Ali and Max who sitting at the next table just quiet.
“Jess could save my life, how dare you said he can’t do the case. I bet if you were in the same situation as him I’m dead,” Kate said in a sharp voice.
Jason just stood still, shifting and didn’t dare to interrupt her.
“Stop criticize and mind of your business,” Kate said fiercely. “And if you have a problem with my face you just keep your eyes on each other,”
“Well,..Kate…relax…” Jason whispered trying to persuade her to take a seat. “Please…Kate…”
Kate glanced at Ali and Max. “And this calls the lesson for a jerk,”
Then Kate sat down breathing like a rhino. While Ali and Max just pale and rushed to walk out of the cafeteria.
Jason gradually sat down and turn to others who still looking at them. “Everything’s fine, just back to your…your meal, she…she’s fine…just hungry,” he said.
Then Jason turned to look at Kate. “Are you OK?”
Kate looked at him and nodded. “Don’t care about them, Jess. They just stupid,” she said.
“….I know….I don’t like the way they talked about others, but you took my role, Kat. I just want to argue them by myself,” Jason whispered
“Oh…sorry, Jess. I just don’t want you and they end up with fight, it’s what man does, right?”
Jason thought for a while and nodded. “Right…”
“It’s not a good thing to fight with others here,” Kate said.
Jason nodded.
Kate smiled presently. “Just say thank you,” she said and Jason just hesitated. Not sure what he had to say.
“Let’s go to work,” she said and walked to the exit door of the cafeteria while others still looked at them.
After that, they began to find information about Thomas Ivan in parallel universe B07. Here, he was a tour guide in a company that travels between universes. He would bring tourists from other universes to study and travel at B07 in groups and in private. Sometimes took tourists from B07 to travel to other universes as well, and this time he made it right because he already got a license of tour guide. Meaning that he was very skillfully and familiar with traveling by wormhole.
Jason and Kate thought that visiting him would be interesting. And now the company he worked with told them that Thomas was taking tourists from B01 to travel nearby the ACPSP building.
Jason and Kate used a non-driver car went to the Technology Monument, which was only 4-5 blocks away from their workplace.
A non-driver car passed through many important buildings in the city. It seemed that the government offices were all in the same area, made it easy for people to contact.
Jason saw a group of people standing in front of a metal monument of human hand holding a giant light bulb surrounded with garden and beautifully decorated shrubs.
Kate pointed for Jason to look at a well-dressed man in a brown suit stood in the middle of a group of people likely to be tourists from other universe. The tourists had to wear an orange bracelet on their wrists as a symbol to show they weren’t people from B07. The bracelet contained private information, visa would show which parallel universe they were from and a round-trip travel ticket.
They parked the car near the group of tourists and talk to Thomas Ivan, a fun and playful tour guide.
“The company informed me about you guys to ask me some questions. So, how may I help you?” Thomas enthusiastically said. He didn't know that the agents who came to him were suspecting he was a serial killer between parallel universes.
“Do you often travel to other parallel universes?” Jason asked.
Thomas thought for a while. “Well ... about 3-4 times a month. Depending on how many tourists. And sometimes during high season, it will be more frequent,” he replied.
“Where were you last Friday?” Jason asked continuously.
“Well ... I think I'm on the other side of this city. Took tourists from B04 to see the waterfall outside the city. Do you know our city has both modern technology and magnificent natural that stay together perfectly. The people who planned the city were environmentalists, they don't allow the city to destroy the beauty of nature, which is wonderful, unlike some cities in other parallel universes. There may civilize and full of great architectures, but I never see a tree. The funny thing is some stores try to sell electronic trees for tourists,” said Thomas enthusiastically. His eyes wide open excitedly when speaking about his city.
Jason looked at his face in detail, the information he said was interesting, but Jason was more interested in Thomas' appearance; his left ear, which was nothing wrong. No hearing aid or anything that showed it was disabled.
“Are your ears normal?” Jason asked, and Thomas pointed to his both ears, wondering.
“Yes, it's normal. I may listen to loud music sometimes, but overall, it still good. What’s wrong, officer?” Thomas replied brightly and cheerfully.
Kate pulled Jason's arm and whispered. “Not him, Jess,”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, although his voice is the same but his accent is different and the killer who attacked me didn't talk much like this,” Kate whispered.
“You know Jessie Lee, Piper Mason and Bella West, Mr. Ivan?” Kate turned to ask Thomas, who stood and watched them whispering to each other with interest.
“Well .... No, I don't want to show off but I can remember all of my tour members, but these three they never be in my group tour,” Thomas answered confidently.
“These three women disappeared several months ago. Have you heard the news?” Jason asked.
Thomas mulled over “Several months ago? I was familiar but didn't pay much attention because I was busy during the high season. Oh, I traveled to B06 too. There was very beautiful. The food was also delicious. I met my ex there as well, but she didn't know me because she is not exactly my ex, she is another she. It feels strange, right?” He said while laughing in a good mood.
Then he tried to tell Jason and Kate about the history of this city since 1,000 years ago. Kate was right, he was too talkative and the killer who kept an eye on the victim silently shouldn't be a non-stop speaker.
