Now & Again (28 page)

* * *

Holding the driver’s door ajar, Josh cramped the wheel. The jackknifed trailer slid and tipped, twisting the cab. At the last moment, he leaped out his door but his feet slipped on the slick metal. He flailed in the air and struck his head, nearly catapulting into the spinning wheels. The semi trailer rolled majestically onto its access door side and slid into rows of parked cars in the doctors’ section of the parking lot.

* * *

Josh slowly stood up with a hand to his head. He watched thick smoke billow up from the rolled trailer. Muffled screams and frantic pounding echoed from inside it. Josh swayed and limped badly when he tried to walk. Quyron was quickly beside him and had a hand under his shoulder to hold him up. Leah and Kendall arrived slightly later. Everett staggered up last, wheezing from the run.

The rain was tapering off and the sky started to lighten with the beginnings of dawn. Around the smoking truck, stunned bystanders began to gather. Emergency teams and security guards streamed from the hospital. An ambulance, with lights flaring, headed toward the truck site.

Josh looked soberly at Quyron. “We can’t get stuck here. We’ve got things to do. I don’t know how soon it will be too late.”

Quyron looked into his eyes. “This isn’t the only reason you came, is it?”

Josh shook his head. “I don’t want you to think we know what the hell we’re doin’. We don’t – exactly. I mean, this is part of it, why we came, but…no; not the main reason.”

Quyron draped his arm across her neck and started off. “Lean on me. The car’s this way but it’s a bit of a hike now.”

Everett joined her to support Josh’s other side. They increased their speed toward the car. Leah and Kendall followed right behind.

* * *

The face down figure of Vandermark stirred and groaned. One side of his face was horribly scraped and caked in blood. He painfully propped himself up and wiped the rain from his eyes. He spotted Josh, with his huddled group, slowly working their way toward him. Carefully looking around, he realized one of the unconscious bodies near him was a truck security guard. He crawled over to him and pawed at his clothes until he found the gun. Pretending to be unconscious, he waited for the group to get nearer.

Josh, Quyron and Everett had developed a kind of rhythm in their walk. Josh was in pain but with the other two helping him, he was almost hobbling at a normal walking pace. Quyron angled them to the right. “The car’s over there.”

Just in front of them a figure staggered up and waved a gun. “Stop right there!” It was Vandermark. “You’re not leaving! Not after what you’ve done.”

They immediately stood still, in shock. Behind them, Kendall stepped in front of Leah to shield her.

“All of you are gonna pay.” Vandermark moved his gun to point directly at Everett. “But you’re gonna pay first.” Everett’s face paled as he saw Vandermark’s finger squeeze the trigger. Suddenly, the gunman’s head was whacked fiercely from behind. The gun went off. The bullet ricocheted harmlessly off the pavement and whined away into the distance. Vandermark dropped flat onto his face with a wet crunch.

Behind him, clutching a tire iron, was the flushed and bloody figure of Song Lee Hahn. She glared victoriously down at the crumpled body at her feet. “Shut the hell up! Just shut your…just…” Her weakened body slumped backwards in a dead faint. The tire iron clanked and bounced on the parking lot.

Josh nodded at Quyron. “Let’s get out while we can.” He doggedly continued to limp on toward the car, leaning against Quyron. Kendall stepped up to lend a hand. Leah was right behind him.

Everett opened his eyes and let his held breath out. He was stunned to still be alive. Shaken, but determined, he hustled to catch up with the group.

Near Fredericks, a Lexus sped by on I-70, heading east. The rain had stopped and the early morning light began to catch the undersides of the clouds.

Quyron was behind the wheel but her face betrayed concerns far beyond that of driving. “I don’t think you understand. Thousands of nanos are made every day and seeded into the lines. And they’re duplicated along with everything else in the timelines when they split. Do you have any idea the kind of numbers we’re talking about?”

Josh sat stiffly beside her in the front. “I only know what Hugh told us we had to do once we got here.”

“Okay, okay.” She was irritated. “Just pointing things out. What else did he say?”

“Your computer.”

“What computer?” she snapped. “We have lots of computers.”

“Your…quantum computer.” Josh slowed down as he rummaged through his new memories. “The artificial intelligence that runs…Reivers. The quantum computer that makes the…archives possible.” Josh paused. “Echo. Isn’t that what you call him?”

“Her. Echo’s a – we think of her as…female. Never mind. You can’t eliminate her either.”

