I dashed over to the far wall and collected the cuffs and belts. They clanked together in a way that set my teeth on edge as I deposited the whole lot on the floor at Regan’s feet. She typed in one last thing on the computer and then turned and quickly looped a belt around her waist.

“The problem is that these are only designed to carry two sets of cuffs at the most,” she muttered under her breath as she attached one set to each hip. She held the remaining set in her hand, her forehead furrowed.

“Here,” I said, tossing her the belt I hadn’t managed to get on yet. “Throw that over a shoulder and attach the extra cuff.” I raced back to grab two more belts. “You know,” I said as I attached my own cuffs, “this has only ever been done once before.”

“What’s that?” Regan said, sounding distracted as she squinted at the computer screen.

“Glitching within a Glitch,” I said. “I read about it once. One of our own agents went rogue, and in order to confuse his trail he started leapfrogging through time.”

“Did it work?” Regan asked.

“He was never caught, if that’s what you mean,” I said. “But what we are about to do is really dangerous. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, well, last I checked so was getting blown up, so . . .” Regan muttered, and I snorted. She had a solid point. “Get on the platform,” she said as she hit the activation button. Above our platform a countdown started from ten, and Regan sprinted over to join me. Without saying a word, we grasped hands. There was a time that I’d do just about anything to get some distance from Regan Fitz, but right now, at this moment, there wasn’t anyone else I’d rather be hurtling through time beside.

“At what point are you going to tell me the plan?” I asked as the numbers ticked down toward zero.

“There is no plan,” Regan said as everything went black.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Regan

I opened my eyes back inside the mountain. To my relief, Elliot was still right beside me, his hand clutching mine with a death grip that made my bones ache.

“What?” he asked, looking around. “Are you serious? We were just here!”