I’m just about to turn the screen back off when a new dot appears, indicating the presence of a third chaser, this one maybe fifteen yards in front of the tavern. I check the time. It’s 8:00 p.m. exactly, which means the new arrival is me. Specifically, it’s the one I think of as Scout Me, a naïve junior rewinder at the beginning of the mission to observe Cahill. Scout Me’s job is/was to record all the comings and goings at the tavern.
I take a moment to plot a course that will keep me well away from him, but then I pause.
Scout Me’s chaser.
It’s not slaved to Lidia’s.
I could hide my slaved chaser in some bushes, and use Scout Me’s device to hop back a few minutes and be in the woods waiting for her to arrive at the tavern. Since I wouldn’t need to turn off the slave mode, she would think I’m still here and would be unaware as I sneak up on her.
I enter the woods about fifty feet shy of the clearing where the tavern is, and carefully circle through the trees toward Scout Me. As soon as I get a glimpse of him, I pause and check to see where Lidia is.
She, too, has neared the clearing, but has stopped about half a dozen feet within the trees on the side where the wagons are parked. The position gives her a front-row seat for the little shell game the other versions of me are about to play to save my sister and Iffy’s world. In just over a minute, there will be three Dennys near the wagons — Original Me, who is destined to go inside the tavern and cause Cahill to delay his departure; Off Switch Me, whose job it is to stop Original Me and leave the empire’s time line intact so that I could return there to kidnap my sister; and finally, On Switch Me, who’s tasked with stopping Off Switch Me after Ellie is safe. It’s all very complicated and confusing, I know, and I’m sure it’s about to get even more so now that Lidia’s set to join the party.
My plan, what little there is of it, is to wait until Lidia makes her move. I’m sure she will engage the other versions of me, which means Scout Me will see this, taking his attention away from his satchel, which I know is lying at his feet. I’ll grab it, hop back, and stop Lidia before she even gets to this point, ending her march of terror.
I creep through the brush, moving in as close to Scout Me as I can without giving myself away, and then huddle down. All his attention is on the arrival of a new customer, and he is completely unaware of my presence. I want to check on Lidia again, but I don’t dare open the chaser for fear that the light will be noticed. Instead, I look past the wagons, toward the woods where she should be hiding.
On Switch Me is the first to appear. If I didn’t know he was coming, I wouldn’t have picked up on the slight change of shadows at the back of the wagons. Scout Me hasn’t noticed him at all, just as planned. I’m sure Lidia, on the other hand, can’t help but see him.
I tense, my gaze on the clearing, ready to make my move the moment Scout Me sees her break from the forest. But all remains still.
I can’t help but glance over my shoulder to see if she’s decided to sneak up on me. At some point, I know she’s going to want to separate me from my chaser and break our connection so she can roam free through time. It would be poetic to her, no doubt, if this were that moment. But the woods behind me are quiet, nothing moving.
Looking back at the field, I know that by now Off Switch Me should be at the wagons. On Switch is probably moving in behind him to tell him Ellie is safe so there’s no need for him to do anything; as soon as this conversation is over, Off Switch will leave the area. Still no sign of Lidia, though.
What’s she doing? Has the fact that there are two of me caused her to sit tight? If so, she’s about to get another jolt.
In the field beside the wagons, directly in my and Scout Me’s view, appears yet another version of me — Original Me. If Lidia really wants to bring back the empire, now is the time she needs to act. In less than a minute, it will be too late.
No movement. No Lidia running from the woods to throw a wrench into things. No yells to draw everyone’s attention. No nothing. Just the night playing out the way I had designed it.
I have no choice. I need to know where she is, so I crack open my chaser’s lid just far enough for the screen to come on. There are now six dots on the tracking screen. Lidia’s hasn’t moved from the spot I last saw it. Did she only come here to witness what I’d done before? Or did she leave her chaser and is right now moving toward my—
The screen changes to the main jump screen without me doing anything. I’ve never seen this before, but it can mean only one thing. My device is receiving information for a new jump.
My plan to use Scout Me’s chaser is shot, but that doesn’t mean I can’t use it at some future point. There is no time for me to finesse it from him, though. I launch myself forward, wrapping one arm around him to move him out of the way as I reach for his satchel with my free hand. My fingertip is a fraction of an inch away when 1775 disappears.
The jump is longer than any Lidia has taken me on yet. When the mist finally falls away, I tumble forward, my head pounding with the effect of the lengthy trip. My fall, however, is cushioned by a body below me.
Though it wasn’t my intention, Scout Me has come along for the ride. Unfortunately, his satchel has not come with us.
He rolls out from under me and scrambles to his feet, ready to either fight or flee. But as he takes a couple backward steps, he looks at me and freezes.
“What… wha… what are… what?”
“Grab on to me,” I whisper as I push myself up and stumble toward him. It’s pitch-black out, and given recent patterns, I know it’s extremely likely Lidia is following protocol again, and at any moment, we’ll be jumping to daytime.
But Scout Me shirks back. While the person I’ve become has had plenty of experience talking with other versions of me, this is Scout Me’s first time, so he’s understandably freaked out. “Where’s my chaser?” He desperately looks around. “Where’s my chaser?”
“Don’t worry about it right now,” I tell him. “Just—”
“Don’t worry about it? How can you say that?” He pauses. “What are you doing here? Which… where…”
I have to remind myself that he is still a junior rewinder working for the institute. Keeping my voice low, I say, “I need you to hold on to me. We’re not going to be here long.”
He looks around, as if just realizing we’re no longer outside the Three Swans. “Where are we?”
I swear under my breath and then grab him just above the elbow and yank him over, then wrap an arm around his chest so his back is to me.
“What are you doing?” he asks. He struggles with me, but it’s only halfhearted, his confusion making him unsure what he should do.
“Don’t you think you should trust me?” I say.
“But—”
Lidia hits the go button again, and the deep night suddenly dissolves into the yellow light of daybreak.
Scout Me pulls away again, but this time he doesn’t go far. “Where have you taken me?”
“Keep your voice down,” I whisper. At last check, Lidia was about a hundred yards away. It would be to my advantage if I could keep her from knowing I brought someone with me.
His jaw tenses, but he speaks more softly when he says, “Answer my question.”
“I haven’t taken you anywhere.”
“What do you mean by that?”
I pause for a moment. “A lot has happened since I was you.”
“What do you mean since—” He cocks his head, his eyes narrowing. “You don’t look any older than me.”