A tall, wiry woman of forty with hard brown eyes and thinning dark hair that she wore in a severe bun behind her head, put on her coat and black high heels and wrapped her neck in a knit cap, but before leaving the house, she looked in the mirror hanging on the wall Just to be sure her make-up was not as blotchy as usual.


    No, today it looked perfect. She left the house and checked her purse. Phone, yes, it''s here. Keys to the house too, but she felt a tingling in her head as if something wasn''t in the right place, something was missing, her epi! She returned home again, opened the drawer of the dresser in the corridor, and took out the medicine. ''I swear a shrimp is going to kill me one of these days.''


    She heard a meow from the kitchen: ''I''ll be back in a few hours. So don''t be dramatic!''


    The cat didn''t really pay attention and licked its paws. ''See you later.''


    And when she was about to open the door, the doorbell rang. She checked through the peephole and saw a tall man in a suit and long black locks, attractive for sure, with strange yellowish golden eyes, just like a cat.


    She opened the door slightly: ''Hi...''


    The man holding a large envelope in his hands smiled wide and asked: ''Are you, Ava Garcia?''


    ''Who wants to know?''


    He showed her a card, where she could read in bold WTL, Eske O Shrodinger and said: ''I''m Eske, and I would like to talk to you.'' He had an airy voice that sounded very much at ease.


    ''I''m not interested in converting to any religion you are preaching. I''m agnostic! So if you exc...''


    Eske laughed and interrupted: ''It has nothing to do with god or religion, I...''


    Ava''s turn to interrupt: ''Not interested in politics, surveys, vacuums or any other scams!''


    ''Just give me a chance to explain and...''; Eske gave two steps back when an orange cat purred around her ankles.


    ''And I don''t trust people who don''t like cats.''


    ''I''m allergic. Terribly allergic.''; Eske replied while scratching his nose.


    ''You don''t do this often, do you?''; she said while her eyes wandered on Eske from head to toe.


    ''No, I don''t, indeed.''; Eske came again closer to her and asked: ''What else?''


    ''You''re someone important, at least in your niche. You don''t weigh your words, arrogant with an explosive temper. Calculist, extremely mentalist, perhaps some sort of genius. What is it? Needs to be something logical and rational that respects rules and order. I would guess science. But something about your eyes they are misplaced while you talk with me. Even right now that I speak, something is distracting you. Sounds, like you, can hear something. What is it? Colours? No..., that doesn''t fit you. What fits you is the violent truth, patterns marching as soldiers.''


    ''Numbers.''; Eske replied, astonished. ''I hear numbers. Yes, they are very distracting sometimes. And this was very impressive.''


    ''That makes sense. Come in. We need both a cup of tea, it is cold, and I''m tired of standing in front of my door, and I don''t want neighbours to gossip about who visits me.''; she invited him into the house and went to the kitchen. When she returned, Eske sat comfortably on a chair across the table, looking at her. The cat jumped up onto the windowsill and sat there watching them.


    ''You are definitely not allergic.''; she said while pouring hot water over two teacups.


    ''Sounds more acceptable than saying I''m terribly afraid of them.''; he answered. ''Trying to keep a certain reputation.''; he chuckled.


    ''An acceptable lie for an uncomfortable truth.''; she agreed. They drank their tea silently for several minutes. Then she asked: ''How did you find me?''


    ''Ava Garcia is someone remarkable. Unique.''; he explained. ''We have been following your steps for a while. For a very long while.''


    ''What is so remarkable? I have the most boring life. I never did anything that called upon attention on myself.''; she insisted.


    ''Yes, you''ve, Ava.''; Eske responded. ''You just traced my profile in a couple of minutes and didn''t miss one detail. People who work for me usually need to do their homework before tracing any profile.''; he added after a moment. ''I came here thinking I would recruit another agent. I thought that my main engineer just overreacted because you are...''


    ''I am..., what?''


    ''He thinks you are very attractive. He hasn''t stopped inquiring about you.''; he told Ava while staring at the cat, still observing them.


    ''You don''t look like a matchmaker to me.''


    ''Because I''m not.''; Eske laughed. ''But I do want to recruit you.''; he opened the envelope and took the sheet out to place it in front of Ava.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.''What is this?''; she asked. ''Why do you think I should join you? I’m not looking to change my career path.''


    ''This is your DNA profile.''; Eske pointed to a square with bold fonts T-DNA: 0.05%: ''You have the lowest temporal footprint after mine. You are indeed unique, Ava.''


