BACKTRACKER by Milo Fowler (books to read in your 30s TXT) 📗

My alternate shouldhave known better. They used us—both of us, you know. Took all our brilliantideas and implemented them without our input. Used us up and spit us out.That's the government for you, regardless of the reality."

Muldoon clenched his jaw. His patience was waning. "Talksense, old man."

Horton chuckled. "Sense. Right. Sometimes I get on a roll,and there's no stopping me. I'm not often afforded the opportunity to share inhuman-to-human conversation, you see."

Not surprising.

"So, you thought you saw me disappear—"

"I saw it happen," Muldoon said.

"I'm sure that's what it looked like. But in actuality, Ididn't vanish into thin air. I merely crossed over into another world, parallelto this one."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Familiar with brane cosmology? The multiverse? No? I supposenot. Well, you probably won't like this—it won't sound like sense toyou. But the fact of the matter is...I don't belong here." He paused,peering up at Muldoon. "I'm only visiting, you see. Doing my homework, asit were, connecting the dots to the best of my ability. But I'm not from yourreality. I'm just a—" He thought for a moment. "I'm what you mightcall a transient."

Muldoon frowned. Is he out of his mind? More than likely.But the facts hadn't changed. I saw him die. I saw him vanish—crossover—whatever.

"I saw you get torn apart. Nobody comes back from that."

"I believe you. But you have to understand something, ascrazy as it sounds. As much as it flies in the face of your memory: Thatwasn't me." Horton shook his head. "It might have been my alternate,but it wasn't me. Obviously, right? I mean, I'm sitting right here!" Helaughed out loud.

"Your alternate."

"That's right. The version of me tied to this reality. He wasborn here, and he's lived here his entire life. Until tonight, that is—from thesound of things. Met an untimely demise, did he? Poor devil."

"He had a kid," Muldoon said. "A boy."

"Really? At his age?" Another chuckle. "Well, Iwouldn't put it past me—him, I mean. We're a virile lot, weHortons!" He sobered at length. "I have a daughter, myself." Hewatched Muldoon.

"You said you made a mistake."

"Yes. I may have killed the wrong man."

Muldoon didn't flinch. "Really."

"I'm afraid so. Had him killed, truth be told. Sent awell-trained assassin, programmed—"

"Someone else did your dirty work."

"Isn't that the way? All men with power, you know. It corruptsabsolutely. Something like that."

"Who was he? This man you killed."

Horton inhaled deeply. "He was a detective. Like you."

"That was a long time ago." Muldoon sniffed, shifted hisweight. "I'm retired now."

You don't know me, old man.

"Right. Mymistake. So anyway, he managed to get his hands onone of my inventions. Did I happen to mention I'm an inventor?" hegrinned, proud of himself.

Muldoon released a yawn.

"Well, he got hold of a BackTracker and started using it in his line of work. Youknow, going back through time to solve missing persons cases and the like.Earned himself quite a reputation in the process. Cases solved 100% of thetime, if you can believe."

"Time travel."

"Temporal displacement, actually. Apples and oranges,I suppose. They're all fruit!" He chuckled, shoulders rocking. "Ohbut you see, I'd already done the same kind of thing. You know, the going backthrough time, again and again, trying to make the world a better place, oneperson at a time. That hero complex crap. I even tried to keep the Plague fromever happening, if you can believe!"

"You failed."

"Some things can't be changed. It's almost like they've gotminds of their own. But that didn't stop me from trying." He lookedpensive. "Far too many times."

Muldoon narrowed his gaze. "What went wrong?"

"Everything." Horton raised his eyebrows with a weaksmile. "I didn't realize what I was doing. With every trip back, I wasunraveling the timeline, sending it in new directions, creating realities thatnever would have existed, otherwise." He paused. "I'm afraid I may belosing you."

Muldoon shrugged.

"Okay. Think of it like this. You've got a cord—three strandstwined together to form a single length of rope. Yes? The cord runs from thepast to the present like a timeline of sorts. Everything's peachy, the way Godintended. But then this certain genius gets it into his head to start fiddlingwith the limits of time and space, and he invents a way to punch a stablewormhole through quantum foam and go back in time. We're talking cutting edgenanotechnology here, harvesting the power of negative energy to capture,enlarge, and hold that tunnel through space-time open long enough for someoneto pass through. Are you with me?" He stared, unblinking, hands frozenmid-gesture. "I mean, so far?"

"Sure." Muldoon was standing in a cramped bathroom forone reason: answers. He'd seen this man come back from the dead only to vanishon that vidscreen footage.If he was any other garden-variety lunatic, Inever would have given him the time of day.

"Good, good. So you've gone back to the past, maybe even toyour own past. Backtracked your timeline, right? You decide to change somethingfor your younger self, maybe something seemingly insignificant, but it'schanged—you've changed it—"

"I get it."

"Sorry. Broken record syndrome." He chuckled. "Soyou return to your own time—that's the beauty of the BackTracker device: itwon't abandon you in the past as long as you're wearing it. You return, andlife isn't the way you left it. That little alteration you made, it didn't seemlike much, but it's already changed life as you know it. Because this isn't thelife you knew. Not anymore. The changes you've made in the past have created anentirely different reality." His eyes bulged as he leaned forward."That's the real kicker. You didn't just change the past and, in so doing,create a new future for yourself and everybody else in the world. No, you didall that and more. You've created a separate, concurrent reality runningparallel to your own!"

Muldoon blinked. "So that rope..."

"It's become unraveled. You see? Two strands now, runningside by side from the past clear through to the present. Only you're no longerpart of the world you left. You've jumped over to this new strand, thanks toyour meddling with the past. The same timeline, only one's the way it wasbefore, and the second has diverged from its original course, the result of afool