Ever-Life the Two Book Set: The C.P.T Incident and Time Trust (51 page)

             
The man went to the lounge. Bellos took, what looked like, a small 3-inch by 1/2inch remote, out of his pocket and handed it to the man.

             
“This is similar to what your Mr. Wheeler showed me. You want me to trust you?”

             
Bellos pointed and said, “You see the red dot there; push it and then try to relax.”

             
“Right…”

The man laid his head back on the lounge and pushed. Within seconds he reacted, “Oh Christ!”

Then he shut up and gripped the chair’s arms, squeezing tightly. Involuntarily, he closed his eyes.

             
Bellos sat in the chair, beside the lounge, quietly waiting. After only a moment, the man opened his eyes widely, and stared at the GGM. Bellos raised his hand gesturing for him not to speak.

“Just push the dot again, and remove the earpiece, before you say anything.”

              The man did so, and blinked several times, as though clearing his mind. He looked at Bellos, as if there was something familiar.

“You know, I remember doing that before, in college, a long time ago. Odd, but it was more like a dream, then. Did I; I mean, did I dream it?”

              “No; in fact, you did meet Jake Burns, from here on three other occasions, in your life; but the other two are yet to come. I believe that is why you were involved in the particle displacement, today.”

             
“Particle displacement? Considering I have been stuck in this room, with a wall size 3D TV; what I just saw is hard to fathom, much less particle displacement.”

             
“I know; but, it’s all true.”

             
“So, this Sidron is the highway of knowledge and power, and somebody used it to; for what?”

             
“For his own benefit; to capture power and change what is, or has been, to what he wants it to be.”

             
“What year is it, exactly?”

             
“It is our year 9999.96. By your calendar, June is the month and the year is 2999.6

             
The man sighed with a serious look, “It’s mind blowing; that I am still back there, with my life going on; and, at the same time, here. I have a hard time believing I am really, in fact, dead.”

Then he looked at Bellos eye to eye, “Can or will I go back?”

              “I’m not sure. Nobody has answers. We believe that Time travel cannot change a timeline, of someone who died; so, even if you did, what you know now will make no difference.”

Bellos could feel his Knofer vibrate. As he took it out, he smiled at the man and heard Wheeler.

“Sir; are you there?”

“Yes Thom.”

“Sir, we have activity on the equipment; intense, immeasurable.”

Bellos looked, wide eyed at Andrew. He began to flicker, like the first visitor. He reached for Bellos; but, before either one could touch the other, the man was gone, disappeared. Bellos stood alone, in the room and replied to Wheeler, “Yes Tom, I know. You better get me those readings right away.”

“What happened, Sir?”

“Just give them to me.”

Bellos sat in the lounge and waited only a few minutes. Wheeler came through the door and said, “Done Sir; it’s on your Knofer.”

Bellos played the Knofer hologram.

“I better have the final interview.”

“What do you think, Mathew?”

Bellos lifted his head, “I think Brock is succeeding. Get this information to both Burns and Swanson. Tell Burns to initiate highest defense mode. I’ll be with our final visitor. Oh, and Thom, did we retrieve anything on Angie’s status?”

“We got a reading from her Knofer. We are trying to trace it, through the same efforts we are using to track
the Sidron vibrations. When this last event occurred, we registered her Knofer as active, but only during the event. All went dead, after that.”

Bellos and Wheeler walked out the door and turned in different directions again. Bellos entered the room, which held the oldest of the three visitors. Both men looked at each other, and shook hands. The man said, “My God, you haven’t changed a day. Hello again, Mathew; isn’t it?”

Bellos was a bit shocked, but he quickly replied, “Andrew, you remember?”

“Yes; I guess I am about 15 years older, than the last time we met. And yes, I did think it was a dream; nevertheless, I began talking it out, and writing what I saw, last time. Why am I here, again, now? Did you ever find out what happened those years ago?”

Bellos looked him over, from head to toe.

“You should sit down for this, I think.”

Bellos sat beside him.

“The last time we met, we were across the hall. It was 15 years ago for you; but I just came from that room, not 5 minutes ago, for me. I walked directly from our meeting there, to here.”

“I woke up in my bed, thinking I dreamed it all, until I found this.”

He pulled out the flash-drive head set vault, from his last meeting with Wheeler, years ago, and handed it to Bellos.

“I couldn’t use it, of course, in any way. I thought about having it analyzed, but what good would that do. It would have been destroyed. I told parts of the story to a close friend; but, we drank a lot together, so it was easy to brush off as bullshit. I carried that with me, almost every day, everywhere, knowing somehow I would write about it; but, I never did, that I know of , anyway.”

“Well you did later, and your book has become a prime element, in a mystery here, which we are now trying to solve.”

Bellos accepted the file back and sat, praying the man wouldn’t disappear.

“Mystery?”

“Yes, it looks like the wrong people read your book. Ultimately, that’s why you are here.”

Bellos opened the room’s door and the guard handed him something.

“Is this your book?”

Andrew took it and began reading.

“These are my words, my name, the copyright is dated…Jesus!”

He sat down, shaking a bit.

“You were right about Mr. Burns. I did meet him before; I think. He was a new hire, right? Bragging, that he could time travel? I showed him that flash drive thingy too. At first, he refused to comment. Finally, he studied it, enough to confirm that it came from you, here. I told him things, he couldn’t discount, that I saw last time. After that, he was very informative. We shared many thoughts and ideas. Eventually, he gave me a headset session, and everything became so clear to me. Déjà vu became real memory. I remember crying, for a week or so, after he left. It affected me in so many ways.”

