EQUILIBRIUM - BK 2 Portal Chronicles

by Imogen Rose

  We changed into swim wear and dove into Morena’s pool while she was on the phone trying to figure out how she was going to get us back home. That’s what I hoped she was doing anyway. The pool was amazing and I swam up and down enjoying the water. Harry and Kellan lay on the deckchairs watching me.

  “Come join me,” I shouted at them, splashing them with water. They were just about to when we heard Morena shout to us.

  “I have some good news,” she said. We immediately grabbed some towels and went inside. She was sitting by her computer, looking happy. “I just spoke to Kevin.”

  Phew! What a relief.

  “How is he? Where is he?” Kellan asked.

  “He’s okay. He sprained his ankle. He fell while running through the woods. It slowed him down, but he’s okay. He’s on his way back. He should be here tomorrow. You guys should get some sleep and we’ll figure things out in the morning. Let me know if there’s anything you need or want. I’ve made up your bedrooms, they are next to each other up the stairs. Sleep well,” she added, and turned back to her computer.

  My bedroom was very pretty. I wasn’t feeling much like being on my own, though. I snuck through to Kellan’s.

  “Did you call your dad yet?” he asked. “There’s a phone,” he said, pointing at the desk.

  I dialed Dad’s cell, waiting for him to pick up. It went through to his voice mail, as usual. “Dad, it’s me, Arizona. I’m fine. I’ll try and call you later, don’t worry about me,” I said, speaking into his message service.

  Kellan looked at me uneasily. “Shrimp, you must be so torn right now. I just assumed that you were coming back with me, that you wanted to come back with me.” He stopped and looked at me questioningly. “But, it just occurred to me that you may not want to, that you may want to stay here.”

  “I do want to be with you, Kellan. I thought I wanted to be here, in my old life. And when I got back here I was excited, but just for a moment. I missed you terribly. I was beyond miserable without you. I also missed Ella and Harry. I am torn, but I’m sure that I want to be with you.” I went over and climbed into his lap. “I have to make sure that Dad doesn’t worry, though.”

  “Try him again in the morning,” Kellan whispered, as we lay down to drift off to sleep. It was already past one in the morning.

  Kevin joined us for a very late breakfast; we’d all slept in. He looked beat. “Hey, kids. You guys okay?”

  “Yes, you?” we asked in unison.

  “Tired. However, I’m heading over to Ames after breakfast, I just wanted to check in with you guys first. You guys ready to head back home?”

  We all nodded emphatically.

  “Do you know what happened to Simla’s dad?” I asked.

  “No, but I’m guessing he’s making his way over here, to Ames I mean. We’ll have to be very careful. I’m going to head home, contact some people and find out what I can before I head to Ames to figure out how to transport you back. Morena, the kids will be ok hanging with you, won’t they?”

  “Yes, of course, Kevin. Let me know if you need me for anything,” she said meaningfully.

  I wondered what that was all about, there was definitely something implied in that offer. I wondered how long we had. I wondered if Simla’s dad had made it to Mountain View. That would really complicate matters. My main priority for now was to try to get hold of my dad. I needed to be able to reassure him not to worry. I hoped that he was back from Atlantic City by now. It was really annoying that he habitually turned off his cell. After breakfast, I made my way back to the bedroom–that I had not slept in–to use the phone. He didn’t answer again. I called Monica instead.

  “Hello?”

  “Mon, it’s me, A,” I said.

  “Where the heck are you?” she asked annoyed. “I stopped by to pick you up for school and you weren’t home!”

  “Was my dad home?” I asked.

  “No. Well, I guess I don’t know for sure, but nobody answered when I knocked. And I knocked pretty hard.”

  No doubt, I thought. “M, listen up. I’m going away for a while. Can you stop by my house and let my dad know not to worry. I can’t get him on the phone.”

  “Where’re you going?” she asked curiously.

  “To visit Mom.”

  “Again? Oh, okay. I can tell him, although you can try calling him yourself later,” she pointed out.

  “I’ll try, but I think there may be something wrong with his cell, so just give him the message,” I said.

