Awake Page 15

  Back before a man named Jeff Thomas decided he would do anything in his power to stop me.

  I set the portrait back on the shelf. Did I really want to go through with this? It was starting to seem like a really bad idea.

  Could I even begin to understand his motivation?

  I wasn't sure, but I would give it a try.

  CHAPTER TWO

  In the movies and on television, time travel is always presented in a very exciting fashion, but the truth is, it's quite stressful.

  When you do it, you become aware that you can't interact with anything – there's always a part of your mind that's whispering about making changes to the timeline that could impact the future. It's more an instinct thing, really. You also begin to realize that you can't make big changes in the past; there's no going back and taking out Hitler, for instance, because if you do, someone else just steps in to take his place, and the outcome ends up being essentially the same.

  You also can't go back and kill your grandparents, thus preventing your own birth.

  Not only that, but you're constantly aware that people are looking at you, as if sensing that you don't belong there.

  The truth is, you can make changes in the past, and while you can't change the outcome of major events, it's really easy to make tiny changes that could possibly have huge implications in the future; it's like throwing a pebble into the ocean. You may not be able to fill the ocean with pebbles, but when you toss that pebble into the water it does create a tiny ripple.

  It can also be disconcerting to see your past self, but I didn't think that was going to be an issue in this particular instance.

  I went back three years to the day of Melissa's death, the day she supposedly died during bad driving conditions, crashing into an oncoming car.

  We had been separated and not really talking at that point, so at least I wouldn't have to deal with my past self seeing an image of himself three years down the road.

  A quick check of a newspaper confirmed I had indeed arrived back at the correct year, and the correct day.

  When we separated Melissa moved into a modest apartment, one I had never visited.

  In fact, it took me a few moments to remember where exactly she lived; our communication back then had been only by email, although there were the occasions of postal mail sent to my address intended for her.

  Prior to making the jump to the past I had scribbled her address down; I pulled out that slip of paper to study the address. Luckily I knew that area of town well, and it was another easy jump to that street.

  Arriving there, I wasn't terribly surprised to see her apartment complex was a duplicate of the one from that other world, where she and her sister lived – my world, technically, although more and more I was coming to think that the world I was in now, the one that was the source of all of my memories with Melissa, was the world I actually belonged in.

  Of course, that world was a few decades ahead in technology than this world, so the apartment complex didn't have any of the same security features as its counterpart.

  Glancing around, I headed to the entrance, where I found a simple roster of residents and their corresponding apartment number; M. SIMPSON, 201, it said, which matched up to the address I had written down.

  Separated, and she had already gone back to her maiden name.

  I hurriedly left the entrance and walked quickly to the rear of the complex, where the resident parking was located.

  The parking spots were numbered, corresponding with the apartment number, and I quickly verified Melissa was still here; she drove a no-nonsense sedan (we had been a two-car family and I had kept the car I drove the most). I glanced inside; it was spotless (of course) but resting on the passenger seat was a sheet of paper; actually, there was a file folder on the seat, and this slip of paper had spilled out.

  It was a page from her life insurance policy.

  She had signed it and had named a new beneficiary.

  It was a fluke, then, that I remained the beneficiary; she never had a chance to change the policy.

  I shuddered; had she been on her way to her insurance agent to deliver the updated document, but had gotten into an accident along the way?

  If she had, wouldn't this paperwork had been discovered? Her car hadn't been totaled in the accident, so the pages should have survived, and surely the police officers investigating the debris would have gathered it up.

  I wasn't sure any of that would have mattered as far as the insurance company went; they paid out the policy without any questions.

  When the police spoke to me about the accident, they never mentioned finding this document. Would they have had any reason to do so? Maybe, maybe not.

  Which begged the question: did someone remove it from her car? And if they did, why?

  I suppose it didn't really matter, but it made me wonder.

  I needed to find out what time it was; I hadn't brought a watch, and I doubted my cell phone would get reception here.

  Curious, I pulled out my phone and turned it on. After a few moments of SEARCHING FOR SIGNAL it, to my surprise, showed several bars of reception, and displayed the time and date. I wasn't sure how that was possible, but at least I knew that I had a couple of hours before Melissa would get into her car and drive to her fate.

  I needed to find a place to sit and watch the parking lot without being noticed; I knew I could pull myself into a portal that would effectively turn me invisible, but what I had discovered about that particular portal was it made me exhausted.

  The apartment complex was located on the corner of a busy street; across that street was a bus stop and a bench. I headed over and sat down; it afforded me a fairly decent view of the parking lot.

  What I really was on the lookout for was Jeff Thomas, or one of his agents; surely one of them would show themselves. Would they do anything to the car? Or maybe just follow her? I wasn't sure.

  I was also struck by the weather: it was a clear, warm day without a cloud in the sky, and Melissa's accident happened on a rainy night.

  Scanning the horizon, all I saw was blue sky.

  Did it even mean anything? I wasn't sure.

