The Third Ten

by Jacqueline Druga

  “What happened? Do you know?”

  “No, I was attacked the second I walked in here.” Jason started clicking keys on his keyboard. “No, this can’t … please don’t… shit.”

  “Jason. Stop. We need to look at your head.”

  Jason stopped. His hand shot to his mouth and he slowly turned to look at Roy. “We need to get a hold of Joe. We have a problem.”

  <><><><>

  Joe slammed his office door, when he stepped in, causing Robbie to jolt. “Don’t …” Joe pointed. “Don’t play tired and hung over with me.” He walked between Robbie and Hal and then sat at his desk. “Andrea already told me you were bopping along this morning singing Swinging on a Star.”

  “That was Roy.”

  “A ha.” Joe sipped his coffee. “What were you three up to last night?”

  “Brother bonding,” Hal answered. “Plain and simple.”

  “Why don’t I believe it was all that plain and simple?”

  “You never really trusted us together,” Hal said. “Since we were kids.”

  “And there’s a reason for it.” Joe pointed a pen. “Anyhow, you may know, I have my own people following and watching Frank. I got a call last night ….” A knock on the door interrupted him. “Come in.”

  The door opened and Jessie walked in. “Hey, Joe, hate to interrupt.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to be on Frank?” Joe asked.

  “He’s in his office, Dan’s watching. I just …” Jessie shifted his eyes from Hal to Robbie then to Joe.

  “What is it?” Joe asked. “It’s fine.”

  “Have you seen Johnny?” Jessie asked. “I went to relieve him, but Frank was already making his way to town, he wasn’t on him.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m positive. I looked. I haven’t seen him.”

  “Son of a bitch.” Joe’s hand slammed to the desk and he stood. “Jessie, I need a team. Start combing the area. Start by the warehouse.”

  “Dad?” Hal asked. “Do you think Johnny is up to something?”

  “No, I think he’s in trouble. He called last night, was tailing Frank when he heard two voices. He was following them to the warehouse section. Goddamn it, why didn’t I follow through.”

  Robbie stood. “I’ll get on it.”

  “Please, in the meantime ….” Joe’s phone rang and he answered. “Hey, Jason, I can’t talk right now I have ….” His eyes widened. “We’ll be right there.”

  “Another problem?” Hal asked.

  “I think it all fits together,” Joe said. “Jessie, get on that team together and are you sure Frank is fine.”

  “Yeah, he just went in his office.”

  Joe nodded. “Good. Robbie go get Frank and …”

  BOOM.

  The blastoff the explosion was deafening and the ground shook so violently, the walls in Joe’s office rattled and Joe lost his balance.

  With a gut-wrenching, “No, no, no, no, no,” Joe flung open his office door and flew out.

  Flames shot high in the air and debris dropped from the sky. The three Slagel paused in horror, all with the same expression staring in the direction of Frank’s office.

  “Oh my, God,” Joe gasped. “Jessie, get me a fire squad stat.” he raced forward.

  “Frank.” Hal ran as well, with Robbie right there.

  Joe couldn’t catch his breath, there was nothing left of the trailer. “Everyone look. Start looking.”

  “Joe.” Dan from Security hobbled his way. His face was bruised and burnt. “I tried Joe.”

  “Where is he?” Joe asked.

  “I tried,” Dan said emotionally. ‘I saw it. I dropped my lighter. I saw it. I yelled. He almost made it.”

  “Where is he?” Joe asked stronger.

  “There!” Robbie pointed and raced toward the hillside.

  Hal took off his shirt. “He’s on fire.”

  Joe saw his son. Frank must have been thrown. He staggered in his walk, from the chest down he was engulfed in flames until he staggered a bit more and fell to the ground.

  Robbie was the first there, then Hal. Both of them, using their shirts combated the flames that were consuming the lower half of Frank’s body. They did so with passionate and emotional grunts.

  Hal focused and it was hard, his eye watered. How did this happen? How could it have happened?

  Finally, the flames extinguished, and Joe dropped to his knees by Frank’s head. Robbie was on one side, Hal on the other.

