The Garden

by Craig W. Turner

  Amy felt a rustle next to her and took her eyes off the stage for a moment. She looked down to find Robert standing next to her, also watching the front. “Robert?” she said.

  He looked up at her, noticing her for the first time. He didn’t say anything, simply pointing to the front of the room with an incredulous look on his face.

  “I don’t know,” she mouthed to him, shaking her head. “Where did you go?”

  He was looking toward the front again. “To get some air,” he said.

  “SATP is under attack,” Dipin said, spurring a new flurry of keyboard pecking amongst the reporters. “It didn’t happen overnight, but over time. It is the reason that I left months ago. The mission has changed, and the new mission of SATP is not one that is going to be beneficial to the program itself, or the world, in general. I cannot point to who is attacking the program, because the assault is coming from multiple angles. But I will assure you, danger is imminent.”

  “What is he talking about?” Amy whispered.

  “I’m not sure,” Robert said.

  “The bottom line is…” Dipin said, leaving a pause before continuing. Amy knew that he wouldn’t do that for dramatic effect, but because what he was about to say was going to be a significant statement for him, personally, to make. “SATP must be shut down. The time travel technology must be destroyed for good.”

  A hundred hands went up with a barrage of questions shouted toward the stage. Amy looked down at Robert, who made eye contact with her. “What is he doing?” she asked.

  Robert tugged at his chin for a moment, and Amy realized he wasn’t looking at her, but through her. “Great question,” he said. “How do we find out?”

  CHAPTER 29

  Landon’s ability to think on his feet ended up being a timely skill, as Robert and Dipin had only just left the room when six SATP security agents burst through the door. They’d searched diligently through the mostly empty apartment and then grilled Landon on why he was in the room in the first place. He’d told them it was his second day on the premises, and he’d gotten lost on the way back to his own apartment, which was also in this hallway. They’d followed him to his rightful pad while he wondered why he was lying for these people who were manipulating him. Before they’d asked the natural question of how Landon had gained access to the room, one of the agents received a message and they quickly left the room.

  He decided the best thing he could do right then was barricade himself in his apartment and hide. The mysterious speech Dipin had given him only served to further confuse what was already a very cloudy situation. But he knew it had affected him; for the first time, he had a glimpse of Reilly as a bad person.

  As Landon lay on his new bed in what he knew would be a futile attempt to sleep, he was spellbound by the turn he’d taken in the previous ten minutes. He had no reason to believe Dipin, who’d fled the program in disgrace; or to doubt Reilly, with whom he’d only had limited interaction. But the kinship he felt with Dipin as fellow countrymen was superseding any loyalty he should’ve been feeling to the SATP hierarchy and his new team. Which he didn’t see as a negative thing. He simply hadn’t had the opportunity to build that level of trust, with anyone.

  Also, Landon knew he was being played from all sides. Reilly, pulling his college paper out and dramatically throwing it on the table in the middle of a meeting. Dipin with his speech. Claire picking him up on the way to Reilly’s office and trying to sneak in her own motivations. Even the stupid game with the ping-pong balls at the party. He knew they were setting him up. Though he didn’t know for what, because nothing was consistent. He was also certain that when Robert found him “in an hour,” as he promised, it would only be for further manipulation.

  The only one he trusted at this point was Keegan, who Landon noticed wore his heart on his sleeve. That Keegan would burst into the room and “mistakenly” break the news that Landon was expected to participate in this mission told him that he wasn’t in this for the politics or the gamesmanship. These were some of the smartest people on the planet – they didn’t make ignorant mistakes like that. He was in this to go on this mission to Eden and make it a success. Blabbing about Landon was Keegan’s way of moving the process along when others were stalling, and not wasting time trying to make him believe something that wasn’t true. While it wasn’t as upfront as simply talking with him face-to-face, it was more respectable than not saying anything at all, or softly coaxing him toward it. It was perhaps the only way Keegan could have done it in a way that still respected SATP protocols and chain of command.

  Landon pulled a sheet over himself and rolled on his side. He wasn’t concerned about what Robert had to say to him, and knew that if it was that important, he’d be able to find him here in his bedroom. He closed his eyes and tried to think of a simpler life back in India.

  CHAPTER 30

  As Robert watched, SATP security guards rushed the stage. Several of them tackled Dipin to the ground as a wave of digital recorders at the end of extended arms surged toward the dais. Bedlam erupted, and Robert took the opportunity to quietly slide back out the room’s rear doors and through another, marked, “SATP Personnel Only.”

  The situation was bad for Dipin, but advantageous for him. He’d made a gambit, walking into a crowded media room, that he wouldn’t be the center of attention, and it had worked. When he’d seen Amy standing a speaker trying to get a view of the stage, he knew he was safe. He needed someone to see him in the room, wondering with the rest of them where Dipin had come from, as a reliable story. He knew the media, of course, would ultimately spot him if he stood there long enough, but Amy was better. As good as he was with the media, he wasn’t sure he had good answers to the questions about the Attorney General just yet.

