Dameron couldn't resist a comment. “Walker first tries to get us to believe he lost the knife back in time. Now he claims to have carved an ancient artifact. I demand that he be expelled.”
The hearing officer lifted her hand to rap on the table, simultaneously saying, “I agree with you, Professor.”
Logan hastily said, “That's not the main proof. I have the knife in my possession, the new knife, not the old version that was found at the dig site.”
He pulled his knife from his backpack, unsheathed it, and laid it down so the initials LW were visible. Everyone leaned forward to see.
“This is the original knife. You can see that my initials are stamped on the blade. If you look at the pictures, you can see the same initials, but they aren't very clear because of dirt and pits in the metal.”
He backed the computer up two slides so that the blade was again visible. The marks on the steel that had puzzled him at first were suddenly identifiable as the letters: LW.
Dameron yelled, “That's impossible. I've got the real knife in my briefcase. Just a minute.” He clawed the case open, and pulled out the aged piece of metal, waving it round wildly. “This is it. There's no way this is the same knife as the one he has there. This is old. He must have bought that one and stamped it to make it look like this.”
Logan said, “No. It's the same knife. A metallurgist could probably prove it.”
The hearing officer rapped on the table to regain control. Everyone looked at her.
“Mr. Walker, I find this totally unbelievable. Your new knife cannot be the same as the old one in Professor Dameron's hand. There are two knives, not one. I find against you. This hearing's closed.”
Logan stood up and shouted, “Not so fast! I have one more piece of evidence to introduce. It speaks to Dameron's character.”
Professor Berensten put her hand on Logan's arm, but it was too late. He had advanced the computer to the slide showing Dameron and Mandi kissing in the doorway.
Logan said, “Dameron has been having an affair with his student assistant. This picture was taken early last Sunday morning at her house. He may have suspected I knew. I observed her going to his tent at the dig during the night. I listened outside. They were having sex.”
A new voice pierced the uproar, “You said you were going to work early Sunday! How long have you been seeing this girl, George?” Janice Dameron was white and shaking. She rose to her feet and started to the door without waiting for an answer to her question.
The room had fallen into complete silence. Some of the committee were staring at Dameron, others were watching Janice as she left the room.
Dameron quickly stood, and said, “Baby, it was a mistake. I'm going to break it off with her. Just give me a chance. It won't happen again.”
There was a wail from Mandi, “You promised, George. You promised, and besides I'm pregnant.”
Janice turned, glared Mandi into silence, then said, “Don't bother coming home, George. I'm filing for divorce as soon as I can call my lawyer. You're not welcome to come back.”
Dameron, for once, was silent. He stared down at the knife in his hand for a moment, and then shouted, “It's not the same knife. Look!”
He grabbed Logan's tanto from the table and held it up, bringing the old version of the knife close to compare so that everyone could see the differences.
As the knives approached each other, they began to glow softly. Dameron looked puzzled. He appeared to exert himself, trying to bring the two together, pushing against some unknown force that was keeping the two knives apart.
The glow increased as he struggled with the knives, trying to move them closer together. Frustrated, he pulled his arms wide, and slammed his hands together.
The blades touched. There was a brilliant flash, momentarily blinding everyone. There was no corresponding sound, except for a clink and a rattle as something fell. There were startled cries from the committee members.
Logan's vision blurred into negative images, then alternating flashes of black and white. When he could see again, Dameron had vanished, as had the old, pitted knife.
Logan's new knife was rocking gently on the conference table, where it had been dropped.
The hearings officer refused to let anyone leave until they'd promised not to discuss the events in the room. Something weird and terrible had happened, but no one was sure what it was.
Logan suspected that Dameron was trying to learn how to avoid predators in the Florida of the Pleistocene. He hoped that the man wouldn't meet Serensaa, but, other than that, he was sorry for the professor. It wouldn't be easy to survive. He knew that from personal experience.
He was dubious that the hearing officer's suppression of the events would last. Janice Dameron was demanding to know where her husband had gone. Mandi, meanwhile, was in hysterics, crying uncontrollably over in the corner of the room.
Logan got Dr. Berensten's attention. “Professor Berensten,” he said. “I assume that I'm exonerated from the charges against me. I'd like to meet with you to set up a plan that will allow me to graduate next year.”
She looked at him with some wonder. “Logan, I don't know what just happened. I doubt that I ever will. We'll have to find George. What happened to him?”
She looked around, rather wildly, and then returned her attention to Logan. “I think you proved your case, although I don't want to consider time-travel as the proof. However, it looks like I'm going to have to accept that explanation. Just a minute.”