  “Dad?” Robbie asked sadly. “How do we even move him?”

  Joe shook his head. He squeezed the corners of his eyes to hold back the tears. “Get a jeep. Someone hand me a phone. Maybe Dean can get up here. I don’t know.” He peered down to Frank.

  Frank’s left arm was completely burned and bloody, as were both his legs.

  “Frank, hold on.” Joe lifted Frank’s head to his lap.

  “I’m … I’m okay.” Frank said with shallow breaths. “I’m … I’m okay.”

  “Frank,” Hal said softly. “Don’t try to talk. Save your strength.”

  “Hal …” Frank’s words shivered. “Don’t ... don’t hold my hand. It …it hurts.”

  Hal pulled back. “Sorry.”

  “Frank,” Robbie whimpered. “We’re gonna get you help.”

  “I’m … fine,” Frank said. “Good … good thing … I stopped … dropped and …. and rolled.”

  Joe closed his eyes tighter. “Good thing.” Joe knew Frank had to be in excruciating pain, he was delirious.

  “Joe,” Jessie handed him the phone. “It’s Dean.”

  “Dean,” Joe took the phone.

  “What’s going on, Joe?” Dean asked. “We heard the explosion.”

  “It’s Frank. His office. He was thrown. He’s pretty bad. The burns they’re … bad.”

  “Is he alive?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is he missing any body parts?” Dean asked.

  “No. We don’t know what to do. Should we move him? Should you come here? I don’t think he’s gonna …” Joe dropped his voice to a whisper. “I don’t know if he’s going to make it. What should we do?”

  “Give him a minute.”

  Joe lifted his head in shock. “I’m sorry. Did you just say …?”

  “Give him a minute.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Joe snapped. “Give him a minute to die?”

  “No, Joe,” Dean said. “Give him a minute.”

  “Dean, I don’t …”

  “Dad,” Robbie called.

  “What kind of shit you are pulling? My son …”

  “Dad!” Hal yelled.

  Joe stopped and lowered the phone. “What?”

  Hal pointed down to Frank’s legs.

  Sure enough, they were starting to heal.

  Joe placed the phone again to his ear. “Dean Hayes. What have you done to my son?”

  FIFTEEN

  “Oh, come on,” Hal griped, staring down to his phone as he, Robbie and Joe pulled up to the cryo lab. “The rest of us are battling flames, while he is at the clinic posting on social media.”

  “Let it go,” Joe said.

  Hal read the post. “At clinic, got blown up. I’m ok.” Hal shook his head. “One thousand comments. And he attributes his life being saved to stop, drop, and roll.”

  “What the hell is he supposed to attribute it to?” Joe asked. “The fact that Dean made him a monster.”

  “And to think I nearly wept,” Hal said.

  “I did cry,” Robbie said “That was my big brother. He was a mess.”

  “At least he wasn’t in pieces.” Joe knocked on the la door and opened it. “Jason.”

  “Hey, Joe,” Jason said.

  “How’s the head?” Joe asked.

  “Could be better. Glad Frank’s okay.”

  “He stopped, dropped and rolled,” Robbie said.

  “Oh!” Roy said brightly. “That was very smart. Plus, the healing agent probably aided him.”


  Joe grumbled. ‘That’s an understatement. Now, what the hell happened?”

  Jason sat down. “Our demolition team went through.”

  Both Hal and Robbie shouted a shocked, “What!”

  Joe held up his hand. “When?”

  “Sometime before the explosion,” Jason said. “They must have known they were going to succeed or thought they would. Here’s the kicker. Last night, I guess around midnight, someone came through.”

  “Wait. Wait.” Joe held up his hand. “Someone came through the machine.”

  “We don’t know where or how. One person came into our time.”

  Joe ran his hand down his face. “That would explain the voices Johnny heard. We still haven’t found him. He’s been missing since he reported hearing and seeing people following Frank. This isn’t good.”

  “Whoever came through,” Jason said. “Knows their shit. They were deep in my computer.”

