EQUILIBRIUM - BK 2 Portal Chronicles

by Imogen Rose

  “Dr. Sen, thank you for your cooperation. A few agents are going to stay here and watch the place, I hope that’s all right with you,” Claire stated rather than asked. She needed to head over to the Moreau house, not that she expected much.

  Erica nodded as Claire got up to leave. “Could I have my cell phone back now?” she asked.

  “Sure, I’ll have an agent bring it by,” Claire said, as she headed for the door. She got to her car and brought up the Moreau data on her iPad. The Moreau family consisted of the father, Pierre, the mother, Glenda, and one daughter, Ariele. Claire studied the faces carefully. They didn’t have the same serene look as Erica and Grayson. These three looked uptight, perhaps they’d had a spat before these pictures had been taken. They were new to the area. Claire scanned their profiles and then punched the address into the GPS and headed off. The Moreau residence was about forty minutes away. Five minutes later, her phone rang–it was her personal ringtone, could only be Harriett.

  “Hey, Mom! When are you going to be home?” came the sweet, little voice over the phone. Harriett was four and the love of her life. Claire had been through a gruesome adoption ordeal with her partner, Andrea, to be allowed to add Harriett to their family. Harriet called her mom and Andrea, mommy, to distinguish between them.

  “Baby, I won’t be back for a few days, but I’ll Skype with you later and tell you a story,” she promised. These sorts of days away were so difficult. She was so glad that Andrea had opted to be a stay-at-home mom. Claire couldn’t have done this job otherwise.

  “Promise, Mom?”

  “I promise. I have to go now. Mom’s driving. I’ll see you later.”

  “Bye, Mom. I love you,” her darling said so sweetly that all Claire wanted to do was drive straight home.

  “Love you too,” she said. Thank goodness for Skype.

  Claire would have missed the entrance to the Moreau house had it not been for the numerous squad cars parked outside. It was very different from the two she had just visited. It was well hidden from the main road, behind tall trees and untrimmed bushes. It was small, but pleasant-looking. Her notes told her that it was a rental. The search had come up empty here as well. She walked into the small kitchen where the mother, Dr. Glenda Moreau, had been sequestered. She had decided to speak to her first, as she was the primary contact between the two families. Claire wondered why the elegant-looking woman seemed so tense.

  Glenda felt tense. She had no idea what was going on. Olivia had called her last night to find out if she’d seen Arizona or Kellan. Then she’d called her back to ask the same about Harry and Ella. Something serious was up. And she just knew that it was somehow linked to the October Project. But she couldn’t talk about that. She didn’t even know much, though she had been able to gather from her data at Ames that it had to do with time travel. She was sure that Olivia had built some kind of portal. Why had her house been searched? Was it just random? She would have to be very careful with what she said to this agent. She hoped that her husband and especially Ariele wouldn’t let anything slip inadvertently.

  “Dr. Moreau, I’m Agent Adams. Could you tell me how you know Dr. Darley?”

  Glenda flinched. Nothing she said would check out. She first had noticed Olivia when she was a student at Imperial College in London during one of her physics lectures. Olivia had been one of the brightest students she had ever had. Coincidentally (although she now wondered if it indeed was just coincidence), they had both relocated to New Jersey, but they had not come into contact with each other there. Glenda had been busy at the astrophysics department at Princeton University, while Olivia had been working secretly at Ames while pretending to be a stay-at-home housewife. She could hardly share that with this agent though, could she!

  “Dr. Darley head hunted me for a job.” She decided to be as brief as possible.

  “What kind of job?” Claire persisted, sensing that Glenda was terribly uncomfortable.

  “Oh, at Ames. Dr. Darley is my boss,” Glenda explained.

  “Do you work with Drs. Weeks and Sen?” Claire continued.

  “No, not directly,” replied Glenda, wondering where this was going.

  “Do you know them at all?” Claire asked surprised. She had wrongly assumed that they all worked together.

  “Not really. I’ve seen them about, of course. But, I haven’t talked to either of them,” Glenda confirmed.

  “So, your projects are completely separate?” Claire probed.

