Parallel Destiny

by Simon Rose

  Chapter Ten

  Reunited

  JULIA HAD BEEN heavily sedated at the hospital so that they could easily move her from there to the private clinic. As a result, she was unconscious for much of the journey and didn’t wake up fully until she was in her new room at the clinic. She was no longer restrained but as she sat up on the bed, a quick glance around the windowless room told her that she wasn’t going anywhere. However, Hammond and the others weren’t yet aware of her real abilities, and she’d been able to fight the sedatives a little more effectively than a regular person. She’d had brief moments of consciousness and had managed to access the thoughts of Dr. Bethany. Hammond hadn’t accompanied the ambulance to the clinic and had travelled in his own car but Julia was able to gather some information from the mind of his colleague.

  It seemed that Hammond had been stealing patients from the hospital for a while, targeting those men and women with multiple personality disorders who might also have some kind of psychic ability. He seemed to believe that they really could access different realities and were trapped in the wrong one for much of the time. Julia got the impression that Bethany had once been highly skeptical of Hammond’s theories and had shared the feelings of his professional colleagues, who had often ridiculed him. However, Bethany later came to believe in Hammond, especially when she began assisting him in his work and he was proved to be right. She’d also been ruthless in keeping their plans secret and had personally eliminated some of the people that had stood in their way. Julia noted the name of someone called Krieger, who seemed to work at the crematorium. He’d helped Hammond and Bethany over the years but it seemed as if she was considering killing Krieger soon. Julia had also learned about a nurse’s car accident that had been caused by Bethany, along with some jumbled thoughts about another car accident, which initially Julia wasn’t certain was significant. She then sensed that this other accident was the prime reason for Hammond’s obsession. His wife and two children had been killed in a car crash, and he blamed himself for their deaths, despite Bethany assuring him that there had been nothing that he could have done to prevent the tragedy.

  Julia stood up and stretched, trying to shake off the effects of the drugs. She then paced back and forth across the small room as she went over in her mind what she’d learned. She only had bits and pieces of information but suspected that Hammond had been successful in his work, not just because of the drug that he was producing with materials taken from his patients. The barriers between realities were now weak, and Julia feared that this might be the result of the changes that she and Max had caused. What if they were responsible, at least partly, for what was happening? That would also explain her own presence in a world where she shouldn’t even exist. Max clearly didn’t know her in this reality, but Hammond and Bethany had said that Max was being brought in, ostensibly to jog her memories, but she knew that they’d be looking for something else. Hammond seemed to be well aware that Max and Julia were somehow connected, but he still needed proof.

  Julia knew that she’d have to be very careful once she met Max at the clinic. Hammond and Bethany would be watching for any kind of reaction. As tempting as it was for her to try and access Max’s mind, she knew that she just couldn’t risk it. She might be able to do that without anyone noticing but Max would be sure to react if he felt a strong presence in his mind. Although in this universe he’d forgotten the adventure that they’d undertaken together, she knew that the memories were still locked deep in his subconscious. Even gentle probing would likely cause him to act in a way that Hammond and Bethany would detect. She’d simply have to continue to claim that she didn’t know him and hope that an opportunity arose to escape, although the clinic was no doubt a very secure place. She’d noticed several levels of security doors when she’d been half awake after they’d left the ambulance, then again when she’d been wheeled into the building before relapsing into sleep, just as she reached the room.

  She heard footsteps approaching in the hallway outside the door. She stepped over to the bed and lay down, steeling herself for what was to come.

  WHEN THEY ARRIVED at the clinic, Max and Jensen walked up to the main entrance. The reception area had a number of potted plants and a small aquarium inhabited by a variety of colourful tropical fish. There were four chairs along the wall adjacent to the front desk, where a grey-haired, middle-aged woman smiled as Max and Officer Jensen entered.

  “Good morning. I’m Officer Jensen and this is Max Garrison. We’re here to see Dr. Hammond.”

