Twisted Fate

by Simon Rose

  “And Kovac’s dead now too?” said Max.

  “Yes, natural causes, apparently a few years ago. He stayed pretty quiet after they shut the operation down. He seems to have had some kind of role at different universities or research places but I couldn’t find anything about him working on any significant projects. He must have just been listed as a staff member but was probably semi-retired. Lawrence is dead too, but I have no idea what happened to Evans.”

  “Who do you think’s behind all this? Who’s killing these people if Kovac, Dexter, and the others are dead?”

  “There are a lot of shadowy government agencies, Max, always have been. I have to be careful about what I post on the site. I have to stay one step ahead of those people. Most of the site’s stories and links have potentially dangerous stuff on them. This one’s very serious and whoever’s behind all the killings isn’t going to stop. When we’re done, you need to delete the history on your laptop.”

  Max didn’t hear his dad’s truck arriving so was surprised when he heard the condo’s front door open.

  “Hey, Max,” his dad called from downstairs.

  “I have to go.”

  “Take care, Max,” said Jesse. “They’re probably onto you. You could be next.”

  Max closed the window, deleted the browsing history, and shut down the laptop as his dad headed upstairs.

  “Oh,” said his dad, in surprise, when he appeared at the bedroom door. “I thought one of your friends had come over. I heard you taking to someone.”

  “Just a game,” said Max.

  His dad nodded.

  “I thought Jeff or Jason might be here.”

  “No, Jeff’s away for a few days with his family and Jason’s babysitting his little sister.”

  “I’m surprised you’re still up,” said his dad, smiling.

  “What?”

  “You left here so early this morning.”

  Max must have looked confused but recovered quickly.

  “Oh yeah, that’s right,” he said, pretending to yawn.

  “Did you eat?”

  “Just some toast. Jason and I had pizza at lunch so I wasn’t that hungry. I think I’ll just get to bed.”

  His dad smiled.

  “Okay, get some sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow. Night.”

  “Night,” said Max.

  Chapter Eight

  Old Friends

  MAX HAD FORGOTTEN to set the alarm on his phone and didn’t wake up until just before eight o’clock. He quickly got dressed and headed downstairs, where his dad was drinking a cup of coffee in the kitchen.

  “Aren’t you going to school today?” said his dad. “I thought Friday was the day off?”

  “Yeah, I forgot the alarm,” Max replied. “No school tomorrow but we finish at lunchtime today.”

  “Is everything okay?” asked his dad, as Max slipped on his jacket.

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Well, you were early yesterday and now you’re late today. You’re usually on the dot when you go to school.”

  “No, everything’s fine,” said Max. “I just forgot to set the alarm, that’s all.”

  His dad nodded but didn’t look convinced.

  “Okay, well, I’ll see you tonight. Your grandma might want to take me out for dinner as a thank you for doing the deck. I’ll text you later.”

  “Sounds good,” said Max, zipping up his backpack.

  His dad turned to go back to his room and Max headed outside.

  MAX RAN MOST of the way but still only just got to school on time. He raced up the steps and through the front doors, before stopping to catch his breath. He was determined to find Julia and speak to her. He knew that she had at least one class with him that day and Max was hoping he’d be able to speak to her afterward.

  Max made it to the room just as the class was beginning. He did his best to concentrate on what the teacher was saying but was far more focused on what he planned to do after class. When it was over he quickly left the classroom and rapidly covered as many of the school hallways as he could in an attempt to find Julia. He realized that it was a long shot but didn’t see Julia anywhere. She was supposed to be in his final class of the morning, but when Max took his seat and looked around the classroom, Julia was absent. He knew that she regularly attended this particular class so was beginning to wonder if she wasn’t at school at all that day

  Max was deep in thought as he made his way to the exit at lunchtime, wondering what he was going to do if he couldn’t locate Julia. As Max was walking past the school office, the door opened.

  “Max.”

  He turned to see Michelle, the school secretary, standing in the doorway.

  “Can you come in here please? The principal would like a word with you.”

  “But I’m meeting a friend.”

  “Sorry, the principal said that this is very important.”

  “Okay,” said Max, wondering what was going on.

  He stepped into the main office and Michelle ushered Max into the principal’s office.

  “Hi, Max,” said the principal. “Please close the door and sit down.”

  The principal wasn’t alone. Standing beside the desk were two men wearing dark suits. One was tall and willowy with thinning, pale blonde hair. The other was shorter and more heavily built, with dark hair and a goatee peppered with grey. Max immediately recognized Connor and Drake. He closed the office door and took a seat opposite the principal.

  “Max, this is Mr. Connor and Mr. Drake. They’re with the police department and would like to ask you a few questions.”

  Max almost panicked but knew that Connor and Drake didn’t know him since the timeline had been altered, even if they were still working for the same secret government agency. He’d met them when they’d interrogated him at the police station but they couldn’t possibly know that he had any connection to the Kovac operation.

