by Blink, Bob
“We finally meet,” the woman said. “I’m Special Agent Carlson and this is my partner on this case, Special Agent Laney. We have been looking for you for a long time.”
Jake was immediately confused. Agent Carlson was a woman? He didn’t know why, but he’d never considered the possibility.
Jake’s lawyer had no trouble looking confused, thinking the current situation was all there was to the matter.
“Come now,” Carlson said. “There is no doubt that in addition to being Jake Waters, you often use the identity of Stan Mathews, not to mention several others. Given your picture and what we have found in Sparks, there is no doubt about it. I am surprised, however, that this is the way we finally meet. The circumstances surrounding this case are very different than the usual cases we have attributed to you.”
Jake had started to speak but his lawyer quickly silenced him.
“I am unaware of what you are referring to,” the lawyer said. “There is only one crime that my client has been charged with.”
“That’ll change,” Carlson said. “This is a preliminary interview. Formal charges will be filed later today and then we can discuss the cases in detail. I was just wondering if Mr. Waters has anything to say before then.”
Jake didn’t want to talk with the FBI agents, and because his lawyer refused to allow him to be interrogated, the meeting was brief. The lawyer explained that they would be submitting a self defense plea, and was shocked when Agent Carlson waived it off.
“That’s a local matter. I’m not particularly concerned with the shooting in Laguna Beach.”
As Jake was led back to his cell he felt a bit of hope. If he could get his ability back, then satisfy Carlson, perhaps they would ship him back to Laguna Beach to face the charges there. Then he might have a chance.
The next few days fell into a routine. He talked with Karin briefly one evening. The call was restricted to five minutes. He told her to tell Zack and Cheryl not to visit. It would only complicate matters. Each day he and his lawyer met with the FBI agents. Carlson laid out the cases they had tied him to. Jake was surprised as much by how well they had done as by the cases they had overlooked. He said nothing. It became apparent early on that Agent Carlson was most interested in how Jake had known about the men he had killed. The agent was very much aware the men had been planning something horrendous when Jake had killed them. How did he do it and could that method somehow be tapped by the FBI? Jake might have told her the truth or made up a story despite his lawyer’s admonishment to remain silent had his ability returned. After five days, he still had no indications he was getting better and was starting to lose hope.
On the sixth day he met with his lawyer and Agent Laney. Carlson had returned to Washington they were told. She would probably return later. She hadn’t decided. A lot would depend on Jake and whether he would decide to talk with them. Agent Laney explained he wouldn’t be meeting with them again either. He also planned to leave town. Jake hoped he might be returned to Laguna Beach in the meantime, but he was returned to his cell.
On the morning of the seventh day Jake was able to detect the faintest glimmer of something he’d thought lost forever. The ghostly awareness was weak, and only extended backwards a couple of days. That might offer him a chance to go back to earlier days here at the Los Angeles facility. Even had he been in Laguna Beach, he wouldn’t as yet have been able to access his self before the incident happened. The next day he could sense himself all the way back. Now, if he could somehow get close to where he’d been, he would be able to escape this horrible reality. He made a short test back-track just to verify he had regained the capability.
Jake was excited with the return of his ability, even if he was trapped here in Los Angeles. Somewhere, somehow, along the way he would figure out a way to get away. His life wouldn’t be the same, but now at least, he had a chance. He would convey to Karin what had happened during one of their brief calls. Despite his happiness at his return to normal, the days passed with a boring sameness with him still confined. He wasn’t in solitary confinement, but he might as well have been. He made no effort to mingle with the other prisoners here, and avoided discussions with the guards as well.
Twelve days after it happened, Jake learned of the attack during his phone call with Karin. They had missed the previous week’s call because she had a closing that she had to attend. Jake had encouraged her to go. Their calls were short and she shouldn’t risk her job for one. He’d told her he could survive the week, but it had made it seem longer. Had they had television, he might have learned earlier, but only selected movies were shown, not the news. Over a quarter of a million dead, and a great many more likely to die from radiation poisoning. A low yield, very dirty nuclear device had been triggered in Atlanta that day almost two weeks ago. No one knew who was responsible, or how the device had been put in place. They only had a rough idea of the area it had been in when it triggered.
Jake knew what he had to do. He told the guard who escorted him back to his cell that he needed to talk with Carlson or Laney immediately. Jake considered telling someone else, but only Carlson or Laney were likely to be receptive and them only because of the oddity of his case. He told the guards to tell them he was ready to talk. It was urgent.
Despite his insistence and constant calls for someone to speak with, more days passed before anyone would listen to him. He was otherwise left alone in his cell. When he was finally escorted into the interrogation room that morning far too long after the event for it to matter, he had counted twenty-three days since he’d been arrested, and fifteen since the attack on Atlanta. Agent Carlson was waiting, looking tired and worn. Jake was aware it was too late. Time and distance were against him. It had actually been too late when he’d first learned of the event. Still, he’d decided he needed to take some action. Maybe if he’d revealed his ability in the beginning he would have been in a position to help. Maybe there would be more attacks and he wanted to be in a position to correct the situation.
