Interesting Places (Interesting Times #2) (19 page)

Chapter 22

Oliver woke up on his couch with a
nasty hangover, Jeffrey sleeping next to him. The DVD menu for
Back to the
Future
was playing on the television on endless repeat, waiting for someone
to either start the movie or enjoy its variety of special features. It would
play until the end of time, or at least until someone shut the power off.

Oliver squinted against the light
that was streaming in from his living room window. His mouth tasted like he’d
been chewing on a dirty sock. What time was it?

He reached out and scratched
Jeffrey’s back, causing the cat to stretch out and yawn.

Memories battled in Oliver’s head as
if trying to assert their dominance. Sally had been here last night, hadn’t
she? They’d watched movies and had too many margaritas. He suspected she’d put
something in his drink, something just strong enough to get his mind wandering.
She’d been trying to get him to believe they had access to a working time
machine. It had been important to her that he believed it. And he
had
believed it. He’d repaired the damn thing, albeit unwittingly. If it was still
there, Oliver resolved to go down to the vault and smash it to bits with a
sledgehammer.

Oliver stood up and went to look out
his window. He almost expected to see cyborgs outside, patrolling on the sidewalk
in front of his house. Instead he saw nothing more interesting than a man
walking his dog. It was still somewhat foggy out, but it looked as if that
would burn off in an hour or two. It was going to be a beautiful day.

Jeffrey stirred on the couch. “I feel
awful,” the cat said. Oliver went over and sat down next to him, reaching out
to massage the scruff of his neck.

“What do you remember?” Oliver asked.

The cat crawled his way onto Oliver’s
lap and curled up. “There were cyborgs, and I was all alone, but your friends
found me and took me to that crazy house where time is weird, but then I could
remember things and talk again. And you came, and you dressed up like a cyborg
so nobody could tell you were sneaking around.” The cat opened his eyes. “I
waited for you, but then things changed and I woke up here just now. Is
everything okay now?”

Oliver sighed. “I think so. I keep
expecting something to happen, like that one cyborg is going to come in and
make me eat nutrient paste for breakfast.” That cyborg had had a name, hadn’t
he? No, he’d had a
designation
. SCI…something or other. Oliver found he
was having trouble remembering parts of what had happened, as if it were a
slowly-fading dream.

“But it’s not going to happen, is
it?” Jeffrey looked up at him. “Let’s stay here, and you can cook me some
sausages, and we’ll watch
Star Trek
all day.”

“As long as we skip the episodes that
have time travel and other dimensions,” Oliver said. “I think I’m done with
those subjects.”

“Good. I like this world better. And
I can talk and think about things, which is pretty good.”

“Yeah.” Oliver rubbed his eyes. “I
think I’d better go to work, though.”

“Do you have to?”

Oliver considered it. “I do today,”
he said. “Tomorrow I might get my resume out and start looking for a new job.
Something nice and boring.”

“Really?”

“I guess we’ll see.”

Oliver took the train into the
financial district, unsure if he was in any condition to drive. He had a few
bouts of intermittent dizziness and once was almost certain he spotted a cyborg
patrol, but it was gone when he took a second look. He wanted very much to go
home and go back to bed, but decided he could sleep later. Right now he needed
some answers.

Bruce looked up at him as he entered
the office’s lobby. “Good morning, sunshine,” he called from the reception
desk.

“Hi,” Oliver said. He realized he had
no idea what had happened to Bruce in the other timeline. He’d probably been
killed or converted in the initial invasion. “How are you this morning?”

“Can’t complain. Artemis wants to see
you first thing.”

Oliver watched the other man for a
moment, trying to size him up, but Bruce appeared to be his normal chipper
self. He’d never been to the house on Filbert Street, Oliver realized. From his
perspective, nothing out of the ordinary had happened. “I guess I’ll get in
there, then.”

“That’s sure what
I’d
do,”
Bruce said.

