There were several long seconds of silence around the patio table as the sun continued inching below the horizon. "Come again," said Boyd in disbelief. "If this is a joke, it isn't funny."

"Sorry," said Otto. "I couldn't resist using the word suicide. Technically, you might say that my idea calls for you to commit one-tenth suicide, and nine-tenths homicide.

"We've discussed our failures at length," he continued. "And we've hypothesized that not only won't Eeny allow you to communicate directly with yourselves, it won't even let you communicate with others. Not as long as this communication leads to changes that provide the other versions of you with information they wouldn't have otherwise had."

"Right," said Kelly.

"The way I've come to look at it," continued Otto, "is that Eeny thinks it's cheating for a version of you in the past to influence a version of you in the future, for the future version's benefit."

"Good way to think of it," said Kelly.

"But what if the information you provide isn't for the benefit of future you?" continued Otto. "What if it doesn't change the thinking or behavior of future you at all? Because, afterward, future you can't engage in thinking or behavior? In short, what if you found a way to kill your future self? This wouldn't give future Kelly any forbidden knowledge, because she would no longer exist in the timeline."

"That's horrible," said Kelly.

"Which is why I didn't bring it up earlier. But not nearly as horrible as you think. And I believe it will skirt Eeny's no communication rule. And once future Kelly and Justin are gone, Eeny's rules will allow the two of you to journey back to your time and resume your lives. It won't allow you to go further into the future than any version of you has ever been, but that's okay, too. You just have to kill yourselves after the cube was activated, but before the time you originally traveled into the past from Sun Island."

He paused to let this sink in. "Think about it," he continued. "You'd have it all. You'd have your life back, in the proper era. You'd have your love for each other. But in addition, you'd bring your knowledge with you. Knowledge of how to call forth the cube's telepathic AI. And knowledge of what China has been up to. So you can make sure Sun Island never happens."

"Sounds perfect," said Kelly wistfully. "Other than the fact that we have to murder two more innocent people to do it. Two people I happen to really like."

"Yeah," said Boyd, "I'm pretty sure this would be a hundred percent homicide, zero percent suicide. It's like killing your identical twin. Just because you share DNA doesn't mean you aren't two completely different people."

"That isn't a good analogy," said Otto. "You and your future self are more than just identical twins. You don't just look alike and have the same DNA. You have the exact same life experiences. The exact same memories. Identical down to the last neuronal trace. Imagine that the two of you spring forward and replace the versions of you in the future just as they meet for the first time. You two would still possess every last life memory they had prior to meeting. So you wouldn't be erasing them physically, emotionally, or intellectually. You'd be adding to them. Their very soul would be preserved in you."

Boyd and Kelly both considered his points, but still looked distinctly unconvinced.

"One could argue that having two versions of Justin Boyd and Kelly Connolly is the real ethical transgression," continued Otto. He smiled. "I mean, the two of you are so awesome, having an additional set is an embarrassment of riches."

Both Americans couldn't help but laugh.

"Kelly, imagine that I snap my fingers and create an exact copy of you," the young scientist continued. "Then imagine that the instant this copy appears, I snap them again, and she is disintegrated. How is that murder? Your unique soul, body, and memories still remain in the universe."

"I get that," said Kelly. "But you've also killed someone, someone who wanted to live. Who could feel pain when you did it."

"Not if they were disintegrated instantly. And you weren't worried about possible pain when I brought them into existence. In one blink I summoned them from nothingness to life. In the next, I returned them back to nothingness.'

Kelly nodded thoughtfully. She had read an article about the transporter machine from Star Trek that had some eerily similar points to make. Scientists agreed that the transporter worked by scanning a person's pattern into a computer and then reconstituting a copy of the person on the planet below, destroying the original in an instant. This view was supported by episodes in which a crewmember's information was trapped in the pattern buffer, and there was a delay in reconstitution. Which meant that every time the transporter was used, a crewmember was copied and then killed.

Boyd turned to Otto. "But in your example," he said, "the creation and destruction of a copy occurs almost simultaneously. Which wouldn't be the case with what you're proposing. Kelly and I have diverged considerably from the versions of us we'd replace."

"So much the better," said Otto. "As I said, you'd have experienced every last instant that they did, and then you'd add to that. You'd add your love for each other. Along with memories of how that love came about, the sacrifice, heroism, trauma, and triumph that you shared. You'd be the same Kelly and Justin, just with a wealth of hard-won knowledge to bring to the table."

"You really are remarkably persuasive," said Kelly. "I've been told that grandfathers have a lot of accumulated wisdom. But I swore off killing, and I'm not about to start again on myself."

