The Broken Universe (9 page)

“Where is he now?”

“Dead,” John said. “Prime killed him.” Right before he had almost killed John. Prime had saved his life, feigning sleep until Corrundrum had made his move.

“And Prime is another version of you?” Grace-7651 asked.

“Yes, he gave me the first device,” John explained.

“Where did he get it?” Grace-7651 asked.

“From another me?”

“But where did he get it?” Grace-7651 asked again.

John shrugged. “Neither Prime or I know.”

“You could find out,” Grace-7651 said. “That might answer some questions.”

John shook his head. “I’d just as much prefer to leave Prime be.”

“John has some conflicting emotions regarding his doppelganger,” Grace-7650 said.

“Hey!” John said, but he took the words with good humor. It was true. John was scared of how similar he and Prime were. Prime was devious, dangerous, and deadly. And that meant that John could be all those things too. Maybe he was all those things and he was fooling himself that he was good person.

“But—” Grace said.

“What?”

“Prime knows a lot,” she said. “He’s been to more universes than you. Maybe he has some clue on how to exploit them.”

“I’d hoped we could go our separate ways after 7651,” John said. “We’re not the same person.”

“Yeah? But he’s still you,” Grace said.

“We’ve diverged,” John said. He tried to laugh, but his throat was dry. They’d spent six weeks with Prime in 7651, and he’d never gotten over his sense of revulsion over the person who had stolen his life, his universe, his Casey.

“Sure, you’re not him,” Grace-7650 said. “Just like I’m not her.” She nodded at Grace-7651. “But he knows stuff that we can use. For no other reason than they suck and don’t deserve to win, we don’t want Gesalex to gain our company. And if he does, he won’t stop there. He wants a gate, and we’re the only shop in this universe. Nor do we want to give up Pinball Wizards and start over somewhere else. It’ll be harder somewhere else.”

John sighed.

“Don’t we have any other possibilities?” he asked. “What about a loan?”

“There’s always an off chance for a loan of fifteen million dollars,” Grace-7650 said, “but I doubt it.”

He and Prime
had
diverged, as soon as Prime had used the device the first time. He had had a whole year to change, to morph into the deviant he was. A whole year to justify stealing John’s life. And when John had been faced with the same choice, he had
not
done it. He had come to live with his fate. But it was only by the slightest chance. They were the same, to a point. The same to the point of moral failure. John had chosen correctly. Prime had not. They were one person, save for that one decision.

John nodded. “I’ll ask Prime,” he said. “When I take these two back to 7651, I’ll use the gate to get to 7533. We’ll see what he says. But he may have no magic answers.”

*   *   *

Casey-7533 opened the door and recognized him immediately. She had seen through him the first time he came looking for Prime too.

“John,” she said. “Back so soon?”

“Yes,” he said. It had only been two weeks since they had returned Prime to 7533 with his huge trunk of whatever he’d stolen from 7651.

Casey leaned forward and hugged him. Her smell—Casey’s perfume—jolted him. He tentatively hugged her back.

“Thanks for bringing him back,” she said. “I was worried, and then he was back and everything seems fine … here.”

“I need him again,” John said.

“So soon?”

“There have been … ramifications,” John said.

“Of course. There always are with what you two do.”

She stepped aside. Upstairs the toddler cried. “He’s in the den,” she said. “I have to get her.” She paused as she climbed the stairs. “When are you and your Casey going to have children?”

“Uh, we’re not even married.”

“Ah, then you should marry her. I’m sure she wants you to ask.”

“Sure,” John said, uncomfortable to be talking to a version of Casey about his own Casey. But she would know for sure what Casey wanted. “Really?”

“Of course,” she said. “Casey doesn’t waste her time on something for the meantime. I know.”

“Yeah.”

John entered the den. Prime sat at the desk, reading a book. The shelves were lined with physics books and manuals. A volume of an encyclopedia lay on the desk in front of him. A cup of coffee sat next to it. The room smelled of books. Well-thumbed books. John would have liked a den like this and wondered why he didn’t have one.

“John,” Prime said.

“John.”

Prime tapped the encyclopedia. “I read this all the time, and two newspapers, just to make sure I understand this universe. I still get caught up. Something stupid, something everyone here knows inherently.”

“I know,” John said. “It’s like you moved to a foreign country at the age of ten. You can pass for native, except when you don’t. Yeah, I know how it is.”

