Now & Again (20 page)

“Is he in there?”

“Yes, but he’s…”

Quyron cut her off. “But he’s busy?” She stepped around Sophia’s half-cubicle. “He’s about to be
very
busy.” She crossed to Newbauer’s inner office door and grabbed for the knob.

“Quyron, stop!” Sophia was on her feet, her desk phone in her hand.

Quyron fixed the anxious blond with a look. “Don’t you dare call anyone.”

Sophia remained standing, but undecided. Quyron drifted a half step back towards her. “Think it through, Sophie. You know me, and you know him. What’re the chances that I have a better reason to see him than he has to hide from me?”

Sophia gradually lowered the phone from her ear and hung it up. “I’ll tell him I was in the bathroom.”

“Works for me.” Quyron twisted the knob and pushed through the inner office door.

Newbauer was sitting at his desk intently watching an open window on his computer screen. Shocked by Quyron’s sudden appearance, he jumped to his feet. “You can’t just barge in here!”

“That’s odd, because I believe I just did.” Without a pause in her walk, she went right up to his desk. “And if you answer a few questions, in no time at all, I’ll just barge right out again.”

Newbauer was confused and angry. “You can’t be in here! I’m not…Sophie’s no doubt called security by now, so time’s not on your side.”

“She won’t.”

“How do you know that?” Newbauer was clearly lost at sea.

“Woman’s Intuition. Sit down, Jonathan.” Quyron’s voice was strong and utterly controlled.

Without thinking, Newbauer sat. His eyes nervously darted at his screen and then back.
Don’t look at it!

“Tell me about
the Point
.”

“I don’t know anything.”
I’ve got to get her out of here! Where’s Sophie?

“Your name’s all over it. You, Vandermark, Hahn, you’re all in it. You blocked the electronic trail, but not the paper one.”

“I’m calling security.”
That’s it! That’ll work!

Quyron leaned on his desk with her arms spread and studied him. “You’re afraid of something, aren’t you? What are you afraid of, Jonathan?”

Newbauer made a grab at his desk communicator. Quyron effortlessly swatted it off the desk. The clatter of its demise on the hardwood floor fed the tension in the room.

“Answer me!”

“No!” Newbauer’s voice came out thin and high.
What’s wrong with me? She’s a nobody!
Stiffening up, the sweating executive tried to bluster. “Now what? Is this when the secret fighting skills appear? Huh? I’m not answering any questions.” He was getting braver the longer he heard himself talk. “So go on! Get out of here, you little…you little two-bit analyst.”

An odd smile twisted Quyron’s face. “You know, Jonathan, I was a great disappointment to my father. He thought I had such potential.”

Quyron suddenly leaped over the desk, balanced on one of her hands, and delivered a dazzling scissors-kick. Newbauer was ejected backwards from his chair like a rag doll. Quyron landed just in time to snatch his tie and yank him back again. The tubby executive harshly slapped face down on his desk, scattering everything.

While he was dazed, Quyron slipped behind him, looped his arms high against his back and pinned them there with one hand. She seized his hair with the other, and leaned close to an ear. Her voice dropped instantly to an unsympathetic whisper. “But I only learned enough to beat-up weak, overweight men. You see, I always preferred math to my father’s martial arts.”

She viciously wrenched his head up and back at a steep angle, poised above the polished hardwood desk. Her voice now came out full and hard. “Men like you are my one weakness. Now, answer my questions, or you’ll need more dental work.”

She jerked his head as if about to slam it down on the desktop. Newbauer squeaked. “
The Point
was a secret lab. They were researching new nanobots and how to alter timelines.”

“Why? To what end?”

“…to speed up discoveries…push the timelines into directions they wanted. I don’t know what all.”

“And Vandermark?”

“He…he sees other uses for the technology…he thinks he can sell it to high bidders.”

“What other uses?” Newbauer hesitated. She shook his head in a warning.

“A way to stay young. It’s…he said it was the chance of a lifetime.”

Quyron vibrated with fury. “Idiots! Blind idiots!”

Newbauer’s eyes were wet and his injured nose was dripping blood. “Please! Don’t hurt me.”

“And what about Everett?”

“Umm…he didn’t know…not all of it. Things changed. Vandermark got carried away once Hahn found a way to…to…”

“To what?” She caught his eye in a baleful look and snarled at him. “Spit it out or, so help me, you’ll be spitting out teeth.”

