“Yup.”
We spent the rest of the afternoon studying the exact times that Ash had entered the portal, where he'd gone and where they fit on an eight-year timeline. When he reached Hitler, the time he'd spoken to him, the answer jumped out. Or one of them did. Either Hitler changed his future strategy and war against England became primary, or Ashley's chat with Winston provided the catalyst.
“How do we tell which it is?” Ashley asked.
“Not sure. It may not matter. Our objective is closing the other dimension. You made all these trips from here. So we keep going backwards until we reach them all. Then we'll see.”
“Fritz, I can't be sure, but my visit with Churchill stands out. Right before, when I saw Lee, Lee could see his future, but Churchill couldn't. What if meeting him in his future and sharing the same information both in his past and his future, blocked his view?”
“But you said he remembered you, and our future visit, just not the rest of the war. And that's when the other Ashley showed up, that car accident with Sandy. Maybe you shoved other you into the next universe. We need to find out.”
I wrote a paragraph to outline what our next step needed to be. If his chat with Churchill was the key, then that would close us into only this dimension. Lee would still see his future and I wouldn't be able to see Kate again. I didn't mention that to Ashley, but the plan now required care.
“This complicates matters, doesn't it?” he asked.
“We'll figure it out. But I don't want to be stuck here.”
His response hit me, hard, when he sat up and said that our goals differed. Ashley almost never loses his temper, but he shouted. “We're at cross-purposes. I know you, Fritz. You don't want to go home. If you want to stay, fine, but figure out how to get me back first.”
When I didn't respond, he pushed away from the table and walked out the front door, retrieving for me a memory of the same empty feeling I'd had when he was shot. I had always known that he had never lacked courage, that I couldn't have a better friend. I'd always sensed that Linda liked him better than me. Don't be stupid. She married you. I had to consider what going home would mean. But that would have to wait. The weather people predicted another storm for Monday.
As expected, the rain came. But we couldn't try the portal until evening. We went alone, just the two of us, and waited in Ashley's classroom. The storms were scattered and predicted to continue through the night.
“Here we are, waiting again,” said Ashley.
“And proving one thing. We've forgotten what we recognized from the start. The portal is dangerous. Playing with time isn't a game. Tell me what will happen if I go home. I can't see it anymore.”
“Like I told you before, Linda came home as soon as she found out you were in trouble. I didn't have enough time with her to know her reasons, but the portal scared her, from the start. She told you that. You, we, never really considered the problems we were creating. We ignored every sign.”
“We did some good things with it, Ash.”
“Enough to make wrecking our lives worthwhile?”
“I don't know.”
“I do. It was. I'd never have met Jane if you hadn't found it. But we abused it. All those trips to the past, talking to dead people. Telling them, showing them what their futures looked like.”
“How do I go home? She said she doesn't love me.”
“You remember that? She's had her life jumbled, just like you. Maybe she was more susceptible to the changes. She warned us. You'll only find out if you go home. Remember why you're here. You wanted to prevent all the bad things the Caballeros did. And we can't go home until you undo it all. Fritz, none of what you've done or seen is real. Not for you. Not for me. We're just actors in this play.”
A distant rumble caught our attention. If we could be travelling, it would be soon.
“Here's the plan if we go,” I said. “We do the two Gettysburg trips and then Hitler. He has to see you, but you won't say anything. Then, Churchill. One of them will close the other dimension.” Those words halted me. Ash had been pacing, and stopped.
“So this is it. Fritz, if you're right … you need to decide now.”
I stared past him, at the ugly walls. My worlds were intermingled, and only one could survive. I stood at the windows, watching the trees bending in the storm, and swaying back in retaliation. Then a final thought made it to the surface. “Ash, if we succeed, will any of this have even happened? Will we remember?”
“I don't know. I guess it depends on where we go back to. If we can.”
