Yesterday Never Dies (Die Again to Save the World Book 3)

by Ramy Vance

  Carolyn pursed her lips as she thought about it. “Yes. Yes, he did.”

  Buzz clapped his hands. “Woohoo! That’s our ticket. We only need to access the data on his nanobot, and we should be able to watch Rueben-Z’s memories through his eyes. Ground Zero, here we come.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Friday, May 26, 8:29 p.m.

  They were all seated around the conference room with a projector sitting at the front of the room. They’d darkened the lights, and Buzz sat behind a laptop connected wirelessly to the projector. “Let’s begin, shall we?”

  Everyone sipped their waters and nodded.

  “Buzz-Z must have made some adjustments to the nanobot he injected into Rueben-Z. The interface is a little different than mine. Bear with me…”

  Buzz brought up several thumbnail video files on the screen and clicked on them one by one, scanning through Rueben-Z’s memories on Earth-Z. As Buzz skipped through the more mundane moments in Rueben-Z’s life, Rueben was surprised to see Carolyn in a good number of them. She and Rueben-Z seemed really close.

  They watched Rueben-Z’s thirtieth birthday. It was at a cheesy medieval-themed restaurant called Brave Knight Burgers. Aki-Z sat beside Rueben-Z, smiling as she moved in for a kiss. Buzz skipped forward.

  In the next memory, Aki-Z was greeting Rueben-Z as he came home from work. She handed him a small wrapped box.

  “What is this?”

  “It’s for you. Open it.”

  “Okay. What are we celebrating?”

  “Just open it!”

  He opened the gift and pulled out an elegant silver watch. “Honey, this is gorgeous, but—”

  “Read the engraving underneath.”

  Rueben-Z flipped the watch around. “Happy…Father’s Day? Wha—”

  Her face broke into a full grin, and tears sprang to her eyes.

  While everyone in the darkened conference room watched the couple embrace, Rueben grabbed Aki’s hand and squeezed it. Tears leaked down her face, and he wrapped his arm around her.

  The memories played on.

  There were drinks with Buzz-Z and more than a few arguments. Friendly arguments though, mostly jostling and kidding around, same as on Earth-A.

  They all joked about how weird Buzz-Z’s face looked. Carolyn hadn’t been kidding about the Botox not being a good idea.

  They watched more of the nanobot footage. There were discussions and plans. Experiments in Buzz-Z’s lab. Family dinners with the kids.

  Buzz fast-forwarded and eventually came to a scene where it was only Carolyn and Rueben-Z and withered grass all around them. Dust or ashes blew in the wind.

  Rueben glanced over at Carolyn and saw how hard this was on her. “We’re too far, Buzz. Go back farther this time.”

  Buzz rewound Rueben-Z’s nanobot footage until they came to an interesting scene. Rueben-Z was sitting at a conference table glossing over a report that Buzz-Z had slid to him. Aki-Z was also seated at the table.

  “What kind of mission is it this time?” Rueben-Z asked.

  Buzz-Z explained something about an unmanned tanker in the Atlantic Ocean cruising at full steam toward the coast of NYC.

  “What’s this about?” Rueben asked, and Buzz paused the nanobot footage.

  Carolyn answered. “On Earth-Z, Rueben-Z, Buzz-Z, and Aki-Z were part of a non-government-sanctioned task force that protected the world from global threats.”

  “Very interesting,” Buzz said.

  Rueben and Aki exchanged glances.

  “What,” Buzz said, “was this tanker mission all about?”

  Carolyn shook her head. “I don’t know. I wasn’t a part of the task force, but they often talked about their missions when they came over for dinner. I don’t remember any tanker missions though. And I don’t recall any missions that involved viruses or diseases.”

  “This could be our big break,” Aki said.

  “I wouldn’t get our hopes up,” Buzz said. He skipped the footage forward past Rueben-Z sneaking past some armed commandos and Rueben-Z was shutting off a valve that was spraying steam into a room. Next, Rueben-Z picked a lock and entered a control room where he communicated with Buzz-Z and Aki-Z. Then he found a metal box with Nunez engraved on it.

