A Girl Outta Time
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"HUD on," Jules Taylor whispered softly as she withdrew her weapon from its holster. The implants in her brain activated to produce a heads up display before her eyes. The HUD wasn't actually there, of course, but was only in her brain: none of her partners in crime could see it. She whispered, "Infrared."
"We good?" an older man asked from nearby. She studied the infrared signatures of the security team members guarding the prize, then nodded to her boss. The man activated the mike on his helmet and ordered, "Move in. Remember: feel free to kill'em all, but don't shoot the device. We don't get paid if it's got a hole in it."
With military precision, they approached, breached, and took the building. From the first explosions that took the three doors off their hinges to the last gunshot that dropped a guard to the ground, less than 25 seconds had passed.
"Check in!" the team leader called over his radio. Each of the invaders reported clear, after which the man reached out to Jules with a simple, "Jay?"
Jules checked her HUD, found no guards moving, and reported back, "We're clear!"
Then, her HUD went crazy with energy alerts that didn't immediately make sense to her. Then, too late, she realized the problem. She hollered, "It's on! It's activated! The son of a bitch activa--"
Jules's next conscious thought was of laying flat at her back, looking up at a clear blue sky. A 737 MAX passed low overhead, roaring as it approached the runway which was less than a mile away. Jules's eyes widened with shock. Such aircraft had been built in the earliest years of the century and hadn't filled the sky since maybe the 2080s.
She struggled to her feet, disoriented. Looking around, her eyes widened even further with shock as she began to accept the unacceptable. She recognized some landmarks from the distant past but couldn't find any of the newer structures that should have been accompanying the older ones on the cityscape.
She spun at a sound behind her, reaching for her sidearm only to find her holster empty. She looked about for her weapon but, not finding it, looked to the man who was emerging from the woods on the walking trail she'd awoken on. She looked him over, noting the period clothing he wore.
"Where am I?" she asked. Then, not realizing how stupid it might sound, she asked, "What's the date?"