Time Salvager (Time Salvager #1)(125)
James had channeled all his excess levels to his exo. He was going to need it. He looked at the ground seventy stories down. The random ticking of primitive gunfire and the lights of wrist beams still played out below in small bunches. The Elfreth and their neighbors were still fighting, though they probably couldn’t last much longer.
“We need to get out of here,” he said in a low voice, looking up to the sky, still dotted with the silhouettes of several collies hidden behind clouds. “The ships patrolling the skies will prevent us from escaping by air, and once the monitors clean up on the ground, they’ll go looking for us.”
Elise shook her head. “I’m not abandoning the tribe. We brought this upon them. Besides, all my research is here.”
James sighed. There was no dissuading her. Still, he had to try to make her see reason. “We’ll go get your things at the lab. Then we’ll hide. That’s what the rest of the tribe should do as well. We can’t fight ChronoCom. We’ll rebuild elsewhere.”
She nodded and wrapped her arms around his waist.
James aimed for Farming Tower One and shot straight toward it, covering the diameter of the ring of buildings within a second. Time was of the essence now. He had enough levels to make low-altitude jumps in between the buildings. They could head northwest and possibly lose ChronoCom in the wilderness. He had already mapped an escape route the second night they stayed with the tribe. They could recover in the ruins of Toronto and possibly rescue the survivors of the tribe in a few days. That is, if the Elfreth even wanted their help.
Elise ran to the lab with James trailing close behind. She went to her workstations, confusion and concern on her face. She ran to the other side of the room and checked the shelves. She began to open cabinets and drawers. “I don’t understand,” she gasped. “The notes I keep. I can’t find them.”
James scanned the empty hallways, and then the rest of the lab. Something was wrong. She always kept a clean lab, and this place looked ransacked. “Where’s Grace?” he asked.
Elise froze. “She was hiding here during the battle. I thought…” She became even more frantic as she dashed to the adjacent room, calling for Grace. She was nowhere in sight.
James waited for her, slumped across a table to rest his exhausted body. He wouldn’t show weakness to Elise, but he could barely stand. Killing two auditors was unheard of, not to mention the dozens of monitors he had cut through. If he wasn’t the most wanted man in ChronoCom, he would be soon. His job wasn’t done yet, either. He had a feeling there would be more killing before the night was over. Maybe even another auditor. He hoped not. If he ran into another chronman, let alone an auditor, the only death left tonight would be his.
James trailed after Elise as she continued to search the floor, using the walls or furniture for support to drag himself along. He looked over at the edge of the building and saw the Nazi soldier, his face half-hidden in the shadows, looking out the window. The boy glanced his way and grinned.
Someone has to keep watch. Who better than a ghost?
To his left, Grace and Sasha were sitting in chairs at his feet, playing some sort of game with their hands. James reached for his sister. He touched her hair and felt the strands run between his fingers. He began to shake, his eyes moistening as he felt the warmth in her cheeks. Sasha shrugged him away.
Stop poking me, James, she said. I’m not a baby anymore.
Isn’t that the beautiful thing about being dead? Grace smiled. Especially for children. They stay young and innocent forever.
James’s throat closed at those words and he shook his head. “No! It’s not beautiful. There’s nothing worse. They don’t stay young, because it’s not real. Once someone dies, they’re gone forever.” Except it wasn’t true. James rubbed his temples trying to clear his mind. He didn’t know what was real anymore.
“You know,” a new voice cut across the dark room, “I would call you crazy if I hadn’t seen you drunk before.”
A figure appeared at the doorway with the translucent orange glow of an exo surrounding his body. James recognized the voice right away and moved toward the window. At his levels, there was no way he could fight Levin, not in this condition.
“Don’t even try, James,” Levin said. “You’ve escaped justice long enough. It’s time to do the right thing.”
James chuckled and shook his head. “You know, Levin, you are the one constant damn thing in this universe that will never change.”
“Do it for the people below,” Levin continued. “Give yourself up, give up that anomaly, and all those savages below guilty of harboring you will live. It’s as simple as that; no more people need to die tonight.”
Out of the corner of his eye, James saw Elise freeze in the adjacent room. She needed to run and hide. Escape. Anything but be here with him. He tried to gesture casually with his left hand, giving her the shooing motion, telling her to get as far away as possible. Instead, she held up her wrist beam and aimed it at Levin.
“You should leave,” James spoke in a loud voice and shook his head emphatically. He meant those words for everyone within earshot. “Just go. Please.”
“Civility?” Levin remarked. “This is a new side of you.”
The two circled each other like predators. Well, one of them was a predator and the other a cornered prey who could barely stand. James had to keep Levin’s back to Elise. Every second he bought here was one she could use to escape. He just prayed she got the hint.