Watching as Derek again placed his thumb against another small biometric scanner beside the case’s handle, Jason found himself eagerly anticipating the now familiar, though still exciting glimpse at the machine’s innards. He hadn’t been joking about his lack of electromechanical knowledge. That’s why he’d sought the help of Derek in the first place. Other than their close friendship, Derek was a brilliant electrical engineer with a real knack for finding practical solutions for impractical ideas. He knew that his theory was possible. He knew that his calculations were correct. He just needed a little help proving it.
Lifting the upper half of the briefcase, Derek carefully opened the top until the tiny hydraulic arms at each corner took over, propping it open at a one hundred ten degree angle. The iPad attached to the interior vertical surface sprang to life, welcoming them with the familiar Apple logo, followed by a desktop image of the DeLorean from “Back to The Future”. The other half of the briefcase was filled with stacks of notepads and folders, or at least that’s what curious onlookers would be led to believe if they happened to get a hold of it and somehow managed to get it open.
Derek again placed his thumb to the same biometric scanner beside the handle and with the enthusiasm of Doc Brown himself, uttered “Great Scott”.
“Your obsession with those movies is troubling,” Jason joked as the briefcase responded to the odd command, the notepad and folder facade splitting in the middle and raising like a paper drawbridge within the briefcase to expose the case’s real contents.
The case was filled with neatly run bundles of wires bobbing and weaving their way around numerous circuit boards and, to Jason, unidentifiable computer and electrical components. At the center of the electrical maze was a four inch diameter, metal disk with the words “There is no future, without one’s past” engraved in the center.
Jason’s grandmother had repeated that phrase every night as she’d tucked him into bed, though he’d never really understood what it had meant. Every time he’d asked her what it meant she’d stealthily managed to change the subject. It wasn’t until a little over three years ago, standing beside her deathbed in the house that he’d grown up in, that he’d learned the unbelievable truth behind its meaning.
“You just gonna stare or are you gonna open this thing?”
Realizing that he was blankly staring at the short phrase, Jason snapped out of it and placing his thumb against the same biometric scanner, reluctantly spoke “This is heavy Doc”.
Derek smiled at his friend’s annoyed tone. They’d both agreed, for security purposes, that it should take both of them to fully unlock the device but it had been Derek who had insisted on the voice coded passwords.
The small metal disk slowly slid aside to expose more wires and an even smaller circular cavity at its center. Derek grabbed the tiny metal funnel and with the touch of a surgeon, began working the tiny device down through the looping wires, positioning the narrow opening of the funnel through a tiny hole in the bottom of the spherical core.
After a few minutes of tinkering with the newly inserted component, Derek looked up at Jason with a smile and turning the case toward his roommate, uttered the words they thought might never be said.
“I think it’s ready.”
FIVE
“Do you have him?” the elderly woman on the other end of the line immediately asked, preventing Ty from answering the phone with the customary hello.
“No.”
“What you mean, no?”
“Something happened.”
“What you mean something happened? Is he alright?” the woman’s inquisitive tone became that of worry.
If it had been anyone else asking the questions, Ty would have been more upset by the lack of interest in his own well being, but given that his grandmother had practically raised him from birth, he knew without words that she cared. Right now she was more concerned about her great grandchild and getting him back from the strange family with which he’d been placed.
“Remind me again why this is so important, grandma.”
“Is he alright?” the woman persisted, apparently not interested in anything else until her question had been answered.
“Yeah, he’s alright...I mean...I think he’s alright.”
“What you mean you think? What happened?”
“There was...” He wasn’t quite sure how to explain what he’d just witnessed. He’d been sitting outside the Nesbit’s house for nearly two hours but just as the sky had continued to burn bright with the storm, so had the nursery windows. He’d almost been ready to drive away but the noise from the storm was the perfect cover. “As I was just about to get out of the car a...”
“Yes, a what?”
“Someone else showed up.”
“Someone else? Someone who?”
“Some guy, a kid. I don’t know. I’ve never seen him before.”
“Ty, you been watching that family for weeks and you telling me that you never see him before?”
“I didn’t get the impression that he was a close family friend, grandma.”
“Don’t you get snippy with me.”
“Sorry.”
“What he look like?”
“A white guy, in a black hoodie, kinda on the skinny side, you know, not very imposing.”
“Well, did you scare him off then?”
“I couldn’t. By the time I got out of the car he’d already slipped around the side of the house.”
“Well, did you follow him?” Grandma continued, seemingly frustrated by the slow rate at which the story was being conveyed.
“Not at first.”
“Why not?”
“Shock I guess. Does anyone else know about the baby?”
“Not less you said something.”
“No, of course not.”
“Then no.”
“What was he doing there then?”
“What happened Ty?” she refocused her grandson’s attention on the story at hand.
