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  John joined in on Rydel's excitement and smiled a crazy smile—like he had hit the lottery and then won Olympic gold. "Okay, let's take a break before my head implodes. Ray and my sister packed you up a turkey sandwich and some dessert. Eat something, Rydel."

  "You brought me Thanksgiving leftovers?"

  "I did."

  Tears started to stream down each side of Rydel's face. He smiled at John while still crying. And it became apparent to John that the scientist in front of him had no idea he was crying.

  "Okay, Rydel, easy now. It's just a turkey sandwich and a slice of pie. Why don't you just eat something and rest for a bit."

  "Sleep and a turkey sandwich would be nice, John."

  "Okay then, let's help you out with that."

  "I haven't had a Thanksgiving meal in a long time. A turkey sandwich and…and did you say pie too?"

  "I did, Rydel. Pie as well, so come on, now, and let's get you set up."

  Yes, Rydel was starting to lose it, John could see it; he had seen it before. Get Rydel rested and treated by the doctors here at the lab, John thought. Because if there was any truth to what Rydel was rambling on about with the Martinez chip, the country and the people he swore to protect could truly sleep in peace.

  The two made their way down the hallway outside the colonel's office. Rydel stopped suddenly and placed a hand on John's chest.

  "Do you have any idea what we have here, John?"

  "I'm starting to have an idea, if everything you told me is true, Rydel."

  "It is, John. It's true. It's really true!"

  Fourth of July

  Bursting fireworks began to light the deep orange-red sky. This wasn't just your local neighborhood gathering with firecrackers and bottle rockets celebrating the evening—the sky over Ray Catlin's backyard glowed in amazing colors of red, white, and blue. Being in the military had benefits—like the ass-kicking fireworks the Catlins got their hands on to shoot off every Fourth of July. No one within a three-block radius ever missed the display in the sky above the Catlins' home.

  After shooting off the fireworks, Ray turned to the large gathering of friends and neighbors in his white-fenced, perfectly landscaped backyard and held up his arms as the cheers around him grew.

  "Okay, that's just the first wave. More to come after we have some of the ribs Mike has been cooking in my yard all afternoon. Let's eat!"

  The guests of the Catlins' Fourth of July party started to file toward the barbecue pit set deep in the corner of the yard. At the other end of the yard, John Adams, wearing khaki shorts and a black T-shirt that was unable to hide the man's huge shoulders and arms, quickly walked up behind Ray and tugged on his shirt.

  "Hey, need to talk to you alone for a second."

  "Cool, I need to talk to you alone for a second."

  The two started to walk away from the rest. Ray placed an arm of affection over John's shoulders, gazing at him with his beer-induced happy eyes.

  "Hey, what do you think of Ashley, John?"

  "Huh?"

  "My next-door neighbor. I think you met her when you got here, she was just standing over there with Kate."

  "She's nice, I guess."

  "Nice enough to take out on a date? She hasn't stop looking at you, and she won't stop talking to Kate about you. She's recently divorced. No children, husband went to jail for insider trading. Guy was ass-wrong from the first time I met him, just weird. And he always smelled like cat food every time I talked to him. Ashley, right now, is just waiting for the right guy to come along."

  "Are you trying to set me up?"

  "Yep."

  "Come with me, Ray—please."

  John walked Ray out to the front yard and gestured toward a large willow tree on the front lawn. The tree leaned to one side, its branches reaching the ground. At the other side was an opening like something out of a J. R. R. Tolkien book—the limbs parted at the center, revealing the tree's gnarled trunk. John pointed toward the opening between the branches, and the two made their way under the tree to talk privately.

  "Rydel discovered something from Martinez's Shutdown chip, Ray. Something we have been developing at Genesis. When the time is right, I'll be able to tell you more—"

  Confused, Ray held up his hands for John to stop. "Whoa, whoa. Developing? From the chip? What do you mean?"

