Portal

by Fred Alvrez

  “Yes and no. I threw all their guns in the lake. Then I took Daisy and made their cars undriveable. Oh, and that captain may have some pain in his man parts. Quite a lot of pain, hopefully.”

  “You kicked him in the nuts?” Casey said.

  Nathan grinned. “Hard.”

  “Good,” Kevin chipped in. “I didn’t like him from the start.”

  “And it lasted until just now, when you guys woke up. I’m guessing that the army guys are coming to around now as well.”

  She mulled over his comments. “So they’d need to walk somewhere to find a car or van or something big enough to take them all. That gives us an edge of time, then, allowing for the time we’ve been out, uh, unconscious, I guess.”

  “Yep,” Nathan answered. “We’ve got an hour and a half of time ahead of them now, plus how long it takes them to find some wheels.”

  Kevin looked at Nathan. “But what about our guns?”

  “Don’t worry, buddy. I got ours back. But unless they have some hidden, they’re unarmed.”

  “Great job, Nate. You really thought of everything,” Kevin said.

  “Hang on a minute,” Nathan said. “Casey, how did you know they were going to shoot us? They wouldn’t tell you something like that.”

  Casey paused. “Uh, the sergeant told me. Like a sort of torture technique, you know?”

  “Riiight. Torture technique.”

  From the back seat, Casey could see in the mirror Nathan frowning. She leaped forward between the seats. “I remembered! We need to get to Devonport Naval Base as soon as we can. There’s a portal there, and I think it will get us home. Please! We need to get to Devonport!”

  She felt the car slowing, and then Nathan stopping completely. He put the SUV in park, pulled the handbrake on, and turned the engine off.

  Nathan turned to face her. “How could you know that? I know that’s not something they’d ever tell you.”

  Casey sat silently. After ten seconds, she answered.

  “Because I read the sergeant’s mind.”

  Brian keeled over onto the tarmac. Pain raged through his testicles. Confusion came over him—how come his balls hurt, and how the hell did it suddenly get dark?

  I was holding a gun to the dog’s head, it bit me, and now I’m on the road with sore balls?

  He opened his eyes to see his soldiers bewildered, confused in the moonlight. Corporal Jenness came rushing over to him.

  “Sir! Are you okay? Have you been shot?”

  “No, soldier,” Brian said between waves of pain. “Some prick kicked me in the balls. Check on the rest of the team pronto. Leave me alone.”

  “Yes, sir!”

  Brian could see Jenness running down the hill to the vehicles.

  Corporal Whitcombe finally got his head in the game and came over to Brian, carrying his army-issue torch.

  “Sir—anything I can do?”

  “No, go and help Jenness. I want a status report in two minutes.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Whitcombe also ran down the hill. Brian lay on the ground in agony.

  How could this happen? They’d had the upper hand by a country mile, but now the pair—and their talking dog—had gone.

  A talking fucking dog!

  He distinctly remembered the dog—Kevin?—speaking to him. It was impossible, but he was sure it actually happened. He looked a short way up the hill to see the black SUV had gone.

  Sergeant Kahi walked up the hill to him.

  “How are you, sir?”

  “I will live, but that bastard kicked me in the balls—hard—and I don’t know how and don’t remember him doing it. What the hell happened?”

  Kahi gestured with his hands. “I have no idea, sir. I was pressuring the girl, and then instantly she was gone. The next moment it was dark. The Land Rovers, sir—they’re history. Smashed to pieces.”

  “Shit.”

  “There’s more. Your laptop is smashed, sir.”

  Brian bit his lip. “Bastard.”

  “And all the test equipment is smashed to pieces, too, sir. It’s completely written off.”

  “There’s no more, is there, Kahi?”

  “Well, all our weapons are gone.”

  Rage started building inside Brian. “Fuck. How did this happen? That’s what I want to know. And, Kahi?”

  “Yes, sir?”

  “Get Jenness and Whitcombe back up here if they aren’t doing anything. Actually, get the whole team here.”

