I shrug. I have no idea. But I guess we’ll find out.
Yellow heaves the limb through the window, but apart from the sound of the glass shattering, it’s quiet. We clear out the glass, then I hoist Yellow up through the window. She scoots a chair over, and I jump to grab her hand.
We’re in.
The hallway on the fifth floor is dark, but light spills from Ariel’s open door.
“Told you,” I whisper to Yellow.
Ariel sits in the corner of his cluttered office with his back to the door. He’s hunched over a stool, tinkering with a small metal object. Papers are piled up and pushed to either side of the desk. I clear my throat, and Ariel turns at once. He somehow looks older than the last time I saw him, which seems weird. That was in 1962. Just over a year ago. Yet the Ariel who’s looking at me now has a harder face, more lines. There are bags under both of his eyes.
“Ah,” he says when he sees me, “Miss Hart, was it? I was wondering when I’d see you again.”
There’s a coyness in his voice. I look over to Yellow to see if she’s caught it, but Yellow’s just standing there staring at Ariel with her mouth open.
Chills dance up and down my arms. “My name isn’t Miss Hart.”
“I am very well aware of that,” Ariel says. “When are you from?”
“I—” Wait. Did he say when am I from?
“You—you know who I am?” My head snaps over to Yellow again. But she has the same shocked expression on her face.
“Not specifically, but when you showed up out of nowhere, begging me to change the design of my machine, I was willing to bet that you were, in fact, already using it at some point in the future. So now I’m asking you when you came from.”
Yellow’s fingers grab my bicep. “Don’t tell him,” she whispers.
I turn to face her. “What?”
Yellow starts backing out of the room, one foot at a time. “We need to go. Now.”
“Yellow, what are—”
“That’s Seven,” she whispers.
My mouth turns bone-dry as my mind races back to my Annum Guard orientation. The first generation Guardians were code named numbers. Only one of that generation is still alive.
Seven.
Ariel.
Which means . . . Abe.
I gasp. No. NO! Not Abe. Not Abe. NOT ABE! I whip my head back to Ariel in a flash. I’m not going anywhere.
“You’re a liar!” I say. “I know you. I’ve known you for years, which means you knew exactly who I was all those times. All those dinners. All those holiday celebrations. And you never said a goddamned word!”
Ariel holds up his hands and rises from his stool. “You need to stop talking right now.”
“Do you know what Annum Guard is?” I ask.
“Of course I do.” He waves his arm in the air. “It’s been in place for over a year. We’ve experimented, and we’re still at least another year away from consistently traveling, but we’re getting there. I’m Seven.” He looks right at Yellow. “I think you already know that, don’t you?”
Yellow doesn’t say anything, and Ariel looks back at me.
“Now will you please tell me who you are, when you are from, and what you want?”
“Iris, don’t,” Yellow says.
I look right at Ariel. “I know your grandson.”
“No.” Ariel holds up a hand with a very stern look on his face. “I don’t want you to tell me anything specific. Nothing at all. Anything you tell me has the potential to completely alter my life’s course, and I’m not interested. I’m on a path for a reason, and I will follow it to the end. So just keep it all to yourself.
“I only want to know who you are, when you come from, and what you want.”
Why should I? Why shouldn’t I tell him every tiny detail of his life to come?
But I know, deep down. Abe. Anything I tell Ariel could affect Abe’s future.
Me being here right now could affect Abe’s future. My first visit, too, when I pointed out Mona. What if I planted that idea too early, and she and Ariel have already dated and broken up? What if Ariel marries someone else, which means no Abe? Ever?
I open my mouth, but my tongue can’t find the words. I don’t know if I can do this. I have to do this. We’re at a dead end. Without help, we’re going to fail. Breathe.
I tell Ariel that I’m Annum Guard, too, and give him the date I ran away. My voice cracks as I do.
“And what do you want?”
I open the notebook and tear out the back page, the page on which Yellow and I had scribbled the information on the four other big CE missions. I hand it over.
“These are four missions that . . .” I stop myself before I tell him about CE. “I just want to know what they are. The dates and locations. Someday in the future, you’re going to have access to this information. All I’m asking is that you share it with me.”
Ariel sighs but holds out his hand for the paper. I hesitate before I give it to him. There are so many other things I could ask for instead. I could ask Ariel to get rid of Alpha the second he’s put in charge. I could ask him to kick my grandfather off Annum Guard One. I could ask him to lock me away so that the Guard would never find me in the first place, but I don’t. I don’t say anything. I’m too close to my future, and I could wreck it all with one innocent comment.
“Why should I do this?” Ariel asks.
I hesitate. I don’t know how to answer that without giving too much away. “Because one day I like to think I’m going to mean a great deal to you, and you’re going to know that I will always do the right thing.” Ariel’s face tightens. “You don’t have to decide now. But if that day comes, and I’m right, then help me. Please.”
Ariel lowers onto his stool. He props his elbow on the desk, closes his eyes, and cradles his head in his hand. He’s quiet for a while.
“I can’t make you any promises,” he finally says.
“Okay. But I hope you will.” It’s all I can say.
Yellow and I leave the building the same way we came in. The broken window on the first floor.
“So now what?” she says.
“Now we project.”
Yellow raises an eyebrow. “Where? You know, I’m starting to lose patience with you.”
“I don’t know where, and it really doesn’t matter. Our present won’t be affected until we project again, right? So if Ariel is going to help us, we have to leave today before we can find out. Isn’t that how it works?”
Yellow nods.
“So pick a date, and let’s go there.”
“I don’t know,” she says with a sigh. “Tomorrow. Christmas Eve 1963.”
I set my watch. One bump of the day knob. “Fair enough.” I watch Yellow do it, too, and then we shut our watches at the same time.
The projection lasts a fraction of a second. I don’t even feel it.
“Well?” Yellow asks, looking at me with wide eyes that blink rapidly with impatience. “Do you magically know the answer now?”
I stop. I think. I don’t feel any different, not that I was expecting to. It wasn’t like Ariel was going to pull me aside when I was fourteen and tell me the truth about everything. No, if he’s going to help us, it’s going to be by giving us the information subtly. But how?
I reach up and run my hands through my hair, tugging on the ends. It pulls on my scalp and it hurts. “Maybe we should project again. Maybe we’re supposed to go see Ariel again in the present?”
“The present?” Yellow repeats. “You want to go to the house of an Annum Guard member in the present? Are you that insane? Maybe Ariel—Seven—isn’t going to sabotage us, but I can tell you that his house is sure as hell being monitored, especially because of your connection.”