Chapter 11: A Wildcard

Time: 2048
Location: Berlin, Global Innovation Center – Core Room

The transmitter fizzled in Helena’s hands as she severed the last connection. A faint hiss of energy escaped, dissolving into the hum of the ChronoNet core beneath them. Theo stood rigid, his thoughts racing.

"This wasn’t just a surveillance tool," Helena muttered, her voice tight with frustration. "It was designed to manipulate the core itself."

Theo clenched his jaw. "Whoever planted it, they’ve been using our system to send signals—signals we never authorized."

"Meaning," Kalen added with a sly grin, "you might be cleaning up messes you don’t even know you caused."

Theo shot him a sharp look. "What are you getting at?"

Kalen’s eyes sparkled with mischief. "Ever think you’re caught in a feedback loop? You send a signal, someone intercepts it, changes the timeline... and now you’re stuck cleaning up their mess over and over again."

Helena frowned. "That’s impossible. We’d see temporal loops in the diagnostics."

Kalen arched a brow. "Would you?"

Theo’s pulse quickened. "You think... we’ve been resetting the same events without realizing it?"

"Maybe." Kalen shrugged. "Or maybe this is just another start of the loop."

Theo’s skin prickled with unease. How would they know if they were caught in a loop? Time wasn’t just shifting—it was curling back on itself, wrapping them tighter with every step forward.

15:22 since transmitter shutdown.

Theo leaned over the core’s interface, pulling up logs from the past hour. Each sequence flickered in and out of existence—data that shouldn’t exist side by side, overlapping moments that suggested multiple versions of the same event were happening simultaneously.

Helena swore under her breath. "We’ve been running through this same sequence. I’m seeing redundant event markers—failures we already corrected, showing up again."

Theo’s heart sank. "We’ve done this before."

"Yup," Kalen said casually, popping the ‘p.’ "And unless you break the loop, you’ll keep doing it."

Theo’s mind reeled. He had always thought time travel would mean straightforward adjustments—fix the past, control the future. But this wasn’t control. This was being stuck in an endless loop of unintended consequences.

Core Warning: Temporal Loop Probability: 87%.

"How do we stop it?" Theo whispered, more to himself than anyone else.

Helena leaned back, rubbing her temples. "To break a loop, we’d need to introduce a catalyst—something unpredictable. Something the timeline hasn’t accounted for."

Theo turned to her sharply. "Like what?"

Helena hesitated. "A signal... one with no predefined outcome. A wildcard."

Kalen grinned, clearly delighted by the idea. "Now you’re thinking. But be warned—wildcards are dangerous. They don’t just fix things. They tear everything apart."

Theo exhaled slowly, his mind racing. They couldn’t afford to keep running in circles. They needed a way out—fast.

"We’re sending a wildcard," Theo said decisively. "We have to disrupt the pattern."

Helena glanced at him, her expression conflicted. "You’re sure about this? There’s no way to predict what’ll happen."

Theo’s gaze didn’t waver. "We can’t stay here. If we do, the loop keeps tightening until there’s no way out."

00:03:27 until signal deployment.

Helena keyed in the coordinates—a point in time no one had touched before. Somewhere insignificant, outside the web of critical events: April 9, 1969. Berlin. The perfect point for an unpredictable signal to take root.

"Coordinates locked," Helena confirmed, her fingers steady on the controls. "Once we send this, there’s no undoing it."

"Good," Theo said, standing straight. "That’s exactly what we need."

Signal Deployment: Active.

The core glowed brilliantly, energy crackling through the room as the wildcard signal surged into the timestream. Theo watched as the diagnostic display flickered wildly, the timeline shuddering under the weight of the new disruption.

"Hold steady," Helena whispered, her eyes glued to the screen. "This could go either way."

The air grew dense, as though time itself was holding its breath. Then, without warning, the diagnostic display stabilized. The loops vanished, one by one, dissolving into smooth, unbroken sequences.

Theo’s heart pounded. It worked.

But the relief was short-lived.

System Alert: Temporal Collision Detected.

Theo’s stomach dropped as a new alert flashed across the screen. "What now?"

Helena’s hands moved in a blur over the console. "Something... something’s pushing back against the signal. We’ve triggered another anomaly."

Kalen grinned, clearly enjoying the chaos. "Told you. Wildcards have consequences."

The screen lit up with another message: New Signal Detected – Origin: Unknown.

Theo’s breath hitched. An unknown signal? From where?

Helena’s face paled. "It’s not from the past... or the future. It’s from right now."

Kalen let out a low whistle. "Looks like you’ve got company."

Theo’s gaze locked onto the console as a live feed opened on the display.

A figure appeared—flickering and indistinct, but unmistakably watching them from the other side of the temporal barrier.

Live Feed Active.

Theo leaned closer, his heart hammering in his chest. The figure sharpened gradually, revealing the same man from Havana—the briefcase still in hand, his expression calm. But this time, he wasn’t alone.

Standing beside him was another version of Theo.

Helena gasped. "That’s... impossible."

Theo’s blood ran cold. How could there be two of him—existing simultaneously?

The man with the briefcase smiled faintly, his gaze steady. He raised his hand slowly and pressed it against the glass separating their realities. Theo could almost feel the weight of his presence, as though the barrier between them was paper-thin.

"Looks like we’ve been here before, haven’t we?" the other Theo said softly, his voice distorted but familiar.

Kalen chuckled darkly. "Ah, timelines. They love their little games."