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“Did you—”

“I heard you,” Kate said She was leaning against a table at the center of the room She turned around to face Janus She had to tell him

“I—” she stammered “Yes, Ares has betrayed us—”

Another blast rocked the ship

“—But I helped him” Inside her helain stared at the mirrored reflection from his helmet Apparently Janus didn’t want Kate to see his reaction “He told me he wanted to help To make them safe All of us,” she added quickly

“He used you—and our research He ene therapy he needs to build his army”

Kate watched Janus pace across the room to a control panel He worked it quickly

“What are you doing?” Kate asked

“Ares will try to take the primary ship He needs it to transport his army I have locked it down”

Kate nodded On her helmet display, she watched the co more memories, more comprehension The ship they stood in noas sier science ship, capable of deep space travel Their protocol was always minimal footprint and minimal visibility They didn’t need the ship while they were conducting experiments on the planet’s surface, and they didn’t want it to be seen They had hidden it on the opposite side of the planet’s onlyit deep The portal doors on the lander provided instant access to the ship if they ever needed it, but Janus’s co the ship doould be closed to any reet back to the ship now and neither could Ares, at least not through a portal door

Janus continuedto set some traps as well, in case Ares does somehow make it to the ship”

Kate watched the commands scroll by Another explosion rocked the ship, this one much more violent than the last

Janus paused “The ship is breaking up It will be ripped apart”

Kate stood there, not sure what to do

“Has Ares administered his therapy yet? Has he transformed them?”

Kate tried to think “I don’t know I don’t think so”

Janus worked the panel feverishly Kate saw a series of DNA sequences flash by The co simulations

“What are you doing?” she asked

“The ship is going to be destroyed The pri the time-dilation devices at the perimeter to emit radiation that will roll back all our therapies They will be as they were before we found them, before the first therapy”

That was it—the Bell was Janus’s atteenetic interventions Except, in this raenome The primitives, as he called them, wouldn’t find the ship until 1918, when Kate’s father would dig it up under the Bay of Gibraltar Janus wasn’t counting on the tienetic changes that would occur And Kate knew there would be two very big changes—the “deltas” froue in the sixth and thirteenth century Yes, those must have been Ares’s interventions, the administration of the therapy Kate had helped him create Why had it come so late? Why had he waited twelve thousand years? Where had he been? And where had Janus been? He was alive here in the past and he had been there in the future

The ship shuddered again, throwing Kate against the wall Her head slammed into the hel She heard footsteps Janus’s voice echoed in her helmet, but she couldn’t make out the words She felt him lift her up and carry her