At the last second, I cut across a neighbor’s roof and landed in the equivalent of my back yard. The landing was hard, as I came in too fast, and I had to run halfway across the grass to keep from falling over, doing all I could to slow myself down and still keep my balance.
That was when I heard a scream. It came from the back door of the house. The woman who lived there was standing inside the door, a toddler in her arms. I guessed that the kid had just been playing outside and that the pair had opened the door only seconds before I made my ungraceful entrance. And now the shocked mother was sounding the alarm over the stranger who’d just invaded her yard. If the cops closing in on me had been confused by my jumping streets at the last minute, they wouldn’t be for long, not with the woman’s screams rising to the level of hysterics, and now joined by the wails of her offspring, who was probably more frightened by his mother than the funny man who’d just dropped out of the sky.
Not bothering with an apology, I raced for the garage door. There was no point in checking my watch. The portal was either there or it wasn’t. I was either going back to my world or back to jail. It didn’t matter what time it was.
With the young mother’s screams still sounding in my ears, I caught movement in my peripheral vision and knew that my airborne pursuers had landed in the yard.
“Stop right there!”
“Police!”
“Stop or we’ll shoot!”
I ignored them all, not even flinching at the threat of being shot. Instead, I zigzagged a little as I ran for the door. When I reached the garage, I didn’t bother with the knob, just slammed my shoulder against the old wooden door and felt the little latch smash through the jamb. If I was still within the timeframe Guillermo and I had agreed to, the portal would be open in the corner on the other side of the antique car. I’d be able to dodge around the old vehicle, hop through the portal, and be free and clear.
The interior of the garage was all darkness, though. I saw no portal beyond the hulking shape of the old car, which my momentum caused me to slam up against.
Too late.
Behind me were shouts and the sounds of pursuit as the cops converged on the door that I couldn’t lock now even if I’d wanted to.
There was no point in looking at my watch to see how close I’d been to making it. In the end, being five seconds late was the same as a whole hour.
And then I heard a voice from my left side, coming from a nearer corner of the garage.
“Jed?”
It was Carmelita.
My head jerked to the left at the sound of her voice, my mind a tsunami of catastrophic thoughts as I pictured not just myself behind bars but now Carmelita in police custody.
But before the first cop burst through the doorway, I saw Carmelita move, a shadow shifting among deeper shadows. And in that movement, she revealed the glowing circle of the portal.
“Come on!” she said. “Let’s go!”
I didn’t have to be told twice, bolting to my left.
“You first!” I shouted.
And, thankfully, she listened to me.
Carmelita hopped through the opening with as much ease as I’d seen Perdida make the leap, and I followed, diving into the opening at the same time as the first officer entered the garage with another shout of “Freeze or I’ll shoot!”
I landed on the floor of the garage in a tumble, my arms entangled with Carmelita’s legs. It was light in here, the bare bulb hanging from the rafters illuminating the corner where I’d hit the garage floor. Somewhere behind me, I knew Guillermo and probably Osvaldo were standing, manning the machine. Why the old man had sent Carmelita through to the other side was beyond me. My only guess was that her desire to visit another world was behind the decision. Somehow, she had talked Guillermo into it; right now, it didn’t matter.
“Close it!” I shouted before even trying to gain my feet. “Close it now!”
“It’s closed, Jed,” Carmelita said, her voice calm in contrast to my panic. I had knocked her into the wall when I came through after her, and she was seated awkwardly in the corner, her legs askew under my torso. If she’d been a human woman, it would have been an awkward, compromising position for us to be in. As it was, I found it awkward anyway.
I started pushing myself off her, getting to my feet moments later and dusting myself off as Carmelita stood up beside me. Then I turned around, ready to thank Guillermo.
As Carmelita had said, the portal was closed. But Guillermo wasn’t there. Neither was Osvaldo, and neither was the crossover machine.
I turned to Carmelita, who was dusting off and straightening her dark blue skirt. “I don’t understand,” I said.
“Guillermo started worrying last night when you didn’t come back. We decided the plan of keeping the machine here and leaving the portal open only ten minutes at a time wasn’t the best approach. I’d say he was right. So, we found a way to leave it open all the time but for it to be safeguarded against anyone on the other side discovering it.”
This made no sense to me. “I don’t…understand,” I said, trying to give voice to my confusion.
She smiled, a little smugly. “Remember when you gave me my next task the other day?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “What are you talking about?”
“You told me I should learn a new skill. One that would help the business. So…”
She turned her head and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she stared intensely at a spot a few feet away, off to my right. Then I watched as a beam of light came from her eye—the left eye that had needed replacing, the one she’d been working on in Guillermo’s shop on the day I’d told her about learning a new skill, which, now that I saw what was happening, I remembered having said.
The beam expanded to a circle about five feet high and three feet wide, and then it stopped emerging from her eye. What was left was the circle of light, seemingly floating in the air—a portal identical to the ones Guillermo’s machine had created.
At first alarmed, I said, “That’s not open into the same world where we just were, is it?”
