Interesting Places (Interesting Times #2)

by Matthew Storm

  “Madam President?” Oliver whispered to Tyler.

  “Just go with it,” Tyler whispered back.

  Artemis walked down the ramp. “It is no matter, Lieutenant Forrest. I apologize that our coming was not announced, but we have urgent business here. Where is Colonel Rain?”

  “She is…” Lieutenant Forrest frowned. “This is a bit strange.”

  “Quickly, Lieutenant. When did you see her last?”

  “She came through the portal last week, but the strange thing was we didn’t realize she had ever left. I’d thought she was at Federation Command.”

  “Did you challenge her?”

  “Of course, but she was in dress uniform and she passed the bio scan. There was no question it was her, so I assumed someone had forgotten to make a log entry. She took a weapon from the armory and went on her way.”

  “Did she say where she was going?”

  “No, and I didn’t ask.”

  “They’re as scared of her here as we are back home,” Tyler whispered.

  “That’s not really a surprise,” Oliver whispered back.

  “You say she was here last week?” Artemis asked. “It seems more time has passed than I expected.”

  “Madam President?” Forrest asked.

  “Nothing,” she said. “What is the situation on the ground?”

  Forrest bit his lip. “Federation City stands, but…”

  “Be frank, Lieutenant.”

  “We’re losing, Madam President. If I can be frank, we’re losing. The cyborgs are shelling the outer areas of the city and their infantry is advancing too quickly for us. Some at Command think we’ll last another month. Others think that’s too optimistic. But thanks to your wise counsel, I’m sure that won’t be the case.” He frowned slightly. “Come to think of it, I thought you were also at Federation Command…”

  “Clearly I am not,” Artemis said. “You should review your log keeping procedures so as not to make such mistakes in the future.”

  “Of course. I apologize, Madam President.”

  “Calm yourself, Lieutenant. I believe we yet have cause for hope. But for now, I will require you to provide a conveyance that can carry myself and my trusted advisors.”

  “Trusted advisors?” Oliver whispered.

  “Of course,” Lieutenant Forrest said. “I will have an escort assembled at once…”

  “That will not be necessary. My advisors are more than capable of escorting me, and your good work is needed here. This location must be held, Lieutenant. You need only provide a vehicle so I may join Colonel Rain at Federation Command.”

  Forrest nodded at one of his soldiers, who rushed for the door. “It will be done immediately, Madam President.”

  Chapter 18

  “Madam President?” Oliver repeated. They were in a military sedan Lieutenant Forrest had procured for them. Tyler drove with Artemis sitting next to him, picnic basket on her lap. Oliver had taken a seat in the rear. Artemis had not yet chosen a destination for them, merely telling Tyler to “drive around” for the time being.

  “You can thank Sally for that,” Artemis said. “It is how she introduced me when I accompanied her here through the mirror the first time. I believe she thought it was funny.”

  Oliver didn’t normally think of Sally as having a sense of humor. “How did you sell that to everyone else?”

  “I did not. I merely performed one of my many miracles for them.”

  “You found a coin behind somebody’s ear?”

  “No. I walked through a mirror. To the uninitiated, it is a fairly impressive feat.”

  Oliver would have had to admit that it was. “So what do we do next?”

  “I am considering that matter. I am waiting for a memory.”

  “You’re waiting for what?”

  “Time travel is a strange thing, Mr. Jones, particularly for me. In this case, Tyler and I both exist in this world in other places. I am already aware of my other self. I can feel it, on the edge of my consciousness. No doubt she is aware of me, as well. I fear this experience will shortly grow very unpleasant.”

  “I don’t feel anything,” Tyler said.

  “You are not me. There should never be two of me in the same place at the same time.” Artemis massaged the bridge of her nose. “Keep driving.”

  “Can I get one of those muffins?” Tyler asked. Artemis fished one out of the picnic basket and handed it to him.

  “You shouldn’t eat and drive,” Oliver said.