  “To be candid, I really don’t know. Larry Fox heads the department and Olivia works for him. Olivia employed me. I believe she also supervises whatever Erica Sen and Grayson Weeks are working on. I have no idea if all the projects are linked. I’m at present just crunching data. I’m fairly new to the department.” Glenda knew how improbable this sounded and anticipated the next question.

  “What sort of data?”

  Glenda tried to keep it simple. “Highly complex collider data.” She looked over at the agent. Her eyes definitely glazed over when the word collider was used. Good. “Have you had any news of the children?”

  Claire was taken aback. “How did you know that they were missing?”

  “Oh, Olivia called me last night to ask if I’d seen them.”

  “Why would you have seen them?”

  “Well, not me exactly, I guess. My daughter Ariele is good friends with Arizona, Kellan and Harry. They hang out at school and outside school, as well. I guess Olivia thought that she may have heard from them.”

  “Could I speak with Ariele?” Claire asked.

  “I’d rather you don’t. She’s very upset. But if you must, I’d like to be present. She’s upstairs with their friend, Ali, at the moment. Ali’s very upset, as well. They’re all very close.”

  “I’m going to have a quick chat with your husband. Can we speak to the girls then? I’ll have one of the agents call Ali’s parents for permission,” Claire assured Glenda.

  Glenda’s heart was racing as she nodded at Agent Adams. This could all go horribly wrong. What if Pierre or Ariele let slip that they had arrived here from the future? She hoped that they had learned their lesson the last time they had done that, during their psych evaluation after their accident. It hadn’t been an easy time for Ariele, or her husband. After all, they had not devoted most of their lives to studying the possibility of time travel. At least her mind was open to the possibility, which was why Olivia had brought her over. Ariele had just been thrown into a different time/dimension with no warning and no explanation and had been expected to deal with it. When they’d asked questions, they had been labeled as mad. So Ariele knew to keep quiet, but could she under pressure?

  Claire did not spend much time asking Pierre Moreau questions. He was a fairly nondescript, harmless-looking man. Not that his appearance made any difference to Claire. She was way too experienced for that. However, unlike his wife, he seemed to be genuinely lost. He had no idea what was going on at all. He had never met any of the kids, nor knew the other families. He had just been offered a French teacher’s position at the high school, which he seemed happy about. Claire decided that, for now, she was wasting her time with him. For now, she really wanted to talk to the daughter, Ariele, and her friend Ali.

  “Dr. Moreau, can we speak to the girls now?” Claire asked, walking back into the kitchen.

  Agent Baker interrupted them. “I haven’t been able to get the girl Ali’s parents on the phone. So I guess, you can only speak to Dr. Moreau’s daughter for now.”

  “Okay, thanks, Keith,” she said, as Glenda went up to fetch her daughter down to the kitchen.

  Glenda was so glad that she had been allowed to get Ariele herself.

  “Mom, did they find them?” Ariele asked, as soon as Glenda opened the door to her bedroom. She looked at her daughter and then at Ali. They both looked like they had been crying.

  “I don’t think so. I don’t think they would be here if they had. They’d like to talk to you, Ariele. It’s a nice agent called Claire.
”

  “Why me?” Ariele asked temperamentally.

  “Well, actually, both of you. But they can’t get hold of your parents for permission, Ali. So, just you for now, Ariele. Come down with me, they are waiting. Will you be all right up here on your own for a bit, Ali?” Ali nodded as the two of them closed the door and headed down to the kitchen.

  “Hello, Ariele. My name is Claire. I just have a few questions to ask you.”

  Ariele looked at the small, blond lady in the kitchen. Not at all what she imagined an FBI agent would look like. She nodded politely and sat down on one of the bar stools. “Have you found any of my friends?” Ariele asked directly, staring at Claire.

  It was best to keep Kellan’s return under wraps for now, for his own safety. However, she could tell that Ariele was not going be fobbed off. “Ariele, I have to keep all that sort of information confidential for now, for their safety. I also need to ask you some questions for the same reason.”

  Ariele nodded, reluctantly.

  Claire continued. “Do you know anyone who may want to harm your friends?”

  “I guess. Not Ella, though! Who’d want to harm her? Arizona, Kellan and Harry have a thing going with Simla and Justin.”