  "My brother hitting on you again, Ray?"

  John and Ray spun around to see Kate standing outside the branches; both men were surprised they hadn’t heard her approach.

  "Get over it, John. He's mine."

  Kate walked through the opening and wrapped her arms around Ray's waist from behind, kissing him on the cheek and then dragging him away.

  "Both of you, back to the party, right now. You two are off the clock. Whatever is so important can wait, unless we are going to war."

  Ray glanced back at John with a look—Not much I can do here—letting Kate drag him back to the party. John raised a finger and pressed it to his lips. Ray nodded, understanding completely.

  One Year and One Week Later

  Colonel John Adams, Rydel, and Will sat at a white oval table inside another ubiquitous white room at the Genesis lab. Rydel had asked the two men to meet him in the room. Time had taken a toll on Rydel, his body now dangerously thin. There was also something with his eyes; they looked eager and at the same time hollow. Rydel held his hands up to his lips as if he were praying and then lowered his hands on the white table before him.

  "Placement is ready," Rydel said in a matter-of-fact tone. "We've had two successful times out. Now is the time for Placement to do what it was meant to do."

  The colonel clasped his hands behind his head, leaning back in his chair. "Rydel, we didn't change anything in the past. We only traveled back."

  "By traveling back, didn't we in some way change the past by us just being there, John? There's really no more testing we can do. It's safe."

  Colonel Adams turned in his chair to face Will, seated next to him. "Will, your thoughts here?"

  "I agree with Rydel."

  Rydel leaned closer to the colonel. "It is time, John."

  The colonel stood up.

  "I'll talk to the general. If it's a go, we will test it in Japan. I have to be at Blackburn next week. And I'll be one of the ones going out to oversee what we change in the past."

  The colonel left the room and was on a private jet twenty minutes later, ready for takeoff.

  __

  The jet had him in Arizona in less than five hours. When John called the general, the man set aside everything he was working on and told John to meet him ASAP to go over Placement's next stage. The general, like John, knew the day would be approaching soon for Placement to be fully tested. But both had their reservations.

  After the jet touched down in Arizona, a tan JLTV truck drove John to the general's location twenty-five minutes away at a military base nestled between twin mountain peaks. Their towering presence gave the appearance they were guarding the base named Mountain Peaks 1776, nicknamed Ridge. With the advanced technology and number of men overlooking Ridge from the twin peaks, that was exactly what the mountains were doing.

  General Dowling, a man of medium build with thick gray hair and blue eyes and dressed in uniform, greeted John as he stepped out of the truck.

  "John."

  "Hey, Lyle."

  "Let's take a walk."

  After walking just over a mile, the two had made it halfway up one of the guardian mountains before the first word was spoken.

  "It's up ahead," the general said.

  "What is, Lyle?"

  "The only place around here I feel comfortable talking about Placement."

  The two walked on for another twenty minutes and reached a mountain cave. Just as they entered the cave, the general held up a hand for John to stop.

  "Here is good."

  Enough sunlight from outside lit up the cave so the two could still see each other and a little of what was behind them. Standing by the cave's
round opening, they were able to see the base below lit by the afternoon sun.

  "So Rydel and Will want to change something in the past," the general bluntly said.

  John sighed a little. "They do."

  "You sound as excited about the idea as I am. Do you think it's time? Has every possible test been done to make sure it's safe, John?"

  "Will and Rydel believe they are at the point with Placement where the next step has to be taken. They have nothing left to test. However, I will be going back with two other men. And I'll decide what we will change in the past, making sure it's an obscure moment in time."

  General Dowling took a couple of steps away from John and stared down at the base, casually kicking away a few small rocks by his feet. With his back to John, he nodded. "Do it," he said, and began to make his way back to the base below. John followed.

