Fate (Wilton's Gold #3) (32 page)

Jeff considered what Fisher was saying for a moment, understanding it wasn’t a request but an ultimatum. Then, he smiled. “Makes perfect sense to me,” he said.

Fisher shook his head. “This is some game you’ve got going here.”

“You and I are linked,” Jeff said. “There’s no escaping that. I’ll always remember what you’re doing here. And what you did in the future.”
And when you sent me to Russia.

“Well, since I’m already all tangled up in this, I might as well understand how it works,” Fisher said. He held the time travel device out to Jeff. “Just let me know what I need to do.”

Jeff waved him off. “You hang onto it as a sign of good faith. I’ll call you in the morning and give you the details.”

Fisher turned and placed the device and battery back in their case, closing it. “Where do you think that Dr. Bremner is?” he asked.

Jeff laughed. “No clue. The Dark Ages? I pushed a lot of buttons.”

“Poor bastard,” he said. “Look, you did me a favor, so I’m doing a favor for you. But when this is done, it’s done. We’re destroying this case.”

“That’s the plan,” he said, remembering the promise he’d made to Fisher while standing in the shadow of the Jefferson Memorial in 2018. He’d fulfilled it. Jeff extended his hand, which Fisher took in a firm grip. “Take care of yourself.”

“Apparently, I need to,” he said, then got in the car. A moment later he was gone.

After watching him go, Jeff turned to head back inside. He stopped when he saw Erica standing ten feet away.

A wave of guilt hit him. Had she heard the conversation?

Erica felt bad leaving Emeka inside doing the work, but she felt a pressing need to follow Jeff outside. She thought everything happening seemingly all at once had to be pretty emotional for him. The end of his work. The end of his missions. His friends all headed in their different directions. She’d have been a wreck, so she felt the need to check on him. And she needed to check on something else, as well.

She stepped outside just as he was saying goodbye to Agent Fisher. She had no way of knowing the relationship he’d developed with him, though it seemed from the way they were telling the story that none of it had happened yet. It was all in the future. When he’d approached them in the parking lot an hour before, while it had not been the first time Jeff had talked to Fisher, it had certainly been the first time Fisher had talked to him. There were an awful lot of realities going on at the same time here, and she felt hopeless trying to wrap her mind around them. Sorting through everything would take some serious concentration. Probably some diagrams. And then she still didn’t have confidence she’d understand everything when she was through.

What she could read, however, was Jeff. It didn’t matter to her if it was the Jeff who had gone on the Colonial adventure with her, or this Jeff who was experiencing the details of his life for the first time. She’d learned what made him tick. He liked to be in control of his own destiny, and while he was still in control for the time being, he was proactively relinquishing that control. Within a few hours, he would be a “normal” physicist working on a government contract. She knew that wouldn’t settle well with him, even though his original experiments were equally as groundbreaking.

But hopefully, if her own time travel calculations were right, she could help with that. At least a little bit.

After Fisher drove out of sight, Jeff turned and was facing her. He walked slowly toward her with a sallow face and stopped a few steps away, but avoided eye contact. Was he hiding something? “I feel like I’m saying goodbye to everyone at the end of summer camp,” he said. He was truly affected.

She stepped off the curb and put her arms around him, pulling him tightly to her. He hesitated, then embraced her as well. They stood in the parking lot hugging for some time. She could feel his heart beating quickly, and the shortness of his breaths, though she couldn’t interpret whether it was about her or about his lot in life. After a minute or two, she decided that either way she’d pretend it was about her, and lay her head on his shoulder. She found that even if the hug was in some way comforting for him, it was doing wonders for her. She hadn’t had a hug like this in a long time.

After a few moments, they broke the embrace. “Are you okay?” she asked.

He nodded. “Yeah. This is just tough. End of an era, I guess. Best thing to do is just get this done and move on with life, huh?”

She reached out and touched his chest, letting him know she understood. Or was at least trying to. “I would think so,” she said. “What are you going to do about your grant work?”

He laughed, looking past her at the lab, then back at her again. “I hadn’t thought about that. Guess I pick up right where I left off.”

“Turning bricks into cheeseburgers, right?” She knew he’d never actually had that conversation with her, but her date-that-wasn’t-a-date in future Times Square was quickly becoming a cherished moment for her.

Smiling, he agreed. “Yeah, turning bricks into cheeseburgers.” It was a melancholy smile, but she liked it.

“Look,” she said, “I have something that might cheer you up.”

“I could use it.”

She grabbed him by the hand and led him to the small garage that lined the back of the property. He was feeling sorry for himself, so his pace was slow until she actually pulled him with her. A series of bays were closed and locked, labeled in blue paint with the unit number of the owner of each area, matching those inside the building. She walked him to his door and stood in front of it.