  “Yes,” said the receptionist. “They’re expecting you, please have a seat.”

  Jensen continued chatting with her as Max sat down. Opposite the seating area was a door equipped with a card-activated security pad, which Max assumed led into the clinic. There was a message on Jensen’s radio, and he stepped outside to answer the call in private.

  The security door opened, and a man and a woman stepped into the reception area. They were both wearing white lab coats and Max assumed that they were doctors. They were both tall, and the man had a thick head of silver hair, while the woman’s dark brown hair was cut in a short bob and she wore dark-framed glasses perched on the edge of her nose. They were accompanied by a man in his mid-thirties, who was wearing a business suit, and an older woman. Both looked vaguely familiar but Max couldn’t quite place them.

  “Thank you so much for stopping by today, Mr. Dexter,” said the woman in the lab coat. “And you too, of course, Mrs. Dexter. We really appreciate it.”

  “No problem at all,” Dexter replied, turning to the older woman beside him and smiling. “It was my mother’s idea to put some of our funds to good use, and we’re honoured that the new wing will be named after my late father.”

  “Jonathan Dexter was a great man,” said the other doctor, smiling. “The honour is all ours.”

  “Thank you,” Mrs. Dexter added. “I look forward to seeing you both again once all the arrangements have been made for the official opening ceremony next month.”

  Mr. Dexter and his mother shook hands with the doctors before turning to leave. As they walked past Max, the woman smiled but Dexter gave Max a curious look. He frowned slightly and seemed as if he were about to say something. He then turned away and continued toward the exit with his mother, passing Jensen in the doorway as the officer stepped back inside.

  THE WOMAN IN the white lab coat walked over to the seating area, followed by her colleague.

  “Hello, Max, I’m Dr. Suzanne Bethany,” she said, gesturing to her colleague as he joined her. “And this is Dr. Alastair Hammond, the owner of the clinic.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Max,” said Hammond, extending his hand. “How are you feeling?”

  For a fleeting second, as he shook the doctor’s hand, Max thought that he recognized something about Hammond, but then the feeling was gone, although he briefly lost focus.

  “Max?” said Hammond.

  “Sorry, yes, I’m fine, thank you.”

  “Good, good,” said Hammond. “I’m sorry that you had to go through that last night. The girl’s a relatively recent patient of ours, as I think the police might have told you.”

  Jensen nodded.

  “Yes, that’s right. We’re still continuing with the investigation but we haven’t come up with anything further yet.”

  “She was in Mountain View Hospital,” Hammond continued. “She was in a private area but not a totally secure one since we didn’t know she was potentially dangerous.”

  “Well, she didn’t hurt me,” said Max. “She just seemed to need help and wanted to talk.”

  “What about?” said Hammond.

  “She said that she knew me, even knew my name.”

  “And does she know you?” asked Bethany. “Or have you met her before?”

  “No,” said Max, shaking his head.

  “Could she be from your school perhaps?” Hammond added.

  “No,” replied Max. “Or at least I don’t think so. I mean, it’s a big scho
ol but I think I’d remember. Is she crazy?”

  “We’re not sure yet, although that’s not a word that we like to use,” said Bethany, smiling. “We don’t have any identification for her at all. We’re hoping that spending some time with you might help to jog her memory. It’ll be okay, someone will be in the room with you, so you don’t need to worry.”

  “I’m not worried,” said Max.

  “By the way,” Bethany added, “we call her Jane, for Jane Doe. No particular reason except that we have no idea who she really is. I’ll refer to her by that name in the interview but she probably won’t acknowledge it.”

  “I’d better be going, if you don’t need me?” said Jensen. “Max’s mother will be picking him up later.”

  “No, that’s fine,” said Hammond, shaking his hand. “Thank you for your help, Officer Jensen.”

  ONCE JENSEN HAD left, Hammond and Bethany led Max through the security door and into the clinic. They walked along the hallway, passing a number of treatment rooms and small offices, until Hammond excused himself and entered one of the adjoining rooms.