He wasn’t really the killer as Jason and Kate thought. They talked a little further with Thomas and he gave them a contact number along with the company's tour program brochures. He also gave them magnets, which was considered a promotion for the company.
“I like him. This was a fun conversation,” Jason said after returned to the non-driver car. “But as I thought, things shouldn't be easy Thomas here shouldn't be the killer,”
“So why he started here and continue went to other universes?” Kate asked curiously.
Jason pondered for a while. “I think he tried to frighten his victims. I mean his real target,” he said, rubbed his chin back and forth with thought.
“Real target?”
“Yes, women who have some relationship with him and they are the cause of all these things terrible. I got the theory, for now, they're probably frightened because this is supposed to be reported in the WHOLE news, right? They’ll get paranoid and afraid of going outside. Because they don't know when the killer comes to kill them. The way that the killer use seems scatter can’t predict where he’s going next,” Jason analyzed.
“So, they should ask the police for help,” Kate said.
“Yes, but they are still quiet, right? Maybe it has something to make them keep quiet like this. I think maybe they know, what they have done with him was also terrible. So that’s why I want to find a relationship between them. If we know, then we’ll know which group of women was the real target and we’ll know which Thomas Ivan, who’s exactly the killer,”
Kate nodded understanding. “I’ll try to find more information. But for now we have to investigate the six other Thomas Ivan,” she said, and Jason shrugged in agreement.
“I think I'm ready to travel to other parallel universes,” Jason said while the car was parking in front of The ACPSP building.
> Chapter 17
Jason and Kate appeared in a room that’s not like Emma's lab at all. Because it's just an empty room with a giant light bulb above them. The control panel wasn’t visible, and there was no man in charge to work with wormhole. The ceiling was transparent and could see the sky.
“Let's go, Jess,” Kate said and walked him out of that small room. They were in a crowded building and there were queues for using the room that they just came out.
Jason turned to see the white small square room they just came out and saw a few other of it. These rooms were bigger than the public toilet a little. There was a status notification light on the monitor to let the user know whether the room was for arrival or departure wormhole.
He saw the welcome board had his name and Kate appeared briefly before moving up and replaced by the name and visa number with triple X on the last three ends of someone who had just arrived.
For agent from the government like Jason and Kate could use the agent badge to represent the visa for traveling between parallel universes.
“Don't need the lab like Emma's?” Jason asked curiously.
“Well, actually no, this place call a wormhole vending machine. Like when buying a soda from a drinking vending machine. There is a registration system automatically record the name and time of the traveler. Very convenient but just the destination are not diverse because the number of the wormhole vending machine are limit.” Kate answered.
“But it’s easier than using wormhole from ACPSP of B01. Today is working day at the agency probably have a lot of agents using it, and the queue is must long. That’s why Emma has to let us came out this way instead. I think wormhole at the agency may be available in the afternoon. But don't expect too much,” Kate said while walking out of the building.
“Most people who use the wormhole vending machine are businessmen. They have to trade with other universes. Some locations of the machines are for loading products, which monthly fee, I think this is convenient.”
They walk through the crowd, most of them wore suit and necktie.
“B07 also has this kind. They are private but quite a few because of the high investment and have to approve both standard and quality every half year. If just only one item couldn’t pass, it will be closed immediately. Therefore, most wormholes at B07 are owned by government agencies. Under our building, there are wormholes for transportation and shipping for public, monthly fee and yearly fee and I heard the income is quite good,”
“We can choose the destination while in front of the kiosk or let Emma open the tail for us. But need to register with the wormhole vending machine first and give her the coordinates. Difference from traveling to a parallel universe with non-wormhole technology, right? The WHOLE system is quite strict about registering. Because of this, there are frequent illegal wormholes open for service. Some people don’t want to travel or delivery legal products,” Kate said, shook her head fiercely.
The parallel universe B01 looked more modern and hi-technology than B07. Jason saw a private car without wheels and ran above the road. He didn’t know how it floated but he only knew that the tire factories here definitely ruined. The buildings were over 200 stories tall with no windows, only the smooth and glossy white material.
They walked on the courtyard that filled with something enormous. The 16 parallel universes sculpture was constructed by metal arranged in complex, large as a three-four story building. It was like a grand plaything for children at the theme park.
“This is the learning center for children over 8 years old. When I was a child, my parents used to take me to play here. I remember that clearly because I played with this plaything almost all day, there are complicate routes, some small and some large for me to explore,” Kate said with a smile, like she was thinking about her childhood memories.
Traveling to another parallel universe would be like traveling abroad in Jason's universe.
Jason looked at the metal sculptures plaything with interested. It seemed to be fun if he played with but he was already an adult and working. “Let's go back to work...” Jason sighed, unfortunately.
Kate looked at him while smiling.
“What are you smiling?” Jason asked.
“I know you want to play with it, I can wait, Jess,” Kate said and smiled wider.
It was a millisecond that Jason had a conflict in his mind; played or worked.
