Quantum (32 page)

“For now, I guess. He was rambling something about if the FBI doesn’t let up he may have to get me to take him through the portal again. I’d be happy to do that!”

“Okay, so email the prints over. I’m going to have to let Constance know what’s going on. She’s coordinating our security detail. I should have checked in with her when we got back, but I was too tired. I’ll call her now.”

Olivia watched Rupert as he talked to Constance on the phone, filtering out all the sounds and concentrating fully on him. He wasn’t human. It was a concept she couldn’t even begin to understand without further explanation from him. He
looked
human. Everything about him was human, down to the way he felt, smelled. He did everything humans do: eat, talk, laugh, cry… nothing that she considered
paranormal
. He didn’t have superhuman strength, the ability to make himself invisible, time travel, or immortality–
as far as she knew
. But the shocking fact was that she really didn’t know anything at all. Apart from that she loved him completely.

Rupert’s facial expression changed as he was speaking. He’d seemed stressed to start with, but now he was looking downright agitated. She tuned back into the vocal world, too late to listen in on the conversation as he placed the receiver back in its cradle.

“Rup?”

“She knew.”

“Knew?”

As she listened to Rupert update her on the events in Mountain View from the previous day, she felt unexpectedly calm. Raj Sen was back. So what? All he wanted was the blueprints, no problem there. Her only concern was the kids’ safety. Of course, there was still the worry of what would happen when it was discovered that the blueprints wouldn’t, in fact, manufacture anything functional. That was, however, years down the line, and whoever bought them would most certainly hunt Raj down. She would worry about that when the time came. For now, they were surrounded by a formidable security detail that not even Potomal was expected to be able to breech. She sighed as Rupert finished telling her about Raj’s escapade with the old ladies.

“So, I think that we should go ahead and send Raj the blueprints and hopefully we’ll be rid of him,” Rupert concluded.

“The blueprints to the nonfunctional prototype?” Olivia asked for confirmation. It was only missing a small detail, but a critical one.

He nodded, watching the door to the bedroom pry open. Ella bounded in and jumped onto the bed.

“Dad, where’s the dog?”

“She should be in the house, let’s go and find her,” Rupert said, and took her hand as she dragged him out.

Olivia got herself ready in the meantime and was all set for the day when Ella came back in, this time with Rupert and Arizona.

“Mommy, she’s gone!” sobbed Ella. “We’ve looked everywhere.”

“Honey, we’ll find her, she can’t have gone far. Someone probably noticed her all alone in the house when we were away and took her somewhere safe.” They’d forgotten all about Gertrude in their trials. Poor thing, where could she have gone? Olivia was mortified that they had overlooked Gertrude.

“Mom, can we get another dog if we can’t find her?”

“Charming!” muttered Arizona, and walked out.

“Hon, we’ll find her,” Rupert reassured her. “Now, get ready for school and then come down for breakfast.”

“I feel so bad. Gertrude was left in the house all by herself,” Olivia whispered.

“No, hon. Larry was here when we left. I’m sure he’d have made sure she was okay,” Rupert said, and dialed Larry. The conversation was brief. “Larry dropped Gertrude off with Inez.”

“Phew!”

“Come on, let’s head down to breakfast.”

~

Raj couldn’t help jumping for joy once he’d spoken with Olivia. He even waltzed around the armchair twice with the musty-smelling bed pillow as his dance partner, which then bounced against the wall as he threw it with as much force as he could muster.
Goodbye grubby room
. He walked out the door, slamming it hard, unaware of the phone ringing on the other side.

He got into the Corolla and drove to San Francisco. Much as he wanted to see Simla, for now he would accept that he had lost her. She was probably still with Potomal. She’d find him when she was ready. His main concern for now had to be to get himself established. A nice mansion by the beach and a boat would be his priorities. He might even buy some of those fancy Hermès scarves–that Olivia always wore–to present as gifts to the many ladies who would be guests on his yacht. Yes, life would be sweet, as Simla would say. And she would eventually come and share in it, he felt certain of that. And, like a good father, he would forgive her recent lapses.

Once he entered the city of San Francisco, he drove into Chinatown and parked by the Internet Café on Bush Street. It was busy. He got himself a large coffee and logged onto the first free terminal. He registered with Hotmail and then texted the address to Olivia using the pre-paid phone he had picked up earlier.

Then he relaxed, surfing the web for beachfront properties with boat docks. Miami looked good, but it was still within the FBI’s jurisdiction.
 
Perhaps he should consider something abroad, maybe the Bahamas or Costa Rica? But how would he get there without a passport? His face broke into a smile. He nodded at the lady opposite him who thought that he was smiling at her. He wasn’t, of course. He was smiling because it had just occurred to him that money buys everything–including passports.

A check of Hotmail revealed that he had a message from Olivia. The subject line of the message was empty as was the body. Olivia had simply attached the zip file
containing the blueprint images. Perfect. He pulled out his cell and called Dr. Masterson. He would be on his way to the Bahamas in no time.

