Before he could answer in his mind, the door to Jason’s lab opened and Dean’s heart dropped as he thought how it was just his luck to be busted so soon.
Henry walked in.
“Henry.” Dean ran his hand through his hair. “What . . . what are you doing here?”
“Joe sent me up to help you.”
“I don’t need help.” Dean walked, obviously clueless to the Regressionator.
“Oh really?” Henry moved to him. “You know about pulling up the history?”
“And you do?”
“I know more than you do, Dean.”
Dean scoffed in laughter.
“I know you’re a dick.” Henry stepped into Dean’s way and to the Regressionator.
“A dick?” Dean stopped laughing. “Where do you get off calling me a dick Henry?”
“Where do you get off trying to piss me off.”
“How do you figure?” Dean asked snidely.
“What? You’re gonna deny it?”
“Deny trying to piss you off? Yeah.”
“Then what do you call shoving Danny’s favor slip in my face?”
“I call it, trying to make you feel bad.”
“And you think you’re not a dick.” Henry said and faced the time machine.
“I didn’t say I wasn’t a dick Henry. I just wanted to know where you got off calling me a dick. When you started this whole ball rolling.” Dean’s tone heated.
“I asked for an understanding with Ellen!” Henry argued loudly.
“And I turned you down and you got pissed!”
“I got pissed because of your attitude about it.”
Dean tossed his hands up. “What attitude! You gave me the attitude first and then went down to Bowman to start trouble.”
“The reason I went to Bowman early and what happened when I was there, are two different things.”
“That is such bullshit and you know it. You went there to start trouble and get me worked up.” Dean pointed at Henry as they stood face to face. “You Henry went down there with every intention of being with my wife.”
“She’s my friend!”
“And you want more!” Dean’s face and loudness of his voice began to match Henry’s. “And because you can’t have more, you stomp like a child and decide you’re just going to take it!”
“I never went down there with any intentions of taking her from you! I went down there to be with her.”
“Be with her!?” Dean moved dramatically as he argued. “And you can stand here and tell me you went there without intentions of starting trouble. I told you Henry. I told you no! I have my reasons. She is my wife! If I don’t want to share her, I don’t have to. Not you. Not anyone, can make me do it. And out of respect for our marriage, you should not push the issue! But you did.”
“You wanna know what your problem is Dean?”
“Yeah, Henry tell me what my problem is.”
“I’ll tell you.”
“Tell me.”
“You have it in your little man mind . . .”
Dean’s laugh interrupted Henry. “Look at you trying to be Frank. Talk like him. Act like him. Have Ellen like him.”
“Shut up and let me finish.” Henry’s pointing finger came awfully close to Dean who had stepped closer to him. “You’re afraid!”
“Afraid of what?”
“Afraid of doing the same things you did before that caused Ellen to turn to someone else. And you know what Dean. You will. You’ll repeat your mistakes, because you’re too selfish not too.”
“Fuck you Henry.”
“Fuck you Dean.”
“And I am not here to fight with you.” Dean turned to the computer of the time machine. “I’m here to find out information and leave. So why don’t you go.”
“No, Dean. Why don’t you go. You’re way out of your league.”
“Me!” Dean reached for the keyboard. “Who’s the scientist?”
“Who’s the one that sets up everything for your scientist ass?” Henry moved into the keyboard. “Now step aside. I’ll do this.”
“I’ll do it.”
“Quit letting your pride get in the way. Let me do it. I know what I’m doing.” Henry placed his hands on the keyboard.
“And I don’t?”
“No.”
“Move Henry.” Dean moved Henry’s hands and laid his on the keyboard.
“No you move Dean.” Henry nudged Dean slightly.
“You move.” Dean stepped into Henry and laid his hand on the keys pushing Henry’s away.
“Dean.”
“Henry.”
“Move.” Henry grabbed Dean’s hands. Dean quickly retracted his hands from Henry and moved them to the keyboards again, when Henry reached for his hands, Dean smacked Henry’s.
Henry gasped and smacked Dean’s hands back, within seconds the struggle over who would get to the keyboard became a game of hostile Patty Cake between the two grown men.
