Houseman. He wasn’t here.”
“Then who was? Got any ideas on that?”
She shook her head. She’d seen the data; the only transits had been those made by the killer, Houseman, and McElroy—
unless someone else had come through since she’d transited.
That someone could easily have arranged to come through
before
the killer, before everyone else; it wasn’t exactly a simple matter to set the time and space coordinates, but the computers could handle the task within a fraction of a second.
Someone else had come through. Who? Why? Was this someone also the person who had shot at her today? Again,
why
?
9
“I gather this isn’t good news to you,” he said, sharply watching her.
Nikita shook her head. “Someone came through whom I don’t know about,” she said, feeling a little numb. “Could be good news, could be bad news. I have no way of knowing if that was an authorized traveler or reinforcements for the killer.” She pointed at the screen. “That hole in the ground . . . what was it?” She thought she knew, and wondered how she, how all of them, could have been so smart that they’d outsmarted themselves.
“Twenty years ago, the town buried a time capsule there,” Knox said. “Monday morning, someone dug it up and stole it. You’re saying one of your time travelers did it? First, why doesn’t digging it up show on the film? Second—why in hell would anyone want a time capsule?”
“First, when someone comes through, it sort of—
freezes
time for a little while, as if everything has been shocked and can’t move. That’s one of the arguments the anti-time-transit groups use to prove that we shouldn’t be doing it. The physicists haven’t been able to explain it yet, but they have a theory that the traveler has to completely mesh with the new time on a molecular level before everything returns to normal.”
“But while everything else is ‘frozen,’ is the time traveler? Shouldn’t this last only a few seconds, instead of the time it would have taken someone to dig up the capsule?”
“Theoretically, the pause is very brief, a fraction of a second. It’s so brief that I don’t think anyone has ever thought about whether or not the traveler is also immobilized.”
“You can’t move a granite marker and dig up a capsule in a fraction of a second.”
“No,” she said hesitantly. “Unless there’s technology that I don’t know about, but the FBI makes a real effort to stay abreast of new technological developments.”
“So that still doesn’t explain how the time capsule went missing.” He looked disappointed. “Unless the pause is much longer than anyone thought. I would say that’s the only logical explanation, but the word
logic
doesn’t really fit this conversation, does it? But how about the second part of my question: Why?”
“There was a paper buried in this particular time capsule that contained the theory and some of the process for successfully traversing time,” she said. “If that paper isn’t in the time capsule when it’s opened in 2085, or if the time capsule itself is stolen, then the technology won’t be developed.”
“In
our
little time capsule?” he asked skeptically. “Who wrote something like that? I don’t know of any quantum physics genius around here.”
“No one knows who wrote the paper. Maybe it was known at one time, but the information didn’t survive. A lot of digital information was lost or corrupted before people realized discs weren’t a good way to archive anything.”
“I was there,” he said in an abstracted undertone.
“What? When?”
“When the capsule was buried. January first, 1985. The newspaper said twelve items were going into the capsule, but I counted thirteen. A research paper wasn’t among the items mentioned. I never did find out what the thirteenth item was.”
“Then it must have been that paper.” She sighed and stared out the window at the gorgeous blue sky, with the occasional fat white
“Then who was? Got any ideas on that?”
She shook her head. She’d seen the data; the only transits had been those made by the killer, Houseman, and McElroy—
unless someone else had come through since she’d transited.
That someone could easily have arranged to come through
before
the killer, before everyone else; it wasn’t exactly a simple matter to set the time and space coordinates, but the computers could handle the task within a fraction of a second.
Someone else had come through. Who? Why? Was this someone also the person who had shot at her today? Again,
why
?
9
“I gather this isn’t good news to you,” he said, sharply watching her.
Nikita shook her head. “Someone came through whom I don’t know about,” she said, feeling a little numb. “Could be good news, could be bad news. I have no way of knowing if that was an authorized traveler or reinforcements for the killer.” She pointed at the screen. “That hole in the ground . . . what was it?” She thought she knew, and wondered how she, how all of them, could have been so smart that they’d outsmarted themselves.
“Twenty years ago, the town buried a time capsule there,” Knox said. “Monday morning, someone dug it up and stole it. You’re saying one of your time travelers did it? First, why doesn’t digging it up show on the film? Second—why in hell would anyone want a time capsule?”
“First, when someone comes through, it sort of—
freezes
time for a little while, as if everything has been shocked and can’t move. That’s one of the arguments the anti-time-transit groups use to prove that we shouldn’t be doing it. The physicists haven’t been able to explain it yet, but they have a theory that the traveler has to completely mesh with the new time on a molecular level before everything returns to normal.”
“But while everything else is ‘frozen,’ is the time traveler? Shouldn’t this last only a few seconds, instead of the time it would have taken someone to dig up the capsule?”
“Theoretically, the pause is very brief, a fraction of a second. It’s so brief that I don’t think anyone has ever thought about whether or not the traveler is also immobilized.”
“You can’t move a granite marker and dig up a capsule in a fraction of a second.”
“No,” she said hesitantly. “Unless there’s technology that I don’t know about, but the FBI makes a real effort to stay abreast of new technological developments.”
“So that still doesn’t explain how the time capsule went missing.” He looked disappointed. “Unless the pause is much longer than anyone thought. I would say that’s the only logical explanation, but the word
logic
doesn’t really fit this conversation, does it? But how about the second part of my question: Why?”
“There was a paper buried in this particular time capsule that contained the theory and some of the process for successfully traversing time,” she said. “If that paper isn’t in the time capsule when it’s opened in 2085, or if the time capsule itself is stolen, then the technology won’t be developed.”
“In
our
little time capsule?” he asked skeptically. “Who wrote something like that? I don’t know of any quantum physics genius around here.”
“No one knows who wrote the paper. Maybe it was known at one time, but the information didn’t survive. A lot of digital information was lost or corrupted before people realized discs weren’t a good way to archive anything.”
“I was there,” he said in an abstracted undertone.
“What? When?”
“When the capsule was buried. January first, 1985. The newspaper said twelve items were going into the capsule, but I counted thirteen. A research paper wasn’t among the items mentioned. I never did find out what the thirteenth item was.”
“Then it must have been that paper.” She sighed and stared out the window at the gorgeous blue sky, with the occasional fat white
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