The Unyielding Future

by Brian O'Grady

  “So it’s possible he is just another one of ‘you’?” I pride myself in how well I can communicate.

  “It is definitely possible. Symmetry is a property woven through the fabric of the universe. I am here, why couldn’t he be here?” Most of his answer was directed at me, but I think he was also trying to convince himself.

  “Sida is Adis spelled backward. Is this your way of saying that he is your opposite? Yin to your yang.”

  He returned his gaze to our front yard. He wasn’t being evasive, more contemplative. “No. I flipped my name around only to be clever.” His smile was weak. “Although the property of polarity is also woven into the fabric of the universe.” His voice trailed off, and I got the sense that my questions were bothering him. We sat in silence for an uncomfortable (at least for me) moment. “It is possible that he has a professional responsibility opposite my own. That would explain his interest in Eris.” He finally answered the question I had asked a moment earlier, although he sounded less than convincing.

  “But you don’t believe that,” I countered, but he had again retreated inside himself.

  “I don’t know what to think,” he finally said after what seemed like minutes. Then, in an instant, his happy face dropped back into place, hiding all his inner workings, secrets, and turmoil.

  Before I could follow up, the door opened and Leah walked back into the small study. She silently stared at me in my chair.

  “Here, why don’t you sit here.” I rotated back to the couch. She took my chair and spun it towards Adis. It was obvious that she was still mad, but the small break had given her a chance to regain her equilibrium. “Better?” I asked, and she nodded.

  “Sorry. I don’t like losing control, especially in front of strangers.” I’m not sure if she put emphasis on her last word or if I just heard it that way. “I need you to answer some questions, directly and as succinctly as possible. No stories, no lectures. Can you do that?” She held Adis’s gaze.

  “I will do my best.” Adis slowly leaned towards Leah as he spoke. For a moment I thought he was going to reach for her hands.

  “This person, the one who does this temporal stuff . . .”

  “Let’s call him Sida,” Adis interrupted.

  “You and your names,” she sneered, and I thought that his small interruption was enough to push her over the edge again. “This Sida character is different from Eris, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is he the one responsible for the high school and the bus fire?”

  “Probably.” Adis seemed to be responding well to the rapid exchange.

  “And now he’s somehow hooked up with Mr. Sicko—”

  “Eris,” both Adis and I said in unison, which made Leah shake her head.

  “Okay, Eris. They have some type of relationship?”

  Now Adis paused. “Not in the traditional sense. In fact I doubt that they have even met. It’s even possible that Eris is unaware of Sida.”

  “So Sida isn’t helping him?” She sounded disappointed and confused.

  “No, that doesn’t necessarily follow. Sida could be working behind the scenes, creating opportunities for Eris, maybe cleaning up after him, but never actually influencing his decisions.”

  “Wait. If Sida is steering Eris, or allowing him to be successful, that should count for something.”

  “I’m afraid it doesn’t. If Eris is acting freely, he is beyond my reach.”

  Under my breath I muttered half a dozen curse words aimed at Sida, Adis, the universe, and even God. “Do you know if he is acting freely? I mean, do you have anything tangible, or just impressions?”

  Adis nodded. “If Sida was guiding Eris, I would have known. I would be free to act.”

  I dropped my head and now I wanted to shoot something. For two full minutes I thought that we had found our way out of this nightmare. That Adis would at any moment jump to his feet, say his final goodbye and be off to dispatch Eris and his master. I muttered a few more comments that would make my mother blush and then kicked the legs of the couch for good measure. The three of us sat in a strained silence until Leah had recovered enough of herself to restart the conversation.

  “What could Sida hope to gain by helping a man like Eris kill and kidnap, not to mention attack schools and burn busses?”

  “That’s an excellent question, and one I will ask him when I find him, but right now I don’t know.” Adis looked out our window and I got the distinct impression that he was flirting around the edges of the truth. Leah must have had the same sense, because she looked at me intently.

  We waited for a better answer, but once again Adis had checked out. “Adis,” I finally said and he slowly turned back to us. “None of this makes sense. If what you’ve told us is true about the obdurate future and humanity’s ultimate destination being a fixed point, this can’t be about us. Unless this guy is just totally crazy, his motivation has to be personal, something unique to your kind. You told us a while ago that you thought the high school attack was aimed at you, to drag you out of the shadows. To limit your effectiveness.” I turned to Adis. “I think we are just pawns.” It was the only logical conclusion, a conclusion Adis should have tripped to long ago. I turned to Leah and she nodded. For a moment, we shared a glance and our suspicions about our guest.

  “It is a possibility that he is using you as tools.” He shook his head and turned back to our lawn. “As I said, my only means of knowledge is experience, and nothing like this has ever happened before.”

  “You mean like one of yours going off the reservation?” I asked.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE: In this day of political correctness, I don’t know if that expression is considered racist. I assure you I am not a racist, and if the expression going off the reservation bothers you, my advice is to get over it. If that bothers, you please discuss this with my wife, who is one-quarter Apache.

  “That’s not the phrase I would use, but it’s close enough.” Adis was apparently more politically correct than I had thought. “Eris is a curious fellow,” Adis mused, and he effectively veered the conversation off track. “Unfortunately, I’ve seen his kind before. He isn’t after attention, or accolades, or even to create fear. I think that he is bored and is simply looking for some mental stimulation. His world exists inside his mind. To Eris, our world is a stage and we are all just props. Conveniences. Toys. Mysteries that need to be solved.” Adis was so lost in thought he looked like he had slipped into a hypnotic trance.

