Future Threat

7

“Wait here, please,” Dr. Campbell says. “It should only be a few minutes.” She nods to Dr. Kapur, and they both leave the room, shutting the door behind them. Adam and I are alone, but we still can’t speak freely—they’re watching us and probably recording everything.

I scan the room, looking for clues, for cameras, for anything. But the place reveals nothing. It’s set up like it was before with chairs all facing one direction, but they haven’t bothered feeding us. Guess they don’t need to impress us this time. They’ve already caught us in their web, and I’m starting to think they’re never going to let us go.

Adam gives me a weak smile. “This is where we met.”

“Not exactly your normal boy-meets-girl story.”

“No, but it’s our story.”

My gaze snaps back to him. He’s still so calm. Making jokes. Being cute. How? “You know something about why we’re here, don’t you?”

He holds up his hands. “Nope. I’m as clueless as you are.”

I cross my arms and stare out the window at the freeway in the distance buzzing with cars. I can’t tell if he’s lying or if I’m being paranoid again. Am I pushing him away because of my own fears, when I should be turning to him for comfort instead? Or am I justified in being suspicious?

The door opens, and in walks a muscular black guy with a shaved head and tattoos inked across his huge arms. Chris. He looks pissed and just as confused as I am. But when he sees us, his face softens, and a grin cracks the surface of his otherwise hard features.

“Hey,” Chris says, crossing the room toward us. “Any idea what this is about?”

“Not a clue,” I say.

“Damn.” He scowls, but then he grabs Adam in one of those guy hugs, thumping him on the back. He reaches for me next, pulling me in for a real hug, even though he knows I hate them. “Been too long, you two. Too damn long.”

I find myself hugging him back, and realize how much I’ve missed his solid presence. Even though we all promised to stay close after we returned from the future, Adam and I haven’t seen Chris in a few months. We used to get together regularly and hang out, but I suppose we just…drifted apart. My fault, no doubt. Like my relationship with Adam, I neglected my friendship with Chris too.

“How’s Shawnda?” Adam asks.

“About ready to pop. Crazy, right?” He grabs his phone and flicks through it. “Check this out.”

He thrusts the phone in our faces and shows us a picture of the baby’s room. It’s done in powder blue with cartoon cars all over the walls, blankets, and crib. There’s even a lamp decorated to match.

“That’s perfect,” Adam says. Chris loves cars—he used to work as a mechanic, and now he’s getting an engineering degree so he can design them.

“Isn’t it?” Chris can’t stop grinning. I’ve never seen him this excited before. He takes the phone back and pulls up another photo, this one of a recent ultrasound. “Look at my son! Isn’t he handsome?”

“Very,” I say, even though it mostly looks like a grayish blob with something that could be eyes and maybe some fingers. “When is Shawnda due?”

“Monday. Any day now I’m going to be a dad.” He chuckles as he says it, his eyes dancing.

Adam clasps him on the back. “You’re going to be a great father.”

“I hope so.” He runs a hand over his bare head. “I’m planning to take a semester or two off from school so I can help Shawnda with the baby and all that. Plus, she wants to go to nursing school. It might be a while before I graduate, but whatever. It’s not like we’re strapped for cash at the moment.”

“Doing the stay-at-home dad thing?” I ask, raising my eyebrows.

He gives a slight shrug. “Yeah, for a few months at least. I don’t want to miss out on anything. I never knew my dad, but my son is going to grow up with a father who is around. Shawnda and I are going to do it right.”

Chris is only nineteen, but I have no doubt he’ll be the kind of husband and father his son can look up to. Other than our ill-fated trip through time, the three of us have something else in common: all of our fathers abandoned us in some way. Mine’s in prison for murdering my mother, Adam’s dad has a second family in another state, and Chris never knew his. His determination to not become like his father is something I relate to a lot.

At first, Chris and I didn’t get along. We were always butting heads, and one time he punched me in the face and I pulled a gun on him. He and Adam got off to a rocky start too. But we put all that behind us, and now the three of us have a bond that comes from surviving something impossible, something no one else could understand. We’ll always be there for each other, no matter what happens next.

“When are you getting married?” Adam asks. Last time we saw Chris, he’d just gotten engaged.

Chris slips the phone in his back pocket. “Soon, I hope. Although Shawnda wants to wait ’til she loses the baby weight or something like that.”

“Congrats,” I say. “New house, new wife, new baby…Your life seems perfect.”

“Yeah, it was.” He eyes the room with suspicion, his frown returning. “Until Aether showed up outside my house this morning.”

The door opens, and a man I’ve only seen before in the news walks in, followed by Dr. Campbell and Dr. Kapur. He takes his place in front of the room and exudes confidence, with thick auburn hair, a strong jaw, and an expensive three-piece suit. There’s no sign of Dr. Walters, the other scientist we worked with before.

“Thank you for coming,” the man says, addressing the three of us. “I’m Vincent Sharp, CEO and founder of Aether Corporation.”