by Keith Hughes
He went to the front door to open it and run the cloth along the knob before closing it again and giving the interior knob the same treatment. After cleaning any surfaces he might have touched in the bathroom, he returned to the kitchen and slid open the glass door before wiping the inside and outside handles and the glass around them. After carefully folding the towel, he returned it to the drawer where he had found it. He shut the drawer with a bump of his hip, grabbed a ripe apple from a bowl on the counter, and went out the sliding door. Before he left the deck, Ness slid the door shut with his elbow.
Ness didn’t worry about the noise his feet made on the wooden stairs, and he strode slowly as he took a bite of the apple. Juice covered his tongue in a sweet accent to the flavorful fruit itself. His stomach rumbled happily as it started digesting his first bites. He chewed more and made his way to the back of the doctor’s property.
As if rewarding him for finally providing some food, Ness’s mind finally provided the elusive answer. The easiest way to get the time machine from Glenn had to be to get it himself before the killer had a chance to. This gave him a measure of pride, as he felt the idea proved he was finally thinking like a time traveler.
Crouching in the brush, Ness reset the destination on the PDA to exactly 9:00 p.m. one week prior. Hopefully, that would be early enough where he could sneak in and get the machine before Glenn found it. His fingers crossed, Ness pressed the launch button.
He arrived in the darkness of full night, and the sudden change unsettled him. Lights coming from the back of the house gave him a little illumination to see by, but his eyes needed to adjust. As he picked his way across the yard, bright lights suddenly appeared at one side of the house, and the crunch of gravel indicated a car had pulled into the driveway.
Ness made his way along the other side of the house and carefully approached the corner. He hid behind the air conditioner, exposing only enough of himself to see. The vehicle came to a stop near the front porch, and the engine noises ceased. The pinging of the heated block joined the song of summer insects, and the driver’s door opened. Ness immediately recognized Glenn emerging from the vehicle. The other door opened, and a man almost as big as Thing One stood in the night. From the slightly deferential way Glenn acted, Ness guessed the other man must be Paul Robbins. The realization stunned Ness. He had to be witnessing the confrontation Dr. Bertrand had told him about. In a couple of minutes, his friend and mentor would condemn himself to die via the ravages of time.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Repeating History
Wednesday, September 03, 2008 9:03 p.m.
During the halcyon period that encompassed his college days, Ness and Dr. Bertrand had often speculated what it would be like to travel to another time and experience a major cataclysmic event firsthand. The tumbling towers of the World Trade Center, the never-adequately-explained explosion of TWA flight 800, or the raw annihilation of Mount Saint Helens’s eruption would all qualify. They had both agreed the emotions of being a direct witness, knowing what lay in store and being unable to stop it, would be terrible yet awe inspiring.
Now, sitting on the grass with his back against the house, the intensity of those two reactions astounded Ness. While he might have expected those emotions to only affect his mental state, his rapid heart rate along with a peculiar buzz in his nervous system told a different story. Though witnessing the pivotal event in his friend’s personal journey had never been his intention, Ness found it impossible to leave after having arrived on the cusp of the moment. He had no reason to stay. It would be easy-peasy to jump back a few hours and retrieve the device. Maybe he would in time, but he couldn’t resist witnessing the drama set to play out in the house.
He glanced around the corner again as Glenn opened the front door. It looked suspiciously as though he had picked the lock—yet another reason the doctor had been caught unawares. Ness returned to the back yard. Trading speed for silence, he crossed the deck to the sliding door with a creeping pace. He peered inside, where the light spilling from Dr. Bertrand’s office partially illuminated the hallway. Shadows indicated Glenn and Paul had already interrupted the doctor.
He pulled at the door, which, to his relief, slid freely along its track. Even if the bathroom window was open, Ness doubted he could enter through it without making a great deal of noise. The door slid aside only enough for him to squeeze through before carefully pulling it shut again. As Ness crept down the hallway, the voices became distinct. At the edge of the doorway, he knelt on the soft carpet and risked a peek into the room. Paul and Glenn were facing Dr. Bertrand, who stood on the other side of his desk, radiating vivid anger.
“I will turn over my research when it is complete.” The timbre of Dr. Bertrand’s voice matched the bright emotion on his face.
“It is Mr. Fletcher’s opinion the transport of such material from the lab at such a critical juncture holds great potential for a serious breach of security, possibly even industrial espionage.”
Dr. Bertrand gave a short, derisive laugh. “I have no doubt I am wholly cognizant of the reasons for John’s concern. It has nothing to do with protecting the company or its assets. No, a little time researching had shown me his use for my work is personal and treacherous.”
“You are under the mistaken impression we are giving you a choice in the matter.” Paul’s tone allowed Ness to imagine his sneer.
Glenn took his cue and approached the desk. Bertrand backed away a step and pulled his hand out of a pocket, clutching his PDA.
“You stop right there if you ever want to have a chance at this.” Ness had never heard such menace in the doctor’s voice before.
Glenn paused and turned to Paul for further direction. Ness ducked back behind the wall.
