Borrowed Time: Saving John Lennon - A Beatles Fanfic

Chapter 3 - DO YOU WANT TO KNOW A SECRET

As the meeting was adjourning, Holly thought back to how she first came to be a part of this particular team. Months ago, when she was first assigned to report to Agent Thomas Brady, Holly had exactly zero idea why. She soon learned she was to be the Agency's first long-term human tester of the machine simply labeled T14-R19. Even though numerous other machines preceded it, T14-R19 was the first and only machine to do exactly what it was built to do - project items through the time continuum into a previously specified date and time.

It was only after learning the grand scope of her role in the project that Holly began to daydream about the possibilities available to her. At first she had pushed aside all these thoughts. She had spent the entirety of her career with the CIA working with integrity and valor. The mere fact that she was letting personal daydreams mingle with her work was grounds enough to be given a psychological evaluation. Then, one day, she had slipped.

••••

Six months earlier

Project 1403-C's launch was just over six months away, and Holly and Tyler were having a drink on the back patio of Tyler's house after a particularly long day at work. Tyler's husband was on a conference call inside, and their two kids were playing in the backyard. Before Holly could stop herself, the words were just spilling off her tongue.

"Wouldn't it be amazing to go back in time and change something awful?" she blurted. Immediately she felt her cheeks flush. She certainly hadn't meant to say that out loud.

Tyler held up a short glass, half filled with ice and whiskey, and gently rocked it in a circular motion.

"Yeah I know. I think every person in the world probably has that thought at some point, right?" He took a swig from his glass. "Kill Hitler before he does anything, prevent 9/11 from ever happening, I'm sure the list could go on for days."

Holly's jaw dropped as Tyler spoke. He was so nonchalant about it, almost dismissive. He turned to look at Holly and began to chuckle when he saw her expression.

"Why do you look like you've just seen a ghost?" Tyler chuckled.

"It's just... Well... I guess I figured this kind of conversation would be grounds for getting kicked out of the project." Holly ran her hand through her shoulder length brown hair.

Tyler gave her a half smile. "Well don't go getting any crazy ideas. There are plenty of precautions in place to make sure no one goes and wipes out a piece of history." He brought his glass up to his mouth and took another sip.

Holly couldn't resist asking, "Precautions?"

"Well, let's just say that from the home base of the project, we'll be able to monitor any drastic changes to the current timeline."

Holly lifted her drink to her lips and took a long, slow sip. Thoughts and ideas were suddenly blasting through her head like rockets.

Tyler leaned towards her. "I will confess though, I've been pushing the higher-ups to entertain the idea of it from the start. Nothing major of course. Just a small change here or there. Just to see if it's truly possible and what ramifications there could be, if any at all."

Holly was shocked but grateful to hear she wasn't the only one who had been having these types of thoughts.

"They didn't want anything to do with my ideas," Tyler continued. "Too worried about negative repercussions and whatnot. But they conveniently overlook the fact that we are changing the timeline. We have changed it, even just by sending a single atom backwards in time. We shoot you back a few years and, even if you only stand there for a second, the timeline is changed." He let out a frustrated sigh. This was obviously something that had been on his mind, with no real outlet until now.

Holly and Tyler had continued their conversation for another hour, and in that hour the fledgling plan began to form. They both skirted around the all-too-real issue that not only were they toying with possibly changing the timeline, they were also delving into realms that could land them, at best in jail, and at worst no longer existing on this planet.