QUANTUM (Portal Chronicles Book Three)

by Imogen Rose

  Her hand inadvertently moved to the unopened book on her desk and drew it toward her. The green cover appealed to her and she flicked through the book, stopping on page thirteen, her eyes focusing in on one word.

  Quantum

  Quantum mechanics… she read on. Perhaps this whole time-travel thing was not totally insane. She gave herself a shake. Of course it was! She threw the book into the box and sat back and closed her eyes. It was time to move on.

  Claire did need to unwind, to have some fun. She looked down at her feet and at the sorry footwear that couldn’t really be categorized as shoes. The hideous black sneakers were comfortable, and the manufacturer promised a pert set of thighs if used enough. She should sue them. Thankfully it was fall and open-toed shoes were out. Her toes hadn’t been pedicured for months, they looked revolting. What she really desired was a pair of Manolos, however, she would have to settle for the black Stuart Weitzman pumps she had splurged on. She slipped into them, making sure not to glance at her feet while doing so; there was no point in spoiling the illusion. When they were safely on, Claire looked down, admiring her shoes. It was amazing how a pair of nice shoes could change one’s outlook on life. She suddenly felt much brighter and ready for some fun. She grabbed her bag, ready to head over to the restaurant when her cell phone rang.

  “Agent Adams?”

  “Yes.”

  “This is Agent Pitt. Are you still in your office?”

  “I was just about to head out,” Claire said. “What’s up?”

  “It’s the Darley-Fox case,” he replied.

  “What about it?”

  It was October again! The sky was clear and the stars were twinkling, their light dancing off the shimmer of the lake. I couldn’t help but smile. Everything was perfect. This lake continued to be my favorite place, despite what happened last year. Kellan and I had been back many times since then, but the incident still haunted me. The events of that night would be forever embedded in my memory. Not that I could remember much from the incident itself–just a sudden blackout. I guess that’s what frightened me the most, that I had been completely unaware of the impending danger. That night, last October, had definitely made me more vigilant, more aware of my surroundings. I was always on guard. Even now, as I lay watching the stars with my head firmly planted in the crook of Kellan’s arm, I wasn’t completely relaxed. I listened to every sound. The creaking of the tree branches, the rustle of the leaves, the occasional scurrying of small animals–squirrels mostly, I hoped–and the other nighttime noises, all intensified to my alert ear. Kellan broke my concentration by turning toward me and whispering into my ear.

  “Did you feel that?”

  I nodded. Of course I did. The October Shivers. It’s what we call the subtle tremors caused by the vibrations coming from Ames at this time of year. Of course, not everyone knows that they come from Ames and that the time-travel portal my mother manufactured is responsible for them. I wondered if Mom was over there messing around with the portal. I still wanted to go back to Princeton to visit Dad. I would ask her about it tomorrow. Was it even safe? Raj Sen had tampered with it with last year. Was he still at large?

  The last time anyone had seen him was in the other dimension–Stevensland, as I like to call it. That’s where my dad was and that’s where I would have to go back to see him again. I hoped that Raj had disappeared, though he obviously didn’t vaporize or anything. So, there was a possibility of running into him in Stevensland. Now, that would be unpleasant, to say the least. Although Raj was not much to contend with size-wise, he was a nasty lump of evil to be reckoned with. In a short space of time, Raj had stabbed David’s dad, killed his own wife, Erica, and then taken off. What a jerk. All in order to get the blueprints of the portal so he could sell them and become rich. Unfortunately, for him, his scheme–harebrained to start with–had gone woefully wrong. He definitely didn’t bargain for the Wanderers suddenly appearing and turning his plans to dust.

  It was hard to believe a whole year had passed since then. I could still graphically remember the dark basement that Kellan and I were held in, the excruciating pain that followed once the sedative drugs used to take us there had worn off. I remember the excitement when I first woke up back home in Princeton and then the desperation I felt when I discovered that Kellan was not with me anymore. The Wanderers rescued us. If it weren’t for them, goodness knows what would have become of us. It was because of them that we were back here by the lake, able to appreciate the calm and serenity of the evening. I turned over to face Kellan. I swept the strands of hair off his face revealing his gorgeous eyes. They were gazing right into my soul, or so it seemed anyway. I know that sounds a bit melodramatic, but sigh. He brushed his lips against mine and I moved in toward him.

