Time Salvager (Time Salvager #1)(123)

Staying low to the ground, she pawed her way through the darkness, slipping from cubicle to cubicle. There was no sign of Shizzu. Maybe he was tired of looking for her and had abandoned his search; maybe he was recalled to do something more important than hunt for little ole her. In any case, Elise was confident that if she could sneak across that bridge, she could get to another floor and get away. She reached the end of the room and peeked around the corner to her left. The hallway seemed deserted. Then she looked to her right. The path to the bridge was clear.

Elise took a deep breath and crept down the hallway. Behind her, two more explosions rocked the building. She reached the bridge between Farming Tower Two and Farming Tower Three and picked up her pace. The wind was strong enough here that it would mask her footsteps. She was also completely out in the open so the sooner—

The left wall of the bridge exploded in a shower of debris, knocking her off her feet. Elise turned and saw a dark figure in the hallway behind her. She took off and sprinted as hard as she could across the bridge, but she had no chance. There was no way she could outrun his bands. She was two-thirds across the sky bridge when an invisible force tripped her. Elise tumbled to the ground and felt something wrap around her ankles. It lifted her up by her feet until she hung suspended upside down.

“Emergency channel,” she thought furiously. “Anyone in the emergency channel?” She switched to the subchannel she and James shared. “James! This is an emergency!”

She stayed hanging in the air while the figure approached. She tilted her head and looked at her assailant. He looked a lot like James when they first met: bald, pasty white, and in good shape. However, instead of the sadness she often saw in James’s eyes, this guy looked damn proud of himself.

“Hello, little mouse,” he said. “Now do you remember me?”

“No,” she spat, squirming like a fish on a hook. “I would have remembered someone as ugly as you.”

Shizzu chuckled. “That’s not what you said when we met. You complimented me on my vigor. I was flattered. You were quite fetching wearing that tight black outfit of yours.”

Then it dawned on her. He was the old security guard who disappeared back on Nutris two weeks before it exploded. He had begged to transfer to Sector Four, the smallest sector requiring the least distance to patrol. She had taken one look at him and decided to authorize the transfer.

“I was just being nice, you *,” she growled. “You looked like you were pushing eighty!”

He mocked her and bowed. “Some people, like your boyfriend, who by the way is a dear comrade of mine, prefer to play it straight. I enjoy a bit of theater with my work. Did I tell you that James and I go twenty years back? He was a brooding prick then as well. Now me, I’m a whole lot more fun, little mouse.”

“So you pretend to be an old hobbling man to get what you want? That’s sick.”

He grinned. “Whatever gets the job done, little mouse. Going into the past requires an understanding of that period. I like to think of myself as an actor studying for a role.”

“You’re the one that sabotaged the platform and killed all my friends,” she said. “What kind of role is a mass murderer?”

“Perhaps a little simplistic, but yes, guilty as charged.” Shizzu shrugged. “Your friends were already dead, as were you. I just bent the rules and helped you all along. By the way, I am shocked that you are still alive and sane. I would have thought you would have exploded by now, or at the very least become a raving lunatic. Obviously, we need to revisit some of the theories of time travel.”

“How can you sleep at night, you sociopath!”

“Such a mouth.” He lifted her face to his eye level. “Maybe I should teach you a lesson.”

With a casual swipe, he struck Elise on the side of the face, swiveling her head to the side and rocking her entire body. Elise was disoriented as her head rung. Her vision blurred and she struggled to stay conscious. Still hanging upside down didn’t help matters either. When her eyes finally focused again, she saw Shizzu gazing off to the side, his eyes carrying a distant look that James often had when he was using his comm band. She squawked and flailed at him with her hands, managing to scratch a long gash across his cheeks.

With a snarl, he smacked her again, making her head ring. He pulled her in close, cupping her chin with a hand. “One more outburst out of you and I’ll cut your arms off. You hear me, bitch?”

She could feel his hot breath as his calloused hands clamped around her mouth. She ignored his snarling and tried to clear her head. Her legs were still tied together by invisible bonds, and blood was rushing into her head. She wouldn’t be able to stay conscious long. Squirming to her left and right, she suddenly realized she was with him inside his shiny orange shield.

Elise did the only thing she could think of: she lifted her arm and shot him in the face. Either he was overconfident in his abilities or didn’t realize she had bands hidden under her long sleeves. Regardless, he wasn’t ready for the attack and took a blast in the face. Unfortunately, even at point-blank range, her aim sucked.

Elise thought she had pointed the beam at Shizzu’s nose, but either her aim hanging upside down was off or he had moved at the last possible second. The beam grazed him on the left side of his face, burning his cheek and left eye. Interestingly, his hair caught on fire as well.