Rumbles and flashes passed nearby for two hours. The rain had been steady, but neither of us could open the portal. As midnight approached, we agreed to try with the next storm.
Chapter 44
Ashley
FRITZ GATHERED THE notes and I grabbed the books. We walked toward the car as the rain fell harder. Natalie's VW turned into the lot. She parked right at the curb in front of us.
“I thought you'd be here. Any luck?”
“We were just leaving,” I said.
“Don't go yet. I came when I saw the weather report. A line of thunderstorms is coming fast. They even put up a tornado watch. Stick around for another half hour and see.”
As if she'd ordered it, a crash overhead opened the spigot. She climbed out, and in the twenty feet back to the door, we were drenched. Hurrying to the classroom, we were chased down the hall by a blinding flash, and rattling lockers welcomed us back. We set up the trips just as planned. When the next flash came, I grabbed the doorknob—nothing. Fritz said to open the door, let it close, and try again. Still nothing.
“You have to go in, so let me try.” After the next flash, Fritz grabbed the doorknob, nodded and pulled. I stepped through, into the rainy hills above the Potomac. A glance around, a gust of wind, and I returned, as wet as I'd been minutes earlier. Fritz opened the door and flipped through the next book, Longstreet's memoir, and clipped it, while I dripped in the hall.
“We're making a mess again,” Nat said.
Fritz said, “We'll get it later. We don't have much time.” He pulled again, and the billowing smoke on a warm breeze hid my steps. Longstreet held his binoculars at his chest, staring at me, and two soldiers were taking aim just beyond him. I nodded and made a most hasty exit. Two bangs on the closing door must have been musket balls chasing me.
“That was close. Last time, Longstreet didn't see me. He did this time.”
“That may be helpful later, but let's finish this,” Fritz said and replaced Longstreet with “Mein Kampf.” He looked at my soaked clothes and asked if I was ready. I told him I was, but before he opened the door, he said, “Wait.”
“Why?”
“If Hitler is the change agent, when you come back, that closes the dimension. Lee saw his life in the future. Maybe we should do that first.” For most of the time since he found the portal, I had trusted his choices. But closing the route to that dimension prevented another trip that he wanted to take.
“Why does that matter?”
“If he can see his future, maybe he can see how we cross dimensions. He might be able to help us get home.” His logic made sense, but his voice lacked its usual passion, especially when going to visit Lee.
“Fritz, we both know that we control the portal. You will see Lee again. He said so. We can set that up. But if we don't close that connection, we can't undo the Kopplers.”
He licked his lips, deciding how to respond to me. But he looked away. Something else held him back. In the moments he hesitated, his eyes began to cloud and tears trickled from the corners. Then he looked at me squarely. He had made his decision.
“Let's get you home.”
He reached for the doorknob. Hitler looked from the cell window, his back facing me. As much as I would have liked to stay longer, I stepped backward into the school, watching him until I could no longer see him.
At the next stop, Churchill paced his office, reading from a handful of papers, talking to himsel
f. I lingered a bit longer, listening as he prepared a speech. As he started to turn, I stepped out of the portal.
“Okay,” Fritz said, “one last stop.” Unless I had done something I couldn't remember, the Wrights would be my last trip. As I stepped through, Orville looked right at me. He told Wilbur that I'd returned. But I had returned to Riverboro before he got a response.
“Wait, we missed Lee. We need to go see him. I went with Sandy, in this dimension. That's when he could see the future. I don't know which dimension I was in, but that's the same day that other me came back. We have to make sure I didn't bump him.”
“I can't believe we forgot that. Then we'll do Churchill again.”
“Will the order matter?”
“We'll find out soon enough.”
In theory and according to our plan, we had now reversed all we could. But out of order. We waited a week for another storm, and Fritz's last check of McNamara's. I hoped our guessing proved correct. Fritz had moped for a week, hardly speaking to me. We believed he'd been right, and the dimension should be closed. Now, we had to work out reversing the Koppler mess.
