by Jeff Yee
“Sorry, but I am not at liberty to provide that information.”
“Understood. As you’re probably aware, Congress has created a committee to investigate potential laws required to govern time travel. What laws do you expect or would you like to see established?”
Kris thought about it for a second before replying. He didn’t want the government to get heavily involved, but he also couldn’t risk offending politicians during the critical investigation. “Senator Rob Cordeiros and his team will have direct access to some of our best people that have studied the impacts of time travel for many years. I’m confident that they will help to draft laws that will appropriately govern this science. As one example, I do not believe that our past should be altered and we need measures in place to prevent our past from changing.”
“How can you prevent someone from changing the past? And if they break the law, do you put them in jail yesterday or today?”
Pleased with her challenging question, Kris gave Melissa a smile. “It might not have been a law yesterday, so you put them in jail today.”
“Good answer. But how about preventing them in the first place from changing the past? How do you prevent it from happening?”
“It’s a question that I cannot answer right now. That is what the investigation will help us to uncover.”
When it was time for a commercial break, the producer lifted ten fingers and began counting down one finger at a time. On the other end of the camera thousands of miles away, Melissa eased the transition to the break. “We’ll be back shortly with more on time travel. When we come back, we’ll take questions from the phone lines.”
There were two minutes to relax and take a break. Kris reached for a drink of water before being interrupted by the producer who was carrying a computer printout in his left hand.
“Kris, we’ve been screening calls and Internet posts before you take your next round of questions. We’ve received a number of inquiries that are concerning. We will not air these posts, however, you should take a look at them anyway. They’re exceptionally strange because they all carry the same message.”
Kris looked at the paper handed to him by the show’s producer. More than thirty different entries, all from different Internet usernames, were posted with exactly the same message:
Beware! We are coming for you tonight!
Kris laughed it off trying to bring humor to the situation. “I receive a lot of threatening notes all the time. It’s not as bad as some of the messages from my investors when our stock is down.”
“With a specific reference to time?” asked the producer.
“No, I guess not.”
“Well, we take things very seriously here at CNN. So I’ve taken the liberty of calling the police for you. We will work with them to see if we can identify the computers that logged these entries.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.”
When the show resumed, Kris answered questions from callers, but his mind was clearly not focused on the interview. His usual jolly and confident tone changed to a monotone lacking enthusiasm and excitement for the technology developed at Tace. Instead, he was distracted with thoughts about the threat. Was it valid? Or was it another fanatical zealot trying to scare him?
After completing the show, Kris thanked Melissa Long remotely and then turned to the Los Angeles producer to wrap things up. He was relieved to be finished after a long week of a public outreach campaign to garner support for the time travel project.
Maile Suzuki, his public relations specialist, waited outside the studio for her boss. “Good work! I thought it went well,” she said to Kris when he emerged from his interview. “Let’s get you home now to San Diego. It’s been a long day.”
“Yes, it has been a long day. Let’s go home.”
Kris and Maile were the only representatives from Tace Technologies required for the media blitz. She had coordinated the interviews and had made sure that he arrived on time and was well prepared for the discussions. After that, it was up to Kris to do all of the talking. The public relations campaign was structured to educate the general population of the benefits of time travel and the progress that had been made at Tace Technologies. It was designed to alleviate the fears and kill the many rumors circulating around the world about Tace. Despite their efforts, in the short timeframe that Kris and Maile had been in the building conducting the interview, a small protest had gathered outside of CNN’s Los Angeles branch. As the pair exited the elevators and turned into the lobby, they saw a small crowd of sixteen men and women, forming a single-file protest line on the sidewalk just outside of the lobby. Two of the signs they were holding were visible through the glass windows that separated the lobby from the street.
We like the Present!
Stop Time Travel Research Now. Let Our Fate Remain Unknown.
“Kris, we’re not going outside anyway,” said Maile. “Don’t worry about them. The parking garage elevators are here to the right.” Then, she guided Kris towards the second pair of elevators, leading them away from the protestors.
As the pair from Tace got closer to the elevators, Kris noticed two nicely dressed men in dark suits stand up from a seated position they had taken in the chairs nearest the parking garage entrance. They immediately recognized Kris and walked quickly towards him.
“Kris Harrison?” asked one of the men.
“Yes.”
The intimidating men flashed their badges, but too quickly for Kris or Maile to recognize or validate their identification. The larger of the two men demanded, “Please follow me this way. It’s urgent!”
Chapter 22
Berta’s Latin American Restaurant in Old Town, San Diego, was bustling with activity at half past six on a Friday evening. Sean Harrison sipped on his beer while watching the end of the CNN interview, joined by six Tace executives and managers. The party of seven had requested a table near the television monitor, but despite their proximity, it was still difficult to hear the dialogue between Kris Harrison and Melissa Long. The restaurant echoed with the sounds of sizzling meat, waiters yelling their orders into the cooks and a full house of customers engaged in conversation. Instead, they relied on closed caption text to understand what was being said.