  “We may not know where they came from,” Roy said. “But I figured it to be over two hundred years.”

  “And they jumped time?” Joe asked.

  Jason nodded. “Someone tried to override the system, even believed that they did.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “They put in to go three hundred and seventeen years in the future. To them, they overrode the system. I had a safeguard to the safeguard.”

  “Okay.” Joe remained calm. “Do we know where they went?”

  “According to our calculation,” Jason said. “Coordinates say outside of where Kansas City is and nine hundred and ninety-nine years in the future.”

  Hal whistled. “So they really are surprised where they ended up?”

  Jason nodded. “They’re surprised alright.”

  “We have two that went through?” Joe asked.

  Jason shook his head ‘No, three. We show three went to the future.”

  Joe exhaled. “So someone in Beginnings was helping. This should be easy, so who is missing.”

  “Johnny’s missing,” Hal said. “He’s not helping. I say we go through. We go through now. We have everything ready, just have to put it together.”

  “How do you have everything ready?” Joe asked.

  Robbie shrugged. “We were kind of getting excited about it.”

  “What’s the rush?” Joe asked. “It’s a time machine. Whether you go now or next week, you’ll still end up the same place, the same time as the three that just went through.”

  “The rush is the community,” Hal said. “They’ll want answers. Answers we can’t give. But if we go now, we’ll be back with the culprits before the embers from Frank’s office cool.”

  Joe looked at Jason. “Can it be done?”

  “Give me an hour to get the pendants set.”

  Joe faced his sons. “Then I guess it’s on. Get your gear ready, let your brother know, keep this on the hush, hush, and let’s go get these bastards.”

  <><><><>

  Frank sat in the back of the clinic lab, he shook a small narrow bottle of white pills. “What are these?”

  “Yes, thank you, give me those.” Dean took them.

  “I thought I was here to be examined.”

  Dean paused in what he was doing, looked at Frank. “You’re fine.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “Just getting things ready for the trip. They upped the ante on killing you, it won’t be long.”

  “So why am I here?”

  “Um … so everything thinks I’m checking you out.”

  “I need a new pair of pants. Mine got fucking ruined. My favorite pair.”

  “Frank, you wear the same pants every day. What difference was there?”

  “Those were just a little more worn.” At the sound of a buzz, Frank reached into his tee shirt pocket. “Oh, man, I’m popular.”

  “You are.”

  “I am.”

  Dean shook his head.

  “Ha! Listen to this comment by Owens. ‘Frank, we were gonna roast you, guess we don’t have to now. Lol’. Fucking funny. Who would have thought Hal’s men had humor.”

  “Frank.” Ellen flew into the clinic. “Oh my God, you are okay.”

  “I am.”

  She ran and embraced him. “You’re fine. I don’t see anything.”

  “I stopped, dropped and rolled.”

  “Dan said you blew up.”

  “I did. In the air. But I’m fine. Fucking Dean won’t let me leave.”

  “Another hour. I just want to watch him. I think he hit his head,” Dean said, then mumbled. “Not that it matters.”

  “Dan said your legs were crispy,” Ellen said.

  “Dan lies.” Frank shook his head while looking at his phone.

  Ellen looked at Dean. “Was it the healing agent?”

  “Nah.” Dean shook his head. “He would have been fine without it. People just blow things out of proportion.”

  Frank snorted a laugh. “Blow things out of proportion.”

  Dean looked at him quirkily. “Why was that funny?”

  Frank shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “Well, as long as you’re alright,” Ellen said. “I have to go, I’ll be right back. I have to do an OBGYN. Don’t go anywhere.” She pointed and hurried out.

  “Was it a secret?” Frank asked Dean.

  “Was what a secret?”

  “What El is doing?”

  “I don’t think so, why?”

  “How come she spelled it?”

  “Um…. Probably out of habit in front of the kids.”

  “Oh. Can I leave?”

  “No.”

  “Frank!” Danny Hoi rushed into the lab. “You are okay.”

  “Man, everyone keeps coming in here yelling my fucking name. I’m fine. I stopped, dropped and rolled.”

