Teleport This (6 page)

“And you’ve had no contact with him whatsoever?” asked Lyn.

“I did receive an email saying he would call last weekend, but he never called,” said Mrs. Wilson.

“Have you been to the police?”

“No, I didn’t want to make any trouble for Simon. Simon is Gilbert’s business partner.”

“Anything else you want to tell me?”

“There’s the possibility that Gilbert may have lost everything playing online poker.”

“Online poker?”

“Or porn, he might have been involved in internet pornography. I don’t know, he’s been talking a lot about both lately.”

“Okay,” said Lyn. “I’m on the job.”

Later that night, Lyn knocked on the lab door. No answer. She quickly used the key Jimmy had given her for $20 and the promise that she would look, but not touch. She nosed around the front entryway a bit and then entered the lab proper. She had plenty of undisturbed time to examine everything in detail and was able to recognize some of the equipment in the lab as she walked through; PCs and printers, things like that. There was other equipment there that she had never seen before, but many of them had model names and numbers and were organized in racks and, well, they just seemed to be the type of things she would expect to find in a lab. Then she noticed four big power cables running out of the electrical closet and into the side room, connecting to something she supposed could be considered typical lab equipment, that is, if the lab was being rented to someone named Frankenstein. She made a few sketches and gave the key back to Jimmy on her way out.

Lyn began the next morning waiting for Simon to leave his apartment. She had studied her sketches of the lab during the previous night’s dinner and had arrived at a wide variety of uses for the equipment and platform. Oddly enough, (or perhaps ‘sanely enough’ would be a better term) teleportation did not make the list. The closest she got was some type of medical imaging system like a CT or MRI machine where you didn’t have to physically enter the machine.

Simon came out just before nine and she followed him to the lab. She decided to leave him there for now, got back into her car and paid a visit to Simon’s apartment. She had already made a similar visit to Gilbert’s place, finding drawers and closets full of clothes plus a set of luggage, further discrediting the traveling to Puerto Rico story. Other than that, she found nothing that helped her understand what had happened to Gilbert. Simon’s apartment produced similar results. She returned to the lab.

Simon had left the front door unlocked so Lyn let herself in. She proceeded to the back room where she saw Simon bent over the familiar, but odd looking apparatus. Music was coming from a set of desktop speakers and Simon was singing along with Heavy D as Now That We Found Love played. Lyn smiled in spite of herself. Simon was just as Jenny Wilson had described him. Time to get to it.

“Excuse me,” she said over the music.

Simon was so startled by Lyn’s voice that he nearly fell over. He turned around, got an eyeful of Lyn, completely fell over and then stammered out a weak hello. He followed that with an equally weak and somewhat squeaky, “Can I help you?”

Lyn was used to that response and used it to her full advantage. She smiled and said, “I hope so, I’m looking for Gilbert Wilson. Do you know where I could find him? I met him a couple weeks ago, he gave me this address and told me to look him up the next time I was in the area and we’d get lunch.”

“That doesn’t sound like Gilbert.”

“What doesn’t?”

“Any of it.”

“So he’s not here?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“When do you expect him back?”

“Not for a while, months maybe. He’s traveling for business, no telling exactly when he will return.”

“I see.” Like Mrs. Wilson, Lyn didn’t believe Simon at all. His body language screamed ‘this is a fake story and I’m extremely uncomfortable telling it.’

“Oh, well, then I’m sorry I missed him. Are you his friend Simon? He mentioned you.”

“He did?”

“Yes, he told me the funniest story about you and a vacuum cleaner.” Thank you Mrs. Wilson for that tidbit.

“For the record, there was a bet involved and I stood to make a large sum of money. I would have won, but they brought out an upright instead of a canister.”

Lyn laughed just the right amount and took a deep breath, making her sweater all the tighter. “So what are you working on over there? Looks dangerous.”

“That? No. It’s just a dark matter collector that Gil and I bought on eBay. It’s old and used, but all it needs is a little TLC to get it to work. It’s not dangerous at all, runs on a couple AA batteries, not enough power to fry a bug. Can I get you some tea or coffee?”

Lyn gave up counting the number of times Simon’s voice squeaked or he wrung his hands while he spun his yarn. She’d seen and heard enough, time to put the screws to him. Thanks to her four inch heels she was an inch or so taller than Simon. Lyn stopped smiling and moved across the room until only six inches separated them. As she began talking, she used her finger to poke him in the chest after each sentence.

“I'm sorry, Simon, but I don’t believe that one bit. I’m investigating Gilbert’s disappearance and I’m guessing that he got on that platform,” she nodded towards the teleport, “either willingly or unwillingly, but one way or another you threw that switch and now he’s gone.” Simon was getting paler after each word. Lyn pressed on, sensing victory. “Where is he, Simon? Tell me where he is!”

Simon cracked like an egg in a pneumatic press and began blurting out what seemed like a string of unrelated sentences. Fortunately, Lyn was good with jigsaw puzzles and was able to take control of the fire hose that Simon’s mouth and brain had formed. She began to zero in on her target.

“Tell me about Jon,” she said. Simon continued blurting, Lyn continued absorbing. Lyn finally had enough and raised her hand.

“Okay, let’s see if I got it straight. You contacted space aliens, they sent a message saying build this thing, which you secretly did and then you zapped Gilbert to who knows where. After that, some guy named Jon showed up, dazzled you with free food and drinks and probably got you laid, but then he drugged you and zapped himself to places unknown.”

“Technically speaking, they’re not space aliens. They’re humans from other planets.”

“Did you perform any medical tests to verify that?”

