MirrorWorld

“Dr. Winters,” Lyons continues, “if you are present, you have been a trusted colleague until now. Please decide which side of this you want to fall on. Josef. Kelly. I tried to avoid this, I really did.” He sighs. “Family has always been my core … but now, what we’re doing is for all the other families on this planet. I’m afraid our broken house has become a liability. Kelly, you oppose my plans. Always have. Josef … I’m sorry, son, but even the best soldiers become expendable eventually, and I can’t let either of you stand in my way. Good-bye.”

Before I can fully register the threat, a sharp report of a gunshot contained in a small space stabs my ears, but the physical pain is nothing compared to the sight of my aunt, whom I’ve only just begun to remember, but who I know I adore, falling back through the puff of pink that has exploded from her back.

I’m rooted in shock, processing surprise slower than I used to, but Winters acts before Allenby hits the floor. She brings her foot up hard, kicking the unseen soldier’s wrist. The gun falls free, clattering to the floor, just a few feet away from me.

“Crazy!” Winters shouts without looking at me. Her voice snaps me into action. I pick up the dropped gun and aim it at the backside of the door, looking to fire thirteen rounds into whoever is on the other side. The problem is that Winters is also on the other side. I know my old self would just aim to the right and fire, but I can’t risk hitting her. She follows the kick with a punch. I hear it connect. The struck soldier falls, but he’s not alone. Whoever is behind him is now free to act.

And he does.

A perfect three-round burst punches a triangle of holes into Winters’s chest. She stands frozen, looking down at the red plumes of color growing on her blouse. She starts turning her startled eyes in my direction but never gets the chance to make eye contact. She deserved so much better than this.

“Bitch,” the soldier says.

A single shot snaps Winters’s head back. She crumples in on herself.

My old self — Crazy — would have handled this differently. Sure, he might have shot Winters, too, but maybe not fatally. At least with that version of myself, she’d have a chance of survival. As rage overcomes any traces of fear, I dive forward and slide into view in the last place they’d expect it, underfoot. I fire a single round. The bullet slips neatly through the man’s soft throat and explodes out through the back of his head.

The mix of blood and brains spray on the second man’s face, causing him to flinch. I put a hole in his forehead before he can recover.

A third soldier slides into view, firing an assault rifle from the hip. He sprays bullets into the armory, hitting everything at waist height, which is nothing. Wisely, he hasn’t fully entered the doorway. But that can be corrected. I shoot his leg, punching a hole through his shin. He topples to the side, shouting in pain. But his voice, and life, are silenced by a bullet before he lands atop his deceased comrades.

I lay there, breathing for a moment, waiting for more soldiers to enter the room. But no one comes.

I don’t even need to look at Winters to know she’s dead. And I’m not sure I could handle seeing her like that, not after remembering what she meant to me. But Allenby … I drop to my knees, put a hand behind her head, and check her pulse. It’s faint, but there. I glance down at the wound. The Dread Squad soldier aimed for her heart, but missed, punching a hole through her shoulder instead.

Her eyes flutter open.

Our eyes meet for a moment and she smiles. “Are you all right?”

That she’s worried about me when she has a bullet hole staggers me. “I am.”

She sees me glance at Winters and follows my eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I know you cared for her.”

Part of me wants to linger, to mourn for Winters’s death. She did mean a lot to me. But there is still a chance that I can save Maya, and when all of this is done, kick Lyons’s teeth in. His war might be justified, but this kind of violent paranoia is uncalled for. There will be a reckoning for Winters’s death. “Do you know her CIA contact?”

My aunt nods. “He’s a good man. She’s already been in touch with him. Understands the situation and our part in stopping it. Help me up.” I lift her by her good arm. Ignoring the still-bleeding wound in her shoulder, she digs into her pocket and takes out her phone. She snaps a photo of Winters and the men who killed her. I nearly ask why, but then realize Winters’s contact is going to want confirmation that she’s dead.

When she looks up at me, I must look a little shell-shocked. She pockets the phone and puts her hand on my face. “There is more strength in you than you know, Josef. You just need to remember.”

Her eyes drift downward. She reaches out and takes hold of the chain beneath my shirt. She tugs it, and the strange melted pendant that is my security blanket falls out. She lifts the rough, circular, color-swirled mystery up so I can see it. “Remember.”