Lady Grace & the War for a New World (Earth's End Book 2) (36 page)

61

“Just when everythin’ seems t’ be workin’ out, I have a meltdown,” Bud said to Grace. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep on goin’. I just gotta let my hair down.” Bud was seated on a rock by the river, elbows propped on his knees, hands dangling. His long braids were unkempt, and his hat’s brim was torn and coming loose from the crown on one side.

The air was nippy again; their second cold season was on its way. The first winter was one of those piddly California deals where it rained a few times and got down to forty degrees. None of the people from the East Coast even noticed it and no one was worried about it this go-round.

“Grace, I never imagined this happenin’. I thought we come here to do a job—help you all with the underground and savin’ the kids. But we done that.

“We done that an’ more, and
more
. We got the sawmill going by the river, cleared a logging road, built corrals an’ sheds. Wesley built a whole barn an’ got all the equipment going perfect. We taught you how to slaughter and dry meat, how to plant and harvest. Everything we know we taught you, Wesley and me both. You all worked like demons, too. But how much more can we do? I don’t think we’re ever goin’ to get to go home.”

“Oh, Bud. I’m so sorry. When I asked the people of the golden planet to bring you here, I never imagined they wouldn’t send you back.”

“Yeah, well, things didn’t turn out the way anyone expected, that doctor going crazy an’ all. But it’s been almost two years! All I can think about is what’s goin’ on with my Bert. An’ the kids? She’ll think I ran out on her. Or got killed somewhere and she’ll never know what happened to me.”

He pulled his hat off and struck it against his knee. “Lord, I wish I could go home. I’m beyond goin’ crazy. I’m completely off my gourd.” His shoulders slumped and began to heave. “I’m gonna sit here cryin’ until I die.”

“Oh, Bud. Don’t cry.” Grace put her arms around him. “I’d call the goldies up and ask them to send you back …”

“You
would
?”

“I would, but for what happened the last time I talked to them. Their planet is in a shambles because of me. That doctor wanted to set me up as a porn star. Who knows how many of them still want that? I won’t contact them again.”

“I see what you mean.” He slipped farther into melancholy. “Don’t you think there’s anything can be done? I been thinkin’ of all sorts of things in my misery, Grace. You know how bogus this place is, don’t you? It’s part California, part New Mexico, part Montana. Maybe some Connecticut. This place is made-up. That’s what I’ve been thinking.”

“I’ve thought that from the very beginning,” she answered.

“This is what else I’ve been thinking. This place is made up out of your mind, and Jeremy’s, too. Places you’ve been. It’s like someone reached into your head and pulled out a bunch of memories and then used them to make a place—here—for us to land.”

“Who would do that?”

“The goldies. Could they do that?”

“Why would that doctor go to all the trouble to dig out the underground and make that movie set with the spiders if he could just think up something without the work?”

“So it’s not likely that the goldies did it?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“OK. When you sent out those messages to outer space, or when Jeremy did and they sent Ellie, did you send them just to the golden planet, or did you send them all over space?”

She looked at him, blinking. “All over, Bud. Later, we tuned into the golden planet, but still, we both sent wide band messages.”

“So any other world in the universe could have picked them up?”

“Yes, if they had sufficient technology.”

“And an interest in you, Jeremy, and our little band of outlaws.”

“Yes.”

“Say they were interested. Say they made this world for you, and hauled you out of wherever you were and put you here, then did the same with Jeremy and the underground, all at once.”

“But the underground was ancient. People had been there forever.”

“If this other world could create all this—this phony paradise—they could stick the underground in it, and whatever else they wanted. Not only that, this whole deal might not be real.” He indicated the riverbed around him. “This could be somebody’s imagination. It could disappear the minute they forget about us.”

“Don’t tell me that. I worry enough.”

He pulled something out of his pocket.

“I’ve been wanting to show you this. I’ve been carryin’ it in my jeans since I got here. We call this a flash drive where I come from. It goes in a computer. You can store stuff on it. Pictures or whatever you want. I’ve got pictures of my family on this one, an’ my world. I’d like so much if Jeremy could play it.

