by Julie Drew
He must have sensed some change in the room, a lessening of the power that an unchecked gaze focused on someone else’s body always affords. His eyes leapt back to her face and her eyes, remarkably, devastatingly blue and green, stared back at him.
“You’re awake,” he said unnecessarily.
“Yes,” she said, her voice low and soft with sleep.
Neither of them moved.
“It’s still early, not even noon,” he said. “You can sleep longer if you like.” He wanted her to get up, to ask him to take her back to her father’s house, to Lydia’s, to Finn. He wanted this impossible situation, which he had worked to achieve for almost a decade, to be taken away from him so he didn’t have to decide. To decide to give her up, wait for her to grow up and hope that she would want him, too, or to win her over and make it happen now. He knew he could do it, not because he was so irresistible or she was so malleable, but because he was twenty-three years old, and she was seventeen. Some things are just that simple.
“Can I stay a while longer?” she asked.
He swallowed. Exactly, and not at all, what he wanted.
“Of course,” he said. “You can stay as long as you like.”
CHAPTER 24
Tesla looked around the small control room again, as if Finn might have magically appeared since the last time she checked.
“Tesla, it is imperative that you pay attention,” Lydia said.
“Yeah, I know, sorry. I’m distracted,” Tesla said guiltily. “Where is everybody?” Sam had dropped her off just after two o’clock in the afternoon at Lydia’s house but it had been unusually silent. Finally Lydia herself had come downstairs and they’d walked over to the physics building, and down into the Bat Cave, together.
Lydia relented—as much as Lydia ever relented. “Beckett is with Max back at the house—I believe they’re in the basement, which I have turned into a training facility-slash-media room. Something about pizza and The Matrix and some basic judo lessons, I believe. Joley has to study for a midterm, but you’re to offer him no sympathy, since he insists on an overload of summer classes so he can take the bar exam before he’s twenty-three, thus besting his older brothers in some he-man-lawyer contest. Jane has been called into her office. And I haven’t seen Finnegan all day. Now, can we get back to work? The stakes are considerably higher now, you know. We’ve got to try and prepare for every possible contingency.”
“You’re right, Lydia.” There was no one else in the room save Bizzy at the control panel, who checked and rechecked her calculations and equipment and ignored them both. The audio recording of Tesla’s heartbeat had failed to trigger the time machine, and preparations for Tesla herself to make the jump were underway.
Lydia paused and looked hard at Tesla. “Alright then,” she said briskly, but not unkindly. “As I said, now that Elizabeth has adjusted…well, whatever it is that she needs to adjust, you need to get ready. I have some items for you to take when you jump this time.”
“Spy stuff?” Tesla asked eagerly.
Lydia flashed a smile, but it was gone before Tesla could congratulate herself on cracking the woman’s stern exterior. “Yes, spy stuff,” she said as she looked down at the box on her lap.
Tesla sat down in the chair Lydia indicated and waited expectantly. “This is awesome,” she said to the older woman. “It’s like you’re Q and I’m Bond.”
“I assure you, I am much more than your quartermaster here.”
“Oh, yeah, of course,” Tesla hastened to agree, unsure if Lydia was kidding or not.
Lydia pulled out a slim black device that fit neatly into the palm of her hand. “This is a smart phone.”
“Yeah,” said Tesla, unable to hide her disappointment. “I’ve seen ‘em.”
“No, my dear,” said Lydia conspiratorially. “You haven’t seen this one.”
That got Tesla’s attention, and the older woman went on. “This is not yet available to the public, and when it is, it will not be this version. This one was designed especially for our industry.”
“What’s it do?” asked Tesla eagerly.
“Well, it’s a phone, obviously, and a digital camera, with wifi and network capabilities—capabilities, I might add, that utilize government satellites and towers, not commercial ones. Quite a difference.”
“So, there’ll be no ‘can you hear me now?’” Tesla asked.
“It won’t work,” Bizzy said. She continued with her work and did not turn around.
