Useless ideas flooded his panicked mind. Finally, he faced Alex to admit his failure. “Never have I not known what to do. I may have chosen the wrong path but I had a plan. I’m...I’m...,” he stumbled over the shameful confession he was about to make. “I am at a loss here. Do I set up camp at the outcropping and wait for the right storm, knowing the danger they’re in, if not at the moment, very soon?”
“That’s what I’m leading up to. I donated that piece of land along with a surrounding parcel of land to Dr. Oliver Gordon.”
“I know.”
“The parcel I gave him starts at the outcropping and includes a strip of woods east and north to where his field camp is set up. He and his crew have lived there since I signed the land over.”
Roger shrugged. “How are a scientist and his aides of use to me?”
“He’s not just a scientist. He’s an astrophysicist studying time-travel. Search now because it will make you feel better and because everyone expects you to. If you don’t find the women, and I doubt you will, we’ll meet with Dr. Gordon. He may have insight the rest of us don’t have.”
“I’ll do anything to find them.”
Alex set a hand on Roger’s shoulder. “I’m going to see him now and will let him know what happened and that we might be in contact. When I’ve finished, I’ll come back and help in the search.”
Roger nodded and mounted.
Alex took a couple of steps and turned back toward Roger. “If it’s any comfort, Electra knows what happened to you and Stephen. If they are caught in a time warp, she’ll catch on quick and take every precaution.”
“I agree—if she knew, but she doesn’t.”
“You haven’t told her?”
“No. I was going to today when I proposed. I wanted her to know the truth before she said yes, or no.”
Roger expected some kind of reproach, but it never came. He never held much belief in hope. He’d experienced its failure too often. Despite his previous disappointment though, a glimmer of hope remained. Should the search turn nothing up, Alex’s friend might know a way forward. Then the glimmer flickered out. “I pray God there’s a much simpler cause behind their disappearance than a time warp. Just like no one I knew in the past can reach me, how can I reach them if they’ve traveled to another time? I doubt even your scientist knows.”
“No idea. With all my heart, I hope I am wrong but—” Alex shrugged. “Take off. I’ll get you on your cell when I’m back.”
Roger cued Conquerant into a trot, his mind on Alex’s scientist as he rode into the woods. No one could explain why the four of them, Alex, Shakira, Stephen, and himself traveled through time. Why they were chosen, if choice played a part? Was it all random? If Alex’s theory was right, a connection to this place that differed only in time existed. If the women had been victims of a time warp, would they be lucky enough to land in a year known to him and Alex, Stephen and Ian? If not, he feared all was lost.
He halted Conquerant at the edge of a cliff overlooking the Severn River. The river wound its way through the western border of the shire. From the top of the cliff, it looked like a ribbon of mercury that ended at the Bristol Channel. Curiosity compelled him to watch the sky over Bristol Bay. Lightning still flashed behind the cloud barrier. Could such an everyday phenomenon be the cause of the women vanishing? It seemed weird, but something had happened, something he couldn’t explain. Lightning seemed as good an explanation as anything else.
At sunset, the police called off the search until morning. The officer leading them took Terry aside to question him further. Terry hadn’t initially been asked more than the most basic questions pertaining to his and Janet’s whereabouts earlier in the day. Roger stood near enough to hear the interview curious to see which direction the police would take this time.
They asked several questions related to the women’s state of mind and relationship with the family. Terry bristled at the innuendo a problem in the family might be responsible, that the sisters deliberately disappeared. The police had to ask, but Roger knew the family didn’t have serious troubles. Electra would’ve discussed it with him. Neither woman lived at home. They each had their own apartments. If a family problem existed, they’d simply stop visiting their parents until the issue blew over. They needn’t disappear to make a point.
****
Roger rode Conquerant back to the stable and then went home to change out of his riding gear. Alex had called and said he’d pick him up and they’d go together to meet Dr. Gordon. Talking to the physicist was a last resort. If he hadn’t been desperate, Roger would’ve happily left Gordon’s group to their experiments and devices. If he hadn’t personally experienced being swept through time, he’d have dismissed talk of time travel as the ravings of a madman. Even desperate, he had grave misgivings as to how much, if at all, the scientist could help.
“I’ve been thinking and questioning why we’re here?” Roger asked Alex as they approached Dr. Gordon’s office, which also served as his temporary home. “This man hasn’t discovered a means of time travel yet. All he can do is tell us what hasn’t worked. Basically, he doesn’t know much more than you and I.”
“We’ll run the super lightning theory by him. It doesn’t hurt to hear any thoughts he has regarding the connection.”
“This is Roger Marchand, the man we discussed,” Alex said as they stepped inside the scientist’s trailer. The mobile served as his office and his home.
“Dr. Gordon.” Roger extended his hand and they shook.
“Please, call me Oliver.” Middle-aged with wire-framed glasses, stylish and well-trimmed grey hair, he wore a crisp cotton shirt tucked into neatly pressed jeans. Not at all how Roger pictured a man of science. He pictured him as having old-fashioned black frame glasses with unkempt hair, a sweater vest with a bow tie and rumpled corduroy trousers.
