by Vicky de Leo
Joseph paced the room and then turned back to Lrence. “Okay, if you guys stole all the crystals, how did this one end up in Guatemala? And if it’s the same one Harry had, how did Joshua get it?”
“Harry got it from me,” Lrence explained. “The six of us gave ourselves time to build new portals. We’d arranged to meet periodically to share information. We met several times without incident, so we got careless. The Watchers developed new technology so they could see when a portal surged. When Cnoc used his to come to the meeting, they found his portal in China, read the settings and ambushed us. We got the warning only seconds before they arrived. Everyone made it out except for Cnoc. He had no place to go back to. When his crystal wouldn’t work, I tried to take him with me. Unfortunately, we were too slow. He was killed and I was seriously wounded. One of the bullets nicked the settings and so instead of returning here, I ended up in the park close to your home.
“That’s when I met Harry for the first time. He had been walking in the park and stumbled across me. I lay there bleeding unable to get up when Harry found me. He could see I was hurt. He started to call an ambulance, but I insisted that he bring me here. He ran and got his car and helped me to it. I didn’t realize I had dropped the crystal, but Harry noticed it, picked it up, and put it in his pocket.
“I gave him directions to the house. I managed to give him the gate code before I passed out. He got me inside. When he was taking off my coat, my communicator fell out of the pocket. When he heard a voice asking about me, he picked it up and explained I was hurt. They directed him to my portal. They told him how to set the coordinates to send me to Kafra. She had the medical training and the equipment available to patch me up. Our contact had not meant to endanger Harry. She had hoped that his only involvement would be getting me into the portal. However, I was unconscious so Harry held on to me while inserting the crystal. He surged with me.”
Joshua said, “That must have been quite a shock.”
“No doubt. Naturally, he had a hundred questions. Kafra put off telling him anything under the guise of tending to me. Once I recovered, I made the decision to tell Harry everything. I felt I owed him the truth. I explained the situation he was in because he had time traveled. Instead of being devastated, Harry laughed. He explained to us he had recently been diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. His plans of becoming a concert pianist were crushed. The pain that he was living with was almost unbearable. He’d been in the park walking and thinking about how to kill himself.” Lrence stopped allowing Joseph to absorb this new information.
Joseph forehead creased as he tried to fit in what Lrence was saying with what he remembered. “That would explain Harry’s depression and unwillingness to return to school. Why didn’t he tell me?”
Lrence said, “I asked him that. He said he didn’t want you to feel sorry for him. There was nothing you could have done. He knew you would have sacrificed your own career trying to take care of him. He explained to me that when he picked up the crystal, for the first time in weeks he was entirely without pain. He begged to be allowed to continue to carry the crystal. We explained the dangers of continued exposure. He said that he would trade that risk for a few months of being out of pain and an opportunity to enjoy life. He said that for him going insane was preferable to a life as a cripple. I gave him the crystal. Since he had already time traveled, he already had the irregularities. I felt it was the least I could do.”
Joshua interrupted him, “I don’t understand. Why would he want to kill himself? Lots of people have arthritis. Couldn’t he just have taken a stronger painkiller?”
“First of all you have to remember that this was forty years ago. The drugs that we have on the market now didn’t exist then. Secondly, this wasn’t the kind of arthritis that most people get as they grow older. Harry was only twenty-one. The kind he had was a crippling disease. In addition to the pain, he would probably have been in a wheelchair within a matter of years; this disease distorts your joints. He wasn’t just giving up his dream of playing concert piano, he was facing life as a cripple, no mobility, living in constant pain that no amount of painkillers could completely erase. While I didn’t agree that suicide was the answer, I did understand why the crystal was so important to him.
“Kafra and I began working to see if we could come up with an antidote for his brain irregularities. We hoped that by coming up with a formula that would counteract the negative effects, we could prevent Harry from becoming insane while still allowing him to experience the freedom from pain and deterioration of his joints. Scientists on our planet had already made significant progress, but they were concentrating on curing the temporary irregularities in Qashurians. Our research concentrated just on earthlings. We made several breakthroughs and felt we were close. We tested every new serum we made on him, hoping that each one would be the miracle one. He was patient even hopeful. Unfortunately, as time passed, Harry got worse.
