by Fred Holmes
“Yes, Dee. That leaves you, me, and Erik.”
“Oh no, no way I’m time traveling! I’d freak out. I’m a programmer and hacker. I wouldn’t be able to do anything like that, Dee.”
“Somebody has to go. Okay, I’ll go. I’ve been there, and I have a feel for what we need to accomplish. I’ll go.”
Lida considered his proposal.
“Let me think it over. I need to go to the office. We can meet here at about five thirty. I’ll come up with something.”
She headed back to Dyna-Tyme and SS&G retired to their rooms.
* * * * *
The three escapees rested in the mountains just off the river. While they were holed up, Traweek checked the area and returned to the other two.
“Say, fellows,” he said. “I’m getting mighty hungry. There’s a small village at the base of this mountain. It might be a place where we can find some food and maybe ditch these uniforms. Let’s move to where we can see what’s going on and look for an opportunity to better our situation.”
“You sure are resourceful for a foot soldier,” said Rummy. “I could use some grub. How much
further do we have to go?”
“Us Rebs expect to forage and make do with what’s available. We don’t have a caravan carrying our rations and ammo, and we don’t have pretty nurses like the Yankees. As far as the distance goes, it’s hard to tell. It’s maybe a couple hundred more miles. What do you think, James?”
“Maybe for me,” said Crawford. “But you have to go to Alabama, if you’re going home.”
“Where do you live, James?” Rummy asked. “Or are you going to rejoin the fight?”
“Nope. I’m not fighting anymore. Three years is enough. I’m going back to Lexington, Virginia. It’s Greenville, Alabama for you, ain’t it, Wash?”
“Yeah, It’s a little southwest of Montgomery. Long ways from here. We’ll get to Virginia and see what’s happening, and then go from there.”
They found a spot where they could oversee the little village and then rested for the balance of the day.
Lida, Dee, and Erik met back in the conference room at Legacy Woods while Bunny took the time to start the healing process.
“I think I’ve found a place to intercept them. I read Traweek’s recollections. Listen to this,” Lida said.
“We left the skiff and went up into the mountains and rested that day. While resting, we discovered a little village of about two or three hundred people at the foot of the mountain. At twilight, we saw two men leave the village and come up to a house at the foot of the mountain. We moved up close to this house and camped for the night. Next morning, the men went back to the village. Two ladies from the same house went to their right, about two hundred yards, to a cow lot and went to milking cows.
We then went back down by the back way to the house, went in, and found two suits of clothes. One was a fine dress suit with a velvet cap and a pair of shoes. I found a pistol in a dresser drawer. It was what is known as a pepperbox revolving pistol. We took these items and went back to the mountains using the route we came. Then, we took off our Confederate uniforms, and I put on my suit. We traveled some five or six miles and stopped for the night.
“What do you think, Dee?”
“I’ve been looking over the maps,” said Dee, “trying to pinpoint their location. Traweek doesn’t leave us many clues to his whereabouts. I’m thinking that he’s navigating by the seat of his pants. Doesn’t know where he is, or have any route planned. He is heading southeast and depending on the sun, moon, stars, and directions from locals.”
“How do we find them?” said Lida.
“We don’t know the area, either!” Bunny declared.
“I’ve looked at the maps. I’m a good mapreader and scout. I estimate that the village they saw at the base of the mountains is West Nanticoke. It’s between seventy-three and eighty miles depending on the route you take and has about the right size population.”
“Maybe we can take a run out there,” Lida interrupted. “A couple of hundred miles is an easy drive.”
“We might not need to make the trip,” said Dee. “Online maps give you a street view, and West Nanticoke is at the base of the mountain near the river. I’ll bet money that’s where they’re going or have been. In either case, if the location is correct and they haven’t arrived, we’ll raid the house for clothes and wait for them to get there. I’m not going to be so nice to them this time. I’ll disable Traweek and Crawford and force the capsule down Rummy’s gullet.”
“What if they’ve already been there and left?” Bunny asked.
“That won’t happen,” said Lida. “I’ll do a reset if we’re off by a lot. I’ll make sure we get to the house before they arrive.”
