* * *
Hoists lifted the unlocked cradle covers. Technicians started the laborious task of unhooking helmet and body connections. Removing their glasses, Salazar and Fargo looked around. They were keyed up and excited – like star players at half time when their team was winning. Sal explored his face with inquisitive fingers and Fargo gingerly touched her nose. They were physically unmarked and completely unhurt. They looked at each other and started laughing.
Salazar tapped his communicator and glanced up toward the control room. “Hey Doc, why so quick? We were just startin’ to get a feel for things. Man what a rush!”
At the control room windows, Hahn watched the opened cradles and the riders with open contempt, and didn’t bother to answer Sal. She flicked a look up. “Echo, all data on this test is part of the Point access protocol.”
“Of course, Dr. Hahn.”
Vandermark joined her at the glass. Hahn refused to look at him as she asked, “When will I be allowed to use competent help again?”
Vandermark reacted with sudden heat. “When my project is done!” He belatedly realized he had spoken too harshly. Damn this woman! If I didn’t need her…stop that! You’re better than this. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
He tried again, softer this time. “Look, Song Lee, I appreciate how you feel, but you know we both want the same outcome; we only disagree on the path. Can’t you see that?”
Hahn gave no ground at all. It no longer mattered to her if they agreed on anything. “What other questions do you have for me?”
Vandermark gave up on his clumsy subtlety. “Suit yourself! I consider this test a success. Now get going and make sure everything’s ready for the truck.”
Hahn stiffened and walked away from him.
The two hapless guards were still visible on the screens as they continued to rock in agony. One tried unsuccessfully to get to his feet. Vandermark’s eyes passed across them, unmoved. “Wait! I do have one other question. What about the range issue?”
Hahn stopped. “The range is still the range. Nothing new. All we’ve learned is that if we’re not within a hundred yards…the rider can’t ride. That’s all.”
Vandermark scowled at her. “Still a hundred yards! That’s gonna be a bitch.”
Hahn rotated her shoulders so she could give him a slight, ironic smile, and then left the room.
CHAPTER 12:
Long strings of blue and white plastic pennants hung listlessly above sparkling rows of new cars and trucks. Jake Sweeney Chevrolet occupied more than half of the block between West Kemper Road and Princeton Pike, and had been in business at that location for more than thirty years. In fact, a third generation of Sweeney’s lurked just inside the showroom doors, dressed in ties and shirtsleeves, and ready to sell anything with wheels.
Kendall had decided on the truck he wanted as soon as he was done with his Allstate agent, but it took most of the day, and three dealerships, to find the right flavor.
The wide garage doors on the outside wall of the main building slowly lifted as a new, black Chevy Silverado V8 rolled out and pulled next to the showroom doors to honk its horn.
Inside the waiting area, Josh took a quick look up from his open laptop to spot his dad motioning at him from the truck. He quickly grabbed his jacket, tucked the computer under his arm, and hurried out, muttering to himself, “Finally.”
Surrounded by the black and gray interior of the pickup, Josh breathed in the heady scent of new leather and looked at Kendall’s smiling face. “Happy now?”
Kendall waved his arm around. “So, whaddya think of her?”
“What can I say? Black is your color.”
Kendall put the truck in gear and drove toward the exit from the lot. “I’ll take you for a spin before I drop you back at your car.”
Josh clicked his seat belt and burrowed into the leather. “Nice! How much more was this than the old one?”
Kendall pulled out onto West Kemper and made a satisfied noise with his mouth. “Well…think about this. My credit’s better now than it ever was before.”
Josh considered that for a few seconds. “No, that’s not right. You mean it’s better here than it was there.” Josh flipped open his laptop and propped it beside him on the large center armrest.
“Yeah, however you want to say it – then, now, here, there, whatever.” Kendall smirked. “Where’s there anyway?”
Josh stopped fooling with his laptop long enough to look seriously at his father. “As far as I can understand things, there is here too.”
Kendall checked the traffic and turned left onto Princeton Pike to head toward highway 275, planning to show off his purchase at freeway speeds.
