by Speer, Flora
“Come back to camp with me, Clothilde,” Guntram urged, “and there pack up your belongings and Danise’s. Uland, get the other men to help you move those poor lost souls. We’ll take all of them with us, mounted on our extra horses. We leave for Deutz within the hour.”
With a last, sorrowful glance around the forest glade, Guntram turned toward the camp. Looking at him as she walked beside him, Clothilde saw the tears coursing down his fierce warrior’s face.
Chapter 21
“Come on, come on,” Hank urged. “We can do this.”
“There is absolutely no point in talking to a machine,” Alice muttered. “I told you it would never work.”
“Get out of the way. You’re no help to me at all.” With his left arm Hank pushed Alice aside. He moved her just in time. Where she had been standing, right next to the computer, two figures materialized.
“Gotcha! Yeeow!” Hank’s yell of delight was cut off when sparks began to fly from under the table where the computer was. “Alice, cut the power!” Alice raced out of the bedroom.
“Jeez.” Hank shook his head in disgust. “I think we just blew all the circuits.”
“Michel,” said Danise, “this is the man for whom you mistook Adelbert, isn’t it? They are much alike, but I do see a difference. Adelbert is taller, and much more neat in his appearance.”
Hank had been paying more attention to his computer than to his newly materialized guests. Now he stared in fascination at the lovely eighth century apparition who was speaking to Mike in a soft voice, using a completely unfamiliar language. Except for one word.
“Why didn’t you tell her to call me Hank?” he demanded. “I never use my middle name.”
“Never mind that. You did it!” Mike stuck out his hand. “Hank, I have to admit, I wasn’t sure you could handle two people at once, but you are something else when it comes to computers. Congratulations.”
“Yeah.” Hank neglected to shake hands with Mike. His eyes were still on Danise. “I can hardly believe it myself. Aren’t you going to introduce me?”
“You bet I am. This is my wife, Danise.” Putting his arm around her, Mike switched to Frankish for the rest of the introduction. “Danise, this is the man who made it possible for you to come with me.”
Smiling at the unkempt young man, Danise put out her hand in the same way as Mike. This time Hank paid attention. He raised her hand, examined her fingers to make certain they were solid, and then raised them to his lips in what he obviously imagined was a gracious gesture of welcome to this living relic of an ancient and heroic age. His bemused contemplation of Danise’s features was interrupted by the reappearance of the owner of the house.
“What the hell are you doing?” Alice demanded. “You’ve never chewed on my fingers!”
“I am kissing her hand,” said Hank in his most dignified manner. “It is a continental custom. Perhaps if you were more ladylike, I’d do the same for you.”
“You are a real wacko,” Alice responded.
“Danise,” Michel asked, seeing her sway and put a hand to her head, “are you all right? We ought to find a bandage for that cut on your cheek.”
“I am a little dizzy,” she said, “and I’m very glad that I did not break my fast this morning, for my stomach is most uneasy. I think it will pass before long. Michel, are we safely where you wanted to go? Is the movement in time completed now?”
“It is. There’s no returning for either of us. Have you any regrets?”
“None, so long as I am with you.” She put her arms around him and Michel bent his head for a quick kiss.
“Welcome to the twentieth century, my love,” he said.
“I want to see everything.” Danise was so excited by the prospects before her that she could hardly speak. “Your cities, your schools. Have you horses in this time?”
“You are going to have to teach her to speak English,” said Alice in her sour way.
“She’ll never make it if she insists on using that gibberish.”
“I plan to teach her myself.” Turning his attention to Hank, Mike gently set Danise aside and went to the computer. “What happened to it, Hank?”
“You know the new component, the one I added to boost the power so I could move two people instead of just one person at a time?”
“Yes.” Knowing he was going to have to stop Hank from repairing the computer, Mike closely watched every move Hank made. “What about that component?”
“I pulled in extra power to feed it. As a result, there was a short circuit. The wiring in this house is pretty old and couldn’t take the extra juice. I got you here just in the nick of time. Another few seconds and you wouldn’t have made it.”
“The fuse for the computer circuits has burned out,” Alice informed them, “and two other fuses besides.”
“What does that mean for your computer?” Mike asked Hank, hoping it meant the computer was irreparably damaged.
“It’s going to take a lot of work to fix it,” Hank said. “If the fuse didn’t blow soon enough, it could take weeks, maybe months, to repair. But that doesn’t matter now. I’ve proved my theory, and you and Danise are here to back me up, just as we planned.”
“What about repeating the experiment in the future?” Mike regarded the computer with intense interest.
“As long as I have the disk that’s in there now, and the notebook, I can replicate the experiment at any time. You put the second disk in your jacket pocket just before you left here the first time. I don’t suppose you brought it back with you?”
“It’s lost in the eighth century, along with my other personal belongings.”
“That’s a shame,” Hank said. “I really would like to have both disks, but at least I have the remaining one.” He got to his knees and began looking under the computer table.
“What are you doing?” Mike asked.
“Unplugging the whole system.” Hank’s voice was muffled. “Hey, Alice, go put in a fresh fuse. I’m going to try something. If I can get this baby humming again, I won’t have as much work as I expected.”
