The World Keys (The Syker Key Book 2) by Aaron Martin Fransen Read Free Book Online Page B

the last thing he did, he would make sure every single last damned one of them would die. Painfully, if he could manage it.
    ***
    John was laughing, and it annoyed Jessica.
    Sitting in their apartment, watching the video from the ISS of her in her space suit on the television, John clearly saw some humor in the situation that Jessica did not.
    He hugged her. “Honey, don’t worry about it. It’s probably going to end up working in our favor!”
    She was still beet red from embarrassment, she was sure. She could feel the hot flash on her face.
    He kissed her and looked her in the eyes. “Jessica, listen to me, I was right there with you and just as awestruck, so if it was me in the suit we would have been in the same situation.”
    He was right. He usually was, even though she hated to admit it and would certainly never tell him that. At least he never bragged about it.
    “So now what?” she asked. “I don’t think we can use the same trick on that other site.”
    When Jessica had told him about the southern version of HAARP running in Antarctica, he wasn’t surprised.
    “You’re right, it would be too obvious. Unfortunately it probably means we can’t touch it without attracting too much attention. At least one of them is gone, it could give us a fighting chance.”
    Still, Jessica was worried. The footage of her hanging out in space in a stolen space suit was going to attract the wrong kind of attention from the wrong kind of people.
    And she suspected she knew who, someone her father had just spent the last few days studying.
    ***
    Arthur returned home. Catherine was there alone, and he gave her a tired kiss. He was exhausted. She knew him pretty well, and had tea ready for him. The centuries had certainly not diminished the love he felt for his wife, and he smiled at her. She had long been the most comforting part of his life.
    “Thank you my angel,” he said, bringing the cup to his lips.
    “Any luck?”
    “Information overload, yes, luck? I don’t know. I certainly know a lot more about this organization, but I don’t know if any of it can help us just yet.”
    He decided he needed to discuss his findings with his old friend. Pan , he thought. I could use your help.
    A few seconds later Pan appeared in the living room, and he plopped down, exhausted himself. “Should we compare notes?” he said half sarcastically.
    Catherine got up and served Pan a tea as well, and he appeared grateful. “Catherine, my dear, you are an angel of mercy.”
    “Pan, these things I’m finding, they’re too neat, too perfect. I’m seeing conspiracy, coincidence, blind luck, things that would be too improbable to believe if I hadn’t found it myself.”
    Pan nodded, understanding. “There’s a very simple reason for that Arthur. What you’ve found are breadcrumbs left by whoever is in control. And those breadcrumbs are the fallout from time travel.”
    Arthur gave him a surprised look. He could feel his wife do the same thing as she sat down beside him. It was ridiculous on the face of it.
    “They’re using time travel as a means to manipulate the present, but they have a problem.”
    “What problem is that?” Arthur asked.
    Pan thought about his answer for a moment. “It’s almost like a case of wishful thinking. They can manipulate people and events that they feel serve their purpose. But their subjects have to be ignorant of the control system for it to work.”
    “So?”
    “We’re not ignorant of it, and frankly because we’ve all been touched by the Key in some way or another, we appear to be a little immune to it.”
    Catherine appeared to consider something. “But not just immune,” she added. “They can’t even see us, so to speak, isn’t that right? It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
    “Exactly, otherwise they would have dealt with us centuries ago and made sure we could not have gotten to where we are now.”
    “Exactly,” she said.
    “So what does that mean now?” Arthur