Persist (Discipline Book 3)

by P. S. Power

“Really? I see them all the time. Well, different powers, I guess. I won’t be back, but… Live the best life you can. That’s all I ever wanted for you.”

  “You too. Bye.” Holding up a single hand, Ben waved, as the other man did the same thing, and vanished.

  It was actually less bizarre than the meeting from earlier, but for some reason he felt exhausted just about then. Probably because it was almost midnight, and he’d been busy, in a high stress environment for most of the day. One way or the other.

  Mags walked in, followed by Lissa, and Clark, with Micha hanging out in the doorway. Ben hadn’t realized she was back, even though he could read her fairly plainly now. That would be down to shielding he bet. The woman had to be getting good at it, or she wouldn’t seem nearly as calm and collected as she was. One by one they walked up to him, tapping in to the null field. Not being a jerk, he put a hand out for Micha, which got her to look troubled.

  “Are you sure? I…”

  “Why not? We might not all be friends, but we aren’t enemies either. We should try to help each other if we can.” Ben sat up, and walked toward the door, a single hand reaching out. Toward the one person in the world that he had a solid right to truly hate.

  He didn’t though. Not that he loved her or anything, but there was just a sense of trust. The woman would at least do what she was there for, as long as her mind didn’t drive her around the bend too far. Which, keeping her close to him, might help prevent.

  As soon as she was done closing her eyes, tension draining out of her, the small, cute, dark skinned federal agent, sighed.

  “I need to bottle that. Anyway, everyone told me what had happened here. I was sent to help facilitate things? With that other world? All of them if we can. The President is eager to have friends, if possible. Can you get things into place like the papers claim you can?”

  “I have no clue. I was told I wasn’t allowed to read them for some reason. I think that the answer is yes? I can try, as soon as I have things to deliver.”

  “Great. I’ll make sure that gets called in. I… Is my old room still empty?”

  Ben didn’t know, at first, but shook his head, as the words came up.

  “It still has Felicia in it. You can bunk with her? Or on the sofa.”

  Mags shook her head.

  “You can stay here. I’ll have Ben in with me. By the way, you can’t sleep with him. We’re dating.” She seemed nearly fierce about it, as if it were real.

  “Oh? Last I heard we were discussing that? You kind of did that sex tape with Lissa and Clark? I think the plan is for you to try and beg me to come back, with sex and sweet words? You too, Lis. Come on. I’m tired, but it wouldn’t be fair not to give you a chance, would it?”

  The truth was that Ben didn’t really care about the video. If he were going to be honest, while he liked Mags, it was just that. She was cute, and strange, but fun, a lot of the time. Lissa was harder for him, since he really didn’t like her as well, but was really trying. Probably in the wrong way, but it seemed like the only one that could really work for them.

  Clark rolled his eyes, as if the whole thing were silly to have an issue with in the first place. Then, in his world, it probably was. The man had never really had to work that hard to get attention from women, so it didn’t seem like a big thing to him. On the great side, it also didn’t seem strange to him that Ben was taking both women to bed with him. Just like a fun thing to do, if they were both willing, which they roughly were.

  Micha looked at him funny however, her face twisting a bit.

  “You’re doing both of them? At once?” The doubt was strong in her tone. As if it couldn’t be happening.

  “Yep. I’d do you at the same time, but you don’t seem to really get anything out of it. Plus, our past… You know.”

  That got her to glare at him, but she recovered with a smile, moving to the bed.

  “There is that. Well, good. I’m glad that things are going well for you. See you all in the morning?”

  He nodded, and there were mutters of goodnight from the others, but Lissa escaped, claiming that she was really tired, after her day. Ben could see that. It might not have been going to another world to be shot at and nearly blown up by a nuclear girl bomb, but facing her past was kind of a huge thing for her.

  “All right, but tomorrow I get you alone. Kinky stuff too, so make sure you’re ready. Stretch first.”

  Not that he was really planning to do that. She seemed to respond best when he had some kind of plan however, or seemed to. Mags took his hand, and led him to her room.

  “Sorry. I shouldn’t have done it. I know that…” She blushed, since it was clear that she wasn’t really certain why she’d actually done it in the first place.

  Ben kissed her.

  “I… Don’t really care, you know that right? The big thing was hiding it. Though I really am going to do Lissa tomorrow if I can. I… Really I don’t want to, but we can’t live half hating each other, and I don’t know what else to try. I doubt counseling will work, for some reason.”

  They didn’t talk much after that. There wasn’t even a discussion about how stupid he was being, not grabbing hold of Mags, who was probably better than he deserved. In the end he doubted that it would matter. They had things to do still, including killing an AI, and the two enemies that he knew about. Possibly three.

  Ben wasn’t certain about that, but the tally in his head had four lines, and two of them had the name Ben over them. Hopefully that didn’t mean he had to kill himself. He would though, if it came to it. Not willingly, but it was part of him now. He was the task at hand. Everything he did, for the rest of his life would be about that first.

  The only thing that might change, if he lived, was what he was doing. There was still a government left to take down however, or at least change a bit. How that might happen, he wasn’t totally certain.