“Let's try something different,” he said. “Instead of McNamara's, let's go to the Cozy Kitchen.”
“Why?”
“If the dimension is closed, I won't surprise anyone. Kate will know me if it's still open. We have that news clipping to connect us.”
“Can you do this without changing anything?”
“I said I'd get you home. We need the lightning, but that should do it.”
I never doubted that he'd find a way to see his lady friend again, but I agreed. A storm waited all day until evening when it finally rolled through. Not wasting time, we waited for a flash, and I opened the portal. I watched Fritz cross the street and turn down the alley. In about five minutes, he returned.
“It's closed.”
“How do you know?”
“I went in the kitchen door. I set the time so I would go in during breakfast. Seamus was cooking. He asked what I wanted. I told him I wanted a smoke. He gave me two and told me to get lost. Kate was at the window. Neither of them recognized me.” Fritz dripped tears as he spoke. “I've relived every day that I've known you. I'm not sure I can go back to what life used to be.”
“No one said life would ever be easy. If you go home, to our real lives, maybe all you've been through will be just a vague memory. We need to get home to find out.”
I've had hints, feelings, forebodings, that Fritz might not be entirely forthcoming even if I convinced him that we'd succeeded. Warmer weather promised that we'd have access to the portal, but no means to get home. We still needed to reverse the initial act that started all this. If Fritz crossed into this dimension when he shot the Kopplers, then getting out required a plan we agreed would work. Every day without a storm allowed time to be exact. Natalie's notes, and her objective analysis, kept Fritz from drifting. In the daytime, I prepared for the end of the school year, while he became progressively more remote.
By Memorial Day weekend, my classes were caught up, finals were prepared, the seniors had their college plans completed, and police visits had ended. Even Rachel and Nicole had found common ground. They helped teachers keep the peace, surprising the staff and particularly George.
At home, however, Fritz became a disagreeable guest. He'd stopped cleaning and cooking, shopping and cutting the grass. When I asked what he did every day, he said, “I took a walk.”
Saturday brought a downpour. Waiting in the lot for our arrival, Nat, wearing a yellow slicker, leaned in the driver's window of a police car. She said we all should get out of the rain. Chief Shaw climbed from the car.
The four of us dripped a path to my door. Fritz placed the book on the desk, and I checked where he'd placed the paperclip.
“You don't think I know how to do this?” he growled.
“I want to be sure where I'm going. This trip ends the questions, so I need to be exact. I want this over, Fritz, even if you don't. So let's do it.”
Natalie and Shaw waited by the door, side glances at the grumbling they had witnessed, standing in the small puddles we had brought with us. I tapped the doorknob. No buzz. Fritz said we had to wait for lightning, and so each with our own thoughts, we silently stood in the hall. Nat had been following the storm radar on her phone, and said the storms were going by to the north. After a few minutes of trying the door, I said we should go in the class and wait. Fritz growled that we were wasting our time.
“Do you have pressing business somewhere? Maybe a date?”
“Stop, Ash,” Nat said. “That doesn't help.”
“Sorry, but we can't fix this mess if we're somewhere else. Nothing,” I looked at Fritz, “is more important. So we're gonna wait.” My anger rose, but I didn't say more. My doubts increased that I could count on Fritz, something I had never doubted in our real life. He sat in a chair at the back, arms crossed, staring out the windows.
“We're making a mess here,” Nat said. “Water everywhere. I'll get some towels.” When she stood up, a crack of thunder jolted us. But still no lightning. I followed her to the hall.
“Nat, unless we get some help from Mother Nature, we should forget it for tonight. This will dry. Don't worry about it.”
“According to my phone, there's a heavy band on the way. I'll get the towels. I think we should stick around a little longer. Do you think this will work?”
“I hope so. Fritz annoys me more each day, and he refuses to talk. Your notes are my only source of how to attack the problem.”
