25 January 2007, 1706 GMT / National Zoo, Washington D.C., USA
Lemur Island wasn’t really an island at all. It was more like a small pond beside a lopsided Ziggurat, which was meant to look like it was naturally occurring. However, even if the ‘ Island’ part of the name wasn’t true, the Lemur part certainly was. All of them were the species with the striped tail. Most of them were in a pile near the water, evidently trying to keep warm. The paths around the fence were nearly empty. The lemurs got few visitors on Sunday mornings when freezing rain was expected any moment. On a bench nearby, Emily sat watching the lemur pile with interest. Next to her, Jonathan looked around nervously, “We shouldn’t stay much longer. This isn’t safe.”
It wasn’t the first time he had said it, but Emily was finally cold enough to give in, “Okay, let’s go back. I promise I’ll behave.” She mocked.
Jonathan turned to her incredulously, “Have you forgotten what is at stake here?” he asked her, apparently annoyed.
“The sanctity of the timeline?” she sneered.
“Look,” Jonathan said, “that may be why I’m here, but that’s not all this is about. It’s about your life, and the life of your daughter.”
“You only care about our attackers because of your mission” she declared with venom, her eyes fierce “If I had originally been killed, and this ‘Hindsight League’ was trying to save me instead, would you be here trying to kill me?” She knew that what she was saying was hurtful, and manipulative, but she couldn’t stop herself.
Jonathan didn’t answer. He lowered his head, leaned back into the bench, and looked through the fence at the still-unmoving pile of Ring-tailed Lemurs. “It doesn’t matter.” He said quietly.”
“Hell it doesn’t!” she almost yelled at him.
“That’s not the situation we’re in,” he said, still speaking softly, “hypothetical questions are useless.” He turned to her now, “I’m here to protect you. Without my help, you will die.”
It was Emily’s turn to look away. She glanced down a side path at a couple who was coming toward them. After a moment, she tuned toward Jonathan, and quickly buried her face in the shoulder of his coat. “Oh no!” she exclaimed.
Jonathan looked around for what she had seen, spotted the couple. A dark, serious-looking man was staring back at him, questioningly. “You know that man.” He stated. Emily nodded into his shoulder. “He’s looking at us,” Jonathan said, “Do you think he recognized you?”
She pulled away from him just an inch or so, “I think so.”
Emily remembered how upset Jonathan had been that he was unable to find a way to keep her disappearance out of the news. Her picture had appeared on the local broadcast two nights ago, and they had dyed her hair to avoid being recognized by strangers. It had been her idea, and it seemed to make Jonathan stop worrying. She hadn’t counted on running into a coworker. From what Jonathan had explained before, she knew that if that well-meaning coworker went to the press or police, it would create a public record of her whereabouts, which the Hindsight League could find in the future, and which would lead them to her now. “We could try to convince him not to tell anyone,” she suggested.
“No good,” he said immediately, “It’s not worth the risk that a conversation might accidentally give him more information about us than he already has. We’ve got to go now.”
Together they stood up, hiding Emily’s face as much as possible. As they moved quickly away, the man called out to them, but he did not pursue. As they moved down the path toward the exit, Jonathan was frantically searching the crowd.
The zoo exit seemed very far away, and every moment was more dangerous than the one before. For several minutes they walked briskly through the park. Finally they approached the gate. Jonathan slowed them to a regular walk. Emily was still trying to walk with her face as much hidden from passers-by as possible when she realized that any agents probably already knew Jonathan by sight, and he wasn’t trying to hide his face. She straightened and looked ahead of them. Jonathan’s pace had slowed considerably as he approached the exit, and Emily matched him. She looked at the people around them.
“I don’t see any agents.” She said in a whisper. She was certain that she would never forget that mask or outfit.
“The Hindsight League wouldn’t come to such a public place themselves.” He explained.
This made Emily nervous, and she felt more than justified in the feeling. “What are we going to do?”
“When I run for the exit, run behind me.”
“What?!” She was still whispering.
“Just do it!”
After a few more steps, Jonathan broke into a run toward the exit, and Emily followed. The exit was still almost twenty meters away. Emily didn’t understand what this was going to accomplish. She thought they were trying to hide. Without warning, Jonathan’s gun was in his hand. He was looking back and forth across the people who were milling around the exit as he ran. Ten meters. Five. Jonathan’s gun fired, a man she hadn’t seen tumbled away from them, his own gun sailing through the air behind his falling form. Jonathan’s feet had flown out from under him as if he’d slammed into the top of a low doorframe. He landed hard on his back. The other man landed more softly, but at a more unnatural angle, clearly dead.
Jonathan screamed.
Emily found herself quickly at his side, kneeling on the pavement, looking him over. His right shoulder was bloody. “Jonathan!” she breathed. She couldn’t think of anything else to say.
He gasped. The fall had knocked the wind out of him. “I’m okay”, he said quickly grabbing at her jacket with a bloody hand, “Help me up.”
She grasped what was now his good arm, and helped him up to his feet. A crowd had gathered. Jonathan held up his gun. “Anyone not wanting to get shot,” he projected between labored breaths, “would be wise to run, right now!”
Emily was surprised at how well this worked, the crowd was gone in seconds. Jonathan walked slowly, painfully over to the man he had shot. He took what looked like a small metal bug out of his pocket, and tossed it onto the man’s body. He clenched his hand and the man’s body shimmered, but did not disappear. “Damn,” he said.
Emily walked over next to him, “What does that mean?”
“It means he’s a local,” Jonathan said, “I’m going to need help.”
Jonathan looked at his watch. As he pulled a notepad from an inside pocket, Emily noticed that a crowd was beginning to gather again. As Jonathan wrote on the pad, she heard sirens growing near, and as he put the notepad and pen away, an ambulance pulled up to the curb and two non-descript men in EMT uniforms jumped out of the vehicle. One of them looked over at Jonathan and nodded. Jonathan nodded back and quickly turned to walk away down the street. “We’re leaving,” He said.
“Those EMTs!” she protested.
“Are my friends,” he finished for her, “they will take care of the cleanup.”
“What will we…?”
“We will find a new hotel, and stay there this time.”
“For how long?”
“As long as it takes!” he didn’t yell, but he was softly very angry.
Emily could only nod her ascent weakly. She realized that she was crying, and that she only half-understood why.
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