A Rift in Time

by Clark Graham

  “What’s wrong?”

  “The time capsule, they built it. I hope you’re not too upset.”

  He sat down on a bar stool. “Oh, no.” His heart raced. “We talked to him about it. He didn’t listen.”

  “It means forty-five years from now we’ll have to try again.”

  Her eyes widened. “How do you know that?”

  “Oh, oops. Crystal ball. I can see the future.”

  She put her hands on her hips, “Yeah, right.”

  He laughed, “Yep, I can see the future, I can see you going out to dinner with me again tonight.”

  Smiling, she said, “I’ll give you that one. Where are we going?”

  “That diner you like so much.”

  “Hmm, well, okay.” She flashed him a smile.

  “I have to make a phone call first; then I’ll be right with you.”

  Paul dialed up Jacob. “John did it. He had them build the time capsule.”

  “Nothing we can do now, unless we can destroy it. Being in the middle of a military base, I don’t think that will happen. We’ll meet up with John Buck again. This time we’ll be more forceful.”

  “Got it, but not tonight. I have plans.”

  Jacob and Paul sat on a hillside overlooking the town. Paul aimed the sniper rifle, crosshairs on John Buck’s head. He hesitated. Taking a deep breath, he aimed again. Setting the rifle down, he said, “I can’t do it. I’m not a murderer.”

  “It’s for the greater good. We pledged our lives to destroy the time machine from history.”

  “You pledged your life. I wasn’t there at the burning of the mock Vmax3 plane. I’m just carrying on for my father after he got sick.”

  “Give me that.” Jacob grabbed the rifle. The older man didn’t hold it as steady.

  “Are we destroying the future, which destroys the present? If we kill him are you rewriting history and eliminating your entire family from existence? Everyone you loved will be gone.”

  Jacob set down the rifle. “I don’t know. You’re right, we shouldn’t do this, but we have to do something.”

  “Your grandfather destroyed the time machine, maybe that’s enough.”

  “Maybe.” He thought for a minute. “You could be right. Let’s get out of here before someone sees us.”

  As they drove down the hill, Jacob confessed, “I’ve asked Mary to be my wife.”

  Jacob turned to him and smiled. “You know the dangers of red-headed children.”

  Chuckling, Paul said, “Yep, going to name our first kid Peter.”

  “Oh, I get it, Peter, Paul, and Mary.” He laughed. “Tell me you're not going to raise your kids in this rattlesnake-infested part of the world.”

  “No, she’s from Philly, just stationed here. Her service is up in May. We’ll marry in June, in New York. I’m going to take her back to where our families are.”

  “Hmm,” Jacob scratched his chin. “We need to enlist her help. New York is the hub of activity when they design the Vmax3 plane. If your child could help us stop it, that would be great.”

  “She’s going to think I’m an idiot and run away.”

  “We’ll wait until after the wedding then. Break it to her slowly, a piece at a time.”

  “We have forty-five years.”

  Two and a half years after the marriage, Mary cleaned out one of the drawers and found Adalwolf’s notebook. She sat down at the dining room table and began to read, her heart raced as she did. When Paul came into the room, she confronted him, “What is this?”

  He sat down across from her. “I’ve been meaning to tell you about that. It’s a long story. do you have the time?”

  “What, yes of course.”

  “In the future, they invent a time machine. The first mission goes back to kill Hitler. It goes horribly wrong, and one of the men on the mission is killed, the other one is stuck in the past. John Buck is one of those who’s stuck in the past, too.”

  “I heard rumors about that.”

  “Anyway, Jacob’s grandfather hired my father and mother to help to stop the time machine from being built. That is what they dedicated their lives to. My father got cancer, so I took over his quest. We have another chance to stop it, but not until I’m old or dead. The next generation, our next generation, has to help.”

  She paged through the notebook. “Is that why it has future events, because of Jacob’s grandfather?”

  “Yes, he mapped out times that the machine could be stopped.”

  “Well, I guess we need to get the next generation started.”

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Palmdale, California

  2044

  Anthony sat at his desk in the Skunk Works. He had the only complete set of plans for the Vmax3 drive. No one else had the total image. Each department had only the piece they were responsible for. It would all be assembled by his crew alone, in the end.

  He kept looking over the cryptic text by Senator James. How did he get my phone number? No one outside the plant is supposed to have this.

  The invitation was to a bar at six that night. Anthony smiled to himself. He was going to enjoy this. He had no love for Senator James.

  When he arrived, Senator James was sitting next to Phillip Anderson. He sat down next to the two. “When did you get out of prison?” Anthony asked.

  Anderson smiled. “Presidential pardon, courtesy of Senator James. He protects the people close to him.”

  “So, what did you want to see me about?”

  “Not so fast,” Anderson said. He pulled out a wand and scanned up and down on Anthony’s clothes. “He’s clean.”

  “What was that all about?”

  James folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Just checking for bugs. I don’t want anyone listening in to our conversation.”

  “Oh. Why would that be?”

