The Fabric of Time Page 14

  Luck was with her, it seemed. Emelia had missed one case. Her last one for the day required her to go into the lab, which was right next door to the autopsy wing. After looking at a few samples in the lab, she would jot down a few notes then “borrow” someone’s badge to slip into the next room to get the Doe samples. Gavin was still assigned to the Doe cases and he had a habit of leaving his ID badge at his station; it would be an easy transition.

  From the moment that she had walked through the door that morning, Emelia realized that rumors of the attack in her apartment had circulated rapidly through the FBI. Though it made her a bit uncomfortable, the rumors worked to Emelia’s advantage as she stepped into the crowded lab.

  No one knew how to approach her about the incident, most of her coworkers politely decided not to approach her at all. The fewer people that talked to her, the more time she would have to finish this last case and, hopefully, no one would notice her in the autopsy wing. Emelia made her way over to an empty station, avoiding all eye-contact, and sat down. She went about her work with ease, keeping an eye on Gavin.

  An hour passed and Emelia was nearly done with her notes when Gavin finally left for his lunch break. She waited for the door to close and wrapped up what she was doing, then sauntered down to his station.

  Emelia could see from several feet away that, just as she predicted, his ID badge was tossed carelessly to one side at his desk. After checking over her shoulder, Emelia scooped up Gavin’s badge mid-stride and kept walking until she reached the filing cabinets at the end of the row. She stopped for a few moments, pretending to look for information for her case, then exited the lab.

  At the door of autopsy wing, Emelia waved Gavin’s badge over the sensor and waited patiently for the light to blink green. She heard the lock click and pushed the door open, unintentionally taking in a deep breath of formaldehyde.

  The room was cold, as expected, and Emelia tried to blame her shaking hands on the frigid air rather than her nerves. With the task at hand, she didn’t have time to worry. She needed to be quick and efficient, there was no telling how long Emelia had before Gavin got back from lunch.

  Standing in front of the “Unidentified” section of bodies, Emelia opened the first cold chamber and rolled out the metal table. She hesitated with her hand over the covered figure for a moment before finally pulling the sheet back.

  When Emelia saw his face, her skin prickled. The figure under the sheet was a man that she had not seen before, with blonde hair and stocky build. Slowly, Emelia raised the man’s shoulder to peer at the back of his neck. There was nothing but fair skin and what looked like a bullet wound. She carefully laid the body back down and slid the table back into the shelf, moving to the next chamber.

  Emelia checked five more bodies after the first, three of which had tattoos and two who did not. From the tattooed bodies, Emelia gathered strands of hair. Because the corpses were drained of blood and dry of saliva, hair was all she had to work with. Emelia put each sample in a separate baggie and stuffed them into her pants’ pocket. With a satisfied smile, Emelia left the room as she had found it and started down the hallway.

  She was staring at her phone screen, about to give Aleph an update, when she bumped into a lanky shadow and looked up to see Gavin’s Star Wars tie.

  “Whoa, hey,” he said, his goofy grin fading when he saw her face. “You okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  Emelia gave a curt nod and cleared her throat. “Bad day . . .” she said, then held up his badge. “I’m glad I ran into you. I found this on the floor outside the restrooms down the hall.”

  “What the . . .” Gavin took it from her, shaking his head. “Thanks.”

  “Of course,” she replied, stepping past him before he said anything else.

  Even in her office, Emelia’s heart continued to pound. She sat in her chair and tried to calm herself down. After a moment, Emelia let out the breath that she had been holding and logged back into her computer.

  Emelia updated the last case with her lab findings then opened up a “new case” document.

  In order to get the genetic codes that she and Aleph needed; Emelia needed to send the strands of hair to DNA sequencing. To avoid suspicion, Emelia decided to create a fictional case that would require the lab technicians in the DNA analysis department to review her samples. The process normally took twenty-four to seventy-two hours, so Emelia requested that the results be sent to her email upon completion. Her FBI email would remain active for three days after she quit as the files and emails were saved in a storage system. Emelia would have to save that information as soon as it came in. In a matter of days, they would be one step closer to solving the mystery of the Minutemen; hopefully they would get that information before it was too late.

