Shift (ChronoShift Trilogy) (25 page)

Ty proved to be much harder to locate than Hardy.  Mark had to do a good bit of research to figure out where and when to look for his friend.

He finally found him in the middle of a bloody battle in Vietnam.  At a time when many young men were dodging the draft, Ty had actually gone and volunteered to be a Marine.  Of course, before the ink was dry on his sign-up papers, they'd whisked him off to the war.

Mark didn’t have a lot of options when it came to contacting Ty.  He couldn’t approach him before Ty entered the military or had a chance to fight in the war.  Mark needed him to have received all his training and gain some real fighting experience if he was going to be of use to Mark.

What really made it difficult, though, was that military records showed Ty as killed in action at Khe Sanh in 1968.  That meant Mark had to travel to Vietnam to intercept Ty in the middle of the battle of Khe Sanh before he was killed.

            Some red dirt, splotches of grass, and a feeble concrete monument that resembled a broken tablet were all that remained of the battlefield of Khe Sanh in modern times.  Large clearings surrounded the former marine base and broken hill peaks covered by jungle brush stood visible in the near distance.

In 1968, Khe Sanh had been a US military base located 12 miles south of the border with North Vietnam and had been manned by two regiments of Marines.  Ty’s company had been stationed there.

This trip proved to be a bit more complex than most for Mark.  He’d had to fly into communist Vietnam, which had opened back up for tourism in the 1990's, and then travel to the former site of Khe Sanh before he could shift.

Once he reached the site, Mark set his shifter to 2:00 AM on January 19
^th
, 1968.  That was two days before the North Vietnamese would begin their offensive against the marines.

Appearing in the middle of the night, Mark was challenged by no one.  He bode his time until morning when the base began to stir and then went to look for Ty.

Mark hadn’t thought it possible, but Ty looked even more muscular and toned than during their mission to save Jefferson Sr.  Now that he thought about it, was that trip to save Ty’s grandfather in their past....
or their future?
  It was definitely in Mark’s past.  Was it in Ty’s future or would it never happen now?  Mark was creating a heck of a paradox here and it was making his head hurt.

He approached Ty when he was alone so they could talk in private.  Since time was short, this initial conversation would have to be more direct than the one with Hardy.

“What’s up, Captain?”

Ty did not stand to attention or snap a sharp salute.  Instead, he slouched on top of a crate with his back to a tent, acknowledging Mark only with his eyes.  His manner was relaxed, unimpressed by rank and decorum.  The formalities of soldiering often evaporated on the extended battlefield, especially in Vietnam.

“Jennings, you don’t know me, but I know you.   This conversation will sound very odd, but there’s no help for it, so let’s get started.  Take a good look at my watch.  Have you ever seen anything like it?”

“Uh...no.”  His forehead creased in puzzlement.  “Is that new Marine issue?”

“No, sergeant.  It’s a time-travel device.”

Ty broke into a large grin, and guffawed.  “Shoot, sir, you had me going there for a minute.”

“This isn’t a joke,
Sergeant
.  I’m here on false pretenses.  I’m not a Marine....at least not any more.  I’m a civilian now.  I’m here because you are going to die in 3 days and 11 hours.  I’m going to get you out of here before that happens.”

Ty’s face revealed uncertainty but masked a much stronger incredulity.  “Hey, ya know.  It’s been fun an’ all, but this joke, man, it really ain’t that funny.  Pretty mean sayin’ sometin’ like that.”

He turned to walk away, but Mark grabbed his arm.  Ty swung back around, the beginnings of anger simmering in his eyes.  The Ty he knew did not have much of a temper and Mark was not used to seeing such flares in Ty’s normally jovial face.  When Mark was sure he had Ty's attention again, he released his arm.

“Watch this.”  Mark touched his shifter and disappeared.

Ty’s mouth still hung open when Mark popped back into existence a few seconds later.  He was speechless.

“Listen closely,” Mark continued, “At noon today, the first song to come on the radio will be “A Whiter Shade of Pale”.  Peggy Fleming is going to win the US Female Figure skating championship tomorrow, and Houston is going to beat UCLA 71-69.  When those things happen, come find me.  I’ve got important information for you.”

Mark clapped Ty on the shoulder and began to walk away.