  This was the second time this had been mentioned, so Claire delved into it. “Can you tell me exactly what happened?”

  “I guess it started when Arizona decided to try out for the ice-hockey team at school. Justin wasn’t pleased.”

  “Why not?” Claire inquired puzzled.

  “’Cause he’s an ass,” Ariele said rolling her eyes. “He didn’t want a girl playing for the team. So the four of them got into it, that’s Justin, Arizona, Kellan and Harry, at the rink parking lot where Justin sort of lost cred in front of his pals. Anyhow, Simla was none too pleased. We think she’s Justin’s hook-up, but don’t know for sure. Anyhow, Simla cornered Arizona in the restroom at the high school and choked her half to death.”

  “I didn’t see a police report that mentioned Simla’s name, although the altercation was mentioned,” Claire said.

  “Yes, that’s because Arizona didn’t want anyone to know that she’d been taken down by Simla. She was going to take care of it herself,” Ariele said.

  It was Glenda’s turn to roll her eyes.

  Ariele continued, “So, that’s it. Justin and Simla hate Arizona and the boys.”

  “Do you think they could be involved in their disappearance?” Claire asked, totally unconvinced that a teenage spat could be responsible for their disappearances.

  “Wouldn’t be the least bit surprised,” Ariele responded.

  “Any ideas on where we could find them? We’ve already checked their homes,” Claire asked.

  “No. I don’t really know them at all. Did you try their cells?” Ariele asked

  “Yes. They’re not picking up, but we’ll keep trying. Is there anything else you want to tell us that may help?” Claire asked, watching Ariele intently. Before her was a very confused teen. She could see it in her eyes. She definitely had more to share.

  “Nope,” Ariele said firmly. “Just find them.”

  “Well, thank you both. I’ll probably be back with more questions, but will leave you for now.” She stood up to shake hands with Dr. Moreau and Ariele. As she shook Ariele’s hand, Claire could feel something scratching her palm. She gently enveloped it with her fingers and put the scrap of paper Ariele had surreptitiously handed to her in her pocket, making sure that Glenda didn’t notice. Why was Ariele handing her a note? A secret note. She couldn’t wait to get out of there to find out. As soon as she was safely back in her car, she extracted the note and carefully opened it up. Two words.

  time travel

  She had only met Inez a few times before, but Olivia had immediately bonded with her. She looked fondly over to Inez now, standing at the doorway to Kellan’s hospital room. Olivia rushed over and threw her arms around her, hugging her close. She instantly felt comforted, just like she had the last time she had met this wonderful lady.

  “How are you holding up, Olivia?” Inez asked her, feeling the tension exuding from Olivia’s body.

  “Not very well. Not good at all. I feel like I’m going to fall apart and it’s taking everything I’ve got to keep myself from turning into a mess. I keep trying to focus on remembering anything that will help find the kids.” Then she stopped. Maybe she shouldn’t have said anything about the kids, the FBI agent had asked them not to. Inez did seem to know something was up. So why lie?

  “I gather Kellan has been found. Can we go in and see him?” Inez asked.

  “Sure,” said Olivia, opening the door and letting Inez pass through first. She followed closely behind with Rupert.

  “Inez!” Larry exclaimed, still holding on to Kellan’s hand. “What are you doing here?” he asked in surprise.

  “I knew the children were missing, so I came to lend my support and assistance,” Inez offered quietly. “Are the others still missing?”

  “Yes,” Larry said carefully, looking over at Olivia and Rupert. Although both Rupert and he were aware of the Wanderers, neither Olivia nor Kellan knew of their existence. This was probably not the time nor place for a quick lesson into the dynamics of inter-dimensional wandering beings. “How did you know they were missing?”

  “Erica told me. We keep in touch,” Inez mumbled, aware of Olivia carefully listening to every word. “Larry, I need to talk to you privately. May I do so? Would it be possible for you to leave Kellan with Olivia and Rupert, just for a little while?”