  Now, you may be reading this and think I have a casual attitude on the subject of being able to prevent my wife's murder, but you'd be wrong. As I sat there on that bench, it was pretty much all I could think about, and the temptation to do something was incredibly strong. And for as much as my mind was screaming for me to prevent this tragedy, another part of my mind was equally vocal in its opposition to the idea; this was the part of my mind that was instinct, the part that had guided me so far in the use of my portal jumping ability.

  No, as much as it hurt me to do so, I was going to let this happen.

  As I sat and contemplated this dilemma, my mind suddenly filled with a familiar sound: the odd “ping” that told me another jumper was now in the area. Actually, I was picking up two distinct impressions.

  Could they detect me? I didn't think so, but just in case I filled my mind with a kind of white noise, a trick I had picked up 20 years ago but only just now remembered.

  The signals were faint, although it seemed they were slowly getting closer.

  Suddenly, the bright sunlight was gone.

  I glanced up: the sky had filled with clouds.

  Something was about to go down.

  Even more abruptly, the signals I had been picking up in my mind grew amazingly loud.

  They were coming, coming for me, I had no doubt.

  Without thinking of what I was doing, I pulled myself into the portal that would effectively remove me from reality.

  A moment after I did, Jeff Thomas and a woman I knew well appeared.

  It was Thomas and Lynne.

  My mind boggled at this; what was she doing here?

  “Where is he?” Thomas spat. “You said he was right here!”

  “He was!” she exclaimed. “He had been in this same location for the last half hour.”

  “Yes, but
where is he now?”

  Lynne closed her eyes and tilted her head to the side. After a few moments she said, “I'm not getting anything, boss. He's gone.”

  Boss? And Lynne apparently had been lying about her own abilities; she was full of surprises.

  “Are you 100 percent certain?” he demanded. “I know damn well he can...camouflage himself, somehow.”

  Lynne suddenly took a step forward and passed through me; I held my breath.

  “Nothing. He's jumped off, somewhere. I doubt he's gone for good, he's not going to let his wife get killed, is he?”

  Thomas sighed. “What, Charles Matheson change the past? He doesn't have the balls.”

  “Still, he's here for a reason, maybe he's going to warn her?” she paused, looking up at the sky. “Why would you bring me along for this? What if she sees me? Doesn't she have a sister in this world?”

  “She did,” Thomas said. “She 'died' a number of years ago.” He grinned. “I know, I was there. Terrible accident.”

  “That's creepy,” Lynne said. “All the more reason to not bring me along, we don't want her to have visions of her dead sister, do we?”

  “She's not going to see either of us,” Thomas said. “Not if we're careful. Besides, I don't have anyone else on my team that can produce rain on demand.” He looked up at the darkening clouds and smiled. “Right on cue. Pretty incredible, Lynne, and I know that bastard can't do it.”

  Change the weather? I marveled at that. I couldn't fathom how it would be accomplished with a portal jump.

  “Boss, I wouldn't underestimate him,” Lynne said. “You know he's the most powerful of all of us. I'm sure he could figure out how to change the weather if he wanted to.”

  I wondered about that. Could it be as easy as that?

  And if this was supposed to be a sunny day, with no rain in the forecast – and the weather that contributed to Melissa's death was somehow artificially created – would I really be changing the past by setting things right?

  Don't go there, the instinct part of my mind whispered.

  As these thoughts flooded into my mind, Thomas said, “Let's go take care of her car and get out of here. We'll deal with Matheson later.”

  “Fine,” Lynne said. She touched Thomas on the shoulder, and the two of them vanished.

  They were headed for the parking lot, and I headed that way myself, crossing the busy street and marveling as the vehicles passed through my body.

  They were going to do something to her car.

  At the parking lot, the hood to Melissa's car was open; Thomas was bent over the engine. After a few moments he was done; he slammed the hood shut.

  “There. A drain in brake fluid plus bad weather is always a bad combination,” he said.

  “She's going to be coming out soon,” Lynne said. “We should get out of here.”

  “Not yet,” Thomas said. “There's still time. I want to make sure she gets into this car.”

  “You know she is,” Lynne said.

  “I know she is, but I want to see it with my own eyes,” Thomas said. “I also want to see the...conclusion to this little adventure. I want to know that I've gotten my money's worth, so to speak.”

  “He knows your involved. Don't you worry about that?”

  Thomas laughed. “Not at all. What would he do? He has his principles. He's a Boy Scout.”

  “You underestimate him. That sounds like a bad idea. A man with his abilities could do...anything to you.”

  “Lynne, there was a time when I thought he was loyal to me, a time when I asked him to do something very simple for me, and he refused. Something easy. He was an idealist during the war, and I doubt that's changed much.”

  “He wonders why you're so...angry at him, he doesn't think he did anything to warrant your anger.”

  “The one thing that upsets me more than anything else is disloyalty,” Thomas said. “I did so much for him as a young officer, and when he shared with me that he had that amazing ability you have, I thought we'd work together, that I could mentor him and we could use that power to accomplish something. Threats to security could have been taken out. But he was selfish, he wanted to keep that power to himself. And when he could have used it to help me, he wouldn't.”