Otto shook his head. "You're missing the big picture, Kelly. If this works, it's the only way to set things back to where they were before the Chinese got the upper hand. You've made sacrifices to ensure Hitler didn't get an unstoppable weapon. You've committed possible treason to make sure your own people don't get it. Are you telling me you aren't willing to make a sacrifice to keep it from the Chinese? My guess is that the future Kelly Connolly would be willing to die to keep the cube in safe hands. If she were here now, I know she'd be urging you to do this."

"He's right," said Boyd. "Absolutely right. We'd both be willing to die to prevent the future that will arise if China rules the world. And we've already proven it, remember? In the clearing in Pennsylvania. We were willing to surrender, believing it to be suicide, just on the off chance we could stop China from getting the cube. How can a man die better, remember?"

"How could I forget?"

"And even beyond that," he continued, "if we do this, Sun Island doesn't happen. Which means that Shen will have no reason to nuke it and kill many thousands of people. So at minimum, if Otto's idea works, those lives would all be spared. At minimum."

Kelly paused in thought for almost a minute, now bathed in nothing but twilight. Finally, she nodded, looking miserable. "You and Otto are right," she said. "About all of it. I'm in. Knowing what's at stake, future me would be willing to sacrifice herself. She would urge me to do this."

She turned to face her young grandfather. "I'm sure you realize that this action could have a significant impact on your future, right?"

"I do," said Otto. "If you and Justin break out of this loop and go back to your time, where in previous loops you stayed here, this could change my thinking, my actions, and thus my future. But I don't think it will. You plan to remove yourselves from my life either way. I don't think this is a substantive enough difference to counteract history's resistance to change. I think history wants me to meet my future wife and go down the original path as much as I do, and it will find a way to return to this course."

"But we can't know for sure," said Boyd.

"I think we can," said Otto. "Imagine that your ability to break the loop and return to your time finally causes my future to change. In that case, Kelly will never get born again in the nineties. But if this is true, then she won't exist for you to kill. So you can only succeed in killing yourselves if this action won't end up derailing my future."

Otto sighed. "But it doesn't matter," he added. "Even if this killed me, I'd urge you to do it. Because it will save thousands of lives on Sun Island, if nothing else."

Kelly nodded. "So it seems we'd all be willing to sacrifice ourselves for the right reasons," she said. "It's ironic. I was willing to die for the cause, but less willing to kill myself for the cause. But none of that matters. Because we don't really have much of a choice."

"Do you have any ideas about how to go about this?" Boyd asked the young genius.

"I do. But you know your own future and any players involved a lot better than I do, so I'll leave it to you to iron this out."

Boyd frowned. "I was afraid you might say that," he replied miserably.


Colonel Tom Osborne sat in a black leather recliner in the middle of a stranger's living room and shook his head, thinking that the only way the unreality of the moment could be any greater was if the police stormed into the house to try to arrest him for breaking and entering.

It was just over twenty minutes until time zero. Which meant that if he was going to change his mind, he needed to do it soon.

He pressed a button to recline the chair and closed his eyes, running through the events of the past three weeks for the hundredth time, making sure he hadn't missed something. Because even after three weeks of marinating in the impossible, he still couldn't believe he was really doing what he was doing.

He would suspect he was being manipulated by a malicious magician of extraordinary skill, except for one thing: no magician was that good.

Three weeks earlier he had received an encrypted communication to his private email address that purported to be from Justin Boyd's supercomputer and AI, which the major had named Sage. The AI had all the right passwords and codes to reach him, and a simple exchange proved it also knew everything about Justin Boyd that only the real Sage would know.

The AI had insisted that its communication involved a national security emergency, and that Major Boyd not be told of it under any circumstances. It then proceeded to give Osborne its location, concealed under a floorboard in room 396 of the historic Adams Mount Hotel, less than thirty minutes distant. All the while, Osborne's central computer insisted that the supercomputer that housed Sage was still affixed by high-tech bandage firmly to Justin Boyd's leg.

Even so, despite smelling a trap, the colonel led a team to retrieve it, finding it exactly where the AI had said it was, and not running into a hint of trouble.

He laughed to himself as he remembered thinking that things couldn't possibly get any more bizarre than this. How naive he had been. At that point, the truly bizarre had yet to even begin.

Once in his possession, Sage had played him a video message from Justin Boyd himself, along with one of the Enigma Cube scientists, Dr. Kelly Connolly. They began by claiming they were sending the message from 1943 Spokane, and then asked him to pause the playback while he checked Sage's internal clock.

Osborne didn't believe a word of it, of course. It was preposterous.

Still, he did now have an EHO-issued supercomputer in his possession that shouldn't exist. These were as rare as they were expensive, and every one ever built was fully accounted for. Plus, the device was weathered and dirty enough for him to imagine it had been hiding in the false floorboard for a very long time. Sure enough, the computer's internal clock, which operated even when it was off, indicated that it had been in operation for over eighty-five years.