Josh rotated his laptop back and forth. “Ooo! Wait. Wait! Pull over! Now!”
Skittish with his new ride, Kendall suddenly yanked the truck across a lane, swerved up against a curb and braked. He anxiously looked around. “What? I don’t see any brake lights. What’s wrong?”
Josh watched the lower corner of his laptop screen as he tipped and turned the computer. “Damn, I had three bars. Now I got none.”
“Huh?”
“Back it up – maybe twenty feet or so.” He hunched over the seat and pointed back at a car battery shop. “Over near that office, I bet.”
Kendall scowled darkly but dumped it into reverse and slowly backed up.
Josh kept his eyes on his screen. “Yeah…yeah…there! Good. Park it right here. Great!” He clicked on his browser and watched it load.
Kendall started tapping his fingers on the black leather-wrapped steering wheel. He twisted his rearview mirror until he could see Josh’s intent face. “Hey Josh?”
“Yeah.”
“What are we doin’?”
“Ridin’ their connection.” He looked up defensively. “Hey, if they didn’t want people to ride, they shoulda encrypted it, y’know? It’s not that hard.” He typed a website address into his browser and hit enter.
Kendall rubbed his eyes. “Okay. But…so you’re gettin’ a free ride to the internet. Why now?”
“Cause we’re lookin’ for Hugh Everett. The physicist, remember?” Josh keyed a user name and password into a website welcome page.
“Yeah…well, you’re lookin’.”
Josh waited for the website to confirm his account and load the members’ home page. “See, here’s the deal. The new me happens to be a member of Net Detective, the number one internet detective site.”
“The new you, huh?”
“Yeah. The new guy inside – from here.”
“So, you found out this new paranoid Josh of yours joined a private detective site?”
“Uh, just a sec.” Josh spelled the letters out loud as he typed. “H-U-G-H, space, E-V-E-R-E-T-T, enter. Okay. Uhh, M-A-R-Y-L-A-N-D, enter. Okay.”
Josh looked up at his dad and thought for a moment. “He – I joined a month ago – $9.95 for three months. I mean not me, I mean the me in this timeline…is what I mean.”
Kendall played with his deluxe visor and flipped the vanity mirror lights off and on. “I wonder what happened a month ago in this timeline that would make you join a detective site?”
Josh’s face was devoid of any expression for a few seconds. “What happened to me? I mean, what happened to this me?” It suddenly all clicked together for him. “Oh, to make me join, you mean? Just a sec, let me think about that.”
Josh paused and mentally sorted through his doubled memories and then grinned wickedly. “Which Dad is askin’?”
“Which dad?” Kendall rolled his eyes. “Oh, forget it! Are you done yet, or can you speed it up so we can take our ride?”
Josh checked the Net Detective’s results. “Hmm. Lots of Everett’s in Maryland. Hey, wait. A couple of these actually look pretty good. As a matter of fact, let me see…”
Kendall was tired from the day. “You know findin’ this guy won’t help. His theory’s crap. I can’t even understand it.”
Josh busily moved h
is mouse and selected something new. “Hugh Everett’s a place to start, that’s all I’m hopin’. If he’s alive…”
An impressive array of new results populated the screen and a slow smile lit up Josh’s face. “Well, well, well, good old Net Detective. Look at this. There’s an 87-year-old Hugh Everett living in the Althea Woodland Nursing Home in Silver Spring, Maryland. There’s even a MapQuest link. Cool.”
Kendall remained unengaged. “How do you know it’s even him? Like you said, there’s probably plenty of Everett’s.”
Josh smugly stuck his face closer to his screen. “Because I know this Hugh Everett got a physics Ph.D. from Princeton in 1949. And he worked at the Pentagon – that’s a nice salary for the time. Bought and sold houses in Virginia and Maryland – boy, real estate’s gone up…”
Kendall swiveled in his seat, shocked. “That stupid site knows all that?”
