CHAPTER ONE

The two operators stayed silent for a few minutes, each one immersed in grief until Steel decided it was time to react. Jet was right: by restoring the time continuum, they had a chance to bring back their two partners.

"Jet, I want you to tell me all the details of your assignment."

The woman sat down on a chair with a sigh, and started her narration.

"The authority discovered that someone on Earth was tampering with time, and sent us to investigate. We found out that this woman, who calls herself Viper – a well-deserved nickname, I must say – owns an ancient lute with a very peculiar power. The lute brings the player to the same year of the song that is being played. So this Viper, who murders people for a living, just plays a song that was created in the same year she wants to be transported to, kills her victim, and then she plays a song created in her own time. That's it. Nobody will ever suspect her, because the investigations take place in the past, when she hasn't been born yet or was just a child."

In spite of himself, Steel was impressed. "Very clever. And where did she find that lute?"

"She inherited it from her great-great-great-grandfather, who was an alchemist. She was the first in her family to discover its power, because nobody else knew how to play."

"How did she find out about you and Radium?"

"That I haven't discovered yet, but it probably happened during our first contact. I suspect she knows about the existence of time agents, somehow. Her ancestor might have left some notes on time authorities together with the lute. After all, he was a scholar regarding time: if he discovered about its anomalies, it probably speculated on the existence of some regulatory body, too. I think she heard me calling him by his name. Our first encounter was somewhat… chaotic, and I really don't remember what we said. I only know that we barely made it out alive. That woman is dangerous, much deadlier than a real Viper."

Steel pondered this information.

"So once she knew his name, she played a song from 1898, traveled back in time and somehow prevented Madame Curie from discovering the element; probably by killing her and her husband. No more radium, no more operator. And no more Sapphire."

"A bit of collateral damage, I would think."

"Yes. The time implications are inconceivably serious. Earth has not entered the atomic era. Maybe Hitler won the war. Maybe the world has depleted all fossil fuels and has no more sources of energy. Maybe space exploration hasn't started yet. You name it. How can she not care about such outcomes on her own world?"

Jet smiled unhappily. "Simply because that's not her own world. Whenever her lute brings her back to the present, she reappears in the original timeline. The only difference is that the person she has killed is not there anymore. No other consequences. History has not been changed."

Now Steel was really struck. "Not only her ancestor mastered time travel, he also managed to cancel the time paradoxes it creates. Outstanding."

Jet corrected him.

"Scary."

Steel looked at her, puzzled.

"But if there are no consequences, why the collateral damage? Why is Sapphire dead?"

She answered: "Good question. I think she has the power of deciding the outcomes of her time travels, down to the smallest details. She probably just wanted her to die. One less time agent to worry about."

Steel narrowed his eyes, which were now the color of a stormy ocean.

"She will regret her decision."

For the first time since the loss of Radium, Jet felt hope. She was teamed with her old partner again, and she knew that Steel was probably the only one who could defeat their dreadful opponent, especially if he had to save Sapphire.

Jet remembered when she and Steel were partners. She enjoyed working with him, although they were so different: ice and fire; logic and passion; ruthlessness and sympathy. Yet they taught each other how to smooth the extremes. She knew why the authority decided to switch teams with Radium and Sapphire: Jet was getting emotionally involved. She was shifting their relationship to a more personal level, and a human died because she wanted to save Steel, forgetting that their top priority was to fix time anomalies at the cost of their own lives, not the other way around.

Radium was more suited to her character: whenever her temper flared, he just absorbed her fury and waited until the storm passed. Working with him was more relaxing and soothing. She had become very fond of him, although it was far from what she felt for Steel. But that helped her concentrate on her work, so she had to admit it was for the better.

She didn't know what Steel felt for Sapphire, but she suspected it was very similar to what Jet had felt for him. The only difference was that Steel didn't make the mistake of exploring that feeling. This assignment was certainly bound to stir some deeply buried emotions, for all parties involved.