Not conclusive by any means, but good enough to prompt him to cancel his meetings for the day. And he was very glad he did. Because for three hours straight, Justin Boyd and Kelly Connolly absolutely blew his mind. They laid out future history, beginning with how the Enigma Cube—the immovable Enigma Cube!—would soon be stolen by Kelly Connolly. And this history was often accompanied by footage from Boyd's lenses, showing battles they had waged with Chinese forces in Pennsylvania and on Sun Island, how they had been threatened with a nuclear bomb by a Chinese commander named Shen, and how they had suddenly appeared in a dark room in Canada in 1943.

Then, just when Osborne had thought the story couldn't get any wilder, it promptly did.

Much wilder.

Boyd described such things as a telepathic AI resident in the Enigma Cube, the rules of time travel, and their travel to Berlin. And then he showed footage of Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler.

Adolf Hitler!

Osborne was seeing actual, crystal-clear modern footage of the unconscious Nazi Fuhrer, illuminated only by flashlight, while Justin Boyd explained to Dr. Connolly why history might be better served if Hitler was left alive.

It was all so fantastic. So demented. So extraordinary.

When Osborne had finished viewing the lengthy video message, he had been stunned into inactivity for ten full minutes, until he decided to play the entire message once again.

And then again.

The explanations coming from Boyd and Connolly made a kind of bizarre sense. Their story seemed to hang together somehow, with enough color and detail to make it come alive, as if they had actually experienced every minute of it.

Even so, this still hadn't been enough to convince him. Extraordinary claims required extraordinary evidence, and computer clocks could be altered, video faked.

Yet Boyd and Connolly had expected this kind of skepticism, had prepared for it. They insisted that Osborne proceed normally, and not speak a word of this to the versions of themselves alive in 2027. And they explained why this was so important.

They also told him the exact date and time that Kelly would steal the cube, begging him not to prevent it, or do anything else that might influence the thoughts or actions of their future selves. Apparently, if he decided to take any such action, the cube's telepathic AI would somehow know it, and would no longer allow their message to reach him in the first place.

Finally, they provided a list of dozens of events that would happen in the near future, including the precise timing of storms and earthquakes in far-off lands, final scores of sporting events, and future prices of stocks. Osborne checked these predictions every day for five days, and marveled as each one came to pass.

He could no longer deny it. Their story was real! There was no other explanation. Faking video was one thing. Accurately predicting the future was another thing entirely.

The major and physicist claimed to have intel that was vital to national security, which they could only reveal if the current versions of themselves were dead, and gave a lengthy explanation of what they had in mind. Osborne found this part of the message extremely suspect.

Could he really kill his own people? This was madness.

Yes, they had assured him that this act would allow the versions of them in the past to return. But what if they were wrong? Or what if he was being played somehow, in a way that was too clever for him to figure out?

No matter how compelling the evidence they had provided, the cold-blooded murder of Justin Boyd and Kelly Connolly would still require the biggest leap of faith he had ever made.

He threw his eyes open with a start. It was time for the final test. He couldn't delay it any longer.

Colonel Tom Osborne tilted his head to stare at a massive Halloween spider, one that had been placed high on a rope web that had been strung from floor to ceiling in the room. Ryan and Charity Lee, whoever they were, certainly took their Halloween decorations seriously.

He pulled the five-foot spider down and set it on the floor. This would be the final proof. If he opened the spider's abdomen and there was nothing inside, he would abort.

On the other hand, if he found a cube inside, as he had been told he would, one that would produce burning glyphs when its corners were pressed for an extended period, he would go forward as planned.

He wasn't sure what he hoped would happen. Justin Boyd was like a son to him, and just the thought of ending his life made him sick to his stomach.


Kelly Connolly couldn't believe what was happening. How had it come to this? How was she trapped in a self-driving Lexus with no way out? The leaves of the trees that surrounded her had turned an array of spectacular colors, but she had no time to enjoy them, and she worried that she might not be alive for much longer to do so.

How had this become her life?

She never should have agreed to go to the Haycock site with Justin Boyd in the first place. She should have just come up with an excuse as to why she couldn't make it. She should have taken the cube before he brought back the generator and focused on finding a permanent hiding place for it.

Kelly was embarrassed to admit it, even to herself, but she had only traveled to Pennsylvania because she was taken with the black ops major. She tried to fight it off but couldn't. For some inexplicable reason, since meeting Boyd the week before, she hadn't been able to get him out of her head. She had known that coming to meet with him right after taking the cube was a mistake, but she had no idea just how much of a mistake.

And now that he had saved her from knockout gas and shown off his respirocytes, among numerous other enhancements, she found him even more interesting, more appealing. But perhaps this was simply because her emotions were heightened by the danger she was in. If they managed to get out of this alive, she was sure her interest in him would be fleeting. A flash in the pan. He seemed to be compassionate and have a good heart, but he was still a cold-blooded killer. The idea that she could fall for such a man was preposterous.