  In the morning Ben woke up early, showered and met Micha as he came out, the woman pushing past him to use the room he’d been hogging. Her face was tense, but in that way that meant she needed to go to the bathroom pretty badly, not anything else. Pretending he didn’t see her, he moved to the living room, dressed in gray, like normal. There was a wait, of nearly forty minutes, while everyone else got themselves around, but that was normal enough, so he just sat, thinking about what was going to be needed.

  First, food, then meditation. What he had to figure out how to do wasn’t going to be aided by him being scattered mentally all day. It would be hard, but making sure he started from the best place he could manage simply seemed right to him. Then, he had to find out how to arm himself.

  There would be a package to deliver too, if not several.

  After that, well, Ben refused to think about that part. Everything needed to be set right first, before he tried it, however. There was a real risk to playing assassin. The main one being that the others would see him coming, and kill him instantly. Winston could do it, Ben was certain. He had to assume that the others would manage it as well. Slipping into time and using more than a hundred of them to strike at him.

  If they had a chance at all.

  The thing was, Ben knew that one or two of them were him. They had to be close to working out the very same thing. That their best way to win, was to remove him first. Which had possibly already been going on. He simply hadn’t lost. The attack at the doughnut shop could have been that. In a different reality he’d died of course. Maybe in thousands of them. Reality splitting and merging, thousands of times. Possibly billions, based on one complex set of happenings. It was too much to consider. The trick for him would be making certain that he was one of the winners.

  Which, on the great side, he would be. At least as far as staying alive. They all would be. Which suddenly seemed like too much to deal with. Living for a long time was one thing, but learning that every person that existed, in any substantially different form, was truly immortal, even if you saw them die, was too weird for him. The whole thing held too many de
ep implications.

  Unless it was wrong. In which case, if he died, that was it, and he had to avoid doing that at all costs.

  It occurred to him then that Kyle might be like that. Just a person that hadn’t died in the world they were in. More than that, there could be millions like him. Hidden away from everyone else, feeling like a freak. Not just there, but in all realities. The people that had simply failed to die. The lucky ones who at each crisis point lived, while another version failed and gave in to nothingness.

  Standing, he shook himself a little, and hugged Mags when she came out, then did the same with Lissa and patted Clark on the shoulder. Micha hung back, but he put his arms out for her too.

  “This… Might be my last day, so let’s not make things too hard?”

  Lis looked at him and made a face, rolling her eyes.

  “Right. It could be anyone’s last day. You aren’t going anywhere. We need you here.”

  Ben considered that for a moment and then nodded.

  “True. But I might not make it anyway. I have some things to do. If that happens… Well, get with the new people and find a me that lives? I’ll, that me, will help you all. Unless I’m a jerk. That could happen, but in that case, just look again. You won’t really be stuck like that.”

  Clark stuck out his tongue and crossed his eyes, trying to be funny.

  “Be careful. Some other you wouldn’t be our Ben, now would he? What’s up?”

  “Ah. Well, we have four threats to reality here. The Predictive AI, which I think you have Clark? Leaving me with two possible versions of myself and Winston Mills. One version of me already kind of kicked my butt, so it doesn’t look that good. I’m the only one that can go through the tears in reality though, in order to find them. So it’s up to me. In half of the realities I’ll die trying it. So, I can’t really promise anything except that I’ll work really hard to make sure that isn’t me?”

  If they were confused, no one seemed to be willing to let it show. Ben smiled and clapped, one time.

  “Food first? Then meditation. It really is a great way to start the day.”

  The morning went very smoothly, and after lunch, feeling full but not stuffed, mainly on veggie stuffed pita bread sandwiches, Ben went to locate Glenda. If he was going to explain his plan to anyone, it was going to have to be her. She was the one person there that could get help if he failed. They were supposed to have someone from the Line Walkers, that being Hartley’s people, check in at least once a week.

  The woman seemed to understand that something was going on however, on some level. At least she made it hard for Ben to reach her, locked away underground, in a vault, reading papers. As in ancient files that talked about secret things so sensitive they weren’t even on a computer anywhere. Since he was in the room with her, as far as he could tell, Ben read the things over her shoulder. It was kind of interesting, he realized.

  For instance, it was clear that what they were going through had happened before. A long time before, according to the text he was seeing. In an age of man that predated their own by over fifteen thousand years. There were old clay tablets that had been found, explaining it all. The things were a secret, which the people that dealt with the aliens had kept hidden for over a hundred years. Camas and his people.

  On the negative side, Glenda wasn’t there. At the compound. She was about two thousand miles away, in Washington D.C. Having been given the chance to read the documents while she waited for the President and his cabinet to go over the other worlds’ treaty. That the paperwork wasn’t going to be back until later that night, or the next morning was a bit annoying, but Ben could work with that time schedule.

  ~Glenda? It’s Ben. I need to get a weapon. Maybe one of the new energy ones? Is that all right?~

  He waited, the woman sitting up straight, her eyes going wide.

