The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 14, 2399

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It was clear to Leona that Connell was never in the military, nor law enforcement. He was a wretched shot. He was just holding up his gun, and waving it around aimlessly, hoping to eventually hit something. She took it from him, and shot all of the henchmen in the legs. “I’m letting you live,” she announces, “not so you can come after me later, but so you can lick your wounds, and move on with your lives. Your boss is dead. He betrayed me, and karma paid him for it. Leave me alone, or the next time I’m holding a gun, I’ll aim higher. If I later decide that Labhrás is entitled to vengeance, I’ll take care of it myself, and send you the bill.” Satisfied that the firefight was over, Leona went with Connell to Dublin Airport. So they were in Ireland, or at least what’s left of it since most of the North Atlantic Isles were transported to the Fourth Quadrant.

The flight was the longest she’s ever experienced. After a long layover who knows where, it’s turned out that they’ve flown all the way down to Antarctica. Specifically, they’re landing at the Mozambican Naval Fleet Base. This still doesn’t explain who this Connell is, or who his boss might be, but it’s a lead. Technically, it’s not impossible that Coronel Zacarias is the one who is responsible for the bounty, but it’s pretty far-fetched. They left on great terms, and she gave him her contact info, so he would not have needed to set up this crazy elaborate plan to get someone else to kill her. Her guess is that she was right when she thought it was possible that someone had invaded and taken over the Nexus research facility. She’s proven right when they walk inside, and see the people milling about. These are definitely not Mozambican sailors. They’re dressed funny, but not unfamiliarly. She’s seen this kind of clothing before. Where was it?

“Oh, Christ, you’re from the Fifth Division.”

“Precisely, my dear!”

“How the hell did you get here?”

“That is not my right to tell,” Connell replies. “The boss will want to speak with you. It could be today, it could be tomorrow. It could be years from now. You’ll just have to hang out in hock and wait until he’s good and goddamn ready.”

They’ve just entered the hock section when a man jogs up. “Sir. It’s for you?” He hands Connell a comms device.

“Yes?” he asks the person on the other end. “I understand. No, right away, sir.” He hands the device back, and tries to say something to Leona, but she’s distracted.

“I’m okay,” Coronel Zacarias tells her from his cell. “I’m gonna need you to put on a brave face for me, okay?”

“Why didn’t you call?” Leona asks him.

“We’re leaving,” Connell insists, trying to pull her away.

“Get your hands off me,” Leona demands. “I won’t ask a second time.”

“I’m taking you to the boss.”

Leona twists his arm, and flips him onto his back. She steals his gun, and shoots the nearest other Fifth Divisioners. She hits him in the legs again, but she’s prepared to aim higher, like she promised the Irish gangsters.

“Stop!” Connell orders his men before they get the chance to shoot her back. “Stop! She must live!”

Leona lowers the gun to train it on Connell’s forehead. “I left you my number.”

“There was nothing that you could do,” Coronel Zacarias explains. “You would not have been able to come in time.”

“I could teleport.”’

“You can?”

“Well...not anymore, but when this happened, it’s possible. You should have reached out,” Leona reasons.

Zacarias shakes his head. “It would have only placed you in danger along with us. They didn’t know we knew each other. I never told them. They only know now because we’re talking.”

“I’m here now. I’ll get you out.”

“Don’t worry about us.”

She is worried about him. She feels like this is her fault, and it probably is. It usually is. Can she break him out? She could take out all these guys like John Wick before even one of them gets a shot off. The Crucia Heavy doesn’t like firearms, and taught her and Ellie to dislike them too, but she trained them on targeting anyway. It doesn’t matter how good of a fighter you are, you’re not faster than a bullet, and sometimes the only way to stop them from flying towards you is to send your own. Still, even if she got these people out of the cells, what would they do then? Would they escape? That would be a tall order. She has no way off the continent. She doesn’t have any control over the base’s systems, and Zacarias almost certainly doesn’t either. It is as they say, the only way out is through. She’s going to have to be diplomatic. Ugh. She’s no good at that anymore, especially not since her training on Flindekeldan. She carelessly drops the gun on Connell’s chest. “No! Touching!”

Connell is winded. “Yeah. Never again.” He struggles to get himself back to his feet, but slaps the guy who tries to help him away. “Never again,” he repeats. He brushes the dust off his pants, and takes a deep transitional breath. “Now, if you’ll follow me...” He holds his arms out to indicate the direction they’ll be going.

She lunges towards him by only a few centimeters to test his reaction. He flinches, so that’s good to know.

Connell leads her down the corridors, and up the elevator to the top level. It’s above ground and on the far end, allowing them to see the cliff and sea before them on one side, and the snow covered land on the other. “This is as far as I go.”

Leona looks at the ominous door. “Sleep with one eye open,” she warns.

He’s unable to hide a shiver. He starts to walk back the way they came.