  “Yes, sir. On it.”

  The sergeant ran back down the hill. Brian could see Kahi’s torch light waving left and right as he went. He lifted himself with his hands and gingerly tried to stand. Pain shot through his testicles, but he stood to full height. He didn’t want to show any further weakness to his team.

  He looked up the hill to where the SUV had been parked. How could it disappear, and that talking dog with it? How?

  He heard his unit return to him, and he spun to face them in the moonlight.

  “Okay, men. Shit went down. I want an explanation, and nothing is too far out to not be considered. First of all, Jenness and Whitcombe—did you hear that dog talk?”

  “Yes, sir!” they both answered.

  “Hang on, sir!” Kahi said. “The dog talked? Do you mean actual words, or sort of barking words out?”

  “He spoke, sergeant. He said ‘not fucking likely, asshole,’ just before he bit me. From what I remember, I stepped back a little, and then the next thing I’m in agony and on the road. That dog spoke, all right.”

  Kahi and the other two soldiers murmured words of disbelief.

  “That’s enough chatter, men,” Brian said. He looked to his men. “He spoke, end of story. We need that dog to find out how the hell he can do that. Okay, any more ideas about how this situation changed so quickly? No one? Kahi, what did you see happen?”

  “I was holding the girl as you directed, and in a split second she was gone—disappeared right in front of my eyes.”

  “The rest of you, anything to report?”

  Silence.

  “All right, men, we have a talking dog, people who can disappear, no vehicles, no guns, no test equipment, and no laptop. Kahi and Milton, start walking until you find a car or a van or two. I don’t care what you find; we need transport to Auckland.”

  “Sir,” Milton said. “We don’t actually know where those people are going.”

  “Agreed, soldier, but all we can do is continue to Devonport and hope we meet them on the way. Get walking—your choice, north or south.”

  Kahi and Milton started walking south, their torches shining direct beams of light on the main highway.

  “The rest of you men: salvage whatever you can from the Land Rovers. I don’t care what it is, it might come in handy. Make a pile ready to load into whatever vehicles Kahi and Milton find.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The three soldiers walked down the hill to the beaten-up wrecks. Brian stood there, contemplating what had happened.

  How could a dog talk? And how could people just disappear? Maybe the bug in the software had been fixed and they’d been transported back to Base World. That wouldn’t explain someone kicking him in the balls, though, or the smashed vehicles. Or the missing SUV. Or the talking dog.

  “Shit.”

  Brian sat on the road, and looked back toward the Land Rovers. He could see broken glass all over the road, glittering in the moonlight. He looked at his arm to see a pretty decent dog bite.

  “Someone will pay for these things.”

  He lifted his army pants up from his ankle. His army-issue Browning nine-millimeter pistol sat in the holster attached to the bottom of his leg. He knew there was a good reason he had brought it with him.

  “Casey, that’s incredible!” Kevin said. “How long have you been able to do that? Like, forever?”

  “No, only after I put my head in the first portal in Bulls. If someone touches me, I can see into their minds. Not everything, and mostly it loo
ks like stuff from the last week or so. But it can also show me small bits in the future. I saw them shooting us, Nate. I’ve only done it three times: Flynn; you, Nate; and the sergeant.”

  “So,” Kevin said, “that’s how you knew Flynn was trying to kidnap you?”

  Casey nodded. “Yes. And drugging me was just the start. I saw the other things he was planning to do to me.”

  She looked over at Nathan, who had turned back toward the windscreen. He was looking straight ahead. He didn’t seem to want to look at her face.

  “Nate, I’m sorry. I should have told you.”

  “I asked you about this today, and you said you didn’t have any powers.”

  Casey breathed in and out in a big sigh. “I know, and I regret not telling you. But I’ve not even known you guys for twenty-four hours, so I still wasn’t sure I could really trust you with something that big. I know I can now, I mean, you saved Kevin and me back there. It takes me a long time to trust someone, Nate.”

