BackTrek (26 page)

“There goes our surprise.” Jack said as a
bullet ricocheted off of the elevator door. Jack grabbed a tear gas
canister in each hand, offered them to Ted who pulled the pins, and
then tossed them into the hallway. Ted punched the button that
would take them to the depths below. As the doors closed the
gunfire stopped, and they could hear the gasps and wheezing coughs
of the attackers grow quieter and quieter as the elevator began its
descent. They both stood in silence as the elevator descended. They
ignored the occasional creaks that reverberated throughout the
compartment as they slipped lower and lower under the earth. They
stood firmly as the elevator came to a stop and took positions on
either side of the doors as they opened. Again gunfire erupted. Ted
watched as Jack tossed another stun grenade into the hallway. He
counted to two, and then tossed one in himself. The first exploded
and the gunfire stopped, the second exploded and silence echoed
into the elevator compartment. Ted drew his weapon and exited. He
stepped over the fallen guard, with Jack right on his heels. They
paused briefly in front of the doors that opened into the hallway
and eased their way through, careful not to step on either of the
guards that had been in the hallway. They came to a stop at the
corner of the hallway, just steps from the entrance to the lab. Ted
peeked around the corner and pulled back abruptly. He flattened
himself against the wall. Jack did the same.

A few seconds passed and Ted eased up to the
corner again. He peered cautiously around at first, and then eased
completely around. Jack watched as his friend disappeared. Ted’s
hand appeared from around the corner and motioned for Jack to
follow. He too eased around the corner and followed Ted towards the
entrance to the lab. Just as Jack approached the door, Ted crouched
and shuffled past the door to the other side. They stood on either
side of the door, weapons drawn. Fine beads of anxious sweat
glistened across their brows, as their hearts began to beat harder.
Ted peeked around the corner and through the glass which made up
the top half of the door and into the lab. He saw that Atwater was
not alone. A man stood to his side and appeared to argue with him.
Atwater would be distracted. It was now or never.

Ted caught Jack with his stare, counted to
three under his breath and nodded. Both men left their relatively
safe hiding places and stormed the door to the lab. Even as Ted
slammed his body against the door that always easily opened and
closed without even having to turn a lever, he knew something was
wrong. Jack slammed into the door and almost fell to the ground.
Someone had locked or barricaded the door. Someone knew they were
there, and why.

Instinctively Ted jumped back into his
position beside the door, as Jack rolled to the side toward
his.

“Evening, gents! I’ve been expecting you.”
Atwater’s voice echoed through the hallway from the intercom
mounted beside the door.

“Son-of-a-bitch.” Ted said under his
breath.

“Hi Ted. Jack? Are you there?” Atwater asked.
Jack looked to his partner and Ted nodded.

“Yeah. I’m here. Just needed to ask you a few
questions, that’s all.” Jack said as he tried to sound
unthreatening.

“Sure you do, Jack. But I guess you think you
know most of those answers already, don’t you?”

“Not exactly-” Jack began.

“You don’t know shit! Nothing!” Atwater
forced back in anger. Ted again eased to the edge of the doorway,
and looked inside to see if he could get a shot at Atwater through
the glass window in the door.

“Keep him talking.” Ted whispered to Jack.
Jack nodded.

“Sure I do. I know it all, Atwater.”

“You young punks are all alike. Just like
your buddy, Ted. You hear me Ted?”

“Yeah.” Ted said as he eyed Atwater at the
back of the room. The man that he had been in conversation with had
stepped aside. Ted had a clear shot. “I hear you.” He said as
brought his gun up and fired. The blast was deafening in the
hallway as it echoed off of the walls. Glass shattered and fell to
the floor, but Ted retreated as fast as he had raised his weapon.
The window had a sheet of bullet proof glass behind the outside
pane. His shot had been harmless, but had escalated the
situation.

“See, Ted. Always a little hothead, aren’t
you?” Atwater said, a hint of laughter in his voice.

“Give it up, Atwater. There’s no way out of
there.” Ted yelled. Suddenly, as if in answer to Ted’s demand, the
air began to electrify. A deep rumble began to rise and turn into a
low whine. Jack’s eyes widened as he realized that Atwater had
activated the time gate’s start sequence. Ted stepped out into the
open and began to inspect the door way, as he attempted to find a
way inside. Jack joined the search. Feverishly they poured over the
edges of the door as they looked for any sign that it could be
opened from the outside, when Jack happened to glance through the
shattered window in the door. The other man in the room was Mike,
his brother.

