Alice had nodded, somehow managing to look amused and a touch shy when she added, “We’re newlyweds.”
This had provoked a round of congratulations and one older gal had wanted to know how Alice got him across the finish line.
“It was the only way he could get his hands on,” Alice had paused, looking even more demure, “the Goose.”
That had provoked laughs and somehow the conversation had moved on, lapping gently around them as the small current of camper people moved on, leaving room for newer arrivals to meet and greet.Finally things had settled with everyone back in their own space, and Ty and Alice had been able to go to bed—after a check-in with Jack.
There’d been nothing new to report on their end.That could be good.That could be bad.He didn’t know, so he got ready for bed.
It was either the change of venue—it was nice to be out of the silo for a bit—or the realization that there were people nearby who were expecting the honeymoon experience from their camper.Whatever it was, Ty found he very much enjoyed their first night in the camper.
When they hit the road the next morning, he felt a bit like a man on a honeymoon—something they hadn’t been able to get yet.Perhaps they could travel back in time for a real honeymoon in the Goose after the mission was successfully concluded.
He didn’t allow himself to think of anything but success.Positive thinking?Or desperation thinking?It didn’t matter.He was grimly determined to make this work.He wasn’t losing Alice.He knew too well what that felt like already.
They headed up through Utah, stopping once more before heading into southern Wyoming.The landscape was equal parts bleak and beautiful.
It was a relief to turn off the freeway onto narrower roads that would take them north.
The passage of South Pass was a bit white-knuckle in the bulky RV.Even Alice didn’t talk much, though she did seem set on a swivel, turning this way, then that, trying to see it all.From the glimpses he got, the scenery was spectacular.
He had hoped the white knuckles were behind him, but Wind River Canyon taught him to be careful of expectations where Wyoming was concerned.
They stopped on the other side to eat and stretch their legs.Alice donned sunglasses so no one could tell how fascinated she was with this future and unfamiliar world.
While he ate, he tried to see the modest little city—and the fast food—through her eyes.He wasn’t sure he succeeded, but he felt guilty when he called a halt and led her back to the RV.
It wasn’t a prison, but it was taking them closer and closer to the unknown problem.Or a solution to their problem?It would probably, he thought almost glumly, just be another puzzle piece to add to the pile they already couldn’t knit together.
The closer they got to the Cody area where the relocation center had been, the more the honeymoon glow faded, replaced by a tension that was partly paranoia.
What would they find there?Was it a trap?And if it was, how did they avoid getting snapped up in it?It had seemed like a simple plan, going there when they wouldn’t be expected.Now he wondered.
And if that wasn’t enough to worry about, this would be the first time they’d take their faces out for a stroll around several places on the planet—places where they could be inadvertently photographed.
Or there could be watchers stationed there.That would be a lot of watchers, Ty thought.Did the opposition have that many agents they could deploy in one spot?And how did they cover different times?Could they or would they keep an eye on it going forward from when they’d planted it?
They made the adjustments they could, but John, the so elusive John, knew them both well enough to spot them just by the way they moved.
Ty only hoped he was looking for them in the past.
“It’s kind of obvious,” he muttered.Alice was in the back testing her equipment and tweaking her programming.
“Did you say something?”She had to raise her voice to be heard over the engine sounds.
He half turned his head, though he kept his eyes on the narrow road.
“I said it’s kind of obvious it’s a trap.”
He couldn’t hear her move, but in a few seconds she’d slid into the passenger seat and secured her seatbelt so the nanny RV would quit beeping.
“We could still abort,” she said, after a long pause.“No one would blame us.”
They were supposed to use their instincts, he knew.At times, that’s all he’d had during his venture into the past.
Her face, pensive and intent, made his heart twist in his chest.
“Are you glad you came?”The words were jerked out of him as he remembered his life before Alice, before Jack and his crazy machine.
