As if on cue, the locker room door Smith had previously checked and blocked shuddered under the weight of something big. When the door refused to budge, Smith froze, knowing if it was him on the other side of the door, he wouldn’t stop there in an attempt to get in. Smith was right, and he hated being right in this case.
As Agent Smith rushed his group out of the opposite door, the barricaded entrance exploded in a shower of metal and wood.
Penelope Makes Her Move
A pounding at her hotel room door shook Penny awake, but the guest didn’t wait for anyone. Just seconds after the knock, Penelope opened the door and strolled into the room.
Penny sat up on the bed, propped up on her elbow. It had been a long night. Between the initial instructions from her counterpart, studying said instructions, and a surprise visit from her long-dead father, Penny was understandably drained.
But drained wasn’t going to get her kids back to her, so she needed to put on her best face, which was still tough at this early hour.
“Wake up,” Penelope instructed. Even with an identical face and genes, Penelope was harsh and distant with Penny. In a way that was fine with her. Better that she hate herself and get her kids back than to love Penelope and lose everything.
“What’s up?” Penny said. She tried to lighten the tense mood and reached for the curtain pull. She turned it slightly, allowing a sliver of light to creep into the room. The light didn’t help. If nothing else, it just accentuated the sharp creases in Penelope’s face.
“Time to go. You know your job?”
Penny had thought a lot about being the Vice President. As a courtroom lawyer, she oftentimes played a part. It was part law, part acting. She knew how to play a role and suspected this was no different. Penny just needed to play herself...as if she was a horrible, manipulative, bitch.
“Yeah. I think I know what to do. So why didn’t you come in through there?” Penny asked, gesturing towards the bathroom.
Penelope rolled her eyes. “You aren’t very bright, are you? Even though we look alike...well, of course if one of us walks out of this hotel, I needed to be seen coming in. That’s how you’re going to leave. My Chief of Staff, Jorge Ramos, is waiting downstairs for you. Well, he’s waiting for me, but it’s going to be you.”
“He doesn’t know?”
“No, and I’d like to keep it that way. Jorge is a good man, but he isn’t needed on our mission right now,” Penelope said. “After you leave looking like me, I’ll go through the portal and do what needs to be done. If all goes smoothly, I’ll switch back with you tonight and you and your two kids can head back this time tomorrow.”
Penny was halfway dressed in her attempt to match Penelope’s clothes and overall appearance. She did her best to keep her face calm and impassive. After everything, and especially the visit from her father, Penny didn’t trust Penelope at all. In fact, Penny doubted if she was ever going to see her doppelganger again.
“Show them to me,” Penny demanded.
Penelope was momentarily caught off guard. “What are you talking about?”
“My kids. I want to see them again. To know they’re safe before I do this for you.”
She huffed, but pulled her phone from her back pocket. A few swipes and a passcode later, she handed the phone to Penny. “Happy?”
Immediately, Penny’s eyes clouded. They were sleeping, but the time stamp in the bottom corner told her the feed was live. Both the kids were on makeshift cots with a few toys scattered about the room. A leg spasm from Sisco told her the pair was doing fine. The room they were sleeping in was stark with no definitive characteristics. She was glad to see her kids safe, but was hoping to get some clue to use down the line, just in case. She remembered what her father had told her in the middle of the night, but things could have changed since then. Best to find anything she could for an advantage.
Penny shut her eyes for an instant, committing the picture to memory. In case she never saw Kira and Sisco again, she would have that final frame of video as a recollection to carry her through.
“Yes. I’m happy.”
Penny turned to put the final touches on her outfit. When she turned back around, she matched Penelope in every way. Except her eyes. Penny knew her eyes were not hardened like Penelope’s. That whatever Penelope had been through had been more difficult than whatever Penny had seen in her years since 2001. But the eyes could be excused. People rarely looked deeply into one another’s eyes anyway.
“Okay. It’s time. Take this,” she said, handing Penny a clutch.
