Reversion (The Narrows of Time Series Book 3) by Jay J. Falconer Read Free Book Online

chances Caroline had waited for him after all these years? Slim and none, he told himself. She probably moved on with her life and married someone else, forgetting his worthless ass a long time ago. The question burned in his soul, fueling his desire to push his research further and his staff harder.
    Nothing was off limits now. He needed to get his crew and their technology off this planet and out of this universe—back to where they belonged, before it was too late.
    The world of the global Internet and networked smart devices meant instant information flow—something that couldn’t be controlled, quantified, or anticipated. Everything was happening at the speed of light, making it increasingly more difficult to keep his secrets from the public and the government. He knew time was running out; eventually, someone would discover their presence on Earth and seek to control their advanced technology. His network of underground silos were built and operational but were sitting ducks, just waiting to be discovered by some curious blogger who was simply following the money flow. If that happened, they’d never get home.
    He’d been planning every detail of their exodus since his crew’s splash-landing on Earth in the sixties, but now all the hard work and covert actions came down to a single experiment. Success hinged on Lucas’s antigravity experiment, meaning the results of tonight’s E-121 power test had to be different, otherwise, there was a good chance he’d have to kiss his family reunion goodbye.
    His plan to keep Lucas and Drew in the dark was a gamble, but he didn’t have a choice. If they knew the real truth, they wouldn’t understand, nor would they continue to help him. The Ramsay brothers would feel betrayed and mislead, and he wouldn’t blame them. But he couldn’t risk the chance of another information leak, not with the lives and future of his entire crew at stake. Well, everyone except Eugene, who’d gone off to join Hollywood shortly after they’d first arrived on Earth.
    When Gene quit the team, he carried with him a faith and conviction to change the world with his vision of the future. Gene wasn’t a supporter of Kleezebee’s plan to get everyone home, and the professor wasn’t a fan of Gene’s planned TV series. Regardless, they still had mutual admiration for each other, not that either of them would ever admit it. Their collective pride and stubbornness wouldn’t allow it. In the end, they were two men with different visions of the future.
    The professor hadn’t talked with Gene since the late sixties. Not since their heated argument over one of the Season 2 Star Trek episodes his friend had written and aired. Gene had made a pact with him before he left to not divulge any of their secrets. Yet that’s exactly what happened, ending their relationship.
    When Gene died in October of 1991, Kleezebee decided to attend the funeral but stayed in the shadows. He mourned his friend’s passing with a heavy heart, but the loss wasn’t as difficult to bear as the thought of never getting the rest of his shipmates home to their families.
    Even if the professor’s plan was ultimately successful, he wasn’t sure if he’d come clean with his young protégés. Telling them he was a former starship captain from the future and from another universe wasn’t going to be an easy discussion. Neither was telling them he’d been marooned on Earth with his crew of loyal shipmates and suite of advanced technology. The truth would certainly break Drew’s heart and probably Lucas’, too.
    The door to his office opened; in walked his longtime security friend, Bruno Benner, carrying a priority message envelope.
    “Hey, boss, you got a second?”
    “Sure,” Kleezebee said, closing the research folder on his desk. He sat back in the chair, expecting the rotund man to start off by cracking one of his silly jokes. But he didn’t. Bruno’s face was serious and stiff.
    “Hector, our man inside the