Paul turned red, and he fidgeted with his button-down shirt tucked into a pair of black slacks. His clothes were still kind of straitlaced, but at least he wasn’t dressed like an actor in a space opera anymore. “Sorry,” he said, not looking at me, seemingly fascinated with my carpet. “I wanted to ask you something, and Ron doesn’t let me off the leash much.”
“What?” I snapped, feeling very naked under my big fluffy towel.
Paul glanced at me, then up to the ceiling. “You believe in choice?” I hesitated, my anger sputtering out. “Yes,” I said softly. He had helped me. I owed him a few answers.
“But you’re the dark timekeeper,” Paul stated, sounding confused.
“Apparently,” I said dryly, then added, “It doesn’t make sense, but that’s the way it is. As soon as I find my body, I’m out of here. Unless…I can change things.”
Paul’s shiny shoes shifted on my carpet. “You don’t want to be a timekeeper?” My thoughts returned to the awful feeling of helplessness when I had flashed forward, and then my elation when Shoe had walked away, his entire life ahead of him. “I don’t know anymore.”
“Maybe you just got my job,” Paul said, surprising me.
Surprised, I leaned against the doorframe, then pushed myself up. No matter how much I tried, I’d never look confident dressed in a towel. “You believe in fate?” I asked.
Paul made a face, backing up to sit on the open window’s sill. “I don’t know what I believe. But Ron left when Ace got his guardian angel, and you stuck around to try to save people’s lives.” I tightened my grip on my towel, not knowing what to say.
“I gotta go,” Paul said as he stood. “I’m supposed to be practicing my jumps, but if I’m not back when he thinks I should be, he tracks me down.”
“Must be nice having a teacher,” I said, more than a little jealous and not wanting him to leave yet. “You didn’t come all the way over here to ask me if I believed in choice.” Paul lifted a shoulder and let it fall in a half shrug. “No. I thought you might like to know that Ron did a far-seeing search on both of them and found that neither Ace nor Shoe is fated to drop any more viruses. In fact, Shoe eventually goes to work for the CIA and tracks down other hackers. He’s probably the one who prevents a cyber terrorist attack at the turn of the decade. Right now Ace is in a padded room because he’s talking about reapers and timekeepers, but he eventually learns to keep his mouth shut, gets out of rehab, starts a band called Melting Crows, and dies of a drug overdose in his thirties.”