“I heard a window break so I ran to the side of the house but...”
“What?”
“But by the time I got there the guy was already inside. Grandma, he was trying to kill him!”
“Who? Who was trying to kill who?”
“The baby. He was trying to kill the baby.”
“What!” the woman’s yell a mixture of anger and emotion. “Did you stop him?”
“I didn’t have to. I mean I was going to but Mr. Nesbit burst into the room. I ducked out of sight of the window but I could hear screaming and a lot of commotion. I guess the guy got away because the next thing I knew he came bursting through the front door and ran down the street.”
“The baby. Is the baby alright?”
“Yeah I think so. I mean...” He wasn’t sure how to put what he’d seen into words.
“What?”
“Is there something you’re not telling me, grandma?” I mean, I know he’s your great grandson and my son but...”
“He our blood Ty. You and mine. There is no one else left in this family and this child very special; in ways you can never imagine.”
“I think I’ve got an idea.”
The other end of the line remained silent.
“He disappeared grandma. Not, he was taken away disappeared. I mean, he disappeared and then somehow ended up in the living room.”
“The man must have grabbed him, left him in living room, then run off,” the woman tried to explain away the peculiarity of what she’d just been told.
“I don’t think so, grandma. During the commotion, I did take one quick look inside. I saw the stranger and Mr. Nesbit fighting beside the crib. I didn’t look too long for fear of being spotted but the crib…the crib was empty. Shortly after that the man ran out of the house. A moment later I heard the baby’s cries from another room.”
“Is the child okay?” grandma’s voice changed again, this time to a more calming tone.
“Yeah, I mean I think so. I knew the cops would be on the
ir way so I got out of there as quick as I could.
“Good, and the stranger? Where he now?”
“He’s in the car in front of me,” Ty replied, slowly changing lanes but keeping his distance.
“He alone?”
“Yes.”
“Follow him. Find out where he go and who he is. We need to know who else know about child and more importantly, if he know about us.”
“Grandma, what’s going on?”
“All in good time my son. Right now we need concentrate on getting that child.”
“That might be harder now. The element of surprise is gone and the police are aware of the situation.”
“The police don’t know anything. All they know is what the Nesbits told them. They don’t know anything about us. Not even the Nesbits know who you are. They don’t know that you the father. That little slut doesn’t even remember who knocked her up.”
He didn’t think Tiffany was a slut. He’d actually grown quite fond of her in the short time they’d spent together that night. Sure, technically the fact that she’d gotten knocked up at a party by some random, older guy that she didn’t know, made her a slut but she’d seemed like a decent girl. He hadn’t learned of the pregnancy until nearly four months later at which time he’d conveyed the news to his grandmother, who in turn had convinced him to keep quiet.
“The girl can’t find out,” she’d said. “She can’t know who you are.”
At the time he hadn’t exactly been sure why his paternity should remain a secret. He’d figured it had been for financial reasons. If Tiffany knew who the father was, she would surely expect money for raising his child. It hadn’t been until a little over a month ago that his grandmother’s true reasons for secrecy had been made known.
Upon learning of the pending adoption, they’d considered coming forward and claiming the child. His family’s shady past however, including his mother’s current status as prisoner number 7865454 and his father’s heroin overdose three years earlier, made it very unlikely that the state would award a child, even blood related, to the remaining members of such a dysfunctional household. That was when his grandmother had expressed her desire to take the child after its birth.
“We’ll move back to family home and raise him,” she’d said.
Even then he’d gotten the impression that there was something his grandmother wasn’t sharing with him, but as usual, he did as he was told and kept quiet. He spent his time watching the Nesbit family prior to the adoption, tracking their habits, noting their routines, though he wasn’t sure why, since a baby was sure to change all of it.
A month later his son had been born and all he needed was the right opportunity to swoop in and return him to his rightful family.
A horn blared as Ty watched the vehicle in front of him cross the double yellow line only to swerve out of the way of the startled, oncoming driver.
“What was that?” Grandma questioned.
“Nothing. Just traffic.”
“Find out who he is.”
“I will.”
“I counting on you, Ty. Your son counting on you. Don’t let us down.”
“I know, grandma. I’ll call you when I find out what’s going on.”
“Good boy.”
And with those last two words of praise, the line went dead as the car ahead of him signaled and moved to the farthest right lane. Hanging back, he did the same, watching as the car then signaled again, turning onto West Columbus Drive toward Tampa International Airport.
“Where are you going?” he questioned aloud as he too signaled his turn.
SIX
“You think Christy and Amber are still in the room?” Derek wondered aloud as he watched the light bulb in his hand spring to life with each touch of the battery connected wire being held in his other hand.
“Huh?” Jason, engrossed in his calculations, only half acknowledged the first words uttered in nearly an hour.
