Forty Leap (33 page)

Someone was suddenly there to help me, asking
me if I was all right, disentangling me from my predicament. It was
a store salesman, dressed in a smart suit that looked, if anything,
as if it had come out of a 1920’s gangster movie. He even wore a
felt fedora. He was brushing me off, tremendously concerned for my
welfare, completely unaware that I had just popped in out of the
ether rather than just being a clumsy oaf.

“Jeremy!”

I turned at the sound of my brother’s name,
hope rising within me. Was it possible…?

But no, a man in slacks and a cream colored
sweater was rushing toward me, smiling and waving. He called me by
my brother’s name once again and took charge of me from the clerk.
Thanking my rescuer profusely, he led me quickly away from the
scene, leaving the bemused young man to clean up the mess.

Where we were was a department store, not too
different from any department store I’d ever seen. I had
materialized in the women’s clothing department. There were a few
people milling about, but the store was not crowded. I wondered
what passed for money here.

My guide was pulling me quickly away from the
area and draping a coat over my shoulders. It was more of a cape,
than a coat. Though it buttoned up the front, it was sleeveless,
the shoulders large enough to drape over my arms. It was also sewn
such that I could push them back over my shoulders and free my
arms. The whole getup made me feel like a vampire or Jack the
Ripper.

“Who are you?” I asked, trying to combat my
shattered senses.

“My name is Akron Posner,” he said. “And you
are Mathew Cristian?”

I tensed, having grown accustomed to
protecting my identity. He must have sensed this because he simply
continued talking. “It is September 19
^th
, 2095. Your
last leap was on July 12
^th
, 2037. Do you remember?”

It was a ridiculous question. Of course I
remembered. It had happened only moments ago. Moments ago I had
been running for my life fifty eight years ago. Now Wyatt and
Jeremy were surely dead, the consequences of their actions long
since determined and dealt with. And what had changed? I was still
running for my life. That much was clear by Akron Posner’s attitude
and impatience.

“How did you know where I’d be?” I asked.

He waved his hand. “That’s child’s play for
Dr. Kung. He had it pegged to within four feet. Can you
imagine?”

Feet?
I was more concerned with the
years. Then it occurred to me that I had been on the street when
I’d leaped. Now I was inside the building, presumably the very
building that was under construction in 2037. I was being led away
by a man I had never seen who had no way of proving…

“Did you say, Dr. Kung?” I fought to get hold
of the memory of his first name. He was young then, just an intern.
After fifty eight years he would be well into his eighties.

“Yes,” Posner answered, oblivious to my
ruminations. “Dr. Philip Kung. He’s done a lot of research into
your condition and…maybe he’d better take you through it
himself.”

Philip. That wasn’t right. The Dr. Kung who
I’d met had a name that started with an
L
. Lloyd? Larry?

“What happened to Lewis Kung?”

Posner laughed, pausing as we reached the
department store exit. “He’s retired but living nearby. I’m sure
he’ll want to see you.” When he made no further move to go into the
street, I looked outside to see why and I was afraid.

A contingent of soldiers stood in the middle
of the road about 100 yards on the hypotenuse. There, an apparatus
had been set up. It looked somewhat like what I had seen after
leaping out of and into the Rocky Mountain facility, but it was
more streamlined. The tube was a bit more narrow, with tubes
jutting from the bottom and the top. There were computers, tiny
little things, sitting on stands a few feet away from it. Around
the whole setup was a white fence that appeared to be made of
plastic. The scariest part was the large sign that faced the
department store. On it was a picture of me and, in bright bold
letters, my name. The whole thing stood in the exact spot from
which I’d leaped.

“They’ve been waiting for you, also,” Posner
said to me.

So fifty odd years had done nothing to ease
the tensions against me and people with my affliction. We were
still regarded with this irrational fear. We were still hunted. I
had no idea how we were going to get past the contingent. The
picture was recent, or at least as recent as my last leap. It was a
shot from the Rocky Mountain facility, probably blown up from some
video footage. I had this stricken look on my face, a look I
remember flashing regularly during the firefights there. There was
a speck of blood on my cheek as well. I suppose it added to the
drama.

