“Here!” Peri said, warning Jack to stay where he was even as Rachel tossed her the accelerator and Peri rolled it in the bloody sheets. They had to get out of here. Right now, Peri remembered both timelines, but when they meshed, she’d forget—and there was a lot she was going to miss. Damn you, Bill, she thought, never having dreamed he’d shoot Rachel.

“She’s compromised, Jack,” Bill moaned as he rolled to his hands and knees. “Take her back four hours.”

“We’ll lose everything she knows,” Jack said, not moving. “You sure?”

“Four hours!” Bill bellowed. “I’d rather have Peri without doubt than know who that woman is.” His eyes rose, murderously intent as he found Peri’s. “And Peri has a doubt. Don’t you, kiddo.”

A chill raced through Peri as she dropped the bloodied crystal into the wineglass and ran to the hall, Rachel tight behind. The shock of the pop, pop, pop of the gun as Rachel blew the lock shook her.

Four hours? Peri thought, numb as she breathed in the spent gunpowder. Were her extended memory losses engineered? By Jack?

“Time for plan B,” Rachel said, taking her arm and pulling her into a run. “Grab the fish and run like hell.” She took a breath and shouted, “Jenks! Forget the cat. We gotta go!”

Confused, Peri followed, wine in hand and ducking when a drone whizzed overhead, Jenks’s voice shrilling in a high-pitched thrill trailing out as he rode the head-size copter. Carnac bounded down the hall after it, head up and tail crooked.

“Wall!” Rachel shouted, but the drone was going too fast and it missed the turn, smashing into the wall with a small crunch. It hit the floor, and Peri gasped when the cat leapt for it.

But Jenks had bailed, and he flew at head-height back to them, grinning and trailing a bright silver dust. “I found my cat,” he said, darting up when Carnac jumped for him.

“That’s my cat,” Peri protested as Rachel scooped the tail-swishing cat up and mule-kicked a locked door open. It was a storage closet, and Peri stared until Rachel shoved her in, wine almost spilling.

“That busted lock on the doctor’s bunk won’t stop them for long,” Rachel said, struggling with the wiggling cat, which was pawing for Jenks as he tormented it, darting up and down like a demented yo-yo.

“Wine,” Peri said as she proffered it, amazed there was still some in it. “You know the charm?”

Rachel beamed. “I think she believes us, Jenks.”

“Say the words!” Peri shouted. There was a sudden pounding on the door, and she shoved the wine at Rachel, moving to get between them and the door, should it open.