The Horse Soldier: Beginnings Series Book 10

by Jacqueline Druga

“Did they?” Dean asked. “You don’t have any trips logged.”

  “See.” Jason leaned over Dean’s shoulder. “The computer history that tells of the trips is a manual history. That is what I put in. This . . .” Jason picked up a stack. “This history just shows the usage of power in the Regressionator. See.” Jason pointed to the date in the log book. “Time trip, but if you look on the power history, you have a power usage.”

  Dean nodded and flipped a page. “Wait. Right here is the March 6th time trip.” He moved to the log book. “The power history shows a power usage on March 4th. But you have nothing logged.”

  “That’s because I didn’t make a time trip on March 4th.”

  “But the power usage says it happened,” Henry said.

  “No.” Jason shook his head. “The history showed a power usage consistent with a time trip. We also get the same reading whenever there is a storm and we lose power momentarily. You can see in the history how often we have power usages and how often they don’t coincide with a trip.”

  Henry checked it out. “I have to see if there was a storm March 4th. We keep track of the weather history.”

  “There wasn’t,” Jason interjected. “I already checked. My opinion. Someone came in here and used the Regressionator. This same someone warned George and we got set up. I originally made the machine user friendly in the event something happened to me. Instructions were handwritten so anyone, even Josephine, could come up here and take a trip. Unfortunately I did not password protect until I discovered this particular incident and now the password is obsolete. Safeguard is there.”

  “Did this suspicion play into your safeguard design?” Henry asked.

  “Oh most definitely,” Jason answered. “I didn’t want to dismantle it completely, but I didn’t want us to abuse time travel.” Jason shrugged. “So with this person in mind, I decided just to make the process, as you know, extremely difficult. A crew would have to man the time machine and so forth in the present. Before, one person could come in here, set up the machine, go and come back without notice.”

  Henry nodded in understanding. “Now, if they go back in time . . . one, you can’t do it alone, and two, if you go back in time and spend an hour there, you’re missing here for an hour as well. Wise move. But why didn’t you bring this particular suspicion to Joe’s attention?”

  “Why would I?” Jason answered. “There isn’t any proof someone used the machine. The only proof there is, is this, the power usage. But how good of proof is that when we get the same reading every time the lights go out?” Jason shrugged. “Not very and going to Joe is bringing accusations against someone, anyone in the community. I don’t like to accuse. I just figured it wouldn’t be long before Joe started questioning the presence of someone else working for George.”

  Dean teetered between listening to Jason and reading. “Wait. What is this. There are biweekly trips here. Logged.” Dean read from the power history, to the manual history, to the log. “It says on all of these, ‘J’ and ‘J’ Camel run. What is that?”

  Jason snickered. “I kind of took the time machine for a little spin for cigarettes.”

  Henry gasped, “How abusive. Oh my God! Wait . . . wait until I tell Joe.” He gasped again and looked at the log. “Jason?”

  “Yes?” Jason replied.

  “It states here the inclusions on your trip.” Henry kept his eyes on the log.

  “Yes, Henry,” Jason explained. “It tells what the trip was and the inclusions are what we took through the machine.”

  “I understand what inclusions meant but . . .” Henry read. “It states. “Money, bikes, history disk, letter?”

  “Oh.” Jason nodded. “Yes.” He closed his eyes. “Blackmail.”

  Both Dean and Henry looked at him. “Blackmail.”

  “Yes and don’t tell Joe. He doesn’t know. Andrea busted the time trips. She was smart enough to figure out that we just kept having too many packs of Camel filters. Knowing that Joe would just blow her off and I would be a tad frightened, she blackmailed me.” Jason snickered. “It actually is kind of funny. All she wanted was to mail a letter to Jake, her husband. I thought it was nice. A little note saying that she loved him. No more. That’s all. She put nothing in it that she was from the future.”

  “So you read it?” Dean asked.

  “Them,” Jason corrected.

  “More than one time?” Dean questioned again.

  “Twice and no I didn’t read them. It was Andrea. She is one of the most honest women I know. I trust her. Why would she lie?”

  Upon Jason’s answer Henry and Dean looked at each other.

  After reviewing until they couldn’t review anymore, Henry and Dean left Jason’s lab, together.