  Rueben-Z started to open the box, and the nanobot footage blanked out.

  “Wait, what just happened?” Martha said.

  Buzz rewound the footage, but again the nanobot footage blanked out.

  Marshall shook his head. “What if that’s it? Ground zero?”

  Buzz skipped through the nanobot footage and found several more places where it blanked out. “Well, it might be. But there are other places like that too. It could be Rueben-Z’s nanobot going out. They don’t last forever, you know. We should probably ask Rueben-Z if he remembers what was on the tanker to check our bases.”

  They brought Rueben-Z up on the tablet and inquired about the tanker incident, but he didn’t recall anything out of the ordinary about that mission. He certainly didn’t remember finding a metal box. He did remember planting charges on the ship and scuttling it before it reached the NYC shore to cause whatever damage its senders intended to cause. It was a typical mission.

  Although this seemed odd, they filed the incident away in their memories when Buzz received a notification that the space and time capsule software was nearly complete. It required some finishing touches that only Buzz could perform.

  Perhaps the next morning, they’d be able to use the space and time capsule to reset the virus in Rueben-Z’s blood.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Saturday, May 27, 9:00 a.m.

  “Can you believe it?” Rueben said.

  Aki looked at him. “What do you mean?”

  “What Rueben-Z said about you and me being married on Earth-Z.”

  They were sitting in the conference room waiting for Buzz to arrive.

  “Sure, I can believe it. I saw it in Rueben-Z’s nanobot footage.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “What’s this really about? You and me?”

  Rueben scratched behind his head. “Yeah. I guess. I mean, it almost seems meant to be. Doesn’t that…I don’t know. Make you feel weird? Like you’ve already seen a taste of the future?”

  She smacked his arm. “Regardless, I still want to be with you. After hanging around you and your friends for so long, not much weirds me out anymore.” She smirked. “Rueben Peet, you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

  He chuckled. “Fine by me.”

  Buzz strode into the conference room then. In his hands was a thin rectangular plastic container. He set it on the table up front and popped open the lid.

  “People. People. In a few minutes, we are going to try to reset the time virus in Rueben-Z’s blood by putting him in the space and time capsule and simulating a parallel world hop. I’ve just finished my last-minute checks on the capsule’s software, and it should work.”

  Whoops and cheers went up from around the room.

  “What’s in the box?” Marshall asked.

  Buzz grinned and lifted a syringe from the plastic box. “Needless to say, I’ve been busy. Didn’t get much sleep last night because I was working on protection.”

  Martha frowned. “Protection?”

  “Yes. From the time virus.”

  “So, a vaccine?” Aki said.

  “Not exactly.” Buzz sighed. “I’m not sure how to explain it to you all except that this injection should protect us from exposure to the time virus. It’s active in Rueben-Z, after all, and I always have a backup plan.

  “Basically, once injected, we shouldn’t be able to contract the virus so that means all us normal people should be immune to turning into a withered pile of dust in case something goes horribly awry. Rueben, you should be fine, and Carolyn’s virus appears to be permanently dormant, but you’ll both get the shot as well. Any questions?”

  “Yeah,” Marshall said. “You may be a genius, but since when do you have the knowledge or means to build impromptu vacc
ine things?”

  “Point taken. Remember how I mentioned being on a CDC task force to eradicate another virus? This is one of the techniques we developed from that project. It still has an experimental treatment classification, but it was easy enough for me to replicate it down in my lab here. I still have access to the CDC databases, and I had Rosa procure and deliver the necessary equipment during the night. Satisfied?”

  Marshall shrugged. “I say, let’s get this all over with.” He pulled back his shirtsleeve. Everyone else did likewise, and Buzz proceeded to give everyone their shots.

  Afterward, Buzz announced for everyone to follow him to Rueben-Z’s cell.

  As they walked, Martha rubbed her injection site and asked Buzz if there were any known side effects.

  “It is possible you may spontaneously grow a second pinky on your left hand.”

  “Are you joking?”

  “Yes.”

  “Not cool,” Aki said, but Rueben couldn’t help but chuckle.