"We'll be stopping very soon," he said beside her, continuing to show an icy calm in the face of unknown danger. "When we do, leave your phone in the car, since they can trace it. I'm sure it's been backed up fairly recently, but I'll have Sage place a copy in her memory just in case."

"Uh... thanks," said Kelly. "I guess." She was uncomfortable that his computer would have the contents of her grandfather's journal, but she trusted him enough to delete the data after the danger had passed.

"I'm going to protect you, Kelly," he said. "I promise."

The car finally rolled to a stop. Ten men were gathered in a clearing and ordered them out. Each soldier was carrying a machine gun, a weapon she'd been sure she would never see in person.

Boyd escorted her to the front of the car as the men closed in.

"How are you even conscious?" one of the soldiers asked her companion.

"Oh, I'm full of surprises, Master Sergeant Knudson," said Boyd. "Oh, sorry. I know you prefer to be called Dredd. Like the judge, I guess."

"How do you know that?"

"I know everything," replied Boyd. "Look, you guys are in a fight that you didn't choose. I do realize that this is what mercs do," he added, "but this time, you're in over your heads."

"Yeah, we've heard all about you," replied the man. "Why do you think there are ten of us? The boss told us to expect you to be the most badass commando we've ever seen. And that if you didn't arrive unconscious, to knock your ass out right away."

Boyd laughed. "You poor shithead," he said. "You have no idea what you're up against here. So I'm prepared to show you mercy. Walk away with your men right now, and I'll pretend this never happened."

Dredd shook his head in disbelief. "Who are you?" he whispered.

They continued their exchange for several minutes. The mercenary wanted Boyd to take a knockout pill. Remarkably, the major made a plea to let Kelly go, and offered to go quietly if they agreed. It was a heroic gesture of epic proportions.

"I'd love to take you up on the offer," the merc said. "But—funny thing—we were told just this morning that she is our main priority. You're important, but secondary. Likely more dangerous, so we need you to go to sleep first. But, actually, if we had to choose just one of you to capture, it'd be her."

Kelly's eyes widened. Did they know about her and the cube? How could that be?

This was the last thought Dr. Kelly Connolly would ever have. As she was about to consider these questions further, with no warning, the entire clearing exploded into a fireball three stories tall. Kelly and the EHO major were vaporized before they even had a glimmer that this might be happening.

One moment she was a living, conscious being, and the next she had been blown apart with enough force to splatter her across fifty feet of flaming, superheated air. A force that tore the Lexus behind her into tiny bits of shrapnel and created its own non-nuclear mushroom cloud.

And thousands of miles away, Colonel Tom Osborne, sitting on a recliner in the home of a stranger, watched it all happen through a telescopic drone feed in absolute revulsion.


Justin Boyd placed the supercomputer gently beneath a floorboard in room 396 of the newly built Adams Mount Hotel, and then tightened it back down.

"We're all set," he told Kelly and her young grandfather, who were standing nearby. "Same as before. Sage is set to be recharged in eighty-four years, three weeks prior to our first face-off with Shen in Pennsylvania. Once she awakens, she'll immediately contact Colonel Osborne with our message."

"Let's just hope the third time is the charm," said Kelly, dropping her large purse to the bed, which held an alien cube inside.

"If it's ever going to work," said Otto, "this is the time."

"I agree," said Boyd. "This hotel is the perfect spot for it. Sage says it's still standing in 2027, with no renovations, other than to the bathrooms."

Kelly sighed. "I worry that our first two failures mean that this idea won't work either."

"I know," said Boyd. "But we need to make at least fifteen to twenty attempts to be sure."

"Of course," she mumbled. A weary smile slowly crossed her face. "I guess we always knew we'd have to kill ourselves to get this to work."

"Really?" said Boyd. "Gallows humor? About this?"

"Sometimes you have to laugh when it hurts too much to cry."

"In that case," said Boyd, "let's find out if it worked. The suspense is killing me."

Kelly frowned. "Yeah, I take it back. Let's make that the last wordplay ever on the subject."

"Are you two done?" said Otto, rolling his eyes.

"Definitely," said Kelly. "Hold on, I'll find out where we stand."

She paused. "Eeny," she thought at the cube in her purse, "is there a version of me still alive in the future?"

"Yes," replied the AI simply, having answered this same question now hundreds of times.

"And is this version still alive at the time I originally reached Sun Island?"

"She is not," said the AI, showing no sign of emotion.

Kelly gasped and reeled backwards, falling to a seated position on the bed behind her with her mouth wide open. She thought a few more questions at the telepathic AI and then turned to face her companions, who were staring at her with bated breath.

