She was standing next to the building, still wrestling with the options when the sudden movement at the corner caught her eye. Him. He stopped and stared, his face breaking into a smile as her stomach sank. He'd taken one step toward her when a square of grass next to her swished open. Monica launched herself through the door onto the escalator before he could raise his rifle.
Monica reeled to the bottom of the escalator as the door swished closed behind her and the one in front of her opened. Thank God for... the sight of two shoes in front of her stopped the thought. She raised her head to the smiling face over her.
"Dutch."
"Hello Monica," he said. "That was a close call. You seem to be having a lot of them lately." He reached down and helped her up. She came up slowly. She couldn't run around him, he stood in the middle of a narrow corridor. Could she knock him down? Outrun him? She couldn't go back out the door, even if it'd open for her. She lowered one shoulder and braced herself.
"Agnes would like to see you."
"Agnes? Not..."
"Pruitt? Actually Pruitt would like to see you too." He lowered his voice conspiratorially. "And you know what that means."
"But you're taking me to Agnes."
"You see," he explained. "Agnes asked for you specifically. Pruitt," he waved his hands in the air. "Well Pruitt just wants to stop everyone." He rolled his eyes. Monica edged back. "Evidently my decision-making algorithms prioritize Agnes's specific request over Pruitt's more general one. So voila. That's French for..."
"I know that. But you're taking me to Agnes?"
"Oh Monica," Dutch laughed as he gently took her upper arm and led her down the hall. "You're such a worrier."
3
"Just get in," Sarah repeated. "There's no time to explain."
Justin shrugged, glanced at Monica, and climbed into the car. Monica took a step forward then reeled back as the door slammed shut.
"SARAH..." Whatever else Monica had to say disappeared behind the closing door. Mercifully, judging from the look on her face.
"What're you doing?" Justin twisted in the seat and stared at Monica, growing quickly smaller in the back window. "She fell down. I think she's hurt." He turned back to look at Sarah. "We need to go back."
"She's just being dramatic," Sarah said dismissively. "Faster." The car spurted ahead.
Justin grabbed the seat and looked back, but Hazel's and Monica had disappeared around a corner. "She looks more mad than dramatic." They crested a rise and his stomach lurched with the momentary weightlessness.
"How do you do that?" He couldn't keep the admiration out of his voice. The lines in the road joined and disappeared under them at a speed the computer shouldn't allow on a road like this.
"What? Drive?" She waved a hand and Justin grabbed the door as they bounced onto the shoulder and back on the road. "It's nothing." She shrugged, straightening the joystick again. "You just point it and tell it what to do. Not like old cars," she added with a frown.
"But how'd you override the autodriver?"
"Any sixth grader can do that," she said dismissively.
The other sixth graders Justin remembered struggled with pre-algebra. At least he had. "Well I'm going to get Monica a ride anyway." He lifted his forearm, then shook it. "I can't get a screen."
"Imagine that," she said, not trying to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.
"Why can't I get a screen?"
"Must be a technical glitch."
"Technical glitch?" Justin stared at her, then at the scenery speeding by. "Where are we going anyway?" He looked at the door.
"Jumping out?"
"Nono." He snapped his head around and stared out the windshield. "Where are we going?" He repeated.
"I heard you the first time," she said. "We're going back to MITCo. Then I'm getting out to send myself to the past and you're going for a long ride until this is all over." She wanted to glance over at him, smile. Why couldn't she? She'd spent her whole life wondering who her father was and now here she was, sitting next to him, and she couldn't look at him. OK, it's a little weird, him only being a couple of years older than her, and a dweeb. No, that part wasn't weird. Everyone's father's a dweeb. She sighed. They wouldn't have much time. Once he doesn't go back on that mission God knows what'll happen to her. So why couldn't she look at him? Her neck seemed to be locked in the straight-ahead position.
"Why'd you leave Monica back there?" He turned to look at her. "Why isn't there any time to explain? Explain what?"
"You'll see when we get there."
He laughed.
"What's so funny?"
"That's what my mother used to say."
Your mother. My grandmother. Sarah felt her hand tighten on the joystick. "What's she like?"
"Who?"
"Your mother," she snapped. "Who do you think? It's a simple question."
"Why do you want to know about her?"
"What's the big deal? I'm just making conversation."
The university gate rose around the sweep of the road in front of them to the right but they kept driving past it. "I thought we were going to MITCo."
"It's a nice day for a drive."
"But you said there wasn't any time."
"For God's sake do you have to argue about everything?" They rode in silence for a few minutes. "So," she finally said, her voice quivering. "Tell me about her."
"About who?"
"Who? Who were we just talking about? Your mother." Could half of her genes possibly be his? Her mother must've been brilliant to balance it out.
"Well," he said slowly, watching her out of the corner of his eye. "She lives in Wisconsin with my father."
"They're both still alive?"
He nodded. "Are your parents alive?"
She didn't answer for a long time. Just stared through the windshield as they slowly followed the road around the campus. "Yes," she finally said.
