“Just about to ping you,” I said.
“Yeah, I’m doing rounds.” He pointed at the ceiling, and I nodded. He let out a heavy breath. “You never know when Big Brother is listening in, you know?”
“You know we’re not supposed to call them that.”
Ralph shrugged. “I’ve done worse.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Ralph and I both had secrets, mostly along the same lines. Ralph thought he knew me, and he did. He just didn’t know about my activities of the past few days.
He gestured at the machine. “How’s it going?”
“As far as Max is concerned, we’re making progress.”
“How is it really?”
“I’m still yanking his chain.” I gestured over my shoulder at the burned-out circuits. “He didn’t ask about the mess I made, but he thinks I’m making progress. Truthfully, this stuff does nothing he wants it to do.”
Ralph didn’t know about the time traveling, either. He thought I worked on spying equipment. I had given him and his friends information on the project and told them I would stonewall until I learned more. The plan was, if I managed to get it working, I’d steal it, so we could spy on the government for a change. I doubted Ralph would have believed me if I told him what the device really did. And if he did, his friends would find out and order it destroyed. I planned on doing just that eventually, but not until I was sure Anna was safe.
“That’s a relief.” Ralph took a quick glance through the small window in the lab door. “Eric, there’s something you gotta know.”
“What’s that?”
“Max has been asking about you.”
I tried to act nonchalant. “What’s he been asking?”
“About how often you’ve been staying late, if you talk about the project… things like that.”
“What’d you tell him?”
He shrugged. “I told him you been stayin’ late for the past couple of nights. I didn’t think that mattered.”
I nodded. “What else?”
“I told him you been hush-hush about the thing here.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“That’s the third time this week he’s asked about you. He’s keeping tabs on you.” Ralph crossed his arms and leaned a little closer. “Remember that redhead over in HR?”
“Rhonda?”
“Yeah, her. Remember how Max kept asking about her? Then suddenly somebody snatched her as soon as she walked into the building?”
She was a sweet girl, but naïve. She came from a rural area where asking questions wasn’t completely frowned upon. In the city, no one asked questions for fear of asking the wrong ones. Curiosity could get one sent away.
“I saw the guy who did it, too,” Ralph went on. “You know the guy with the burned ear?”
I nodded. I knew all of Max’s people quite well.
Ralph’s face grew long. “I wish I could’ve stopped it.” He took another quick look through the window in the door. “Word is she went up to Fort Logan.”
I hoped it wasn’t true. If so, she wouldn’t be the same person when she came out. “Damn. She was a good kid, too.”
“She didn’t deserve that,” Ralph said.
“Who does?”
“True.” Ralph rested his hand on the radio attached to his belt. “You heading out?”
“Yeah, just about.” The system finished powering down, and I shut off the monitors, making sure I had saved the last known locations of Anna. “We still meeting tomorrow night?”
“Yeah, midnight,” Ralph said. “Whole crew will be there.”
The underground would want to know my progress. I needed to plan on what to tell them. If Anna was in the clear, then maybe I could tell them the truth.
Ralph nodded at the door. “I’ll walk you. It’ll look better.”
“Good idea.”
Ralph pushed the button to open the door. I followed him into the hall and turned to check the door. A shadow moved just inside the lab, as if darting to the side. I frowned. Could one of Max’s goons be in there? I didn’t think so. A grown man couldn’t easily hide in the lab. The only entrance was the one I had just used. There weren’t even any windows. I shook my head. The late nights were making me see things.
Ralph had made it to the corner. “Eric, be careful, all right?”
I caught up to him. “Aren’t I always?”
“Seriously. Max has his game face on tight, but he’s a basket case. Someone’s going down.”
I nodded. “I’ll watch out.”
“I hope so. I don’t want you disappearing, too.”
~~~~
Streetlights zipped by overhead, temporarily pushing back the darkness inside my old Taurus. The light made me feel vulnerable. A camera might pick up my face and notify someone that I wasn’t on my arranged route home. My tablet sent signals to the road sensors, telling them to ignore the passing vehicle, but tricking the cameras was well beyond its programming. Leaving the office with our tablets was illegal, but with Ralph’s help, I had disabled the trigger that would activate the alarm if I removed it from the building.
I kept my eye on the speedometer, glancing in the rear view every so often. I was so paranoid about someone following me I nearly ran a stop sign. Fortunately, the tires didn’t squeal when I hit the brakes, which would have set off road sensors that would bring the cops. Even my hacked tablet couldn’t stop that.
I’d disabled the tracking devices inside my car, my watch, and my keys with the help of my tablet. They continually sent signals to the satellites, showing that I was driving home on my prearranged route. In reality, I headed to a parking garage on the other end of town. I’d added that feature not a month ago. Before that, I used to drive home, leave my keys, and then make my way elsewhere. Fortunately, I’d gotten good at hotwiring my car in college. My friends and I held contests to see who could hotwire their car the fastest. We were certainly a strange bunch.
