Fate (Wilton's Gold #3)

by Craig W. Turner

  He punched his code into the panel beside the door and swung it open. The rest of his makeshift team was hard at work destroying things, so Jeff walked over to the lowest compartment on the server tower and pulled out a case. Setting it on the workstation, he opened it to unveil a half-dozen batteries that had been designed for the time travel device. He retrieved the only remaining time device from Erica and placed it into the case, then locked it up. He looked up to see everyone staring at him.

  “This case has to go back to the manufacturer in Albany,” he said. “The batteries and the device need to be dismantled.”

  Emeka stepped forward. “I can take it.”

  “Why doesn’t Agent Fisher take it?” Erica asked. “It’s probably safest to have them under lock and key.”

  Jeff looked at Fisher, who appeared torn. From reading his face, Jeff could see that while he wanted to be in the lab to make sure everything was actually destroyed, he hadn’t been expecting the manual labor of destruction. A ride to Upstate New York probably seemed like a nicer option.

  “Alright,” he said, nodding and taking the case. “You’ll have to call ahead and tell them I’m coming.”

  “They’ll know exactly what to do,” Jeff said. “The address is on the case.” Happy to leave, Fisher headed for the door, but Jeff followed right behind him. “I’ll walk you out.”

  They exited the building and reached Fisher’s car, a black sedan, where he set the case on the passenger seat. Then Fisher turned to Jeff. “You made a compelling case in there, in a short amount of time. I hope to God you’re on the up-and-up.”

  “You saved the world today,” Jeff said.

  Fisher waved a hand at him. “Let’s not get carried away.”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve seen what happens. To me, to you, to all of us, if this technology isn’t eliminated. It’s devastating.”

  He looked at him and sighed. “Well, let’s take care of all of this and it’ll be done. There won’t be any more need for us to interact.”

  Jeff sighed. He didn’t want to have to ask what he was about to ask, and he didn’t know if it would be acceptable to Fisher anyway, but he was compelled to try. “I need a favor,” he said.

  “What kind of favor?”

  “I need the device to take one more trip.”

  Now Fisher laughed. “Are you kidding me? After all that?”

  “Apparently, while time traveling, I messed up my friend’s life – Dexter, you met him in there. Well, a future version of him. I changed something in the past and he’s suffered because of it. If I have the opportunity to fix it, which I would with your permission, I want to take it.” Fisher started to speak, but Jeff cut him off. “I know you’re not going to understand this because you haven’t been through it, but if you were the Agent Fisher that I got to know over time, you’d get it. I hate to ask this of you, but I need to.”

  “You could do anything with a time device. You could undo what you just did up there.”

  He shook his head. “I assure you that I’m not doing anything but righting a wrong. I will even meet you at the plant in Albany to return the device and battery to you so you can turn them in. You tell me when you’ll be there and I’ll be there, too. I’ve tried to think about every possible way I could make this happen, and this is the only option. Believe me, I feel ridiculous asking.”

  Fisher looked at him and sighed himself. Jeff knew that he was still assessing the reality of time travel in general, much less trying to understand its intricacies. If he put thought into it, there was no way he should even be considering allowing Jeff to take the device. But he was not clear on the repercussions, and Jeff had earned his trust by showing him Bremner’s book.

  “Tell me about this Senator Mellen – the other one in the book,” Fisher said.

  Jeff nodded. “Alright. But just so you know, this situation took place in another reality, so I didn’t witness it. Suzanne Mellen McCarthy was a U.S. senator from Florida who was an opponent of what Bremner was trying to do with the Time Program. We didn’t know this at the time, but Bremner sent a business competitor back in time to murder Senator McCarthy’s grandfather, thus eliminating her existence. In the reality I came here from, in 2018, she doesn’t exist. The only way we put it all together was when we read that book.”

  “Is that the situation you want to go fix?” He was looking at him, confused.

  “Unfortunately, no. We already tried that. It didn’t work.”

  “Well, no, I think that it did,” Fisher said. “I’m pretty sure that McCarthy woman is a senator from Florida right now. Yes, I’m sure of it.”

  Jeff felt for a moment as though he’d lost his breath. Yes, it made sense perfectly. Erica, by going back to 1849 and stopping Jeff and his team from stealing Wilton’s gold had eliminated from history her trip she said they took where they saved the records office from burning down. Which is why Jeff’s own history didn’t reflect that changes in Dexter’s life. By the same logic, they were now in the process of creating a timeline where the USTP never exists… Which meant that Bremner would never send Kane on the mission to murder George Mellen. They’d tried to address the problem directly, but it would seem that eliminating the Time Program altogether was the only solution. After a moment, he finally exhaled. “We did it,” he said.

  “Did what?”

  “If Senator McCarthy exists, that means we stopped Bremner. We did it.”

  Fisher sighed, thinking. Jeff watched him process what could have happened to him and now was not going to, waiting for further questions. He looked around impatiently, though – he didn’t want to be standing there long enough that someone would come out to see what was happening. This final trip needed to be done in secrecy.

