(For notes and disclaimer see Chapter One)

Time Shock

Chapter Five: The First Casualty.

Liam set watching the man pacing as he was finishing yet another test. 'Augur was right he had finished it weeks earlier than expected.' Augur had theorized that Creighton may have been insane with a desire for revenge, but he was still likely to stick to his strict testing practices. His mind flashed back to a few weeks ago when he finally left the safe house. He shook his head there was no need to dwell on the look on Street's face when he refused to stay and work with them. 'The decision I made is the right one this way no one gets their hands dirty but me.' He thought. He'd spent his time tracking down Dr. Creighton and trying to find any lever he could use to convince the doctor to join him without it leading to violence. Which was why he was currently sitting in a tree in the middle of the night watching the doctor threw his office window.

He knew he couldn't put it off any longer he had things to do and the longer he waited the less time he'd have to do them in. 'Well here goes nothing.' He thought to himself as he dropped from his vantage point in a tree to the ground. He saw several university students watching him. He smiled and waved and they were reassured enough to go on without giving him a second look. 'People only see what they want to.' He thought rather amused. 'He'd found the tree when he saw some students using it to spy on the rather attractive female professor a few windows down from Creighton's office.' He headed off to the car he had stolen for this purpose.

He set down in it and closed his eyes he still had a few minutes before campus security made their next round. He just had to avoid them then he'd have time enough to confront the Dr. and perhaps convince him to hand over the device without question. 'Fat chance of that happening though.' He thought darkly. What he remembered of the man combined with what he'd seen in his observations made it quiet clear he'd most likely have to kill him to get the device.

Augur set going over his new system of security for Doors. "You see using these chips we can secure our communications beyond anything the Taelon's can currently track." He noticed how skeptical Doors looked. "Well Doors if your not interested I can always sell it on the black market and earn a fortune." He knew that would get the proper reaction as he saw Doors' eyes narrow. "After all this is one of the most advanced encryption systems on the planet."

"How much do you want for it." Doors said point blank. "I have other concerns and can't afford to negotiate with you." His tone was detracted. "I also want your garuntee that it will not be sold to any other sources is that clear?"

"Crystal." Augur said casually. "Now as to what I want well let me just get the list." He smiled at Doors face. "I think my art collection can do with a few more pieces in addition to the price of the chip."

"Just send the list to me." Doors said standing up. "Now if you'll excuse me I'm late for a meeting." With that Doors turned and left the room. Once he was far enough out of ear shot he opened his global. "Renee I'm running a little late I'll be there shortly."

Augur staring after him wondering what was so important that Doors caved so easily. 'I should probably tell Boone and the others.' Thinking of that brought his mind back to the situation with Liam. He knew Street wasn't happy any attempts to track down the hybrid hadn't gone well it seemed he hadn't even bothered to use the credit accounts they'd set up for him except for cash advances from ATMs. 'He doesn't want to be found.' He had known that the minute the hybrid told them goodbye they'd never see him again if he could avoid it.

Liam opened the door and watched the doctor jump in shock. "Hello Dr. Crieghton." He saw the other man watching him warily. "I know what you've built." He saw the man jump. "I'm not with the Taelons or the Resistance." He turned knowing it might put the man at ease to stare out the window. "I might as well get down to it." He saw the man inching toward his desk out of the corner of his eye. "I'm from the future." He saw the man stop. "The Earth doesn't survive long after your death I'm here offering you a chance to change your fate are you interested?"

The man leaned back on his desk. "Even if you are from the future why should I believe you." He smiled rather coldly. "You could be from the Taelons trying to save themselves." He said casually. "I'll take my chances on my own." He pulled a gun up off the desk and aimed it the other man. "I only wanted to kill the guilty."

Liam nodded. "I'm sorry." The other man stared as his arm came up and the shaqarava fired the impact throwing the man to the ground. Liam winced it reminded him so much of when he'd nearly killed Augur. Watching the man crumple to the floor was sickening. 'Focus get what you came for.' He shook himself and grabbed the box he'd set outside the door and began throwing the tools, the device itself and any computer disk into the box. He then walked over the body of the man he'd just killed and took his key ring. Using the key to remove the hard drive from the computer as he'd scene the doctor do every time he left the office always carrying it with him. Liam headed to the safe hidden behind a bad copy of the Mona Lisa and quickly opened it. 'Least being part kimera my memory is nearly perfect.' He thought as he removed the other hard drives and the doctors journals.

Liam knew he had to get out of here. So he turned and left carrying the box. "Again Dr. Crieghton I'm sorry for this." He said to the corpse as he passed it. Reaching in his pocket he pulled out the bit of plastic explosive and a taelon detonator acquired on the black market earlier. He set the countdown for Fifteen seconds and threw it back beside the body. Carrying the box he went as fast as he could go to the door then took off running as the blast shook the building.

Sometime later Liam set staring at the screen of lap top wondering if what he was about to do was a good idea or not. 'On one hand I need their resources on the other I know proving my identity to them is going to be a pain.' He smiled as he realized he had the perfect person to do the job. 'Unless I allow him to talk to someone he does know and trust.' He paused and brought up the address Augur had given him to email if he needed to contact them. He quickly typed out a single sentence. "I need to meet with William Boone as soon as possible." and hit send. As soon as the acknowledgment went threw he turned his attention back to the other letter. 'Okay Colonel it's time to let you know that Operation Dark Knight isn't as secret as you'd like.' He hit the button to send it and set back to wait for the response.

