by J. T. Bock
His injured look pricked at Kali’s conscience. She shouldn’t judge him without knowing him. Maybe he wasn’t like those elitist children of her mother’s so-called friends, who loved to point out how Kali didn’t fit in with their hoity-toity world.
“I joke when I’m stressed. Alleviates the tension and helps me focus,” Kali explained.
Max bobbed his head, accepting her indirect apology.
“The guy’s name was Stockwell, if his uniform is to be trusted. Have you seen him before?” Kali took a bite of her chocolate roll cake.
She offered the other to Max, who surprised her by taking it.
“I’ve never met him before. In fact, I’m still trying to wrap my head around what we just did and what Stockwell can do.” Max popped the whole treat into his mouth then licked his fingers.
“Get in line. I’m the only one with this ability in our universe I’m aware of, which makes me wonder if Stockwell is from another one given the vibes coming from his portal. I can’t travel to our past. I can only travel to the past of an alternate universe that intersects ours, too many paradoxes to travel into our history, which I ultimately proved.”
Then Kali had an idea, which might explain why Sean wanted to meet with Max. “Is DERST Industries or your competitors working on a device like the one Stockwell was wearing?”
Max’s fingers stroked his jawline. “No, nothing at all like that.”
Kali recognized a partial truth when she heard it, but she couldn’t blame Max for not sharing trade secrets with a stranger.
“Why would this man want me?” Max sat down on a beanbag chair in front of her desk. Styrofoam crunched as he adjusted his long legs and wriggled his butt into a comfortable position.
“You tick off any dimensional travelers?”
“I don’t know. What do they look like?”
“Judging by Stockwell, they’re not all as cute as me.” Kali smiled to herself. Now she was feeling better. Must’ve been the Ho Hos.
Max didn’t acknowledge her quip. Eyes averted to the floor, he appeared lost in his own world.
Kali walked around the desk to retrieve her purse from the floor next to the safety circle.
“I should call Sean and check in with him. He’s the guy who tackled Stockwell.”
“Offer him my thanks. Was he your date?”
Kali choked back a laugh. “Good lord, no. He’s my boss, Sean Vivas, one of the owners of UltraSecurity and son of Dr. Victor Vivas, the man behind TransGen.”
“I know of them.”
“Trust me, there’s nothing between us. I did Sean a favor tonight by showing up. Plus, I was suckered into going,” Kali added the last part under her breath.
From behind her, the beanbag chair emitted crunchy sounds as Max got up.
“I can relate. I owed my best friend a favor, and he stuck me with escorting his sister Mia to this dinner when he got called out of town.” Max stood over Kali while she rummaged in her purse and pulled out her phone.
“Lucky you. Mia Minx lives up to her name.” Kali scrolled through her contact list to Sean’s number.
“I never got your name.” Max touched her wrist before she rang Sean.
Caught off-guard, Kali considered giving her real name. Most likely he’d find out because of the party and his contacts in the industry. But with what he experienced of her power, she felt more at ease saying, “UltraAgent TimeTrap. They let us pick our agent names so I chose my first boyfriend’s band, TimeTrap. On hindsight it was probably not the best name choice. I don’t trap people in time, per se, although I probably could.”
“Why did U-Sec get invited to Deandra’s party on that Real Life Reality show?”
Kali decided glossing over the truth would be the best response. Make Max work to figure out her identity. “That’s a long story, involving years of family drama and consistent maternal disappointment.”
“Oh, okay.”
Good, she confused him enough so he wouldn’t pry deeper.
“By the way,” Kali said, ensuring her boss would be indebted to her, “Sean’s been trying to meet with you. Since we saved your life, I hope you’ll pencil us in.”
“You bring me Stockwell, and we’ll talk about it. But I want you there. I want to learn more about TimeTrap.”