Leona readies herself, then opens the door without knocking. Time freezes in her head as she considers who may be on the other side of it. If she didn’t know that this had something to do with her time in the Fifth Division, she may have guessed past and future greatest hits, like Erlendr or Zeferino Preston. Or maybe it’s someone who was actually a friend before, like Serkan Demir or Pribadium Delgado. Those being so random, and having nothing to do with any of these other people here, she dismisses them. She has narrowed it down to Mithridates Preston, Xerian Oyana, or that security guard that they left at the entrance to the time machine that ultimately led them here. They all have beef with Team Matic, or could have conceivably developed one in the meantime. They parted on all right terms, but who knows what has happened since then? The suspect is standing behind a desk, his back to her. She approaches him as he turns around to face her. She winces when she sees his face. “Who the hell are you?”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 13, 2399

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Labhrás moved Leona and Tarboda to a much nicer room, with cots to sleep on, clean running water, and control over the lights. They also allowed them to have a shower, and eat some real food, instead of this reality’s version of hard tack. The door was still locked, but he promised to let Tarboda go at the right time so as to avoid any run-ins with the authorities. The exchange was on, so they all had to get a good night’s rest. It was hard to tell when it was bedtime since Leona had yet to see a window, so they just turned in when they felt tired.

It’s the morning, and Tarboda is gone. Leona is at the exchange with her future grandfather, the two smelly brothers, and a few other goons. Or maybe they’re henchmen. There’s a difference, apparently, and they would probably be offended by being called the wrong one. Labhrás altered the conditions a little bit. Leona is in chains, and she is wearing a hood, but the shackles were bought at a magic shop, so they only appear to be locked, and the hood is see-through. They still want to make it look real while Leona finds out who’s really after her, and why. They’re standing on the docks, which is a truly unique locale for a ransom exchange. Really, no one has ever thought of that before. Why don’t criminals meet at the docks more often?

Leona still doesn’t know where she is. It’s cool, which implies they’re still in the northern hemisphere, and she can taste the salt in the air, so the body of water to her left is an ocean, rather than a lake. That tells her that she’s not in a landlocked region, which rules out places like Kansas. She never thought they were in Kansas, but it would have been nice. As far as she’s aware, her grandparents emigrated out of Ireland, and went straight to Topeka, so it wouldn’t have been the craziest of developments. Then again, they’re in a completely different reality now. Labhrás has probably never even heard of Topeka, and maybe not even Kansas City. None of that has happened yet, and all this timey-wimey stuff is weird and complicated, so maybe it never will. Maybe everything they’re doing now will negate her existence, kind of like what Mateo did to himself when he killed Adolf Hitler, but worse because it would happen in every timeline for her, and she wouldn’t even have the satisfaction of killing Hitler.

“Are ya still with us?” Labhrás asks.

Even with this hood on, he could tell that Leona was stuck in her head. “I’m fine. What time is it?”

“Half past they’re feckin’ late,” he answers. “Pardon my English, Madam.” Hm. What is England to him?

“Doesn’t bother me. That’s not even a real word,” she jokes.

The smellier brother waits for a solid minute before responding with, “yes, it is.”

We don’t wait much longer before a well-dressed man carrying a cane shows up. He’s kempt and confident, and does not seem embarrassed by his tardiness. Leona doesn’t recognize him. Now that doesn’t mean he’s not the one who put a price on her head, but she’s still getting the impression that the true force behind this mess is still living incognito. This guy’s just a lackey. “My name is Connell Arrington,” he announces. British accent; British name. Where are these people from? Happy cliché day, anyway.

“You don’t look like you’re carrying very much money on you?” Labhrás notes.

“Everything is electronic these days, my dear.”

“That’s not what we agreed on. We want untraceable bills.”

“Impossible. You’ll take what you can get, or you’ll get nothing.”

Labhrás just fumes.

Connell goes on, “you identified yourselves as the Bounty Hunters of the Old World. As a result, we are unaware of your specific designation. What is your name?”

“Labhrás Delaney.”

Connell’s eye twitches. He looks over at Leona. “You would give up your own kin for a bit of cash?”

Labhrás looks over at Leona as well. “We are not related.”

Connell twitches again. “You expect me to believe it to be a coincidence that you are both named Delaney?”

“Her name is Leona Matic,” Labhrás tries to clarify.

“Pull the hood off, please,” Connell requests.

Smelly Goon One does so without waiting for Labhrás’ go-ahead.

“Did you not tell him your unmarried name?” Connell asks Leona.

“Do we know each other?” Leona asks, undeftly changing the subject.

“You and I have never met,” Connell begins. “Neither have you and the man I work for. Yet you have wronged us both, and we are here to collect on your sins.”

Leona narrows her eyes at him. “Which sins?”

“All of them,” Connell replies.

“Who are you to make me answer for all of them?”

“We are...in a great position to do so. That is what gives us the right.”

“How are we related?” Labhrás questions, frustrated at the tangent.

She’s been avoiding eye contact, but that’s no longer viable. “It’s complicated.”

“Is it?” Connell asks. Then he has a realization. “Ah, I see. Who is he, then; your son? Great great great great great grandson?”

Labhrás is super confused now.

“You’re my grandfather,” Leona corrects while continuing to look at Labhrás.

“How is that possible? You may be older than me!”

“Time travel, old chap!” Connell says jovially. “She’s from the future.”

“I’m not from the future,” Leona contends. “You are. I don’t know why you go back in time, or how you do it, but it has to happen, or I never exist.”

“Is that all it would take?” Connell asks. “I believe we’ve found our solution.” He twists the handgrip of his cane, and pulls out a gun, instead of the usual sword. He shoots Labhrás in the chest, and then ducks away to avoid gunfire from the henchmen.

Leona catches Labhrás as he’s falling to his back, already coughing up blood. She removes her shackles, and tries to apply pressure to the wound, but he’s not going to make it. “I’m sorry. I would have told you if I thought that this might happen.”