"It worked," she whispered unnecessarily. "It really worked. The future has changed. Justin and I are no longer alive after we entered the woods of Pennsylvania. Osborne did it!"

"Unbelievable," said Boyd.

Kelly's face fell. "I'm elated that it worked. But also heartbroken."

There was a long silence in the room as they all digested the implications.

"So we're really free to go back home?" said Boyd, still not quite believing it. "And Eeny confirmed it?"

"It's confirmed. We can return at any time between our death in Pennsylvania and when we originally traveled into the past."

Kelly turned to Otto. "Thank you!" she said emphatically. "You saved thousands of lives on Sun Island. And you saved the world from tyranny."

"Glad to help," said Otto awkwardly. He tried to fake a smile, but several tears escaped from his eyes and began to run down his face.

Kelly rose from the bed and held him in her arms. "I've come to love you like a younger brother over the past five months, Otto," she said as she began to spill tears of her own. "But more than that, I've come to think the world of you. And not just because you're my grandfather. Or because of your intellect. But because you're a wonderful person."

"I feel the same about you," said Otto as they separated. He turned to Boyd. "And you're pretty special yourself," he added through his tears, extending a hand.

Boyd ignored the hand and hugged the young man fondly. "To say it's been an honor doesn't even come close," he said. "Having the chance to work with and befriend a young man with your wisdom and maturity, not to mention an intellect that puts Albert Einstein to shame, has been one of the highlights of my life."

Otto grinned. "And being able to get dating advice from an American commando married to my granddaughter has been one of the highlights of mine."

Boyd laughed.

"Are you okay to drive back to Spokane on your own?" asked Kelly.

Otto nodded sadly.

"Wait a minute," said Boyd. "We don't need to make him travel back home by himself. We can travel to the future any time we want, right? And we know spending extra time with him won't derail his future, or your birth, or we would have never succeeded."

"Exactly right!" said Kelly excitedly. "I didn't expect our plan to work this time, so I wasn't really prepared. But the least we can do is stay with Otto for a few more weeks and get him settled in. And have the chance to say proper goodbyes."

The young scientist brightened. "I would love that," he said. "But are you sure? I thought you were dying to get back to your time." He winced as he realized what he had just said. "Sorry, I wasn't trying for gallows humor there. It was an accident."

Kelly beamed. "No need to apologize," she said. "And while I am looking forward to going back home, having the chance to spend another few weeks with you and go out in style is priceless. Besides, I'm enjoying the simple life here more than I thought I would. There's something to be said about a time without cell phones."

"Wow," said Boyd. "And I thought after all we've been through that I had heard absolutely everything. But apparently not."


Tom Osborne squeezed his eyes shut and shuddered as the fireball on his tablet computer continued to shoot skyward, taking with it the incinerated remains of the most impressive EHO operative he had ever recruited, whom he had tapped to be his successor.

And he had been responsible. He had personally seen to it that the clearing was laced with hidden explosives of devastating power, and he had pulled the trigger.

He had known Justin Boyd since he was a seventeen-year-old kid, and now his friend was dead.

Two loud cracks reverberated throughout the room, like snaps of a whip, and Osborne's eyes shot open. Kelly Connolly and Justin Boyd were standing on the floor next to the cube, both with tears in their eyes, and both looking woozy.

The colonel's sorrow and guilt were instantly replaced with joy—and awe.

Incredible. It had actually worked!

He rushed over to Boyd and hugged him tight. "Thank God," he said simply.

Instead of issuing a response, the major turned into dead weight, and Osborne set him gently down on the carpet, as Kelly Connolly's legs went wobbly and she fell to the carpet as well.

Just as they had predicted, time travel didn't agree with them.

Osborne laid the two time travelers on their backs in the most comfortable position he could, unable to keep himself from smiling at their appearance. It was as if they had walked off the set of a movie taking place in the forties. And why not? When in Rome, dress as the Romans dress.

Dr. Connolly was wearing her hair relatively short, and pulled back off her forehead, mirroring the style of the day. Boyd's hair was short as usual, but also combed back to reveal as much of his forehead as possible. He wore pleated cotton slacks and a button-down shirt, while she was wearing a simple lightweight blue dress, cinched with a thin leather belt.

A relieved Tom Osborne returned to the recliner and waited for them to come to, coordinating with his forces in Pennsylvania while he did so.

He still had much to accomplish.


Kelly Connolly opened her eyes, but everything was blurry. She felt someone help her to her feet and coax her to a seat on a comfortable couch, but it was as though she were sleepwalking. Her vision finally swam into focus, and she watched this same person—a tall man in his fifties—help an awakening Justin Boyd to the couch beside her.

The man who had helped her and Justin retreated a few yards away to a recliner and waited patiently for them to show signs of life.

"Tom?" said Boyd faintly beside her as his faculties slowly returned.