“I am sorry, Andrew. We don’t make it a practice to interfere in people’s lives, on the surface, unless it’s necessary. I thought giving you the headset next door would trigger your memory, of a man named Marion Brock.”

“No; not familiar…”

“How about anyone named Brock?”

Andrew shook his head no. Then he hesitated for a second.

“Wait; a long time ago; I think; it was when I was in college. I remember the Vietnam War was a big deal to us kids…”

“Long ago is right.”

“…Something about weapons, or ammunition; but it wasn’t Marion. It was another name; and, it was the first time I met your Mr. Burns too.”

“Nicolas…”

Just then, Bellos’s Knofer clicked again. But this time it was Jake Burns.

“Sir, I have important news. I need to speak to you right away.”

“Go ahead Jake…”

Bellos turned and remarked to Andrew, “Speak of the devil; it’s your friend, Jake Burns.”

Andrew froze, as Bellos tapped the Knofer and Burns appeared as a hologram in the center of the room.

“Go ahead Jake.”

“Sir, we have traced the Sidron waves back to an event in 1965. It seems there was a great intensity-an ‘Inflation’, a small Big Bang. In this case, an anomaly resulted.  A posit of time separated from our timeline.”

“Not an explosion?”

“Of sorts, Sir; of course there was no sound; but it was a great disturbance; and it was within the Sidron. I believe it was a result of two or more people, having ‘compatibility’ with a Carrier, an overload; apparently another person was the catalyst, in some way. The combination of so many, triggered the event.”

“Catalyst; I hate that word now; I wonder?”

“You don’t think Ms. Angie; do you Sir? I mean she was the catalyst needed for C.P.T. …Perhaps…”

For a second, Bellos had a blank stare. Then, he stepped to the side of the hologram, revealing Andrew.

“Jake. Say hello. Do you remember Mr. Andrew, here?”

Bellos gestured toward his visitor. Jake startled; and then, he bowed, respectfully, saying, “Oh my, interesting; good to see you again, my friend.”

“Well, I wish I could say the same.”
              Bellos began again, “Jake, I think there may be two possibilities for that catalyst you mentioned.”

“Ah, yes; I see what you mean. I’ll have the lab run comparative tests, if our visitor, there, will consent.”

“Good idea.” Bellos smiled. “Well, Mr. Andrew, what do you say; care to help solve our little mystery?”

Andrew looked at the book, and around the room.

“Will I be allowed to see more than just this room?”

“I think I can arrange that.”

Burns began to rant, “Sir, I am reading a new event. We have another problem.”

Wheeler burst through the door.

“Sir, we have another problem.”

“Another one…Well, one of you spit it out!”

Jake blurted, “Sir, I just got word that Secretary Swanson has disappeared.”

“What? Christ! Wheeler; take Mr. Andrew here to the lab. Run comparative tests on his blood and DNA, with our records. Get everything on a genetic profile. See if we have any matches or similarities, in any of the colony vaults.”

“Jake, where are you?” Bellos tapped his Knofer, entering the code, to initiate a holographic map of inner Earth.

“I am at X-1500 miles east of core, Y-angle 30 degrees north, northeast linear.”

              Bellos pin pointed Burn’s location.

“Do we have any Intel, on what happened?”

              “Sir, we need to talk, in the same room. I suspect our communiqué is contaminated.”

“Do you have a fix on the suspect’s location?”

“My Carrier does, yes.”

“Then follow the signal and keep in touch. I want to know location and source.”

The Knofer cut the call; and, Wheeler spoke to Bellos quickly, “Mathew; Gordon was in his office. Patty says he disappeared before her eyes.”

Bellos squinted and whispered to himself, “Brock and a Carrier.”

“Thom, I have to go. I have a meeting with the Bering Strait Commission. Keep digging. Get me anything you find out. Test Mr. Andrew, and get me the results.”

Chapter 21

Rosse

             
Both Jack Sheldon and Abby Johnson seemed very uneasy, during the plane ride to D.C. Jack fidgeted, looked out the window; and then, said, “I feel like I should be three places at once. There’s so much, back at the Complex too; and, now, Brian and Angie.”

“They will be all right; GGM is on it.”

“How soon, before we land?”

             
“Same as two minutes ago; try and relax a little; the pilot will tell us when we approach.”

             
“Relax? Are you married, Johnson?”

             
“No; not yet.”

             
“Well, I am; and not just married. I married the love of my life. She is the love of my death, too.”

             
“Interesting choice of words.”

             
“Yes, because we did die; sort of anyway. Regardless; you wouldn’t understand.”

             
“Well, you are right about that. Look, down there, the ancient nuclear power plant outside Harrisburg Pennsylvania. I read about nuclear power on the surface. Some thought, for a long time, that it was the energy saving messiah; stupid people.”

             
“Yes, electricity was in its infancy, then. What is that sound?”

             
“It’s coming from your pocket.”

             
“Oh, my phone.”

             
Jack fumbled and finally answered, “Hello, Rach; is that you?”

             
“No, Dr. Sheldon, this is Charlie Rosse.”

             
“Rosse?”

Jack was befuddled, for a few seconds.

“Hello, Mr. Rosse, how coincidental, I am on my way to D.C., to see you. Have you met with my wife?”

             
Johnson looked on, pensively; she tapped her Knofer to trace the call.