Touchstone (Meridian Series) by John Schettler, Mark Prost

Golem report and then get on over to the memorial site
to see what’s up.”
           The implications of that
finally came home to the professor. “You think someone may have tampered with
the DVD?”
           “It’s a possibility.”
           “Okay, let’s go. But what
would that mean, Paul?”
           “I’ll explain in the car. Let’s say
goodbye to Kelly and Maeve and get moving.”
     
    ~
     
           They
returned to Paul’s car, a white Honda Civic that he had been fond of for many
years. As soon as they were underway Nordhausen returned to the subject of
their errand.
    “Why do you want to go to the
gravesite?”
    “We think the DVD might not be
safe there. As you know, we counted on the time travelers of the future, who
saved Kelly from a paradoxical disintegration. We counted on their finding the
DVD we buried in the grave so they could know when and where to snatch Kelly,
just before he vanished, and it worked. When the Nexus Point dissipated, they
sent him back.”
    Safe and sound, it had appeared,
until this event.
    Nordhausen asked, “So what do
you want to do?”
    Dorland thought a moment. “Maeve
thinks that’s not a safe place. She wants me to get the DVD, and put it in a
safe deposit box or something, where we can be more assured of its security.
We’ll set up a foundation to maintain it or something. And I don’t think that’s
such a bad idea.”
    “Security? But who would want to
dig up a grave site? Are you thinking some gardener got his work order wrong
and went trowling through Kelly’s memorial ground?”
    “Maybe,” he stretched out the
word, to emphasize how remote he thought the possibility, “someone might get
there before Mr. Graves’ friends find it in the future. That would immediately
expose Kelly to paradox again.”
    “Someone? Who are you talking
about?”
    “Remember that satellite phone
call you made from Wadi Rumm?”
    “Yes. What’s that got to do with
this?”
    “Whose phone was it?” Paul gave
him a knowing wink.
    “You mean to say that you think
Rasil… that the Assassins…”
    “We don’t know, but as I said
before, that call would have been easy enough to trace. No matter how much we
try to cover up our activities here, it could have been an obvious pointer to
this point in the continuum. They know we have an Arch complex operational
here, and they damn well know we must have had something to do with the Palma thing.”
    “But you said we were all Prime
Movers—that they couldn’t touch us without risking the entire future
progression of the Time technology. Look at me. I walked right out of the Nexus
and I’m still fit as a fiddle.”
    “That might be true—at least I
hoped as much. I think we may have a Time Conundrum on our hands. Time isn’t
certain what to do with this situation, and so she left you in one piece while
she’s sorting things through. But look at Kelly. Prime mover or not, he’s in
jeopardy right now. Your integrity may be compromised as well. But who really
knows?”
    Nordhausen took a deep breath.
“OK… suppose someone is trying to tamper with that DVD. That means they’ve come
here—to our time?
    “Not necessarily. They may have
arrived yesterday, a week ago, last month. Who knows? They may have found the
thing in the year 2050, or three years before Graves and his people were slated to find it.”
    “What? So how does this explain
Kelly’s present condition?”
    Dorland was becoming less and
less sure.  “Well,” he said, feeling his way as he went, “Paradox is
retroactive. At least that’s what I’m starting to think now. If they get their
hands on the DVD in the year 2050, like I suggested, then Time has to do some
quick editing. None of the events lived by Kelly in this Meridian would have been possible.”
    “Editing? That’s appalling! How
could time rewind itself and undo all those events. Kelly’s been safe and sound
for months now. Think of all the little pushpins