“At first, his only symptom was a headache. He dismissed that, saying a headache was a small price to pay for mobility. Eventually paranoia set in. Harry began to be sure that the Watchers had discovered us and would be coming. He wasn’t worried about himself, but he became increasing worried that they would hurt the ones he loved. I had told him about my time in Mesoamerica. He became fascinated by the culture.”
Joseph nodded. “I remember him buying all those books on Mayan culture.”
“One day when we had a new formula to try out, I asked Harry to come over. When he arrived, he looked at me and smiled. He said there was no time left, but he knew exactly what to do. He ran to the portal, set the coordinates for the exact time that I had spent in Mesoamerican and then surged. I was stunned. It took me a few minutes to gather up another crystal and follow him. When I got there, he had already hidden his. He became hysterical, laughing and saying that now everyone would be safe. I struggled with him, trying to get him to come back with me. The natives that I’d lived with and loved saw the struggle. They thought he was trying to attack me. Before I could stop them, they shot him with poisoned arrows. One arrow pierced his heart. The poison acted quickly. There was nothing I could do. I held him and I promised him that I would watch out for his family. He died in my arms.”
Lrence got up and walked to the windows. He swept back the heavy curtains and stared out. The room was silent except for the ticking of a clock.
Joseph sat with his head down and his hands in his lap. Sam crossed to his father and put his hand on his shoulder. Maria was on the sofa sitting next to Joshua.
Lrence turned back to face Joseph. “The natives and I buried him there. I surged back to the place where we met. I sat in the park a long time, wondering what to tell his family. In the end I decided that there was nothing I could say that would lessen your pain, nothing that wouldn’t put you in danger.” There were tears in his eyes as he turned to Joseph. “Harry died because he helped me. I don’t know if you can ever forgive me. But I promise you I will do all I can to make sure that the rest of your family stays safe.” No one said anything for a long time.
Finally, Joseph straightened his shoulders, looked directly at Lrence, and said, “Harry made his own choices. I am just glad he was able to have a few months of happiness. Now what’s your plan to keep these guys safe?”
Looking at Sam and Maria, Lrence said, “Erik has already seen you and knows who you are. He knows you have surged. He’ll be able to trace you, everywhere you have ever lived, your relatives, etc. He’s fairly certain that you had help from one of us. Even if he got the crystal now, he wouldn’t leave you alone. You could be the key to finding us. The only way to keep you safe is for us to give you new identities. It means giving up your career, your friends, basically, your way of life and going on the run. Can you do that?”
Sam and Maria nodded. Sam said, “We’d pretty much come to that conclusion ourselves. It’s not like there’s another choice, but what about Joshua?”
Joshua spoke up, “I will not live like that. I’d rather die
now.”
Lrence held his hand up to quiet them as everyone tried to speak at once. “Erik has never seen Joshua. He can’t be sure that Joshua ever used the portal.”
“He seemed pretty sure when he was threatening us,” Sam said.
“That was before I showed up. Now that he knows one of us helped you, he can’t be sure who surged the first time. If—and this is a big if—we can find a cure for the irregularities, I think we can convince Erik that Joshua is an innocent. When Erik scans Joshua and finds no irregularities, he’ll have to deduce that Joshua couldn’t have surged. The Watchers won’t give him permission to kill Joshua without proof of his complicity. He may have him watched for a period of time to see if he leads them to you, but he won’t be able to take action against him.”
“How do we find this cure?” Joshua asked.
“As I said, I believed that we were very close before Harry died, but we haven’t had anyone to test it on. We’d need one of you to allow us to test the serum on you. Even then, there’s no guarantee that our latest formula will work, or that we’ll come up with the cure in time. Neither Kafra nor I are experts in earthling anatomy.”
