“I thought maybe they were and seemed so real your body couldn’t differentiate between them and reality. I’ve heard of such things before.”
Marcus stared at Karl. “What are you talking about?”
“Something’s going on with you physically, too, Marcus. On that fallen log two days ago, you got the wind knocked out of you, like you’d been hit with a battering ram. Just now you woke up groaning and holding your head like it was about to explode. What’s that about?”
Marcus sighed. “I don’t think it has anything to do with the flashbacks, actually.”
Karl watched Marcus’s face closely. “You have a theory.”
“I’ve...had some thoughts.”
“And?”
Marcus ran a hand through his hair. “They don’t make sense even to me, Karl. And the implications sort of terrify me.”
“Tell me and I’ll help you sort them out.”
Marcus sighed, but nodded. “I think they have to do with Maggie.”
Karl’s mouth turned down at the corners. “How so?”
“That’s just it: I don’t know. Both times, on the log and just now, I got a sense of Maggie. Not a neurological sense, like she was close by, but...my mind and emotions were filled with her. I felt her somehow. I think...I think I may be feeling what she’s feeling.”
Karl’s brow furrowed. “If she’s feeling that then...”
“Wherever she is, someone must be hurting her,” Marcus finished for him and swallowed. “See what I mean about the implications?”
“But...” Karl studied the ground furiously. “Why do you think it’s her? There must be some reason you believe that.”
“I told you, I just—”
“Feel her. Yeah, but is there some reason you’re jumping to that conclusion? Has it...” Karl scrutinized Marcus’s face as he spoke. “Happened before. Or...?”
Marcus smiled. He couldn’t hide anything from his best friend. Karl had known him too long. “No, it hasn’t happened before,” Marcus said quietly, “but there’s something that might—in some bizarre, indirect way I can’t put my finger on—explain it.”
Karl waited expectantly.
“And this doesn’t make sense to me precisely because of the timing. This is the first time anything like this has happened to me, and what I’m about to tell you happened more than a year ago.”
“What was it?”
Marcus took a deep breath. He’d never told anyone this before. “Try not to judge me too much. Back, the first time Maggie joined the team and she and I...were together?” Karl nodded. “This was before she lost her memory, before what happened on the ship, before the Remembrancer, before all that.”
Karl nodded, looking serious. “Yes.”
“Maggie and I wanted to get married.”
Karl’s eyebrows jumped briefly.
“Obviously,” Marcus went on, “there is no government institution for it, much less any religious ones, so I asked Clay what he and Kara did.” Speaking of Clay brought a pang of sadness for Marcus, and the image formed of his friend lying brain dead in a bed back at Interchron, watched over by his pregnant and grieving wife. Actually, Kara would be close to her delivery date by now. Marcus pushed the thought away.
“Clay said they didn’t do anything formal. They said words to each other, taking one another as husband and wife, and then simply started calling one another by those titles. That’s fine, but Maggie and I wanted to do something special. Something physical. So,” he glanced nervously toward Karl, whose frown deepened when he noticed Marcus’s anxiety. “We...linked our minds together. Much as the collectives do.”
Karl’s eyes widened as far as they could go, which looked scary on Karl. “That’s...dangerous Marcus.”
“Which is why we never told anyone. We lived like that for months.”
“Well,” Karl swallowed, as if still trying to wrap his head around the concept. “Are you still linked to her?”
“No,” Marcus heaved out his breath, relieved to move on from Karl’s shock. “When she lost her memory, I had to sever the connection. When you’re connected to someone like that, you feel them in your head, like an alien presence. Comforting, only because you know who it is. You can easily differentiate it from your own. You feel the other person’s emotions, and it takes practice to seal off your thoughts. Strong emotions are impossible to control. I can’t tell you how often when one of us felt angry or happy or, you know, something else,” Marcus’s face heated and a grin leapt onto Karl’s, “we heard one’s another’s most random thoughts.”
