* * *
Perk woke him early the next morning when she gently moved his head off her shoulder. While he sleepily tried to blink morning crud from his eyes, she informed him that he was to stay in while she went out and made some purchases of her own. When he finally managed to pull himself from the bed she fed him breakfast and left. Having nothing else to do while she was gone, Aaron sent the massive amount of the previous day's purchases down to his cellar. The transferral added a good deal of space to the living room and kitchen. It was nice not to walk through narrow aisles.
Around noon, Perk returned with at least ten pounds of every type of garden seed she could find. Each seed package was carefully marked. After she told him that she was going back out, Aaron asked her to make some specific purchases for him. These, he decided, were going to be his last days on the world of his birth.
A few hours later he figured that enough time had passed for the women to have the items he had previously sent over stacked up against the cellar walls. Even if they didn't, it was a big cellar that covered more area than just under his store, and now was one of the prearranged times they had agreed to be out of the cellar entirely. The last thing he had wanted was to ship goods over and have those goods crush the women.
To be safe he only sent the seeds over. The surge of power drained him hardly at all, but that did not surprise him because he now knew the secrets of his Talent. He had done nothing but play with the least possibilities of it before.
Perk returned in the evening. She had bought the items he specifically requested, hundreds of other books that he had not purchased before, and a steel box holding what he did not know. After pocketing one of his special items, he sent the others over in separate lead wrapped packages, each marked with a particular name. "Set these aside immediately," was written on their labels, along with "Do not open." Once the last of those packages were gone, the books followed.
He put the other items, also lead wrapped, in a large crate, locked it, sent the crate over and looked at what remained. Eyes narrowing suspiciously, he reached out and flipped open the lid of the steel box. Frowning, he looked towards Perk.
"That's all silver bars," he said nonsensically.
Perk nodded. "One hundred pounds of it. Can't see no reason to be broke when silver is so cheap."
"Take it back," Aaron said emphatically. "I'm already rich over there. More silver won't do me much good, and you need the money more than I do."
Perk lowered her brows. "You better believe I need money. That's why I borrowed everything I could lay my hands on to get all this silver. Right now my bank has my floating loan up to its limit, and you don't even want to see my credit cards. No sir, you are going to ship this stuff over there, and then you are going to take me with you, 'cause if you don't I'm going into bankruptcy. Before we go bye-bye you are taking me shopping because I want a new wardrobe."
Aaron felt cold. "Are you sure? Think about what you're doing. It's a whole other world. You won't fit in there. If you come with me the move is going to be permanent, Perk. I will never cross over again. I swear it. I won't."
Perk laughed bitterly and made an angry gesture. "Ohhh, I'm sure. I've thought this over for two days now, and I've wanted something like this for more than two years. Aaron, I want to go someplace where I can be more than a small bit in a computer file. I want to go someplace where I am not looked down on because I haven't finished high school, someplace where I can make myself over again. Okay, I'll admit I don't like all the girl-girl thing that apparently goes on over there, but I do like the idea that men are something of a rarity. So yes, Aaron, I want to go."
"No showers and no cars and no holovision or radios or real hospitals."
"It's a lot to give up," Perk agreed. "I think being filthy rich will make up for a few of the inconveniences."
She had a point so Aaron reluctantly agreed to carry her over. She spent the next day shopping, and then formally called in and quit her job. The call turned out to be unnecessary since she had been fired two days earlier for not showing up to work for the last several days. Her former boss did have one specific request. He wanted his cab back. Wearing a faint smile, Perk promised to have it back to them in two days, just as soon as she finished having it washed and detailed.
Once Aaron emptied his apartment, Perk took him to her house where he shipped everything she pointed at. She did not want much, just her linens, her chairs and her waterbed. The waterbed took the most work since it had to be drained first. From the way Perk talked, Aaron gathered that the bed was her most prized possession. She told him that she understood refilling the thing would be a real chore, but that was all right because she was willing to fill it with a thimble if she had to. Personally, she thought there was nothing quite so fine as crawling into a warm waterbed on a cold winter night.
Aaron did not have the heart to remind her that waterbed heaters required electricity.
While they were looking over the last of her things Aaron heard a click from the front door. Alarmed, he automatically stumbled to the side and fell to the floor so the dart missed him by inches and thudded into Perk.
Empty dart gun in one hand, a small device held in his other, Aybarra watched him from the open doorway. "Turner, if you move you are dead. If I release this button a signal will be sent to a satellite. That satellite will send its signal to several others, and they will do the same. The lot of them will broadcast another signal that covers this entire continent, and that signal will blow the bomb implanted in your back no matter where you send yourself."
"Wow," Aaron commented. "That seems like a lot of bother just to invite me to the party. Why can't you people just leave me alone?"
Aybarra grimaced. "Orders. We have two hundred men out there looking for you. It's unfortunate that I'm the one who found you, but I did. Turner, the militia compound exploded when we raided it. The entire place was mined, so don't believe what you heard on the news. They blew themselves up, and they took out half a dozen of us when they did it. Nothing is left, and we have no idea who died and who escaped. Klein may not be back again, so you are the only access we have to that other world. We need to study you. We need to learn how to duplicate what you do, and then we will have new areas to expand into. There are too many people, Turner. This land won't support many more so we need a place where we can send our excess, our waste. Then we can grow again."
"W--won't be ssstudy if--kill him," Perk said, her voice drug blurred. She tried to pull herself up from the floor, hesitated when she halfway succeeded, and then fell heavily back.
"We will have his brain if he forces our hand," Aybarra said, "and we found some partial notes and prints for a machine that might copy what's in that brain. Cooperate, Turner, and we'll reconnect your neural transmitter. You'll be able to go back again. I'll see to it."
"And if I refuse?"
"You'll be declared a traitor," Aybarra said.
Smiling mirthlessly, Aaron readied himself as he slowly rose. "Well, I don't want that so I'm willing to work with you for as long as I stay on this world."
Aybarra stood transfixed a moment too long. It took half a second for Aaron's twisted arm to register with him, another half second for him to realize exactly what that twisted arm meant.
Aaron's smile turned crooked. "Time's up."
Aybarra's thumb reflexively released the dead man trigger, but he was too late.
Flicker