“Would it help if you had an expert in human neurology to assist you?” Joseph asked.
“Absolutely, you’re thinking of Dr. Whiting, I presume.”
“You know her?”
“Yes, Harry told me about her. I promised him to keep everyone he loved safe.
It’s also why I’m reluctant to place anyone else in jeopardy. Besides what reason would she have to help us?” Lrence asked.
“Her granddaughter is Joshua’s girlfriend. If Joshua had to disappear, I think it might make her very unhappy. Especially considering her past with Harry,” Joseph replied.
Maria turned on Joshua, “You have a girlfriend?”
Joshua smiled at his mother and shrugged. Turning to Lrence he said, “I already told Sara about the crystal and how I came to be in Boston. I didn’t realize at the time that it would place her in any kind of danger.”
“In this case, a little knowledge is probably more dangerous than knowing everything. Has she had any contact with the crystal?” asked Lrence.
“Yes, she held it in her hand for a few minutes.”
Lrence sighed. “This is getting more complicated by the minute. I guess we have no choice. I’ll need to scan her to make sure there are no irregularities. Joseph, once I have a scan of you and Joshua, you two need to go about your normal life. We don’t want you doing anything different that might look suspicious or draw attention to this house. We’re going to need time to work on this. Call this cell number if you see anyone watching you. My contact will let me know the minute Erik decides to come here, so I should be able to give you plenty of warning. However, just as a precaution, if anyone comes looking for Joshua, tell them he’s not home; say he’s out of town with friends. If that happens, call me and I’ll come and pick Joshua up immediately. In addition, Joseph, if anyone asks, you haven’t heard from Sam or Maria. As far as you know, they’re still in Guatemala. When I take you back to your car, would you contact Dr. Whiting?”
Joseph nodded. “What should I tell her?”
“I’ll leave that up to you. If she’s going to help us, she’ll need to know everything. However, if she isn’t willing to help, then the less she knows the better. She’ll need to arrange to spend time here. I have a complete lab and I can probably get anything she needs.”
Lrence led them downstairs to his lab. It looked like any large well-equipped lab with metal tables, cabinets with vials and jars of solutions and various machines, with one exception. In the middle of one wall was a portal. The recess was the same dimension as the one in Guatemala, but the outside rings were smaller and made completely of metal. Lrence explained that he had insulated this room in such a way that he could surge from this portal without detection by the watchers.
He scanned Joseph first with a hand scanner that produced a readout from a machine in the corner. “I’m surprised, your brain is totally normal. Didn’t you come in contact with the crystal?” Lrence asked Joseph.
“Joshua gave me the crystal in a box. I took off the lid to look at it, but I didn’t touch it. I left it in the box,” answered Joseph.
“That’s great. That means that when Erik comes to talk to you, you won’t be in any danger,” said Lrence. Addressing the others he said, “I will also need a blood and urine sample from each of you.” Next, he scanned Joshua. He frowned and scanned him once again. “Have you been having any headaches?”
“Yes, I carried the crystal in my pocket for over a week, but once I stopped carrying the crystal, the headaches went away,” confessed Joshua looking worried.
“I was afraid of that. Your readings are much higher than I would have expected from just one surge.” He composed his face and turned to scan Sam and Maria.
“What does that mean? Is he in any danger?” asked Maria.
“I need to scan you and Sam before I can say for sure.” After scanning them both, and looking at all the readouts, he said, “I was hoping that we could experiment on you and Sam, and once we got the formula right for you, that it would automatically be the right dosage for Joshua. Except, his exposure is much higher than yours were. Therefore, even if we are able to cure your irregularities . . . Well, I’ll need Joshua here to be able to figure out the right dosage for him. It’s just a complication,” he said dismissively, turning away from them.
Sam stepped in front of Lrence to look directly into his eyes. “What you really mean is that even if you can cure us, there’ll be no guarantee that you can cure Joshua.”
Joshua looked stricken and sat down on the lab stool. Maria stood behind him.
