Free Time's Mirror: A CHRONOS Files Novella (The CHRONOS Files) by Rysa Walker Page A

Rand with a secret. No offense.”
    “None taken. I don’t even know Saul.”
    And even though I really don’t want to ask this next question, this secret he mentioned had something to do with Tate liking younger women. I can’t resist asking, but I try to toss the question out casually, like I’m just idly curious. “What sort of secret did Saul tell you? About…Tate.”
    Campbell arches one bushy brow. “Saul collected secrets. Sounds like you may have inherited his curiosity.”
    I shrug. “Just making conversation.”
    Silence.
    “All right!” I admit. “Yes. I’m curious.”
    “Very well. Poulsen was involved with a girl about your age in the past.” He chuckles. “In the very, very distant past, if you get my drift, in some Viking village. He’s just lucky Saul helped keep it off his official record. CHRONOS has—or I guess I should say, had —very strict rules on that sort of thing.”
    “Oh. So, that’s why he hopes they’ll rebuild CHRONOS. So he can see her again.”
    “I doubt it. Saul said it ended badly. Hardly a surprise. Long-distance relationships rarely work out.” He pauses, staring at me like he’s waiting for something, and then says, “Now it’s your turn.”
    “What?”
    “Your…turn. I gave you information that you can use to your advantage if you’re smart. Now you reciprocate. I’m sure that’s how the game works in your time as well.”
    “But…I don’t know anything that would interest you.”
    “On the contrary. Your mother went to all this trouble to strand herself in the past. I’m curious as to what she’s doing with her life in…the 1980s, right? How has she used her knowledge of the future? I suppose she’s quite wealthy by now.”
    I snort. “No. She’s a history professor, like my dad. I mean, we’re not poor , but—”
    “A shame,” Campbell says, tsking softly. “I’d hoped the speculation was wrong. That Kathy actually did it for something other than spite. Other than wanting revenge on Saul for his…wandering libido.” He waves a hand, looking over my shoulder at someone. “And on that topic, let me introduce my daughter, Alisa.”
    He’s still laughing at his own joke when the woman reaches us. She doesn’t look much like Campbell. Her hair is a vivid, metallic silver, long and jagged with dozens of different layers, shot through with thin strands of black. Combined with her pale skin and wide-set light green eyes, she reminds me a little of this lynx I saw at a zoo last summer, while visiting my dad’s parents up in Massachusetts.
    “Did you want something?” Although Alisa’s voice is several octaves higher than her father’s, it has the same bored, cynical note.
    “Only a moment of your time, sweetest.”
    Even though Alisa doesn’t seem any more pleasant than the old man, I feel a momentary twinge of sympathy. Rotten to have your father call you sweetest in public. Doubly rotten to have the word come out dripping with sarcasm.
    Alisa tosses her silver mane over one shoulder. “Clock’s ticking, Morgen.”
    “I just thought you might like to meet Saul and Kathy’s daughter.”
    She gives me a quick once-over. “Kids grow up so quickly these days. Seems like only last year she was nothing more than a gleam in Saul’s eye.”
    “A gleam you saw quite often, if I’m not mistaken.”
    Alisa responds to Campbell’s comment with a suggestion that’s both physically impossible and entirely disrespectful to her father. I expect him to take offense, but he just laughs.
    “I hear CHRONOS will have you on display at the new museum,” she says, looking back at me.
    “Not exactly. I’ll be working there.”
    “Well, good luck with that.” Her eyes flicker briefly with something that looks a bit like pity before she strolls off.
    The champagne churns in my stomach. Alisa is probably closer to the truth about my new job at CHRONOS than I am. How many of the visitors will stop in simply to gawk at the girl from the past,