  Without another word, however, Fisher reached back and picked up the case. He unlocked it and once again pulled out the device and one battery. “Watching this all take place is very confusing, I have to say,” he said, turning the device from side to side analyzing it. “You know one history. The woman that came with you knows another. Dr. Murphy knows another. My interpretation is that whoever is holding this knows the truth, yes?”

  “Well, there are many tru-” Jeff was about to go into the concept of multiple realities, but Fisher cut him off.

  “Then the safest thing is for me to go with you.”

  Jeff considered what Fisher was saying for a moment, understanding it wasn’t a request but an ultimatum. Then, he smiled. “Makes perfect sense to me,” he said.

  Fisher shook his head. “This is some game you’ve got going here.”

  “You and I are linked,” Jeff said. “There’s no escaping that. I’ll always remember what you’re doing here. And what you did in the future.” And when you sent me to Russia.

  “Well, since I’m already all tangled up in this, I might as well understand how it works,” Fisher said. He held the time travel device out to Jeff. “Just let me know what I need to do.”

  Jeff waved him off. “You hang onto it as a sign of good faith. I’ll call you in the morning and give you the details.”

  Fisher turned and placed the device and battery back in their case, closing it. “Where do you think that Dr. Bremner is?” he asked.

  Jeff laughed. “No clue. The Dark Ages? I pushed a lot of buttons.”

  “Poor bastard,” he said. “Look, you did me a favor, so I’m doing a favor for you. But when this is done, it’s done. We’re destroying this case.”

  “That’s the plan,” he said, remembering the promise he’d made to Fisher while standing in the shadow of the Jefferson Memorial in 2018. He’d fulfilled it. Jeff extended his hand, which Fisher took in a firm grip. “Take care of yourself.”

  “Apparently, I need to,” he said, then got in the car. A moment later he was gone.

  After watching him go, Jeff turned to head back inside. He stopped when he saw Erica standing ten feet away.

  A wave of guilt hit him. Had she heard the conversation?

&nbs
p; CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

  Erica felt bad leaving Emeka inside doing the work, but she felt a pressing need to follow Jeff outside. She thought everything happening seemingly all at once had to be pretty emotional for him. The end of his work. The end of his missions. His friends all headed in their different directions. She’d have been a wreck, so she felt the need to check on him. And she needed to check on something else, as well.

  She stepped outside just as he was saying goodbye to Agent Fisher. She had no way of knowing the relationship he’d developed with him, though it seemed from the way they were telling the story that none of it had happened yet. It was all in the future. When he’d approached them in the parking lot an hour before, while it had not been the first time Jeff had talked to Fisher, it had certainly been the first time Fisher had talked to him. There were an awful lot of realities going on at the same time here, and she felt hopeless trying to wrap her mind around them. Sorting through everything would take some serious concentration. Probably some diagrams. And then she still didn’t have confidence she’d understand everything when she was through.

  What she could read, however, was Jeff. It didn’t matter to her if it was the Jeff who had gone on the Colonial adventure with her, or this Jeff who was experiencing the details of his life for the first time. She’d learned what made him tick. He liked to be in control of his own destiny, and while he was still in control for the time being, he was proactively relinquishing that control. Within a few hours, he would be a “normal” physicist working on a government contract. She knew that wouldn’t settle well with him, even though his original experiments were equally as groundbreaking.

  But hopefully, if her own time travel calculations were right, she could help with that. At least a little bit.

  After Fisher drove out of sight, Jeff turned and was facing her. He walked slowly toward her with a sallow face and stopped a few steps away, but avoided eye contact. Was he hiding something? “I feel like I’m saying goodbye to everyone at the end of summer camp,” he said. He was truly affected.

  She stepped off the curb and put her arms around him, pulling him tightly to her. He hesitated, then embraced her as well. They stood in the parking lot hugging for some time. She could feel his heart beating quickly, and the shortness of his breaths, though she couldn’t interpret whether it was about her or about his lot in life. After a minute or two, she decided that either way she’d pretend it was about her, and lay her head on his shoulder. She found that even if the hug was in some way comforting for him, it was doing wonders for her. She hadn’t had a hug like this in a long time.

  After a few moments, they broke the embrace. “Are you okay?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Yeah. This is just tough. End of an era, I guess. Best thing to do is just get this done and move on with life, huh?”

  She reached out and touched his chest, letting him know she understood. Or was at least trying to. “I would think so,” she said. “What are you going to do about your grant work?”

  He laughed, looking past her at the lab, then back at her again. “I hadn’t thought about that. Guess I pick up right where I left off.”

  “Turning bricks into cheeseburgers, right?” She knew he’d never actually had that conversation with her, but her date-that-wasn’t-a-date in future Times Square was quickly becoming a cherished moment for her.

  Smiling, he agreed. “Yeah, turning bricks into cheeseburgers.” It was a melancholy smile, but she liked it.

  “Look,” she said, “I have something that might cheer you up.”

  “I could use it.”

  She grabbed him by the hand and led him to the small garage that lined the back of the property. He was feeling sorry for himself, so his pace was slow until she actually pulled him with her. A series of bays were closed and locked, labeled in blue paint with the unit number of the owner of each area, matching those inside the building. She walked him to his door and stood in front of it.