“Mike?” Jack said as he stood dumbfounded.
Ted stopped his frantic search and looked through the window at
Mike who stood still on the other side like an animal in the night
caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. “Mike?” Jack said
again.

“I didn’t know-” Mike began.

“Shut up, punk!” Atwater said as he
backhanded Mike across the face and sent him sprawling to the
ground. “You know Jack. I seen a lot of shit. Hell...” He chuckled
slightly as he watched Mike get back to his feet. “I’ve done a lot
of shit. But I’ve never...never...ever...sold my own brother out.”
He said as he raised his voice above the growing whine.

“No!” Mike screamed as he charged Atwater.
Atwater’s fist caught him on the other side of his face and once
again he sprawled to the ground again.

“Yep...a lot of things. But, hey. Some things
even I won’t do. Right, Mikey?” Atwater said as he laughed again.
Mike lay still on the floor. Ted watched the drama unfold inside
the lab, but as he dropped his eyes to the floor in front of him in
despair over a lost cause, he saw what he had been looking for. The
door was locked at floor. A key from either side could open it. Ted
tapped Jack on the side. As Jack looked up, Ted resumed his
position at the side of the door and nodded. Jack too withdrew and
retook his position at the other side of the door.

“Keep him talking.” Ted whispered as he
crouched to the floor and began to approach the door, careful to
stay beneath the window. Jack nodded.

“Why?” Jack asked Atwater.

“Why’d he sell you out, Jack? I couldn’t tell
you. Greedy little bastard I guess. Ask one of those smart ass
Freud guys. Those head shrinkers think they’ve got it all figured
out.” Atwater said over the noise.

“No.” Jack said calmly as he watched Ted
attempt to insert key after key into the lock on the door. Jack had
forgotten that they still had the guard’s keys, but was now
thankful for it. “Why Von Hogue?”

“Who?” Atwater asked.

“Von Hogue. You know...Mr. Smith.”

“Oh, Smith. That’s right, I had forgotten
that you guys tracked him down.”

“So why?”

“See, I told you, You don’t know shit. It’s
like this Jack. This is your first time here, right?”

“No. I was here the other day. Remember?”

“Not here at the complex, Jack. I’m speaking
multi-dimensionally. Ooh...I just love that word.” Atwater said and
chuckled again. “Here, Jack. In this same situation. Here at this
place. This time. With Ted. With me. Here, now.” Suddenly Jack’s
mind began to whirl as the implications began to swim into
view.

“Yeah.” He said as he leaned heavier on the
wall.

“Not me, Jack old buddy. Not me.”

“You’re looped?” Jack said.

“Looped? Yeah, I’m looped all right. So many
times that...quite frankly...I really don’t know whether I’m
fucking coming or going.” Atwater said and laughed again. “But this
time...this time I’ve got my old buddy Mikey here with me.” He said
as he bent over and lifted Mike to his feet. He stood weakly on his
feet, still not coherent enough to stand by himself, so Atwater
held him there. Suddenly Atwater lifted his own shirt and exposed
his bare belly. An ugly red scar stood out on the right side of his
abdomen. “You see this Jack? Do you see it?” Jack peeked around the
corner and saw the larger man as he held Mike like a rag doll. He
saw the scar.

“Yeah. So what.”

“You did this Jack. The last time we were
here. The last time, before I had those locks installed on that
door. I mean you just waltzed through that door and boom. You shot
me. Hell you didn’t even say hello.” He said and chuckled again. He
began to drag Mike to the other side of the room towards the inner
lab which held the time gate. “Yeah, I knew that you’d be here. I
just didn’t know exactly when. Everything changes...but every thing
stays the same. Funny ain’t it?” He said and laughed again, while
he leaned over and activated the gamma beam. The lights flickered
and suddenly the inner lab glowed bright white. Instantly the pitch
of the whine grew in intensity and the whine became inaudible. The
gate was ready. Jack looked through the window and saw the time
gate as the arcing sparks of blue fire cleared and the room
appeared on the other side.

