He was still pretty confident that he could put the FBI on the right path with a tip from his Felix the C.A.T. alter ego. But, now it dawned on him that he might be able to give them a bigger head start. After all, he was a man with a good deal of money and a lot of free time. He might be able to spend that capital and use what he knew to find out some things which would jog his memory. If so, he could increase the Fed’s chances of preventing the attacks. And if he couldn’t, the only loss would be time and money, both of which he had in abundance. Having gained both time and wealth due to his time travel, he could easily afford to give some to this cause.
He settled on the idea that he would make this the focus of his life when he returned from his vacation. And when he had learned whatever he could learn, or when 2001 arrived, he would turn whatever he knew over to the FBI and let them takeover. That gave him about a year and a half to work.
Having resolved to do this, he arrived in Detroit feeling a sense of purpose and clarity. He felt almost as he had when he had first watched that Abu Nidal hijacking and made it his mission to stop the World Trade Center attacks. After a long break, he was going to be proactive once more, and he liked that.
Seemingly on cue, that clarity was almost immediately replaced with the fog of uncertainty. The day after his arrival he found out why Trina had kept him apart from her family, and her husband, whenever he returned to town. She and Paul had been having trouble for a while. She had wanted to confide in Lovelle, but Paul had become rather jealous. She hadn’t wanted to make matters worse by bringing Lovelle closer, and had even kept it from Paul when Lovelle was in town. Despite her efforts, Paul had moved out and she had filed for divorce.
“How did you get over it?” she asked Lovelle about his own divorce.
“I don’t know that I have. I think I just adapted. I think maybe I’m still damaged goods, and I’ve just learned to deal with it. I know that probably isn’t helpful to hear.”
“No, no. I need to know.” She implored him to continue.
“Well, I don’t have to tell you that I haven’t had any kind of real relationship since I left her. You’ve seen me jumping around from woman to woman. Maybe I just haven’t found someone I can get close to. But, it feels a bit like I just can’t take the next step.” As he spoke he began to question his own assessment of himself. Trina was forcing him to be introspective in a way he had been avoiding, albeit unconsciously. “But that’s just me. I wouldn’t necessarily expect someone else to respond the same way. Maybe I wouldn’t have responded that way if circumstances were different.” And what Lovelle was realizing was that suddenly circumstances could be different. Suddenly, he might just have someone to fall in love with.
For the longest time Lovelle had been holding out hope that Katie would separate from her husband. She had given him no reason to believe that she might, or that she would be interested in him even if she were available, but, he still held out hope. Now, here was Trina in that very situation. Lovelle knew full well that she had once carried a torch for him. And even though she had told him that she was over him, that was a long time ago. She had even hinted that she had not been resolute in this proclamation when they talked before his wedding. Whatever the case, Lovelle was determined to find out. However, the timing was all wrong. He was not about to cancel his plan to do his own reconnaissance on the terrorists. But how was he to get Trina to wait for him in the mean time?
He saw her twice more before returning to Vegas. When he was with her, he felt like he had rolled back the clock to sixteen years old yet again. Once more he imagined that Trina could be a great love, and again he was compelled to resist the temptation to find out. Once it had been out of love for Katie and his unborn son Kyle. Now it was out of a sense of duty.
The return of those old feelings was simultaneously bliss and pure torture. It had been quite a long time since Lovelle had cried about the loss of his son. He thought about him often, but it was generally just fond remembrances of things they used to do. This reminder of how it had felt to be desperately trying to get his life back put him more in touch with those feelings than he had been in a very long time. The emotional up swell actually felt, in some strange way, good. He had needed the emotional release.
His feelings about Trina were also contradictory. Lovelle was both hopeful and frustrated. Before he had to leave, he asked, or more precisely, begged Trina to come visit him. He was determined to follow through with his investigation, but, he desperately wanted Trina to wait for him. Since he couldn’t ask her to, he hoped that if he kept her close then she might choose to wait for him; at least for a little while. All he needed was about eighteen months.
Thinking about it, Lovelle wasn’t so sure that this would be a problem. A year and a half might actually be a good time frame. Trina was unlikely to be ready to move on yet anyhow. She was surely still stinging from the failure of her marriage. All he needed to do was to keep her thinking about him until he was ready to ask.
*****
Once Lovelle was back home he threw himself into his research project. The first thing he had to do was to take stock of what he knew. This was easy, since he had been logging any and every thing he remembered for the past dozen years or so. What he really had to do was to organize the data and decide on a plan of attack.
The essence of Lovelle’s knowledge was four names, and a little bit of info about each of them. He did not include Osama Bin Laden since the Feds were already quite aware of him, and Lovelle didn’t figure to be able to discover anything about him that wasn’t already known.