  They arrived outside Rueben-Z’s viewing window and peered inside. Rueben-Z looked like he was meditating, which added another layer to his tough-guy persona. The space and time capsule sat outside the back of the cell by the decontamination airlock that led into the room.

  It took all of their combined strength to move it into the airlock. Then Buzz instructed everyone to step back, and he closed the airlock behind him and opened the passage into Rueben-Z’s cell.

  Everyone watched from outside the cell’s viewing window as Buzz pulled out the virus detector device. The readings were off the charts, but Buzz wasn’t wearing a hazmat suit, and he wasn’t starting to wither. Then Buzz opened the capsule and instructed Rueben-Z to sit in one of the three seats. Buzz strapped Rueben-Z in and manipulated the controls to simulate a world hop. Buzz closed the capsule and stepped back. The device began to vibrate.

  Martha was studying the capsule intently through the window. “So that thing is really going to travel back to Earth-Z?”

  “That’s what Buzz says,” Aki said.

  “There are only three seats,” Martha said. “Who’s going to be going?”

  When no one said anything, they all turned to face Rueben. He shuffled his feet. “Buzz was going to make the announcement later today. After the virus in Rueben-Z is reset back to dormant.”

  “And…” Martha prodded.

  Rueben sighed. “It’s going to be me, Buzz, and Rueben-Z.”

  Marshall nodded grimly. Carolyn didn’t say anything. Aki looked concerned, but she didn’t say anything either.

  Inside the cell, the space and time capsule stopped vibrating.

  Buzz opened the capsule and helped Rueben-Z climb out. Then Buzz drew a deep breath and checked the virus detector. He turned the device toward the window so that everyone else could see it.

  There was now no virus inside the cell.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Saturday, May 27, 1:46 p.m.

  They were back in the conference room, all of them, including Rueben-Z. He’d had a chance to shower and was now dressed in one of Buzz’s silk robes. Rosa was out buying him some clothes, but she wasn’t back yet. Instead of sitting at the tables like the rest of the group, Rueben-Z stood off to the side, leaning against the wall like Hugh Hefner with a scar on one half of his face.

  Rueben glanced over at Rueben-Z, wondering what the man was thinking. The V of his robe revealed the top of two chiseled pecs that Rueben wondered if he would ever develop on this Earth. The man’s arm muscles were also to be envied, folded across his chest as he silently absorbed Buzz’s recap of everything they knew.

  The man, once their arch enemy, now exuded a sense of tough, regal pride that said he wasn’t a man to be messed with, especially not his family and friends. Of course, they weren’t all one big happy family. Rueben caught Marshall and Martha staring distrustfully at Rueben-Z at intervals.

  “So that’s it,” Buzz finished.

  Everyone in the room looked confused.

  Martha groaned. “How about we get the Cliffs Notes version of the plan? Minus all the science jargon.”

  Now Buzz groaned. “Very well. To sum up our plan, the two Ruebens and I take the space and time capsule and hop to Earth-Z.” He paused. “Everyone following?”

  They nodded.

  “Then I get out and collect a sample of the super-mutated time virus. With it being a time virus, I can only imagine how it has evolved since destroying the world. Anyway, then the three of us will warp backward in time on Earth-Z to around the tanker mission to search for the virus’s Ground Zero when Rueben-Z was probably first infected.”

  “Talk about finding a needle in a haystack,” Marshall remarked.

  Aki turned to Rueben-Z. “You really don’t remember anything about the tanker mission that was out of the ordinary?”

  Rueben-Z shook his head. “I don’t even remember finding that metal box in the control room like in the nanobot footage you showed me.”

  “That,” Buzz said, “is why I think you were infected three to ten days before that. I now hypothesize that the messed-up nanobot footage is because the time virus was already in your blood. That’s when it was starting to take hold and thus interfering with the nanobot.”

  Rueben shrugged. It was possible, but in his opinion, the tanker was the key to this as it was the first blank spot in the nanobot footage. However, there was no talking Buzz down when he was fully committed to a course of action. Besides, without Buzz, they wouldn’t have a functioning space and time capsule.

  Buzz continued. “Once I collect a sample of the virus from Ground Zero, we will all return to this Earth, and I should be able to unravel its evolutionary track so that we can eradicate it from the multiverse.”

