by Fred Holmes
When the Yankees started shooting at them, Traweek, Crawford, and Rummy ran into a ravine and escaped. Vinnie wasn’t so lucky. Still half dazed and naked, he lumbered directly into the line of fire. Several .54 caliber mini-balls tore into his body, and he dropped to the ground, mortally wounded. The Cavalry soldiers wheeled and chased after the three that disappeared into the ravine.
Back in the house, Lida appealed to Mr. Rhodes. “Please let us go. You’re not a Yankee, and neither are we. Cut us loose, and we’ll pick up our friend and leave immediately.
He thought for a few seconds, and then untied them. “Now git.”
Dee and Lida left the house just as the firing ceased. They heard the hoof beats receding and hurried up the lane in the coming darkness, nearly tripping over Vinnie.
Lida leaned down and found his pulse was weak. “Help me turn him over.”
They rolled him over and found the pouch with the capsules intact. She removed one of the capsules and put it in his bloody mouth.
“What are you doing? He’s a goner. His heart is too weak. It won’t work.”
“Give him CPR, Dee. Try it! We have to get his heart beating strong enough to push the blood, just a few beats. Hurry! It’s our only chance.”
“Okay, but I think we’re wasting our time.” He started the compressions.
“Harder, Dee, harder!”
He pumped away. “It’s not going to wor—”
Vinnie shimmered and disappeared. Dee and Lida squeezed their capsules, shimmered and followed Vinnie forward in time.
* * * * *
Erik, Bunny, Dee, and Lida stood around Vinnie’s sheeted body. Lida was the last to arrive, and she immediately shouted out commands.
“Dee, start the compressions again! We need to keep the blood flowing until I can figure out what to do. I need to obtain a heart-lung machine here, or at least a pump of some kind. First, I need to call Charlie Small. Erik, take over for Dee when he tires!” Lida dialed Doctor Small’s number. “Lida here, and I have a problem.” She explained the situation and then listened. “Great, Doc. How soon can you get here? Okay, but hurry.” She hung up. “Well he can get a dialysis machine, and it may work.”
“What are you going to do?” Dee asked.
“I’m going to try the same thing we did when Bunny took the shotgun blast. The difference is that we’re sending back a severely wounded man. But if we can pump the blood hard enough to keep it moving for twenty seconds, he’ll be back at Mr. Rhodes’ place.”
Bunny asked, “Yes, but how will he return?”
“I’ll have to go with him. I’ll need your extra capsules.” She picked up the extra capsules. “More than one reason to retrieve the capsules that existed. It wouldn’t be good if they fell into the wrong hands or even if the wrong person accidentally ingested the capsule.”
Dr. Charlie arrived with his dialysis machine and started it up. “The blood is cooling rapidly. We’ll have to act quickly or this won’t work.”
“Are you going to perform a reset, Lida?”
“I’m going to try a partial reset. I’m afraid a full reset will mess up time so badly that we’ll never straighten it out. I’m sending him back to Mr. Rhodes’ place just before the shooting. Then I’ll give him a capsule and return him here in case Dr. Charlie needs to patch him up. If it works as I think it should, he won’t need patching.”
“He should be okay.” Bunny said. “He’ll return to a time before the shooting and time will reset to when we arrived, well in advance of the shooting.”
“Say a prayer, because here we go!” Lida swallowed the capsule. Dr. Charlie injected Vinnie … Nothing happened.
The hiss and whir of the machine were the only sounds in the room.
Erik told Dee that he needed an injection. “I’ll bet you all will have to go back there to make the reset work.”
“Gimme the shot, I think he’s right. I can’t be in two places at once.”
Bunny injected Dee and twenty seconds later, Dee, Lida, and Vinnie’s corpse disappeared.
The three-some arrived in Mr. Rhode’s yard simultaneously.
“How are you, Dee?” Lida whispered.
“Fine.”
It was too dark to see how Vinnie was doing. She held her breath. “Vinnie, are you okay?” There was a pause.
“Yes, I think so. I feel strange, though.”
“How’s that?”
