If Sam understands correctly, the paper holds coordinates that’ll allow the Transporter—the machine they keep talking about—to put Marius into Ty’s room. Jadie wasn’t able to use it without rousing the suspicion of the 4-space spies, but if those creatures have taken Jadie and Ty to wherever they’re holding Dad, they won’t be around to watch Marius.
In theory.
To Sam, this whole plan is risky beyond belief, especially the part that required Jadie getting snatched. Forty percent is not an acceptable chance of success when the lives of his father and sister are at stake. They’re at the mercy of four-dimensional creatures who can spy on them from outside their universe and reach inside their bodies. Sam doesn’t see any difference between the spies who took his father and the so-called Seers who’ve been interfering with his family for years. The only one he halfway trusts is Miss Rose, who didn’t let Jadie die when she was a baby—and they only have her word for that.
Worst of all, Jadie isn’t in Rose’s hands now, but in the clutches of dangerous and desperate spies. The plan Miss Rose came up with requires pretending to give them what they want.
Seconds later, Marius reappears with Jadie’s backpack. “Got Ty’s laptop,” he says. “Jadie left it under his desk like she said she would. But I couldn’t find his tablet, and your computer is gone, along with my decoy. Dave and Steve must have taken them. The room’s a wreck. Ty should be drenched and stinking, like we wanted.”
According to Miss Rose, odor molecules have a four-dimensional aspect in 3-space, which is what makes them so powerful at triggering feelings and memories. Humans are affected by this extradimensional quality even though they can’t see it—just like Sam can’t see the repair Miss Rose made to his knee. To 4-space beings, the odor trail from Ty Rivers will produce a brightly glowing trail of bread crumbs, impossible to miss, easy to follow.
Lightning flashes and rain patters against the ground as Sam follows Marius across the neighboring yard and into a house. It’s dark and quiet inside, and a clock on the wall reads 5:30 a.m. Sam can hardly believe this is the same night he and his mother sat up late waiting for news of his father.
“In here.” Marius switches on the light in a small room at the back of the house. The walls are lined with bookshelves, and there’s a desk covered with books and papers. Marius sweeps them aside to make room for Ty’s laptop. “Let’s power this up…”
“I’ll do it.” Sam elbows Marius out of the way, wanting to see this thing that cost him a childhood with his sister—that may cost him his father if Miss Rose’s plan doesn’t work.
“Ty uploaded photos of his room,” Marius explains while the program launches. “Then Dave and Steve took pictures from ana and kata, and when those were uploaded, we could see inside desks and stuff.”
“And inside people.” Sam recoils at an interior view of Marius.
“Yeah. Ew.” Marius holds up a hand to block the sight. “What they said we needed was a way for the program to predict ana and kata, since they wouldn’t always be around to take the pictures for us.”
“More to the point, they want something that creates images of n+1 space no matter what n is.”
“Uhhh… English, please?”
“They want to take it to 5-space and have it work there. This program isn’t really for our use, remember? Computers won’t work in 4-space.”
“So, how far is it from being able to do that?”
“If my dad provides the program with mathematical laws that work universally, it will only take a few changes. The computer won’t really know what things look like in the n+1 dimension, but it’ll have a good guess.” Sam rubs his hands anxiously against his thighs. “Except Ty doesn’t have his own computer now, so he won’t be able to make the changes. He has mine…”
“Your computer is crappy and slow,” Marius says. “I’m more worried about the tablet.”
“He can’t make programming changes on a tablet.” The whole point of switching computers is to delay Ty’s delivery of the final product—but how patient will those 4-space creatures be? “Miss Rose is following them, right? She’s going to be close behind?”
“Don’t worry. Dave and Steve aren’t going to hurt Jadie or your dad. They don’t have what they want yet, and it can’t be created in 4-space. They’ll have to bring everybody back to our 3-space world to finish it, and when they do, Ty’s going to have the wrong laptop.”
“Won’t that tip them off?”
A house-rattling crack of thunder draws Sam’s attention to the window. The trees are whipping around so furiously, Sam’s afraid he’ll see the Wicked Witch of the West fly by on her broom next.
