Never Love A Stranger Part 35

cut off. Gar led the way through the opening.

Inside there was a lot of alien-looking machinery, as well as what looked like another elevator. Annie vaguely recognized the room from her first trip through time, although she had been so panicked that most of that experience was a blur in her mind.

"Take off your clothes, both of you," James said, and Annie noticed once again how commanding he seemed. "The less ma.s.s we try to send through, the better." "I weigh a lot less than you do," Annie pointed out. "If it'll send you and Gar through, it should send me through with my clothes on."

"Even so, the less ma.s.s we try to send through, the more likely the temporal displacement is to be successful. Humor me, Annie. I promise you will not wind up standing nude in public somewhere."

"You're just trying to get me naked," she accused.

James flashed his most disarming grin. "You haven't seemed to have had a problem with that in the past."

"Hmmph." A little self-conscious, Annie turned her back to Gar and began to strip. Behind her, Gar said, "James, what about my gun'" "We will have to leave it behind," James said. "Hopefully it will not be necessary in the past, anyway." His fingers ran over what appeared to be an enormously complicated keyboard, with symbols rather than letters. Annie a.s.sumed he was setting coordinates. At last he nodded. "Annie, step into the TDM." Annie frowned at him. "I thought this whole room was the TDM." "The actual time distortion occurs there." James pointed to the elevator door. "Go through there and wait." Annie hesitated. "You haven't taken your clothes off. Aren't you coming'" "We are all going through one at a time," James said. "You, then Gar, and finally me. The module will not handle all our ma.s.s at one time." "It handled our ma.s.s at one time when we came here." "It requires less power to return bodies to their normal place in time, so the TDM expended relatively little energy in moving Gar, Dekka and me through time. And the TDM is a set coordinate in s.p.a.ce-time, so it is fairly easy to bring people to this era. But this is an entirely different situation, Annie. I have to send us all to the exact same time and place, three centuries distant. That level of precision requires a great deal of energy, and only one of us can go at once. Go on."

She hesitated, remembering his inexplicable melancholy. Remembering his joy at seeing his people again.

"Annie," he said, gently. "Trust me."

She paused a second longer, then nodded. But before she could step into the open elevator, there was

the sound of running feet. Gar leaned down quickly, retrieved his abandoned gun, and held it trained on the door.

Two people, a man and a woman, appeared, both clad in the black uniform of the Bureau. They hesitated at the sight of Gar and his gun, and both of their hands reflexively moved toward their own side arms.

"Hands up," Gar said.

Sheepishly, they both lifted their hands.

"Into the TDM, Annie," James said.

"But you and Gar'"

"We will get through," Gar said. "Don't worry."

Annie hesitated, her eyes moving from the black-clad Bureau agents to James. "Annie," James said. "Hurry."

Annie squared her shoulders and stepped into the open elevator, relieved that at least she didn't have to step into that stomach-churning nothingness. The walls and floor were plain, silvery metal, just as she remembered. In fact the TDM looked much like a nice, normal elevator. The door slid shut behind her, precisely like an elevator, and disappeared.

And the rea.s.suring thought that the TDM was a nice, normal elevator was immediately dispelled.

She had been through time once before, and she suddenly remembered that she hadn't liked it, not in the least. She couldn't have described the awful, stomach-twisting experience of traveling through time. It was like traveling through a spatial distortion, but multiplied. She had the horrible sensation of turning inside out, upside down, and sideways all at once. Her eyes wouldn't focus, her ears couldn't hear, and she couldn't feel anything. It was as if her brain was somehow disconnected from her body.

The elevator walls seemed to disappear from around her, leaving her utterly alone in a vast empty nothingness.

And then suddenly she fell onto a hard surface, and she was able to feel again. She knew this because her head hit the hard surface with a heavy thunk and pain radiated through her skull.

She scrambled to her feet, seeing that she was in her own kitchen.

She backed away from where she'd'landed''concerned that if Gar and James made it through, they might materialize precisely where she had. Not being a physicist, she wasn't sure what would happen if two people tried to materialize in the exact same s.p.a.ce, but she had a feeling it wouldn't be pretty. She pressed back against her refrigerator and waited.

