Corrector (13 page)

“Have you done the kind of thing like Matti before?”

“I’ve influenced a number of events.  I have a mind full of futures that never happened now.”

“What kind of things?”

“Earlier this summer when Nate and Zack and I went to Yosemite, I stopped a couple of boys from being swept over the waterfall.  Last year an earthquake was going to collapse an elementary school in the Midwest.  I called in a bomb threat to get them to evacuate the building.  Everyone was outside when the quake struck.”

“I remember seeing something about that.  They said it was a miracle that everyone had been outside.  Why didn’t you just tell them about the quake?”

“It would be taken as a crank call.  I’ve run into that a couple of times.  No one will believe an unidentified caller claiming to know something like that.”

“What else?”

Jake told her about the one incident where his attempt at getting authorities to stop a potential sniper had actually worked out.

“You said you came back from tomorrow.”

“I didn’t ‘come back’.  I simply transferred my memories from then.”

“Then you know about us tonight.  Did we make love?”

Jake smiled.  “We did.  That doesn’t mean we will necessarily now.  I’ve changed things by telling you this.  Before, you didn’t know.  I can tell you are really uncomfortable and uncertain now.”

“Can you just hold me tonight?  I need to think about this?  If I have a test for you, will you do it for me?”

“Absolutely.  That’s what this is about.  I need for you, of all people, to know the truth about me.  There’s no way we can go forward without you knowing.”

Jake slowly lowered the side panel in the Silverado’s camper shell that served as storage for clothes and other items he might want frequent access to during his trip.  He was just about packed and would be ready to leave first thing in the morning.  He’d decided to get a full night’s sleep before heading east on Highway 80 across the barren wastelands of Nevada.  That part of his drive would be the most boring and he’d be glad to have it behind him.  Driving at night had a certain appeal, but he knew he’d been spending too many long days stewing about the situation and needed some rest.  His rubbed his hand across the growing stubble of his beard.  He wasn’t used to it as yet, but had decided to let it grow after he’d skipped shaving a couple of days.  Not having to shave would be a benefit while he was out in the wilds.

Ten days ago he’d had the blowup with Karin about his back-tracking and some of the deeds he’d felt compelled to commit to prevent some of the animals from being able to carry out their plans for mass killings.  When he’d first revealed his ability to her this second time it seemed that he’d found an approach that might work.  They’d spent the rest of that weekend together happily enough.  Unfortunately, once she had time to think about the situation her sharp intelligence had found issues to pick at which had led to further discussions that Jake had hoped to avoid for a while.

“Jake, have you ever back-tracked on me?” Karin had asked him a couple of days after he’d revealed his secret ability.

Hesitating, Jake had replied.  “Well, there was the time I gave you those pearls.”

“Those were the perfect gift,” Karin had replied.

“Yeah, but originally I gave you something else.  It wasn’t until later I learned what you really had your eye on, and I went back and corrected my oversight.”

“That’s cheating,” she complained.

“I guess, but at the time we had only been dating for a short time, and I wanted to impress you.”

“Hmmmm,” she replied.  “But, forgetting things like that.  Have you ever back-tracked on me for other reasons?”

Hesitating, Jake had tried to dodge the question.  “Why do you ask?”

Her piercing blue eyes watched him carefully as he tried to avoid the matter.

“I was thinking about earlier this summer.  There were a couple of weeks when things were strained between us.  I never could understand why.  Did something happen, and you went back and undid whatever it was?  As I understand how this works, I wouldn’t know anything about it anymore, but you would still retain the memories of that event.  Is that why you were so distant for a while?  What happened?”

“Look Karin,” Jake stumbled, not ready to get into the matter at the moment.

“You did, didn’t you?” Karin interrupted, her instincts on target.  “What happened?  Was it your back-tracking?  I’ll bet it was.  You told me about it, and there was something that caused a rift between us.  You told me something that time that you have been avoiding this time around.”

Realizing he was trapped, Jake relented.  “Okay, you’re right.  I handled it poorly and there was some tension.  I wanted a chance to rethink the matter, so I went back and delayed bringing it up.  It’s too important for it to become an issue between us.”

“What could it be?  From what you’ve told me you have been able to do lots of good.  Why would I be upset with you over that?”

Karin thought for a moment while Jake tried to think of a way out of the situation that was rapidly getting away from him.

“Oh shit!” Karin said suddenly. “You have been making a point how you can’t let anyone know what you can do which makes it difficult sometimes to deal with certain situations.  You took some kind of action on your own, didn’t you?”

Well, one of the things Jake had always liked about Karin was her inherent intelligence and quick thinking.  Unfortunately, at the moment it was working against him.  There was little to do but admit it.  Any other path would lead to a bunch of lies, and that was exactly what he didn’t want between them.  Besides, lies had a nasty habit of growing beyond any kind of control.

“Sometimes,” he admitted grudgingly.

“What did you do?” she asked, but he could tell she already had an idea.

“A couple of times I’ve had to kill someone to prevent them from carrying out a major massacre.  There have been instances where a nut job killed a couple of dozen people.  Usually they end up dead anyway, but not before destroying a number of innocent lives.  By taking them out before they could act, I was able to prevent that.”

“You’ve been killing people?”

“People who were going to die anyway.  I killed a few of them before they could do their damage.”

“Jake!”  Karin was clearly shocked.  She wasn’t used to violence, and had been somewhat taken back when she’d first learned he’d been a combat veteran.  “What right did you have to do that?”

“Would it have been better if I let them kill a bunch of innocent people?” he asked defensively.

