Die Again To Save Tomorrow (Die Again to Save the World Book 2)

by Ramy Vance

  “The day on the bus?”

  “Yeah.”

  That was a defining moment in Rueben's life, and he had so many questions about that day and no one to answer them. Certainly not Marshall, anyway.

  “She showed up at the police station that day, before the incident.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  Marshall nodded. “Yeah, she was frazzled and completely freaked out. She’d kept calling my cell babbling about some kind of uh, premonition.”

  Rueben’s ears perked up. “Premonition?”

  “Yeah, I, uh, didn’t know what the hell she was going on about. She said she had a feeling something bad was going to happen, and I needed to get to a certain street, and she knew where the guy was going to get on the bus. I had no idea what she was talking about. She was babbling on like a crazy person. So, I told her I was busy. So she shows up at the station and almost gets herself arrested trying to get to me in the station. I finally found her, and she keeps telling me the same stuff, only it makes a little more sense this time. She starts talking about your bus and that I had to save you.”

  Marshall sipped his drink and frowned, and fiddled with the beer cap some more. Rueben listened intently now. She had a “premonition?” She knew where the attacker was? He knew exactly what that sounded like.

  Did she have the power?

  “So, you know, my mind immediately goes to that movie Speed, and so I rush out to the bus. She rode with me in the car, and the whole time she was telling me what to do, and where to turn, and even what he was going to say.”

  “How would she possibly know this stuff?”

  “I’m telling you a goddamned story. Just shut up and listen for once.”

  Rueben leaned on the counter and sipped his beer, and he suddenly had this recollection of the attacker’s words. He had asked for them to bring a girl to him. “Hopper.”

  Marshall scoffed. “Yeah. I don’t know who the hell Hopper was or why this guy was so obsessed with him or her.”

  Rueben whispered to himself, “Just like Jim said. Frog. Hopper.”

  Marshall narrowed his eyes. “What are you mumbling about?“

  Rueben shook his head. “Never mind.”

  “Don’t ‘never mind’ me. I’m trying to tell you a story, and you can’t even sit for two minutes and respectfully listen. See, this is why we can’t ever have a civilized conversation. You can’t listen to a damn thing. You just have to blah, blah, blah, put in your two cents without ever thinking that someone else might have something useful to offer.”

  Rueben scowled and didn’t take any of Marshall’s accusations to heart. It was just his usual babbling. Marshall set the beer down. “I should have known I couldn’t talk to you about this stuff. I’ve got to go. I’ve got to get to Brooklyn.”

  Marshall rose from the barstool and stormed out of the room.

  Rueben held the bottle to his forehead. Why did things always end like this with him? And right when Marshall was about to give him information on his mom that he had been waiting on for over ten years.

  Ugh. Maybe he shouldn’t have said all that stuff about his dad's past being irrelevant. That was harsh. But Marshall pushed buttons, and he said things and didn’t say things that he wouldn’t say or do to anyone else. Why couldn’t he get along with this man? Buzz, Aki, and even Mike Fury got along great with him. Why couldn’t he?

  For a moment, he considered killing himself with a corkscrew behind the bar to warp back and avoid the fight with his dad. But that was something Pete had predicted he would do. Dying to fix tiny mistakes. He wouldn't do that. As Aki had said, he was nothing like Pete. He’d man up and accept the consequences of his actions.

  He at least owed Marshall an apology for how he'd talked to him. He sighed and got up to find him. Then Aki burst into the room. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere. Why haven’t you been answering your phone?”

  Rueben stammered and searched his pockets for his phone. Sure enough, four missed calls from Aki in the last twenty minutes. Damn, he'd switched his phone to silent when he'd gone into the theater. “What’s going on?”

  “Buzz found him.”

  “Pete?”

  “Yep. He’s in some shithole motel almost to New Jersey.”

  “Great. Let’s get a plan together.”

  “Right. Marshall is going to meet his guy. The one hooking us up with the industrial magnet. Now we have to scope out a good area and keep sights out for Pete. You up for it?”

