Stealing Time by Rebecca Bowyer (acx book reading .txt) 📕

during the briefinterview he’d subjected her to. She’d told him she was here tohelp look for scraps which might lead to the recreation of the timetransfer technology, to save the kids. She’d explained how the lastkid taken had been her friend’s son. He didn’t seem convinced ofher story. Then again, she hadn’t felt in a particularly helpfulmood and had refused to answer most of his questions – both thoserelating to the case and herself.

“How’s your friend… Zoe?”

“As you’d expect.” Varya was alreadystriding away from him, through the stacks. He stood and watchedher go. She slowed and then stopped, scanning the labels. Lookingup, she called out to him. “Where’s the ladder?”

He picked up a step ladder to his left andbrought it over. She climbed up, pulled an archive box down, andhanded it to him. He placed it on the floor, and she handed himdown the one behind it. Jumping several rungs to the concretefloor, she crouched down and pulled the lid off the second box.Inside was a mess of different sized sheets of paper jumbledtogether with paper clips, rolled mats of plans, and a couple ofsmall black boxes. She threw him a backward glance and shifted sothat her body blocked his view.

“This could take a while,” she said, herpalm flat on the top of the papers.

“I can wait,” he replied, taking a seat onone of the lower rungs of the ladder.

With her back to him, she started pullingout papers and scanning them, placing them on the ground next toher. She opened one black box and closed it, then dropped itheavily on the discard pile. Then another. And another.

“It’s not here,” she muttered. Her movementsbecame more frantic as she continued to pull the contents of thebox out, scattering them in heaps across the floor. She tore thelid off the first box and upended the whole container, pushing thepapers into cascades to separate anything caught between. “It’s nothere.” She stood and glared at him, a wild look in her eye. “Move.”She scaled the ladder and her upper body disappeared into the shelfas she checked the space vacated by the boxes.

“Have any of the files been moved?” sheasked him.

“What? No.” He started to pick up discardedpapers and place them back in their boxes.

She stopped and turned to face him; a fullhead taller than him on the ladder.

“Who’s had access to these boxes in the pastfive years? Who had authorisation to remove any contents?”

Sebastian shook his head. “Anyone.Everyone.”

“Shit. Don’t you lot have security anymore?Isn’t this place supposed to be accountable and safe and…” Varyatook up Sebastian’s former place at the foot of the ladder and puther head in her hands.

“This whole place is a secure facility,Varya. You need top-level clearance just to get through the frontdoor.”

When she raised her face to his, anger hadgiven way to fear.

“It’s gone,” she whispered.

“What’s gone?” he asked.

“The time transfer tech. It’s gone. It washere.”

“Varya, what’s going on with you? The timetransfer tech was always gone. It was destroyed, along with theplans.”

She shook her head, tears rolling down herface.

“Reg and I kept one. Just in case.”

He frowned. “In case of what?”

“In case the Rest Time Authority changedtheir minds. About letting us use it. The discovery was such afluke, it could have taken decades to re-develop. We thought itmight be needed again someday.”

She wiped at her face, sniffed, and tried tostand. “Reg. Where is he? I’ll ask him. Maybe he moved it.”

Sebastian helped her up and then kept holdof her arm. “Reg left not long after you did, Varya. The Corps waspretty much swept clean of anyone who’d been on the originalproject. Everyone signed non-disclosure agreements and were givenseverance packages large enough to keep them happy and quiet.”

“We have to find him.”

“You think he…”

Varya nodded. “Not Reg. He wouldn’t, butmaybe… Oh god, what have we done?”

Varya realised Sebastian was holding on toboth of her upper arms, his grip too tight. She pulled away andstared at the boxes on the floor.

Sebastian cleared his throat. “I’ll work onfinding Reg. If he’s stolen time transfer tech that may have beenused by the time thieves, it’s part of my case anyway.” He paused.“Do you think there’s anything else in there that could help toreconstruct the tech?” His gaze flicked down at the messypiles.

“Maybe.” She looked up at Sebastian, horrormixed with hope. “Can I take the boxes?”

He picked up one and inspected the label,then gave her a quick once over. “They’re not classified, so yes.But you’ll have to sign a bunch of forms first.”

“Okay.”

He hesitated. “That’s not a good sign, youknow. Whoever assessed the contents clearly thought there wasn’tanything particularly useful in these boxes if they’re not highlyclassified.”

Varya laughed then, a hollow sound thatwasn’t full of mirth. “Whoever classified them didn’t know whatthey were looking at.”

Sebastian raised an eyebrow.

“They’re useful to me,” she explained.

“Okay. Let’s get you loaded up and out ofhere then.”

“Thank you.”

He stared at her a moment, then joined heron the floor to repack the boxes. “Do you really think you can doit?”

“Do what?”

“Reconstruct the time transfertechnology.”

Varya stopped packing and sat back on herheels. “Yes, I do.”

“It’s very complicated.”

“Yes, it is.”

“I can ask for leave from here. You know, tohelp you out.”

Her expression didn’t change, though herhand twitched. “You don’t have the right qualifications.”

Sebastian reached out and touched her upperarm. Varya jerked back and glared at him.

“I don’t need qualifications,” he said. “Ihave an excellent understanding of how the tech works and I havemore experience in this area than you do.”

Varya stood up, the box balanced at her hip.“I invented the time transfer technology. I did it once. I can doit again.”

Sebastian closed the lid of his box andstood to face her. He raised himself to his full height and steppedcloser, so she was forced to look up.

“This isn’t the time to be stubborn, Varya,”he said softly. “You need my help, whether you want it or not. Byrefusing me out of spite you’re endangering the lives ofchildren.”

Varya spoke slowly and without emotion. “Idon’t want your help. And I’m not accepting it.” She stared up athim, with the full knowledge that her laboratory was also