I glanced at the door. “You talk about a change in policy, but I’ve been hunted on three different continents. There’s never been any change in that. Shop commandos almost got me the last time.”
“There was a change. It happened just as I said. But you know the Chief. He worked overtime and regained much of his lost authority.”
My neck burned hearing that. It felt as if a sniper’s crosshairs were targeting me.
“And you killed people,” Kay said. “You were supposed to slip away from the Reservation, not shove a knive into them.”
“The Reservation” was the Shop name for the laboratory facility near Milan.
“They used big spotlights on me,” I said, “and they fired these blue beams. I had to take them out before they recaptured me.”
“Those guards were Shop personnel, and you know what that means. If it’s any consolation, I’ve heard the Chief wants everyone back on the Reservation. But first he has to—”
“Time’s up,” I said, standing. The heat on the back of my neck had become too hot. I could feel someone out there watching my boat. The desire to flee was becoming overpowering.
“This is about Dave,” Kay said in a rush. “I need your help because I think I can save him.”
That stopped me. “Dave is alive?”
“…if you can call it that.”
“He’s the same?”
Kay nodded somberly.
Once, when everyone had been normal, Kay had been in charge of certain tests at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland. People used to think those tests would end the world by accidentally creating a black hole or opening a way into a different dimension, with Stephen King monsters waiting on the other side. There had been an accident all right—one that nobody could have foreseen—but the world was still here. Dave had taken the brunt of the exposure, and it had changed him more than it had changed the rest of us.
“I’ve been trying to bring him back,” Kay said.
“How is that even possible?”
“The few times Dave phases in he moans as if he’s trying to speak, trying to wake up. Doctor Cheng believes he’s been communing with others and now he’s trying to warn us of the things he’s learned.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I work for Polarity Magnetics,” Kay said. “The State Department managed to finagle Dave off of the Reservation and bring him to Long Beach where Doctor Cheng heads the division. I’ve been working on the project to…to bring him back. I’ve made incredible discoveries this last six months. Cheng and the others—” Kay frowned. “I can’t let them have this,” she said, tapping the box.
“What’s in it?”
“Insurance.”
“Meaning what exactly?”
“I discovered the fundamentals that allowed this thing’s construction. If they had asked my permission, I would never have agreed. The thing in the box, it’s a prototype, and you could say I stole it. The people at Polarity Magnetics are going to want it back.”
“Why did you bring it here?” I asked. “And you still haven’t told me how Harris found me.”
“Harris knows nothing about this,” she said, tapping the box.
“You can’t just walk into a top-secret installation and steal a prototype to some fantastic new weapon,” I said.
“Like you, I’ve gained… abilities,” Kay said. “And I never said this was a weapon.”
“Why bring it here? Why involve me in this?”
“Dave trusted you. Long ago, he told me to turn to you if I ever needed help. I’m on the verge of something huge, something that will bring him back. But I need the time to finish the tests.”
“You’re not making sense. If you’re part of a group trying to bring Dave back, why would anyone stop you from making further tests?”
“You have no idea,” she said softly.
“Enlighten me.”
She shook her head. “It would take too long to explain.”
I laughed, and even to my ears, it sounded bitter.
“One more step and I’m finished,” she said. “I swear it. I need the time and the facilities. There are people trying to block me. With this as insurance—” she touched the box, “—I can complete my tests.”
Kay was on my boat. That meant others knew of my whereabouts. Since escaping the Reservation, I’d only wanted one thing: to be left alone. Kay’s presence meant they weren’t going to leave me alone. My heart rate increased as I thought about that. Maybe it was time to go on the offensive and show them it was a bad idea messing with me. Maybe the thing to do now was play along with Kay.
“You’re saying you want me to hide the box.”
“Only for a few weeks,” she said.
“Can the people at Polarity Magnetics track this thing?” I asked.
“My suggestion is that you put it somewhere deep.”
I didn’t like the answer. “What about the Shop?” I asked. “What do they know about this?”
“I’m not foolish. They know nothing.”
That was a lie, and I wondered why she bothered telling it.
“A few weeks,” she said, rising, taking her purse. “On my love for Dave, I swear I’ve been telling you the truth.”
“Sure,” I said, “a few weeks, no more than five. Then I’m putting it on eBay.”
“You won’t regret this,” she said, heading for the door.
I already did.
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 by the author
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the author.