Alive is good.
The nausea was gone, the pain subdued. The haziness in his head was probably drug induced.
Drugs are good too. Thank you, modern medicine.
He was alone in a small room, with a curtain drawn across the door. No call button in sight, but summoning a nurse wouldn’t be hard. He pulled the clip from his finger, allowing the regular beeping to be replaced by a continuous tone.
A minute later, a stout woman pulled the curtain back and put a hand on her chest. “Don’t do that!” she commanded, placing the monitor back on his finger.
“Sorry, didn’t see any other way to get your attention.” The words came out slightly slurred as his tongue struggled to function.
She frowned and pointed to a plastic square at the bedside, a red button in its center.
“Huh. Guess I missed that. Any drugs in my system, perchance?” His lips felt thick and sluggish.
“Light sedation,” she said. “We’ve been dialing it down all morning. I figured you’d wake up sometime.”
“How long have I been out?”
“Mmm. Just about twenty-four hours now. That’s not unusual with internal hemorrhaging. What’d you do? Swan-dive off a tall building?” She smiled.
“Something like that.”
Snapback, though apparently not significant enough to kill him. Maybe one too many jumps. Or else he’d pushed his luck with the combination ring-belt technology. He’d exceeded every operational limit suggested by Mathieu, Chloe; even Lady Pink on the Pedestal.
He’d been unconscious for twenty-four hours.
Forward time. Not empros time. Not future time. Twenty-four hours of now time.
Daniel’s analytic mind finally subdued the pharmaceutical cocktail still lingering in his system. Startling the nurse, he grabbed her hand. “I’m going to need emergency surgery. There’s a coin in my stomach and the FBI—”
She laughed. “Oh, honey, we took that out yesterday!”
Good news, perhaps. “Where’s the coin now?”
“Heck if I know. That pushy FBI guy took it.”
Even better news. “Agent Griffith?”
“Yeah, that’s him. He was all over the docs, bugging the admins. I was worried he was going to pull a knife and cut that coin out all by himself. Lucky for you, the docs pulled it out the right way—through your esophagus. No sir, the only surgery you had was to get that electronic thing out of your arm. Plus, about twenty stitches in that wound across your ribs.”
A white bandage covered his left forearm just above the IV. He felt another bandage across his chest. “The coin is important. I need to get in touch with Griffith right away. Can you get my phone?”
His futuristic-old-fashioned clothes hung in an open closet on the far side of the room. She patted his hand. “Don’t worry, honey, we’ve got everything under control. Mr. Griffith said he’d be back, but only when you’re healthy enough for a visitor.”
Griffith has it figured out. The coin, not the chip.
“Have any wars broken out recently?” Daniel asked.
Her brow knitted, and she gave Daniel a peculiar look. “None that I know of.” She adjusted the flow on the IV drip, hopefully dialing the drugs down, not up.
No launch. His phone call from the farm field had been enough, and the coin was in good hands. Griffith would know what to do. He’d probably done it already. Still, they needed to talk.
“I’m fine. I could have a visitor now.” It wasn’t the complete truth. His ribs ached, but with good drugs, it was a pain level easily ignored.
She examined one of the machines by the bed. “Well, we got the hemorrhaging under control, but you’re still anemic. I’ll talk with the doctor and maybe you can have a visitor or two. There’s a woman out in the lobby. I think she might have slept there last night. Nadine? Something like that.”
“Nala?”
“That’s her. Poor dear was really upset.”
A lump appeared in Daniel’s throat. “Can you bring her in?”
She patted his hand. “Maybe. I’ll check.” She fluffed up a pillow behind Daniel’s head.
“Thanks for saving my life.”
“You’re the most famous patient we’ve had all year, Dr. Rice. We couldn’t just let you die, now could we?”
“Famous or not, thanks just the same.”
She offered a gentle smile and left. Daniel relaxed into the soft pillow. Just as the nurse had said, things were under control.
