Now & Again (11 page)

Salazar, inside the fat guard, shrieked in pain and pawed at his nose and eyes. Fargo pranced in a circle around Salazar, mocking him. “C’mon, test those parameters! Fatty-fatty two-by-four, can’t fit through the bathroom door! Let’s go! Time’s a wastin’!” She pointed at his pants and laughed. “Hey buddy boy, your zipper’s
still
down!”

Salazar looked down and made a show of bending over as if to zip up but it was only to cover his sudden reach for the ground. The fat guard came up fast with a handful of dirt and tossed it in Fargo’s face. The skinny guard groaned and grabbed for his eyes. Taking advantage, Salazar crushed him to the ground with a bruising tackle. “Who’s down now,
girlfriend
?”

Fargo instantly bucked him off with a knee to the groin. Both rolled around on the ground trying to get the upper hand. The struggle abruptly escalated. It was obvious that the mind riders had acclimated themselves to the bodies they controlled. Fierce kicks and raw punches flew back and forth. Attacks and defenses that neither guard had any experience with flashed between the two men as their riders sought to disable each other.

In the control room, Hahn glared at the archive screens showing the intense fighting. She turned to Vandermark with a look of loathing. “What is wrong with your people?”

Vandermark calmly returned her look. “It’s what you asked for. They’re testing everything you require – they’re just doing it their own way.”

“Well, I’ve had enough of them and their own way. This test is over.” Hahn stabbed the jump override button on the console and then glowered for the entire five long seconds of waiting until both guards suddenly went slack and the jump ended.

* * *

Outside their door, both guards writhed on the ground and moaned in agony. For them, the injuries were real and some of the damage would be permanent. The skinny guard rolled to a sitting position, keeping his hands on his face while fresh blood coursed between his fingers. “You broke my nose! I’m bleedin’ like a stuck pig! What the hell got into you?”

“Me? What’s with the Kung Fu crap!” The fat guard rocked back and forth in a fetal position, his hands shoved in his crotch. “Oh God, I think I’m bleeding inside. Hey, I can’t feel my feet.” His legs made feeble crawling movements. “And you head-butted me!”

* * *

Hoists lifted the unlocked cradle covers. Technicians started the laborious task of unhooking helmet and body connections. Removing their glasses, Salazar and Fargo looked around. They were keyed up and excited – like star players at half time when their team was winning. Sal explored his face with inquisitive fingers and Fargo gingerly touched her nose. They were physically unmarked and completely unhurt. They looked at each other and started laughing.

Salazar tapped his communicator and glanced up toward the control room. “Hey Doc, why so quick? We were just startin’ to get a feel for things. Man what a rush!”

At the control room windows, Hahn watched the opened cradles and the riders with open contempt, and didn’t bother to answer Sal. She flicked a look up. “Echo, all data on this test is part of
the Point
access protocol.”

“Of course, Dr. Hahn.”

Vandermark joined her at the glass. Hahn refused to look at him as she asked, “When will I be allowed to use competent help again?”

Vandermark reacted with sudden heat. “When my project is done!” He belatedly realized he had spoken too harshly.
Damn this woman! If I didn’t need her…stop that! You’re better than this. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

He tried again, softer this time. “Look, Song Lee, I appreciate how you feel, but you know we both want the same outcome; we only disagree on the path. Can’t you see that?”

Hahn gave no ground at all. It no longer mattered to her if they agreed on anything. “What other questions do you have for me?”

Vandermark gave up on his clumsy subtlety. “Suit yourself! I consider this test a success. Now get going and make sure everything’s ready for the truck.”

Hahn stiffened and walked away from him.

The two hapless guards were still visible on the screens as they continued to rock in agony. One tried unsuccessfully to get to his feet. Vandermark’s eyes passed across them, unmoved. “Wait! I do have one other question. What about the range issue?”

Hahn stopped. “The range is still the range. Nothing new. All we’ve learned is that if we’re not within a hundred yards…the rider can’t ride. That’s all.”

Vandermark scowled at her. “Still a hundred yards! That’s gonna be a bitch.”

Hahn rotated her shoulders so she could give him a slight, ironic smile, and then left the room.

