The Disunited States of America (Crosstime Traffic)

About this book

Time travel doesnt work. You cant go backward or forward; youre stuck at "now". What you can do is travel sideways to the same "now" in another timeline where history turned out differently. So far only our home timeline has figured out how to do that. We use it to conduct discreet trading operations in less advanced timelines selling goods just a little bit better than the locals can make. Its profitable but families who work as Time Traders have to be careful to fit in lest the locals become suspicious. Justins family are Time Traders. The summer before hes due to start college he goes with them to a different Virginia in a timeline where the American states never became a single country and American history has consisted of a series of small wars. Despite his unease he accompanies Randolph Brooks another Time Trader on a visit to the tiny upland town of Elizabeth Virginia. Hell only be away from his parents for a few days. Beckie Royer thanks her stars that shes from California the most prosperous and advanced country in North America. But just now shes in Virginia with her grandmother who wants to revisit the tiny mountain town where she grew up. The only interesting thing there is a boy named Justin--and hell be gone soon. Then war between Virginia and Ohio breaks out anew. Ohio sets a tailored virus loose on Virginia. Virginia swiftly imposes a quarantine trapping Beckie and Justin and Randolph Brooks in Elizabeth. Even Crosstime Traffic cant help. All the three of them can do is watch as plague and violence take over the town. Its nothing new in history not in this timeline or any other. Its part of the human condition. And just now this part of the human condition sucks.