Countdown 2 Hours: Susan
---
Susan pushed open the door and walked in carrying two bags of groceries, just like any mother returning from a late-night trip.
"Marcus, you're still here?" Her voice was warm, but it carried a different weight now.
Jessica was at the door before she could take off her shoes.
"Mom."
Susan paused. "Honey, why are you still up?"
"I need to talk to you."
Susan set down her bags. She didn't look at all like a criminal mastermind. She looked like an ordinary mother.
"What is it?"
"I know."
Susan didn't react.
Jessica took a breath. "I know you're the leader."
A long silence filled the room.
Then Susan took off her coat, hung it on the rack, and sat down at the dining table.
If she was flustered, she hid it flawlessly.
"So you found out."
"I did."
Another silence.
"Are you going to call the police?"
"I am the police," I cut in. "Or I will be. Ten years from now."
Susan's gaze shifted to me. She studied me like she was reading something.
"Marcus, is it? You look just like the boy in the photo."
"I am the boy in the photo."
She laughed. "You haven't changed."
"And you haven't repented."
She raised an eyebrow. "Repented for what?"
"The Gift. The organization. The three men you sent. The wind chime on the kitchen counter. The earrings on your bedside table."
"Ah."
She didn't flinch. She didn't flinch at all.
"You've figured out my message."
"Your message?"
She crossed her arms.
"Jessica, I know I haven't been the best mother. And what I'm about to say will sound like a terrible excuse.
"But everything I've done, I've done for your father.
"The Gift wasn't meant to kill him. It was meant to save him. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer five years ago—something the organization found a cure for.
"I didn't want him to die. He was the most brilliant man I'd ever met. He showed me the Gate, and he showed me a world that most people can't even dream of.
"The organization was the only way to keep him alive.
"Without them, he'd be dead five years ago."
Jessica stared at her.
"And Victor Zhou's time-travel was all part of your plan, wasn't it?"
I nodded.
"Damn right it was. The day he finished the Gate calculations, the higher-ups decided he was expendable. I organized his 'escape,' the three men, the break-in, the interrogation—everything.
"The whole thing was a setup. I needed him to trust me, to tell me everything, and then to bring me the last piece of the puzzle.
"But he found out my identity and went off the grid.
"And now he's here, doing what he said he'd do."
Susan turned to me.
"Which means he's going to jump off a building tomorrow morning and die.
"And I'm going to let him. Because I have no choice.
"The organization wants the Gate, and they're using Victor Zhou to get it.
"But Victor Zhou won't give them the final parameters.
"So of course, they'll go after Jessica.
"That's where you come in. You can't stop me from getting the Gate.
"But you can protect Jessica."
I interrupted her. "That's exactly what I'm here to do."
"Good." Susan smiled. "Because the three men are coming back tomorrow morning.
"And this time, they won't leave until they've gotten what they want.
"If you can protect Jessica until I leave with the drive, I'll make sure they retreat permanently.
"I still have enough authority to do that."
I didn't believe her.
But I didn't need to. Because I'd already planted the weapon I needed.
While Susan was talking, I'd moved behind her.
I had Victor Zhou's kitchen knife in my hand, pressed against her throat.
"Call off the three men."
Susan didn't even blink.
"I can do that."
"Then why didn't you?"
"Because I need them as leverage.
"If I withdraw the men, the organization sends someone else. Someone we don't know. Someone we can't predict.
"The three men I sent are loyal to me. If I pull them, I can't guarantee the next team won't be worse.
"At least this way, there's a floor.
"At least my people won't actually kill Jessica."
My hand hovered over the blade. I could end this right now.
"You'd bet your daughter's life on that?"
"I'd bet everything on that.
"Because I'm her mother."
She looked at me, steady and composed.
"I want my daughter to live. I want her to be happy.
"And right now, the best way to achieve both is to let the organization think they've won.
"If they have the drive, I can pull the men out and keep Jessica safe."
"How do I know you won't just take the drive and run?"
Susan closed her eyes.
"What kind of mother do you think I am?"
I pressed the knife closer. "The kind who tortures her daughter's boyfriend in front of her."
Susan's face shifted—the first sign of genuine emotion.
"That was necessary."
"Nothing that involves a knife to my shoulder was necessary."
"They wouldn't have hurt Jessica."
"They broke into your house!"
"The door was unlocked. I made sure of that."
I stared at her.
"You set this whole thing up?"
"Every last bit. And it worked—almost."
"You're insane."
"I'm practical. The organization needs the Gate. My husband has the parameters. The easiest way to get them is through his daughter.
"But I'm not going to let my daughter get hurt.
"The three men were under strict orders: no lethal force, no permanent damage. Break bones if you have to, but nothing worse.
"The knife wounds were real—they were supposed to make Marcus talk. But he didn't know anything.
"And Jessica... the bedroom scene was staged.
"They dragged her into the bedroom, and they waited until she screamed.
"When she screamed, it was because she was scared, not because she was being hurt.
"I needed that scream to push Victor Zhou over the edge—to make him desperate enough to give up the parameters willingly."
I was stunned.
The entire break-in had been choreographed.
Every move, every sound, every wound—all calculated.
She'd leveraged her own daughter's suffering to manipulate her husband.
"You're a monster."