Inside the small purse was a wallet with a few pieces of (fake) identification and some cash, and next to the wallet was a cell phone.
“I might need to call you during the day. Turn the sound up and I’ll get in touch if I need you.”
Penny absentmindedly picked up the phone and adjusted the volume as her mirror-double spoke.
“Remember: you’re me. You watched enough of the videos. Make sure you don’t make anyone question it, or else you are in deep trouble.”
“I think I’ve got it.”
Penelope seemed to pause for a moment, and then realize who she was talking to. “Of course you do. You’re me, after all.”
If it had been a different time, a different place, Penny might’ve laughed. But as it was, Penelope was holding her kids hostage. No laughter. Not today for this woman who looked like her but was the farthest thing from it.
Without another word, Penny grabbed the clutch and snapped it shut. She walked to the door and pulled it towards herself.
“One more thing,” Penelope said.
Penny turned back, but kept silent. She wasn’t begging for anything.
“There is someone else downstairs with Jorge. Someone you might know.”
“Okay.”
Unwilling to give Penelope any more, Penny let the door shut on its own, cutting off anything else she might’ve said. If she wanted to say anything else to Penny, Penelope would have to chase her down before she got to the hotel lobby. So what if she knew whoever might be down there? She thought she knew herself, but Penelope was the opposite of the ideal Penny had always strived for. Maybe if she hadn’t had kids and her life had gone a different direction…But her kids made her life the way it was and Penny wouldn’t have it any other way.
Her mind was spinning these thoughts together as she stepped off the elevator. She looked up and saw an Hispanic man standing by the doors to the hotel. He looked from his phone and smiled. Jorge.
A few steps away though, and someone came up behind and took her elbow. A quick look to her right took her breath away.
“Let’s go,” the man in the suit said. “By the way, don’t call me Nik. My name is Nicholas.”
Street View
As he rushed out of the locker room, Agent Smith managed to grip a set of lockers and bring them down. His momentum brought them towards the exit and after he shut the door behind him, he heard the crash and knew their pursuers would be occupied, at least briefly, with digging out of the mess he left behind.
Hoppy and Marie led the group. Marie had a familiarity with the building, having just left her version of it a few days before—back when her coworkers called her Dr. Anna. Things had changed...her very identity and the world itself. Still, the headquarters for The Utility Company was similar enough to her world she had a general idea of where to go. But as Hoppy informed both Smith and Marie back in Arizona, they had added on a secondary basement for use of the portals.
Following the two scientists were the teenagers. Smith wished he’d been able to get them back to Earth before now, but Braden and Jodi were stuck with him until he managed to get everyone back home. And for Smith, that meant everyone, including three people he’d never met—Nik Davidson’s wife and kids. He hoped they were in this building. If not...well, he didn’t even want to think about that at this point. Nik was just ahead of him running down the bland corporate-style hallway.
“Over here!” Marie shouted back to the
rest of the group. She was holding the handle of a door, and when Smith got closer, he recognized it as the door to her office—well, the door to where her office would be in their version of The Utility Company. Here though, it had a placard for a “Dr. Antonia” off to the right.
Everyone filed in, leaving Marie and Smith in the hall together for a second.
“Antonia?”
Marie blushed for a moment. “It was a name for Marie Antoinette when she was growing up in Austria. Agent Street proposed it when I first signed on, but I went with Anna instead.”
Agent Smith smiled. “I like it. What’s in here?”
“An elevator. Of sorts.”
Smith ushered her in and then shut the door behind him, locking it as another added security measure.
On the other side of the room, Hoppy was already attaching a box to the mirror. He hadn’t known Marie to be vain, but then again, how well had he really known his analyst? Then again, perhaps she was different over here. Was, Smith reminded himself. He remembered how Hoppy had reacted to Marie’s presence in the underground station. With that in mind, he looked around. There were stacked cardboard boxes and rolled papers in tubes scattered about the room. A storage room. They’d taken the office of Marie in this world and made it into a storage room after she’d died.