  “He is a psychopath,” I said as a medical professional.

  “No, he’s not a true psychopath,” Leah responded. I looked at her with open incredulity.

  “Yes, he is.” I was shocked and a little offended by her contradicting me. I was the one with the medical degree.

  “No, he is not.” Leah was obviously unconcerned that I was offended. “A psychopath has poor impulse control. They need immediate gratification and have trouble with planning. This man demonstrates exactly the opposite. He has kept Maggie Dale alive, and he told you himself that he won’t hurt her until everything has been prepared.” Adis nodded his head in agreement. “He is bold. That’s a characteristic of a psychopath. The danger seems to entertain him, but it’s not reckless. It’s strategic. He wants to see how far he can go.”

  “Who are you?” I asked Leah. Suddenly, she had become an FBI profiler and a psychiatrist. I wondered if I should cancel her subscription to Woman’s Day or start reading it myself.

  “He’s not cruel, either,” Adis piled on.

  “Sending us pictures, calling us, the tracking collar. That’s not cruel? The man is taunting us. You asked the question yourself: Why did he keep Nitrox alive?” I tried to defend my losing position.

  “I don’t think that’s our man. I think that’s Sida. That’s his way of calling me and saying ‘Hey, lets you and I play.’” The three of us ruminated on that thought for a second.

  “What if he is caught?” I asked. “Eris, I mean.”

  “What i
f he is killed?” Leah asked in a tone that immediately reminded me of her father

  “I’m assuming we are still talking about Eris.” Adis asked and both Leah and I nodded. “That would solve some problems, but not all.” Adis answered. “Sida has his own agenda, and it is very different from Eris’s. Deprived of his assistant, Sida will simply find another. In fact, I would be surprised if he isn’t already developing a few more Eris.’ Whatever Sida is planning it doesn’t begin or end with Eris. Or with you.”

  “Wouldn’t killing Eris solve our problems.” Leah asked, always the pragmatist.

  Adis hesitated, and then he made us wait for an answer. Finally, he shook his head. “I don’t think so. I believe that Sida steered Eris to you for a reason, and that reason doesn’t go away with the death of Eris.”

  “So the real problem is Sida,” I said.

  “The biggest problem is Sida, but Eris needs to be dealt with as well.”

  “How? What do we do?” I asked. “Maybe we should go to your father’s cabin.” I had turned to Leah.

  “No,” Adis answered strongly. “Even if you could elude Eris, Sida can always find you.” Leah started to say something, but Adis cut her off. “I know that your family is well-armed and would be more than willing to create rings of defensive barriers around you, but in the end they won’t protect you and will only put more people at risk.”

  “So what do we do, sit at home and wait?” Leah responded.

  “For now.” He softened his tone. “In time, the situation will declare itself.”

  “If we forced you, could you find Eris?” Leah asked softly. So soft that it almost didn’t sound like a threat.

  I started to laugh, until I realized that she was serious. “Are you crazy?” I asked my wife. The concept of forcing, or threatening, Adis had never entered my mind.

  Adis and Leah both ignored me. “If you forced me,” he repeated slowly. “Let’s change that to a more civil question. How about, if I wanted to find Eris would I be able?”

  “All right.” Leah accepted her correction.

  “No, I would not be able to find him. The obdurate future would prevent it.”

  “I’m not talking about killing him. Couldn’t we exploit one of those holes in the obdurate future and just have you point him out . . .” She let her thought dangle.

  “To you or the police?” Adis asked with a smile.

  “Either,” she quickly answered.

  “I’m sorry, Leah, but you have to understand that anything I do, no matter how small, would only make things worse.” Several very long moments of silence followed. I tried not to imagine how bad things could become.

  “Why don’t you go to the police and tell them all of this?” Leah finally asked.

  “You asked me that question before, and my answer hasn’t changed. I would ask you what you hope to achieve. Sida is far beyond their reach, and they already are using every resource to find Eris. Besides, have you met any one of them that would believe such a story?” Adis leaned forward, preparing to stand.

  Leah apparently was unmoved by Adis’s reasoning. She turned to me and said, “Then we need to go to the police ourselves and tell them everything we know. Everything.” She glanced at Adis to make certain I understood her meaning.

  I was about to say that they would almost certainly call child protective services and our three children would be raised in foster homes while we were medicated and created finger paintings between electroshock treatments, but Adis cut in.

  “Of course you are free to do that. The probability that they would believe you is even less than if I told them myself. But I have a more compelling reason for you to keep your distance.” Adis stood.

  “And what is that?” Leah asked him, eye to eye.

  “I believe that Eris is either a member of the FBI or the Austin police department.”

  “So you know who he is?” I asked, and then stood; I felt foolish being the only one seated in the small room.

  “Not yet.” His Cheshire cat smile was back. “Now, you will have to excuse me, but I have a bus to catch. Would either of you care to accompany me to the bus stop?”

  Leah looked at me and communicated her thought quite clearly: He’s your responsibility. “I’ll walk with you,” I said after the moment became awkward.

  Chapter Fifteen