“I didn’t pull it out before because I wasn’t sure that I could handle seein’ Bert an’ the kids. Now, I can’t handle
not
seein’ ‘em.

“An’ I got some ideas. Here’s the deal. I think this place could break apart at any time. I think we need a Plan B, right now.”

“What can we do? We don’t have any other options.”

“I think I’ve got one. It’s from my time, 2015.” Bud dropped his voice, “I get the shakes any time I talk about Will Duane. He’s so private that to work for him, you gotta sign an inch-thick contract saying you won’t talk about him or anything he’s got, including his cat, if he had one. I feel funny talking about this, but I need to.

“There’s a famous physicist, Dr. Vanessa Schierman. She’s got a PhD from Berkeley an’ she was in on developin’ the Cyclotron and who knows what else. She’s an older lady, a tad strange. Dr. Schierman is a good friend of Will’s an’ has an estate up on Skyline Road above Woodside. In California. I heard tell that Dr. Schierman is doing experiments with a time machine.” He dropped his voice still further.

“Actually, what I heard is that she
has
one and uses it. Will Duane an’ Willy Fish an’ Dr. Schierman are workin’ on a commercial application of it. They’re working on something about
time travel
. Willy Fish is Will’s tech genius, by th’ way. Sort of a Jeremy in my time.

“I was thinking if Wes and me could get home, I could tell Will about you folks, an’ maybe he and Willy Fish and Dr. Schierman could figure out a way to pick you up. All of you.

“If Will had Jeremy and Willy Fish working for him, he’d dominate the tech field worldwide, hands down. He’ll figure that out right away. And Sam could be the super manager of the universe with that Voice and his Power. Will would want to do it, I know.”

“So there’s some possibility that we may be able to escape to the year 2015?”

“Yes, if we can figure out where and when we are now so we can tell Will and them where to find you. And if they can develop the technology to do it before this place rips apart.”

“It’s a very slim possibility.”

“Very.”

“That’s a lot to think about, Bud. I’ll get this,” she held up the flash drive, “to Jeremy. I don’t know that we’ll even be able to use it with our computers. I’ve never seen anything like this.

“Let’s go back to the others. Bud, I’m so sorry you’re having such a bad time. But we love you. You’ve done more than anyone could, healing Sam and working so hard. You’ve saved our lives. Come on …” She held out her hand to him and pulled him up.

“Can I hug you? I need a hug,” Bud said.

She nodded and they embraced. He kissed her cheek, just as Sam walked down the path.

62

“Oh, Sam, I’m not gettin’ fresh with your wife.” Bud let go of Grace and turned away. “I’m just havin’ a nervous breakdown.” He pulled out a hankie and wiped his eyes. “I miss my family so much and I don’t know how I’ll get home.”

Sam hugged him. If he had found Wesley with his arms around the lady, he would have attacked him. Wes had been chasing after Grace almost the entire time they had been back. Bud was a different story.

“I don’t know how you can get home, Bud,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

“Thank you, Sam. I appreciate th’ sympathy. I think I’m going to take the equine therapy approach to going plum out of my mind. I’m going to go for a ride. Want to ride with me? I’ve got that stallion I been training ready for you to try.”

“OK.”

“I’m going to give this to Jeremy,” Grace held up the flash drive, “and see if he can do anything with it. Bud, why don’t you tell Sam what you told me?”

“Sure. An’ you tell Jeremy. I think we should keep it at that, just the four of us. It’s too chancy to get people’s hopes up.”

“I agree. Let’s see if Jeremy can get a show ready for us this evening. We can broadcast your photos against the rock wall above the cliff.”

Sam sat at one side of the circle where he could watch everyone. By the time Jeremy got everything set up, the moon glowed over the plains. Wolves and coyotes howled, but no one on the ledge paid much attention to them. Sam searched people’s faces, while the others concentrated on Bud and his picture show.

The lady was sitting next to Lena, chatting away. Wesley walked over to her, smiling like a rabid coyote. He started to sit down next to her, but she got up and moved next to Sam. He patted her knee as she sat down on her log and tossed Wesley a triumphant glare. Wes glowered. Sam felt his breathing quicken. When would he call him out? He’d taken more than any husband should.