  18 Deadlines

  Back in her apartment, wrapped up in her comforter, Emelia stared at the ceiling and waited. She had arrived home from work around 8 p.m., her conversation with Jay running much later than expected. Though it ended well, Jay had a really hard time letting her go. He tried to convince her to try therapy or more time on leave, but Emelia reluctantly insisted on ending her career. Next to losing her loved ones, it was the hardest thing that Emelia had ever done. Though she knew it was silly, she felt as though she had lost a part of her identity by leaving the FBI behind.

  Lying in her bed, she worried about Aleph, Emelia hadn’t heard from him all day. Until the DNA results came back there wasn’t much either of them could do, but Doe missions aside she missed him. Text messages didn’t transcend time barriers, so as long as he was in 2131, she wouldn’t know what was going on. It was unusual for him to go an entire day without visiting her, but Emelia tried not to read into it. This much time travel had begun to wear on his body, so really it was better this way.

  Emelia got out of bed and waddled with her blanket into the kitchen. She opened the fridge only to be met with disappointment—it was practically empty. Emelia couldn’t remember the last time she went shopping. In the pantry she found a bag of popcorn and tossed it into the microwave, then plopped herself down on the couch.

  On the ottoman across the room, she was stunned to see two glasses of water with ice. For a moment her heart leapt, thinking that Aleph was in the apartment somewhere, but then Vane rounded the corner and her hopes sank.

  “It’s been a while,” he said. Emelia wanted to smack the smirk right off his face.

  “Vane, there isn’t anything I can do for you tonight.”

  “I don’t have time to waste—” he began, stopping short when she held up her hand.

  “I told you earlier today that I would cooperate,” Emelia said. “I can call a doctor in the morning and see about bone surgery. So please, leave me be.”

  Vane’s smirk faded into a scowl. He started to protest, and just then Emelia heard a scuffling noise in the bathroom. It was Aleph, she was almost sure of it. His timing could not be worse.

  Vane didn’t seem to notice the noise, but it distracted Emelia completely from what he had been saying. Without saying a word, she got up off the couch and headed down the hallway. Vane stared at her, confused, and stopped talking mid-sentence.

  “Where are you going?” he asked angrily.

  “To pee,” Emelia said, raising her eyebrows, “if you must know.”

  Vane looked like he wanted to rip his hair out. Emelia balled her hands into fists and kept walking. She had no idea how much longer she could stall before Vane sliced open her arm and took the bone sample himself.

  Slowly, Emelia pushed open the bathroom door and stepped inside. There, as she predicted, was Aleph. He was sitting on the edge of the bathtub with his hands buried in his hair, his breathing ragged. His eyes were bloodshot, and she wondered if he had slept at all since their last meeting.

  “Aleph, are you okay?” she whispered. Aleph could only nod, trying to catch his breath. “Vane is here,” Emelia mouthed, “just stay here and I’ll get rid of him as soon as I can.”

  He no
dded and mumbled something that sounded like, “Thank you.”

  To keep up the ruse, Emelia flushed the toilet and washed her hands. Vane was not on the couch when she came out to the living room. He was pacing back and forth, his hands deep in his pockets.

  “Look, Emelia, I am done playing games,” he said. His demeanor was calm, but the look in his eyes was terrifying. “You have two days to get me that bone sample. Two days. Then, doctor or no doctor, I will get what I came for.”

  Emelia opened her mouth to respond, but Vane had already disappeared into his own time.

  Aleph, who must have heard Vane go, came to stand behind her, resting his arm on her shoulder.

  “You okay?” he asked, his voice weak.

  She nodded and turned to him. “Are you okay?”

  “I’ve been better,” he admitted with a half-hearted chuckle. Emelia walked him back to the bedroom and they sat down on the bed. He leaned into her, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist. He closed his eyes and Emelia ran her fingers softly through his hair.

  “Where have you been?” she asked.

