One Verse Multi, page 14
“But you do suck,” Kiki managed to add.
Tidus considered me. Bowser nuzzled under my hands until I had his big head cupped in my palms. I knelt down, and the dog flopped over to let me rub his belly, thumping his tail against my thigh.
“Bow, you’re such a traitor. Let’s go,” Tidus said.
The dog rolled over and took his place at Tidus’s side. They started walking away.
“I said let’s go,” Tidus called to me with a genuine smile. “I’m picking the restaurant, and we have to drop Bowser off at the apartment. I’m going to send your picture to my mom so if you murder me, she knows who to look for.”
“Deal.” I practically cheered.
* * *
Tidus lived on the third floor of a condo complex he rented from an old couple who he used to housesit for. They moved to Boca Raton last year, and he agreed to keep the apartment until one of their grandkids wanted it. Paradise wouldn’t last since a grandkid was set to graduate college next year.
“Sounds like a great deal.”
“I’m a barista living alone in South Florida. I’m unashamedly taking advantage of them. But they don’t care. They love me.” He took out his keys and let us all into the apartment. Bowser bounded to the living room and started rolling on the floor, leash and all.
“Very cool,” I said.
“I’m going to find a shirt with sleeves. Just have a seat,” Tidus said. He hurried toward his room, and after a second, a door closed.
The boxes of cereal were all still on the counter. I sat at the island, one stool over from where I had observed Tidus sitting that morning. I picked up the box from the kosher market. Mason said the lettering was Hebrew.
“This is kinda intense,” I called.
“What?”
“The volume of cereal you have.”
I could hear him half laugh, half groan. “It was an experiment.”
“On what?” I asked.
I wondered if it was going to be that easy. I could just stay on this line of questioning. But there was no immediate answer from the bedroom. I pulled a different box toward me as I waited. The boxes were completely full, but I knew Tidus wouldn’t waste the cereal.
“What was the experiment?” I asked again louder, figuring his lack of response was because he hadn’t heard me.
“That’s weird,” Luca chimed in. I didn’t respond to him. I just tapped near the communication device three times to signal I was listening.
“His location changed?”
I stood, nearly knocking back the stool. Bowser slowly moved toward where Tidus had gone. His low growl was surprisingly scary. We stood side by side looking down the hall. By location Luca could only mean in the multi-verse, which was nearly impossible for Tidus.
“Tidus?” I called.
“Martin!” Luca’s voice was unfiltered panic.
“Tidus!” I screamed.
The door to the bedroom opened, and a huge shadow filled the hall. It was too wide for Tidus. Bowser and I seemed to have the same thought, and I stomped on the dog’s leash as he inched forward, growl rising.
“Hello, Martin,” the shadow said.
I knew that voice. Bowser snapped and pulled on his leash. When he realized I wouldn’t give him ground, even though he could have easily taken it, he crouched. The shadowed man came into light, and I stared into the face of Don Brady.
“Who the hell are you? What did you do to Tidus?”
“I think you know who I am,” Don said. He looked like the MVP founder, except he had a full head of sandy hair and was dressed in a polo and slacks. He gave the vague impression of being a floor manager at a mattress store.
“That doesn’t answer the question,” I said. “I’ll let this dog go.”
As if he was just waiting for me to make a threat, Bowser growled louder.
“Who is that?” Luca said.
“Tidus is alive and well for now. In fact, they both are.”
I blinked. “What does that mean?”
I had asked the question more to Luca than Don. If Luca could still see him, if the drone was still transmitting his longitude, latitude, and frequency, then Tidus was in the observed multi-verse somewhere. That meant Luca could find him.
“Shit, I don’t…he…his QD says he is in A-Class universe 2942GOZ.” Then Luca said what I was thinking. “That shouldn’t be possible.”
“Don’t play dumb, Martin. I came to talk to you. Tidus is just going to be a little insurance so I can be sure you understand how seriously you should take us. We only have a few questions. I know you have a way of locating him, so for the Tiduses’ sake, I would recommend you come. You have ten minutes.”
I heard what Counterpart Don said, but my brain had stalled out on the idea that Tidus was in another A-class verse. This Don had somehow found a way to get Tidus in a universe with another Tidus without them converging. Don moved toward the living room, and Bowser shifted to keep him in his sights.
“What the hell could you possibly want to know from me?” I said, refocusing on Counterpart Don. But Don just looked at his watch, then adjusted what at first appeared to be a name badge on his shirt. Then he was gone.
Section 15
Sounds like a trip to therapy
“What the fuck was that?” I screamed, racing to stand where Don had disappeared from.
