Quantum (14 page)

“Guys, we know we’re in Paris, but have you two wondered
when
we are in Paris?”

They both looked at me like I had asked the most profound question ever.

“Not until now, Arizona,” Justin replied. “Well, there are no dinosaurs outside, so it must be post-dinosaur age anyway. When was the Eiffel tower built?”

I shrugged as Simla perked up and replied, “1889. Had to do a report on it last year.”

I was impressed that she remembered. The food in the refrigerator was from this decade, but if we were in the past perhaps it was brought here from the future. I went and looked out the window again. The cars were all small. No Hummers in sight, however, this was Europe, so that wasn’t unusual. Even if we have been relocated in time, it was not drastic and we wouldn’t be able to tell if we were in a different dimension or not, so there was no point speculating.

“Simla, are you really thinking of
defecting
?” Justin asked her again.

“Sheesh, it’s not defecting, I have nothing to defect from! Mom’s gone and so has the chance of me ever being able to wander.”

“That’s not true. You’ve been living with Dad and me for a year. I’m sure he’s noticed that just like me, you’ve stayed out of trouble. I’m sure he’ll vouch for you eventually. Give it some time.”

I couldn’t help but snort.

“What?” Justin exclaimed grumpily. “What now?”

“She’s hardly been staying out of trouble,” I laughed.

“Yes she has. We’ve both been clean for a whole year. We haven’t even gotten detention!”

“So, blackmail is okay, is it?” I asked, looking at Simla intently.

“What you talking about, Arizona? Blackmail?” Justin asked bemusedly.

“Shall I tell him or would you like to, Simla?”

She sighed and looked over to Justin with obvious resignation, her shoulders slumped forward and big sad puppy eyes in full action. “Justin, I had no choice.”

“No choice?”

“I had to do it for my dad.”

“You’re in contact with your dad? How?”

“Last year before he took off through the portal, we planned that if he didn’t make contact with me to tell me otherwise, we would meet up in a planned spot at a planned time. I was to get the blueprints for the portal off Olivia and give them to him. We planned to meet earlier today, in the Stevens dimension at a cottage.

“Last year, after Halloween, I decided to extract the blueprints from Olivia and have her transport me back to my dad, as he asked me to do if I didn’t hear from him. I obviously had to use
leverage
to get Olivia to give me the prints.”

“Wow, I’m not even going to ask you what you did, I don’t want to know,” Justin sighed.

“I do,” I said.

Simla shot me the evil eye. Nice. “It’s not important right now. Anyway, I did go back and he has the prints,” she practically spat at me.

“And you’re not winning any good-behavior points, I can see that,” Justin shrugged. “Was getting him the prints really worth ruining your chances to wander? Really, Simla. Even I’m disappointed in you.”

“I don’t care what you think! There was no way the Elders were
ever
going to let me wander, no matter what you think. So stuff you. I wanted to help Dad. He’s all I have left. Can’t you understand that?”

Even though Justin was shaking his head in disgust, I could empathize. Our dads may not always be perfect, but they are family. I couldn’t really blame Simla for wanting to help her dad. I probably would have done the same. I mean I probably would have gotten the blueprints. Since she didn’t say
how
she got them, however, I couldn’t condone or disagree with her methods, though blackmailing
my
mom was absolutely unforgivable and it must have been pretty serious leverage.

Simla stomped out of the kitchen back toward a bedroom that I assumed was hers. Justin and I followed her in, closing the door behind us. Simla plunked herself on the bed. She was clearly sulking.
 

“I hope it is Poto or whatever his name is, and that he wants to recruit me! I’d join him in a heartbeat,” she said sulkily.

“Simla, don’t do anything rash,” Justin said softly. “I know you don’t want to admit it at the moment, but you know that you’ve been happy living in my house with Dad and me for the past year. We’ve had some fun times together. Everything seemed so relaxed and uneventful. Don’t get yourself into an untenable situation just because you’re angry. Weigh out all the pros and cons carefully. Not just for yourself, but also for your father. Think of how your decision to join some kind of subversive paranormal group may affect him.”

“It would probably afford him the power that he really wants,” Simla suggested.

“Maybe, but you don’t know that. You don’t know what Potomal wants from you or if this even has anything to do with him and the Sigma-Ws. After all, Arizona could’ve just made that up.”

“Why would I do that, you idiot?” I asked, irritated. “Anyhow, looks like we’re going to find out soon. Or perhaps another person has been
taken
and brought here. I can hear noises from the hallway.”

