“First thing to do is to find a jeweler, a pawn shop, or even a bank. In this era, you could find buyers at any of these places. Then we’ll go locate your guy. What was his name again?” Nautica asked.
“Ezekiel Dawn,” I said, unfolding the paper I’d had in my pocket, “He lived on Arlington Road in Akron in 2555. I’ve got the exact address here which shouldn’t be far if we were deposited in the woods down the road as planned.”
“And are you sure that our weaponized arms will pass through metal detectors without triggering them?” Mercy asked.
“Each arm contains an x-ray and a metal detector scrambler that is always on. It gives a false reading, so you’ve got nothing to worry about,” she replied, “Now, let’s find this plaza and cash in some gold.”
Nautica was holding the mapping device that she told us was used by time travelers. She was the only one who could read the thing, so we followed behind her. The device she held resembled a 21st century iPhone and it apparently told her that we needed to continue following the creek through the woods. We climbed over fallen logs and navigated around some pretty huge boulders as we did our best to keep our clothing from getting dirty.
After about ten or fifteen minutes, we exited the woods near a narrow asphalt road behind a nondescript brick structure. Nautica pocketed her device, then gestured toward the structure.
“This is the back of the plaza. One of the units will belong to a jeweler with sub-par ratings,” she said.
Mercy brushed a cobweb from my hair as we stood at the edge of the woods. A small vehicle reminiscent of an ugly yellow Fiat passed by, paying us no regard. Perhaps we truly did fit in.
“What do you mean by ratings?” Mercy asked.
“We keep a time travel log and rate our dealings with certain businesses or people. We especially keep a detailed log of jewelers, banks, and pawn shops,” she said as we started down the narrow road, “We apparently dealt with this jeweler several years ago in our time. It was really only about two years ago as far as he’d be concerned. He lowballs people and has a bad attitude according to our records.”
“Then let’s go elsewhere!” Mercy insisted.
“He also doesn’t ask questions like the banks do,” she added, “You said you wanted to work fast and get out of Ohio quickly, so we need cash with no questions.”
We followed her around the side of the building and past two dumpsters. I found myself chuckling as we passed those dumpsters, realizing that even after more than five hundred years, they’ve really never changed. We then made our way around to the front of the plaza, discovering that the strip mall really never changed either. Sure the fancy storefronts and store names were different, but there was no mistaking a shopping center. We made our way past five or six stores before she pointed toward a barred glass door that could have easily been the door to a prison cell.
“I’ll do the talking,” she whispered while Mercy and I followed her in.
It was quickly apparent that jewelry didn’t change a bit except maybe in regards to the watches. The display cases were well lit, causing the gold and diamonds to sparkle beautifully. It wasn’t long before Nautica was accosted by a young female salesperson.
“I’ve got some gold and an uncut diamond I’m looking to sell,” Nautica merely stated.
The salesperson left and returned with an elderly man who greeted Nautica with a handshake and a scowl. Mercy and I decided to peruse the curious gold rope necklaces and bracelets while Nautica took care of business.
“My grandpa had these in his sock drawer all these years and we didn’t know ‘til he died. Four gold nuggets and a pretty big diamond. I bet you can cut several two-carat gems from this clean little rock,” Nautica said.
“Can I show you anything?” the female salesperson interrupted our eavesdropping.
“No thanks,” I smiled at her, “Just browsing.”
Now I could see the man examining the diamond through a jeweler’s eyepiece. We knew that it was extremely valuable because only the choicest diamonds were used by time travelers. The jeweler knew it as well but probably wouldn’t show it.
“I could probably get a couple good gems out of this. Two-fifty for this and a hundred for the gold,” he said.
The value of a dollar would fluctuate quite a bit over the centuries, so I had no idea if those numbers were low or if they were extremely low. Nautica snatched the diamond from the man and then pocketed it. He was clearly not happy with her reaction, but maintained good control over his features.
“Two hundred for the gold and I’m not even going to discuss the diamond after that insult,” she said.