“Hey, Mac!” Ty called out behind him, “UCLA is on a 47 game winning streak if you hadn’t heard!  Houston ain’t never gonna beat that.”

Mark didn’t look back.

January 21
^st
, 1968 12:00 PM, Khe Sanh, Vietnam

At 0530 that morning, the North Vietnamese Army had begun bombarding the marine combat base at Khe Sanh with heavy mortar fire and 122mm rockets.  This first day of the siege of Khe Sanh, most of the base’s fuel and ammunition supplies would be destroyed.

Resupply helicopters would work frantically over the next few days to keep the marines supplied with everything they would need to fight back.  Marine units would be sent out into the hills on patrol to root out the NVA positions and relieve the base of some of the pressure.

Ty would be sent on patrol with his platoon tomorrow evening.  Right about sunset, he would be killed along with almost all of his unit and a significant portion of his platoon.

The base had initially descended into chaos at the onset of the initial surprise bombardment at dawn, but marines are well-trained, and they quickly took control of the situation and began to counter-attack.

If you could ignore the current barrage of mortars and rockets, you might say things had calmed down significantly since sunrise.  At least, there was no longer a sense of franticness in the movements around the base.

Mark found Ty, whose eyes widened in awe upon seeing him.

“
Who
are you, mister?”

“Do you believe me now?”

“Yesterday at noon....that first song was just like you said “A Whiter Shade of Pale.”

“And the undefeatable UCLA?”

Ty hung his head.  “They lost.  71-69.  News came in on the radio about midnight last night.”

“Well?”

“I ain’t heard nothing about no figure skating yet, but unless you’re one heck of a lucky guesser,
I’m
guessing that you are who you say you are.”  He paused, thinking.  “So, how does that thing work anyway?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?!”

“Look, I just inherited this thing, okay?  I use it just fine, but I don’t claim to know how it works.”

“And you’re not with the government?”

“No.”

“Why are you here, then?  I mean....this is pretty weird showing up in the middle of all this....in ‘Nam.  Why me?  Why now?”

Mark kicked the gravel with his shoe.

“Why you?  You’ll understand that soon enough.  Too complicated to explain here.  Why now?  To be frank, I had to reach you after you’d gained training and experience in the Marines, but before your....er....your death.”

“You said that before.  So....what?  According to you, I’m supposed to die in a couple of days?”

“Tomorrow.”

Ty grimaced.  “Why should I believe you?”

“Remember UCLA?”

No answer.

“Look, I know it’s a lot to take in.  I know it sounds fantastic, but why would I lie?  Why else would I be here right now, risking my own neck.  Any one of these incoming mortars could land a direct hit on yours truly at any moment.  You’ve seen what I can do.  Why would I risk coming here if talking with you weren’t important?”

“I guess.  It’s just crazy, man.  I mean, cert’fiably insane.  What is it you want from me then?  You want me to be some kind of mercenary or something?”

“No.  I want you to join my time-travel company.”

“Why?  To make money?”

“No, to save lives.”

“I’m saving lives here, man.  I’ve got the backs of all my buds.”

“Not after tomorrow you won’t.”

Silence.

Ty was chewing on it hard.  The offer would be difficult for him to accept.

“How could I go?  They’ll declare me AWOL.”

“I’ve got a shifter for you — another watch just like mine.  When you go out on patrol tomorrow, we’ll both just shift out once the firefight begins.  You’ll be classified MIA.”

“What happens to my platoon?”

“Most of them don’t make it.”

More silence.

“All right.  Look.  I’ll go with you, but not now.  I ain’t gonna abandon my unit.  Gotta get them through this alive.  If that thing is what you say it is, then use it to save me somehow, but I ain’t leavin’ my unit!”

“Look, it doesn’t quite work that way....”

“Just do it, or it don’t matter, got it?”

Mark was frustrated.  The firefight in the jungle tomorrow would be intense.  With the shifter’s limitations, Mark would only be able to take out three shooters at the most, not to mention the constant risk random flying metal would make to his own health.  One stray bullet and his time-traveling days would be over.

He reached down and unzipped his duffel bag.

“Fine.  I was afraid you’d say that.  Put this on at least.”  Mark pulled a Kevlar vest from the bag and handed it to Ty.

