“Hello. I’m Agent Black from Universe 1. And you are Angus MacNamara and Erin O’Shea from Universe 6. It’s a pleasure to see you both in person at last.”
Angus pulled his pistol. He held it to the ready at his side and didn’t point it directly, but he wanted them to know he could… and would, if necessary.
“Yes. Angus MacNamara would be me. Who’s doing the asking?”
Angus watched as the one who’d asked turned to the nearest one behind him. Maybe it was the drink, but they all looked nearly the same to him. He could scarcely tell them apart with their blackened glasses and blacker suits.
“Are we prepared at this time to insert the U10 version?” Agent Black asked the one behind him.
“Yes, sir,” his near twin replied.
Angus cocked his weapon and pointed it at the one doing most of the talking. “I don’t think so, boy-o. None of ya will be doing any inserting on me or my lady friend here,” he warned.
Erin put her hand on Angus’s arm. “Angus, they outnumber ya. And ya don’t even know what they’re meaning. Lower yer pistol before ya do something ya will regret.”
“Get behind me, woman. I’ll take a few of them out before I go. Maybe they’ll change their mind about what they intend to do to ya.”
Erin snorted and hung on to his arm. “If this is another of yer practical jokes just so ya can fart in my direction again, I’ll not be falling for it this time. Now I insist ya pull yerself out of yer Guinness haze. Lower yer gun before the fecking thing goes off.”
“It’s alright, ma’am. I appreciate you trying to keep everyone safe, but it’s not necessary. The single bullet that was chambered has already been removed from Mr. MacNamara’s gun. He won’t be able to harm anyone,” Agent Black said quietly.
Erin turned as Angus pointed the gun to the sky and shot. The trigger clicked, but nothing happened. He jerked from her grasp to examine his pistol.
“What the feck? It can’t be empty. I just fecking chambered that round,” Angus declared.
“Yes, sir. You did chamber a round. In the time space just after you performed that action, and just before Ms. O’Shea arrived here, one of my men briefly inserted himself in a time stop and emptied the gun chamber while you were making your speech. You were so determined to end your life that we thought it best to intervene a bit earlier than originally planned.”
“Angus Ian MacNamara,” Erin said in shock. “Yer were going to end yer own life? Why in bloody hell would you do that?”
“My thoughts are my own fecking business… and none of yers… or theirs,” Angus said tersely, his head tilting to the men dressed all in black.
“I’m sorry to traumatize you with this information, Ms. O’Shea, but your presence is now needed as well. That’s why we hastily sent you the note from Mr. MacNamara. We’re to take the pair of you since you’re both available and here together.”
Erin gasped and shook the note at the man’s admission. “I can’t believe ya would be so conniving. May Brighid split ya from gut to gullet on my behalf.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Agent Black said cheerfully. “I am fully versed in ancient Celtic legends of your universe. Brighid was the goddess of the hearth and forge, but also the defender of women.”
“I’ll show ya a defender of women.” Angus started toward the man intending to beat the crap out of at least one of them so they’d know he wasn’t fooling around.
“Wait… did ya just say that ya fecking stopped time?” Erin yelled the crazy query in disbelief. Then she started walking toward the man she was trying to save. “Angus MacNamara, will ya control yer drunken self? They’re obviously all mad as diseased hens. No telling what they’ll do to ya. Get your big arse back here.”
“Shut up, woman,” Angus yelled. “Can’t ya see I’m trying to protect us?”
Erin shook her head fiercely. “All I see is an eegit walking half-cocked into a fight with a group of men half his age. Sure now they’re a skinny lot compared to ya, but I think it will only take a couple to bring yer weaving arse down. How much did ya drink today?”
“Actually, it will only take one of us,” Agent Black said calmly.
He motioned with his hand and another of the men pointed a device at a still advancing Angus. A few seconds later, Angus dropped like a large stone to the ground.