Boone stood watching as the forensics team crawled threw the wreckage of the building looking for clues as to why a former scientist who helped design the earth based version of the portal system was killed and his office destroyed by a bomb. He saw Sandoval approaching with a scowl. "What did the students who claimed to have seen something have to say?"

"They saw a man jump down from the tree about thirty minutes before the blast." He said darkly. "They assumed he was just looking to see if the female teacher half the male population here stalks was in." He glared at Boone. "They didn't give him a second glance or bother to really remember what he looked like." Boone knew Sandoval was agitated. "This is dangerous this campus is very anti-taelon and already some students are asking if we did this to get rid of him for quitting."

Boone was about to answer when his global beeped. He saw Sandoval look at him in annoyance before moving off quickly to deal with a student reporter trying to take pictures of the crime scene. He was surprised when he saw Augur's face. "Something happen?"

"A Friend wants to meet with you." Augur could tell by Boone's face he knew exactly what he was talking about. "Just give me the time and place and I'll tell him where to meet you."

"I can't meet him any time soon I have to help deal with this tell him to give me a few days." Boone said annoyed at one more complication in this life. A rather disturbing thought occurred to him then. 'Could he be responsible for this?' It was a disturbing thought from all accounts Dr. Crieghton was a harmless eccentric who had come here after a disagreement with testing practices with the portal authority.

"On Second thought tell him I'll try to meet him tomorrow I'll tell you later where and when." Boone said deciding he needed to get this over with as soon as possible. He waited for Augur to give him the affirmative and then headed to help Sandoval with coordinating the investigation.

Doors set facing Renee as he reviewed what little information on the where abouts of the hybrid she had gathered. "That's all you managed to find." He scowled at her. "I thought you'd be able to find him easily Renee normally you are more efficient than this."

"Frankly Johnothan I don't think you'll ever find him." Renee said coolly. "The odds are good if he was telling the truth he learned enough from Augur to stay gone unless he chooses to appear." She glanced at him. "You also want me to make sure your other project stays on schedule and I can't do both."

"Very well work on the Liberation for now." He said casually. "Well deal with the hybrid when he makes his presence known to us." Doors got up as he said it and left. "Oh and Renee I don't have to tell you that this is a dangerous situation he does know who you are if he contacts you or if he knows about the Liberation project kill him on sight."

"Don't worry Johnothan I don't plan to let a half alien freak anywhere near the liberation." Renee Palmer said darkly. "I've worked to hard to have anyone screw things up for us." She paused. "With luck the Taelons will be gone from our lives in a year." Doors nodded and left the office she currently occupied.

Boone entered his house weary and tired he turned on the light in his bedroom to see Liam sitting on the edge of the bed a smirk on his face. "How the hell did you get in here?" He asked annoyed to see the other man.

"You should change your security code Sandoval has known it for months." Liam said casually. "And what he knew up to the point Ha'Gel replaced him I know." He recognized the half fearful half disgusted look that came into Boone's face he'd seen it often enough in the early days of the resistance and whenever anyone else found out he was less than fully human. His smile faded as he said. "I couldn't wait till tomorrow we have to meet with DarkKnight soon and I figured I should fill you in."

"DarkKnight?" Boone asked confused as He saw Liam get up and head to the window. "What is DarkKnight?" He thought for a second. "And further more why do you need me?"

"Operation DarkKnight is a covert operation run by the US government under the command of a Colonel Liam Nevile Kincaide." He said turning to look at Boone. "Now you know why I need you he's got to know my story is genuine and your my best bet of that happening."

Boone stared at him in shock his friend and besides himself the soul survivor of his unit from the war had been missing in action for years. "I'll go on one condition you tell me if you had anything to do with the murder of Dr. Crieghton and if so why?"

"Dr. Crieghton invented a Quantum Teleporter." Liam said with a dark expression on his face. "A few weeks from now he'd have started using it to Assassinate Taelons and portal officials." He glanced at Boone. "In my timeline the device was destroyed and Augur could never manage to duplicate it." He looked over at Boone. "I tried to convince him to believe me but he forced my hand I couldn't let that device be destroyed in this world."

"You want my help after you just murdered a man who in this reality may never have committed the crimes he did in yours." Boone looked at the man. "You can forget it." He started to raise his skrill but the man on the bed moved faster than he could comprehend and had him pinned to the wall.

"Okay Boone you don't want to help me fine I'll do it on my own but just so you know I won't be giving you the information I promised since I don't want to risk getting shot." He laughed bitterly. "I'll just email it to Augur." Boone was released but by the time he turned around the door to the room was slamming.

He knew it'd be futile to try to catch the hybrid so he set down on the bed and wondered if he did the right thing.

To be continued......

Sorry for the long delay in getting a new part out. My Real non online life has been kind of hectic lately and as a result this is the first chance I've had to write in ages. Of course the writers block didn't help since the few other times I may could have written I was brain dead and unable to do so.