He gulped painfully. “They can ride people. Take their minds and…and make them do things.”

Quyron blanched. “They found a way into the lines? My God! Everett should know the dangers of that. Why would he let such…”

“They hid it from Everett. Told him something else.” Newbauer’s voice was begging. “I’m telling you the truth. I’m just…just a money guy. Please…”

“Oh yeah, you’re just a wide-eyed innocent. Got that.” Still holding his arms pinned, she dragged him across the desk and right up against his computer display screen. “So, what’s this that you can’t stop looking at?”

An active video window showed a live view of Hahn and Vandermark in their control room watching Nsamba’s timeline invasion in progress.

“A Peeping Tom, too? My, aren’t you a little sweetheart. You’re not playing the game fair, either.”

She studied the screen. “I see. Okay, I’d say I have located
the Point
. Thanks for that. And it looks like almost everybody’s at home, too. But where’s Everett?”

Newbauer was caught blank by that question. He sputtered. “He’s…still in China. Isn’t he?”

“Is he? I’m beginning to wonder.” Quyron loosened her rigid hold on his head, just enough to allow him to droop forward, until his bruised face touched the bloody desk. “And what did they promise you, money man? A better office? Bigger title?”

“No. Nothing. I swear!” His voice was muffled against the top of the desk.

Quyron slightly tightened her hold on his hair again, and he rapidly coughed up more words. “They needed me to hide the startup costs and the employee records, but…they made me do it.”

“Of course.” She considered the fat executive for a moment and then nodded, knowingly. “I’m sure you’d’ve made a great CEO after Everett was…what?”

Newbauer’s eyes widened. “No. That’s not true.”

“Removed? Disposed of? What word did you use?”

“Nothing. There was no talk about that.” He sounded desperate. “Honest. I would never even think of it.”

“That’s fine, Mr. Newbauer, I’ll take your word on it.”

Newbauer was suddenly speechless. He didn’t know how to react to being believed.

Quyron continued. “And next, we’re going to take a ride in your car, and you can play the helpful tour guide.”

“Quyron, please, you don’t understand what you’re asking…”

She gave his head a hard shake. “No? Let me help you understand something. You and I are not actually on a first name basis yet. Got that? Good. And now I’m going to let you go.” She loosened her hold on his hair. “But you have to be good.” She let go of his hair and flexed her fingers to get the feeling back. She then carefully released her grip on his trapped arms and stepped back. “Clean yourself up. We’re leaving.”

Newbauer pushed himself erect. He painfully got his chair back on its wheels and dropped into it like a wet sack. He dabbed at his bleeding lips and timidly pushed against a few loosened teeth. He played the picture of the pathetic victim as he wiped his bloody nose with a sleeve.

Quyron shook her head. “Don’t you important people carry handkerchiefs?”

Newbauer tenderly checked his cheek. “Got Kleenex in the desk.” He reached for a drawer but paused and glanced at Quyron first.

She nodded. “Go ahead. But don’t do anything stupid.”

He pulled the drawer open and took out a box of Kleenex. Behind the box was a stun gun. He tried to yank it out but an attentive Quyron promptly kicked the drawer. It slammed shut with a bang. Newbauer erupted in sudden squeals of agony. He violently pulled and thrashed at the drawer, and finally, jerked his crushed fingers free.

Quyron smirked. “That was stupid.”

Newbauer spun in his chair, hunched protectively over his ruined hand, and screaming. Quyron reached into the opened drawer and slipped the stunner into her waistband.

Sophia burst into the room in a panic. “I heard screaming!”

“It’s poor Jonathan.” Quyron said, with apparent concern. “He caught his fingers in a drawer.”

Quyron grabbed his arm and flourished the mangled hand as proof. Newbauer shrieked in renewed agony.

Sophia went white. “Oh my God!”

“Don’t worry.” Quyron used her hold on his arm to force Newbauer out of the chair. “I’m rushing him to the emergency room right now. “Quick, get the door!”

Sophia shoved the office door open and pressed her back against it as Quyron hurried Newbauer out.

“I’ll call you from the hospital when I know more. But, if I were you, I’d cancel his appointments for the rest of the day.”

Sophia nodded at Quyron and followed Newbauer’s pain-filled eyes as he was pulled by. “I am so, so sorry, Mr. Newbauer!”

