Consigning Fate: Beginnings Series Book 23 Page 28
“Someone opened my father’s tomb.” Hal stood. “Why?”
“I’m sorry.”
Hal shook his head.
“It’s disturbing, I know.”
“It is.”
“More so, is something I discovered.”
“What is that?” Hal asked.
“The shoe prints. One was that of a boot, the other Chuck Taylor’s.”
Hal looked at him immediately. “Only one person wears those. Dean.”
“When Dean is the only Dean in Beginnings.”
“The clone?”
“More than likely. I mean, why would Dean go into your father’s grave?”
“The clone does have more of a motive.” Hal rolled the report. “Let’s go, Elliott.”
“Where?”
“Beginnings.” Hal lifted the report. “I believe this is valuable information my investigating brother needs.”
“Or doesn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your brother is already boggled and baffled as to why the clone’s prints aren’t on the explosive, and that we have a mystery bomber. Now we have to tell him about this.”
Hal exhaled. “True. But he has to know. This is going to really bother him.”
Even though he dreaded being there when the Captain delivered the shocking and disturbing information to Robbie, Elliott went along with Hal to Beginnings.
<><><><>
Jason wasn’t in his lab, and Robbie really wanted to talk to him. Perhaps that could be something for later.
He made his way into the trailer portion of the lab. Still locked, still untouched and appearing the way it did when Robbie was there two days earlier.
The clone really didn’t clean up much or change much. Then again, he really hadn’t been there and couldn’t get in since they added that new lock.
Robbie hooked his keys to his loop and looked around the living room of the trailer. Two plates, both with partially eaten jam sandwiches perched on the table.
The clone was meeting with someone in Beginnings, but who. Robbie wished there was a way to find out who had eaten off that second plate.
The instant he had that thought, he stopped.
Eaten.
Saliva.
DNA
Bingo.
Robbie smiled. He pulled a plastic bag from his pocket and carefully placed the remains of both sandwiches into the bag. He’d take it to Dean to find out. If Dean could pull the DNA, then the identity of the clone’s Beginnings cohort would be discovered.
Grabbing the phone, he called Dean. If he could get the sandwiches to Dean right away, perhaps when he returned that night, Dean would have an answer.
Importunely the phone rang and rang. Robbie gave up. Placing the plastic bag in his pocket, Robbie walked to the bedroom.
The bed was slept in, ruffled some and Robbie started his search.
Nothing was in the drawers and a comb lay on the dresser. Just as he turned to leave he caught glimpse of it sticking out from under the bed. A black strap.
Bending down, Robbie reached under the bed and pulled out a black backpack. It had to be Roy’s. It had some emblem on it Robbie had never seen.
Unzipping the bag, his phone rang, starting him.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Robbie, did you call?” Dean asked.
“Oh, hey, Dean. Yeah. I got an idea.”
“Shoot.”
“You know how I said it looked like someone else up here with the clone?”
“Yeah.”
“If I brought you a half eaten sandwich, can you see if you can find DNA or saliva on it?”
“Absolutely, you have one?” Dean asked with excitement.
“In my pocket.”
“Excellent. Did you find anything else?”
“A backpack. I’m looking in it now,” Robbie balanced the phone between his shoulder and ear.
“What’s in it?”
“Some really awful looking clothing.” Robbie pulled items out. “Just clothes. He must have brought this through with him.” Reaching further into the bag, Robbie pulled out the last item. “Dean would never …” The thump of something hitting the floor, caught his attention. Something had fallen out of the bag.
“Robbie?”
“Wait a second. Something was wrapped in the shirt.” Robbie looked down to the floor to see two pieces. One a box approximately eight by six inches in dimension, and three inches deep. The other, a small flat object that matched the color of the larger box.
“What the hell?”
“What did you find?” Dean asked.
