Chapter Nineteen

His words caused a blush to creep up the side of my face. I could feel the subtle burn on my skin.

Theo shook his head. "Esa, I need you to focus on Samuel right now, and how we will free him from his cell."

"Huh?"

"You are Captain Esa James. Seriously, let's go. I don't have time for you to start acting soft. Besides, this is how you wanted it to be."

Theo pulled out his medallion and grabbed my hand. His touch caused a brief shock between our palms. With my hand clasped in his, we walked toward the Jump Line. In seconds, the colors faded to daylight and we were standing near the bridge—the same bridge where I'd first confronted Samuel. The bridge where he'd grabbed me and taken me home.

"Be patient," Theo whispered. However, I heard his breathing quicken as he crouched next to me.

From behind a large tree, we peered through the lush foliage. Droplets of water dripped from some of the leaves onto the ground below. I had forgotten it had rained that day.

"Any moment now."

Theo held me back when Samuel appeared several feet in front of us. He didn't look our way. Instead, he kneeled beside the last plank on the bridge and pulled up the old piece of wood. He left a piece of paper underneath before running off in the opposite direction.

Theo looked at me sternly. "Stay here. Don't move. You're about to arrive, and we can't risk you colliding in this year."

A large lump developed in my throat. Me. I would get to see me. Then something dawned on me. "How do you know I'm about to arrive?" I was curious. It seemed odd that Theo would know exactly when one of us would arrive, unless he was somehow tracking my movements.

Theo paused. "I just know."

"Really? Well, why don't you tell me how you know?"

Theo lowered his head. "I was there. I knew Samuel was up to something. Several days before he found you he started jumping and wouldn't tell any of us why. I finally figured it out."

"Why wouldn't he tell you?" I asked, surprised.

"I guess because we had tried so hard when you first disappeared and he didn't want to get the rest of the team's hopes up. I don't know. All I know is, he didn't tell any of us that he had started to feel your energy again. I had felt new surges as well, but I'd assumed they were from another team member. Since you and Samuel are twins, I guess he could feel you a little bit clearer. Somehow, he knew you were in this year."

"Fine. Go see what Samuel left for us," I whispered glancing toward the bridge.

Theo crept through the trees, toward the spot where Samuel had stood. He crouched and lifted the old board. It made a snapping sound as it came away from the main structure. Theo withdrew the small piece of paper and looked over it. I saw his expression change from curiosity to anger, but before I could make any sort of move, he opened his hand and the paper went up in flames. Theo swung back his arm and the ashes drifted to the ground.

I kept my eyes trained on him, wondering what was happening. Until a noise, somewhere in the distance, caused me to turn.

"What did you see?" I whispered to Theo when he returned to my side.

"I'm not sure," he said. "It looked like a bunch of gibberish. Something is still missing."

"I could have helped you figure out what it meant if you hadn't destroyed the paper."

"I know, but it was too risky to bring it back with us."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Are you going to actually answer any of my questions at some point?" I asked, frustrated that I had allowed Theo to go and look and now he was giving me the runaround. There'd been something on that paper, and he didn't feel the need to share the information with me.

"Let's go back to the house. I need to take a look at Samuel's computer. He was working on something the other day," Theo said, again not answering my question, but I could tell he definitely knew something.

"Can we wait a few more minutes so I can see the 'old' me?"

"No. Too risky. Let's go."

When we reached Sam's lab a few seconds later, it looked the same as it had the first time I'd walked into it. The tables were neat—not a shred of paper anywhere.

Theo pulled out one of the chairs. "The others are on their way."

Just as the last word left his lips, Audrina, Luther and Gave walked into the room and settled around the large circular table.

"What did you guys find out?" Audrina asked.

"Not much. Samuel tried to tell us something, but we can't figure it out," Theo said.

I glanced at him questioningly. For some reason, he hadn't mentioned the bridge.

I looked around at the others. My gaze caught Luther's. I nodded, hesitantly in agreement with Theo. "That's right. Samuel's not making any sense right now," I said, not really sure why we weren't telling the truth. Theo must know something, and he wasn't ready to share it with me or the rest of the team.

Suddenly, the quiet of the lab was painfully interrupted.

"Agh! What is that?" I gasped, covering my ears, trying to protect them from the piercing sound. The pressure inside my head was becoming unbearable. It felt as if a large airplane engine was running right next to me. I looked at the others, but they didn't seem to notice it. My eyes began to water and I worried they could easily pop out from my head.

"Don't you all feel it?" I yelled as I dropped my head into my lap. Audrina looked back at me, perplexed, but then her expression changed and she got up from the table. "LUX. House scan," she barked. A hologram of the house emerged in front of her. With a wave of her hand, each room came to life in front of us. "I don't see anything. Scan again. This time turn on all of the underwater censors, to see if we're missing anything."

