Daryl grabbed the last IWART. “After I send you and Kelly home, I’ll wait here for your parents and zap them over to Earth Blue. Then I’ll see if I can find Amber. I think she still has the Earth Yellow mirror, so she can contact Francesca Yellow.”
“If Francesca took hers along,” Nathan added. He glanced at the office chair deep in the shadows. “What do we do about Simon Yellow’s body?”
Daryl looked in that direction. “If I get in touch with Solomon, I’ll ask what to do. It’s not that I’m unsympathetic or anything, but the farther away I stay from dead bodies, the better I like it.”
“So you don’t mind waiting here?” Kelly asked. “I mean, you were stuck in this world for so long before.”
Daryl pressed her hand against her chest. “Hey, I’m as altruistic as the next girl, but we haven’t proven that a digital transport to Earth Red won’t fry your circuits, if you know what I mean. If it works, I’ll be right behind you.”
“Well, if it doesn’t work,” Nathan said, “our gooses are as good as cooked anyway.”
Kelly jogged over to the musical instrument area and returned with a violin and bow. “How’s this one?”
Nathan took them and held the violin close to his ear as he plucked each string. “Needs tuning, but it sounds pretty good.”
Kelly glanced at the overhead mirror. “No time like the present.” She hooked her arm through Nathan’s and led him to the center of the room. “We’ll either fly together or fry together.”
“That’s not exactly comforting.”
Kelly swatted him playfully on the shoulder. “Buck up, young man! Where’s that motorcycle-racing bravado when we need it?”
Heat raced into Nathan’s ears. She was right. His bravado had leaked out at the sight of Simon Yellow’s corpse. The reality of death had drained every drop of moxie. He had to generate more confidence, at least visibly. He raised the bow and waved it back and forth as if conducting an orchestra. “Don’t worry about a thing, Kelly. This is going to be a command performance. Just take a seat and enjoy the show.”
16
RETURNING TO RED
Daryl set her fingers on the computer’s keyboard again. “I’m dialing in Earth Red. Say your prayers.”
Nathan tried to laugh at her quip, but his lungs seemed to freeze. Above, the ceiling mirror brightened to a Red copy of their own room, displaying Dr. Gordon and at least two other people in the shadows — it was too late to try to guess who they were. Lights flashed on. Wide beams shot down from somewhere above, making a laser cage around them.
As they had experienced several times before, the scene in the mirror melted and descended as if ready to swallow their bodies. But this time, the lights collapsed around him, sending a buzzing shock through his body. His teeth clenched. His fingers strangled the violin’s neck, and his arm locked so tightly with Kelly’s it felt like their bones were cracking. He looked at her. Her eyes were closed, and her head rocked back and forth, sending her hair into a static-driven frenzy.
The Earth Red observatory took shape slowly . . . too slowly. Pain shot through his body from head to toe and hand to hand. His heart fluttered. His vision dimmed. He couldn’t take it for another second. He’d pass out for sure.
Two figures ran close, too fuzzy to make out. Then something hit them from the side, knocking them both down. He sprawled over Kelly, stunned. She moaned under his weight, lying on her belly with arms and legs splayed.
Strong arms lifted Nathan to his feet. He wobbled, blinking as he tried to focus on the blurry faces staring at him.
“Are you all right?” a woman asked.
“I’m not sure. I think so.” He stared at the violin, still wrapped tightly in his fingers. Whoever that was sounded very familiar.
“Well, you’d better be all right, hotshot. I hear we have to hop a flight to London.”
He blinked and looked at the tall, gray-haired woman.
With bent brow and taut cheeks, she looked as stern as ever.
“Clara?”
“Oh, well!” A wide smile cracked her harsh façade. “I’m glad you still know me.”
Nathan shook his head hard and looked again. This time, everything clarified — his tutor, the telescope room, the fact that three other people were standing nearby. “What happened?”
“You and Kelly looked like you were trapped in an electrical field, so I tackled you.” She brushed her hands together. “Not bad for an old lady, huh?”
He let out a laugh, but it hurt his chest muscles. “You should have been a linebacker.” He turned in a slow circle. “Where’s Kelly?”
