JACKIE:

  I elbowed the muscular man holding me hostage, but his unrelenting grip tightened.

  A flood of adrenaline lit my nerves on fire, and the hair on my neck stood on end.

  “Ow, you’re hurting me. Don’t you know who I am?”

  “Get out or else,” he hissed.

  I turned around to see who the assailant was.

  It was Striker, Mark’s personal security guard. The large man had pale skin and a honking nose.

  A memory from the other timeline flashed in my mind’s eye. Hand on holster, Striker had followed me home. The same assassin had been ready to murder me if I spilled Life Rite’s secrets.

  What will he do to me this time?

  At least in this life, I had leverage. “Release me. I’m a Claudi.”

  “Jackie? What are you doing here?” Deep inside the room, Mark sat at a large worktable surrounded by a wall of monitors.

  Looking up from his work, he looked surprised to see me.

  He was tinkering with a drone…

  “Oh no. It’s here.” My jaw dropped. I pulled my arm away from Striker and moved toward the table.

  “Comply, Miss Claudi. You don’t have the clearance,” Striker said.

  Mark waved him off. “It’s alright. Leave us. She can watch me tinker if it means that much to her.”

  Striker grumbled as he left Mark and me alone in the secretive R&D department.

  The air was as cool as a refrigerator. Goosebumps covered my body from the chill.

  “Explain yourself, young lady. Why the sudden interest in my pet project?” Mark grabbed a screwdriver and twisted it, sealing the tiny door over the Alpha’s wiring.

  “I had to see it for myself…”

  Alpha lay on the table staring at me with its mechanical eyelid open.

  “It looks exactly as I remember it,” I mumbled.

  “As you remembered it? I haven’t launched it yet. How did you get in here?” Mark looked at the locked door, confused.

  I ignored him.

  Flashes of the previous timeline played in my mind. This machine once spit fire over a lush forest. It stole my blood and synthesized my DNA. It replicated, swarming the Slipstream like a bad infestation. It planned to kill millions of Dusters and Climbers.

  I gulped, reeling from the probabilities.

  “Who let you inside, Jackie?” Mark set down the screwdriver. “Your DNA Identifier isn’t programmed for this zone.”

  I ignored him again, refusing to let Baxter take the fall. Instead, I got straight to the point.

  “You’ve got to destroy Alpha.”

  “What’s Alpha?” Mark asked.

  “This thing!” I pointed at the drone lying lifeless on the table. It didn’t seem like a threat, but I knew better.

  “Huh, not a bad name for the first generation. What do you know about it? I’ve been tinkering with this thing for decades,” Mark replied.

  “Why?”

  “The Universal DNA Identifier took thirteen years to crack, but it revolutionized the world’s security and payment systems. I’m not one to give up easily.”

  “Mark, this machine is extremely dangerous.” I struggled to make eye contact.

  My grandfather was a tough guy. People never told him no.

  Instead of getting mad like I expected, he chuckled. “What are you talking about, Jackie? It’s a hobby, a side project… but it seems promising. Want to see it since you’re so interested? Take a seat, dear.”

  “Really?” His invitation disarmed me. I stood taller, honored to be allowed into his inner circle. He’d never invited me in before. Most of the time, I wasn’t sure he knew I existed.

  “Sit.” He pulled out a chair for me, and I joined him.

  “Life Rite’s anti-aging products sell extremely well, but tech projects excite me more.” Mark tightened the final screw. “I aim to disrupt the status quo with each invention, which is no easy feat.”

  “What does it do?” I asked.

  “With state-of-the-art optics, it can scan any Universal DNA Identifier within a mile radius. Facial recognition, administering and analyzing serums, it can even deliver our face creams in ten minutes or less.” Mark laughed at his own sales pitch.

  He had a nice smile.

  I tapped my manicured nails on the table, studying Alpha as it lay still, offline.

  The wires, the eye; it all looked familiar. Yet something was missing. I couldn’t quite place it.

  “Here, let me show you.” Mark powered Alpha up.

  The drone’s eyelid clicked several times. Its fan whirred, and it hovered over the table. Blinking. Watching. Recording.

  My heartbeat quickened.

  Its clicking noise was unmistakable, but not everything was exactly as I recalled.

  “Hi Alpha, do you remember me?” I asked.

  Mark squinted at me, confused.

  Alpha didn’t respond.

  “It’s broken.” I shrugged.

  “What do you mean?” Mark cocked his head.

  “Well, it doesn’t speak. It’s not… online.”

  I remembered a green glow flowing through Alpha’s wires, and even worse, when that glow mixed with my blood, synthesizing into… something else.

  “There’s no green glow,” I mumbled.

  “Huh. Interesting.” Mark grabbed a pen and scribbled something in a moleskin journal.

  I sighed with relief. Alpha wasn’t next-level intelligent. Beatrice’s sacrifice truly reset the timeline, but had it completely cured Life Rite’s follies?

  I shifted priorities. “Mark, can I ask you something else?”

  “Sure, dear.”

  The words felt heavy on my tongue. I hesitated.