“Is that it?” Paul sounded unimpressed.
“By the time you find out, your chance to possess it will have passed.” The doctor’s voice reverberated with obstinate resolve.
“You would destroy it?” The idea obviously made Paul incredulous.
“Some things should not exist in this world, at least so long as there are men like John Fletcher to take advantage. Are you aware of his plans for this device? You feature quite heavily in them.”
A deep growl gave voice to Paul’s frustration, but a single word soon banished it.
“Glenn.”
Ness risked another look, and Glenn paced around the desk.
“We won’t let you destroy your work.” Paul’s outer calm appeared out of place compared with the looming threat of Glenn’s approach.
“You fool.” Dr. Bertrand shook his head. “There is a better way of keeping this device from your hands than destroying it.”
Before Glenn could seize the doctor, Bertrand’s thumb pressed on the PDA’s screen. Both Glenn and Paul stood in mute shock as the doctor disappeared. Seconds later, Paul barked a string of obscenities.
Making his way back along the hallway, Ness struggled to keep his own emotions under control, although they were much different from Paul’s. Due to this inner turmoil, he forgot to consider the sound from his steps. His foot slapping on the kitchen linoleum was loud enough to be heard from anywhere in the house. Rushing, he barely opened the sliding door and squeezed through without taking the time to close it again. He ran across the deck and vaulted over the rail to the side of the house.
Leaning against the siding still warm from the day’s sun, Ness found the pounding of his heart made listening for Glenn’s approach difficult. The rumble of the sliding door was clearly audible over the chirps of the nighttime insects. Glenn’s footsteps were harder to discern. After several extremely rapid beats from Ness’s heart, Glenn made a disgusted sound. More footsteps on the wood were followed by the solid thump of the closing door and the snick of its lock.
Ness leaned against the house, trying to calm himself. Conflicting influences washed through his mind, as if he had drunk a cocktail made of fear, grief, and anger. The adrenaline pulsing through his veins made him
want to flee or fight, but sorrow debilitated him. Instead of taking decisive action, Ness slid down the wall and sat in the grass. His emotions won out, and Ness cried for the loss of his friend. Glenn might come around the house and find him, but in the depths of his woe, Ness did not care. His friend had willfully committed himself to a horrible end, and Ness could only mourn the doctor’s choice.
As his tears subsided, Ness acknowledged he already knew of these events. From the perspective of his home time, the doctor had already died. Seeing the scientist’s courage brought his sacrifice into sharp focus, but the pressing need to determine his next move intruded on Ness’s grief. He decided finishing the task Dr. Bertrand had given him would be the best way to memorialize his friend.
I’ll have to go back a few hours, since Glenn has the second device already.
Something about that rang false to him, and he paused to work it out. The Glenn from his time, the one who chased him, had the PDA in his possession. Assuming it remained as important to John, and therefore Paul, as Bertrand had indicated, allowing Glenn to run around with it in his pocket would certainly be an ill-advised risk. Ness grimaced as he came to the obvious conclusion.
Glenn came back later by himself and found the second time machine. His bosses don’t know he has it.
The sound of doors closing confirmed Ness’s hypothesis, and he covertly watched the two men enter the car and drive away. After waiting several minutes in case they decided to circle back, Ness ran to the front door and tried the knob. Finding it locked, he returned to the bathroom window. Knowing exactly what to expect inside made his entry easier but still lacking much in the way of grace. Still, he considered it as victory as he managed to not hurt himself or knock anything over.
I don’t have to go to another time at all. The second time machine should be in the doctor’s secret place now, waiting for Glenn to discover it.
The scant amount of illumination coming in from a window in the doctor’s office led him to the desk. A desk lamp provided a puddle of light in the darkness, which Ness deemed suitable for his purposes. He swung open the picture and peered into the cubby. With disbelief welling up, he groped inside to confirm the empty state of the cubby. The second device was not there.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: Night Moves
Wednesday, September 3, 2008 9:16 p.m.
Ness’s brain lurched in an almost physical manner as he stared incredulously at the empty space where he’d expected the second PDA to be. He fell heavily into the doctor’s desk chair and mentally wrestled with the development, closing his eyes in frustration. He opened them again a short time later as he realized he was in danger of falling into a full-fledged nap.
“All right, the device isn’t here.” Talking aloud had become a technique he relied on when solving troublesome problems. “Dr. Bertrand had clearly intended to put it in its hiding place, and without a doubt, Glenn eventually finds it here. What I don’t know is the timing. When will the second device be placed here, and when will Glenn come to retrieve it?”
Movement comprised an integral part of this deduction technique, so he stood and paced in slow loops around the desk. “Let’s review the time line. Dr. Bertrand leaped out of here and traveled through various points in time. He recorded the video he left for me with his younger self before visiting his wife. Eventually, he went somewhere to mail the package, sometime close to when his borrowed time would run out. This is when he recorded the first video I saw. He looked horrible, so it was likely right before he mailed the device and his borrowed time ran out.”