Seven rushed past Oliver in the
hallway, heading for his lab. Oliver was about to stop the other man and ask
how he was coping, but then realized Seven had never made it to the house on
Filbert Street, either. He’d be completely unaware of the other timeline, and
the fact that he’d died in it. There didn’t seem to be much point in telling
him about it. Seven would just think he’d gone nuts. Or worse, he’d believe
every word of it.

Artemis was behind her desk when
Oliver stepped into her office, her customary pot of tea sitting on her desk.
“Close the door,” she said.

Oliver shut the door and took one of
the chairs in front of her desk. “Tea?” Artemis asked.

“I’m not in the mood for tea,” Oliver
said.

“Ah, yes. Sally got you drunk the
night before she took the time machine. I imagine you are feeling a bit under
the weather.”

“Something like that.”

Artemis nodded. “I have spoken with
Maria this morning. She is well, and sends her thanks. So, Mr. Jones. How are
you?”

Oliver resisted the urge to say
fine
.
Artemis never made small talk, and he was in no mood for it, anyway. “The other
timeline feels like a dream. Parts of it are slipping away. Just the small
details, I guess. I remember the important things.”

Artemis nodded. “That was to be
expected. Certain things will fade away entirely, but you will remember the
larger matters. You may find yourself experiencing a form of post-traumatic
stress. I am unfamiliar with how that feels, having never experienced it
myself, but it is not uncommon for my employees to seek relief in therapy. We
have someone you can speak with, if you feel it necessary. She is cleared to
hear things that others may not.”

“Why am I not surprised the company
has a therapist?”

“It was not always so. We are a
progressive company.”

“Was that a joke?” Oliver asked.

“Not entirely, Mr. Jones. It was more
of a statement that things change.”

“Not everything.”

“No, I suppose not. Are you certain
you won’t have tea?”

“I don’t want any tea.”

“Then you should get to work. I
require you to visit Vault 3 and conduct an inspection. I would not expect that
anything has been disturbed now that the timeline has been restored, but I do
dislike surprises.”

Oliver nodded. “Where’s Tyler?”

“Tyler is not feeling well, and has
taken the day off. I will not ask you to take Seven, for obvious reasons. I
believe he already suspects there was a timeline fracture, but I will deal with
that in time. For today, I would prefer not to have to tell him he was killed.
He will not sleep for days once I do.”

“Yeah,” Oliver said. “And what about
Sally?”

Artemis sipped her tea. “Sally is no
longer with the company.”

Oliver felt a chill run down his
spine. “What does that mean, exactly?”

“It means precisely what I said, Mr.
Jones. She is gone. Surely it is not your concern.”

“It’s very much my concern,” Oliver
said. He heard an edge in his voice that surprised him a little, but given the
circumstances, he felt it was justified. “She’s my friend.”

“Is she?” Artemis raised an eyebrow.
“I seem to recall a short time ago you were not certain you could continue
working with her, so concerned were you with her monstrous past.”

Oliver felt himself getting angry.
No
,
he realized. He was getting
angrier
. “I swear to god, if you killed
her…”

“Of course I did not kill her, Mr.
Jones. She is one of my people, after all. I am not in the habit of killing
you. And before you ask, neither did anybody else. She is alive and well.”

“Then where is she?”

“Somewhere she is safe and
comfortable, and no longer a threat to herself or anyone else.”

Oliver wondered if Artemis would even
notice if he punched her in the face, or if she’d just go on talking like a
robot as if nothing had happened. “You sent her to the island, didn’t you? Wherever
that is. So she’s sitting in a damn cell?”

Artemis sighed. “She is not in a
cell, other than in the sense that the island itself is a cell from which she
cannot escape.”

“She made a mistake, damn it…”

“She made quite a series of mistakes,
Mr. Jones. She annihilated the cyborgs after they had been rendered harmless in
a childish attempt to avenge her sister.”