If a cop ran my plates and his computer told him I was somewhere else other than right in front of him, I’d be in jail. But I had to take the chance. Max never asked about the burnt circuits. Someone had to know that an overload occurred, and that someone would’ve told Max. That and the fact that Max had been asking Ralph about me earlier meant going home would be a bad option.
In my rear view, I saw a car with overheads race through an intersection, going a different way. He wasn’t after me, but if he saw me and decided to turn around, I could be in trouble. I passed a dead ponderosa pine and saw the garage entrance after that. My tablet activated the card reader, and the gate swung open. I pulled in, wincing as the tires squealed on the slick pavement.
I shut off my headlights and drove up the ramp leading to the upper levels of the garage. My car groaned on the upward slope. I badly needed to get the fuel-injection system flushed, but I didn’t have the money for that. I was lucky to even have a car. The government didn’t want people wandering about unrestricted, out of fear they might conspire against their betters. Keeping citizens off the road and eliminating Internet access helped keep everyone isolated. Whereas the roads had once teemed with vehicles of all types, as I spiraled up the ramps, I saw maybe three cars in a garage that could hold hundreds. The most I’d ever seen there was ten.
I had until about six in the morning before the cameras went live and started taking down plate numbers again. Ralph’s friends—the “Haters,” as Max called them—had rigged everything months ago. I’d helped them program old tablets and smartphones that would hack road sensors to give them access to certain places in the city at night—places like the parking garage. Max thought I was working on a machine that would locate those old devices through the power grid, when in fact, I used those same devices to fight against him and the government he represented.
If they caught me, I would be a dead man.
I parked, exited the car, and took a quick look around to make sure I was alone. When I was satisfied, I climbed into the back seat and l
ay down with my tablet. I put on a concert I’d recorded. She wasn’t the most brilliant vocalist, but to me, her voice was a slice of heaven. It was bizarre to think that a few days ago none of her songs had even existed.
I’d have to tell Ralph’s friends about the machine eventually, but not yet. I had to be sure she was safe.
I set the alarm on my tablet, put the show on auto-play, and closed my eyes, listening to her sing “Still Falling.” I imagined she sang to me, telling me she was falling for me.
~~~~
I awoke the next morning to her voice. When “Lost in You” finished, I got out and hopped into the driver’s seat. I had half an hour to get out of the garage before the cameras came on line. I drove around the ramps, heading for the exit. The sun shone through the open sections of the garage, creating long shadows. At the exit, my tablet automatically activated the gate.
The streetlights had just started to turn off in the early morning hours. The police wouldn’t catch my car, thanks to my tablet sending the okay signal to every road sensor in sight, but I couldn’t leave the city without a pass. If something happened, I’d need Ralph’s friends to get me out. God knew I had helped them enough in the past. They owed me that much.
It was way too early to panic. If I disappeared, Max would know something was up and hunt me down.
I drove through the empty streets and between the dilapidated buildings. Not too long ago, downtown would have been teeming with traffic at that time of morning. Thanks to the fact that travel had been severely restricted, I had all the lanes to myself as I went toward the office at the old Tabor Center. If I’d called it that aloud, HR would be all over me. The proper name was Enrichment Center.
I turned onto Seventeenth Avenue. Four police cars lined the street, most parked in that haphazard way police vehicles do when the emergency requires them to block traffic. A few cops milled about, but I turned off before they got a good look at me.
I continued up a few blocks, circled around, and parked in front of an abandoned 7-Eleven. I scanned the area before popping the hood and going around to the front to pry off the distributor cap—a cheap and simple theft deterrent.
I walked a few blocks northwest, past buildings that had at one time been teeming with people. Broken glass from fallen windows littered the sidewalk, and graffiti covered nearly every available surface. Downtown wasn’t the safest of neighborhoods, but I hoped it was early enough that any residents of the dilapidated buildings would leave me alone.
I cut over after a few blocks and headed south until I was near the west entrance of the Enrichment Center. The best place to enter was where the old Cheesecake Factory used to be, assuming my card still had access.
I rounded the corner and saw Ralph standing by the outer door. He must have pulled a double shift. When he saw me, his shoulders slumped. He glanced around quickly then gestured for me to approach. I darted across the street.
Ralph took a quick look around as I stepped into the small alcove. “Christ, what the hell happened last night?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. You tell me.”
“Max came back last night around ten. He had three of his goons with him.”
“They went to the lab?”
Ralph nodded. “And they were all armed.”
Only trusted federal agents carried firearms. Cops just carried pepper spray and stun guns. “Are they still there?”
“No, but, uh…” Ralph showed me his tablet. On the screen was a text message from Max. Our friend Eric lost his wallet. Don’t embarrass him.
“Embarrass me?”
“Yeah. Max set up his own codes for emails.”
I nodded, glancing over my shoulder. “Just like we do.”
“Right. This means Max wants you found and brought in but not through usual channels. It’s hush-hush.”
I blinked. “It’s not like Max to break protocol.”
“He did it before with that redhead, Rhonda.” Ralph gritted his teeth. “That one he didn’t even tell me about. His people came by and took her one morning after she parked her car.”