  Larry looked over to Olivia who nodded, slightly reluctantly. She was curious to hear what Inez wanted to talk about. However, she walked over to Kellan’s bedside and Larry put Kellan’s hand in hers, very gently, so as not to wake him up. He needed to rest. The earlier questions from the agent had exhausted him. He looked down at his son, gently kissing his forehead before he left the room with Inez.

  “Rup, what do you think is going on?” Olivia asked her husband.

  “With Inez?”

  “Yes. She asked if she could be of assistance. How? Isn’t she a school teacher or something?”

  Rupert looked over at his beautiful, worried wife. For the longest time, he had wanted to share with Olivia the existence of the Wanderers. It would have helped to explain to Olivia the one mystery that she hadn’t been able to crack in all these years–come find me two years ago. But, he didn’t have permission to do so. So, much as he wanted to, he just couldn’t. That was Inez’s call to make. “Yes, she works at the library as far as I know. I guess we’ll find out soon enough what she meant. I doubt Larry will be away from Kellan too long. So be patient, honey.”

  Olivia nodded and looked down at Kellan’s hand. He was wearing a ring, which was very unlike him. She wondered if Arizona had given it to him. His hands still bore the marks from where Arizona had dug her nails into his skin, holding on to him for comfort, after Simla had assaulted her. His strong hands lay so limp in hers now as he peacefully slept. She loved Kellan, like her own. Her own son, Harry, regarded him as a brother. Arizona had thought of him as a brother, too, until the strange events had started a couple of weeks ago. That’s when it all changed, even the relationship between Kellan and Arizona. That had been a nice change and their new closeness seemed to be based on genuine caring.

  “He looks so peaceful,” Rupert whispered. “As if he’s not been through this terrible trauma.”

  Olivia nodded. “Rup, I’m so scared, so scared for the kids. I’m too afraid to think.”

  Rupert took her free hand and squeezed it. “Me too.”

  ~

  “Larry, let’s head outside and talk in my car,” Inez said gently, as she took Larry by the hand and led him toward the elevator. “I know you want to get back to Kellan, so I won’t keep you long.”

  Larry nodded and willingly followed Inez. It must be important. If Inez was here, it was probably because Kevin had sent her. That meant that this probably pertained to the portal, which wasn’
t his concern for the moment, but it was best to listen to what Inez had to say. She would not have pulled him away from Kellan’s bedside for nothing.

  Once they were cocooned in the safety of Inez’s car, she took a deep breath and turned to Larry.

  “Larry, I’ve had a message from Kevin.”

  “I guessed that,” Larry replied. “Does this have to do with the portal?”

  “Sort of,” Inez continued. “Arizona called Ames from New Jersey. Luckily the message went through to Kevin, who contacted her.”

  “Arizona! You’re kidding? Really? This is too good to be true. We’ve got to tell Ollie,” Larry exclaimed euphorically.

  “No, wait!” Inez said firmly. “Think about it, Larry. Arizona spoke to Kevin,” emphasized Inez.

  Larry was sleep-deprived and not on the ball. How had he missed that? Arizona spoke to Kevin. That could only mean one thing.

  “Larry, Arizona woke up in her bed in Princeton. She’s fully aware of what she’s been through in the last few weeks. She’s scared, but she’s physically unharmed. She was with Kellan when they were taken. Kevin’s on his way to Princeton to talk to her.” Inez hesitated before she added, “We’ve sent David over to check on her as well.”

  “David?” Larry inquired surprised.

  “Yes. He is ready to wander on his own, so he took off to check on Arizona. I’m expecting him back with a report any moment.”

  “Inez, are Ella and Harry with Arizona?”

  “I have no idea, Larry.”

  “We’ve got to tell Ollie and Rup. Possibly Kellan as well,” Larry said looking at Inez’s expression change.

  She nodded. “You’re right. I won’t be able to, without exposing myself to them. Do you think Ollie and Kellan will be receptive?”

  “I don’t know, Inez. We have to explain it in a way that forces them to be.”

  ~

  As Rupert had predicted, Larry and Inez were back in Kellan’s room with them very promptly. Kellan had awakened and was sitting up in bed looking much more alert than before. He was feeling stronger now and was getting impatient sitting in bed. He needed to be up and looking for Arizona. He looked up at his father inquiringly.