On the other side of the receptionist desk was the dead receptionist, shot directly on the head. She still wore the face of shock and unwillingness to die. This gory scene traumatized James to his heart.
James suddenly had the desire to wail, but he restrained himself. Now was not the time to weep, not when his life is at stake. He ran towards the exit and to the road.
James had barely left the hotel when he notice that someone was staring at him. He turned to his left, and sure enough, a middle-aged man was sitting in a small bus staring dead at him. The man mumbled some words, but James did not hear it, but by his lips, he said "I have gotten you".
As a result, James picked up his pace and pretended like he didn't see him. From his peripheral vision, he saw the bus moving slowly in his direction. James knew that he was probably after him, but there was nothing he could do. The road was dead silent, with almost no vehicles passing.
The bus blocked his way, causing James to hold his breath in anguish. "Hmmm, so you are the legendary James Smith huh. You have no idea how much pain in the ass you have caused me." The man smiled terrifyingly as he stared at James like he was looking at a sumptuous meal.
"Please sir, what do you want from me?" James asked calmly. Although James was in distress, his mind was still clear, so he was able to make a rational decision.
From the looks of things, it appeared that this man was the person behind the attempted capture of him. He might have been the manager of the company his dad worked with.
"What do I want? Come on lad, you know what I want. Come on, get in the bus, I want to have a chat with you", the man stopped the bus and tapped the seat, gesturing for James to come in.
"You will hurt me if I did, besides I cannot enter a vehicle of a stranger, so no thank you", James declined and continue walking on his way. Then James heard a radio coming from the bus. "Sir, we found the target's belongings, but no sign of him. It looks like someone tipped him off of our arrival", a voice said.
Charles glared at James with an icy stare. "You think I have much time to waste? If you don't come in right now, I will order these men to hurt you and trust me, James Smith, it would not be pretty."
James' heart palpated even faster. "Stop right there!" The man screamed, causing James to whimper. The man came down off the bus and approached him. It was now he noticed he was holding a long-range gun. James was further frightened.
"You have something in you that you are not supposed to possess. You are going to follow me so that I retrieve that chip from you." He said, stroking the barrel of the gun.
"I'm sorry, I can't", James said and gulped his saliva. He was very uncomfortable seeing the gun in his man's hand. Anytime from now this man would point the gun and blast his skull open.
"I'm sorry what? Did you just say no?" The man asked approaching James slowly. James retreated slowly and shook his head. "The chip is lodged inside of my brain. Even if I agree to operate, the retrieval would severely damage my brain. I might not survive", James said.
The man then laughed hysterically and stared at James coldly. "You are afraid of your brain being damaged huh? So, there is no way for me to get what I want at the end of the day. So how do I get what I want right now because my patience is running out."
James racked his brain desperately. There was no way to safely extract the chip embedded inside of his brain without adversely affecting him. He even suspected that the chip was tightly connected to him, making it further impossible to safely extract it.
The reason his father placed such a futuristic tech inside of him remains a mystery, he would not willingly hand over such a revolutionary innovation to this crazed lunatic.
"Please, leave me alone" was the best he could come up with. The man face changed. "Well, I'm not sorry kid, but if you are unwilling, then I would have to blast it open from you. Say hello to your parent", Charles raised his gun and pointed it at James, causing his heart to skip several beats.
Suddenly, something moved the man's arm, and the bullet streaked past James' ear, but the impact almost knocked James consciousness out. He fell and his vision became blurry.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
James did not know how long he was on the ground, but he saw a faint outline fighting with the middle-aged man. Suddenly, the figure took out something that looked like a pencil and blasted it at the man's chest. The next scene shocked James.
The middle-aged man began to disintegrate to dust until he dissipated in the air. James held his breath the moment the figure approached him. He thought he was going to die at that moment, so he closed his eyes and braced for the worst.
But what he expected did not happen. A hand touched his shoulder and a face appeared in his vision. Because of the closeness, James could see the figure well. It was an outline of a very beautiful woman's face. For a moment, James was fazed by her beauty, so he forgot to speak.
The woman mumbled a word to him, but he could not discern it properly. The woman, noticing James was in a terrible state, knelt and placed something in his ear.
"Can you hear me now?" The woman's voice became clear. James nodded, but the action caused his neck to protest in pain. James winced and held his neck. "You hit your head hard on the ground, that's why you are in pain", the woman said with an Australian accent.
James tried to form words, but only air escaped from his lungs. James was horrified. What happened to him?
"Listen, James, I don't have much time. I was sent here to come to this dimension by your alternate version of you. You veered off of your timeline five days ago, so I have to take you back to Tuesday if you don't mind."
Wait, take me back to Tuesday, what does she mean? He desperately wanted to ask her, but he could not speak. The woman then fiddled with her pencil and pointed it at James. "Don't worry, it would not hurt at all. Remember, correct your actions, and don't veer off your time continuum alright?"
James wanted to ask her question, but then a blinding flash of light enveloped James vision, and James became unconscious.
He opened his eyes tiredly and scanned his surroundings. He was back in his room in Maribel's home, and his computer's screen was still on, with a terminal opened.
James then quickly searched for his phone and checked the date.
Tuesday, 10th of December, 2023, at 06:02 am.