Long strings of blue and white plastic pennants hung listlessly above sparkling rows of new cars and trucks. Jake Sweeney Chevrolet occupied more than half of the block between West Kemper Road and Princeton Pike, and had been in business at that location for more than thirty years. In fact, a third generation of Sweeney’s lurked just inside the showroom doors, dressed in ties and shirtsleeves, and ready to sell anything with wheels.

Kendall had decided on the truck he wanted as soon as he was done with his Allstate agent, but it took most of the day, and three dealerships, to find the right flavor.

The wide garage doors on the outside wall of the main building slowly lifted as a new, black Chevy Silverado V8 rolled out and pulled next to the showroom doors to honk its horn.

Inside the waiting area, Josh took a quick look up from his open laptop to spot his dad motioning at him from the truck. He quickly grabbed his jacket, tucked the computer under his arm, and hurried out, muttering to himself, “Finally.”

Surrounded by the black and gray interior of the pickup, Josh breathed in the heady scent of new leather and looked at Kendall’s smiling face. “Happy now?”

Kendall waved his arm around. “So, whaddya think of her?”

“What can I say? Black is your color.”

Kendall put the truck in gear and drove toward the exit from the lot. “I’ll take you for a spin before I drop you back at your car.”

Josh clicked his seat belt and burrowed into the leather. “Nice! How much more was this than the old one?”

Kendall pulled out onto West Kemper and made a satisfied noise with his mouth. “Well…think about this. My credit’s better now than it ever was before.”

Josh considered that for a few seconds. “No, that’s not right. You mean it’s better
here
than it was
there
.” Josh flipped open his laptop and propped it beside him on the large center armrest.

“Yeah, however you want to say it – then, now, here, there, whatever.” Kendall smirked. “Where’s
there
anyway?”

Josh stopped fooling with his laptop long enough to look seriously at his father. “As far as I can understand things,
there
is
here
too.”

Kendall checked the traffic and turned left onto Princeton Pike to head toward highway 275, planning to show off his purchase at freeway speeds.

Josh rotated his laptop back and forth. “Ooo! Wait. Wait! Pull over! Now!”

Skittish with his new ride, Kendall suddenly yanked the truck across a lane, swerved up against a curb and braked. He anxiously looked around. “What? I don’t see any brake lights. What’s wrong?”

Josh watched the lower corner of his laptop screen as he tipped and turned the computer. “Damn, I had three bars. Now I got none.”

“Huh?”

“Back it up – maybe twenty feet or so.” He hunched over the seat and pointed back at a car battery shop. “Over near that office, I bet.”

Kendall scowled darkly but dumped it into reverse and slowly backed up.

Josh kept his eyes on his screen. “Yeah…yeah…there! Good. Park it right here. Great!” He clicked on his browser and watched it load.

Kendall started tapping his fingers on the black leather-wrapped steering wheel. He twisted his rearview mirror until he could see Josh’s intent face. “Hey Josh?”

“Yeah.”

“What are we doin’?”

“Ridin’ their connection.” He looked up defensively. “Hey, if they didn’t want people to ride, they shoulda encrypted it, y’know? It’s not that hard.” He typed a website address into his browser and hit
enter
.

Kendall rubbed his eyes. “Okay. But…so you’re gettin’ a free ride to the internet. Why now?”

“Cause we’re lookin’ for Hugh Everett. The physicist, remember?” Josh keyed a user name and password into a website welcome page.

“Yeah…well,
you’re
lookin’.”

Josh waited for the website to confirm his account and load the members’ home page. “See, here’s the deal. The
new me
happens to be a member of
Net Detective
, the number one internet detective site.”

“The new you, huh?”

“Yeah. The new guy inside – from here.”

“So, you found out this new paranoid Josh of yours joined a private detective site?”

“Uh, just a sec.” Josh spelled the letters out loud as he typed. “H-U-G-H, space, E-V-E-R-E-T-T, enter. Okay. Uhh, M-A-R-Y-L-A-N-D, enter. Okay.”

Josh looked up at his dad and thought for a moment. “He – I joined a month ago – $9.95 for three months. I mean not
me
, I mean the
me
in this timeline…is what I mean.”

Kendall played with his deluxe visor and flipped the vanity mirror lights off and on. “I wonder what happened a month ago in this timeline that would make you join a detective site?”

Josh’s face was devoid of any expression for a few seconds. “What happened to me? I mean, what happened to
this me
?” It suddenly all clicked together for him. “Oh, to make me join, you mean? Just a sec, let me think about that.”