  “Okay, I understand,” he answered quietly. “If I had known I had any powers, I would have told you.”

  “I know. Again, I’m sorry.”

  Kevin interrupted. “Guys! Enough with the heavy. So we all have special gifts. More power to us!”

  “Kevin,” Casey said, “you know what this means? That captain is going to do whatever he can to nab you. Imagine you as a prize being taken back to the normal world through the portal he talked about. And you, too, Nate—they’ll know some weird shit went down, and they’ll be looking for you, too. I doubt they’ll shoot either of you; you’re too valuable. Me? I’m expendable to them.”

  “How long does it last for you, Casey? Your power?” Nathan asked.

  “Not long. I think it’s like Kevin’s—stops overnight or something. I put my head in the portal at the JET in Taupo this morning. That’s why it’s still working.”

  Nathan rubbed the stubble on his chin. “I did the same thing this morning. I guess mine will stop working tonight, too.”

  “Maybe tomorrow,” Kevin said, “we find another JET so we can all get our powers back.”

  “Kevin,” Casey said, “like you guys said, they aren’t always there. We could spend all day looking for them.”

  “Oh yeah.” In the dashboard lights, she could see Kevin’s doggy face turn to a frown.

  “Nate,” Casey said. “We need to go to Devonport Naval Base. I’m pretty sure that’s where the army is going. I think that’s the portal to get us home. In fact, I’m sure of it. If we don’t go now, the army will beat us and will turn it off, or simply sit and wait for us.”

  Kevin sat on the seat and turned to Casey. “But they don’t have any guns.”

  “I know they don’t have any now. But what’s to stop them going into the portal before us and bringing some back? We don’t know how it works.”

  “Hmmm, good point,” Kevin said. “We could get Nate to freeze time, though, and he could carry us through.”

  “The only problem is, Kev, I don’t actually know how I did it. It’d be a big risk just hoping I could make it happen.”

  Kevin looked at Nathan. “You’re in the driver’s seat. What are we doing?”

  More silence, with Nathan staring at Han Solo. “Devonport it is. I always knew my brother wouldn’t be in Raglan. Let’s go.”

  Nathan started the truck and put the headlights on. Hopefully their journey would be over once they got to Auckland.

  Brian sat and waited for Kahi and Milton to return with transport, while the other soldiers collected what they could salvage from the Land Rovers. He studied the pile of equipment: a tow rope and two chains. That was it. Slim pickings.

  He had argued previously with the TIGER project team that they needed to take more supplies with them, but the answer was always the same: for what?

  They never expected the unexpected.

  In the distance, the sound of at least two engines approached. Brian drew his revolver while the other men simply stood and waited to see who it was.

  Over the same rise where the girl’s black SUV had stopped came two vintage Minis. In the moonlight Brian could see one was bright red, and the other one white with a Union Jack painted all over it.

  “Oh for fuck’s sake. Surely not.”

  The two Minis stopped short of the Land Rovers and Kahi and Milton each emerged from one.

  “Sergeant Kahi, when I said anything will do, this isn’t quite what I had in mind.”

  “Sorry, sir,” Kahi replied. “These were the first two mobile cars we came across. In fact there were over twenty of them. Looks like there was some sort of Mini rally on.”

  Brian muttered under his breath. “Great. Right, men, let’s load up and move out.”

  With three soldiers squeezed into each Mini, the unit set off for Devonport.

  Chapter Nineteen

  After a few minutes of driving in silence, Casey spoke up. “Nate, I need to tell you two things. You, too, Kevin. One is something the sergeant did tell me, and the other is to do with my power. Well, powers, really.”

  Kevin turned around to look at her. “You have more than one power?!”

  “Sort of. Not only can I read minds, but if I put my hand over a photo I’m transported to that place at the time the photo was taken. In Marton, I was at my aunt and uncle’s house, and when I touched their wedding photo I went back to the actual day they were married. That was the first time it happened.”

  “Wow!” Kevin said. “That’s amazing. Did you talk to the people there? What did they think of you being there?”

