“When did it begin?”Mel asked.
“That’s not information available to my level,” Rita said, the polygraph recording it as probably true.“I know their earliest tests were performed before the use of photographs became too wide spread.Places like Marfa.”
Mel looked down.“Marfa’s not on your list.”
“I was never sent there.It’s still pretty dangerous, though the agents sent there have more training than the first tests conducted there.They say some agents died and then were…recovered when the technology improved.”
That was kind of creepy, too, though it was essentially what Jack had done for him.
“Interesting,” Mel said.“So if we show up at the time and location of this image, what will happen?”
Rita didn’t answer right away.Her lips pursed, distracting him for several seconds until they thinned into a straight line.
“There will probably be a beacon, a sensor there.Time travel leaves traces, but those traces are harder to track in more densely populated areas.Or areas where time travel has occurred multiple times.”
“But some of these locations are…” Mel began
“I said it was harder forthemto track.And if a bunch of people see something, well, it’s a mass hallucination or group think.”Rita shrugged.“They’ve had a lot of time to work out a protocol.”
“You probably don’t have access to a lot of their early failures.”Mel sounded casual and Con wondered why.Now that he thought about it, he knew more about Ty and Alice’s story than Jack and Mel’s.Now and then they’d drop a comment, but it always felt like that secret lover’s language, rather then solid information.
Rita’s brows arched.“Well, they had to give us as much info on Marfa as possible for training.”
Rita believed it was true, Con noted.
Mel sighed and her shoulders shifted as if she were tired.
“I wonder if we could get ahead of them and their beacon,” Mel mused.
Rita shook her head.“They could place it well ahead of that date.”
Mel looked thoughtful.“I wonder if we could find it now?Would its power source last this long?”
Rita blinked and then gave a strange half smile.“Depending on when they dropped it, yes, I don’t see why not.From my gear, you should get a pattern or a tracking range.”
Con was not unbiased enough to tell if Rita was telling them the truth, or pulling them deeper into the trap.The machine registered the truth, but it was really old.He noted Mel hadn’t looked at it that much.
Mel’s fingers tapped on the sheets for several seconds, her lips pursed.Then she looked up, her gaze pinning Rita in place.
“Why are you telling us all this?”
Her tone also asked, “What’s in it for you?”
Rita got both questions.Con could tell from her expression and he was a dude.
Rita’s eyes were wide, worried, but she didn’t look away, at least—did she glance at the empty corner of the room?Her lips compressed into a line.He felt a sudden urge to smooth those lips, soften that line…
“It’s hard to explain,” she said.“And honestly, even with this machine, I can’t give you a good reason to believe me.”
“What’s hard to explain?”Mel asked.
“How I know this is the right thing to do,” perhaps she saw something in Mel’s face she didn’t like because she added, “not just for me, but for…time.”
The polygraph showed her inner agitation as clearly as her face did.But it was also different from when she’d deliberately lied.He didn’t know what that meant though.What did he know about polygraphs?
He frowned.And when had Mel become an expert on them?Hardly anyone came here and the ones who came were on the team.They hadn’t used this on him.
“You need to explain,” Mel said, a hint of softening in her tone.
