by Dale Mayer
Dani strode determinedly over to the front door. They could do this. So what if she didn’t know how to use the elevator tube thingy? There had to be stairs. Even in her century, every place had two exits. Stairs made sense. Charmin sat at the door waiting for her.
“Good.” She scooped him up and held him firmly. “Let’s go.”
“Door open,” Charmin said. Only the door didn’t open. Dani reached out and put her hand on the door. Nothing. “Open door.”
Still nothing. “It’s not coded to our voices.”
“Damn. Now what?”
“We stay here?” he said hopefully.
“Nope.” She turned to stare at the wall and the huge computer screen in front of her. “It means you need to add our voices or use an override system.”
“Oh great.” He puffed up his chest. “As if that is a two-second job.”
She smiled. “It would be for Milo.”
He spun to glare at her. “That’s not fair. I don’t know the system, and he does.”
With a laugh, she said, “True enough. So how about five minutes?”
But he was already busy on the comp. He spun around triumphantly. “Done.”
She hugged him tightly as the door opened. She stepped through, hoping she’d done the right thing. The tube surrounded her instantly. Like how did that work? “Johan’s place.”
And they took off. “Shit,” she said against Charmin’s furry head. “I will never get used to this.”
He snuggled closer. “It’s cool. But a little freaky.”
“A lot freaky.” And as suddenly as the tube started, it stopped…and disappeared. Looking around carefully, she realized they were alone. Good. She led the way, with a couple of wrong turns, over to the rooftop garden. From there, she could see the whole city ahead of her. She was getting slightly more used to the scene now. It didn’t scare her as badly. But it would be much more comfortable if Levi were with her. Just the thought of being left without Levi terrified her. So not going there.
She turned in the direction of Johan’s and tried to figure out how to make her way onto his patio. Charmin jumped free from her arms and raced ahead. What was easy for a cat, however…was not as easy for her. But she made it over the cement looking barrier and dropped safely on the other side. With only one scraped knee, she managed to walk across the patio to the large doors. She didn’t know how to get in. Steel-looking shutters hid the glass. There were no handles. No levers. No locks. No windows. The place appeared to have locked like a bunker under the ground. She wasn’t going to be able to do this.
“Charmin, we’re in trouble.”
“Ya think?” He trotted along the side of the house as far as they could go until there was no side to be on. The wall dropped away to the vast city below. “That’s definitely not the way.” He turned, retraced his steps, and went around the other side. Following behind, she realized that led nowhere either. “So where are the fire escape doors?”
At Charmin’s odd look, she explained, “The second exit in case of fire so that the inhabitants can get out safely.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Well, I have.”
“Not in the building codes of this time.”
“Well, I doubt that they’ve managed to do away with fire, so there must be a way in or out – especially in these fancy places.”
“They’d port in and out. It’s fast and efficient.”
She stared at him. “You know, that’s a damn good idea. I’d have a port in my house, too. Actually, I’m pretty sure Levi mentioned that. So why can’t they port out?”
“It won’t be coded for them.”
“Ah, that tagging thing again.”
She backed up several steps to get a better look at the building. Tall peaks and round domes, it looked like part of a duct system from her time. Then maybe a lot of that were actually ducts for the rest of the building. She bit her lip. Could they get in that way? Or better yet, could Levi and Milo get out that way?
“I don’t like the look on your face.”
She shrugged. “I was just wondering if we could get in there via the ducts or pipes.” She waved at the odd structures. “Whatever they are.”
“Not a good idea. We could end up anywhere.”
“True.” She turned to look back at the spot the entrance should have been. “What about us porting in?”
“Not coded for us,” he repeated patiently.
“Then how about the vents again…” she studied him. “Maybe you could get in.”
He looked at her askance. “What? Why am I the guinea pig?”
“Because you’re small, you can get into places I can’t.”
“I told you to lay off the bread and cheese,” he murmured with a sideways look.
“Did not.” She glared at him.
“Did too.” He moved over slightly as if out of kicking range.
“Yeah, you’d better move,” she said in a temper. She considered his innuendo. “Am I getting fat?”
“Oh brother.” He plunked his butt down with an exaggerated sigh. “In truth, you could use some flesh on your bones.”
“Not going to happen.” What a stupid conversation. And with a cat, no less. “And it doesn’t change the fact that you can get into places that I can’t.”
“Agreed, but that also means that Levi and Milo can’t follow me back out as they are as big as you.”
“Bigger.”
And boy, did he give her a look. She loved him dearly, but since he’d learned to talk…she turned her back on him. “True that they can’t follow you back out, but you could bring them something that will allow them to break out again.”
“It’s not a prison, and I can’t carry a crowbar. Remember – I’m a cat.”
“Glad you remember that.” Still, he was right about being limited in what he could carry. “It would have to be something small to fit your back.”
“Like a donkey?” His horrified tone made her laugh.