Oliver led them through a room with banks of computers along both walls and a white grease board with symbols that looked Chinese to Roger. He knew from television shows they were math formulas, but none were like any math he’d ever used or needed. The desks the computers sat on were blanketed in paper with graphs and more math scribblings.
“Have a seat, gentlemen.” He gestured to two overstuffed chairs covered in faded fabric worn thin on the arms. “I was just having a cocktail. Would you like a drink? If so, make it Chivas. That’s all I have.”
Alex said he’d take one but Roger declined. He had no problem handling his liquor but wanted the clearest of minds for the discussion.
Gordon gave Alex a drink and took a seat on a recliner across from them. “Based on what Alex told me earlier, I understand you’re here to discuss an incident from this morning.”
“Yes. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.”
“Tell me everything that occurred.”
Roger hesitated, unsure how much Alex had told the scientist and how much he should reveal. He decided there was nothing to lose and explained what happened immediately prior to the sister’s disappearance.
“Is that all?” Gordon asked.
“Yes.”
“If you recall when we talked this afternoon, I mentioned a storm over the bay coincided with the ladies going missing,” Alex added. “In case that holds some meaning.”
“I find it mighty interesting that your wife,” he looked at Alex, “came to me some time ago with questions about lightning and the very same outcropping where you said they were last seen. At the time, she alleged it was research for a book. Allow me to use an Americanism...let’s cut to the chase, you want to know about the possibility of time travel. Before we get into it, let’s establish where you stand. Do you believe in it? Gordon asked, directing the question to both of them.
Roger had no idea what the American expression referenced. He assumed it involved car chases in American movies.
He was about to say he believed when Gordon said, “I see your mental debate. Either you do or you don’t. If you don’t, there’s nothing more to discuss. I�
��ll pour us another drink and we can talk about football or any sport of your choice other than cricket. I find cricket ponderous to watch and even more ponderous to waste breath on.” Gordon directed his attention to Roger. “Well?”
Too desperate to hold back, Roger said, “I’m certain it does.”
Gordon’s brows notched up for a second. “Certain?”
“Yes.”
“Care to elaborate?”
Roger ignored the question. Showing no emotion, he asked, “What I need to know if there’s a way for environmental conditions to cause a time passage to open.”
Gordon smiled, took a sip of the scotch, and casually said, “You want to know if the outcropping and lightning combination is a potential source, could the women have been swept up into a time warp?”
“Yes.” It was really Alex’s theory, but it was all he had to go on and he’d run with it. “Cutting to the chase, I’d like to work off the theory that it is a source.”
“You’re absolutely sure there is nothing else that could have happened to the sisters?”
“Yes.”
“You and the police searched everywhere?”
“Yes. They’re searching again tomorrow, but I know they won’t find them.”
“We have worked in and around the outcropping for many months and no one has disappeared into a time portal yet. But that doesn’t mean we are conducting the right experiments for that to happen.” Gordon turned to Alex. “In my opinion it would require a powerful shock like super lightning, to trigger a passageway. I never considered that, but it makes for an interesting possibility. I won’t ask how you came to suspect this. I’d love to hear the story some day.”
Growing impatient, Roger asked, “Can you offer a suggestion? How could I find out when the lightning you speak about is present? Is it rare? If so, how rare? Is it seasonal?”
The last was a horrible thought. Did today’s storm indicate a seasonal start to more lightning or an end? They were on the cusp of summer. If the lightning was an end-of-spring storm, then he might not get the chance to go back for months. The odds of Electra and Emily surviving in a world they had no experience with, a place with no shortage of violence toward women, worsened daily. Then there was the problem of distance. If they managed to stay alive, in all likelihood they were under someone’s protection. That someone could be anyone and might force them away from the area of the castle. The farther Roger had to travel, the greater the risk he’d fail.
“If a connection between super lightning and the outcropping exists, then why hasn’t this happened before all over the British Isles? We’re covered in granite and lord knows we have our fair share of lightning storms. Wouldn’t more of our people go missing?” Gordon asked.
He made a good point. Roger didn’t have a ready answer. “Maybe they do and we never hear of it, or the disappearances are blamed on other factors. I’m not a scientist. I can’t give you an answer. I only know what happened here, today.”
Gordon looked deep in thought, then said, “I will have to research more on super lightning. I can’t speak to the probability of time warps or if there’s a connection. That said, I’d like to concentrate on the outcropping. My students and I will focus on it. Of course I’ll keep you both informed if anything arises.”
“No. I’m going to work with you. If anything arises, I want to be there to see and know what exactly is happening,” Roger said.
Alex sat forward and put his drink on a side table. “I realize how urgent the matter is,” he said to Roger. “I know you’re desperate, and I don’t blame you. But, I’m concerned about complications.”
“What kind of complications?”
Alex turned to Gordon. “Oliver you’re talking about bringing in all of your students to work on discovering if there’s a pathway in time connected to the outcropping. Let’s say there is, this whole area will be overrun if even one of your students talks about it or worse, goes public with the news. Nobody is prepared to deal with the media firestorm that would result. We don’t know if the enormous activity would affect the odds of bringing the women back.”