It was the one word Joe always used to bring about order. Unfortunately, it wasn’t Joe who spoke it in the quantum lab. “Boys.” Jason stepped inside.
So startled Dean and Henry were, that they spun around, faced Jason, placed their hands behind their backs, and looked as guilty as two ten year old boys who were busted reading a dirty magazine in a drugstore.
Jason took a step further in, clearing his throat. “What’s going on? Why are you guys in my lab?”
Moving an inch away from Henry, Dean spoke up. “I came up to look for the Withers file.”
“You did?” Jason nodded. “Why didn’t you ask me where it was when I saw you twenty minutes ago?”
“I saw you twenty minutes ago?” Dean nudged Henry when he heard Henry tsk. “You know what? It didn’t dawn on me until I needed it which was ten minutes ago.”
Jason looked at Henry. “Henry, why are you in my lab?”
“Helping Dean.”
“Helping Dean?” Jason question. “Helping Dean look for a file?”
Dean let out one single snicker. “Good one, Henry.”
“Like you did any better.” Henry whispered.
Jason ran his fingers over his thin mustache and spoke calmly. “Now that you two proceeded to lie badly, what is going on?” He didn’t receive an answer. “How about I take a wild guess?” He walked to his main computer of the time machine. “You are trying to get in here? Why?” Still no response. “Wanna take a trip? I thought you boys learned?”
While Jason was speaking, Dean and Henry both let their minds work separately and both of them thinking they had an explanation, started talking only it was at the same time as the other.
Jason closed one eye in a wince at the meshed together voices. “Hold it.” He held up his hand. “Using logical deduction, obviously you don’t want to dismantle or vandalize my Regressionator because Henry knows this computer is not the link to do that. And Dean, you obviously aren’t looking for a file seeing how my files are over there.” Jason indicated to the stack. “Now, what is in this computer that you two want to get to. A bet? No.” Jason shook his head. “I think it’s something in here. Now seeing you aren’t planning any trips, I’m gonna gather it’s information on one of two things contained in this computer. You either wanna see the programming or you wanna see the history. I’ll make you a deal. I’ll give you one. I’ve got nothing to hide. You tell me, history or programming. Which is it that I give you?”
Henry and Dean looked at each other and then to Jason, speaking at the same time. “History.”
“Here.” Jason laid, a homemade book down in front of a sitting Henry and Dean. “This is the log. It coincides with everything in that print up, and even though you know the history is only printed up until the safeguarding of the time machine, my notes do go further.”
The long table Dean and Henry sat at was covered with papers. Dean pulled the log book to him. “These are all you time trip notes.?”
“Yes and some that Forrest logged as well. It’s stuff I don’t
put into the computer.”
“Thanks.” Dean put the log book between him and Henry as they reviewed. Test trips, real trips, trips Dean and Henry didn’t know about.
“Thank you for this,” Henry said.
“I have nothing to hide. You have any questions, just ask away,” Jason told them.
Dean raised his eyes to Jason. “You do know we can’t tell you why we need this information. We can only hope you won’t say anything to anyone.”
“I haven’t yet,” Jason stated.
Henry looked at him in wonder. “What do you mean, you haven’t yet? We’ve only been here a half hour.”
“I haven’t said anything about my thoughts which I think are the same as yours. That’s why you’re wanting to view it. I have to say, I thought Joe would be the one to finally come up here.”
“What are you talking about?” Dean asked.
“The possibility that there is someone working on the inside for the Society.” Jason said. He noticed the immediate pale expressions. “What? You don’t think that crossed my mind. It did. What makes me think it is the way that one trip back in time went. The one on March 6th, where I went as the constant. I got shot. Frank, Robbie, and Greg were chased. It was so much like a set up, I got curious.”
“And why didn’t you say anything?” Henry asked.
“Because I know the fingers would point at me,” Jason explained. “Just like now. I was frozen with the Society scientists, however, if any of you would stop to think. That trip I joined, if I was with the Society, why didn’t I just return alone, look frazzled, and act as if all went wrong?. No one would be the wiser. No one. It was after that trip that I thought someone set us up. Someone used the time machine.”