He shook his head, then slid the gold across the counter to her, “No, when I resell it, it’s worth two hundred. I’m not paying you what I’d sell it for.”
“This nugget alone is worth four hundred when hammered into a wedding band. Stop toying with me,” she argued.
“Let me see the diamond again,” he held out his hand.
She drew it out of her pocket and handed it to him. He pretended to examine it again while we waited.
“Five hundred for the diamond and a hundred-fifty for the gold,” he said.
“I can’t even-”
“And you toss in this thin rope necklace over here,” I said, pointing down into the display case.
“Really?” Mercy whispered.
The man walked over and looked down into the display case at the gold rope that had caught my eye. He seemed to think about it for a moment and then looked over at Nautica with raised eyebrows.
“We’ll take it,” Nautica said.
Five minutes later, I had a twenty-two inch necklace around my neck and Nautica had six hundred and fifty dollars in her pocket. We left the jeweler and headed down the plaza walkway while Mercy kept looking at me and laughing.
“Really, the first thing you do after traveling into the past is buy a necklace?” she asked.
“Hey, if all we were getting was a little over six hundred dollars, I wanted a little something to show for it!” I laughed, “And besides, I’ve always wanted a necklace and never got one.”
“It wasn’t six hundred and fifty dollars. The dollar was done away with back in the twenty-two hundreds. Its value was so low that the smallest unit of currency exchanged became the twenty and it was renamed the quarter-bill. Soon, the numbers were removed from the twenty and it was given the proper markings of the quarter-bill. There’s the half-bill as well, comparable to forty dollars in your time. We just traded for six hundred and fifty bills which would translate to $52,000 of your dollars. However in this day and age, that’s not a lot of money. A cheap automobile runs eight hundred bills, so we don’t even have enough to buy a cheap car.”
“So we really did get cheated?” I asked.
Nautica turned to us, “No, we’ll do just fine and that necklace you’ve got there is an imitation Giordano which would be worth a hundred bills if it weren’t a knock-off. Nevertheless, no one could tell, so we could always hock it for fifty bills if we were ever strapped.”
“No!” I placed a protective hand over it, “I really wanted it.”
Nautica smiled at me and nodded, “We won’t need to sell your necklace. I hate to ask, but are you sure you have what it takes to… you know, do whatever it is that you’re planning to do to Ezekiel?”
“You took the words right out of my mouth,” Mercy said, putting her arm around me, “For real. Are you getting soft on us?”
I turned to look at Mercy, “Mercy, I’ve always been soft. I’m not tough like you. But yeah, I can still handle the task of saving the world.”
“Good, so what’s next?” she asked.
“Well, according to your paper, Ezekiel Dawn gets arrested at his home tomorrow morning between ten and eleven. It’s after that arrest that he returns home and unleashes the virus,” Nautica said, “The virus is already somewhere on that computer right now waiting to be turned loose. You guys need to tell me what we’re doing. I’m only the l
eader of our group as it pertains to staying below the radar while we’re in the past. You two are the leaders when it comes to ensuring that the mass exodus happens.”
Three men and a woman passed us by as we walked by the windows of what might have been a grocery store. Our clothing did seem to conceal us in this era as we didn’t get anything more than a passing glance.
“Well, I don’t like the idea of standing out here and planning our attack with $52,000 in your pocket,” I said, “We need to spend money on a motel and some bus tickets to Washington DC. What can you do for us in this regard, Nautica?”
She pulled out her ‘iPhone’ and started tapping at a few things on the screen. We huddled in close, looking at a bunch of odd code and foreign computer language on the screen that apparently only Nautica could understand.
“I could send for a cab to take us to a motel where we could hide out until tomorrow morning, but then getting a cab to the bus terminal and getting us out of here tomorrow really won’t happen until tomorrow night,” she said, “Unless you want to go visit Ezekiel now while he is at his home right down the street. If we do that and nab him long before the arrest happens, we can actually catch a bus that leaves tonight at seven.”