Nala was here. He could imagine what she must be thinking. He hadn’t told her much and she hadn’t asked. Do your job, she’d said before he’d jetted off to Florida with Griffith. It seemed like months ago.
He badly wanted to see her, to tell her everything. He had no idea how she’d react to the insanity of the time jump or to the personal parts of the story. He wouldn’t hide anything, but anxiety built. It was exactly why doctors put limits on visitors for recovering patients.
A few minutes later, the door opened, and she peeked around the curtain. Her hair was out of place, bags under watery eyes, but to Daniel, Nala had never looked more radiant. Her cheek-to-cheek smile spoke volumes.
She burst across the room to his bedside, wrapping arms around sheets, tubes, wires and Daniel. “You’re back! You’re really here!”
He put his only good arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. “I can hardly believe it myself.”
She looked up, tears in her eyes. “I thought I’d lost you.”
He hugged her tight even though his ribs ached doing it. “I wish I’d told you more. Things got out of control in a hurry.”
She buried her face in his chest. “A jump into the future. Yeah, I heard. Not your everyday government assignment.”
“Griffith told you?”
“Mostly Chloe Demers. Remember, we’re colleagues. She called and I flew down yesterday. Had to practically beat the story out of Griffith this morning. They’re both still here, in Atlanta.”
Daniel adjusted his position, groaning. Nala released her hug. “Sorry, did I hurt you?”
“Ribs, mainly. A few other issues, but they say I’m on the road to recovery.”
She stood and leaned over the bed rail, her hair falling around his face. She whispered, “Your lips aren’t hurt, are they?”
He smiled and shook his head. An awkward sideways position, but she kissed him with passion, withdrew and came back for another. He could kiss this woman ten thousand times and still want more.
She pulled away. “Hang on, I’ve got to earn the FBI briefing Griffith gave me.” She dialed and held her phone to her ear. “He’s awake. Yeah… you bet… see you in a few.” She disconnected. “Griffith is just around the corner. He says you shouldn’t say anything about your mission until he gets here.”
“A lot to tell,” Daniel said. “But not everything is for the FBI. There’s a few parts just between you and me.”
“Your future? Or mine?” She waved both hands. “Maybe I don’t want to know.”
“A woman I met. Two, actually.” Daniel started to explain, but Nala held up a hand, frowning.
“Shhh.” She paused, thinking—possibly about what Daniel might have done with women from the future, though with Nala it could be almost anything. “Don’t go there. FBI orders, and as you might recall, I don’t have a good history with these guys.”
The nurse opened the door and poked her head through. “Dr. Rice, you’ve got two more visitors, but I’m warning them, and you too, miss, I’m clearing everyone out in twenty minutes.”
Nala beckoned with a wave. “Bring them in. I think we’re done with all the kissy stuff.” Daniel hoped she didn’t mean that literally. Like, forever.
The door opened once more, revealing two more familiar faces. Griffith offered a hand. “Great job, Daniel. Welcome back.”
Chloe’s tight-lipped smile and caring eyes were ample greeting, but she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. She had a new lip piercing. “Feeling better?”
/> “A bit of damage here and there, but with a few more kisses, I’ll pull through.” Daniel glanced at Nala. She rolled her eyes.
Chloe hugged Nala and they exchanged bonjour greetings with a quick back-and-forth in French that Daniel didn’t understand.
Griffith gave a thumbs-up. “Mission accomplished.”
“You got the coin?” Daniel asked.
“You didn’t make it easy, but we got it. The information confirmed the submarine’s security breach plus a lot more. The Navy made an arrest yesterday. Found one of those futuristic coins in the guy’s locker. Apparently, the crew was deep into a launch drill and very nearly pulled the trigger.”
“Wow. Another prediction confirmed. The launch really would have happened.”
“Yup. The Navy might want to adjust a few procedures, but we’re safe for now. Plus, we bagged a preacher last night who was probably involved. Off-the-charts crazy guy running a religious cult right here in Atlanta. Fire and brimstone stuff. Christian reconstructionism, I think they call it.”
