Time Salvager (Time Salvager #1)(38)

The council meeting wrapped up shortly afterward, much to Levin’s relief. He had not felt this nervous about an Auditor Council meeting since his very first one. When the rest of the council disappeared from his office, he stood up and poured himself a drink. It had been a trying year. He lifted the glass to his lips and sipped the golden brown contents inside, savoring the sweet burn at the back of his throat. Then he poured himself another.

It seemed more often than ever, chronmen were trying either to escape from the present or meddle in the past. It was to be expected, of course. Each year, humanity died a little more. ChronoCom’s charter was to fight that decline, yet things had never gotten better. Every year, there was a little less power to utilize. People went hungry a little longer. Lived lives a little harder. They were losing this war.

If it wasn’t for the agency, all humans would have become extinct a hundred years ago. Only the salvages of the past had kept the species together. Still, it was an uphill climb, one that was getting harder over time. Things were only going to get worse as people became more desperate. It was something Levin had to prepare for. As the high auditor of Earth, he would lead the front line against the bulk of the crimes against the Time Laws. He would have to be ready.

“Auditor Levin,” a hurried voice said at the doorway. Levin raised an eyebrow as Handler Hameel, looking nervous and out of breath, came in and bowed. Something important must have happened if the chief of Handler Operations came personally instead of reaching him through his comm band.

“Yes, Hameel?”

“Pardon the interruption, Auditor, but we have a possible first Time Law violation. One of the chronmen just returned from a job. There were two human-size life signatures on the jump.”

It took a few moments for the words to sink in. After all, of all the Time Laws broken in the past, no one had dared ever break the first. If this allegation was true, the agency had just sunk to a new low under Levin’s stewardship. He looked back down at the brown liquid swirling in his glass, threw it back in one gulp. Yes, this was definitely a trying year.





FIFTEEN

PRESENT EARTH

The familiar flash of yellow blinded James as he fell into the brown ocean sludge. Immediately, the nausea of lag sickness overcame him as he sank into the thick, quicksand-like waves. The rising and falling of the oily brown gunk rolled over and enveloped him, threatening to worsen his already tender stomach. For a second, he forgot about Elise and let her go as he flailed in the top layer of ocean. Without his actively willing her to be contained in his exo, Elise slipped through it and disappeared into the frigid brown void.

When he realized what he had done, James grasped for her again, but Elise had already disappeared into the depths of the muck and shit. Panicked, James expanded his exo and dove down after her, pushing his kinetic coils out and probing desperately for any sign from her. His exo’s power was depleted and couldn’t handle the pressure of going much deeper, but he had to try. He knew she should still be nearby. Earth’s ocean was caked with six meters of grime before it gave way to actual water. Once she hit that, he would lose her forever.

Then, one of the coils brushed against something solid. James turned and latched on to it. He saw a glimpse of Elise choking, stark panic on her face, and he expanded the shield around her body. He grabbed her close as she choked and threw up into the interior of the shield. When she had nothing more to empty, he held her still as she shivered and coughed. They stayed there, suspended in the midst of a brown maelstrom roiling all around the shield.

“James, I detected the jump two minutes ago. The collie is on its way. Should be to your location any second. Is everything all right?” Smitt sounded unsure. “I read some weird signatures.”

James ignored him as he held on to Elise. Slowly, her shaking became less violent and her grip around his shoulders slackened. Her head moved around his left shoulder.

“Wow, this is cool,” she remarked, her voice strained behind the nonchalant words, looking up at the sludge swirling around the protective sphere.

“You all right?” he asked.

She nodded. “I think so. Where are we?”

“The question is when are we?” he said. “We’re at the exact same place we were four hundred years ago.”

She froze. “This brown gunk is the ocean? What happened?”

“James, come in, man! Collie’s above you. Get your ass up there. Your bands are almost dry.”

Several bands on James’s wrist began to shut down. He diverted all remaining levels to his netherstore, and exo, rad, and comm band. Even then, he had less than a minute left.

“It’s a long story,” he said. “For now, hold on tight. We need to get out of here.”

James put his arms around Elise’s waist. A second later, they exploded from the caked layer of ocean and sped up toward the sky. They flew past the low-hanging hazy mist and rose up a hundred meters toward the waiting collie. The collie hovered as it tried to maintain its position against the battering, howling wind. Just as his foot touched down on the wing, the exo’s power gave out. James gripped the door handle while Elise held on to him as the wind blasted them horizontal, their legs scrabbling uselessly for purchase against the slippery wing.

“Smitt, get that door open!” he thought desperately.

The winds wobbled the craft, causing it to suddenly drop and nearly dumping James and Elise over the side. The collie now hovered just above the water as the waves swept gunk along the surface of the wing.