Marius glances out the window but doesn’t look worried. “Ty won’t tell ’em we stole his stuff because it’ll make him look stupid. Besides, I left a message for him on my computer. He’ll stall for time, which is what Miss Rose needs.”
“Okay, so these spies need my dad to do the physics and your friend to put it in the program, but what value is Jadie to them? Isn’t she… extra?” Did no one else see that glaring hole in this plan?
“That’s a good question, young man, and I’ve got a few more.”
Sam spins around in his seat. Marius flinches and turns slowly, his shoulders hunched.
Two adults stand in the doorway, dressed in bathrobes. One’s a tall, fiery-haired white woman who looks like she could snap Sam in half over her thigh, while the other is a short Black man with a serious case of bedhead that doesn’t detract one iota from the keen intelligence and laser-point focus of his eyes.
“Who are you?” the man asks Sam. His gaze shoots over to Marius. “What spies are you talking about? And where is Jadie?”
31. JADIE
After an alarming journey through the kaleidoscope of 4-space, I’m dumped like a sack of bricks into a white room. Ty lands beside me, reeking and wet. “Thanks a lot,” he grumbles. “Do you know how much trouble I’ll be in when I get home?”
That’s his biggest worry? I’m tempted to smack him hard enough to knock him into the next dimension.
I expect gravity to squash me flat, but I’m able to stand without much difficulty. It’s not due to the chemical enhancement Miss Rose gave me… she made sure that wore off before letting me start this mission so it wouldn’t be detected by our adversaries.
“Centrifugal force,” Ty says, guessing at my unspoken question. “We’re in a moving container, whirling around like a bucket of water on a rope. It counteracts gravity.”
“I know what centrifugal force means,” I snap at him.
“J.D.?”
I freeze, then turn to face the man who’s standing beside a desk on the other side of this strange white room. He’s wearing a suit, minus the jacket, which is slung over the back of a chair. I recognize him from the pictures in the baby album, although he’s more than a decade older now. His expression at this moment is a mixture of hope and pain and astonishment.
I’m not sure what I’m feeling. It’s something I have no words for—and no time to deal with. If this man crosses the room and hugs me, which is what it looks like he wants to do, I’m going to lose it. And I can’t. I have a mission to complete. “Hold it right there.” I raise my hand like a traffic cop. “I know who you are, Dr. Lowell, but I don’t really know you. Don’t even think about hugging me.”
He stops in his tracks. I wasn’t trying to hurt his feelings, but he doesn’t seem offended—only tearful and happy. “You look so much like your mother.”
Oh god, he’s going to make me cry.
Luckily, one of the renegade 4-space creatures interrupts.
“Jadie!” A high-pitched voice floods the room. “It was naughty of you to make trouble for Tyler! This is not good.” In spite of those negative statements, the creature laughs giddily.
Based on Marius’s description, this must be Steve, the high-pitched, giggly one who doesn’t use an avatar and might be the less sane of the two. According to Miss Rose, the closer these spies think t
hey are to stealing the technology, the more stable they’ll act and the more risk they’ll tolerate.
So I plunge ahead with my planned speech. “Are you one of the Resisters? I don’t know why you think it’s okay to kidnap Dr. Lowell, even to save the world from Seers. I don’t see how getting them mad at us will make my family safer.”
I hope that conveys my major points as quickly as possible.
1. I believe the story you told Ty and Marius.
2. I’m not on your side yet, but if you promise me the right things, you could win me over.
“No, no, Jadie,” Steve says. “We brought Dr. Lowell here to protect him. After he completes his work, the Seers will never threaten his family again.”
I plaster a gullible smile on my face. “Really?”
Ty narrows his eyes at me, and I drop the stupid smile.
“Why did you make Tyler stink like this, Jadie?” Steve asks. “It is very loud to my sensory organs.”
“Tell me about it.” Ty keeps grasping the hem of his shirt and dropping it, like he wants to take it off but is embarrassed to go shirtless.
