Boggs said, “Don’t say that, Doc. Chancellor Cole’s death was the assassin’s fault. You are no more responsible than . . . than anyone else. If anything, we should have stopped Bainer. Our people could have protected the Chancellor better. You can’t say ‘woulda coulda shoulda’ about the past. Like you said, only the future can be changed because it’s not set in stone yet.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, Agent Boggs. But, I do have some decisions to make. Thank you all. My receptionist will show you out.”
After the agents left, Hsu sat down at his desk. He folded his arms and rested his head.
Despite what Boggs had said, despite what he knew to be true about the inability to change the past . . . he still felt extraordinary guilt for all the recent events and his part in them.
His door swished open, without a knock or an alert from the access pad.
He looked up, startled. A version of himself stood in the doorway wearing the same suit and lab coat.
The clone said, “Pritchard, I’ve decided what to do. You have decided what to do. We will leave the machine on. The investment in research is far too great. However, the cost in lives has also been great. Therefore, access will be strictly regulated going forward. That’s it. That’s the solution that has been staring at us in the face all along.”
The clone nodded at him and smiled, full of confidence they had made the right decision.
It turned to go out the door and stopped.
“One more thing, Pritchard. Time travel is amazing. You should go try it in a little while, when you get to feeling better.”
The clone winked at him, and popped out of sight.
-+-
The elevator pod with the three agents slowed as it approached the Shipworks lobby.
Boggs said, “Hey, you guys want to go to Skullduggeries tonight? I’ll buy the first round.”
Jamieson cleared his throat and blushed. He would not look Boggs in the eye. Collier stared ahead at the door, as if waiting impatiently for it to open.
“What? Is it something I said?”
The door dinged open to the spacious lobby and everyone walked out.
Collier said, “You go ahead, Jamie. I’ve got to talk to my partner for a minute.”
“Okay, sure. See you.”
As Jamieson walked away, Boggs turned to Collier, raising his eyebrows.
He said, “What’s going on with you two? What’d I do?”
“Mortie . . . I’m going to start dating Jamie.”
“Oh.”
Boggs’s face dropped.
He said, “I guess I should have seen that coming.”
“It’s not anything against you, Mortie. It’s just that . . . you and I, we’re partners. We’re not supposed to be romantically involved. Things like that just . . . get in the way.”
Boggs blushed, because he had been thinking romantic thoughts about Collier, despite the fact agency regulations suggested exactly what she indicated.
He said, “That conniving son of a bitch planned this, didn’t he? He deliberately did not join AOJ just so he could get the girl.”
Collier gave him a skeptical smile, unsure if he was cracking a joke or seriously upset with Jamieson.
She said, “Come on. You don’t really believe that.”
“You don’t know him like I do. Just wait. We’ll find out he planned this from the beginning, as soon as I told him I was joining the Academy.”
Collier tilted her head, trying to make sure his feelings were okay.
She said, “Hey . . . no hard feelings, right? I mean, we never had anything to begin with, so . . . we’re good, right?”
“Right,” Boggs said, nodding. “We’re good.”
She smiled then, with a look of relief.
“Great. Well, I’ll see you in the morning back at Sarge’s place.”
“Sure. See you.”
She jogged to catch up with Jamieson, who was just now going through the far door and out into the street.
A deep feeling of loss swept over Boggs as he watched her go.
He muttered, “Yeah, he planned it.”
He headed for the far door himself, moving deliberately at a much slower pace.
When he made it to the street, Jamieson and Collier were nowhere to be found.
He sighed and made a request through his implant for his car to come pick him up. At the parking garage, it levitated out of its spot and began flying his way.
Someone poked him in the side. He turned around to find an attractive young woman staring at him intensely.
“It is you,” Romi Mulhaney said. “I thought so when I saw you walking across the lobby, but I had to be sure. You look exactly the same from . . . how long has it been since I gave you ride? Four years? I know it was before the war.”
“Oh, hi! Yeah, I guess I still owe you, don’t I? Eastside was out of your way. You . . . you look different.”
Romi blushed and held out her arms, showing off a slim waist.
She said, “Yeah, my mother was bugging me to get body sculpting nanobots, but have you seen how expensive those are? I decided to lose weight the old fashioned way after the war. Diet and exercise. Plus, it’s a whole lot less stressful these days, now that we’re not in a life or death struggle trying to defeat the League.”
“That’s neat,” Boggs said, struggling to keep his eyes off her attractive figure. “Yeah, diet and exercise is the way to go.”
“I know! If you do the research . . . well, you would not believe how much political bias infects nutrition science! The entire field is full of bogus studies and poor research. But, if you do the work and sift through all the dross, you’ll find that controlling carbs is the single most effective method of weight control. Eliminate processed sugar and white flour, and you’re more than halfway there!”
Boggs nodded, deliberately looking at her in the eyes.
He said, “Uh-huh. Hey . . . let’s go somewhere and talk more about it. Have you ever heard of Skullduggeries?”
Romi’s face lit up.
She said, “I’ve heard of it, but no one’s ever invited me there.”
“Well, consider yourself invited.”
Boggs’s car landed at that moment, and the door opened.
He said, “Are you still taking autocabs everywhere?”
“Let me return that ride I owe you.”
She smiled and climbed into his car.
-+-
Inside a secluded seaside mansion on Clarion, Tetrarch Thrall sat down in his private office.
His implant pinged with a coded message, a holosheet floating near his face.
He plucked the holosheet out of the air and fed it into a special terminal, one that remained disconnected from StarCen. He still did not trust the League’s AI after the fiascos its corruption caused during the war.
A moment later, the decrypted message floated above the terminal.
“Cole is dead. Triskelion is activated.”
He smiled and waved his hand through the holo, making it disappear.
He said, “Good. Now the fun can start.”
The End
Other books by Jaxon Reed
The Redwood Trilogy
Redwood: Servant of the State
Redwood: Twelver
Redwood: Battle Cry
The Empathic Detective Trilogy
The Empathic Detective: A Mystery Thriller
Ghostsuit: An Empathic Detective Novel
Cybershot: An Empathic Detective Novel
The Forlorn Dagger Trilogy
Thieves and Wizards
Pirates and Wizards
Dwarves and Wizards
The Fae Killers Series
Tiff in Time
Ghost of a Chance
Rick or Treat
Booked for Death
The Dungeon Corps Series
Dungeon Corps: Crypts of Phanos
Dungeon Corps: Maze of Menos
Dungeon Corps: Depths of Dwarland
Pirates of the Milky Way
Digital Assassin
Clarion’s Call
Condor Rising
Halcyon’s Heirs
Solar Storm
Tetrarch’s Dilemma
Operation Starfold
Golden Alliance
Subversive Elements
Terminus Epsilon
-+-
Visit Jaxon Reed’s Amazon Page:
https://www.amazon.com/Jaxon-Reed/e/B00Q9N5TQ2/
-+-
For previews of upcoming books visit:
https://www.patreon.com/jaxonreed
-+-