Same Self Read online

  Three of the walls in the square room had guns displayed from floor to the ceiling. Five large gun racks were in the center of the room and were packed to the brim with every small arm Todd had ever seen. Every year starting from the fourteenth century all the way to the year 2036 was displayed on plaques above the weapons. Beneath each year were up to twenty or thirty weapons. Rifles and long guns were on the racks and walls, and pistols were laid out on the tables below. Kevin led Todd over to the back-left corner to the year “1887” and began pulling weapons off the wall.

  “Grab the cart, would ya,” he said, nodding at a steel cart by the front door.

  Todd pulled it over to the corner and Kevin began stacking nineteenth century firearms on it. The group of weapons consisted of mostly lever action rifles and revolvers. Once there were enough guns to nearly break the wheels of the cart, Kevin pushed it out of the room and down to the shooting range, Todd following closely behind.

  “You guys could start up a firearms museum with all that hardware,” Todd said as he helped Kevin lay the weapons out on a table next to the firing line.

  Kevin chuckled. “Yeah, basically any weapon you can think of from any time period, we got it.”

  He separated the rifles, shotguns, and pistols. He opened the chambers on all the weapons and began pulling out ammo cans from a large cage against the wall.

  “So, the majority of these weapons are small caliber such as .45 and .44.” He set the ammo can down and began pulling out boxes of rounds and pouring out the ammunition. “We’re not going to waste time and go through every weapon of the time period, but I just want to cover the heavy hitters such as the Colt Peacemaker, the Henry rifle, and a few other popular ones.”

  Todd looked at the large stack of weapons, and then at Kevin. “Something tells me I’ll be traveling to the Wild West.”

  Kevin grinned. “Well we won’t go in depth with them all, but shooting ‘em all sounds like a good time, right?”

  He handed Todd the Colt Peacemaker. It felt like a brick compared to the side arms he was use to wielding, which were made mostly of polymer. Kevin showed him how to clear and load the weapon. He then showed him the proper revolver carry, where he wrapped the thumb of his support hand over the other.

  Todd put about forty rounds through the pistol. It felt primitive compared to the weapons of the future, which could spit out ammo as fast you could pull the trigger. The revolver required the user to cock the hammer back fully before each shot and made Todd really focus on his shooting fundamentals every time he pulled the trigger.

  Next was the Henry repeater. Todd started off a little sloppy with it, but less than an hour later he was shooting key holes on the paper target at fifty yards. He also worked on reloading the weapon. Loading one round at a time into the tubular magazine was time-consuming and made him miss the luxury of box magazines. Kevin lent him a leather shooter’s belt which had slots for rounds around the entire belt. Todd would crank out every round in the magazine then reload the weapon as fast and as smoothly as possible, doing his best not to go too fast which could make him fumble with the loading process.

  The Sharps model 1867, the Spencer Rifle, the Winchester 1866, the Henry repeater, the Schofield Revolver, and the Double Barrel Coach Gun were all covered in great depth. The history of each weapon, disassembly, and troubleshooting procedures were all covered. Todd became especially acquainted with the Schofield Revolver. The break action feature shaved off valuable seconds on his reload times. During each drill, Todd would have Kevin time him while he fired six well-aimed shots, then reloaded the weapon and fired six more. The very last weapon Todd was shown was the 1887 lever action shotgun. He smiled when Kevin handed it to him. He recognized the weapon from seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger wield it on a Harley in Terminator 2. The first thing Todd asked was how to cock it with one hand. Kevin was more than happy to show him the technique known as spin cocking. Todd spent the next hour or so firing large slugs into the paper targets and spin cocking the gun while impersonating Arnold Schwarzenegger.

  * * *

  For the next two weeks, Todd would wake up, eat with the staff, then take part in whatever training Albrecht had organized for the day. After lunch, Todd would head over to the warehouse where he would work out and get some range time with whatever weapon appealed to his interest that day. Albrecht urged him to stick with nineteenth century weapons, but sometimes he just felt like going through a few belts of ammunition with a light machine gun; other times would work on his speed with some of the modern AR style weapons, all the while trading stories and techniques with Kevin, who was always intrigued to learn about his time in Delta.

  Todd would spend his evenings in the archive room studying American history with Kara, who was always excited about discussing historical events. It seemed like the future had little meaning to her. On several occasions, she said that the “real greatness in the world lies within the past.” Todd didn’t necessarily agree with her view, but he enjoyed seeing just how passionate she was about history. The lessons started with a broad scope of the entire nineteenth century.

  As the days passed, the lessons became more specific until they were covering individual days that took place in the year 1887. Todd knew this was the year that he would be traveling to, but he still didn’t have much of an idea as to why. He tried to squeeze hints out of Albrecht and D during the mess hours, but Albrecht told him, “Bohden will explain everything at the mission briefing in a few days.”

  Todd didn’t like being left in the dark on such things that he would later put his life on the line for. He was beginning to feel like they were withholding information from him because they didn’t fully trust him.