“No, of course not.  But you could have let the authorities handle it.”

“We’ve talked about that.  I’ve explained how it often doesn’t work and the complications of letting people know what I can do.”

“All the same.  To kill people.  How can you justify that?”

Karin shuddered and seemed to pull back.

“Good people are still alive because of my actions,” Jake objected.

“How many have you killed?” Karin had asked, not really wanting to know.

Not wishing to pursue the matter, but annoyed at her reaction for the second time now, he’d told her.  Even explaining several of the circumstances hadn’t helped.  The idea of personally killing another human being wasn’t something she was ready to accept.  As a result, they hadn’t been seeing each other.  Jake had tried to call her on several occasions, but it was clear she was still uncomfortable, and the calls had been short with no resolution of the situation.  He could have back-tracked and undone the whole thing, but had stubbornly refused to do so. 
Damn it
, this was who he was, and he was now convinced that he was right in what he was doing.  Seeing the little girl playing with Nate’s niece had given him all the justification he’d needed.  If Karin couldn’t accept the good that came out of his actions, then maybe he was wrong to think they had a future together.  He was disappointed she couldn’t see him as he felt he deserved to be seen.

The rift had led to the trip he was planning.  Zack and Cheryl had picked up on the split, and Cheryl had offered to run interference, but Jake had asked them not to.  He wasn’t ready for more of his friends to know of his ability, and while Karin wasn’t the type to tell his secret, he knew Cheryl would be likely to pry it out of her in her current state if they were to spend very much time together.  Best to let the matter heal and see where it ended up.  By the time he returned there would be a resolution, one way or another.

Jake stepped back and tried to think of anything he might have forgotten.  He had placed his 9mm Glock in the hidden compartment in the forward bulkhead of the camper where he could easily get at it from inside the camper or from the cab of the pickup.  From the cab he would have to reach through the missing rear window that connected the camper and the cab of the truck.  It wasn’t readily at hand, but could be accessed if needed without going all the way outside and into the rear camper.  With his CCW permit he was legal in carrying the weapon most of the places he would be going.  California with its moronic laws wasn’t in his plans.  The pistol was significantly modified from the way it had come from the factory.  The slide and barrel were both custom Wolfe after-market parts purchased at one of the local gun shows some time back.  The barrel was one of two Wolfe barrels Jake had for the Glock, both better quality than the factory original.  The slide assembly was fitted with adjustable sights with tritium low light dots.  He hadn’t equipped the Glock with the threaded barrel or brought along the suppressor for this trip.  He had no mission in mind, but couldn’t envision traveling without personal protection.  With that in mind, he would also carry the little Colt Mustang.

He’d also brought along a couple of rifles.  They were stored in a padded rifle compartment that locked and while not hidden, was unobtrusive and would take a bit of searching to find.  He had his .22 Rimfire, a modified Ruger with a stainless steel fluted barrel professionally bedded with a full accuracy workup. It was scoped and would be good for close in work against varmints that would be plentiful where he was going.  It would also be a great camp gun for meat when he was camping out, which he expected to be most of the time.

He’d also brought along his LAR in .308.  He wasn’t exactly sure why, but had felt an urge to do so.  The decision had been complicated by which configuration and which rifle to bring.  He could have brought the one in the upper safe which was registered to him, but if he needed it for some reason, it would be harder to ditch.  Bringing the unregistered one wasn’t really an issue, since there was nothing to tie it to any previous activities he’d used it for, and not being registered wasn’t a crime.  Taking it did mean a certain chance it wouldn’t be coming back with him, which would mean replacement later.  That could be handled through his friend in Florida, where such firearms were easily obtained without records, so he’d decided to bring it.  He’d even affixed the factory upper rather than one of the extras he’d bought.  If he had to show the rifle to anyone in authority, it would look better to be a factory complete unit.

He wasn’t bringing along the suppressor, but wasn’t without means to silence the weapon.  The factory barrel had come with a flash suppressor that could easily be unscrewed.  That left a threaded barrel.  He’d used his lathe to build an adapter that screwed onto those threads and provided a different set of threads on the exposed end.  The exposed threads allowed a standard auto engine oil filter to be screwed onto the end.  The resulting weapon looked odd and ungainly, but given the high mount for the scope, the filter didn’t block the point of view and the oil can suppressor worked surprisingly well.  Experimentation had shown him that the shots were within a couple of inches of where the rifle was sighted in, with repeat shots closer than that to one another.  At close enough ranges even the first shot could be counted on, and if the situation allowed for it, an initial test shot would allow him to know even closer how the specific rifle-filter combination would work.

In the tool compartment he had three oil filters and a supply of oil.  They were all for the Chevy, and since they were new in the factory box, they wouldn’t seem out of place.  The only issue was the small interface that screwed onto the barrel.  The ATF had declared the small part a silencer, and it was supposed to be registered just like the real thing.  He, of course, hadn’t done so.  That would only call attention to him.  Some time ago he’d considered the potential need for something like this.  The part was currently attached to his engine block.  He’d drilled and tapped a hole in a spot that didn’t matter, and screwed the part in place. It had flats on the side to make the installation and removal easy.  On the end sticking out, he’d attached a section of rubber engine hose, which snaked through the compartment and attached to another false plug on the far side of the engine.  The hose did nothing, but other than a particularly observant mechanic who was searching specifically for something out of place, no one was likely to detect the unnecessary hose.  Jake didn’t expect to need the unit, but it made him fell better to know it was there.