Newly arrived time travelers get their bearings in “Time Agents: Complications”

“Time Agents: Complications” won the 2024 Colorado Authors League award for Thriller.

Prologue

“Cory, I don’t like the look of this one. We could go up like Dorothy.”

Cory looked at the swirling clouds not too far in front of them as he leaned over the steering wheel. “I know, Ash, but I don’t think we have a choice. We barely made it through that last blockade, and we’re down to our last few bucks. If there’s any lightning at all, we’ve got to head into it.”

He leaned back and blew out a breath, running a hand through his greasy dark hair. He’d done a lot of crazy, adrenaline-inducing things with his former girlfriend before she’d died in a motorcycle crash, but even Rachel would have balked at driving into the path of a tornado. A flicker of light in the clouds caught his eye. “Did you see that?”

“Yeah,” Ashley breathed out, barely above a whisper.

Cory reached for her hand. Neither of them could have guessed their lives would take this turn, but everyone who had witnessed the debacle at Trace Research was being hunted down. If not for the vial of VX10 Jewel had given Jeff, they wouldn’t stand a chance. With it, they would be jumping into a complete unknown. After much deliberation, they had chosen the future. Three hundred years in the future to be precise—a date Jewel had slipped into his pocket without him knowing.

At least they hoped they simply wouldn’t get fried to a crisp.

Jeff had snooped around the Trace lab just long enough to determine a dose for the vaccine, and they did all develop a lightning mark, but hell, it was anyone’s guess if it would really work. Not long ago he would have laughed till he hurt at the notion of jumping through time on a lightning bolt. Now he was banking on it. They’d gotten separated from Jeff two days ago, and Cory hoped he’d made it back to Nellie in 1908.

Lightning split the sky, and Ashley jumped. Cory squeezed her hand and pulled off to the side of the Oklahoma backcountry road just as rain started to sputter. “I think we need to get out. We don’t know if your car will come with us, and we have no idea where we’ll land.” He gave her a lop-sided smile as he put it in park. “We don’t want to squish somebody.”

She nodded and hooked her blond hair behind an ear, but Cory could see she was coming unglued. He didn’t blame her. They hadn’t had more than a few hours of sleep in several days, and reasonable people didn’t try to get hit by lightning.

He turned off the ignition but didn’t bother taking out the key. After getting out, he grabbed their oversized duffle bag out of the back seat and slung it over his shoulder. It was large for a bag, but small when you considered it was all he and Ashley had to take with them on this next trip into who-knows-what.

Ashley’s door opened, and he jogged around to help her out. He wanted to have a good hold on her when it happened. She shivered as she stepped out, pulling her hood up over her head. They both had jackets on, but it was nearing October, and the storm had cooled things down considerably. The rain wasn’t helping either. He slid an arm around her, and they began walking toward the heart of the storm. If it started to pour, at least he’d get that shower he’d been needing for days.

Raindrops splattered Ashley’s face as she looked up at the thunderclouds illuminated by the setting sun. “I’m glad that spinning cloud has gone over.”

“Yeah, thank God for that.”

A sizzling bolt had them both pulling up short, sucking in a breath, but since they didn’t appear to have been hit, Cory exhaled and urged Ashley forward again. Her sudden sobs had him stopping once more and wrapping her in his arms. “Ash, I know you’re scared, but this truly is the only way out for us. And I promise, I will not let go. No matter what happens. Either we’ll die together or jump together.” He pulled back just enough to lift her chin. “The last month with you has been everything I needed after Rachel,” —he gave her a smile— “so I could die happy right now, but I’m counting on a future with you.” He was hoping to distract her as the rain came harder—keeping her eyes off the clouds. “Say the date.”

She held his gaze and swallowed. “2325.”

He felt a tingle run up his spine, and he put his lips on hers, his heart galloping. The bolt that found them felt as if it were turning him inside out with blinding intensity, but there wasn’t any pain.

Then the glaring light focused into a pinpoint and disappeared, leaving only black.

Chapter One

“I’m really struggling with this, Cory. ‘Regulated history’? Come on!” Ashley forked off a bite of her sticky chocolate cake. She’d gotten very attached to the rich dessert since they’d found their way to Stockholm and the Time Agent Academy.

Cory nodded as he set down his cup of coffee. “I know; It feels wrong. But the reasoning makes sense. The temptation to change things is just too great.”

Ashley leaned in and lowered her voice. “But what keeps agents from just jumping back to a time when history wasn’t under lock and key and read about it then?”

“That pledge we’re supposed to recite on graduation day. We jump back to do the job we’re given to do and nothing more.”

She sat back, letting out an exasperated breath. He knew what she wanted to know. He did too. But if they were going to do this time agent thing, they had to abide by the rules. He reached across the small table to take her hand. “You need to stop worrying, Ash, and trust that your family lived out their lives with the typical ups and downs of American life, but were overall happy and healthy.”

She wouldn’t look at him as she scraped up the last of the gooey chocolate. “It’s… it’s just hard.”

Cory rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. It hadn’t been easy for him either, although he and Nonnie had probably never been as close as Ashley and her four sisters. “Maybe you should… I don’t know… talk to someone about it.”

She looked up then, blinking. “I talk to you all the time.”

He smirked. “Someone other than me. A professional.”

“A professional counselor?” she said with a good deal of sarcasm. “You mean like me?”