  The first time Todd put the suit on, earlier in the week, it had taken nearly three hours for Amber to convince him to finally take it off. The suit made the wearer look like a mix between a superhero and a futuristic ninja. When wearing the full-face helmet with it, it made the wearer appear to be inhuman, like a space soldier out of a video game. The cloaking system was also quite addictive. Amber immediately regretted showing him how to activate it when within the first ten minutes of learning how to use the tech, Todd was sneaking around the building scaring the hell out of students. He nearly gave Kevin a heart attack when he snuck up on him in the bathroom.

  Todd was also introduced to the Phoenix parachute system. It had a one hundred-foot-square canopy made of a lightweight yet durable material. The suspension lines were a flexible rubbery-like cordage that became rigid when a small electric current ran through them, greatly reducing the chance of entangled lines. After being deployed, the chute could be retracted back into the container using a switch on the hip strap. This made it extremely helpful for reusing the chute on extraction. Unfortunately, it was far too cold in the North Pole, and the winds were extremely unpredictable. So, he wouldn’t be able to get any practice jumps in before the actual mission. This made Todd uneasy. He came from a line of work where it required hours upon hours of rehearsals and practice to master something new.

  On an op in Africa during his early days with the Unit, his team had gone into a small village dressed as militiamen. They rode in a small Toyota pickup and they spent countless hours practicing piling out of the vehicle and taking up a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree defensive posture around the vehicle. In Todd’s opinion, it was attention to detail such as this that separated amateurs from the professionals.

  Throughout his time spent at the facility, Todd didn’t see much of Bohden. The few encounters he did have with him were usually in the archive room, or briefly during lunch. Bohden seemed to be like most CIA operatives. He was shady, mysterious, and awkward to talk to. He was always preoccupied, whether he was reading something, typing away on a monitor, or putting rounds through his Five Seven pistol in the warehouse. Todd walked into the warehouse one morning to find Bohden down range doing speed drills from the holster. He was quick; Todd timed him on one run without him knowing. Bohden drew his pistol and put tw
o well-aimed shots into the chest of a target ten yards away in 1.02 seconds. After Bohden left, Todd stayed in the warehouse for several hours trying to beat his time. The closest he got was 1.11 seconds. Any faster and his shot groups started to spread out too much. He decided he would continue to work on this for the next few days.

  * * *

  It was now only two days until the mission brief. Todd sat in the lounge eating dinner with Amber and D. The conversation was humorous and consisted of the two poking fun at D’s obsession with movies. Earlier that week, D had shown Todd his extensive movie collection, which was made up entirely of hard copies. Todd asked him why he didn’t just keep them all on a digital file like the rest of the world. D then explained how that was equivalent to theft to him, and that as a true movie buff, he thought it was only right to own a hard copy of a motion picture. His movies were organized alphabetically and made up the entire side of the wall in his room. Although Todd gave D a lot of grief over his unorthodox habit, he was caught on several occasions borrowing movies from him, most of them being Westerns and an occasional action flick.

  Kara walked into the break room. Todd looked up to see her approach him hesitantly. Her hands fumbled in front of her as she asked, “Todd … can I speak with you in private?” She nervously brushed back her hair. Her blue eyes stayed locked on Todd, telling him that it was important. From what Todd had gathered, she had no doubt seen little of the outside world, resulting in her overall quiet presence. What little time she may have spent in the outside world was most likely spent alone. It was like part of her was the kind-hearted, shy, childish girl who was fascinated by her studies, while the other was deeply troubled and lonely, longing for something more in life. He had felt the urge to talk to her, to try and understand and maybe help her, but he didn’t want her to think he was hitting on her. So, he kept his distance when they weren’t going over the history lessons.

  “Sure, Kara,” he said as he got up from the table and followed her out into the hall.

  She led him to the archive room, which was empty, and they sat down at her desk.

  “Is something wrong?” he asked, keeping his words firm.

  “No, it’s just … I know the professor and Mr. Bohden will inform you of everything during your mission brief, but I think you need to know about your same-self. He was … troubled, to say the least. I think I knew him better than anyone.” She brushed her long bangs behind her ear. Her eyes moved from the table to his.

  Todd avoided bringing up his suspicions of her possible relationship and stated the obvious. “I’m sure you spoke to him quite a bit after his missions.”

  Kara didn’t answer, she just stared at him.

  “So … what was he like … I mean, obviously, he was the same guy, but he must’ve had some particular attributes that made him unique, right?”

  She pondered for a moment. “In the beginning, he was just like you. He seemed confident and overall positive, which was hard to believe considering what he had gone through. I was only twenty-two when I first met him. I felt like a small child when talking to him during our sessions. Like you, he was also troubled. He had endured a lot before Bohden and Albrecht brought him here, yet he was so sincere and caring.”

  Todd sat up in his chair. “So why exactly did you choose me … or him, in the first place?” He shook his head and grinned. “I’m sure there are many more qualified guys out there.”