  “Yeah. Let’s move.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Monday, May 22, 2:10 p.m.

  It was early afternoon now, and Rueben and Aki sat in the Porsche outside the MidCity Inn in New York just across the bay from New Jersey. This was where their intel, namely Buzz’s cyberstalking, had it that Pete was staying. They needed to keep an eye on him. The others were creating a trap while Rueben and Aki were supposed to secure the target.

  Now here they were, alone, the two-story building forlornly rising to their left. It was an eyesore of a structure—sagging bricks, grimy four-pane windows, and overgrown sidewalks. A couple of ne’er-do-wells in hoodies hung around on the sidewalk, smoking and casting paranoid glances down the block.

  Rueben smirked. “Yeah, the Porsche was a good idea. We fit right in here. No one could possibly notice us now.”

  She laughed. “You’re right—we should have taken your Mazda. No one would think a thing in this neighborhood.”

  “Okay, lay off on the Mazda. I’m just saying that we could’ve chosen a better cover.”

  They were partially shrouded by trees now, and so far that had kept them out of view. But the longer the stakeout went on, the more Rueben was sure someone would blow their cover. They waited, and Rueben pulled up the hotel's Wikipedia page on his phone.

  “Did you know there was a movie set here once?”

  She tapped her fingernails against the steering wheel and watched out the window. “Oh yeah? Saw?”

  He laughed. “No, it featured some rock star, Hugo Hill. Have you heard of him?”

  “No.”

  He skimmed the webpage. “Apparently, he was quite the thing at one point, and he was, I quote, ‘moved by the cultural significance of the building.’”

  “Oh, God. I don’t like him already.”

  Rueben scanned the rest of the page. "God, the reviews are terrible. ‘Not even Hugo’s star power could save this contrived effort, based around a sophomoric script and actors that appeared freshly plucked out of a groundlings class.’”

  They both laughed, and Aki shook her head.

  Rueben set his phone on his lap and watched the building. Beside him, Aki raised her eyes as if lost in a memory. “Did I tell you I wanted to be an actress when I was a kid?”

  He searched his memory. “I don’t know if that was before I warped back in time or not, but you did at one point.”

  She laughed. “I’m going to have to get used to that.”

  They were quiet for a few minutes as Rueben considered Aki's words. Did she mean she'd have to get used to that because she wanted to continue working with him after they somehow found a way to stop Pete? Or because she wanted to be in a romantic relationship with him?

  “You may not believe it, but I was good at acting,” she said.

  Rueben cleared away the thoughts in his head as he sat up straighter. “I'd watch you act, Lady Macbeth.” He put a slight Victorian English accent on the last two words.

  She leaned against the car window and laughed. “Okay, tell me something about you I don’t know.”

  He smiled ruefully. “I’m…I’m pretty boring. Just an average, middle-class vanilla white guy.”

  “You are miles from average.”

  He ran his tongue over his teeth and studied her for a moment. “Okay, I’m going to show you something. I haven’t shown anyone this in like…years.”

  She raised an eyebrow, and he picked up his phone. She watched the building while he pulled up a video file
. “Okay, so one time a few years ago, I did a movie with some old friends.”

  “You were in a movie?”

  “Well, it was an old friend of mine. He did an indie film cause he’s like that. And he needed a bunch of actors, so he recruited me to play a mad scientist.”

  She laughed hard. “It’s not like you didn’t have any inspiration.”

  “Buzz and I hadn’t talked in a while, so I didn’t draw that much from him. But yeah, it was this really awful movie. So bad, and it was so much fun. The director had full-on artistic meltdowns, and the whole thing was just so funny…later.”

  Her eyes widened, and a grin lit up her face. “Oh my God, I have got to see this, like…now.”

  He pulled up the file and held his phone out in front of them so that they had to scrunch up shoulder to shoulder to both see the screen. Beyond the phone, they could both still see if Pete came out. He pushed play. “So this is my scene.”

