Belle suddenly realized what was missing. “There’s no place to park?”
“Cars are all stored underground in big facilities in every neighborhood,” Zane said. “Most of them under these streets. You need your car, you just push a button and it will appear in front of your home in less than a minute.”
“Wow,” Belle said. She was flat stunned.
And impressed.
And she basically lived in this time now. She was going to have to learn a lot to even get by here.
“Sure looks like everything developed nicely in the last hundred years,” Belle said, once again scanning the beautiful neighborhood.
Zane shrugged. “Looks wonderful standing here on Warm Springs Avenue in a fairly protected town of Boise, Idaho. But there were numbers of wars over the last hundred years, more than I want to think about, actually.”
Belle didn’t like the sound of that at all, but didn’t ask any more.
Zane went on. “Plus a huge earthquake wiped out a large part of the west coast about forty years ago, but that has rebuilt. And a couple of major cities were hit with bombs, but have rebuilt now as well. A couple major plagues wiped out millions through Asia and Africa before being stopped. World’s population is now lower than it was a hundred years ago. So not a smooth road to all this.”
Belle nodded, not even beginning to absorb some of the tragedy he had just outlined. “I have a lot to learn about my new time.”
“I’ll be glad to help,” Zane said, turning and smiling at her.
She offered her hand. “I’ll take you up on that. But I think for the moment we need to get back to Step One time.”
He took her hand and smiled.
Damn she was enjoying that smile and the feeling of his hand in hers.
She was standing a hundred years in the future and had only known Zane for less than twelve hours. None of this was possible, yet she seemed to be experiencing it.
They turned and hand-in-hand went back through the gate and up the sidewalk toward the institute.
She knew this all had to be a dream. She just knew it, but it was her dream and until she woke up, she was going to keep on holding Zane’s hand.
PART THREE
The Cavern
CHAPTER NINETEEN
June 16th, 2020
Boise, Idaho
THE LAST WEEK had gone so fast, Zane could hardly remember most of it. He and Belle had gotten back from 2120 and spent the evening talking with Bonnie and Duster and Dawn until his brain was fried.
Then he and Belle had walked to a nearby store to get her some food for her kitchen, then he had helped her get the bags of food into her kitchen and then had left her to settle into her new place.
She had looked as tired and shocked as he felt about everything that happened. And he was used to time travel, so he could only imagine how she was really feeling.
And the next morning when he rang her doorbell, he was very happy that she was still here.
The next six days had been mostly the two of them with Dawn and Bonnie, learning as much as they could handle about the institute, the history of the institute, and so on.
Zane had hoped that he and Belle would have more time just together, but except for walking to and from the institute, they hadn’t had much alone time at all. Zane hoped that was going to change at some point.
With every day, he had grown more and more attracted to Belle. And she seemed to be feeling the same way toward him, since she often just took his hand for comfort.
Finally, now, at three in the afternoon of the seventh day since Belle had come through the front door of the institute, they were back in the big living room area cavern, sipping on Diet Cokes and munching on a fruit plate that Dawn had made. They were sitting in the couch and chair grouping that was closest to the kitchen area. The stone fireplace had no fire in it and no one else was around.
Zane knew the coming conversation was going to be important because Dawn and Bonnie were now joined by Duster and Madison. Director Parks had joined the group as well.
“It’s time to talk about the next step,” Duster said, leaning forward slightly, staring at first Zane, then Belle with his dark eyes. He was wearing a gray silk shirt and jeans and cowboy boots. There was no sign of his long coat or cowboy hat.
Zane only nodded.
“Not sure I’m ready for much, but willing to learn,” Belle said.
“First, Dr. Russell,” Duster said to Belle, “When you did the research into genealogy that you have already started, you said you found more dead-ends such as Dawn and Madison here as your grandparents?”
Zane had no idea what she was being asked, and she seemed confused as well.
“Let me put this a different way,” Bonnie said. “You could find no evidence at all of any existence of Dawn and Madison as your grandparents before they appeared at the lodge. Is that correct?”
Belle nodded. “Yes.”
“So have you, in your preliminary research, found many others like that?”
“Oh, sure,” Belle said. “More than ten thousand, but I always assumed, as I did with you two, that it was just my inability to track back into the rough records of that time in history.”
Zane had no idea where this line of questioning was going, but his stomach felt twisted, which means the founders had a hunch about something, and they were after some sort of confirmation.
Bonnie nodded to Belle’s answer, but Duster sat forward even more. “Would you even have a rough percentage of genealogy lines that ended in that sort of dead-end? Or better put, a sudden start.”
“It wouldn’t be accurate,” she said, “but give me a few years with the equipment and resources you have talked about and I’ll be able to give you that number. Plus I am sure it will depend on the time period involved. Finding records in 1900 is much more difficult than finding records in 1950.”