“I’m sorry,” he struggles to say. “Ta...Ta...”

“Thanks? Are you trying to say thanks?”

He shakes his head. “Tarboda. Tarboda is dead.”

Leona’s face falls. Tarboda was not a great friend, but he could have been one day, and he did nothing to deserve that. “You’re no grandfather of mine.” Connell is still in a firefight with the rest of Labhrás’ people. She stands up, and ignores the flying bullets. She walks across no man’s land, and approaches him.

“I thought you would disappear before our very eyes,” he says to her.

“That’s not how it works, you bleedin’ eejit. Now take me to your boss.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 12, 2399

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Leona tried to escape the boiler room two nights ago. Tarboda thought that she was going to remove the chain from her ankle with the wrench, but instead she started banging on the pipes with it, and making a whole ruckus. When the eejit goon came in to see what all the fuss was about, she hit him over the head with it, and stole his keys. She was about to free Tarboda too when she thought better of it. She was in uncharted territory here. The chances that she would actually succeed in escaping were extremely low. They were almost as low as the number of friends she has left. They may try to use Tarboda against her if they think she gives a crap about him, and they may not if they think she doesn’t. He cursed at her as she was running out of the room, but also gave her a wink at the last second, so he understood. Perhaps he can be added to that friend list.

As she suspected, she didn’t make it far at all. The boiler room was one section of a basement with seemingly only one way out. That door at the top of the stairs was locked, and the goon was never given that key. By the time she was able to pick it, his brother was upon her. She didn’t see much of the ground floor, but it looked like the start of a maze. Not a window in sight. But that was okay, because getting out was never the plan. She wanted them to place her in more danger, and activate the fear center of her brain, which would have alerted psychic Kivi to her location. It might have worked too, but only if she were a different person, and the people she was trying to escape were also different. She knew that she was never in any real danger, which is why she couldn’t have just created the fear on her own, and her abductors knew it too.

To her surprise, the goons made no attempt to scare her. They weren’t rough with her, they didn’t yell at her. They did nothing to generate the appropriate psychic signal. They calmly escorted her back to the boiler room and chained her up again. They didn’t even move her to a different pipe. They took the wrench away, and took a cursory glance around to make sure there weren’t any more weapons, but that’s it. It just wasn’t enough. Leona’s escape attempt wasn’t enough to concern them. They felt no compulsion to react, and even if they did, she probably wouldn’t react much worse either, because she has had too much combat training. So she has to be scared for real, which means that she can’t know when—or, really, even that—it’s coming, and when it does come, she can’t let herself decide that everything’s going to be okay since Kivi will rescue her as a result. That’s impossible! She thought she had it figured out, but she was being naïve.

The boss man walks into the room. “I heard we had a bit of trouble.” His accent is still there, but it’s toned down a little. Is he faking?

“That’s what you get with me. I’m trouble, with a capital T, which rhymes with P, and that stands for pool!”

He’s the kind of guy who’s smiling all the time, probably even when he’s pissed off, but he cracks it wider. “Stands for pool,” he echoes. “I like that. I’m gonna use it. The Chinese are movin’ in on some of our territories with drugs hidden in pool tables.”

“Have fun, I’ll probably be making my upteenth escape.”

“I don’t doubt it,” he says. “In fact, you’ll have one more opportunity. We were meant to move ya to the exchange, but something went wrong on the other end.”

“Don’t you hate it when the murderers who paid you to kidnap someone they want to murder can’t get their shit together?”

“You didn’t hear?” he asks. “The bounty’s changed. You’re no longer wanted dead or alive. They’ll only accept you alive.”

“What would be your guess as to why?” Leona questions.

“I would assume there’s somethin’ you can do or tell ‘em that only you can do or tell ‘em.”

Leona doesn’t know what to think of that. Her guess the whole time was that the bounty was only ever on her head because she was forced to kill that asshole TV pundit. But the bounty doesn’t actually say anything about motive. That’s just when it came about, so that’s the connection she made. As far as most people know, she doesn’t know anything that could help them. She’s just the jerk who took their precious demigod away. Maybe it never had anything to do with that. Maybe someone just recognized her on the screen, and knows who she is for other reasons. The talk show could have gone swimmingly, and she still would have ended up in this situation. Or maybe she’s still wrong, because she has no idea what’s going on, who wanted her dead, or why they don’t want that anymore.

“I can see yu have some tinkin’ to do. I’ll leave ya to it. Big day tomorra.” He turns to leave while she’s still lost in her head.

“I have a list,” she says, stopping him.

He’s curious. “A list of what?”

“Of friends, enemies, friends who’ve become enemies, enemies who’ve become friends.”

“Which column am I in?” he asks.

She waits to reply. “That’s for you to decide. I can’t do it for you.”

“What happens to the enemies who never become friends?” he presses.

“You can’t ask them. You can’t ask them anything. You think that guy I killed on TV was my first? Technically, I’ve been responsible for the deaths of billions. No, don’t look over at the pilot, he doesn’t know. He’s just in the fifth, neutral column of my list.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Why do you think?”

“I think you remembered that I offered you a job. Are you finally ready to talk about it?”

“I’ll do whatever you need, as long as it doesn’t involve killin’ someone I don’t want killed, or causing harm to the poor, helpless, or disenfranchised.”

“In return, you want me to call off the exchange?”

