Chapter 7 - The Timekeeper

The Timekeeper continuation

T

he hotel suite got by Kieran (after heavy flirting and eyeballing with the lone receptionist at the lobby (God bless her soul)) was simply sweet! It’s like my condo unit, five times over. Since it’s not every day that you get to stay at the Renaissance Marriott, we took in the panoramic view the room afforded us. Well, I, because I am the only one even looking at the city, while Kieran was busy unpacking our clothes, and Diana pacing nervously, like she has to solve college calculus tomorrow at four in the morning.

“Will you please calm down? What’s the matter with you?” I asked, taking a seat in one of the softest beds I have ever sat on. My butt was very pleased, after a long, arduous journey on the economy cabin. Good thing it didn’t develop chair sores.

“The thing is, I haven’t met a Slider. Ever. In my life. And I don’t know how to interact with them. You know what Clarence McGretin told us about them.”

“Oh, that’s real easy: you just say ‘Hi, I’m Diana, an Other. You must be a Slider. May I know your name?” My retort was countered with a fluffy pillow thrown at my face.

“Just because you saved our asses earlier doesn’t give you the permission to be one. I’m serious here. When do we know that a Slider has walked right under our noses?”

I remember someone saying that one could pause only a certain space of time (was it Diana?). Maybe that would work. Maybe I could do that, and then interrogate whoever we think is a Slider. At first, when I told this to Diana, it sounded so good. But there was always this follow-up question of hers: “How?”

Since Kieran was the only non-Timekeeper in our presence, he unfortunately became our guinea pig. The first try was me a distance given from him and holding my hands out in front of me, and focused clearly. When nothing was happening, I pushed my hands out in frustration. Kieran was catapulted immediately towards the wall, and thumped down the floor. “Sorry Kieran!” he just raised a thumbs-up.

Next, I tried rubbing the ruby while pointing my whole palm at him, which by the way looked pretty lame, for a guy to do. In all, it produced nothing. Diana was starting to get bitchy when I tried the third time. I held onto Kieran and rubbed my ruby simultaneously. My ruby started to glow, like a blinker on a car. Diana sat up and talked. “I feel different.” Kieran also said the same. With a hunch, I went towards the window and tried to yank the curtain. It didn’t even budge at my hand. I looked at my hand, then looked at Kieran, who was still moving by the way, then at Diana, then howled like it’s the end of the world. “It worked! It worked!” then rubbed my ruby again, not wanting to drain the energy.

Maybe it was the fact that I was so lucky today that almost everything that I do was successful that I felt bursting with energy and enthusiasm which I haven’t experienced before. After having a couple of bites from the complimentary donuts (who knew there were complimentary donuts by hotels?), I brushed my teeth and went to bed, a lot earlier than Diana and Kieran. I think they were discussing something for tomorrow and what our course of action should be.

~

“Rise and shine, sleepy head. The early bird gets the worm. Move it, or your only your head would.” The rapid firing of these statements made me sit up straight on my bed, rubbing sleep from my eyes. The curtains were tied on either side. It’s the same sight before I went to bed, only this time, the lights were a lot subtler.

“What gives?” I asked irritably. I hate being woken up in the middle of sleep, especially when I’ve just survived two attempts on my life the yesterday. I looked at my watch and saw that it was five thirty in the morning. In the morning?

Since our beds are close by, I had the unpleasant pleasure of waking Kieran because of my shouting. “Are you kidding me? You woke me up on 5:30 in the morning? I may not be the sharpest kid on the block�"“

“Good thing you know.” She quickly retorted. I ignored her.

“But you gotta understand that as humans, we,” motioning to Kieran and I, “Need some rest. Maybe you don’t, but we do. And besides, I’m pretty sure NASA won’t open up until 8:30, because I researched. Now will you back the hell off?”

Diana just stared at me emotionless, with a bright color invading her cheeks, obviously unused to being shouted back at. She just continued on, making her bed, while I made an inhumanly drawling sound and went back to sleep.

My alarm went off like clockwork. I got up and went to the bathroom and did my normal, usual morning routine: shower first, then shave, then eat, then finally brush my teeth. The shower was terrific, since there were shower gels that were very cool to touch and use, though it does leave some kind of lemon scent. I hope in comes in cinnamon. When it comes to eating, I casually opened the menu on the dresser and searched for something delectable to ravage since it has been sometime after my last decent meal, which was an eternity. I asked aloud what they wanted to get for breakfast but I heard no response. Dropping down the menu, I searched for them in the vast suite that we were in, but I saw no traces of them. I looked at our clothing cabinet and saw that our stuff was still there, so they couldn’t have left without me. Could they?