Everett stalked down the windowless hallway in the secure section of
the Point
and arrived at the locked metal door at the end. He stared sourly at a young security guard standing beside it. “When was all this nonsense put in?”

The nervous guard wrinkled his brow. “A few months ago, I guess. Before I got hired.”

“You know who I am, don’t you?”

“Yes sir, I’ve seen the brochures. Everybody knows who you are.”

“So, open this damn door, and let me get on with this.”

The guard rolled his shoulders uneasily. “I can’t do that.”

“The hell you can’t! You just said you know who I am, so you know I have the clearance for whatever’s going on behind here. So, open it.”

The guard cringed. “No. I mean, I can’t, because guards don’t have the clearance either.”

“That’s absurd. Who set up these rules?”

The guard didn’t know what to say.

Everett looked around, plainly disgusted. He puffed out an annoyed breath. “Okay, so tell me how people with clearance get it open.”

“Well, first you step up to the door there. See, right next to it is a slot for a fingerprint scan, and above that is an eye scan, and beside the two of them is an audio pick up thingy that does a voice print check, and…”

Everett waved his hands. “Oh, for God’s sake!” He took out his palm computer and flipped it open. “Echo, can you hear me?”

Echo’s voice immediately floated in the air. “Good day, Dr. Everett. Yes, I can hear you.”

“Can you open this ridiculous door?”

The lock instantly buzzed and the door released. The guard’s mouth dropped open.

“You can go back to your idiot guarding now,” Everett growled. He moved rapidly through the open door and slammed it behind him before he spoke again. “Echo, what in the hell’s going on here?”

“I believe such generic questions are best answered by Dr. Vandermark or Dr. Hahn.”

Everett scowled back in Echo’s general direction and pushed the call button for the nearby elevator.

“And Dr. Everett,” Echo said. “Your hand device is unnecessary now that you are in range of my sensors. I can hear and see you quite clearly without it.”

Everett slapped the palm computer shut and shoved it back into his pocket. “Well, that just made me feel pretty stupid.”

The elevator dinged and opened. Echo’s voice followed him as he stepped inside. “Welcome back, sir.”

* * *

Jimmy Thompson wore a strange look as he awkwardly pedaled his BMX bike down the sidewalk. Sal was in control but he was finding out just how much he’d forgotten about bike riding. Jimmy had wrapped the prescription bag around a handgrip and held it tightly with his grubby hand. Still, the bag swung dangerously with each wobble of the unstable bike.

* * *

In the back of the Reivers’ semi, Vinnie came awake in his cradle. “Vinnie back on line.”

John’s eyes flicked up at the sound of Vinnie’s voice. “Glad you made it back. You need to target Leah right away.”

Vinnie twisted his joystick to maneuver the targeting display. “On it. What’s the news on Julie?”

Nsamba’s voice abruptly cut into his earpiece. “Ask later. Drugs are on the way. We need to move.”

Vinnie’s reticle slid over Leah’s unsuspecting face in her kitchen. “Locked on Leah. On your go.”

Will checked his screens. “Kranzie, looks like your neighbor lady’s still outside. You’re in the queue.”

Kranzie’s voice came right back. “Locked and ready.”

John scanned his screens and looked suddenly puzzled. “Ah…Fargo and Rose…I ahh…”

In her cradle, Fargo was moving her targeting screen back and forth, looking for Kendall. “Got a problem. If Kendall’s at home, I sure can’t find him.”

Rose was frantically searching rooms with her display, as well. “Negative for Josh too. Leah’s the only one home.”

Nsamba sat stunned in his chair. “What in the hell? Where are they? Everyone hold. John?”

“I didn’t know. I just thought…”

Nsamba stepped on his explanation. “Will?”

“Sorry. Never checked until now and…”

“Echo?”

Echo’s calm voice filled all the earphones. “Kendall and Josh were never in the house from the beginning. It was one of the variances for this timeline.”

Nsamba struck the arms of his chair. “Variances! You mean you knew this the whole time? What’s wrong with you? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It was on my list to tell you, but you refused. You said,
good
enough, stop,
so I did. And there is nothing wrong with me that I can detect.”

Nsamba closed his eyes.
How could something so simple cause so much havoc?

Will watched his monitors. In one, the bike kid was stopped outside the McCaslin house and looking around. “Sal’s at the drop-off. What’re we doin’? We scrubbin’ or what?”