“You promised me like I was a prize instead of a person,” I growl at him. “You’re lucky I didn’t break the jar over your head and make you eat the shark.” I bunch my fists and step toward Ty aggressively. This isn’t the impression I want to give Dr. Lowell of his long-lost daughter. But it’s important for Steve to believe that dousing Ty with a pungent liquid was a random act, not a deliberate plan to create a beacon.
Ty backs away like he’s afraid I’ll really punch him, and Steve laughs wheezily. “Naughty children, making trouble. I was not supposed to take Tyler tonight. Dave will not be happy. You forced me to grab you ana, and now we have to move quickly.”
Ty tears his gaze away from my fists. “You moved us ana out of 3-space? Miss Rose said you’d have to punch through our braneworld to reach us from the ana side…”
Darn it, this is not the time for Ty to start questioning Steve. “Are you sure you can keep us safe from the Seers if Ty and Dr. Lowell complete this program?” I ask.
“Yes, yes, Dave explained this!” Steve says impatiently. “The program must be finished to defeat the Seers.”
I turn to Dr. Lowell. “Do you have enough of the math for Ty to finish Sam’s program?”
He blinks at me. “Sam…?”
I wave his question away. “Yes, I met Sam. We’ll talk about that later. Are you close to having the equations? I’m sure they’re not completely finished, and it might take some time to get them done.” I don’t dare emphasize my words too much, but I stare at Dr. Lowell unblinkingly and hope he gets my message.
Dr. Lowell pulls off his glasses and cleans them on his shirt. Eventually, he says, “I’m tweaking the formulas that describe the behavior of electrons in successive even-numbered dimensions… I’m close. It will take some time, but I can teach Tyler how to use the formulas in Sam’s program.” He shoots me a look out of the corners of his eyes.
I press my lips together in satisfaction. He got it.
“I need my computer and my tablet,” Ty pipes up.
“I have them.” Steve giggles. “I took them when I took you. You will get started right away.”
“Where?” Dr. Lowell asks. “Electronic devices don’t work in 4-space.”
“They do,” Ty corrects him. “Just not in this tesseract.”
I was wondering why Ty thought his tablet would work in this universe. Dave and Steve have been lying about more than their intentions. Dr. Lowell shakes his head, clearly knowing better, but Steve doesn’t give him a chance to argue. “I will take you somewhere safe. Somewhere the Seers will not find you.”
I sigh like I’m relieved by Steve’s reassurance, but really it’s because everything is going almost as we planned.
We’ll have to return to 3-space to complete the programming. Steve won’t take us back to Ty’s house. He’ll go someplace unexpected, like China or South Africa. He might take us to another planet. But no matter where we go in 3-space, Miss Rose will follow, tracking us by the telltale scent molecules clinging to Ty.
Dr. Lowell, who isn’t in on Miss Rose’s plan, asks the question anyway: “Where will you take us to do this programming? I know electronics don’t work anywhere in your dimension, not just in this containment unit.”
“What?” exclaims Ty.
“Yes,” Steve says. “That is why we are meeting Dave in 5-space.”
My mouth falls open, and my stomach pitches.
Nobody, not even Miss Rose, considered this possibility.
32. JADIE
While I quietly panic, Ty confronts Steve. “What do you mean, electronics don’t work in 4-space? What use is the program if computers don’t work here? Did you lie to me?”
Maybe I should punch Ty to shut him up. Our lives are in danger. Possibly all of 3-space.
But I’ve underestimated Steve. He sounds bonkers with his creepy giggle, but he has an answer. “Electricity works on the border between 3- and 4-space, where the Transporter exists. That is where you will use the program. Any farther into 4-space and you would be squashed by gravity.”
Remembering how Marius’s flashlight flared and died on the Transporter, I don’t think he’s telling the truth. But Ty nods grudgingly, and Dr. Lowell doesn’t venture a contrary opinion.
“Now,” Steve says, “we move.”
I have just enough time to tell Dr. Lowell, “Don’t be scared!” Huge fingers clamp around my middle—and Dr. Lowell and Ty too—and the white containment room disappears from sight.