“I don’t know, like something is missing.”
“Yeah, like a few minutes of your life.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ll tell you later,” said Lida. “Let’s get out of here. Does everybody have their capsules? “
“I have mine,” said Vinnie.
“Me too,” said Lida. “How about you Dee?” Dee thought for a few seconds.
“Well, Dee?”
“I was thinking, as long as we’re here, and we know the events to come, why not take advantage of our knowledge and snatch Rummy?”
“I thought that’s what we planned. We don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“I’ll tell you later, Vinnie. Dee has a great idea. You and I will go up on this side of the house and stay in the shadows. Dee, you go around the house, and when Traweek and Crawford go into the house, you wait for the whistle, then push the door shut and keep it closed. When Rummy hears the whistle and runs to the house, we’ll grab him, hold him down, and force-feed him the capsule. As soon as he leaves, we squeeze our capsules, and it’s all over. We’re home free.”
Traweek, Crawford, and Rummy soon appeared at the head of the lane. Traweek and Crawford approached the house, knocked, and Mr. Rhodes admitted them.
Rummy stopped about twenty yards in front of the house and hunkered down behind a bush. In a few minutes, he heard a low whistle and headed for the cabin door.
Lida and Vinnie charged at him. Dee slammed the door and held it shut.
Lida and Vinnie finally got the capsule into Rummy and held his mouth shut. He shimmered and disappeared.
Lida screamed, “Take your capsules, we’ve got him!”
She swallowed hers and disappeared,
Dee felt Mr. Rhodes, Traweek, and Crawford put their shoulders into the heavy oak door, and the remaining leather hinge ripped loose.
Dee heard Mr. Rhodes tell the others to stand back. Then he heard the sound of Mr. Rhodes pulling both triggers of his shotgun. The blast from the barrel tore through the oak, removed the door from its last hinge, and pushed it on top of Dee, knocking him on his back.
It wouldn’t have been so bad if Dee hadn’t been in the process of taking a capsule out of his pouch. The force of the heavy door flattened him and jerked his hand out of his pouch, spilling his main capsule plus his backup onto the gravel path.
Traweek and Crawford jumped onto the door and stepped onto the gravel walk, accidentally grinding the capsules into the dew-dampened path, ruining them in the process.
The two continued up the path, surprised the Cavalry, then ducked into the ravine and escaped the mounted Federal soldiers who were hastily firing at them.
Dee got down on his hands and knees and searched desperately for the tiny capsules, to no avail. He was about to give up and arise when he felt cold steel pressing against the back of his head and heard a distinct Yankee twang.
“Easy now. Put your hands behind your head, stand up slowly, and turn around. Slow now. I’ve got an itchy trigger finger, and this pistol will take your head right off those shoulders.”
He did as he was told.
“Well, I’ll be. It’s an Injun.”
An officer rode up to them,“Still could be a Reb,” the officer said. “They have Injuns too. Tie him to that pack horse and carry him down to Edwards Ferry. The Captain will be there shortly, and we can figure out what to do with him.”
They all mounted up and headed for the Ferry.
Chapter 24
LIDA was the first to return to Legacy Woods, followed by Rummy. She threw her
arms around him and planted a long kiss on his lips.
“Say, honey, that’s quite a welcome.”
“Just wait until later.”
“Get a room!” Bunny said. “Oh, I guess you’ve got a room. Say, what did you do with Dee?’
“He’ll be right along.”
There was a long pause, and then Vinnie materialized on the table.
After twenty minutes and no Dee, Erik asked,
“Did ya leave him behind?”
“Maybe you gave him a different capsule, Lida.” Vinnie said.
“No, I made the first capsule and the subsequent capsules are copies. I do it that way to make sure all the capsules have the same instructions. The last I saw of him, he was holding the door to the cabin closed while we force-fed the capsule to Rummy. When I gave the signal to take the capsules, Dee was still holding the door. I saw him let go of the door and reach for his pouch, but then I was gone.”
