Erased, page 17
There was no more mystery about why Swenson and her cronies knew Darius so well. It was obvious from the way he was talking that they were all colleagues.
They reached her block and Dani trolled slowly along it, searching for a place to park.
If Darius stayed a few more days, she realized, he’d be dead. She wouldn’t even have to kill him. But what if he transported back, recovered, then came back later to blow up something else? He could do that forever, coming back to roughly the same time frame every time, so it would seem like he had been here all along, even if he stayed away for twenty years. And he’d never be caught because he wouldn’t be here between crimes. That would explain how a man could elude the authorities for so long. Wow! That blew Dani’s mind. He must have a way to escape punishment in his own time because Swenson was going after him in the past. He had said that was a clever plan, so maybe it was. For some reason, he was vulnerable here in a way he wasn’t in the future.
“What did they tell you?” he asked. “Why are you supposed to kill me?”
“To stop your future crimes against humanity.”
He nodded half-heartedly. “Of course. They were smart to play on that cliché.”
If he was from the future and he committed his atrocities in the past, did he already know what he had done? Dani closed her eyes briefly, unable to comprehend the convoluted nature of time travel.
There was no available street parking in her block, so she pulled into a handicapped spot. Yeah, she’d get a ticket, but who cared? This car belonged to a ghost, and this was an emergency.
“My room’s on the third floor,” she said.
“Okay. We’ll go up together. My weapon will be in my jacket pocket. My finger will be on the trigger.”
He put her gun in his waistband, hidden by his jacket. After they got out of the car, he took her arm and leaned into her, the top of his head reaching her chin. She could feel the gun in her side through the clothing. She hoped he didn’t accidentally pull the trigger during a coughing fit. They walked into the lobby and waited for the elevator, which they shared with one of Dani’s neighbors, a middle-aged man with a badly scarred face and a marked limp. He’d clearly been through some kind of hell. His last name was Molson, which Dani only knew because of the mailboxes in the lobby. They had never spoken, but he gave her a polite nod of recognition. He glanced at Darius, then stared at the closed elevator doors for the rest of the ride up.
On the third floor, Dani unlocked her apartment door and led Darius inside. He removed his hand from his pocket, revealing the pistol.
“Get the beans,” he ordered.
She opened the bottom dresser drawer and took out the envelope. He snatched it from her hand, then opened it and looked inside. He sighed in triumph, then extracted the plastic bag and dropped the envelope on the floor.
“Can I ask you why you want those so badly?” Dani asked.
He gripped the baggie in his fist. “These beans can be used to make a medicine that can cure a horrible viral disease. The virus, known as MRV, is barely known in your time and causes nothing more than a few days of cold-like symptoms. In time, it will mutate to become more and more virulent. In my time, it’s usually fatal. It has killed millions. It’s our plague.”
“Plague. And these beans will cure it?”
He nodded. “We wouldn’t even know about these beans without Dr. Littleton’s research. She published an article about them in…well, next year for you.” He reached inside his jacket and pulled out an envelope, which he handed to her. “That’s the article. As she discovered, the beetle beans killed the virus quite effectively, but none of her contemporaries cared because the virus is nearly benign in your time. Even Littleton didn’t care much because she was looking for cancer treatments. This was just a footnote in her research.” He held up the bag to scrutinize the beans.
“Can I ask you,” Dani said, “how you knew Dr. Ruben had sent some of those beans to Professor Littleton? He told me he hadn’t mentioned it to you.”
“No, he didn’t tell me. I’ve been through the Littleton archives with a fine-toothed comb. On October 5 of this year, she made an entry in her journal saying that she had received ten black beetle beans from Genepac Industries. She was excited about it because she’d been waiting for them. I realized that Dr. Ruben may have sent them before his own supply was destroyed. It was a possibility, anyway, because of your primitive system of package delivery. I was about to ask him about it when you showed up on my time phase detector and interrupted our conversation.”
Dani quickly processed all of the new information, trying to make everything fit together. Suddenly she understood why Darius wanted the beans. His plan was to destroy them. These ten beans might be the only ones left in the world. If he destroyed these, along with the ones he had blown up at Genepac, the plague could never be stopped. Littleton would never be able to conduct her experiments, would never write the article and the cure would never be found. Maybe Darius had even brought the virus back with him, the killer version of it from the future. He could infect someone and they would infect others, and eventually…
He coughed again. Oh, my God! she thought. He’s the one. He’s Patient Zero. He’s infected himself and come back like a time bomb. Now he’s going to destroy the cure. That’s why he’s got to be stopped. Why the hell couldn’t Swenson have told me the truth?
Dani began to tremble, realizing she might have already been exposed, and who knew how many others? Maybe it was already too late. But even if he had already released the plague, she could save the beans and tell the world about the cure. She had to try.
The only weapon at her disposal was her Taser. She glanced toward the peg by the door that held her duty belt. It was only six feet away. If she lunged for it, he could easily shoot her before she could get it in hand, let alone get close enough to use it.