Karl threw his head back and his booming laugh filled the night.
Ten feet away, Tenessa stirred in her sleep. She raised her head and looked at Karl as though she’d just caught wind of a foul smell.
“Anyway,” Marcus said firmly, cutting the air with his hands while Karl wiped the tears from his eyes and got himself under control. Marcus dropped his voice so Tenessa wouldn’t hear, but her head had already dropped back down onto her arm. “I couldn’t leave that in Maggie’s head when she had no memory of me. She would have thought she was going mad. So I severed the link before I took her back to Vegas.”
Karl nodded, deep in thought.
“So that doesn’t work as an explanation either,” Marcus ran a hand through his hair. “When I was linked to her, I never felt her pain physically. Mentally, yes, but she often got minor injuries when we went on missions—we all did—and it wasn’t as if when she scraped her knee, the same injury appeared on mine. Not ever. Now, a year and a half later and after the link’s been severed, suddenly this is happening? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Well, it doesn’t make sense to us,” Karl said. “Maybe this is a result of the link, but it’s changed.”
“Why would it change?”
“All things evolve, Marcus. Maybe it was what it needed to be back then, but this is what it needs to be now.”
“That would make sense if I was still linked to her neurologically, but I’m not.”
“Maybe not but, it’s almost like...almost like...” Karl trailed off, gazing into the darkness.
“What?”
“Maybe it’s a quantum entanglement thing. Like you’re a...twin pair or something.”
Marcus rocked back. He hadn’t thought of it in those terms before. If that was true, the explanation was much more complicated than he’d imagined.
“Quantum Entanglement,” he murmured. “I haven’t had quantum physics lessons in years.”
Karl shrugged. “Me neither, but you use the concepts every day when you Heal, same as I do to Travel.”
Marcus nodded. “So how would that work, exactly? Are we talking superposition state observations here?”
Karl shrugged. “Hell if I know, man.”
Marcus sighed, running through his physics knowledge in his head. Back in the twenty-first century, before society jumped feet first into the sewage, scientists proved that beings of higher intelligence—meaning humans—could both order and define particles of matter simply by observing them. There were many ways to explain the science of Healing. One way was with quantum physics. All possibilities in the universe remained in a superposition state—meaning they could go either way—until a decision was made and reality came about. For an injury, that meant the cells of the body could head toward recuperation and a return to health, or toward degeneration and death. Marcus used his neurological abilities to ‘observe’ the cells in the state he wanted them to be in. That observation collapsed the possibilities of the superposition state to reality, and the Healing was accomplished.
“Entanglement,” he murmured, trying to remember what he’d learned. “When two things become entangled, what happens to one happens to the other, right?”
“Sort of,” Karl said. “Actually all things are inherently entangled. Every person and thing and thought you come across in your lifetime has an effect on you. That’s why we’re all such unique creatures. Our thoughts and emotions can change our
brain chemistry daily. With twin pairs, the entanglement is so intricate and all-encompassing that when one member of the pair changes or is defined in some way, the other instantaneously takes on the same properties. Faster than the speed of light.”
Marcus barked a laugh. “I’m not sure that’s exactly what’s happening here.”
Karl shrugged. “I didn’t say it was a perfect explanation—just some form of it.”
“But if being linked before didn’t quantumly entangle us, then what has now?”
“I guess that’s the question. Obviously something has changed, and you’re not consciously aware of it, whatever it is. Maybe Maggie knows? You’ll have to ask her when you see—why are you shaking your head?”
Marcus looked up in surprise. “Sorry. Didn’t realize I was. I was just thinking about something Maggie told me when we took her back to her own time five months ago. She called me her persistence of vision. She said, after she woke up in Vegas, even having no memories of me at all, she still missed me. She didn’t know who or what she was missing, of course, but there was a void she just couldn’t get past. Do you think that could have been a result of this quantum entanglement?”