“It must have broken when it hit the floor.” Robbie bent down to pick them up. “Some sort of box and …” he saw. The open space of the back of the larger box was a perfect match for the smaller object. “Yeah, it broke.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know. Oh. Hold on. Looks like the one piece is a battery or power supply.” Robbie slid the smaller object into the bigger one. “Fits. Cool. Now what is it?” he turned it over. The flat front surface contained an alphanumeric keypad. Tiny little keys. Above them, a peach button, blue button, and green button, all with a symbols he had never seen. “Hey, Dean, he definitely brought this from the future,” Robbie said, examining the box further. Above the peach, green, and blue buttons, was an LCD display, above that a tiny circle, no bigger than an eraser. It matched the type on the side of the box. Like tiny lenses to a camera.
“Hello, Robbie!” Dean called out. “What is it?”
“I don’t know. I’ll bring it to you. Maybe together we can figure it out. I’ll call you back.” Blindly Robbie hung up the phone. He hooked his phone back to his belt, and stood with the object in his hand. Like a kid with a toy, Robbie pressed buttons.
The top circle lit up and from it emerged a blue funnel light about five inches above the box. The blue light transformed into a holograph. A holograph of a woman, wearing a white robe, her hair in swirled buns on both sides of her head.
“Huh?” Robbie asked. “Princess Leah?”
The woman was bent over. “Help, me Obi-won-Kenobi, you’re my only hope,” she said. She then stood and faced Robbie. “Hello Roy, my you look handsome. Where do you want to go?”
His left eyebrow cocked high, and trying to get rid of the image, Robbie pressed another button.
Zap.
A quick sensation of electricity, a blinding white light, and suddenly ….
War call! Encircled by the sunshine, and the smell of fresh air, the sound of thunderous stampeding carried to Robbie along with screaming, and hooting of Indian war cries. He looked up to see a wall of horses, dust clouds forming under their hooves, American Indians on their backs, riding fast and furiously his way.
“Uh!” Robbie stifled a scream and panicking, pressed buttons on the box.
Closer. Closer. He even saw one Indian draw back a bow, ready to shoot an arrow in his direction.
Trembling hands with thoughts of ‘What the fuck is going on?’ Robbie played with the buttons like a video game until…
Zap.
Quiet.
He was in the trailer.
His chest heaved up and down in the post excitement of what transpired. His mind spun, adrenaline pumped.
“Ok. Ok,” he spoke to himself. “Calm. Calm. Fuck. Where am I? Or rather when?” He grabbed his phone. “Please be there. Please be there.” He dialed.
“Hello.” Dean answered.
“Dean … Dean when did I talk to you last.”
“Thirty seconds, maybe why?”
“OK, just checking to make sure I was still here and not somewhere else.”
“What?”
“I’m on my way. Oh my God, I’m on my way.”
“Robbie …”
“Bye.” Robbie hung up.
He extended and looked at his trembling fingers. Clenching a fist, he took a deep breath, shoved the box in the backpack, zipped it up, and hung it over his shoulder.
“Uh!” he screamed when Hal stood there.
“Robbie? Are you OK?” Hal asked.
“Yeah. Yeah. You scared me. I have to go.” Robbie rushed by him.
“Robbie, I have to talk to you,” Hal said. “Do you have a minute?”
“Actually, Hal, I don’t. Can we talk over supper?” Robbie head to the jeep, waving to Elliott.
“It’s about the case.”
“What case?” Robbie reached for the jeep door.
“Dad’s?” Hal walked to the jeep.
“What’s up?” Robbie asked as he slid inside and over turned the ignition. “I’m in hurry, Hal.”
“This is important, Robbie. It seems someone, perhaps the clone, may have tried to break into Dad’s tomb.”
“Oh. Wow. Ok. Thanks.” Robbie tossed the jeep in gear and sped off.
Hal turned slowly to Elliott. “Oh. Ok? Wow? Thanks?”
Elliott shook his head.
“He either wasn’t paying attention or he knows something. I’m willing to bet ...” Hal said. “He knows something.”