“No, but he ate our food and acted human.”

“Yeah, well, so does a chimp. I’m sticking with space aliens until I learn otherwise. So that’s about it. No, wait, I almost forgot, this guy Jon booby trapped the teleport so no one can go after him. Anything I missed?”

After hearing the past few weeks boiled down to three sentences where he comes off as a cross between a moron and an idiot, Simon decided that it was time to say something impressive. “Did I mention that Gilbert and I built a backup teleport in secret that Jon doesn’t know about? I was just checking a few things here and was planning to use it to go after Gilbert this afternoon.”

“Well, good for you, Skippy,” Lyn remarked. “You got a pair after all.”

8.

“Wake up, Sunshine.”

Gilbert heard Ellie’s familiar voice, but his brain was doing the back stroke and it hadn’t decided on whether or not to open his eyes. His brain got out of the pool and began toweling off. Rational thought finally arrived just as the burgers were coming off the grill. Gilbert opened his eyes. He expected to find himself back in the ICC with Ellie standing over him.

“Hello,” said Gilbert.

“Hello,” came the response.

“Is your name Ellie?” he asked.

“It is.”

“Was I unconscious?”

“You were.”

“Did you knock me out?”

“I did.”

“Any particular reason why?”

“You bet.”

“Want to share?”

“Not yet. First tell me who you are and how you got here,” said the girl named Ellie that sounded exactly and looked a little like his almost robot Ellie.

“My name is Gilbert Wilson and I was sent here by a fellow named Jon.”

“You must be a very good friend of Jon’s,” said Ellie, relaxing a bit.

“Oh, I don’t know about that.” Gilbert noticed Ellie stiffen back up and added, “What I mean to say is that I haven’t known him very long. Where am I?”

“We’ll get to all that in a moment. Why don’t you tell me exactly what’s going on here.”

Gilbert thought about the request. It seemed reasonable. Obviously Jon modeled the ICC robot after this girl so that if he met her he would recognize and trust her. He made up his mind, “Look, you know Jon’s in trouble with some very nasty folks, right?”

“I didn’t, but after you showed up using his teleport code I did some digging. Most of it’s still under wraps, but I got enough to learn that Jon’s thick in it.”

“Right, I don’t know much about that part of it, only that they had him hidden away at this place called the Initial Contact Center,” Gilbert went on to tell her the entire story. “So now it’s your turn, who are you exactly and where am I?”

“Well, I’m exactly Jon’s sister Ellie and you are an uninvited guest on my spaceship.”

“Spaceship? You mean we’re traveling through space right now?” said Gilbert, in awe of the thought.

“That’s what spaceships usually do. Travel through space. Deliver cargo,” Ellie said. The sarcasm was lost on Gilbert.

“Any idea why Jon sent me here?”

“I’m guessing that he sent you here for safe keeping. Almost all planetary teleports are controlled by that planet’s government and are traceable. The other five percent are being run illegally. Either way, a quick payoff and the bad guys will know who’s been where. Spaceships only fall under planetary law when they’re physically on a planet and outside of that anything goes.”

“So no one knows where I am?”

“That’s right.”

“Unless someone is smart enough to put two and two together and keep an eye on you since you’re Jon’s sister.”

“That’s right! If only I was smart enough to have this ship registered under an alias. Oh wait, I was.”

Gilbert was quickly putting two and two together and coming up with the cube root of screwed again. “So you’re the captain of an illegally registered spaceship and your brother is on the run from both the authorities and mobsters? Your family isn’t what one would call law abiding, is it?”

“Hey, don’t give me any crap, I’m the good one.”

“Really, the good one? So what’s your cargo?”

“Mining equipment.”

“Just mining equipment?

“Yes, just mining equipment…and some recreational entertainment paraphernalia that the local jurisdiction has in its ultimate wisdom deemed contraband. Alright, maybe I’m not the good one, but I’m definitely the better one.”

“If you say so. How much longer until we get to your destination?”

“A few days.”

“How big is your crew?”

“I’m fully staffed. I’ve got a tech guy, security and a crewman.”

“Four people, that’s the entire crew?”

“Plus a dozen robots, but, yup, that’s it.”

Ellie gave Gilbert a tour of the ship and assigned him living quarters for the duration of his visit. She showed him where the galley was and gave him instructions on its use. It was clear to Gilbert that he was as she initially described him, an unwanted guest. It was equally clear that Ellie was concerned about her brother. Gilbert thought she might need a sympathetic ear or possibly a shoulder to cry on. He gently brought up the subject.

“Look,” she began, “I’ve been cleaning up after him for years now. Hell, it’s closing in on a decade. And it’s not just him, it’s my whole family. You were right, we’re all a bunch of crooks. That’s why I have an unlicensed teleport and an illegally registered ship. I’m everyone’s backup plan and my entire life has been spent saving their bacon,” the level of Ellie’s voice was getting consistently higher as she went on. “So thank you very much for pointing out the obvious to me, that’s exactly what I needed. Wow, how bad is my life when some idiot that got conned off his own planet and doesn’t have a clue as to where he is or where he’s going begins to feel sorry for me,” with that Ellie stormed down the passageway leaving a dumbfounded Gilbert in her wake.

Gilbert stood there thinking about what just transpired and had to admit that he was getting better at this touchy-feely emotional stuff.

9.

“So are we ready to go?” Lyn asked Simon.

“I don’t need you to come along. I can take care of myself. I haven’t been going to the gym three times a week just to watch the other men shower, you know.”

“Right, that’s just a perk.”

“Hey, I like girls, want me to prove it to you?”