“Open it,” she said.

“I don’t have the keys with me,” he said.

She laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Where are they?”

“They’re inside. What’s in there?” He hadn’t smiled at all yet, but he was curious.

“Go get them. I’ll wait here.”

Clearly not as excited as she was, he took his time walking into the building. While she waited, she thought about the ethics of what was about to happen, and determined there was really nothing she could do about them. That bed had been made.

A few moments later, Jeff reemerged from the building, still moping along. She laughed out loud at him as he took his time getting to her.

“What’s so funny?” he asked, handing her the keys.

“You,” she said, unlocking the padlock that held the door shut. She stepped aside so he could lift the metal door, then crossed her fingers that she’d done her time travel calculations accurately.

She had.

Jeff pulled the heavy door up and was immediately confused. He hadn’t used the garage he was entitled to through his lease in the building in years. Maybe even ever.

So where had this U-Haul truck come from?

He looked back at Erica, who was beaming. “This isn’t? No way.” She’d told him about their trek to the future, but it was impossible, as he traced the various realities in his mind, that this could be here. He’d thought the highlight of the day was going to be the hug, though for the entire time all he’d been able to think about was that he was not being honest with her about his plan to take one more trip.

“This is it,” she said. “It’s what I told you. When we took the armored car in the future and brought it back.”

“This is amazing,” he said, walking into the garage. He unlatched the doors and swung one open. The truck was filled with dozens of money bags, crammed in on top of one another. “These are filled with...”

“Cash.”

A thousand thoughts went through his mind, most of them of the guilty variety. But he couldn’t hide the smile on his face. “Who else knows about this?”

“You, me, Abby, Emeka and Dexter. That’s it. We emptied everything out of the armored car last night and disposed of the truck. Emeka did it.”

“That’s everyone?”

“Look, Jeff,” she said as he fiddled with some of the bags, realigning them. “While this is pretty cool, I’m sure it makes you as uncomfortable as it does me.” He smiled again. She was using the power of persuasion. “We stole this money. We can’t exactly give it back, and we can’t exactly go to the authorities with it. My suggestion is we do something useful with it.”

He nodded without looking at her. “I agree,” he said.

There was a shuffle behind him and he turned to see Emeka and Abby standing behind Erica. She turned to greet them.

“I called Abby,” Emeka said. He shook his head. “I tried to fill her in on what just happened, but I really can’t explain it. You’re going to have to do it.”

Jeff smiled. “It’s okay. We have time.” He looked at Abby. “Two things: one, I have your tablet – it’s upstairs. And thank you. It saved my life more than a few times.” By the look on her face, she was confused – which was reasonable because, to her, it had only been a day. “Two, if you’re ever asked to help create a supercomputer that uses personal data to delve into people’s lives as a means of controlling the public... Please just tell them ‘no.’”

“Um... Okay?” Abby said. “But I have my tablet. You gave it to me the other night.”

“I did?” He started to try to figure it out, but his brain was tired. He’d simply chalk it up to alternate realities. “Well, then I guess you have two.” He walked up and hugged her, again conscious of the device in his pants pocket. “I know it’s only been less than twenty-four hours since you saw me, but it’s been a different experience for me. It’s good to see you.” He let go of her. “Are you here to help?”

“No, I’m here to make sure you don’t destroy anything that’s mine.”

He laughed and hugged her again. Which hadn’t been the nature of their relationship before that moment, all touchy-feely. But in a matter of minutes, he’d gone from depression to cautious enthusiasm, and he was surrounded by his friends. Well, most of them. He wished Dexter were there.

He shut the doors of the U-Haul and closed the bay door, locking it. “Let’s go destroy several years of science,” he said, turning and heading back toward the building. “So that things don’t ever get out of control again.”

His team followed him inside and they resumed destroying his files, only he knowing that he had one more trip to take. He knew that once he got that done, though, all of his guilt would be gone.

May 4, 1831

As Jeff and Erica left the park, the city of Philadelphia came alive as small buildings began to appear – a few homes, a blacksmith, and a small general store. It astounded Erica that only a half-hour before they’d been waiting in a line of traffic in front of Target and Applebee’s in that very spot. It was such a treat for her, despite the fact that she couldn’t take as much time as she’d like to enjoy it.

“What are you thinking?” Jeff asked, making small talk as they walked.

“I’m thinking I would love to sit down with the people that live in these houses and just pick their brains on what they think of their lives. When you think of everything that’s happened – all of the advancements, all of the wars, everything that has become of America – since this time, it blows your mind.”