  “Hello, Max,” said Connor. “There’s no need to be alarmed.”

  “We just need to ask you a few questions,” Drake added. “Is that okay?”

  “What about?”

  “How well do you know Julia Woodman?” asked Connor.

  Max pretended to think for a moment, as if he were trying to recall someone’s name.

  “She’s in some of my classes but I don’t know anything about her. Has she done something wrong?”

  The principal shook his head.

  “Julia spends time away from school on a regular basis, either claiming to be ill or just not showing up. She’s probably just staying at home but her mother hasn’t seen Julia since yesterday morning. Her dad lives in a different part of the city but he hasn’t seen Julia either. Her mom did get a text last night telling her not to worry but Julia didn’t say where she was. Her mother’s very worried and that’s why the police are involved.”

  The principal glanced at his computer screen.

  “According to her teachers, she’s very smart. She’s always able to catch up even if she misses a lot of classes. We wondered if you knew where she might be?”

  “Me? Why would I know that?”

  “Aren’t you a friend of hers?” said Connor.

  “I didn’t know she had any friends. She always seems to be on her own when I’ve seen her around the school.”

  “Yes, I know that she doesn’t have many friends,” said the principal. “But you talked to her quite recently, didn’t you?”

  “You were seen with her in the library on Monday,” said Drake. “Then again in the cafeteria on Tuesday. Seems a little strange for two people who don’t know each other.”

  “I suppose you don’t know anything about her blog either?” Connor added.

  “No,” replied Max. “I told you I don’t really know her at all.”

  “Julia has a blog called Juliaosity,” the principal explained. “She posts on it quite regularly, things she’s interested in and so on. She hasn’t added anything on there for a while and her mother says that’s unusual. There may be
some clues on her blog since she occasionally posts things that are very dark. I certainly hope that she hasn’t harmed herself. Mr. Connor and Mr. Drake also wondered if some of her interests might have led to her being connected to the wrong kind of people.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “She’s very interested in the paranormal—angels, ghosts, spirits, that kind of thing,” replied the principal. “As you may be aware, some of the other students think she’s a little strange, and it’s been very hard over the years for me and the teachers to know what to do about that. She also often commented on conspiracy theories and posted links, that kind of thing.”

  “Do you have any interest in that stuff, Max?” asked Connor.

  “Not really.”

  “You weren’t talking with Julia about that kind of thing in the library or in the cafeteria?” said Drake.

  Max tried not to panic. Could Jesse have been right? Could they already be interested in him because he’d been on the website and was interested in the Kovac operation? Max knew that Julia was familiar with the site and had said that she’d talked to Jesse before. What else was Julia connected to? Max was very glad that he’d deleted his computer’s browsing history but knew that some people had a way to get around that if they really wanted to.

  “No,” said Max, concocting a response. “When she spoke to me in the library, she wanted to use the computer, that’s all.”

  “And in the cafeteria?” said Drake.

  “There weren’t any other tables so I had to sit with her. I tried to make conversation but she wouldn’t talk to me so I didn’t stay long. I went over to see my friends when they arrived.”

  Connor and Drake briefly glanced at each other.

  “Well, I think that’s all we need for now, Max,” said Connor. “Thanks for stopping in to talk to us.”

  They made their way toward the office door.

  “Could we just have a private word, Mr. Young?” said Drake.

  “Of course,” said the principal.

  He stood up and went over toward the door.

  “Wait here please, Max. I won’t be a moment.”

  As soon as the principal had followed Connor and Drake out of his office and closed the door, Max went around to the other side of the desk. Julia’s school report was still displayed on the screen. Max tore a scrap of notepaper from the pad next to the phone and noted Julia’s address and home phone number. He knew that she was unlikely to be at her house but he hoped that he could at least get some insight into what was going on. He slipped back into his chair just as the principal returned.

  “I’m sorry about all that, Max,” he apologized. “They wanted to get some idea of where Julia might be and normally they go to a person’s friends and try and retrace their steps, that kind of thing. Since people said she’d been seen talking to you, I thought that you might be able to help.”

  “I’m sorry she’s missing,” said Max. “I don’t know her at all, but I hope nothing’s happened to her.”

  “So do I,” the principal replied. “I’ll let you know if I need to talk to you again, and thank you for coming in and speaking with the police officers.”

  “Thank you,” said Max and left the office.

  WHEN HE REACHED the end of the hallway, Max hurried down one of the short side staircases and slipped out of the school side entrance that led to the teachers’ covered parking lot. He was about to step out on the sidewalk when he pulled back. Connor and Drake were just walking toward a dark blue car with tinted windows. Connor was on the phone. He finished his conversation just as Drake got into the car and started the engine. Once the car had pulled away, Max hurried away from the school.

  He desperately needed time to think. He wasn’t sure what Connor and Drake were looking for but he still didn’t want to risk going home. Max conceded that they could really be policemen in this revised timeline but also suspected that they were still part of some secret government agency. Max used his phone to view Julia’s address. The house wasn’t that far away. Max needed to find out what she knew, but first he wanted to check out the blog that the principal had mentioned.