Alice obediently left the room. Hank remained beneath the table. Looking toward Danise, Mike put a finger on his lips, cautioning silence. She nodded. Mike picked up the notebook that lay open next to the computer keyboard. A quick glance at it told him it was the right notebook, the one Hank had stolen from India Baldwin. Mike handed the notebook to Danise.
“Hang on to this,” he said softly. “Don’t give any sign that I’m doing anything more than explaining to you what is happening. Move slowly toward the door and be ready to leave at my signal. Hank may try to make trouble when he sees what I am going to do.”
“Please don’t kill him,” she begged. “Were it not for him, we would never have met. I am grateful to him for that.”
“No one is going to be seriously hurt,” Mike assured her. “But I have to stop Hank from continuing this insane work of his. If he can get that computer going again, he’ll be right back at it within the hour.”
When Danise stepped out of range, Mike drew the sword that still hung from his belt. Down at floor level, Hank began to slide out from under the table.
“Is everything unplugged?” Mike asked.
“Yeah, it’s safe to work on it now,” Hank replied.
“Good.” Holding his sword in both hands, Mike swung back his arms and aimed a mighty slash at the computer.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Hank scrambled to his feet. “Cut that out! You’re ruining my computer.”
“I know.” Mike hacked at the machine again.
“Stop it!” Hank made a move toward Mike, but jumped out of the way of the flashing blade. “My computer!”
Mike did not stop until the computer and all its special components lay in pieces. Then, after sheathing his sword and while Hank stood shaking his head in trembling, speechless rage, Mike lifted the floppy disk out of the ruins and gave it to Danise to hold.
“I’ve wrecked the edge of my blade, probabl
y permanently,” he noted to Hank, “but it was worth it to stop you.”
At this point Alice returned to the bedroom.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she shouted at Mike. “Just look at this mess!”
“Hank’s career in organizing time-travel tours has just ended,” Mike announced.
“You promised to back up my claims!” Hank cried. “How am I going to prove the truth of my theory if I can’t replicate the experiments? Mike, we could have been rich! I could have won a Nobel Prize.” Hank’s heartbroken litany of complaints ended only when Mike seized him by the shirtfront, lifting him off his feet.
“Listen to me, Hank,” Mike ground out. “Any promise you think I made to you is overridden by the moral imperative to keep you from destroying the present-day world. Your experiments with the space-time continuum are over. Get that? Done. Finished. Finito. Kaput” With a gesture of supreme disdain he set Hank back on his feet.
“What about my work?” Hank was close to tears. “You talk about me destroying the world when you don’t know for a fact that it would happen, but you have just destroyed my world. Everything I hoped to accomplish was tied up in that computer.” He broke off, regarding the ruined computer with swimming eyes and a tragic expression.
“Oh, I am so sorry.” Danise could not understand what Mike and Hank were arguing about, but her ready sympathies were stirred by the pathetic sight of a man in tears over the destruction of a treasured possession. Hands outstretched, she moved toward Hank, intending to comfort him and to thank him for saving her from a lifelong separation from Michel.
She never reached Hank. Alice stepped between them, snatching at the disk and notebook Danise was holding. At once Danise whipped her hand behind her back. She could not understand what Alice said, but the woman’s anger was obvious to her.
“Leave Hank alone. You and your precious Mike have just about killed him. His work was all he cared about,” Alice said. Turning to Mike, she went on, “You get out of here, both of you. I will take care of Hank.”
“The situation is not as bad as you think, Alice,” Mike informed her. “I’m not completely ungrateful for Hank’s help in bringing Danise into the twentieth century to live. But just in case his last experiment failed and I never returned, I made a couple of phone calls yesterday, while you were at the electronics store and while Hank was too busy in here to keep an eye on my activities.”
“What do you mean?” Alice took a menacing step toward Mike.
“Stop!” Danise put up a hand to keep Alice away from her love. “Michel, beware. I cannot understand her words, but I can tell this woman’s intent is malicious.”
“Keep her away from me and from Hank,” Alice ordered, glaring at Danise, who looked back at her with no trace of fear.
“I plan to do just that,” Mike replied, smiling at Danise. “Far away from both of you.”
“What did you mean, you made phone calls?” Alice now demanded. “To whom? And why?”
“At any time now you are going to have some interested visitors,” Mike said.
“Who?” Alice went white. “Did you turn us in to the Feds? You bastard! After all we did for you! I warned Hank he should leave you there in the past, and good riddance to you, but he wouldn’t listen.”
“Not exactly the Feds,” Mike told her. “There is nothing to be frightened about. I told you when I first came here that there are people who are extremely interested in Hank’s work. I think by the time the sun sets today he should receive an absolutely fascinating job offer in a slightly different and much less dangerous line of work.”
“Oh, yeah?” sneered Alice. “And what about me? Am I going to end up paying for what happened here?”
“I daresay, if you could bring yourself to try a little tact and just a smidgen of graciousness, you might talk yourself into a new line of work, too,” Mike said. “After all, you have been Hank’s assistant for some time, haven’t you?”
