Reid listened. The army, signing on for a recon unit, Thane’s Redemption, that made sense. The helicopter crash, Dalir, time travel, no fucking way. “Do you honestly expect me to believe that bullshit?”
Thane didn’t flinch away from his direct gaze. “No. I expect you to regain your memory. You have to remember why you’re here. It’s critical to the mission.”
“All right. I’ll bite. If we’re part of a team, why don’t you know about the so-called mission? And where’s the rest of the team and this ancient warrior dude?”
“I’m not in on the mission because I’m not team leader anymore. You are. You should be with them in the present. Something’s wrong.”
“Why aren’t you with us? Did you get kicked out?”
“No. I left for Celine.” He exhaled a deep breath. “Our last mission didn’t go as planned. Some unknown entity changed too many things here. She got caught in the middle of it. I couldn’t lose her.” His gaze took on a faraway look. “When I finally got to her, it was like she’d splintered apart. She wasn’t grounded in time. I had to pull her back together. We’ve been through some rough shit that scared me. She’s fine now. I’m just glad she doesn’t recall most of it.”
Unexplained anger, resignation, sadness, it welled up in Reid. “So you just up and left the team?”
Thane huffed out a wry chuckle. “You can’t remember shit but you still sound as pissed as the day I left.” He leaned forward. “Coming here for Celine wasn’t about choosing her over the team. If something would have happened to her, my head would have been messed up forever. I wouldn’t have been any good for the team. I did what was best for her and you.”
If he’d lost her, you know as well as I do that he would have carried that burden forever. It resonated like something he’d heard before. If Lauren were in danger because of him, he’d probably feel obligated to get her out of it. Even more of a reason to leave before trouble followed him to her doorstep. “You said I should be in the present. So you’re saying I time traveled to the future?”
“You’re two years out.” Thane diagrammed his explanation on the table. “It’s like this. There’s three moments in time. The past, what we call the present, and the future. The past is the only other place we exist. We can’t go there. Something about two of us existing in the same place in time screwing shit up.”
“But what’s stopping us from running into ourselves in the future?”
“We only exist in one point in time from the present forward. You’re here and nowhere else. That’s part of Dalir’s gift. It keeps us out of trouble. Our missions involve intervening to stop a bad event that’s happening in the future or we gather the intel and prevent it from kicking off in the first place. Think of the present as our home base. It’s the place we phase back to once the mission is done. ”
What Thane was saying sounded…right. “Okay. Let’s say there is a mission. Maybe I came to find you for help, but something happened.”
Thane shook his head. “Dalir can’t actually see what will happen in the future, but he can sense where something bad is about to happen. For some reason, now he can’t see anything from the present to two years out. With all the unknowns, he banned the team from missions less than two years out. The time stream is also unstable. You’re lucky you even made it through.”
“Which is why I shouldn’t be here.”
“Exactly. And if Dalir can’t see you…”
“The team can’t find me.” Reid raked his fingers through his hair and exhaled. “Samson. Does that name mean anything to you?”
“No. At this point, you have to phase back to the present. West is control. He’s always there. If you did get separated from the team, he and Dalir can help you get your head on straight.”
“One problem with that. I don’t remember how to phase.” It should have sounded nuts to say it. Instead, the admission settled like an uncomfortable truth.
“Come on.” They hiked a short distance to a clearing in the woods. Thane looked around. “Okay, it’s like this. The power we have is a part of us. It’s an energy we can connect with. Once we do, we feel it growing inside of us. Everything slows.” Thane closed his eyes. Moonlight illuminated his blissful expression.
A longing for something missed but illusive came over Reid.
“We can see time and space all the way down to the smallest fraction. That’s what allows us to manipulate time and distance. Like that mountain. It’s fifty miles out, but I can see the way to get there. It’s a golden tunnel of light made of the elements of time.”
Reid closed his eyes. The yearning to know and possess it expanded. “I don’t see it.”
Thane stared at the mountain peaked high into the stars. “I can take you on a short jump. Maybe it’ll jar something.” Thane held up his hand to Reid as if to arm wrestle him.