Future Threat

16

Dr. Chow returns and hands each of us something that looks like a lipstick tube. “Simply press this part”—he says, holding up one end, which is flat and red—“against the person’s skin, and it will render them unconscious for about thirty minutes or so, depending on height and weight. That way, you can bring them back here and through the aperture without any problems.”

“Do you think we’ll need those?” I ask. Seems a bit extreme, especially since no one on Team Echo seems to be a fighter. Chris or I could take any of them down easily.

“Let’s hope not,” Dr. Campbell says. “But we want you to be prepared for any possibility. As far as we know, they might not want to come back.” She gives the three of us a long look while her words sink in, and then she turns away. “There’s a car on the roof you can take. Follow me.”

We leave behind the stares of the other scientists and follow Dr. Campbell into the elevator. The door closes, she hits a button, and a second later it opens again on a different floor. I didn’t even feel the elevator move.

She leads us down a windowless hallway with bland, gray carpeting and that just-vacuumed smell to a door that opens to the roof—and for the first time, we get a real glimpse of this future.

“Holy s**t,” Chris says, while Adam draws in a sharp gasp.

My jaw’s hanging open too, but I’m speechless as I take it all in. Because this future is nothing like the one we went to before. Oh no. It’s so much more.

Beyond the Aether building, the barren desert has been transformed into a sprawling corporate oasis. But the first thing I see are the cars—not on the road, but in the air. They’re flying. Or more aptly, hovering, gliding, plowing through the air like a speedboat on a wave. Hundreds of them zip across the sky in every direction, following invisible traffic flows. They look a lot like normal cars, except they have wings that arch over them like spider’s legs. The bright afternoon sun glints off their gleaming bodies as they crisscross and overlap and trail behind each other, darting between buildings that don’t exist in the present. Somehow, miraculously, none of them crash.

As we watch, one lands on the other side of the roof, which has become a parking lot for Aether’s corporate cars, or so I assume from the branding along the side of them. It moves into position and drops straight down, then hovers a foot above the ground so the man inside can get out. Once he’s gone, the car parks itself, with tiny wheels coming out of the bottom while the insect-like wings fold up and blend into the side of the car seamlessly.

“This future…” Adam whispers, with awe in his voice. “It’s so much more advanced than the other one we went to.”

Dr. Campbell smiles as she leads us through the parking area. “It’s all because of Project Chronos. Each trip to the future resulted in new technology brought back in time, which was then developed years before it would have been otherwise. And the effect was cumulative—after Team Echo brought back the flexi technology, it led to a dozen other innovations, so when they visited the future a second time they were able to bring back technology that was even more advanced.”

She stops in front of a silver car, one of the few without the Aether logo on the side of it. Like the others we saw flying around, it’s sleek and aerodynamic, unlike the strange egg-shaped cars we saw in the other timeline. This one is a larger model, like a van, and a wide door slides open so we can get in. A new icon of a tiny car appears in my vision.

Dr. Campbell gestures at the open door. “I’ve transferred the keys to your flexis. Are you positive we can’t convince you to let someone go with you? Not as a babysitter, but as a guide. The technology in this time is vastly different from what you know…”

“We got it.” Chris slips inside the car without another word. Adam climbs in next, and the two of them begin talking in low tones about the car and how it must fly.

Dr. Campbell gives me a hug, which is unexpected. “Good luck, Elena. Please contact us through your flexis if you need anything.”

“Thanks.”

I slide inside the car, and the door closes behind me. Like the self-driving cars in the other timeline, this one is like a moving lounge, with comfortable leather seats around a table in the middle. Except in this one there are seat belts that go over the shoulders and around the waist, strapping us in tightly. There’s no steering wheel or other way to drive the car, and although there are some buttons along the walls and on the center table, the car is mainly controlled through our flexis.

“I’ve entered the address for the Pharmateka lab,” Adam says, as I strap myself in beside him.

Chris scowls as he snaps his seat belt on. “We already know we’re not gonna find anything there. But I guess we have no other clues, do we?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I say. “I already know what they’re doing. They’re tracking down their future selves.”

“How do you know?” Adam asks.

“Because it’s what we did.”

00:34

With one quick movement, the car lifts straight off the ground and rises ten feet above the parking lot. My stomach jumps into my throat at the sudden altitude, and Adam lets out a yelp—he’s afraid of heights. Chris leans forward and yells, “Hot damn!”