THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

I’d read in a matter of seconds. “I only know what I’ve learned since waking up today, but Albuquerque is in New Mexico and that’s part of America.”
    His face went still as stone. “America?”
    “I might have that wrong. Someone mentioned New Mexico was a state...that’s it. One of a united states.” 
    “United States,” he whispered. “I have heard of a United States...in my world...” 
    I wanted to shout. This had potential. “Really? Where do you live?”
    He snapped out of whatever had distracted him. “I live in ATL/5, one of the ten cities.”
    I read somewhere in Hannah’s book that there were fifty united states. Wouldn’t that mean there were at least that many cities? “What ten cities? Aren’t there more?”
    “No.” He shook his head, his tone solemn. “Life outside the renaissance cities is too dangerous.”  His words drifted off with his straying gaze that focused on nothing. He murmured to himself, “How can...ancient...I don’t understand.”
    “What? Ask me, Callan. I want to work together. I’ll tell you anything I can.”
    “Give me more information.”
    “Like what?”
    “About the school. How old it is, anything. As I said, the more information I have to give V’ru the better he will be able to answer my questions.”
    If this V’ru was all that good, he should be able to confirm whatever I told Callan. “I read a book that said the Institute has been there for four years, so that would mean they opened it...”  I paused, calculating the current year based on the date Suarez had written on his board in class. “They opened it in 2009.”
    Callan stopped dead in his path then stepped away as if too close to a poisonous snake. “The year 2009?”
    “Yeah.” Had I said something wrong? “I saw 2013 written by an instructor as part of today’s date on his board, so I’m pretty sure 2009 is correct.”  Had I screwed up simple math? “I’m telling you the truth but you can ask Gabby if you don’t believe me.”  I tried to reassure him. “Regardless of the date, believe me when I say I will help you leave here.” 
    “You can’t.”  Horror spread across his face.
    “Why not? What’s wrong?”
    “Because, if what you say is true...that’s not my world.”
    “I don’t understand. You said you know of America.”
    Disbelief rocked his expression. “I do, but I don’t exist there.”
    How could that be? “Now I don’t understand.”
    “I live in the year 2179. The United States did exist in 2009, long before the K’ryan Syndrome. Even if I could travel in your transender, I wouldn’t survive in a world where I haven’t yet been born.”
    I thought I couldn’t be shocked any more today. My heart pounded faster as what he said settled into my mind. He came from the future? If so, that meant...
    The significance of his words hit me like a fist to the middle, raising an even greater concern. If his words were true, Gabby, Tony and I were from the past...and would die if we tried to return to our world in the wrong transender pod and arrived in the wrong year.
    Even if I convinced Callan that we weren’t TecKnati, how could we be sure which pod we traveled here in?
    How were we going to get back to our world? 2179 ACE, in ORD/City One
     

CHAPTER 23
     
    There must be a faster way to exterminate MystiK brats.
    SEOH ANASKO stepped away from his floor-to-ceiling window view of Lake Michigan, a swatch of blue a hundred and seventy floors below his penthouse office in ANASKO Central Tower. His image reflected back from the glass–his face cosmetically altered to allow little room for emotions to show, his hair surgically implanted and a bull of a body even if he wasn’t tall–all tools to rule the furkken unwashed masses.
    He turned to face Vice Rustaad, his second in command and most trusted confidant...who was pissing him off right now.
    Rustaad watched him through the icy gaze of a forty-six-year-old man with the soul of an AI. He wore his short, sealskin-brown hair slicked back in a take-no-prisoners look. A mimic of SEOH’s own head of thick, dark hair. A former competitive swimmer, Rustaad’s discipline was evident in the way he maintained muscle definition at his age, and a competitive edge second only to SEOH’s. “I understand your frustration, SEOH, but the fact remains that we have a potential problem.”
    SEOH had chosen Rustaad years ago because nothing stood in Rustaad’s way once he was committed to a goal...such