Mel hesitated.“They don’t have to find you here.”She watched Rita, waiting for…
“Oh.Right.”They had any time in her history to go after her.
“Do you think they might…erase you?”
Rita considered the idea, frowned.“Maybe.”She remembered an early lesson about taking care when tempted to erase someone completely.The ripples could surge through time and knock them down.“Relocate, don’t remove,” she murmured.
“Excuse me?”Mel looked puzzled, then her eyes widened.“Are you sure it isn’t relocate and then remove?”
Rita considered this.“That might work.So they need to find me out of my own time.Probably.Maybe.”If she remembered correctly.
“There is evidence to suggest that is correct.”
“Evidence?”Rita arched her brows, surprised she had the energy.
“You’re still here.”
“True.”
“And you’re exhausted.Try to get some sleep.”Mel rose and took the now empty plate from Rita.
Rita regarded it with some surprise.All she remembered was the first couple of bites.She nodded, but as Mel headed for the door, she said, “You’re going to stop them.”
Mel looked back.“We’re going to try.”
“Con refused to come inside.I set him up a cot in the hanger on the other side of the door from Rita,” Ty said, walking over to stand next to Jack and Mel.
Alice was inside a chamber, dressed in a hazmat suit.One of the devices that Con had brought them was inside an interior chamber, one fitted with strengthened glass.
They were all assuming that the devices could have been booby-trapped in some way.Or they could emit a homing signal, so this area was also a Faraday cage.
Mel could tell Ty wasn’t happy about Alice being in there by herself.But Alice had known he would be mad about it and had gone in before he got back from getting Con settled.
Ty didn’t say anything, because he knew Alice wouldn’t like him treating her like the men had back in the 50s.Mel knew it wasn’t about that.He loved her.He wanted to be in there with her.
She glanced at Jack.He’d sent her back in time twice.Into a war zone twice.And if he hadn’t done it twice, they wouldn’t be together now.She was grateful he’d been brave enough to risk everything for her, for her family, and he’d done it believing he’d die back in the war.
While she intently watched Alice’s delicate handling of the device, despite having to use robotic arms, she found herself thinking about that time and about what they’d found in the German bunker.
There was a disconnect somewhere between that find and these highly sophisticated devices.They needed to know more, and now they had someone who might know, might be able to answer some or even all of their questions.
Would she?
And how did they ask without giving away too much about them?It was all good and well to talk about trust, but there was so much at stake, could they afford to trust?
“He’s in love with her,” Ty said, a tad sourly.
Jack and Mel looked at him.Even Alice paused what she was doing to look at him.Mel was pretty sure Alice had raised eyebrows, too.
“You were supposed to let me die, Bubba,” she said, her voice hollow and a bit spooky over the intercom.
Ty started to protest, but then gave a wry grin.“Okay.Fine.But I didn’t—you saved me, if you remember.”
“Oh, I remember,” Alice said.Then she turned back to her task.
Ty stepped closer to the special glass separating them from the chamber.“So explain to me again why you’re putting my lady’s life in danger?”
It was Alice who answered him.“We’re hoping we can use this, or its tech, to track the opposition back to where they come from.”
