Minutemen: World When We Live: The Guardians of Time, #2

By David Danforth

THE CEO OF THE COMPANY THAT RULES THE WORLD AND THE LEADER OF THE TERRORIST ORGANIZATION THAT FIGHTS THEM HAVE ONE THING IN COMMON:  THEY BOTH WANT KAYLAN SMITH DEAD…

America, 2075.  When Kaylan Smith, former leader of the time-traveling team known as the Minutemen, discovers the technology used for time travel, she begins a journey unlike any time jump she's ever taken.  This unexpected trip takes her from TriPharmaCorp's Denver headquarters to the treacherous Southwest.

On her calamitous tour of the American landscape,  Kaylan faces a new set of questions:  Why does Alpha, the leader of the Anarchists, want to kill her?  Why is Kyle, the lunatic time traveler she tracked down once before, visiting her mother?  As answers fall into place, a bigger question looms over Kaylan, her colleagues, and the planet:  Who are the Guardians of Time?

Minutemen:  World When We Live is the second book in a dystopian future time travel series.  Read the continuing exploits of Kaylan Smith and her team today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Story Inside Press
• Release date: Aug 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386313007

Book preview

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks goes to Angie for the Cover Design, and for Vicki A. for line editing this book.

Thanks, also, to Brad and Mark for keeping me honest.  I hope you like my solution.

PREFACE

Greetings!  You have picked up the second book in the Guardians of Time series.  The epic story began with Minutemen (which you can pick up at your favorite online book store by visiting www.daviddanforth.com ) and a companion short story collection, Minutemen:   From Now Until Then , which you can get for free (details can be found at the end of this book).

Minutemen begins in the year 2074 and tells the story of Kaylan Smith, a young woman in her early twenties who has just finished her education and has been given a job offer by Thomas Kildere, recruiter and member of the board for TriPharmaCorp—the corporation that rules half the world.  Lead a team of time travelers to stop a madman from trying to destroy the universe, by trying to change history.

Kaylan picks her team:  Jessica Waters, a theoretical physicist who’s as outgoing as she is smart, with an interesting hobby of hacking computer systems.  Miguel Scott, a master at language who reads between the lines to find the conspiracy in everything.  Gabriel Stern, historian.  Travis Brown, real name, Travis Thorpe, son of TriPharmaCorp’s CEO, Damien Thorpe.  And Nathan Cobb, a TPC security agent who saved Kaylan from an apparent attack from the Anarchists—a group sworn to disrupt TriPharmaCorp’s rule.  Kaylan was attacked within the TPC campus, and Kaylan saved Cobb from being fired for failing to keep the Anarchists from trespassing.

The Minutemen are tasked to travel to Egypt in 65 BC, but the time travel tech malfunctions, and sends the team to Dallas, 1963.  The day John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  Kaylan instructs the team to wait the sixteen hours it takes for the wormhole to reappear for their return to the present, but Gabriel breaks from the group, attempting to stop the assassination.  Kaylan and the team go after him, and run into Kyle, the very person they were trying to capture.  Before anyone can react, Kyle kidnaps Kaylan and takes her fifteen minutes into the future.  After a brief discussion that reveals Kyle is from their future, he makes his escape, but not before giving Kaylan a warning:

Don’t trust anyone at TriPharmaCorp.  Don’t trust that corporation.

Those were the same words Kaylan heard from her father before he committed suicide.

After the failed attempt to capture the renegade time traveler in Dallas, 1963. Kaylan removes Gabriel from the team for his disobeying an order.

Damien Thorpe, CEO of TriPharmaCorp, removes Kaylan from the team.  Had Kaylan stayed in Thorpe’s office, she might have been witness to a secret meeting between Thorpe and Kyle!  Instead, Kaylan is left reeling, wondering what team she’ll be placed in next...