Lrence said slowly, “No, I don’t mean that at all. I feel sure that once we get the formula right, it’ll just be a matter of dosage, but you’re right, there are no guarantees that any of this will work. Every complication will take time to work out, time we may not have because of Erik. The good news is that Joshua’s exposure is much less than Harry’s, so if we got that last formula right, it will definitely cure Joshua.” The tension in the room eased up.
Just then, the portal lit up.
Chapter Eighteen
Everyone turned to look as a beautiful strawberry blond woman dressed in jeans and a light blue knit shirt and holding a canvas bag stepped out of the portal and into the lab. Her straight hair curved under an inch or two above her shoulders framing a heart shaped face. She had blue/green eyes and a slight smile on her face. Lrence immediately walked over to her, hugged her, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She put down the bag to return his embrace. Lrence then turned to the others and keeping his arm around her shoulders he said, “I’d like you all to meet Kafra.”
Each of them came forward to shake her hand as Lrence introduced them. While Kafra set to work taking blood from each of them and gathering the urine samples, Lrence explained to her their plan to get Dr. Whiting to help them.
Once Lrence left to drive Joshua and Joseph back to their car, Kafra picked up the bag and said to Maria, “I brought you some clothes, make up and a few other necessities. Once we change your looks and get pictures so we can create new identities, you’ll be able to go shopping for whatever else you need.”
***
Joshua called Sara from the car to ask if they could come over to talk. She invited them to stay for lunch.
Once they had eaten and were sitting in the living room, Joseph asked Helen, “Do you remember Harry carrying a crystal rock?” Sitting in one of the armchairs, he faced Helen who sat on the sofa next to Sara. Joshua stood, leaning on the mantle over the fireplace.
“Yes, he said it was his good luck charm,” replied Helen.
“Joshua found that crystal. As a result we met a man who knows what happened to Harry,” he said bluntly.
She leaned forward, her eyes wide. “What happened?”
“It’s a very long story, and it would be better if you heard it direct
ly from Lrence. The crystal that Harry carried around has very unusual properties that caused irregularities in the brain, which led to Harry’s paranoia. Joshua now has those same irregularities. Lrence has been working on a cure, but he needs your help. We need your help.”
Sara jumped up. “Joshua, are you all right? You‘re not still carrying that around are you?”
He took her hands in his. “I’m fine right now. I don’t have it anymore. Grandpa has it secured.”
Turning to face her grandmother, she said, “Gran, you have to help him.”
Joshua kept his arm around her shoulders.
Helen looked puzzled. “Of course, I’ll help, if I can. But, I’ve never heard of any kind of a crystal that causes damage to the brain.” She looked at Sara, the desperation on her face clear. Helen sighed. “I think I have some time this week. Give him my number and we can set up an appointment. What is his name and where is he doing his research?”
Joseph answered, “Helen, I’m just now beginning to absorb everything I found out today. Let me just say, that if you’re willing to help us, you’ll need to keep an open mind. His research is top secret and can only be done in his lab. If you’re willing to help us, we need you to start today. No one can know where you are, not the hospital, or your secretary. You will need to give them a plausible reason for being gone this week.”
Helen frowned, clearly uncomfortable at the turn the conversation was taking. “I just can’t disappear for a week. I have commitments, obligations. Anyway, why the rush? Are you sure you can trust this man?”
Joseph held out his hands. “He is the only one who can tell you about Harry. If you won’t agree to help us under these conditions, then I can’t tell you anymore. The safety of my family is at stake.” He sat back with his hands in his lap waiting for her response.
Helen shook her head. Her eyes scanned the room from Joseph to Joshua and finally falling on Sara. While she desperately wanted to know what happened to Harry, she could not allow her emotions to dictate her actions when it came to her work. The one telltale indication of every scam was that something always had to be done immediately, giving the victim no chance to research or think. Joseph, she knew was a reputable businessman. However, someone had obviously made him believe that his family was in danger in order to get to her. The question was why did they want her? How did they know that information about Harry would entice her to cooperate? The more she thought about it, the less sense it made.