“What!” Sandra cried out.
Bear sprang wide awake at Sandra’s shriek.
Part III
At One Time or Another
89: Unknown
It was cold. It was damp. It was dark. It was smelly. These were the first sensations that registered in Dani’s perplexed mind.
“Daric?” Dani whispered, anxiously waiting for the curtain of blackness to lift, but it only regressed to variant shades of grey. Their first jump through time, it took a few minutes for their new surrounding to come into focus. This was different: it must be dusk.
“What’s that awful smell?” Daric moaned, sitting on the hard damp surface.
“You mean what smells like dead fish, sour milk, rotten cabbage and horse manure?” If Daric’s first thought was to complain, then Dani knew he was all right, even though she couldn’t clearly see him under the veil of darkness.
“That would be it,” Daric agreed. “Are you okay?” He searched for Dani’s hand, just to reassure himself that she was, in fact, all right.
“I’m fine. You?”
“I’m good.” He looked at their surroundings, as best he could, through the haze blanking the area. He finally spotted a silhouette off in the distance. Although its shape differed slightly from what he remembered, two distinct features were very familiar. “Well, I’ll be,” he muttered.
“What?”
“It would seem that we’ve arrived in London, England,” Daric said confidently.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Look off to your right and tell me what you see.”
Through the late evening sky Dani saw the outline of a structure. Even though it was still under construction and wouldn’t be finished for a few more years, the two massive square piers sunk into the river bed were unmistakably the foundations of the Tower Bridge. Dani looked across the peninsula, created by the meandering Thames River, and found another familiar shape off in the distance. It was Big Ben, and it was right where she thought it would be.
“So, I guess the next question is: why here? why London?” Dani pondered aloud.
“And in what time period?” Daric added.
“I wish this was home,” Dani said unhappily. “I’m wondering if we’ll ever get back.”
Daric had never heard his sister sound so despondent before. It’s wasn’t like her to abandon hope so easily. Dani always looked at the glass as being half-full. Something wasn’t right. He had no idea when they’d get home, but he knew their dad would stop at nothing until they were.
“Dani, remember you said time travels at different speeds? For all we know, it could be a matter of only hours since our disappearance,” Daric said encouragingly.
“Or it could be a matter of months or even years. How are we supposed to know?”
“I refuse to believe that and so should you. Dad’s a genius. He’ll figure this out. We just have to be patient . . . and try to fit in here as best we can, until that happens.”
“And try not to alter history, as we know it,” Dani muttered.
“As for right now, I don’t know about you, but I’d like to get as far away from the river and its horrid stench as possible. Then, we can figure out the current date and try to blend into whatever time period this is,” Daric suggested.
“Agreed, but let’s stay in the shadows for now, until we can figure this out. We don’t want to draw any unwanted attention our way.”
90: Present Day
Quinn had tossed and turned most of the night. His feeling of guilt for his children’s predicament was weighing heavily on his troubled mind.
After Hermes had interrupted them for a second time that night, and realizing sleep was eluding him, Quinn decided he might as well get up and go back to the lab. The sooner he got started, the sooner Dani and Daric would be safely back home. The only problem was he wasn’t quite sure where to start.
With a flashlight in hand, Quinn walked across the dew-covered lawn, between the scattered pine trees and out toward the gazebo. Bear accompanied him, eagerly wagging her tail, while chasing the bouncing flashlight beam out in front.
The lake was like a mirror in the still of the early morning. Quinn could see the faint crimson-orange glow on the eastern horizon, a prelude to the rising sun. The weather forecast promised another beautiful spring day that he knew he would see little of.
Quinn could hear a faint call of a lone loon echoing around the corner of the peninsula. A nest had been built into the rocky shoreline there. He smiled when he thought of Sandra’s overprotectiveness of the nest and of the pair of loons. She had posted signs warning boaters not to cause too much wake, which could disturb or possibly destroy the nest. There were only a few mating pairs in the area and she hoped their numbers would increase over the next few years.
Sandra always loved the call of the loon, especially at dusk. She said the haunting sound, echoing across the lake, took her to another world, a mystical one where she could lie in the gentle embrace of tranquillity and escape the pressures of her hectic day.
Quinn reached the gazebo and punched in his entry code. He followed Bear inside and quickly made his way to the rear panel. Flipping up the cover plate, he inserted his USB key to gain access to the lab’s lower level. Nothing happened. The access panel light remained red.
“That’s strange,” Quinn muttered. He removed the key, inserted it a second time, and got the same results.
Quinn tapped his wrist comm and within a millisecond Hermes responded, “Yes, Professor.”
Bear heard that strange voice again. She looked around for the intruder, but found nothing.
“Hermes, the access door won’t open. Override the code and let me in. Then, I want you to run a diagnostic to find out why it wouldn’t accept my key,” Quinn instructed.
“On it, Professor,” Hermes replied, just as the access panel light flashed green. A faint click immediately followed. Part of the floor and the adjacent wall pulled apart, exposing the hidden staircase. Bear vanished through the opening in search of the phantom intruder.
Quinn descended and moved directly to his command center.