Leona chuckles. “No, I want the meet to move forward, but I don’t want to be hooded and chained when it does.”

He sighs. “I think that can be arranged. Anything else?”

“Let him go.” She nods over to Tarboda.

“Can’t be done. He’ll tell someone where we are.”

“Then let’s don’t be here when he does,” she reasons.

He closes his eyes for a few seconds to think. “Very well, bonnie.”

“Before you go again, what’s your name?”

“Labhrás Delaney. May our business be fruitful and prosperous.” He tips his hat and leaves.

Tarboda looks over at her once he’s gone. “Are you two related?”

She’s still in shock. “He’s my grandfather.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 11, 2399

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Aldona knocks on the door and waits. Winona doesn’t come to answer, but she doesn’t respond right away either. It takes her a good ten seconds to say anything at all, and she’s not happy about it. “Uh, yeah, come in.” She doesn’t sound busy or distracted either, it’s more like it took a really long time for the sound to traverse the distance.

“Hey, have you heard from Leona lately?”

“We’re not really talking at the moment,” Winona replies.

“She’s still mad at you for the satellite thing?”

“I’m not providing her or her team with anything right now, which is why she feels comfortable staying mad at me, but knows that she has to tolerate you.”

“Right. Well, I don’t know what you know...”

“I know that she deployed that satellite anyway, and that you destroyed it.”

“I didn’t send the missile, I tried to stop it.” She sighs, feeling alone. But she was prepared for it to be like this. In fact, she thought the mission would be even harder, and she would have no one on her side at all. She expected a lot of pushback, even after people saw what she could build for them. It was not an easy decision, leaving everything that she had grown to love in the Sixth Key. If this works, the timeline will be totally different when she returns, if she even decides to do so, or has the opportunity. She’s cognizant of a lot regarding the future, but every choice she makes here sets her on a more divergent path from the original. Soon, predicting the outcome of events will be as impossible for her as it is for normal people. What will she do then?

“Look, I imagine that Leona isn’t responding to your calls for the same reason she isn’t reaching out to me, because the cons outweigh the pros. If you’re not helping her find her friends, justified or not, she’s not going to bother talking to you. If you change your value, she will react appropriately, and maybe reconnect. So give her something.”

Aldona shakes her head. “No, it isn’t that. The satellite’s fine. I just got word, she diverted the missile to a Chinese spy satellite that was operating over Russia. My clients don’t really understand, but based on the data that only people like us know how to interpret, she teleported the team’s satellite. I can’t find it, but...I think it’s safe. And she would be aware of that, so why is she incommunicado?”

“You think that something’s wrong,” Winona realizes.

“I think the jet is still in the Philippines, but I think she and Tarboda are not. They checked out of their hotel, and never checked in anywhere else.”

“You know she didn’t go there for vacation, right?”

“Vulcan Point is an important location in the history that is currently the present. I’m not an idiot, I always knew that she was going to try to go there, and I knew that she wouldn’t be successful, which is why I made no attempt to stop her, or even talk her out of it. She’s not on that island, so where did she go?”

“Okay, I have a contact in Manila. I’ll call her, and see what she can find out.” 

“I think it’s for the best,” Aldona emphasizes as Winona is finding the contact.

“Kumusta?” the woman on the other end answers through the speakerphone.

“Kumusta, Divina,” Winona returns. “Listen, Leona’s missing. Last we heard, she was in your country. I was hoping that you could ask a few people a few questions?”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 10, 2399

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Leona wakes up with the worst headache she’s ever had, and she’s had a lot of pretty terrible headaches. This one time, someone blended her brain with the memories of two of her alternate selves. The most painful memories were the most severe, overwhelming all the happy ones by orders of magnitude. This is worse than that, and she doesn’t know why. The last thing she remembers, she was leaving the city government building near Vulcan Point, on her way back to the jet. She wasn’t alone either. The pilot was with her. “Tarboda?”

“Present,” he replies in a gravelly voice.

“Do you know where we are?”

“Negative.”

“Do you know what happened to us?”

“Got kidnapped.”

“Hm.” She searches for those memories. They sound familiar, but she still can’t recall what led up to them, or what she was doing. She’s chained to the wall, though, so that tracks. “Did you see them?”

“They came out of nowhere. Couldn’t pick a single one of ‘em out of a line-up.”

“Wait, do you mean that literally? Were they just really quick, or—?”

“Shh! They’re probably listening.”

“Good point.”

“I think they were just really quick.”

“Have you found a light switch anywhere?”

“Can’t see a damned thing. Chained to the wall.”

“Kind of afraid to turn the lights on anyway, lest I find myself chained to a pipe in a moldy bathroom, across from a guy who’s drowning in a bathtub, and a third guy between us with an apparent suicidal gunshot wound to the head, but—spoiler alert—he’s not really dead; he’s the bad guy, and he’s been listening the whole time.”

“That is incredibly specific,” Tarboda replies.

“Yeah.”

“Is anybody else here?” she asks with a raised voice. “We’re awake now!”

A door thunders opening, flooding the room with a light so bright, Leona and Tarboda can’t actually see anything. The door closes just as quickly, and they hear a single clap of the hands. A much more manageable reddish light begins to shine. Leona blinks as the scent begins to hit her too. The man approaching her—and while she still cannot see, let’s face it, it is a man—reeks of expired cologne, butter garlic vapor, and a diaper. He doesn’t smell of a dirty diaper, mind you, but clean diapers have a certain repulsive odor all on their own. It’s like he’s trying to torture them just by being around, and maybe it’s not like it, but that’s precisely his intention.