Jake’s lawyer was present once again looking annoyed by the whole matter, but Jake told Carlson he wanted him excluded. That resulted in more turmoil and objections, but Jake finally got his way after signing documents to the effect that his lawyer, who then decided to withdraw from his case entirely, was to be kept from the room. Jake wasn’t concerned. If this didn’t go as he hoped, he would back-track to earlier this morning and do the whole thing differently.
Chapter 31
“This had better be worthwhile,” Carlson said, the annoyance clear in her voice. “Other matters have made your particular situation considerably less important. At least in the near term. You aren’t going anywhere. If I hadn’t been here in town, I wouldn’t be meeting with you. As it is, I have only a short time.”
“You waited too damn long,” Jake objected. “Now I probably can’t help.”
“Help what?” Carlson said tiredly.
“Atlanta,” Jake said softly.
That got Carlson’s attention. “What do you know about Atlanta?”
“Only what’s on the news,” Jake admitted. “That’s not the point.”
“So, how’s that supposed to help me?”
“If you’d come when I asked, we might have been able to prevent it,” Jake shouted. “Now, I don’t know.”
Carlson looked at him strangely. “They’re right. You’ve lost it.” She stood as if to leave.
“You’re right about the killings. I was the one.”
Carlson waved her hand. “I already know that. You’re admitting to it under these conditions doesn’t change anything. It’s just hearsay.”
“You also missed about half of the cases,” Jake added. “There are many more you didn’t stumble onto.”
That got Carlson’s attention. No cop can pass up the chance to clear up bad cases that have gone unsolved. She also might not get another chance. Who knew of the suspect would be willing to talk in the future. She sat back down.
“Why are you telling me th
is now? And what does any of your situation have to do with the bomb in Atlanta?”
“It’s complicated, and it’s going to take some explanation and faith on your part.”
“You’ve got my full attention for now, but I warn you that I’m not patient. This had better be good.”
Jake nodded his understanding. He listed a number of cases that Carlson and Laney had missed. He could tell that Carlson was at least familiar with some of them.
“You’re saying you were responsible for killing these people. Why?”
Jake selected one of the cases that Carlson had suspected him of being responsible for. “He killed thirty-two that day,” Jake said calmly.
“Killed? What are you talking about. He didn’t kill anyone. You shot him. It looked like he was set up to do some killing, but he never got a chance.”
“He killed them before I knew he existed. Before I shot him,” Jake said patiently. “He also committed suicide afterwards. The news carried the story, with the details of who he was and his background. That’s how I knew about him.”
Carlson looked confused.
“I can back-track,” Jake explained. “It’s a special ability that allows me to transfer my current memories back to an earlier version of myself. I don’t know how or why it works, but it does.”
Jake explained what he could do, but avoided for the moment the limits. They might be important, and he felt better not having his restrictions revealed.
Carlson stood suddenly, her face red, the annoyance clear. “You’re either nuts or playing with me.”
“Test me,” Jake said urgently. “I’ll prove it.”
“Test you? How can I test you?”
“Tell me something only you know. It has to be something that no one else could possibly know if this is to work. I’ll back-track and reveal it to you when I come in. Then we can have this conversation again.”
“This is silly!” Carlson objected.
“You wanted to know how I did it. At least give me a chance to prove it.”
Carlson hesitated, then started to say something.
Jake held up a hand. “It’s got to be a real secret, or it won’t work. You won’t remember this conversation. For you it will never have happened.”
For a second Jake thought Carlson wasn’t going to try, but then she shrugged. She suddenly had an intuition that this man was serious and wasn’t playing games with her. Uncharacteristically, she decided to take a chance and reveal something that she had long kept private. Softly she told Jake something personal and secret.
“That should work,” Jake agreed.
“Now what?” Carlson asked, clearly uncomfortable with what she had revealed.
“Now we’ll see,” Jake said. Then he back-tracked.
“This had better be worth my while,” Carlson said, the annoyance clear in her voice as Jake walked into the room and sat down. Without waiting for their conversation to start as it had the last time, Jake softly repeated the secret he’d been given by Carlson. The woman visibly paled.
“How the hell did you know that?” she asked, clearly shaken.
“You told me,” Jake said.
“I never . .”
“You did. But you won’t remember.” Jake explained the ability.
“That’s a little hard to swallow,” Carlson said after Jake explained about his back-tracking.
“That’s why we are going through this little exercise,” Jake replied. “Can you think of any way I could have learned what I just told you other than directly from you?”
Carlson was silent for a moment. Finally she shook her head. “No, I can’t. But I don’t remember telling you and that bothers me.”