  In it, Rueben was in a lab coat, plastic goggles, and a bad wig. “I alone have created a device that will catapult humanity into its next evolutionary leap…hahaha!”

  Film Rueben threw up his arms and laughed maniacally, and Aki chuckled. “Yeah, I… It’s a lot different having met Buzz.”

  “Yeah, but this is the best. I get a song. “

  Aki dissolved into laughter and touched Rueben's wrist. “A song?”

  “Yeah, I don’t sing, but I spent a week learning The Eureka Dance.”

  “The Eureka Dance? Oh, I have got to see this.”

  He laughed hard. “Oh, it’s bad. It’s so, so bad.”

  Film Rueben busted out moves that looked like a lone imitation of a Backstreet Boys routine. There were spins, kicks, and a double-footed jump. “That was seriously the most difficult part of the whole movie. We had to do that like ten times.”

  “Oh my gosh. This is epic. You're a really good dancer.”

  The song was a dubbed-over rap song that bragged, “I found a solution, the only solution, to rectify the human condition…” and so it went. Aki laughed harder, and the song continued with Rueben now prancing around with a beaker full of purple liquid. ”I’m not Dr. Who. I’m not Dr. House. I’m not Dr. What-Ails-You, I’m the one, the one, the one that you want… I’m Dr. Von Ziegelman.”

  With that, Film Rueben crossed his arms and stared into the camera like a badass while his character name reverberated.

  “Dr. Von Ziegelman?”

  “Yeah. I think he played Mad Libs with German last names.”

  “Uh-huh. Whatever happened to this friend?”

  “Uh, last I heard, he delivered pizza.”

  “Maybe a more suitable occupation for him.”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  They both laughed and watched the hotel for a few minutes. The sidewalk hoodlums had gone now, and the outside of the hotel was empty. Aki replayed The Eureka Dance one more time while Rueben kept an eye on the hotel.

  From the corner of his eyes, Rueben watched Aki's long fingernails tapping against the phone screen. She was so much different than he had ever thought she was when he had met her at work. He always knew she was strong and confident, but she was also down to earth and kind, and around Mike, maybe a little insecure.

  Her dark eyes caught his. His heart hammered against his ribs, and he couldn’t miss the sweet scent of her perfume filling the car. An undeniable magnetism had built between them, and he wanted nothing more than to reach over and touch her. Without taking his eyes off her, he twisted in his seat and leaned forward, her breath warm and moist against his face. His lips found hers.

  The mere touch of his skin against hers sent a warming shiver through him, and he was acutely conscious of everywhere that his body met hers. His tongue traced the soft fullness of her lips and explored the recesses of her mouth, sending the pit of his stomach into a wild swirl.

  He leaned back and searched her face, and she drew him back to her and hungrily devoured him. His lips seared a path down her neck, her shoulders, and she emitted the softest moan that sent shivers of delight coursing through him. He knew where this was going, and he savored the moment, delighting her, planting kisses over her neck, and slowly working his way down.

  Suddenly she pushed him off. “Shit.”

  He sat up, alarmed. “What? What?”

  She started the engine and pointed toward the sidewalk. “Pete.”

  He looked out the window, and sure enough, Pete sauntered along the hotel's sidewalk toward a green Ford Escape parked on the curb. He wasn't hard to spot—he was still wearing his trademark white hoodie and shades.

  “Shit. He’s on the move.” Rueben lifted his phone and called Buzz. “We’re a go. Let’s get this party started.”

  Pete got into the green car and pulled away from the curb.

  Aki calmly pulled out onto the road and followed him a few cars back as Rueben fixed his hair and clothes. Man, his alternate universe future self was such a buzzkill.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Monday, May 22, 2:47 p.m.

  Aki and Rueben followed Pete’s green Ford Escape, hurtling down the highway and careening through traffic. Pete was a borderline reckless driver, and following his quick turns and fast speed nearly resulted in multiple wrecks. Aki deftly maneuvered the little Porsche in and out of traffic, avoiding detection.