The look on Audrina's face remained serious as she continued to methodically move through each of the rooms. She stared intently at the image. The rest of the team had circled around her, also reviewing the scan.

I tried to look as well, but my ears were pounding and my vision was fuzzy.

Audrina moved in to get a closer look. "Got it."

In the living room, a small red light danced near the ceiling. It looked about the size of a fly.

"What is that?" I asked, still holding my hands to my ears. The pressure was slowly intensifying. It was taking everything for me not to roll myself up into a little ball on the floor. Through my tear-soaked eyes, I could see the little object clearly on the hologram, and then it disappeared.

"Where did it go?" I yelled. The intensity felt like it was crushing my entire head.

"It's playing with us," Audrina hissed, hands on her hips. "Luther, go get it."

"Gladly." Luther was out the door in seconds.

Audrina moved her hand again to zoom in on the living room. The four-dimensional image encased us, sending bright colored lines around our bodies. The red tracker suddenly came on and then blinked off. Instantly, the immense pressure inside of my head was gone.

I sat in stunned silence for what seemed like an eternity. The pain had come on so quickly. My temples throbbed and my entire body still ached in its aftermath.

"Thank you. It's gone. The horrible sound is gone," I said, dazed. I knew I was probably still yelling, but I couldn't help it. My ears felt like they were filled with fluid. I watched as Luther returned and started talking. I could see his mouth move, but I couldn't hear any of the words. Just silence.

Theo walked over to me. Before I could say anything, he picked me up and carried me over to a long table near the side of the room. I felt the cold surface beneath me as he placed his hands over my ears and then released them. The movement caused my ears to pop.

I sat up and looked at the rest of the team. Luther was still standing by the door with his arms crossed.

"It was one of Paul's moles." He looked down at the floor. "Samuel must have told him how to infiltrate our compound."

Audrina shook her head. "That doesn't make sense. Samuel wouldn't do something like that. How did it get inside the house? Is the protective field down?"

"Mole? What does that mean?" I asked, sitting up on the table and shaking my head, trying to release more of the pressure. What was I missing now?

"We call them moles because that's what they look like... tiny, black little moles."

I jumped off the table and walked over towards Luther to study the small object in his hand. He had a point: it did look like a mole. It was tiny, flat and dark.

Theo continued. "The soldiers have used them over the past few years in their attempts to track us, but LUX's scans usually find them, so we are able to destroy them before they get inside. I'm not sure how this one managed it."

"How did you hear something this tiny?" Audrina asked, looking over at me.

The rest of the gang was also staring at me. Except for Luther, who continued to hold the little black object between his thumb and pointer finger, carefully inspecting it.

"I don't know. I'm not sure what's going on, but I can tell you, it felt like military tanks were rolling through my ear drums. It was deafening," I said, rubbing my temples. "Did any of you hear it?"

"No." They responded in unison, shaking their heads to further make the point.

"Hmm." Theo approached Luther to take a closer look at the mole. "I wonder why you were the only one who could hear this thing. It seems odd. We probably need to do another scan on you, to see if there's something inside of your body that was interacting with the mole." Theo took ahold of the device and rolled it around in his hand. He then threw it as hard as he could against the wall. The shattered pieces fell to the ground like little specs of pepper.

"Well, that wasn't very helpful," Luther said. "Dude, why'd you have to go and destroy my new friend? The fun was just getting started. I had plans for that little guy. Plans that included sending a friendly message back to Paul."

"This isn't the first one, and it's not going to be the last," Theo said. "Audrina, scan the house again. Check the field and make sure it's still active."

"On it." Audrina began to look through a series of images of the house. Each danced in the air as she used her fingers to guide her through hallways and rooms.

Theo eyes caught mine. It was a look I had seen several times during the past few days. It was almost as if every time someone glanced in my direction they wanted to see all the way inside my body. Every bone, every muscle, every thought. It was probably the last part they wanted to know about the most. I'm sure they really just wanted to know if I would someday turn back into the old Esa.

"Something's not right," he said, kicking at the little device that now lay in pieces on the floor.

"What do these moles do?" I asked. It looked too tiny to be effective. How could something so small create such an incredibly loud and painful sound?

"Paul hasn't figured out how to jump himself, but he had a scientist create these things to send on the line. For the past year, he's attempted to use them to track us." Theo said. "It looks like he's found our home. Someone must have accidentally brought one of these back when they jumped."

We fixed one another with questioning stares, secretly wondering who'd let the enemy inside our home.

"Are we sure these are from Paul and not Troy?" Audrina asked, kneeling to inspect what remained of the obliterated little object.

"I would bet money it's Paul. He's the evil one," Luther quickly said. "I'll be honest, I wasn't checking my suit to make sure a tiny dot wasn't jumping on for a ride, but I can almost guarantee its Paul who is behind this little guy."

