The Time Travel Chronicles Read Online Free Page A

wiped her palm on a denim-covered thigh.
    “It’s just a little spit.”
    “I thought you were supposed to be mentoring me, not traumatizing me!”
    “Toughening you up. It’s a big bad world out there,” I said. “Now, Miss Dazed and Confused, you never answered the question: why do Pausers use more energy than Blinkers?”
    Abi shook her head with mock disgust before answering. “Blinkers go backwards, working against the current, but pausing stops the whole stream. The best Pausers can stop time for forty-five seconds at a time, but it completely depletes their tachyon reserves.”
    “What about the best Blinkers?” I asked. “How far back can they go?”
    “Um…” She frowned. “Well, it takes thirty-two seconds for reality to solidify,” she said, reasoning her way towards an answer. “So once it’s set, you can’t go back any further.” Abi glanced up, her face contorted in a show of dubious triumph. “Right?”
    “Oh no, you can go back further,” I said, noting the red-headed boy emerging from the locker room. “You just shouldn’t . But we’ll cover that tomorrow.”
    Abigail’s head snapped to attention. “We’re done?”
    “For now.”
    Abigail followed my gaze to the boy, then back to me, then back once more to the boy. She nodded sharply, making her decision in an instant, said “See ya,” and then, suppressing what appeared to be the urge to skip, walked in the boy's general direction with all the nonchalance her teenage-self could muster.
     
     
    Chapter Five
     
    NOW
     
     
    Barely four seconds after Maddix had disappeared for his fourth round of hyper-speed hide-and-seek, his voice crackled over the radio, “Crap. Gimme a mulligan.”
    “Already?” Zoe asked, sharing in my surprise.
    “Yeah, I uh…” his voice trailed off, leaving only hissing static, “the door shut behind me. It’s locked. I’m stuck. Tell my past-self not to run into room 3013B.”
    “Better than getting shot again,” Zoe said, her wide smile parting to show teeth.
    I tried not to laugh. I failed, but I did try. “How far back you want to go?”
    “Ten seconds should be good,” Maddix said. “Nothing terribly interesting on this floor anyhow.”
    So far there hadn’t been anything of interest on Haven’s top floors. Housing and supplies to keep Crask’s personal army happy and productive.
    The idea of living on a hover-compound gave me chills. No different than a boat, except there’s no chance a boat’s engines will fail and send the whole damn thing plummeting into Hong Kong.
    I was pessimistic when it came to a hundred thousand tons of metal breaking the laws of gravity.
    A hand on my shoulder interrupted those thoughts. I looked over at Zoe’s milky white eyes as the world slowed, coming to a gradual grinding halt. An unnatural stillness settled. The wind calmed, and the thrum of a world in constant motion dribbled to a stop.
    “Why’d you pause?” I asked, marveling at the serenity of the moment.
    “We need to talk.”
    “About?”
    “Expectations,” she said with her typical bluntness, “and what it is you’re hoping to find here.”
    “I’m hoping to find Abi.”
    “I am too,” Zoe said softly. “But you need to prepare for the possibility that she isn’t here for the reasons you think she is.”
    “Crask took her,” I said sharply. “What other possibility is there?”
    “That she came here on her own accord.”
    My stomach coiled into an iron knot. “You saw her apartment back at Central. It was trashed, she was in a fight. Somebody took her.”
    A bead of sweat trickled down Zoe’s cheek, exertion from holding the pause. “I saw,” she agreed, nodding slowly.
    “You think she did it herself?”
    “Abi was troubled,” Zoe said. “She came back from Haiti brok—” Zoe caught herself by biting her lower lip, “—a different woman.”
    “You would have too.”
    “I’m not blaming her. I’m just saying she was hurting. Bad.”
    “Don’t you