“So… what, we just handle everything right now? We drop into the woods, cash in the gold, and immediately go kill Ezekiel?” Mercy asked, “Then we escape Akron on a bus the very same day?”
“Are we really killing him in cold blood?” I asked.
Mercy groaned audibly, “This is the guy who singlehandedly shut down the whole project to leave the planet and escape the Maelstrom. This is the guy who got so upset over his arrest for digital harassment and cyber-murder that he convinced a world that the Maelstrom was fake. This was a bully in the most extreme form. It was he who decided to murder a whole world and he did it knowingly through fraudulent information and site-hacking.”
“Listen, I know he’s horrible, but no one else here does. Heck, I’m sure his parents love him. Remember? He’s a ‘hero’ for saving the world from making a mistake and going to a hostile planet in the Cancer constellation,” I argued.
“I will do this freaking thing without you if I have to, Hunter! Do you remember those cries in the gymnasium? The woman I was hugging had a fifteen-month old at home. She had a toddler that loved her and she loved that child! That’s just one lady with a shattered heart. They’d been kidnapping these people for years! This guy is a horrible psychopath and he needs to die!” Mercy said.
I was nodding even before she was finished. I agreed completely. It was just so hard for me to keep a hold of the consequences that would certainly exist hundreds of years from now. Even at this moment, there was a black hole headed our way and I was certain of it.
“Let’s go now and get it over with. I want to sleep on a bus tonight with some Cheez-Its, Slim Jims, and root beer in the seat next to me,” I said.
“That’s my girl!” Mercy laughed.
“What are Slim Jims?” Nautica asked.
“Really? You should ask your iPhone,” Mercy said.
Nineteen
Ezekiel Dawn lived in apartment 4B of the low-income housing complex on South Arlington. He wasn’t rich and famous and actually he’d never achieve fame until hundreds of years later when the Maelstrom had gained popularity again. He was a poor man that worked as a stocking clerk at a local grocery store and he would die of a drug overdose at the age of forty-one equally as poor as he was today.
“This guy is twenty-three years old and spends all his free time on the web. Try to look hot and seductive,” Mercy said as she pounded her fist on the wooded door just below the dented ‘4B’ plate.
“How do I do that?” Nautica asked.
“Get rid of the ponytail. And smile sometimes,” I said, reaching over and tugging the band from the back of her hair, “You are pretty, you know. Take advantage of it!”
The door suddenly opened and we were faced with the same man I’d seen in that mugshot that would be taken tomorrow. He cocked an eyebrow as he looked at the three of us.
“Ezekiel Dawn?” Mercy asked, using the same seductive voice she’d used in the alleyway near the fashion show.
“Um, yeah. Who wants to know?” he asked defensively.
“Three women who are very… how would you say it?” Mercy asked, turning to me, “Needy? Do you have anything for a couple of needy women?”
“Is this a joke or something?” he asked, looking past us as though he expected someone else to show up.
“Listen, I need some help in the digital world and I don’t want anyone to be able to trace it. Someone referred me to you,” Nautica inserted, “And I’m broke, so… well, use your imagination.”
He paused as he examined all three of us. I took that moment to examine him. He probably hadn’t showered in a week and he was wearing what probably passed for pajamas in his world. He had at least two days’ worth of stubble on his chin.
“All three?” he almost seemed to sputter.
“You’ll understand the high payment when you see what I need you to do,” she said.
I was startled by Nautica’s ability to improvise. I think Mercy and I would have certainly crashed and burned had we come alone. The man before us nodded, then held open the door as though welcoming us into his lovely castle. Instead, we were presented with a living room littered with random socks flung about, a heaping clothes basket on the coffee table, and about a dozen empty bottles strewn about.
I was the last one to enter the apartment, so I shut the door behind me as he slipped past the three of us and placed a hand on Nautica’s shoulder. He scratched his head as I’m certain some bugs were biting his scalp.
“So, what is it that you actually need?” he asked.