"Justin!" said the man across from them with gusto. "Welcome back to 2027."

"Thanks, Colonel," whispered Boyd. "Glad to be here."

"Dr. Connolly," said the man, obviously Colonel Tom Osborne, "nice to finally meet you. I've heard good things. And I watched your video message, ah... several times."

"Thanks," she said, her voice soft but gaining strength as vitality returned. "I've heard good things about you too. How long were we out?"

"A little over an hour," replied the colonel. "Can I ask why you both arrived with tears in your eyes?"

Boyd blew out a long breath. "We were saying farewell to a good friend," he explained.

"I thought you might be mourning, you know... yourselves."

"No. Kelly and I managed to get through the bulk of that by the end of last week."

"Even though your future selves were only killed an hour ago?"

"Two weeks ago for us," said Boyd. "Time travel can be funny that way," he added. "But tell me about the ongoing operation in Pennsylvania."

"As you specified," said Osborne, "I sent in every EHO agent available, along with dozens of standard commandos. The Op is now completed. We killed about half the men you said would be in the woods, and captured the other half. Several of these were Chinese nationals. Enhanced Chinese nationals. Giving us the unprecedented opportunity to learn more about the state of their EHO program."

"Did you capture Commander Shen Ning?"

Osborne nodded.

"Outstanding," said Boyd, his voice now back to full strength. "Can I assume you have your team in place here?"

"Yes. Ready to take on the wave of commandos you indicated would be breaking into this house looking for the cube in five to six hours."

Kelly winced. "So you let them shred my house?"

"You and Justin insisted that I not do anything to stop them. Not do anything to change events until I pulled the trigger on the explosives."

"I know," said Kelly miserably. "We chose the timing. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. Any wall or piece of my furniture that they didn't slice open?"

The colonel made a face. "Not so much."

"Okay, then," said Kelly. "But at least be sure to intercept the hostiles this time before they destroy this house? The Lees are close friends and neighbors. I'm just guessing, but if they get back from vacation to find their home a bullet-ridden war zone, they may not ask me to house sit again."

Osborne smiled. "Our goal will be to capture the incoming hostiles. We'll rig the place with enough gas to put Godzilla to sleep and wait for them to come inside. With any luck, there won't be any damage at all."

Kelly looked around, and the place looked fine, other than the damaged Halloween spider, which she had already planned to replace after using it as a cube storage facility.

It had been six months since she was in this house last, but it seemed like a lifetime. And in many ways, it was.

"I'll want to be part of all prisoner interrogations," said Boyd, "here and in Pennsylvania."

"Of course. But why are the Chinese after you and Dr. Connolly?"

"That's what we came back to tell you about," said Boyd. "They know all about Project Uru. And they've been spying on our research, using undetectable bugs."

"That isn't possible," said the colonel.

"That wasn't possible," corrected Boyd. "But they found a way. Most importantly, they have a cube of their own."

Osborne shrank back. "What? Are you certain?"

"I don't know where it is, but I'm sure they have one. Fortunately, they haven't managed to unlock it, so we're ahead of the game. And now that you've changed history, Colonel, we can make sure we stay ahead. Finding their cube has to become the intelligence community's number one priority."

"I'll see to that personally."

"Good," said Boyd. "Even though they found our cube, they had no way to steal it. Because even if they sent an overwhelming force against us, they knew they wouldn't be able to budge it a millimeter. But if we find theirs, that won't be the case."

The colonel turned to Kelly. "Speaking of budging the cube," he said, "how did you know how to activate it in the first place?"

"I'll be happy to go into that later," she replied. "But we're eager to hear your response to the proposal we made at the end of our message. So what do you say, Colonel Osborne? Are you ready to take this program more... private?"

They had spent the last fifteen minutes of their message trying to persuade the colonel to consider establishing a program even more exclusive, and more secret, than the Enigma program had been—which was really saying something, since no program had ever been more classified.

"It's a big step," said Osborne.

"You saw the devastation this thing managed in Canada," said Kelly. "And that's only the beginning of what it can do."

"Yes, Sage's playback showed an effortless power that was truly extraordinary. But we had already assumed the cube possessed immeasurable power. That it likely represented the most destructive force on Earth. Which is why we instituted the safeguards that we did. This is just a confirmation."

Kelly shook her head. "It's more than a confirmation," she insisted. "It's unlocked now, which makes all the difference. We were responsible for a gun inside an unbreakable safe. Now the gun's out, loaded, and cocked. So we need to be even more certain than ever it's kept in good hands rather than bad. That it's used and studied for the right reasons."

"The right reasons being in pursuit of science rather than weaponry."

"Exactly," said Kelly. "Just imagine a world with unlimited free energy. A world in which transportation, construction, and space travel—including interstellar space travel—are utterly transformed, along with dozens of other industries."

