Threshold

by King, R. L.

  “I knew a bit about the research part,” Stone said. “That’s why I’m here, actually.”

  She gave him an odd look. “I don’t understand.”

  “Nancy—do you happen to remember if you ever saw Daphne with any notebooks?”

  “Notebooks?”

  “Research notes. I know that she was always very meticulous about keeping records about what she was working on.”

  Nancy thought about that for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t think I ever saw her with anything like that. She didn’t come home to visit often—she was always so busy—and when she did, she didn’t bring any notebooks with her, unless she kept them locked up in her suitcase.” She looked at him. “I’m sorry, Alastair. Can you tell me anything about these notebooks? Why are you interested in them after all this time?”

  “It’s a bit hard to explain, but—from what little I knew of what she was working on, I think she was doing some things that might help me in my own research. I was hoping to be able to take a look at her notes.”

  She spread her hands, looking like she genuinely regretted her inability to help. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “If I knew anything about any notebooks, I’d tell you. I’m sure if I’d known where they were, I’d have given them to the people investigating her disappearance years ago. Daphne—” She paused. “I don’t think Daphne is ever coming back. I haven’t wanted to admit it—but after all these years, I’ve heard nothing, and no one’s been able to find even a trace of what happened to her. I keep holding out hope that she might just have had a reason to disappear—” She laughed a bitter little laugh. “—like maybe she got on someone’s bad side, or saw something she shouldn’t and had to go into the Witness Protection Program. But those kinds of things only happen on television shows, I’m afraid. It’s taken me awhile, but I think I’ve finally accepted that she’s—”

  Stone reached across the table and took her hand. “Nancy, don’t. I’m so sorry that I’ve brought this all up in your mind again.”

  “It’s all right.” Her voice was gentle. “There’s not a day goes by that I don’t think about her. Some days not as much as others lately—some days hardly at all anymore. But I never forget about her. And it is good to see you. You’re welcome to come and stay with us at the house for a while if you like—”

  “That’s very kind,” Stone said, shaking his head. “But I’m afraid I have to be getting back.” He pulled out his notebook and wrote down his address and phone number. “I hope you’ll stay in touch.”

  Stone was quiet on the drive back to the Bay Area. After a while, Verity sighed. “There isn’t really much else we can do, is there?”

  “I don’t see what,” Stone said. “I can try to contact the families of the other researchers—if I can even find them—but I doubt I’ll get anywhere. I’m betting they don’t know any more about what this group was up to than Daphne’s mum did.”

  “Great,” Jason said. “So there’s probably a portal out there somewhere that’s spitting Evil into our world, and we haven’t got a clue where to find it.”

  “I’ll keep investigating,” Stone said. “I’ll write a few letters and see what comes back, but I think we might be at a dead end for now. We could probably all use a rest anyway. I for one am getting bloody tired of having this all on our plate and not being able to tell anyone else.” His tone was tired, bitter, full of a demoralization that his friends had not ever heard before.

  “Al—”

  “Well, it’s true!” he snapped with sudden vehemence. “These things are here. They’re killing people, driving them mad, pursuing their sick agenda—and we can’t do bugger all about it because we can’t trust anyone else not to be in bed with the damned things!” His voice rose in volume as he spoke until he was almost shouting. Then, his energy spent, he sighed loudly and his posture slumped over the steering wheel.

  “Al—” Jason started again.

  “Forget it,” Stone said, waving him off. “Let’s just go home. Holidays are coming soon. Put up a Christmas tree or something. Buy each other some presents. Try to forget about this whole fucking mess for a while, that’s my advice.”

  Jason and Verity stared at each other. It was the first time either of them had ever heard Stone use that kind of profanity, and neither of them could come up with anything to say in reply.

  After they got back to the Bay Area, they went their separate ways for a few days. Jason threw himself into extra hours working at the restaurant while Verity, realizing that Stone had sunk into a deep malaise despite his best efforts to put it aside and continue with her lessons, decided she’d be better off earning a little money on her own for a while. Marta readily took her on—she enjoyed cooking and was good at it, so Nikhil the chef quickly claimed her as a part-time assistant and began teaching her how to prepare Indian cuisine. Still, both she and Jason worried about Stone.

  They tried to visit him a couple of times when they had nights off, but he never answered his phone, and he was always away from the townhouse when they drove by.

  “I wonder what he’s up to,” Verity asked after one of the drive-bys.

  Jason shrugged. “I wish I knew. He’s been moody since I met him, but I hope he’s able to get away from this for a while. I think he needs a vacation. At least the Evil seem to have toned it down.”

  “Maybe they’re all off getting ready for Christmas,” she said.

  They did find time to track down and visit the Forgotten group late one chilly afternoon. The group had moved again, this time to the ground floor of a small abandoned building in south San Jose. There was a little courtyard behind the building, and Jason and Verity found the Forgotten grouped around a small fire in a metal trash barrel.

  “Hello,” Lamar called as he spotted them. His expression was neutral but welcoming. “We were hoping you’d come by again to see us.”