Carl nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe. If so, that suggests you two were entangled clear back when she first lost her memories.”
Marcus rubbed his temples. “And that doesn’t make sense because Maggie was hurt on the island and I didn’t feel her physical pain then, either.” He huffed in frustration.
Karl offered no more insights.
“Either way,” Marcus shrugged uncomfortably, “it still suggests Maggie’s in pain. Maybe the pain is changing her brain chemistry.” He put a hand to his forehead. “And by extension, mine too.”
“Maybe,” Karl said, “but we can’t be sure. You said so yourself,” he added quickly when Marcus raised an eyebrow. “She may be feeling the pain physically, but maybe the change to the link you two share is more psychological.”
“We aren’t linked anymore.”
“Maybe you are and you just don’t know it. Maybe linking physically created a quantum entanglement of your two brains. Or maybe you aren’t linked, but this is some remnant from when you were.”
Marcus massaged the bridge of his nose. “Physical or psychological, it still isn’t a good thing, Karl. Maggie’s still in pain.”
“True, but you said yourself you don’t know if it’s really Maggie you’re sensing. How could you? Look Man, you’re thinking about Maggie a lot. You miss her. You have her...on the brain. Pun intended. And I get it, but maybe it’s not her. Maybe that’s simply your perception of it.”
Marcus sighed. The more he thought about it, the more sure he was. “Maybe I’m wrong, Karl, but I don’t think so. I think Maggie’s in trouble. It’s taken me this long to realize it.” As he spoke, panic rose up in his chest. He tamped it back down. “Maybe in the morning, instead of jumping back to our own time, we should Travel back to Maggie’s and get her.”
“We can,” Karl said slowly. “If that’s what you want to do. What about Colin?”
Marcus jiggled his toe absently while he thought. “If we aren’t specifically sneaking up on Colin, you and I don’t need to be Concealed. I can Conceal Maggie until we get back to Interchron. Once there, the Concealers can go back on rotating shifts like they did before. That should give us—what?—ten days? Maybe fifteen? We’ll have to use the time to figure out what to do next. I know it’s stupid to keep going back and forth without a plan, but if Maggie’s in trouble...”
Karl nodded. “We have to go get her. Do you feel any pain right now?”
“No. Whatever it was is over for now.”
Karl nodded. “I’m tired enough that Traveling now would sap what strength I have left. And if she is in trouble, we may be Traveling into a dangerous situation. I should be at full strength. Let me sleep for a while. In the morning, we’ll bring Maggie home.”
Marcus rubbed a hand over his face and growled in frustration. “Sorry,” he muttered when Karl raised an eyebrow. “We came so close to taking Colin out. I hate having to abandon that, now.”
“You could have brought him with us,” Karl said quietly. “If you’d been touching him, he would have Traveled with us without his henchmen, and he we could have dealt with him here.”
Marcus sighed. “I’ve been thinking that since we got here. Maybe it would have worked if I’d tried. Maybe not. He was angry and dangerous, lashing out. He’s nearly as strong as Maggie is. Even together it would have been hard for us to fight him, and I couldn’t touch my abilities. It would have left the responsibility to subdue him on your shoulders, and that wouldn’t have been right.”
“I wouldn’t have minded, Marcus.”
“I know that, but I’m the reason we’re out here. I’m not going to claim the right to kill Colin. As far as I’m concerned, if you see a chance, take it, but it shouldn’t be solely your responsibility, either. And what about Tenessa?”
“What about her?”
“He was fuming at her, and she can’t defend herself against him. I know she’s a collectivist who will try to undermine us at every turn, but I made decision to Heal her. She’s my responsibility now.”
“We made the decision,” Karl corrected.
“And the Arachnimen,” Marcus continued. “We escaped fairly easily because none of them, other than the four you fought, attacked us.”
“Yeah, that was weird,” Karl muttered. “Why do you think they hesitated?”