  “Thanks for coming in, Max,” said Bethany, smiling, as they reached an intersection. “We really appreciate your cooperation. Mark here will show you to the interview room.”

  She turned toward a stocky, bearded man with red hair dressed in dark blue nursing scrubs. He also wore what Max assumed was a security pass, as well as an alert button, on two separate cords around his neck. The man nodded and Max followed him around the corner. Mark stopped at a door a few feet along the hallway. He selected one of the keys from the collection hanging on a metal ring from his belt and opened the nearest door.

  Max was shown into a bare room containing a plain wooden table with two chairs on one side and a single chair opposite. There was another door at the far end of the room that Max presumed led into the most secure areas of the clinic.

  “Just take a seat here,” said Mark, gesturing to the two chairs. “Dr. Bethany will be here shortly, once we’ve brought the girl in.”

  “What about Dr. Hammond?”

  Harrison pointed up at the wall on Max’s right.

  “He’ll be watching the interview through that camera. It’s just standard procedure really, since we need to keep a record. I’ll be right back.”

  IN ANOTHER ROOM at the clinic, equipped with a variety of computers and monitors that accessed the building’s many cameras, Hammond and Bethany watched one of the screens as Max entered the interview room and sat down at the table.

  “What exactly are you looking for?” said Bethany, observing Max as he gazed around the room.

  “A reaction,” Hammond replied, studying the screen. “Anything that will prove that they have a connection.”

  “From her?”

  “No, she’s pretty good at masking her true identity, although, of course, we’ll know more about that once we begin the experiments. No, I need a reaction from him.”

  “Such as?”

  “A sign that he knows her,” said Hammond.

  “You’re convinced that they’re connected then?”

  “Why else would she seek him out like that after she ran from the hospital? It doesn’t make any sense otherwise.”

  “But how do you think they know each other?” Bethany asked. “He said he’s never seen her before and doesn’t think that she goes to his school.”

  “Like I said, I think she’s not just able to access those other worlds, like we suspect Kendall did. I think that she might actually be from one of those other worlds.”

  “And you think that she’s able to travel between them,” said Bethany. “Just like you do when we run the missions?”

  “Yes, but she doesn’t need the drugs to do it. I’m not sure how, but we both know that, when we tested the fluid that Eastwood took from her at the hospital, the results were very impressive.”

  Bethany nodded.

  “So, she probably has some psychic ability or something similar, like we’ve always suspected that some of these people have. But if she’s that different from the others, her parents must have been psychics too. Perhaps we should be looking for them?”

  Hammond shook his head.

  “She could certainly have very powerful parents, but we have no idea where they’d exist, or existed. The girl might not even know that, and there’s no guarantee that the parents are also able to move between the different realities anyway.”

  Bethany thought for a moment.

  “Do you think the boy’s got some kind of ability too?”

  “I don’t think so,” Hammond replied. “I checked his medical records and there’s no indication of anything unusual. I pulled some data on his parents too. His father’s never really had any health issues, although his mother was referred to a psychiatrist as an adolescent. It was after she’d had some bad nightmares but it just seems to have been part of her growing up. I’m not ruling anything out at this stage though. Let’s just see how things go today.”

  On the screen, they saw Mark and another member of the staff arriving at the interview room with Jane Doe.

  “Here she is,” said Bethany, as she stood up, adjusting her earpiece. “I’d better get in there.”

  THE DOOR OPENED, and Mark and one of his colleagues entered the interview room with the girl from the previous night. They held her arms firmly as they walked her over to the table and sat her down on the chair opposite Max. Bethany then entered the room and took a seat next to Max at the table. Mark and his colleague took up their positions on either side of the door that led into the secure section of the clinic. As Bethany sat down, Max heard a faint voice. Glancing sideways, he assumed that she must have been receiving a message in her earpiece, presumably from Hammond.

