“Copy that Daniels, we are en route to Delta Sector, level 2, over and out.”
This was the first security breach Daniels had been a part of and he loved every second of it. When he got the call earlier, it was for only one perp and he thought the action would be over by the time he arrived on the scene. But now there were three perps and he already got to fire his weapon…twice! Daniels secured his radio and raced into the stairwell.
The hallway fell silent until the blue bathroom door creaked open. David peered out. It appeared his penchant for using the bathroom had paid off again. No one ever checks the bathroom-especially a women’s room. He had heard the shouting, the gunshots. He knew Lazarus was on his own and he knew where Sally and Tom would head. He would have to move quickly.
A smile came to David’s face as he realized he could move more quickly than any other man on the planet.
David tapped the buttons on his watch and then waited for the bright flash and loud noise. But nothing happened. He looked at the watch and carefully pushed the final button again. He waited…nothing. David wasted little time self-debating why his watch had ceased to work. His friends were in trouble and it was time to take action. After deactivating his watch so it wouldn’t suddenly transport him if it decided to work again, he ran to the T-intersection at the end of the hallway and took a left into the stairwell.
The supply closet was small, but it made for the perfect hiding place and it was strategically down the hall from the entrance to the control center. Some scientists had shown up for work, but had been promptly sent home by two armed guards who stood watch in front of the control center doors.
Tom and Sally were crouched on the floor amid brooms, buckets and boxes of detergent and deodorizer. The smell was a noxious mix of bleach and dirt, but it beat being shot at.
“So what made you come around?” Tom asked in a hushed voice.
Sally looked at him. “What do you mean?” she whispered.
“I’d almost call you a nice person.”
“Funny.”
“I thought so.”
Sally sat silently for a moment, but then looked at Tom and said, “People change.”
“Overnight?”
“My guess is that changing overnight is easier to do than not changing at all over three years.”
“What’s that supposed to-?”
“You’re still arrogant. You still don’t know when to keep your mouth shut. And you still have my respect.”
Tom’s eyes softened, his forehead smoothed and his muscles relaxed.
Sally continued. “Over the years I watched you and David do things I had only dreamed of and I had to be content to sit on the sidelines and watch. The most I could do to feel useful was to nag. Otherwise, I had no reason to be here.”
Tom smiled. Sally had changed and he decided he’d better too, lest he get the old Sally back. He extended his hand. “Friends?”
Sally reached around a hanging mop and took his hand. “Friends. But don’t push it.”
“Done.”
A loud squawking noise from around the corner caught their attention. Shouting voices were blaring from the two guards’ radios. They couldn’t make out what was being said, but they knew it must be urgent and probably to do with David or Lazarus. The two guards ran past, keys jingling, leaving the control center unguarded.
Tom looked at Sally, whose face had become distorted with concern. “David will be okay. We survived much worse in the past, trust me.”
Sally looked at Tom trying to squelch any worried look. “Let’s go.”
The pair squeaked open the closet door and glanced down the hallway. The path was clear. Tom knew they must have locked the facility down tight. They didn’t want anyone going in or out. Tom smiled and looked down at his watch. They had an automatic exit no one could block.
Tom and Sally made their way into the control center and found the lights already on and computers twitching with activity. Every computer console in the room was alive, processing equations, searching for information and solving problems.
“What’s all this?” Tom asked.
Sally looked perplexed. “I don’t know. None of this was on when I left.”
Tom kept moving. “All the information in the world won’t matter if they don’t have that.” Tom was pointing at the receiving area, which was lit from the inside.
Tom and Sally quickly took stock of everything in the room. Tom froze on the table that had held the original ten watches. “How many watches do we have in activity right now?”
“Yours, mine, David’s… Your friend Lazarus is wearing Captain Roberts’s. Only four, why?”
“Damn. We’ve got two more missing.”
“Can we get rid of all this with only the four?”
“Shouldn’t be a problem. Though I’d really like to know where the other watches are,” Tom said as he situated the watches in four separate parts of the room. “When and where do we want this stuff to go?”
“Return to sender.” Sally said. “I can’t think of anyone better equipped to take care of all this than you and David. If it came from your future selves, let’s send it back.”
Tom worked the buttons on each watch. “Good idea. Our future selves would have lived through all this, so they should be expecting it.”
Tom finished prepping the final watch. “Okay, I’ve got them on a timer. We have thirty seconds.”
Tom and Sally quickly exited the receiving area and watched from the safety of the control center. “Fifteen seconds,” Tom said.
Tom’s eyes squinted. “I just realized something. If all this equipment was sent to us from our future selves, then David and I must make it out of this okay.”
Sally raised an eyebrow and smirked with half her mouth. “That’s reassuring…for you.”
Tom looked at the receiving area. “Five seconds…”
Five seconds of silence passed between them and on the sixth second, Tom’s brow lowered and crushed together. “Nothing’s happening.”
“Maybe you forgot to push a button?”
“On all four of them? Not likely.”
Tom was about to charge back into the receiving area when a voice stopped him in his tracks. “Quite the quandary, isn’t it, Dr. Greenbaum?”
Tom looked up. Spencer was sitting on the other side of the room with his feet crossed on top of a desk.
“Spencer?”
“You remember my name? After all those years in the past? I’m flattered.”
“How do you know-?”
“It’s okay, Tom, Spencer’s working with us. He knew about you and David going back in time even before you went.”
“How’s that possible?”
“I’ve known for a very long time, Tom,” Spencer said with a grin as he brought his feet down to the floor.
“Why aren’t the watches working?” Sally asked Spencer.
Spencer shrugged with a smile, “Because I disabled them. Actually I’ve managed to disable all attempts at time travel within a square mile thanks to this brilliant mind.” Spencer tapped his head. “You really should have given Spencer a promotion. If only we had discovered his mind earlier.”
“Spencer, are you feeling all right?” Sally asked.
“Why, whatever do you mean?”
“You’re talking about yourself in the third person,” Sally replied.
“Were we? Sorry, force of habit.”
“How and why did you disable the watches?” Tom asked as he moved toward Spencer, keeping a watchful eye on the little man.
“We’re afraid we can’t tell you that,” Spencer said.
“Why not?”
“Because we said so.”
Tom knew something was seriously wrong with Spencer. He had worked closely with Spencer for years. He wasn’t talkative. He wasn’t sarcastic. He wasn’t anything like the man sitting across the room from him.