“I know all about him,” Daniel said, holding his ribs. “He did some of the damage I’m recovering from.”
“Apparently, the preacher gave the coin to the sailor,” Griffith said. “Handed it to him from one of those crazy 4-D bubbles. Well, you know more about that stuff than me.”
Daniel nodded. “The coins do more than project 3-D videos, which are faked, by the way.”
“Hmm.” Griffith nodded. “The first video was a lure, then?”
“I’m afraid so.” Daniel explained the shard-motion technology and warned against using any information that might be on the chip they’d pulled from his arm. Griffith said they’d already pursued its leads but found nothing but dead ends.
“Father wanted it that way. Your preacher,” Daniel said. “He pretty much runs the show in 2053. Or did.”
“Is the old future gone?” Chloe asked.
“I sure hope so,” Daniel replied. “It wasn’t a place you’d want to live.”
“Yup, it’s gone,” Griffith said with confidence. “No launch. No destruction, plus we’ve uncovered some shady overseas connections that we’ll shut down.” He explained how the preacher had gained access to 4-D technology and how he’d reached into a locked safe aboard the submarine.
“I think we have it all covered,” Griffith said. “But you saw the future. Anything else we should follow up on?”
With the stimulus of conversation, Daniel felt the effect of the drugs disappearing. His ribs hurt a bit more, but it was worth it for a clearer head.
“Their plan was to lure me to the future under false pretenses and ensure that I returned with bogus information. The launch happens, the preacher and his followers claim science can’t be trusted, and with some choice misinformation, the public goes along. I return and suffer the same death that killed Elliott Becton, which eliminates me from the public discussion for the next thirty years. At least, that’s the way Father saw it. But if he’s out of the picture, I think the whole scheme collapses.”
“You couldn’t have learned all of this from empros time. You flowed forward?” Chloe’s French accent was still thick, but her English seemed less halting than before. A couple of days immersed in America might do that.
Daniel explained the message on the whiteboard, and his decision to flow forward after returning to his jump point in the plaza. “You and Griffith weren’t there. I figured the warning on the whiteboard was right. The past had already changed.”
“Ahh. This time the universe played a trick on you.” She seemed almost delighted.
Griffith nodded. “We waited for you. You never showed up, but Chloe figured it out yesterday.”
“You remember when I used the belt?” Chloe asked.
Daniel nodded. She’d tested it in Geneva, grabbing a croissant from one day in the future.
Chloe continued. “My phone has an app that keeps time independently from the phone service. Upon my return, its time was off by seven seconds. Do you see?”
“You lost seven seconds of forward time in your jump?”
She nodded. “The anchor point drifted forward by seven seconds. Since your jump was much bigger, your anchor drifted further. You left the plaza at eleven o’clock. I recorded the time. But your call to Griffith was just past two that afternoon. More than three hours later.”
Daniel nodded. “The times should have been the same.”
“Exactly. When you returned to the plaza still flowing empros, three hours had passed in forward time, and Griffith and I were already gone.”
A mystery solved, but it also meant that they’d come three hours closer to the launch. The trick of time had nearly cost millions of lives. It was a scientific topic they’d need to learn more about. “You think anchor drift is natural?”
“Yes!” Chloe’s smile spread across her face, stretching the various piercings to their limits. “It is evidence for a very strange theory. Time itself is slowing down.”
“Wow!” Nala was suddenly very interested in what Chloe had to say. “Dark energy goes poof!”
“You know the theory, too.” The two physicists were all smiles. “You explain it. Your English is better.”
Nala gazed at her colleague. “Holy shit, Chloe. Nobel Prize coming your way.” She turned to Daniel. “The universe is not only expanding, but that expansion is accelerating. Those of us in particle physics have been searching for the force particle that might cause the acceleration—dark energy, we call it—but no one has ever found it. An off-the-wall alternative is that time has been slowing down ever since the Big Bang, skewing the astronomers’ measurements of velocity. If true, the acceleration doesn’t even exist, and neither does dark energy.”