“We’ve been through this, Elizabeth,” said Lydia, who kept her back to the goth girl as well.
“I know, but it won’t work. None of today’s hardware was in place then, communication networks have changed drastically in the last ten years. Do you have any idea how many more cell towers and satellites we have, how quickly equipment becomes obsolete and is replaced? And the smart phone itself—”
“Yes, dear, so you’ve said already. Humor me anyway.”
Tesla hid a smile as Lydia focused on her again. “I’m sure she’s right, but we have to be careful with our assumptions. We really don’t know how, or in what ways, time travel affects us, or our technology, or what new possibilities are opened up, perhaps for the very first time, by these jumps. I think we should experiment.”
“I agree.” Tesla reminded herself that she and Finn had already begun to experiment with Schrödinger, and that she would need to surreptitiously pick up the mouse before she jumped to see if they could repeat their initial success.
“How lucky for us that you do,” Lydia said dryly. “As soon as you arrive, I want you to call me—I’ve programmed a number into the phone, under my name in the contacts, a number that has been in service continuously for over ten years. I want you to email and text as well. It may not work, but there’s only one way to find out.”
Tesla held the iPhone in her hand, turned it over and looked at its reflective, obsidian surface. “What else does it do?”
Lydia pursed her lips, “Nothing that you are qualified to use, so its other attributes have been disabled for now.”
Tesla was clearly disappointed, but Lydia ignored her.
“Here is your driver’s license,” the woman said as she handed Tesla the hard plastic card with the usual holographic images and seals.
Tesla looked at it. “Wow, it looks legit.”
“Yes, of course it does. This is not the first time we’ve created an identity for someone.”
“Ellie Foster?” Tesla read.
“That was my idea,” said Bizzy as she spun around in her chair to face them. “Remember that movie with Jodie Foster, the one where she’s the very first human to travel through a wormhole, and she has some freaky trip with aliens? And Matthew McConaughey is a hot young missionary?”
“Uh….” Tesla had no idea what Bizzy was talking about.
“Contact,” Bizzy said impatiently. “The movie was Contact.”
“Yeah, I don’t know that one,” Tesla admitted.
Bizzy rolled her eyes. “I live in a cultural wasteland. Jodie Foster’s character was named Ellie Arroway. Your jump-name is Ellie Foster.”
“Oh,” Tesla said. “Okay. Cool?”
“Forget it.” Bizzy turned back to her work.
“Your name is Ellie Foster, and you have legal identification. You also have money,” Lydia said, and handed Tesla a credit card from her box of goodies.
“Sweet!” Tesla exclaimed. “What’s my limit?”
“Tesla, you are not going shopping. If you get in a predicament where you have to show identification, or make a purchase—in an emergency—you can do so. We don’t want you to wind up in jail, or out on the street without food or shelter. Remember, we can’t get to you; you are on your own once you jump. This is just a little security to send with you. Both this credit account and this driver’s license are active in 2004.”
Tesla realized she hadn’t really thought about how vulnerable she was when she jumped. She couldn’t rely on anyone but herself. She looke
d again at the I.D. in her hand, at her actual driver’s license photo. Just as she was about to ask Lydia how they’d gotten her real DMV photo for the fake license, she noticed the birthdate printed right next to it.
“You made me eighteen!” She looked up at Lydia with a huge grin on her face. “I can buy a car—or order a beer in some states…. And I’m done with high school!”
Lydia closed her eyes and summoned the strength to continue. “Tesla, please try to focus, dear. You’re as bad as the boys. Which is not a compliment.”
“Right. Sorry.” Tesla schooled her features into her serious-face, and tucked the I.D. and credit card into the outside, zippered pocket of her bag. “What’s next, boss? Can I call you M? Or Mum, in my best British accent?”