“Have you run across such sudden starts of lines in 1950s and forward?” Duster asked.
Belle glanced at Zane. She looked as puzzled as he felt.
“Sure,” she said, turning back to face Duster. “From 1950 forward about five percent of all lines I have tried to trace had such sudden starts. But again, more than likely, I did not have the right equipment or the right records.”
With that Duster sat back.
Zane could tell he did not look happy.
“Why?” Belle asked.
“Because I’ve been afraid,” Duster said, “that our mine entrance is not the only entrance into the crystal caverns. And we are not the only group traveling in time.”
“Oh,” Belle said, sitting back against the couch.
Suddenly Zane understood exactly why he was sitting here.
“So we’re going looking for more openings?” Zane said. “From the inside of the big caverns.”
“We are,” Duster said, nodding.
“And what are we going to do if we find them?” Zane asked.
“Block them before anyone can start using them,” Parks said, his voice intense.
“Not sure if that will be possible,” Duster said.
Parks just shrugged. They clearly had had that discussion already.
“So that means we’re going back to 1880,” Zane said.
“From here we’ll jump to 1900,” Duster said. “We’ll get supplies and pack horses and such and get them into the cavern. Then we’ll jump back another twenty years from there.”
“Sort of a small step,” Zane said, liking that idea. “So we don’t always reset to here.”
“Exactly,” Bonnie said.
“How big are these caverns?” Belle asked.
“We don’t know exactly,” Bonnie said.
“I believe they circle the globe along the 42nd parallel,” Duster said.
“We don’t know for sure,” Bonnie said, looking at her husband.
“But that’s what the math says,” Duster said.
Zane had one problem. “I can’t imagine a complex of caves stretching that lon
g would not have been discovered in my time, or two hundred years into the future, for that matter which you would have known about as well.”
Both Bonnie and Duster nodded.
Then Duster said, “The complex of crystal caverns we believe exists in a dimension just off of any normal dimension. We tried to plot them with ground penetrating equipment at one point and couldn’t even see our main cavern.”
“But entrances are the links,” Bonnie said. “When Duster’s distant relatives broke through into the big crystal cavern, he basically anchored that part of the cavern system to our timelines.”
“The math backs it all up,” Duster said.
Zane sat back, trying to wrap his mind around what he had just heard. So he was going to explore a complex of massive caverns in the past, caverns that actually didn’t exist in any real time. That was damn hard to believe or imagine.
But he also couldn’t imagine sitting in a big cavern one hundred years in the past either, talking with people who looked his age, but who had lived many, many thousands of years.
So he figured anything was possible.
CHAPTER TWENTY
June 16th, 2020
Boise, Idaho
AFTER TALKING WITH the founders for a few more hours about the coming project, Zane and Belle walked downtown along Warm Springs Avenue in the warm evening air, shaded under the large trees that lined both sides of the street. The walk was just about as comfortable as any walk Belle could remember taking.
She and Zane just seemed to fit together, and the more time she spent with him, the more she really liked him and admired his quick mind and fearless nature when it came to things that just scared her to death.
They were walking hand-in-hand, as they tended to do the last few days, and she loved the feel of his skin against hers. The slight breeze smelled of hot sagebrush and as they neared the Brooks Garden Restaurant the smell was joined by garlic and fresh bread.
They had eaten here three times over the last week together, and they both loved it. The young hostess wearing a dark blouse and black pants behind the counter recognized them and showed them to a private table near the back, surrounded by plants and high-backed booths.
Belle hadn’t realized just how hungry she was until they walked in and sat down. Before the hostess could leave, Belle asked her for a basket of the fresh bread.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Zane said, smiling.
The bread seemed to just appear on their table a moment later and as Belle was smothering a piece with honey butter, she asked Zane, “So what is it going to be like exploring a cave complex that large?”
“Honestly,” Zane said, working on his own piece of bread, “more than likely impossible. But I won’t know until I’ve seen it.”
She nodded. “Sounds like the problem is going to be food.”
“Among thousands of other problems,” Zane said. “Tomorrow, I plan on having Bonnie and Dawn describe the main cavern as closely as possible. Then I’m going to have Director Parks do the same thing. After that, I’ll be able to at least start to form a plan and get ready as much as I can.”
“I’d like to sit in on those discussions,” Belle said and then took a bite of her bread, letting the wonderful soft taste of butter and freshly baked bread melt in her mouth.
Before Zane could even answer, the waiter showed up and they both ordered their favorite salads. She went with the Cobb salad and he ordered the chef’s salad. And they both ordered iced teas as well.
After the waiter left, she turned to face Zane across the table. “And not only do I want to listen in on the description of the cave, I want to go with you.”
He frowned. “I would love that, but don’t you have a massive project to start?”
