“My agenda is simple enough,” she said, looking up from her phone. “We’ve been watching you for some time. It’s clear you don’t know nearly as much as we’d hoped, and that’s a shame. Dolesham could use you, and your sister as well. I’m here to convince you.”
Charlie blinked in confusion. “Dolesham? What are you talking about? What is Dolesham?”
“You and your sister barely knew your parents, so I shouldn’t be so surprised. I’d hoped that you’d acquired the time travel technology to go back and help where you’re needed. What a disappointment the truth was …” her mouth turned down in a frown. “Not your fault though, not in the slightest.”
His parents had died when he was young, about 10. Silvia had been 6. They’d both been placed under educational stewardship. He still had no idea where the money for that had come from; he’d thought he would learn something when he came of age and graduated, but nothing had surfaced so far. He’d become a skimmer in the hopes of learning something originally, but years of dead trails had caused him to all but give up.
“This is crazy. How can you know anything about our parents?”
“Reg and Karen Dolet, dead now for almost 13 years, two children, Charlie and Silvia. Reg was a geneticist, Karen a physicist, both working for branches of Biodyne Corporation.
“The time travel technology you’re using was your mother’s creation, Skeeve. Or at least it was her work that paved the way for it to exist. And with it, the two of us, and your sister, have to go back in time almost another hundred years to a place called Dolesham. Our ancestors,” she stressed the word ‘our,’ “need our help very badly, cousin.”
Charlie could do nothing but stare at her in disbelief. “Sandra, you are crazy if you expect me to believe a single word you just said.”