  Aleph sat up and pulled away slightly, shaking his head like a dog to wake himself up. He took a deep breath then let it out in an exaggerated sigh. “Things aren’t going well in 2131.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Well, it’s a bit too complicated of a mess to explain to you right now. The most important thing for you to know is that Artemis is continuously in more danger each day. The people who are hunting her are close to making the connection—too close.”

  Emelia clenched her teeth. If anything were to happen to Artemis now, it would be Emelia’s fault. It was her decision to wait and try to stop the predicted massacre, so if they failed or if they arrived to 2131 too late, there would be no one else to blame. Aleph squeezed Emelia’s hand and she turned to look him in the eyes.

  “We still have time,” he said. “How did it go today? Did you get those samples?”

  Emelia smiled and nodded. “It’ll take a day or two for the results to come back, but I got my hands on the DNA of three of the latest Does.”

  “That’s good . . . but it doesn’t give us much time for planning,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

  “I know,” Emelia picked at her cuticles anxiously. “Did you find anything from your time about the massacre?”

  “I did indeed,” he said, reaching into his pocket with a confident smile. From his pocket, he pulled out a small gold box the small notepad inside. “Like I said, there isn’t much information on the massacre of 2018 nor how Thicke rose to power. It’s all pretty muddled. However, I did manage to dig a up a few things.” He flipped the tiny notepad open and handed it to her.

  “The Wizard?” she asked, as it was the first bullet point on the list. “You mean the machine from work? The one that never finished uploading my DNA?”

  “Yes ma’am. That’s the one.”

  “What does The Wizard have to do with the massacre?”

  “That’s where things get tricky. I don’t know. However, there is definitely a connection between the arrival of those machines to government buildings and the timing of the massacre.” Emelia nodded then referred back to the notepad.

  “FBI?” she said curiously.

  “That was more of a note to myself than anything else. Look at the next three points,” he said, pointing with his fingers.

  They were names, but not of anyone that Emelia knew. Emelia looked back up at Aleph.

  He continued, “Those names are from your time and are consistent in almost every account of the massacre.” Aleph shifted to face her and started talking with his hands. “Here is what I am thinking. You go back to the FBI tomorrow. There, you and I can use the database to do a little research about these people. We’ll look into their records, their jobs, their lives, and hopefully we’ll find something to go on. You are the smartest person that I know, and if anyone can connect the dots, it’s you, darling.”

  Emelia swallowed and hesitantly nodded. “That’s sweet Aleph, but it would have been nice to know before I quit my job earlier today,” she said, trying not to sound bitter.

  “Oh . . . right. I know. I’m sorry.” He gently took the notepad from her and tucked it back into the box. “How did that go by the way? I didn’t even ask you . . .”

  Emelia let out sigh. “It went fine. It needed to be done and Jay let me go without too much protest, that’s what is important.”

  “Hey, I know how important that job was to you.” Aleph leaned in and took her hand in his. “It’s okay for you to feel sad. Your whole life is here and you are choosing to leave it all behind. I don’t know if I could do it if I were you.”

  He gave her hand a squeeze and Emelia brushed his fingers lightly with her thumb.

  After sitting for a few moments in silence, she spoke. “I guess it’s a blessing that I don’t have very many things here to miss. Just my job really.” Emelia paused to think for a second then added, “And my grandfather,” with a guilty frown. In the midst of all the craziness, she had forgotten about him until now.

  “Have you spoken to him since . . . well, since everything?” Aleph asked.

  “No. Not that it makes a difference really.” Talking about her grandfather always made her heart hurt. “He’s . . . stuck in another time.” Aleph cocked his head and Emelia smiled. “Figuratively, of course,” she clarified. “He’s here, but his mind is somewhere else. He probably won’t even notice that I’m gone, but I’d still like to say goodbye to him.”

  “Of course.” Aleph nodded understandingly. “Should we go right now?”

  “No. The assisted living facility is closed to visitors this late. I’ll go in the morning.”

  “Okay.”