  “Mmm, this is so good. Shrimp, I want to lie here forever,” he whispered.

  No argument from me there. I totally gave in to snogging–as they call it over in England–my boyfriend.

  He suddenly pulled away from me. “Easy, Shrimp. We better stop,” he laughed.

  Sigh. Again.

  I still lay as close to him as I possibly could and my mind wandered back to the previous year.

  Though last October had been full of adventure and drama, life had since calmed. After Halloween, everything mellowed out. Life settled into a comfortable routine. Kellan and I became inseparable. Ice hockey still dominated my free time. It was great having my older brother as captain of the team. We had grown very close, spending a lot of time together both on and off ice. So it was very difficult to watch him head off to college. I really missed him, as did Ella. She was closest to him. Thank goodness for Skype, at least they got to see and talk to each other everyday.

  Harry graduating from Mountain View High had left a big dent in the varsity hockey team. He’d been the clear-cut choice for captain last year and it was assumed that David would take over for our senior year. However, when David’s dad was stabbed by Raj, he naturally went over to Stevensland to look after him. We fully expected him to come back once his dad had recovered. But, strangely, David decided to stay over there. Why? It was a complete mystery. He was so close to his mother that there must have been some mitigating circumstances for him to make that decision–if it was, indeed, his decision. He was a Wanderer, after all, and they answered to their leader, Constance.

  So, toward the end of last semester, Coach Stanislaw was pretty much tearing his hair out–the little he had– trying to decide on a new team captain. He needed to make a choice between Kellan and me. We were clearly the two best players on the team. His decision was made easier when I was asked to be the captain of the local all-girls travel hockey team. It would be good for me to show any lurking college scouts that I was a force to be reckoned with. I needed to be able to prove to them that I could play at college level for a girls’ team. So, Kellan was the new varsity captain, but I would play for them as much as I could, my priority being my own girls’ team. So, any spare time we had was spent at the ice rink, slamming pucks at each other and practicing the different drills.

  “Kell, are you excited about captaining the team?”

  He laughed. “Regretting your decision to captain the girls’ team?”

  I nudged him sharply with my elbow. “No! I need to do this to be able to play college hockey.”

  “I know. I’m going to miss having you on the team. Though I have to admit that I was dreading having to play for you!”

  “Why?” That was hurtful. I mean I was as good as any of the boys–better, even. I pouted to make sure that he knew I was unhappy. And I moved away from his neck to make doubly sure he got the message.

  “Oh, come on, Shrimp. You’re going to be a total control freak as captain.”

  “And you’re not?” I challenged.

  “No, I’m not,” he said, and grabbed hold of me. “You know I’m not.”

  He was right, of course. I could already picture myself bossing the girls around. I would really have to rein myself in. I rolled
my eyes and slid back closer to him and we continued gazing at the stars. We’d have to go home soon–school tomorrow. Our lazy summer days were over–we had homework waiting.

  Our summer vacation had been great. We were busy with hockey camps and whatnot, but we’d also had plenty of downtime. Mom and Rupert discussed various travel plans with me, but I wasn’t really that into it. The school year had been busy and what I wanted most was to spend time with Kellan. And with Harry.

  I toyed with the idea of traveling to England to check out the Dillard Stevens who lived in this dimension. By all accounts, he was still in Leeds. I spent some time googling him and learned that he was separated from his third wife–or whatever–and seemed to have a total of five kids, from what I could tell. That’s not including Ella or me. Though Ella and I were not his daughters–technically. I mean we weren’t conceived in this dimension, I would imagine.

  There were two Dillard Stevens, the same person living two separate lives in two different dimensions. The one in this dimension had no idea that Ella or I existed. I was still Dillard Stevens’ daughter from the other dimension. So confusing! I wasn’t born in this dimension. But, could I have been conceived in this dimension? Was there a time when both the Dillards were the same person, in one dimension, and the dimension then split? I vaguely recalled the many-worlds theory that Kevin had tried to explain to us.