  “Dean? What do you think?” Henry asked as they headed to Dean’s Jeep.

  “What do you mean?”

  “About all that Jason said.”

  “Hard to say. On one hand, he handed us everything. He was open and volunteered any information we wanted.”

  “Like he had nothing to hide.”

  “Exactly.” Dean climbed into the Jeep and waited for Henry. “But . . . on the other hand, he could have done that and just lied really well.”

  “You mean about the letters? That’s what is sticking to me. The letters. That could have actually been a means of informing the Society of our actions,” Henry said.

  “Could have been. And he could have used Andrea as a cover up story.”

  “But . . .” Henry paused to think as they started to drive. “But if he had to cover up for the letters, why list them as inclusions at all. We’d be none the wiser.”

  “Valid point.”

  “It’s so hard to tell, Dean. He could be lying but why pick Andrea of all people, right? Andrea. I mean, don’t you think his picking Andrea is a little ironic considering she is our number one suspect right now.”

  “Too ironic, but there is one thing that stops me from believing him fully.”

  “What is that?” Henry asked.

  “It was something Jason said. Did you pick up on it? I did.”

  “And it was?”

  “When he was explaining why he didn’t come to Joe with his proof. He said, ‘I just figured it wouldn’t be long before Joe started questioning the presence of someone else working for George.’ Someone else, Henry. He used the words ‘someone else’.”

  “As in more than one.”

  “Exactly.” Dean nodded as he drove. “And what bothers me is how is Jason supposed to know there is someone else working for George, when as far as we know, like everyone else in the community, he doesn’t even know about John Matoose.”

  Henry let out a slow breath, then stared forward in silent thought as they drove.

  ^^^^

  Danny Hoi didn’t know what made him start thinking about the old singing duo of Sonny and Cher. He guessed perhaps it had to do with Cindy and Marv. Cindy was so tall and Marv was so little. But Danny found himself singing old songs that he hated whenever he used to hear them.

  In the cryo -lab tunnels, he finished reprogramming a new code into the main door. Since he gave Johnny his code for access to get into to feed the rabbits, Danny felt better having his own. That way Danny, and himself alone, could be pegged for being in there when that code as used.

  He buzzed himself in and flicked on the lights. He smelt a little of that foul smell that Henry always bitched about but he ignored it. Science fascinated him and so did those huge rabbits Dean harbored in his lab. Waving to them, Danny stepped to the cage as five out of six pounced against the metal that held them in.

  “Wanna get out?” Danny snickered and brought his finger closer to the cage in a swirling point. “Ha, ha, you can’t,” he tormented the furry beasts. Quickly he pulled back his finger and jumped when he heard the snarl and saw the rabbit reach it’s pink nose and wide mouth between the cage and snap for his finger. “Holy shit.” Then Danny laughed again. He stared to the back and stopped, looking at the last r
abbit who did nothing but lay there and stare. “Bored with your life?.” He asked it and took a closer look. “Oh.” Danny shrugged. “Dead. I’ll have to tell Dean.” Makin a courtesy notation in his notes, he moved to the back lab. The private lab. Danny loved going there. It was, to him, so sci -fi. He always expected legendary Vincent Price to leap from around the bed and scare the hell out of him then drop him in a vat of wax.

  Laughing at his own horror classic thoughts, Danny punched in his code and walked into the secret lab. He moved to the case and pulled it from the wall. He turned on his neat little pen flashlight and placed it in his mouth as he squatted behind the freezer case. “Temperature normal.” Danny initialed the clipboard attached to the case then made his own back up notation on his clipboard. Just as he did, he saw a spider crawl up the back of the freezer. It was huge and furry. It startled Danny and he shrieked, plopping on to his rear and dropping his pen light. “Shit.” He snickered and saw the beam of the light as it came from under the case. Going all the way flush with the floor, Danny extended his arm under the freezer, grunting and feeling. As his shoulder met the case, Danny stopped reaching when he saw it on the back of the gauge.

  Forgoing his penlight, Danny sat up some and bent the temperature gauge out from his stand. On the back it was there, a magnet, tiny, black, and adhered.. “Shit.” Danny took it from the back and watched the needle fluctuate up and down from the release of the magnetic pull. The gauge stopped in normal range and Danny looked at the magnet he held in his hand.