He knew Mohammed Atta to be the pilot / hijacker of greatest prominence in the investigation afterward. Lovelle wasn’t really sure why Atta had been singled out, but he was working off the assumption that Atta had a more significant role in implementing the plot than the other hijackers. Frankly it really didn’t matter how prominent his role, because Atta was, in fact, the only actual hijacker that Lovelle knew by name, such had been the focus on him. He remembered that Atta had spent time in Germany, as did others involved in the plot. He was also pretty sure the man had trained at a flight school in Florida. Lovelle figured on spending some time in each of those places.
The other prominent name from the attacks was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Lovelle was relatively certain that Mohammed was the primary architect of the attacks. He knew little else of the man except that he had been involved in numerous other terror attacks by now, and must already be on the FBI’s radar. This meant that he, like Bin Laden, would not be Lovelle’ first concern. He did not want to cover the same ground that government investigators were already covering. Lovelle could come back to him as time permitted.
Zaccarias Moussaui was the most significant other name Lovelle could produce. If he remembered correctly, there was some confusion as to whether Moussaui had any direct roll in 9/11. But he was quite sure that Moussaui had been arrested before the actual attacks. So why hadn’t he tipped anyone off while in custody? Was it because he didn’t know anything, was strongly resistant to the interrogation, or simply wasn’t pressed very hard? Moussaui could potentially be a productive target. Lovelle just had to decide how to play that card.
The final name was Richard Reid. He was the infamous ‘shoe bomber’. Lovelle was pretty sure that Reid had no real attachment to the plot, but, he was hoping that Reid knew about it and could provide that info under pressure. Lovelle knew him to be British, and he thought that Reid might be the easiest to put under scrutiny if he could get the British authorities involved. He also realized that his perception of British counter-terrorist capabilities might have been skewed by its portrayal on television, but, he saw the Brits as a little more aware of the terrorist threat, at least prior to 9/11. That kind of stood to reason, because, like the rest of Europe, England had not been as isolated from terrorist attacks as the U.S. had been.
Although Lovelle had some idea of where these men were before the attacks, his notions were pretty general. He had little idea of how he migh
t actually find them within those general boundaries. Of course, he wasn’t really looking to play hero. He had no desire to make contact with these dangerous individuals himself. All that was likely to lead to was his premature death and maybe an increase of caution on the part of the terrorists. But Lovelle thought he might be able to learn something valuable if he could observe them. He might learn the names of some of their associates. He might jar his own memory and reveal another name or detail. Or he might learn some little tidbit that would assist investigators when he finally handed things over to the authorities. Or maybe he could just give his own story added credibility.
Lovelle decided that the first order of business would be a trip to Germany. His recollection was that Atta was living in Hamburg, but he didn’t have a great deal of confidence in that particular memory. He did a little checking on the background of the city, which added nothing to that confidence. Lovelle had hoped to find that the city was a hub of Islamic fundamentalism, or even just host to a large number of Middle Eastern immigrants like his own hometown, Detroit. Instead he found nothing to implicate the city in any way. But, he could find nothing to point him toward anywhere else either.
That being settled, he booked his trip to Hamburg. He gave notice to the school district, which left Lovelle with just enough time for a short notice visit from Trina.
*****
Trina called less than two weeks after his return. She was going to be in town for a long weekend with a friend from work. That left him wondering if the point of her trip was actually a getaway with a friend, or a visit to him. She hadn’t even mentioned a name, which had Lovelle entertaining the terrible idea that she might be coming with a guy. She certainly wasn’t acting as if it were a visit instead of a vacation. She booked a hotel on the strip and rented a car. She informed him that she would just call him when they arrived.
That Friday he drove anxiously to meet her and her ‘friend’ for dinner. He was instantly relieved to find that her friend was a very pleasant woman in her late 50s. She was a Vegas veteran who had asked Trina to go with her several times in the past. Trina had previously refused out of concern that it would only exacerbate her already troubled relationship with Paul.
After dinner, Trina said good night to her travel partner and she and Lovelle went off on their own. From there on out, other than breakfasts with her friend, Trina spent all of her time with Lovelle. By the time of their dinner on Sunday he was compelled to make mention of this.
“I feel guilty. You haven’t spent any time with Lois. She’s been asking you to come out with her for two years, and now it’s almost as though she had come alone.”
“Don’t worry.” She reassured him. “This is her idea. She knows how much I wanted to see you.”
“She’s a sweet lady.” Lovelle said appreciatively.
“Yeah, she is.” Trina took a bite of food then added tentatively. “She wants to see us get together.”
“Get together?” He was so caught off guard by her bluntness that he didn’t even have to feign astonishment.
“Mm-hmm.” Trina nodded in assent, almost as if she wished she hadn’t said anything. Now Lovelle wondered if his reaction had made it seem as if the idea was somehow preposterous.
“Where’d she get an idea like that?” He continued, knowing full well that at the very least Trina must have told her about their past.
“Don’t be coy!” she snapped, no longer shying away from the subject.