“Now,” Posner said, dragging me into the
street.

A group of people was passing by and we
melded into them, moving in pace with them, blending in.

“Keep your head down.”

I didn’t see that it mattered much. My
clothing was fifty years out of style. Everyone was wearing slacks
or long skirts. The time of denim seemed to have finally come to an
end. It was a chilly fall day so people were also in long coats
whereas I had none. The cape was hardly enough. I felt the cold
against my bare arms and a chill settled into my gut. But the
populace was far more concerned with their own lives and my odd
condition went unnoticed. Posner led me down the street, away from
my would-be prison. Once we rounded the corner, he seemed to relax
and pulled out what looked like an iPod.

“Hello?” The face of a middle aged man
appeared on the miniature screen and it looked vaguely
familiar.

“You’ll never guess who I’ve got with me,
Philip,” Posner said to the screen.

Philip, obviously Philip Kung, pulled a face.
“Not now, Akron. Okay, what was her name…?”

Akron’s smile grew. “I’m on duty, Philip.
It’s Mathew Cristian.”

Dr. Kung’s expression grew dark for a moment,
as if he thought Posner was pulling his leg. Then Posner pointed
the screen at me and I could the excitement as it radiated off of
him.

“Drat!” he cried, which was the last thing I
expected to hear. “I’ve just left the building. All right, I’ll
meet you back up on twelve. How much was I off?”

Posner smiled. “Four feet.”

“
Four feet!
That’s incredible. I bet I
can narrow that down even further. And those buffoons with the
government still think a Leaper stays in place during a leap. Good
job, Akron. I’ll see you soon.”

Posner regarded him and shut down the
phone.

I don’t know what other people would have
done in my situation, but I just went along with the whole thing.
Lewis Kung had helped me when my situation was desperate so I was
inclined to trust his son and the man working for his son. I was
convinced as well that the man on the other end of the phone was
Philip Kung. The resemblance to his father, who I had met only a
week ago by my time, was unmistakable. Of course, even years ago,
there had been technology enough to fake it. To my untrained eye,
though, the whole thing seemed far too elaborate a ploy. Posner led
me down the street and into a building and I followed. I was
grateful to be out of the chill. The sun was going down and the
temperature had dropped in just the time it had taken us to walk a
few blocks. Looking back at the street, I realized that it was
empty of cars. What I saw actually surprised me. There were tracks
running through the gutter but everyone appeared to be either on
bicycles or on foot.

“What happened to the cars?” I asked.

He led me to the elevators. “Private cars
were outlawed about twenty years ago. The cost of energy was too
high. People began to resort to bikes. The result was that people
stayed within their own communities, which put a strain on free
enterprise. So the trolley system was developed.” That explained
the tracks. “The trolleys run around the city day and night and
they’re free. Well, you pay taxes for them. You can flag one down
at any time. It’s a bit more complicated than I’m making it seem,
but it works pretty well.”

We stepped into an elevator and Posner rang
twelve. Although I should have had many questions, I couldn’t seem
to put any of them into words. I just stood there, looking around,
taking note of the very normal looking elevator as it took us
speedily up to the twelfth floor. Outside the elevator was a short
carpeted hallway that led in both directions. There was a door at
either end. Posner motioned left so I preceded him to that door.
Leaning in ahead of me, he opened it up and I stepped inside.

There was a small reception area, but we
spent no time there. He led me directly into the back and through a
number of other closed doors. It didn’t take me long to realize
that we were in a laboratory and that raised some concerns for me.
I had had quite enough of laboratories and experiments. I had vowed
never to be anyone’s test subject again and I planned to honor that
vow. Posner finally found the room he wanted, a room with just the
one door, and led me inside. It was sterile white, with counters
lining three of the walls and shelves above the counters. Two
patient tables were set up side by side in the center of the room.
Each had instruments mounted on booms a workable distance from
them. On the right hand table sat a young girl.