  “Open it,” she said.

  “I don’t have the keys with me,” he said.

  She laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Where are they?”

  “They’re inside. What’s in there?” He hadn’t smiled at all yet, but he was curious.

  “Go get them. I’ll wait here.”

  Clearly not as excited as she was, he took his time walking into the building. While she waited, she thought about the ethics of what was about to happen, and determined there was really nothing she could do about them. That bed had been made.

  A few moments later, Jeff reemerged from the building, still moping along. She laughed out loud at him as he took his time getting to her.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked, handing her the keys.

  “You,” she said, unlocking the padlock that held the door shut. She stepped aside so he could lift the metal door, then crossed her fingers that she’d done her time travel calculations accurately.

  She had.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  Jeff pulled the heavy door up and was immediately confused. He hadn’t used the garage he was entitled to through his lease in the building in years. Maybe even ever.

  So where had this U-Haul truck come from?

  He looked back at Erica, who was beaming. “This isn’t? No way.” She’d told him about their trek to the future, but it was impossible, as he traced the various realities in his mind, that this could be here. He’d thought the highlight of the day was going to be the hug, though for the entire time all he’d been able to think about was that he was not being honest with her about his plan to take one more trip.

  “This is it,” she said. “It’s what I told you. When we took the armored car in the future and brought it back.”

  “This is amazing,” he said, walking into the garage. He unlatched the doors and swung one open. The truck was filled with dozens of money bags, crammed in on top of one another. “These are filled with...”

  “Cash.”

  A thousand thoughts went through his mind, most of them of the guilty variety. But he couldn’t hide the smile on his face. “Who else knows about this?”

  “You, me, Abby, Emeka and Dexter. That’s it. We emptied everything out of the armored car last night and disposed of the truck. Emeka did it.”

  “That’s everyone?”

  “Look, Jeff,” she said as he fiddled with some of the bags, realigning them. “While this is pretty cool, I’m sure it makes you as uncomfortable as it does me.” He smiled again. She was using the power of persuasion. “We stole this money. We can’t exactly give it back, and we can’t exactly go to the authorities with it. My suggestion is we do something useful with it.”

  He nodded without looking at her. “I agree,” he said.

  There was a shuffle behind him and he turned to see Emeka and Abby standing behind Erica. She turned to greet them.

  “I called Abby,” Emeka said. He shook his head. “I tried to fill her in on what just happened, but I really can’t explain it. You’re going to have to do it.”

  Jeff smiled. “It’s okay. We have time.” He looked at Abby. “Two things: one, I have your tablet – it’s upstairs. And thank you. It saved my life more than a few times.” By the look on her face, she was confused – which was reasonable because, to her, it had only been a day. “Two, if you’re ever asked to help create a supercomputer that uses personal data to delve into people’s lives as a means of controlling the public... Please just tell them ‘no.’”

  “Um... Okay?” Abby said. “But I have my tablet. You gave it to me the other night.”

  “I did?” He started to try to figure it out, but his brain was tired. He’d simply chalk it up to alternate realities. “Well, then I guess you have two.” He walked up and hugged her, again conscious of the device in his pants pocket. “I know it’s only been less than twenty-four hours since you saw me, but it’s been a different experience for me. It’s good to see you.” He let go of her. “Are you here to help?”

  “No, I’m here to mak
e sure you don’t destroy anything that’s mine.”

  He laughed and hugged her again. Which hadn’t been the nature of their relationship before that moment, all touchy-feely. But in a matter of minutes, he’d gone from depression to cautious enthusiasm, and he was surrounded by his friends. Well, most of them. He wished Dexter were there.

  He shut the doors of the U-Haul and closed the bay door, locking it. “Let’s go destroy several years of science,” he said, turning and heading back toward the building. “So that things don’t ever get out of control again.”

  His team followed him inside and they resumed destroying his files, only he knowing that he had one more trip to take. He knew that once he got that done, though, all of his guilt would be gone.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  May 4, 1831

  As Jeff and Erica left the park, the city of Philadelphia came alive as small buildings began to appear – a few homes, a blacksmith, and a small general store. It astounded Erica that only a half-hour before they’d been waiting in a line of traffic in front of Target and Applebee’s in that very spot. It was such a treat for her, despite the fact that she couldn’t take as much time as she’d like to enjoy it.

  “What are you thinking?” Jeff asked, making small talk as they walked.

  “I’m thinking I would love to sit down with the people that live in these houses and just pick their brains on what they think of their lives. When you think of everything that’s happened – all of the advancements, all of the wars, everything that has become of America – since this time, it blows your mind.”

  “Yes, it does,” Jeff said as they saw their first people since they’d arrived in 1831 – a man who was dressed pretty much the way he himself was, putting up a fence at one of the houses with two boys.

  “These people don’t know that in 20 years they’re going to discover gold in California and their neighbors will begin to head west,” she continued. “They don’t know that in 30 years those boys’ sons will be enlisted to fight a war against their own brothers. It’s such a simple life – they can hide from all of that.”