PROLOGUE

1939 .  Kyle had been enduring this stale, smoke-filled air for two months now, by far the longest he’d ever been in a time, and he could think of far better places to be than Berlin, Germany.  But his boss was world renown for collecting occult artifacts, and one that he happened to purchase at an auction in Dresden, a ruby handled cane, was an object Kyle had to have.

Without a team to assist him, it took Kyle the entire two months to locate the cane, infiltrate this compound, dispatch one of the guards, and steal his clothes. Tonight he stood post, right outside the compound.

His boss wasn’t here tonight, though.  He was busy invading Poland.  Two days from now, a world war would begin.

Heil Hitler!  Some German officer snapped his hand in the air, bringing his legs together.

Heil Hitler, Kyle answered.  He watched the officer walk across the compound.  When he walked into the barracks across the way, Kyle slowly turned and walked up the wooden steps of Hitler’s main building.  He walked into the foyer, then down a long hallway.  The object he was looking for happened to be in a vault, inside Hitler’s office, at the end of this hallway.

Two guards in gray Nazi uniforms stood guard at the door.  A third was coming his way.  His uniform looked a little different—he had a different hat, more medals.

Heil Hitler!  This one also snapped his hand in the air.  Was sind ihre befehle?

Kyle had been pushing on without the benefit of a team for some time after his run-in with the Minutemen.  After the events in Dallas, 1963, Parker—his last remaining supporter and linguist in his former chrono group—decided it would be best if he were transferred.  Their masters granted his request and put Kyle on close watch for six months.  It was official; he was rogue.  Now, though, because he had no linguist or historian to help him, it might not even matter that he chrono-jumped without permission.

Kyle bluffed.  He pointed to the door.  Herr Fuehrer’s orders, he quickly said in a gruff voice.

Was sind ihre befehle!

Kyle walked past him, tried to put on a knowing face.

Halt.  It was in a German accent, but Kyle was familiar with the word.  He heard a faint click and watched as the two guards by the door started to advance, reaching for their primitive projectile weapons.

Kyle sighed, pulled out his stunner, and shot quickly.  The two guards dropped, but as he turned and fired on the officer who outed him, he saw a familiar shimmer in the air above him.  The far wall appeared as if he were underwater.  When the last German dropped, Thorpe’s Minutemen were phasing in the room.

Hi, baby, the blonde said and fired her stunner.  Immediately his shoulder went numb, and he dropped his weapon.  He ran for the door and made it into the room, closing and locking the door just as he felt bodies slam into it on the other side.  He quickly studied the vault’s locks and barricades; Hitler really wanted no one in this room who wasn’t cleared.

Kyle, be a dear and come out of that room so we can shoot you.  He recognized the blonde’s voice and winced, not because he had to struggle to get his U-Key out of his front uniform pocket one-handed.

Wow, take no prisoners?  Thorpe has adopted a pretty hard line, hasn’t he?  Kyle fumbled with his U-Key, an unassuming rectangular device that attached to the vault door next to the combination lock.  There were four lights on the U-Key, and when Kyle attached it to the vault door, they all turned red.

You’re a terrorist, the blonde said.  You deserve no less.

What the hell was her name again?  Janet?  No.  Jennifer?

Am I really, though, Jessica?

I’m not her, she said through the door.  You’ve got ten seconds.

Kyle glanced at his U-Key.  Two of the four lights were green.  It was going to be close.

I know that, he answered.  Kaylan Smith is a better leader than you’ll ever be.

Really?  I got your name, she said flatly.  Five seconds.

Three of the four lights green, then four.  The vault door opened with a loud clack.  Kyle ran into the vault and closed the door behind him.  He wildly looked around at the metal shelving units that lined the walls of the vault—a room just a bit smaller than the one he was just in.  He heard muffled voices, then the breaking of wood.

You’ve got to be kidding me, he heard Jessica say, and he smiled.

Good luck trying to get in here, he thought.  He spotted the cane at the far end in the corner of the vault, wedged between two shelving units.  He had to pull hard a couple of times to free it.