Darius put his hand inside his jacket and pulled out a silver tube. It was identical to the one she’d taken from Bryan and the one Hale had given her to transport back. It was his ticket home. Now that he had the beans, he was ready to leave. No! Dani thought, desperate to stop him.
Before he could use the beacon, his body succumbed to another round of coughing. It was the best chance she was going to get. She sprang at him and tore the gun from his hand. He reeled back, then reached his right hand behind his back to get to her gun. She shot before he could complete the move. He dropped to the floor, screaming in pain and gripping his left shoulder. His transporter beacon rolled across the floor, stopping at the wall. She fell on him, pushing him facedown into the floor and planting her knee in his back. She took her own weapon from his waistband, then released him and stepped back out of his reach.
Blood oozed through the sleeve of his upper arm. He rolled onto his back, whimpering in pain. She trained her gun on his chest. If somebody had heard the gunshot, they might call the police. Once the police got hold of Darius, she’d lose control. She had to finish him now. It was the only way. She aimed for his heart.
Chapter Nineteen
“Wow!” Miko said, shaking her head. “That’s the craziest thing I ever heard!” She took a long sip through the straw in her piña colada. “At least that explains why she wasn’t interested in me. Already married to you.” Miko laughed sharply. She was clearly amused, but Gemma could find no humor in this situation.
The bar was dimly lit and underpopulated. It was a neighborhood place with sporadic clientele. At seven thirty on a Thursday, there was only one other couple on the dance floor and one old guy at the bar watching a football game with the bartender.
“Why’d you want to meet here instead of Stormy’s?” Miko asked.
“Because she knows about Stormy’s and I was afraid she might show up there.”
“Okay, Gem, but I’m not going to quit going to Stormy’s for the rest of my life. That’s our place.”
“I know. Just for a little while. Right now I just really don’t want to see her.”
“I guess she’s got you pretty rattled.” Miko stirred her drink with her straw.
“I’m beginning to think all women are psycho bitches.” Gemma ignored her own drink, a blue Hawaiian.
“I hope you don’t think that about me.” Miko crossed her slender legs, sleek in sheer black leggings.
“I’ve always thought that about you.”
Miko shrugged. “Yeah, I see that. So I guess you’re not seeing her again.”
“Of course I’m not seeing her again! She can kiss my ass. Everything she said was a lie. It started out so well, that’s what really upsets me. She was so sweet and romantic and…” Gemma thought back to the night in Dani’s arms, at how wonderful it was and how excited she had been about the idea of Dani.
Miko narrowed her eyes, then nearly spat the straw out to blurt, “You slept with her!”
Gemma glanced at the other couple to see if they were staring, which they were. Frowning at Miko, she said, “Why don’t you take out an ad on TV?”
Miko spoke more quietly. “Very unlike you, girlfriend. What’s her secret?”
“I liked her. A lot. She seemed to understand me so well. There was chemistry. It felt right. Now I think it was all just an act on her part. She’s been stalking me, researching me, learning everything she could so she could trick me into sleeping with her.”
“Trick you?” Miko widened her eyes sarcastically.
“She knew exactly how to play me. She probably does it all the time. The whole persona, like the uniform, all phony.”
“If she’s just a player and she got what she wanted from you, why did she want to see you again?”
“It probably threw her when I didn’t want to see her again. She likes a challenge.” Gemma shook her head disparagingly. “Time travel. Geez!”
Miko sat back in her chair, looking thoughtful. “Is it really impossible? Do we really know that?”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously. Can you honestly say that time travel is impossible?”
Gemma shook her head. “How do I know? I don’t know anything about time travel.”
Miko waved at the bartender. When he looked her way, she pointed at her nearly empty glass. Having gotten her message across, she turned her attention back to Gemma. “Have you heard of the grandmother paradox?” She didn’t wait for the answer. “It’s a classic example given to show that time travel is impossible. A woman travels into the past and kills her grandmother before she’s married and has kids, thus preventing the birth of her mother and of herself. But if she was never born, how could she have traveled back in time?”
“So time travel is impossible.”
“Not necessarily. That paradox has several theoretical solutions. There’s the Novikov self-consistency principle, for instance, that says that any change to the past that would create a paradox would be impossible to make. But that doesn’t mean a person couldn’t go back in time at all, just that she couldn’t kill her grandmother.”
“Okay,” Gemma said uncertainly, then tasted her drink for the first time.
“There’s also the solution of multiple universes,” Miko continued. The idea is that if you travel back in time, you’re actually making a copy of yourself that appears in one of an infinite number of parallel universes. In the other universe, you can kill your grandmother, but in your own universe, nothing has changed. So in the alternate universe, you were never born, but that doesn’t affect the real you, and there is no paradox.”
“Multiple universes,” Gemma deadpanned. She wasn’t surprised that Miko could converse on the subject of time travel on a technical level. Gemma had known Miko for a long time, and she had seen her brilliant mind in action. In college, Miko took theoretical physics. Gemma took biology. Miko took differential geometry. Gemma took algebra. She didn’t just take those courses. She understood and excelled in them. A lot of people who met Miko assumed she was vacuous because of her behavior, but that was a defense mechanism she had developed long ago to avoid scaring people off.