His ancestors rose inside him, roiling and roaring, warning him day and night. Telling him to keep sharp. Sam knew what happened with the first Sam Baahuhd and his wife Emily. Theirs was a love story for the ages, but it wasn’t perfect love. He knew the danger other men could pose in a small group of people. The strain made him sharp and anxious. He felt like he did when he drank the coffee and the caffeine made him shake. He couldn’t get away from the feelings. Or Wesley. Or her.

Sam had watched Wesley stalking her for almost two years. She did nothing to encourage him. But she didn’t slap him or yell at him or tell Sam to kill him. Suspicion nipped at him, clawing its way through his soul. First, over Wesley. Then it spread to Henry. And even James. She was good friends with James. He was gay. Sam was getting crazy.

If he could get rid of Wesley, things would be much better. He’d call him out. The two of them, someplace quiet and out of the way. Down by the sawmill maybe. The supernatural Indian warrior might discover that the underground held a few secrets of its own. If he was soundly beaten, Wesley would leave.

“Sam, pay attention to what Bud’s saying,” Grace whispered, nudging him. He turned to the picture show.

“This is my wife, Bert. That’s short for Roberta,” Bud stood up as Jeremy projected images he’d taken from the flash drive on the wall of the big cave. Everyone stared, enthralled. “Isn’t Bert just the cutest thing? I love that little space between her front teeth. That knocked me for a loop when I met her.” The image of a round-faced, brown woman with the warmest smile covered the wall.

“An’ here are my kids, Buddy, Les, and Allie.” In the next photo, the woman was joined by three adorable brown kids, two teenagers and a girl about six. All had the little space between their front teeth. “It’s a good thing I like that space, because the orthodontist wanted a lot of money to get rid of it.” More images filled the wall: the older kids playing baseball. The little girl dancing in a tutu. All of them playing in the snow. Riding horses.

Wesley got up and moved to the other side of the lady. “I can see better here,” he stage-whispered. Sam felt like belting him. He was pushing too hard. The lady pulled toward Sam.

“Sam, watch,” she whispered. “Take a good look.”

“OK. Here I get into shaky ground. When you work for Will, you gotta sign a contract saying you won’t mention his name outside of your closet. But I took some pictures, takin’ my life in my hands. This here is Will Duane’s Montana ranch house.” Many more images appeared, showing posh log interiors and spectacular decoration. Paintings fit for museums. Garlands of greenery. A Christmas tree.

“It was Christmas then. The house is twenty-five thousand feet, not including the guesthouses, of which there are plenty. He built the ranch before his financial disaster. This and his Woodside house are the only two he’s got left. He picked the two best ones, I’ll say. He hires the best architects in the world to build for him, or he did.”

“Sam, that’s where we would live,” she whispered in his ear, so quietly that only he could hear.

Sam squinted at the picture. The house was beautiful. Living there would be better than on a rock ledge. But it was impossible …

“Will’s real edgy about people, because with all that’s happened to him …”

“Can you tell us what happened, Bud?” Grace asked.

“About everything that can happen.” He gave them a brief rundown.

“That’s awful,” Grace said. “That poor man.”

“Yeah, really. The final blow was the financial crash of 2001 and the big one in 2008. But he’s recovered some, and realized that half of the fifty billion he once had is still a lot of money.”

When the show was over, people gathered around Bud. “I wish we could get you home, Bud.” “Those kids sure are cute.” “Something will come up, somehow.”

Grace and Sam got up to go to their cave. Wesley lurched forward and caught himself by grabbing the lady.

“I’m sorry. I’m a klutz. I apologize.” He stroked her clothing, smoothing it. He ran his hand over her breast, more than a little too slowly.

“Take yer filthy hands off o’ her,” Sam said, the Voice and the village speech bursting out of him. “Ne’er let me see ye near her. Y’ ken?” He stepped forward so he was inches from Wesley.

“Well, sure, Sam. I just tripped is all.” Wesley looked him straight in the eye.

Sam took the lady’s arm and headed for bed. He’d call Wesley out the next day.