  “That's it?” Lynne said. “That's why you want him dead?”

  Thomas shook his head. “No, that's not it. He's dangerous. I've lost good men because of him. Someone like him can't be allowed to just...run around and have the power of a god in their head. He could cause the destruction of this entire world.”

  “He lives in a different world,” Lynne said. “Why don't you just let him live there and not bother him? Maybe he'll just stay there.”

  “That's not enough!” Thomas barked. “I don't care where he is! Just knowing he exists, even in a parallel world, is enough of a reason to stop him.”

  “You've gone to an awful lot of trouble to try and capture him. You've had the law changed, you've done so many things yet it hasn't worked.”

  Thomas looked at her. “You question my methods? That's the kind of disloyalty I don't like, Lynne. I can't have my agents questioning my methods. I'd have to arrange to have you...dealt with, and I don't want to have to do that.”

  At this point I was pretty anxious to have a chat with Lynne, which may not have been a great idea, but my anger was growing and it was hard not to say something to her.

  Before she could respond to Thomas, I stepped out of my own portal, grabbed her arm, and pulled her back into it with me.

  Thomas' mouth dropped open. “What the hell?” he exclaimed; he pulled his suit jacket aside to reveal a holstered pistol.

  To Lynne, nothing would have really changed (she didn't even seem aware that I had touched her) and she said, “Boss? What's wrong?”

  “He can't hear you.”

  She turned in my direction. “Why am I not surprised?” she said, trying for cool and collected and not succeeding. “I knew you were here. What have you done? Why can't he see me?”

  “Just a little trick I know,” I said. “What, you can't do this?”

  “I'm getting out of here, Charles,” she said. “You should do the same. He'll just return here with someone who can detect you.”

  “Fine,” I said. “Go ahead.” I stood back. She quickly closed her eyes. After a moment she opened them.

  “What have you done to me?” she said.

  “I haven't done anything,” I said. “You're free to go.”

  “I can't,” she said. “You're blocking me, somehow.”

  “Oh, that. Yeah, a little bit. Stay for a minute and talk to me.”

  “And if I don't?” she said.

  “You will,” I said. “Why wouldn't you?”

  “Fine,” she sighed. “What?”

  “Working with him, Lynne? Really? Since when?”

  “For five years,” she said. “We do great things. We've stopped brutal dictators, we've ended genocide in some countries, we've made a better way of life for a lot of people.”

  “And maybe the occasional murder?”

  She sighed. “I don't think taking out an enemy is 'murder' any more than kills in combat is 'murder.'”

  “That's a good way of looking at it,” I said. “Seems like what you're really doing is playing God. Although,” I said, “in this particular situation you are committing a murder. Of someone I love. And your sister, in a different world.”

  She wouldn't look at me.

  “How do you justify it?” I asked quietly.

  “How come you don't stop it?” she said. “Aren't you just as bad letting her die?”

  “It's not my place to do anything,” I said. “If you had a greater understanding of your own powers you'd recognize that. We're not meant to be screwing around with the past.”

  “And how would you know this?” she demanded. She glanced at Thomas, who seemed frozen in place. “What's wrong with him?”

  “Nothing is wrong,” I said. “Time can go much slower in this
particular portal, if I want it to. The reason I know it's wrong is because the same instinct that taught me how to do this told me so. Maybe you should listen to that voice.”

  “Sounds like bullshit rationalization to me,” Lynne said. “Thomas is right about one thing: you do horde your power and you do use it selfishly. You're a self-righteous hypocrite.”

  I ignored that. “And you're a liar. From the moment I came to this world you've lied to me, and everything you've done has just been a ruse to have me captured by your boss. Like when I 'rescued' you from his office, right? You even let him drug you to make it more believable.”

  “He's right: someone as powerful as you is a threat to the rest of us.”

  “And what do you think he's going to do with me if he does capture me, Lynne? Fine me? Put me in jail for ten years? He's going to kill me.”

  “If it serves the public good, whatever he does will be justified.”

  “Believe that all you want. I'm going to let you out now. I hope you sleep well after taking part in the murder of my wife.”

  “I'll sleep fine,” she said coldly. “And you could take him down right now, if you wanted to. What are you waiting for?”

  “This isn't the right time. I'll deal with him soon enough.” I touched her arm and returned her to Thomas. To his thinking about one second had passed. He blinked when she re-appeared next to him.

  “What was that?” he said. “What the hell?”

  “Matheson,” she responded. “He's gone.”

  “Jesus, he was here and you didn't do anything? What's wrong with you?”

  “There was nothing I could do, boss,” she said. “Come on, you want to see her dead, let's go do that.”

  “Fine,” Thomas said, but he looked pissed. “You're supposed to be the most powerful jumper and you can't stop him? Maybe I was wrong in recruiting you.”

  “I don't think anyone can stop him,” she said.

  They vanished.

  I stepped out of the portal and returned to normal reality. I headed back to the bench, a bit amazed that no one had been in the area to witness the bizarre spectacle of people blinking in and out of existence.