“What? Hell, I’ve got everything programmed. It’s all automated. All we have to do is toggle the Arch to full power and go through.”
“It’s not that simple,” Maeve forged ahead. “Nordhausen hit us with these three trains at the last minute. We’ve had to consider Outcomes and Consequences, and we’ll need someone here to make a possible adjustment on the retraction.”
“Adjustment?” Kelly gave her a bemused look. “What are you talking about?”
Nordhausen came tromping up, clomping his new army boots audibly and lifting his gown to display the battered old leather for Maeve. “They’re too tight,” he complained again.
Maeve saw that he still had his copy of the Seven Pillars in hand and she stepped over and snatched it away from him. “Give me that.” She shot him a fiery glance and then handed the book to Kelly.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
“Nothing,” said Maeve. “Until four o’clock, that is. Just take the book and put it in a drawer somewhere out of sight while you help Jen with the system monitors.”
“I wasn’t going to bring the damn thing.” The professor was slightly miffed, still thinking Maeve was riding the warpath on him for his suggestion about the Bermuda Pamphlets. “I wish you’d get over this.”
“No. This has nothing to do with you, Robert,” Maeve made a real effort to calm herself. “It’s for Kelly.”
“What are you talking about? I’m coming too, Maeve. Where’s my costume?”
“Kelly…” The tone in Maeve’s voice pulled at him. “Put the book in a drawer. Monitor the system panels with Jen here.” She glanced at the young technician, noting that she was fully focused on some task behind the console. “If we aren’t back by four AM I want you to open the drawer and read the passage in Lawrence’s narrative where this attack was made at Kilometer 172. Read it very carefully, but be quick about it. Paul, when is the tsunami sequence scheduled to make first landfall on the east coast?”
“Around dawn; a little after four in the morning, our time.”
“The visitor gave us the exact time,” Nordhausen said quietly. “He said eleven past the hour.”
“Then you’ll have eleven minutes to do your reading, Kelly,” Maeve continued.
Paul finally understood what she was getting at. “Yes!” He pointed at the book. “If we’ve done our job… If we’ve found the Pushpoint and changed things, then you can read the result in the book!” He looked at Maeve, just a hint of uncertainty in his voice.
“Exactly.” Maeve supported him at once. “There were three trains, Kelly. As the history reads now, number two blows up. Remember that. You’re a Free Variable now.”
“What?” Kelly was struggling to understand the time theory again. He was a programmer and a networking genius, but the logic of Dorland’s theory had always escaped him.
“Yes, a Free Variable.” Paul took up the charge. “You said it yourself, Kelly. You aren’t supposed to even be here. We’re supposed to be over at the morgue identifying your body by now. Like I said earlier, this is an alternate time line for you,” he whispered, “for all of us in one sense, but particularly you, Kelly. Right now we’re in a Nexus Point. This is very rare, you see. Even though the tsunami is moving hundreds of kilometers per hour, it is still taking this precious time to make its way across the Atlantic. That interval is creating a Deep Nexus! The Palma Event has occurred already, but its primary effect is in the ripple of this tsunami wave. While we’re in the Nexus, in eye of the storm, if you will, we can all act as Free Variables! This means that even if we do go back and alter the time line you should still remember this conversation. The record of these events will be preserved in your mind, even if physical alterations in the matrix of reality occur here.” He tried to say it another way. “If we change history the passage in the book will change, Kelly. You’ll be able to read about it, possibly even discover what we ended up doing. Look, the visitor vanished, but we all still remember him, right? Then you should remember this conversation as well! If we don’t get back before four AM, you’ll have those eleven minutes to decide what to do with the retraction module. I’ve told Jen to monitor it very closely, but we may need programming. We may need your magic, Kelly. You’re the only one who could re-program the algorithm on this end if something goes wrong.”
Kelly finally realized what they were saying, but he still had a bewildered look on his face. “Well, what do I look for?” He gave the book a forlorn glance.
“I’ve marked the place and scribbled all over the pages as well,” said Nordhausen.
“The way it reads now, Kelly, the second train, the one coming up from Amman, was blown up by Lawrence and his men. At four AM you read the passage through. If the second train gets by unscathed, and the third train blows up, the one from the north, then we’ve done our job and you can pull us out. Otherwise hang tight until the last possible minute. Let the fail-safe retraction scheme bring us home. It may give us just the extra time we need there.”
“What about the first train?” Nordhausen asked.
“Ignore it,” said Paul. “Maeve and I have worked this out.”
“Now, put the book away in a drawer like I said,” Maeve cautioned him. “I want it out of sight. Don’t touch it until four AM. Understand?”
“What if the damn thing vanishes, like the old man, or the note?” Kelly had a desperate look on his face.
“I think it will remain a stable element in this environment,” said Maeve, and Paul nodded his ascent.
“Lawrence is going to write the book one way or another. The note was a Radical Variable, the book should hold true, except for the outcome in this particular narrative. The only way it could vanish is if we do something that gets Lawrence killed.”
Jen had finished her work behind the main console and came running up with the good news. “Everything’s ready! You can toggle the primary power surge from the main console now.”
“Well people,” Paul took a deep breath. “The three of us are wasting precious time. Let’s head for the Arch!”
They started away in a rush of motion, leaving Kelly in their wake holding the volume of the Seven Pillars, and looking like a lost child. Paul looked over his shoulder at him.
“Take care of us, buddy!”
Kelly forced a smile in spite of the strange feeling that settled over him now. “Count on it, mister,” he said reflexively, but his heart was very heavy. He had the odd feeling that something was going to happen—something unexpected. His friends were all going off without him and he might never see them again. He swallowed hard, forcing himself to focus on the things he might have to accomplish here.
They reached the heavy sealed doorway that would take them into the Arch complex. Paul was already entering the access code on the security panel, leaning in to let the retinal scanner verify that the numbers were being keyed by him.
Maeve hesitated a moment, looking from Paul to Kelly, then she turned and rushed back, reaching Kelly in a wave of motion and throwing her arms around him. She smiled warmly, giving him a tight hug.
“Don’t touch the book until four AM,” she whispered. “And if we’re not here to read it with you, bring us all back, Kelly… Bring me back to you. Hear me?” It was an action that was well out of character for Maeve, as she had guarded her feelings for Kelly very carefully. Here, however, at the edge of a leave taking that could become permanent, Maeve broke out of her shell of propriety. The action had an immediate effect.