Free Riley's Journey by P.L. Parker, Sandra Edwards

with Jonas to believe him.
    “Assuming I believe you, where exactly did they go?”
    “They’re in the late Pleistocene era or Ice Age, in Eurasia, as close as we can estimate. Land masses were somewhat different then.”
    “What made you decide to send the woman?”
    “Nathan was losing it. Bethany was afraid he was going to kill himself or go crazy, and you know how Bethany is about Nathan. She came up with this idiotic scheme to send the woman back. I was against it! It wasn’t fair to the woman, but Bethany wouldn’t listen to me! She threatened to expose me if I didn’t help her.” He added miserably. “I wouldn’t have gone along with it otherwise.”
    “So Bethany has something on you. That’s interesting. Maybe you should tell me what that is.”
    “It has nothing to do with this.” Miles’ eyes dropped.
    “I don’t know,” Jonas casually prompted, “it might make things less complicated down the road.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well, I still have to decide what I’m going to do with the information you gave me and I would hate to have this conversation again.” He ran the knife across his finger, blood bubbling up from the cut. Miles swallowed convulsively, blanching even whiter, if that was possible.
    “I misappropriated facility funds for my own purposes,” he blurted out.
    “How interesting,” Jonas commented softly as he studied the blood oozing out of the cut, “and I presume Dr. Collins knew about that little problem?”
    “She did, and that’s how she coerced me into helping her. I didn’t want to spend the next twenty years in jail for embezzlement.”
    Jonas nodded, working hard to appear sympathetic. “Totally understandable. I would feel the same way. Now, let’s go back to the disappearance of Nathan and Riley. If what you say is true, can they be retrieved from the past? What’s up with that?”
    “No. Never! It’s a one-way ticket. We can send through but there’s no way we’ve found to retrieve anything that has gone through yet. We’ve been secretly sending equipment, food and communications to Nathan for the past five years and when it was decided by the higher ups that the facility was losing too much money, the decision was made to close down. Sending Riley was a last ditch effort by Bethany so Nathan wouldn’t be alone in the far distant past, so for all intents and purposes, they’re stuck there.”
    Jonas attention was focused on the wall opposite for several minutes. “Is it still possible to send things through?”
    “I don’t think so, not without Bethany. It’s hard to explain, but there are times when it is more propitious to send through, and it only happens once every so often. That’s why we sent Riley through on that Friday; the window was at its highest probability of success. We have sent equipment through on lesser times, but Nathan and Riley only went when the window was at its peak. I was supposed to finish up closing everything down before I left.”
    “So it’s still open?” Jonas whirled on him.
    Miles nodded, as much as he was able to nod, tied up as he was. “But I’m supposed to have it totally shut down by Tuesday.”
    “When is the next best window?” Jonas stared hard at Miles, whose eyes rounded.
    “You’re not thinking of going through, are you?” He croaked.
    “Answer the damn question!” Jonas stabbed the knife into the wall.
    “In about three weeks, give or take a few days. I would have to recalculate the parameters,” Miles’ breath exploded in a rush.
    Jonas nodded, satisfied that he had all the information he needed right now. “Well, this session is done, but I’m sure I’ll want to continue sometime in the very near future. I’m going to untie you, but you’re staying locked in this room until I decide what I’m going to do with you. In the meantime, tell me what you need to work on those new calculations.”
    “In here, you want me to work in here? All the information I need is in the