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  “Sure,” Matheson said, stepping aside from the door. Johnson entered. “I was about to get something to drink, do you want anything?”

  “Whatever you're having will be fine,” Johnson said. “May I have a seat?”

  “Sure,” Matheson said as he headed into the kitchen. “Grab some couch.” He emerged a few moments later with two cans of soda, and handed one of them to Johnson.

  “How can I help the intelligence folks today?”

  “You cut right to the chase, I like that,” Johnson said, taking a sip of his soda. “As a matter of fact, we do need your help. Your partner has been...well, very busy of late, and early today something very interesting happened.”

  “Oh yeah? What happened?”

  “There was an...incident, in Africa. There was an attempt to take out the leader of this tiny country, I can't even think of its name off the top of my head.”

  “Yeah? Doesn't something like that happen all the time there?” Matheson asked, although inside he knew where this was leading.

  “Well, I'm sure from time to time it does,” Johnson replied. “This time was a little different, seeing as a citizen of the United States of Canada was the one who tried to take this guy out. Let's just say he did not succeed; his body was dumped in the desert, and our embassy was contacted shortly after.”

  “How did they know this...assassin was a Canadian citizen?”

  “His identification, for one, and also, when we ran his prints it came up he's former military. And I by chance knew who he was because he had been my informant.”

  “Shit, really?” Matheson said. “He was the guy telling you about Thomas? I thought he wasn't a part of the inner-circle?”

  “Turns out he was, apparently. Oh, and also a portal jumper, although we don't know the extent of his abilities, although it seems fair to say it wasn't enough to take this dictator out, not to mention being able to prevent him from being caught, and killed.”

  “I can't believe Thomas acted on this so fast,” Matheson said. “He was talking about this last night at the club, wanting me to help him take out this dictator, and I couldn't do it. I thought he'd wait, or something.”

  “You knew about this yesterday and didn't call me?” Johnson said “Christ, leftenant, this would have been a good thing to know about!”

  “I'm sorry, I know I should have, but at the time I didn't think he was going to act on it so quickly. He was pretty clear in not having the right person to do this job, as he called it.”

  “So now he's lost one of his men, and he's going to be pissed,” Johnson said. “You know, he may come after you now. He might want to...forcibly enlist your help.”

  “Come after me?” Matheson said. “I can't see that happening, Officer Thomas. That isn't in his character.”

  “Are you sure?” Johnson said. “Maybe you don't know him as well as you think you do.”

  “Maybe,” Matheson said. “What do you suggest?”

  “What we should do is get you out of here,” Johnson said, “before he can do anything.”

  “That's assuming he's going to do something,” Matheson said. “Let's give him the benefit of the doubt.”

  * * *

  As it turned out, it wouldn't take long before someone tried something.

  Returning from patrol (Thomas had been called away for something, so Matheson flew with a different pilot) and heading to the officer's club for a quick bite to eat, Matheson found himself being grabbed by someone seemingly out of thin air.

  Before he could even react, Matheson felt the sensation through his body of being pulled through a portal. He emerged through into a small, dimly lit room; it contained a card table and two flimsy chairs.

  In the room with him was a man Matheson had never seen before, brandishing a gun. “Have a seat,” he said, pointing the gun at Matheson's head.

  Matheson sat down. He looked up at his abductor. “What is this all about?”

  “What this is about is us having a little...chat, Charles. Maybe talk some sense into you. Jeff Thomas is a great man, with a great vision. And from what he's told us, you're supposedly a man of great power, yet you will not use that power to help the greater good.”

  “And kidnapping me at gunpoint helps the greater good?”

  “What we need to do is maybe...scare you straight, Charles. Convince you that whatever power you have could be used to help lots of people. Instead you want to selfishly hoard it.”

  “I don't have to justify myself to you,” Matheson replied. “And this isn't going to get me to change my mind.”

  “It's not? Well, then, maybe we need to try something else.”

  At that moment there was a shimmering of the light, with a portal opening and two men stepping through into the small room.

  One of the two was Jeff Thomas. The other was a man Matheson had seen before – talking with Thomas at the officer's club.

  Thomas smiled, but it didn't touch his eyes. He was holding a syringe. The other man produced a gun and pointed it at Matheson.

  “Hello, Charles. Sorry we had to meet under these...conditions. Desperate times call for desperate measures, you know, and my situation is getting very desperate. As it stands now, you know way too much about what I have going on.”

  “I don't know much of anything,” Matheson replied.

  “Oh, you know a lot,” Thomas said. He walked over to Matheson. “Roll up your sleeve. Need to give you a little shot.”

  “A shot of what?”

  “This? Oh, this is nothing. Just a...well, I guess you could call it a relaxant. It'll make you feel nice and relaxed, and at the same time, prevent you from...leaving the party early, if you get my meaning. There's a compound in here that suppresses the electrical charges in your brain that produce those amazing portals you can travel through. It's experimental, so I'm not sure about any side effects.”

  “Why would you do this, Jeff? To what end?”