<><><><>
“I was overseas…”
Bertha reflected on something her father told her.
“It was you know. I was infantry. I was doing my job. There were these four men, with guns, and they were firing at us. I remember this well, because it was the first time I recalled seeing the whites of the one man’s eyes ... before I shot him. Years later, in the US, I met a man from that country. He became my friend, and into our friendship, he told me how his father was killed in the same war. By Americans. He gave me details that gave me chills. Time, date, Bert … that was my unit. I kept thinking, was it me? Did I kill this man’s father?”
Her father’s words stayed strong with her. He was sharing a war experience. War brings out the best and worst. But acts of war, hazards of war are not personal, they are just that. Acts of war. Men doing what they had to do. Their job.
Mike’s mission was an act of retaliatory action. An act of war. He didn’t shoot Bertha for personal reasons; he did so because she was in the way of his mission.
She called Robbie hours earlier to discuss what his feelings were regarding Mike.
“I’m pissed; I mean it’s obvious he was just trying to get me out of the way. Can’t say the same for you,” Robbie said.
Mike had to know it was Bertha. He had to know she was carrying his grandchild.
So Bertha had to know before she made her final call on the forgive or forget issue, whether or not he intended to harm her personally.
She knew the answer to that the second she stepped into Mike’s cell.
He was sitting on the bunk, hands to his face. And with a shocked expression, he pulled the skin to his face as he stood. “You’re all right,” he said with relief.
“Yes. It’s been one hell of a recovery though.”
“I’m sorry. If I had known it was you … You looked like any male soldier …”
Bertha held up her hand. “I know. I lost the baby.”
Mike nodded. “I figured as much.”
“Tigger is doing well,” she said, pulling up a chair.
“That’s good to know.”
“Mike, you don’t belong in here,” she said. “You have skills that are needed. Beginnings and the Society have called a truce. In fact, they have formed a pact.”
“I find that so hard to believe.”
She shook her head. “Don’t. We have. We really have Mike. Beginnings doesn’t want you dead or prosecuted. The Society doesn’t want you dead or prosecuted. Both sides want you to help out. Every man is needed. Every skill is needed. If Beginnings and the Society can put things aside, hell George is vacationing there. If that can happen. You need to make it happen with you, too. For the sake of everyone.”
Mike chuckled. “You sound so gloomy. As if some sort of bug war is gonna happen.”
Mike didn’t need a verbal response from Bertha. The look on her face said it all, and he stopped chuckling.
<><><><>
“Hal knows,” Robbie greeted Dean when dean opened the door.
“Hello, to you, too Robbie. Man, what did you do, fly here.”
“Pretty much,” Robbie said. “Hal knows.”
“Hal knows what?”
Robbie laid the backpack on the table. “He knows we dug up the grave. OK maybe he doesn’t know it was us. He might. But he knows the grave was tampered with.”
Dean’s head spun, Robbie was speaking fast. “How … how does he know?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t have time to ask him.”
“Robbie, slow down.”
“I can’t. I have to get going.” Robbie laid the plastic bag on the table. “Here are the sandwiches for the DNA. And here ... here’s this box.”
“Why are you in such a rush?”
“Running from Hal. I lost him on the way here. Had to go to Jordan, spin back down the back way…”
Dean laughed. “Why are you running from Hal? Wait. Why is he chasing you?”
“Who knows?” Robbie shrugged. “I’ll be back tonight. Run those DNA tests.” He walked to the door.
“What is this box?” Dean lifted it.
“It’s cool. It’s weird. I haven’t a fucking clue how or what it does and why. Don’t touch it. We’ll play with it together tonight. Two people should do it. Wait until you hear what happened.”
“What …”
“Put that down, Dean. I gotta go.” Robbie opened the front door.
“Robbie what …” The door closed. “Happened.” Dean exhaled. “Typical Slagel.” Shaking his head, he set down the box and focused on the sandwiches. Until he heard Robbie’s voice in his head.