Josh scoffed, “Oh, that’s just the top level.” He scanned the offerings on the left side menu. “I could check his credit history, mortgages, military records, secondary school and college GPA’s, passport info, criminal records, longitude…longitude? Are they kidding?”
Kendall was hooked. “Does it have his phone number? Maybe we could just call him.”
“Sure.” Josh hurriedly checked his list of entries and then checked again. He shook his head. “Nothin’ listed.”
Kendal slapped the steering wheel and blew out a breath of air. “Oh for cryin’ out loud! It’s got all that other worthless stuff for you to play around with but no phone? Stupid!”
Kendall flipped on his blinker and checked the side mirror. “Your free ride’s done. I’m droppin’ you back at the car.”
Unfazed, Josh continued to study the Everett information. “I dunno. Weird. But at least he’s alive, and we found him.”
Kendall pulled out. Somebody honked. Kendall growled back in a fury as he accelerated.
“Dad, you know we gotta go there and at least talk to him.”
Kendall switched lanes and made a sudden U-turn to head back to the dealership. He refused to answer Josh or even look at him. With a quick punch of a finger on his steering wheel controls, he turned on the radio and let it blast out a piece of music.
“Dad?”
* * *
Leah paid no attention to the usual morning concert of birds chirping in the trees outside the bedroom. She watched as Kendall packed a suitcase opened on the bed. “I still don’t understand why you have to go to Maryland, of all places. We don’t know anyone there. And why so sudden?”
Kendall went into the bathroom and pulled together a toiletries bag. “It’s complicated.”
“And Josh too?”
“Josh too.”
Kendall zipped up the toiletries bag and dropped it into the suitcase. Leah sighed. “And I suppose the reason is complicated for him too?”
“Trust me.” He shoveled underwear, T-shirts and socks from his dresser to the bag.
Leah folded her arms. “What about work?”
“I have sick time. I checked.”
“What about Josh? He just started.”
Kendall checked the bag for anything he’d forgotten. “He’s takin’ time off without pay.” He tossed in a few handkerchiefs and closed the top, and avoided looking at her. “What is this, a thousand questions?” He pulled the large metal zippers closed around the suitcase until they met at the handle. He hoisted it off the bed and set it on the floor.
Leah watched him check his pockets to confirm his billfold, phone and keys. “I just wish I knew why you two won’t tell me what’s going on.”
Kendall stepped up to Leah and gently touched her shoulders. “‘Cause we can’t. Just gimme a kiss and stop worryin’.”
Leah dutifully kissed him. Kendall held her eyes with his for a beat. “I’ll call you. Believe me, I’d explain if I thought I could. I’m sorry. We gotta go if we’re gonna catch the plane.”
He lifted the suitcase and headed out. Leah walked behind him as far as the bedroom door, and stopped. Her eyes were filled with worry.
Kendall moved quickly down the stairs. “Josh? Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 13:
The McCaslin front doorbell rang twice. Kendall walked in from the kitchen and passed the staircase on his way to the front door. “Josh,” he called upstairs, “we need to leave right away, okay? I’ll get the door.”
Behind him, Leah stopped in the kitchen doorway to watch. She was finishing a last cup of coffee and already wore a denim jacket with her purse over her shoulder. She was all set to ride along with Josh to the airport; ready to be sad again when she waved him goodbye. She used to think that mothering ended somewhere after high school or college, but that was before she became a mother. Now she knew that moms didn’t have expiration dates.
Kendall opened the door to a trio of large men on his porch. Taylor Nsamba stood nearest to the door and smiled warmly at him. “Good day. How are you, Mr. McCaslin?”
The imposing African was impeccably dressed. He had his hands clasped loosely in front of him. A half step back on either side, Aaron Benton and another thick-shouldered security agent nonchalantly looked on.
Kendall was puzzled as he studied the men. “Fine. I’m fine. Have we met?”
Nsamba tried to put him at ease. “No, no, not at all. I’m sorry if I confused you. I’ll be brief, I promise. I just need to ask you and your son, Josh, a few questions. Would that be possible?”
