a result. Jake wondered if the attack on the Senator might have come from that direction.
He hoped to hear more, but the announcer went on to other stories, promising to come back with more details as soon as they were known. Jake was also curious about the other senators he had read were in town for a series of meetings, mostly focused on planning for the November elections. Since nothing had been said, Jake assumed the attack was directed specifically at Senator Kerns, but he’d like to know for certain. Jake couldn’t recall if the other senators were staying at the same hotel, and whether the meetings were scheduled there as well. Frustrated with the lack of information, Jake decided to forgo the music, and jumped to CNN news in hopes of learning more.
“Did you hear about the bombing?” Nate asked right off as he greeted Jake in the driveway as his old friend climbed out of the car. Nate knew more about Jake and his back-track ability than anyone other than Karin.
Back-tracking was a unique ability that Jake possessed and which he had discovered by accident some years earlier. It had saved his life more than once and allowed him to influence the flow of events of those around him. It wasn’t exactly time travel, but in many ways was similar. For reasons he didn’t understand, he had the unique ability to send his thoughts back to an earlier version of himself. He could choose the time to send the thoughts to, and that earlier self would receive all of the memories that Jake had acquired by living through the days he skipped back over. He couldn’t send anything physical, just his memories.
The ability wasn’t without limitations. He could only reach back a week to ten days in a single jump. The jumps were usually associated with headaches, sometimes severe. The longer the transition, the more severe the headache. He’d learned much later that it was possible to piggy-back the jumps which allowed him to send his memories back farther than the ten-day limitation. There were complications with that and the headaches became increasingly severe as multiple jumps were linked together. Jake also could only make the jump back if the earlier version of himself was within a limited physical distance from his current location. That wasn’t an entirely fixed parameter, but usually meant he had to be within twenty-five miles of his former self or the back-tracking couldn’t be initiated.
Jake had confided his ability to his closest friends a couple of years back, and twice had involved Nate in adjusting a situation that required some special help. Nate had been key to resolving the attacks in San Francisco that had gotten Karin killed until the damage could be undone. As a result, Nate knew this could be the kind of situation that Jake might decide to get involved in.
“Caught it on the radio as I was passing through Vallejo,” Jake replied. “I spent most of the drive trying to learn the details, but mostly they repeated the same sensational story over and over. It doesn’t sound like anyone has any idea who was behind it. Also, nothing was said about how the perpetrators managed to get the bombs inside the Presidential Suite where the Senator was staying.”
“They didn’t use regular bombs,” Nate said. “Just a little while ago CNN had a report that claimed a pair of miniature drones were used to fly the explosives to the hotel and right into his room. I guess the first was detonated right outside the window of the suite’s private dining room, which probably was enough to have killed the Senator given the size of the blast, but less than a minute later the second one flew into the now open room and detonated inside. The damage to the hotel is apparently substantial. Two others have died as well.”
“None of that was on the radio,” Jake said. He considered the approach. It sounded like something a terrorist might have done. They were getting more sophisticated all the time, and they would like turning the tables on an American Senator, using aerial bombing to take out someone they had targeted for removal.
“Are you going to get involved in this one?” Nate asked.
Jake couldn’t tell if he was eager or concerned. He might wish to help, or he might be afraid that Jake would have to leave and miss the party.
“I don’t know enough yet,” Jake admitted. “Probably, but my involvement will be