“No, silly,” she said. “I changed the settings. That’s open onto a different version of your garage. Or not, if this old shack has been torn down in whatever world is on the other side of that gateway.”
“Close it,” I said, nervous about the portal being open in a world I knew nothing about—and did not want to know anything about.
She did as I’d asked, the circle closing immediately.
“How?” I asked, dumbfounded.
“I read Klaus Lang’s notes, remember?”
“Yes,” I said.
“I didn’t understand what it all meant at the time. Or, rather, I did understand but didn’t let myself know I understood. Now that I know what I am—and what I can do—I put his notes to work when I repaired my eye.”
Still in disbelief, I said, “You must have done a lot more than repair the eye.”
“I did. I’ve been busy.”
“But how did you pass through the portal if it generated from your eye?” I asked.
“There’s a delay. When I shut it off, the portal stays in place for ten more seconds. That way I can pass through it myself.”
“Ingenious,” I said, and I meant it.
Her smiled widening, she asked, “So? Does that qualify? Have I passed my next test?”
Raising an eyebrow, I said, “Yes, Carmelita. You’ve passed your test. Thank you for getting me out of there.”
“You’re welcome. What’s my next task?”
I smiled back at her. “Let me think about it, okay?”
Chapter Fifteen
“There are a few other things I need to get you caught up on,” she said as we left the garage.
I had unstrapped the jetpack and hidden it in a corner under a burlap bag and an incomplete set of old golf clubs that had been left behind in the garage when I’d moved in.
“Before you do,” I said, “I need a bite to
eat and a stiff drink.”
“Are you—” she began, but I stopped her.
“Is any of it a matter of life and death?” I asked.
“I don’t think so.”
“Then it can wait.”
We walked to the back door of the house, which was locked. Carmelita had her key, and she went in first. I noticed that she went rather quickly, passing straight through the kitchen and into the front room where she checked the front door. Finding it locked, she made a quick pass through the bedrooms and bathroom before returning to the kitchen.
“There’s something you’re not telling me,” I said.
“There are a few things. But none of it is a matter of life and death, as you said.”
I nodded, not sure I liked the sound of what she’d just told me. Feeling empty, though, I opted to wait a minute before setting myself up for what I assumed was unpleasant news.
There was fried chicken in the refrigerator and whiskey in the cupboard. I poured a stiff one and pulled the plate of chicken from the shelf, turning to the kitchen table and starting in on a leg before even sitting down. When I was finished, I said, “I need to call Guillermo. Then you can update me all you want.”
I went to the phone and made the call. Guillermo answered on the second ring.
“Lobo! You’re all right?”
“Yes, Guillermo. I’m fine. It was a little close, but Carmelita saved me.”
“That’s good. She showed you what she did with her eye?”
“She did. She’s full of surprises.”
“Is everything all right there?” he asked.
This bothered me a little, as his apparent sense of alarm echoed Carmelita’s cautiousness. “Yes. Why wouldn’t it be?”
There was a pause on the line, during which I could practically hear him shrugging. Finally, he said, “Peggy called yesterday. She talked to Carmelita.”
I looked toward Carmelita, who was watching my expression intently.
“Well, then I suppose Carmelita will need to tell me about it,” I said and watched as Carmelita raised an eyebrow and nodded.
“Okay. That’s good,” Guillermo said. “Did you find Elsa?”
“I did. And a lot more.” I opened my coat and pulled the Chavezium disk from the inner pocket, setting it on the kitchen counter. “I think we’ve got her neutralized over there. She’s not going to be able to cause trouble.”
He was silent for a moment, probably weighing the implications of what I’d just told him. Then he said, “So, you answered all the questions you went with?”
I could tell that he was asking if I’d found that world’s Guillermo Garcia.
“Most of the questions,” I said. “I came back with a few new ones I want to run by you before we go any further with the whole crossover thing. But as for the big questions I went with—yes, I found all the answers.”
He was silent for a moment, and then he said, “I’m not sure I want to hear them yet.”
This was his way of telling me he wasn’t ready to hear about whether he was alive or dead in the world I’d been in. I sympathized.
“That’s okay, Guillermo. I don’t have to tell you anything you don’t want to hear. We’ll talk later, okay?”
“Okay. I’m glad you’re back safe.”
“Me, too.”
I hung up and turned to Carmelita. “Before you tell me whatever it is you’re dying to say, I need to know…has Guillermo ever told you if he had children?”
Her jaw tightened a little at this, and then she said, “A daughter. Elvira.”
I nodded. “I assume they’re estranged. He’s never mentioned her to me.”
“She died,” Carmelita said. “He only told me about it one time. Before you entered the picture. When I was…supposed to be his niece.”
My heart sank as I heard this. Knowing that details would only make it worse, I asked anyway. “What happened?”
“She got hit by a car. Trying to save her dog when it ran into the road.”
“Perdida,” I said.
“Maybe. He never said anything about the dog.”
Poor Guillermo, I thought and poured another whiskey, wondering about the effect the letter in my pocket would have on my friend when I found the courage to share it with him.
When the glass was empty again, I said, “All right. Go ahead. What’s the big mystery? Or should I just call Peggy?”