Erin ran forward and knelt. “Angus,” she called in alarm, but there was no answer. She looked up and glared at Agent Black. “Fecking bastard. Ya didn’t have to kill him.”
Agent Black smiled at her while the rest of his men fought grins. Erin felt her temper rising higher than she could ever remember.
“I don’t care what manner of men ya are, this is no laughing matter,” she yelled.
“Rest assured, Ms. O’Shea… I didn’t take his life. I merely subdued Mr. MacNamara until we can insert his alternate version from Universe 10 who died just this morning of natural causes. They don’t bury their dead there, so we gathered the body up for our use before they could incinerate it. Mr. MacNamara’s U10 self will show all the signs of having had a heart attack which will allow Mr. MacNamara’s U6 self to travel back with us unmissed. His children will find the U10 alternate and bury him beside his deceased wife. That’s what would have happened anyway if he’d shot himself… probably. Whatever the case, that’s the plan we’re going with now because we must.”
Erin’s mouth dropped open for the second time. Her brain was spinning, but she figured it best to go along with the crazies. “Is that so? What do ya plan to do with the live Angus? I didn’t quite catch all ya said a moment ago.”
“You and he will accompany us back to Universe 1 where you’ll serve New Earth and all its remaining people in a unique capacity using the learning of your Universe 6 professions.”
“Me? Goddess… yer taking me with ya too?” She stood up and glared at all of them. They wouldn’t be taking her without a fight.
“Yes, ma’am. I’m really sorry to deliver this news so abruptly. Here in Universe 6, you’ll unfortunately become one more missing person who vanished without a trace. That happens naturally, and for the usual reasons, in all universes so it’s not like the scenario isn’t feasible in Universe 6 space time. I’m quite certain those who miss you will assume you left because the love of your life died so suddenly.”
Erin raised her hands to the sky. “Why anyone believe such a thing? I’ve never had a husband. I have no love,” she declared loudly.
Agent Black smiled again. “With all due respect ma’am, I was speaking of Mr. MacNamara.”
Erin was so shocked this time that she was speechless for a moment. The men were strangers. How could they know that about her situation?
She looked down at Angus still on the ground. Her inner harpy rose to the surface like it always did when someone pointed out her weakness for the most contrary man she’d ever had the misfortune to lust after.
“Angus MacNamara? Ya think he’s the love of my life? Now I know yer all mad for sure.”
Agent Black rubbed his chin and looked at the other men. They looked at each other and shrugged.
Erin heard yet another one speak up. He said, “In all multi-verses, Ms. O’Shea is with him at some point.”
When Agent Black turned back around to face her, she saw her fate in his determined gaze.
“Then I remain committed to my plan to take you both. Sorry, but we need you to come with us, Ms. O’Shea. Hopefully you will be a calming influence on Mr. MacNamara.”
“And what happens if I don’t fecking want to go with ya?” Erin demanded.
The last thing she saw was Agent Black waving a hand to the man behind him. The device came up again and suddenly she was falling face first across Angus’s plaid ass.
2
Universe 1, June 17, 2497 at the Alien Abduction Service…
“I am Toorg.”
Erin looked up at the handsome, blond guard who had been assigned to her. The man was shirtless today, just like he’d been every other d
ay she’d been there. Handsome as sin the man was, and there were so many like him here that her woman senses stayed on overload from all the man candy strutting around on display.
“Yes, I know who ya are, Toorg. Good morning to ya.”
“I am Toorg,” he said more cheerily.
Erin said nothing more even though he smiled even harder at her, because saying anything else would merely prompt an additional repeat. Nate told her Toorg had several English phrases he used for normal self expression, but he only spoke the one with her.
“Let’s go see Angus,” Erin said, knowing it was permitted.
When she’d come back to her senses and realized she was in this strange place, she’d learned they’d put an unconscious Angus in some sort of clear box they claimed was for medical reasons. He’d been in there since they arrived, but the healers wouldn’t discuss any details of what was happening to him. She could do nothing for her peace of mind but keep checking on him so that’s what she’d been doing several times daily.