“A job? Fat chance.” Alice stared at him, openly disbelieving. “I haven’t worked for months. I’m practically bankrupt after supporting Hank with my savings. He said when his experiments were finished, we’d both be rich. But you ended those dreams. Are you telling me someone is going to offer me work, just like that? Out of thin air?”
“Stick around and find out,” Mike said. “I think youll be pleasantly surprised.” He took Danise’s hand. “Come on, my love, it’s time for us to leave. Oh, by the way, Alice, I would appreciate it if you and Hank would keep quiet about Danise’s sudden appearance.”
“You don’t have to worry about us talking,” Alice said in a slightly more agreeable tone than she ordinarily took when speaking to Mike. “Nobody would believe us if we said where Danise has come from, or how she got here. We’d be locked up for nut cases.”
“I knew you’d understand. Good-bye, Alice. Hank.” With his wife’s hand clasped firmly in his, Bradford Michael Bailey walked outside, into the bright sunshine of a New Mexico morning. His car was still parked beside Alice’s house, where it had been for the better part of a week. Mike looked at his car and then at Danise.
“I know I have asked a lot of you today,” he said to her. “I am going to ask more now. I want you to trust me completely, and not be frightened by what is going to happen. Just remember that this time is very different from your own.”
“I trust you with my life,” she said, stepping away from the house with him. “Haven’t I proven as much?”
“Indeed you have. Danise, you and I are going to climb into that dusty red chariot you see just in front of us. I am going to fasten belts across your shoulders and around your hips so you can’t fall out, and then we are going to move faster than you have ever moved before. I don’t want you to be frightened.”
“I have come across twelve centuries to be with you,” she replied. “Nothing can frighten me.”
“I’m not so sure about that.”
“Where is the stable?” Danise asked, looking around. “I will help you with the horses.”
“This chariot doesn’t use horses.” Mike stopped walking to regard Danise with a smile. “Although we do have a unit of measurement that we use to describe how many horses would be required to do the work of the engine in this car.”
“Car,” she repeated, trying to make sense of what he was telling her. “Engine. Oh, a machine. Yes, I have watched builders with their machinery, the ropes fitted around little wheels that they use to lift heavy stones.”
“The engine in this car is much more complicated than that,” Mike said.
“There is so much I need to learn. May I see your machinery?”
“There isn’t time right now, but later I’ll be glad to explain it to you. I want to get you out of here before Hank’s visitors arrive.” He was running his fingers beneath the car. Danise watched him, expecting some wondrous thing to occur.
“Michel, what are you doing?”
“As far as I can remember,” he said, “my keys are lost in the eighth century. But I have an extra car key hidden here, in case the other is lost.” Retrieving the key, he opened the car door. “You sit down in there, Danise. I’ll fasten the safety belts for you.”
Danise stood where she was, pulling on the drawstring of the scrip that was fastened at her waist.
“Your belongings,” she murmured, tugging loose a knot and reaching into the little purse. “I almost forgot that I have this. Will it be of any use to you?” She handed him a stiff little card.
“You brought my driver’s license with you?” Mike took the card, then flung his arms around her. “You wonderful woman! God, how I love you! My darling, you have saved me endless hours at the Motor Vehicle Department, not to mention saving me from possible arrest if we’re stopped and I don’t have it.”
“You are pleased, then?” Danise paused to let him kiss her before she got into the car. After Mike fastened the belts around her and climbed into his own seat, she looked at the panel in front of him and at the wheel he was app
arently going to use to maneuver the machine. “Michel, how many horsepowers are there in this chariot – this car?”
“If I told you,” he said, “it would terrify you. Perhaps you ought to close your eyes until we are moving.”
“No. I must face these challenges so that I can live my life as any woman of your time would do.”
“All right. You asked for it. But, please, Danise, don’t scream while I’m driving. What I am going to do now is perfectly normal for this time and place.”
“I am not afraid,” she said again.
“Maybe you ought to be.” He put the car into gear and began to back out of the driveway. Danise went white and bit her lip, but she uttered no sound as he eased into the street and shifted gears. Out of the rearview mirror he saw two long, black limousines approaching from several blocks away. “Just in time,” he muttered, and floored the gas pedal.
Danise did not scream. She clenched her hands together until her nails cut into her palms, but she kept her mouth shut and her eyes open. Michel handled his strange chariot with such ease and sureness that she felt certain this means of travel must be safe. Surely she would soon grow used to it.
“How are you doing?” His hand was on top of hers. She wished he would put it back on the wheel.
“We are traveling so rapidly that everything passes in a blur,” she said.
“You’ll get used to it. Here we are.” He pulled into a space in front of a long, two-storied building. “This is called a motel. It’s the best accommodation in town, though admittedly, that’s not saying much. Wait here in the car, till I pick up the key to my room.”
He strode away from the car to a building faced with the most enormous windows Danise had ever seen. While she looked eagerly at every object she could see and at each oddly dressed person who walked past Michel’s car, Danise began to practice the new words she had learned.