“She tried to fix that…”

“By altering time, which was an even
bigger mistake. The past
cannot
be changed, Mr. Jones. There is nothing
more dangerous. As unpleasant as it may be, we are forced to live with the
consequences of the things we have done. If we know we have done wrong, our
only option is to attempt to do better in the future. Sally did not do that.”

“You think she doesn’t know she was wrong
by now?”

“I think she cannot be controlled,
and that she is far too clever and resourceful to remain at liberty. I cannot
imagine what she would try next, and I am not willing to find out. Hence, she
will live out her days on the island. Put her from your mind.”

Oliver stood up, fists clenched. “Put
her from my mind? Are you kidding me?”

“I was not.”

“Do you have any feelings at all, you
crazy little bitch? Does
anything
bother you? What was it you said
before? We’re just small pieces, compared to some of the larger ones on the
board? We’re just pawns to you, aren’t we?” Oliver realized he was shouting,
something he hadn’t done in a very long time. He was surprised to find that he
didn’t care. “Our little lives mean nothing to you. You sit there in your high
chair and tell us what to do, and the minute we’re gone you don’t even remember
us. Sally would have
died
for you!”

Artemis stared at him with eyes of
ice. Oliver wondered for a moment if he’d just bought himself a ticket to the
island as well, but it didn’t matter anymore. Good luck to her if she tried
anything. He wasn’t going down without a fight.

Artemis took a deep breath. “Do I
have feelings, Mr. Jones?” she asked quietly. “Do I? I have been doing this for
longer than you can possibly imagine. I have lost more…I have lost every single
person I have ever cared for, and it hurts me every day. I feel that loss every
waking moment. And since you asked, I remember
all
of you.”

They stared at each other for a
moment longer, neither of them blinking, until Artemis finally looked away. “I
remember all of you,” she repeated softly, and for the first time since he’d
known her Oliver heard sorrow in her voice. “Get out of my office, Mr. Jones.
You may return to work tomorrow, or you may do…you may do whatsoever you may
wish. Regardless, I will remember you until the day I finally leave this
Earth.” She swung her chair around so she was facing the wall and said no more.

Oliver hesitated, wanting to say
something else, but the words wouldn’t come. He turned and left the office,
shutting the door behind him.

Chapter 23

Oliver stood on the sidewalk outside
the office for a good five minutes, feeling like he wanted to punch a wall, but
also realizing that he’d both look stupid to passersby and probably break his
hand. Around him cars drove along and pedestrians went about their business,
oblivious to the fact that in another timeline they’d all be dead or walking
around in cyborg armor. If he told them, they’d just think he was a crazy
person. Maybe that explained some of the crazy people he saw ranting on the
streets at times. Maybe they weren’t actually crazy; they just knew something
nobody else did.

Oliver took out his cell phone and
called Tyler. The other man answered on the third ring. “You okay?” Tyler’s
voice was groggy and slightly slurred. He sounded like he was well into a
bottle of Scotch.

“You know what happened to Sally?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Tyler…”

“I said I don’t want to talk about
it. Leave me alone.”

Oliver sighed. “Fine. We can talk
about it later. Are you all right?”

“No. I’m hanging up now. See you
tomorrow.” The connection dropped.

Oliver looked at his phone for a
moment, not sure what to do next. He really had nobody else to call. Who was he
going to tell about any of this? Who wouldn’t tell him to go see a psychiatrist
and get on some medication to make the crazy go away? After another minute, he
stuck the phone in his pocket and headed for the train station. Going home and
sleeping for the rest of the day sounded like a pretty good plan.

He was nearly to the station at
Embarcadero when he spotted someone he recognized, a girl in her late teens
with long blonde hair. Today she wore an ill-fitting purple suit that had
obviously been made for a man, along with a green vest and a tie to complete
the outfit. The clothes looked vaguely familiar, but Oliver wasn’t sure from
where. That was the least of his worries, though. The fact that he was seeing
the girl at all was strange. She was the one who had been skipping along with the
cyborg patrol back in Russian Hill, back when he and Tyler had gone to steal a
Humvee. The cyborgs either hadn’t noticed her presence or just didn’t care, but
neither of those things seemed very likely. Tyler hadn’t been able to see her,
either, he remembered. The girl had clearly seen Oliver, though. At the time
she’d waved merrily at him.