Lydia looked at her, but did not answer—nor did she reach inside the box. When she spoke, it was clear she was not joking. “As you know, Nilsen is alive eight years ago, and he may very well be in town where—when—you will arrive shortly. He doesn’t know what has transpired in subsequent years, of course, but he has already begun to attempt, at that time, to gain access to your parents’ work. And that’s only what we know for certain.”
Tesla sat silently and waited, Lydia’s tone and face driving all humor from her mind.
“I want you to be able to protect yourself,” Lydia said. “I want you to take this with you.”
When Lydia pulled her hand out of the box, she held a small, darkly metallic gun. Lydia deftly pulled the top of the barrel back. It slid on its well-oiled mechanism, and Tesla heard a click that sent her heart beating wildly. “It’s loaded,” Lydia said, her eyes on Tesla’s. “The safety is on, here—see?”
“Oh, no way.” Tesla stood up quickly, a sudden sheen of sweat on her upper lip. “I don’t do guns.” She had begun to back away from Lydia, though she did not realize it.
Lydia cocked her head slightly, noting the girl’s widened eyes, the quick rise and fall of her chest as her breathing quickened. This was panic, clearly—a panic whose origin was unclear. “Tesla, I understand. And I’m glad that you aren’t comfortable with this: a gun is certainly not a toy, and I am reassured you understand that. What you must also understand, however, is that Nilsen—and whoever else works for him—will not hesitate to use a gun against you, someone you care about, or any unlucky person who simply gets in their way. I insist that you take this. You must be able to protect yourself.”
“I can’t do it, Lydia, I’m sorry,” Tesla said as she continued to shake her head. “I understand about Nilsen, and I don’t disagree about the potential for danger, but I will not shoot anyone. Now or ever.” Tesla knew instantaneously that she was absolutely immovable on the point. Her agitation at the sight of the weapon in Lydia’s hand should, perhaps, have generated some questions in her mind, but it did not. She simply knew what she knew: no guns.
Lydia looked at her for a moment, and the sudden sag of her shoulders told Tesla she had won. “I was afraid you’d say that,” Lydia admitted. “You’re very much like your father in that.”
“Really?” Tesla asked, surprised. She and her father had never discussed guns—why would they—and in general she tended to see her father as very, very different from herself.
“Yes. He was reluctant to accept any security measures at all, and adamantly refused to carry a weapon himself. I thought you might be cut of the same cloth, so I’ve brought you this as well.” Lydia handed Tesla a small spray canister, metal and unmarked.
“Pepper spray,” Lydia answered Tesla’s unspoken question. “I presume your ethics will allow you to make someone who has attacked you somewhat uncomfortable for about an hour, with no permanent damage to your assailant whatsoever?”
“Yeah, that would be okay, I guess,” Tesla said quietly, and she added the pepper spray to her bag.
“Good,” Lydia said, brisk again. “All I have left for you are a bottle of water and an apple.”
“Seriously?” Tesla asked, unable to make the leap from deadly weapon to fruit.
“Well, yes,” Lydia said, mildly defensive. “Apples are quite good for you, and you’ve got to stay hydrated.”
“Everything on this end is set,” Bizzy interrupted. “Whenever you guys are ready.”
Tesla looked at Lydia. “I guess I’m ready.”
“Have you still got your father’s office key?” Lydia asked.
“Yeah.” Tesla patted the messenger bag that was slung, as always, across her chest and down by her hip.
“See you tomorrow night, Tesla,” Bizzy quipped as Tesla moved toward the door. “Oh, I’ve decided to poke around in the thrift stores for an outfit to wear to the Physics Institute event Saturday. I’ll look for you, too, if you want.”
“Oh, okay. I forgot about that. Maybe my dad will be back by then—we’re supposed to go. Thanks,” Tesla said, just before she closed the door to the control room and headed, alone, down the metal stairs and into the Bat Cave. She marveled at Bizzy’s ability to pause in her work at the controls of a time machine to think about what to wear to a party. The girl was unusual, to say the least.