  “We weren’t sure you wanted to see us anymore,” Jason said.

  “Why wouldn’t we?” Marilee asked, surprised. Her face clouded. “It was a terrible thing that happened with Lissy, but it wasn’t your fault. We don’t blame you for it.” She looked around. “Where’s Dr. Stone? Isn’t he with you?”

  “We don’t know where he is,” Verity said. “He’s been in a pretty bad mood over the past few days, and he doesn’t much want people around him right now.”

  “I hope it isn’t about Lissy,” Lamar said, concerned. “We told him—”

  “I think that’s part of it,” Jason said. “But not all of it. He’ll be okay—we just need to leave him alone for a while until he works it out.”

  He wondered if he should tell them about the portals, but decided it wouldn’t be wise, at least not yet. As much as he trusted the Forgotten, he always had to keep it at the forefront of his mind that the very mental issues that made them susceptible to their strange powers—or that resulted from them—also made them unreliable keepers of potentially dangerous secrets.

  “Did you…are you going to…have any kind of memorial for Lissy?” Verity asked. “We’d…like to come, if you do and you’ll have us.” Jason nodded agreement.

  But Lamar shook his head. “No, we didn’t see any reason to have a formal memorial. We don’t have a body, and outside our own group there aren’t many who even knew Lissy. I don’t think she had any family.”

  “Except us,” Benny spoke up.

  “Except us,” Lamar agreed. “So we had a small gathering of our own group, but we thought that was enough.”

  Jason nodded, suddenly realizing something. “Hey, where’s Hector?” The gruff ex-military man was not part of the group gathered around the trash barrel; Jason looked around to see if he was off somewhere having his usual smoke.

  Nobody answered; they all seemed to have other places to look.

  “Is he okay? Something didn’t happen to him, did it?” Jason demanded. He still felt gu
ilty about yelling at the man after he’d decked Stone—not that he wouldn’t have stopped it if he could, but the feelings behind it were completely understandable.

  “We don’t know,” Marilee said. “After he left that night you all were here, he never came back. We haven’t seen him since.”

  “Did you look for him?” Jason looked around at each of their faces in turn.

  Lamar shook his head. “We had no real way to do it, aside from asking others when we see them. I heard a rumor that he’s joined up with another Forgotten group, but we don’t know for sure.”

  Jason sighed, wondering if anything would go right for them any time soon. As angry as he’d been at Hector that night, he certainly wouldn’t have wanted the man to go off on his own. He hoped Lamar was right—at least if he was with another group he’d be safer than if he were alone.

  He and Verity said their goodbyes and took their leave, promising to come back soon. “Bring Dr. Stone with you, if he’ll come,” Marilee said. She indicated her small, sleek black cat, no longer a kitten, perched proudly on top of her cart. “Tell him the little one misses him.”

  They decided to go by Stone’s place on their way home, on the off chance he was actually around, and were surprised to see lights on inside. They looked at each other and shrugged; Jason pulled the car into the driveway.

  Even more surprisingly, Stone answered the door, looking marginally more like himself than he had the last time they’d seen him.

  “Hey,” Jason said. “You receiving visitors?”

  “Come on in.” Stone stepped aside to let them pass.

  “Haven’t seen you around lately.”

  “Stalking me, are you?”

  Jason was about to protest when he saw the mage’s quirked eyebrow. “Yeah, you figured it out. I can’t help it—I’ve got a thing for you.” He paused. “You doing okay, Al? Where have you been?”

  “Oh, here and there,” he said, dismissive. “Went back home for a bit—the old fashioned way—took care of a few things up at Stanford, got rid of that bloody van and picked up something a bit more interesting…” He shrugged. “Basically did all sorts of things that didn’t have anything to do with the Evil. Yourselves?”

  “We’ve been working, mostly,” Verity said.

  “Yeah,” Jason added. “Apparently V makes a mean vindaloo.”

  “Well,” Stone said, “I do apologize for the break in your studies, Verity, but trust me: you wouldn’t have wanted me for a teacher the last few days.”

  “It’s fine,” she said, nodding. “I understand. And besides, I’ve been enjoying working at the restaurant. Having you pay my rent and all is nice, but it’s nice having my own money too. Maybe we can split time between work and magic studies? Nikhil’s pretty happy with me, so I think I can probably get a permanent gig as his assistant cook.”

  Stone shrugged. “Whatever you like. As it is, I’ll have to go back to teaching again when the quarter starts after the first of the year, so that might work out for the best.”

  “You had dinner yet?” Jason asked.

  “No. Haven’t been very hungry lately.”

  “C’mon. We’ll take you out to Chinese or something, and you can show us your new wheels.”

  Stone glared at them, but it was clear he wasn’t angry. “You two just won’t leave me alone to wallow in my existential despair in peace, will you?”

  Verity grinned. “Sorry, Doc, no can do. You’re stuck with us. Let’s go.”

  Jason whistled appreciatively when Stone opened the door to the garage. “Al, I’ll say this for you: you’ve got good taste in automobiles.” His admiring gaze roamed over the shining black BMW sedan crouched on low-profile tires, his desire to get a long loving look under the hood almost visible in the air above his head.