  “So, Jane,” Bethany began. “As Dr. Hammond and I told you, we thought that having Max here might help you to remember some things. When you were talking to Max at that park last night, you said that you knew him.”

  “I don’t remember talking to him,” said the girl.

  “Well, you did talk to Max,” Bethany explained. “We’re simply trying to work out if you know each other.”

  “Does he know me?” asked the girl, looking at Max.

  “No,” he replied. “I’ve never seen you before last night.”

  “So why is he here?” said the girl.

  “We’re just trying to help, Jane,” said Bethany, smiling. “We thought that having Max here might help you remember who you are or at least trigger some memories about your identity, perhaps about your family or your friends. We care about you and only want to help.”

  “Can I go back to my room now?” the girl asked.

  Bethany sighed and glanced over at the camera as she received a message in her earpiece.

  “Yes, I suppose so.”

  She turned to Mark.

  “You can take her back now. Thank you for coming in, Jane.”

  Bethany rose from her chair as Mark and his colleague took a step toward the girl. Suddenly a series of sparks burst from the camera mounted on the wall. Max started to panic, wondering what was happening and worried that there might be a fire, before he suddenly lost consciousness.

  “MAX? MAX, WAKE up, we have to go.”

  He was shocked when he opened his eyes. He was lying on the floor beside the table. The girl was leaning over him, shaking him by the shoulders.

  “What’s happening? What’s going on?” asked Max, in utter confusion, as he sat up and unsteadily got to his feet.

  On the wall, wisps of smoke were still drifting away from the camera’s outer casing. Bethany, Mark, and his colleague were lying on the floor, seemingly unconscious.

  “What’s happened to them?” said Max in alarm, taking a couple of steps backward.

  “They’ll be fine,” said the girl, calmly. “But we don’t have much time. We have to go.”

  “Not much time for what?” said Max, edging toward the door through which he’d entered. “And go where?”

  �
��It’ll all become clear,” she said, smiling. “Now, don’t be scared, this shouldn’t hurt a bit.”

  She stepped towards him, trying to touch his face with her hands, like she’d done at the park.

  “Keep away from me,” said Max.

  “I need to access your mind, Max. We know each other, very well. I just have to help you to remember me and everything that we’ve been through together.”

  “Hammond was right,” said Max, continuing to back away. “You really are crazy.”

  She stopped a few feet in front of him.

  “Okay, I was hoping not to have to do this,” she said, and then paused. “Your mother’s from the Czech Republic. Her name’s Marina and she had visions and strange experiences when she turned twelve. You’re worried because you’ve had some recently too.”

  “What?” said Max. “How could you possibly know that?”

  “Because we know each other, Max. Please let me show you.”

  “I don’t believe you,” said Max. “Dr. Hammond could have told you about my mom.”

  The girl tried again.

  “You thought you saw me, in the kitchen at your home,” she said. “Have you had any visions about a man with a deep scar down the side of his face?”

  Max shook his head.

  “This is impossible,” he said. “Who are you?”

  “Let me show you, please. I won’t hurt you.”

  Max was still extremely reluctant, but nodded once. She took a step forward and locked her eyes on Max’s with an intense gaze. She then gently placed her hands on either side of his head, her fingers spreading out around his skull before everything went black.

  Chapter Eleven

  Worlds of Wonder

  MAX’S MIND WAS flooded with thousands of images of people and places, moving at breakneck speed, so fast that he couldn’t pinpoint any of them. When he opened his eyes, he was no longer in the clinic’s interview room and there were images swirling all around him combined with the sound of thousands of voices all talking at once. He gasped when he looked down and saw that there was no floor, although somehow, he wasn’t falling into the thick swirling mist beneath his feet. The images around him spun faster and faster until they were nothing more than a blur. Max’s entire surroundings then began to transform, like an enormous painting left out in the rain, with all the colours running and merging together as the scene before Max’s eyes seemed to be melting into nothingness.