Kali raised her brows at Max’s half-cocked smile. It gave him an endearing boyishness that she couldn’t decide was a false front or how who he really was under his self-assured CEO exterior. Kali knew better than to think someone like him would flirt with her. Circumstances notwithstanding, she wasn’t his type, as men like Max had told her in the past. Good for a laugh, a screw and that’s it. No, he wanted to learn about TimeTrap’s ability and how to replicate it and perhaps how to use her. Kali knew the drill, which is why she set the terms of her contract with TransGen and U-Sec. No one would ever study or use her without consent.
Kali selected Sean’s number. The line didn’t ring or go to voicemail, nor did Sean pick up.
Her stomach twisted.
“What’s wrong?” Max asked.
“Sean’s phone is not responding.”
Kali hung up. The phone rang. Her mother. She didn’t want to talk to Deandra, but she was Kali’s best bet to learn where Sean was.
She moved over to the soup poster and put her back to Max.
“Please tell me this conversation isn’t being taped,” Kali whispered into the receiver.
“Are you okay?” Deandra asked with actual concern. A tone she hadn’t heard from Deandra since 10-year-old Kali burnt her hand on the stove trying to make Pop-Pop’s favorite soup.
“I’m fine. Max is fine. We’re both safe.”
“How did you do it? I’ve never seen anything like that, except at a magic show in Vegas.”
Kali’s stomach twisted tighter. So concerned with getting Max to safety, she forgot about the cameras, the cast and crew—and her mother—witnessing what she’d done.
“Magic. You guessed it.” Simplest explanation is the most believable. “That’s what Krispian had written on my performance card. Now, can you put Sean on—?”
“Kali Abigail Bordeaux, don’t you lie.”
“I’m not—”
“I remember what you were studying. Multiverses, M-theory, then there was the Minkowski space-time something or other and a quantum transference theory. I know what you were doing. Same as your father. But you did it. You figured it out.”
Kali must be hallucinating. They must’ve spiked her wine, because her mother never showed interest in her studies. She always changed the conversation to fashion or celebrity gossip or her new boyfriend whenever Kali began explaining her forays into physics.
“I didn’t want that for you. It drove your father to his death trying to prove his theories,” her mother went on.
Kali sighed. It wasn’t his obsession but his weak heart that did him in.
“We’ll talk about this later. Put Sean on the phone, I can’t reach him on his,” Kali said.
“Sean’s gone. He and that madman disappeared right after you and Max did.”
Kali’s legs wobbled. She somehow made it to the couch before her knees buckled and she dropped down. “I need you to tell me what happened.”
Next to the bookshelf, Max turned toward her with his phone in his hand. His eyebrows hiked in a question. Kali shook her head.
“Sean had him pinned on the table. Two guards were handcuffing the intruder when a bright light lit up the room like a flashbulb, and poof, all of them were gone.”
Max’s weight depressed the foamy lip couch next to her. His knee rubbed against hers. Kali sensed his gaze on her face but she kept staring at the red circle on the floor.
A man she’d never seen before had taken Sean, possibly to an alternate universe or possibly somewhere here, in her big, wide world. How could she find him? It was hard enough looking for a missing person in a city let alone another universe or the entire world. Like finding a needle in a hay pile the size of a thousand
Mt. Everests.
“The police and FBI are here,” Deandra interrupted Kali’s thoughts. “I’ll tell them that you and Max are safe, but they’ll want to question you, so I suggest you come back here.”
“All right,” Kali answered, her mind a universe away figuring out her next steps.
“They’re reviewing the footage from the cameras.”
“What did they capture?” Kali asked.
“Everything,” her mother replied.
Chapter 3
Kali let every expletive she knew tumble off her tongue, but it didn’t make her feel better. The cameras recorded everything. No doubt Krispian would leak the video to Internet and media outlets despite U-Sec and law enforcement rules against releasing evidence about a current investigation. It was a ready-made viral marketing clip too perfect to ignore.
