Awake Page 23

  Assuming the time was correct, I figured Thomas could leave for the day at any time, unless he was one of those people who arrived early for work and stayed late.

  Which meant waiting for him in the conventional way, or not waiting at all if I wanted to speed the process up.

  I thought I'd wait like normal people did; it would give me time to think about what I was going to do.

  I was exposed, though, if anyone came wandering through here; it seemed waiting in Thomas' car might be the best bet. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I was seated in the front passenger seat. This way at least I could duck down out of sight if someone did wander by.

  The dashboard clock showed the same time as my watch, so at least I knew that was working.

  I wondered how long I would have to wait, and received the answer to that question a few minutes later, when Thomas emerged from the elevators.

  Accompanied by a half-dozen armed guards, all of them aiming automatic rifles at Thomas' car.

  Thomas was smiling, as if he had expected me to do this. He held up his hand and the armed guards stopped. He walked over to his car and stopped a few feet in front of it. Holding up a small bullhorn, he spoke into it. “Best to step out of the vehicle, Charles, otherwise I'll have these officers fill you with holes.”

  I wasn't sure exactly how he expected me to respond to that, considering he probably wouldn't be able to hear me. I glanced at the window to my right and it rolled down. Mind over matter.

  “That didn't work before, Jeff,” I yelled out. “And do you really want them to damage this nice new car of yours?”

  Now that the window was down he dropped the bullhorn. “The car is easy enough to replace, Matheson,” he said. “I'm willing to take that risk.”

  “Fine, let them shoot up your car,” I said, I'm not going anywhere. I concentrated again and the window rolled back up.

  That seemed enough for Thomas; he ordered the guards to fire.

  They did, filling the silence of the garage with the sound of automatic weapon fire, turning Thomas' nice new car into a hunk of steel and plastic.

  I watched all of this from behind Thomas and his agents. I wondered if they'd hit the gas tank and cause the car to explode, but as I thought that I picked up from Thomas' mind that the car was fully electric. So much for my guess about it being a hybrid.

  After a few moments the guards stopped firing; Thomas walked over to the remains of his car. I wondered how long it would take for someone to notice that I wasn't in the car.

  After inspecting the remains for a few moments, Thomas yelled out, “He's not here!”

  The guards seemed confused by that, seeing as they had all had a visual of me seated in the car. Had Thomas not briefed them on my abilities?

  Whether he did or not, it didn't take him long to realize what was wrong. He spun around, saw me standing behind the guards, and yelled, “He's behind you!”

  I wasn't in the mood to deal with them; I planted in their minds the suggestion to go to sleep, and they all collapsed to the pavement.

  “They all looked pretty tired, Jeff,” I said. “I thought they could use a rest while we talked.”

  He looked at me, blinking; I knew he had a pistol holstered under his sports coat. As he reached for it, I sent it off into space.

  He pulled his hand out and looked at me. “I take it you did something to my gun.”

  “You didn't really need it, Jeff,” I said. “Honestly, you and your guns. We just need to talk, that's all. A couple of old friends. No reason to introduce weapons into the conversation.”

  “You're dangerous,” Thomas said. He glanced over at the remains of his car. “No person should have the power you do and be allowed to walk freely.”

  “And who are you to make this decision? Who appointed you the arbiter of how I should be allowed to live my life? I don't even want to live my life here, in your world; I'm happy to live it in my own world and never step foot in your world again. You don't have my power, Jeff, but you have your own powers in this world, an influence on your government that's more dangerous than anything I can do. Just let me be.”

  “And we just take your word? That you wouldn't return here?”

  “You'd have to trust me, yes. Is that too much?”

  “From my point of view it is,” Thomas said. “Look at the damage you've already done. And you've disabled several of my agents. Do you know how much time and money went into training them?”

  “I don't have a lot of sympathy over your goon squad, Jeff. And where are the checks and balances to govern your actions? You're already guilty of murder.”

  “I don't have to justify myself to you, Charles. And it's not enough that we trust you not to come back here.” He held his wrist up to his face, presumably to look at his watch, but then he did something that took me by surprise: he pressed a button on the watch face and suddenly a portal opened, and before I could react he stepped through it and was gone.

  I shouldn't have been surprised that he'd pull something like that off, and I definitely wasn't surprised by what happened next: the appearance of several individuals, presumably more of Thomas' agents.

  It was a group of four men and two women, and what they all did at the same time was try to jam my thoughts.

  They did this by projecting white noise into my own mind, and for a moment it caught my off guard. I dropped to my knees as I tried to regain control over my thoughts.

  As I did, two of the agents, a man and a woman, raced towards me. They were dressed for office work, he in a nicely tailored suit, she in a smart pantsuit. Everyone looked like they might have worked as accountants or bookkeepers.

  I found with some effort I was able to drown out the white noise that had filled my mind. Now that I had control again, I was able to stop the two agents in their tracks, and after a moment I simply sent them away – back to their desks inside the building with no recollection of who I was. This I could do in my mind in a fraction of a second.