"I'm an only child," he went on. "My father says my mother spoiled me but he was the one always sneaking me money when she was mad at me." He went on as they cruised around the perimeter of the campus. It was easy to talk about growing up because it'd been so good. He'd never realized it until he'd gotten to Washington. Like jumping from a bed covered with teddy bears into a snake pit. He stared out the window and talked. Didn't notice Sarah's hand getting tighter and tighter on the joystick. "Hey," he said. "We must've been going in a circle. We're back at aaah..."
Justin scrambled to brace himself between the dashboard and door as the car shot forward toward the gate and his head snapped back. He turned to Sarah. "Stop. You'll hit the bollards."
Sarah ignored him. The gate got rapidly larger. The guard came out, waving one arm while he tried to adjust his goggles with his other hand.
"Aaaaaah." Justin braced himself against the dash as the car seemed to go up on two wheels and squealed into the entry drive. He flinched but saw the bollards start going down through his squinting eyes. The car bounced over the last couple of inches of one of them before they disappeared. The guard jumped back. Justin turned again and saw the guard standing in the roadway, staring after them.
"He's going to get himself run over that way."
"You almost hit him."
"That's what I said."
"He'll report you."
"Don't you start too. You sound like Monica."
"Didn't your parents teach you not to do things like that?"
She turned her head and gave him a peculiar look. "I don't have any parents," she said quietly.
"But you said...LOOK OUT."
"Damn." Her face snapped back toward the windshield. She twisted the joystick hard to the left as the woman crossing the street dove for the sidewalk. They bounced against off the curb and swerved back onto the road and into the wrong lane. A car coming the other way had to drive itself up onto the empty sidewalk to avoid them.
"That's the problem with self-driving cars. People think they
can just walk out in front of them."
"People can just walk out in front of them. Self-driving cars stop." They approached the inner gate and actually slowed. Thank God. "Don't tell me you're going to stop at this one," he said sarcastically before realizing that the gate was already lurching open.
"That gate is so slow."
This guard either knew her better or wasn't as brave as the other one because he came outside but stayed well out of the road and watched them as they shot through the narrow opening in the gate. Sarah finally slowed as they approached the Magellan campus.
"We've got to find...wait. There he is," Sarah said as someone walked out the front door and up to the car.
"Isn't that..." Justin's voice trailed off as the door next to Sarah slid open. Dutch stuck his head into the car and grinned.
"Hello Sarah." He turned to Justin. "They're looking all over for you."
"For me?"
"We need to talk Dutch," Sarah said, her eyes darting around. "Now."
Dutch nodded, his guileless eyes following Sarah's around as if wondering what she was looking for.
"Of course. I have a plan. I'll take you there."
"Where?" She jumped out of the car.
"Where're you going? Open." Justin said but the door on his side stayed closed. He started across the console.
"Close. Drive," Sarah said. The door closed behind her and the car moved smoothly away from the curb, Justin's face pressed against the glass. Sarah stared after it until it disappeared.
"Tis a far far better thing you do..."
"Shut up Dutch. OK," she sighed. "That's done. Now, what do you have to do?"
"Oh Sarah," Dutch laughed. "If I explained it would spoil everything."
"Dutch. I'm warning you."
"Follow me." He started toward the wall. A square of grass opened in front of them. "I have an idea." She shrugged. She turned her head and looked one more time at the empty road then followed Dutch through the opening, down the escalator and into the narrow corridor around level one.
"So what's this idea?" Sarah asked after they'd gone down the elevator and come out in the corridor around the launch level. "It involves Ted's launch room?"
Dutch nodded. "I don't want to give away the punch line," he giggled.
"Well that makes as much sense as anything else," she muttered, trying to bring herself back to the present. But what difference did it make? If Justin didn't go back, what would that mean for her? She'd what? Just disappear? She fought to make herself care as she followed Dutch. They stopped at the point outside where the four doors met. One led to the launch room, the one opposite that led outside, the other two led in opposite directions down the corridor surrounding the launch level.
"If anything happens to me Dutch..." she felt tears well up in her eyes.
"You can count on me Sarah. You know that."
Sarah nodded. The door to the launch room swished open. She walked toward the large window already showing activity in the main launch room. The door hadn't finished closing behind her and she already felt the presence, or the movement, or something. She spun around but whoever was behind her had anticipated that and spun with her, one arm closed on her neck as a hand pressed something to her face. She bit at the hand but couldn't get her teeth on it. Smelled something unfamiliar and she held her breath as she stomped down behind her with both feet. Felt the top of a foot under her heel and heard a grunt but the satisfaction only lasted a second. She grabbed at the arm holding her but felt herself lifted off the ground. She kicked and bit and grabbed but it wasn't any use. She could already feel herself slowing, whatever that smell was sapping the strength out of her, her range of visioning narrowing and narrowing until everything went black.