“You won’t ever tell me now. That was something that happened later in a conversation that has now changed. But, given what I’m telling you is true, the activities I’ve been involved with over the past couple of years should make a little more sense.” Once again, Jake explained what the killings had been about. He also told her about some of the incidents where he had been able to turn around situations without resorting to violence or killing.
“And the killing that got you in here?”
“That was a little different,” Jake admitted. “Mr. Green was going to kill Mrs. Green, who is the mother of one of my friends. My intent was to make her see what he was up to, then interrupt. It went sour. I was about to back-track and try it a different way when Mrs. Green, who doesn’t know me at all, smacked me in the head. I was still out when the police arrived. In addition, the blow did something that caused my ability to fade away for nearly a week.”
“But it’s back now?”
“It appears to be completely normal again. I haven’t pressed the limits, but it worked for this little exercise.”
“I assume you have friends who know about this? Probably your girlfriend, and maybe even the daughter of this Mrs. Green. There had to be a reason you got involved there. She must have come to you for help.”
“She did, but she doesn’t know that she did. My actions predated her learning that her mother had been killed.”
Carlson shook her head in an attempt to fit the concepts together.
“Why are you telling me this now? Even if I believe you, and I’m going to have to think about this a while, you’re still guilty of multiple murders.”
“I could have helped with Atlanta if I’d known about what happened there. If you or someone knew what I could do you could have come to me.”
“And you could have done what?”
“What if you had known it was going to happen a couple of days in advance?”
“You’d have had a devil of a time trying to convince anyone of that,” Carlson said.
“You understand what I’ve been up against then,” Jake replied.
“The effort to conduct a proper search would have been huge, but if one knew for certain that the bomb was there, it would have been worth it and would have saved all those lives and the city itself. It’s likely Atlanta will have to be totally abandoned.”
Jake watched as Carlson thought it through.
“You said you could have helped. If you can go back like you claim, what’s the problem?”
“There are limits. I can only go back so far.” Jake didn’t like admitting to the limits, but there was no way to avoid admitting to this particular restriction. “It’s been longer than I’ve ever been able to back-track in the past. It gets harder the further back I have to go. The opportunity is past. But if something like this ever happens again, at least you’ll know.”
“This is too much,” Carlson finally said. “I need to think about this. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
Jake nodded. He hadn’t expected immediate acceptance. It might take a while, but he’d make Carlson see. Maybe he could even get Carlson to back him some way. The government could do that if they wanted. His ability would more than likely be seen as valuable enough. As a minimum, this might be a way to get out of here and someplace he could find a loophole they didn’t see and at least get away. He didn’t kid himself they would never stop looking for him if he did escape.
The next morning Carlson sent for him early. Once again they sat down across from one another at the same table.
“I think there are things you aren’t telling me. The reason you haven’t escaped is because you can’t go back far enough to get to a time when you weren’t here in the jail?”
Jake nodded.
“Why didn’t you slip away when you first came here?”
“I told you. My ability was temporarily compromised. I couldn’t use it. By the time I got it back, it was too late.”
“Something doesn’t make sense to me. Now that you have the ability back, why don’t you just jump back part way, then jump back again. Eventually you should get to where you can get to yourself outside the jail.”
Carlson looked at him smugly. She was certain she had caught Jake in a trap.”
Of course Carlson couldn’t know it didn’t work
that way, and she didn’t know that Jake was limited by distance. Jake wasn’t ready to reveal that little tidbit just yet. It might be the one thing that would work for him down the road.
“To start with, if I back-tracked a week, I’d be back into the period where my ability was impaired. That would end what you are assuming right there. But equally important, I can’t piggyback jumps like that.”
“You’ve never double hopped, so to speak?”
“Never,” Jake said positively. “Most of what I do only requires a short jump, less than five days. More than that starts making my headaches almost unmanageable. Even the shorter jumps aren’t always fun. After a jump, I’m in no mood to consider another. The need has never come up.”
Even as he explained Jake couldn’t help think how stupid he’d been. Would it be possible? Why hadn’t he ever tried a pair of five day back-tracks to replace a single ten-day? Did he have an ability he didn’t realize?”
“Christ!” he blurted suddenly. “San Francisco!”
“What about San Francisco?”
“It was a mess,” Jake said as he tried to think. “I had to make several loops to get things to work out. I’d never done that before and was a little surprised it worked.”
“It was you then. I wondered. What happened there? The reports say someone called in a potential threat the day before, but nothing happened. Then they found the bodies the next day a few miles away.”
“He killed a bunch of people at Ghirardelli. My girlfriend was one of them. We tried to change it by calling the police, but because one of them was a cop, they knew and simply aborted. Then they repeated at the new location. I knew the police wouldn’t believe another call after the first was a bust. I had to stop him.”