Ness choked at his mental image of the doctor’s demise. He remained silent for a few seconds before continuing. “When I met with him in the diner, he told me the device would be here. Either he believed it was already there or intended to come and place it here before his time ran out.”
Is this important? His inner devil’s advocate accused him of wasting time trying to figure out why the PDA had not been hidden here, given the doctor’s intention to do so. Ness stood stock still when the answer came to him.
“The real question is not ‘Why isn’t it here?’ Instead, I should be asking, ‘Where is it now?’”
Before he could bask in satisfaction at his deductive ability, the new question’s obvious answer produced a spike of fear.
“The lab.” Ness had a hollow pit in his stomach. “Dr. Bertrand’s lab. I’m going to have to visit, or rather infiltrate, Intellisys.”
Ness opened the wide drawer in the middle of the desk, revealing Dr. Bertrand’s keycard to the Intellisys building. He had noted it during his initial search but never supposed he might have need of it. Lifting the card, he slid his fingers along its slick surface. It might get him inside the building, but would he make it out again?
After switching off the lamp, he made his way back to the kitchen. The doctor’s car keys hung on a hook near a side door into the garage. Taking the keys, Ness clicked the button to raise the large door leading to the driveway. Lights clicked on, illuminating the doctor’s burgundy Buick. He got behind the wheel, noticing the smooth dark-gray leather seats. He doubted he could afford to get used to the comforts of the doctor’s ride. Turning the key, the engine came to life with a well-tuned growl. He put the car in gear, and when the door had fully retracted, he drove into the night.
The route to Intellisys turned out to be shorter than Ness would have liked. Situated close to Woodward Avenue in a white-paneled building with rows of tinted glass, it turned out to be only a couple miles away. With the sparse late-night traffic, Ness arrived in a few minutes. He parked the car in one of the darker spots close to the front doors. Parking along the far, shadowed edge of the mostly empty lot might attract unwanted attention, but at the same time, he refused to park under the islands of bright illumination created by the regularly spaced lights. The less chance Ness gave the ever-vigilant video cameras to record his face, the better.
The walk to the front doors took every ounce of his determination. The peril this building represented caused his adrenaline levels to spike. As his blood buzzed with nervous energy, Ness had to remind himself that simply traversing the parking lot did not constitute false entry. He zipped his hoodie, concealing his silly T-shirt, to be as unremarkable as possible. Even so, his reflection in the sparkling glass doors looked utterly out of place. Ness waved the doctor’s key card at a black pad mounted beside the portal, causing a metallic buzz in the doorframe. He pulled the door open and went inside.
Now the line has been well and truly crossed.
Ness strode directly to the bank of elevators along the back wall of the atrium. He tried his best to avoid the notice of the security guard sitting at a desk in the center of the echoing space by keeping his eyes cast toward the floor. His rather nebulous plan consisted of looking like an employee going about his business, relying on the old “act like you belong there” trick. It tended to work, but he knew his danger would grow exponentially should he get drawn into a conversation. When he finally reached the elevators and pressed the Up button, his heart pounded like he had run a marathon. Even through the thudding in his ears, the strident chime from the elevator’s arrival echoed in the silent space.
Once inside the elevator, Ness studied his options in consternation. He had no idea which of the three floors above contained the doctor’s lab. A check of the doctor’s keycard provided no help, until he noticed another of those black pads. He waved the card before it, and the third-floor button illuminated. The doors closed, and he journeyed upward.
So far so good. His easy progress was gratifying.
The third-floor corridor was lined with doors on either side, which turned out to be just as frustrating as the selection of elevator buttons. Each door bore a plaque showing an element from the periodic table instead of the names of the scientists who worked there. Although the concept was a cute idea for a research lab, the lack of any clear identification of Dr. Bertrand’s lab annoyed Ness.
He recognized
several elements on the placards—hydrogen, sodium, and oxygen—but his knowledge of others had not survived completion of his college chemistry classes.
Taking a swipe with the keycard at too many of the doors would surely draw the attention of security and might even cause the card to be deactivated. Even standing here for too long trying to figure it out held danger, as Ness was undeniably under video surveillance.
What element would Dr. Bertrand pick for his lab?
His subconscious provided the answer as a memory rose from the archive of his mind. Many years ago, he and the professor had shared drinks in the WMU student center, talking about the effects on society should time travel become a known possibility. Dr. Bertrand had maintained it would be explosive, like throwing fireworks into a roaring fire. In fact, he compared it directly to the discovery of…
Plutonium!
Though he’d vaguely recognized it at the time, he recalled seeing the abbreviation for it on one of the signs. He found the correct portal and waved Dr. Bertrand’s card over the reader. After the door clicked, he passed through. The next room was not the lab he’d expected but some sort of reception area with a small desk and a couple of chairs for guests. Just as unexpected was the copy of himself standing in front of the desk, his hoodie unzipped to reveal “Take off, eh?” on the T-shirt.
“Trouble?” He had no need to engage in small talk with his doppelganger from the future.