“It’s cool. It’s weird. I haven’t a fucking clue how or what it does and why. Don’t touch it.”
Dean’s eyes shifted to the box. Cool? Weird? Don’t touch it. It was like telling a kid not to peek at his presents.
Don’t touch it.
Dean chuckled and lifted the box. It was unlike anything he had ever seen. The alphanumeric keypad. He recognized, that was obvious. The shift button next to those ... obvious as well, to shift from numbers to letters. The three top buttons just under the blank LCD display he didn’t have a clue.
The symbols looked Greek.
Sort of. Almost hieroglyphic.
Two camera lenses, one on top, one on the side. Was it a photo machine? A projector …
Dean smiled. A projector.
Only one symbol was encased by a circle. Using what he thought was common sense, and thinking ‘O’ for on, Dean pressed it.
The blue funnel light swirled up.
“Help me, Obi-won-Kenobi, you’re my only hope.”
Dean chuckled.
“Hello Roy. My, you look Handsome. Where do you want to go?’
Curious, Dean looked down to the LCD display; it read ‘set time’. He looked at his watch.
13:22
Dean pressed in the military time of 13:22.
“Ok,” he spoke out loud. “Where is am or pm?” It wasn’t the power button, he tried the Green one.
Zap!
Thump.
“Shit.” Dean found himself on the ground, midst of a wooden area. He picked himself up and looked about. “Oh my God.” He looked down to the box. “I’m so stupid!” shaking his head, and hoping common scientific sense would kick in, Dean pressed the green button.
Zap!
He was back.
He shook the electric chill from his body and laughed at his own stupidity. “Green means go. Of course. Of … shit.” If he had been zapped elsewhere, like Robbie, he wondered where he zapped for his return. He put down the box and lifted his phone. He dialed. “Hey, Robbie. Um … just checking in. How long ago did you leave here?”
“You touched the box, didn’t you?”
“No. No, I didn’t.”
“Dean. You touched the box.”
Dean sighed. “Yes.”
“I told you not to touch the box.”
“I know. But that made me do it.”
“And?”
Dean paused. “We have to talk, figure it out, and learn this thing.”
“It’s really cool, isn’t it?”
“Without a doubt.”
“Should we tell anyone?” Robbie asked.
“Absolutely not. Not yet.”
“I agree. See you tonight. Don’t touch it again. Wait for me.”
“I will.”
“Promise.”
“I promise. See you tonight.” Dean disconnected the call. The box set on the table, and though the scientist in him really wanted to touch that box again, learn more about it. He gave his word to Robbie. It would drive him insane not being able to play with it, so Dean threw his focus on the remnants of the sandwiches and the DNA to be found.
<><><><>
Lunch time. Of course, it was a late lunch, but Roy didn’t mind. He had to admit being a bit frightened when he saw the Slagel clan, minus Robbie walking across town.
They were like a wall. Roy carried his lunch sack and was going to sit in the park like everyone else in Beginnings. He tilted his head when he saw the newness of it.
“What’s wrong?” Frank stopped to ask.
“That concrete square.” Roy pointed to the large object in the park. “What is that?”
“The base of the statue,” Frank said. “For my dad. You know, you even told us you saw that when you went through the Aragon Window.”
“Yes.” Roy nodded. “Yes. I did.”
He mumbled the Aragon Window as he walked to the park and took his seat on the bench. It was a great day. As he unwrapped his sandwich, he watched the Slagels walk into Containment.
Roy smiled when he realized it.
The Aragon Window. Frank referenced the statue of that time frame, yet Roy never recalled hearing about a statue in his future history.
Had it worked?
Had he succeeded?
When he had returned from his first time trip and realized nothing had changed, Roy went into a learning frenzy. He knew he had to make another trip, and he had to prepare for it.
But in order to do so, he had to get the government to do another one.
“It’s a waste,” General Spade said. “We sent the first LEP soldiers through. We sent the second batch through. Nothing. No change.”