Once she was in the time machine chamber, with the now-familiar mirrors at each corner of the room, Tesla wondered what Sam was up to, where he was—he had certainly been unhappy when Lydia denied his request to be here for the jump. Would she see his younger self when she arrived, she wondered? I should have asked him, she thought, as she suddenly realized that of course he already knew the answer to that since this jump today was in his past—
“Ready?” asked Bizzy through the mic, and Tesla nodded from the center of the time machine.
“In five…four…” Bizzy began.
Out of the corner of her eye, Tesla thought she saw movement….
“Three….”
She turned her head to look….
“Two….”
And Finn stepped out from behind one of the mirrors, sprinted to her side, and grabbed her hand, hard….
“One!”
The brilliance of the lasers eclipsed Tesla’s world and blotted out all that was real in a brilliant flash, including the feel of Finn’s hand in hers.
CHAPTER 25
Tesla opened her eyes and saw herself reflected in the pupils of Finn’s.
“What the hell?” She jerked her hand free and stepped back from him.
“I decided to see if someone else could jump along with you,” he said with a grin that was calculated to irritate Tesla. “What?” he asked with a shrug, his hands raised to suggest he didn’t know what all the fuss was about. He laughed when she glared at him.
“That’s what Schrödinger is for!” she said.
“Well, you forgot to put him in your bag,” he pointed out, taking a step toward her. “Just think of me as another adorable creature you can pet. But you should know up front, my whiskers may tickle….”
“You could have been killed, you absolute moron! Or, or ripped to shreds at the subatomic level, or—”
Her sentence was cut short by Finn’s mouth, which he had suddenly pressed to hers. “Cut it out!” she said as she pushed back from him again.
“Thanks for worrying about me, Abbot. It’s really sweet,” Finn said, but Tesla was too angry to respond. “So, you’re the old hand at this,” he continued, his eyes amused, as usual. “What do we do next?” He rubbed his hands together, so obviously pleased with himself it set her teeth on edge.
Tesla was determined to stay on task and not let Finn get under her skin—who did he think he was, anyway? He’d treated her like crap since Sam arrived, ignored her after she’d made the decision to jump, and then snuck into the Bat Cave to jump with her, without anybody’s permission—and now kissed her, again, as if she had no say in it!
“Um, hello?” Finn said quietly, eyebrows raised.
On task. Right. Tesla took a deep breath, blew it back out, slowly, and turned from Finn to look around them. The new coffin was, indeed, more like a big closet now. Eight and a half feet square, with a nine foot ce
iling, Tesla calculated with a glance. Mirrors sat in each corner, semi-translucent, just like the ones in the Bat Cave.
“First, we get out of this box. Then we get to work,” Tesla said with an authority Lydia would have recognized.
“Here’s the door,” Finn said as he spied a recessed metal handle on what looked to be solid wall. He pulled the handle toward him as the door swung silently inward on unseen hinges, and they saw that it was a seamless, perfect fit, visible only after it was opened. He stood aside and allowed Tesla to look cautiously through the door.
She pulled her head back inside and spoke quietly. “We’re in the lab, and I don’t see anyone. There’s a light outside the lab door. This is how it looks every time I jump.”
Finn nodded and stepped in front of Tesla and into the lab. He looked around, noted the work areas, the cabinets, the chalkboards and desks, and began to walk toward the door.
“Wait, let’s stop and think a minute,” Tesla whispered. Finn turned toward her and waited. “I’ve only ever been here when Sam was here,” she began. “I’m not sure if I can find my way to the exit, and I’m pretty sure Sam always used a security key card to get outside.”
Finn frowned. “A key card, even from the inside?”
Tesla nodded.
“I guess we have no choice, then,” Finn said. “Let’s go find your boyfriend.”
Tesla rolled her eyes but said nothing, and followed Finn out the door and into the brightly lit hallway. They moved along the hall cautiously, ears strained for the sound of anyone else. At the first point where they had to make a decision on whether to go straight or turn left or right, Finn stopped.