She patted my cheek, and went to get the towels. When she returned, the three of us were back in the hall. The buzz tickled my fingers.
“Ready?” Fritz said he was. “Where's the gun?”
“I didn't bring it. I can't kill them if I don't have one.”
“That's not the plan. I have to stop you.”
“We only have to go in and step out.”
“You're improvising. We've spent weeks on this, Fritz. Don't screw it up.”
“Don't tell me how to do this. I know what I need to do.” At that moment, the chance of going home dropped off the charts. I would be on my own.
Chapter 45
Fritz
I WAITED FOR Ashley to open the door. Natalie tackled the puddle by the door and stopped to watch as the door opened. In front of me, the party materialized, just as it had eight years before. I took the step across, and surrounded by shrubs, watched men rushing to the piled bodies. A second later, a hazy figure appeared nearby.
“Go back, Ash,” the other dimensional me said. “The paperclip is wrong. Time changed.”
“No, that's not what happened. We're in the other dimension. Like when I first found you. I don't know how it happened. Can you see your portal?”
“Yeah, right here.”
“I'm leaving. You should as soon as I'm gone.”
As soon as he exited, I met him in the hallway and closed the door.
“What happened?” Nat asked.
“The other dimension isn't closed, or we just re-opened it,” Ashley said. “Do you know?” He was talking to me, but the tone wasn't questioning, but accusing.
“We jumped to the universe where you found me. I thought the lightning caused the bridge, but another variable must be in play. If that's so, then I'm not sure closing the other dimension even matters. But I need to be in this dimension to reverse the killings. So let's try again.”
We went to the desk and I looked at the paperclip. We needed to enter earlier, but not much, so I nudged the clip. When Ashley opened the door, I could see the Kopplers alive again, setting my heart pounding, knowing they had ruined my life.
“Chief Shaw, Ash is right. Can I borrow your pistol?” He glanced at Ashley, who nodded. “I'll bring it back in a minute.”
As if it had just happened, I could recall the hate that drove me at these men.
That hadn't changed. I waited in the bushes, concealed and safe for the moment. From where I stood,
ten steps, three shots and I would be gone. I checked that the chamber held a bullet, and released the safety. Most of the security guards and secret service agents faced away, and were nowhere close. I held the pistol close to my leg, and took a step toward my targets.
From behind, my collar was gripped and I found myself airborne, weightless, until I crashed on my back. Ashley interfered, trying to keep me from killing those bastards.
“Let me up, Ash. I have to do this.”
“You did it already. We're trying to reverse it. Don't you remember?”
I swung the gun from my side at his face. He blocked it, but my finger found the trigger. I pointed it at him.
“Back off, Ashley. I have to do this.”
“Calm down. I'm not the enemy. Give me a chance to get up.” He started to get off me, then dropped his knee on my right hand and punched me on the jaw. He squeezed the top of my shirt, and banged my head on the ground.
“Get off me.”
“You need to come with me. The portal is making you do this. You don't remember why you're here now.”
I'd never seen him so angry and I had never tested his strength. With no help from me, he pulled me upright, and in the same motion picked up the gun. The rectangle of the portal was in front of us, only a couple more steps.
From behind us, a voice said, “Stand still and put your hands up.” A secret service agent pointed a gun.
Without loosening his grip, Ashley said, “We were just leaving, James. See you soon. Say hi to Lucy.” As soon as James Williams leaned in for a closer look, with his gun lowered, we were through the portal. Before we stopped moving, Ashley slapped me.
I rubbed my cheek, feeling the welts from his fingers. “What did you do that for?”
“I want to be sure you're back to normal. Do you know what just happened?”
“Yeah, I just shot the Kopplers. For ruining our lives. You should thank me.”
“Brian, take this.” Ashley passed him the gun. “How many shots have been fired?” The chief switched the safety back on and sniffed the barrel.
The Portal At The End Of The Storm (Quantum Touch Book 6) Page 25