“I’ve got her.” Dr. Gordon walked Kelly to him. With her hair thrown every which way and her legs wobbling, she looked as dazed as he felt.
“You okay?” he asked.
She pushed her hair out of her eyes, now glassy and bloodshot. “I think so, but I’m almost blind again.”
Nathan took her hand. Her fingers quivered. Since her vision had been restored for what seemed like several hours, it had to be a huge letdown to lose it again. As he took in a deep breath, the odor of burnt clothes and hair assaulted his nose. Kelly’s hair looked scorched on the ends, so his own probably looked just as bad. He ran his thumb across her palm, and she gave him a weak smile.
Now that his brain seemed to function normally again, memories of their mission flooded his mind. “Okay, that wasn’t the best cross-dimensional jump in history, but we survived. We have to get going.” He turned to Dr. Gordon, who now stood next to a man Nathan didn’t recognize. Both were looking at a cell phone with a full keypad in Dr. Gordon’s hand.
“Did you check flights to London?” Nathan asked.
“We were just doing that.” Dr. Gordon showed him the phone’s screen. “Nothing is available. Our communications here have been inoperable for quite a while, so all flights have been cancelled.”
“Oh, yeah. The whale-speak.”
Dr. Gordon drew his head back. “Whale-speak?”
“Daryl’s term for how you talked. But you sound fine now.”
“I see. Yes, whale-speak would be a good description, but everything snapped back into place only moments ago. Analog communications are again operational. That’s why we decided to look into the airline schedule, but it’s doubtful that they will return to normal capacity anytime soon.”
Nathan ran a thumb along one of the violin strings. His parents’ success on the huge violin must have restored Earth Red’s communications, but how long would it take to get flights back on line? Several days? Maybe several Earth Yellow weeks or months? That wouldn’t work at all. “So if all analog communications are on track,” he said, “can you get Daryl over here?”
“I just checked to see what she was doing.” Dr. Gordon nodded toward the ceiling, which showed the empty Earth Yellow telescope room. “She’s not in the Earth Yellow lab, but I sent her an email letting her know that we can switch back to analog. The transport should be much safer now.”
“She must still be looking for Amber,” Kelly said, watching the image above.
Nathan glanced at her as her eyes moved from left to right, scanning the mirror. As usual, she could see Earth Yellow, even from other worlds.
“Nathan,” Dr. Gordon said, “have you met Daryl’s father?”
“I don’t think so.” He extended his hand. “Nathan Shepherd.”
“Victor Markeyy.” He reached past Nathan’s hand and patted his shoulder. “No sense inflicting more pain, son.”
Dr. Gordon pushed his cell phone into his pocket. “Victor has a plan that I think is worthy of consideration.”
“You mean you know how we can get to London?” Nathan asked.
Victor pointed at a lapel pin, a set of wings. “I don’t know if Daryl told you or not, but I’m a pilot, and I know how to fly the big jets.”
“But where can you get one?”
“Well, considering all the problems with the schedule, there are plenty sitting on the ground at O’Hare. Some
are probably fueled and ready to go.”
Nathan furrowed his brow. “You want to steal a jet?”
“Not steal. Borrow. I think the airline company would beg us to take one if they knew what was going on.”
“Yeah. I can’t argue with that. But what about security? Even with no flights, O’Hare’s got to be battened down. We’d never even get to sniff jet fuel, much less climb aboard and take off.”
Victor offered a knowing smile. “I flew in to a small airport in the suburbs. The security people know me, so getting through won’t be a problem. We’ll fly from there to Chicago. With no air traffic, landing will be a breeze. Then just stick with me. I called someone I know with the Feds. He’ll take care of the rest.”
Nathan looked Victor over. Being on the runway in the private plane would give them access to the big jets without having to go through security. But could this guy pull it off? Daryl said that he had lost his nerve after his brother died. He’d have to get some of it back to make this work. “So, when do we leave?”
