Road Less Traveled (33 page)

“Yeah, I'd guess it was an inside job, too,” Zane offered. “Listen, I've gotta go. Catch you later, JoJo. Fargo, behave yourself.” Then he was gone.

“I always behave,” Fargo muttered to himself, but he quickly forced his irritation aside to concentrate. They were getting somewhere here, finally. “Okay, so it's somebody in GD. We could comb the personnel files, but that would take forever.”

Jo put her hands behind her head and stretched, forcing Fargo to try not to stare. Too much. “If it's a GD employee,” she said, “what're the chances he stole the egg to sell it?”

Fargo considered that. “Not good,” he answered after a second. “There are plenty of other projects that could fetch more money on the black market, and a lot of those are more portable, and much easier to handle.”

“Right. So maybe it wasn't stolen for money.” Jo smiled. “Which means the thief may not be trying to smuggle it out after all.”

“So, what, he wanted it as a pet?” Fargo asked. “I can see it now. Some GD employee heard about the Thunderbird and thought, ‘Hey, that's what I need around the house—an electromagnetically charged entity that looks like a Native American mythological creature. I'll never have to worry about static cling again!'”

Then he froze as the words he'd just uttered burst into his brain.

“That's it!” he shouted. “Of course!”

“What's it?” Jo was staring at him. “Fargo, have you totally lost your mind?”

“Not at all!” He grabbed her by the shoulders. “Listen, think about what I just said! The Thunderbird's a small, sentient storm, right? A ball of electromagnetism, tied to a biological entity. Basically a big bundle of charged ions with wings, claws, and a brain.” Jo nodded. “So whoever stole it has been in close proximity to the egg—which carries the same properties—and to the one that hatched.”

Jo pursed her lips. “Static cling,” she said finally.

“Exactly!” Fargo shook her enthusiastically. “Static cling! Whoever he is, he's carrying a static charge from the Thunderbird!”

“But you covered the whole area with that voltmeter you built,” Jo reminded him, brushing his hands from her shoulders and taking a step back to put a little distance between them. “You didn't find anything.”

“Because the readings were too faint to register,” Fargo explained. He grinned. “But that's not the only way to check for something like that.” He turned and strode for the door.

“Where exactly are we going?” Jo asked. But Fargo noticed that she didn't argue, and that she'd fallen into step beside him.

“Back to GD,” he answered. “To the scene of the crime. I'll need you to distract the security guards once we get there, and give me a few minutes to adjust some things. Then you should sound the all-clear.” He glanced at his watch. It was a little after five o'clock. Perfect. “With any luck, we'll have our culprit in hand before dinner.”

He couldn't help grinning as they headed toward Jo's car. This was how it was done, Fargo-style!

 

“Are you sure you're okay?” Allison asked Kevin for
the hundredth time as they walked along the corridor toward the extradimensional visualization lab. He nodded but didn't answer otherwise. After that short burst of conversation on the way to Dr. Savile's, the boy had returned to his usual nonconversational self. But Allison was clearly thrilled to have him back anyway.

Carter brushed past a pair of scientists, and glanced over at Allison. “Place is pretty busy,” he mentioned. “I'd have thought everybody'd be home instead, given the recent danger.”

“Jo warned people to stay off the streets,” Allison explained, “but we never issued a state of emergency. There wasn't much point—either the worlds were going to collide or they weren't, no matter where people were. So everyone's here as usual. And Jo hasn't told them they can drive again, so nobody's left for the day yet.”

“She'll take care of it,” Carter assured her. He did wonder why she hadn't yet, but he had complete faith in his deputy. Though she did have Fargo with her, he remembered, and that could put a crimp in anyone's plans.

They'd reached the door to the lab, and Carter opened the door—and then turned around and blocked the doorway. “Maybe we shouldn't,” he suggested.

Allison glanced over his shoulder, and he felt as much as saw her stiffen. She paused for a second, but then she raised her chin. “I need to.”

He considered that. “Yeah, I guess you do,” he agreed. “But maybe we should keep Kevin in back, and find something to distract him. I'm not sure he needs to see her right now.”

Allison nodded. She pulled a handheld video game out of her purse and offered it to her son, who grinned and snatched it from her hands. Within seconds he was playing something, and had completely shut out the outside world.

Satisfied, Carter stepped aside and let Allison enter first. Then he followed, guiding Kevin by the shoulder. He led the teenager off to the side and settled him into one of the chairs arranged along the back wall. Kevin never even glanced up.

Which was good, because it meant that he didn't see the woman who was sort of his mother, and the man who had once been his stepfather and had almost become so again, visible on the overhead screen.

Carter followed Allison down to the center of the room, and stood a few paces from her—near enough for moral support but far enough to give her some space. Then he waited.

Stark nodded at him, and he nodded back. The other Allison smiled sadly. Her eyes flickered to Kevin, and teared up, but her smile widened.

They'd wheeled the whiteboards back over, Carter noticed, and now the other Allison went to the one on their side. She took up the marker and wrote,
I'm glad you both made it back safely. I'm so sorry.

“It's okay,” Carter said. Then he realized she couldn't hear him. But she understood his nod and his smile, at least.

His Allison had taken their own marker and replied on their whiteboard,
It's okay. I understand.
The two Allisons nodded at each other.

Stark watched all of this without speaking. He had his arm around his Allison, but he was watching Carter's Allison as well. There was something in that look, Carter thought. Regret, and sympathy, and apology. But something else, too. Desire, maybe. Or perhaps just a recognition of her desire.

Carter turned to study Allison, and almost wished he hadn't. He could see the emotions playing across her face and in her eyes. Anger, certainly, but sorrow as well. And grief. Seeing Stark there had been hard for her, he knew. And almost losing Kevin had been far worse.

