Double-Back (Jake Waters Book 3) by Bob Blink Read Free Book Online

away."
    "How would he gain his ability?" Susan asked.
    "How did I gain mine?" Jake countered.  "One day I just realized I had it.  It could be the same with whoever this is."
    "Wait," Jim protested.  "Explain to me how you come to this conclusion."
    "Good idea," Jake agreed.  "See if you can find fault in my logic.  Let's go back to the kidnapping situation."
    Jake stood and walked over to the white board that Susan kept handy for making notes when she and Jim brainstormed.  He drew a horizontal line across the middle and place a dot on the line two-thirds of the way across.  This he labeled kidnapping.  A short distance more to the right he placed another dot and labeled it with the words, 'Jim informs Jake'.
    "Let's assume for the moment the kidnapping took place as I described.  Up until this point, where the kidnapping took place, none of us had any knowledge there was a plan to make the attempt.  Afterwards, Jim and several agents knew, and at this point, marked by this dot, I became aware when Jim called."
    "According to you, you then Back-Tracked a few days and called us," Jim said.
    "After you gathered some preliminary information to aid our planning," Jake agreed.  "That would put me here, and at this point, now a couple of days before the attack, where the three of us were aware what was going to happen."
    "But it didn't," Susan protested.
    "Actually, it did," Jake corrected her.  "We went through the routine to capture the perpetrators, and while neither you nor Jim recall, you caught four individuals who made the attempt.  Jim later transmitted their pictures to me in California."
    Jake could tell that Jim wanted to protest, but he cut him off saying, "Hear me out."
    "Okay," Susan said. "Then what do you think happened?"
    "Then, just by chance because I had something to do for Karin, I Back-Tracked again, a full six weeks, and that's what made all of this interesting.  When I relived those weeks, and came back to the time I informed you about the attempted kidnapping that was about to happen, we did the same planning, except when the day came, there were no kidnappers.  That's what you and Jim recall."
    "So what happened?" Jim asked.
    "I wasn't the only one who Back-Tracked.  Suppose someone who was involved in the attempt, realized that they had been discovered and the people caught, so he Back-Tracked far enough to call off the attempt.  Say to a point here," and Jake drew another mark on the line with a loop from after the attempt to several days before.  He also added a point far to the left to show where he had gone with his loop to help Karin's problem.
    "Now what happens?" Jake asked.  "This time as I travel through the days, I still retain my memories of what happened, but when we get to the point where the kidnapping is to take place, nothing happens.  That's because the bad guys are aware they would be caught, and no longer make the attempt.  To you and Jim, this is the only time these events have taken place, and it seems like my prediction is false.  I know otherwise, because I looped back far enough to retain my memories of the original events.  Had I not made that special trip for Karin, I would have been caught just like both of you."
    Jim stared at the drawing and used his finger to trace the various loops as he worked out the sequence in his mind.
    "So what about the snipers?" Jim asked finally.
    "More of the same," Jake replied.  "When the kidnapping failed, they must have thought that somehow you caught wind of their plan.  They would be concerned and confused about how, and have taken time to ensure any leaks were dealt with.  Then they decided to take a different tack.  They would simply forgo the kidnapping and eliminate Susan."
    "Which you said succeeded."
    "That's right," Jake agreed.  "Once again you called me, and once I had the relevant information, I traveled back and brought it to you, although this time I came to Washington with the information.  We set up