That was partly true. A noise nagged at her memory and then the sound became clear. A boom. She recalled a shotgun-like boom just as she left. Her stomach lurched as she considered that Mr. Rhodes might have shot Dee before he could get to the capsule. She hesitated and thought, Do I tell them? Dee may still be back there. But where? Tell them. No, I don’t think so. Rummy has too much of a hero complex. And it would drive Bunny crazy to go back to try and find him. No, I need to think about this.
“Let’s check out the other rooms,” Lida said. “Just in case he came in early and wandered off. Sometimes the traveler experiences a temporary confusion. They return to normal in fifteen minutes or so. I’m sure he’s here somewhere.”
Bruno, Vinnie, Bunny, and Erik searched the rooms and then the grounds. After a long hour, the searchers met back at the suite to find Rummy and Lida stretched out on the bed, fully clothed and sound asleep. Vinnie went outside to make some phone calls.
Bunny told Erik that she had a gut feeling that Dee was left behind and she needed to go back and get him.
“How are you going to do that?”
“You can make me some capsules. You have all the programs. I just need a few capsules so I can find him and bring him back.”
“Yes, but I need the ancient DNA for the overlays and the material to make the capsules. The ancient DNA is under heavy security in the RTSL labs.”
“You have to do something. Dee wouldn’t leave you stuck. Please, Erik,” Bunny implored. “You have to help me get him. I can handle stealing what we need. That’s my specialty. I can put us in the building if you can make the capsules and overlays.”
“Before we become involved in another project, let’s see what Lida thinks. She has our extra capsules. Maybe we can talk her out of a few.”
She gave him a big hug. “Thanks so much, Erik!”
He blushed. “Well, he is our partner.”
Exhausted, everyone retired to their rooms, except for Bunny. She kept searching. But as time went by with no Dee, she became discouraged. She was sure that he was not on the grounds at Legacy Woods, but lost somewhere in time. His fate rested on Erik’s lightning fingers and brilliant mind. A mind that, although genius, was also prone to periods of insanity. Yes, it would be better to talk Lida out of the capsules.
* * * * *
The two Rebel POWs escaped into the ravine, avoiding the Yankee Cavalry. They continued until they saw a light that Mr. Rhodes had told them was at the ferry. They looked through the window and saw a man tending to someone, apparently sick.
Traweek called, and the man came to the door.
“Are you Edwards?”
“No—”
“Are you Edwards’ sons?”
“Yes, we are,” Traweek lied.
“There’re many Yankees guarding your father’s yard. Don’t go there. How did you get across the river?”
“It was so dark when we crossed, we couldn’t tell where we were.”
The man directed them to the river, and they set out alongside it.
“Why are there so many Yankee soldiers here?” said Traweek.
“We’re getting near Washington,” said the man. “There’ll be a bunch from now on. We gotta be careful.”
They hadn’t gone a half-mile when Traweek fell over a sleeping Yankee soldier. When he realized they were in a Yankee bivouac, he covered his stumble by calling out, “Hello, where’s the water?” The Yankees must have been dog tired. One mumbled something in his sleep.
They eased down on their stomachs, feeling their way for about fifty yards when they butted up against some saddles near the picketed horses. Traweek found two army pistols on one of the saddles. He kept one and gave the other to Crawford. They were about to leave when they heard a soft, “Psst.” Then again, a little louder, “PSST.” Traweek peered around the saddles and saw the Indian with his hands and feet trussed. He was dressed in a rag-tag Union uniform.
Without saying a word, Traweek untied Dee and motioned for him to follow. They turned and crawled about one hundred yards and struck a cornfield. Then, they ventured out into the field about seventy-five yards and nestled up in a corn shock. Farmers had made corn shock from several tall cornstalks tied into a bundle. Several bundles were stacked into a conical-shaped teepee. The shock was kept open in the center, which allowed air to circulate and dry the corn. This design left plenty of room for the trio to nestle in the shock out of the range of spying Yankee eyes.
They rested in the cornfield until the Yankee bugler woke them. The Yankees came pouring over the fence into the cornfield and picked corn all around the hiding trio. Traweek told Crawford that if they came near, he should fire into them and then run into the briar patch. They never did, though, and when the Union soldiers crossed back over the fence with their corn, they slipped out of their shock and escaped into the ravine.