  “You make it sound so easy,” Rueben joked.

  Marshall stood then and turned to face everyone. “I don’t think that’s funny.” He glanced Rueben-Z’s way. “How about we address the elephant in the room. How do we know we can trust this man? After all he’s done.”

  Martha nodded in agreement.

  Carolyn started to stand up for Rueben-Z, but he unfolded his arms and pushed off from the wall. He took a step toward Marshall and set his feet. “Mother, I can fight my own battles.”

  “You want to fight, son?” Marshall said.

  Rueben-Z drew a deep breath. “Wouldn’t be much of a fight.”

  Now Rueben jumped up. “No need to fight. We’re on the same side now.”

  Marshall cocked an eyebrow. “Are we?”

  Rueben-Z drew another calming breath. “I’ll admit, I deserve the mistrust. There is no way you can trust me for sure. You’ll have to take a leap of faith. I want to eradicate this time disease and fix all the worlds the same as you. I’m not the monster you think—hell, maybe I am a monster. I carry a world-ending virus in my veins. But look, sometimes you need a monster on your side to win the war.” Rueben-Z finished by drawing another deep breath.

  Marshall looked like he was trying to think of something to say, but then he dropped it. “You going to start meditating now? Sheesh. We oughta start calling you Rueben-Zen.”

  Martha stood then. “I don’t think we have to trust you to work with you. I’m not sure you can ever make up for your actions. But…if everyone else is in favor of the plan, I’ll go along with it too.”

  There was a tense pause. Then the tension started to ease as everyone nodded.

  Buzz wiped the back of his hand across his forehead. “Whew. Well, now that we’ve cleared the air on that issue, there’s only one problem with the plan.”

  “What’s that?” Aki said.

  “I don’t know how to pilot the space and time capsule to Earth-Z.”

  Rueben-Z nodded. “Leave that to me.”

  “Right,” Marshall said sarcastically.

  Rueben-Z ignored him. “If you mirrored the capsule’s software off the one in my old capsule, I can get us there.”

  “I did. Exactly,” Buzz said.

  Martha shook her
head. “I don’t like this. We’re going to hand the keys to a time machine to a rogue time warper who we stole his warping powers from and who has already destroyed countless worlds?”

  “Well,” Buzz said, “when you put it that way…”

  Rueben spoke up. “Buzz and I will be with him the whole time. Watching him. He won’t be able to try anything funny.”

  “Why does he even have to go?” Marshall said. “If you ask me, I don’t think we need him. We could keep him locked up here, so he can’t hurt anyone else…” He let his words drop as Rueben-Z started to growl deep in his throat.

  “Let’s all calm down,” Carolyn said. “Please.”

  Rueben-Z shook his head. “I get your animosity toward me. But you do need me.”

  “Why?” Martha asked.

  “The dust.”

  “The dust?” some of them muttered in unison.

  Rueben-Z nodded. “The last time I went back, the time virus had mutated. It blows across the world like a giant sandstorm. If you’re going to take a sample, you’ll need me there to guide you to safe coordinates. And to watch your back.”

  “Shit. Dust storms…I never thought about that.”

  Rueben joked, “How bad could it really be? We’re going to Earth-Z, not that planet from Dune.”

  Buzz considered. “No, Rueben-Z makes a good point. There are a lot of living organisms on Earth, and on Earth-Z they’ll all be dust now. And with unpredictable weather patterns. A dust storm could damage the space and time capsule, stranding us there. Or it could separate us like a fog…” Then his eyes twinkled. “Rueben-Z can guide us through the storm, but I have a solution to the getting separated possibility.”

  Buzz summoned Rosa, who brought him two tiny microchips. “I’m going to insert these into the two Ruebens—”

  “Buzz,” Rueben said, “we’re not pets. Can’t we just put them in our pockets or something?”

  With a sigh, Buzz relented. “Yes, fine.” He pulled up a program on his smartphone, which showed two beeping dots, one for each Rueben. “If we get separated by the dust, I can still find you both. Or, if Rueben-Z tries to make a break for it—”