  He pushed the case out further, retrieved his pen light, straightened the metal stand of the gauge and returned the case to its normal position. Upon standing up, he checked the lock. The freezer was secure.

  Tucking the clipboard under his arm, he started to leave that back room, still looking at the magnet. He was relieved to see the temperature was still normal, but puzzled at his discovery. Obviously it was placed in the back of the gauge to hinder any knowledge of fluctuation in temperature when the case was opened or closed. He made a comment in his notes and left the back lab. Danny dismissed the first question that came to his mind. The question of who all had access to the code to the back lab. In Beginnings, no code was ever secure. Someone always gives their code away, no matter how many times they had been told they shouldn’t. Danny was a culprit. After all, he gave Johnny his code that afternoon. But two questions did pop into Danny’s mind. Two questions he really wanted to know the answers to. One, how long had the magnet been in place impairing a true temperature reading. And the second, who in Beginnings would have the mechanical knowledge to know that not only placing a magnet on the gauge would stop it, but know that it only worked on certain types of gauges.

  With this question on his mind, the magnet in his hand, Danny waved to the rabbits--even the dead one--and left Dean’s cryo-lab.

  ^^^^

  Quitting time. Leaving the leadership in progress, Joe still had to do the cleanup. His desk looked straight. Files were put away and he readied to leave and go home. Or so he thought.

  “Got a minute?” Danny popped his head into Joe’s office.

  “Just that. What’s up?” Joe asked.

  “This.” Danny laid in Joe’s hand the magnet.

  “O.K.”

  “I found that.”

  “Good for you.” Joe gave it back.

  “No, Joe. I found that on the back of the temperature gauge on the freezer in the clinic.” Danny saw Joe didn’t quite understand. “Joe, that magnet stopped a valid reading from occurring. It made the needle stick and not move. Also, Dean has a dead rabbit in his lab so if you could break the news to him, I’d appreciate it. Man are those rabbits getting so fat I . . .”

  “Danny. Stop.” Joe halted him. “Halt the temperature gauge?”

  “Yeah. Makes the needle stick. What do you suppose Dean is up to making those rabbits so . . .”

  “Danny.” Johnny stopped his again. “Is the case working.”

  “Oh yeah. Temp is good, but if it did go bad, we don’t know.”

  “Do you think someone got into that case?”

  “Um . . .” Danny looked in thought. “Couldn’t say. Only Dean could say by opening it up, but . . . we wouldn’t know, see, because they could have that case opened forever. The temp could drop and we wouldn’t have known because of that magnet.”

  “I’ll have Dean check right away.”

  “Thanks, Joe.” Danny moved to the door. “Could we possibly put some alarm contacts on that case. That’ll be just between you and me.”

  “I’ll get Henry on it right away.”

  “Joe, between you and me. O.K.?”

  Joe looked oddly at Danny. “Why would you not want Henry involved.”

  “I don’t want anyone but us involved. No one is to know that case is armed. Someone with some knowledge rigged that gauge for a reason and if you want to find out who it is, then the best way to find out is to keep the knowledge of the alarm system to a minimal.”

  “I understand. Let me give that some thought.”

  “Thanks, Joe.” Danny waved and opened the door. As he did, Henry and Dean stood there. Danny snickered. “Sonny and Cher.” He laughed again and walked out.

  Henry gave a weird look to Danny “I hope he’s not calling me Sonny.”

  “Henry,” Dean snapped at him. “I think he was making me, Sonny. I’m the shorter one.”

  ‘Then he’s saying I’m a woman.” Henry walked into Joe’s office.

  “You have that long black hair like Cher,” Dean said.

  “I don’t want to be the woman. You should be the woman. Even thought I didn’t like Sonny, it was a shame how he ran into that tree, wasn’t it,. But . . .”

  Joe had enough. “Henry! Dean! I’m leaving. Is this important because I really don’t want to stand around hearing you two debate on which one of you is Sonny and which one of you is Cher.”

  Henry sat down. “We got information at the quantum lab today.”

  First Joe was going to get annoyed because Henry and Dean just sat and made themselves comfortable, but when he heard that bit of information, he perked up. “What did you find out?”