He raised a brow. “Come on, you know even professional counselors sometimes need to talk about their feelings to another professional. Just because you’re a counselor doesn’t mean—”

“I know.” She pulled her hand away and swept up her plate and mug to take to the cleaning station in the Academy cafeteria.

Cory quickly downed the last of his coffee and followed. Both of their chronometer’s beeped for an incoming message, and they each looked to their wrists. “No Time-Travel Ethics this afternoon.”

“I guess we’re done for the day then.”

Cory pushed a button on the wall, and a panel slid open. They set their dishes inside and heard the whoosh whoosh hum of this very modern dishwasher. Vaporizers zapped both food and germs, using no water at all. “So how about we get off campus and do something fun?” He was hoping he could take her mind off of what she’d lost for a bit.

“Like what? I suppose you want to go to that absolutely insane amusement park?”

Cory grinned. “That would be awesome, but no, you should pick. What would… make you happy?” Until it popped out of his mouth, he didn’t realize how much he missed the woman who had ridden four hours into the Colorado wilderness with him to find Jeff when he’d been kidnapped. The woman who had relished his kisses. The woman who smiled.

“I don’t know, Cory. I’m kinda tired.”

She headed toward the door, and Cory found himself suddenly annoyed. Spending the afternoon in their tiny apartment watching Ashley mope, or worse, sleep, was not what he needed. They’d been there several months now. It was time to put the past behind them and get on with living. He tried for an empathetic tone he didn’t feel at the moment as they moved out into the hallway. “You can’t grieve forever, Ash. You—”

She turned on him. “What do you know about grieving? You’ve never done it. You’ve never let yourself do it. You said yourself, you just went from woman to woman to forget Rachel. For your information, that’s not healthy, and it’s not really grieving. And now you want to do the same thing with your sister and your parents. Just move on in a rush of activity so you don’t have to think.” She turned and continued walking, oblivious to the people staring as they passed.

Cory hesitated a moment then strode forward, catching up with her, although he contained his rebuttal until they were in the lift alone, heading down. “You call what we’ve been doing ‘a rush of activity’? Aside from the Academy, we’ve practically been standing still.”

She swiped at the corners of her eyes, and Cory felt immediately guilty. “I’m sorry, Ash. I just—”

“This was a mistake.”

“What? Enrolling in the Academy?”

She wouldn’t look at him. “Leaving our time. We could have—”

“What? Where could we have gone that they wouldn’t have found us? Who could we have trusted?” When she didn’t answer, he turned her to look at him. “Ashley, this was the only option left to us.”

The lift doors opened to people waiting to get on, so he released her, and she went out ahead of him. He suspected “fun” was probably out for the afternoon. Ashley confirmed it. “If you need to get out and do something, I understand, but I’m just not in the mood.”

“Why don’t you go shopping?” he said cheerfully.

She stopped and looked at him, a crease forming between her brows. “Because shopping is the female equivalent of an amusement park, right?” She rolled her eyes. “Gees Slowenski, what a stereotype.” She shook her head. “I’m going home.”

He nodded, feeling pissed, but tried not to show it. “I’ll… see you later then.” He intended to give her a kiss, but she turned abruptly, heading in the direction that would take her to ‘The Tube,’ a kind of high-speed subway.

He stared after her a moment, his lips pursing in thought. He was trying very hard to hold onto their relationship, but Ashley wasn’t making it easy. Sometimes he thought she was only staying with him because she’d be completely lost in this time without him. She needs to find a purpose. Turning abruptly, he headed the other direction. He needed to use the john before venturing out. “And she won’t find purpose staying in bed all day,” he muttered, jamming his hands into his jacket pockets.

“Hmm,” a sexy voice purred at his elbow, “that depends on who you’re with, I think.”

Cory looked over to shining, green eyes. Feminine eyes. His own slid down her picture-perfect face to pause a moment on coral lips that matched her long, wavy hair. She looked younger than him, but not ridiculously so. Not that long ago, Cory would have pounced on a line like that, set up a date, and had this gorgeous set of curves in his bed by evening.

But that was before Ashley.

Ashley had turned the playboy he’d become after Rachel’s death into someone who only needed one woman. Her. But it had been a long couple of months with her wallowing in the past. He gave the woman a small smile. “That’s probably true.”

He continued down the hall, but she followed. “I’m Lynisa. Are you new to the program?”

“Cory. And yeah.” He knew when a woman was on the hunt. He’d been the hunter many times. “Really new.”

“Oh, well, I’m a second year,” she said brightly. “About to graduate. I’d be glad to help you with your studies.”

Cory spied the restroom sign, hoping to escape this vixen, then remembered that gender-specific restrooms seemed to be a thing of the past. He stopped, not wanting her to follow him in and stand there jabbering while he took a piss. “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.”

He took his hands out of his pockets, and she grabbed his wrist, pulling it and his chronometer toward her lips. “Begin recording. Lynisa Venus 2305GBDA.” She released him. “There. Now you’ve got my name and code.”

Cory couldn’t help but admire her chutzpah. And her name. “Thanks, Lynisa Venus. I’ll… I’ll call you if I need help.”

She gave him a dazzling smile and a lift of her brows as she continued down the hall. Pivoting, he disappeared into the curving hallway that led to the facilities. Thank God the future still believes in stalls.

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Type of Story: Review

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