Toorg bowed his head. “I am Toorg,” he said again, but softer.
Her long suffering sigh at the concern in Toorg’s tone could be heard echoing down at least two hallways of the underground facility. Heads actually lifted from the devices in their hands as they slid by on the moving walkway. Apparently, people here were too lazy to use their legs for much real walking.
Erin lifted a hand to the ones who had glared at her sighing outburst, but had no idea if they understood her lame apology or not. She was too overwhelmed though to spend any worry on what they thought of her. She had enough problems staying on good terms with the man who fecking ran this place. Nate said he was the lead healer, but she’d known immediately he was much more. The blond guard who shadowed her, and his brown-haired counterpart, both kow-towed to the man.
Most of those she interacted with daily were fecking aliens, as in actual strangers from other planets, if ya could believe it. That included Toorg here beside her, but also others that were far more convincing that such a story could be truth. Most of the aliens looked like any other human, only larger and more heavily muscled, even larger than Angus who was a mountain of a man. But they weren’t like humans in all ways and ya could see it in their eyes when ya were close enough.
Some days she couldn’t take it all in. Often she pretended to herself that she’d just gone somewhere on a teaching job, like to England or Wales. Back in her younger days, those places had struck her as equally strange when she’d visited them. No doubt her logical mind was still in complete denial about the situation, but Goddess knew, everything in her was trying hard to wrap itself around what she’d been told.
The people here called this place Universe 1. Not only was it different in look and landscape, but she had been informed that she and Angus had traveled to the future. Universe 6—the place she and Angus called home—was supposedly both located somewhere else and in the past of both places. As a teacher, she was a educated woman and had been no slouch in the modern sciences. Nothing she knew explained anything she and Angus had endured since they’d been taken from their home.
Goddess… the alien story made her mind spin more than the science they spouted.
Five hundred years ago in Universe 1, the Earth had been invaded by bad aliens, then months later saved by good aliens, and afterward the Earth joined an interplanetary alliance with yet more aliens. She was told that all the friendly aliens now came and went from Earth through some sort of magic portal that she imagined would have shocked Brighid with its power—if ya trusted they were being truthful about things.
Nate had explained to her that Agent Black had used the portal to bring her and Angus there. He’d also explained that their arrival was being kept a big flipping secret from everyone. She and Angus were just supposed to quietly replace the Universe 1 versions of themselves who had died. Though how they expected to fool everyone was yet another mystery to her.
Given that it was all men in charge telling the stories, Erin suspected the portal wasn’t really magical. She just had no fecking idea how it worked and probably never would. No, she had come to realize in the last month that her mind was crafted of softer stuff. She understood the hearts of those like herself, their longings and wishes, their emotional journeys. The people called their magic ‘high science’, but it was fecking fairy stuff when you got entangled in it.
Lost in her normal frustration, Erin was bit startled to feel Toorg gently touch her shoulder to bring her attention to him. He silently held the door open to the medical area and met her gaze. She’d zoned out for most of their walk.
“I am Toorg,” he said very softly, nearly in a whisper.
Nodding at his consideration, for she’d learned in the weeks he’d been with her that was what his lower tone meant to convey, Erin walked into the medical area without him.
Her breath caught and her heart beat nervously when she saw the clear box where Angus had been all that time was now empty. Then her relieved gaze finally landed on Angus and his no longer fat arse lying on a nearby table. She raised a hand to her chest to calm her heartbeat as she neared him. The sheet covering him moved up and down. It was all that kept her from thinking he was dead.
He’d spent over four weeks in that fecking box, and now Angus was a changed man, at least physically. She put a hand on his arm. It was warm to her touch, thank the Goddess. She had feared they might turn him into one of the cold ones.
Some of the aliens had much lower body temperatures. Their clothing kept them at a chilled level that would have had her building a peat fire in the hearth of her little cottage back home. How she missed that little house now, even the broken stove and the misbehaving flue. She missed everything. But Nate had warned her to not dwell on the past since there was no going back to it. He said going back was scientifically impossible and looked like he believed what was said.
