Jump Line (Book 1 - Jump Line Series)

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One

We found Samuel sitting in front of his computer, staring silently and intently at the glowing screen. He glanced up as we got a little closer.

"What's happened?"

"Samuel, we're from ninety-six hours in the future. I need you to scan Esa. I think she has some sort of tracker on her."

Samuel didn't seem surprised by what Theo was saying. "We all have trackers."

"This is different," Theo said.

Samuel walked over to me and put his hands down on the table. "All right, Esa. Come over here and lie down. We've done a couple of scans on you already, but there is definitely a chance we missed something."

Without a word, I reclined on the hard aluminum table. It was the same one I'd been lying on just minutes ago. Samuel pulled an odd-shaped machine out of a drawer in his desk. It was small and flat, no larger than a television remote control. The machine let out several soft clicking sounds as it hovered over me. Slowly, it drifted down toward my toes, before coming back up to my head.

"Is there something inside of me?" I turned to look at Samuel.

"Hmm. I'm not entirely sure." Samuel studied his computer screen. "There's something in your wrist. I saw it before, but I really didn't think much about it, because it looks like human tissue. Now I'm starting to think I may have missed something. Hold on. This might hurt a little bit." Before I had time to react, Samuel took out a large syringe and pushed it into my wrist.

My eyes bulged. "Wha—?" I yelled as the needle pierced my skin. The pain moved from my wrist to my entire body. I had to be dying. There was no other explanation for the agony coursing through me. Small slivers of electricity jumped out of my wrist around the needle.

I tried to think of a happier place and time—anything to help me keep my composure while Samuel extracted the unknown object. I didn't want these two to see me cry, or show any sign of weakness. They needed to know that I was strong; at least stronger than I was when Samuel found me in 2010.

"Hold still, Esa," Samuel said, pulling back on the syringe.

"Don't you have some sort of numbing medicine you could have put on my wrist before putting me through this pain?" I said through gritted teeth. Every muscle in my body was on high alert. "It's 2105. Surely we've developed a way to eliminate pain."

"No. I've almost got it. Two more seconds. Just hold on, Esa. Our bodies don't like metal. It tends to intensify the pain."

"Now you tell me."

Samuel slowly removed the needle from my throbbing wrist. He turned and put the contents under a large microscope.

"What do we have here? Very interesting. I was right; whoever made this device used a substance that mirrors human tissue. Take a look." Samuel pointed to a large screen on the wall.

I stepped closer, but I really didn't have any clue what he was talking about.

Samuel continued to monitor the screen. "When did you jump from again?"

"Four days from now," Theo responded.

"Okay. That's not a lot of advance time, but I'll make it work. Go back. That will give me the opportunity to study this object and figure out what it is," Samuel said. "Some of the puzzle pieces are starting to come together. By the way, Esa, you look a little bit more comfortable now that you've had a few days in 2105."