked thoughtful for a moment and then her face fell. She had been so anxious to send the pack back that she had nearly exiled him for good in the process.
Jake laughed. “See? I told you we’d all sit around and laugh about it later.”
“Where are we going?” asked Riley.
Owen smiled sneakily. He used his hand to cover the address he manually entered into her car’s computer so she would be left in suspense. From the passenger seat he hit the green “Autopilot” button. Owen watched everything on the ground become smaller as the car rose into the air and merged itself into the lines of air traffic. No matter how many times he watched this, it still looked as cool as it had the first time.
Riley watched as Owen reopened the envelope Mitch had handed him during the ceremony and he removed a stack of papers. Several small items fell out onto his lap. “What is all that?”
Owen flipped through the documentation. “Well, let’s see here. Birth certificate, driver’s license, social insurance number, bank accounts.” He held up the keys that had fallen into his lap. They looked identical to the keys Riley had shown him on their first day, except there were fewer and his were shiny and new. He went back to the papers. “Oh, look, here’s my employment contract.”
“Employment contract?” asked Riley “You took the job?”
Owen nodded. “I did indeed. We can carpool, but then I guess you’re probably more in the field than in the office?”
She smiled at the idea of having something in her life as ordinary as carpooling. “I’m thinking of switching fields to something more mundane.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Owen. He took her hand and kissed it. He imagined her sitting at a desk planning combat strategies. “What were you thinking?”
“I don’t know. Something mindless. Maybe the Domestic Terrorism Task Force. That wouldn’t be too much of a pay cut.” She looked out her window thoughtfully for a moment. “No, maybe not. That’s where the people go who can’t get into Black Ops.”
Owen watched as oncoming traffic zipped below them. They flew through downtown, the lines of traffic cutting between each building. The downtown was woven together by uniform lines of air traffic threading their way between the massive buildings in each direction. Transit platforms were stationed every few blocks. A twelve-car train was docked at the nearest platform, and people jockeyed to get on and off. Massive glass pods rose and fell from the platform, bringing transit riders from street level up to the platform and vice versa. The large pods reminded Owen of the capsules on the London Eye.
Down below, he could see the white, egg-shaped airships he knew were the holographic blimps that floated several storeys above the ground, flashing advertisements to the pedestrians and road traffic below. Although he could not see them from his current altitude, he knew the air space above the blimps was reserved for courier bots and automated delivery traffic. He saw a police air cruiser had grounded a driver, presumably to write up a ticket. The cop car was unmistakable; the car’s paint glowed brilliantly like a neon light, alternating between blue and red.
Riley was right, the city looked very different. Some of the skyscrapers seemed true to their name, reaching far higher into the sky than he could have ever imagined possible. Natural green space within the city had all but disappeared, however, most residential and commercial buildings featured elaborate rooftop green spaces and vertical gardens, complete with parks and recreation facilities, free for anyone to use. Owen had learned that the buildings featured Apex Living Roof Systems, a technology similar to the camp’s WeatherShield. However, instead of cutting out the wind and precipitation entirely, it could be regulated to let in just enough to create optimal conditions. In addition, it created a safety barrier around the perimeter so residents could
safely enjoy an unimpeded view of the city.
Soon they had passed through downtown and the air route dropped down to five storeys. Below, he saw shopping malls, grocery stores and small offices. Cars in front of them exited the traffic stream by flying up and to the right, then down to the streets below.
Owen truly had no clue where the car was taking him. The address of the property he supposedly owned looked unfamiliar to him, and after the car had lowered in altitude, he had lost his bearings. Everything looked so different than it did in 2016. Within minutes, he saw some familiar landmarks. An unmistakable bend in the old road below as it followed the river, hills and large pockets of rocks protruding from the ground. Soon, the car had landed itself and he watched the steering wheel turn automatically as the car drove itself down a familiar street.
“I’ll be damned.” The houses on the street looked very different, but the roads, street signs and lampposts were the same. The car pulled into his driveway and stopped where his house had once been. As he stepped out of the car, he saw remnants of his old concrete driveway beneath his feet, now severely cracked and overtaken by weeds, bushes and small trees. The lot itself was overgrown; large trees and thick bush filled what used to be his immaculate lawn. A great oak tree grew where his home once stood. He could just see the river at the back of the property where the land dipped down at the river’s edge.
“I don’t believe it,” said Riley. “Did Mitch get this for you as a signing bonus?”
Owen looked sheepish. “I have several confessions to make,” he said. Riley raised an eyebrow.
“I had a suspicion that I may not be coming back, so I made some tentative arrangements in case I didn’t.”
She looked at him with narrowed eyes. “What do you mean, ‘arrangements?’”