Kali dialed Sean’s business partners, Pax and Gloria. No response. How was it possible that neither were answering? Didn’t U-Sec’s owners have their phones surgically implanted into their skulls? She was sure that rule was in U-Sec’s handbook somewhere. Kali kicked off her slingback heels and began pacing the length of her office.
“What’s going on? What happened to Sean?” Max looked up at Kali.
“Gone. He disappeared with Stockwell right after we transferred out.” Kali threw up her hands. “And I can’t reach the other flippin’ partners, and the FBI and police want us back at Deandra’s so they can question us.”
“We’re not going back. They can’t help us.”
Kali stopped pacing. “Exactly, they’ll hold us up. I could track the path of any ions left from Stockwell’s alt-jump, but that would require getting into the dining room and trying to explain to the authorities what I need to do. It’s been fifteen minutes, and the odds are against me finding anything left. Plus, I prefer to not pop into that dining room without clearing our path.”
“What could happen?”
“I project where I want to travel through the dimensional plane. But at times a sizable object, such as an animal or car, will cross through my zone and shove me into the closest empty space. Feels like a linebacker elbowing me in the gut. Can knock the air or food out of me. Not a pleasant experience. Hence the safety circle in my office.”
“Then why did the chandelier explode when Stockwell appeared?”
“Not sure. He might be applying more intense energy than I do. Like he punched a hole through the dimensional plane as opposed to opening a window. But that’s a theory. I do know that my energy is spent. I don’t have enough to transport both of us more than a few blocks. The Ho Hos, although yummy, aren’t the fuel of champions.”
“Let’s rewind a minute.”
Kali made the sound of a tape rewinding.
“Are you stressed, again?” Max punctuated his question with an endearing, cockeyed smile.
“You’re a quick learner. Stupid noises, along with jokes and puns, calm me down. Stress also makes me aroused. Not sure why.”
Max’s mouth dropped open.
“And I said that last bit out loud.” Good news. Her face was no longer pale.
Max cleared his throat. “Right, then. Ions. What type of energy bursts are we talking about? Would they show up on satellite surveillance or infrared detectors?”
“Small amounts of gamma radiation followed by a field of dark energy could be measured through fluctuations in the gravitational field. You got any dark energy detectors laying around?”
Max heaved himself off the foam lip cushion. “It’s settled then. We’re going to my house.”
“Come, again?” Did he take the arousal comment as an invitation?
Max’s hiked eyebrow told her they were on different pages in different books from different libraries. “I have the equipment at my house that can help us. Did you think I was hitting on you?”
If Max hadn’t asked the question so condescendingly, Kali might be embarrassed instead of insulted.
“Yeah, that would be ridiculous.” Kali snorted.
“Oh.” Max’s face clouded over and, to his credit, he did appear ashamed. “Oh, no. I didn’t mean it that way. I only—”
“I get it. I’m not your type.”
“That couldn’t be ... hold on, are you joking again? It’s hard for me to switch gears.”
“Of course, I’m joking. I just didn’t expect you to have that device in your house.” Kali gave him a playful slap on the shoulder that made her palm sting, the slap harder than she intended.
Max inched back and crossed his arms. “I work from home most days on projects our board opted not to fund, so I fund them myself. DERST can run itself the way my father restructured it.”
“It’s your father’s company?”
“No, the boy genius who built DERST from the ground up was my grandfather. Dad ran it after him, but he’s retired now and touring the world with my mom.”
Exactly what she figured. Trust fund baby with a billion dollar company handed to him. Kali’s former stepfather was one of those. Didn’t have to work a day to inherit a family business worth millions. Ended up spending a fortune on poker and women other than Deandra.
“Lucky you.” Kali tried but failed to keep the sarcasm from her voice.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Must be nice to inherit a business.”
“No, it’s not. Because people don’t give you credit or respect for any work you do.”