But Hoppy knew his way around. Suddenly it made sense to Agent Smith. When his friend had died, Hoppy had made this room into his backup plan. If all else failed, Hoppy knew he would always have a mirror in here.
“Wait, why did we take the portal into the locker room, then?” Smith asked.
Hoppy looked back, and offered a half-smile. “I rigged this one to only work on my personal authorization—in person. It takes my fingerprint, just like...this.”
He pressed his thumb into a small depression in the upper right corner of the mirror and the surface shimmered and rippled. Suddenly the group was no longer looking at themselves, but rather at the backs of two graying men in a...bedroom? The view appeared to be looking out from a closet into the room. A coat sleeve dangled across the right side.
“Whoa,” Braden whispered from the near wall.
“Wild,” agreed Jodi. “Is that...home?”
Smith walked up behind and put a hand on the teens’ backs. “Not yet, kids. One more jump, and then we’re all going home. I promise you that.”
“Why can’t we just go back now?” Jodi asked.
Smith glanced at Nik, but the real reason was beyond their control. Marie chimed in. “When we disabled the system back in Arizona, we disabled transportation on an interdimensional level—planet to planet.”
“You’re welcome for that,” Nik said a little louder than under his breath.
Agent Smith turned his head and nodded to the other man. “Of course. And you’re welcome for me making sure you got through that tunnel without anybody taking shots at you.”
“Boys. Save the pissing contest for later, please,” Marie said. She put her hand on Smith’s arm and he felt himself calm down a notch. “Getting back to the portals, we can still travel intradimensionally, from place to place on this Earth. We need Dr. Bridges to get the portal hooked back up here,” she said. “Besides, we’ve got some additional passengers to pick up in the meantime.”
“There ya go,” Smith said to the teens. “One more, then back home. Good?”
Braden pursed his mouth, and nodded. “Let’s do it.”
The boy reached out and grabbed Jodi’s hand. They let Hoppy walk through first, and then followed behind. Marie and Davidson went through next, with Smith taking the rear.
And as Smith took his first steps into the bedroom, he saw one of the men take his own steps towards Nik Davidson.
“You bastard!” the older man shouted, and then clocked Davidson, knocking him to the ground.
Family Reunion
Sucker punched, Nik fell on the ground, clutching his face. As Smith raced towards the action, another man he vaguely recognized also ran towards Dr. Bridges.
Nik writhed on the ground, holding his left eye as if it was going to fall out. Agent Smith could tell even with the hand over the injury that it was already beginning to turn black and blue. Nik would have a shiner for a couple weeks. Smith put a hand on Davidson’s shoulder, trying to indicate to the man to stay on the ground for the moment. He looked around the room, seeing Hoppy and Marie huddled together just outside the closet and the teens a few feet away in a similar formation.
“Doc...Dr. Bridges? I don’t think you know who this is,” Smith said.
The other man with Bridges had taken the lead, shielding the doctor behind his back. Even behind him, Bridges spat his answer.
“Of course I do. That’s the man I grew to hate in my years here. The man who betrayed me and...her. The man who I told I never wanted to see in here ever again,” Bridges half-shouted at Smith. “I told him if he ever showed his face in here again he’d be lucky to get out.”
Whoa. This man hated Nik. At least, his evil twin, Nicholas—this side’s Agent Green. At least, that’s what Smith figured at this point. He needed to get the relationship settled down between the son and father-in-law.
“Dr. Bridges? Let’s take a deep breath,” Smith started.
“And you! I thought you were on our side! What happened to trying to recruit from my world? What happened to that?” Bridges was still yelling.
Smith took his own advice and breathed deeply. He stretched out his arms and put his gun on the ground. “We are what happened to that. I’m Agent Smith, but I’m not the Agent Smith from this world. In fact...we’re all from a different Earth. Well, most of us at least.”