“Remember on those last two days before we left 2016 I was doing some soul-searching and errand running? I knew that leaving you wasn’t an option for me, and if it was within my power to stay with you, I was going to at least try. I created a plan with a fail-safe escape route, you know, in case you decided to chuck me while we were in the year 1200. My job, my home, my life meant nothing if I didn’t have you to share it with. It was the easiest decision of my life. What wasn’t easy was explaining this to my lawyer. He thought I was cracking up. Finally, he believed me after showing him the VersaTool.” Owen watched Riley’s eyes widen in horror. “Don’t worry. He’s bound to secrecy. Client-attorney confidentiality and all that stuff.” Owen laughed. “Besides, even if he wanted to tell someone, no one would’ve ever believed him.”
Riley felt as though she should look stern, but fighting a smile was impossible.
“Two days before we left, I gave my lawyer a set of instructions but told him not to execute them until I called and gave him the green light. I decided that, if I did come back to 2016, I would come back a day early and leave myself a note, instructing my current self not to execute my instructions. I decided I would leave it in my sock drawer. By the end of the last day, I was pleased to find no letter, so I knew that I had followed you. So the morning before we left, I popped by work and told my director I was liquidating my assets to travel the world, which technically wasn’t a lie. Then I called my lawyer and had him execute my instructions.”
“What were your instructions?”
“I had him do some legal magic so the property stayed in my name for the years to come. I instructed him to liquidate what I’d left behind and invest the money in various low-risk investments.”
Riley stood rooted to her spot, unable to speak.
He smiled, happy and surprised that his plan had come together so seamlessly. “So when Mitch was creating my new life, he found the property title, which I didn’t recognize because the name of the street and the number are different. And this.” He held up an investment statement and pointed to a substantial number at the bottom. Riley’s colour disappeared. “Apparently everything I did worked, so I have a bit of a life already waiting for me.”
Riley’s jaw fell open. She stared at him for several moments while she processed what he had told her. Finally, a smile grew on her face and she shook her head in disbelief. “Owen, what if we were dead, and that’s why you didn’t get the letter? What if you were delayed for some reason?”
Owen looked thoughtful. “Well, if we were dead, then everything was moot anyway. But if we weren’t, which was what I chose to assume, I thought you were worth the gamble. I had planned on changing my backpack to go with you guys when you weren’t looking, but as it worked out, you did it for me, and I was able to land in the future in a much more favourable light, thanks to you.” He smiled broadly at her and caressed her cheek. “I’m sorry. I did want to tell you all of this, but I know how loyal you are to your job. If I had told you and you agreed to it, you would never have been able to live with the guilt of violating your principles. If I did it, you’d be saved all that. If I told you and you didn’t agree, you would have made sure I got a one-way ticket home.”
Riley smiled because she knew the truth hid somewhere in the words he had just spoken. She took his hand, pulled it around her shoulder and looked at the oak tree where his magnificent house once stood. “It’s a shame the house didn’t make it. We should rebuild it. I loved it so much.”
Owen thought of the house and smiled. “Yeah. I had some great memories there. But we can make new ones.” He kissed her on the cheek. “Hey, that reminds me, I have something for you.” Riley watched him return from the trunk of her car with his metal case. He handed it to her. “My gift to you. Just be careful, it’s kind of fragile.”
Riley released the two clasps on the front of the box and flipped the lid backward. She recognized it instantly.
“Owen! You brought the house with you! I can’t believe it.”
Owen shrugged. “It’s been in my family for generations. Now you’re my family. I thought it would be fitting.”
A tear rolled down Riley’s face. Owen saw the tiny patio lights on the miniature roof-top deck swaying from her shaking hands. He took the case from her and chuckled.
“Careful, the barbecue is going to roll off the patio and fall onto your foot.” Owen closed and reclasped the lid. He took her by the hand and led her toward the water. “Let me show you what I was thinking.”
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Thank you for reading my book. I am humbled that you chose to spend your valuable free time with me. If you enjoyed the book, I would be greatly appreciative if you could leave a review at your place of purchase.
Thank you so much!
Kris Trudeau
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: KRIS TRUDEAU
Kris Trudeau lives in the Comox Valley on beautiful Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The completion of her debut novel, TimeShift, marks the end of a six-year journey that began in Winnipeg, Manitoba from where she originally hails.
Owner of a website development and graphic design firm, Kris spends her days helping organizations in the Comox Valley as well as across Canada grow their business. Writing became a passion for Kris in the last decade both in business and for leisure. For fiction, she finds the creative process to be a fascinating, magical experience and is looking forward to exploring several ideas for future stories.
In her spare time, Kris enjoys the company of family and friends and riding into the sunset on her motorcycle. She is a firm believer in giving back to one’s community and donates time to local non-profit organizations. Athletic by nature, she participates in a variety of sports and enjoys exploring the natural paradise of Vancouver Island.
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