“Because I slugged Colin. The more I see of the Arachnimen in action, the more I’m convinced they are one hundred percent tied to the collective. When we meet a group of them and they do...anything, it’s because they’re relaying the situation back to the collective and receiving orders in real time. In this case, Colin gave them the orders. When I kicked him, he went face down in the dirt. He was disoriented, unable to give orders, so they didn’t move. I know they’re loyal to their leadership, though. If I’d attacked Colin, or dragged him away, it probably would have elicited an automatic response. If they’d converged on us, we wouldn’t have made it out.”
Karl nodded as Marcus spoke. “Those are all sound arguments for you having done the right thing, Marcus. I couldn’t have come up with better. So why are you beating yourself up about this?”
Marcus let out a forceful breath, rubbing his face vigorously. “I’m not, really. I’m just frustrated. We were so close”
“We’ll figure it out, Marcus,” Karl said quietly. “We’ll go get Maggie, then we’ll try again. We’ll get him eventually. I know it.”
Marcus nodded. “The sedative has worn off. Let me Heal your arm.”
Karl hesitated another moment before nodding. “One more thing, though.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ve been scanning the terrain while you slept. You know the canyon that spontaneously formed somehow in the five months since we went to the island?”
Marcus nodded.
“I jumped us three months into the past to get away from Colin, which means in the time we’re presently in, it’s only been two months since we all made the trip to the island. Do you follow me?”
“Yes,” Marcus nodded. One had to get used to talking about visiting the past in the future tense, and the future in the past tense if one was best friends with a Traveler.
“The canyon isn’t here, Marcus. It hasn’t been formed yet.”
Marcus took a moment to absorb that. “So not formed in five months, then. Formed in less than three?”
Karl shrugged. “Canyons don’t form naturally in only three months’ time.”
“How do canyons form at all, other than naturally?”
Karl sighed. “I have no idea. But I’m telling you, something’s going on. Something’s coming to a head. Can’t you feel it?”
Marcus nodded. That, he couldn’t deny. “I’ve been feeling it for days, but how is it possible?” he whispered. “An entire canyon. How could we not have been aware of it?”
>
Karl shrugged. “We’re hundreds of miles from Interchron. The entire community has been pretty preoccupied lately.”
Marcus shook his head. “No. With the amount of energy something like that would take, Interchron’s sensors should have registered the neural energy, or seismic repercussions, if nothing else.”
“Maybe they did.”
Marcus raised an eyebrow at his best friend.
“Think about it, Marcus. We took Maggie back to her time barely a month after we left for the island. Days later, you and I left Interchron. So, whenever the canyon formed, you and I weren’t in the mountain. Maybe they did register something. We wouldn’t know if they did.”
Karl had a point. Still, the explanation didn’t satisfy Marcus. Despite keeping themselves Concealed, they regularly used their minds to intercept messages sent from Interchron to their spy networks via neural transmission. It wasn’t unlike patching into a radio frequency. The only difference being that this vibration was both sent from and received directly by human brains.
Marcus and Karl listened in on the messages to keep up with important information. Nothing major was currently happening at Interchron, nor had it since they’d left. Marcus would have thought a canyon-forming event would have been talked about. Perhaps Doc had reasons for keeping it off the airwaves.
“Hey,” Karl said, throwing his hands up, “if we hang out here for three months, we may get to see it formed first hand.”
Marcus shook his head, allowing a small smile. “We can’t stay here that long.”
“I know,” Karl said. “The canyon is a mystery for another time. Just thought you should know.”
Marcus nodded. He Healed Karl’s injury, and took up a position to wait until morning, turning everything over in his head while gazing into the night.
Chapter 15: Whirls and Flashes
MAGGIE AWOKE TO THE low, droning hum of a vehicle. Awareness came by degrees, but swift ones. She sat in some kind of vehicle, unable to move her arms or legs. Opening one eye, she glanced around without lifting her head, which rested on her chest.
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