~

Olivia sat back in her chair, wedging her feet out of the Manolos. It was done. She’d sent the prints. Was it possible that they were finally rid of that insane man? She momentarily wondered what his plans were for the blueprints. Who was the buyer, and what would they do when they found out that they couldn’t make it work? Would they hunt Raj down? Would he have the good sense to get as far away from here as possible, for Simla’s sake?

Her fingers brushed against the metal of her necklace as she went to rub the side of her neck. She took it off and laid it down on the desk in front of her, examining it closely.
Quantum
. It had become a part of her; she’d had it for as long as she could remember. She couldn’t even recall when it had been given to her exactly. She’d have to ask her mom. This was the necklace that started the bizarre turn of events that had become her life. She may never have met Rupert had it not been for this pendant falling off her neck onto the ice. That was her
tipping point
–this necklace falling off. It was scary to think that such a seemingly insignificant event had steered her life.

The buzzer rang and Olivia let Rupert into her office.

“Hey, Ollie! All done?”

“Yes, I sent the prints. I don’t think I’ll hear back, but you never know.” She shrugged and threw herself down beside him on the couch. “Did you get Gertrude?”

“I did. Ollie, there’s something I need to discuss with you, something that’s going to be difficult for you to hear. So, I want you to remain calm, and don’t get worked up. It will all be okay in the end.”

“You’re really worrying me now.”

Rupert kissed her gently. “Honey, it’s about Gertrude. As you know, Inez and Gertrude spent some time with each other today. Inez said that Gertrude doesn’t look
happy or healthy at the moment.”

Olivia wasn’t entirely surprised that Gertrude may be looking a bit depressed. Their busy lifestyles had diminished the time they spent with Gertrude, but no more so than other families with pets. “I have noticed that she’s been looking a bit down, but I assumed it was because we’ve all been busy and no one was paying any attention to her. I’ll get the girls on it. We’ll make it a point to spend more time with her. I’ll draw up a schedule.”

“Ollie, I think it’s more than that. This may come as a bit of a shock to you, but Inez feels that Gertrude should go back to the other dimension. It wasn’t right to bring her through the portal.”

“Oh, that’s ridiculous,” Olivia dismissed.

“I want you to talk to Inez about it,” Rupert insisted. “I’ve brought Gertrude home for now, though. Arizona took off with David earlier, so she hasn’t seen Gertrude yet. I left a message on her phone to tell her that she is home.”

Olivia nodded.

“Ollie, how are
you
? The last couple of days have been crazy. How are you coping?”

“I guess I’m okay. I have a lot of questions,” she said, not sure if she really wanted answers. The answers would most likely be
out there
.

“Shoot.”

“I suppose the first one is obvious. Do you resent making the choice you did? You gave up your destiny, in a way, just to be with me.”

Rupert shook his head adamantly and took her hands. “Ollie, I can’t believe that you would wonder that for a moment. It wasn’t a choice for me.
You
are my destiny. Being with you is not something that happened on a whim, it took years of careful planning.”

“The decision was made on a whim, though, when you were just a child,” she said, pointing to her necklace.

“Okay, you have me there! Guilty as charged.”

“Seriously, Rup. Are you sure this is the life you want?”

“A zillion percent sure, as our sweet Ella would say.”

“I think…,” Olivia hesitated. “I think, if you wanted, I’d be prepared to try to live
your
life with you.” She looked at Rupert, whose eyes welled up as he brought her in for a cuddle.

“I don’t know what to say,” he whispered. “There’s no way I would want that for us, though. I like what we have here. The kids are happy. We’re happy. We just have a miserable dog,” he smiled.

“Rupert, can you tell me more about how all this works–biologically. And do you have any other abilities, or latent abilities?”

“Our genetic makeup is very similar to humans. There is nothing much different about us biologically. Our latent wandering abilities are switched on through meditation and training. There are different kinds of Wanderers. You are now aware of two kinds. Wanderers may exhibit additional paranormal abilities. The most common one is being able to read and feel the emotions of others. Inez has that ability. It’s a targeted phenomenon. Inez told me that David has the same ability, but his is stronger. He is able to
read and feel
Arizona very strongly.”

“Wow. I really want to know more now. Not just about Wanderers, but also about other possible paranormal phenomena. What do you recommend as a good and reliable source?” Olivia asked, still feeling bewildered by it all.

“Talk to Morena and Morgana. They are both experts,” he smiled as he pulled her closer.

“Rup, do you have any other latent abilities?”

“Not that I know of. Those only manifest after the wanderer abilities are released.”

Olivia felt strangely conflicted. The scientist in her had a compulsion to study this amazing ability. Wandering. The possibilities for research were endless and she was in a unique position, having access to the subjects themselves. She could also observe and study the conversion process, the biological make up…. She stopped herself. What was she thinking? She was actually considering using her own husband as a scientific subject. No. She had to put his wandering aspect to the back of her mind, and continue living their lives normally, as a regular couple.