In a moment there was a blinding flash of light, and Gar appeared. He seemed to materialize in midair and hover, then fell to the floor with a thump. It reminded her of those old cartoons where the Coyote ran off the side of the cliff and hung there for a while before he realized he was going to fall.

Gar grunted as he hit her tile floor, and she ran over to help him to his feet. He got up, and she did her best to ignore the fact that he was as naked as she was. A vague corner of her mind, however, noticed the rest of him was as good-looking as his face, and she wondered if Kay might be interested.

Great. Ten seconds back in my own time and I'm matchmaking.

"Over here," she said, and dragged him toward the fridge.

They waited tensely. Long moments drew out, and nothing happened. Annie felt a cold, icy tension coil in her stomach.

At last she said softly, "Gar. What happened to James'"

Gar shook his head. "I'm not certain, Annie. He might have been intercepted by the Bureau, although he incapacitated the two we captured."

"Incapacitated'" Annie swallowed. "Do you mean he killed them'"

"James wouldn't kill someone unnecessarily. You know that. He struck them on the head, rather gently,

and knocked them unconscious."

Annie remembered the way he'd put his fist through a metal wall. He could easily kill with his bare hands, but she knew he would avoid it wherever possible. "So they might have captured him'"

"It's possible, although I left my gun with him so he could defend himself. Or the TDM might have failed.

As far as I know, it's never been used exactly this way three times in a matter of moments before. It draws ma.s.sive quant.i.ties of power. Perhaps there was a power failure."

"Or maybe he never planned to come through at all," Annie said quietly.

Gar turned his head and glared at her. "Don't be ridiculous, Annie."

"Am I being ridiculous'" she asked. "Maybe he should be with his people, Gar. Maybe he belongs with them instead of me."

"Maybe you should stop feeling sorry for yourself," Gar retorted. "He doesn't want to be with them, Annie. He's in love with you."

She remembered his deep, rumbling voice. I love you, Annie. I cannot imagine a life without you. Gar was right. James loved her. She believed that with every cell in her body. She had to believe, or she'd go mad.

"I guess you're right," she said. "But something has been bothering him all day, Gar. The way he'" The way he made love to me as if he might never see me again. "The way he acted," she said instead. "It was almost like he was ' afraid."

"Afraid to go through the TDM' That doesn't make any sense. He's been through it before. And he knows how it works, better than most humans do." "No. It was more like he was afraid we were ' running out of time. So to speak."

I want this to last, Annie. I want it to last forever.

She remembered the terrible despair in his voice and suddenly she was very, very frightened.

"I don't think he's coming," she said, softly. "I'm not sure why, but I think'"

There was a sudden flare of light and a roaring sound, and James appeared. Unlike Gar, he didn't seem to hover in the air. He was flung hard through the air, slamming into the lower cabinets of her kitchen, then falling limply to the floor.

The light didn't blink out, as it had when Gar had arrived. It got brighter and brighter, and the roaring sound grew louder, until Annie and Gar cringed involuntarily, their eyes screwed shut and their hands clapped over their ears. It was like being near a supernova, although she was pretty sure supernovas didn't ordinarily occur in suburban kitchens.

And then suddenly, there was silence.

Annie cautiously opened her eyes and discovered that the horrible light was gone. She half expected to see burn marks scarring her kitchen floor, but there was nothing to show the brilliant light had ever been there, nothing except a residual purple spot dancing in her vision.

Gar had already turned toward James, and she heard his shocked gasp. She spun around.

"Annie," he said, kneeling besides James, so that her view was blocked. "Stay away. You don't want to see this."

Ignoring his words, she set her jaw and walked toward them. Gar stood up and grasped her arm, trying to push her away. "Annie'"

"Get out of my way!" she snapped, and wrenched her arm free. Dodging around him, she fell to her knees beside James.

And screamed.

Chapter 29.

