Time Traitors by Eli Donovan

Author:Eli Donovan [Eli Donovan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Eli Donovan
Published: 2023-01-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

GRACE

More loud pops. From outside, I think. Muted. They sound like firecrackers. But Nakamura's right; they are gunshots. Someone is attacking the lab.

I twist my arms, and he lets me go. My hands are shaking. Gunshots. I understand what he's saying, but for that first crucial moment, I'm frozen and can't decide what to do.

Run, fight, hide. The words burst in my brain, and I snap my head around looking for a weapon. My first year as a grad student instructor, I had to take "active shooter" training. In case someone ever came into the classroom with a gun, I needed to know what to do. But "run, fight, hide" were options for the real world, for the future. I'm in 73 million BC. There's no back up coming to rescue me even if I can run or fight or hide.

"Can you repair the time tubes?" I whisper.

"I'll have to try, won't I?" He cracks the lab door open. Looks out. Hallway's clear, apparently, because he motions me to follow. We slither into the hallway and run in a serpentine pattern down the hall—another legacy of my active shooter training: you're harder to hit if you zigzag.

"Hey!"

Two people with long guns step into the hallway. Nakamura grabs my arm and shoves me ahead of him. I maintain the serpentine zigzag run, and a bullet pings off the wall across from me. Another ricochets off the floor by my feet.

The lights in the building cut out. It's not too dark to see, but apparently it's dark enough to screw the poachers' aim because we make it through the hallway unscathed. Instead, we hear running feet behind us.

I hit the time room door and fumble with it, pushing the door open so hard I jar my arms. Nakamura shoves me inside. He tries to tug the door shut, but a big arm slides between the door and the jamb from the other side, keeping it open. The two of them jostle together, the door wavering. I don't have time to see who wins.

I rush to the time tubes. No time to make repairs or try to boot them up. No time to get safely away. Alas, the dreadful irony of a time traveler with no time.

I hesitate, my hands trembling. If I'm wrong about what the intruders are here for then we're dead. But we're dead anyway, so I might as well gamble with my life before I lose it, right?

I yank the time tubes out of their casings. They're about half the length of my body, thin like a fluorescent light bulb and about that fragile.

"Quint, get back!" A woman's voice. "Shoot through the door!"

Nakamura springs away, eyes wide.

"Stop or I'll smash the time tubes!" I holler it at the top of my lungs, my voice shrill. "I will smash the time tubes. I will smash the time tubes." I scream it a few more times, like a kid having a tantrum in the toy aisle. I want to know they hear me.

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