Steve’s taking us to 5-space, and I don’t think Miss Rose calculated for this. How are we going to get there? Humans can’t move from 3-space into 4-space without help from the Transporter or a four-dimensional creature. So who or what is going to lift Steve into the fifth dimension if, as Miss Rose said, her clan has been unable to build a Transporter there? Will Miss Rose be able to find us?
We have Ty’s scent trail, I remind myself. And if Steve can get to 5-space, Miss Rose can too.
Steve carries us through a place of darkness pierced occasionally by reddish, flickering light. All I can see are cross-sections of Steve’s body: a shoulder with rippling muscles, folds of flesh that might be an ear, and tubular strands of hair.
After what seems like an hour but might be only a few minutes, I sense a change in Steve’s movement, like he’s pulling against gravity. Little white spots dance before my eyes. When Steve speaks, there’s an echo, but his voice is less twisty than usual for 4-space. “This is the beginning of a wormhole that burrows into 5-space. Do you know about wormholes, Dr. Lowell?”
I can’t see Dr. Lowell, but I hear him. “Yes. My theory accounts for the possibility of connections between the dimensions. I expected them to emanate from the fifth dimension at their earliest appearance or from the seventh dimension at the latest.”
“This question is for the two Agents,” Steve says next. “What did Rrhoessha teach you about time in the fourth dimension?”
Ty beats me to an answer. “We were taught that Seers can see forward and backward in time. Now I doubt that’s true.”
“Oh, it is. The higher the dimension, the crazier time gets. Wait until you see what you get in the wormhole: your past—including every past you could have had.” Steve chortles in glee. “Enjoy the trip!”
Before I can figure out what he means, we lurch into the tiny, sparkling lights.
And I lose my mind.
I’m an infant in my crib, hugging my favorite toy. It’s a bear. It’s an elephant. It’s a monkey.
I’m in the front of a grocery cart, cranky and crying. My mother pushes the cart. My father pushes the cart. Sam tries to distract me by waving a toy in my face. It’s a rattle. It’s a pinwheel.
I’m cold and wet and screaming and nobody is coming to get me.
Darkness. Empty, soul-sucking nothingness. I’m not cold. I’m not anything. I’m just not.
Sensation and thought
return in a bright explosion, and a woman holds me tightly, wrapping me in blankets. Comforting me.
The memories come fast and fleeting after that, contradicting and overlapping each other. My mother rocks and sings to me—two different mothers. I play with a brother. Marius. Or Sam. I walk to school on a city street, holding Sam’s hand, but I also ride a noisy school bus through a suburban housing development with Marius. I celebrate Christmas with the Martins and with the Lowells.
Alia asks me to watch her bracelet for the afternoon. I say yes. I say no.
I turn my back on Sam’s computer and chase the cat. Or I dump a glass of water on his computer and leave without ever seeing the family portrait…
When my hands and knees touch a solid surface, Steve releases his grip on me. Even though gravity doesn’t pin me down, I flatten myself until my head stops spinning.
Someone nearby gags: Ty, dry-heaving. When he lifts his head and wipes his arm across his mouth, I see a look of dread on his face that’s probably matched on mine.
“I understand the alternate memories,” I whisper, “but there was a horrible blank spot in the beginning—”
“That’s probably the past where you died.” Ty stares at me bleakly. “Lucky you. Mine was mostly blank because my father never wanted children. I was a mistake.”
“J.D.” Dr. Lowell holds out an arm. In spite of my no-hugging rule, I wrap both arms around him and bury my face in his shirt. It’s probably been a whole day since he shaved, but there’s a whiff of aftershave on him. I would’ve sworn on a stack of Bibles that I didn’t remember anything about this man, but the scent triggers an avalanche of feelings. Safety. Warmth. Love.
To my surprise, he puts his other arm around Ty and hugs him too. Ty doesn’t hug back, but he tolerates the touch for several seconds before pulling away. I sit up and wipe tears from my face, breathing to regain my focus. I can’t cry about aftershave if we’re going to get out of this alive.
Jadie in Five Dimensions Page 14