Josh’s face hardened. “Look, we’re not asking permission. I’m telling you what we have to do.”

Kendall, in the backseat, was agitated. “I don’t get it. You helpin’ us or not? According to our Hugh we’re everybody’s last chance. So, if you can’t give a hand, then get the hell out of the way!”

Leah pulled at his arm and hissed, “Kendall, calm down.”

Quyron was exasperated. “No. You’re not listening. I’m saying you can’t
physically
get rid of Echo.” Quyron looked to Everett for support. “She has multiple locations and each one is shielded and insulated and protected, okay? She’s networked and redundant. Are you gettin’ the picture?” Her voice softened a bit. “And besides, Echo’s on our side…at least some of her, anyway. Without her help, you’d all still be locked up in the warehouse.”

Everett spoke quietly from the back. “Let’s start over. Quyron’s correct about the nanos and Echo, but there’s something here we’re missing. Tell me exactly what your Hugh told you. What was it he saw in the theory?”

Kendall had calmed down. “To be honest, he was pretty sketchy. Part of it was us – we’re not exactly rocket scientists, ya know – well…neither are you. But you get the idea.”

Josh turned in his seat to face Everett. “He wasn’t specific. He talked about his fears of his other selves, in other timelines. He was sure that with nanos and quantum computers, one of him would eventually unleash a disaster, but we were a kinda limited audience for details.”

“What type of disaster?”

“Total,” Josh replied, calmly. “The whole multiverse – everything.”

Quyron caught Everett’s troubled eyes briefly in her mirror as she asked, “Did he explain why or how to stop it?”

Kendall made a face. “Not in any way we could follow; so he simplified it. He said the multiverse was like a still pond in the woods that suddenly had somebody tossin’ rocks into it. To fix things, we would need to stop the rocks.”

Quyron glanced back at Everett. “What do you think he meant, Hugh? What’re the rocks and who’s throwing them?”

Hugh rubbed his nose in thought. “Not sure. But it’s hard for me not to trust his instincts.” He smiled sadly, “What was I like – this other me?”

Kendall stared intently at him. “You were old and weak…in a nursing home. And alone.”

Everett wasn’t ready for that. He looked away.

“I liked
that
you.” Josh’s eyes glistened. “Tough old bird. We left you in a hospital; you had a heart attack. I don’t know if you’re alive or dead back there.” He wrinkled a forehead. “So, what’s up with that? You don’t seem as old. I thought time stayed the same – line to line.”

Everett nodded. His eyes were wet. “Time is time. The lines are like trains running side-by-side, on parallel tracks. There’s some lagging, but for the most part, they roll at the same rate, in the same direction. But what happens on board can cause very different results.”

“That makes sense,” Josh said carefully. “But…how is it that your trains ended up with all the best stuff?”

Quyron changed lanes to avoid a truck and answered for Everett. “Once we had the archives, Reivers Corporation was born. We could search for breakthroughs in any field and avoid dead ends. Everything speeded up for us. We mined other timelines for whatever we needed – their ideas, their inventions, whatever. We brought the best of all the timelines back to our own. So, we live longer, our air’s better, our technology’s ahead.”

Kendall sank back into his seat and watched the trees flicking by his window. “Didn’t you ever feel guilty about it?”

Everett looked down. Quyron stared out the windshield at the road ahead. “Guilty?” She repeated the word as if trying it on for size. “No…not until now.”

The car noises were all that was heard for a time. Josh finally broke the quiet. “In our timeline, your theory’s still on the shelf. It’s a curiosity. It never really went anywhere. Know why?”

Everett shook his head without looking up. “Why?”

“Because our Hugh killed it. He made sure it never caught on. He saw what he saw and it so scared him that he hid the most important discovery of his life, so what he saw couldn’t happen. But he always suspected that you were somewhere, doing just the opposite. He stayed alive as long as he could, to stop you.”

“Me? You mean Vandermark. You mean…”

“Vandermark
is
you.” Josh said firmly. “The nanos and Echo
are
you. Without
you
, they don’t happen. And if they don’t happen, the multiverse is safe. Don’t you see? If they’re the rocks, then, I’m afraid Dr. Everett, you’re the thrower. How do we undo you?”

Quyron swore softly to herself. It was the same thing she had told Everett but she hadn’t understood it the way she did now.
Oh my God! Where will this end? Is there any hope left?