91
Richard Barak Case couldn’t stop that horrific sound that he heard yesterday from resonating in his head. It had haunted his every waking moment. He knew there was only one thing he could do about it. He had to go back to the Delaney estate and find the cause of Quinn’s anguished wail.
Richard got into his car, a titanium-silver Abruzzi, one of only eighty-one ever built. It looked like a modern version of the Batmobile. The Abruzzi, however, was more than a technological masterpiece; it was a new chapter in automotive production, linked to the world’s most demanding car race: Le Mans.
The hand-built Abruzzi Spirit of Le Mans was a unique, front-engine, rear-transaxle and rear-radiator super sports car that delivered six-hundred-plus horsepower. The advanced design and aerodynamics offered astounding down-force for road handling.
Its performance wasn’t the only feature that set the Abruzzi apart from other exotic cars. Its ground-breaking environmental design and construction of its body system offered advantages that no other automobile body system on the planet could match. The multi-layer composite system was lighter than and just as strong as carbon fiber; in addition, however, it was also dent-resistant, shatter-proof and recyclable. These advancements opened up a brand new era of automotive design.
Richard had to admit he liked his expensive toys which included a fleet of exotic cars, a flotilla of luxury yachts in a range of shapes and sizes, and a couple of private jets. As a narcissistic billionaire, he enjoyed flaunting his wealth in front of others less fortunate.
Richard headed for the Delaneys’, normally a forty-five minute drive from his house, but he was in a hurry and easily reduced his travel time by fifteen minutes. He pulled off the highway and followed
the long, winding, tree-canopied dirt road. He turned into the driveway and parked beside Daric’s silver Panoz AIV Roadster. The Roadster’s presence meant that Daric must be home from university.
Richard admired Daric’s car, but it wasn’t practical for him. It did, however, make him wish he was twenty years younger and a little more free-spirited to be comfortable behind the wheel. The Aluminum-Intensive Vehicle (AIV) Roadster was designed purely for fun. The three-hundred-five horsepower, quad-cam aluminum Ford SVT V-8 engine could go from zero to sixty in under five seconds.
Richard got out of the Abruzzi. He scanned the yard, paying particular attention to the peninsula, as he made his way to the front door and rang the doorbell. He waited only a few moments before the door swung open.
“Richard, what a pleasant surprise. What are you doing here?” Sandra asked nervously, but politely. This was the last thing she needed right now: company.
“You mentioned a few weeks ago when I saw you in town, that Dani and Daric would be home during their spring break. So, I wanted to pop by to say hi. I haven’t seen them since Thanksgiving. I hope this isn’t an inconvenient time,” Richard said, with a dashing smile. Frankly, he didn’t really care whether it was inconvenient. He needed to know what had Quinn so rattled, and his visit with Dani and Daric was the perfect excuse. Besides, he always enjoyed being in Sandra’s company. Quinn was so lucky, he thought enviously. She was almost his once.
“Uh . . . um . . . well, Richard, you just missed them. They aren’t here right now,” Sandra sputtered nervously. “I wish you had called first before coming out all this way. It would have saved you the trip and the time.”
Sandra hated to lie; it went against the very fiber of her being. But she quickly reassured herself that it wasn’t really a lie; it just wasn’t the whole truth because Dani and Daric weren’t actually home at the moment.
“Oh, I thought they would be. I noticed Daric’s car in the driveway. Will they be back soon? I could come in and wait a while,” Richard suggested, as he prepared to enter the house.
“I don’t know when they’ll be back, Richard,” Sandra blurted, quickly stepping through the doorway, effectively blocking Richard’s advance. “I’d hate for you to ruin such a beautiful day waiting around here. Why don’t I call you when they return and we’ll set a time for you to come back for a visit? You could join us for a family dinner.”
“That sounds great, Sandra. Thanks. I’d like to catch up with them, find out how their classes are going,” Richard replied agreeably. But he wasn’t finished yet.
Sandra looked physically relieved by Richard’s response. But, before she could usher him to his car, he added, “Now that I think about it, you’re right. I’d hate to waste my trip out here. So, why don’t I see how Quinn’s doing? Is he around? I haven’t seen or heard from him since he went on leave from the university.”
92
“Richard, I really don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Sandra insisted, panic hovering on the edge of her voice.
“Why not?” Richard asked stubbornly.
“Well,” she started, “it’s just not a good time.” She couldn’t come up with a plausible reason at the moment.
“Nonsense. If Quinn knew I was here, he’d want to see me. I won’t stay long,” Richard assured her. Without waiting for Sandra’s objection, he pressed further. “Is he out there?” Richard asked, pointing at the gazebo in the distance.
Sandra nodded, defeated. Knowing Richard’s insistent determination and her inability to come up with a good excuse, she accepted that this was a battle she just couldn’t win.
“Great.” Richard smiled triumphantly, then turned and started his trek to the peninsula, hoping to finally get some answers.
Richard thought how strangely Sandra was behaving. He looked back over his shoulder once, then resumed his journey. He had never seen her so nervous or flustered. She was always so confident, polished and professional. As Head of Emergency Services at Mount Albert Hospital, nothing ever fazed Sandra. Something was definitely out of sync here.