  The remaining agents, who had been following the other two, paused; they all looked at me, some with fright in their eyes.

  “Look, the rest of you should just leave,” I said. “I want to give you the option to do it on your own, but it's easy enough for me to send you away, like those two agents. You can't stop me, so there's no sense in even trying. This is just between me and your boss.”

  They looked uncertain; they had been given their orders.

  “Come on, be smart, just leave,” I said. “You can even keep your memories of me.”

  “He's going to kill you, you know,” one of the agents, a woman, spoke out. “You're just going to piss him off if you do anything to us.”

  “I can deal with an angry Jeff Thomas,” I said. “I can deal with all of you, too. And you know it.”

  I could see in their faces that they did know it; I knew many of them had been trying to take me down mentally and not succeeding. Some looked surprised that they hadn't been able to.

  After a few moments, the woman who had spoken out said, “Come on, let's go.” She and her colleagues headed for the elevator, glaring at me as they did.

  It was time to find Thomas. I concentrated and was able to pick up on his thoughts; there was someone else with him. It took another moment to figure out it was Lynne. I guess she hadn't taken to heart what I had said.

  I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I was standing near the shore to a large lake. A great lake, apparently, even larger than the ones in my world. It looked like the ocean to me.

  I made it a point not to materialize right in front of Thomas; I could see the shapes of two people off in the distance. Thomas and Lynne. I wasn't sure exactly what he was doing here.

  At least it was pleasant and cool here near the lake. The sun was shining, but obscured behind some clouds. This was a park area as well, with trees and greenery that reminded me of home.

  There weren't a lot of people here, at least not where I was. I could see a few boats out on the wat
er, and down the shore to my right were a few fishermen.

  It would have been nice to stay on the shore of this lake and enjoy the cool breeze and scenery, but this situation with Thomas had to be dealt with.

  What would I do?

  Originally I was just going to send him off into a portal with no destination in mind, but that seemed increasingly ugly to me – and the kind of thing he would do to someone.

  No, what I needed to do was something simple.

  I began walking towards where Thomas was – surely Lynne was aware of me by now. I wasn't even bothering to block my thoughts.

  I wasn't sure why Thomas had picked this particular location, and I wasn't entirely sure about what he thought he was going to accomplish. I could have pulled that information from his mind, but I just didn't feel like it. I'd had enough of him.

  I passed a few small groups of people enjoying the lake, most of them not paying much attention to me. I didn't want to create a scene here.

  Thomas and Lynne were still several yards ahead, but I was beginning to get a sense from both of them that they were watching me.

  I knew what was going to happen next.

  As I walked, the sense of Lynne grew stronger; she was preparing to try to do something to me.

  I stopped walking. Lynne suddenly appeared in front of me, and before she could do anything I looked her in the eye and said, “Go home.”

  A momentary look of confusion appeared on her face, and then, as suddenly as she had appeared, she vanished.

  Panic was coming off of Thomas in waves.

  He was thinking he'd pop out of here with his portal device, and to that I simply reached out with my mind and disintegrated the device.

  With the watch gone, he was now sending off strong thoughts of simply wanting to flee, and to that I responded with the suggestion that he not move.

  The panic intensified, with the realization that he couldn't move.

  I was getting closer; I could see the fear in Thomas' eyes now. Did he have a gun with him? A quick probe of his mind revealed the answer to be no.

  A few more moments and I was standing in front of him.

  “Hello, Jeff,” I said. “It's time all of this nonsense came to an end.”

  The look on his face suggested he wasn't ready for it to end.

  “I'm tired, Jeff. Tired of chasing you, tired of dealing with your agents. I just want to get back to my life now. Is that so wrong?”

  “You're not supposed to go free!” he finally said. “You're supposed to be dead.”

  “I'm not, and have no plans on being dead anytime soon. I still don't understand why it is you're so intent on capturing me, and I'm really having a hard time understanding why you want me dead. What have I ever done to you? So I didn't go back in time and prevent you from being captured that time we were shot down during the war. You were able to get someone to do it for you. That can't possibly justify everything you've tried to do to me, or the fact that you murdered my wife. You helped kill my parents, didn't you?”

  He sneered at me. “You think it's all about you, don't you? There's more to it than that. It's what you represent: all of that power and you don't have the will to use it for good; you just use it for yourself. You have no direction or purpose; you're dangerous because of that.”

  “I've heard that before, Jeff, and it still doesn't start to explain why you'd do so much to take me down. And going after my wife, my family, doesn't make any sense.”

  He laughed. “It doesn't have to make sense to you, Charles.”

  “I could just pull it all out of your mind, but I'm not going to,” I said. “I want you to tell me.”

  “I'm not telling you anything.”

  I sighed. “I didn't think so. I really want to know what you did to my parents. We're going to find out.”

  He didn't seem to like that idea.

  “What are you talking about?” he asked.

  “We're just going to take a little trip, Jeff. I want to see for myself what you did.” I touched his shoulder. “Come on, let's watch.”

  We vanished.

  * * *

  We arrived in a neighborhood I didn't recognize; this was still Thomas' world.