  I was fairly sure a DNA test would prove I was the daughter of both the Dillards! I couldn’t work it out, and until I did it would perhaps be best to leave things be, no point upsetting the status quo, until we knew more.

  Plus, imagine turning up in Leeds. Hello Dad! Imagine springing that on Dillard Stevens, perhaps to discover that he was not the least bit interested in getting to know us. He did have other kids! Besides that, I was not prepared to welcome a whole new family into my life, one that included multiple siblings and stepmothers. My life was complicated enough.

  Additionally, how would I explain to Ella that she had another dad, no, two other dads? She’d never known anyone but Rupert as her dad. She didn’t even know about our real dad back in Princeton.

  So, I decided to put those thoughts aside, it would open up a whole can of worms that was better left untouched. What I needed to do was to arrange to visit my dad in Stevensland. That would mean a trip through the portal, a not altogether comfortable thought, especially since the portal had been tampered with last year. Was it even safe? It was active again, thus the tremors. I would have to discuss it further with Mom.

  How was I going to explain my year-long absence to Dad? What had he done when I went missing? Was the FBI out looking for me? I guess, even if they had been, with no results a year later, they would probably have given up on me. Dad would be devastated. I doubted that he would have remained at our house in Princeton; it would’ve been too painful for him. Would I even be able to find him? Had he tried to contact Mom and Ella when I disappeared? If so, he would have hit another brick wall. Although I had asked Monica to let him know that I was okay, that wouldn’t be of any comfort when he came up against multiple dead ends trying to find me.

  One solution would be to head back to the other dimension back in time, to last year, so that no time would have been lost there when I went back. That way, I could just tell Dad that I had been away playing hockey or whatever. I wondered whether it was possible to reset the other end of the portal back to last year?

  The roar of a bike approaching from behind the trees interrupted my thoughts. Kellan and I were on our feet as we saw a beam of light flickering through the branches. The bike came to a dead stop right in front of us. After our misadventure at the lake last year, we were on guard. We braced ourselves. I clasped a rock in my hand, ready to pummel it into the biker. There was just one, no match for the two of us.

  The darkness made it hard to identify whom we were dealing with. However, once the helmet was lifted from his head and a shock of blond hair and the intense gaze of blue eyes were revealed, well... I threw myself at him. He lifted me up and bear-hugged me.

  “David! What are you doing back here? It’s so great to see you. I’ve missed you!”

  “Hey! What’s up?” Kellan added.

  “Good to see you, Poppet. Hey, Kellan. Rupert sent me out to get you. He wants you both to come back with me.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “He’ll explain when we get there. Come on, he wants us back right away.” David indicated an urgency revving his engine.

  He seemed pretty intense about it, so we reached for our helmets. Something serious must be going on. I climbed on behind Kellan and we took off, zigzagging through the trees to get to the main road. I wondered what was up. It was odd that Rupert had sent David out to get us. Why was he back? He hadn’t been around much in the past year. David had pretty much started living with his dad. He hadn’t shared anything about his life for a while. I guessed he was going to school in the other dimension. Boy, it would be so odd, yet cool, to experience the same school in different dimensions. I wondered if there was any overlap between students or teachers, probably not. I bet David was the ice hockey captain for their varsity team. Hopefully he would stay around long enough for me to be able to catch up with him. I had really missed him. The last time we’d had any real kind of chat was at the Halloween dance last year. That had been fairly short and was mostly about Simla and the very unfortunate news that her dad had murdered her mom.

  David and I shared a special bond. His Wanderer abilities had saved us from Raj last year and brought us even closer. The weirdest thing is that he seemed to be able to read my thoughts when he made physical contact with me. It would be so cool if I could do that, too! There was definitely an unusual connection between us, though I had been aware that he also like-liked me–in the human sense as well. I say liked because I had a feeling that David had gotten over that emotion. I noticed that at Christmas. He seemed a bit more detached around me. No more deep, piercing gazes or stolen touches. His mind seemed preoccupied. Certainly any romantic feelings that he may have had for me in the past seemed to have completely disappeared. I missed them in a strange way. Though I didn’t have any romantic feelings toward him, I felt very close to him. I guess it wasn’t that strange that he had withdrawn from me, especially after seeing how committed Kellan and I were to each other. Still, selfishly, I missed his closeness.