“As soon as our airport transportation arrives,” Victor said. He withdrew a cell phone from his pocket, flipped it open, and scrolled through his directory. “I asked Kelly’s father if he knew anyone in this area who had a vehicle that might not raise suspicion if we stowed away inside, like a florist’s delivery truck.” He pushed a button and held the phone against his ear. “Yeah, Tony. Did you get hold of him? . . . Great.” Victor looked at his watch. “Did you give him my number? . . . Super.” The phone beeped. “Wait. That must be him now. Call you later.”
Victor looked at his phone, pushed a button, and again put it to his ear. “This is Victor Markey . . . Yeah. We’re ready . . . A van? What color? . . . Okay. Drive around back. We’ll meet you there.” He slapped the phone closed. “Okay. Everything’s set. Let’s get this show on the road.”
Clara pulled a wallet from her purse. “I withdrew some money from your trust fund and put it in this. If we ever find your parents, we’ll just — ”
“My parents?” Nathan almost choked on his words. “No one told you?”
“Told me what?”
Barely able to contain his excitement, he took in a deep breath and spoke rapid-fire. “We found them. Dad and Mom are alive. I thought Daryl might’ve told you about Mom, because that was a while ago, but we just found Dad recently. He was trapped in a cocoon in a spider tree, so we had to tear him out of it. And Mom was all but dead, so Scarlet gave her life energy — ”
A light flashed at the center of the room, interrupting Nathan’s report. A female human figure appeared with a bag dangling from her shoulder. Now wearing baggy jeans over her bunny thermals, Daryl shook out her red locks and grinned at Nathan and Kelly. “Good thing analog’s working again. I saw what happened to you two.” She pulled a cell phone out of her pocket and turned it on. “Anyone got the time? It might take a few minutes for this to sync up.”
Dr. Gordon checked his watch. “Four eighteen in the afternoon.”
“Daryl?” Victor’s eyes lit up. “Is that you?”
Daryl gasped. Her mouth fell open, and she swallowed hard. “Yeah,” she said, pushing back her hair. “Do I look that much older?”
“Yes. I mean, no. I mean . . .” He drew close and squinted at her. “What happened?”
“Oh, Daddy!” She leaped and threw her arms around his neck. “I missed you and Mom so much!”
Victor returned the hug, laughing. “You’ve only been gone a few days. Science camp was a lot longer than that.”
“I was gone for years!” she cried, pulling back. “Earth Yellow moves a lot faster than — ”
“Better explain later,” Nathan said. “We’ll have time on the way to the airport.”
“We’re all flying to London?” Daryl asked as she looked in her bag. “And I didn’t bring a power converter.”
“Yeah, we’re all going, but first we’re flying from a smaller airport to O’Hare. I’ll tell you all about it in a minute.”
“I’ll stay here in case we need some kind of cross-dimensional transport,” Dr. Gordon said. “Anyone else?”
Clara nodded. “I’m going to London. My knowledge of the city will likely come in handy.”
Victor and Clara led the way out the tourist entry door, and Nathan guided Kelly by the hand. Daryl followed, carrying her bag. “I have the Earth Blue mirror, candles, and batteries for your IWART,” Daryl said. “Remember what Simon told us? That thing has GPS mapping built in. We could have looked up the points on that instead of emailing Dr. Gordon. Anyway, I played with it and figured out how it works before I gave it to your father. So he and your mom headed to Earth Blue fully equipped, including a new violin.”
“Did you find Amber?” Kelly asked as they piled into the elevator.
“I followed her bullet trail out to the parking lot. She had the hood up on Tony’s truck trying to hotwire it. She was so determined to find Francesca Yellow, I think she almost figured it out. So I just went back inside, used an office phone, and called Gunther. Good thing I memorized his number, too. Anyway, they all came back and picked her up, so Amber’s going to help Francesca and Solomon Yellow at their foundation point.” She pulled up her oversized jeans and tightened an extension cord she had threaded through the loops. “Thank goodness for Gunther. That guy’s like a Boy Scout — always prepared. He packed an extra pair of jeans along with all that food. Boy, was I glad. I was tired of showing my bunnies to everyone.”
“So they’re on their way to India now?” Nathan asked. “Flights are still running there?”
“Yep. I gave them the coordinates. They know what to do, but they’ll be there long before we get to London.”
