With Alec's help I arranged a safe house for Kiera that is completely untraceable. She does not have the skills to combat the FreeLancers and I dare not put her in harm's way. I too have stayed off the grid for a few weeks to let the matters cool down with the FreeLancers. I need to be able to be on the offensive with them. They seem to have all the technological advantages. I have used Alec as my go between with the outside world. He has also between running scans and tests on the sphere in order to understand what it does and how it operates.
After I have done all the preparation that I can do from my end. I get Alec to reach out for me. I am not going to be able to do this on my own. A car pulls up to barn at the farmhouse and someone enters.
"Carlos, I am glad you came."
"Kiera, how are you here. I have not heard from you for over a year." and he comes over and hugs me like a friend that has been gone for long time. I hug him back, it has been too long even it has only been a few weeks away for me.
"I've missed you too. Where I have been is rather complicated to explain, but I have actually been out of reach for most of that time."
"Where could you be that you could not call or text or email me how you were doing?"
"I was actually captured by the FreeLancers. They imprisoned me in a facility for weeks under constant sleep deprivation and constant interrogations."
"How did you escape?"
"One day I found the door to my cell was not fully locked and I barely escaped by I used a transport sphere I found in a room in their facility. I was dropped out of the sky into a freezing lake. I was saved by someone whom was also trapped in this place. It took a few weeks but we eventually found a means of escape and that brings me here."
"You say this all took place in weeks but I have not heard from you in a year."
"Alec surmises that the place we were trapped in that time moves slower than here."
"So weeks there turns into months here."
"Exactly. We both escaped from that place, by escaping back into the FreeLancer's facility. Then using a lot of stealth and luck we got back here."
"We? Who else came back with you?"
"I would prefer to keep that under wraps for now. Alec and I are the only ones that know the location of that person and I want to protect them and the FreeLancers seem to operate with technology beyond even mine in 2077. So I need to keep as much information private with as few people knowing as possible."
"Then why did you reach out to me?"
"You and Alec are the only two that I have trusted my true background within this time. With that knowledge you are uniquely prepared to know what we are facing."
"What are you asking me to do Kiera?"
"I plan to take on the FreeLancers. They are more dangerous than Liber8. If I don't take the fight to them, they will sooner or later find me."
"What do you propose?"
"I plan to make an assault on the SadTech building."
"Why do you need to go there if you have the sphere in your possession?"
"That's where Alec can explain this better." as we go back to the computer terminal where Alec has been working. "Alex can you explain to Carlos why we need to be at SadTech."
Alec explains "It is somewhat complicated, but the short answer is that the sphere Kiera first came in contact with moved her back in time from 2077 to 2012. My tests indicate that this sphere does not move back or forth in time but rather through time."
"Through time, what exactly is that? Kiera traveling back in time was already tough enough to wrap my head around."
"Well that is where it becomes even more complicated, but the FreeLancers are accessing many versions of this same time and place. Kiera said that her suit was in a box labeled with thirteen on it, that implies that they are accessing a least thirteen versions of earth."
"Now that does seems far more unbelievable than Kiera traveling back in time."
"Not really. Kiera and Liber8 traveling back in time created the paradox. None of them belonged here. Once they travelled here, the same outcome will happen over and over again in 2077, but each time with a slightly different outcome. Simply put, time is fractured and the FreeLancers are able to access the alternate timelines that happened when Liber8 and Kiera came back in time."
"So why go to SadTech?"
"The FreeLancers seem to have facilities built in some of these realities and we need to use the device in the same place that we took it from to access these other facilities."
"So what do you need from me Kiera?"
"I know I am asking a lot from you, but I need you come with me on the assault."
"I have been on many police raids with you Kiera, I can certainly help again."
"Yes, but I plan to use the device and I need you to come along."
Carlos pauses for a moment to ponder the gravity of the request.
