Turn Back Time

Chapter 5

I went to bed soundly in the box. There shouldn't have been anything else to deal with on that day, and quite honestly, I needed to sort things out.

At 0500, I was pounced on. An assailant leaped from the shadows of the north west wall and pinned me against my bed. My heart jumped, even after all of the times I've been woken up abruptly. I must be getting rusty.

I forgot that Erica was going to interrogate me. I was confused about whatever you wanted to call the mess we made in the several years that we spent together. I was smitten by her for almost half a decade, and just as I developed my own capabilities as an agent, just as she started to respect me as an equal, she betrayed me. It was her fault, she compromised my entire family, both my parents, my sister, everything that tethered me to my old world, one that I had risen above and escaped, but one that I wouldn't give up for anything.

Now that I somehow managed to turn back time, the current girl pressed up against me knew nothing of the relationship that we had. The good, the bad, or anything in between. I can't say that I hated this bundle of lilacs and gunpowder around my waist. It was definitely weird, seeing her younger self all over again. My heart panged for everything that I had lost, but was a clean slate something that I desired? Even more confusing, did I deserve this chance?

"What are you staring at?" she said. I thought I had gotten rid of my indecisiveness and awkwardness around people but there was something alluring about her.

It took me another second to tear away from her enchanting blue eyes paired with black commando paint. "Nothing. I mean, it's not often that my REM sleep is shattered by a pretty girl pouncing on me now, is it?" I responded.

Her eyes narrowed. "Don't." She shifted to the edge of my bed as I got up to put a clean pair of pants on. "I wanted to talk to you." I motioned for her to continue. "The Pinwheel project. Something dirty is going on here, and you're in the middle of it."

"I'm well aware of the situation at hand."

She snorted. "Do you now? The assassin tonight came after you because of Pinwheel. Do you know what it is?"

"It's a codebuster that helps to circumvent a sixteen character rotating daisy chain." Erica looked at me for a second and then smacked me across the face.

"No dip wise guy. How does that happen?" she stressed.

I shrugged. "Don't have the slightest clue."

"According to your file, you're supposed to have invented it. The a higher up was ordered to place false information in your file-"

"-to use me as bait to lure out a mole. Yes, E, I told you that I was aware of this."

She hid the widening of her eyes but failed to realize the twitch in her hand that became a constant from our time together. I took comfort in knowing that some things didn't change after all.

"You're sharp Ripley. I was expecting to have to babysit. Your recruitment was supposed to be a sham. Someone who looked decent on paper and lived close by. Alexander and some of the other teachers are a bit suspicious, which is a sign all by itself." she muttered under her breath. "But I like you. You have a strong heart. Let's try to keep it beating."

"I have a good lead. I think I know where to start looking."

She hopped up as well but held me back. "Woah, slow down there champ. As exciting as this may be, we don't want you exposing everything and blowing the operation right out of the water. Let's keep this little extra credit assignment to pretty low key." I nodded my assent and continued towards the doorway. "Where are you going?" she asked.