“No ... No, We…we are working ... let's go,” Jason said while rushed walk out of this area.
Maybe during the weekends, he would come. The cost of traveling between parallel universes wasn’t expensive much. At the wormhole vending machine has traveling rates described in detail. It was more expensive than the low-cost airline tickets a bit but took just a minute.
Kate called a non-driver car from the government vehicle service center and only a few minutes the car has arrived for them. Jason was so excited about getting in the car that seemed to come out of the movie.
“Buckle up, Jess. The car then drives off,” Kate said and Jason immediately fastened the seatbelt.
Then, the car gradually lifted around 1 foot above the ground and moved forward to the destination that Kate had told the computer. The cars in this universe didn’t have a steering wheel for manual driving, indicating that the computer security and AI systems quite perfect.
“Thomas Ivan of this place is a rising star lawyer. He has done a lot of famous cases and has never lost even at the age of 25. I think he might have well connected,” Said Kate after reading Thomas Ivan B01’s history.
“Oh ... you may see Jason Smith who belongs here. He's also a lawyer,”
Jason Smith, who was a lawyer? Sounded interesting. Jason looked forward to talking to himself from other parallel universes for a long time.
“But I warn you, that you may don’t like him,” Kate said while rolling her eyes.
‘You may don’t like him’, what did she really mean?
“What about you, Kate?” Jason asked curiously.
Kate felt a little uncomfortable.
“Well ... I’m the secretary of the president in the silk trading company. There are rumors that I slept with my boss to get a salary increase. I don't like myself here much, but I admit that she is prettier than me. Her nose wings are smaller and her eyes are more beautiful, and her breasts are bigger. Curious that she got plastic surgery,” She answered with pain. Sometimes we in other parallel universes were not what we expected.
Jason looked at the amazing modern city with excited. There were a lot of tall and large buildings on both sides of the street with giant flower-shaped solar cell street lights.
It was truly like as Thomas Ivan at B07 had said; many cities in other parallel universes though modern but have very few natural trees.
Jason saw robots have walking around the streets among humans in the city. They looked like humans but their skin was silver, didn't wear clothes and have a strange walking posture. Most of them carry things; bags, boxes or lead dogs.
The non-driver car parked them in front of a large building. It was a building that different from the general style of buildings in this city, because instead of a tall building and using smooth and glossy white materials but it has large Roman columns resembling. Some columns were statues of people holding the building and there was a sign at the lawn 'Criminal Court'.
Jason and Kate used a large escalator in front of the building.
“Miss. Katherine,” a voice greeted when they got off the escalator. Jason felt so familiar with this voice. Then he had to quickly turn to take a look and saw himself walking to them. His clothes, his hair and his face looked clean and dignified.
“Long time no see,” said the man. While looking at Kate with affection.
“Well ... Good morning, Mr. Smith,” Kate answered.
Jason Smith from B01 seemed to surprise to see Jason. “I thought he’s dead,”
“Actually, he isn’t our Jason Smith. This is Jason Smith from another parallel universe. I
’ve begged him to help me solve the case of serial murder that’s happening in many parallel universes,” Kate introduced them to each other and she deliberately didn't mention that Jason was from parallel universe B13, because she didn’t want to tell him a long story.
“Begged him to help the case? You know what, if you ask me, I’m happy to help. As you know, I'm good at tracing the truth,” Mr. Smith said, looked at Jason considered.
“I know you are very busy, so I just don't want to bother you,” Kate said kindly.
Mr. Smith smiled and made a muffled laughed. “Come on, you know, although I have a lot of cases and a lot of money until I don't know where to spend, but I still want to help you, Katherine,” he said, reached his hand to rub Kate's arm lightly.
“Oh, thank you, Mr. Smith. Next time, you will be the first person on my list,” Kate said smiling.
Jason Smith B01 turned to Jason Smith B13. “You look like a bumpkin. Are you sure you can help?”
Although Jason wore a black suit from ACPSP that made him looked good and cool like a shapely man. But he got a little messy hair and didn't wear an expensive undercut suit like Mr. Smith. But it didn't mean he's a bumpkin.
Jason now understood why Kate warned that he might dislike Jason Smith of this universe.
“I'm sure, Mr. Smith, I can help her. Oh, have anyone told you? You look good with that cloth, the cost probably my half month salary,” Jason said irony.
Mr. Smith frowned while looking at Jason. “Your voice sounds like you're angry. That's not good for the first meet. And I think my suit would be more than half of your salary,” he said and smirked insulting.
“Better to be aware of your voice and insulting eyes first, Mr. Smith. I'm in a good mood, too good to be mess with a madman. We have to work now, glad to talk to you. You’re really handsome like me. Oh ... there’s a bird poo on your shoe,” Jason replied, pulled Kate's arm to walk to the other way.
He never thought that he could disgusted himself. Jason Smith of this universe was arrogant, show off and insulting others, and also playboy.
“The company Thomas Ivan working with told me that he has a case this morning. He usually in the coffee shop on the second floor of this building,” Kate said after left Jason Smith, the lawyer.
The Traveling Killer and Jason Smith Page 16