  “You think anyone is going to give me a ticket? We’ve got the President here.”

  Tyler kept the car in motion and Oliver took the time to look out at the city. Artemis had said that it would be very similar to his own world, but Oliver had spotted nothing that stood out as very strange so far. Federation City looked much like every other large city he’d ever visited. As they drove they passed convenience stores and restaurants, small office complexes and parking lots. From their location he could see what had to be the downtown area in the distance, where skyscrapers seemed to compete with each other to see which could reach the highest. Beyond them black smoke rose into the sky.

  “That doesn’t look like a normal fire,” Oliver said.

  Tyler looked out the window. “I’m not sure exactly when we are, to tell you the truth. The last time I was here, before the cure, the cyborgs were bombing some of the outer areas. That’s probably what that is.”

  “Indeed,” Artemis said.

  “Well, other than that, it seems pretty ordinary here,” Oliver said. “This place is just like home.” He’d barely finished the sentence when he spotted an airship overhead. It reminded him of the blimps that flew over stadiums during sporting events, but this one was reinforced with steel plates that wrapped around it from top to bottom. The crew area underneath was larger, ran from one end of the airship to the other, and had missile launchers jutting out from the sides.

  “Forget it,” Oliver said.

  Artemis sighed. “Linnea has gone missing,” she said. Her voice sounded pained.

  “What?” Tyler asked. “How do you know that?”

  “My memories are beginning to merge with those of the me that exists here.”

  “Oh.”

  “Are you all right?” Oliver asked.

  “No,” Artemis said. “It is quite painful.”

  “Can I help?”

  “Thank you, Mr. Jones, but no. Tyler, stop at one of the convenience stores. I need some aspirin.”

  “Will that help?” Oliver asked.

  “It cannot hurt.”

  Tyler parked in front of a small shop. “I don’t have any of their money,” he said.

  Artemis went back into the picnic basket and came out with a few purple bills. “That will be more than enough. Get some water, also. Attempt not to buy any junk food.”

  Tyler disappeared inside the store. “Mr. Jones, should I lose consciousness at any time, wake me at once. Do not let me sleep.”

  “Is there any reason why not?”

  “Yes.”

  Oliver waited but Artemis didn’t say anything else until Tyler came back outside and handed her a bottle of aspirin. She took two of the pills and washed them down with water while Tyler handed another bottle back to Oliver.

  “Thanks,” Oliver said.

  “You don’t look so good,” Tyler said to Artemis.

  “I’m fine, Mr. Jacobsen, but I may need you to drive me somewhere shortly,” Artemis said. “Go outside and find a car, and wait for me unless I call you back here.”

  Tyler cast a worried look at Oliver in the rear view mirror. “Um…we’re already in a car.”

  Artemis blinked. “Oh. I apologize, Mr. Jacobsen. That was not me. That is, it was the other me. She is at Federation Command and is now well aware of the time fracture. She will be attempting to decide how to proceed.”

  “Okay,” Tyler said. “Is there one of those magic time houses here?”

  “Not that I am aware of, and hence not that she
is aware of.” She looked at the radio unit in the car’s dashboard. “Call Federation Command on the executive frequency.”

  Tyler fiddled with the console for a moment. “I barely remember how this thing works,” he said.

  “Oh, for goodness sake,” Artemis said. She turned a knob on the console and pressed a switch. “Federation Command, this is President Artemis speaking.”

  Static crackled on the speaker for a moment. “Federation Command,” a man’s voice said.

  “I will speak with Colonel Rain. I believe she is in the operations center at this moment.”

  “Colonel Rain is occupied with a personal matter,” the voice said.

  “That is not my concern,” Artemis snapped. “I will speak with her immediately.”

  There was a short pause. “Forgive me, Madam President, but…aren’t you in the building? I thought I saw you on your way to the operations center just a minute ago.”

  “Clearly you did not. I will ask you not to waste my time any further.”