“Angus,” she whispered in his ear. “Are ya alright? Speak to me, for feck’s sake. I’ve been waiting weeks for ya to come around. I don’t like being the only one scared shitless here.”
His eyes blinked open and a turquoise gaze finally met hers. She wanted to lay her head on his chest and weep with relief that he lived.
“What the feck happened to me?” Angus asked, moving to sit up.
Grateful she was so strong, Erin pushed him back down. “No, don’t raise up. Ya have been very ill. Take it slow for a bit. No one means ya harm here.”
“Apparently that fellow I drew my gun on did,” Angus said dryly.
Erin shook her head at his sarcasm and wondered if even death could have defeated it. “He’s the least of our concerns now, Angus. I haven’t seen him since I got here.”
His grip on her arm was warm and urgent. “Did those men hurt ya, Erin?” he asked roughly.
Again, Erin shook her head. Men could defile ya themselves when they took a notion, but then they’d take a knife to anyone else that tried. And they thought women were hard to understand.
“No, Angus. They’ve all been completely kind. When ya are well enough, I will explain what I know of things. It’s very confusing here, but once ya adjust, they let ya move around with just one guard.”
“Is this… is this a prison then?” Angus asked.
Erin could tell he was fighting sleep and losing. “No. I don’t think so. It’s just very different from Lisdoonvarna. Sleep now, Angus. We’ll talk in a bit when ya are more alert. They let me come visit ya whenever I want.”
“Good. Come back soon then,” Angus said.
She felt him pull her hand to his chest. Even covered with a sheet she could feel the hard muscles beneath her palm. Angus felt under her fingers like Toorg looked. The heart-breaking bastard certainly hadn’t felt like that before he went into the fecking box.
She sighed now thinking about the one time she’d found herself under him. Even with no muscles like those he currently possessed, Angus had shown her a slice of heaven she’d never seen before. It had been wonderful right up to the part
where he’d called her ‘Mary’ just before finding his relief.
But that was water under a bridge neither of them would ever see again.
Nine years Angus had mourned his wife, and nine years Erin had waited for him to stop. As far as she knew, there had been no other woman but her under him in all that time. Angus no doubt preferred his own hand, especially if there was a oversized glass of ale in the other one.
Erin snorted at her wicked thoughts. “I can’t believe they’d think I’d ever love a wreck of a man like ya. Obviously, the Universe 1 version of me was completely daft to love her own. Unless yer version here was made better… and I highly doubt it.”
She stopped talking when she saw Angus was unconscious again. Running her hand down his chest, she let her fingers bump over all the ridges. Why hadn’t they bothered to do this to her body? She was soft around the middle and it might have been nice to have a tighter butt and a better lift to her breasts. Thirty-eight wasn’t old by any definition she had of aging, but it wasn’t like she was twenty-five either. Angus felt twenty-five now… or at least thirty-five.
They’d sent her through some fecking beeping machine and not touched her again afterward. That decision, given what they’d done to Angus, was just one more thing she didn’t understand in this fecking place.
Her hand drifted lower as she continued to ponder their situation. Angus jerked in response to her stroking fingertips and woke again under her touch. She snatched her hand away, mostly because it wanted to keep exploring what she’d accidentally found beneath the sheet.
“Damn it. We’ve been kidnapped,” Angus said with worried eyes, then rolled his head to the side and slept once more.
Erin nodded, though Angus could no longer see her. “That’s close enough to the truth of it,” she agreed quietly.
She tucked the covers around him and laid her head briefly on Angus’s chest just to hear his heart beating for a moment. The sound of it reassured her. Seeing him in that box the first time, she hadn’t known if he’d been dead or alive. She’d screamed at those close enough to hear and had wept openly over not being able to change their fate.
Heidi: Nano Wolves 3 Page 19