  He headed to a coffee shop a few blocks away where he knew he was unlikely to see anyone from school. Max ordered a small cold drink and settled in at a table in the corner of the coffee shop well away from the doors and windows. Once the laptop was open, he typed in the blog name Juliaosity into the search box. The link appeared at the top of the search results, and Max clicked it to open the page.

  Most of the stories on the blog were about psychic phenomena, angels, spirit experiences, mediums, and similar topics. There were also some links to other stories, websites, and discussion forums on these subjects. Julia had made a few posts about recent conspiracy theories but nothing about Jesse’s website. She’d mentioned to Max that she was familiar with SecretConspiracyXpose and Jesse had confirmed that she’d talked to him. Yet there was little on Julia’s blog to indicate that she had a great interest in Jesse’s theories about the Kovac operation or indeed in any of the other weird stories featured on Jesse’s site. Since there didn’t seem to be any connections that might get Julia hurt or cause her to fear for her safety from shadowy government agents, Max wasn’t sure why Connor and Drake might be looking for her. Of course, Max had no insight into Julia’s personal life. He knew very little about her and what her life was like at home or about her relationship with her parents. He didn’t read all the blog postings in full, but scanning the titles, it didn’t seem as if there was anything that might be what the principal had termed dark, indicating that Julia might want to harm herself or perhaps run away from home.

  There were a few stories about seeing ghosts but Julia didn’t mention that she’d experienced this at the school. There was a separate entry though about when Julia had apparently seen her own mother’s ghost. To Max that seemed bizarre since the principal had mentioned Julia’s mother during their meeting in the office. Although Max wouldn’t have thought that Julia would have publicized this kind of thing at school, her appearance, lack of friends, and aloofness alone would have cemented her reputation as a weirdo. Max closed down the blog. There was nothing on it that could answer his questions, yet Julia had said that she’d seen his mother. Max knew that ghosts were real and had seen his mother too, as well as David, on previous occasions. Max was also very curious regarding why Julia had not only visited Jesse’s site but had also contacted him. Jesse hadn’t specified what she’d wanted but he clearly knew things about her, which indicated to Max that she’d contacted Jesse more than once. If conspiracies weren’t her thing, why had Julia been in touch with him? And why had she been interested in the Kovac case and not one of the others? Max knew that he had to speak to Julia as soon as possible about what was going on.

  Chapter Nine

  Julia

  JULIA’S HOUSE WAS located in a neighbourhood not that far from where Max lived. The principal had said she was probably missing so Max wasn’t really sure what he was looking for. Yet he somehow suspected that Julia was quite adept at avoiding detection by teachers, principals, and her parents, so although it was a long shot, he went up to the house’s front door and rang the bell.

  There was no answer and the drapes were pulled tight across the front window. Max sighed and was about to turn away when he thought he saw the drapes move, very slightly. He was startled as the door opened a little.

  “What are you doing here?” a voice hissed. “What do you want?”

  Julia was peering out at him through a crack in the door. Her thick black hair still featured the bright red streaks but was tied back from her face.

  “I need to speak with you,” said Max. “About that conspiracy website.”

  “Go away.”

  She began to close the door but Max grabbed the handle.

  “I saw her, at the school.”

  “Who?”

  “My mom, or her ghost anyway, in the hallway near the lockers.”

  Julia’s green
eyes flashed with anger.

  “Are you making fun of me?” she demanded. “Are you?”

  “I saw her,” Max repeated. “More than once, and I’ve had dreams, ones that I know are about her life, and she talked to me. I talked to Jesse too, from the website.”

  Julia looked at him intently, furrowing her brow.

  “Come in, quickly, before someone sees you.”

  Max stepped inside and Julia quickly closed the door behind him.

  “This better not be some kind of joke.”

  “It’s not a joke,” said Max. “This is deadly serious.”

  “So,” she said, folding her arms. “Tell me about Jesse. Why did you contact him?”

  Max took a deep breath.

  “My mom’s on the SecretConspiracyXpose site, and Jesse thinks that she was murdered. He also thinks that she was part of experiments by someone called Kovac.”

  “Okay,” said Julia, calmly. “And what about this ghost you claim you saw.”

  “It was at the school, then again at home, on the opposite sidewalk. It was definitely my mom.”

  “And you say she spoke to you?”

  “Yes, but not when I saw her. That was in a dream.”

  “What kind of dream?”

  Max took another deep breath.

  “I’ve had visions of her death and also about some kind of laboratory. It was enough to convince me that there might be some truth in what Jesse has on that site.”

  “So, what did she say to you in this dream?” asked Julia.

  “It was just her voice in my head, but I don’t understand what she meant. She said that I had to go back to where it all began. She also told me to trust my new friend. She said she had the gift. I’m not sure what that meant.”