Red had his back to the door and couldn’t see them.So her instinct to stick with Red had so far proved to be a good one.On her own, she’d have been easy pickings for them.They could dart her without witnesses or consequences.
Dart her.That was only done to rogue agents.But sometimes they’d go back and remove an agent from play before they went rogue.
A cold chill ran down her back.Any other time she’d have welcomed it.
What would make her go rogue—other than being darted before she did anything?
They claimed it was only done in the most extreme circumstances, such as trying to change time in destructive ways.
Time was quite resilient.Someone had to really hammer it to get it to change something big.
She couldn’t imagine trying something that big.
She couldn’t even think what she’d want to change that was that big.
“When I was coming into town, I saw a line of military vehicles,” Red said, pulling Rita out of her thoughts.
“Did you come on the bus?”
Red shook his head and lifted a thumb.“Hitch-hiked.I like flexible travel options.”
He had demonstrated a lot of flexibility of thought.Would he be flexible enough to help her construct some kind of faraday device for herself.What materials would be available for her here?
If she were home, it would be easy to get something on the black market.It was too soon in the timeline to hook up with aliens conspiracy types.
How far could she push Red’s willingness to help her?
“They may have found us,” she said, dropping her voice as some teenagers slid into the booth next to theirs.
“What?How?”He leaned forward on his elbows.
Rita leaned on her elbow, covering her face with her hand.She could only think of two ways to answer that question.
With the truth, which he wouldn’t believe, or…
“I was their prisoner,” she said.“That was my ship that crashed out there.”
Which he probably also wouldn’t believe.
Con blinked, which was probably a good thing.It wouldn’t do to not look surprised.Alien.It wasn’t a bad effort.A guy born in this time might believe her.
A guy born in any time—while gazing into her eyes—might believe her, too.
Though not sure of his acting skills, he tried to look like a guy searching for a response.
“You, they.”He stopped, tried again.“I didn’t know we had that kind of technology.”
“I’m not the first.That’s why I came.To find out.”
“But you crashed.”Dang, he liked her.The little threads of truth helped her in the sincerity stakes.At least she had mostly settled the question of whether or not she was a time traveler.At least, he was pretty sure it settled the question.She could just be crazy.But the men in black seemed to support her story—and his conclusion that it made more sense for her to be a time traveler and not an alien.
“I think they may have some kind of jamming system developed.My systems went haywire.I’m surprised I survived.”
“But they caught you.”He hesitated, but this seemed like the next logical question.“How did you escape?”
Her chin came up enough for him to get the full force of her gaze.
“Do you believe me?”