As soon as the elevator door opened, Nathan helped Kelly out. With the violin in one hand and her hand in the other, he hustled down the hall. Although she winced with every few steps and favored her wounded shoulder, she didn’t let it slow her down. She was definitely in warrior mode.
When they arrived at the rear entry door, he stopped and peeked through the embedded window. An old white van had backed up to the steps, and one of its rusted double doors was open, as if welcoming them aboard.
“That must be our ride,” Nathan said as the other three caught up.
Victor opened the door. “I’ll speak to him.” He walked up to the driver’s side window and spoke to the owner of a burly arm resting on the frame. After a moment of conversation, Victor waved for them to get in.
Nathan helped Kelly into the back, a cargo area with an old carpet covering the floor. Shelves on the side panels sat empty except for a few old newspaper pages, folded or wadded into balls. After Daryl jumped in, Victor followed, while Clara hurried around to the passenger side, sat up front with the driver, and ducked out of sight.
As soon as everyone had settled, the driver started the engine and looked back. “Hey, kid,” he bellowed. “I see you survived. That witness-protection program must’ve worked out okay.”
Nathan looked at the man. Even with the graying hair sticking out from under his Chicago Bears cap, it didn’t take long to figure out who he was. “Gunther?”
He shifted the van into gear and drove away from the building. “I don’t remember telling you my first name, but that’ll do.”
“But how did you get in touch with Tony?”
Gunther took off his cap and scratched his head through his thinning hair. “On one of my deliveries to the Newton WalMart, I started wondering what happened to you. I remembered the house you went to, so I stopped by and asked the guy who lives there. He told me a pretty wild story. I’m still not sure how much I believe, but I gave him my card, and today he called me saying he needed a driver, someone who had a delivery truck. I was in the area, so I asked if this old van would do. I used to haul newspapers in it years ago. It’s old, but it runs.”
Nathan picked up one of the newspaper pages and read the date: July 29, 1978. “Nothing wrong with this van at all,” he said, smiling. “Nothing at all.”
/> “Well, I hear you’re in need of speed, so I’ll do the best I can.”
Once they had traveled well away from the observatory, Clara sat up in her seat, while Nathan and Kelly stretched out as much as they could, and Daryl fell asleep against her father’s shoulder.
Nathan pulled the IWART from his belt, switched it to Earth Blue, and pushed the talk button. “Anyone there? Dad?
Mom?”
He released the button. No one answered.
“Maybe it’s the metal in the van,” Kelly said.
“No. I just remembered. We have to be stationary.” He called toward the front. “Gunther, can you find a safe place to stop, just for a minute?”
“No problem. There’s a stop sign ahead, and no one’s around.”
As soon as the van halted, Nathan turned the dial to Earth Yellow and tried again. “Francesca?” After waiting a few seconds, he whispered, “Solomon?”
A buzz sounded, then a quiet female voice came through. “Nathan?”
He pressed the button. “Francesca, I’m just checking on you. Are you in India?”
“Yes, we’re at a hotel. I thought I’d try calling you in the morning.”
“How’s the delay? Do you have to wait very long?”
“Oh, sorry. I fell asleep again. What did you say?”
He held the unit close to his lips, hesitating a moment before pressing the button again. “I guess the delay’s pretty bad. We’re just leaving for London, so you’ll have to wait a while.”
“I understand. We’re prepared. My father . . . Nikolai, I mean, came with us, so he’ll watch little Nathan. But it has already been a day and a half since we left. Time is running out.”
“We’ll get there as fast as we can. Don’t worry about answering. I’ll give you an update soon.”
After reclipping the IWART, he turned to the front. Gunther propped his arm on the seat and nodded in Nathan’s direction. “Ready to go?”
“Yeah. Let’s hurry.”
While they rattled along, Nathan explained everything he could remember from their adventures. Although Clara asked a hundred questions, and Victor added several more, Gunther never said a word. He laughed from time to time when Nathan described Gunther Yellow’s roles, especially when he took out the murderer in Francesca’s room and wielded a tire iron when he thought Nathan was a kidnapper.