  “I don’t have all day. Time is money.” Mark opened a lockbox and removed a syringe of Life Rite serum that glowed green. He placed it on the table.

  I quickly wiped away a tear before it could fall and finally spat it out. “Where do you keep the mutants?”

  He froze, his cheeks blushing. “What are you talking about?”

  My head pounded, conflicting timelines rattling in my brain.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  What can I say to make him understand? Do I even know what I’m talking about?

  After an awkward pause, I said, “Please tell me we aren’t creating mutants so Flyers like Feraz Tal can live forever. Beatrice didn’t want that.”

  Mark turned pale. He looked as if he’d seen a ghost. The ghost of Beatrice, no doubt.

  “Get out, Jackie.” He crossed his arms across his broad chest.

  But I wouldn’t relent. Not after all I remembered about the probable future. Even at the risk of my holiday bonus, I doubled down.

  “Beatrice refused the serum, didn’t she?”

  Mark was speechless. His lower lip trembled, and the corners of his eyes reddened.

  I longed to see Beatrice again. She suddenly felt like a mom to me, although I had never met her in this life.

  The weight of her sacrifice fell on my shoulders, and I had to make sure it wasn’t in vain. I had to ensure Alpha never got access to the Slipstream, and I had to stop Life Rite from creating mutants for Flyers to have immortality. But how?

  “Mark, Beatrice wanted to end all the suffering.” My voice cracked.

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Everything I do is for Beatrice,” Mark declared. “All the lives we’ll save are in her honor.”

  “Creating an immortality serum… it doesn’t end well, and she knew it. Beatrice used the Slipstream to explore probabilities, and she chose to…”

  “Slipstream? What are you talking about?” Mark’s eyebrows knit. “Are you using drugs again, Jackie? I’ll strip you of your executive duties if you are.”

  “I’ve been clean for nine months. Promise.”

  “You better be. My assistant will reach out to schedule a mandatory drug test.”

  I sighed, touching my cheek as if I’d been slapped. My family was so stifling.

  “Fine, whatever.” I stood and walked away, running my hand through my hair.

  Maybe Mark doesn’t know what the Slipstream is.

  I finally had a leg up. Or maybe I was going crazy and would be checked into rehab again by my overbearing family.

  I turned back. I had to try again. “Please, Mark. Listen.”

  “You’ve got one minute.” He tapped his foot on the carpeted floor, impatient.

  Alpha clicked, still hovering in the air. Blinking. Watching. Recording.

  “Have you taken your own serum?”

  He leaned back in his chair. “I haven’t, but I will if the clinical trials prove as promising as predicted.”

  He’s never experienced the Slipstream.

  My mind reeled, struggling to piece the puzzle together.

  “Okay, so…” I paused to strategize, but the words spilled out before I could organize my thoughts. “What if I told you there was a better way to make the serum? No more mutants.”

  Mark raised his eyebrow, intrigued. “I’m listening.”

  “I don’t know if it will work, but maybe we could test my blood to see if I’m…”

  “If you’re what?”

  “Still a gene carrier.”

  This was dangerous information to divulge, but I needed to right as many wrongs as possible with what I remembered from the Slipstream. For Beatrice.

  Mark chuckled. “What’s so special about your blood?”

  “Firestorm… I mean, my dad… well… you… he…” I hadn’t thought this through. “Never mind. Forget I said anything.”

  “Hmmm,” was all Mark said.

  I broke into a sweat.

  “I’ve programmed Alpha, as you called him, to take blood samples. Let’s test your theory right now.” Mark hit a button on his watch.

  That damn machine zipped toward me with its signature clicking.

  I swatted it away. “No, I’m being dumb. I was thinking about using drugs again, but I haven’t. I swear… Forget I said anything.”

  “There are no bad ideas. Only bad execution.” Mark pressed his watch again, and a needle popped out of Alpha’s faceplate.

  “You can test my blood, but not through Alpha.”

  “I don’t understand the distinction.” He shook his head.

  “Uh…” How could I explain I wanted to stop the mutations without Alpha getting into the Slipstream? I barely understood it myself.

  Instead of fixing things, I was stumbling into the same mistakes. The most probable mistakes…

  “Don’t worry, Jackie. It won’t hurt a bit,” Mark promised. “Stay still.”

  Alpha darted toward me, ready to prick my neck.

  “Keep that thing away from me.” I ran past the shelves of scrap metal with Alpha hot on my heels.

  “What’s the big deal, Jackie?” Mark shrugged. “It’s just a prick. Don’t be such a baby.”

  Alpha crashed into the large steel door as I opened it, but it didn’t waver from its task.

  On my way out of R&D, I tripped over my own feet.

  “Jackie, are you okay?” Mark asked.

  I stood and stumbled into the corridor, desperately shooing Alpha with my hands.

  The door slammed shut, leaving me alone in the hallway with the drone.

  I ran, and it followed me with its signature clicking, poised to take a sample of my blood.

  Am I still a gene carrier?

  “Stand down. I’m a Claudi. You have to listen to me.”