Max had a point. It wasn’t fair to judge him, but Kali couldn’t stop herself. At Harvard, during her undergraduate studies in physics, silver-spoon guys like Max claimed the school accepted her either because she was a woman and it needed to make quota or because her stepfather paid off the president, even though her mom had already divorced him. No comment about her test scores rivaling theirs or their parents’ generous donations to the college. And don’t get Kali started on her master’s experience at MIT.
“I’m sorry.” It was unfair to put him in a box. Didn’t Kali get upset for believing Max was doing the same to her? “It’s my baggage. Nothing against you. I’m twitchy. I don’t know what to do, because I’ve never been on a case without support from my bosses at U-Sec. To top it off, I’ve lost one of them and it falls on me to find him.”
“You’re not alone. Stockwell was after me. I want to find him and Sean as much as you do.”
Max stared at her again with an intensity that made Kali squirm. His gray eyes held onto hers emphasizing his sincerity.
“Besides, there are perks to owning your own defense and technology corporation.” Max pressed several numbers into an application on his phone.
Kali shook her head. The spell was broken. Max’s cocky attitude made her regret her apology. Next he would start issuing orders.
“We’ll review the data I have at my house and see what we can find. Let’s move.” Max opened and then stepped through her office door, but Kali didn’t follow. “Come on. We need to go. We’ve wasted enough time.”
And here comes the alpha attitude.
“Time is relative. I’ll meet you out front in a minute.” She shut the door in his face.
“I’m not leaving here until you come out.”
Kali squatted and lifted the edge of the couch. Her gut said to bring her private journal, so she threw it into a canvas bag along with her tablet computer.
“It’s been a minute.” Max knocked on the door.
“Didn’t I say time was relative?” Kali countered.
She grabbed her U-Sec uniform of matching black pants, shirt and jacket hanging on the hook and steel-toed boots from a cubby next to the couch and shoved everything but the jacket in the bag. Not Kali’s favorite fashion pieces but the only clothing on hand. Plus, the flowing Halston dress that made her feel like an angel—not the constipated ones on her mom’s dining table—would get in the way if Stockwell made an encore appearance, and she needed to defend herself. Kali was a lover and a scientist, not a fighter, but working at U-Sec required her to have training in basic we
apons and hand-to-hand combat. So far, Kali never had to use either.
Max knocked again.
Kali’s growing annoyance fueled her power. She popped out of the room and into the empty hall in front of the elevator. Against the cold December night, she slipped on her jacket before hitting the down button.
“You coming or what?” Kali shouted to Max.
He looked from the closed office door to Kali back stepping into the open elevator. He ran down the hall to catch up.
“That’s not fair.” Max wedged his arm into the elevator’s closing doors.
“Welcome to the real world.” Kali smirked and held onto the wall when the lightheadedness returned. Without much fuel, she’d pushed her power tonight to the limits. But that last stunt was worth it to see the shock on Max’s face.
Outside the building, a red Lamborghini purred from a parking spot alongside the curb.
“And this must be your big bonus,” Kali uttered.
“What?” Max asked.
“Nothing.” Kali dipped down to peer inside when the door slid up and open. “Who drove it here?”
Max gestured with his phone. “Lisa did.”
Kali looked up and down the empty street then shrugged.
“While you were on the phone with Deandra, I sent her our coordinates via an app on my phone, and here she is.” Max spread out his arms as if to embrace the car.
“Lisa is the car?”
“Yes.”
“Lisa the Lamborghini?”
“Yes.”
“Whatever floats your boat.” Kali sunk down into the low leather seat.
“Is Lisa your girlfriend?” she asked when Max slid into the driver’s side.
“Of course not, she’s a car.”
“I mean, is there an important somebody in your life named Lisa?”
“The name, right.” Max pressed his thumb against a circular print reader next to the steering wheel. The car’s brake disengaged and it shifted into first. “LISA stands for Linux Inter-tech Self-driving Automobile. We won an R&D contact with Lamborghini to create this beauty, and I was the lead engineer.”
LISA smoothly accelerated from the curb without Max’s hands touching the wheel.