“Shush!” Simla hissed at me as she went over to the door and put her ear to it. Justin and I followed and did the same. We could hear footsteps approaching, so we stood back and waited. The doorknob turned and the door creaked open.

A
ll hell had broken loose at the Darley mansion. Constance turned to Olivia, Inez and Larry, as she carefully put the 1960’s telephone receiver back in its cradle.

“Olivia, you’re needed back home. You should go as well, Larry.”

“What’s going on?” Olivia asked, immediately sensing that something was horribly wrong.

“Olivia, Rupert will explain as soon as you get there. Larry?”

Larry nodded and gently took Olivia by the arm and led her out of the house.

A sense of dark foreboding had overtaken Inez’s usually calm spirit. She could feel herself almost shaking with fear. What could be so disastrous to cause Constance to emit such negativity? Inez was too afraid to ask. So she just looked over at Constance apprehensively. The doorbell rang.

David came walking into the kitchen with a wide smile, which lifted the mood in the room–almost. However, he must have also sensed that something was wrong, as he stopped dead and the smile dropped from his face. “What’s going on? Mom? What happened?”

Constance stopped chewing her lower lip and turned to face both Inez and her son. “Amadea just called. She’s over at the Darley Mansion.”

“Rupert’s mom?” David asked, looking at her for confirmation. She nodded. “She wasn’t there when I left the house.”

“Was everything okay when you left?” Constance queried.

“Yeah, I guess. I mean, I know something is going on with Simla, but I’m guessing something additional is up by the look of things here. Is Simla back?”

Constance shook her head. “Arizona and Justin have disappeared.”

“What?” exclaimed both David and Inez simultaneously.

“Amadea was very brief about it. She’s heading over here shortly to bring us up to date. All I know for the moment is that both Justin and Arizona have disappeared. I don’t know anything more.”

“I’m going to head back over,” David said, backing away toward the door.

“No,” Constance ordered with authority. “Stay. Amadea will be here shortly.”

~

The drive back to the house was mostly silent. Neither Olivia nor Larry spoke at first. Larry was concentrating on getting them there as quickly as possible. Hadn’t they had enough drama for one day? Olivia sighed as she pictured the scene that had taken place earlier today.

Simla had come back to Ames looking satisfied but a little sad. This wasn’t surprising really. Leaving her dad again couldn’t be easy. Olivia had wondered why she decided not to stay with him. That had been partly explained when Simla demanded a repeat visit the following week. When Olivia had asked her
for what
, Simla turned into her usual evasive, defiant self. Olivia had merely shrugged. The main thing was for them both to return through the portal, as Larry was expecting them. She could deal with the demand for the second visit later. It had clearly been initiated by Raj. Simla hadn’t mentioned anything about two visits before her visit with him. Perhaps he’d sent her back for something. Perhaps he planned to return with her the next time? Whatever it was, those plans had come to an abrupt end in the portal.

Simla had simply disappeared. There was no other way to describe it. She had
faded
right before Olivia’s eyes. She wished that she could have reacted more efficiently–grabbed hold of Simla. However, before she’d even reached out, Simla was gone.
 

She had explained it–explain may have been too refined a word, spewed it out in a muddled fashion–to Larry when she transported back through by herself and he insisted on driving her straight to Constance’s house.

This, of course, had something to do with the Wanderers. Regular folk don’t just disappear, not like that. Although still not a hundred percent convinced about the Wanderers, Olivia had, with reservations, accepted that
something
was definitely going on, something she was unable to explain. She’d never seen a
wandering
take place before, if that’s what she’d seen happen to Simla–that or some kind of spontaneous vaporization. She hypothesized that the portal could have affected Simla’s physiology somehow. However, why was only Simla affected? Nothing had happened to her, Olivia thought to herself. She was still transported through normally.

The elephant-in-the-room difference between Simla and her was that Simla’s mother was allegedly a
Wanderer
. Had been. Erica was unfortunately no longer with them. Olivia sighed.

“What’s up, Ollie?” Larry asked. “You’ve sighed about a million times.”

“Well, I’m guessing that there is some news about Simla, which is why we’re going back. Constance sounded pretty grave; it’s got me even more worried, if that’s possible.”

“I know what you mean,” Larry agreed. “Wonder how Rupert would have received any news first?” Larry mused. “I guess we’ll find out in a moment,” he said, as he turned into the Darley driveway.

The front door opened before they even came to a stop and Kellan flew down the stairs to meet them. It was immediately apparent that something was seriously wrong. Tears were streaming down Kellan’s face as he flung himself into Larry’s arms the moment he climbed out the car.