Everyone was silent. Finally, Bunny asked, “What is this ‘we’ business? You can’t go.”
Dee agreed. “No, you don’t have martial arts skills. You’d just get in the way.”
“First, I’m in charge here. Second, my teeth are fixed to carry capsules. And third, I don’t need to fight. I have other skills. You haven’t seen me naked.”
Bunny sighed. “I’m not believing this. What an ego.”
“I-I-I’ve never seen her nude,” Erik piped up, “but I’ll bet she looks pretty good. Maybe she should strip down so we can check—”
“Oh, no! You’re not getting a cheap thrill. Most women know how they look. I’ll take her word. Besides sensuality is mostly in the mind.”
“I don’t have any doubt that she’s, er … well built,” Dee chimed in. “I’m more concerned with her role in getting the capsule into Rummy.”
“Don’t forget, I’ll be cold, and Rummy won’t have seen me in a long time. In fact, none of these guys will have seen a naked woman in a long time.”
“Maybe never,” said Dee. “Women didn’t strut around naked in those days. The eighteen hundreds were prudish times. You might go all your life without seeing a woman unclothed. But, she might have a point. Don’t forget, these boys are soldiers and not afraid to fight. The shock value might just stop them from acting long enough for me to disable them. Then between the two of us, Rummy will be easy to handle. I wish we had a knife, Lida.”
“If you arrive before the three-some, and the house is unoccupied, you can find a knife. If you’re there after they leave, you’ll have to borrow one along with clothes and start tracking. It’ll be important that we intercept them here because after West Nanticoke, they steal and ride several horses, and we won’t be able to catch them.”
“I’m ready. Let’s finish this.”
“It’ll take me about an hour to program the RTSL. Rest up, cause we’re not coming back without Rummy.”
Chapter 19
SPEAKING RAPIDLY, Lida explained. “It’s critical that we enter the house at the bottom of the hill before Traweek, Crawford, and Rummy arrive. I think I have the date and time accurate and can put us in the rear of the house between the time the women leave to milk the cows and Traweek and the boys make a move. We’ll have to enter on the opposite side from them. I’ll put us in when the two men are preparing to leave and the women are getting ready to milk the cows.”
“Dee, you’ll handle Traweek, and I think I can paralyze Crawford long enough for you to tie and gag him. Then we call Rummy. When he enters, we hold him down and put the capsule in him. Once he’s gone, we let Traweek and Crawford loose and squeeze our capsules. Then we’re back with Rummy and the soldier boys are on their way.”
“There is one thing I don’t understand,” Bunny said. “If time is passing in the past and we go to a place like, say the farm house. When we go back, won’t the point in time have passed?
Lida smiled. “Only in the past. Not the present time. Think of the past as one huge roll of film. We can roll it out and enter the past at any place, but when we come back, the present will have moved without us. The past will continue moving, including any changes we’ve made. That’s why we have to reset it before we make any oth
er trips. That’s how paradoxes develop. We’ve always avoided the problem by resetting the timeline before any additional trips by the same person. When Ruby accidentally shot Bunny, Dee returned to modern time and then went back. His trip didn’t affect Bunny, because she never left the past. Only he was affected. The past was reset up until Bunny’s shooting, then a small patch of the past was altered.
Bunny shook her head. “What about Rummy? He doesn’t change at all. The resets don’t affect him.”
Lida smiled, again. “I wish we hadn’t started this explanation. Remember, I had to concoct a special program that I call a loop back. Some programmers call them nested loops. Aha! Did you see the movie Groundhog Day?” They all nodded.
“That’s a good example of a nested loop. Bill Murray keeps repeating the same day, over and over, until something changes. In the movie, it’s an attitude change. In Rummy’s case, I have to interrupt the loop back and change his program to the normal RTSL parameters. Then he comes right back no worse for the wear.”
“So you could kill your great grandfather?”
“I’m not sure and I’m not going to risk it. I follow the rules, and so far so good. Now I need to get busy. See you back here in two hours.”
* * * * *
Vinnie and Bruno strode through the doors of the Bailey Agency, Ralph Bailey’s real estate and insurance business. They walked by Lorraine, the office manager, opened Ralph’s office door, and sat down in the two customer seats facing Ralph.