  Of course, he would deny any of the ridiculous accusations, but that would accomplish nothing when it came to the survival of the program. Yes, Robert agreed SATP had some flaws and, as Dipin had put it, some “inherent dangers.” He always knew that. He didn’t agree with him that Reilly was evil, but then again, he had a different relationship with Reilly than Dipin had. Even if ultimately Robert had to leave, he didn’t want the program to end. He’d played such a huge role in building it, and believed in his heart that it did good. He was a sociologist, and he knew that understanding the past was the key to a successful future – in a modern world that became more complicated and dangerous every day.

  His phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out and inspected the screen. It was Reilly. It surprised him that Reilly was only calling him now, since he’d been gone for some time. Perhaps he simply knew Robert needed a little leeway under the circumstances. But with Dipin in the building, there was too much to attend to, so the time for respectful distance was over. He waved his hand over the screen and Reilly’s face appeared in a hologram hovering above the device.

  “Did you see who showed up?” Reilly asked.

  “Yes, I saw it online and then caught the tail end of the press conference.”

  “Well, we’ve taken him into custody. Are you willing to speak with him?”

  “About what?” He almost laughed.

  “About where he’s been and why he suddenly shows up and recommends that the program be shut down?”

  Robert sighed deeply, thinking about how to answer. “Is there any point to it? You know him… He’s isolated, I imagine. Right? We really have work to do, don’t we?”

  “Well, we’re not at such a level of urgency that you couldn’t up and disappear for a couple hours,” Reilly said, then stopped. “I’m sorry. I don’t know where you went, but I understand if you needed to get away. This is not an easy time for you.”

  He shook his head. “No, it’s not.”

  “Let me rephrase,” Reilly said. “I would personally appreciate it if you would talk to him. He’s your friend.”

  “Isn’t he your friend?”

  Reilly laughed. “Friends don’t call for their friends to be fired. We were friends, yes. But I ha
ve a feeling the conversation that I’d have with him right now wouldn’t be all that friendly.”

  “I understand.” Robert said, trying to think of a way out of this. Not that he had any problem talking with Dipin. But Reilly insisting he do it, despite what he was going through, raised red flags. Maybe Dipin’s speech to Landon was getting to him, but there was no logical reason why, in the middle of planning this mission, him pulling aside and having a chat with Dipin was mission critical. Even so, he couldn’t come up with a good reason to say no. “I’ll do it. Where is he?”

  “Let me get the emotion of the situation settled down, and then I’ll let you know.”

  Robert had a brainstorm. “I want to bring the kid with me.”

  “The kid?” Reilly’s face held a look of confusion. “Landon? Why?”

  “His successor?” he said, making it up on the spot. “Might help him open up.”

  On the hologram, Reilly turned away for a moment, then looked back at the screen. “I don’t-” he said, then stopped. “He’s supposed to be sleeping right now.”

  “Andrew…” Robert said, shaking his head. “Nobody’s sleeping. Well, except probably Keegan. That guy could sleep through a hurricane. This kid just found out he’s traveling back in time 10,000 years in the morning. He’s lying there staring at the ceiling.”

  Reilly sighed. “Alright,” he said. “If you think it’s important. I’ll let you know when we get things settled down. Good?”

  He nodded. “I’ll be around.”

  Reilly’s image fizzled and was gone. Robert stuffed the device back into his pocket. He estimated he had about a half-hour to figure out what he could possibly say to Dipin, in what would be a well-monitored interview, and if the conversation could yield any benefit.

  His first priority was getting to Landon, though, so he turned and headed deeper into the complex.

  CHAPTER 31

  Claire’s eyes opened and she was lost for a second, disoriented. It took her a minute to figure out where she was. Her mind told her that it was time to get up and get back to work on the mission, but a quick check of her phone told her she’d been sleeping for only about two hours. She had two hours left to rest.

  It had been a while since she’d spent the night at Keegan’s apartment. While she hated herself for thinking it, it felt good to be there. If there was one thing Keegan excelled at in the role of boyfriend, it was making you feel protected and safe. For everything else, he was terrible. But Claire knew someday he was going to make some weak, timid, frightened girl very happy.

  Was she using him right now? Probably. But, as she’d reminded herself sitting outside his apartment door, they were friends before they were a couple. Long before they were a couple. Falling asleep on a friend’s sofa during a rare moment of vulnerability was not abnormal behavior. And he hadn’t had a problem with it. So why should she feel guilty?

  Her mind went to the mission and she immediately silenced it. That was no path to getting back to sleep. She was generally good at clearing what was usually a very active mind. Meditation had helped her train, but she also knew it was her diet – the sustainability capsules she ate instead of food were rich with Omega-3s and other minerals that kept her sharp. It was an advantage she had over the others, who insisted on putting other things into their bodies than were meant to be there.

  Still, she was nervous about the mission, and decided to allow herself some latitude due to the extraordinary circumstances.