Hoppy stepped forward. “Hey Dr. Bridges. Long time, no see. Remember me?”
The man was confused. He kept looking from Smith, to Hoppy, down to Nik, and even gave Marie a wide-eyed once over. “Wait. Start again.”
“Dr. Bridges,” Smith said, “I am Agent Smith, and I am from the world you left on September 11, 2001. So is Marie over there, Jodi and Braden, and this man: Nik Davidson. Nik, I’d like to introduce you to your father-in-law. Dr. Bridges, meet the father of your grandchildren.”
_____
As far as family reunions went, the impromptu one between Nik, Dr. Lleyton Bridges, and Nik’s children wasn’t the strangest Smith had ever been a part of. Shoot, when he thought back to a few he’d been to on his father’s side in rural Georgia, a black eye was actually tame. Smith decided he’d keep that thought to himself when he talked to Nik later.
It was actually serendipitous that the two Davidson kids actually happened to be with Dr. Bridges. It was almost too easy, Smith wanted to feel, but after his trip through the portal with his alternate self in Arizona, a little ease wasn’t a bad thing. Apparently Penelope felt that Bridges would be a good babysitter and never considered anyone finding them here. They’d been in a separate room when he and Nik first walked through the portal in Bridges’ closet, but the moment Kira and Sisco saw their father, it was enough to leave a lot of moist eyes around the room—Smith’s included.
But as Smith stood off to the side, watching Nik and Bridges carefully navigate their first meeting, Smith couldn’t help but smile. The chance of this ever happening, especially since Bridges was technically dead in their world, was remote at best. They’d come a long way to get here, but they still had a little ways to go.
As if reading his thoughts, the other man who had yet to introduce himself approached Agent Smith.
“You don’t remember me, do you?”
Smith squinted, but struggled with a name. He was sure he’d seen this man’s face before. Just not...in person. At least not for some time.
“I remember the first time we met. You were so...so eager. It was one of your first days and you were sitting in Director Wall’s office. He was going over some of the ‘particulars’ of working at The Utility Company and you were fully engrossed. I don’t think I’d ever seen a recruit take notes in Wall’s office before
. I just popped in to tell Wall goodnight and I said hello to you as well. I suppose it was more than fifteen years ago at this point. But that was just the first time.”
Suddenly the name was as clear in Smith’s mind as the face. The man was right, he didn’t remember the chance meeting, but he did recall seeing that face almost every day he’d walked by Wall’s office for the past decade and a half. The Memorial Wall. With a photo of Agent Street, who’d vanished on September 11, 2001. The same night as Dr. Bridges. Smith never imagined he would see Agent Street again.
“Street!”
A smile. A nod. “That’s me.”
“You were—are—a legend. Director Wall has never forgotten you. After all this time, he still talks about you as if you were just in the next room. As if you were on vacation on a tropical beach due to return any day. Your picture is in the hall just outside his office and he makes sure no one forgot the man and the agent you were.”
“Good. That good for nothing Wall better have remembered me. Does he have a moment of silence each year on the date I disappeared?”
Smith considered the question. “Well, yeah. I mean we have a moment of silence every year on 9/11 for what happened that day. And since you were also lost that day…”
It seemed to satisfy the agent. “Good enough for me, but when I get back, I’m going to tell him exactly what I think. He should have retired my locker and closed my office. If I’m a legend, where is my statue?”
“Uh…”
“Exactly! People don’t even look at statues anyway. Just throw a random statue up in a park somewhere and throw a flag in my hand and people will think it’s a veteran’s statue.”
There was a momentary silence. Smith looked at the other agent and wondered if Street was busy imagining the proposed statue. While he was sure glad to have another trained Utility Company agent alongside, Agent Street was...strange. But if he’d been stuck offworld for the past decade and a half, mostly in a basement, Smith wasn’t sure how he would be, either. The man had a wild air about him. But perhaps they would need that wild streak if they were going to get everybody back.
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