I looked over at Theo. "I knew our visit to Samuel was too easy. There was no one in the hallways. We were able to walk right in. I'm assuming this is why."

My head suddenly exploded with another sound. I shrieked, thrusting both of my hands back over my ears in the hope of quieting down the inner workings of my brain. My knees crumpled from the immense pressure that took over all of the free space inside of my head. "It's back! It's back! Make it stop... please. I can't take this pain!"

I collapsed to the floor. I just wanted to curl up into a ball and pass out. I welcomed the darkness. I wished there was something, anything, to make the pain go away.

As I withered, I tried to watch Audrina. She stood in the middle of the room, peering intently at the hologram of the house. "Scan exterior as well," she commanded the computer.

The outside instantly came to life in front of us. Several much larger dots were coming towards. The dots quickly multiplied, showing even more splashes of color.

"Oh my God. He's sent an army to find us," Audrina said in a panicked voice. "Scan individual."

A small machine flew toward me, sending a soft blue light over my face. It scanned me from head to toe. As it hovered over my body, it caused my white suit to sparkle like glitter. The machine tickled the bottom of my feet as it finished.

"Gave, go to the bottom floor. Theo, you've got the front. Luther, the rear. Check to make sure we are secured. Esa, you stay with me," Audrina commanded, grabbing my hand and pulling me up from the floor.

The other three ran off to their positions without any additional comments. I stumbled forward as I tried to balance myself. Audrina pulled more forcefully on my hand, dragging me toward the door. "Esa, if the situation gets worse, I'll lock the house down and meet you all up north." She shook her head again. I focused on her lips as I tried to read what she was saying, "Esa, do you understand? You need to get out of here. Jump to another place in time for a bit. I'll find you. Wherever you land, just head north. Don't worry; I'll find you this time."

"What does north mean? Where is that?" My head now felt like it was going to completely come off with all of the pressure inside of my skull. It was nauseating.

"I don't have time to explain. Esa, you need to go. The closer the soldiers get to the house, the more pain you will feel. This is the only thing I can think of to protect you and, quite honestly, I need you to go so we can take care of this problem and not be worried about you," Audrina yelled back at me as she tried to push me farther down the hallway.

"Fine." I didn't want to go, but I knew there was no other choice. The pain in my head was growing more intense with every passing second. Instantly, the pain was gone and I was sitting back in my spot near the trees, looking at the bridge.

A loud breath of relief escaped my mouth.

Suddenly, it dawned on me that I had no clue into which year I had managed to jump. But then I heard a rustling behind the trees. I methodically scanned the area in front of me until I found him. Samuel was standing directly opposite me leaning against a tree. Someone was walking toward the bridge. Quickly, I darted behind a large bush and watched as another version of me came into view. The other me was staring intently at the bridge when I felt a flow of energy rush through my body. Samuel looked over at me and winked before turning his gaze to this new version of me.

The entire scene of me talking to Samuel near the old bridge played out. The other me looked livid to see Samuel. I didn't recall being that angry, but from my facial expression, it looked like I was preparing to attack him.

It was surreal getting to watch this moment. It felt like it had happened years ago, but it had only been a few days. Through the tree line, a thin red light caught my gaze. Seconds later there was another tiny red flash. Something was across the way, hidden from sight.

I quietly sunk further behind the tree. There was no doubt in my mind that someone besides Samuel knew I was here and was trying to get my attention.

Crouching lower to the ground, I peered through a bush with green, fingerlike leaves. A sudden chill whipped through the air. The light was gone.

My breathing quickened as I glanced back over to Samuel and the other me. We were still talking. He pulled down the collar of his shirt and showed me—her—his necklace. I remembered the feeling that rushed through me the first time I was a part of the scene.

The thin red beam suddenly flashed on again, and I slowly zigzagged my way past several trees to get a better look. The light began to flash quicker, like it was on some type of timer. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Theo and Samuel flying through the air. Theo's body wrapped around mine, and then we were encased in the bright lights of the Jump Line. Samuel had his arm wrapped around the other me.

The entire scene came back to me. The day at the bridge, Samuel had put his hand on my shoulder and everything had gone dark. There had been something more happening in the background. There had been an explosion.

A soft hum caused my eyes to jerk open. I was sitting in a dark room again, but I wasn't alone. Someone else was inside the small space with me. My eyes darted quickly around the blackness, looking for the other person, or thing, that was near me. I couldn't see anything, but I could definitely feel the energy. Yes, there was someone close by. My heart beat faster. It was getting closer. Suddenly, a large hand clamped over my mouth. I reached up and a bolt of electricity flew from my palm. Fear was causing my powers to become uncontrollable.

The owner of the hand leaned down and angrily whispered, "Stop."