“You don’t need to call Peggy. I can actually make it like you were here when she called.”
I raised an eyebrow. “How so?”
“There were quite a few things I modified when half of my face got blown off,” she said. “I’ve gotten pretty good at self-surgery.”
I sighed. “Are you going to hold this information hostage? I’m not going to make you partner today, Carmelita, no matter what other tricks you’ve learned.”
“Fine,” she said. “I heard the phone ringing in the house yesterday afternoon about an hour after you crossed over, so I went inside and answered it. You want to hear?”
“Hear?”
She nodded and opened her mouth. From somewhere in her throat, the mechanism that gave her the ability to speak began working, only it wasn’t just Carmelita’s voice I heard. It was like a record was playing, and I guessed that Carmelita had modified her vocal and listening apparatuses, linking them together in a sort of recording and playback set-up not unlike what I knew had been built into one of Guillermo’s portable telephones.
“Hello?” I heard Carmelita say although she didn’t move her lips or tongue.
“Carmelita?” came Peggy’s voice from the same orifice.
“Hello, Peggy.”
“Carmelita, is Jed there?”
“No, he’s…indisposed. I can’t say when he’ll be able to come to the phone.”
I even heard Peggy sigh in frustration then before replying with, “Can you have him call me back?”
“Yes, but it might not be until tomorrow. Or maybe in the middle of the night tonight.”
Another sigh from Peggy.
“Is everything all right?” Carmelita asked, and I felt proud of her when I heard that. Maybe it was all part of her programming, but that little gesture showed me that Carmelita was learning more and more how to read people, that she was able not only to detect distress but also to offer aid when she picked up on the possibility that someone she cared about might be experiencing difficulties. She still struggled with interpreting subtleties, but I could see that she was progressing all the time.
“I don’t know,” Peggy said. “I got another call from Cosmo Beadle. He sounded worried about Jed.”
“Why?”
“Look, if you see Jed, can you tell him exactly what I’m telling you? In case he’s unable to call me back right away?”
“Yes, of course.”
“All right.” Peggy let out a long exhale, probably out of a sense of relief that she at least had Carmelita to share whatever was troubling her. “Beadle said that someone came out to Catalina. A fellow with a European accent. He said his name was…” She paused here, and I could picture her looking for the tablet where she’d written notes while talking to Cosmo. “Andrik Hennigar. I pushed for a description, and he said Hennigar’s a small man with glasses. Beadle said the man threatened him with a razor and that he looked like he knew how to use it.”
I felt myself flush at hearing this—not because I felt any sort of affection for Cosmo Beadle but rather because I guessed at what was coming next.
Then it came.
“Beadle said he wasn’t hurt but that he’s going into hiding and he advised that Jed do the same thing.”
“Why?” Carmelita asked on the recording.
“Because this man Hennigar was pressuring Beadle to say where Jed could be found.”
“But what does this man want with Jed?” Carmelita asked.
“Beadle couldn’t say. Or wouldn’t. He sounded very shaken though, and he’s got me shaken, too.”
“I’m s
ure it will be all right,” Carmelita said.
“I don’t know how you’re so sure. But…it’s good to hear. Thanks, Carmelita.”
“You’re welcome.”
The recording stopped. Carmelita closed her mouth, took a moment to shift modes, and then spoke to me in her regular voice. “Do you know this man Hennigar?”
“No.”
“Do you know what he wants with you?”
“I have a guess.”
She raised a perfect eyebrow and waited.
There wasn’t any point in keeping it from her. In fact, I was learning that there wasn’t much point in keeping anything from Carmelita. To do so would have been to deny potential help in forms I couldn’t guess might be available to me.
“When Elsa broke into the workshop the night she shot you,” I said, “she hinted that she wasn’t working for the German government anymore, that they were too short-sighted for her, that they were thinking too small. She made it sound like she’d found someone else, maybe a syndicate. People who could take something like Guillermo’s power source and put it to more…productive use. Can you guess at the kind of productivity she’d be interested in?”
“I can.”
I sighed. “When Elsa went through the portal and dropped out of this world, it must have caused some alarm among her new compatriots.”
“And you think this man Hennigar is one of those people?”
“Possibly. Or someone they hired to find Elsa. If she’s dangled a prize in front of dangerous people, maybe even been rewarded up front as part of a deal she made with them, they’re going to want what she offered. And I would guess that she let them know a little bit about Cosmo and as much as she could about me.”
“But if Elsa was offering these people Guillermo’s power source, why are they coming after you and not Guillermo?”
“Because Elsa’s not an idiot. She’s a viper in a nest of vipers. She knows she needs to keep a little information to herself. As insurance. If she’d told these people everything, then they could have gone after the power source themselves, maybe cut her out of the deal. Maybe kill her. No, she told them about me, probably as someone to watch out for. And Cosmo, maybe as someone who could be bent to their will as a resource. The old guy’s loaded, after all. I’m just glad he didn’t cave in and give this guy what he wanted.”
The Jetpack Boogie: A Dieselpunk Adventure (The Crossover Case Files Book 4) Page 18