Free Skyline by Zach Milan Page B

Charlotte asked. “To learn that we can change
time? That’s all I’ve been thinking.”
    “Yeah,”
Bill said. “God, could she be that brilliant? To know you well enough to know
you’d never stand for people dying in a subway?”
    Charlotte
shrugged. “She knew me well. Only …”
    The
Leanor who’d told them to go to the Blast didn’t know Charlotte at all. She’d
interviewed Charlotte one day, then been murdered the next. And still, she’d
told her to go to the Blast.
    They
turned a corner, back onto the street where they’d left Monroe, and Charlotte
realized that maybe they’d come here for a different reason. Not to learn that
they could change time, but to confront the woman who’d started this whole
mess.
    Because
the anachronistic woman stood right beside Monroe.
    •
• • • • • • • • • • •
    Charlotte raced over, but as she approached her steps slowed. Her gallop changed to a
run, to a fast walk, a stilted walk, then to a stop.
    Standing
outside Suni’s in the past, Monroe was gesturing to the woman with platinum
hair. She had her hand on her chin, listening, then responding. And when she
did, Monroe didn’t yell loudly enough for Charlotte to hear. If he was arguing
with her, it was less of an argument than Charlotte had had with him hours ago.
Could it really just be hours?
    Bill
breezed past, but had slowed, too.
    Charlotte
shook herself, and jogged to catch up. When she got within earshot, Monroe was
saying, “But what’ll be there? Won’t it be dangerous? Why the hell can’t you go?”
    “’Roe?”
    Monroe
held up a hand to Charlotte, but didn’t even turn to her.
    “I can’t ,” the woman said. “You’ll understand it; you’re too new at this
yet to see the big picture.”
    “I
get your side.” Monroe folded his arms over his chest. “You think time can be
changed; we’ve already seen the outcome. But y’know what I think? I think
you’re lazy.”
    The
woman rolled her eyes. “ Please . You think it’s a coincidence Leanor sent
you here? That you met me on both trips? I needed you; you came. You can stop
this, just like she asked of you.”
    “But
we don’t know what she asked—”
    “Trust
me,” the woman said, pushing her head forward earnestly. “Just this once, okay?
Trust that I know Leanor as well as you do.”
    Shaking
his head, Monroe told her, “Fine, we’ll go. But with all of history to search
…”
    “Not
all of history,” the woman said. “Look, one more hint. The person you have to
stop …” She looked away from Monroe, to the empty air where skyscrapers used to
stand.
    For
the first time, Charlotte began to realize what this woman must’ve been saying.
Not that Leanor wanted them to go through time and save people from disaster.
Not even to save Leanor from her death. No, nothing so pedestrian.
According to this woman, Leanor wanted them to stop the Blast .
    Charlotte
inhaled.
    Maybe
she’d learned the right lesson today, after all. That she could change time.
That she could stop the Blast, however it had happened.
    The
woman turned back to Monroe. “The bomber loves history. Just like you.” She
lofted her mesh astrolabe in her hands, spun it, and disappeared before
Charlotte could chime in, could ask what the Blast was .
    If
there was a bomber—something this woman seemed to believe—why did the Blast
look nothing like a bomb?
    Monroe
she could question.
    “That
woman,” Charlotte said. “What did she want?”
    Monroe
shook his head in annoyance. “She didn’t say, just hinted. Mentioned a bomber
when I mentioned that Leanor had told us to come here. It’s gotta be that same
guy, the one who killed Leanor.”
    “You
think …” Bill said.
    Monroe
lifted his hands. “I don’t know what to think. But I know where that woman
suggested we go. And I think I know when.”
    “And,
what?” Bill spread his hands. “You trust her?”
    Quietly,
Charlotte said, “She wanted us to stop the Blast, Bill.”