  “It was Bohden who selected the individual to conduct the operations here.”

  Todd shrugged. “He seems capable enough, why didn’t he just do it himself?”

  “He did. He was the original operative the professor sent back in time. However, Bohden feels he has grown too old to continue. He now acts as the operations coordinator. Between you and me, I believe he and the professor are not in sync with each other anymore. It seems they carry very different dispositions towards the operation.”

  Todd breathed out heavily through his nose and rubbed his chin against his shoulder. “So how’d they find York?”

  “York saved Bohden’s life during a mission in China a long time ago.”

  Todd raised an eyebrow at this. “Whoa, I didn’t expect that. I guess I could see why he felt obligated to pick me, though. Do you know any details about what happened?”

  She shook her head. “No, you would have to ask Bohden.” She paused for a moment, then let out a quick breath. She was about to speak when Todd interrupted.

  “Is my same-self dead?” he snapped. The question had been lingering on his mind for the past few days. He thought they had been holding the truth from him to keep him from having doubts about the operation. Either way, he had accepted that as the truth, being the only logical explanation as to why “he” wasn’t here anymore. He could see the sadness in her eyes. He prepared himself for whatever came next.

  “No … he’s alive,” she said quietly.

  Todd’s eyes widened. A million questions came to mind. If he was still alive, why would they have retrieved Todd from his timeline? Were they using him until he was all out of juice and then throw him out into the wind? Going through an endless assembly line of Todd Yorks?

  “Then why isn’t he here?” Anger was present in his voice. He was tired of all the smoke and mirrors. He assumed the worst. His impatience intimidated her, and she pulled away from the table slightly.

  “He ran,” she said.

  Todd shook his head. “What do you mean, he ran?”

  “He used time travel to escape to the past.” Her eyes didn’t leave the dark glass of the table. “It became apparent to me that there was something wrong during his time in Vietnam. Every time he came back from that horrible place, he seemed more and more like a different person. He was … colder. I couldn’t bear to watch him lose himself in this war that we created. He was so determined to change the future, so set on fixing the mistakes made by others, that he never took the time to take care of himself.”

  She paused for a moment and rubbed her forehead. “Or those who …”

  He watched as she fought back tears talking about this man. A man that he knew better than anyone: himself. It was strange to listen to her talk about him like this. Todd had many friends as he grew up in the military, but being a part of an elite unit tends to breed a certain type of person and usually contains a limited amount of personalities. Most of them being type-A. Which meant you rarely saw men pouring out their hearts and souls to each other. Most men will keep their feelings buried deep inside them for a long period of time, only to finally let it out many years later when they are no longer in that environment. It’s not that they necessarily feel that it is weakness to express their feelings, but rather selfish, and self-centered. It comes hand in hand with the humble mindset carried by most elite Operators. So, the end result is a bunch of strong, closely knit individuals who, although they are closer than family and know each other like brothers, still can’t help wondering what the others truly think of them.

  Todd did his best to work around the obvious question. “Was he a good friend of yours?” he asked, doing his best not to dig too deep.

  She hesitated for a while. Finally, she replied softly, “I think so.”

  Her answer relieved him. He dreaded a more intimate answer. “What happened to him in Vietnam?”

  She answered with anger in her voice. “I think he lost something … a piece of himself. He never came back unscathed.”

  “I guess that explains the scars on his face.”

  Kara shook her head in disapproval. “It seemed like every century left its mark on him. He nearly lost his left arm in Pakistan. It was barely attached when we were finally able to rescue him.”

  Todd looked surprised. “What year was that?”

  “Um,” she thought for a moment, “it was his last mission here. 2011, I believe.”

  The fact that she couldn’t remember the exact year gave a hint as to just how many operations York had conducted during his five-year stint at the facility. It was obviou
s that Kara disapproved of York fighting the wars of the past, or maybe she disapproved of the entire operation. Todd tried to lighten the mood. He could tell Kara was having a tough time talking about York.

  He snickered. “Jeez, 2011. I was in the fifth grade.”

  Kara smiled. “I guess you could look at it that way. This was only two years ago.”

  Todd laughed and ran his fingers through his hair, which had grown quite a bit in the last few weeks. He planned to continue letting it grow in order to better fit into the Old West.

  “So, every time you go back in time, do you create another timeline?”

  “It depends on who you ask. The way I see it, there is only one timeline. However, the moment you leave it and don’t return to your present, you’ve essentially cloned yourself … given of course that you are in a year that you actually existed. If you ask Amber, she sees it as parallel universes. The timeline we saved you from is still going, we are just not a part of it.”

  Todd thought about this for a moment. “What if I travelled back to yesterday? Would I meet myself in the break room?”

  Kara seemed to enjoy his curiosity. “Yes, that’s why we have strict procedures on how we conduct time travel, and where and when you leave and return. If you ran into your younger self in the past, the consequences could be catastrophic.”

  Todd laughed in disbelief once more. It then dawned on him how complex the entire operation was, and how altering the future could affect the very second he was in.