“Did they?” Dean asked. “You don’t have any trips logged.”
“See.” Jason leaned over Dean’s shoulder. “The computer history that tells of the trips is a manual history. That is what I put in. This . . .” Jason picked up a stack. “This history just shows the usage of power in the Regressionator. See.” Jason pointed to the date in the log book. “Time trip, but if you look on the power history, you have a power usage.”
Dean nodded and flipped a page. “Wait. Right here is the March 6th time trip.” He moved to the log book. “The power history shows a power usage on March 4th. But you have nothing logged.”
“That’s because I didn’t make a time trip on March 4th.”
“But the power usage says it happened,” Henry said.
“No.” Jason shook his head. “The history showed a power usage consistent with a time trip. We also get the same reading whenever there is a storm and we lose power momentarily. You can see in the history how often we have power usages and how often they don’t coincide with a trip.”
Henry checked it out. “I have to see if there was a storm March 4th. We keep track of the weather history.”
“There wasn’t,” Jason interjected. “I already checked. My opinion. Someone came in here and used the Regressionator. This same someone warned George and we got set up. I originally made the machine user friendly in the event something happened to me. Instructions were handwritten so anyone, even Josephine, could come up here and take a trip. Unfortunately I did not password protect until I discovered this particular incident and now the password is obsolete. Safeguard is there.”
“Did this suspicion play into your safeguard design?” Henry asked.
“Oh most definitely,” Jason answered. “I didn’t want to dismantle it completely, but I didn’t want us to abuse time travel.” Jason shrugged. “So with this person in mind, I decided just to make the process, as you know, extremely difficult. A crew would have to man the time machine and so forth in the present. Before, one person could come in here, set up the machine, go and come back without notice.”
Henry nodded in understanding. “Now, if they go back in time . . . one, you can’t do it alone, and two, if you go back in time and spend an hour there, you’re missing here for an hour as well. Wise move. But why didn’t you bring this particular suspicion to Joe’s attention?”
“Why would I?” Jason answered. “There isn’t any proof someone used the machine. The only proof there is, is this, the power usage. But how good of proof is that when we get the same reading every time the lights go out?” Jason shrugged. “Not very and going to Joe is bringing accusations against someone, anyone in the community. I don’t like to accuse. I just figured it wouldn’t be long before Joe started questioning the presence of someone else working for George.”
Dean teetered between listening to Jason and reading. “Wait. What is this. There are biweekly trips here. Logged.” Dean read from the power history, to the manual history, to the log. “It says on all of these, ‘J’ and ‘J’ Camel run. What is that?”
Jason snickered. “I kind of took the time machine for a little spin for cigarettes.”
Henry gasped, “How abusive. Oh my God! Wait . . . wait until I tell Joe.” He gasped again and looked at the log. “Jason?”
“Yes?” Jason replied.
“It states here the inclusions on your trip.” Henry kept his eyes on the log.
“Yes, Henry,” Jason explained. “It tells what the trip was and the inclusions are what we took through the machine.”
“I understand what inclusions meant but . . .” Henry read. “It states. “Money, bikes, history disk, letter?”
“Oh.” Jason nodded. “Yes.” He closed his eyes. “Blackmail.”
Both Dean and Henry looked at him. “Blackmail.”
“Yes and don’t tell Joe. He doesn’t know. Andrea busted the time trips. She was smart enough to figure out that we just kept having too many packs of Camel filters. Knowing that Joe would just blow her off and I would be a tad frightened, she blackmailed me.” Jason snickered. “It actually is kind of funny. All she wanted was to mail a letter to Jake, her husband. I thought it was nice. A little note saying that she loved him. No more. That’s all. She put nothing in it that she was from the future.”
“So you read it?” Dean asked.
“Them,” Jason corrected.
“More than one time?” Dean questioned again.
“Twice and no I didn’t read them. It was Andrea. She is one of the most honest women I know. I trust her. Why would she lie?”