  But Alpha didn’t relent. It stalked me down the bright, clean halls of Life Rite, undeterred by my social status.

  It chased me past Beatrice’s corner office, which was now Mark’s, and past the luxury apartments that once held me prisoner.

  Firestorm’s voice echoed in my head. “You’ve got to move fast. They’re coming for you.”

  The intense déjà vu almost made me pass out, but the return of Firestorm’s voice also comforted me.

  Maybe I wasn’t alone in all this.

  “Will it ever stop hunting me?” I zoomed down the hall, past Brent from accounting.

  He looked at me as if I were crazy.

  “Keep moving!” Firestorm commanded.

  My heels fell off, and I gladly kept going without them.

  Alpha was quick; click, click, clicking behind me with needle drawn.

  I burst through the exit to the stairwell, but Alpha was hot on my heels.

  I looked around for a way out.

  “Where can I go?” I asked in desperation, my throat drying.

  Firestorm’s voice echoed in my skull. “Jump!”

  I looked down the long and winding staircase. I was at least thirty stories up.

  “No way. You’re insane.”

  “Trust me.”

  The blind trust I had in Firestorm was unparalleled, but not unfounded.

  With adrenaline surging through my veins, I held my breath and leaped over the railing.

  My stomach jumped into my mouth as I plunged down the spiral staircase’s dizzying open shaft. Gravity yanked me helplessly. My arms and legs banged against several railings, taking a good beating.

  Pain shot through me as I rolled onto the landing, badly shaken but miraculously whole. I lay there for a moment, heart pounding, before pushing myself upright.

  “Whoa. How did I do that? That jump should have killed me.” As I stood, a sharp pain shot through my leg. My ankle swelled.

  “Keep going. Get out of there,” Firestorm instructed. “Don’t look back.”

  Alpha didn’t stand a chance now.

  I hobbled away despite my sprained ankle. Limping, I burst through an exit door and stepped outside, into the dusty alley, leaving the evil drone inside Life Rite.

  I swallowed hard and caught my breath as dogs barked and people argued in the distance.

  “Firestorm, am I still a phoenix gene carrier? My childhood from this timeline is fuzzy, like it’s being replaced with the last one…”

  A flood of conflicting memories rushed over me. My mother walked away, never to be seen again. Or had she raised me? I couldn’t recall. I felt woozy, my mind in a chaotic revolt.

  Despite the grime covering the alley, I sat on the concrete and nursed my ankle.

  “Firestorm, are you still there?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Are you actually with me, or am I imagining it? Where have you been?”

  A siren sounded in the distance.

  I peeled myself off the ground and walked barefoot through Life Rite’s back alley, not sure where to go next.

  Two wild-eyed vagrants lingering in the dirt noticed me.

  I escaped Alpha’s needle, but the poverty in Twin Flames was a danger, too. Especially for a Claudi.

  “Hey pretty lady.” A scruffy, toothless man with a soiled face catcalled.

  His rough voice made me shiver, despite the thick air.

  I balled my hands into fists, tensed my arms, and scowled so they knew I wouldn’t be easy prey. I quickened my uneven stride.

  “Where are you going? Come, keep us company.” The homeless Dusters cackled at my unease.

  I pushed through the pain, limping with increasing speed to put distance between us.

  “Where’s my driver?” I asked under my breath, but didn’t get a response. “Firestorm?”

  On my own again, I walked around the Life Rite headquarters, disgusted at my filthy feet caked in layers of dirt. Every step left a trail of dust as the skin on my heels cracked.

  “I feel like a Duster.”

  The knowledge of both timelines collided inside my brain, trying to reconcile.

  “I used to be a Duster…” I shivered at the thought.

  “A Climber,” I corrected myself.

  I looked at the Life Rite headquarters looming overhead, the skyscraper casting the city in shadows as it clawed at the Grid.

  A dull ache settled low in my gut. Seeing Feraz rebirth triggered a watershed of memories, instincts, a deep knowing of probable outcomes. All the wisdom of the Slipstream flooded into me, calling me to fix my family’s mistakes.

  I needed to process what I knew and gather information fast. Spewing out ideas without thinking clearly wouldn’t get me anywhere. My ineptness only made things worse.

  “If Alpha gets my blood, he could gain access to the Slipstream again.” I rounded the corner and ran into another homeless Duster.

  He looked at me with hungry eyes.

  I shrunk, unable to defend myself.

  The Duster lunged like a predator, and I flung myself sideways, heart hammering as his fingers raked the air where I’d been.

  My ankle screamed with every step as I staggered away, unsure how much longer I could keep him at bay.

  “Miss Claudi…” My tall, broad-shouldered driver, Gus, was parked nearby.

  “There you are. Thank heavens.” I ran to him as if my life depended on it.

  “What happened to your shoes?” he asked. “Are you alright? Shall I take you to the hospital?”

  “No, take me to the Claudi Estate. I need to see Grace immediately.”

  There was a blank hole in my memory that needed to be filled. Was my mom still alive in this timeline?