Most of James' abdomen was missing. He hadn't been simply peeled open, as he had been in the future'his skin and muscles and internal organs had been blasted away. She could see the bent and broken ends of his lower ribs, and the tattered remnants of a few internal organs, oozing a clear fluid. It looked as if he'd been caught in an explosion.

An explosion. She remembered the horrible light and noise and realized that must have been what had happened'the TDM had exploded while James was still traveling in time. He was lucky he'd reached his destination at all.

Although lucky wasn't really the word for it, she thought, looking at his mangled, devastated body, swallowing hard to prevent herself from gagging. Tears started to stream down her face, and Gar put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Annie," he said in a rough voice. "I'm so sorry."

She ignored him. "James," she said desperately, grasping the hand that lay limply on the floor. "James."

To her immense shock, he stirred, and his eyes opened. He turned his head, slowly and painfully, and

gazed at her. His vivid blue eyes looked vague and unfocused, but she saw a glimmer of recognition.

There was still awareness there. "Annie," he rasped out hoa.r.s.ely. The word didn't sound like his voice at all. It sounded mechanical and harsh, and yet she sobbed with relief.

He knew who she was. Maybe there was still hope for him. "Gar," she said, hearing her voice quaver. "We need to call an ambulance." "No, Annie. There is nothing one of your doctors can do for him." "Maybe some scientist somewhere can help him. Call 911." "Annie," Gar said, a little more forcefully. He sounded sorrowful but resigned. "No current technology can save him."

Annie glanced at James' ruined abdomen and hastily looked away. Intellectually, she knew Gar was right, but her heart and soul screamed a denial. There had to be something she could do to help James.

She'd known better than to fall in love with a stranger, but she'd tumbled head over heels for him

anyway, and now she was paying the price. But she knew she couldn't have stopped herself from falling for him, even if she'd wanted to.

And now she wasn't sure she could live without him.

"Gar ' is right," James said in that same mechanical voice. "I knew I would not survive, Annie."

She stared at him, remembering the terrible despair in his voice earlier. "You knew," she said softly. "But how did you know' How did you know the TDM would malfunction, James'"

"It did not ' malfunction." He gave her a faint shadow of his old grin. "I blew it up." Abruptly she remembered seeing him lying there in the humanoids' infirmary, the skin and muscles peeled away from his abdomen. "You and Charles planned this," she accused. "He wasn't downloading information at all, was he' He was ' wiring you." "We thought ' the future was as good as could be hoped for," James said. She could see the effort it took him to form words. "It was evident that as long as the TDM ' existed, people would continue to attempt to alter the past. We thought it best to ' put a stop to it." He had sacrificed himself to save his people. To save the future. She didn't want his sacrifice to be in vain. "But won't the humans just build a new one'" "Very few people know how the TDM works," Gar said grimly. "I suppose the humanoids intend to wipe the World Net of the information, and a.s.sa.s.sinate those few humans that do know. Is that right, James'"

James' eyes seemed to focus on Gar for a moment. "I am ' sorry, Gar." Annie swallowed, realizing that Gar's mother would be one of the ones targeted. She hadn't liked the woman at all, especially knowing what she'd done to James, but she still didn't like the idea of people being killed because of their knowledge.

"That can't be an easy task," she said. "The information must be all over the Internet. I mean, the World Net. Didn't your mother publish articles about her work in scientific journals, or anything like that'" "Actually, the Bureau kept the TDM project under wraps from the moment they found out about it, because they recognized the potential for damage," Gar said. "Very little information is publicly available. If the humanoids wipe the Bureau's records, that will take care of most of the data."

"Don't you people use backup disks'"

"Yes, and they are stored in several remote locations. It won't be easy for the humanoids to destroy

them all." "It is ' a chance," James rasped. "A gamble. It is not a certainty ' that they will succeed." "You sacrificed yourself for a chance'" Annie asked. "It was the ' only chance they had." Gar nodded slowly. "He's right, Annie. If the TDM remained operational, history would very like change again at some point. This way, if the humanoids are successful, everything will remain the way it