  “Close your mouth, Jason. You’re drooling,” Verity said.

  “Beats the van,” Stone said, getting in. “I couldn’t bear the thought of driving that ghastly thing any longer. And the tinted windows might make it a bit harder for anyone to spot us.”

  “Let’s hope nobody blows this one up,” Jason joked.

  They didn’t linger too long over dinner, since none of them were particularly hungry; when they arrived back at Stone’s place it was only a little after seven o’clock. As they approached the house, Jason pointed. “Who’s that?”

  A FedEx truck was parked outside the townhouse, and the uniformed driver was heading back down the walk carrying a large mailer envelope. “Is that for me?” Stone asked, stopping and leaning out the window.

  “That depends. Are you—” he consulted the address on the mailer “—Alastair Stone?”

  “I am. Hold on a moment.” He pulled the car into the garage and hurried back out, Verity and Jason following more slowly. The man verified his ID, handed him a clipboard to sign and then gave him the envelope.

  By the time Jason and Verity reached him, he was staring down at the envelope with an odd expression. “What is it?” Jason asked. “Something wrong?”

  Stone shook his head, distracted. “No...” Without another word he turned back toward the front door. “Come on. I want to see this.”

  He already had it open by the time he got into the house. Inside was a letter on a single sheet of stationery and a thick standard-sized envelope. Jason and Verity watched him closely as he scanned the letter. “What is it?” Jason asked again.

  “It’s from Nancy Weldon,” he said, handing it over and focusing his attention on the sealed envelope.

  Jason took the letter, unsure of whether he should be reading it, but Verity urged him on. He read aloud:

  Dear Alastair,

  It was good to see you the other day. After you left, I started thinking about some of Daphne’s things that we’d moved up to the attic. And then I remembered this letter. She’d asked me to send it to you if anything ever happened to her, but when she disappeared, none of us wanted to admit that she was gone, and sending the letter would have made us have to admit that. So it got filed away and eventually forgotten. I found it last night, and I’m enclosing it. Sorry, but I didn’t find any notebooks. I hope you understand why it took so long for me to send this, and that it’s some help to you.

  —All my best, Nancy.

  Stone hadn’t opened the other envelope yet. When Jason finished reading, the mage picked up a letter opener from a nearby table and slit it open.

  Inside were several folded pieces of paper. He unfolded them and a key dropped out, hitting the table with a small metallic clink. He left it where it landed, once again falling silent as he read the topmost of the sheets, then slid it to the back of the stack. The others he went through quickly. “All blank,” he said, returning his attention to the first one. This time, he read it aloud himself in an expressionless tone:

  Alastair,

  If you’re reading this, then something has happened to me. I’ve left it with Mom to send you. I hope she remembers.

  I know I let something slip to you about the project I was working on. I don’t remember much about what I said, since I was pretty drunk that night, but I do know I said something about working on a project to create stable temporary portals. Neil, Rochelle, and Arthur have been working on it with me, and I think we’re finally on to something. We’re planning to test it out this weekend. I don’t want to say too much in this letter in case Mom gets curious and opens it, but just in case something goes wrong (as we both know it can) I wanted to make sure somebody else had my notes who could make sense of them.

  Enclosed is the key to a storage locker. You’ll find it in the town where we took that weekend trip—the one with the amazing Ethiopian restaurant. There’s a little place a mile or so up the road by the ice cream parlor. I’ve paid it ahead for a long time, just in case Mom does forget, or doesn’t want to admit that I’m gone.

  I’m not sure what to tell you to d
o with the notes when you find them. I guess that’s up to you. You might just decide to burn them. That might be the best choice, if things don’t work out. But I trust you to do the right thing.

  Be careful, and take care.

  —Love, Daphne

  When he finished reading, Stone stood there staring at the letter. Finally he put it down on the table and picked up the key, turning it over in his hands.

  “So—where are we off to?” Jason asked.

  Stone didn’t answer.

  “Al?”

  He sighed. “Sorry. I didn’t realize—I still miss her a bit. Reading that was like—hearing a little bit of her voice again.” He raised an eyebrow. “Sorry, momentary bit of sentimentality. Won’t happen again. Where are we going? Well—you don’t have to come along if you can’t get away. I can handle this one on my own, I think.”

  “Told you,” Verity said, “you’re stuck with us. And besides, if these notebooks exist and they’re gonna tell you where the portal is, you’ll probably need us. It’s not like the Evil don’t know where it is, if they’re coming through it.”

  Stone nodded. “True enough. All right, then. Get packed and I’ll see to the tickets—we’re going to Virginia.”

  Part 2: Harmony

  Chapter Fifteen

  They landed at Dulles late the following day, rented a car, and were soon on their way south.

  “What’s the name of this town?” Verity asked, examining the map.

  “Occoquan,” Stone said. “It’s a little tourist town near Woodbridge. Very artsy. Daphne liked that sort of thing.”