It's Day Three of the Howloween Blog Hop!

It's day 3 of the Howloween Blog Hop. Thanks to all who have been participating!

The answer to yesterday's excerpt was The Tub, and I want to congratulate my Saturday winners:

Ebook - spamscape
Amazon gift card - JYL22075
Starbucks gift card - BLHmistress

There's just two days left to put your guess in! Remember,  you could win even with the wrong answers! All you have to do is comment, and be sure to leave your email address. All excepts listed here are also on my website.

Now, on to today's excerpt.
***
A woman she didn’t know ripped open a sterile packet and handed her the cloth. She knew what it was for without having to be told. She quickly wiped the demon blood from the front of her jumpsuit, ignoring the stain that would permanently mark it, then tossed the rag into the container marked with the little nuclear waste symbol.

“Would you like something to drink?” a man asked. She knew him, but his name eluded her at the moment.

“Yeah. Please. Thanks.”

“Take a seat,” Dirrin ordered her. Not asked, ordered. She knew that serious tone all to well, although she had been lucky in the past not to have been on the receiving end of it. Looked like her luck had run out. She took the one deliberately left unoccupied chair in the room.

The man quickly got to the heart of the matter. “What do you know of the BENT project?”

“Just the name. I don’t know what it means, or what it entails.”

The man who had inquired about something to drink stepped forward to hand her a pouch. She thanked him and drank. It was real spring water, fresh and sweet. Not the re-filtered stuff. They waited for her to finish before continuing. When they did, it was the water man who took the lead.

“It’s the acronym for Biological Entity Neuron Transmitter.”

His name popped up in her head. Nickkels. Still, it didn’t mean anything to her. The scientists kept to themselves within their own little enclave at the far end of the second circle. She gave him a blank stare.

“Think time travel,” Nickkels added.

“All right. I’m thinking time travel. Which way? Forwards or backwards?”

There were eight people in the room. With a wave of the director’s arm, that number filed down to four: her, Nickkels, Dirrin, and the woman scientist who had handed her the sterile wipe.

“This is Phoebe,” Nickkels introduced.

“Assistant?”

The woman smiled. “Co-creator.” Although the smile had been genuine, there was a trace of bitterness behind it. Apparently a lot of people must take her for Nickkels’ assistant.

Crossing her legs, she rested her arms on the arms of the chair and tried to look relaxed. “Forwards or backwards?” she repeated.

Phoebe replied. “Back.”

“How far?”

“If we can manage, forty-seven years ago,” Dirrin answered.

“And you’re telling me this because...” She already had a lump of ice freezing the inside of her stomach. It was beginning to chill her blood, numbing her senses as it deadened her nerve endings. They had called her in to tell her about this project that few had heard of, and which practically no one ever spoke of, because it was supposed to be all hush-hush. Which told her BENT was marked in the upper echelons as Top Top Secret. Or higher. Was there such a thing as Top Top Top Secret?

Regardless, she knew what was coming. In a way, the wait was almost worse than stalking demons.

“We’ve come to the point where we either go ahead with the project, or shut it down,” Nickkels admitted. “BENT was created to send a human back through time.”

“Back forty-seven years?” She looked over at the woman scientist. “Forty-seven years ago was when Lambruchet imploded and its demons took over the planet.”

Phoebe nodded. “We know. That’s why we want to send someone back to try and warn the corporation before that happens.”

“Warn it? Or stop it?”

Phoebe’s face hardened. “Either. Whatever you can manage.”

“Me?” Stunned, she looked around, but the same determined look was on everyone’s face. At the last possible second, she had realized the truth. But hearing the words come from their mouths still surprised her. “You...you want me to change the past so that this future doesn’t happen? Is that what you’re saying you want me to do? Is it even possible?”

“We’re hoping it is,” Dirrin said.

She sat up straighter. The coldness had seeped into her face, making her skin feel like an immobile mask reflecting her rising fear. “And I’m the lucky person who got tapped to go back?”     
“Yeah,” Nickkels responded with a half-hearted smile. “Tag, you’re it. Congratulations.”