He’s still in there, he heard someone yell.  Sounded like the big one on their team.  Cobb.

Unless you know a way to break steel, big guy, he’s going to get away this time, Jessica said.  We need to find a place to lie low for the next fifteen-plus hours.

Maybe she wasn’t a bad leader after all.  He pushed the button on his phase unit, and the walls of the vault began to shimmer around him.

But at least we got his toy, she said.

Kyle quickly patted himself down.

"No!" he screamed as he disappeared.

2075.  KAYLAN Smith woke up a half second before her Guardian announced the day.

Good morning, Kaylan Smith, it is seven o’clock.  You have requested a wake-up notice at this time.  Would you like to wake now, or should I reset for seven fifteen?

Kaylan groaned.  I’m up, Guardian, she said, swinging her legs out from under her sheets.  She shivered as the cold morning air touched her bare legs.  Guardian, raise room temperature to seventy-seven degrees.

Yes, thank you, Kaylan Smith, I am now heating the room.  You have one appointment today.  You are to meet—

I know who I have to meet, Guardian.  Please don’t remind me.  Kaylan rubbed her eyes.  What the hell did I drink last night?  She remembered being in the cafeteria for lunch, listening to her former team go over their upcoming mission.  It had been a week since Thorpe had kicked her off the team.

She sighed heavily as she walked to the bathroom.

She had to remind herself it wasn’t just Thorpe.  It was easier to think that, but the fact was that the board—Kildere included—voted to remove her from the Minutemen.  She hadn’t spoken to Kildere since she came back from Dallas, 1963.

After lunch yesterday, the rest of the day was a blur.  She thought she ran into...Gabriel?  No, that couldn’t be right.  She had to see him today for the first time since Dallas, and that was probably why he was on her mind.  Sure, that was it.

She massaged her temples in front of the bathroom mirror.  Whoever she met after lunch she had stayed with until dinner, then after dinner, then alcohol after dinner; it was right on the edge of her mind, like someone she could barely see calling her name at the end of a long hallway.  Who the hell was it?

She was barely able to get dressed, down a glass of chocolate Protein Supreme, and make it to the elevators on her floor, where she ran into the Minutemen, looking exhausted, emerging from the compartment.

How did the mission go? she asked.

Travis shrugged.  Cobb nodded.  It wasn’t until Jessica walked up to her that she got a real answer.

We were so damn close, Kay, she said.  He was five feet away from us.

Why didn’t you get him?

There was a steel door between us.  But we did get some of Kyle’s tech, something he didn’t want to leave behind.

What makes you say that? Kaylan asked.

I thought I heard him scream as he left 1939.  Jessica shook her head.  Don’t know, I might have imagined it.

What do you think the tech is?

Jessica looked at her.  I don’t know, but you don’t have to worry about that anymore.  She gestured to her room.  I’m getting some sleep.  See you at lunch?

Kaylan walked a bit slower to the level eight conference room but still made it before nine o’clock.

As she stepped inside the conference room, she saw Gabriel, already sitting, staring at the white marble conference table.

Hi, Gabriel, she said softly.

I don’t really want to talk to you, he mumbled.

Really, is that how it’s going to be between us?

You kicked me off the team, Gabriel muttered.  You yanked the chance of a lifetime away from me.  How do you expect me to treat you?

The winter sun broke through the gray clouds and cut into the east-facing glass in the room, making it uncomfortably warm.

Guardian, can you please lower the room temperature by two degrees? Kaylan asked.

Yes, thank you, Kaylan Smith, replied the same voice she had heard in her room five minutes ago.  Lowering the room temperature to seventy-three degrees Fahrenheit.

I got kicked off the team, too, Gabriel, she said softly.

"No, the Board voted you off the team.  What the hell, Kay!  I thought we were friends."  He finally looked up at her; his face appeared broken.

