Jennifer Gehen had been a friend of the Griffith family for ten years before the rise of Seer and the discovery of the chrono-walkers. She studied the workings of time and space at Seer with an insatiable voracity and had helped Morley establish the Hunters after Seer put him out of a job.
She sat before him now, in the lucid white center of an unfurnished, windowless cell. Her eyelids blinked drowsily from the streams of temporal suppressers that coursed through her veins. Morley watched her on the floor and swallowed back a knot of sadness that burned his throat. He repeated the question.
"Who was the second walker at the Seer building? I need a name."
Jennifer seemed unaware of his question, her gaze cast down on the floor. The effect of two months' isolation was visible in every line of her body. Morley stirred, impatiently.
“You mean the one who set this all up,” Jennifer interjected. “His name is Nathan Vallo. We used to work together at signature analysis before he discovered his unusual talent." Her voice darkened. “Nathan disappeared shortly after Seer stumbled across the first chrono-walkers. He thought that fear of the unknown would drive people to seek out and attack anything they didn't understand, whether he did anything to provoke them or not. It looks like he was right, doesn’t it, Morley?”
He shifted back in his chair and placed his pen flat on his notepad. “He blew up the headquarters of an international corporation. I'd say he provoked us." Jennifer seemed unimpressed as he continued. "There was a report on your desk that dealt with chrono-walkers and some sort of evolution. What do you know about this?”
“Anachronite,” she whispered, putting a hand over her mouth. "Someone that exists in a time when one shouldn't. Chrono-walkers aren't limited to traversing short spans of time like everyone thought. If you follow some walkers, you can find yourself looking days into the past. Sometimes even years."
Jennifer's words rang in his ears as he remembered his encounter with Nathan two months ago. This was how he had known about the raid on his home. A shiver raced down Morley's back. Jennifer reached out suddenly and clasped his arm. "Morley, your daughter," she said.
"What about her?" he grumbled.
"She's a beautiful girl, Morley," she sighed. "She told me once that she wanted to build wings and learn to fly." Morley's breath seized in his lungs. He would have given anything to hear that glowing fascination in Camina's voice again, a voice that made even the smallest flights of imagination into grand ambitions. Morley turned his gaze away as the memories flooded back to him. "She's not dead, Morley," Jennifer finished.
The room rang with the impact of Morley's chair hitting the floor. She looked up at him and met his intense red eyes. His hands were balled into fists at his side. For a moment, he appeared ready to strike out at her but held perfectly still. The room stood frozen for nearly a minute.
Morley began shaking and his hands fell limp as he collapsed on the barren floor. He had done all he could to find little Camina but had failed again and again. She had vanished along with her kidnapper and no cunning or technology could tell where she had gone. A muted sob broke from Morley's lips as he turned away from his old friend and left to meet with his squad.
Towering sodium lamps soaked the foggy street in a yellow haze where the Hunter squad waited. Morley hung his Seer goggles around his neck and clipped two temporal dart tubes to his belt. At the back of the van, Morley drew his handgun and looked it over in the dim light. Pulling the clip out, he tossed the weapon in the back of the van and shut the doors. He had ordered the rest of his squad to leave their sidearms behind as well. He would not be responsible for the slaughter of Nathan's family. In awareness of the future, this was one disaster he knew how to avoid.
Morley divided the squad into two groups, instructing them to take positions on each side of the house. Within moments, they had disappeared into the shadows and stood by for a signal to proceed. Morley waited alone at the front of the house and sized up his fate. Jennifer's words about anachronites swirled in his head. How would anyone stop a man who could walk, unhindered across the seas of time? Morley stared down the walkway to the house and, bracing himself for an answer, started for the front door.