“What do you want with us?” Tarboda demands to know.

“We want nothing from you.”

Funny, Leona was expecting either a Filipino accent, or North American, but he sounds like he’s from Ireland. If true, it would be interesting to hear him explain where he thinks he’s from since the North Atlantic Isles literally disappeared to another reality, leaving no one with any memories of it. She obviously can’t ask that, though. “Okay, what do you want with me?”

“Yur Leona Matic.”

“I am.”

“Tere’s a bounty on yur head.”

She kind of forgot about that. Kivi Bristol and her team have been working really hard to take down anyone with any serious plans to collect the prize, but they cannot figure out who declared it in the first place. If they could stop them from being able to pay it out, and prove to the world that the bounty was voided, the problem would be solved. Kivi’s special psychic powers have yet to lead her to that ultimate goal. Meanwhile, Leona has been mostly living on the fringes of society, trusting in the discretion and loyalty of the relatively few government employees who have ever been aware of her and Arcadia’s whereabouts. She has not spent much time out in the world. She let her guard down, and this was stupid of her. “Ah, this is about the reward, eh?” She starts talking like a stereotypical caveman. “I primacean. I like stuff. You give me stuff, or I bonk you on a head.”

“What?”

“Idiotsayshuh?”

The abductor pauses. “Huh?” She knew he’d fall for it.

“How do you collect this bounty?”

“We were tinkin’ we could shoot ya, and take a photo.”

“Nah, nah, nah. You can’t do that,” Leona reasons. “Photos can be faked. They’ll never believe you.”

“What would yu do?”

That’s a good question. “For starters, I would take a photo of me holding today’s newspaper.”

“You said photos can be faked.”

She sighs. “Yes, but you’re just getting your foot in the door for now. You send them the photo, and demand payment. When they say it’s not good enough, tell them you want to meet. Bring me to that meeting, and I’ll be the living proof.”

He looks confused. “Then we shoot yu?”

How did she get caught by these people? She can’t help but sigh again. “No. Then you ask to see the money.”

“Hey, I’m not stupid.”

The door opens again, and someone else enters the room. “Get back to your post soldier,” he orders.

“I was just—”

“Get back to your post!” he repeats.

The first guy hangs his head low, and leaves.

“A tousand apologies, Miss Matic. He and his bruda are absolute eejits.”

“Well, you hired them, didn’t you?

“It’s true.”

“And it’s Missus Matic,” she corrects.

“Another tousand apologies.” His eyes dart over to Tarboda.

“No, not him. He’s my pilot. My husband died. He died saving your world. You’re welcome.”

“I don’t know what that means,” he says.

“And you never will. You’re welcome again.”

“Listen, Mrs. Matic. Oi got nothin’ against ya, but we need tat money. Yu shouldn’ta gon’ out in public.”

“You should just get a job.”

“Dis is my job. Yur lucky I’m da one doing it, ‘stead of someone else.”

“And why is that?”

“Oi’m gonna give you a fair chance. If you can come up with a quarter of the money yurself, I won’t turn you in. You come up with half, I’ll take you anywhere in the world. You come up with all da money, I’ll protect ya for life. We take care of our own, and yu can be oneovus.”

“First of all, no thanks. Secondly, I don’t have that kind of money.”

“Yu could also do a job or two for us, start payin’ it off.”

“No. Not interested. I don’t know what kind of jobs a group of people like you would do, but they can’t be good.”

“Oi understand. You’ll have two days to change yur moind. It will take as long to coordinate and negotiate with the bounty-setter.”

“In the meantime, I appreciate your hospitality,” Leona replies sarcastically.

The boss looks around the dirty boiler room. “I’ll see about getting you some better accommodations.”

He nods politely as if she’s just agreed to fill in for him for his shift at the grocery store while he goes to his cousin’s wedding. Then he leaves the room.

“You seem unconcerned,” Tarboda points out.

“I’m in trouble here,” Leona replies. “This means that my friend can find me. She can find anybody.”

“Yeah, I know her. I’ve flown her and her team around a bit.” He takes a beat. “But the way she explained it, she does this through some kind of psychic power, not because she simply guesses where or someone is.”

“That’s right.”

“Which means that not only do you have to be in trouble, but you have to feel like you’re in trouble.”

“What’s your point?”

“Well, if you’re confident that she’ll find you, you won’t be sending her a psychic distress signal, so she won’t be able to find you.”

“You’re right. So I need to feel real fear.”

“How would we go about triggering that? Pardon the awful suggestion, but would it work if I threatened your life? Perhaps I could strangle you with my chains? I mean, I wouldn’t hurt you, but...”

“No, that wouldn’t work. I don’t know where she is, but to prompt her to come this direction, it would have to be a continuous fear, otherwise the signal would just dissipate. I think, at least. I don’t really know how it works, but it makes sense.”

“What can we do?”

Leona stands up, and assesses the area. “We have to get them to do it.”

“How?”

“This would not be the first prison I’ve broken out of. If it works, I get free, and if it doesn’t, I piss them off so much, they put the fear of God in me. Either way, we win.”

“Tell me what to do?”