“Exactly – like an ass.” Still giggling, she wondered out loud, “What they could possibly use in there that they wouldn’t have taken in the first place?”
“Milo’s new personal stealth port.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a port he can take anywhere that is coded for him. So he can move in and out anywhere he wants to.”
“Why wouldn’t he take it with him yet?”
“Because there was no need for it. And it’s not in testing stage yet.”
“It might be a great time to hit that stage.” She couldn’t think of anything better. “It would be a hot product.”
“There are some on the market, but not as transportable as this one.” Charmin scratched behind his ear. “The portable model is ready, but he’s working to interact stealth technology with it. Another military application that will make them a ton of money.”
She could just imagine. It sounded ideal for military use, but she’d hate for everyone to get their hands on something like that. No one would ever be safe. “Do you know where it is?”
“Sure. In the kitchen. He’s got it on his bug doohickey.”
It took her a moment to translate what that meant, but she remembered Milo’s unusual little computer. “Wouldn’t he have that on him already?’
“You’d think so, but he left it on the kitchen counter.” He walked over to a spot in the sun and sprawled down sideways. “Not going to do anyone any good anyways. I can’t carry it in.”
“But if you could – do you think you could take it to them?”
At that, he slumped to the side and laid out flat. “Of course. But I’m not going back down to get it.”
She glared at him. “Well, I’m not being separated from you. The chances of losing you are too great.” She bent, scooped him up into her arms, and stormed back the way they came. Thankfully, the door to the apartment was still open. Maybe that wasn’t a good thing considering other strangers. She walked straight to the kitchen and turned in a slo
w circle looking for the item. “Charmin, where is it?”
He reached up, batted her cheek to get her attention, and then pointed to the counter back against the wall. It blended in perfectly. She picked it up and studied it. “It’s small. You could carry it if we can figure out a way to fix it onto your back.”
“True. That’s not going to be easy.”
“We need something to tie around you to hold it in place. It doesn’t need to stay in place for long.”
“A harness would be better than something that ties.”
“Ha. It’s going to have to be something of a compromise, as I don’t know how to make anything here and don’t have any tools like a needle and thread so…” and her mind started racing. “Elastic would work.”
“Like they have those here.”
Dani glanced down at her own clothing. “True.” And then she remembered. “But I have old clothing.” She raced into Levi’s bedroom, but her old clothes were no longer there. Right, the pod room. There in a corner, she found her pile of clothes that she’d been wearing when she arrived in this time. And in that pile…was her bra. The new clothes had one built in. She studied the bra, wondering if there was a way to make it work without cutting it up, but there wasn’t as far as she could see. She ran back to the kitchen where Charmin and the small gadget sat. She opened the bread cupboard and pulled out a knife and went to work.
Ten minutes later, she was racing back up to Johan’s place.
“I look ridiculous,” Charmin snapped, trying to twist inside his quickly tied harness – one bra cup around his belly with the new device nestled inside.
“You look great.” She lowered him down on the patio. “In fact, it’s very stylish.”
“Ha, you’re just saying that so I’ll do this.”
“No, you need to do this to help Milo and Levi.”
“I know that.” He took several awkward steps, his tail flicking in sharp movements. “But you could have made it so I didn’t look fat.”
*
Levi had already searched Johan’s premises twice looking for a way out. A different control server, something that would allow them to escape. Time was running out. They were going to have visitors soon. And if anyone found him and his brother here, they’d soon find Dani and Charmin. Not good.
He paced behind Milo and bit back the words threatening to tumble free at any moment. Milo had already snapped at him several times.
Levi had searched through Johan’s communication center and had been shocked. Something that was hard to do.
He and Milo liked to keep things secret. But this…this was scary stuff. Johan had dirt. Like major dirt on a lot of people. He’d been horrified when he’d found the file that had his name on it, with damn near everything including every girl he’d partied with on the list. Milo’s information had been more detailed in that it had a specific set of inventions he’d created and was in the process of creating. That’s what scared him. How had Johan known? He pointed the file out to Milo, who went very, very quiet. Next thing Levi knew, the information was streaming at an incredible speed. “I presume you’re copying all this.”
Milo nodded and held up his comp. “It’s downloading on this. We don’t have time to sort through it all right now.”
“Have you found a way through to shut down the system?”
“The system is not on here.”
Levi sat back and thought about that. “I wonder if Johan knew.”
“I don’t think he did. This system could have gone into lockdown any time they wanted.”
“So why didn’t they do it before he booked it?”
And then he understood. “They missed it. There’d been no warning. But when he returned looking for whatever it was, he tripped a warning system.”
“Maybe, or maybe his death tripped it like we suspected all along. It could also have been set off by the attacker. Once he knew Johan was dying or that we were here, he could have set it off remotely. For all we know, that was only stage one. There are likely to be several other levels of defense to come.”
“Or it could be that’s all there is. After all, we’d be left here to die of starvation.”
“Not likely. It would take too long.”
They stared at each other.
“We need to get out of here.”