  Scowling, James said, “You know perfectly well why that would be. You have the only complete copy of the Vmax3 drive plans. I have bits and pieces, but you have the whole thing. I’m willing to pay five million for a copy of it.”

  Anthony stroked back his red hair. “Five million dollars? Wow, that seems like a lot. How on earth would I smuggle the plans out of the factory?”

  James slid a phone over to him. “This is an exact duplicate of your phone, only it has a built-in scanner. Once you take a picture of the plans, you destroy the phone.”

  Picking it up, Anthony turned to Phillip. “Isn’t this the same phone you were found holding when you were arrested?”

  Phillip shook his head. “New and improved version. It’s impossible to trace. Once you take the picture, take the battery out and throw the phone into a dumpster.”

  “Hmm, how is the five million going to be paid?”

  James slipped a piece of paper across the table. “This is your new account in the Caymans. It’s fifty thousand in seed money. When we get the plans, I’ll put the rest of the money there.”

  “Five million, just for a few scans of drawings. Wow, you have a deal.” He shook their hands.

  Arriving home that night, he kissed his wife.

  “How did your day go, dear?”

  “Well, Sarah Dalton Trumball, I had an interesting talk with Senator James.”

  Her eyes widened. “Is he wanting the drive?”

  “Yes, five million is the offer.”

  “You can’t give it to him. In fact, you must make sure the thing never works.” She put her hands on her hips.

  “No, I can’t do that. I might lose you if the thing never works. If Major Dalton doesn’t go back into the nineteen hundreds, then you might never be born. No, I’ll send Senator James the wrong plans and put the wrong plans back in the archives, too. The real plans I’ll destroy, after the drive is built. Dalton goes back in time, you are born, but they can never build another time machine.”

  She swallowed. “I think it’s too risky. Destroy the plans now. I’ll take my chances.”

  “No. Adalwolf destroyed the plane. In the fi
rst timeline, the plane was recovered and with that and the knowledge of the employees here, they were able to recreate the drive. They have no plane this go around. All I have to do is give them the fake plans, disappear, and the two of us can live on a beach sipping umbrella drinks the rest of our lives.”

  She smiled, “If you’re sure it will work.”

  “I’m sure.”

  Senator James and Phillip Anderson looked over the plans several months later. They met behind closed doors in the Senator’s office.

  “Who are we going to get to build this thing?” Anderson asked. “You’ve pretty well tapped out your supply of funds.”

  “I do have friends in Russia, who ask no questions. They are wanting certain information from me. If I give it to them, then I can get one of their manufacturers to produce the drive. I have a company in China working on the plane.”

  “All is set then. We will own history.”

  Phillip Anderson walked into the office a week later. Senator James screamed, “It doesn’t work.”

  “Anthony gave us the wrong plans?”

  “Yes, I had some of the Lockheed people look at it and they say it’s nothing like the original. Those plans are who knows where by now.”

  “Can we look at the other plane to see what’s different?”

  The senator sat down in behind his desk. “The plane hasn’t made it back yet.” He flipped open his history book. “It says here, the Holocaust still happened. Dalton failed.”

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Atlantic Ocean

  2044

  The boat chugged up and back, with three fishing lines in the water. There were no hooks, just weights to make it look like they were on a fishing charter. There was a large cable with an electrical line out the back of the ship for the side scanning radar. Other than that, the disguise was perfect.

  A captain and three crew members were on the boat. Two of the men were in the cabin, monitoring the images of the seafloor. The other was watching to make sure the cables weren’t getting tangled. The captain spent most of his time in the flying bridge, steering the ship, but came down once in a while to check the status of the operation.

  They’d been doing this for four days now. They had covered all the places that the plane should have come down. Dempsey brought out his laptop again. He was losing faith in his estimates. He had gone over and over the model. The plane had to be here. Right here.

  He heard the radio call up to the captain. “Sir, we have the object again, but there’s nothing else here.”

  The captain throttled back on the engines. “Get a fix on it. At least we can dive on that. Maybe it’s a piece of it, anyway.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  The boat stopped and the anchor dropped. The captain came down the ladder. “We don’t have anything but that one object we keep coming across. I’m sending my men down to take pictures of it. It might be a clue as to what’s going on.”

  A crewmember poked his head out of the hatch. “Sir, that ship that’s been shadowing us is approaching fast.”

  “Start reeling in, gentlemen. Make it look like you have a fish on, if possible,” the captain replied.

  The ship came quickly in view, bearing down on them.

  “Coast Guard. Maybe they think we’re smuggling drugs. If they search the ship, they are going to be very curious as to what we’re doing,” Ross said. His shoulders sagged.

  A crewmember on the Coast Guard cutter put a bullhorn up to his mouth. “This is the United States Coast Guard. Prepare to be boarded.”

  “Looks like we have company,” the captain said with a sigh.

  The cutter threw lines over and soon the two ships were tied up to each other. Five sailors with full combat gear and guns were soon aboard. The cutter’s captain joined them.

  “Colonel Ross, General Williams, and Major Dempsey, I have warrants for your arrest.”

  Dempsey looked over to the other two. How do they know our names?