Leah drifted in from the kitchen doorway to the foyer to get a better look. “Kendall, who’s at the door?”
Kendall sensed something wasn’t right. “Sorry, but we’re just heading for the airport. My son’s been home on leave from the army and…we’re kind of in a hurry.” He put on a pleasant expression as he reached to shut the door. “Maybe some other time?”
Josh, in military fatigues, appeared at the head of the stairs with a huge duffel bag and started down.
Nsamba briefly noticed Josh in the background and nodded at Kendall, “I understand, but it’s important. And it will take but a moment, I assure you. If we could just step inside.”
“Not now,” Kendall replied firmly. “We really need to leave. Sorry.” He started to close the door. Nsamba put a firm hand against it.
“Please?”
Kendall pondered the hand and the two silent men watching him. He thought he saw their bodies tense, and he noticed something metallic glisten in their hands. “Get the hell off my porch! All of you!”
Nsamba stepped back. The two agents promptly closed ranks, and aimed pistol-shaped electroshock stunners.
Benton spoke in a peaceful, everyday voice. “Let’s do this the easy way, shall we?”
Kendall tried to slam the door but the men were already moving through it. There was a sudden blue spark accompanied by an electronic snarl. Kendall dropped like a stone and had a massive seizure on the welcome mat. Leah screamed. Her coffee cup shattered on the tile. She reached out to help her husband but was violently shoved aside as the men invaded the front hall.
Benton spotted Josh. “There’s the other one, on the stairs!”
Josh saw his father convulsing on the floor and his mother crawling to reach him. What the hell! Two men charged up the stairs brandishing weapons and shouting. His eyes narrowed. Oh no you don’t! I’m not that easy! For Josh, everything suddenly slowed down as he flashed into a serene, adrenaline powered zone, and his combat training took over.
He effortlessly hurled his heavy bag onto the startled men and nimbly vaulted the banister. The agents fell in a painful tangle. Benton tumbled backwards down the stairs, striking his head on a riser, and dropped his stunner.
Josh sprinted for the front door but saw more agents rushing in. Two of them already restrained his mom. He changed directions and raced for the kitchen, hoping the back door was still clear. Benton, at the bottom of the stairs, grabbed at his legs to slow him. Josh viciously kicked his face and swept up the fallen stunner in two smooth movements as he dashed by.<
br />
He bolted through the kitchen. Two more agents burst in the back door. He stabbed at the first one with the stolen gun and pulled the trigger. The stunner snarled and flashed; the agent shuddered in full body spasms, scattering kitchen chairs as he fell. The other lunged at Josh, but he was off balance and narrowly missed. Josh used the man’s forward motion to yank him down into his up thrust knee. The man collapsed with a grunt. Josh danced out the open door and rushed headlong into the backyard.
Pausing to pick a direction, Josh darted left across the stone patio. He intended to leap the neighbor’s fence. Always a fast runner, his long strides quickly ate up the distance to the barrier. His mind raced with plans to get a phone, steal a car, call out to a neighbor, find some way to get help. Suddenly, a white hot jolt of pain erased it all. He fought the thrashing convulsions with every fiber of his adrenaline saturated body but he finally collapsed face down in the dirt, twitching. A dart with a tiny antenna protruded from a muscle near his shoulder.
Nsamba and a couple of security agents crossed the patio. They looked down at him. Other agents, some limping, joined them. Aaron Benton walked up to the group with a bloody handkerchief pressed tightly against one side of his face.
Nsamba shook his head as he looked around. “That was messy. Okay, clean it up before the neighbors get curious. Pull the van in the garage and load everybody there.”
The agents worked smoothly together. One knelt on Josh’s spine and zip-tied his hands behind his back. Another jerked a black cloth bag over his head. The agent who was limping zip-tied his ankles and gave Josh a parting kick in the kidneys before he was dragged off.
Benton ran his tongue around the inside of his bleeding mouth, exploring the damage that Josh’s foot had made. “We’re gonna hafta take the wife too, right?”
Nsamba shrugged irritably. “We are now, yes. We have no choice.”
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