She got the hearing officer's attention. “Ruth, you're going to allow Mr. Walker to enroll again.”
Ruth said, “Uh, well, I guess so. He made some good points about the knife and the article. I'm not happy with the way he brought up George's affair, but that's actually a peripheral issue. Yeah. I don't think the case against him was well founded and we should just try to keep this whole thing quiet. Do you agree, Mr. Walker?”
Logan could see that she wanted his promise to keep quiet about the mess. He said, “As long as I get a chance to graduate, I'm not going to complain. The hearing is over and I'm satisfied. I'll keep quiet about everything.”
She sighed in relief, and then turned away to speak to the other faculty members who were now speculating that Dameron had slipped out the door using the flash as a distraction.
One of the older professors came up to Logan. “Mr. Walker, I'd like to speak to you further about the time-travel issue. I'm Professor Wolf from the physics department. I believe that you have information that might be world changing.”
Logan replied, “As long as the hearing officer approves, I'm happy to talk to you, but I think you'll find that I don't know much more about the issue than what you've seen today.”
Berensten put her hand on Logan's shoulder, and said, “Why don't we meet in my office tomorrow at nine a.m. I'll try to get creative. If you promise me you'll work hard and not slack off, perhaps there is a way to meet your grandfather's goal for you to graduate in four years. Now, are you sure you don't know where George is?”
Chapter 23: MONEY CAN'T BUY YOU LOVE
Logan had to check back into the motel. He'd checked out, unsure whether he would be staying in town. It had depended on the results of the hearing.
He'd picked up a newspaper in the lobby as he was leaving with the key. He'd have to rent another apartment for the next year. If he could graduate, that would be the last apartment he ever had, he told himself.
The next morning, he turned up at Professor Berensten's office exactly on schedule. She waved him in and pointed at a seat, all the while speaking to someone on the phone. From the side of the conversation he could hear, Logan understood it to be about him.
“No, Henry, he's going to enroll and I have his promise that he'll exert himself.”
“No, I'll take responsibility for his grades.”
“Yes. He better not disappoint me.”
She glared at him when she made that last statement.
Logan nodded in agreement.
She continued with the conversation.
“No, I'm not sure exactly what occurred yesterday. I was there, but it was so unusual that I think it was a previously unknown phenomenon.”
“I know the police are investigating. They've already interviewed me.”
“That's correct, I don't know what happened. I think Mr. Walker has a possible explanation. I had a conversation with Professor Wolf.”
“Yes, that's him – physics department. He wants Logan to work with him. He thinks that might provide enough information for him to make some kind of a breakthrough.”
She paused, listening to a longer statement, then answered. “Yes, I guess actually being present for the event convinced Wolf that there was something there worth deeper investigation. Mr. Walker is here now. I need to get him set up with his next session's classes.”
“Okay. Bye.”
She hung up the old phone with thunk, and turned to Logan.
“You've started a perfect firestorm of gossip, Logan. The police have been in already, wanting my account of George Dameron's disappearance. They'll want to interview you, I guess. I think they're talking to everyone who was present. It sounded like they weren't getting anywhere from the things they asked me. He's gone, there's no sign of foul play, everyone has the same story, and there's no body, so they can't really even come up with a crime,” she said.
Logan said, “I believe he's somewhere back in the distant past. If he's lucky, he'll meet some people who will take him in. If he's not, well, there are a lot of hungry predators back there. It was all I could do to stay alive.”
She shuddered. “Isn't there anything you can do to help him?”
He answered, “I'm sorry for him. I mean I didn't like him, but I don't want him to end up as lunch for a saber-tooth either. I'd help him if I could, but I don't really have any idea how I traveled back and forth.”
He wiped his eyes. They seemed to be watering somehow. “If I knew how to go back, I would. Serensaa – uh, I mean a girl I met back there, I – Oh, I miss her so much.”
His eyes wouldn't stop watering. He swiped at them ineffectually. Professor Berensten looked at him with concern.
“Logan, how long were you lost in that place?”
He tried to recall the days, but couldn't. “Maybe a couple of months, a month and a half. I don't know. I didn't keep count of the days and they were so full of danger that it was all I could do just to prepare for the next attack.”
She said, “This girl, Serensaa...you were close to her?”
“The elder of her tribe married us. The next day we were attacked and I moved in time again. I haven't seen her since. I – I love her, and I want her back.”
He added, “Don't you see? If I could travel in time to help Dameron, I'd be able to get her. I intend to work with Professor Wolf. Maybe he can come up with a way for me to go back.”
Berensten sighed. “I see, I think... Well, until you figure it out, you'd better be concentrating on your coursework, provided you want to graduate for your grandfather.”