“What are you still doing here?” Posner
asked, surprised to see her.

“That’s what I want to know,” she answered
testily. “Rudy was supposed to come back with some test results and
let me go an hour ago.”

“I’m sorry, Natalie,” Posner said. “I’ve just
got to wait for Philip and then I’ll check it out. In the meantime,
I’d like to introduce you to Mathew Cristian.”

She eyed me suspiciously for a moment, then
her face brightened. Of course brightening for Natalie wasn’t
terribly bright. She was a seventeen year old girl with an obvious
and giant chip on her shoulder.

“So you’re the hero of the Forty
Leapers?”

“The what?” I asked.

“The Forty Leapers?” she taunted. “You know.
Us.”

I looked at Posner and he smiled. “Forty Leap
is the accepted term for your condition.”

“Oh,” I replied, without having any
understanding.

“You started the riot that started the
revolution,” Natalie explained. “What was that like, taking down
that prison in the Rockies?”

I shook my head. It had been awful and I told
her so. I was inclined to tell her the true story of that awful
night, but I was interrupted by Posner, who was preparing a syringe
and attempting to roll up my sleeve. I withdrew my arm.

He looked up at me, surprised. “It’s just a
couple of tests.”

I shook my head. “I appreciate what you’ve
done for me, but no.”

He stood there, needle in hand, undecided
about what to do. A quick glance toward the young girl betrayed his
confidence. Placing the needle on one of the counter tops, he
informed me that he would have to see what Dr. Kung would want to
do about this. Then he left the room.

We sat for a time, Natalie and I, not
speaking to each other. She was staring at me. I was trying to
ignore it. Finally, she said, “You’re not a hero.”

I looked over and saw that her initial
brightness had faded entirely. She now regarded me with something
akin to disdain. But I agreed with her assessment and I told her
so.

“Were you even there, in the Rockies?”

I nodded.

“Did you shoot anyone?”

Maybe the question should have been funny to
me but it wasn’t. I shuddered and shook my head.

She made a sound in her throat, this one
definitely revealing disdain.

I found myself eager to explain to her who
and what I was. I don’t know why I felt that I needed to justify
myself to her. And yet I said nothing. I stared at her staring at
me.

“So it’s all a lie.”

“Yes,” I said. “But it’s not
my
lie.”

There was another pause in the conversation
during which my host arrived. I recognized the man from Posner’s
phone call. He was a bit older than I had at first assumed but
still middle aged. He had a commanding air about him and Posner
slunk in behind him very much in his shadow.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Cristian.
Akron tells me you’re reluctant to submit to testing. That’s
understandable, but unacceptable. You’re unique in that you are
fresh from a leap and it was a long leap. The information I can get
from a blood test and a brain scan could be invaluable toward
identifying the cause of Forty Leaping in the first place.

“The window of opportunity is closing fast so
I won’t beat around the bush. I’ve come prepared to make you an
offer, something in exchange for your cooperation.”

I motioned to speak, but he put up his hand.
“No time for arguments. Jennie Campbell, a woman with whom you’ve
had some acquaintance, is one hundred and two years old and still
alive, but very ill. She is in a hospital in New York City. In
exchange for your cooperation right now, I can give you an
identity, a little bit of money, and a ticket for a six o’clock
flight tomorrow morning. Yes or no, Mr. Cristian.”

I sat frozen in place. To be honest, not much
had registered after he mentioned Jennie’s name. At the moment, I
found myself stumbling through my memory of his words, picking out
details. One hundred and two years old. Very ill.

“How do I know I can trust you?”

He held a mini computer up to me. “Everything
you need to know is on here. You can trust me the same way you
trusted my father over fifty years ago when he saved your
life.”

That last was a not too subtle way of
reminding me of the debt I owed Lewis Kung. I noticed Posner
standing well in the background, bouncing proudly on the balls of
his feet. They had me. They knew they had me and even the chance to
see Jennie, even an ancient and dying Jennie, was an offer I could
not refuse.