"But all of these individual capabilities can also be used for destructive purposes," said Osborne.

"That's true," said Kelly, "but they'll each be much less dangerous than the cube in its entirety. And our job won't just be to discover revolutionary technology, but to make this tech as childproof as possible."

"And we alone would decide how to proceed with the cube," said the colonel.

"That's right," confirmed Boyd.

"That's what troubles me," said Osborne. "Who made us gods?"

Boyd grinned. "The fact that you'd even ask that is what makes you qualified," he said. "You're the most ethical, decent man I've ever known. That's why I trusted you with the information we sent from the past. Why I trusted you to kill us. I've seen firsthand how careful you are when recruiting for EHO. How committed you are to making sure that only men and women of the highest moral character become involved. Why? Because you know you can't take the chance that the wrong person will wield this kind of power. Which makes you perfect for shepherding the cube along."

Osborne nodded but didn't respond.

"Let me ask you this," said Boyd, "did you get rich from our predictions?"

"What?"

"You heard me. Be honest. Once we proved we were right every time, did you bet on any sports? Buy any stocks that you knew for certain were going higher?"

Osborne shook his head. "No. I didn't think that would be right."

Boyd turned triumphantly to Kelly. "See," he said. "I told you he wouldn't. I'm not even sure this guy is human."

"You're the same way," said Osborne.

"No," replied Boyd, "I'm not nearly the saint you are, Colonel. For instance, Kelly and I bought a number of shares in three companies before we left: DuPont, Boeing, and Procter & Gamble. We put the stock certificates in a safe deposit box. As part of my brilliant buy and hold strategy," he added with a smile. "It's simple, really. You just have to choose companies you know won't go out of business and hold the stock for eighty-four years. Works every time."

"I didn't think you cared about money," said Osborne.

"I don't. But I wanted to be able to fund the initial steps required to set up our own cube research group if need be. If we're keeping this a secret even from black ops management, even from the Secretary of Defense and president, funding will become an issue. And I wanted us to be able to spend every waking second studying the cube."

Boyd paused. "You'd be in charge," he continued. "Kelly and I would be co-equal number twos."

"Interesting," said Osborne noncommittally. "Do you think Dr. Connolly has the experience in these matters to operate at this level? She's a brilliant physicist, but this would require additional skills."

"She's more savvy, resourceful, and courageous under fire than anyone I've ever worked with. And the cube's AI has forged a bond with her. Once it finds a boss it deems to be worthy, it sticks with them, and only them."

"Sounds very... monogamous," said Osborne with a smile. "A good quality in an alien AI."

Kelly laughed. "The AI won't tell me as much about time travel as I'd like," she said, "but I know it will tell us what every glyph controls. Which will accelerate our study of the cube substantially, and eliminate the risk we'd be taking by poking around blindly. The AI is sure to make us work out the science on our own, but it will still prove invaluable."

"Which makes Kelly the most important of all of us," said Boyd. "Not to mention we wouldn't even know how to operate the cube without her."

"Okay, I'm sold," said the colonel. He turned to Kelly with a newfound respect in his eyes. "I've never heard Justin rave about anyone this much. Sounds like you should be running the show instead of me."

"I wouldn't go that far," replied Kelly. "We'd want you to be responsible for finding China's cube. Once you do, I can use ours to clear a path to theirs, and to retrieve it. Other than that, we'll dedicate ourselves to pure research, for peaceful, commercial uses only. We'll bring in select members of the old Enigma team, but we'll need different skills now that it's unlocked, so not all of them will be suitable. And others won't pass the new rigorous vetting standards we'll employ."

"You've really thought this through."

"What do you say?" asked Boyd. "I suggest we wait a month and then disband Project Uru. Tell the team that despite great effort, we have no leads on what happened to the cube. Then reconnect with those on the team we decide to re-recruit, and bring in select newcomers."

"And where would you propose to house this group?"

Boyd shrugged. "That's something for further discussion. We can use the cube to excavate a new subterranean site or bore through a mountain with ease. Kelly and I can fund the rest of the necessary construction and security with our own money."

"Just how much profit will you make on these stocks of yours?"

"When we purchased the shares, Sage calculated they would be worth a little over two hundred million in 2027. So we can self-fund for years, and find a way to siphon off money from other black budgets if necessary."

Osborne sighed. "You do know that I vowed never to set up this kind of off-the-reservation program," he said.

"I do," said the major. "And I vowed that if I ever went back in time and had the chance to kill Adolf Hitler, I would do that. These are strange times, Colonel. Most importantly, Kelly also made a vow. To her grandfather. To protect the cube from any group she didn't trust with all her heart and soul. So if you want to study the cube, it's either this way, or no way."

"Her grandfather?" said Osborne in confusion.

"Long story," said Boyd.

