Read Online Now & Again by E. A. Fournier - Free Book Online Page B

It just needs to look official – right, whatever. We’ll be crossing state lines though…so… Okay. Call me back on the other number later – yeah, that number. I’ll dictate something and your guys can convert it into the legalese crap, okay? Right. Bye.”
    He disconnected and, without a beat, focused back on Hahn. “And I don’t give a damn about your comfort.”
    “But you heard Quyron we need to make sure we’re not causing something. I’ve told you we’re moving into areas no one has…”
    Vandermark suddenly leaned down and got face-to-face with her. His dark eyes bored into hers. “Stop babbling nonsense and listen carefully,
Doctor
. I didn’t fast-track you and buy you every toy you ever dreamed of just so you could balk when I needed you, now did I? Or do you miss that drafty apartment in Seoul where I found you, and those ignorant grad students and the stink of cold kimchee in the dark?”
    Hahn bowed her head slightly and lost her way. “No. I – I understand. But I…”
    “Do you?” Vandermark recognized the moment. If he believed in anything, it was his faith in his gift to know how to bend people to his needs. “We’re at the tipping point of an era. No more dead ends. No more groveling for scraps in the timelines. We get to make the future we want. And no one, not you, and not some glorified analyst, is going to deny me that. Not even some overactive timelines. Is that clear enough for you?”
    The rebuke left Hahn speechless. Vandermark straightened back to his full height. His voice was all business again, but it was clear there would be no further discussion permitted.
    “You’ll provide a revised timetable by tomorrow morning. Is that understood?”
    “Yes.”
    Vandermark abruptly turned on his heels and ascended the gracefully curved glass stairs nearby as he headed for third floor. Oblivious to his beautiful surroundings, he was already tapping his phone as he climbed. “Echo, get Walters in personnel. Yes.”
    Song Lee Hahn’s fingers had curled into tight balls, the nails making sharp dents in her palms. She had promised herself never to return to the petty male world of South Korean academia. Still, at the moment, this felt far worse. Yes, she had her labs and her experiments, and little oversight – he was right about that – yet it didn’t seem enough anymore. She couldn’t help but admire Vandermark’s mind but she was repelled by almost everything else about him, and she was beginning to detest herself for being so caught. Could Quyron be right?
    Hahn watched until Vandermark disappeared at the top of the stairs. She was overwhelmed by the work she had ahead of her. Revised timetable! He didn’t seem to realize she had to revise an already overly aggressive timetable. It was one thing to alter lines on a schedule but quite another to make the revisions actually happen. This would necessitate equipment reworks, revamped target formulae, adjusted engineering workloads, added computer time, adjusted man-hours, not to mention the obligatory excuses and, her favorite, the telling of lies. She felt dishonored. The speed the new schedule demanded would increase errors, as she well knew, and there were no solutions for those. After all, who had time to check anything anymore?
    Hahn hurried back down the hall, flexing the feeling back into her cramped fingers. She audaciously promised herself brighter days ahead and stuffed her qualms into a stone box in the corner of her mind, and sealed the lid. From now on, as far as she was concerned, the multiverse would just have to fend for itself.

CHAPTER 7:
    Kendall’s eyes opened slowly. The morning light filled the soft white curtains with a fresh glow. The first thing he noticed was his irritated throat. He coughed to clear it but stayed warm under the covers as he woke up. For a moment, he felt disoriented. His eyes struggled to synchronize reality with his mind but he was unsure which way he was facing in the bed – toward