“Can you reach that wrench?”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 9, 2399

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Leona, Tarboda, and Roeland ate at a sidewalk restaurant that reportedly serves the best adobo in the country. It was the first time Leona ever had it, so she has nothing to compare it to, but it was really good. Roeland talked about himself during the meal. Back in the main sequence, he was known as The Stillness. He could travel forwards or backwards in time, but only after standing in one place for a long period of time. The longer he waited, the further he could go. His record is two weeks, during which he found himself severely dehydrated, but he didn’t do that on purpose. As the story goes, he experienced a miscommunication in a not-to-be-named wartorn country, which resulted in his incarceration in an extremely inhumane prison. He was given no food, and no water the entire time. He couldn’t even sit down in the cage. He had only recently discovered his ability, so he didn’t know what he was doing. More specifically, he didn’t know how far back in time that amount of stillness would take him.

Roeland ended up millions of years in the past, stuck in the mesozoic era. He could either stand around for another two weeks to get back, or make multiple, shorter jumps. But there was a problem with the second option, because he had no way of knowing what year it was, and more to the point, when the extinction level event that would inevitably end the reign of the dinosaurs would come about. While he was confident that he would not need the entire two weeks to clear the death, destruction, and mayhem, he didn’t know the minimum amount of time. He wasn’t particularly good at math, and there were too many variables anyway. It’s not like he could look at the creatures around him, and find out what period that was. Jurassic and Triassic; the only two words he knew that had any relevancy, and they were unhelpful. Funny tangent, based on his description, Leona is pretty sure he ran into Siria Webb while he was back there. This was before a dinosaur tried to eat him, forcing him to jump early.

He wasn’t quite fast enough, and Roeland was severely injured in the attack. Plus, he didn’t make it anywhere near civilization. His best guess is that he landed about 50,000 years ago. A family consisting of a human woman, a neanderthal man, and their child, tended to his wounds. Neanderthals are evidently called primaceans in this reality, which he only learned later once he had recovered enough to continue on his way back to the future, and discovered that everything was different because he was no longer in the main sequence. He has found no way to return home, but has made a life for himself here for over sixty years, the most recent of which he’s lived in this beautiful place to enjoy his retirement. He reiterated the lie that he’s here alone, insisting that no one else is on the recursive island, even though the satellite is still registering a time traveler there.

At the end of the night, Roeland returned to his isolated home, and the other two checked into a regular hotel for the night. The next morning, they walked to the Talisay Municipal Hall to see about getting permission to visit Vulcan Point. The people in charge were extremely hesitant to even entertain the idea. Roeland and his daughter—she knew it—went through a lot to convince the government to let them become residents there. The whole reason they eventually agreed is because the Harlows agreed to have no visitors over, even for a few hours. They live in a little hut with no running water, and no electricity, and they do not disturb the wildlife. They boat and walk to the city once a week for supplies, carrying all of their waste with them, including what would normally go into a toilet. The fact that they could not honestly say that they were friends with the Harlows did not help their case. In the end, they had no recourse. These people do not want them here, so they have to leave.

They’re on their way back to the airfield when Leona stops. “Wait.” She swipes through the screens to make sure that she’s seeing this right. “I can’t believe this.”

“What? What is it?” Tarboda asks.

“There’s a missile heading for my satellite. At least that’s what...yep, there’s no other object that it could possibly be on course to intercept.”

“You have a satellite?”

Leona dials her phone, and waits for Aldona to answer. “You didn’t know anything about this?”

“I don’t know anything, ma’am. I’m just the pilot,” Tarboda says.

She believes him. Aldona answers. “Hey, Al. You’re tryna shoot me down.”

“I’m sorry, it’s out of my hands. They told me they were going to refuse to let you put it up there, but I guess they found out that you deployed it anyway. They didn’t even tell me they were sending a high-orbit missile, or I would have called you. I imagine we detected it at the same time.”

“When you were talking to them about it, did you tell them that I’m a great friend...and a terrible enemy?”

“I...didn’t know that myself,” Aldona replies.

“Welp, you’re about to find out...and so are they.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to initiate the satellite’s defenses.”

“Leona, if you go to war...”

“They started it,” Leona contends.

“Okay, but they didn’t.”

“I’m trying to help them. I’m trying to help you. I went on vacation, and kept working. The updated design for the lunar H3 refinery should have crossed your desk about an hour ago.”

“It did, and it looks perfect, but that doesn’t mean—”

“Goodbye,” Aldona.

“Don’t do this.”

“Goodbye,” Leona repeats right before hanging up. She sighs as she’s accessing the satellite’s secondary protocols. She releases the decoy, then teleports the rest of it to the other side of the planet, turning it into a darklurker for a time until she can figure out a more sustainable solution. It’ll keep orbiting using a relatively hard to see EM drive, but it won’t be doing any scans for the foreseeable future. Still, it’s better than losing it altogether.

Tarboda is grimacing. “What did you just do?”

“I released something called a leechcraft. It’s going to find one of their satellites, latch onto it, and lure the missile to destroy it instead. Go ahead and call someone to warn them. It won’t matter, they can’t stop it.”

“Nope. I’m good. I’m with you,” he assures her.

“If that’s true, then we’re both gonna need to go somewhere to hide out.”

“I have some friends in a nonextradition country. You ever been to Croatia?”

