Time Salvager (Time Salvager #1)(83)
There was a long, awkward silence, so long that James thought he had failed to convince them. Finally, Franwil stood up. She looked at those sitting at her feet, and then at the group causing trouble. Their eyes met, and the young people looked away, ashamed.
“Chronman,” she said, turning to James. “I do not like you. You smell of death and hurt. Your gifts and services to the Elfreth do not wash away your people’s crimes. I do not know if what you say is true, and it would not matter to me if it were. If it were I leading, I would banish you.”
Several of the Elfreth nodded in agreement.
She looked to Elise. “But I see and trust her. I believe her words. Can you do what he says you can do, child?”
The blood had drained from Elise’s face, and she almost shook her head. She looked at James, stark panic on her face. Their eyes met, and he gave her a small nod of encouragement.
“I believe so,” she said. “I just need some time and supplies.”
“Then time and supplies is what the Elfreth will provide,” Franwil said. “An easy sacrifice for such a boon.”
James nodded. These fools might be chasing a silly dream, but at least it gave them hope and kept everyone together. It also gave Elise a purpose. Both purpose and hope were powerful tools that one needed to survive in the present. He was just now realizing that he had lost both a long time ago.
“James,” Smitt’s voice popped into his head. “Are you there?”
“Can it wait?” James replied, eyes still fixated on Elise.
“No, my friend, it can’t. It’s about that tear on Nutris.”
“One moment.” James jumped off the column and walked toward the main Farming Tower’s entrance. No one noticed him leave; they were too focused on Elise and listened with thirsty ears to her every word. He nodded at the man perched on the guard column in front of the tower. The tribesman waved with his stick. It was something at least. A little progress.
James entered the Farming Tower’s lobby and sat down on a marble bench with its edges long since broken and smoothed over by time. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. “Go ahead, Smitt.”
“I hacked into the chron database and went through the documentation. Much of Nutris is redacted, so this means the initial request must have come from high up in the chain. It took a while to parse the blackened files. Finally paired up jump manifestos and came across an earlier Valta contract. Seems you were the cleanup crew. Valta had originally contracted Shizzu for the job.”
“If his job was the same as mine, why did he jump back so far in advance?”
“That’s what I couldn’t figure out either. Then I checked the ripple charts. There was a massive time ripple—a level seven—after Nutris that fortunately was short-lived because World War Three broke out. The war basically reset any existing ripples. I checked the Valta records. James, Shizzu was the one who blew up the Nutris Platform. He planted a bomb sourced from the present. The only reason he left was because he was injured while planting the bomb and had to jump back early. That’s when you were sent in.”
James froze. These were serious allegations. “Are you sure of this?”
“I couldn’t believe it myself and went to go follow up with Curran, Shizzu’s handler. Imagine my surprise when I found out that she had somehow earned out and was now retired on Luna. I know for a fact Curran and Shizzu were no closer to earning out of their contracts than us.”
Of course Smitt would have checked his sources. He was a Tier-1 handler and James doubted Smitt would come to him with this if it wasn’t true. The ramifications of ChronoCom purposely carrying out this job and covering it up meant terrible things. Major Time Laws had been broken, no matter how limited the effect. If ChronoCom was willing to engineer dead-end time lines now, then the possibilities of what they were willing to do was endless.
“Smitt, how exactly was Valta involved in this?”
“From what I can tell, they ordered the contract and supplied the bomb. That’s why Sourn ordered you to make the retrieval only after the disaster happened. They knew you couldn’t jump back beforehand. You were still caught in the tear from Shizzu’s jump.”
James swore. They had knowingly put him in a no-jump withdrawal scenario and hadn’t told him. That was an incredible violation of trust and was very dangerous for the chronman involved. James had no doubts that this information was highly classified. Smitt must have taken extreme measures to dig it up.
“Smitt, thanks. I’m sorry I doubted you. I put you in a terrible position. You watched my back. You’re a good friend.”
“No more than you did for me back at the Academy, eh? Listen, I also have to warn you. Valta is actively involved with the manhunt. They want your friend badly.”
James curled his hands into fists. “This situation is much worse than I thought if a megacorp is involved.” He stood up, took a deep breath, and began pacing the foyer. “And Shizzu, that abyss-plagued bastard. Next time we meet, one of us isn’t going to be able to talk about it.”
“Are you going to tell your friend?”
Several scenarios ran through James’s head and none of them turned out well. Still, keeping ChronoCom’s involvement in the disaster from her didn’t feel right. She deserved to know, and things would be doubly bad if she found out on her own. In the end, he realized he had little choice.