Everett sat riveted in the backseat. He felt the weight of the worlds on his shoulders but his mind was still free and it still worked. He looked up and leaned forward. His eyes were dancing. “Quyron, I have an idea about all this, but I’m afraid it’s a very disturbing idea.”

Quyron kept driving and didn’t look back. “Go for it. Can’t be much worse than where we are now.”

“Don’t be too sure. I’m thinking there’s more to this pond metaphor than just the rocks. It’s the ripples from the rocks that cause the problems. I’m convinced that’s really what Hugh was focused on.”

Quyron was doubtful. “The circles rippling out from the rocks…okay.”

“What if Hahn’s riders disrupted the temporal flows of every line they jumped into. Think about it. They aren’t a part of that timeline; they’re just a…a crash of chaos, and then they’re gone. But their disturbances continue unchecked through that line and its sub lines, like the ripples from a rock. And those waves are still resonating in the multiverse right now. My guess is that when that instability reaches a certain peak, or crisscrosses with other waves, it brings down the timeline, which in turn affects adjacent lines – and on it goes, propagating chaos.”

Quyron’s voice dropped to a whisper. “If that’s what it is, the waves won’t stop until…there’s nothing left.”

“Maybe…” Everett eyes focused on Quyron. “Unless the prime sources are removed. All of them. And the waves are stopped at their sources.” He looked anxious. “We need to verify this at the archives with Echo’s help, but still, even if I’m right, I’m not sure we have time or…”

“Dear God!” She involuntarily shuddered. “No wonder their Hugh refused to develop his theory – no one should.”

Everett sank back in his seat. “Yes. He’s the one who got it right.”

Josh looked blankly at both Quyron and Everett. “What does all this mean…in
stupid
?”

Quyron smiled sadly at him as she guided the car to the right lane. “It means you’re right. You and your Dad are completely right, but none of us can do a damn thing about it.”

Kendall stubbornly persisted. “Who can? There’s gotta be somebody.”

Quyron exited onto the ramp for highway 29 going south. “Only Echo. And she’s not a sure thing.”

* * *

Inside the Reivers Corporation archive area, Quyron and Everett led their small group down a narrow corridor between walls of monitors. Quite a few screens were black or displayed electronic snow. Kendall, Josh and Leah were awed by the surroundings and jumped at every noise. Warbling alarms peppered the air from various locations around them even as they passed. Sober-faced technicians rushed by, hopelessly overmatched by the demands of the dying archive.

A senior tech rushed up to them, out of breath, his tie out of line. “Dr. Everett, things keep getting worse. We need more help. I’m so concerned about the archive…”

Everett patted the anxious man on the arm and put on a confident face. “It’s Tobias, isn’t it?”

“Yes sir. Nice of you to recall…”

“Nonsense. You’ve worked for us a long time. Listen, I’ve assembled a group and we’re close to a solution. Okay? That’s better than help, isn’t it?”

The exhausted tech nodded, relieved. “Yes, sir.”

“I’m sorry, Tobias, but I have to hurry now.”

The tech quickly stepped aside. “Not a problem. Go ahead. Thank you.”

Everett and his group exited the arena and headed for the elevators. Everett’s face seemed to grow older and more worn with every step he took.

* * *

Inside an upper-level office, Quyron and Everett sat in front of the workstation, staring at data rolling up the multiple screens. Echo’s warm voice floated in the air around them. “Hello, Quyron. I was worried about you.”

“Worried?”

“Yes, it’s odd, isn’t it? Only the new me felt it, though.”

Quyron couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks, but I’m fine.” She quickly sobered. “Dr. Everett and I need your help with a series of computations.”

Echo’s voice cooled. “You remember that he’s not recognized by part of me.”

Quyron shrugged. “I know, I know. Imagine you’re only working with me, okay? Let’s pretend he’s not even here.” Everett resisted the urge to say anything.

Echo’s voice came back cheerful again. “I can do that. Now, what do you alone need help with, Quyron?”

* * *

“I had no idea my life was cut into parts like this,” Leah said. “And I don’t know what to do with the knowledge – it just feels so…broken.” They were standing on a balcony near Quyron’s office. Kendall and Leah leaned against the low, transparent barrier. Josh was a step or two apart from them. They watched the mesmerizing archive complex spread out below them. It had a strange beauty to it with its walls of living screens marching row after row all the way to the far side where additional balconies and offices could be seen. Arena techs hurried between the display walls, intent on their errands. Everything was in constant motion.