  Suburbia; most of the houses looked the same: single-story dwellings with pleasant green lawns and two cars in the driveway.

  “Where is this?” I asked Thomas.

  “I have no idea,” he lied.

  “Of course you don't, I just pulled this out of your mind and you don't know what it is. Fine, we'll wander around a little bit.”

  I could tell he didn't like that idea, either, so I simply gave him the suggestion to follow me.

  I wasn't entirely sure what we were looking for, aside from the fact that there was a future version of Jeff Thomas wandering around here.

  I wondered if I probed Thomas' counterpart from the future that he'd sense me and himself; if anything time travel played havoc with the mind in trying to grasp concepts like two different versions of the same person in the same area. I didn't pretend to understand any of it.

  It was starting to get dark; I figured whatever Thomas was up to in this time period, he'd be waiting for the concealment of darkness.

  Was he just going to screw with my parent's car, like he did with Melissa's car?

  Thomas never struck me as particularly creative, so it seemed likely to me.

  As we walked, I was waiting for something to trigger a memory of this area – where I had grown up, but nothing was happening.

  It was eerily quiet, and Thomas and I were conspicuous wandering around. “We're getting out of sight,” I told Thomas. Concentrating, I pulled us out of this particular level of awareness, making us invisible but allowing us to interact with the world around us.

  Thomas looked bored, and also looked angry. I was getting the impression he was leading us in circles. “Take us there,” I pushed. Pushing him too hard would have been counterproductive; he would have gone in any direction I had asked.

  He turned suddenly, to our left, and headed in the direction of a house on the corner.

  The house number was 222 (and we were on Maple Street, of course) and I thought that would trigger my memories, and I could feel something stirring in my mind.

  Why wasn't I remembering?

  I had no idea.

  We walked up the driveway of 222 Maple Street; it was empty of cars and the garage door was down. The door had windows we could look into.

  Thomas stopped. I peered into the garage.

  It housed one car, this world's version of a Buick sedan. I could see that the car's hood was up, but couldn't see much else.

  “Stay here,” I told Thomas. “I'm going in.”

  He looked at me, impassive.

  With a little concentration I was able to simply pass through the garage door itself.

  Once inside, I had a better view; in one corner of the garage Lynne stood, looking nervous. As I entered the garage she looked in my direction, but I knew she couldn't see me.

  I headed to the front of the car, where I found Thomas buried under the hood, doing something to the engine.

  “How are we doing?” he asked without looking up.

  “We're fine, no one knows we're here,” she replied. “Why are we here again, boss? We've already taken care of Matheson's wife, why this?”

  “The why is, I want to hurt him,” Thomas replied. “Isn't that reason enough? During the war his family was all he could talk about. I'm erasing that from his life.”

  I didn't recall talking about them all that often during the war, but I was discovering that, even if I had removed the memory wipe, there were side effects to it that even I was unable to repair: sections of my memory that were gone, like my memories of growing up here.

  Lynne looked troubled at his response but said nothing. His plan didn't make any sense at all; was she catching on that her boss was a little crazy?

  Thomas apparently finished tinkering with the engine; he slammed the hood of t
he car down. “There,” he said. “Brake failure, coming up.”

  “Whatever you say, boss,” Lynne replied.

  “We're going to get him,” Thomas said. “If it's the last thing I do. I'm going to make sure he's wiped out of existence, and until I can do that, I'm going to hurt him in any way I can.”

  “What are you going to do, kill his dog?” Lynne said, and then looked like she regretted it.

  Thomas smiled. “Why, that's a great idea! Does he have a dog?”

  “I thought I saw a bowl out front, maybe it's for the dog?” Lynne said.

  “Let's go take care of it,” Thomas said.

  I'd seen enough.

  I left the garage where my version of Thomas was standing, staring off at the sky.

  “Come on, we're going,” I said. He followed me.

  At that moment a memory did surface: a memory of my parents, talking to me, telling me our dog had gotten sick and they had taken it to the vet; the vet wasn't able to help, Roscoe had been put to sleep, he didn't suffer...

  All at the hands of Jeff Thomas.

  “We're heading back to our time,” I said. Concentrating, I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, we were back where we had started, near the shore of the lake.

  “You're quite the human being,” I said to Thomas. “You must be proud, being able to kill a kid's pet.”

  “If you had been in my position, you'd have done the same,” Thomas replied.

  “No, I wouldn't have,” I said. “For one, I wouldn't have been in your position.”

  “So I took care of your dog, big deal,” Thomas sneered. “What are you going to do to me? Kill me? You don't have the balls.”

  “You're right about that,” I said. “I don't have the balls. Killing doesn't agree with me, like it does with you.”

  “No? I didn't think so. So now what? Are you we just going to stand her yakking at each other all day?”

  I shook my head. “No, we're not going to do that. I have a better idea of what to do.”

  “Yeah? What's that?”

  “I'm going to take care of you,” I said. “You're the dangerous one. You're a crazy man with power. Someone should have dealt with you years ago.”