  “My apologies, Madam President. I’ll put you through now.”

  A longer pause followed, and then Sally’s voice came over the speaker. “Artemis? Where are you? Did you find anything on my sister?”

  Artemis nodded to herself. “I have not, Salera, but I am endeavoring to do so at this very moment. Could you please remind me of the last time you saw Linnea?”

  “You want to go over that again?”

  “Please humor me. Time is a critical factor.”

  “Yeah, I figured that, so I don’t know why we’re…oh, forget it. I haven’t actually seen her in months. I visited her at the Kholon facility after I got back from St. Louis, but we’ve been kind of busy since then.”

  “And when did she disappear?”

  “When? Artemis, you know I love you, but I swear to the gods you’re trying my fucking patience right now.”

  “Please, Sally.”

  “Sally?”

  “Salera. I’m sorry. When did she disappear?”

  Sally sighed. “A week ago. She walked out of the Kholon facility without a word to anyone and nobody’s seen her since. Nobody. But you know this already. I don’t know why you’re asking me.”

  “I see,” Artemis said. “Let us consider a question I won’t have asked you before. If you had taken her somewhere, where would you have gone?”

  “If I had taken her somewhere? What the hell kind of question…” her voice trailed off. “Here’s a question,” she said. “Who the hell are you?”

  “It’s me, Salera. Artemis. You know my voice.”

  “No, you’re not Artemis, because Artemis just walked into the operations center and I’m looking at her right now. Who are you?”

  “An excellent question,” Artemis’s voice came over the speaker. “Who is speaking?”

  “This just got weird,” Oliver said quietly.

  “I think it was pretty weird before,” Tyler whispered.

  Artemis hesitated for a moment, then said two words in a language Oliver didn’t understand. She clicked the radio off. “Drive us to a public place,” she said to Tyler. “That park where they sell those sausage rolls you like should do very nicely.”

  “I’m not going to argue with that,” Tyler said. “I missed those.” He turned the ignition and pulled the car out of the parking lot.

  “What did you say to her?” Oliver asked. “I mean, to yourself.”

  “I told her to find me,” Artemis said.

  Chapter 19

  Half an hour later they sat next to a large fountain in an open-air park adjacent to a shopping mall. Hundreds of people walked all around them drinking coffee, shopping, and chatting as if they didn’t have a care in the world. If Oliver hadn’t known better, he’d have guessed that none of them knew the outskirts of their city were burning.

  Oliver wondered for a moment if the conversation with Sally meant they were fugitives now, but decided against it. Sally would have had no reason to think she was actually speaking with another version of Artemis. She may have taken it as a very strange prank call, but even if it had been reported, nobody would know who to be searching for. Nobody except the other Artemis, that was.

  Tyler was halfway through his third sausage roll. “So how are you going to find us?” he asked between bites. “Or how are you going to find you, I guess. Time travel gives me a headache.”

  “That is a normal side effect,” Artemis said.

  “Oh,” Tyler said. “I was just using it as a figure of speech, actually. I don’t really have a headache.”

  “Then you are indeed fortunate. Mine is getting worse. I do not expect it to improve until we leave this place.”

  Oliver didn’t have a headache, either, but he also didn’t have another version of himself running around the city. “Do you feel anything weird?” he asked Tyler.

  “Nope. I mean, I guess there’s some déjà vu. I never expected to see this place again after Sally smashed the mirror.”

  Oliver didn’t think that really counted as déjà vu, but he didn’t see the need to correct him. “So how will you find us?” he asked Artemis.

  Artemis nodded at a nearby security camera. “I have been gazing at that camera since we arrived.”

  “Great,” Oliver said. “And that is going to help us…how? Are we planning on robbing someone?”

  “No, Mr. Jones. My other self will have known I was not an impostor. Even if I could not recognize my own voice over the speaker, there is likely nobody else in the universe who speaks my first language.” She glanced at Oliver. “Before you bother to ask, it does not have a name. It did not need one, back then.”