  __

  By nightfall, six hours later, John was on a jet headed back to Genesis. Looking at the moon outside the private jet's window, John felt he had somehow let the general down with the way he was handling Placement. Lyle was a friend away from the job; they were close. Both felt more testing should be done, but John did not have a valid reason to wait any longer. He had overseen the project for almost two years now. It was time to use it. As for the general having the same feelings about holding off until further testing could be done…it was disconcerting. Everybody else involved with Placement seemed gung-ho for the next step to be taken with the project.

  It was a gut feeling both men had. But Rydel was right; it had to be used to its full potential eventually. And the scientists, along with Rydel and Will, were exasperated. There were no more tests to be done. It was time.

  Japan

  At the American military base in Japan named Blackburn, a lab was located two levels underground. Inside, techs sat at a black table, each one in front of a computer monitor. Off to the side, behind the lab personnel, Rydel and Will stood staring down at a blank laptop computer screen on a black table of their own. The two waited.

  The laptop came to life with individual pulsing red lights appearing on the screen. "They're back. Inside sleeping quarters 19," Will said to Rydel.

  A booming sound sent Will and Rydel falling to their knees. The half-dozen lab techs in front of them hit the floor hard, and then they were all in the dark. Above, emergency lighting sputtered on. Another sound, like water inside a washing machine, filled the room, followed by silence.

  Rydel and Will were the first to rise from the floor. Rydel looked around at the others to see if anyone was injured.

  "Rydel, let's go!" Will screamed.

  "Wait, we need to check on the others."

  "Now, Rydel!"

  Will turned and ran toward the room's twin doors, opened them, and waited for Rydel to join him.

  "Move, Rydel."

  Rydel reluctantly started to walk toward Will and then stopped.

  "No, Will."

  Rydel ran back to the other lab techs on the floor and began to check each one, taking in the seriousness of their injuries.

  "Rydel, let's go—let's go!" Will shouted, his voice angry and desperate.

  Without looking back at Will, Rydel shouted just as intensely. "I can't!"

  Three of the lab techs started to rise to their feet, staring blankly at Rydel. Rydel scampered over to the other techs unconscious on the floor. The last tech that he placed his hands on wasn't breathing. Rydel began CPR on the man just as another boom sent the lab into darkness for a few seconds, then the lights returned. Will had seen and had enough. He slipped out of the lab's twin doors and started to make his way to the panic room. Fluorescent lights, flickering off and on, lit his way down the hallway. He turned at the corner, slammed open the door to his right, and ran into John Adams's chest.

  Two men stood behind John, eyeing Will. John grabbed Will's arms.

  "What the hell's happening outside, Will?"

  "I—uh…I don't know."

  "You don't know—what the hell do you mean you don't know?"

  "The lab got hit by something outside. Some are hurt—"

  John sunk his fingers into Will's arms, and the man lowered to the ground from the pain inflicted. "Where's Rydel?"

  "Still inside the lab."

  John looked over his shoulder at the two men standing behind him. "You two look after him. Take him below—do not take your eyes off him."

  "Why are you making me out to be the one that did something wrong?" Will meekly asked John.

  John motioned for the two men to take Will away—right now. Both men, military-trained with beefy bodies and thick necks, took Will by each arm and led him away. John ran down the hallway and, in under a minute, reached and entered the lab to find Rydel leaning over a lab tech who'd just recently been stationed here. Jay Harold—a fellow New York Giants fan John would talk football with, primarily about how their team was going in the wrong damn direction.

  Rydel lifted his head and spotted John out of the corner of his eye. "Heart attack, I believe. He's breathing now, John. But we need to get him proper medical."

  Upstate New York

  Rydel and Will sat at a table in one of the Genesis lab's white rooms as John paced back and forth behind them. Printouts took up all the space on the table in front of Rydel and Will. Both men had their eyes fixed on the papers.

  John glared down at the two studying the printouts. "That would be the death toll as of yesterday. Before I made it to this room, I was told five more bodies had been recovered. That makes it three thousand and sixty-six lives lost."