  Casey shook her head. “No, I can’t talk to anyone. I’m invisible to them.”

  Kevin looked at her. “And is it like a still photo when you are there?”

  “No, time seems to go on as usual, but I’m there observing everything.”

  “How do you get back again?” Nathan asked.

  “For a start, I take my hand off the photo. When I’m sort of in the photo, I still have it in my hand. I can see it. There’s more. I stopped in Turangi yesterday and went to the library. I got a book on Martin Luther King, and went back to 1968 in Memphis, and watched the assassination.”

  Nathan whistled. “Casey, I don’t have words for that. That’s even better than stopping time—going back in time to things like that.”

  “Well, it would have been, but I nearly got stuck there. When I took my hand off the photo, it didn’t work and I stayed there. It took me hours of trying to get out of that time and place. I freaked out.”

  Kevin lay down on his seat. “I can’t imagine how scary that must have been. How did you get back?”

  “I’m not really sure. I kept trying and in the end I popped right out, back to Turangi library. But I’m never doing it again. I can’t touch anything like food when I’m in those photos, so for a while there I thought I’d starve to death. One good thing, though: I cut my arm on a piece of broken glass before I went into the photo, and by the time I got back it was completely healed.”

  “Just when you think we’ve seen it all—a talking dog, stopping time, mind reading, time travel —you add something else in, Casey,” said Nathan. “Far out—healing yourself like that.”

  Casey leaned in a bit closer to the boys. “Yeah, it’s pretty amazing, but I’ll never try that photo thing again. Too dangerous. Nathan, I’m telling you this so you can see I’m telling you everything I know. There’s nothing else.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate it. I forgot to ask you, what did you see in my future?”

  Casey sat, unsure what to say.

  “You need to be honest with me, Casey. No more hiding things. Please.” Nathan said.

  “I didn’t see anything. I’m sorry. Remember, I’ve only used it three times, so I have no idea what that means. Probably nothing.”

  Nathan sat, not answering.

  “What was the other thing?” Kevin asked.

  “Oh yes! The sergeant said that to be in this world we’re in now, you have to have your DNA matched or so
mething. If your DNA isn’t in the program, you can’t be here. But we are. That’s why they were confused.”

  Nathan drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “So why would they want to kill us?”

  “I’m not sure. I guess if we got back to our world, people would freak out if we started telling everyone.”

  “Weird. How on earth did we get here, then?” Nathan pointed in front of the car. “Hey, here’s the start of the southern motorway. We aren’t far from Auckland city now, then over the harbor bridge to Devonport Naval Base. We’re so close!”

  Kevin glanced at Nathan. “But look at the time, nearly 9:00 p.m. That means I might only have hours left to speak.”

  “I know, buddy. Maybe when we go through the big portal you’ll be able to speak permanently.”

  Kevin stood up on his seat, his tail wagging excitedly. “I hope so. Nate, when we get back, can I move in with you? I don’t want to go back to my old owners.”

  “Sure! That’d be great, Kev. But won’t your owners want you back?”

  “Not sure, but there’s no way I want to go back there. I need adventure. Or something. Something other than what I had.” He turned to face Casey. “Will anything change for you when we get back?”

  Casey didn’t reply straight away. She wasn’t convinced they would actually get back. So much could go wrong. “I’m not sure. I don’t think any of us will ever be the same. We haven’t even discussed what we do. Do we go to the press, do we say nothing, or what? What do you guys think?”

  Neither answered for a minute.

  “Well, the press isn’t going to listen to a dog,” Kevin said.

  “I think you’re wrong there, Kev,” Nathan answered. “You’d be international headlines. But that’s assuming you can still talk. If you can’t, it’s going to be down to Casey and me. I haven’t even thought about this. I’ve been focused on getting us home.”

  “Me neither,” Casey said. “We might have to wing it.”

  Nathan looked at her in the rearview mirror. “It didn’t work out so well last time we winged it—we drove straight into that asshole captain and his team.”