Jack’s mind spun faster and faster. It had
never even crossed his mind that Von Hogue or Atwater could have
been looped. The gate had only been operational for a short time.
He couldn’t comprehend that Atwater was looped not once, but
numerous times. He wondered just how many times Atwater had been at
this juncture. How many times had he escaped?

“Sorry to leave you guys, but we’ve got
places to go. Right, Mikey, buddy?” He chuckled again, as he
carefully bent over and picked up a metallic suitcase. “It’s okay,
Jack. You’ll know where we are. You just won’t know when.” He
continued to laugh as he drug Mike up the ramp towards the gate.
Jack looked down at Ted as he inserted the last key on the ring
into the lock. It turned. Suddenly a bullet slammed into the wall
beside of Jack’s head. Particles of plaster sprayed into the air.
Jack instinctively turned and fired, and narrowly missed the lead
soldier of the small assault squad. As Jack tried to get his
bearings for another shot, Ted tossed his last stun grenade down
the hallway. The soldiers hurriedly retreated before it could hit
the ground.

Jack and Ted stormed the door, ran through
the lab and into the room with the gate. Atwater was gone. As they
ran up the ramp the room on the other side disappeared and again a
swirling pattern of electric arcs appeared. Suddenly the inaudible
high pitched whine became audible as the system began to shut
itself down. Once again, behind them, the sound of gunfire erupted
in the hallway.

“Damn!” Jack yelled as the sound got louder.
Without hesitation, Ted ran into the control room and began to tap
away at the computer keyboard while Jack ran back to the door. He
tossed his last two tear gas canisters into the hallway and then
shut the door.

“Keys!” He yelled. Ted tossed them to him
without stopping to glance in his direction. Jack fumbled with the
keys and finally found the right one. The lock clicked just as
someone slammed into the door from the other side. Jack stood up.
The soldier on the other side fired at point blank range. The
bullet ricocheted off of the bullet proof insert in the door and
struck the soldier. He stood there for a moment as he stared at
Jack in disbelief before he fell to the floor. The pitch of the
sound began to rise again. Ted had reactivated the gate.

“Where did he go?” Jack asked as they went
back into room and watched the pattern of sparks within the gate
change.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen that setting
before. It’s not logged either. I’m not sure if he even knows.”

“He knows, Ted. He’s been using this thing
for a long time. The companies, the offshore investment schemes. He
didn’t set that up on a government paycheck. Somehow he’s been
using the gate.”

“You may be right, Jack. But it really
doesn’t matter right now. The only thing that does matter is
getting Mike back...alive.”

“I still can’t believe that he set me up,
Ted. Not Mike.”

"Like I told you earlier, Jack. Atwater
controls everything." The arcs of electricity stopped and a room
swam into view on the other side. To Jack it looked identical to
the room they had entered when they had went through the time gate
the first time.

“You sure this is right?” He asked as they
went up the ramp.

“Positive.” Ted answered as he went through
the gate.

Jack followed Ted down the ramp on the other
side of the gate. The room looked much like it had when they had
passed through the gate before. Jack knew where they were, but he
had no idea of when they where. As they stepped off of the ramp a
sound echoed from the control room and instinctively they split
apart. Jack made his way around the left side of the still open
gate, while Jack rounded the right side. As they eased up to the
edge they could see Atwater and Mike in the control room. Mike was
conscious again but still looked groggy. He watched as Atwater
attempted to close the gate. Seconds passed as Atwater continued to
attempt to begin the shut down cycle as his temper grew ever
hotter. For whatever reason, the cycle would not initiate.

“You piece of shit!” He yelled in anger as he
drew a handgun from the holster at his side and raised it into the
air, ready to smash the control panel in frustration. Suddenly Mike
bolted across the room. Whether he had decided to seize the
opportunity or if was the fear of losing a link to the present,
Jack wasn’t sure what had motivated his brother, but he watched in
awe as his sibling attacked the larger man ferociously. Mike
grabbed Atwater’s outstretched hand with both of his own and used
his momentum to send both of them crashing against the wall. As
Mike’s body plowed into Atwater and slammed him against the wall,
the gun flew out of Atwater’s hand and clinked on the tile floor.
Atwater’s surprise was quickly replaced by his rage.