Lorraine was right behind them. “Do you gentlemen have an appointment with Mr. Bailey?” Vinnie just shook his head, “Ralphie knows us. Don’t you, Ralphie?”
“Yes, it’s okay Rainey. What can I do for you fellows?”
“I guess you know it’s Wednesday, and we’re adding ten percent vig to your bill. That brings it up to, let’s see … carry the one … Aw, we’ll just round it off to thirty G’s cash. Oh! We’ll even take a check and wait until next week to cash it. It’s funny, Ralphie, we never have checks bounce. Don’tcha think that’s funny, huh, Ralphie? You got a good sense of humor, Ralphie?”
“Yes, pretty good, I guess.”
“That’s good, Ralphie ‘cause—”
Ralph stood up and, trying to control his voice, interrupted Vinnie. “Sense of humor or not, would you please quit calling me Ralphie. My name is Ralph—”
“—‘cause, you see, our boss, Tony, he doesn’t have a sense of humor at all, Ralphie, no sense of humor. Especially when someone owes him thirty-large, but …” Vinnie stood up, leaned over the desk, reached out a meaty hand, gripped both ends of Ralph’s tie, and pulled Ralph forward slowly until he was draped face down across the desk. “But when we bring him a fat check, we get a little smile outta him.”
“Look,” Ralph grunted from his awkward position. “My father is the one who did the gambling. He’s the one who owes you. You need to collect from him.”
“Nah, Ralphie, he might have a bum ticker or something.” Vinnie pulled tighter on the tie. “He’s getting kinda old ain’t he, Ralphie? And I understand that you pretty much run the business. At least, that’s what he told us. He told us that Ralphie would take care of that piddly amount.”
Bruno said, “Vinnie, I don’t remember tal—”
“Never mind Bruno. You just missed it.”
“But—”
And then Vinnie screamed, “WILL YOU SHUT UP, BRUNO? Just shut up!”
Vinnie released Ralph’s tie, Ralph sank back in his chair, and Vinnie regained control. “You see Ralphie, Chancy told us …”
“His name is Chauncey.”
“It don’t matter, Chancy, Chauncey, whatever you call him, told Tony and Tony told us that you had a big deposit due to Western Star Mutual for close to what you owe us. I think it’s about twenty-nine thousand six hundred. Tony says that Chancy’s a good customer, and he’ll write off the four hundred bucks.”
“But I can’t …”
“Now Ralphie, there are two words I dislike. One is ‘won’t’ and the other is ‘can’t.’ So why don’t you have Nancy there bring us that 30 G’s and I’ll have a smile on my face. So will Bruno. Even Tony will crack a little smile. And guess what? I’ll get my sense of humor back. And Ralphie, you’ll feel better knowing we’re smiling.”
“Lorraine, bag up the money for Mr. Ferragamo.”
In a few minutes, Lorraine brought the money to Vinnie. Vinnie opened the sack and looked into it. “Yep, I can see that Nancy here is good at counting money.” He reached over and pinched Lorraine’s leg, just above the knee. “Yessir, I’ll bet Nancy is mighty good at a lot of things. Kind of a gal Thursday. Know what I mean? Course you do, Ralphie. Well, I’m holding you up. We better get going.”
Vinnie and Bruno got up and headed for the door. Vinnie stopped at Lorraine’s desk. “Say,” he said. “I’ll be at the bar in the Leesburg Airport Inn at about seven. If I’m not there, call room 413. Wadda ya say, Lorraine?”
She just nodded. Vinnie tipped his pork pie hat and followed Bruno to the door.
Ralph sat, put his head in his hands and just groaned. He glanced up to see Lorraine staring out the door. “You okay, Lorraine?
“Oh, sure.”
Lorraine walked back to her desk, staggered slightly, sat down, settled back in her chair, and wiped a sheen of sweat from her lip. Ralph saw her write 413 on a notepad, tear it off, and slip it in her purse.
