SKIPPING TIME

Chapter 17.5

Since the electric curiosity on Ray's face made her feel slightly ill, Cacee avoided his eyes. Whatever he'd done to make her into a time-traveler, she had the distinct impression he didn't know about it. Great. That would make this easier.

Ray said, "So, tell me again--"

"Can I please hear the rest of the story first?"

Ray hesitated, like he wanted to ask something else.

She offered, "I'll explain more later. I promise."

With a disappointed-looking nod, Ray conceded. "Okay, where was I?"

"Pete invented a JETT."

Ray sighed. "The rest of this sounds like a plot to a late-night movie but, in a nutshell, the head of the Station is a bad guy. Charismatic and a genius but bad all the way to the core."

The way Ray said the words sent an icy draft through her.

He continued, "His name is Raphael Malakim. Doctor Malakim. He has a core group of guys devoted to him-the guy at the top of the chain is called Morg."

She frowned. "Weird name."

Ray nodded. "To this day I never learned his real name. Everyone but Malakim had nicknames. Someone told me Morg's came from how many guys he sent to the morgue but that might not be true."

She shuddered as Ray said, "Anyway, it's not important. The point is, Morg wanted Pete and I to join his band of Malakim groupies."

The coldness in Ray's eyes and harshness of his tone made it clear hatred wasn't a strong enough word. Ray wanted Morg and Malakim dead as much as they wanted him captured. He said, "Morg wanted to put us in charge of using the time-traveling device Pete invented."

She asked, "Why you? Couldn't anyone use it?"

Ray shrugged. "Pete and I were the best Comp team in The Station. And Malakim and Morg wanted the best."

More concerned with the story than with the use of terminology she didn't understand, she prompted, "So, what happened?"

Ray's gaze returned to her and some of the darkness in it lifted. "I'm warning you that the story sounds unbelievable."

She looked around the warehouse. "Probably not from where I'm sitting."

His eyes twinkled for a second before he said. "Fair enough. Anyway, Pete was told they wanted the JETT in order to study history, to keep us from making the mistakes of our past."

Cacee gave him a small smile. "The farther backward you can look the farther forward you will see."

Ray nodded. "I've never heard it put better."

Cacee shrugged. "Don't look so impressed. It's not my quote, it belongs to Winston Churchill."

Ray rubbed the five o'clock shadow on his face. "Oh."

He looked so discomfited she choked back a giggle.

He continued, "But it turns out they were lying all along. It's difficult to explain, but Malakim only wanted to use the JETT to change things, to gain power."

Her urge to laugh vanished. "So, the mad scientist wanted to remake the past so he could seize power in the future?"

"Something like that. Nowhere near as simple, but yeah-that works."

Finished shredding the napkin, she began picking her nails. "And, let me guess. You tried to stop him?"

"Yup. Pete and I decided to blow up The Station and all the technology Pete invented so Dr. Malakim couldn't go through with his evil plot. You can probably guess that didn't work out." Ray tried to sound sarcastic, but his voice fractured on Pete's name.