They don’t make it one meter towards Croatia before they’re hooded and sedated.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 8, 2399

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Roeland’s little outburst alerted the authorities to his presence at the quarantine hotel. They ran over right quick to place him in his own quarantine, which will only partially overlap Leona and Tarboda’s. It isn’t until late the next night that they’re able to reconnect in the post-transition lobby. “Mr. Roeland. Do you have time to talk?”

“I do if you have time to tell me what this is.” He pulls his shirt away to show the timonite stain again.

“We’re not sure how it works, or really why. My husband was infected with that—that’s not really the right word, he wasn’t infected. It started out as a rock, and he somehow...absorbed its power. It’s what fueled his ability to teleport to orbit, and install something I now call a leechcraft on a preexisting satellite. The leechcraft was designed to scan the entire surface of the Earth, looking for time travelers. Well, it was only meant to find a specific person, but we think it found everyone, including you and...”

“Go on. Including me, and who?”

“And whoever you’re living with on Vulcan Point.”

“I told you, I’m not living with anyone. I’m alone. Your scanner is wrong. And you’ve still not explained why this thing is on my shoulder.”

“It must have gotten on the scanner, and then got transferred to you during the scanning process. It was entirely unintentional, but as long as you don’t step within proximity of my husband, you’ll be fine.”

“What happens if I do get too close to him?”

“It would transport you to another universe. There you would find all sorts of objects that were randomly dropped there from the multiverse.”

“How do I prevent this from happening accidentally? What if we end up sitting next to each other in a couple of bathroom stalls without realizing it?”

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

“Why not?”

“He’s dead.” She doesn’t believe that, but all evidence points to it, and admitting her true feelings undermines her argument that Roeland is safe, so she’s not going to mention it.

He nods. He’s old, and has seen death, so likely he no longer feels the need to pretend to be butthurt over the death of a complete stranger, like most people do. He’s more honestly indifferent. “So you have one too?

“A timonite stain? I don’t.”

“Why not. Were you not on Earth when it was scanned?”

“No, I was, but...” That’s a good question.

He turtles his head out when she doesn’t finish her sentence.

“You’re right. Why weren’t we also marked? We found eleven errors, but that number was in addition to the people we already knew about, so we disregarded them.” That’s a good goddamn question.

“This kind of implies that it actually was intentional,” Roeland points out. “Who’s the we in this scenario? Who helped you build the thing?”

“No. Ramses would never do something like that.”

“Ramses Abdulrashid? He’s one of us?”

“He’s a time traveler, but he doesn’t have a power or pattern. Or rather, he does have a pattern now, but he wasn’t born that way. He turned himself into it. How do you know him?”

“I don’t know him personally, only by reputation. In my timeline, he was a famous engineer for the Freemarketers in the early 23rd century. Legend has it, he defied them, and defected to the mainstream. They consider him the first domino to fall. The movement did not last long after that.”

“That’s a wholly inaccurate story. The truth is he didn’t defect to the mainstream, he defected to us. How you would have heard about it at all, but not known that part, is bizarre, especially since a great deal of Freemarketers were reportedly killed in an interstellar ship cataclysm, but were rescued by Dardius.”

“Then you and I are from different timelines, because the Ramses Abdulrashid that I learned about in school went on to become an activist for the post-scarcity lifestyle, focusing on educating and rehabilitating the most violent of antiestablishment insurrectionists. He refused most life extension advancements, considering him unworthy of immortality since he rejected handouts prior to his epiphany, so he eventually died. I don’t recall the details of his life; I was born in the 24th.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely different.”

“Is he here? I would not mind meeting him, even if it is an alternate version.”

Leona is staring into space. “No, he’s lost, I can’t find him.”

“Can’t your satellite scanner do it?”

“He designed the thing. I’m sure he has a way to shield himself from it.”

This piques Roeland’s interest even more than the news about Ramses. “Really? How would one go about doing that?”

“Are you hoping to keep us from finding the other ping that we’ve detected on Vulcan Point?” Leona guesses.

“I’m telling you, there is something wrong with it. I live alone. I chose that spot because it’s beautiful and remote.”

She takes out her handheld device, and shows him the data. “My satellite scans every ninety minutes. Whoever was there with you during the first pass is still on the island. See? This is you, this is me, and that is the other person.”

“I don’t know what to tell ya. If there’s another time traveler in the area, maybe it’s, like, a rabbit who unwittingly ate some—what did you call it?—timonite, and ended up there. It’s not a human. I would know. It’s a very tiny island.”

Leona shakes her head. He is showing all signs of lying, through macro and microexpressions alike. If she knew him prior to this, she might be able to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he could be keeping Alyssa prisoner. She could be trying to get away as they speak. It would be irresponsible of Leona to just walk away without investigating. If the other error is fine, she’ll leave without further questions, and try to forget it ever happened, but until then, she is getting on that damn island. It’s up to her to find Alyssa. She’s the only one who can. No one else is capable, and no one else cares. Ramses made that quite clear when he abandoned them. Roeland is looking at her with puppy dog eyes, so she can’t just keep arguing with him about it. “Okay, I believe you.”

“Good. Are ya hungry? I found the quarantine food to be no bueno. Perhaps you and your bodyguard would like to join me for a late night snack. I know a great place.”

She laughs. “He’s not my bodyguard. If anything, I’m his.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: February 7, 2399

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Leona received Ramses’ message. She understands the low chances of finding her husband, dead or alive, but she will hold onto hope. She’ll never let go of it. She’s never done it before, and she’s always ended up right. Mateo has died so many times, it’s not even funny. He was once completely removed from existence by an asshole god creature, and not even that lasted. She’ll get him back, even if she has to break Danica’s rule, and travel through time for a rescue mission. She does need more information, though, which is why she has asked Aldona for a favor.