She spotted him again now and walked
over to where he stood, smiling broadly. “Do you think I’m pretty?” she asked.

“Who are you?”

“Oh, I’m doing the
Joker
,” she
said. “I wasn’t quite finished with the costume, though.” She ran her fingers
through her blonde hair, which turned dark green at the touch. Then she rubbed
her head with both hands to mess it up. “I might do the makeup, too, but I
haven’t decided yet. I don’t like to cover my face.”

There would have been a time when
Oliver would have been so startled by this turn of events that he’d either have
been rendered speechless or just run away, but he was no longer that person. “I
didn’t mean the costume,” he said. “I meant who are you?”

The girl pouted. “You really don’t
recognize me yet?” she asked. She searched his face. “No, you don’t. Now that
you’re finally waking up, you will soon enough. I don’t want to ruin the fun
for you.”

“Why couldn’t the cyborgs see you in the
other timeline?”

“Oh, that’s right,” the girl said. “I
almost forgot you saw me over there. I was going to come and say hello, but I
was having
such
a good time. True chaos is so rare these days, and a
whole broken timeline? That was just…” she sighed lustily, “
exquisite
.”

Oliver had thought his frustration
couldn’t have gotten any worse after his confrontation with Artemis, but it
turned out that hadn’t been the case at all. “You know what?” he asked. “I
don’t have time for this.” He turned to go.

“Aw,” the girl said. “I know. You’re
having a bad day. Poor Sally Rain. She was one of mine, if only for a little
while. And now she’s all alone on that island.” The girl bit her lip. “Well,
she’s not really
alone
. There are other things there, too. But nobody
for her to talk to. Even the monsters that are smart enough to have figured out
language don’t really have anything to say.”

“How do you know about her? How do
you know about any of that?”

The girl sighed, then stood on tiptoe
to kiss him on the cheek. “I missed you so much,” she whispered into his ear.
“I really did. You were always my favorite brother.”

Oliver stared at her in shock. “
Brother
?
You’re wrong, I don’t have any…” Oliver was an only child. He didn’t even have
any cousins that he knew of. “You’ve mistaken me for someone else.”

She grinned at him. “No, I haven’t.
It took me so long to find you, big brother, but I finally did. Now we’ll just
have to see what happens next.” She rubbed her hands together eagerly and
Oliver saw a glint in her eyes. “Maybe a family reunion? Now
that
would
be chaos.” She laughed merrily. “But it won’t be today. You’re not quite there
yet. You can’t even remember who you are!” She turned to go. “Oh, say hi to
Jeffrey for me.” She giggled. “A talking cat! That’s so perfect! Maybe I’ll get
one, too.” She skipped away from Oliver and was lost in the crowd a few seconds
later.

It occurred to Oliver that he’d
failed to ask what she meant when she said he was finally waking up, but that
opportunity was gone. But all things considered, on the list of unusual things
that had happened to him in the last six months, this encounter wouldn’t even
have rated in the top ten. Still, the girl had known about Sally Rain and
Jeffrey. He suspected he’d see her again soon. Maybe next time she’d be a
little more willing to answer some questions.

Oliver looked at the sky. The morning
fog had burned off and the sun was bright overhead. The world had moved on
without a care. He decided he was done thinking about his interesting life for
now. Maybe he’d take Jeffrey for a walk down by the water. The cat would enjoy
that. Or maybe he’d just go to bed. But no matter what, he was taking the rest
of the day off. He could deal with his problems tomorrow. Nothing at all
strange was going to happen today. It just wasn’t
allowed
to.

But of course that wasn’t how things
worked out. It wasn’t even close.