“We’ll only be gone for a few minutes, remember?” she said, laughing.
He almost blushed, then smiled. “Forgot, and if we start from the institute, we can go back a hundred times into the caverns and yet still only be gone from here for a few minutes one day.”
“Exactly,” she said. “And besides wanting to spend all that time with you, I can really get to understand what I am facing on my genealogy project.”
“I would love to have you along,” Zane said, smiling. “It might be dangerous, but again, I suppose that won’t matter.”
“I am willing to take that risk of some pain,” she said. “And I love caves.”
He nodded. “I would love to have you along.”
“Thank you,” she said. Now that was decided. Now she had one more thing to get out of the way.
“You know,” she said, smiling at him. “You have never invited me to see your apartment.”
He sort of opened his mouth, then closed it, shaking his head and smiling. “I would be glad to show you my apartment at any point.”
“How about right after dinner?” she asked, enjoying the stunned look on his handsome face.
“Any specific area of the apartment you really want to see?” he asked, trying not to smile.
“I was thinking that since you spend most of your time there in the bedroom, that would be the most interesting place.”
He laughed that wonderful, deep laugh she had come to love over the last week.
“I also spend time in the shower,” he said.
“We can start there,” she said.
“Right after dinner?” he asked.
“Right after dinner,” she said.
“How fast can you eat?”
“Damned fast,” she said, laughing with him and enjoying the smile on his face. “But don’t ask for the check just yet. I’m hungry.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
June 17th, 2020
Boise, Idaho
ZANE AWOKE SLOWLY to the morning sun streaming in his bedroom window. Belle lay stretched out naked beside him, one hand touching his chest, her other arm covering her eyes from the light.
The sheet was only pulled up to just above her waist and her dark nipples were slightly hard. Her skin was fantastically smooth and soft and seemed flawless.
Last night they had barely made it to the shower before they made love for the first time. It had been intense and fast and hard, and he could never remember ever feeling like that with any woman, ever.
Then they had finished their shower, making sure the soap got a great workout as they explored each other’s bodies. That was going to be an hour he would remember fondly, and vividly, for the rest of his life.
Then they had crawled onto his bed and made love for the next hour, going slow and easy and again ending with an intensity that he could have never imagined before.
They just fit together in all ways it seemed.
“Enjoying the view?” she asked without moving her arm away from covering her eyes.
“Very much,” he said, easing the sheet down even more so that she was lying there basically naked.
Her body was stunning. Trim and in shape, with narrow hips and skin that felt almost like silk to him.
He stroked her stomach, moving his hand gently from her crotch to her breasts and then back again.
She moaned slightly after a moment, and then without warning, she swung over and on top of him, kissing him harder than she had done last night.
Fifteen passionate minutes later, they were once again headed back to the shower.
And forty minutes later they were dressed.
While she went to her apartment to get fresh clothes, he had managed to cook them both a small breakfast of eggs, toast, and summer fruit salad.
When she came back in she was laughing. “I love that almost no one is here in this complex. The walk to my apartment didn’t even feel embarrassing.”
“So you took a walk of shame in college, huh?” he asked, laughing.
“Only once,” she said. “Hung over, wearing a dress completely out of place for where I was at, mad at myself for sleeping with such an idiot. How about you?”
“Only once as well,” he said. “And as with yours, al
cohol poisoning fogged my judgment.”
“I hope nothing was foggy last night,” she said, smiling as she sat down at the counter and he slid a plate of food toward her along with a glass of orange juice.
“Nothing foggy about that at all,” he said, moving around the counter and kissing her hard again until she pushed him away.
“Hungry,” she said. “And you keep that up, these wonderful-smelling eggs are going to get cold.”
“A price eggs must pay at times,” he said. But he moved around and served himself some eggs and fruit salad before sitting down across the counter from her. He was hungry as well.
After a moment he looked up at her. “Does this mean we only need to pack one tent on the excursion into the caverns?”
She laughed and he loved the sound of that. “So because you don’t want us to carry two tents, you are asking me to move in with you after just one week of knowing me?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” he said. “Damned tents can get heavy.”
Again she laughed. “I guess I’ll suffer for the expedition.”
And he loved the sound of that as well.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
June 25th, 2020
Boise, Idaho
FOR A WEEK, Zane and Duster worked on the plans for the expedition into the caverns and how they would do it over the next week while Belle worked with Dawn and Bonnie to try to track down as many of the family starts as they could trace with the information they had to try to find a pattern.
Belle had figured that since the pattern of the sudden starts of genealogy birth-lines around this entrance to the caverns was in the West, mostly focused in the Pacific Northwest, that other sudden genealogy starts might also be clear given some data.
She stayed focused on areas along the 42nd parallel as Bonnie and Duster suggested, and found one clear start-up cluster of genealogy lines in North and South Dakota.
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