  “Whew.” Danny grabbed his chest. “I was worried. Especially after Dan posted pictures of your burnt legs.”

  Dean shrieked. “He what?”

  “Here.” Danny showed him.

  Again, Dean shrieked. “Oh my God. Can you comment that it was just his clothes and a bad angle?”

  “Yeah, why don’t you … oh, wait, that’s right, you don’t have any friends.” Danny chuckled and moved his thumbs on the phone. “And …” he pulled a long backpack from over his shoulder. “For you, Frank. You wanted something waterproof. This pack is waterproof. It’s mine. I carried it with me when I was looking for Beginnings.”

  “Thanks, Danny. Can it take being submerged?”

  “Yeah, actually it can. The other stuff you asked for is in there. Including those large bags that look like super-size sandwich baggies.”

  “Excellent. Thank you.”

  “Can I ask why you need all that?” Danny asked.

  “For when I fall in the lake.”

  Danny looked confused.

  Dean clarified. “He thinks when he goes to the future he’s going to drop in a lake.”

  “Ah, I see.” Danny nodded. “Okay. That will work. I have to go, glad you’re okay. Joe needs me on something. I’ll check back with you later.”

  “Thanks for the stuff!” Frank shouted as Danny left. He looked into the bag. “How does he do all this?”

  “Sometimes I swear he uses that time machine to go back and forth for it.”

  Pause.

  Dean and Frank looked at each other.

  After a beat, they both shook their heads with a ‘nah.’

  Frank’s phone went off again.

  “Good Lord, Frank.”

  “What can I say, I’m popular. And I recently blew up.” Frank looked down to his phone and grinned. “Oh, yeah.”

  “What?”

  “Finish up and hurry.” Frank stood. “I have to get Chaka … we’re going to the future.”

  “When?”

  “As soon as we have everything. Can I leave now?”

  “Yeah. Go. Go. I’ll meet you in the cryo lab.”

  “Sounds good.” Frank, like an excited kid, took off ou
t of the lab.

  Dean knew he had no time to waste. He looked at the items in his small bag. Medicines, bandages, sutures, healing agent, water pills. He wanted to get another few things from the cryo, including the Chaka bag.

  “Dean?” Ellen called his name.

  “Oh.” He jumped a little. “What’s up?”

  “Where did Frank go?”

  “He had to run off.”

  “I thought you said you wanted to watch him for a head injury.”

  “He’s better.”

  “Just like that? Okay. What um … what are you doing with this stuff?”

  “This? Hiding it. Actually, I’m going to take it to the cryo for safe keeping. With that madman blowing things up, I just want to store things.”

  “Okay,” Ellen said with a hint of disbelief.

  “As a matter of fact.” Dean zipped the bag. “I have to go. I want to run this down there, then Jason needs to speak to me at the quantum lab. I’ll be gone about an hour. Can you make sure you stop that bag on Elliott? I want him to get up today.”

  “Yeah. Sure.”

  Dean walked over and kissed her on the cheek. “Be good. I love you.”

  “Love you too…” Her words trailed in Dean’s ears as he flew from the lab.

  He needed to run to his house, grab an extra set of clothes, then head below. He really would see Ellen in an hour, or rather she would see him. Going to the future with the Slagels was a scary prospect. He just hoped in some sort of demented Slagel prank, they didn’t try to leave him there.

  SEVENTEEN

  When Joe called Danny and asked him to take over, Danny knew Joe had a lot on his plate. The attempt on Frank’s life, the community in an uproar and the disappearance of Johnny.

  “Find out who is all unaccounted for in town,” Joe told Danny.

  At first, Danny feared that Joe believed someone else died in that explosion, perhaps that someone was Johnny. He had two men comb through the rubble and no remains had been found.

  Then Joe explained, whoever did it, stole access to the time machine and went through.

  They would be gone and no longer in Beginnings.

  Danny put people on that, led by Jessie, It wouldn’t be long until they learned who exactly went through that machine. If they weren’t around, they did it.