  Emelia gestured for Aleph to get off of the bed and he stood. She pulled back the covers and climbed inside, inviting him to lay beside her. He accepted the invitation and drew her in close. Five minutes passed and Aleph was almost asleep.

  Emelia spoke again, “Do you think we have a chance?” she pulled his arms tighter around her. “To stop the massacre I mean. Do we have a chance? Or is this entire plan ridiculous?”

  “The entire plan is ridiculous,” Aleph said, smiling, “but it’s also admirable. Things like this are why so many people of the future choose to follow you. You take risks, but your heart is always in the right place.” He kissed the top of her head. “So, to answer your question, yes. We definitely have a chance.”

  Emelia smiled and closed her eyes. She hoped that Aleph was right.

  19 Goodbyes and Gunfire

  Driving home from the assisted living facility the next morning, Emelia tried to breathe normally. Though she had made up her mind days ago to leave with Aleph, saying goodbye to her grandfather had made the idea feel much more real. Her grandfather was the only person that Emelia had left in this time, and now that she had let him go, there was nothing else to hold her in 2018. Once she and Aleph got the results back for the Minutemen DNA and did what they could to stop the massacre, Emelia’s life would start over in 2131.

  With a million thoughts running through her brain, Emelia tightened her grip on the steering wheel and turned into the parking garage. She stepped out of the car with her single bag of groceries and started climbing the stairs toward her apartment.

  As Emelia ascended, she thought about the conversation that she had had with her grandfather that morning. “Conversation” was a rather generous word, as Emelia had done all the talking, but at least he had acknowledged her presence this time. She had told her grandfather everything, from meeting Aleph at Plume to their current plans to stop the massacre. One benefit of her grandfather’s condition was that he was a very good listener, and today Emelia found her time with him to be very therapeutic. Best of all, upon leaving, he returned Emelia’s hug for the first time in five years. She was surprised to realize just how much she was going to miss him.

  In her apartment, Emelia dropped her purse on the counter
and pulled out her phone. She had one missed call from an unknown number and one notification for an unread email from the FBI. Emelia’s heart leapt in her chest. The DNA results were in.

  She hastily opened the email and scrolled to the bottom, clicked on the attachment, and waited impatiently for it to load. As predicted, the attachment opened to reveal the DNA analysis for all three Doe samples. Emelia grinned from ear to ear. Without hesitation, she connected her phone to her printer and printed off a hard copy for Aleph to take with him to the future. With the DNA analysis papers in hand, she took a seat on the couch and turned on the TV.

  “Channel 5 News” blinked onto the screen and Emelia immediately regretted her decision. Emelia had known that over the last two weeks terrorist attacks and civil unrest had increased throughout the country. That said, she never could have imagined the scenes that were playing out before her now. Los Angeles was up in flames and had been for two days; the fire was an obvious arson attack, but there were no suspects. Miami had been bombed that morning. Almost every bank in Dallas had been robbed. And the Boston streets were filled with rioters. Though the images made her sick, Emelia had trouble pulling her eyes away from the screen. Even if they managed to minimize the damage of the upcoming massacre, the country would soon be in shambles.

  Finally, the program went to commercial and Emelia shut off the television. Shockingly, the distant sounds of gunfire and helicopters did not cease when the screen went black. For a moment she sat back on the couch, disoriented, then turned to the window. Smoke filled the sky and the sound of screeching brakes peeled through the air. It was as if the chaos from the news had spilled from her flat screen into the streets of D.C.

  Seconds later, a knock came at the front door and Emelia’s stomach jumped to her throat. Armed with a large kitchen knife, she tiptoed toward the door and peered through the peephole. On the other side of the door, she discovered a beat-up Aleph. He was holding his right shoulder, his left hand covered in blood. Emelia immediately yanked the door open and pulled him inside, double locking the door behind him. With the door closed, Aleph slid to the ground with his back against the wall and his eyes fluttered shut. Emelia pulled his hand away and discovered several pieces of shrapnel buried in his shoulder. His pulse was constant, so he had probably only fainted from the loss of blood.