  Dean wanted to have his say first so he spoke before the words came out of Henry’s open mouth. “Jason gave us the history print up and his . . .”

  “Wait.” Joe held up his hand. “Jason gave you? Why is Jason giving you anything? You were supposed to sneak the information.”

  “Dean!” Henry pointed. “He started fighting with me.”

  “Me?” Dean laughed “No Henry you called me a dick. You started it first.”

  “You could have let it go. I was making a mere observation.”

  “I was going to let the fact that you called me a dick, go? Right.”

  “Grow up Dean.”

  “You grow up.”

  “Boys!” Joe yelled. “Why are you two bickering so badly.”

  “Him!” Henry pointed again. “He’s a . . . a . . .”

  “Dick Henry?” Dean questioned. “Go on say it. It’s your favorite word for me.”

  “Dick.”

  “Asshole.”

  “Boys!” Again, Joe yelled loudly. “Knock it off and get to the point, Jason gave you the . . .”

  “Joe.” Henry held out his hand. “Dean got physical with me. Look he sprained my finger when he smacked me.”

  Joe raised an eyebrow to Dean. “You smacked Henry’s hand?”

  “He pushed me.”

  “I see.” Joe nodded. “And then did you both stomp your feet and begin a flicking match?”

  So accusing Henry sounded. “He would have Joe, he’s so immature.”

  “Oh I’m immature?” Dean turned in his chair. “Who’s the one starting trouble because I won’t share Ellen?”

  “I’m not starting trouble Dean. You’re just over reacting.”

  “Over reacting.”

  Joe cleared his throat loudly. “I’m going to leave if I have to listen to this shit for one more second.�
��

  “He won’t share Joe.” Henry said. “And I even gave him his sight back.”

  Dean’s hand slammed on the arm of the chair. “I knew it. I knew one day you would throw that in my face. That is so like you. When you had that huge nasty cold sore on your face, I helped you get rid of that. You don’t hear me throwing that back at you.”

  “Ha!” Henry ridiculed. “I hardly see a comparison Dean. I gave you back your sight. I’d rather have a cold sore then be blind.”

  “Oh yeah! Obviously then you didn’t see how bad you looked.”

  Slam!

  The loud shutting of Joe’s office door made Dean and Henry turn around and it alerted them to the fact Joe had left.

  “See Dean.” Henry stood up. “You made Joe leave.” He hurried to the door. “I’m gonna catch him and tell him the news first.”

  “Don’t Henry.” Dean warned. “We decided to do this together.”

  “Too bad. I changed my mind. Ha!” With that as his final word, Henry flung open Joe’s office door and bolted out. Not wanting Henry to beat him to the punch, Dean quickly ensued behind.

  ^^^^

  One main thought ran through Robbie’s mind as he made final evening rounds in the community . . . George better get his ass in gear and call Dean so they could get a move on bringing Frank back home. Robbie was really getting tired of being head of security especially when he had to do rounds like he was stuck doing at that moment. He worked all day. He didn’t want to work nights too, making sure all buildings, front and back were secure. Besides mind-bitching about Frank and George--and Henry, just because--Robbie bitched about Dan. He was supposed to be doing these rounds. He volunteered to do them when Steve called off for the knee problem Robbie thought was borderline ridiculous. There was no reason Dan couldn’t do the rounds. Just because he got hit with a sudden case of intestinal flu didn’t mean he couldn’t work. There wasn’t a bathroom anywhere in center town that would be too far for Dan to run to.

  Making his final sweep was when Robbie saw it. The back door to the chapel was open. It was odd because the back door of the chapel was never used. No lighting back there made it unsafe--walking wise. It was ajar and, according to Robbie’s schedule of time, no one was to be in there. Thinking ‘finally a problem to perk things up’, Robbie walked in though the door. He passed Rev. Bob’s office. The light was on and the door was open to there as well. He peeked his head in and as he retraced it outward he noticed on the desk that the yearbooks were no longer there. ‘Bonus’ kept racing though Robbie’s mind, anticipating telling his father of the guilty move of the yearbooks. But first, Robbie had to do his job. Stepping toward the main part of the chapel, Robbie heard the voices. He would have gone further in but instead he moved back.