Stars Across Time Read Online Free Page A

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    “The cave is up ahead,” someone at the front of the line said, waving one of the stolen lanterns.
    Theron jogged past the column of men, stepping lightly so the dry, brittle pine needles would not crunch beneath his feet, and joined Russell at the head, careful to come in behind the man instead of in front of him.
    The cave did not look like much on the outside, the entrance being little more than a vertical fissure in the rock, but the entire troop of kidnappers funneled through it with room to spare. In a chamber inside, more men waited, clad in the same dirt and furs that the other thieves favored. They stood in front of a group of young women, a much larger group than Theron’s band had acquired. It was hard to tell much else about them, since they huddled in the shadows behind their guards.
    The men inside held torches, the flames flickering and casting dancing shadows on the walls. The natural rock chamber smelled of mildew and animals, as well as the sweat and odors of men. In his own time, the cave had been dug out and reinforced by survivalists who’d had a reason to build it into more of a base. Popping into the original—and much smaller—form had been alarming. Theron had been told that nobody ever woke up in a wall, that the machine had safety mechanisms built in to ensure that couldn’t happen, but when one stepped into a distant time and landed with one’s heel an inch from a slab of granite, one wondered.
    “Bring them in,” came an unfamiliar voice from the back of the chamber. It belonged to a bald, bearded man with his muscular arms bare, despite the chill night air.
    Theron’s gut tightened. He recognized the bald man from the wanted posters General Morimoto had shown him. Severus Optimus was the moniker he cheekily went by; nobody knew his real name. He might not be the ultimate leader of the time thieves, but he was high up in their organization. Unlike Russell, who was little more than a gopher in charge of mice, he might be aware of the more prominent army officers in the Alliance. If Theron was recognized here, surrounded by so many enemies, he would be dead.
    He stepped to the side near the entrance, hugging the shadows and letting the rest of his group and the women filter in ahead of him. Would they all be traveling back together? It would be difficult to remain in the shadows permanently. Like Russell, Optimus wore a metallic bracer on one arm, a device that contained the controls for operating the machine, for returning the kidnappers to the present. Assuming everything worked. This was Theron’s first trip back through time, and he couldn’t help but be worried about making it back home, even if the general had assured him the machine had been tested.
    Optimus’s gaze raked over the new group, mostly checking out the women, but he squinted at Theron for a long moment. Theron hoped it was only because he was a new man on the team. When Optimus’s gaze shifted away, he let out a breath of relief, but he still worried the bandit might recognize him by the light of day. Theron had been out in the field for three weeks, fighting back the desert invaders from the south, so he had already been scruffy, and he had let his hair and beard grow as soon as the general had told him about this mission, but facial hair and dirt alone might not be enough to save him from recognition. And if the coyotes realized they had a wolf in their midst, they wouldn’t appreciate it. Like the woman they had captured—he glanced toward Andie, who was standing quietly and taking in everything around her—Theron wouldn’t have a chance of fighting off so many. Worse than being killed, he would have failed his mission. All he had ever dreamed of rode upon this success. He could not fail, not now.
    “Such a paltry few, Russell?” Optimus asked. “Four women?”
    Russell ducked his head. He was older than Optimus, but Theron had not been incorrect in identifying him as a submissive