Dutch waited a few seconds before opening the door and entering the launch room. Sarah lay on the floor, Pruitt stood looking through the one way glass into the main launch room. Dutch looked down at the still form on the floor. "She looks so peaceful. Sarah never looks peaceful." He turned to Pruitt. "This will be some joke."
"Joke?"
"And we won't explain it to anyone." He winked.
Pruitt didn't answer. Just stared at Dutch and avoided looking at Sarah's prone figure. He turned and walked away from the window, staring straight at the wall in front of him.
"Let's get this over with, shall we?"
"Procrastination is the thief of time," Dutch said cheerfully as he leaned over and lifted Sarah. "Would you like to say goodbye?"
"Just get on with it."
Dutch nodded and carried Sarah to the platform.
"She won't come back?"
"No Pruitt," Dutch giggled. "She won't come back."
"What is the matter with you?" Pruitt snapped.
Dutch grinned. He laid Sarah down on the platform and stepped back to the console. His fingers danced over the icons. A slight hum filled the room. He stopped, turned to Pruitt, eyebrows raised.
"For God's sake Dutch."
Dutch's grinned broadened. He tapped the last icon just as Sarah's eyes snapped open. The last thing she saw was Dutch's grin and pointed finger.
2
"It's quite complicated." Monica had the eerie feeling of deja vu as she found herself following Ted into his living room exactly as she had, or as she would, when she came to talk to him before she travelled into the past with Justin and Sarah.
"Justin, the Homeland Security person, he's Sarah's father." And I just sentenced him to death. Told Agnes she'd have to send someone else, knowing exactly who that'd be. So what'd she expected from that bombshell? Some reaction anyway, but Ted seemed to've lost the ability to react. He stood with his back to her, looking out the window. "And," she went on. "Sarah's going to try to keep him from going on the mission. Ted. You know what that means," she finally said when he still didn't seem to hear.
"Oh," he sighed, finally turning and walking into the living room. He fell onto a sofa. "I wouldn't worry about that. You see she's back. That means she won't succeed. At least I think it does. This is really more Pruitt's province than mine. No," he went on to himself. "I think that problem will sort itself out."
"Sort itself out?" She lowered herself into a chair.
"What we have to worry about is Dutch."
Was that right? Sarah's back so she must've left? Sarah left so she must've been born? Sarah was born so Justin must've gone on the mission? It seemed right, didn't it? Then why'd it make her head hurt? And at what point in her relief over Sarah being alive would she deal with the fact that it meant Justin wasn't? She shook her head.
"Dutch threatened me," she said, not able to think of anything else to say.
"Pruitt told him to?" Ted nodded before she could answer as if it were just as he'd suspected. "I don't think anyone else could tell him to harm you. Maybe Agnes," he added after a few seconds. "Or that Homeland Security guy she works for, what's his name? Maybe some of the board. There's his random number generator, but I'm not sure..."
"Can't you stop him?" she cut him off. Thanks. I think I've got it.
"Me?" He seemed to consider the question before finally shaking his head. "I don't think so. Not anymore. You see I never considered the possibility that I wouldn't be the director. So all of Dutch's programming is title-based. The chief scientist, chief logician, people above them, although I hadn't really thought that part through too carefully." He sighed. "Anyway, those titles fit into his decision making, but Dr. Ted..." he shrugged again. "If Dutch isn't stopped," he went on. "He'll continue resolving the ambiguity in his decision making by trying to eliminate it."
"He'll kill someone?"
"Possibly. Agnes or Pruitt. Or both. Although he might try other means, as he did with me. I'd like to think he did it that way because he likes me, but I think it had more to do with efficiency."
"He told me that too."
"I would've figured it out if I'd thought about it," he said ruefully. "But I wasn't thinking very carefully
at the time. Anyway," he rubbed his hands together. "I think that may be why he brought you back before you leave."
"That was Dutch?"
Ted nodded. "He's suddenly become concerned, actually I'm not sure concerned is the right word." He frowned. "It seems to be something someone said to him that gave him the idea. Someone told him that a joke isn't as funny if you have to explain it." He looked across the room at her, his face somewhere between confusion and pain. "Do you think that's true? Because I always thought that jokes are like knowledge. Really understanding..."
"Ted. Help me out here. What are we talking about? What's that got to do with bringing us back before we left?"
Ted nodded. Grinned weakly. "He's still collecting data even though he's made a decision," he went on as if that made any sense. "I programmed that into him. You see I believe that continuing education..."
"Ted. Please." Monica leaned across the coffee table and took his hands. "I've got a killer from the past chasing me. Dutch is trying to kill me because Pruitt's telling him to and Sarah's trying to keep her father from going back to the past and conceiving her. Try to stay on task."
"A killer from the past? I didn't know that part."
"It's a long story. I'll explain later. Why did Dutch bring us back before we left?"
He nodded. Sighed. "Well that's the interesting part. It sheds some light on Dutch's decision making, which I have to confess has become somewhat complicated. I believe, but you have to understand I'm making an educated guess here, I could be wrong..."
Soul Source: Back and There Again Page 33