“What is this?”

“It’s a bullet-proof vest.  It won’t stop everything, especially larger ammo, but it’ll help.  I’ve got one too.”

“All right.”

“Here.  Take this also.”  Mark extended the last unused shifter to Ty.

It seemed like he had been destined to find three watches, and now he’d found the home for the last one.  One for himself, one for Hardy, and one for Ty.

Ty shook his head vehemently.  “Don’t want no part of that till we’re done here.  Get me?”

“Sure.”

Ty stormed off, oblivious to the explosions in the distance.

***

January was a cooler month in Vietnam, so at least the temperatures weren’t stifling.  There weren’t even any mosquitos to deal with yet.  Not at all what one would expect for tropical South Asia..

Mark had gotten himself assigned to Ty’s unit fairly easily.  He’d brought along falsified papers for just such an instance which identified him as a intelligence officer who should be afforded every courtesy.  If such an officer wished to have himself assigned to a perilous patrol in the middle of a intensely heated gun battle, well, it was only courteous of Ty’s superior officers to allow it.

Their platoon broke up into four units of ten men each.  Each unit was independently attempting to covertly scale Hill 881 in order to shake up the mortar positions on top.  Ty’s unit was making its way through a flat wooded area where two streams came together.

The fight began suddenly with the crack of a single rifle shot, followed by a torrent of ensuing gunfire.  That very first shot, though, was the critical one.  It had killed Ty.  His body fell limply to the ground by Mark’s feet, blood pouring from the side of his head.

Fortunately, Mark had seen the shooter’s location.  Ducking behind some brush for cover, he shifted forward 30 years into the future.  Then, calmly, he walked to the spot where he knew Ty’s shooter would be.

This one’s for you, Hardy.  Shift ‘n’ strike.

Mark popped back into 1968 two feet away from the VC sniper who was aiming for Ty’s head, three seconds before the sniper would pull the trigger.  Mark pulled his instead and the sniper slumped over, dead.  Mark had used a silencer, but gunfire still erupted on all sides.  He scrambled back to Ty’s position.

Ty was all right now, sitting with his back to a tree trunk, using it as cover.

“I got the sniper that was supposed to take you out,” Mark called over the deafening staccato bursts.

“Great!”

Ty turned and sprayed some bushes with automatic fire.

“This is getting out of control.  Let’s get out of here!” Mark yelled.

Just then, a well-liked, young private nicknamed Sandy, who was hunkering down nearby, fell over.  He’d been strafed by a stream of bullets pouring out of some brush about 20 yards away.

Ty’s face twisted in anger.  He stood, grabbed Mark by the shirt collar and thrust him up against a tree.

“
Marine
!  My unit is dying around me!  Get fighting!  Or is there no Marine left in you?”

Mark felt it then.  The call.  The rush, the over-whelming fury that filled your veins in the heart of a battle for survival.  It was a fierce anger that sharpened into an even fiercer determination. He knew one’s duty to a fellow Marine.

Mark nodded firmly.

“Good!”  Ty released his frenetic grip.  “Start by saving
him
!”  He pointed to Sandy’s bloody figure.

A wild war whoop burst from Mark’s lungs, and he ran toward the brush hiding Sandy’s assassin.  He shifted, disappearing from Ty’s view in mid-stride.  He shifted back to exactly the right moment and killed the VC before the communist could send the strafing fire Sandy’s way.

Only a couple more shifts before the watch shut down.  A third sniper was hidden up in some branches about ten yards away.  Mark shifted out and in again, taking that sniper out before he could fire.

Mark’s shifter was now blinking that all too-familiar red.  Any further heroics on his part would be unassisted by time-travel.

Mark tossed a grenade at a nearby pocket of resistance and sent a parade of bullets toward some other brush as he ran back to rejoin Ty.

“I can’t shift anymore!”

“What?!”

“You can only shift six times in an hour.  Then, it shuts down.”  They both dove for a ditch and covered their heads as an NVA grenade went off nearby.

They fought well together.  Mark laid down covering fire for Ty as he advanced, and vice-versa.

Then, Hog went down.  Hog was a corporal, another one of Ty’s pals.  Ty turned to Mark with pleading eyes.  Mark was at a loss.  Then, he remembered.