“Of course, you do,” Prime said. “I heard you talking with Casey. I wasn’t eavesdropping, but I listened to your voices rising and falling. It’s like a dream, like I’m watching myself in some surreal environment, especially when you talk to her.”

“Yeah, I feel it.”

“You’re back soon,” Prime said. “Frankly I wouldn’t have been surprised if I never saw you again. What happened?”

“The Alarians found my gate in 7650,” John said.

“Damn!”

“But we got it back,” John said. “Most of them left 7650. The rest are trying to force us out of business, take us over, and steal back the gate.” He paused. “They killed Bill and Janet.”

“Bastards.”

“Yeah.” They were silent for a moment, considering.

“So?” Prime asked.

“We need money, a lot, fast.”

“Ah, that’s why you’re here. Filthy money.”

“Yeah, you’re who we thought of first,” John said. Prime laughed. “I know you kept notes, and thought you might have ideas if you had access to other universes.”

Prime nodded. “You can’t just walk away? Go to 7652 maybe?”

“No, we won’t go.”

“Yeah, that’s never easy,” Prime said. “How much?”

“Fifteen million.”

Prime whistled.

“Any ideas?” John asked.

“Steal it.”

“What?”

“Sure, find two universes where a bank exists in one and doesn’t in another. Walk into the bank, grab a pile of money, and transfer to the blank universe. Repeat as necessary.”

“I think theft is out of the question,” John said. He didn’t mention that he had had that same thought when he first had been lost in the multiverse. But he hadn’t been able to bring himself to do it. How long would it have taken before he’d reached that point if he hadn’t been taken in by Bill and Janet in 7650?

“That makes it harder,” Prime said. “Then it has to be something available cheaply in one universe and expensive in another.”

“Like?”

“Furry Buddies in 7501. I saw the same boxes of Buddies in 7502 for a dollar apiece. Went for twenty in 7501.”

“We don’t have the infrastructure to sell anything in 7501,” John said. “Not quickly, anyway. And we’d still be left with the process of converting the money from 7501 to 7650.”

“Gold,” Prime said. “Easy medium of transfer.”

“And we don’t have gates in either of those universes, which means me running material back and forth. I’m limited by what I can carry.”

“You’re putting a lot of constraints on me,” Prime said. He ticked off on his fingers. “Need fifteen million. Need it next week. Can’t sell something. Can’t arbitrage. Can’t steal.”

“Do you have any ideas?” John asked, exasperated.

“That leaves finding,” Prime said.

“What do you mean?”

“Treasure hunting,” Prime said. “Surely you wouldn’t object to just finding wealth?”

“Unless it’s in Fort Knox,” John said.

“Blackbeard’s treasure,” John said. “His ship is found only in some universes.
Queen Anne’s Revenge
was sunk off the coast of North Carolina. Silver and gold in such quantities that we couldn’t count it.”

“Do you know how to scuba dive?” John asked.

“Uh, well.”

“Sounds like a gamble anyway.”

Prime said, “It’s a matter of probabilities. We keep searching until we find it.” He opened up a binder and flipped to a tab. “John Jacob Astor’s cache of diamonds. Found in a toilet in the crews’ section of the
Titanic
by chance.”

“Do you have a remote-controlled submersible?”

“Okay, fine. How about Herihor’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt? Undiscovered in most universes, Herihor’s tomb was filled with treasures from dozens of other pharaohs.”

“And how do we operate in Egypt without being noticed?”

“You’re adding a lot more constraints!” Prime flipped pages. “How about the Ark of the Covenant, hidden behind a wall in a building in Jerusalem.”

“And we would sell that how?”

“Maybe the Vatican would buy it,” Prime said. “Fine.” He flipped through more pages. “Ah, here it is. Civil War gold.”

“That sounds promising. Where?”

“Right here in Ohio,” Prime said. “Johnson’s Island in Lake Erie was used as a prisoner of war camp for Confederate officers. Fort Johnson was also used as a treasury for funds. When the USS
Michigan
was captured by Confederate spies, the Johnson’s Island prisoners escaped on the ship and took a huge cache of gold with them. Only a squall crashed the ship onto the shores of nearby Kelleys Island. With a handful of survivors, Confederate Colonel Nelson Franks buried the gold on a farm on Kelleys Island. Unfortunately for him, he died of pneumonia, as did most of his men, and the gold was lost. Except where it wasn’t.”