They lay over in the ravine all day, climbed a tree and, with their spyglass, located the Federal line of pickets on the canal and the canal boats. After dark, they worked their way carefully until they were close to the canal. The Federals picketed the towpath, and the boats passed about every five minutes. They had it set up so that each boat passed a picket who then followed the boat, talking to the boatman until he met the next boat. Then, he followed that boat. The security was so tight that the escapees decided that they must be careful in attempting a canal crossing.
When the way was clear, they approached the canal.
Traweek told Crawford that they had to swim the canal.
“I can’t swim.”
“You either swim or be captured.”
Traweek and Dee swam across and Crawford jumped in behind them. He made such a big splash that a boatman yelled, “Man overboard.”
While all this was happening, the trio reached the opposite side of the canal and ran down the bank of the Potomac. Crawford hid in the brush at the edge of the river. Traweek and Dee took to the river, swimming and watching. The Union soldiers were standing all around Crawford. Fortunately, they didn’t spot him in the dark, but Traweek heard them talking.
“That’s one of Mosby’s men,” said Traweek.
“Hungry devil. Hunting something to eat.”
Traweek and Dee swam nearly a mile across the river. After they reached the other side, they heard Crawford’s distress whistle, which meant they had to return to his aid. Traweek answered his call and succeeded in finding a log on the river bank big enough for the three men. The two men managed to push the log across the river to Crawford’s hiding place, and the three of them sat astride the log and paddled back across the river. They were now on Jenkins Island.
Chapter 25
VINNIE LEFT the group, picked up Bruno, drove back to his room at The Woods, and called Tony at his office in Trenton. No luck. Tony was probably at the Roman Goddess Bar next door. He showed up there a little after five every day and didn’t take calls. If you wanted him, you had to clear it through Roscoe first, and he wouldn’t let anybody near ‘the Boss.’
“Well, Bruno, wadda ya say we go back to the Inn? Maybe
there’s some action there. Ain’t nothing here, I’m afraid.”
“I vote for the Inn. This place has a bunch of rubes. That’s all.”
They jumped into their Caddy and spun off, leaving the bill for Lida.
* * * * *
It was late, close to quitting time. Mike hadn’t seen Lida all day, and Nina was gone as well. Mike went to Nina’s desk and picked up the recorder he had planted earlier. Carleton was not in his office, and Doc Jamison was also out, so he returned to his own office.
Nelson, the night watchman, knocked on Mike’s door. “Mr. Beasley, I’m about to close up.”
“I’m going to work for a while. Lock up, but leave the alarm on silent mode. I’ll activate it when I leave.” He settled back in his chair and pulled a yellow pad out of the stack under his desk. Before he began, he called Lorna, told her of his plans, and said goodnight to the kids.
He played a game, first, that he called ‘connect the dots.’ He listed the relationships and linked lines between those that had common values and connections.
After considerable thought, he put Lida in a column of her own. He made it a big column. He suspected that she would have several connections.
Erik, Dee, and Bunny made up SS&G. Mike linked them to Lida.
He couldn’t put Nina in any special group, so he put her between Lida and Rainey.
Rainey linked to Nina as well as to Ralph. It was hard to put Carleton and Doc Jamison in with any of the other conspirators, so he grouped them together and labeled them as loyal to Dyna-Tyme.
Ralph Bailey was an enigma. Some days he seemed to be loyal to Dyna-Tyme. Other days, he seemed to be wrapped up in things far afield from the company.
As an afterthought, he added Rummy and linked him to Lida.
He still had the hoodlums, Vinnie and Bruno, and they seemed to have their fingers in several different pies. He linked them to Lida but put an asterisk beside their name.
He still hadn’t accounted for Ginger, but he felt she was loyal to Dyna-Tyme. He would have to watch her aggressive personality.
He started listing the clues under the appropriate column. Next, he took each name and put down the data he had on each person, paying particular attention to “Motive-Opportunity-Means” — MOM.
