Road Less Traveled (32 page)

Carter shuddered. “I'm trying not think about that.”

Savile laughed and shrugged. “Well, all we need to do”—he yanked out a wire as he talked—“is disconnect the buffer system.” He tossed the wire aside, leaned back on his feet, and wiped his hands on his slacks. “Which I just did.” Then he rose to his feet again and retreated a few paces. “I've got the heat sink set up to be run by remote, so I can trigger it from a safe distance. You'll need to be touching it, however.” He glanced from Carter to Kevin, the question clear on his face.

“Kevin, come over here,” Carter instructed. The teen did so without question. “We're going to stand right next to that thing, okay? I'm going to touch it, and it's going to give me a shock. I want you to grab my hand as soon as that happens. Can you do that?”

The boy nodded. “You're hoping to break the gravitational bonds of this reality, and supercharge the pull between yourself and our own world,” he stated calmly. Then he smiled. “I like it!”

“Well, that makes one of us, at least.” But Carter couldn't help smiling back at him. “Okay, let's do this.” He nodded to Savile, who produced a small silvery remote from his pocket and aimed it at the heat sink. He waited like that, poised, while Carter and Kevin approached the device.

Carter took a deep breath. This was it. Either this would work, or they'd be stuck here forever—or he'd be burned to a cinder and wouldn't care much either way.

But the longer he waited, the worse their chances became.

So he reached out and set his hand palm-down on top of the heat sink.

There was a soft thrum as Savile activated it, and Carter could feel it vibrate under his hand. The vibrations increased, shaking him along with the device, and it heated up as well, almost burning his flesh. He maintained the contact, however, and squeezed his eyes shut as the noise increased, going from a hum to a whine to a screech.

Then there was a violent flash of light, blinding even through his eyelids, and his whole body jerked as a massive surge of energy poured into him from his hand.

He felt like he'd been struck by lightning—not once but a thousand times. Every inch of him was taut and crackling. His mouth was dry as a bone. His eyes burned. His nostrils ached, and there was a faint, acrid smell of charred flesh. His whole body was spasming, and he was having trouble breathing as his lungs quivered and flailed.

Then he felt Kevin's hand on his other arm.

The boy's touch was soothing, his skin cool compared to Carter's own. He discovered he could breathe again, and drew in a great gasping breath.

Then he noticed that the heat sink under his other hand didn't seem as hot as it had a second ago.

Or as solid.

Cracking one eye open, Carter saw that the world around him seemed to be wavering. It was like a fine, shimmering curtain had been drawn over Savile's living room, and it was wafting in an invisible breeze, causing the outlines of everything around him to flicker and blur.

Everything except Kevin. He was still solid and real.

Twisting slightly, Carter took his hand from the heat sink, which felt filmy and rubbery now anyway, and threw his arm around Kevin's shoulder. He wrapped his other arm around the boy as well, holding him tight.

“Here we go,” he whispered.

Then all the color and shadow faded from the world around them.

Carter blinked. There were swirls surrounding him and Kevin, but he couldn't make out any details. Or any colors, really. Just faint flickers of motion and depth.

He didn't feel like he was burning up anymore, either. But his body was still tingling with energy.

And that was a good thing.

He'd gotten them loose from the other Eureka. He didn't need Kevin to tell him that they were essentially adrift now, floating in the void between the two realities.

Now they just needed to get back home.

Carter really hoped Russell had gotten his message to her double, and to his own Allison.

He hoped his plan would work.

He hoped he didn't have to take another breath. He had a feeling there wasn't exactly any air around them.

And he hoped this hadn't been a huge, colossal mistake.

But most of all, he hoped Kevin would be all right.

And that they would both see his mom again, real soon.

Really, really soon.

 

Dr. Savile nodded and hit a button on his remote. His ambient heat sink sat in the middle of his living room, and Allison watched, hands clasped almost in prayer, as the small device began to hum. She could feel the room around her growing colder as the device drew all of the heat from the air, and the large studio darkened as the object absorbed the visible light as well.

Then they waited.

“I'm getting a massive energy spike,” Savile reported after a minute, studying the tiny screen inset in his remote. “A ton of energy just entered the heat sink's operating range.”

Allison crossed her fingers.

“Drawing it in now,” Savile announced, fiddling with his remote. They could both hear the increased pitch of the heat sink's whine. “It's pushing the limits of the heat sink's capacity.” He frowned. “I hope it doesn't overload.”

Allison tried not to think about what would happen if it did. Would Carter and Kevin be tossed back into the other Eureka if that happened? Or would they just dissipate, lost energy scattered to the four winds?

She tried really hard not to think about that.

And they waited, shivering as the temperature plummeted, squinting as the shadows lengthened.

Was that a shadow right next to the heat sink? Was it flickering slightly?

Allison strained to see better, taking a half step forward. Yes, it was definitely shifting!

She took another step.

Now she could see that shadow elongating, stretching, growing.

And it was lightening as well. The shadow had been bluegray, but now it was changing color, becoming paler and also brighter, the hue mutating along with the shade—

—veering toward something like tan. And red. And a splotch of blue.

Carter had been wearing his sheriff's uniform, of course.

And Kevin had picked out a red T-shirt and jeans this morning.

Allison blinked away tears and stepped a little closer. It was definitely more than shadows now. There was a shape there, a large writhing form, and she could make out more details. A dark blotch, topped by a swath of black. A lighter patch, with just a touch of darker color above.

Heads.

Two heads.

Carter's—and her son's.

There was a faint sound, like an onrushing of air, and then she heard a thump as the two of them landed on the floor.