As the words left Levi’s mouth, they heard an unidentified sound.
“Shit,” Milo said, his fingers moving faster. “I need just a little more time. And why the hell didn’t I bring my comp?”
“You do have it.” Levi snuck over to the doorway. He set up the same disguise that Johan had originally. Instantly, the same boring spare bedroom shone and damn…he stared in shock…there was no sign of Milo. He quickly reverted the program and Milo appeared again.
Deep in concentration, he wasn’t affected by the change. He switched it on once more and Milo disappeared again.
Cool.
Now if only he could manage to do the same.
A long scraping sound came from somewhere overhead. “What the…” he whispered. “It must be a rodent.”
Milo’s voice came through in an eerie whisper. “We don’t have rodents.”
“Then what is it?” Levi studied the ceiling.
A crack appeared – and not one as part of the bedroom camouflage, but there nonetheless. And seconds later, Charmin poked his head through.
“About time I found you.”
Chapter 8
Dani waited impatiently outside of Johan’s place, hating the fear rippling down her body. She hated being alone. She never used to have a problem with it, but now she was in a strange world where so many things could go wrong. And some of the worst ones were running through her mind right now. Please let Charmin be safe. Please let him find the brothers.
She blew a strand of hair out of her face, and with her hands on her hips, she slowly counted to twenty. When she hit twenty, she continued to sixty.
“Okay, he should have reached them by now.” And if he had – then what? According to Charmin, Milo would be able to port them into their own home from there. What about Charmin? Was he coming back out here or was he going back home with the brothers? And what was she supposed to do? Go back to the apartment or wait here? Damn it. Why hadn’t she gone over those details with Charmin?
She shifted her weight from one side to the other and looked around nervously. What if someone else came while she was here waiting? And damn if she didn’t hear a sound behind her. She dashed around the side and hid.
The air tensed as odd noises crackled.
Hearing sounds but not being able to see was bad. Her mind conjured up horrible scenarios of all bad things gone wrong. Her breath caught in her chest. She flattened herself against the wall, eyes closed…and something brushed against her legs.
She screamed and danced in place.
“Ouch. Knock it off, will you? Someone is going to hear.”
Charmin. She snatched him up and clutched him into her arms. “Charmin,” she cried. “You scared me to death.”
“Ha, you scared me with your screams,” he complained and head butted her.
“I’m so glad to see you.” She buried her face in his fur, trying to get her pounding heart to calm down, then she remembered why he’d gone in. She lifted him higher so she could see his face. “Did you make it in?”
“What about me? Are you glad to see me, too?” Levi’s warm, caring voice reached her. She lifted her head, saw Levi standing in front of her, and dashed into his arms. They closed securely around her. She shuddered, then realized that Charmin was squirming in the middle of the hug. She let him down before standing up to wrap both arms around Levi. Slightly behind him, she could see Milo grinning like a crazy man. Hell, they were all crazy.
“I was so scared,” she whispered.
“I wasn’t feeling all that good myself.” He dropped kisses down her temple and along her cheek. “Thank you for sending Charmin in with Milo’s bug comp – a brilliant idea, by th
e way.” He squeezed her slightly. “As you can see, it worked.”
Tears burning her eyes, she tilted her head back. “I’m so glad.” She glanced around, realized they were still on the roof, and said, “Can we go home now?”
“Yes, absolutely.”
Keeping an arm securely around her shoulders, he led her back around to the tiny rooftop garden and back to the main elevator. Once inside, she breathed a sigh of relief. She held up one shaking hand and laughed. “I hadn’t realized how scared I really was.”
“To be expected.” He squeezed her shoulder gently. “I can’t believe that you actually did that.”
“Ha. Thank Charmin for that.”
“He delivered the comp, but you put it together so that he could.”
She smiled and straightened slightly under his admiration. “Glad it worked. I don’t know what I would have done if it hadn’t.”
“We’d have gotten out somehow,” he reassured her.
She wasn’t so sure but hey, she was willing to believe anything at this point. Everything was good. Well, almost good. “What about Johan?”
He flinched. “I don’t know. It’s hard to explain to the cops how we found him and not explain how we got out.”
“True. Even if you could explain Charmin, you wouldn’t want to explain the new port system Milo is developing.”
He smiled. The elevator vanished, and they walked to the apartment. “Maybe you could show me how to close this door and open it from the outside,” she said. “While we did several trips in and out, we had to leave it open.”
“Hmmm. The door was closed when we arrived, so presumably it closed automatically after the time lapse control was triggered.”
That made sense. As much as anything here did. Stepping inside, she watched as Levi secured the door behind her, then she opened her arms and collapsed against him. She hugged him tight. “Please, don’t leave like that again.”
He cuddled her close. “I’m not planning on it.” He dropped a kiss on her forehead. “I think you need to sit down and relax.”
“I’m thinking a nap in the healing pod might be a better idea. I’m seriously wiped out. Still not accustomed to the time here.”