  “How long will it take?” Tyler asked.

  “I will have instructed Seven to check the security feeds. I would think…” she trailed off as a sedan marked with military insignia pulled up and parked a dozen feet away from them. “Well, I thought it might take a little longer than that.”

  Oliver watched as the rear door of the car opened and another Artemis stepped out. To his surprise, she wore a dark blue military uniform with gold patches on the arms and a large number of ribbons pinned to the front. “Did you actually join their army?” he asked.

  “No, of course not. It was a ceremonial uniform. Sally asked me to wear it as a show of solidarity.” Artemis sighed. “She said I would be a beacon of hope for her people.”

  “Sally used the words beacon of hope?” Tyler asked. “Really?”

  “She did.” She gave Oliver another look. “She was not always the person you know, Mr. Jones. Do endeavor to remember that.”

  Oliver wasn’t sure why that comment had been directed at him, but it didn’t seem like something worth arguing about, particularly when the second version of Artemis was approaching their position.

  The uniformed Artemis stopped directly in front of her counterpart. “It appears we have a serious problem,” she said.

  “We do,” Artemis said. “We are aware of Linnea Rain’s disappearance.”

  “Our presence here suggests the foreshock we felt here a week ago was in fact that of a timequake.”

  “We are correct in that assessment. The timeline has been corrupted.”

  “This is getting a little confusing,” Oliver said. “Can we call one of you Artemis One and one of you Artemis Two?”

  “No,” they said in unison.

  “Fine,” Oliver said. “I’ll just shut up now.”

  “It is imperative that we locate Sally Rain,” Oliver’s Artemis said.

  “It is unlikely that we are referring to Colonel Rain, who is in the command center at this very moment.”

  “We are not. We are referring to Sally Rain, who took the time machine in Vault 3 without authorization and attempted to change what happened here.”

  The uniformed Artemis was silent for a moment. “We appear to have failed to help these people, then.”

  “We have failed in many things,” Oliver’s Artemis said. “While we may reflect on them later, we have onl
y a short time in which to act.”

  “Our headache grows worse,” the uniformed Artemis said. “Even now we are beginning to have trouble differentiating ourselves.”

  “Indeed.” Oliver’s Artemis opened the picnic basket and removed an automatic syringe. “Tell Seven to inject Colonel Rain with this. We may tell her it is some manner of vaccine against cyborg conversion.”

  “We find it unlikely she will believe that.”

  Oliver’s Artemis shook her head. “Then tell her whatever we feel is necessary. She trusts us. She is not likely to object.”

  The uniformed Artemis took the syringe. “Ah, yes,” she said, examining the device. “We have not seen this for quite some time.”

  “It has limited applications,” Oliver’s Artemis said. “This is one of them.”

  “We are betraying her.”

  “We regret that. However, if we cannot locate her quickly, two timelines will be corrupted beyond repair.”

  “What is that?” Oliver asked. “Poison? You’re not going to kill her?”

  “No, Mr. Jones,” Oliver’s Artemis said. “It is a radioactive isotope with a very long half-life. It will enable us to locate her, and nothing more.”

  “Inject her in the past and the future Sally turns radioactive,” Tyler said. “Smart.” He frowned. “I think. So the radioactive Sally goes through the portal and…” he thought it over. “Forget it. I don’t even care at this point.”

  “That will do, Mr. Jacobsen,” Oliver’s Artemis said.

  The uniformed Artemis nodded. “Very well. We will address this matter shortly.” She glanced at Oliver. “We did not expect to see this one here.”

  “We will speak no more on that subject,” Oliver’s Artemis said. “The matter remains unresolved.”

  “Very well.”

  “Wait,” Oliver said. “What did you mean you didn’t expect to see me?”

  “How many meanings can that statement have?” the uniformed Artemis asked. She looked back at her future self. “How will we know if we have succeeded?”