Susan Squires: A Twist in Time

“At least it works,” Casey said, turning to them. “And Steadman was really no longer useful.” Casey’s pale blue eyes still roved over the glinting brass and jewels of the machine, possessively. “He was unreliable.”

Brad had just been a little insane. Casey was major insane, the cold kind, not the hot kind. He’d made a mistake, letting his chief scientist and bottle washer get killed, and now he was justifying it, making it seem as though it weren’t a mistake at all.

“So that’s the second man who died for this machine. The first one you killed.”

“Honey, I’ve killed more men than I can count.” He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Oh, you mean Lowell. Yeah.” He shrugged. “Guy had a bad heart. He sneaked out on our little party early. Knew it, too, the bastard. But we got the guy who did your IDs. He would have told us where he delivered them. Now we don’t need him, of course.”

Why did she think that meant the forger was a dead man, too? She glanced to Galen. He was tight, about to burst it seemed, maybe . . . waiting for something.

“And anyone can run the machine at this point. So,” Casey said, as if deciding. “Time for a little cleanup.” He picked up Lucy’s bag and rummaged around until he found the gun. He held it up. “Thought Lowell would make sure you had something like this. Glock nine. Bet you don’t even know how to use it.”

Casey snapped it up and put bullets in the foreheads of Rodriguez and the other lab assistant. Lucy gasped in shock. Galen jumped back, dragging her with him. The military guys behind them took a step forward, brandishing their guns as if to hold Galen and Lucy in place.

“What weapon spits fire and kills from a distance?” Galen muttered.

“A gun,” Lucy answered. “You saw them in the western and just didn’t know what they were.” She’d begun to tremble as she stared at the lab assistants, collapsed on the floor, gaping holes in their heads. Funny. There wasn’t much blood.

“Jake gave you this weapon?” Galen sounded outraged. “You had it always?”

“Sure beats a sword, doesn’t it?” Casey had turned the gun on them. Galen pulled Lucy behind his body.

“Come on out, honey. No use putting this off.” Casey motioned with the gun.

“Kill me,” Galen growled. “You let Lucy free.”

“No, no, no, no. You I want to keep for a while. I want to know how you can talk to animals like that. You might even know where some Viking hoards of silver are buried. She’s the expendable one.” He motioned to the guys wearing camo. Two came up and grabbed her while three tried to seize Galen. He twisted a gun out of the hands of the nearest soldier and used it as a club. The stock part of it came up and caught the guy under the jaw, dropping him in his tracks. Galen was already swinging for one of the guys who held her. She twisted away, but the soldier had her arm. For a minute, and then he went down, too.

Galen pulled out his sword and sliced at another one, who clutched one hand to a spurting neck and fell to his knees. A gun went off in a short burst. It caught one of the remaining soldiers bailing into the melee. He bloomed with blood.

“Don’t fire in these close quarters, you idiots!” Casey shouted.

Another soldier hit Galen with a baton from behind. Galen managed to duck and spare his head, but the blow caught his shoulder. He staggered and then there were four of them hitting and hitting. He sank to his knees.

“Galen!” she cried, pulling her remaining captor off balance as she lunged toward Galen.

Another gun went off. A single shot. “Enough!” Casey yelled. All motion stopped. Two of the camo guys were groaning. One lay still in a pool of blood from his slashed neck. One of the guys still standing around Galen kicked his sword away. It spun toward Lucy and the guy who held her by both elbows from behind.

“Cuff him or tie him up or something,” Casey said, disgusted. “Before you let him cut you to pieces with that sword.” He walked over to Lucy. “You want to do her, or shall I?” he asked the guy who held her. He was a black guy, with dead eyes and a white scar on one cheek.

“Be my guest, Boss,” the black guy growled.

Galen had gone still, kneeling on the floor, his hands jerked behind his back. Casey came up and held Jake’s gun to Lucy’s head. The muzzle was cold at her temple.

“Say good-bye to your girlfriend, Viking.”

“You will freeze in Hel’s kingdom,” Galen growled. That wasn’t the only growl in the room. From a distance a powerful grinding sound thrummed up through the floor. It buzzed in her chest, coming closer.

“Shit,” one of the camo guys said. “I know that sound—”

But before he could say what it was, the whole place was shaking like Vandal shook Galen’s socks, sharp and fast. The men around her staggered.

“Earthquake!” one shouted.

Casey fell backward. The gun went off and skittered from his hand. Glass shattered and tinkled. The floor heaved like someone was shaking out a rug. Men scrambled toward the exit.

“Get out. Get out!”

Galen crawled toward her. Ceiling tiles crashed to the floor and broke over the gears of Leonardo’s machine. Galen covered her with his body as a rending sound squealed through the lab. A broken girder poked through the wall toward the machine.

Galen had recovered his sword. “Lucy, come away!” he shouted over the din.

They staggered to their feet, reeling. The grinding sound was passing on. “We can’t leave Casey with the machine!” she shouted.

They looked around and saw that Casey was staggering toward one of the abandoned machine guns just in front of the machine. Would he rather kill us than save himself? It was as though someone else from far away was thinking that. The west wall of the lab leaned slowly in.

And then it was still. The grinding sound was gone. The silence was deafening. Casey got to his feet. Galen shoved her behind him and readied his sword, his face grim. He’d be cut down by that machine gun.

But there was Jake’s gun. At her feet. The one she swore she’d never use because she wasn’t that person.

But she was all they had. She reached for it. Casey was turning, machine gun in hand, his face a mask of hatred and greed. She stepped out from behind Galen and brought Jake’s Glock up. She pulled the trigger again and again and again. She braced her feet against the kick, but it was so much more than she expected. Her shots went wild and high and then she wrestled the gun down again and—

Casey’s face disappeared. It just shattered in blood and white splinters of bone.

The machine gun clattered to the floor. Casey toppled forward.

Lucy was heaving sobs. She didn’t remember starting to cry. Galen held her, whispering soothing sounds.

“You are dor, Lucy. Brave.”

“I . . . I just killed a man.” She couldn’t get her breath. There was so much dust in the air.

An aftershock ripped through the lab. The west wall buckled. This whole place was going to come down. It might destroy the machine. Leonardo’s lifework. The key to time itself.

But what if it didn’t?

“Boss?” The camo guys were making their way back into the building.

She looked up at Galen. “We’ve got to get the machine out of here. And there’s only one way to do that.”

“It will gewend back here as it did for Brad.”

Debris crashed behind them. Casey’s men would be through the wreckage any minute.

“Yeah.” She chewed her lip. “Leonardo said it comes back to where it left because time is bent too far and bounces back into its track.” She looked up at Galen. “But what if you didn’t take it far in time? Just to the next second? But to a different place. Maybe it would stay where you took it.”