  “On what charges?” Williams bellowed.

  “Destruction of government property, theft of government property, dereliction of duty and whatever else Senator James can think up.” He motioned to two of his men. Soon Dempsey, Williams, and Ross were all sitting on the deck of the Coast Guard ship. All the equipment from the boat was brought over and several of the sailors had donned suits and were diving down onto the object.

  “They’ve been watching us the whole time,” Dempsey muttered.

  “Yes, and we led them right to what they wanted us to,” Ross said.

  “How’s this all going to end?” Dempsey looked around. The crew members from the boat were brought over, and after the divers returned, the small boat was taken under tow.

  “This is the end of the line,” Ross replied.

  Williams leaned against the bulkhead and closed his eyes.

  Dempsey shifted in his seat and watched the land get closer and closer. “I hope they don’t find it. They’ll use it again and destroy time.”

  “If the thing was there, we would have found it,” Ross said.

  “I could be wrong in my model. The ship’s logs could have given the wrong latitude and longitude. The plane could be beyond repair. There are endless possibilities.”

  “Or, someone could have beaten us to the thing. It’s been down there a long time.”

  “None of the charges will stick, especially the dereliction of duty. None of us were on duty at the time,” Williams said, his eyes still closed.

  On shore, they were all put in the brig then they brought out one at a time for questioning. Dempsey was the last to be escorted into the interview room. An Air Force MP stood guard while General Parker and Senator James sat across from the Major.

  “Was this all some type of joke?” Senator James’ beady eyes tried to bore holes through him, it seemed.

  “I don’t know what you mean, Sir.”

  “You’ve destroyed information, wiped hard drives, and now you sent us on a wild goose chase. What are you trying to hide?” James’ face reddened.

  “We were just out hanging around, fishing, Sir.”

  “With side-scanning sonar and enough sophisticated equipment to make an admiral jealous? I don’t think so. What were you looking for? Before you answer that, I want you to know we’ve already run the model you had on your laptop, so we know you were looking for something.”

  Dempsey swallowed hard. He didn’t know what the others had told them, and he didn’t know what was down there. He debated about giving them what they wanted, but he looked the senator in the eyes and remembered how much he hated the man. “We found what we were looking for. That small object we were about to dive on. That was what we were looking for.”

  The senator sat back in his seat. Dempsey looked at the general. What’s that look? He wondered. Is it sympathy?”

  “Take him back to his cell.”

  “You have the same answer from all three of them. They were looking for the marker. You have no reason to hold them. I am ordering their release,” The general said.

  “You can’t do that. They know where the airplane is. We need to hold them until they confess.”

  The general was undaunted. He stood up, “Good day, Senator.”

  An hour later all three of the prisoners had been brought into a conference room, their handcuffs removed. A minute later, General Parker came in. He laid a stack of pictures on the desk. “I don’t know if you already know what the marker said, but if you didn’t, I brought you pictures of it. All of the made-up charges have been dropped. As for Major Dempsey and Colonel Ross, you are to report to me on next Monday where you’ll be reassigned. General Williams, you have a good day.” He turned to leave then stopped and faced them one more time. “Gentlemen, you have my sympathies.”

  Ross looked at the photo. It showed a granite large cross with the inscription, ‘Captain Gerald Myers. Born September 15, 2012. Died January 6, 1894.’

  Chapter Fifty

  New York, New York


  2046

  Jarvin Musktel, Deputy Director of the CIA, looked at the men and women of his command. He was the head of special projects, which involved spying on Middle East terror groups. Felix Schmidt was among those in the room. It was a quiet group this day. One of their pilots had been shot down. “Ethan Fields, though not a favorite brother, was a brother to all of us. His courage in the face of danger was unmatched. We will miss him. It must never come to light what he was doing when he was shot down. He knew the dangers.”

  He let the group settle down, before he went on. “Because we have been compromised, this group must be dissolved. Each of you are to be reassigned to other units. It has been a proud moment to serve with you.”

  Everyone seemed to know that was coming. With little fanfare, they all filed out of the room.

  His secretary barged into the room. “Sir, it’s the FBI. They want to talk to you.”

  “Tell them to go away. I’m busy.”

  A man with close-cropped hair walked into the room. “Sir, I’m Special Agent Carlson with the FBI. I need to ask you a few questions.”

  The sun was setting over a small Caribbean island. Anthony lay in his hammock reading a book. Sarah brought him out a drink and a cheese on a platter to snack on and sat down beside him. “Do you think Senator James will ever find us?”

  “He won’t look. He’ll send his lap dog, Phillip Anderson, to do the looking.”

  “I don’t like that man.” She took some brie off the plate.

  “Don’t worry, Senator James is very busy right now. He’s probably forgotten all about us anyway, with the congressional investigation going on into all those missing funds. He thought a time machine would solve all of his problems, but it just made more for him.”

  “I did feel guilty about all that money at first.” She sipped her drink. “But then I got over it. Our families spent over a hundred years trying to stop that time machine. Now, we’ve finally done it. It turned out to be a profitable thing to do.”