Now, though, she smiled at Stark. It wasn't a flirtatious smile, or a look of longing. It was sad, and sweet. It was something Carter had seen all too many times in his days as a federal marshal, usually when someone came in to identify a body.

It was a look of farewell.

“Our worlds are almost back into their original positions,” Russell reported, studying her screens. “The rate of movement has slowed significantly. Inertia should kick in once we're back in place, and that'll be the end of it.” She smiled. “Viewing only from now on.”

“Sounds good to me,” Carter agreed. “I don't think I could take another trip like that.” He patted his head. “It's going to take forever for my hair to recover, as it is.”

Allison laughed. She nodded to both Stark and her other self, and to the other Russell as well. “Let me know when it's over,” she told their Dr. Russell, and then turned away. “I'm going to get Kevin home.”

Carter followed them back into the hall.

“Hey, Allison,” he said softly, reaching out to touch her lightly on the arm. She stopped and swiveled back to face him. “Are you okay?”

“I will be,” she told him honestly. “I'm still a bit of a mess right now, Jack. But I'll be okay—thanks to you.” The smile she gave him more than made up for everything he'd been through. It practically lit up the dim hallway.

“I'm impressed you could forgive her so easily,” he admitted. “I don't know that I could have.”

“Oh, I'm still furious,” Allison told him, her smile tightening for a second before turning sad. “But obviously I understand why she did it. And clearly, in another world, I would do the exact same thing. I don't want her to beat herself up about it—she's gone through enough as it is.” She shrugged.

“And seeing Stark again?”

“That was hard.” She sighed. “Very hard.” Then she brightened. “But it was good, too. Before, I didn't get to say good-bye, really. Now I have. That helps.”

She reached out and hugged Carter, then gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Thank you for bringing Kevin back to me,” she told him again.

“Anytime.” He watched her lead her son away, and thought about everything that had happened. Allison was always so calm and cool, so in control of herself and the situation around her. She had to be, in order to run GD the way she did. So it was rare to see her lose control of herself. In a way, it was a little refreshing. And a little frightening. Her emotions ran deep, much deeper than she let on. Carter wondered what it would be like to be the recipient of those emotions.

He touched his cheek where she'd kissed him. Maybe someday he'd find out.

Then, whistling softly, he followed in the direction she had taken, aiming for the central lobby and the main entrance. Time to leave the other reality behind and get back to the work of handling this one.

“Explain to me again what you're going to do,” Jo in
sisted as she pulled into the GD parking lot and swerved into a space near the front door. “Just so I know when both Allison and Carter tell us to knock it off.”

“I'm going to rewire the security gates,” Fargo explained, undoing his seat belt and hopping out of the car as soon as she'd shut the engine off. “Just a little bit.”

“And what will it do once you've done that, exactly?” Jo kept pace effortlessly as he jogged across the small plaza, around the GD sculpture centered there, and toward the building's main entrance.

“It'll administer a mild shock to everyone who passes through it.”

He reached for the door, but Jo thrust out an arm, slamming her palm into the door and pinning it shut. “Define
mild
.”

“Like the one you get from static,” Fargo assured her. “Nothing more, I promise.” At least, that was what he was aiming for. The exact voltage would depend on a number of factors, including the distance the individual had walked to get there and what sort of footwear they were wearing. But he decided not to mention that.

“And the point of this, besides it being an amusing little prank?” She still held the door shut tight.

Fargo sighed. “Look, the Thunderbird generates electricity, right? And the thief has been in contact with the egg since stealing it. Plus, he could still be carrying a charge from the one that hatched.” Jo nodded. “Well, that means he's already got charged ions clinging to him. When he walks through the security gate, they'll absorb the extra charge.”

“And he'll be the only one who doesn't receive a shock.” Jo stepped back and lowered her arm. “Clever, Fargo.” She actually gave him a small, if grudging, smile. “Strange, and potentially irritating, but clever.”

“Thanks.”

“So why don't we just tell Allison what we're doing, and do it officially?” was Jo's next question as they stepped inside.

“Because we can't rule out the possibility that one of the guards is involved,” Fargo pointed out, turning toward her and keeping his voice down so the guards in question wouldn't hear him. They were only a handful of paces away from the security gates now.

“Right.” To his surprise, she nodded. “Okay, we'll do it your way.” Then she stepped around him and marched toward the guards. “Take me to the security station, right now!” she demanded.

Both guards started, and saluted as she approached. They were military, after all—GD (and all of Eureka, really) was part of the Department of Defense, and soldiers were used for all security details. The only exceptions were the town-appointed sheriff and deputy, and even those positions required the DoD's approval.

To their credit, neither of the guards questioned Jo. They just jumped up and fell in behind her as she cleared the gates and moved quickly away, in the direction of the security master station. Which was off a corridor and well out of view.

One of the guards did pause, however, to reach for the phone beside his station. Fargo cringed. He had to be calling this in and asking for someone to take over. Which would ruin any chance he had of getting his hands on the machines.

But Jo had noticed as well. “No time for that!” she snapped. “You'll be back before you know it, and we need to move now! Let's go!”

Again, the soldier reacted instinctively. He let his hand drop, saluted again, and rushed to keep up with her and his fellow guard. Within seconds they were down the corridor and out of sight.

Leaving Fargo alone at the security station.

“Right.” He rubbed his hands together and stepped over to the gate. “Let's have a look inside you, shall we?”

 

Down the hall, Jo stormed into the security center con
trol room. “I need a full diagnostic, right now!” she demanded.

“Deputy Lupo!” The security officer in charge jumped to his feet and saluted. “I'm sorry, ma'am, but we'll need to—”

“Now!” Jo insisted, moving forward until she was right in his face. “Before everyone starts filing out for the evening! Otherwise we're screwed!”