The Flight of the Silvers (Silvers #1)(155)

“How do you know they’re not expecting us?”

“They can’t possibly know we’ve divined their location,” David insisted. “We have the advantage. It’s just a matter of using it. I can create a distraction that lures most of them outside. While I keep them blind, you and Zack can look for the others.”

“What about me?” Mia asked. “What should I do?”

David regarded her with tender concern, mixed with an insulting amount of doubt. “I think you should stay here and watch from the balcony. You can let us know through the transmitters if reinforcements arrive.”

Mia shook her head. “Are you insane? You guys are outnumbered enough already!”

“He’s right,” Zack said. “I mean none of us are commandos, but at least our weirdness gives us a fighting chance. It’s not like you can throw notes at them.”

“But what if you get captured?”

“We won’t,” said David.

“We might,” Zack countered. “If that happens, use the money to get to Peter. He’ll take care of you. He may even be able to get us out.”

“You can’t . . .” Mia choked on her words. The thought of being alone on this world made her knees buckle. She failed to notice the tiny new glow in front of her chest.

“You can’t ask me to do that.”

“Mia . . .”

“You can’t ask me to sit here while you guys risk your lives!”

“Mia, you’re getting a portal.”

“What?”

She looked down at the glowing circle, yet another breach at the worst possible moment. She only seemed to get them when she was sleeping or stressed.

“Oh shit. Not now.”

“No, this is good,” said David. “It could be useful intel.”

She fished her journal from her bag. “It’s not. It’s a past portal. I’m sending, not receiving.”

Hannah’s brow rose with cautious hope. “Wait. Where does it go? How far back?”

Mia blushed, thoroughly grateful that none of them could see through the keyhole. Her younger self sat on a toilet in the Marietta library, her pants bunched around her ankles.

“Three days ago,” she replied. “Right before Theo and I met the girl with two watches. I need to tell myself about a passage in one of Quint’s books.”

“Oh my God. That’s perfect!”

Zack eyed Hannah cynically. “You can’t be serious.”

“Why not? You said you were open to alternatives.”

“Yeah. Realistic ones.”

“How is it any less realistic than storming a building full of Deps?”

Mia was relieved to see David share her confusion. “What are you two going on about?”

“Changing the message,” Hannah said. “We can tell Amanda not to go to the health fair!”

David blinked at her like she was selling rainbows in a jar.

“I don’t think that’ll work.”

“How do you know? We never tried it before.”

“If it were truly possible to alter past events—”

“It is possible, David. Look.” She pulled the license of Jury Curado from her pocket. “We used to know this guy. Now we don’t. Evan changed the past. Why can’t we?”

Zack eyed the license with a raised brow. “That’s a good point, actually.”

“Thank you. See?”

Mia blinked in addled stupor, her mind filled with images of apocalyptic carnage. “You’re talking about deliberately causing a paradox!”

“Your notes are already paradoxes,” Hannah attested. “Just because you write the same words with the same pen color doesn’t mean you’ve created a perfect duplicate of the message you got. There’d be dozens of tiny inconsistencies. Apparently the universe doesn’t mind.”

“That’s what you say! For all we know, that’s what killed our world!”

David shook his head. “It wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, Mia, I don’t believe this trick will work. But you’re not going to tear the fabric of time just by changing a message.”

Hannah gripped Mia’s shoulder. “Sweetie, if there’s a chance to save Amanda and Theo without throwing us in the path of a thousand bullets, don’t you think it’s worth a try?”

Mia scratched her cheek in hot dilemma. She could feel the portal slipping away.

“Shit. Shit.”

She tore a scrap from her pad and scrawled a frantic message.

Tell Amanda not to take Theo to the health fair! The Deps will get them! Please trust me!

“God. I can’t believe I’m doing this . . .”

Hannah squeezed Zack’s arm. “If this changes the timeline, you think we’ll remember?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “If it works, I don’t care.”

Mia spun to face him. “And if this kills us all?”

“It’ll be fine,” David assured her. “Do it.”

Mia winced and looked away as she placed the note in the breach. The portal swallowed the paper, then vanished.

The Silvers stood rooted in place for thirty taut seconds. Zack and Hannah threw their wide gazes around the living room, nervously scanning for signs of change.