  “Charles, it comes down to this: are you part of the problem, or part of the solution? And as I see it, you're now unfortunately part of the problem. I have big plans, and if you're not going to be of use, you'll need to be...taken out of the game. I know you've been chatting up a certain warrant officer from the intelligence branch. I can't have you jeopardizing this operation.” Thomas motioned for one of the armed men to come over; they rolled up the sleeve to Matheson's shirt; Thomas jabbed him with the syringe.

  “There we go,” Thomas said. “It's very fast acting, too.”

  “This isn't you, Jeff,” Matheson said; he was gripped with panic, although after a few seconds he started to feel strangely ethereal. “We've flown together, I know this isn't the man you are.”

  “Charles, you know nothing,” Thomas said. “What I do know is that you're not a loyal soldier. Remember when we got shot down? Oh, you probably don't remember since this was in a different...timeline, I guess you'd call it. But I can remember being shot down, and captured, and tortured, and left paralyzed, and when I asked you to do something simple...to go back and right a wrong...you wouldn't do it.”

  “Change the past, you mean,” Matheson said, slowly; he was having difficulty forming words. “You're not paralyzed, so apparently you took care of things in the past without my help. So why do you even need me?”

  “Why? Because for reasons no one will ever understand, you, Charles, have this incredible power. You alone can do everything my entire team can do as individuals. Yet you refuse to bend your principles, you refuse to look at the bigger picture, you refuse to see how you can contribute to the greater good. You're not noble or self-righteous; what you are is selfish. But maybe I expected too much out of you.”

  The room was starting to spin. Matheson took a breath. “Maybe...maybe you did,” he said. He gulped. “Now what, Jeff?”

  “Now? Now, I change the variable in this equation. Now I remove the obstacle to having my plan put through to completion. Now, I can get at the work of helping people who are too weak to help themselves.” />
  “I think you're insane,” Matheson said. “There's nothing noble about what you're doing. It's all about power for you, isn't it?” He was sweating. “And what you do is covet – you covet my power, my abilities. You've created a situation where, in your head, you're doing good, but what you're really doing is playing God.”

  “That could be, Charles,” Matheson said. “You're a good pilot and officer, a shame you couldn't have been a better man.” He motioned to the two other men in the room; they pointed their guns at Matheson.

  “Enjoy the next life,” Thomas said; he nodded.

  Both men shot at Matheson the same time.

  BOOK THREE:

  ENDGAME

  Chapter One

  The memories came flooding back in a torrent of images and sounds; I had to sit back and hold my hand to my head, as if it might shatter from the impact.

  After a moment I took a breath; Major Ed Thomas was looking at me with concern.

  “I'm okay,” I said quietly. “I remember. I remember everything.”

  “Do you?” he asked. “I'm not surprised, the memory wipe was never meant to be permanent, we just didn't know how long it would take to wear off.”

  “I guess you guys did what you had to do,” I said. “Although as plans go it was kind of insane. Wipe my memory of being able to jump and send me off to a different world to keep Thomas away. And what did you do to help me with money? I think you gave me some gold and silver...”

  “We did,” Johnson agreed. “Yeah, I know, as plans go it was pretty welly improvised, but it seemed time was of the essence.”

  “Considering that Thomas was out to kill me...I'm still amazed that I was able to jump out of there before those guys could shoot me.”

  “And right to my office. I'm still amazed considering what they doped you with. After we captured Thomas we had our scientists analyze that drug, it's used to this day to prevent portal jumping, yet it did nothing to you.”

  “It did something,” I said, “although not as it was intended, apparently. So what happened after I left? You guys caught Thomas, and...?”

  “Caught him and his crew, wiped their memories. Now it seems he has his a new crew, and you've really gotten onto his radar,” Johnson said. “He's a powerful man now, with the full force of the government behind him.”

  “I've noticed,” I said. “I still don't understand why he's so...angry. It's so out of character of the man I remember.”

  “We're not sure, either. He was interrogated before we wiped his memory, and he wouldn't say much. He's irrational.”

  “He blamed the death of his family on me,” I said.

  “Right. The reality is he should be blaming himself, considering he was responsible.”

  “Christ, really? How?”

  “Since you've been gone, he's gotten mixed up with some portal jumpers with...odd abilities, in addition to being able to jump. One of them seemed to create natural disasters when she did. There was an afternoon when Thomas was out with his families, and for some reason he had this jumper with him as well. We're not entirely sure why, seems she might have been a friend of the family. In any event, he had her jump somewhere, and when she did it created a freak earthquake, which brought down a bridge...his wife and son were killed.”

  “He told me about that,” I said. “But when he did he said people like me caused disasters just by jumping.”

  “Not that we've discovered,” Johnson said. “It was just this particular jumper. Apparently he used it as part of his justification in taking you down. The man has issues.”

  “A lot of crazy shit happened during the war,” I said. “I know that we were shot down during a patrol and Thomas was captured, tortured, and paralyzed.”

  “What?” Johnson exclaimed.

  “I should say, that happened and then he had one of this men go and change the past, so that accident never happened. But he somehow retained knowledge of the original event, even after the timeline was...changed. He wanted me to be the one to make the changes, and I refused. I think that's part of the reason he's so angry.”