“Another solution to the grandmother paradox,” Miko said, leaning forward on her elbows, “comes from quantum mechanics where all kinds of freaky things can happen. It’s hard to imagine this one on a human scale, but it appears to be possible at the quantum level. According to the laws of physics as we know them, the quantum superposition theory may solve the grandmother paradox.”
“The quantum what?”
“Quantum superposition. In this solution, both conditions can exist at the same time. You can both kill your grandmother and not kill your grandmother. Both are true and exist in parallel with one another. They form a kind of time loop.”
“This is fascinating, Miko, but what are you saying? Is time travel possible or not?”
Miko leaned back in her chair. “Nobody knows.”
Gemma rolled her eyes. “Okay, that’s enough of that. None of this is helpful. And, seriously, all this talk of killing your grandmother is depressing me.”
The bartender delivered Miko’s fresh drink. When he had gone, she said, “I guess the conclusion is that we don’t know if it’s possible, but we also don’t know that it’s impossible.”
“Naw, it’s crazy.”
“I see where you’re coming from.” Miko held up her index finger. “But just suppose, for the heck of it, just for a minute, that it’s true. She’s your wife. You’re happily married. You have a dog. My dog, improbably named Tucker. One morning she goes off to work, serving the public, staring danger in the face, but content in knowing that her loving family will be there for her whatever happens.”
“Is that some kind of criticism?” Gemma asked defensively.
“No! It’s just a story, right? I’m not saying it’s true. I’m just saying, let’s suppose. You and that scrumptious cop on a regular basis.” Her eyebrows went up suggestively. “Hot, right? I could see it. Yeah, I could really see it.”
“Okay, okay. Supposing it’s true, what should I do? Pretend like I’ve known her for four years? Intimately?”
“It wouldn’t be the worst thing. Hey, if you don’t want her, I’ll take her. I hear she likes my dog.”
Gemma couldn’t help but smile a little at that. Miko was good for her. Her offhanded attitude toward life helped put things in perspective. “But none of it is true. Unfortunately, she’s just a nut. She’s obviously been watching me for a long time. It gives me the creeps.”
“It’s too bad. I know you liked her, but she does sound like a total whack job. You’re right to stay away from her.”
“I don’t think she would hurt me. I think she really loves me.”
“Oh, sure, like Annie Wilkes in Misery, she’s your number one fan.” Miko lifted her glass and slurped up a mouthful of tropical slush.
“She knew exactly how to touch me,” Gemma said, mostly to herself. “Like a well-seasoned partner.”
“Did she use handcuffs?” Miko smiled wickedly.
“Dammit, Miko, why do I confide in you?”
“Because I’m your best friend, that’s why. So, tell me, did she cuff you?”
“I’m not going to tell you anything about it.”
Miko grinned and batted her eyelashes.
“No,” Gemma whispered. “She didn’t cuff me. There were no toys. Just…” Gemma stopped herself, on the brink of reliving the details of Dani’s skilled lovemaking.
Miko examined her face intently. “She really got you good. She could teach a class. Lesbian Seduction Scam 101.”
“I know what I said about her tricking me, because I was angry. But, actually, I’m leaning more toward believing it wasn’t a scam after all.”
“Seriously? Now you think she’s your wife in an alternate reality?”
“No, no. I think maybe it wasn’t an intentional scam. I think she might believe everything she told me. She seems delusional. She seems to believe she’s a cop on a manhunt for this guy named Darius. I wonder if he even exists. I hope he doesn’t. I’m really worried that she’s going to hurt somebody. She wants to kill this guy.”
“That’s scary.”
“I know. What do you think I should do?”
“What do you mean? You said you weren’t going to see her again.”
“Yes, but I should probably report her, don’t you think? Before she hurts someone.” She thought of Dani’s beautiful face next to hers on the pillow, how serene and hopeful that moment had been, how Gemma had thought she had finally found someone.
“Absolutely.” Miko nodded encouragingly. “For her own good. Not to mention this guy she wants to kill. You know, that’s how all these crazies are able to go on murderous rampages. The signs are always there, but nobody wants to interfere and report them. Then after they go berserk, everybody says, ‘There was something really wrong with him, I just knew it. He had a houseful of guns and went on whacked-out rants on Facebook.’ Hey, did you check her Facebook page?”
“I tried. There isn’t one.”
“Seriously, Gem, this woman should be turned in. If she really is delusional like you think and she’s got a gun and wants to kill somebody, you can’t let your tender feelings stop you from reporting her. They’ll arrest her for impersonating a cop, then she’ll give them the story about being from the future and they’ll send her to therapy to get some help. It’s the right thing to do.”
Gemma nodded uncertainly. She knew Miko was right. Even before talking to Miko, she’d known, but it helped to get advice from someone without “tender feelings” toward Dani.
Chapter Twenty
“Stop!” Darius screamed, desperately searching her eyes. “Please, don’t.”
She held the gun a foot from his chest, trying to pull the trigger. Killing a helpless, unarmed man went against everything she had been trained to do and everything her own conscience told her was right. But she had to stop him to protect countless other lives.