  The colonel began to snatch up each printout in front of Rydel and Will. The two could see and feel the anger coming off John; they neither moved nor looked up at him as he ripped the printouts away.

  "Look what we did by going back and giving a man just one more minute to live."

  Finally, Rydel had the courage to speak up for himself, and for Will, on their decision to test Placement the way the two had agreed it needed to be tested.

  "I pray for the souls of the tsunami victims each day, John. But Placement had nothing to do with what happened. Placement is meant to save lives. I know it."

  "That's what we thought when you first discovered it, Rydel. But not now."

  "The tsunami was nothing more than a coincidence."

  "Coincidence? It hit at the exact second we returned from the past. Without any sort of warning. I think that's a little bit more than a fucking coincidence!" John walked over to where Will was seated and stood over him.

  "Anything to add, Will? Anything at all?"

  "Maybe another mission out. We can—"

  "No! No more! The general has shut down that part of the program. No further missions out until we are certain that changing the past had nothing to do with this disaster killing thousands. And just let me repeat that to the both of you—thousands. Thousands of lives were lost."

  Will leaned on the conference table with a hand on each side of his face, rubbing his temples and lowering his head, his body language agreeing with John. Rydel stood up from the table and left the room. With Rydel now gone, John sat down next to Will.

  "How is he, Will?"

  "I don't know yet."

  "You better fucking know! You run everything here. Rydel looks and seems off. Am I wrong?"

  "No, you are not wrong."

  __

  John and Will gave Rydel some time alone. After two days of leaving Rydel to himself, John decided Will could use some time off—a full week. When Will argued that he thought time away from the lab would be a bad idea now, John tacked on another seven days and ordered Will to take a two-week vacation. Will was, without a doubt, one to watch. John knew his reason for being on this earth was to protect humanity. But there was always the flip side of the coin—and John usually could sense the people who hated their own kind. John wasn't sure if Will fit the criteria of that kind of person yet, but he had his concerns. Unlike Rydel, Will seemed only to be invested in his projects to prove what he could
do with his gifted mind.

  Rydel's mind was different. John knew it, and Will sure as shit knew it. And there was something inherently good about Rydel. Hell, the colonel had been on a first-name basis with Rydel after only knowing the man for a month—it did not matter who was in the room. Not only was Rydel exceptionally talented at what he did, his heart was huge when it came to humanity. Not so with Will. These two men with their incredible minds—their country needed them both. But Rydel came first. He had to be protected at all costs; he was too damn gifted.

  John kept away from Rydel for almost a week into Will's forced vacation until a custodian named Dan knocked on his office door and told him Rydel had not left his workplace for three days. Rydel would always ask Dan about his daughter Jamie and how she was doing at Cambridge.

  "He's just in there like he's in some kind of coma or something," Dan had said to John with concern.

  So John rushed to Rydel's workplace with the custodian behind him. He had no time to tell the man to back off and could not come up with a reason why he should. The two entered the room and found Rydel facedown on the keyboard of his computer. John hurried over and eased Rydel back, checking his pulse. Feeling the beat of Rydel's heart, John spoke loudly, trying to wake him.

  "Rydel! Hey—Rydel, wake up!"

  Rydel snapped his head up and stared at John as if he didn't recognize him. The colonel could see Rydel was completely burned out, his glassy eyes staring back at him.

  "Enough. You need to rest. You're no good to yourself—or to the lab—working like this." The colonel eased Rydel up to his feet.

  "Come on, Rydel."

  __

  In his private room at Genesis, Rydel was on his tenth hour of undisturbed sleep when his cell phone woke him. The buzzing of the phone vibrating on the nightstand next to his bed finally broke Rydel away from his vampire-like slumber. The room was dark with the exception of two laptops and their streaming aquatic deep-blue screensavers. He turned his head toward the nightstand and, on the eighth vibration, opened his eyes.