When he stopped shaking, Ralph shut his office door and called Carleton. Once he explained what had happened, Carleton agreed to loan Ralph the money to cover the premium funds Ralph used to pay Vinnie. Before he left The Queen, he called Mike and arranged for him to join them at Ralph’s office.
* * * * *
“You ready to go, Dee?”
“I guess so, Lida. What’s the plan, again?”
“I’ve set the RTSL to bring us in about thirty minutes before sunrise. As soon as the women leave the house, we slip right in, and Dee will throw on some clothes. I’ll just put on something skimpy like women’s underwear.”
Bunny interrupted, “I don’t think they had ‘skimpy’ underwear in 1864.”
“Whatever they had will be skimpy for those times. I’ll just wing it. If I have to go naked, I will. I’ll do what it takes to keep Crawford’s attention. Dee will be busy tying up Traweek. As soon as he’s tied up, we take care of Crawford, call in Rummy, ram the capsule down Rummy’s throat and then we’re outta there. Erik, where are Vinnie and Bruno?”
“They should be here any minute now.” As he spoke, Vinnie and Bruno arrived. Lida brought them up to date.
“Wish us luck, folks,” Lida said.
Erik administered Lida’s injection while Bunny handled Dee’s and in a few seconds, they disappeared.
* * * * *
Lida and Dee appeared on what passed for a backyard in West Nanticoke, Pennsylvania during the eighteen-sixties. It was dark. Dee crawled the few feet to where Lida lay on the rough clumpy grass. She was very pale, and Dee had no problem finding her.
“Okay?” Dee whispered.
“We’re a little far away.”
“A problem?”
“No, I think if we start now while it’s still dark, we’ll be okay. Shh, quiet.”
They heard a door bang shut, and men’s voices trailed off to their right. Shortly, they heard the chattering of the women; a door clattered, and those voices drifted to their left.
Lida motioned Dee forward. “Let’s go.”
Dee took the lead, stalked to the back door, pulled it open and entered the house. A short hall divided two bedrooms. The first they entered yielded the clothes mentioned in Traweek’s recollections. Lida also found women’s garments, including some underwear that reminded her of short bloomers. Not exactly the sexiest, but they’d have to do. She pulled on the bloomers and held the rest of the clothes in her arms. Holding the clothes like schoolbooks, she could reveal as much as necessary to hold Crawford’s attention. Dee found some rawhide belts he figured would hold the
m for a few minutes. He planned on using a neck hold that would knock them out, giving them a sore neck but no lasting damage. Dee pulled on the clothing. He found the pepperbox revolver mentioned in Traweek’s journal and stuck it in his pocket.
They could hear footsteps and whispers as the two escapees approached the farm house. At the last second, Dee decided to neutralize the soldiers by threatening them with the revolver. Holding them at gunpoint would eliminate the possibility of permanent damage to them with his neck hold.
Traweek was the first in the door. Lida’s half-naked condition drew his attention and he stopped. Crawford arrived at Traweek’s right, and the sight of this partially clothed young woman, according to plan, paralyzed him.
Lida looked at Crawford with her sexiest glance.
“Hello, James.”
“How … how did you know my name?”
“Oh, you’re well known, you and Traweek.”
Dee stepped in front of the two escapees and pointed the pepperbox pistol at Traweek.
“We don’t have any quarrel with you two; we just want Rummy.”
“Well, he doesn’t want to go with you! What are you fellers, devil worshipers? Using those satanic spells and tempting us with this naked harlot. Rummy doesn’t want any part of y’all and I don’t blame him. And you don’t scare me with that pistol. I’m going to take it away from you and shove it down your throat.”
Dee aimed his pistol at the ceiling and pulled the trigger. It fired with a loud retort. In 1860, they plastered many ceilings, and the shock from the pistol brought down a six-foot section of plaster with an accompanying cloud of plaster mixed with the smoke from the pistol. Unfortunately, most of the plaster landed on Dee, and he coughed and choked on the mixture. Traweek and Crawford, accustomed to smoke and dust from two years in the Jeff Davis Artillery Company just held their breath and took in air in small amounts, holding their hands over their mouth.
Traweek took this opportunity to attack Dee and scream for Rummy to come to their aid.