“Sounds big,” Daniel said, impressed with the impromptu physics discoveries happening in a hospital room. “Nice work, Chloe.”
“Just the tip of the iceberg,” Chloe said. “Time physics is a new field, wide open.”
Daniel couldn’t agree more. And Chloe, with her colored hair, piercings and avant-garde dress that ignored convention, was just the person to investigate.
“I can give you one more thing to research. Cause and effect. In the big picture, it might not exist either.” Daniel explained how he had escaped from a locked cell, only to return to that cell later and create the distraction that became the catalyst for his escape. There didn’t seem to be any rule of the universe that prevented an effect prior to its cause.
“Very freaky,” Chloe said.
“Brain damaging,” Nala said. “You’re going to need more than just physical recovery; you’ll need some mental rehab.” She reached out and grabbed Daniel’s hand.
The nurse poked her head in the door and glared. Griffith took the hint. “This is all way over my head, but we’re going to want every detail of your jump in a full report. For now, get some rest and heal up.”
He reached out and shook Daniel’s hand one more time. “Thanks for your service. You made a profound difference, and at great personal risk. We’re briefing the president tomorrow.”
“Très courageux.” Chloe kissed him once more, then hooked her hand in Griffith’s arm. Together, they turned toward the door.
“Wait,” Daniel said. Griffith and Chloe paused, turning their heads. Daniel waved a finger between them. “Um… are you two…?”
Chloe smiled and pulled Griffith close. “My protector. So dependable. So honest. He’s taking me to New York and learning French too!” She lifted her tattoo-decorated eyes to the older man and beamed.
The grizzled FBI veteran smiled too, a rarity for him. “I bought her a new lip piercing.” He shrugged. “You know… one thing led to another. C’est la vie.”
Daniel chuckled under his breath. Never saw that coming. “Well, then, congratulations. When I’m back in D.C., maybe we can get together sometime and do… whatever it is that you two do.”
A rave dance party followed by target practice at the shooting range?
He admonished
himself for even considering the jest. The world would be a pretty boring place if it weren’t for the bewildering variety of its human inhabitants. Once in a while, people from opposite corners managed to find each other.
They left, leaving only Nala and a glaring nurse. Nala held up five fingers. “Can we get five more minutes? I promise I won’t kiss him again.” The nurse smiled and closed the door.
Nala walked around to the other side of the bed, hopping on and forcing Daniel to scoot over. “You’ve done some pretty mind-bending things, Mr. Scientist. Cause and effect mixed up, time slowing down? Pretty fucking deep.”
Daniel made room for her, the pain in his ribs happily ignored now that she’d chosen to get close, even if she planned to withhold more kisses. “Really, it all happened.”
“Oh, I believe you. I’ve seen some weird shit myself.” She kicked off her shoes and slid under the covers, turning on her side to face Daniel. She seemed to be planning on staying a while.
Daniel looked into her eyes and reached out for her hand. “There’s a bit more. I owe you an explanation.”
“Sounds like you do. Something about two women from the future.”
“I’ll need to start from the beginning.”
“Best place to start. And you better get going before the nurse comes back.”
He took a deep breath. Nala was open-minded and their relationship had always been somewhat hazy, but this was a talk that would bother anyone. “Her name was Jacquelyn.”
Daniel explained it all. Jacquelyn’s role in the Committee, her come-on at the celebration and their tryst at the safe house. He didn’t sugarcoat it; shading the truth never worked.
Nala absorbed it all, adding only a few “uh-huhs” and “yeahs” as he talked. His words were heartfelt. He hoped she felt it too, especially when he stopped, looked into her eyes and said, “I’m sorry”.
She nodded, not saying anything.
The story got darker once he got to the enforcers and his escape after Jacquelyn disappeared. As the story reached its bizarre conclusion in the far future, her interest became stronger, and not just about Jacquelyn.
“This ring could send people both ways? Four hundred years into the future and back to your anchor point?”
The Quantum Series Box Set Page 91