Minuteman

[WP] You can jump a few minutes back in time. This makes you an excellent bodyguard. However, you’ve tried to save your current employer 63 times to no avail.

*****

Staring at the body of my client lying down in his pool of blood, I felt angry.

Maybe the first five to ten times he died, I felt nauseous, disappointed, or amused - after all, I could just perform another chrono-leap. But this was the 63rd time, and the outcome had not changed

My client was dead, the assassin was gone, and my perfect record - 125 clients, no failures was broken.

Putting on my glasses, I tapped my forehead, frowning deeply to myself.

I'll get it right this time.

*****

Jason Cross is my name.

I've walked the earth for 26 years, and I've spent 16 of those years knowing that I have a strange ability. One which, if I was ever found, government agencies would hunt me down and kidnap me and hurl me to some facility in Area 57.

Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration. Maybe. What remains is that I was different for this ability.

I could jump a few minutes back in time just by tapping my forehead and concentrating my thoughts and energy to that time.

Of course, there were limitations to this ability.

• First of all, I could only jump a maximum duration of 10 minutes into the past. Trying to do more at a go caused me a massive migraine and nosebleeds for hours when I was 12, so I knew this.

• I could perform that jump as many times as I could, but it greatly sapped my physical energy. Jumping ten minutes into the past just ten times in quick succession made me feel like I had run a marathon, and my record was 20 Jumps in quick succession. But, if I had five-minute intervals, I could easily do ninety a day.

And now I was at attempt 64. Yikes.

After I graduated from college, I created my Escort agency with about twenty employees. It was using the leftover funds from my scholarships that I saved.

Being one had always fascinated me since I'd watched a lot of movies. My parents were somewhat supportive, but they had no idea I'd succeed.

I, on the other hand, was a hundred percent positive of my success.

My ability allowed me to take all the required preparations, and still have a second chance (or more,) in case of an unforeseen event.

What was most convenient was the fact that I was the only one who knew about time traveling. No one else noticed anything.

Out of 125 clients in my career, I only had to resort to my ability for ten cases. That should show you how good I was at my job, how much I valued it, how hard I worked, how much effort I put.

Until James Harden was bundled into my office.

Convicted of organized crime and manslaughter, he was given a life sentence that could have been reduced to thirty years - eligible for parole after fifteen years behind bars - if he could testify against Garrick Everett, alias Big G, who was the leader of their syndicate.

Everett had been arrested during a raid, and while there wasn't a lot of evidence to keep him behind bars for life, Harden's testimony was going to be the nail to his coffin.

Interpol had too many eyes on them. Everett had connections, and there were a lot of parties that would be waiting for Interpol every step of the way, having already mastered their protocols. They needed something unorthodox, off the grid, and yet trusted.

They chose me.

And here I was, failing them.

Some assassin was out to get Harden, and his attempts had been successful for the last 63 times. 63 tines I had lived the same scene, no matter the positions, routes, or methods I changed. It would always end in him driving or walking past our car and shooting at Harden as soon as he alighted the vehicle.

Except now.

Now I knew what the game was.

*****

The drive was long, as it had been all the times before. I made ten jumps into the past, a total of 1 hour, 40.minutes before the assassination was to take place. I had taken all the possible outcomes into place, worked out what went wrong from the other attempts, and then I knew my next course of action.

At exactly 2:42 PM, the door opened and a bodyguard stepped out, ensuring the coast was clear.

That Bodyguard had been me the last 63 times. He was wearing the same clothes I had been wearing, and I was sure the assassin would think it was me.

Then Harden stepped out, and from my vantage hiding point in that alleyway, I saw the assassin slowly pull up, raising his gun.

But I was faster, gunning shooting histories and launching him straight into the air. Harden and the bodyguards scurried into the building while I came out of my hiding place, shooting the assassin in his shoulders as I saw him raising his hands to his head.

My theory was accurate.

"You, you are can use Chrono-leaps," I said as I reached him.

"What the hell is that you f*cking nerd?' he replied between pain-choked groans

"You remain aware of the time shifts, don't you? That's how you keep on changing strategies the same way I do when I go back in time. Because you can go back in time too, so you know what to do, huh?"

"Damn, I knew someone in that car was a time traveler. You were in the car all this while, why did you..."

"Because I noticed. Only someone aware of my time traveling activities could be able to execute that kill 63 times over. But that's where you got it wrong. I went farther back this time, and since you weren't directly involved in those events, you didn't know that I came here an hour early and waited for you."

He looked back at my face.

"I'll mark this face, next time I'm coming for..."

I could see his hands begin to fade. He was trying to perform another chrono-leap.

Pointing at his head, I fired one shot, watching the blood splatter all over the asphalt roads. The fading was reversed, and his body lay cold

There would be no 'next time.

*****

Took me a while to finish this.

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