John nodded his head. “Civil War gold, lost in Ohio. I like it. We just need a universe where the prisoners escaped, then died, and the gold was never found.”

“I have that universe,” Prime said. “Universe 7458. I was going to try and find the gold, but I had to, uh, move on before I could dig it up. I never found another universe where the Confederate officers even escaped.”

“So where is the gold?”

“Uh, well,” Prime said. “I know the general vicinity.”

“There’s no exact location?”

“I know within a few hundred meters,” Prime said.

“That’s gonna make it hard to find.”

“Metal detectors,” Prime said. “We’ll need metal detectors.”

“We?” John asked. “I’m just asking for ideas, not volunteers.”

“Ten percent finder’s fee,” Prime said with a smile. “Seems fair.”

John shook his head, but still he laughed. “Fine.”

“What’s that? Another adventure without me?” Casey stood in the doorway, holding Abby to her shoulder.

“This one is just digging holes,” Prime said.

“I’ve dug holes for you before,” Casey said coldly.

John watched something pass between the two. Prime nodded. “Really, it’s nothing dangerous. I’ll just be gone a couple days.”

Casey met his gaze for a moment, and then nodded. “I guess. All our problems are cleared up here, what with Ted Carson suddenly showing up a week ago.”

“A week?” John asked. “He was missing here?”

Ted Carson was a bully, a sociopath, that had tormented John in high school.

“Mysteriously,” Casey said.

“The police thought I might have something to do with it,” Prime said. “Fools.”

“Fine, a few days,” Casey said. “It’s not like you have a job at the moment.”

To John’s raised eyebrows, Prime said, “Disappearing for six weeks puts a damper on your career. That and the murder charge. But the severance is enough to survive for a couple years. But ten percent of a lot of gold will be better.”

“If we find it,” John said. “What are the real chances? I need this to work.”

“I have no idea. The gold could be at the bottom of Lake Erie for all I know,” Prime said. “The event is rare, but given that the escape happened at all and the ship disappeared … I have to assume the gold is on that island.”

John turned to Casey. “Can you spare him for a few days?”

“Yes, of course, if you need him,” Casey said. “I know what he owes you.” She turned away then, and John thought he saw the streak of a tear on her face.

“Maybe I should do this myself,” John said. “Just tell me where the gold is. You’ll get your percentage.”

Prime looked after Casey, a look of real concern on his face.

“No,” Casey said, her voice muffled with her face snuggled close to Abby’s neck. “I want him to go.” She glanced up with glassy eyes. “I suppose he has to go now.”

“Yeah, the sooner the better,” John said.

“And you’re doing it for your friends, and for your Casey?”

“Yes.”

“Instead of just running away? You’re doing whatever it takes?”

“I guess so.”

“Would you do just about anything for your friends?” Casey asked.

John felt the gravity of the question, and paused. “Yeah, I would.”

“Okay,” she said. “He can go. But same as last time, bring him back in one piece. Or you have to take his place.” John laughed, but Casey only smiled.

“Well, we need some supplies,” Prime said. “Luckily I have some cash in this universe, so let’s make a list.”

*   *   *

John and Prime filled a shopping cart with supplies at the local Creble’s Sporting Goods: a tent, two sleeping bags, a lantern, cooking supplies, and, the most important items, two top-of-the-line metal detectors and enough batteries to last a week.

“So your legal trouble is over?” John said as they packed the trunk of Prime’s car.

“Surprisingly, when I returned the police had dropped all charges,” Prime said.

“Why?”

“Ted Carson suddenly appeared, and not even an apology from the police,” Prime said. “Do you believe it?”

“Yes, I believe that,” John said. “They thought you had murdered him?”

“Yeah. The guy was just missing.”

John studied him for a long moment. “So what was in that trunk that we brought back with us from 7651?”

Prime leveled him a hard stare. “Do you really want to know?” he said. “Because I’ll tell you if you do.”

John looked away. Why did he prod Prime? Why did he look into that mirror every time he could? “I think I know,” he said. The police were suspicious enough of Prime to charge him in the disappearance of Ted Carson. Then suddenly all those charges were dropped when Prime returned six weeks later … carrying a huge crate that might have contained a living human body.