“Me? Coy?” he teased. “I’m not the one beating around the bush here. If you have something to tell me, why don’t you just have at it?” Although he had previously decided that he wanted to avoid this subject until after what he was now calling his “research project”, Lovelle couldn’t help himself. He was uncontrollably anxious to find out where she stood on the subject.
“Fine.” She said as if to say you asked for it, “I want to know if there’s still some reason that we can’t be a couple. Are you still hung up on whatever was keeping us apart?”
“No.” he said seriously, “That went away a long time ago.”
“So why didn’t you tell me?” She sounded irritated and skeptical.
“Uh... maybe because you told me not to.” Now he was irritated. “I know you haven’t forgotten about your big speech.”
“No.” She answered sheepishly then turned it back on him. “Well, how about now? Is there anything stopping you from asking me out now?” She seemed to be expecting another excuse.
He wanted to blurt out ‘2000 miles’ but thought better of it. It was an obvious answer, but it was also a lie. He was actually more than ready to move back to Detroit for her if he had to. The real problem was his mission, which he had no idea how to explain to her. He hesitated too long in formulating his answer and she cut him off angrily.
“Don’t bother trying to come up with an excuse. I figured as much. You know…” she started to tear up and her voice got shaky, “I should have known better than to ask you again. I always knew you just didn’t like me like that. I just wish you would have told me in…”
“Wait a damn minute.” he snapped. “Don’t get all upset with me. You didn’t even give me a chance to answer.” He paused, “Now listen… I want to be with you more than you can even imagine. I have never once, from the day I started to like girls, not wanted to date you. From the time you first asked me, to the time you told me you were through waiting, it took every bit of will power I had to not give in to that temptation. I will never really be able to explain to you why I had to say no, but I swear to you that it killed me to have to.” Lovelle stopped for a moment to let that sink in.
“But…” she started and he had to cut her off.
“Wait a second. Let me finish.” his voice softened, “I’ve been holding this in for too many years. Just let me get it out.” He paused again to organize his thoughts. “I didn’t hesitate because I have any doubt that I want to be with you. But, I do have a problem. I have something to do, and it’s gonna take me some time. It doesn’t have anything to do with you, or us, or relationships, or anything like that, and all I need is some time. If you can live with phone calls and occasional visits for a while, I promise, that when I get done, I’ll give you all of my focus. I’ll move back to Michigan if you want me to, and do everything to make up for lost time that I can.”
“It’s okay,” she said hopefully, “We don’t have to wait. I was ready to move here if you asked me.”
“That’s just it Trina, I’m not gonna be here either. I have to do some traveling. I’m not entirely sure where or for how long yet. All I know is that, I’ll be done in about a year and a half.”
“What do you have to do?” She was understandably perplexed. Lovelle didn’t exactly have a history of adventure and mystery in his life.
“I really can’t say.”
“Come on!” she said exasperated, “Don’t play games with me. If you’re just trying to find a way out of dating me, I really…”
“Stop it!” he cut her off. “Trina!” he said as seriously as he could, “I am not lying to you. If I wanted to string you along then this wouldn’t be so hard. Lying is easy. I could make up a story if that’s what I wanted. Being honest is the challenge. I have never strung you along, and I never will. Can’t you tell how dead serious I am? You’re my best friend, and I love you. I’ve loved you that way for longer than you can imagine. And I feel like I’m just the slightest bit away from being ‘in’ love with you. And I can’t wait to be there. I can’t imagine anything better than being in love with my best friend. So I’m begging you. Let me take care of this thing. All I want is time. We’ve waited so long. And I know that it was my fault. But, couldn’t you just wait a little longer now? I’m sure I don’t have the right to ask, but I have to.”
She didn’t say anything. She got up from her seat, walked over, took his hand, and lifted him gently. She embraced him and placed her lips on his for the first time. His knees nearly buckled. The anticipation of that moment s
tretched back nearly 40 years, and nothing had stirred him that way since first falling in love with Katie. It was a simple kiss. She pressed herself up on her tip toes and pulled gently down on his neck to close the gap in their height. Then she softly laid her lips on his. There was no movement, no pressing, just a delicate touch, which lingered teasingly. But, there was more passion in that simple kiss than he had experienced in this lifetime. And without a word she went and sat back down.
He sat himself back down, struggling to catch his breath, and stared at her for a long moment. “I’ve wondered what that would be like for so long.” She just smiled like she knew exactly what she was doing to him. “I take it that means yes?” Lovelle questioned hopefully.
“What’s a little more time?” she shrugged. “You just have to promise me a few visits while I wait.”
“As much time as I can spare. I promise.”
“I’m gonna hold you to that.” She paused for a moment then continued. “Is there anything you can tell me about what you’re doing? Can I at least know where you’re gonna be?”
“Not very much. All I can really tell you is that I have a research project to do. It’s sort of a government thing, but, not really. I’ll be in Germany in a couple of weeks. From there I just have to go where the project leads me.”
“How did you get mixed up with the government? I thought you were a teacher now.”
Time Skip Page 12