Upon Jason’s answer Henry and Dean looked at each other.
After reviewing until they couldn’t review anymore, Henry and Dean left Jason’s lab, together.
“Dean? What do you think?” Henry asked as they headed to Dean’s Jeep.
“What do you mean?”
“About all that Jason said.”
“Hard to say. On one hand, he handed us everything. He was open and volunteered any information we wanted.”
“Like he had nothing to hide.”
“Exactly.” Dean climbed into the Jeep and waited for Henry. “But . . . on the other hand, he could have done that and just lied really well.”
“You mean about the letters? That’s what is sticking to me. The letters. That could have actually been a means of informing the Society of our actions,” Henry said.
“Could have been. And he could have used Andrea as a cover up story.”
“But . . .” Henry paused to think as they started to drive. “But if he had to cover up for the letters, why list them as inclusions at all. We’d be none the wiser.”
“Valid point.”
“It’s so hard to tell, Dean. He could be lying but why pick Andrea of all people, right? Andrea. I mean, don’t you think his picking Andrea is a little ironic considering she is our number one suspect right now.”
“Too ironic, but there is one thing that stops me from believing him fully.”
“What is that?” Henry asked.
“It was something Jason said. Did you pick up on it? I did.”
“And it was?”
“When he was explaining why he didn’t come to Joe with his proof. He said, ‘I just figured it wouldn’t be long before Joe
started questioning the presence of someone else working for George.’ Someone else, Henry. He used the words ‘someone else’.”
“As in more than one.”
“Exactly.” Dean nodded as he drove. “And what bothers me is how is Jason supposed to know there is someone else working for George, when as far as we know, like everyone else in the community, he doesn’t even know about John Matoose.”
Henry let out a slow breath, then stared forward in silent thought as they drove.
^^^^
Danny Hoi didn’t know what made him start thinking about the old singing duo of Sonny and Cher. He guessed perhaps it had to do with Cindy and Marv. Cindy was so tall and Marv was so little. But Danny found himself singing old songs that he hated whenever he used to hear them.
In the cryo -lab tunnels, he finished reprogramming a new code into the main door. Since he gave Johnny his code for access to get into to feed the rabbits, Danny felt better having his own. That way Danny, and himself alone, could be pegged for being in there when that code as used.
He buzzed himself in and flicked on the lights. He smelt a little of that foul smell that Henry always bitched about but he ignored it. Science fascinated him and so did those huge rabbits Dean harbored in his lab. Waving to them, Danny stepped to the cage as five out of six pounced against the metal that held them in.
“Wanna get out?” Danny snickered and brought his finger closer to the cage in a swirling point. “Ha, ha, you can’t,” he tormented the furry beasts. Quickly he pulled back his finger and jumped when he heard the snarl and saw the rabbit reach it’s pink nose and wide mouth between the cage and snap for his finger. “Holy shit.” Then Danny laughed again. He stared to the back and stopped, looking at the last rabbit who did nothing but lay there and stare. “Bored with your life?.” He asked it and took a closer look. “Oh.” Danny shrugged. “Dead. I’ll have to tell Dean.” Makin a courtesy notation in his notes, he moved to the back lab. The private lab. Danny loved going there. It was, to him, so sci -fi. He always expected legendary Vincent Price to leap from around the bed and scare the hell out of him then drop him in a vat of wax.
Laughing at his own horror classic thoughts, Danny punched in his code and walked into the secret lab. He moved to the case and pulled it from the wall. He turned on his neat little pen flashlight and placed it in his mouth as he squatted behind the freezer case. “Temperature normal.” Danny initialed the clipboard attached to the case then made his own back up notation on his clipboard. Just as he did, he saw a spider crawl up the back of the freezer. It was huge and furry. It startled Danny and he shrieked, plopping on to his rear and dropping his pen light. “Shit.” He snickered and saw the beam of the light as it came from under the case. Going all the way flush with the floor, Danny extended his arm under the freezer, grunting and feeling. As his shoulder met the case, Danny stopped reaching when he saw it on the back of the gauge.
The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series Page 420