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

a highsecurity facility and he couldn’t enter without the necessaryclearance. She was the only one who was authorised to provideclearance and had no intention of doing so. “We’re wasting valuabletime. Where are the papers I need to sign?”

She waited until the papers were sorted, theboxes locked safely in the car with her, and the car was at leastfive minutes away from Rest Time Corps. Then she relaxed herclenched jaw and allowed her hands to shake with a heady mixture ofrelief and rage. If he thought he could use the same tacticsagainst her that had worked five years ago, he was sorelymistaken.

Chapter thirty-one

Marisa

Marisa lifted the lid of the box that Varya hadperched on the kitchen counter. She peered inside and thumbed a fewdozen pages.

“So, there’s no digital back-up forthese?”

“Nope,” Varya sat at the table reading thetop page of an inch-thick stack, a mug of coffee in her hand.

“These are literally the only copiesleft?”

“Yep.”

Marisa let the cardboard lid fall to theside, softly clattering onto the bench. She inhaled the dusty aromaand wafted it towards herself.

“Come to me, great elixir of immortality,fill me with your secrets,” she intoned.

Varya put her coffee mug down and lookedup.

“What the hell are you doing?” shedemanded.

Marisa shrugged. “Thought I’d give it ashot.”

“I don’t think it works like that,” saidZoe, giving her a weary smile.

Varya had tried to send Zoe home, but she’dreturned to the apartment first thing that morning, preferring tostay as close to her son and the Time Lock as possible. Varya hadargued that she needed to continue life as normal to avoidsuspicion. Zoe pointed out that it was perfectly normal for her towant to avoid spending time in a space she had once shared with herson, which would bring back painful memories. After some morereasoning (Varya) and a few tears (Zoe), Zoe had finally gotten herway and taken up residence in the tiny, white apartment.

Marisa patted her cheeks and ran her fingersover her cheekbones. “I’m sure my skin feels smoother already.” Heraudience was unappreciative. “Seriously, though, it’s prettyamazing, don’t you think? Within these boxes is literally thesecret to eternal life.”

“Yes,” said Varya flatly. “If you haveaccess to enough people willing to drain their time and transfer itto yourself.”

Marisa watched guiltily as Zoe’s head jerkedbriefly in the direction of Kir’s old bedroom, where the Time Lockportal was hidden away.

Varya put the papers down and took off herreading glasses. “This is going to take some time, and I need quietto think, so would you mind…?”

“Sorry,” Marisa whispered, turning back toher recipe book and beginning a stock take of ingredients.

Zoe plucked a few sheets of paper from thebox at Varya’s feet. “There’s a lot of material here. I could helpout if you like, do some reading, make some summaries.”

Varya peered over her glasses, which she’dreplaced on her face already.

Zoe tried again. “I mean, there’s a fair bithere that’s actually pretty close to medical terminology ratherthan the physics of it. I could take the medical stuff. If youthink it might… speed things up, I mean.’”

“Not like you’re in any rush at all,”muttered Marisa.

Varya glared at her back. To Zoe she said,“It’s pretty advanced, but I think most people with a postgraddegree in medical science would be able to follow it. So, yes, ifyou think you’re up for it, that’d be great.”

Marisa turned towards them, leaned backagainst the bench and crossed her arms, eyebrows raised.

“Oh really, Var’? Anyone with, say, a PhD inmedical science could help out? And there’s a lot of material toget through?” She tipped her head to one side and tapped a fingeragainst her chin. “I wonder where you could possibly get a readysupply of people who have PhDs in medical science? I mean, it’s notlike you know many people like that, is it?”

“Oh my god, of course, the lab.” Zoe wasquick to catch on. “Varya, could we borrow your lab staff for acouple of days?”

Varya started to shake her head but Marisainterrupted with a pointed finger.

“Oh, no you don’t. You can do this.”

“It’ll attract too much attention.”

“Not if you sell it the right way.”

“This isn’t a sales transaction, Marisa,”she snapped.

“Everything is a sales transaction if youlook at it the right way.”

“I won’t put Kir’s Time Lock in jeopardyto…”

“... save Daniel?” Zoe finished quietly.

“That’s not what I meant.”

Marisa pulled out a kitchen chair, sat onit, and stared hard at Varya.

“You don’t need to tell them about the TimeLock, or about Kir. They don’t need to have anything to do withthis. You just sell it as a mini project to help the governmentresurrect a technology which will save the missing kids. Same asanything else those scientists do - find ways to save kids.”

“But I’ll have to tell them about myinvolvement in the initial project.”

Marisa shrugged. “I’ve been telling you foryears, you should tell them anyway. I don’t think the reaction willbe as bad as you think. They’ll understand the irresistible driveto follow the thread of knowledge, wherever it may take you.They’re researchers, after all. In fact, they’re probably the bestaudience to start practising your story on.”

Varya nodded once, then a second time, morefirmly.

“Okay. Okay, yes, we’ll give it a try. I’llread through these today and put a team together at the labs in themorning.” She turned to Zoe, who clapped her hands together, eyesbright. “You realise this is only one part of helping Daniel,right? Even if we can put together a time transfer device, we stillneed the Rest Time Corps to find the person who Daniel’s time wastransferred to, so we can transfer it back?”

Zoe waved away any doubt. “Yes, but he’ssafe for now. And, even if we never find the person responsible, hecan still receive time transferred from someone else, can’t he?Another donor?”

Varya looked at her then and saw past thesmile to the desperation behind it. Her first thought was to tellZoe it was illegal, it was unethical, to transfer time from herselfto her son. But then, wouldn’t she do the same for Kir? Give himten of her years, or even twenty, just so that he could live? Inthe end, she simply nodded and