"Thisis the end of the line."
She met his gaze, surprised to find that he'd aged significantly.More grey in his hair now, with deeper lines engraved in the flesh around hiseyes and mouth, his forehead. A side effect of progressing so fast into his ownfuture?
"Takeit." She closed her eyes and pressed her faceagainst the baby's cheek as his cries subsided to whimpers. "I don't everwant to see it again."
"Very well." He reached for the wristwatch and snappedit free. "I'll be back soon."
Did he mean it? As much as he could, of course he did. He couldn'tleave her and the baby out there in the cold, cowering in the middle of thenight. They needed to find someplace safe, and the infant would need to be fedsoon. He would provide for their needs as well as he could.
But first there was another matter to attend to: the BackTrackerprototype in his hand. He needed a package of some sort—a manila envelope, theCyrus Horton from the future had called it. The device would be sent to acertain private investigator in NewCity, a man who lived in this veryneighborhood.
"We don't die out here, do we?" Irena lookedup at him, feeling more vulnerable than she ever had in her life. "Myfather wanted to kill Harry." He knowswhat I've done and what I'm going to do. How could I be so stupid? "Did he tell you to abandon us here?"
A look of horror washed over the clone's face. He knelt besideher. "No, Irena, no. Hewants you to succeed. I told you, he knows he has made mistakes. Your father ishuman." He shrugged at that and half-smiled. "But he lovesyou. And he wishes things had been different between you, that he hadn't neededto leave your life the way he did."
"What about Harry?" Tears stung her eyes. "He hadhim killed."
"Yet here he is. Safe and sound." Another smile."You've saved him, Irena."
How do I know? She shook her head. Howdo I know Cade won't come back and kill him all over again?
"Sit tight for now," the clone said. "I'll beback."
Giving her shoulder one last squeeze, he took off running, feet silentas he kept to the shadows. Irena had a feeling she would never see him again. He wasn't adevoted protector like Cade. He was a clone, modeled after a man who hadabandoned his family. Leaving her would come naturally; he wouldn't give it asecond thought. But would he return to his own time, ten years prior, or stayhere and explore his future?
Either way, she was on her own now. Whether she liked it or not.
"Hey there." She drew back as baby Harrynearly latched onto one of her breasts, mouthing at her dress. "Can't helpyou there, buddy." She gave him her little finger instead, and his lipsstarted sucking. "Hungry?"
She looked up at the dark square windows on both sides of thestreet. No one was awake. Even if they were, they'd be plugged in, livingvirtually on the Link. No help to anyone, including themselves. Could she breakinto one of their units? Warm up the formula in their kitchen while theyremained oblivious to the world around them? She wondered if there was somekind of override command to unlock apartment doors, much like the OSCARprotocol built into auto AI's.
An automobile. The baby would be warmer inside a car. And shecould drive him... Where? Where could she take him?
When I was naked, you clothed me. When I washungry, you fed me. When I was thirsty, you gave me drink.
Cade had taught her portions of the holy scriptures. Thanks tohim, now Irena knew one place they could go.
She got to her feet, cringing against the cold, holding Harryclose to transfer whatever remained of her body heat. She glanced down a sidestreet. The mouth of an underground parking garage yawned wide open in themoonlight. Her feet slipped toward it across the wet asphalt with barely asound.
I'm here.
Again the realization hit her as it had before—revisiting thatpast when she was only fourteen years old. This was not her time. She did notbelong here. Now, in this when, she would be in her early twenties,married to Harry.
She glanced at the infant, eyes closed, sucking contentedly on herfinger.
This is too weird.
They lived in a unit eight blocks to the east. She was probablyasleep on their couch, waiting for Harry to come home. Waiting, wishing hewouldn't take it on his shoulders to solve the mystery of her father'sdisappearance. Neither one of them cared anything about a device called theBackTracker, or that Cyrus Horton had created it, or that the fabric ofspace-time hadn't been the same since. Such things didn't matter when you werein love. Ignorance could be bliss.
Tonight, Harry comes home, collapses intobed. I find him there, take off his shoes, crawl beside him. He gets a call an hourlater.
She could have asked him what was going on. She could have gonewith him.
Or... Had any of that happened?
Cade left Harry dead in his own office ten years ago. Because ofthat, she and Harry would never have met. And yet she still rememberedhim. How could that be?
How can any of this be happening?
The parking garage was as cold as the night outside. Sheapproached the first vehicle parked near the exit and adjusted her hold onHarry, gently pulling her finger free from his lips, limp now as he drifted offto sleep once again. She palmed the door of the curvaceous four-door sedan.
"Oscar—open the door," she said.
Nothing.
What year was this model? She tried again, a little louder,replacing the palm of her hand on the door just below the dark driver-sidewindow.
Inside, the computer console glowed to life. The lock releasedwith a clink, and she stepped back as the door glided upward without a sound.
"Destination?" the AI sighed in a voice strikinglysimilar to Eve's from the Alpha Geminorum labs.
Irena ducked inside and set baby Harry into the passenger seat,careful not to wake him. She buckled the safety harness securely across him. Itwould hold him well enough, as long as there weren't any sudden stops.
"Oscar—the Way temple. Automatic drive."
"Confirmed," the computer gasped in delight."Estimated time of arrival...is..."
