For centuries aliens have waged a covert war for control of Earth using time travel as a weapon. A select group of humans become their soldiers, genetically modified pawns destined to be caught in the crossfire. But this time, the pawns have a plan of their own…and the fate of all mankind rests in their hands.
Don’t miss ALLIANCE, Book 1 in The Timewalker Chronicles, a series ten years in the making featuring time travel, aliens, special ops, genetic engineering, action, adventure, danger, gadgets, spaceships, and romance. Don’t miss it!
EXCERPT:
The tablet was completely black with no discernable buttons or switches. Celestina placed her hand flat on its surface. A pale light scanned Celestina’s palm. The device came to life and the Seer lifted her hand away from the screen to reveal the faces of two men from what looked like government identification files. Their names and other information was listed below them, like a top secret dossier detailing the lives of both of them. Celestina handed her the tablet and Alexa used her index finger to flip through the digital files and photographs. Education. Job. Photos and information on their residences and job locations. Personal histories. Extended family. Everything.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
“Commit it to memory.”
“I can’t memorize all of this in fifteen minutes.”
“I know. It’s all right. Focus on their faces and the lab where they work.” Celestina leaned forward, her long hair fell forward over her shoulder to drag on the floor between them. “This is Trent Georges and Luke Lawson. They are the men you must find.”
Alexa studied the faces, one early-thirties and handsome with light brown hair and brown eyes, the other older, perhaps sixty, with a ruddy complexion and thinning hair. “Okay. So I find these two. Then what? Why do I need to find them?”
“Because a virus in their lab is going to kill seven billion humans, and we believe one of them may have created it.”
Alexa’s heart skipped a beat. “Isn’t that the entire population of Earth?”
“Yes. More or less. Ninety-six percent of humans won’t survive.”
“How am I supposed to stop them from making a virus?”
“You can’t. We would send you back to eliminate both men, but we aren’t sure who is actually responsible for creating the virus. We could simply destroy the lab, but we have no way of knowing what the long-term effects would be. There is too much important work being done by too many highly intelligent minds to destroy the entire facility. We might prevent a cure or vaccine from being created. We could cause countless deaths, and the ripple effects of that could be disastrous.
“I’m sorry Alexa, but all we know for sure is that the M-6 virus is in that lab, and these two men are your best bet for tracking the virus down and destroying it.” Celestina pointed to a photo of a large building on the tablet. “It’s a high security, Biosafety Level 4 Lab in San Antonio, Texas.”
Well, at least they weren’t sending her to Asia or Africa where she’d stand out like a sore thumb and have no knowledge of the language. Texas. She could survive Texas. And then she could find her family and let her mother know that she’d made it. “Okay. So, how am I supposed to do this?”
“You are your mother’s daughter, Alexa. Use your gift.”
“What gift are you talking about?” Alexa felt like a bug under a microscope. The only people who knew what she could do were her parents. She’d never told another soul, and neither had they.
Celestina rolled her eyes. “I knew your mother, and your grandmother before her. I know about your power to become invisible. Use your gift, Alexa. You’ve been training for this mission and mastering your ability since you were a child. Now it’s time to use your power to get into that lab.” Celestina rocked back and forth as she spoke. “Find these men. Destroy the virus. Kill them both, if you have to. I don’t care what it takes. The virus escaped last night and infected dozens of people at a fundraising gala. The visions of the Red Death nearly drove me mad. Believe me when I tell you that if you fail, humanity won’t survive.”
“Last night? If this virus infected people last night, then it’s already too late.”
“No. We are going to send you back to the only point in time when we are certain the virus is in the lab. The first group of people will be infected with the virus on Friday night at a gala that both men attended. You will arrive on Wednesday, two and a half days before the gala.”
Alexa stared at the photos of the two men’s faces as nausea rose. This was too big. And she would only have two days to stop it.
“I can’t stay invisible for hours at a time. It takes focus, and energy. How am I supposed to sneak around in a high-security lab for hours without being seen?”
“I don’t know, Alexa. But you must find a way.”
Shit. She would have to find a way to use her gift for hours longer than she was used to. The energy required would test her. How was she going to deal with the physical and mental exhaustion?
Like Celestina said, she’d have to find a way to deal with it. Failure wasn’t an option. “Why don’t you guys stop them, if you know about it? Why do you need me?” They were an advanced race of immortal aliens, with visions of the future, swords and space ships, right? Why would they need help from a human?
Celestina sighed. “I just had the vision last night. It’s too late for us to effect change. The virus has already escaped in this timeline. Bran can open portals through time, but he cannot walk through them. I can glimpse the future in visions, but I, too, am trapped in this time. We have been here for a very long time, Alexa. The Crux is coming and the Timewalkers are the only ones who can physically survive travel through the Archivers’ time portals.”
“What’s the Crux?”
“When we first arrived, we had traveled hundreds of years into Earth’s past. We have nearly caught up to our proper place in time. We will catch up to our previous existence within the next few years. At that moment, the current timeline will overtake the one we left behind. We call the moment that happens the Crux.”
“You guys are from the future?”
“Yes.”
“But you just said no one but a Timewalker can survive time travel.”
“Everyone on this ship actually traveled to your time using advanced technology, a special device that has not yet been invented on our home world. Unfortunately, once we used the device, it was destroyed. We are trapped in this timeline, just like everyone else.”
“What’s going to happen at the Crux?”
“We don’t know.”
“If you guys have been here so long, why doesn’t anyone know you are here?”
Celestina raised a brow. “What makes you think they don’t?”
Okay. She was right. There were a million or more conspiracy websites, claims of government cover-ups, and UFO sightings all over television and the internet.
“Enough. You must focus, Alexa. You must remember their faces. The name of the virus. You must be able to locate these men.”
Shaking, Alexa returned her attention to the tablet. Luke Lawson. Trent Georges. San Antonio. BSL-4 Lab. Mutation 6 of Ebola. Red Death. Seven billion people dead.
Friday night.
God, she was screwed.
“Because we are sending you into the past, neither Bran nor I will remember any of this. You will have to make contact with us once you arrive. You’ll be the only one who knows, Alexa.” Celestina reached out and grabbed her hand, squeezing it so tightly it hurt. “You’ll be the only one who knows what’s coming.”
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About the Author:
M.L. Callahan is a sci-fi fanatic and full time writer. Alliance is Callahan’s twelfth novel. Fans of Hugh Howey’s Wool series, Wayward Pines, Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark, Sherrilyn Kenyon’s League Series, or Karen Marie Moning’s Fever Series will not be able to resist Callahan’s complex world building, twisting plot lines, or unique premise. Callahan writes something brand new in the science fiction arena with character driven stories that read more like adventure books than hard science manuals. The Timewalker Chronicles are like nothing you’ve ever read before. Don’t miss this book!
You can find more about M.L. online at:
