“But why would you go back if it was so dangerous?” My mother finally asked.
I shrugged. It seemed ludicrous now that I’d wanted to see my friends, get naked with Juliana and rescue Karl. “I had to help my friends, explain myself,” I said aloud.
It sounded lame, but telling my mom about my hopes for getting laid was not an option.
“Dr. Stuler plans to sell the ‘time travel into history’ game to the world,” I said to change the subject.
“But isn’t it horribly risky?” My mother waffled between believing me and calling the family doctor.
I nodded. “Way too dangerous to allow this game to hit the market. It has major flaws. People get hurt just testing.” I cringed, thinking about Karl and Luanda. Both had been nearly dead when they returned and Luanda had spent forty-two years in the past.
“We should call the police,” my mom said.
I grimaced at her. “They won’t believe a word—”
“But he’s got to be stopped.”
“I’m going to do that.” It was out before I could stop myself.
“No, you won’t.” My mom jumped from the bench so quickly, I didn’t think a woman in her forties moved that fast. “You’re going to heal and go to school like normal kids. I’m going to have a word with Dr. Stuler.”
When I opened my mouth, her hand shot up. “No discussion! This all sounds so…ominous, but if it’s true, if this man has put your life at risk, he’s…going to answer for it.” My mom straightened and pushed out her chin.
“But I chose to play,” I said quietly. She had a point, of course. The first time I’d not even known I’d time-travel. I’d almost died in Schwarzburg’s dungeon. But stopping Stuler would take more than my mom yelling at him. He’d shrug it off if he’d talk to her at all.
We ate quietly, the roasted chicken and mashed potatoes so delicious, I didn’t stop until I was an inch away from a food coma.
“You lost weight.” My mom sank into the armchair by the window, a glass of whiskey in her hand. “Now I understand why I felt so disconnected. I worried I’d neglected you. Hadn’t noticed how your hair grew and you got those scratches on your face. That’s why you were studying Hanstein history and doing sword practice.” She smiled grimly. “Promise me you’ll never play again.”
“I wish you wouldn’t drink all the time.” How often had those words stuck in my throat?
“It’s just…” Her hand trembled a bit when she sat the glass on the table.
“Just what?”
“Nothing.”
“I’m finally realizing that I’ve been running away from my life and Stuler’s invention allowed the ultimate escape. Your drinking is…the same thing. You escape into booze.”
I couldn’t quite read my mom’s expression, her eyes shiny and hurt. Dad leaving, the move from the U.S., her job…and raising me had to have taken a toll. One I hadn’t understood.
Without a word she marched into the kitchen. Liquid sloshed into the sink.
“How about some tea?”
“Love some. And I won’t play again.”
But I would do something about Stuler because people would die if I didn’t.
Chapter 36
Lying in bed that night I couldn’t sleep. My pillow was soft, my sheets clean and my comforter warm. Still, I tossed and turned, thinking about my friends far away, how Adela would get to live on Hanstein along with Bero and Juliana. How I missed my friends.
My heart ached, but I had to quit living in the past. My mom was right. I had school to think of and a life to live in the present. If anything, the game just confused what was important. In a way it gave you choices. Live today or live some place in the past and carve out some new identity and life purpose. Luanda had done that.
Luanda!
I sat up. I had to check on her. Find out what had happened after she returned. It was strange to think that she’d played within the last couple of years and that she’d come back an old woman. She’d not wanted to return, but the prospect of burning at the stake was a pretty strong motivator.
The game was good at that. It screwed with your head, with the way time passed. It gave another option if you were really fed up with your current-day life.
But then it cost you dearly. Because in many places in the past, danger lurked wherever you stepped. Life was hard and worth little.
The clock showed midnight before I dozed off.
At breakfast my mom piled six freshly baked rolls in front of me, watching me as I annihilated one after the other. Had she talked to Stuler yet? I didn’t think so because her shoulders were rigid with tension and she kept tapping her foot beneath the table. She was going to talk to Dad first.
I fished my phone from my backpack to search the Internet directory for Kassel. To tell you the truth I was afraid of using my computer. The EarthRider game had six or more levels and if it embedded itself on my PC, it may start on its own and suck me away at random.
I found an entry for Louisa Hausermann on Amselstrasse. My fingers trembled as I punched in the number.
“Hello?” I said when the line crackled. But it was an answering machine. The voice on the other end sounded young and energetic. Not at all like Luanda, the witch. I had the wrong number…
“Hallo. This is Louisa.”
I almost dropped the phone, hearing Luanda’s voice. It sounded feeble, yet there was power too as if the phone call was giving her a rush of adrenaline.
“This is Max,” I said.
“Max.” The line went quiet and I wondered if she’d hung up. “You’re home.”
“Got back yesterday.”
“I thought about you every day.” She chuckled, but it sounded sad. “Nerds is hardly in the phone book or I’d have called you.”
“I want to see you,” I said simply.
“I know.”
The bus to Kassel seemed to take forever though I had no trouble finding the apartment near the university. It was an older building, a bit crumbling, but reasonably clean. I reminded myself that Luanda had been a college student with a future when she’d entered the game.
Now she was an old woman, her life mostly behind her, her friends and family still young. My breath caught. Luanda was older than her parents now. How weird was that?
I pressed the buzzer on the door, which clicked open an instant later.
Luanda’s flat was on the second floor, a tiny hallway from which three doors led to a kitchen, living and bedroom.
“How are you?” I asked as soon as she opened the door. She wore a simple skirt and formless gray sweater. She’d twisted her hair into a knot and looked quite different from the witch I’d met at Hanstein.
“Don’t have many clothes,” she said. “My old wardrobe isn’t exactly fitting for a woman in her sixties.” I nodded, my throat too dry to speak. “I’m not mad at you. You saved my life.”
Her rain cloud eyes were on me.
“I’m sorry… I didn’t know what else to do. I know you didn’t want to return. Not now, not after forty-two years.”
She sighed and pointed to the chair in front of the window. “I’m going to be all right. It’s just that the people I’ve known no longer recognize me. And how could I explain to the university that I’m the same person? I’ve been squeaking by, helping people with natural medicine. It is hard.”
“Nobody believes what we’ve been through. My mom… I told her last night. She’s reluctant, but I think she believes me. She thought she was losing it, because I always looked so different from one day to the next.” I smirked. “She’s relieved it’s not her going mad. But she wants to stop Stuler.”
Luanda shook her head. “He won’t be stopped easily.”
“You don’t know my mother.” This time I grinned, but the smile faded when I realized how miserable Luanda was. At her age she’d have real trouble making a living.
“Could you open a practice treating people holistically?”
Luanda shook her head. “Not offi
cially. I don’t have the credentials. Nothing I can show for four decades in the Middle Ages.”
“Then there’s only one solution. Stuler will have to pay.”
“Ha! He’ll laugh me out of his office.”
“I’m going with you. And Karl!”
“Karl?”
“The guy who used to work for Stuler and almost died in the game.”
“Is he around?”
“He lives near here. He returned last summer.” On a whim I pulled out my phone and dialed. “Karl? Yeah, I’m back. I’ve got somebody I want you to meet… Now… Yes, here in Kassel, Amselstrasse 21, Hausermann.”
I slumped back down.
“I made tea,” Luanda said into the silence.
Our eyes met, taking me back a thousand years.
Out of nowhere a bubble pushed its way to my throat. It turned into a gurgle, then a laugh. I couldn’t stop giggling and after a moment Luanda began to smile and then join me. Her voice was throaty but we laughed for five minutes straight.
Finally, when my jaw hurt and my insides cramped, I wiped my face. Luanda dabbed her eyes with a finely embroidered handkerchief and disappeared into the kitchen.
By the time, I’d devoured half a coffee cake and three cups of peppermint tea, the doorbell rang.
“Luanda, meet Karl,” I said.
Karl had gained weight, his cheeks fuller with a healthier color. The skin on his neck still hung in folds and his eyes burned feverishly as he shook Luanda’s hand.
“I’m glad you’re all right,” he said, giving me a hug.
“This summer Luanda was a young college student,” I said. “She answered one of Stuler’s ads and went into the game. She spent forty-two years saving the lives of countless peasants only to be accused of being a witch. Schwarzburg was going to burn her so I helped her get home.”
Karl slumped into a chair opposite of Luanda. “Why so long?” he asked.
“I didn’t know,” Luanda said simply. “By the time I met Max and I figured it out, I no longer wanted to leave. My life was then. I’m a stranger here.”
Karl nodded. “I was gone for three years and I can’t get back to things. My health is poor. I was in a dungeon, several dungeons, became sick. Max pulled me back. He found my wallet and I was able to go home.”
“When I came to in Stuler’s lab, there was quite an uproar.” Luanda picked a crumb from her sweater. “I spent a few days in the hospital. People were shocked… I—”
“What day did you return?” I asked.
Luanda tapped a forefinger against her lips. “This summer. I’ve been back a few months.”
I met Karl’s gaze. All of a sudden I knew exactly when she’d returned.
The day I’d snuck in to get Karl out and Stuler tried to keep me there. That’s why the photo on her driver’s license had looked familiar. I’d seen her through the window of Stuler’s lab.
Luanda smiled, unaware we’d been in the building on the same day. “Max is a life saver.”
Memories of a dark-haired student filling out paperwork returned. That had been Luanda or more precisely Louisa before the game. I should’ve warned her. If I’d only known and spoken to her.
“Both of you suffered greatly, still do,” I said aloud. “Now let’s find a way to stop Stuler.”
Luanda took in Karl’s appearance, and then shook her head. “I’m sorry, Max, I’m an old woman.”
“I don’t want to lose the settlement,” Karl said. “Stuler doesn’t make idle threats.”
I jumped from Luanda’s couch and began to pace. “Come on, friends. You said it yourself, Stuler destroyed your lives. How can you sit here and not do anything? What about the millions of people who may get stuck in the past?” My voice was shrill. I didn’t care.
Truth was I was tired. My eye ached. Though it opened again a little after my mom bathed it and put a patch on it overnight, my bones felt as if they’d been through the meat grinder. I didn’t have energy, especially after lying awake half the night. But doing nothing was not an option.
Stuler was nuts, and somebody had to stop him.
“Let it go,” Karl said. “He’s too powerful.”
“But you know how to create a virus, something that will destroy his servers,” I said. “You said you’d think about it. I could go in there, plant something.”
“It’s a bunker with layers of security. You’d never make it. I’m not putting your life or future at risk.”
“Eventually, they’ll catch him,” Luanda said.
“What about everyone in-between?” My voice was hoarse, tears stung my eyes. “I guess I’m heading back then.”
“Come and visit again,” Luanda said.
“I’m sorry,” Karl said.
I made for the door. No need for them to see my crybaby face. Somehow I’d envisioned us working together, stopping Stuler’s madness.
Instead I was on my own again. No Luanda and no Karl.
Just stupid Max.
All the way back on the bus I fumed. Luanda and Karl were stupid, not me. What was wrong with them? Why were they so passive? Accepting.
My thoughts moved to Jimmy. I hadn’t seen him in weeks. Well, actually I’d seen him two days ago during school and on the way home. Even if we didn’t hang out, he always drove his GTI now and took me with him. It was cool to stay in bed longer and arrive at the school in a hot little car. Even if it wasn’t mine.
When the bus arrived in Bornhagen, I found myself ambling up the fancy driveway, searching for Dr. Stuler’s black Mercedes, breathing a sigh of relief it was absent. Though I wanted to face him, scream at him for what he’d done to people, I wasn’t ready. Yet.
I wanted to clear my mind, write down what to say. Ask for money for Luanda. Make a plan.
“Jimmy’s in his room.” Since it was Sunday and the maid was off, Mrs. Stuler appeared at the door in a designer dress. She always looked like she was modeling. Four of the five fingers on her right hand had huge rings with assorted diamonds. Around her neck she wore more jewelry.
My mother’s modest stash of necklaces cost less than just one of Mrs. Stuler’s pieces.
Ignoring Mrs. Stuler’s curious stare at my purple eye monstrosity, I mumbled “thanks” and hurried upstairs.
“What’s cooking,” I said, slinking into Jimmy’s room.
Jimmy looked up for a second from a game he was playing when his gaze lodged on my face.
“Dude, you got in a fight?”
“I did.”
“Your Dad do that to you?”
I shook my head, thankful that my father never hit me. “I went back to Hanstein.”
Jimmy bounced from his chair. “You played the game again?” he said, carefully inspecting my bruise.
I nodded. “One of Schwarzburg’s guards smacked me with his gauntlet.”
Jimmy’s face darkened. “I can’t believe you played again after what happened last time.”
“Not willingly. I had to get somebody out.”
“No way.” Jimmy slumped back into his gamer chair. But his eyes were still on me. It felt good to be with my friend again.
Just like with my mom I told Jimmy about my time in 1473 Bornhagen. He shook his head a few times, but I knew he finally believed me.
“I wonder what your father would say if you wanted to play,” I said.
“He’d kill me.”
“So why do you think he wants to sell the darn game to the world, but is afraid for his only son to play. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”
A shadow fell over Jimmy’s face. “Father has been acting all weird. He’s hardly home. I mean he wasn’t home much before, but the last few months he’s been gone all the time.”
“You know he can’t release that game. It kills people.” Though I kept my voice low and casual, Jimmy was trembling. “We’ve got to talk some sense into him. If not he’ll go to jail. But not before he murders a bunch of gamers.”
Jimmy shrugged, his expression vulnerable and questio
ning.
All of a sudden he seemed like a little kid to me. I felt much older, not just because I’d actually spent a few months in the past. What I’d gone through had totally changed me.
“What do you suggest?” Jimmy finally asked.
“Let’s pay him a visit at this lab.”
Chapter 37
All the way to Kassel we were quiet. It had taken me five more days to convince Jimmy to visit his father.
Jimmy bit his lower lip, probably worried what his dad would say about us showing up. Me thinking about a science project due after fall break instead of the task ahead. Because if I allowed myself to dwell on what I was about to do, I’d never go in. Convincing Stuler was going to be more difficult than anything I’d done in the past. My hands felt sweaty in my pockets.
“You sure?” Jimmy maneuvered his car into a slot on the street in front of Histech.
I nodded grimly. Having Jimmy along at least got us into the building. And somehow I knew he was worried enough to go along. The first time I’d played he hadn’t even believed me. Who knew what Jimmy had heard or witnessed at home, how his father behaved? I knew his dad had slugged him recently. I’d seen the bruises on his collarbone.
Just looking at the glass building gave me the creeps. I imagined Stuler’s green eyes piercing us from the top floor.
“Jimmy Stuler and Max Anderson to see my father,” Jimmy said as we arrived at the guard booth.
The man behind the glass made a phone call and another guard hurried us to the elevator.
“Jimmy, how nice to see you.” The blonde receptionist, Elke, hadn’t lost any of her curves, her boobs almost popping from her black satin blouse.
She smiled at Jimmy, ignoring me completely. “Does your father know you’re coming?” She typed something on the computer and I wondered how she hit the keys with her inch-long nails.
“He said to stop by,” Jimmy said, his voice surprisingly strong. Almost convinced me.
“Let me check with him.” Elke waddled off.
All of a sudden my insides churned. “I’m going to the bathroom.”
“Hurry up,” Jimmy said.
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