I don’t know if it was his disgusting home or maybe it was his hand on her shoulder. Perhaps it was his agreement to take us in payment for his computer skills. I really don’t know what actually burned me the most, but something made me transform my left arm and aim that weapon at his face.
“She needs you to take your hand off her shoulder, Zeke!” I said.
“Whoa! What’s this?” he stumbled backward, almost falling to the floor as he tripped over the end table.
Mercy took a bit of pride in her dual-arm transformation just then as she approached him.
“We’re here to destroy your computer and the virus you’re planning to unleash,” Mercy said.
His eyes were so wide that I thought they’d pop out of his head like in those old-time cartoons. He was still backing away from us when his hand reached for something in the corner. I immediately unleashed a barrage of plasma rounds into his left shoulder and then into the wall behind him. That arm was instantly detached while the wall caught fire behind him. He screamed for only a moment before Mercy finished him off with three blasts into the center of his chest.
“Hunter! I was able to count on you!” Mercy approached me quickly as our target crumbled to the floor, “You were aggressive at the start and then you fired when he started to reach for something! I’ve got myself an awesome wingman!”
Her arms were actually human arms again as she patted me on the back.
“This house is on fire now. We can’t leave the computer here,” I said.
“Indeed! Let’s find the computer, destroy it, and get out!” Mercy said.
“Over here!” we heard Nautica call from somewhere inside the apartment.
We stepped past the smoking victim while the wall beside him was becoming more engulfed in flame. We made our way through the small hallway and into what appeared to be an office. Nautica held onto what probably passed for a small computer tower in this era.
“Good, let’s take it and get out of here!” Mercy commanded.
“Are you sure it’s everything?” I asked, “We can’t risk that virus ever coming out.”
“This is the computer mainframe for the entire house,” Nautica said, “There’s nothing else.”
“Ok, let’s go th
en!” I hollered.
Twenty
The three of us walked to the bus terminal which was over two miles away from Ezekiel’s home. On the way to the terminal, we stopped by a convenience store and loaded ourselves up on snacks, although now I wasn’t really hungry. Cold-blooded murder really had a way of ruining one’s appetite.
In an effort to draw attention away from us, we decided to purchase two novelty duffel bags, complete with bright beverage logos emblazoned on the sides. We needed to look like we were appropriately packed for a trip to DC. Instead, the duffel bags would actually be full of soda, chips, and other snacks. The computer tower was no longer with us as we’d taken it into the woods and hit it with an explosive round from my right arm. The blast from that explosion was loud and quite satisfying to watch. Thankfully, the only ones to take notice were all the birds in the nearby trees. Perhaps explosions were commonplace in 2555, so we drew no human attention from that blast.
According to the clock in the bus terminal, it was 4:20 when we arrived there. We purchased our tickets and were permitted to board the bus and make ourselves comfortable at 6:00. It would be an hour before it would leave the terminal, but we didn’t care. The three of us sat in an L-shaped seat near the restroom in the back.
“Something’s not quite right,” Nautica said as she continued to examine her ‘iPhone’, “Were you certain about Ezekiel’s involvement?”
“Wait, what?” I asked, situating the duffel bag between Mercy and me.
“My Mapper is updating and it doesn’t seem that a whole lot is going to change,” she said, concentrating on the device in her hand.
“Would you mind explaining what that thing is and why it’s so foreign and unreadable?” Mercy asked, scooting closer to her on the bench.
I was equally intrigued by the device and very concerned now over her question about Ezekiel. I leaned closer, hoping to get a glimpse of the device in her hand.
“Since the beginning of chrononautical technology in the late twenty-six hundreds, our chrononauts or time travelers discovered a need for current maps, weather, events, and dangers of the era. They also needed continual access to the TD, or Timeline River Delta. Basically, this device connects us to a camouflaged satellite that we put in orbit in 1905. If we travel anywhere after 1905, we have access to current maps, weather, events, and any recent natural disasters. We also can see if we’re causing changes in the Timeline River Delta,” she said, looking up at me, “And accessing the TD right now, I don’t think we did much damage. The ripples were very light and subtle.”
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