Chapter 29

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And then his eyes found me...

I forced myself to look back at him, to accept the expression of betrayal on his face. Morgan had been right on this one, too: tough love meant short pain.... and there was still enough of the martyr in me to want to claim some of that pain for myself.

Though no doubt both Jeffers and Shaeffer would be able to find plenty of pain for me at the end of theJump. But that was all right. I"d saved Jeffers"s life, and I"d saved the past, and that was all that counted.

Smiling to myself, I left.

I found Morgan, Kristin, and Griff sitting around the lounge TV when I finally felt well enough to leave my room. On the screen, coincidentally, was President Jeffers, giving his first public speech since his rescue.

The two days of rest seemed to have done him a lot of good, too.

"Hey*Adam," Griff half turned as I came into the lounge. "How"re you feeling?"

"Groggy, but pretty good otherwise," I told him, pulling up a chair next to his and nodding in turn at Kristin and Morgan. "I"m a little surprised I didn"t wake up in Leavenworth."

He snorted gently. "What, you think Jeffers is going to hold a grudge?"

"The thought had crossed my mind."

"He had a lot of time out there to figure out why you did what you did. Shaeffer"s a little madder, I"ll admit, but I think he understands, too." He"d exhaled loudly. "So. Rumor has it Banshee"s going to be getting a fairly dramatic budget increase. Would you ever consider coming back?"

I shrugged. "I don"t know. It depends on a lot of things."

"Such as?"

Such as whether my coming back would help the other Jumpers. Really help them, not just hurt me. "Oh, you know. Things."

Griff grunted. "Well, anyway, I hope you do. Especially now that there"s a whole new area waiting for us to work in."

"You mean changin" the past?" Morgan put in quietly.

Something about the way he said that... "You okay, Morgan?" I asked, craning my neck to look at him.

His expression, too, was... strange. "Listen," he said, nodding toward the TV.

I shifted my attention to the set. "...will seek out those responsible for this cowardly attack on me*and through me on the American people. I am further directing the Pentagon to draw up contingency plans for punitive military action should we find evidence of foreign governmental involvement..."

I licked my lips. "He sounds serious."

"He"s angry, and he"s bitter," Kristin said. "He lost a lot of friends on that plane."

Morgan took a deep breath, exhaled it slowly. "Tell me," he said slowly, "any of you ever heard o"

Hezekiah?"

Griff glanced a frown toward me. "One of the kings of ancient Israel, wasn"t he?"

"Of Judah, yes," Morgan nodded. "A good one, too... except that when G.o.d told him it was time for him to die, he fought and kicked against the decision. And G.o.d backed down*gave him another fifteen years to live."A cold shiver worked its way up my back. "And...?"

"And durin" that time he had himself a son who wound up bein" one of the worst kings Judah ever had.

And helped to destroy the whole country."

I looked back at the TV.... at the image of the man whose death I"d helped to reverse. "I hope, quietly, "that kind of history doesn"t repeat itself.

Morgan nodded. "Me, too."

Acknowledgments.

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