“I want another look at the files.” Thane’s frustration came through in Reid’s earpiece.
If Thane believed the intel was lacking, it probably was overlooked. Reid picked up a canned energy drink from the faux wood coffee table. A news magazine from months in the future slid out from a pile of papers and dropped to the floor. The cover showed a devastated couple who’d lost both their children under the headline “Major Tragedy.” They couldn’t fail in stopping the virus from reaching the black market.
He tossed the magazine back on the table and gulped the last swallow from the can. “Mace, pull up what we got on Xenia. We need to comb through it again for subversive activity.”
“How deep?” Mace’s raised brow rippled the front of his brown, shaved head.
“If she tweeted a rant about her neighbor’s dog pissing on her lawn, investigate it.”
Mace rubbed his hands on his black cargo pants and rolled up the sleeves of his dark, button-down shirt. As he peered at the screen, he cracked his knuckles. “On it.”
On screen, Xenia’s companion stumbled. She led Jeff to a bench in the middle of the mall corridor. Then she left her shopping bag with him and hurried into the ladies’ room.
Reid studied the split views. The vials were in the shopping bag. Was this the drop that closed the deal? “What’s going on?”
“Don’t know.” Thane stepped out of foot traffic nearer the stores. “Get Mace down here. I—”
A dark haired woman approached Thane.
“Thane.” Reid looked closely at the screen. “Are you okay? Talk to me.”
“Yeah, I need a minute.”
In the midst of a mission, he needed a minute? Who was she? He grabbed the toggle and tightened the view. Damn. Blind spot.
On the other screen, Jeff stumbled around in circles screaming.
Thane broke off from his conversation with the mystery woman and ran toward the commotion.
Some of the shoppers stared at the spectacle. Others smartly backed away as the situation grew more out of control.
“Fuck. Me. What the hell? This bastard has lost his fucking mind.” Reid grabbed his semiautomatic pistol and tucked it into the holster clipped to the waistband of his black jeans.
Mace stood. “Need backup?”
“Negative. Grab Xenia. She went to the ladies’ room.” Reid called up his phase energy. It erupted over him and shimmered like thousands of tiny crystals infused with sunlight. A golden tunnel of light appeared in his vision, and he surged into it. Seconds later, he stood next to Thane. “We gotta get a handle on this guy.”
Jeff pulled a gun.
Reid tugged up the hem of his T-shirt and instinctually calmed his heart rate. Rules of the mission—only engage if directly fired upon and leave no random casualties behind.
Shots rang out as Jeff fired his weapon into the crowd. Commotion erupted into chaos.
Thane’s hard gaze met his. “Get the bags out of here!”
Reid flew into a quick phase and snatched the bags in midflight. As he zipped away from the mall, a whisper of cold energy brushed his shoulder and momentarily knocked him off course. What was that? Probably adrenaline. It could trigger a lot of things, including mistakes. No time for those. He materialized in the apartment and set the bags on the couch. He put on gloves and locked the vials in a small, foam-padded metal case. If he didn’t hear from Thane or Mace in the next fifteen minutes, the abort mission protocol kicked in. Leave no one from the team or any unnecessary things behind. Aside from cleaning up here, they had to warn Colby. He was monitoring the pandemic eight months ahead of them. They’d scoop him up and fall back to the beach house in the present.
He grabbed the backpack and stuffed in laptops, disks, and files. Identification, handwritten notes, a stray hair in the sink would vanish once they phased. He hurried to the coffee table and tossed papers aside. The magazine. He couldn’t find it. Move on. Not a major breech if it got left behind. A publication proclaiming a pandemic in the future would raise questions but offer zero answers. Their shady landlord would probably sell the flat screens and dump the rest anyway.
A sliver of golden light expanded in the living room. Mace appeared. He shook his head as if to clear it. “That was a rough ride. Where’s Thane?”
“Not here. Did he phase?”
“Yeah.” Mace’s mouth flattened with a grim expression. “But he got hit. Of all people for him to see.”
“Who?”
“It was Celine. She was there. He took a bullet for her.”
Shit. He’d just talked to Thane about getting Celine out of his system. He’d come into the mission distracted. “But you’re sure he phased.”
Mace’s wide shoulders stiffened. “You know I am.”
None of them would intentionally leave the other behind, but he had to ask. “What about Xenia and Jeff?”
“The police took him down. I couldn’t find Xenia. The authorities cleared out the mall. She probably blended in with the crowd and left. What about the vials? Do you have them?”
“Already packed.” They’d covered the bases, but Thane not showing nagged his gut.
Mace’s brown eyes narrowed. “You gettin’ the same feeling about something not being right?”
Distracted or not, Thane wouldn’t break from the plan. Unless he couldn’t get to them. Was he already at the beach house? “Abort mission. I’ll make one last sweep here. You grab Colby.”
Mace left.
Reid took one last look around, then he phased. The same cold brushes of energy he’d encountered earlier swept in. Time fractured into a jumbled pattern. He tumbled, losing control. Time literally flew by him as he drifted faster and further from the right timeline. An unbroken stream raced by. He propelled himself forward and leapt into it, manipulating months, weeks, seconds like puzzle pieces with his mind to reach the present.
Finally, he appeared in the living room of the beach house. His heart and mind slowed to the easy rhythm of the surf as he fought to catch his breath. He laid the backpack on the coffee table. The clean, professionally decorated space housing blue upholstered furniture, bright and modern beachscape paintings, and his baby grand was a huge switch from the cheap apartment.
A crackle of energy exploded into light. Colby and Mace materialized, breathing as if they’d run a race.
Colby combed back his mussed blond hair. “What’s up with the time stream?”
“Tell me about it.” Mace wiped his brow. “I barely controlled the phase.
“Not sure, but the entire mission jumped off course.”
“What happened?” Colby’s mustache and beard framed a scowl. “The pandemic dropped from the radar in the future, but I thought Dalir said we had to nail the buyer.”
“He did. I’m thinking all that unexpected shit that happened at the mall changed something.” On impulse, Reid opened the case.
Mace gave him a what-the-hell look. “I thought you had the vials.”
“I did.” Reid reined in the urge to punch a wall. They always expected the unexpected. Thane and the vials gone, and a fucked up time stream equaled too much of a coincidence. “Get West down here. No one goes anywhere until Thane or I give the all clear. Go through the files I brought back. I want an updated profile on Xenia. Now. I’m going to talk to Dalir.”
He