The Time Travel Chronicles by Robert J. Sawyer, Stefan Bolz, Ann Christy, Samuel Peralta, Rysa Walker, Lucas Bale, Anthony Vicino, Ernie Lindsey, Carol Davis, Tracy Banghart, Michael Holden, Daniel Arthur Smith, Ernie Luis, Erik Wecks Read Free Book Online Page A

myself and what I hadn’t. I should have seen it coming. I should have done more.
    “Now,” Crask continued, “per my contract with Abigail, her body is now the property of Crask Incorporated.”
    “You’re out of your mind if you think we’re giving her to you.”
    “It goes without saying that he’s out of his mind,” Maddix said, searching the room alongside Zoe for some means of escape.
    Crask ignored Maddix and said, “Agent Kwon, I sealed your compartment well over a minute ago while you were preoccupied with Abigail. Blinking will do you no good.” A hidden wall panel slid back, revealing a trio of paralysis rings. “Now, please see yourselves over to the detainment bands, and we’ll see about getting you back to your ship in one piece.”
    “We’re not gonna do that.” Maddix stepped away from the wall. “Right?”
    “Nope,” Zoe agreed. “Definitely not.”
    “Then I’ll vent the room of oxygen, wait until you pass out, and then my men will detain you,” Crask said. “But understand, I’ve lost a dozen good followers on account of this farewell meeting. That was the price of doing business. I hold no ill will towards any of you. I’m prepared to let you leave, unharmed, if onl—”
    “I’m not giving you Abigail.”
    “She is not yours to give. You have no bargaining power here. You are trespassing on my property, you live at my discretion. For the sake of what remains of your team, do the smart thing and make this easy on yourselves.”
    “Abi is still a part of my team.”
    Crask’s laugh came high and tinny through the speakers. “Abigail is gone. You owe h—”
    “Is anybody else tired of listening to this guy?” Zoe asked, removing a silver cylinder from her bandolier. Maddix raised his hand.
    “I wouldn’t recomm—” Crask began to say.
    “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Resistance is futile. We’ve heard it before.” Zoe thumbed the thermobaric grenade and tossed it at the downward slanting window with the stellar view of Hong Kong, and then she tackled me into the bathroom.
    Maddix blitzed over to Abigail, picked her up, and dove for the tachyon bath chamber.
    The explosion was deafening. My eardrums popped from the violent shift in pressure. I covered my head; it didn’t help. It felt as though somebody were jamming knitting needles through my ear canal and stirring my brain.
    Somebody shook me. I opened my eyes and Zoe slapped me, which did nothing for the ache in my skull, but did snap me back to a semblance of coherency. She yanked me to my feet and dragged me to the jagged hole ripped in Haven’s hull. Maddix appeared on my right, carrying Abigail over his shoulder.
    Colby’s hover-jet came screaming towards Haven. Its engines at a high-pitched squeal.
    “Did you call him?” I asked Zoe, but the words must have come out wrong because she didn’t reply.
    The jet angled its strafing run to pass within a few feet of us, its cargo bay door open wide. And then its roaring engines came to a shuddering stop along with its forward momentum. Red tracer fire from Haven’s anti-air cannons froze in mid-air behind the jet. The chaos of the moment settled.
    Beside me, Zoe’s pupils were white, her face strained. She held my hand and Maddix’s, pulling us both into her pause.
    The exposure couldn’t touch me. I had no room in my broken heart for fear of falling. Free for the moment from the constraints of time, the three of us leapt for the hover-jet.
     
     
    Chapter Fifteen
     
    NOW
     
     
    Abigail knelt on the multi-colored carpet beside Matilda, stacking blocks.
    “I never did tell you why Mati went back,” I said, watching the two carry on with no concern for me. “Same reason we all eventually go back. You can’t escape the memories. It’s the toll blinking takes on us. Of living with one foot in the future and the other in the past.”
    Abi had figured that one out on her own.
    “All those moments rewritten become a part of you, forever and for always.” I fiddled