When the CNN In Depth interview with Kris finished, the elder Harrison took his pint of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and offered a toast to the group. He started with Ryan Graves, Chief Scientist, to his right. Finishing the cheers in a counter-clockwise pattern, he knocked glasses with Suzie Demarco, Dmitri Andreev and Krishna Parikh of the research and development team, then with Jason Li from the manufacturing team and finally with Lori Waters who led the program management office. They were all key members of the successful time travel division of Tace Technologies.
Sean added to his toast, “I’m thrilled to be a part of this team. We’ve made tremendous strides this week in our planning efforts. This is just the beginning. To the future!”
“To the Future!” the group said in unison.
“And to the man that originally set the direction for our group,” said Ryan acknowledging Sean’s early work. “Without your support, we would not be here today. Cheers!”
“Cheers!”
Sean did not want any of the credit. “I slept through the hard part,” he chuckled. “It is this team that delivered the results with years of sacrifice, dedication and hard work.”
“The hard part may not be over,” Lori interjected. “You also have a difficult task ahead of you. Not everyone has the guts to be the guinea pig,” she said as she winked one eye in Sean’s direction.
“That’s the last thing that I want to be… or be called.” Sean took a sip of his beer before straightening his face to reply with sincerity, “With the plan that we outlined this week, I’m confident that we’ll incorporate the safest measures and that I will not execute the first test until after we’re certain that a human body can survive the machine.”
Ryan’s mobile phone buzzed while Sean continued his thoughts
on the plans to travel twenty-four years into the future. “This is Ryan,” he said, answering his phone while seated amongst his peers. He politely turned his head away from the table so his colleagues could continue their discussion.
A slightly intoxicated Lori was excited to think about their long-term plans. “Sean, we’re going to have two working machines soon - to get you to the future and back. You’ll have so many stories to tell. It’s going to be an amazing day.”
Suddenly, Ryan rose from his chair and walked towards the entrance of the restaurant, with his mobile phone nestled into his ear.
Sean had the best position to watch Ryan leave. His view at the table faced east, giving him the ability to see the street through the large glass doors and windows of the relatively small Mexican restaurant. He kept an eye on Ryan as he continued talking, but he was deep in the middle of an entertaining discussion about time travel. It was important to discuss the safety of the two machines that would be required for his round-trip travel through time.
Out of the corner of his eye, Sean saw a dark blue van materialize and stop only a few feet away from Ryan, who was still talking on his phone. Sean ceased his conversation and gazed curiously at the van. At the same time that he realized the driver was wearing a mask, the back door opened quickly and three additional masked men emerged and seized Ryan Graves. The men overpowered Ryan and before anyone close to him could help, he was pushed into the back of the van. It sped off as quickly as it arrived, heading east down Twiggs Street, with Ryan in the back.
Sean was the only one in the Tace group that noticed the abduction. He yelled, “Call 911!” as he rose to his feet and ran towards the street.
Krishna was slightly confused, but after seeing Sean race out the door in a flash, he removed his phone from his pocket and dialed the emergency number as instructed.
The van was still in sight when Sean made it through the doorway. Once outside the restaurant, he began a full sprint through the intersection of Congress and Twiggs. He outran the car to his left going southbound on Congress, which missed him by ten feet, but he was not as fortunate with the northbound car coming his direction.
Scrrreeech!!!
Realizing that he was not going to outrun the second car coming at him from his right, Sean jumped into the air to avoid the grill of the car. The car’s brakes were fully deployed, but hardly enough to soften the blow when Sean collided with the hood and bounced off the windshield. His momentum carried him across the width of the car, finally settling on the ground near the passenger door of the car by the time it came to a stop.
“Are you crazy?” the man in the car yelled at Sean.
Adrenaline pumped through his body and then Sean, ignoring the pain, picked himself up and began to hobble down Twiggs as fast as he could go. The van was in the distance and nearly out of sight, but he could see that it was turning to his right. Knowing that he would not be able to catch the van on foot, he ran back to the car that had just collided with him and screamed at the driver. “I need your car now! Get out!”
“No!” shouted the driver back at Sean. He turned off the car and held the keys tightly in his hand.
Sean was about to grab the driver to wrestle him for the keys when he heard Krishna behind him.
“Sean, I have the police on the line,” said Krishna, approaching quickly. “They need to know what happened.”
In an instant, Sean grabbed the phone and replayed the event that had just taken place a minute earlier. “Kidnapping. Blue van. Heading east on Twiggs. Turned right… southbound.” Sean was breathing hard from the excitement and had to catch his breath.
“Who was kidnapped?” asked the emergency dispatcher.
“Ryan Graves,” Sean said in between breaths. “Chief Scientist at Tace Technologies.”
“Hold on please. I’m putting out an all points bulletin for a blue van in that area.”
Sean waited as the dispatcher put him on hold temporarily. He reconsidered chasing the van with the car that had just hit him, but then he heard sirens in the distance. They were getting louder – he knew that the sirens were heading towards the restaurant.