    ''What does it means?''


    ''Have you ever heard about the Mandala effect?''; asked Eske while he turned the sheet to the other side, which was blank and started to draw a circle of circles, one overlaying others being untouched.


    ''Is when people recollect things that happen in a certain way that didn''t? Is that right?''; she tried to remember.


    ''Not quite right''; Eske explained: ''Officially, it''s false collective memory. And you would ask why? Let''s take the example of Mandala, after who this theory is named, so he died in 2013. However, countless people remember him dying in prison in the 1980s.''; he continued drawing circles overlaying circles: ''Mandala did, in fact, died in 1980, and he died in 2013. Now the year that he died doesn''t matter. What matters is the phenomenon of having information flooding the wrong timeline,''


    ''I''m not sure I follow you, Mr Schrodinger.''; Ava confessed.


    ''So let me explain how it works.''; he began: ''This world is a timeline. Don''t care about in which year you are. It really doesn''t matter, now imagine two worlds colliding. It seems inoffensive. What wrongs could it be a mix of events or data? Right? Until, instead of two, we talk about three, four and so on. And when you realise you have a bomb dropped over your roof that doesn''t belong to your timeline.''


    ''If that is true, why is it my first time hearing about this?''


    ''Because there is no version of you anywhere or anywhen else. You are immune to the Mandala effect. People usually think that a low footprint is some sort of a gift or, I don''t know, a superpower. Makes us special. It makes us unique but also fragile.''; he stopped and stared at the cat watching him. ''Your DNA signature, your fingerprint shows me that you are like one of us. When you die, that''s it. There is no second chance. No deja vu or this weird feeling you have saw it before. No strange dream of a life that makes no sense. This is it. We break. There is no way to fix us back.''; he finished his sentence by placing the pen on top of the sheet.


    ''No heaven for me?''; she sighed. ''I''m in peace with death.''


    ''In 262 days, this timeline will be erased, or my timeline and many others like us will be affected.''


    ''What about the other 7 billion? Everyone will eventually die with the erasing of the timeline.''; she replied.


    ''I''m not worried about them. They''ll wake up as themselves in another timeline. As long they are above 1%, they are saved. But you aren''t.''; Eske said while turning the page and showing her T-DNA percentage again.


    ''What''s the price?''; she asked without hesitation. ''What''s the catch of eternal salvation?''


    ''Eternal salvation?''; Eske chuckled, crossing his arms: ''That is a first, huh? There is none. Housing, food, healthcare, energy, transportation, job... whatever you can think of, we can guarantee that to you.''


    ''What''s the catch?''; she insisted: ''Nothing in this life is free.''


    ''We do have strict rules, not gonna lie about that. But so far, everyone seems okay with them, and everyone works really, really hard to keep our timeline intact from others.''


    ''How?''


    ''I can''t tell.''


    ''Why?''


    ''Because the answer is less believable than a pretty lie.''; he brushed his hair above his head: ''Would you like me to lie?''


    ''No. I don''t. But this is a lot of information to take in. And although I can''t find any trace in your face that you are lying or making these things up. I here thinking why someone like you needs to save someone like me.''; she said while taking another sip of her tea.


    ''Because we don''t leave our people behind.''; he replied. ''Our goal is to preserve life. To prevent those below 1% from vanishing into nothing, to disappear without a trace.''


    ''I see''; she nodded and said, '' Okay, I need to think about it.''


    ''To think?''; Eske repeated.


    ''About the offer.''; she clarified: ''There is no hurry. I mean, I won''t die tomorrow anyway.''; she said, smiling and placing the teacup down.


    Now talking in #TGTCTT


    Evil_Kitty ([email protected]</a>@rth) has joined #TGTCTT


    <Evil_Kitty> How did it go? When is she jumping? <@Iknowaguy> I don’t have the details yet


    <Evil_Kitty> Did I miss something?


    <@Iknowaguy> She needs to think.


    <Evil_Kitty> There is nothing to think! I have her accesses ready! Her house is ready! Did you told her? Marie Sue even prepared a welcome party at the gates!


    <@Iknowaguy> Yes…


    <Evil_Kitty> She will change her mind. She is very intelligent. She wouldn’t just refuse.


    <@Iknowaguy> I will check tomorrow


    <Evil_Kitty> I trust you


    <@Iknowaguy> I will check tomorrow


    Evil_Kitty ([email protected]</a>@rth) Quit ("")