  A split-second left turn with no signal left them without a line of sight on him, and now they were six cars behind him. Aki banged the steering wheel. “Shit. He suspects someone’s following him.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Mike gets paranoid as hell, and when he thinks there might be some possibility of being followed, he drives like an asshole just in case.“

  Rueben groaned at the mention of Mike. "And here I thought we were supposed to get Pete to chase us—not the other way around."

  Aki veered onto the shoulder and sped around the corner, causing drivers and pedestrians to yell and curse at her. "Shit, he's going to get away."

  Rueben scanned the traffic on this street. “I know this area. The next street over runs parallel. Let’s take that one and catch up with him at the cross street.”

  She turned off and took the next street over, leaving Pete to think he was home free. They maneuvered through a busy city block with pedestrians and shops every which way. She tapped her fingernails against the steering wheel impatiently. “We’re going to lose him this way.”

  “Let’s track him, then.” He hit the walkie-talkie button on the console. “Okay, Buzz, you’re tracking us, right?”

  “Roger that. What the hell are you doing? You deliberately turned away from the suspect.”

  “Yeah, we’re trying to make him think we’ve lost him. You’ve got him on satellite, right?”

  “Yep. He’s heading west—it looks like he’s making for the Garden State Parkway.”

  “Jersey? He’s going to New Jersey?”

  “I don’t know. It looks like it.”

  “What would he have to do in New Jersey?”

  Suddenly, Buzz remembered. “Gerhardt Military base outside Trenton.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, that’s where he’s headed. That’s the lead Martha was pursuing. Martha called me last night. She was trying to break in.”

  “That would have been useful information.” Rueben tried to hide his irritation, but he couldn't get the image of Buzz sitting and drinking beer this morning at his mansion out of his mind. There was no way around it—his friend had a drinking problem.

  Couldn't dwell on that now though. “Martha is still missing. Maybe something happened to her, and she’s still there.”

  “It seemed like a simple recon mission for her—she’s a very capable lady.”

  "What was the mission?” Rueben asked.

  “We tracked some drones out there.”

  Rueben’s eyes widened. “Drones?”

  “Yeah.”

  "For crying out loud, man. Where’s your head at? We all need to know this s
tuff.”

  “I know. I know. I’m really sorry. But with the confirmation that the multiverse is real…I mean, can you imagine the possibilities? My brain is literally exploding with ideas for the future—"

  “There won’t be a future if we don’t stop Pete.”

  Buzz was quiet for a bit. “I messed up. I really did. But I’ve also been tinkering with that silver cube. I’ve been routing most of my brainpower and computer resources into cracking it. I’m almost there. I know it.”

  “Good. That’s good.” Rueben sighed. “Back to Martha. Where is that military base at?”

  “I’ll send you the address.”

  “Great.”

  “I’ve pulled up a satellite visual on the Escape. He’s getting on the Garden State Parkway. It's highly probable that he's going to that military base.”

  Aki swerved onto a side street that would lead her straight to the Garden State Parkway. They could barely see Pete in the distance.

  Aki cursed. “Too bad Martha wasn't here. She could call for a police barricade. Buzz, in case she’s not at the base and since you can’t ping her phone, can you have someone go by her house? And then see if there’s any Jane Does in the hospitals or…morgues, that could be Martha?”

  “Yes. Got it.”

  “Where are we on the magnet?”

  Buzz was quiet for a second, then responded, “Marshall has acquired it. He and his buddy are transporting it now. It’s in a semi, I think.”

  “Damn. Yeah, a magnet that big should work.”

  “That’s what we’re thinking. But it’s a pain in the ass to transport and move.”

  Rueben laughed. “That would be a problem.”

  “Yeah. Maybe the magnet plan wasn't such a good idea after all. We’re still trying to figure out a place to trap him. We’ll give you more details. Just don’t lose the suspect.”

  They were on the highway now, crossing over the bay, and could see the Ford Escape a few vehicles ahead.