Read Online Fugitives of Time: Sequel to Emperors of Time by James Wilson Penn - Free Book Online Page B

skills as riders had improved.
    “I’m starting to wonder if things will ever get back to
normal.  I mean, if we went back now, wouldn’t we have already missed over
a week?” Billy asked.
    Tim had been brooding over this question off and on for the
past several days.  “I think so, but, what choice do we have?  If we
go back now, we’d also still be fugitives accused of treason, right?”
    “Plus, we’ve got to beat the Emperors.  Have you
already forgotten what they’re going to do to the world if they have their
way?” Rose asked.  The faint hum of a futuristic lawnmower had just
started up, and Tim could now smell freshly cut grass.  Apparently, the
lawn was real.
    “Listen, I wasn’t saying we should do anything
different.  I’m just saying that what we are doing is ridiculous,” Billy
said, throwing his hands up.
    “Right,” Julie said slowly, nodding.  “Speaking of
ridiculous:  Have you guys memorized your bios yet?”
    The four were silent, like students in a class trying to
decide if they should reveal whether or not they had done last night’s
homework. 
    Billy spoke first.  “I’ve almost got everything in
mine.”
    “Geez, Billy, yours is like two pages!” Julie
protested.  “Mine’s seven!”
    “Relax, July,” Rose said, using her nickname for her best
friend.  “Timothy’s got more like twenty.”
    “You know, you can just call me Tim.  In fact, why
don’t you just start calling me Russell Sage?  You’ll need to soon enough
anyway.”
    “And what, you’d call me Joanna Curtis?” Rose asked with a
laugh.
    “Well, my point is, we’ll start having to do that soon, at
least if we meet each other in public,” Tim reiterated.
    “Well, I guess if you came over to the Curtis house, I would
have to address you as Mr. Sage, if I was getting you a glass of water or
something.  I think you could get away with referring to me as ‘that girl
over there.’  Nobody’s going to expect a congressman to know the name of a
15 year-old girl, even if she’s the daughter of a Supreme Court Justice,” Rose
said.
    “You’ve got the worst job of all, I think,” Julie said
sympathetically.  “You’re the only one who’s going to have to live in a
house where someone else is telling you what to do.  I don’t envy you.”
    “Ah well,” said Rose.  “I’ve sometimes wondered what it
would be like to have a brother or a sister.  Now I’ll have three of
them.”
    Billy shook his head.  “Do you even remember all of
their names yet?”
    “Of course!” Rose said.  “That was one of the first
things I learned.  Way more important than all the political stuff in my
information.  After all, a 15 year-old girl can be expected to forget
stuff like that.  But her siblings’ names, never!  They’re-”
    Billy cut her off.  “Whoa!  Don’t tell me, you’re
going to make me forget my stuff!”
    Julie laughed.  “Seriously, what hard stuff could you
have to memorize?  You’re just an innkeeper.”
    “Well, geesh,” Billy huffed.  “You’re just the widow of
a merchant.”
    “I didn’t mean to say that mine’s more important, I just
meant--”
    “It’s not a competition!” Rose said.  “Anyway, Tim
still wins.  And he’s the one who’s really going to be seeing important
stuff.  Hearing what the other congressmen are saying, trying to figure
out whether they’re on par with what they would normally have said, so that we
know if their minds are being messed with.  He’s going to have to have
half a history textbook stored in his mind to make this work.”
    Hopkins had given Tim notes to study on the different people
he would meet in Congress.  He was even able to tell Tim how the
congressmen voted in the original timeline, so he could figure out who was
showing signs of brainwashing.  This had been tricky, given that history
textbooks or references in the current timeline would not have this
information, since the vote went