“I’m back,” said the dispatcher. “An APB is out for the van. I also have a specialist here with me to ask you some questions.”
Getting straight to the point, the traffic camera specialist wasted no time with his question. “Sir, you said it was a blue van on Twiggs and it turned south? How long ago?”
“About two minutes ago.”
A few seconds went by and then the specialist replied, “I’ve found it. The van turned southbound onto Juan Street. I’m looking at southbound traffic cameras on that street right now for their next move.”
The sirens got louder as they approached the restaurant. Like a passenger hailing a taxicab, Sean waved his arms and immediately jumped into the back of the police car before it had a chance to come to a complete stop. With the phone at one ear, Sean told the driver, “Kidnapping. Blue van heading south down Juan.” He pointed the direction with his finger.
Before the door closed, Krishna jumped into the back seat alongside Sean. The police car sped off trailing the van by initially heading east down Twiggs Street.
“Who are we looking for?” asked the driver, Sergeant Jose Espinoza.
“Four men wearing masks in a blue van. And a kidnapped male.” Sean pointed to his right and said, “Here… this way down Juan!”
Sean continued holding his mobile phone for instructions. The second set of directions came through from the specialist. “It looks like the van continued down Juan as it made the bend to Sunset Road which turns into Sunset Boulevard. I’m checking traffic cameras on Sunset right now.”
The emergency dispatcher who was still in conference listening to the conversation between Sean and the traffic camera specialist, interjected, “We have other cars in the area that I’m sending to that vicinity right now.”
Sean motioned to the police sergeant to go straight. “Follow the bend onto Sunset. They went south on Sunset.”
“Okay, checking Sunset cams right now,” said the voice on the phone. “It looks like they turned right on Fort Stockton. Checking Stockton now.”
Sean relayed the information to the sergeant. “Sunset to Stockton.”
“Caught up to them now,” said the specialist. “Looks like they were at the intersection of Stockton and Randolph less than a minute ago. Then at Randolph and Washington Place.”
Sean relayed the information to the sergeant at the same time he could hear it come across the car’s radio.
All cars in Old Town proceed to Randolph and Washington Place.
The police car blazed down Sunset. Despite speeds of sixty miles an hour on Old Town side streets, they were still minutes behind the van.
After thirty seconds of silence on the phone, Sean asked for an update. “Where are they now?”
“I can’t find them. I’m looking at all of the nearby traffic cameras. They may have stopped somewhere in the area. I’m still checking.”
As Sean’s car turned onto Fort Stockton, he could hear sirens from other police vehicles racing to the area. Impatient for an update, he screamed into his phone again, “Where are they? We’re almost to Randolph now!”
“I don’t see them at any of the intersections in the area. Hold on.” After a few seconds, the traffic camera specialist came back, “There’s a park in that area. Mission Hills Park. That’s one possibility. In the meantime, I’ll keep checking the streets.”
Again, Sean relayed the latest information to the driver as they approached Randolph Street. “Turn right here!” he commanded to the sergeant. The police car approached the intersection of Randolph and Washington Place, the last known intersection that the van had crossed. “I think we go right up there onto Washington,” said Sean as he pointed his finger in the direction.
Another police car was already in the area speeding down Washington Place in the opposite direction when it passed Sean’s car. Sean could hear ad
ditional sirens, growing in numbers and volume. The cavalry is coming, he thought to himself.
“I don’t see a blue van after Washington. They must be around there somewhere,” exclaimed the voice on the other end of Sean’s phone.
Sean detected the park immediately on his right and motioned to the sergeant. “Mission Hills Park! There’s no sign of the van after that last intersection. Let’s check here because if they were on this road, that last car that just passed us would have likely seen them.”
Sergeant Espinoza was taking orders, but he had no issues with taking an order from a civilian. The logic seemed to make sense and his passenger had the real-time information that he lacked. He pulled into the park as instructed.
It was near dusk when they arrived and the parking lot of Missions Hills Park was nearly empty. The police car cornered through each section of the lot until it reached its end.
“Blue van!” yelled Krishna, being the first to discover it.
The sergeant quickly jumped on his radio. “Blue van located at the northern tip of Mission Hills Park lot off Washington Place. Request backup.” He parked the car twenty feet from the van and turned to his passengers in the backseat. “Stay here. Don’t get out.”
The driver’s door was opened by the sergeant and used as a shield as the officer removed his weapon from its holster and pointed it towards the van. He stood there for a few seconds surveying the situation.
“Do you think they’re in there?” Sean asked the sergeant. Having located the van, Sean returned the phone to Krishna.
“I don’t see any movement,” the officer replied.
A second police car arrived at the scene in less than a minute from the support request. With the first officer holding steady for cover, the second officer swiftly, but carefully, moved towards the van. Using his gun, he tapped it on the side door to see if there was a response. Nothing. With his free hand he opened the door of the van so that the first officer had a direct view and potential shot, if it was needed.
The van was empty. Sergeant Espinoza yelled to his colleague who was shielded behind the van’s door, “It’s clear!”