Sandra watched Richard walk away. “Damn,” she muttered. She turned and entered the house, making her way to the kitchen. She had to warn Quinn.
She pressed the intercom button. “Quinn?”
“Yes, Sandra, what is it? I’m kind of busy right now.” Quinn tried very hard to keep the annoyance out of his voice.
“Well, you’re about to become busier. You have company coming,” she said, equally annoyed.
“What?” Quinn panicked. “I can’t have company out here, not now.”
“It’s Richard, and you know how insistent he can be,” Sandra stated. “Quinn, I couldn’t talk him out of it. I’m sorry.”
“I know, honey. It’s all right. Thanks for the heads-up,” Quinn said, signing off. “Hermes, it’s cover-up time. We have an uninvited guest arriving in a few minutes,” Quinn grumbled.
“As you wish, Professor,” Hermes replied, already having begun the transformation of the upper level into a working laboratory, starting with remotely activating the console, projector and three-dimensional screen.
There’s that strange voice again. Bear looked around and again saw nothing. Determined to find its source, she began sniffing out every nook and cranny.
“Wait, Professor . . . it’s Dani. Her body temperature is alarmingly high.”
“How high?” Quinn asked anxiously.
“It has just reached one-hundred-two degrees.”
“Damn,” Quinn uttered. He was helpless to do anything for his daughter and he was nowhere near being able to bring his children home. He could only pray that Daric could take care of her.
“Hermes, let me know immediately if anything changes,” Quinn directed.
93: Monday, August 27, 1888
“Mom?” Dani murmured softly.
“No, it’s me.”
“Dad?”
“No, Dani. It’s Daric,” he replied, worried. Dani had been getting worse by the hour.
Earlier, Dani had found a few dirty pages from a discarded newspaper, The Star. The stained and crumpled pages showed a date of Thursday, August 23, 1888.
As soon as they had seen the date, Dani and Daric realized their attire wasn’t appropriate for the time period. Dani’s evening dress, which she had been wearing on their last night aboard the cruise ship, was especially inappropriate.
Partly because their attire wasn’t in keeping for the period, they’d been hiding in the shadows for four days, now. It had been raining almost steadily since their arrival and the evenings were unseasonably cold. They hadn’t seen even a ray of sunlight. And they weren’t sure they ever would through the soot and fog that continued to blanket the region.
Daric had slept by day while Dani had kept watch. Daric, in his business suit, was able to mingle in the crowds without drawing attention to himself. As a result, he had ventured out at night, moving between the shadows of the lampposts as he hunted throughout the neighborhoods hoping to find some food and clothing. One night, he had almost been caught trying to steal fruit from a street vendor, but he had slipped away, empty handed, unfortunately. Another night, however, he had found some dirty rags in one backyard he had hoped no one would miss. He had doubted they would considering their state. Dani and Daric could at least throw them around each other for a little extra warmth at night.
“Is it dinner time yet? I’m hungry.” Dani sounded like a small, pathetic child, reminding Daric of the story of Oliver Twist. Her voice was so weak.
Boy, I could go for a bacon double cheeseburger with a side order of fries, right now, Daric thought.
“No, Dani, we’ve already eaten dinner, remember?” Daric lied, hoping to take her mind off her empty stomach. They hadn’t eaten a thing for four days. Their last meal had been the dinner they had had on the cruise ship before arriving here.
&nb
sp; “Oh.” Dani sighed sadly. She was struggling to sit up, but Daric gently eased her back down.
“Hey, why don’t you wait here and rest? I’ll go get you a snack,” Daric said encouragingly, trying to keep his worry from creeping into his voice.
“Okay.” Dani put her head back down on the pile of filthy rags she was using for a pillow. She soon drifted off to sleep again.
Daric gently spread his jacket over her. He reached down and placed his wrist against her forehead. “Not good,” he muttered.
Daric quickly disappeared into the night, determined to have some success this time. He was sure, with a little food in her, Dani would be able to fight off this bug.
94
As Daric prowled the streets, he thought back to an earlier conversation he had had with Dani.
“My knife, it’s gone!” Daric stated with astonishment.
“Well, maybe it’s because Amelia hasn’t been born yet; therefore, she couldn’t possibly have given it to you. Or, it could be that the Swiss Army knife hasn’t been invented yet. You pick,” Dani quipped.
“You’re too funny. Amelia gave you that dress. Why hasn’t it vanished?” Daric retorted.
“The only thing I can figure is that fabric has been around for thousands of years; therefore, it existed in this time period, even if styles have changed somewhat over time,” Dani rationalized.
Daric was missing the quick wit of his sister. He had hoped he could have pawned his knife so they could buy some supplies. He had even tried to get a bit of work over the past few days, but he had received only distrustful glares. Now, he was forced to resort to stealing, again. This time, he had to succeed.
Dani had complained a few days ago about being cold. She had said she didn’t think she’d ever feel dry and warm again. Yesterday, she suggested they use their travel bands to get out of this ‘hell-hole’, as she put it. That should have been my first clue that something was wrong, Daric thought in retrospect. He had told her they should stick it out because there were no guarantees that where they ended up next would be any better than this dismal place.
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