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Shocked, she stared into his eyes as she felt tiin to mesh For an instant she saw herself on the floor as she choked to death in the original ti, and the man in the suit watched it all as Jack held her head in his lap

"This is very bad forof confusion, the other just dying confused

And then ti flashed theit away

Peri pushed back, her heart pounding as her shoulder thudded against the leg of a desk Jack was kneeling before her, and she looked at a door and the green light blinking on the locking panel She was on the floor of a ht-dark corner office Her chin hurt, but the rest of her face was in agony A bloody knife lay beside her, and a man in a security unifor the carpet

"It’s okay, Peri," Jack soothed, and she scra when she realized everything hurt "It’s done"

I drafted, she thought, looking at her pal fast, she picked up her sticky knife, conscious of Jack’s sudden wariness She’d left him but she’d made it back, obviously, and he would return her uard was dead Her knife thrust had killed hinized the entry wound as one she knew A handheld radio hissed, and a Glock lay in the guard’s grip She sh-rise, the thirtieth floor at least It was night They were on task She’d drafted to rub out aCharlotte? she wondered, spotting the crown building out the

"Did I die again?" she whispered

"Pretty close We gotta go," he said, and she winced when he touched her elbow Her short-job bag was under his aret e ca did I draft?" Peri asked, numb as she looked at the dead man She only killed someone when they killed her first Da, and it’s in my phone" Eyes pinched, Jack stuck his head out the door and looked around The office beyond was quiet "What do you remember?"

Less than I like "Wait" Peri knelt beside the dead guard, cutting a button from his uniform with the knife still bloody fro a memory would be easier with a talisman to focus it on: blood, the feel of the sticky blade, the scent of gunpowder, and the taste of … chocolate?

"Youaard in his concern "Did you write it down? I don’t knohy you insist on keeping our post-task date a secret"

"Because it’s fun to watch you squir to find herself He was overly anxious, wanting to lanced at the dead man, she didn’t wonder why Pulse slow, she felt the new aches settle in, clueless as she looked out the huge s at the dark city "What day is it?" she said, and heartache e was

"We’ll check your phone I bet you wrote it down," Jack said, avoiding her question as he took her elbow and carefully helped her through the secretary’s office and into a maze of low-partitioned cubicles "Do you remember where the elevators are? I have a lousy sense of direction"

"I don’t rein’ task, Jack What day is it!" she snapped, and he stopped

Facing her, he gently turned her right hand up to show her a watch She didn’t wear a watch Ever "February the seventh I’m sorry, Peri It was a bad one"

Peri stared at the watch It looked like soiven her--all black and chro more functions than a PTA mom with twins, but she didn’t remember it "February?" The last she knew, it was late Dece did I draft?"

Emotion flashed over Jack, relief and then distress "Thirty seconds?" he said, putting a hand on the sain "But you created a uard? He was the one who did it"

And now she was alive instead of hie to absorb She was lucky she’d lost only six weeks in those thirty seconds She’d once drafted forty-five seconds, but the changes made had been so small that she’d lost only the time her draft had created There were rules, but sotime lost from time rewritten was chancy at best

"The car is outside," Jack said as he led her through the dark to the elevators Jack walked just a shade faster than she, falling into a well-practiced role of filling in the gaps in a way that wouldn’t make her feel stupid If she didn’t move too fast, she could at least look as if she knehere they were going There was an art to it, and they’d both had time to refine it "We fixed the caht?" he asked as he hit the down button

His nervous chatter was starting to get to her, but it was because he orried, so she bit back her sharp retort, not wanting toshe didn’t re, and her face felt as if it was on fire Dancing was out, but they could still play so her memory It was a tradition that stretched back alle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">