Logan nodded.
She continued. “Here's what I've got in mind. It's too late to get credit for your dig. Dameron's gone anyway, so there's some question about how to give credit to the other students. I thought I might ask Mandi Thompson to assign grades, but she's going to therapy. She had some kind of nervous breakdown. She won't be back at school for the foreseeable future.
Now, on to your problem. You need to pick up five extra hours, in addition to a normal course load in the remaining time you have. Usually, I wouldn't allow a student to enroll in more than eighteen hours at a time, but I'm going to make an exception for you. I will serve as your instructor for independent study. We'll cover any aspect of archaeology that I feel might benefit you. You'll meet with me for one hour daily, on a floating schedule to be determined by my class and meeting load.
I want to warn you, Logan, I'll expect you to perform. I'm not going to give you credit hours for nothing. Do I have your promise that you'll work hard?”
He answered, “That's wonderful, professor. Of course I'll give you my best. It's very important to me to graduate on schedule.”
She smiled, and continued discussing his schedule for the upcoming session.
Logan felt it would be challenging, but he thought he could do it. He had no urge to spend time playing games. Each day of learning potentially brought him closer to figuring out how to find Serensaa.
He said, “Would it be okay if we focused on the Clovis culture for at least part of my independent work? I mean, uh, that I've got some insights on how they lived. In Florida, at least.”
“Very perceptive of you,” she answered. “I thought that might be the case. If you've actually been there, as you say, your experiences and observations, even though untrained, might help in understanding their culture.
Fair warning: If you're making things up, I believe that I will notice the discrepancies. That won't be good for you, so don't try it.
One of the big mysteries is where they came from. It sounds like you could at least tell me about their physical appearance and that might give us a clue, although I still can't get my mind around your traveling in time.”
Logan started to tell her what the people he'd seen were like, but she said, “No. Let's get organized first and do this systematically. You've got all session to work with me on it. Besides, I'd like to arrange my thinking so I don't miss anything. I believe we'll start with me asking you a series of questions. An interview, if you will. We'll do that the first week.
Oh, and by the way, the university president is adamant that any rumors about George's disappearance be suppressed. I want to warn you to avoid saying anything about your experiences or what happened. It'd be best for all of us if this was forgotten as quickly as possible,.”
Logan said, “Yeah. I know. I don't intend to talk about it to anyone. It's none of their business, anyway.”
During the next several weeks Logan found that he'd changed even more than he'd known. Coursework wasn't difficult any longer. His increased motivation made it easy for him to study. The courses seemed trivial, and he easily mastered the material.
He missed the physical activity of the past. In order to keep up his strength, he spent a portion of each day working out. He'd run from his apartment to the student gym, then lift weights for about an hour every morning.
On alternate days, he used the pool, gradually building up to several kilometers per swim. Time was the restrictive element here. His cardio level had increased so that he didn't become tired during the limited time he had.
He tried rejoining his Tae Kwon Do class, but found it wasn't the challenge it had been. Most of the class was oriented towards getting in shape. The forms were interesting, since they introduced him to new techniques, but he now realized that sparring was basically useless.
They weren't supposed to hurt each other, and no one, including his instructor, really understood the timing aspect of fighting in the way he now did. Sparring was really just a show, not an actual fight.
Things came to a head when the instructor wanted to spar with him. Logan found that the man moved as if he was semi-frozen. His own reflexes had somehow sped up, possibly due to the loss of the tangle of mental restrictions he'd previously held. Those seemed to be an inextricable part of being civilized. Now that he'd fought to the death several times, he found that he went all-out when sparring.
The instructor was disgruntled, and wouldn't spar with him again. Logan quit going to the class and located an MMA gym across town.
The fighters there were far more serious about fighting, and even though they restricted themselves unnecessarily, Logan felt that he could learn more with them.
He gradually became a force in the local MMA community, but he refused actual fights. He got a reputation for being a pacifist that was undeserved. Actually, he was afraid that he'd hurt someone seriously and that fear kept him away from tournaments and matches.
Throughout all
of this, he moved in an emotional fog. He missed Serensaa terribly. He found that he couldn't even consider looking at other girls.
This was apparently taken as a challenge by most of the women on campus. Something about his new attitude, perhaps his mature, serious demeanor seemed to attract women like flowers attract bees. They buzzed around him to the point that he took to hiding in the library or simply studying at home. The increased study time gave him an advantage and helped him pass his courses.
Once a week, he spent time with Professor Wolf. They worked through Logan's experiences a little at a time and he grew to like the older physicist.
Paradox: On the Sharp Edge of the Blade Page 27