4

Gaspery returned to the moment he’d left, to Travel Room Eight in the third sub-basement of the Time Institute, Zoey sitting before him at the control desk.

“I saw it,” Gaspery said. “I saw the anomaly.”

“I got your message.” Zoey was staring at him, and he saw that she’d been crying. “I just spoke with Ephrem,” she said. “You’re being taken out of commission.”

“What will happen to me?”

“Nothing good.”

“I know what I did,” Gaspery said. “But if I finish the investigation, maybe they’ll…”

“I don’t think there’s anything you can do to save yourself now.”

“But there might be. Look. I just want another level of confirmation, another witness. I need two more destinations.” Gaspery stepped out of the machine, and handed over his device.

She looked at it and frowned. “1918?”

“I have follow-up questions for Edwin St. Andrew.”

“In 1918? He experienced the anomaly in 1912. And what’s in 2007?”

“A party Vincent Smith attended,” he said. “Or I guess she’s Vincent Alkaitis by that point. The party was on a list of secondary destinations.”

“But your device and your tracker are out of commission,” she said.

“Zoey,” Gaspery said. “Please.”

She closed her eyes for just a moment, and then took his device. She was typing something that he couldn’t see, then she leaned close to the projection for an iris scan. “I’m overriding the decommissioning order,” she said. Her voice was strangely flat, and he saw terror in her eyes. “Ephrem will be here any minute, probably with security forces. I won’t stop you from going, Gaspery, but I can’t protect you if you come back.”

“I understand,” he said. “Thank you.”

Gaspery heard the knock on the door just as he was leaving.