“Well, which volcano was this?”

“Ramses didn’t say,” Leona replies.

“Did you try calling him back?”

“The line is dead. He’s cut all ties.”

“Makes sense. I’m sorry”

“So, is there nothing we can do? Is there no chance?”

“I’m an expert in antimatter rocket engines. I’ve never operated a teleportation machine. Is there some way to...I dunno, trace it? Seems as though it would make a pretty big mark on the world, an explosion like that. And since there isn’t much teleportation going on in this reality, it should be unique, or at least rare.”

“I don’t know enough about it either,” Leona admits. “That particular machine is more his area. But yes, there is a way to trace teleportation. Unfortunately, the, umm...”

“Oh, shit, you didn’t get your satellite in orbit.”

“No.”

“Because I didn’t let you.”

Leona waits to respond. “Right.”

Aldona sighs. “I don’t suppose getting up there now would do you any good.”

“Not for this issue, no.”

“I’m worried something like this will happen again, though. If you need to be able to trace temporal powers, then I’ll make sure that you have what you need. I’ll fast-track authorization. As far as Mateo goes, there may be other ways. Like I said, it was a big explosion. Sure, a volcano is already pretty violent, but maybe one of them exhibited some unusual behavior recently. That sort of thing would be recorded by other research instruments that have nothing to do with any of this. Let me make a few calls.”

“I would appreciate that.”

Aldona nods, and leaves Leona’s office. A few seconds later, she reopens the door. “You’re off today. Just relax.”

“Okay,” Leona says, but she’s not going to do that. It’s not what Mateo would want, and it’s not practical. She doesn’t have the resources or connections to locate the volcano where her husband supposedly died, so taking any time off is a waste of the stuff. As a traveler, she understands the value of a day, and what it will cost them if they lose one. When they figure out which volcano to even search in the first place, maybe she’ll stop what she’s doing to investigate. Until then, she’s going to focus on her work. This does not change her responsibilities or obligations. In fact, things are even more dire. They can’t prove that Constance!Five was destroyed any more than they can prove it for Mateo. The danger remains. Having that satellite up there sooner rather than later would sure help, though. So why wait?

They talk of it being placed in orbit, but it already is in orbit. It just needs to be deployed from Mangrove Zero, and become independent. That can be done remotely by piloting the onboard robotics. All right, so she’s not going to work exactly, but Aldona gave her permission to do whatever she wanted, so she’s going to consider this a gray area. She logs herself into the system, and gets to work. It only takes about thirty minutes before it’s where it needs to be, free from the confines of the rocket, and able to operate on its own. Now it’s only a matter of time before it makes a complete pass around the planet, and scans every brain in the world for neurotemporal irregularities. She leans back to wait for it, but gets a hit right away.

“What the hell is that?” she asks herself out loud. Antarctica is positively brimming with temporal errors. Coronel Zacarias must have figured out how to activate the Nexus, and has invited visitors to this world, perhaps from other universes. There’s actually no way to know if they are visitors. Maybe they invited themselves, and are starting an invasion. The Mozambican Navy may require assistance, or not. She does not have a way to contact them, and she has no idea whether Mozambique is even involved in the Mangrove Program, so it’s best not to cross those streams. And anyway, there were only eleven pings during the first scan, so these people don’t count. So she does lean back, and wait for the full scan.

An hour and a half later, another hit comes up on the screen. No, it’s two hits in the same place. We got ourselves a pair, and they’re close. They’re on Vulcan Point. What a coincidence, that’s one of the places she’s supposed to go. Now is as good a time as any. She’s on vacation, and she’s all alone here. She’s experiencing a healthy professional relationship with Aldona, but they are not friends. They’re certainly not vacation buddies. Yeah, it’s not really a vacation, but that’s exactly what she’s going to call it when she requisitions the jet. She finishes a few outstanding items on her to-do list, then heads up to the transportation office. Apparently everyone at this facility has heard what happened, so the administrators are happy to give her access to a jet. She’s not a pilot, though, so she can’t go alone.

“Captain Tarboda Hobson,” Leona remarks as she’s walking towards the steps. “You’re involved in everything, aren’t ya?”

“I’m always here for you, Mrs. Matic.”

“I thank you for that. Have you finished your preflight checklist?”

“I have. I’m ready to go if you are. Allow me.” He holds out a hand, and escorts her up to the jet. In the main sequence, the U.S.A. makes the best aircraft, but here, it’s Russia without a doubt. This bird is one of theirs, and while Russia proper is not part of the alliance, there is a faction working at Mangrove in secret. They’ve not fully defected.

An hour later, they land in an airfield that’s about thirty minutes from Taal Lake. It is here that they are asked to wait in a 24-hour quarantine. They’re getting ready for bed when they hear a knock at the door. Leona opens it to find an old man on the other side. “Can I help you?” she asks.

“My name is Roeland Harlow.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Roeland Harlow.” Who is this guy?

“I believe you’re here for me.” He pulls his shirt away to reveal the timonite stain on his shoulder that got on all of the travelers that Ramses’ original satellite scanned.

“I was actually looking for two of you.”

He scowls and points aggressively. “No. There is only me. You’ll talk to me!”