  Kellan and I tore down the road behind David toward my house and stopped just outside the front door. Rupert stood waiting for us on the porch. He was in his jeans and t-shirt. He was running his fingers through his dark hair, his blue eyes studying us intently as we walked up the steps.

  “Hey, kids. Come inside.”

  “What’s up?” I asked. “You look worried.”

  “Come inside and I’ll tell you.”

  We followed him in. After a year of living with him, I could still not figure Rupert out. I had somehow managed to avoid calling him Dad–it just didn’t feel right. He seemed really nice and utterly devoted to my mom. There was something about him, though.

  “David, thanks for driving out to get them. You’d better get back to your house. Your mom is waiting to take you over to Constance.”

  David nodded and turned around to wave at me, before heading toward the door.

  I stopped him. “David, I’d love to catch up with you before you go back to your dad’s. Are you going back soon or are you staying for a while?”

  “That would be great, Poppet. I may be around here for a while, so we’ll get a chance, no doubt.”

  “You will? I mean, you’re hanging around? How long?”

  “I’m not sure, but I won’t go without catching up with you first. Okay?” He came over and hugged me. I wondered if he could still read my thoughts when he touched me. He smiled and nodded. Then he looked over at Kellan. “Later, Kellan.”

  “So what’s up, Rupert?” Kellan asked, as we walked into the kitchen with him.

  Rupert looked uneasy. His hands were firmly stuffed in his pockets and
his lips were pursed. “I’m not sure where to begin,” he said, and ran his fingers through his hair again.

  I could tell that something bad had happened. Could there be news from Raj? “Just tell us. Where are Mom and Ella?”

  “Ella is at a sleepover. We–your mom and I–decided not to upset her. She’s safe where she is, we’ll pick her up in the morning.”

  “Safe? Where’s Mom?”

  “Olivia’s over at Constance’s house at the moment. I’m going to drive over there shortly to pick her up.”

  “What’s she doing at Constance’s house?” It was weird for Mom to be over at her house. Constance was now the leader of the Wanderers, since she took over from David’s mom last year. Mom didn’t quite believe that Wanderers even existed, even though they’d been instrumental in saving us. She refused to believe in anything paranormal. The thought that there were beings that were able to travel through time and dimension was beyond her level of acceptance. She firmly believed that they, too, had manufactured some kind of scientific device that allowed them to travel through time. So as to not to upset anyone, Mom tended to stay away from Wanderer talk. So it was strange that she was now visiting with their leader.

  Rupert glanced at his watch. He had done this a few times now, he was clearly waiting for someone to join us. “Arizona, the portal is functional again and we’ve had an unexpected issue with it.”

  “Unexpected issue?”

  “Yes, Arizona,” a voice said from behind me. “We have an issue that needs to be addressed.”

  I turned around and met the smiling eyes of Gramadea–her real name is Amadea–which is what we (practically everyone) call Rupert’s mom. Yes, strange I know. I don’t think of her as my grandmother–she isn’t–but I call her that anyway, out of respect. Where did she come from? I hadn’t heard the door open. I was surprised to see her. I had only met her once before, last Christmas.

  Last Christmas had been an elaborate affair, as are most other things here in Darleyland. We had a full house and Gramadea appeared on Christmas Eve, laden with gifts for everyone. I had immediately seen the resemblance between Rupert and her, the same striking blue eyes, for starters. I had immediately felt a warm feeling of serenity exuding from her, the same as I did when I got close to the Wanderers. However, there was a difference, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I hadn’t felt comfortable asking her about herself, she seemed fairly reserved. Rupert didn’t volunteer any information either. So, whether or not she was a Wanderer remained a mystery.