  “Sure, no worries. When are you coming back?”

  “Not sure, take care. I love you.”

  “Okay, A. Take care of yourself,” she said sounding concerned.

  “You, too,” I said, wondering when and if I was ever going to get to see her again.

  Kevin needed to talk to Inez. Although he was almost completely drained, he sat down to think, to gather his thoughts. Kevin was relieved that the children were safe–for now. They would be safe at Morena’s house for as long as he didn’t go back there. His own house was probably under surveillance by Raj’s people and now that he was back here, he was certain that his every move was probably being watched. After all, he was Raj Sen’s only link to the kids now. He couldn’t go back to Morena’s. He couldn’t contact her by phone either. In a way it had been stupid to come back here, he should maybe have stayed at Morena’s as well. But all his data was here.

  He scrambled up the stairs to his office–a room that doubled as a spare guestroom when he was still married. The house had always been full of people then. They’d always needed more than one guestroom.

  He’d left the door unlocked, as usual. There had never been a reason to lock it in the past. He looked around with a sick emptiness bubbling up inside him. He sat down on the stuffed leather chair by his desk, defeated. The office had been ransacked. Not entirely surprising, but it left him totally beat. He was tired, lonely and suddenly scared.

  The heavy footsteps coming up the stairs didn’t help. They couldn’t belong to Raj Sen, Kevin decided as he picked up the heavy vase from his desk, readying himself behind the door. They had to belong to a much larger person. Images of Dan flashed through Kevin’s mind. He wouldn’t stand a chance, unless he managed to get him on the right spot.

  “Dr. Sanderson. It’s Dan. Please come downstairs,” the voice from outside the office boomed.

  Kevin put down the vase resignedly and opened the door. Dan stood waiting for him halfway up the stairs. He was a large man, Kevin sighed to himself. He followed him downstairs and into the kitchen.

  “Do ya have beer?” Dan asked, opening the refrigerator door.

  “No, but there’s some wine in there, help yourself,” Kevin offered, and sat down by the kitchen table.

  Dan returned to Kevin with a couple of cans of Coke and handed him one.

  “Not a beer drinker?” Dan remarked.

  “Sometimes,” Kevin replied. “Ran out.”

  “Too bad. It’s going to be a long day,” Dan continued.

  “It is?” Kevin queried.

  “Yup,” nodded Dan and closed his eyes.

  “So, what’s going on?” Kevin asked carefully.

  “The boss ain’t none too pleased,” he mumbled. “He lost all the kids. Know where they are?”

  “No,” Kevin said. “I need to be out looking for them.”

  “Nah, you don’t. The boss is looking for them. My orders are to keep an eye on you till we find them. It’s a nuisance.”

  “Boss? You mean Dr. Sen?” Kevin asked for confirmation.

  “Sort of. Him and Sophie,” Dan muttered.

  Kevin wondered who Sophie was and how she was connected to this mess. “Sophie?” he asked, not expecting a response.

  “Yup, my sister-in-law. Annoying woman,” Dan sighed. “This isn’t the kind of thing I like to get involved with, but she insisted. I don’t think even she had expected this, though,” he complained.

  “This?” Kevin encouraged.

  “Naw, I shou
ldn’t be talking to you. I’m supposed to just watch you. This is boring. Let’s watch a DVD or somethin’,” he said, and beckoned Kevin to follow him into the den where he flicked through the DVD collection. “Sheesh, this is a lot of odd stuff. You got Terminator or somethin’ like that?” he complained.

  “You could always order something on-demand,” Kevin suggested.

  “Great idea!” Dan exclaimed happily, and settled himself into the comfortable couch with Kevin next to him, for four hours of action movies.

  ~

  She should have heard back from Kevin by now. Morena considered calling him. He’d been exhausted, but even taking into account some time for a nap, he still should have had plenty of time to call her. So why hadn’t he? She had been uncomfortable about him heading back to his house. The people who had abducted him and the kids may be watching his house. What if he had been captured again? She needed to find out. However, she could not risk compromising the kids. They had to be her number one priority. It was the kids they were after. She’d give him until the morning to contact her. If she didn’t hear from him by then, she’d have to get in touch with Inez.

