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"No, I don't believe that's what's happened." He sighed, shook his head, stared at the console for a bit, and then looked back at me. "Was he our Sergei or your family's Sergei?"
"What?" I said, and then I got it. "Oh, no," I added in a breath of expelled air. "Please, don't tell me there's another one."
"There's another one," Jack said softly. "And I just want to ascertain which other one he is. Ours or theirs."
"He was never theirs," I said vehemently.
"You know what I mean, Mouse."
I did. But I hated that my family, alternate universe family or not, was associated with that evil, vile, pathetic excuse for an astronaut.
But I forced myself to think back on the Sergei I had met in the stairwell at Star City. The one who stood above me and aimed a gun at my head. He was going to kill me, that much was obvious. Something Sergei had tried to do in the past. But not every time we'd met. Once, he'd simply demanded I deliver a message while holding a gun to my head. A couple of times, he'd tried to take me, but failed miserably.
I'd always seen myself as a thorn in his side. Magnets that were drawn to each other and then one of them inexplicably changed its magnetic pole. It was a push/pull relationship. I was the one doing the pushing, but sometimes I answered his pull.
I wanted my family free of him. It drew me back into the sphere of his influence again and again. But I never went so far as to be caught by his magnetism. I couldn't do what my alternate universe family had done. I looked at Jack. I wasn't even sure I could have sided with Sergei to save Jack, and that threw me a little.
I was not them. But still, I wanted to save them.
"I think it was our Sergei," I said. It was hard to be sure, but I felt like our Sergei knew me better. We'd danced together a lot, he and I. He'd felt the push and pull as I had. He'd recognised that stubborn streak inside me. The one that would never, ever give in. I was his thorn, alright. Whereas, Alternate Universe Sergei didn't really know me at all.
"That's what I think, too," Jack said. "Which means the Sergei who is now ripping Time apart isn't doing it to get Lunik's secrets. That was our Sergei's plan. You stopped that. He's doing it to get you."
That was not a welcome thought.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because you're a Wylde."
"What does that mean?"
He smiled at me, reached across the space between us and cupped my cheek tenderly. "There's something about the Wyldes. I think he saw it in Carrie. In your parents. I see it in you. I'm not sure if it's because Time reacts differently to you all, or if it's simply that you're determined, intelligent, and a little crazy. A little wild, perhaps. You're all unpredictable. To contemporaries and to Time itself, maybe. I'm not sure. But you could all be considered assets and Sergei — our universe's or any universes' Sergei — likes to collect assets. He likes to win. And he sees your family as a means to do just that."
Well, crap. I wasn't sure what was better. A Sergei trying to steal Lunik's secrets so he could control time travel and no one else would remember our RATS at all. Or a Sergei who wanted me so he could use my family — a full set — to thwart Time and obliterate RATS completely.
"He wants to destroy you," I said softly.
"Yes. I rather think he does."
I shook my head again. "He can't destroy RATS. Without RATS, the world is doomed."
Without Sergei, maybe RATS wouldn't be needed anymore.
"We have to kill him," I said, sucking in a fortifying breath of air. "I have to kill him again, don't I?"
Jack reached forward and gripped my hands in his. "No," he said emphatically. "Why do you think Clive has risked his own son being out of time to help us?"
I glanced across the module at the silent soldier. His steady, unflappable gaze met mine. I'd forgotten he was sitting there, actually. It was a shock to be reminded. I shouldn't have forgotten he was there. He was big, dressed in military garb, and heavily outfitted. He was a walking, perhaps not talking, killing machine and I shouldnothave forgotten he was there.
It just proved how discombobulated I was.
"To kill Sergei?" I said.
"No, Mouse," Jack said softly. "To incapacitate him, so you don't have to kill another Sergei."
"That's not the only reason, sir," Charles said.
"There's another reason?" I asked, not sure I wanted to know what other reason there could be that trumped that one. "Is it a good reason?" I added. Please, let it be a good reason.