Osborne stared into the eyes of both time travelers for several seconds. "I'll want to hear all of these long stories," he said, "ask a lot of questions, and check things out." He paused. "But if everything checks out, I'm in."

"Outstanding," said Boyd.

"I'm looking forward to getting to know you," said Kelly. "Justin thinks the world of you."

"And you as well, it seems, Dr. Connolly."

"First of all, call me Kelly. Second, Connolly isn't actually my last name anymore. I've changed it to Connolly-Boyd."

"What does that mean?" said Osborne, blinking in confusion. "Are you two married?"

Kelly grinned. "Surprise," she said. "I was thinking of changing my name to Frau Boyd," she added in amusement, "but thought better of it."

"Frau Boyd?" repeated Osborne.

"Another long story," said Boyd. "But I can see why this might come as a shock. After all, in this timeline, I only met Kelly last week, and we haven't even spent a full day together. But I've been with her now for almost six months."

"I'm, ah... very happy for you both," said Osborne. "Sorry I missed the wedding," he added wryly, "but I was busy not being in existence at the time."

Boyd laughed. "Perfectly understandable. And if it makes you feel any better, we'll be doing it again. We don't mind the 1943 marriage certificate so much. The problem is that we don't know what anniversary gifts to get each other," he added, trying to keep a straight face. "My understanding is that the first is the paper anniversary. And the sixtieth is the diamond anniversary. But what the hell is the eighty-fifth anniversary, which is coming up next year?"

"I see the dilemma," said Osborne in amusement. "I guess you really do have no choice but to remarry."

The discussion continued, and Colonel Osborne soon informed his protégé that his supercomputer was on site, and Sage was ready to reunite with him, unless he wanted a model that was less than eighty-five years old. Boyd wouldn't hear of it, as expected.

As the colonel helped affix Boyd's trusty AI companion to his leg, Kelly found herself reflecting on everything that had happened since the fateful day she had first met the EHO major, convinced that all those in the military were throwbacks to more barbaric times.

Since then, she had lived during the most barbaric time in human history, and had learned what barbarism was really about. And she had fallen head over heels in love with a commando, who just happened to also be the kindest, most thoughtful man she had ever known.

Even more surprising, she, herself, had been forced to become barbaric, to abandon pacifism to become a warrior, for what she deemed were the right reasons.

All of this was as unexpected, as extraordinary in its own way as anything else she had been through. If she had been asked before meeting Boyd which was more likely, interacting with a telepathic alien AI and traveling in time, or falling in love with a major and becoming a mass murderer, she would have chosen the former.

But, somehow, everything had worked out much better than she and her new husband could have ever hoped for. When she had removed the cube from the Uru facility—an agonizing decision—she hadn't been sure what might happen next. But after a number of even more agonizing decisions, here they were, just down the block from her home, having accomplished some truly remarkable things. They had thwarted the Chinese, maintained the timeline, and gained extraordinary insight into time travel, the capabilities of the cube, and even a glimpse of the thinking of the alien species behind it.

She also found herself trusting Colonel Osborne as much as Boyd had said she would. So after so many torturous decisions, the choice to go forward with these men and find ways to catapult human civilization to new heights couldn't have been easier. Humankind was more than a little rough around the edges. But the species had also made gargantuan strides in maturity since the 1940s, and had become self-aware enough to realize that additional improvement was sorely needed.

Her grandfather's decision to keep the cube out of human hands for eight decades had been the right one. But she was equally certain that her decision to take it out of hibernation and explore its potential, in a careful, tightly controlled and altruistic manner, was also correct.

As she thought of her grandfather, an image of young Otto Richter flashed into her mind, tall and thin and physically awkward, but mentally a giant, mature beyond his years.

Her grandfather was just as extraordinary as the powers of the cube and her personal transformation had been. She had no doubt that Otto's intellect was the most exceptional the human race had ever produced, with no other scientific luminary even coming close.

So had he found a way to beat a heart attack? Had he convinced his wife to lie to the family, to pretend he had died, to pass along his supposed last words, and to mourn him at a pretend funeral?

Even if he had managed it, there was no way he could still be alive today. He would be a hundred and two years old.

Still, Otto had invented a dark energy generator in 1943, while the vile Nazi SS was breathing down his neck. If he could do that, what couldn't he do?

Kelly considered this for another few seconds and shook her head, feeling silly. Constructing a device, no matter how advanced, was one thing, but beating a heart attack and living past a hundred was something else entirely. She decided she was letting her imagination run away with her.

Yet despite this, Kelly found herself staring at the entrance to the Lees' home, half expecting her grandfather to pull the door open and march across the threshold.

There was no way this was going to happen, of course.

Even so, she found that she couldn't take her eyes from the door.

Because if anyone could pull this off, it would be Otto Richter.