“Nothing.” Derek went back to playing with his light bulb. It was a simple toy but it had been his first introduction to electricity in elementary school. It was at that point that he’d become fascinated with the technology and knew what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. “Didn’t someone say that the machine was ready? Oh that’s right, I did, yet here we sit.”
“I’ve explained this before” Jason sighed, spinning around in his chair to face his bored roommate. We can’t just turn it on and hope for the best. If my calculations are off by even the slightest bit we could end up floating off into space. This concept isn’t just time but also coordinate based. I have the ability to calculate some flexibility into the equation, compensating and adjusting our location within a few hundred feet and maybe about twelve hours or so, but that’s about it. To accurately predict when and where we’ll end up, we need to know the exact location and rotation of the Earth at—”
“—at the exact moment we intend to arrive,” Derek finished the frequently received lecture. “I know. I get the concept but you’ve been working on that program for two years now. You’ve checked it over and over and over again. Sometimes you just need to let go and trust yourself.”
Listening to Derek, Jason knew that his roommate was right. Derek was much more the type to just let go and let whatever was going to happen, just happen. They’d had the same classes all through high school and finished first and second in their class. They’d both been members of the math club and they’d both received full scholarships to attend M.I.T. but that was where their similarities ended. Derek’s high school experience had been very different from his. While he’d suffered the socially stereotypical fate of a kid with his I.Q. in public school, Derek had excelled. He’d demonstrated an uncanny ability to blend in with just about any click. Though not the best player, he’d managed to work his way onto the varsity baseball team, giving him that all important connection that made him fit in just about anywhere, and while he was intellectually superior to his classmates, he was still somehow able to conceal that fact and let loose with them, participating in the most idiotic of drunken ideas. However, even with such socially opposite fates, they’d managed to remain best of friends since early childhood.
“Trust me Jason. You’ve got this.”
Derek was right, he’d tested the program’s accuracy thousands of times, not once finding a miscalculation. But he was a thinker, not a doer and as with most things in his life, he didn’t like the idea of taking that first big step without knowing exactly what to expect.
“You understand the risk, right?” Jason questioned in a very serious tone.
“Jason, I don’t even understand how what you’re proposing is possible, but we’ve been friends for nearly twenty years now, so if you say that you can make this thing work, then I believe in you.”
After a pause, Jason uttered the word Derek had been hoping to hear.
“Okay.”
Derek almost jumped out of his seat with excitement but, somehow managed to maintain his cool in light of Jason’s apprehension.
Turning back to the screen, Jason powered down the computer and getting up from his chair, made his way to the very same cabinet from which Derek had withdrawn the machine. Placing his thumb against the scanner, the cabinet lock released with a click. The machine still sat open on the counter beside Derek, however they needed one additional item before the first test could be made. Swinging open the cabinet doors, Jason knelt down to reach the small refrigerator at the bottom of the cabinet. It too possessed a small biometric scanner, though this one didn’t require any silly movie phrases like the machine, nor did it require both his and Derek’s fingerprints to open. He’d installed the refrigerator himself as well as programmed the scanner himself. His thumbprint and his thumbprint alone could open the small black cube. Placing his thumb against the scanner, the refrigerator door opened with a soft click followed by a faint hiss as the airtight seal gave way, releasing wispy swirls of cool condensation.
Derek knew what was inside, though he’
d only gotten a glimpse of the actual contents twice. The extent of his knowledge didn’t go much beyond the machine that he’d assembled. He knew what the machine was supposed to do. He understood from an electrical standpoint what the concept was; deliver a massive, yet precise electrical jolt evenly across the entire core at precisely the exact same moment. It seemed simple enough at first. It wasn’t until he’d started to assemble the components that he’d realized the difficulty inherent to such a task.
While electricity in the United States is the most stable in the world, there are still subtle fluctuations in the precise power delivered to any one location at any given time. To most people these fluctuations aren't a big deal. If they plug in their television or cell phone charger and everything turns on, they’re perfectly happy, but when you’re trying to calculate a precise voltage down to the nanosecond, the inconsistencies of the grid become clearly evident. This problem was the reason it had taken him well over a year to complete the build and the reason why it took an entire briefcase full of components to simply electrify a spherical space only four inches in diameter. Each component within the case was designed to not only amplify the electrical charge, but also clean it up, reorganizing the electron flow and storing the energy until the precise moment that the device is activated. At that moment, the stored charge would be released all at once into the fuel contained within the core; the very fuel that Jason was withdrawing from the tiny refrigerated safe.
“You gonna tell me what that is yet?” Derek posed the familiar yet unanswered question.
“This is the fuel cell that will power our little friend there,” Jason replied, holding up the small, four inch sphere, the room’s florescent lights illuminating the deep red liquid contained within the glass orb.
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