I hadn’t seen it happen, but I remembered everyone asking where she was. After a day, people assumed the worst. “Did they try to nab me at home?”
“Not sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised.” He gestured at the building, pointing up toward the lab. “How close are you?”
“Closer than Max realizes.”
“Well, he knows something.”
I frowned. “I have to get in there.”
“Your access was revoked, but I fixed it.” He flashed his tablet at me again, showing my clearance as green. “My security people don’t know you’re wanted. But if you run into any of Max’s goons, it’s over, so you better hurry.”
“They’ll probably pick me up when I get inside.”
“Not likely. They grabbed Rhonda outside because they didn’t want to make a scene.” Ralph waved his tablet. “Besides, I can tell him you never showed up, so he’ll keep looking out here.”
“He still trusts you?”
“Yeah.” He smiled. “Guess he ain’t so smart. But he’ll find out eventually.”
I put a hand on Ralph’s shoulder. “Thanks.”
“You bet.” He ran his card over the door and let me in. “But you know, I think our days here are numbered.”
He gave me a quick nod for luck, and I went inside. The door shut behind me with a loud click.
People passed me in the hall without a second glance. Whatever Max wanted with me, he really was keeping things under his hat. My shoes clacked on the tile floor, the sound echoing off the walls. If Max thought I’d flat-out lied to him, he would have come down on me like a hammer. Keeping it quiet meant he was up to something nefarious. Like with Rhonda. Max would have made a big deal out of it if she were simply heading for re-education due to dissidence.
The poor girl. Re-education might’ve been a better deal. But what did he want with me?
At the lab, I ran my security card through the reader. After about three tense seconds, the green light flashed, and the door slid open. I stepped in, and the door hissed shut behind me. No one was there, and nothing seemed out of place.
I sat at my desk and pulled out my keyboard. I had to get away, but first, I needed to destroy the machine. No way was I going to leave a prize like that in Max’s hands. At the same time, I couldn’t destroy it without being sure Anna was safe. That mattered more than anything else.
I entered my ID. An icon spun on the screen, indicating it was verifying my password. When nothing happened after a few seconds, I wondered if Ralph had failed. I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until the login screen faded. I glanced at the monitor showing the hall outside the lab. No one approached.
I cranked up the machine. The scanner came on line, and I pulled up Anna’s last known position then scanned forward to the day after the concert. She’d likely be leaving the hotel at that point. As soon as I brought the view into focus, I saw the duality. My shoulders slumped. Something had changed and made her future uncertain.
I rolled the view back further, trying to find the point just before the duality. She was in the middle of “Still Falling” when the duality started. Two timelines appeared at that point. The first one showed her finishing the show and heading for her hotel. In the second, she stood at her microphone, singing while playing the opening to “Still Falling” on her guitar. One by one, the other members of her band joined in. She didn’t have time to react when the lighting rig fell. The mass of metal and glass landed on her head, bending it back and snapping her neck. Her back contorted as the entire assembly of lights crushed her form into something nearly unrecognizable.
I felt the blood leave my face. She was gone, just like that. I closed my eyes, but I could still see the massive lighting rig crush the life out of her.
No!
No, damn it! It couldn’t be.
But it was, and her young life had ended like that.
But only in on
e timeline.
I opened my eyes. Her broken body still lay on stage, one arm protruding from under the mangled pile of metal. I rolled the recording back, watching the horrifying event in reverse. I focused the view on the lighting rig as it rose into the air and left an intact Anna singing on the stage. It sat in the rafters above the stage, unmoving. And then, the image distorted.
It was all I could do to keep from smashing the keyboard. Anna had died—again!—and I couldn’t see what happened because the machine chose that moment to have a short circuit. On top of that, Max could return at any moment.
I took a deep breath. For her sake, I needed to think it through. I rolled farther back, and after several minutes, the distortion disappeared. I circled the view all around the lighting rig. Everything seemed to be in place. I scrolled forward, and the distortion appeared again. The warping didn’t look like a bad video recording or a television set to a non-existent channel. The very air seemed to shimmer, as if reality itself had malfunctioned.
I toggled forward and backward. The distortion existed for about five minutes during the concert and ended thirty seconds before the lighting rig crashed. I didn’t see the blurring on the stage or in the audience during the same time period. The distortion appeared only on the lighting rig itself, specifically on a nearby catwalk. The video looked like a science fiction movie with a bizarre visual effect. But it was no movie. I was watching the past as it had happened. Either reality itself had been distorted, or something prevented the machine’s viewing apparatus from seeing what went on in that spot during that particular time period.
I leaned back in my chair and gave it some thought. A theory formed in my mind.
I rolled the viewer back to the time when I had pointed the gun at the junkie. I saw the junkie open the door to his apartment, and then the screen blurred. The strange warping of reality continued during the time I knew I had pointed the gun at the junkie. I rolled back farther, focusing on the outside of the apartment building. Everything looked fine for a few minutes, then static appeared outside the apartment door. The distortion moved down the outside stairwell, around back, and into the alley. It stopped within the shadow of the building then disappeared.