Praetorian Series [3] A Hunter and His Legion by Edward Crichton Page B

of a better term – synced up almost perfectly.  Our mother had bought me a puppy for my tenth birthday, although in this new timeline I hadn’t named him Argos in reference to Odysseus’ dog, but Rex instead.  How fucking original.  Other similarities included my dad and I still not getting along, I’d never once had a cavity, I went to the same schools, and my first sexual encounter was still with little Suzie Lu from across the street when we were sixteen.
    How this Artie had known about that last point, I didn’t know, but I decided I didn’t want to know anyway.
    But there were other minor differences as well.  The kid who’d beaten me up in seventh grade was named Jason in this new timeline, instead of Billy.  My college girlfriend’s name had not been Shannon – no word on her level of bitchiness, however – and my roommate freshman year at Dartmouth had been named Dan instead of Casey, but from what Artie 2.0 had said, was basically the same guy.  There were other small differences as well, but interestingly, nothing specific about the Jacob from her timeline had changed either.  Artie said I seemed like pretty much the same Jacob Hunter she’d grown up with.
    I’d tried asking other questions concerning the world they’d left, but even Artie had been pretty tight lipped.  Cuyler had seemed interested to learn of sports called Football and Basketball, and had indicated that the only sport played in the United States was Baseball, if only to keep troop morale up and little else, but I’d learnt little else from them.
    Later that first night after they’d arrived, Helena had let me in on a few secrets she’d discovered on her own.  Apparently, the idea of a sports bra was non-existent to Georgia Brewster and Patricia Martin, and they’d been extremely impressed with Helena’s wide array of under garments.  I’d had no idea how a conversation about underwear even got started amongst women, but I had been less interested in the content of the conversation as I had in the context.  In terms of world history, sports bras were a very recent invention, and it was still another interesting difference.
    My musings were interrupted when Santino’s chin slipped off his hand and his palm slapped loudly against his pants, silencing all conversations around me.  All that was left were the sounds of rustling leaves, the chirping of birds, and the passing of people in the park around us.  I half expected Santino to cover his embarrassment by starting things off, but it was Artie who spoke up first.
    I groaned , remembering she wasn’t one for awkward silences either.
    “ I suppose it’s time for answers then, isn’t it?”  She asked simply.
    “You invited us here for exactly that,” I shot back.
    She placed her hands in her lap before continuing.  “Well, where should I start?”
    “ How about at the beginning,” I said.
    She gave me a stern look and moved her arms to cross them against her chest.  “Why don’t you start at the beginning?  It begins with you after all.  Fill in what your journal missed.”
    I opened my mouth to raise my voice at her, but Helena stepped on my toes and answered far more politely for me.
    “Our story begins with our mission to capture a biolo gical arms dealer and scientist named Mushin Abdullah,” she answered, giving me an angry, sidelong look.  “He was a terrorist who worked for the Russians before going rogue and attacking the Vatican and Jerusalem.  When intelligence networks finally pinpointed his position in Syria, we were tasked with retrieving or eliminating him.”
    Helena didn’t pause in her explanation, but I noticed Artie exchange a worried look with Archer , while Stryker and Brewster shared a rare glance.  Anything that got those two to trade almost compassionate expressions had to be something important.
    “ There, we found a blue orb that transported us to Ancient Rome,” she continued, simply enough.  “There’s no sense