  ~

  Dan’s phone rang, startling him into action. He looked annoyed at being disturbed from his movie. The conversation was one-sided with occasional grunting at Dan’s end. He turned his phone off and looked at Kevin grimly.

  “Well, fun times are over. Dr. Sen is on his way over,” he said, and turned the movie back on.

  Kevin stared at the wall, trying to drown out the annoying sounds of crashes and shooting coming from his TV. He needed to think. He would obviously stick to maintaining that he was unaware of the kids’ whereabouts. That did not sound implausible at all. After all, he had arrived here alone. Could Dr. Sen want something else from him, something related to the portal? Dr. Sen had obviously hacked into the portal system, so why would he need Kevin?

  There was no way he would or could know about Kevin’s connection with the Wanderers, could he? Kevin and Inez had been very careful, very few people knew about her. To most, they had appeared like any other normal couple. They had entertained a lot when she was around–mainly her Wanderer friends. Their whole social network centered on her. He’d never really had any friends of his own. Even Larry had been her contact. Larry’s wife and Inez had been close. Inez was devastated when Larry’s wife died and had made it her mission to watch over Larry and Kellan ever since. Their marriage had eventually died, but they remained close friends. He needed her now.

  ~

  Inez felt a twinge. She closed her eyes. Kevin needed her. Where was he though? David had said that he had been at the back of the van when David transported through with Ella. She wouldn’t be able to find him without a precise location.

  She looked over at Olivia and Ella, who were still sleeping peacefully on the couch. Inez then went over to David, who still looked drained, and kissed his head.

  “Hon, I’ll see you in a little while. I’m going to head over and see what’s going on at Ames.”

  David nodded. “Bring them back, Mom. Bring Arizona back home.”

  Inez noticed Agent Adams car parked right outside the front entrance at Ames. She would have to be careful. She slipped around the back and texted Larry.

  where

  Larry texted back, almost instantaneously:

  op

  She assumed that they were down at the portal, what else would op mean? She let herself in using the key that Larry had given her, and hurried through the corridors to the OP elevator and headed to the basement hangar.

  “Inez, we just got here,” Larry said, pointing to Rupert. “Rup’s managed to recode the portal and hack into the system so that we have sole control.”

  “How’s Ella? And Ollie?” Rupert asked, as he walked over.

  “They’re good, both are sleeping soundly. David is watching over them. They’ll be fine. What’s going on here?” Inez asked.

  “Not a lot,” Larry said. “We have control, but we can’t do much. The energy source to run the portal is completely depleted. We won’t be able to get it up and running for months. All we’ve really achieved is confirming that Erica’s computer was involved in recoding the portal. We’re sure that it was Raj, rather than Erica, who used it, though.”

  Inez nodded, “I’m certain that Erica wouldn’t do anything like that.”

  Larry continued. “So we know that Raj is over in the other dimension with the kids. We have no way to get to them.” Then he looked at Inez thoughtfully. “Unless you help us, of course.”

  “And I will obviously do so, in any way I can,” replied Inez. “We don’t know where they are, though. I need a location. Then if we are going to bring them over, three of us will have to go over. Who? David is drained.”

  Then she added, “I felt Kevin. He needs me.”

  “How?” Rupert asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t even know where he is,” Inez replied. “I think I’ll go through to his house, to see if I can figure it out from there. I could try to check out Ames as well.”

  “You’ll have to be very careful, Inez,” Larry worried.

  She nodded and left to prepare herself for transport.