“Shut it off!” she shouted over her shoulder, but Savile was already in motion. He had the remote raised like a gun, and aimed right at the heat sink. With a push the device switched off, its hum fading slowly, along with the glow that had sprung up around it. As it released its hold on the energy around them, the room's temperature rose again slightly, as did the light.

She could see clearly again.

And she rushed to Carter's and Kevin's sides and seized them both in a fierce hug.

“You did it,” she whispered to Carter, squeezing him tight. “You did it.” Then she concentrated on Kevin. “I love you, baby.”

For once, he responded. “I love you, too, Mom.” And he hugged her back.

Carter shuddered and took a deep breath. Then he blinked and glanced around. “Guess it worked, huh?” He gave her a weak grin. “Talk about a wild ride!”

Allison slapped him on the arm, then rose to her feet and helped pull first him and then Kevin up. “Only you would think jumping from one reality without any guarantee you'd reach a second one was fun,” she retorted.

“Naw, Jo would have loved it,” Carter answered. He staggered and stretched. Then he shivered. “Geez, can we get out of here? It's freezing!”

The relief overcame Allison finally, and she laughed. “Absolutely.”

With a wave of thanks to Dr. Savile, she led the two most important men in her life out of the room.

“We're out of time,” Jo stated, rising to her feet and
moving out from behind her desk. “The two Eurekas are almost completely apart again. The danger's past. I should sound the all-clear and let people take to the road.”

Fargo, still occupying Carter's chair, leaned forward and rested his arms on the desk. “But if you do that, the Thunderbird thief will know this is the time to try sneaking the egg past us.”

“I know.” Jo paced, arms crossed, brow furrowed. “I can hold off on letting everyone know, but not for too long. We need to catch this guy, but we also need to maintain order, and having everyone panic for a few extra hours doesn't really help that much.”

“So we've got a small window of opportunity,” Fargo insisted, standing up and leaning on the edge of Carter's desk. “How do we catch this guy?”

“I don't know!” Her answer was a low rasp, almost a growl, and Jo scowled and increased the fervor of her steps, making each one a stomp. “We don't have anything to go on! He could be anywhere!” She shook her head. “If Carter was here, he'd have some crazy idea that would sound completely ridiculous but would wind up working perfectly. Or he'd stumble into the answer without even realizing it.” She stopped suddenly, her back going rigid. “But I'm not Carter,” she admitted. “And I don't know how to do what he does. Not that part of it, anyway.”

“Me either,” Fargo told her. “And my other self's the sheriff in his Eureka! He must have figured it out—too bad I never had the chance to ask him!”

But as Fargo puzzled over that one, a thought occurred to him. Had his other self really learned how to act like Carter? Or had he just found a way to be sheriff on his own terms?

After all, Fargo reasoned, he was smart. Even for Eureka he was smart. And unlike most Eurekans, he was scientifically omnivorous—he didn't stick to just one discipline, but knew a little bit about all of them. It meant that he might not have gotten as far in any one field as he could have, but he had a decent grounding in all of them. Which was why he could help Allison keep track of everything, and why he could often help Carter—and Jo—get up to speed on any problems at GD.

So maybe his other self had used that background, and that inherent flexibility, in his approach to being sheriff. Maybe he hadn't tried to make himself more like someone else, but had found a way to make the role more Fargo-like instead.

And if the other Fargo could do that, so could he.

“Okay,” he said half to himself as he stood and started pacing in front of Carter's desk. “What do we know, exactly?”

After staring at him for a second, Jo nodded. “We know someone took the Thunderbird egg,” she started, but then she stopped and shook her head. “No, that's not really the start of things, is it? We can go back further than that.”

This time Fargo was the one who nodded. “Right. We know someone knew about or found out about the Thunderbird project. We know they decided to steal it. And we know they broke into the Thunderbird bio lab and tried to make off with both eggs.”

Just then, Jo's phone chimed. She glanced at the readout, and her face lit up. Fargo suppressed a groan. There was only one person who made her beam like that. Sure enough, she answered with a cheerful, “Zane! What's the good word?”

She listened for a second, and broke out into a sigh and a big smile. “Really? Excellent! Thanks!” Then, remembering she wasn't alone and she spoke away from the phone. “Carter made it back somehow. He and Kevin are both fine.”

Fargo slumped a little with relief. He actually liked Carter, and certainly appreciated the care he took of the town and its residents. And he liked Kevin, too. The fact that they'd somehow pulled off a safe return was good news indeed.

Jo was still listening, and Fargo saw her eyes widen. “Hang on a sec,” she told Zane, and pushed a button on her phone. “Okay, say that last part again.”

“I said, now I can get back to finishing upgrading GD's security systems,” Zane repeated, his voice coming through over the phone's built-in speakerphone. “I'm not really sure why it's necessary, though.”

“Because somebody broke into GD, and got into the Thunderbird lab, and stole the Thunderbird egg,” Fargo replied, hating the fact that his voice always got a bit whinier when he was dealing with Zane.

“Oh, hey, is that Fargo?” Zane asked. “Hey, Fargo. Well, yeah, but the thing is, I don't know how they managed that. I've rewritten the algorithms for the security protocols, but they were actually pretty tight to start. They're better now, of course, but even so—it would take one hell of a thief to bust into this place.”

“Someone like you, you mean?” Jo asked dryly.

“Hey, if you've got it, flaunt it, right?” her boyfriend replied with a chuckle. “But seriously, this place had top-notch security to start. I could have gotten in, but not a lot of other people could claim that.”

Jo glanced over at Fargo, and he knew exactly what she was thinking. “The thief came from within,” he said, and she nodded.

“It makes sense.” Jo held up fingers as she ticked off points. “He knew about the Thunderbird project, including where it was. He knew how to get into the building. He knew how the containment fields worked. And he knew enough about GD's security to short out the cameras in that immediate area.”