Just in time, the phone rang. I grabbed it like my life depended on it and answered. Before I could offer my hello, a woman, which voice I automatically registered, spoke. “We’re already here in the headquarters. If you want to follow us, be my guest. But hurry up: we might be going home sooner than later.” Then the phone clicked. God, I must find a way to kill that girl fast.

~

After eating breakfast, I made the concierge hail me a cab towards NASA headquarters. Apparently, either a lot of people are requesting this, or they do not seem to care for whatever their guests request because I was told not thirty seconds past that it was already waiting for me.

Paying my fare and a dollar of a tip (which earned me a disgruntled snort, by the way), I walk-run to the receiving lobby of the headquarters, which was unexpectedly packed. There were lots of children in their school uniforms, packed into the building, together with teachers who were equally annoying with their loud, high-pitched voices, ordering the students to queue properly.

I turned to Diana and asked, “What do we do now?”

“Well, the good thing is is that Kieran managed to get a blueprint of the building, though it is somewhat old, so we have to expect that some of it might have changed.” Forgoing the question how, I just nodded.

“So,” she continued, “To conserve our energy, you’ll be the one to stop time when asking people, and I’ll be the one to reverse time should they not be a Slider. So that people who aren’t Sliders will not know we are people with powers beforehand. Do you get what I’m saying?” she quickly inquired, seeing the confusion I had on my face earlier.”

“I think so. But what is Kieran going to do?” pointing at our friend, who was apparently amazed at the painting of the stars on the ceiling. Diana nudged him and answered. “I’ll be the one to filter people for you to interrogate. As I said, I can smell auras of Others, though not as clear if they’re not Alchemysts. I’ll help you determine people who are most likely to be Sliders.”

“Okay,” I interrupted. “Let’s begin.”

We searched the whole room, starting from the front. I asked Diana about Sliders. “Say we get to encounter a Slider. Can’t he just escape by Sliding away from us?” she quickly shook her head.

“No. For people to teleport, time needs to be constantly moving forward. Teleportation doesn’t actually mean to move from one space to another: it simply deconstructs an object then rebuilds at another place. The Sliders, unlike other people who have the ability to teleport as well, retain their memories with them even if they have teleported, which makes them unique. Time is needed since the actual deconstruction happens in mere milliseconds, but time nevertheless. But it’s all just my theory of course.”

I stared at her with disbelief. “Theory?! You had us prepared this plan, all based on a theory?”

“Einstein hasn’t seen the speed of light and based it on solid fundamentals of physics, and instead did his own. What do you think is the difference?”

“He was a really smart cookie. But our lives depend on this.”

“That is why we should go now. Move it, Pratt.”

We went and still scoured the entire room. There was this young man who was avidly showing the people the various bulletin facts plastered on the wall. What made me suspect about him is that he was constantly looking at us with a certain degree of cautiousness. I observed a little a more until I convinced myself that he might be a Slider. Telling Diana and Kieran, who gave me a thumbs up, we went towards him and I quickly latched my hand on his shoulder and paused time.

AS expected he was very frightened by the prospect of other people being frozen around him and two other human beings talking to him in an intimidating manner. I started the questioning. “Are you a Slider?”

“W-what?” he stammered.

“I know you’re a Slider. Just tell me and we’ll be going on our way.”

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about.” I looked at Diana. Is he telling the truth?

She nodded. Yep, unconditionally. I unleashed my hand from him and unpaused time, while Diana reversed it. “So,” she opened, “He’s not a Slider. Kieran, who do you think is next?”

Kieran looked around the room, as if sniffing the air for a scent to track down. His eyes latched onto a man, about in his late twenties, wearing a scraggly t-shirt and blue jeans with glasses, leaning on a pillar of the building. What is it with people today wearing worn-looking clothes? We continued towards him, while he glanced our way suspiciously, knowing that something is up. When we were about two arm’s length away, he vanished from thin air. Diana read what I was thinking. “He’s our man.” She immediately reversed time so that the man would be still standing right there.

Our Plan B is to encircle him and to make ourselves look like nonchalant tourists, then grab him before he goes away. We slowly enclosed ourselves on him, until, with my pendant in hand, I grabbed him by the nape then paused time. It almost worked successfully had he not already started Sliding. So, effectively, we stopped him from Sliding, half his body is missing: the lower half. It’s kind of unnerving approaching a half of a man in a frozen time continuum. Complicated? Yeah, I thought so.

He snarled at us like a wolf caught in a trap. “What do you want from me?”

I piped in. “Isn’t it obvious? You. Actually, we need to talk about your, uhm, ability, right here,” pointing towards his half body.

