Time Jacker by Aaron Crash (nonfiction book recommendations .TXT) 📕

went down to pick it up. Walking through the chilly night, he noticed his stomach was feeling better. He didn’t think that Bailey spent five thousand dollars, but even if she had, she was right about one thing—stopping time did give him any number of advantages. If he couldn’t figure out how to turn his superpower into a money-making proposition, he could always ask Pinetree’s help. Besides, if Gabby was willing to sell her golden jewelry, he wouldn’t stop her.

Thinking about money exhausted him. He’d have to man up, though. They still needed to talk about finding the Clockwatcher.

The three of them talked about the strange entity over dinner at Jack’s tiny kitchen table.

Bailey had gotten Gabby’s size almost right, but the angel’s outfit didn’t fit perfectly. The chest was too big, the skirt too tight, and she kept pulling at the fabric. Had Bailey messed up the sizes on purpose? She was a demon, after all.

“Tell me about the Clockwatcher,” Jack said.

Bailey was eating like a hungry dog, stuffing big chunks of smothered burrito into her mouth. She had the manners of a rottweiler. When she wasn’t eating like a wild animal, she slammed down half a beer at a time. Beer and burritos just went together.

Bailey talked when she wasn’t being gross. “The Clockwatcher is an Interim Lord, which are rare. You’ve seen how a lot of the Fugs are just stupid animals. But some are—”

“I find the term Fug offensive.” Gabby was dainty with her burrito, a bean burrito, no cheese or sour cream. She’d take a tiny nibble of her vegan burrito and then chase it down with more Powerade. She said no to the beer. She would not be imbibing liquor of any kind. Sigh. Angels.

Bailey finished off her beer with a noisy gulp. “Some of the Fugs are smart. Some are really powerful. But they have to be careful. Since they’re not allied with either heaven or hell, they are easy pickings. Suffice to say, the Clockwatcher found a niche. He makes deals, bad deals, the original fucking Faustian deals. We can’t trust him.”

“Maybe we just need to give him a chance,” Gabby protested. “And if he double-crosses us, I will smite him. I’ve spent a billion years practicing my smiting.”

“Is that what you can do with the horn?” Jack asked. That thing had him curious.

Gabby raised her eyebrows mysteriously. “I would imagine you’ll see at some point.”

“This is still a bad idea.” Bailey threw a worried look at the horn on the table. “I’ll get behind you, Feathers, and when the Clockwatcher sends his Fug pups at us, you can hit them with your fancy-shmancy sword.”

“I saw your demon tooth. It was very toothy.” Gabby was at least trying to be polite and nice.

The demon shrugged and didn’t make eye contact. She just dumped more jalapeno peppers on her burrito and continued the shoveling.

Jack alternated enjoying his burrito and drinking his beer. “So where can we find the Clockwatcher? He’s in one of these eon palaces, right? I would imagine that is like owning your own dimension.”

Bailey shot him a finger gun. “And you’d be correct.”

Gabby nodded. “Normally, getting there would be very difficult. But with your power? I think we can get there relatively easily. The doorway can be found in both time and space, but you can control the time aspect. I can help with the space. Before I arrived, I studied the area. I know where the portals are. Mostly, they’re in the dead spaces.”

“Dead spaces?”

“Otherwise known as thin places. Or, as I like to call ’em, boring fucking places.” Bailey burped.

Both the cursing and the belch made Gabby crazy. “Bailey! Please!”

“Demon here.” Bailey winked. Even with her makeup still so shabby, she was sexy.

A dizzy smile came over Gabby’s face. Then she replaced it with a scowl. “Dead spaces are where people rarely walk. Normal space is a mixture of all the Septua energies, especially Kairos and Corpus, time and space, making up the wonderful stew of life on Earth. However, places like stairwells, or street medians, or even empty fields, those are the thin places, the dead spaces, the place without faces.”

“Or for the basket cases,” Bailey quipped.

Jack found the idea intriguing. “So when people walk or drive down the street, they are filling reality with their Septua energies.”

Gabby brightened. “That’s right. So, there’s a thin space in an office complex down the street. Only the dentist office is open there. We can use that to get to the Clockwatcher’s eon palace. With the world turning, with the solar system spinning, with the entire galaxy in the dance of reality, different portals lead to different places. It’s all so dynamic!” The angel couldn’t help but let her halo glow.

“But you’ll have to stop that dance, Jack,” Bailey said. “That’s how we’ll find the doorway to the Clockwatcher’s shitty eon palace.”

Jack felt a tremble go through his belly. “I don’t stop the universe, do I?”

Gabby and Bailey glanced uneasily at each other. Both had a mixture of awe and fear on their faces.

That was the clear answer.

“Holy shit,” he said.

“I’m shit,” Bailey said. “She’s holy. And yeah. At this stage, it’s clear that not every angel, demon, or whatever can feel that happening. That’s a good thing. The longer we can fly under the radar, the better.”

“She’s right,” Gabby said. “The only reason I know what’s going on is because I was worried about Annie. Don’t worry, though, Jack. Your ability, however odd, is surely God-given. You’re not breaking anything. You’re only trying to do good things.”

Bailey laughed at that.

“Mostly,” Jack said. “Give or take a locker room, a Wanda, or some rich fucker’s glass patio door.” He finished off his beer. “If I have to stop time to go through this door, I’m going to need a good night’s sleep. I need to replenish my energy. I’d love to have some kind of interface for how much Kairos I’m using. Or how much Kairos I get from Fugs.”

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