Erasing Time Read Online Free PDF Page A

down, checking her expression. He had no idea what she meant.
    The medic was almost to them. Sheridan tried to break from Echo’s grasp. “You didn’t say the medic wouldn’t hurt us, only that he has no reason to do it. You know he might, and you don’t like lying about it.”
    She couldn’t free herself from Echo’s arms. He pulled her closer, holding her in place so the medic could give her the shot.
    “I’ll do what I can to protect you,” Echo whispered into her ear. “I’m not lying about that either.”
    She felt the prick of pain in her neck and then felt nothing else.

chapter
5
    The second time Sheridan awoke, she didn’t open her eyes right away. She kept them closed and listened. Men were talking on the other side of the room.
    She struggled to make sense of their accent. They rolled their r ’s, and the vowels were mixed up, like someone had randomly switched them.
    “ Et es batarr theese wa ,” someone said. It is better this way. “Orra way no et well werrk . ” Something … we know it will work.
    Another voice said, “ Pues, way no wet te axpact ahora .” Something, we know what to expect … something. What did orra mean?
    “Tharr halth es bueno.” Bueno meant “good” in Spanish. The other Spanish words clicked into place in her mind. Ahora meant “now.” Pues was one of those words like well that people threw into sentences when they were thinking about what else to say.
    A man, angrier than the other two, said, “ Bet et desnt materr ef way kent feend Tylorr Shaerrwood .”
    So they still hadn’t found Mr. Sherwood. He didn’t know how lucky he was.
    The voices went on, and she strained to follow them. She could only figure out that the first two men wanted to convince the third man that the experiment wasn’t really a failure. Finally Sheridan heard the swish of a door, and then silence.
    They’d left.
    She opened her eyes and saw Echo sitting on a chair near her head. His bright blue eyes studied her. “Were you able to understand any of it?”
    She blinked back at him. “What?”
    “I could tell you were awake.” He pointed up to a lighted screen above her bed. “When you listen, your brain activity goes way up.”
    Sheridan sat up and glanced at the screen, at lights that flickered and moved but made no sense.
    “How are you feeling?” he asked.
    “Kidnapped.”
    He gave her a sympathetic smile. “Besides that?”
    “Fine, I guess.” Her grief was still there, strong and throbbing in her heart, but she kept it in check. She didn’t want to break down again.
    “According to the scientists,” he said, “your cells should stabilize soon.”
    Her gaze snapped back to him. “My cells are unstable?”
    He shrugged. “You were a stream of energy for four hundred years. It takes a while to adjust to being matter again.”
    She froze, afraid to move in case quick action would cause her to explode.
    “You look great, though,” Echo said. “I mean, you’ve reconfigured nicely.” He cleared his throat and motioned to the screen. “According to the computer, your health statistics are all good.” And then, as though he were offering her a consolation prize, he added, “While you slept, the med devirused you and fixed your vision problem.”
    Sheridan’s hands went to her face. Her glasses were gone. She didn’t comment on it. She’d just realized Taylor was nowhere around. “Where’s my sister?”
    “With Jeth in an Infolab. She’s learning about what’s happened in the last four centuries.”
    Still reconfigured then. Sheridan slowly pushed the blanket off her lap. Her muscles seemed to be working properly. “What will happen to us now?”
    “We want you to work at the Wordlab with us, but Jeth hasn’t proposed the idea yet. He’s waiting until the scientists are in a better mood.”
    Wordlab? She didn’t ask what that was. She didn’t want Echo to think she had agreed to any of it, didn’t feel like being grateful for his help. He wasn’t one