We are still friends, I hope, Kaylan said, sitting next to him.  You probably don’t believe me, but I understand, a little, how you feel.  Her mind flashed on Kildere once more.  But the plain fact is, you disobeyed my orders in Dallas—

John Kennedy was the single greatest United States president in the last one hundred years the position existed.  Saving him might have brought peace—

Kaylan pounded the conference room table with her fist; she barely felt the recoil.  "Damn it, we are not having this argument again, Gabriel.  History was changed, Kennedy wasn’t killed by Oswald.  Look around.  She spread her arms wide and pivoted her torso a bit.  Has anything changed around here?  Check your U-Board news feeds.  Anything changed in the world?  No.  The only thing we changed is job security for TPC’s education feed content team because, for some weird reason, written and visual accounts of our changes are bleeding into our universe.  They’re working overtime to change recorded history back to the way we know it to be.  Gabriel, look at me."

It took a couple of moments, but he raised his rich brown eyes and locked onto hers.  God, he looked young, so young.  She knew they were approximately the same age, but at that moment he had the stature and appearance of a person ten years younger.  She spoke slowly to bring the message home.  You cannot change the past of your own timeline, she said.  It’s impossible.

But—

You can’t, Gabriel.  Now grow up and get past it.

Ahem.

Kaylan turned with Gabriel to see Dr. Rollins’s portly frame blocking the doorway.  They both stood.

Sorry I’m late, he said, walking toward them.  I had to make sure my team was squared away for the morning before I came here to meet my new recruits. He smiled and shook their hands as if he were meeting them for the first time.

Dr. Rollins, I’m a little confused, Gabriel said.  I was told to report here for reassignment.  Are you saying that we’ve been reassigned to your team?

Rollins’s smile couldn’t be any wider.  Kaylan was starting to worry his face was going to split at his jawbone.  Yes.  Isn’t it exciting? he said, barely able to contain himself.

I...suppose so, Kaylan offered.  It would help if we knew what, exactly, your team did.

Rollins looked around as if there were others in the room.  He slowly closed the door, the sound rebounded throughout the room.  He leaned in close and motioned for them to lean in close, forming a small huddle by the door.  We make sure the tech works, he said.

Kaylan’s eyes lit up.  So maybe she wasn’t as banished as she thought, standing in front of Thorpe last week.  She glanced over at Gabriel, who had a similar expression.

Mr. Stern, I’m not quite sure how your expertise will fit in as of yet.  However, thinking outside the box, I believe we may come up with a situation where historical data is called for.

Sure.  Whatever tension was in Gabriel’s facial expression and body language was completely gone, replaced by an almost giddy excitement.  Whichever era you want me to delve into, Dr. Rollins, I’m ready.

Well...it won’t quite be what you’re thinking, young man, Rollins said and turned to Kaylan.  You, young lady, you will be most invaluable to our team.

I’m ready, Doctor, she said, feeling a little ashamed that she sounded giddy herself.

Rollins reached for the doorknob, paused, and looked back at them.  Kaylan remembered watching a stream with her father when she was very young.  It was something he had called a film.  Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  In it, this man dressed in weird, colorful clothes and a purple top hat owned a chocolate factory and allowed five children to tour it.  Five.  In the whole world.  In was a scene just before they went into the factory, Willy Wonka had a look of childish delight on his face; it was the look Rollins had now.

Time travel, heh.  Without us, the Minutemen would be nothing.  Are you ready to see how your dream works?  You’ll be doing things no one has ever done before.

Kaylan felt a quick chill.  She’d heard those words before.  Still...they were true.

Let’s go, she said.

MINUTEMEN: WORLD WHEN WE LIVE

DENVER, COLORADO

1

Rollins led Kaylan and Gabriel to the elevator.  Kaylan looked from side to side as they moved down the long, narrow hallway.

Miss Smith, you look puzzled, Rollins said as he pushed the elevator button.

It’s just, I was under the impression that you were analyzing the tech.

Rollins smiled as the elevator doors parted.  No, he said as they entered.  Not quite.  He removed his access badge from his lanyard clip and swiped it in front of