  ~

  Inez had arrived at Kevin’s house and could hear voices coming from the family room. She had transported herself over to the downstairs closet, just in case there were people about. She was glad that she had. She strained to hear, sliding the door open a tiny bit, to make the noises more discernable. The TV was on, but she could hear at least another two voices in addition to Kevin’s. No wait, three. There were two men and a woman in the room with Kevin. Could it be Kellan, Harry and Arizona? She slid the door open a little further and strained to hear. Footsteps were coming toward her and she hastily hid between the coats, the coats that smelled of Kevin. It was a woman, she could tell by the clicking of the heels against the hardwood floor. Inez caught a vague glimpse of her as she hurried past the closet to the restroom. It wasn’t Arizona. So, it was unlikely that the male voices were Harry and Kellan. So who were they? She strained to listen again. One of the men was shouting–it was definitely Raj Sen. His voice was unmistakable. She’d no idea who the two with him were though. Or what she should do next. Go back and let Larry and Rupert know? Then what? No, best to hang on for a bit longer to find out what was going on and hope that she was not discovered.

  ~

  Raj Sen was furious. His whole body was shaking. Not only had he lost the children, but when he’d made his way to Ames, he couldn’t access the portal. All his carefully laid plans were in ruins. Someone was going to pay! He had to get those blueprints, even if it meant going back and prying them from Olivia’s cold, dead fingers. Yes, dead is what they would be if she didn’t hand them over. Those blueprints were his future, his future in paradise. Kevin had to get him access to the portal.

  “I don’t know how else to explain this,” Kevin said exhausted. “I can’t just open the portal and transport you through. I may be able to hack into the system, but it’ll still not work, not now. There is no energy. It’ll be months before the energy reserves are replenished.”

  “Replenish it quicker,” Raj whined. “This is such nonsense! I need to get back now.” He sat down with his face in his palms. This had to work. He couldn’t get stuck here. “Right, get up! Let’s go. We’re going to Ames and you are going to get the portal working or your life won’t be worth living.”

  “That’s right,” Sophie said, coming back into the room. “Stop stalling with your nonsense. Of course you can get it to work. Let’s go.”

  Kevin got up on his feet, his stomach churning. He needed to get out of here and help the kids. This trip to Ames was going to be colossal waste of time and he would probably end up dead when he couldn’t get the portal to work.

  As he walked into the hallway, he reached into the closet for his Ames pass, which hung on a hook, just to the left, inside the closet. A hand grabbed his.

  “Just going to g
et my pass,” he said, and slid into the closet, into Inez’s arms. “Get me out of here,” he whispered, and closed his eyes. He immediately felt a warm rush of calm and a slight push. When he opened his eyes again, he was standing in Inez’s hallway.

  Inez collapsed into his arms, completely drained. He carried her into the family room where Olivia and Ella were still sleeping soundly.

  “Dad!” David whispered, and threw his arms around his parents.

  “Let me put your mother down,” Kevin said, as he took her to her bedroom and gently laid her in her bed. “Rest,” he said softly, as he closed the bedroom door and made his way to the kitchen to talk to David. “We need to rescue Arizona, Kellan and Harry.”

  “Where are they?”

  “At Morena’s house.”

  “Good, that shouldn’t be difficult then,” David replied. “We’ll go over to Morgana’s and it will be an easy transport.” The two sisters shared the same house, in different dimensions. “We do need the Elders’ permission, though. Mom needs to call an emergency meeting.”

  “Let’s give her an hour and then wake her,” Kevin suggested. “The kids are in safe hands for now. How’s Olivia coping with all this? Does she know about Wanderers yet?”

  David chuckled. “She’s been told, but I don’t think she believes any of it. Not yet, anyway. Is Arizona okay, Dad?”

  “She is, but she’s conflicted about her dad, not surprisingly.”

  “Dad, do you think she’ll come through?”

  “I don’t know,” he shrugged.

  ~

  The meeting with the Elders was a formality, but a necessity. It was protocol. It was carried out efficiently and quickly. Morgana and Lars would go through to help bring the children back. David was desperate to go and get Arizona himself, but accepted that he was not strong enough yet. Inez and David accompanied Lars and Morgana back to Morgana’s house and watched them transport out.

  ~

  I tried calling Dad again, no answer. I was becoming concerned that perhaps Dr. Sen had gotten to him. I had to make sure he was okay. But how? I had no other way to contact him other than calling him. Hopefully Monica would check in with him.