Josh paused and mentally sorted through his doubled memories and then grinned wickedly. “Which Dad is askin’?”

“Which dad?” Kendall rolled his eyes. “Oh, forget it! Are you done yet, or can you speed it up so we can take our ride?”

Josh checked the Net Detective’s results. “Hmm. Lots of Everett’s in Maryland. Hey, wait. A couple of these actually look pretty good. As a matter of fact, let me see…”

Kendall was tired from the day. “You know findin’ this guy won’t help. His theory’s crap. I can’t even understand it.”

Josh busily moved his mouse and selected something new. “Hugh Everett’s a place to start, that’s all I’m hopin’. If he’s alive…”

An impressive array of new results populated the screen and a slow smile lit up Josh’s face. “Well, well, well, good old Net Detective. Look at this. There’s an 87-year-old Hugh Everett living in the Althea Woodland Nursing Home in Silver Spring, Maryland. There’s even a MapQuest link. Cool.”

Kendall remained unengaged. “How do you know it’s even him? Like you said, there’s probably plenty of Everett’s.”

Josh smugly stuck his face closer to his screen. “Because I know
this
Hugh Everett got a physics Ph.D. from Princeton in 1949. And he worked at the Pentagon – that’s a nice salary for the time. Bought and sold houses in Virginia and Maryland – boy, real estate’s gone up…”

Kendall swiveled in his seat, shocked. “That stupid site knows all that?”

Josh scoffed, “Oh, that’s just the top level.” He scanned the offerings on the left side menu. “I could check his credit history, mortgages, military records, secondary school and college GPA’s, passport info, criminal records, longitude…
longitude?
Are they kidding?”

Kendall was hooked. “Does it have his phone number? Maybe we could just call him.”

“Sure.” Josh hurriedly checked his list of entries and then checked again. He shook his head. “Nothin’ listed.”

Kendal slapped the steering wheel and blew out a breath of air. “Oh for cryin’ out loud! It’s got all that other worthless stuff for you to play around with but no phone? Stupid!”

Kendall flipped on his blinker and checked the side mirror. “Your free ride’s done. I’m droppin’ you back at the car.”

Unfazed, Josh continued to study the Everett information. “I dunno. Weird. But at least he’s alive, and we found him.”

Kendall pulled out. Somebody honked. Kendall growled back in a fury as he accelerated.

“Dad, you know we gotta go there and at least talk to him.”

Kendall switched lanes and made a sudden U-turn to head back to the dealership. He refused to answer Josh or even look at him. With a quick punch of a finger on his steering wheel controls, he turned on the radio and let it blast out a piece of music.

“Dad?”

* * *

Leah paid no attention to the usual morning concert of birds chirping in the trees outside the bedroom. She watched as Kendall packed a suitcase opened on the bed. “I still don’t understand why you have to go to Maryland, of all places. We don’t know anyone there. And why so sudden?”

Kendall went into the bathroom and pulled together a toiletries bag. “It’s complicated.”

“And Josh too?”

“Josh too.”

Kendall zipped up the toiletries bag and dropped it into the suitcase. Leah sighed. “And I suppose the reason is complicated for him too?”

“Trust me.” He shoveled underwear, T-shirts and socks from his dresser to the bag.

Leah folded her arms. “What about work?”

“I have sick time. I checked.”

“What about Josh? He just started.”

Kendall checked the bag for anything he’d forgotten. “He’s takin’ time off without pay.” He tossed in a few handkerchiefs and closed the top, and avoided looking at her. “What is this, a thousand questions?” He pulled the large metal zippers closed around the suitcase until they met at the handle. He hoisted it off the bed and set it on the floor.

Leah watched him check his pockets to confirm his billfold, phone and keys. “I just wish I knew why you two won’t tell me what’s going on.”

Kendall stepped up to Leah and gently touched her shoulders. “‘Cause we can’t. Just gimme a kiss and stop worryin’.”

Leah dutifully kissed him. Kendall held her eyes with his for a beat. “I’ll call you. Believe me, I’d explain if I thought I could. I’m sorry. We gotta go if we’re gonna catch the plane.”

He lifted the suitcase and headed out. Leah walked behind him as far as the bedroom door, and stopped. Her eyes were filled with worry.