Free Erasing Time by C. J. Hill

playing football right now, are you?”
    Taylor didn’t have time to answer. The door slid open, and three men walked into the office, Helix leading the way.

chapter
9
    Helix and his men strode over to the group, every step making Sheridan feel more like a trapped animal. Jeth, Echo, and Elise stood up. Despite his assurances, Jeth wore a tense expression, Elise fiddled with a ring on her finger, and Echo—well, Echo was harder to read. His face was expressionless, but his blue eyes were intense.
    A man with a multicolored crew cut unclipped a red cylinder from his belt. It was the size of a cell phone and had a tiny green light circling around its perimeter. He mumbled something to Helix, then stopped in front of Sheridan and Taylor. “Ask them where they were and what was happening right before the Time Strainer brought them here.”
    Sheridan understood him. It was getting easier the more she heard the accent. Taylor probably understood too, but she shook her head sadly. “We … don’t … understand … you.”
    Jeth gestured at the third man. “He wants to know where you were and what happened right before the Time Strainer brought you here.”
    “I don’t remember,” Sheridan said, perhaps too fast.
    Taylor got a far-off look on her face. “We were walking across the University of Tennessee campus to study at the library, and then there was this big light, like a lightning bolt. After that, I woke up in the glass case feeling groggy.”
    Jeth related the answer back to the scientist.
    The man folded his arms. “Who else was near? Gente? A man quizá ?”
    Gente and quizá . Spanish words. Quizá meant “perhaps.” And gente was … She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
    Jeth said, “Were there any people around you before you came? A man perhaps?”
    Gente was “people.” Now she remembered.
    “I don’t remember,” Sheridan said, and this time she looked contemplative, for effect.
    “There were,” Taylor said. “On campus there were always people around. Students, professors, lecturers, all sorts of people.”
    The man pointed at Taylor. “What was her career?”
    Jeth asked the question. Taylor said, “I was in high school. I was planning on studying literature when I got to college. Back in my time, they gave degrees for reading books.”
    “Did they?” Jeth asked. “How interesting. You’ll have to tell me more about the educational process later.” Jeth repeated Taylor’s answer to the scientists, then asked Sheridan about her career.
    “I was a student too,” she said.
    “What did you study?”
    “The normal things. Math, history, English.”
    Surprise flitted across Jeth’s face. “You studied your own language? Do you mean you studied the origination of the English language?”
    “Well, no. In English classes we studied literature.”
    He looked at her blankly. “Then why did they call it English?”
    “I don’t know. They just did.”
    Jeth gave a grunt that indicated he didn’t believe her, but he repeated the answer to the scientists anyway.
    Sheridan fidgeted with her hands, then stopped because she thought it made her look guilty of something. How was it that Taylor could spout off lies without ever being caught, while Sheridan told the truth and was never believed?
    The scientist with the crew cut took hold of Sheridan’s arm and placed the cylinder on the back of her wrist. It pricked her skin, and she flinched away.
    “It’s a measurement device,” Echo told her. “He’s checking your DNA’s energy signal.”
    The crew cut man let go of Sheridan’s arm and watched the green circling light on the cylinder. After a few seconds, it flashed a row of symbols. He noted it, then repeated the process on Taylor’s arm. When the light flashed the second row of symbols, he scowled. Whatever it meant, he didn’t like it.
    From behind him, Helix called out, “The readings?”
    The scowl dropped from the man’s face, and panic swept across his features. By the