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body of the 1990s—athletic yet voluptuous, the all-American girl. Unlike Knox’s pale blond Viking complexion, Vivi had midnight blue-black hair set off by emerald-green eyes that looked like the North Star guiding mortal souls into the night. Even though they were twins, she and her brother couldn’t have been more different in terms of temperament. Knox was reserved and methodical from the years of his medical research in the field of infectious diseases and his hands-on training with an elite Air Force squadron. Vivi, in contrast, was vibrant and action-oriented. She seemed to have an unlimited amount of energy and was a daredevil in all sorts of extreme sports. After she received her PhD in aerospace engineering, she could’ve joined NASA and been the first female commander pilot in its space program, but she had chosen TSCCA instead. Once, Skyla asked Vivi why she didn’t go for her girlhood dream of being the first female space shuttle commander. Vivi just shrugged her shoulder and answered nonchalantly, “Why would I want to do simulation programs for most of my waking hours when I could be fighting bad guys while flying through time?” That was Vivi’s trademark—wickedly sharp logic.
    “So what did happen back there? You were gone not even five minutes. One minute we got your engaged signal, next minute you’re back.” Vivi leaned her head and her side against the back of the sofa as if they were at a pajama party, not working inside one of the most advanced secret government agencies on the planet.
    Skyla hesitated a few moments, debating whether she should tell Vivi and Knox the truth.
    “Skyla?” Vivi’s concerned voice caught Knox’s attention. Over Vivi’s shoulder, she could see Knox abruptly stop what he was doing with the tissue samples and look up at them from his lab desk.
    “Skyla, what is it? What happened back there?” Sudden concern ricocheted off his question.
    She took a deep breath, and then told them about the explosion inside the bank vault, the shadow figure, and how easily he had disarmed her and sent her back to the present time.
    “When he spoke, I felt I knew his voice.” She paused a moment and then cast her eyes downward. “And when he immobilized me, I didn’t want to fight him.” She wished Knox weren’t there so she could tell Vivi that not only her body did not want to back, and she had gone all soft and was aroused by the stranger.
    When she was describing how easily the shadow figure overpowered her inside the vault, Knox’s body tensed up immediately. She was afraid Knox would do something rash if she let on more details of the encounter.
    Already the way Vivi was looking at her would be enough trouble to deal with. Vivi always had an uncanny sense of telling lies from truths. And her intuition was frighteningly accurate—100 percent of the time. Skyla always thought that if Vivi had been from the past, she would have been called a seer or a witch and likely persecuted for her unique ability.
    Skyla got up immediately to diffuse the twins’ probing. “Knox, let’s run your little tests. The director gave me a day off, and I think I’ll make a quick trip to see Mom and Dad.”
    Knox and Vivi exchanged a glance in some kind of silent communication before Vivi headed out and Knox started pulling the testing equipment together. Skyla let out a relieved breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.
     

Chapter Six
    The usually heavy traffic on the Westside Highway and I-87 was thinning out by the time Skyla left TSCCA late in the evening. Knox had offered to drive her to her parents’ house in Westchester, but she needed time alone to think. She had been replaying her encounter with the man inside the bank vault. It was not the first time she had been bested by an adversary, but it was the first time her instincts didn’t want to fight back. It was as if her body knew the man from somewhere. Of course, the million-dollar question was, from where and when?