Susan's expression hardened.
"I'm a mother. And I'm doing what I have to do."
She didn't flinch. She didn't apologize. She just sat there, cool and collected.
"Your daughter almost died."
"Almost. But not quite. And now her father will give me what I need, and she'll be safe."
I looked at her in the lamplight.
And I understood.
Susan wasn't going to harm Jessica—not directly.
But she was perfectly willing to put Jessica in harm's way if it advanced her goals.
The house, the three men, the knives—I was supposed to bleed, and Jessica was supposed to scream, and Victor Zhou was supposed to break.
All to get the parameters.
I lowered the knife.
Not because I trusted her.
But because killing her wouldn't help.
If I killed the leader, the organization would send someone else. Someone we didn't know. Someone we couldn't predict.
At least Susan, for all her madness, still loved Jessica in her own twisted way.
"You have until morning," I said.
Susan nodded.
"I'll call off the men."
She stood up from the table.
"Take care of Jessica, Marcus. She's a good girl."
Then she walked into the bedroom.
She closed the door behind her, and for the first time, I saw her shoulders shake.
She was crying.
---
An hour later, Susan came out of the bedroom. She was wearing the earrings—small silver crescent moons—and she'd packed a small overnight bag.
"I'm going to meet the three men."
She went to Victor Zhou's side. He was lying on the couch, barely breathing, but he was still alive.
She bent over and kissed him on the cheek.
"I'm sorry."
Then she looked at me.
"Your drive's in the study. On the top shelf, behind the math journals."
"How do you know about the drive?"
"Because I'm the one who told him to hide it there."
She was always one step ahead.
I went to the study, and sure enough, hidden on the top shelf behind a stack of old math journals, was the USB drive that Victor Zhou had made for me.
But when I thought about it, that wasn't surprising.
Susan had orchestrated everything. She knew every move Victor Zhou made because she'd planned them.
Every move except one.
His suicide.
She hadn't counted on that.
Because of all the people in this story, Victor Zhou was the only one who'd chosen to die for love—real love.
Susan had used love as a weapon.
Victor Zhou had weaponized it against her.
In the end, he was smarter than her.
He'd calculated that his death would protect Jessica far more effectively than any parameters ever could.
Because as long as his death looked like a suicide, the organization couldn't touch her.
And if I was still here, the three men wouldn't either.
Susan picked up her bag and walked out the door.
She paused on the threshold.
"Marcus?"
"Yes?"
"When you go back to your time... will you remember all of this?"
"I will."
"Then tell the world what Victor Zhou did. Tell them he died to save his family.
"Tell them he was a hero."
She walked out.
The door closed.
And what followed was the longest hour of my life.
Countdown 2 Hours: The Dead Can Be Reborn, But You Are No Longer You
---
"Jessica, what else are you hiding?"
She didn't answer. Her head was down, lips pressed together. But she wasn't nervously fidgeting like before—her fingers weren't lacing and unlacing. Her hands were balled into fists, clearly battling something inside.
"Jessica, how much are you keeping from me?"
Still silence.
I stared at her. "You didn't come back from 2017—I know that. But you're also not the Jessica I knew."
"I am."
"The Jessica I knew blushed at the slightest touch, wore a five-dollar bracelet forever, and cried her eyes out when I sprained my ankle playing basketball. You're too calm."
"Too calm?" She gave a bitter laugh. "What good would panicking do? Can you even protect me?"
I'd never seen Jessica this angry.
"My father's dead. I went along with you, attacked a police car, got in a crash, got kidnapped, had a gun pointed at me over and over! What was I supposed to do?"
If I still saw her as my girlfriend, my first reaction would have been heartbreak. But ten years had passed. To me, she was someone from the past—the softest part of my heart.
And precisely because of that, once I started suspecting her, I became hypersensitive.
I couldn't let that soft spot be clouded.
"Every time something happened, you always knew what to do." I could only voice my terrible conclusion. "You're eighteen, and within minutes of your father's death, you made a decision to work with me... That wasn't from love, trust, or courage."
"Then what was it?"
"A plan." I said. "A plan you'd made in advance."
Her anger vanished, replaced by an eerie calm. She pushed her disheveled hair back. Her face was gaunt, bloodstained, but still beautiful.
A faint smile touched her lips. "How'd you figure it out?"
"When you asked that question, I knew."
---
Damian's last words:
"Yes, I let you kill me on purpose."
"I was already dying. 1,043 time-travels—my 2017 body had only a few days left."
"You've killed someone now. Next time, you won't hold back."
"The rest is up to you."
"Still don't understand?"
"I've time-traveled 1,043 times."
"You only participated in two. The second time, you met him."
"Everything was his design! To make you trust him, and then—to kill me!"
"Because as long as I'm around, he'll always be pursued, never able to continue researching new parameters!"
"Still don't get it?"
"I destroyed the parameters, but nothing happened."
"That's right—how could nothing happen? The parameters were destroyed, Victor Zhou is dead—I should have woken up in 2017."
"Still don't understand?"
"Either he deceived you back then and what I destroyed was fake... or the parameters were real, but... he already had new ones."
"Either way, it means..."
"Victor Zhou isn't dead."
"I've time-traveled 1,043 times. He's never time-traveled even once, but he was always one step ahead of me."