  Sliding her feet off the couch and onto the floor, she wrapped the blanket around her and stood. Shuffling her feet as she walked, she quietly opened Keegan’s door and snuck into the darkness of his room. As softly as possible, she sat on the bed and lay her head on the pillow, immediately feeling his warmth overriding the chill of the air conditioning. In the dark, she could sense that he was facing away from her, which was good. No need to muddy the waters with any unintentional touching. Just two friends enjoying a couple hours of sleep next to each other.

  Keegan grunted and pulled his own covers up around his neck.

  Claire smiled and closed her eyes.

  CHAPTER 32

  Landon realized he was visibly shaking his head as they approached the door to the room where Dipin Chopra was apparently waiting inside. For a moment, he hoped that no one saw him, but then determined it didn’t matter. Things were spiraling so quickly out of control on the SATP campus that his brief demonstration of disillusionment would hardly raise an eyebrow.

  He’d somehow fallen asleep. Briefly. Of course, it wasn’t a solid sleep, since he knew Robert would be coming his way at some point. But those few minutes of rest were tied directly to a tumultuous day, and he’d been jolted awake when his team leader had buzzed his door.

  After Robert’s brief retelling of the events of the past hour, including Dipin secretly making his way to the media room to give a speech calling for SATP to be shut down, Landon was escorted to an area of the facility he didn’t even know would exist to join Robert in meeting with the organization’s prodigal son. He’d picked up on the charade without Robert having to spell it out for him – they were to interview Dipin as though Robert hadn’t seen him in months and Landon had never met him at all.

  What he didn’t understand was the point of the whole exercise. Robert had said that Reilly had asked him to meet with Dipin, which made no sense, especially now. What did he hope they would learn from him? He recognized that he was now questioning Reilly’s motivations at every turn.

  But here he was, about to go into the room and have what he anticipated would be a very cryptic conversation with his predecessor. He’d decided on the walk that his best approach was to adapt to Robert’s façade, and see where it would take him.

  Robert stepped past two hulking SATP security guards and thumbed the biometric panel on the wall. The door slid open and they entered. As Landon had expected, mirrored glass lined one wall like in the movies, so that others could look in. He surmised there would be cameras, as well, overseeing their every move, and a security team listening intently to everything any of them would say.

  Dipin rose and greeted them, giving Robert a big bear hug and then formally introducing himself to Landon with a handshake. “I’ve heard an awful lot about you,” he told him.

  “Likewise,” Landon said, before they all took seats.

  “I would’ve thought you’d be all shackled up,” Robert said. “After that stunt you pulled.”

  Landon looked at Dipin’s wrists across the table, also wondering why he was not being held more securely. Dipin laughed. “SATP, Robert?” he said. “Really?”

  “Where have you been?” Robert asked.

  “Oh, I took some time off,” Dipin said. “Went back to India. Spent some time in London and then came back this way through Toronto. I needed the time away.”

  “And what compelled you to come back here?”

  Dipin started to speak, then stopped. He looked thoughtfully for a second, then nodded in agreement to whatever he was thinking. “You needed me.”

  “I did?” Robert asked.

  “No, not you, personally. The program.”

  “What did the program need from you?”

  “It needed me to get up in front of the microphone and talk about what is really going on,” he said. “It didn’t have to be me, per se, just someone. But none of you would do it. None of you were able to do it.” Landon noticed Dipin glance in his direction. “Being dissociated from the program allows me… a little more flexibility.”

  “And having no one know where you are, too, I would imagine,” Robert said.

  Dipin smiled and nodded. “Yes, that helps, as well.”

  “And what now?”

  “Now, we wait and see what happens,” he said. “In the morning, they’ll come and arrest you, and you’ll spend the next three-to-five years in the court system trying to clear your name. Which you’ll do, of course, but by the time you’re done with that process you’ll be out of the game, and your nam
e will be tarnished to the point that it will be near impossible to pull yourself back up. At least to the place you are now.”

  Robert sighed. “What if I’m okay with that?” he asked. “Not the courts and the arresting part, of course. I’d prefer to avoid all of that, if possible. But being out of the spotlight.”

  Landon turned to look at Robert for the first time since they’d sat down. For the past few hours he’d been trying to identify everyone’s intentions, but this was a new wrinkle. He hadn’t considered that Robert’s motivation could be anything other than remaining Robert Mulvaney, the American hero of time travel. For him to admit that even a part of him wished for something different threw the entire landscape Landon had been designing in his mind off kilter.

  But Dipin knew Robert better than he did. “Yeah,” he said. “I don’t believe that for a second.” He paused for a moment. “So why are you guys here? What do you need me to say?”

  Robert slowly leaned forward and set his elbows on the conference table. “You made some pretty strong accusations up in front of the media,” he said, something Landon could neither confirm nor deny, not having had the opportunity to watch the playback of the speech before coming downstairs. “But you stopped conveniently at the point where you were about to name names. You already had everyone’s attention. Why didn’t you just keep going?”

  Dipin laughed again. “Well, if you saw the footage, I was tackled.”