  ~Ben?~

  ~Yep. I didn’t want to invade your workshop without permission. Is it all right?~

  The large lady kept pretending to read, knowing that she was being watched. Not that the people doing that would understand what it meant, but she wasn’t certain they wouldn’t get it. They’d dealt with a lot of strange things, Majestic. Not all of it was very well handled, either.

  ~That depends. Who are you planning to shoot, and why?~

  That got him to smile, but he made certain he was very serious when he answered her. His mind was a bit dark, perhaps, but it wasn’t as if she didn’t know what they had to do. The big difference was that she thought that it was her part, to get it all done. That she, a fighter, a combatant with actual training, skills and the right temperament, would be the best one for the job.

  Which was true. Ben could see that as plainly as he understood that it was his job to do it. Even if it meant dying.

  ~Winston Mills. Today at least. Then I have to find myself, twice and end this. The trick here is of course that I think I know where Mills actually is. I know, you figured it would be all about you, but your part comes later. This one has to be me, or it won’t happen in time. ~

  There was a long, drawn out silence, and the woman, annoyingly, even started to really read the files again. They were fascinating, but she hadn’t really forgotten about him. Not even as she read about the secret writings of Gobekli Tepi. Things that had been stolen away from the place, leaving only carvings and stonework for the rest of humanity to see.

  ~Fine. Go to the second cabinet. The weapon on the bottom? You’ve used it before. It will charge itself. Don’t die though. I couldn’t handle that. ~ It was odd, since he didn’t feel that close to her really, but she meant it. It wasn’t just a throw away term for her. Not at that moment.

  ~Got it. I’ll be back for dinner. ~

  It was a thing that he couldn’t honestly promise, but there were worse last words. He still had to break into Glenda’s workshop, and use his TK to get into the correct cabinet. It took nearly ten minutes, since the door to the place had been switched over to a biometric scanner, and he couldn’t tell how to get in. Until, in frustration, he put his thumb on the thing… Which got it to open instantly. That left him grinning and feeling like an idiot. He really hadn’t figured that Glenda would make sure that he could get in like that.

  The reason why things had been set up that way scrolled from the top of his vision to the bottom, all in black print. If she died, someone had to carry on her work. Ben wasn’t the best person for that, perhaps, but he could become that, if his mind held together long enough. So he was allowed in. So was Kyle. If they all died, then the door would have to be broken down, probably cut over a long period of time by a high powered laser system.

  It was solid steel, after all.

  Once he got in, the cabinet having been opened already using his mind, Ben smiled. The weapon he picked up was light, looked sleek and futuristic and could have blasted a four-inch hole in the door, now that he had it in his hands.

  It would be tricky to find and remove Winston Mills, but if he could do it, and hit the man, then he was going to die.

  Ben tried to feel pleased, and not worry that every part of that sentence was highly suspect. There were too many ifs involved by far. Including the idea that Winston Mills would be the one dying.

  Chapter eighteen

  It was both a lot easier, and harder to locate Winston Mills than Ben would have ever guessed. At least once he managed to get back into the strange retro-mid-last-century science paradise the man came from. That took just as many tries as it had to go to Gwen’s world, and about five hours to manage. This time Ben dressed up however, recalling what the men on the street had worn when he’d been there before, and how the women looking at him had reacted.

  Like he was just climbing out of bed, and showing too much skin, even if he’d been covered from neck to foot. This time he made sure to find some clothing that, if not a perfect match for what they had there, might just seem like a new style, instead of him being scandalous. Then he found out who cut hair for people there, which turned out to be
Bethany, his friend.

  She even used a quick dye on his head, and eyebrows, so they wouldn’t be part green. It was a solid black now, which was a color that people in Winston’s reality seemed to have going on pretty commonly.

  Still, when he stepped out in that other Boston, not even knowing if that was what the place was called, Ben nodded to himself. It was night, for one thing. That meant there wasn’t anyone on the street in particular. The only cars seemed to be the police, and from what they were thinking, they had scanners to look for criminals, that could read intent. Luckily for him that was a very near term thing.

  The would be criminal would have to be within a few minutes of committing a given crime, and would have to be very worked up at the time, to alert their systems at all. So Ben meditated as he walked along. That got the floating black and white steel bodied autos to move past him, the men inside smiling and waving. Even if Ben did look funny to them, not having a hat on.

  “I forgot the hat. So stupid.” He smiled and kept going, worried that Winston wasn’t going to be in that world at all.

  He was however. Ben could feel him, off in the distance. In fact, it wasn’t even hard to go to him, psychically. The old man with his youthful face was sleeping. The house he was in was nicely isolated. Large too. Big enough for a family of eight or more. Most of the bedrooms were filled with the collected junk of a very long lifetime however, instead of kids and wives.

  The big problem was that to get from one place to another, there he was going to require transportation. Except of course that would cost money, which he had a feeling he didn’t have any of for that world.

  “So, go through the tear. You know where one is here. Zack mentioned that he could travel around his own world using them. You’ve even done it before.” Ben spoke to himself, but also saw another him walking right alongside him, as he moved down the street.

  Thankfully there was a glowing orange sphere, floating off to the side. So either this whole thing wasn’t real, or the part with him in it wasn’t. It had been, just a moment before. So, making a face, Ben nodded.