“Yes, it does,” Jeff said as they saw their first people since they’d arrived in 1831 – a man who was dressed pretty much the way he himself was, putting up a fence at one of the houses with two boys.

“These people don’t know that in 20 years they’re going to discover gold in California and their neighbors will begin to head west,” she continued. “They don’t know that in 30 years those boys’ sons will be enlisted to fight a war against their own brothers. It’s such a simple life – they can hide from all of that.”

“But that’s no different from what we don’t know about what’s going to happen in 10, 20 years, right?”

“I see a difference, though. We’re much more heavily involved in making it happen. The people of this time seem more that they’re going with the flow.”

“These people had to build a country. We just have to keep it running.”

“True.”

Now there were more people on the road and more buildings to justify their presence. A few even nodded to them – Jeff would offer a tip of his hat. Erica, playing the dutiful wife of the 1830s, just followed along.

After about a half-hour of walking, they were into the city proper and Erica began to recognize things – at least, she recognized them from the map that she’d memorized. A specific intersection. A circle. “We’re up here about another half-mile,” she said.

“That’s pretty good,” Jeff said, complimenting her. She looked at him and he was smiling. “I have absolutely no idea where we are. Of course, I can say I’ve let my guard down because I trust you know what you’re doing.”

“Where we are...” she said, thinking. “If you remember on the ride to the park we passed right by here. That circle is still there. There was a post office right here and a Starbucks on this side. The circle had a statue in the middle of it, though we drove by too quickly and I didn’t get to see who it was.”

“Every circle in Philadelphia has a statue in the middle of it,” he said, laughing. “So the shop is this way?”

“Yes, straight ahead.”

“When did it burn down?”

“In about three years, provided we’re where we’re supposed to be. A lantern was knocked over and, since the building was filled with papers, it went up quickly. Imagine the records, the history that was lost.”

The street was fairly crowded now, with the business of 1831 happening around them. A farmer rode by on a wagon filled with squash and zucchini while a pack of young boys chased after him for a good thousand feet, laughing and waiting for something to fall off. The farmer shooed them away and kept on moving. Men and women dressed identically to them walked along the sides of the street, entering and leaving the buildings. Erica saw a blacksmith’s shop and had an overwhelming urge to tug on Jeff’s arm and beg him to take her inside.

Soon, they came to their destination, the records office, which was still standing, confirming that they’d at least successfully made it to sometime before the fire in 1834. In her research, Erica had found a charcoal sketch of the entire street, and now that she could see it in real life, the artist’s depiction of the shop had been unbelievably accurate. “This is so exciting,” she said.

Jeff reached for the door, but they were interrupted by a shout from the side. Somehow, someone was shouting their names. “Jeff, Erica!”

She turned, looking down the street to see a most amazing sight: Dr. Jeff Jacobs running toward them.

Neither of them could move.

After a moment, he was in front of them, and took a moment to let out a heavy breath.

“What is going on?” she asked. She looked at her traveling companion, who she could see was trying to sort things out in his mind.

“Multiple versions,” Jeff said, mumbling to himself.

“I need you to not go in there,” the newcomer said.

“We have to,” Erica said, feeling like she was the one who needed to defend what they were doing because it was her idea.

The new Jeff was shaking his head. “I can assure you, you don’t want to go in there. And you don’t
need
to go in there. All of your hypotheses about Dexter are right. You can just go on with the mission.”

“But-”

“You’ve been here before,” her traveling companion Jeff said.

“I haven’t, no,” his doppelganger said, nodding. “But I know exactly what happens.”

Jeff turned his attention to her. He was suddenly very serious. “We should trust him.”

“But we need to-”

He shook his head. “No. I don’t think I’m going to steer myself down the wrong path.”

The other Jeff tried to stifle a laugh. When they waited for an explanation, he said, “Don’t bank on that every time. But this time you can trust me. There’s nothing in there you need.”

Erica looked back to Jeff and could see in his eyes that it was advice he wanted to heed. “Okay,” she said slowly, nodding. “We just move on.”

“Thank you,” Jeff said to him, then they turned to walk away. Erica thought she saw the other Jeff flash her a very warm and familiar smile before they left.

“What do you think that was about?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think we’re supposed to know. Otherwise, he would have told us.” He walked a few paces in silence. “Multiple versions. Just fascinating.”

“Yes,” she said, “but you already know there’s going to be another one of you in 1770.”

“Oh, yeah. I didn’t ever expect to run into myself, though. That was insane.”

“Gotcha.”

“You know, I’m a pretty handsome guy,” Jeff said. “Now that I got to see everyone else’s perspective.” She looked at him and he was grinning.

“Enough,” she said, laughing. “Let’s go rescue Dexter.”