“No, I told you once, and I’ll tell you again, I will not join the Minutemen.” He said toxically.

“Oh, we’re not Minutemen. I’m a Timekeeper, she’s a Visionaire, and he’s an Alchemyst.” Motioning at Diana and Kieran, who was thoughtful enough to extend his hand and shake hands with this guy. He then proceeded to introduce himself. “I’m Kieran, and you are?”

The guy was apprehensive in shaking Kieran’s hand, but did it anyway. “Jacob Horan.”

My eyes went wide. “Jacob Horan? Like Horan of Niall Horan of One Direction?”

He shrugged. “He’s my cousin.” Maybe it was the blond hair, or almost crooked teeth that gave it away that he was a cousin indeed.

I guess I made a disgusted face because Diana nudged me. She then talked to Jacob. “We are personally sent by the Man On the Moon to find Others who would be willing to fight the resistance against the Sandman. And we were hoping that you’d join us.” She gave him a reassuring pat on the hand, and eventually, held it, almost cradling it, which almost made me puke.

“I know it’s hard that you lost your sister to them. But this is the time to avenge her. Join us and help recruit others to win this fight against them.” She finished triumphantly like Winston Churchill declaring V-Day. I guess it shocked Jacob to the core that Diana knew about her sister, as a single tear dropped from his left eye. I just considered him a drama queen. Give me a break. Diana snapped her head and gave me daggers.

Contemplating his decision, we were met by a long, very awkward silence. Not being able to take it any longer, “Well, we’re waiting! We have a lot of things to do, you know? Catching Others, convincing them and all that.” I snapped at him. I guess she can’t help it, so she slapped me on the back of my head. Kieran just stared at us, obviously calloused to what we’re doing. Finally, after  ages, Jacob agreed to our plan. He would be part of The Avengers.

The Avengers, really?  She countered. How lame can you possibly get?

Not as lame as you.

“So what could I do to help?” Jacob offered, attempting diffuse the situation between us. I jumped in. “Can you teleport us to another place?”

“I haven’t tried that before, but I think so. Provided that you are accompanied by me, so I think it would work.” He tried suggesting. “Oh, okay,” I retorted. “Why not we go back to the hotel and discuss what we need to do.”

~

At the hotel, we found out that Jacob has been home-- and jobless ever since his sister was taken and killed by Minutemen. He was teleporting from place to place, stealing some to get across life, and to live. Interesting to note is that even if his cousin is (very) famous, he doesn’t use his current problems for people to pity him. “I don’t like people giving me sad stares, their eyes betraying what they’re always thinking: ‘How sad this young man!’” He devoured all the sandwiches Diana and I have prepared, together with some orange juice, which he drank greedily.

After settling ourselves, I opened the discussion. “What would be our next course of action?” I laid the map across the wide coffee table and pointed at where we currently are. “By the way,” I interrupted, pointing the question towards Jacob. “Have you worked for NASA?”

“Yes. I finished aerospace engineering and worked there for about five years before my sister was taken. Why?”

“Oh nothing. It was mentioned that there were a lot of Sliders that work in NASA.”

“There sure are. About a third. But we don’t proclaim it out loud, since the government would lock us up away in a secured facility, testing us.”

“Thanks. Anyway,” turning back towards the map, “We have six places yet to go. Where do we go next.”

We all thought of the possible places that we should go to first, for practical reasons. Kieran queried, “Why not go to Hollywood? While here in America, might as well scour the places about.”

“But what about our group size? Won’t that affect our mobility?” Diana queried. “I mean, sure we’ve got Jacob and stuff, but isn’t it gonna affect him in some way?”

“What about this,” I suggested, “Jacob takes Kieran to France, where he works his charms with his fellow Alchemysts, and we go to Hollywood. When we’re done, we both go the Falkland Islands of Argentina,” pointing to the small cluster of islands, “Where Jacob would go back to D.C. and find other Sliders to help our cause. Then from there we decide our next action.”

I guess I don’t possess natural leadership skills because they all stared at me amazed, like a sloth doing calculus. “That is a great idea, Spence.” The Alchemist agreed. Spence? When did we get so close?

Immediately, after orienting himself with pictures, Jacob transported Kieran. It about fifteen seconds flat, Kieran called that he was already there, simultaneously with Jacob appearing in our front. Grabbing a side of his shoulder, and Diana doing the same on the other, we just found ourselves in a beach, with all these people frolicking in the sun like there’s no tomorrow. And here we were, wearing fancy clothes all the way from Britain.

On our back, we could see the barely-formed ‘Hollywood’ sign in the mountain-side. We are really here. I hope we still have a bit of luck powder left.

Author's Note

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