“I hadn’t thought of that, but yes, I can see where we could lose our opportunity through human interference. I will limit my investigation to myself, and my son, Leland. You can trust him to remain discreet.”
“You forgot me,” Roger said.
“An oversight—and you, of course.”
“I want to begin working with you at the outcropping tomorrow,” Roger told Gordon.
“Don’t you want to wait for another lightning storm?” Gordon reached over his shoulder and picked his cell phone off the desk. He swiped the screen and tapped on it. “Checking the weather, they’re not predicting another big storm with lightning. Not in the next forty-eight hours anyway.” He tapped again. “Wait, there’s a massive weather front forming over Greenland. It might move east.”
“Storm or no storm, I’ll be here at seven.”
“I’ll be in the shower. Come at half past and we’ll have breakfast and chat about this and that.”
The last sounded more like a threat than an invitation. He wondered what might constitute this and that. Roger didn’t want to get into a philosophical or theoretical discussion about time travel. He only needed to know if Gordon could help or not.
“You spoke of complications, Alex. Say the confluence of events needed occurs and a passageway opens.” Oliver’s attention shifted to Roger. “What do you expect to happen? Do you think the women will pop forth?”
“It’d be nice but no, I don’t expect things will work out that easily,” Roger said, hoping but doubting the chances.
Gordon finished his scotch and poured another from the decanter next to him. “Then what’s your plan?” He brought the glass to his lips. His eyes widened and he lowered it without drinking. “My God, you can’t be planning what I think.”
Neither Roger nor Alex spoke.
“You can’t. Who knows where they are in time? On the outside chance we discover a passageway, and in spite of Mr. Einstein’s theory, there’s no way to guarantee you’d arrive close to the same place and time,” Gordon said.
“He will,” Alex said in a firm voice.
“What year are we talking about?”
“1355 give or take a year or two,” Alex told him.
“Great Lord.” Gordon turned to Roger. “If that’s true—”
“It is,” Alex interjected.
“—then you can’t go. We were well into the Hundred Years War with France. If you got discovered, you’d either be taken prisoner or executed, depending on who finds you.”
“I’m aware of my precarious situation.”
Gordon looked from one man to the other and settled on Roger. “What are you not telling me? You wish my help, trust me with what might become a dangerous situation for you, but you refuse to tell me the truth, all the truth. I deserve that much, if you want my help.”
After a long moment, Alex spoke first. “You’re right. All the specifics of what I am about to tell you aren’t important, but the outcropping is a passageway of some kind, and I am ninety percent certain lightning is a trigger. I know because Shakira and I were caught in it. The passageway is connected to Elysian Fields during a time that has a deep connection to me, which is why I believe Roger will land at near the same time. Do you really need to know more? If you want proof, I have none to offer other than my word.”
Oliver stared as Alex spoke, slamming his drink down when Alex asked if he wanted to know more. “I don’t want proof. I believe you because I want to. It’s the nature of a scientist to believe in the impossible. That’s how we got airplanes and submarines and put men on the moon. What I can’t believe is you never said a word about your experience when you donated land to us. How could you not share your knowledge?”
“It’s not something I go around telling people about. Do you think I’m insane?”
“I am not people. I am the scientist who has dedicated years to investigat
ing time travel as is evidenced by your presence here tonight.”
“Gentlemen, please!” Roger interrupted. “Argue later. Let’s work on saving the sisters now.”
“Bloody hell of a thing to do.” Gordon shook his head and turned to Roger. “You seem extraordinarily calm about the prospect of traveling through time. Is there more I’m being left in the dark about?”
“You might as well tell him,” Alex told Roger.
“I am from medieval France. I was on the battlefield at Poitiers. I had struck down Stephen Palmer, a grievous wound and I was in the process of striking him a fatal blow when the world around us shifted. I felt like I was tumbling uncontrollably. When the feeling stopped, I found myself, along with Stephen, in this time. How it came about, I don’t know. There was no storm or lightning when we were caught in the time warp. As that was in France, I don’t think we need to get into more details about my experience at the moment. Clearly, the sister’s experience was similar to Alex and Shakira’s, not mine, and is what we should focus on.”
Oliver threw his drink down in one gulp. “I can’t believe I’m hearing all this. Just how many of you time travelers are there? I feel like I’ve stepped into a Dr. Who episode. What the hell is going on here?”
“Oliver please, I’m desperate. Time is of the essence. Everything you want to know, you’ll be told when this is done. Right now, help us,” Roger pleaded with him.
“All right then, you know the risk, your choice. I’m willing to try, if you are.”
Roger breathed out a long sigh of relief. With Gordon’s help, he’d at least be able to try to save the women. “I’ll take that drink now Oliver, straight, no ice.”
Gordon poured a generous amount of scotch out and handed it to Roger who leaned back into the chair and reminded the scientist, “You know, you must exercise extreme caution. If the passage opens while we’re together there, I won’t be the only one who’d find himself in medieval England. Because we’re in your homeland, doesn’t mean things will go ducky for you.”
“This is the closest I’ve come to discovering a means of time travel. I’ll take the risk for the opportunity.”
In Time for You Page 7
