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history. The way she bends her elbow, the cirrhosis will take her soon enough. My way would be merciful.
    Claudio reached for Polly’s throat again, this time pressing with both hands. A knot in his left hand throbbed, and he gasped as the tiny room spun away from him. He felt himself falling, and then came a rush of wind and a feeling of being punched in the gut. He groaned and doubled over.

    Friday, July 4, 2070, Flussville, South Carolina, RAA
    When Claudio straightened back up, Ambrose’s concerned face floated above his.
    “You all right?” the younger man asked. “Hang about, don’t try to move, got to check you—oh, sir, you might…here.” Ambrose looked around his lab, grabbed a sheet from the exam gurney across the room, and tossed it to his boss. “Seem to have lost your clothes in the transfer. Did that happen when you arrived, too?”
    Claudio shook his head, but then thought better of that response. Ambrose didn’t need to know that he’d been nude on purpose. “I…it’s a bit fuzzy,” he mumbled. He looked at Ambrose. “I didn’t mean to come back when I did. What happened?”
    “Well, there’s a retrieval protocol in Vere’s notes,” Ambrose replied. “It’s linked with the subject’s left hand, but I didn’t think it would work without installing the chip under your skin. Perhaps it’s a biological connection that’s made, even without that. The chip could make the retrieval more precise, though.”
    “More precise would be preferable,” Claudio snapped. He wrapped the sheet around his waist and stood up. “Get me something real to wear, and get to work on this chip. Tell me when you’ve got something.”
    Ambrose tapped a pencil against a notepad. “Sir, when we do have something, where do you want to go? Where did you wind up, and it would be more helpful if we sent you—”
    “Yes, yes, send me to something around the war, but…” A thought occurred to Claudio. “Keep this time handy, if that’s even possible. I may wish to go back there again regardless.”
    “It takes a lot of power for each trip,” Ambrose said. “Just how relevant d’you think o’ that time and place?”
    Claudio imagined slitting Polly’s throat, and a shiver of delight coursed through him. It wasn’t anything he’d ever thought of doing before, but the mere idea now stirred arousal in him. None of Polly’s ministrations worked, and yet thinking of killing her seemed to be doing the trick.
    “It’s very relevant, Ambrose. Very relevant indeed.” He hurried from the room.

    Monday, July 7, 2070, Flussville, South Carolina, RAA
    Ambrose pored over the notes he’d transcribed from Edward Vere’s materials. The retrieval mechanism was still more theoretical than actual, and it involved binding a chip to the drive plate’s electronic signature and then implanting it in the subject’s skin. The left palm was recommended, the notes stated, because the biological retrieval was bound to a vein direct to the cardiovascular center. The heart, Vere posited, was the source of the subject’s own electrical functioning; therefore, the mechanism required a jolt not unlike jump-starting a vehicle.
    As Ambrose sketched a design before commencing to solder wires and metal together, he fretted.
    Too many jolts to the heart could be catastrophic over time . Should I insist the governor get a checkup? What if he’s got an arrhythmia? Poor blighter could drop dead centuries ago, and I’d never know what happened to him. Or would I just summon back a corpse? No, the electricity’s the thing. He’d simply become a mystery. I got to make sure he’s fit for this.
    Knowing his employer, however, Ambrose suspected Claudio would resist a medical evaluation.
    When Ambrose had a workable design functioning, he read further in Vere’s notes, which cited a projection jump spot that the retrieval device could pinpoint—a safety zone, where within a certain radius the chip could detect if there were native