  “We've had suspicions that he screwed around with the past. My agents investigate things like that, we have folks here who can detect changes made in the past and act accordingly.”

  “And now I'm back, and Jeff's memories have also returned, and he's out to capture me and dispose of me like he tried to 20 years ago.”

  “He's quite dangerous,” Johnson said. “Not that you didn't know that already. And he's expecting me to deal with you.”

  “Clearly, I'm going to have to get out of here,” I said.

  “I thought so. Just watch out, we know he has people that have the ability to track portals, he'll catch up with you before long.”

  “Don't worry about me,” I said. “I can mask the...signature, is that what they track? I think Jeff mentioned it, some kind of physics thing...a quantum signature.”

  “Right,” Johnson agreed.

  “I can deal with that,” I said. “And my Melissa...she's alive. Here.”

  “The Melissa of this word is alive, yes. The one you knew is gone, Charles. Maybe you should let that go.”

  “Maybe I should,” I said, “but it's hard, Ed. There's a woman here who is my Melissa, it's hard not to think about her.”

  “I can understand that, Charles, but she's not the same woman, even if she looks the same.”

  “Maybe,” I sighed. “But what about everything I was remembering about her and her sister? They were operating some kind of...resistance movement for other portal jumpers. Was that real? Or just some side effect of the memory wipe wearing off?”

  “Just a side effect,” Johnson said, although he wouldn't look me in the eye when he said it. “Better to leave those folks alone, Charles, and not get them involved in this.”

  “Yeah, you're probably right,” I said, although I had to wonder why he was lying about it.

  “Good to hear, Charles,” Johnson said. “You really need to get out of here, and it has to look good. Thomas will be wondering how several armed men were unable to contain a single guy, so what I need you to do is give me a good shot.” He pointed to his eye. “Gotta blacken it and then you can just jump out of here.”

  “What!” I exclaimed. “I can't just hit you!”

  “You can, and you will,” Johnson said. “Do this for me, and then get the hell out of here.”

  “Do you really think this is necessary?”

  “I do,” Johnson said. “Come on, leftenant, blacken my eye. That's an order.”

  I did as I was commanded. “Sorry, Ed,” I murmured; a moment later I took a breath and jumped right out of that vehicle.

  * * *

  I emerged in front of an apartment complex; it was where I had remembered Melissa and Lynne lived. I'm not sure how trustworthy those memories were, but I had to talk to them, Johnson's warning nonwithstanding.

  Or did I?

  Maybe he was right; maybe involving them in my mess would have serious consequences. Maybe fatal consequences.

  But I was divided; despite the passing of time, the love for my ex-wife hadn't waned.

  I wanted to see her face again.

  But it's not her, my mind tried to reason.

  True, it wasn't her. But seeing as I'd never see my Melissa ever again, the selfish part of me wanted to act.

  I approached the entrance to the apartment complex and realized not only did I not know which apartment she and Lynne lived in, I didn't know what their last names were in this world.

  The door was locked, and there was an intercom system, with a security keypad and screen. The screen didn't tell me much, other than INPUT TENANT APT NUMBER.

  This wasn't going to help. I punched some keys at random and finally was rewarded with a message that said, “PRESS #20 FOR A LIST OF TENANTS.”

  I did, and scrolled through the names.

  Not a single Melissa or a single Lynne.

  Could it all have been some weird amnesia related
delusion? Had I not even interacted with those two since arriving at this world?

  I didn't believe it.

  I could hear footsteps approaching; I turned to leave.

  I almost collided directly into Melissa. Small world, I thought.

  She looked at me, smiling, but no recognition in her eyes. “Looking for someone?” she asked.

  I wasn't sure how to proceed. After a moment I said, “Well, as a matter of fact, I was looking for you, Mel.”

  She frowned. “Me? Do I know you?”

  I laughed. “We've been acquainted. Your sister introduced us.”

  “My sister?” she was clutching a purse and proceeded to open it, sticking a hand inside. “I don't have a sister.”

  I suspected she might be reaching for a can of mace, or maybe a gun. “Your sister Lynne?” I asked.

  “Is this a joke?” she asked; her hand remained in the purse. “My sister is dead. Who are you?”

  I held up my hands. “Sorry, big mistake. You just looked...familiar to me. I thought we had met once.”

  Now she looked confused. “I...that's okay. I did have a sister named Lynne, that just threw me. And I have this weird feeling of deja vu...”

  “It's okay,” I said. “I'll just get going.” I stepped aside so she could enter the building. After she did, I took a breath and headed down the street.

  It definitely was Melissa, at least the Melissa of this world.

  And she appeared genuinely perplexed at my appearance, and shocked that I had brought up her sister.

  Could Thomas had captured her, and Lynne? And maybe wiped their memories?

  It certainly was possible. But was Lynne actually dead? Why did I have memories of her?

  It begged the question: if memories could be eliminated, could new memories be introduced?

  I had to find Lynne. Maybe her memories hadn't been altered; she was a jumper just like me, so maybe she'd been able to keep a step ahead of Thomas.

  Of course, the big question was, how would I find her?