“I don’t know. Don—our Don, is still here. That is a counterpart. I can’t see him in the data.”
I took a breath. The air was clear. It smelled like Bowser and canned air freshener. The lack of peanut butter smell, my tell for people crossing the multi-verse boundaries, told me he hadn’t tuned into or out of this verse.
“He didn’t tune to get here,” I said. “He had a device. It’s multi-verse tech but different from ours.”
“Convergent evolution,” Luca gasped. I could faintly hear frantic typing in the background. I suddenly wished he was with me in person. I wished I could see his face. It felt silly and new to want him in that way.
I raced down the hall to the bedroom, Bowser at my heels. The door was open, and the room beyond was empty. The shirt he had been wearing was on the bed. Bowser nosed around the room. When he didn’t find Tidus, he ran back down the hall toward the bathroom. We both heard the front door open at the same time. He bounded past me back to the living room, leash whipping around my ankles. I followed and was able to see Kiki enter the house just before Bowser leveled them. Bowser was happy to see Kiki, as if he knew they would help. Kiki, on the other hand, was practically shrieking.
“Jesus, stop,” I said. I tried pulling the dog off, but that was beyond my abilities. I took a step back and repeated a command in the most Tidus voice I could muster. “Bowser, let’s go.”
The dog heeled instantly. I picked up the leash.
“What the actual fuck?” Kiki said, rolling off the floor.
“Sorry. He’s worried.”
“Not the dog, Martin, you dip. What in the fuck? Was that really a Don?”
I sighed and ran my hand over my face. “Shit, I have to go after him.”
“Martin—” Kiki said.
“Martin—” Luca said.
“No, listen. This is a big deal.”
“I’m not stopping you, but what can I do? What can you do?” Kiki said. Luca was silent.
“I don’t know. I need to think.”
Kiki looked around and looked at the dog. “Think out loud.”
“I need to get Tidus out of there. I need to hear what they want. A, it’s a counterpart of a Don, so I have no doubt that he’ll find me again and he’ll find anyone he needs to get what he wants. Then, B, there’s tech out there that can move people through the multi-verse, but it’s not controlled by us and that’s a problem. And three, he knows me by name. Or was that C? Four?”
“Martin,” Kiki said. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”
“Don’t rift repair technicians have escape procedures?” Luca said, his voice low and bland. “Shit, someone is coming. I’ll be back.”
“He’s right,” I shouted, remembering.
A few years ago, rift technicians started going missing, dozens by the time we could get the coordinators to do anything about it. The real turning point was because Margo, the founder who recruited me, disappeared. The coordinators put together a team and designed escape protocols. I had a feeling the other founders cared more about Margo than the technicians, but we got our safety system anyway. I was part of the protocol design group. We must have done a great job, because no technicians have gone missing since.
“Right,” I said. “Pull out your sequencer.”
Kiki did as they were told. I took mine out and practically dumped my backpack on the floor to get to the Tupperware with the drones in it. I hurriedly typed code, waking the drones.
“Okay, Kix, I’m going to release a few thousand drones. I want you to sync with them and then sign your phone over to me.”
“So, I’m without my sequencer. Am I staying here?” They did as they were instructed, but their voice made it clear how little they liked that idea.
“Yeah, I need you here to keep talking to Luca. Besides, I don’t think Counterpart Don knew you were in this verse with me. And if he doesn’t know you’re here, all the better for me. If you need it, Luca can snag your drone and pull you out of here.”
“What do you mean?” Luca asked.
“Good, you’re back. Do what I tell you.”
“Okay, make it fast. There’s an issue in the meeting, and I don’t know how much time I have. They might be coming back to the lab.”
“Right,” I said. While I talked, I programmed a few escape protocols on my sequencer. “Each sequencer has enough power to tune a human what, ten times at the most, if you’re not using the other features. Well, it’s the same process drones use. If you shut off all a drone’s functions except location and then burn the total sum of its energy, you can tune a person at least once, twice if it’s freshly charged and the person is small enough. Luca, all the Tidus drones are linked to the computer in your lab. I want you to release Fox Tidus’s drone to my sequencer. Then I want you to pull up the there-verse Tidus. We’ll tune him out of there if we have to and send him to a nice empty verse until the danger is over.”
“Sounds like a trip to therapy,” Kiki said.
I looked at them and laughed. I felt like crying, but I was glad I wasn’t alone.
“On it,” Luca said.
“Also, pull Kiki back if you need. Keep my drone on standby, but don’t pull me out till I say so. As a signal, I’ll just say your name since I doubt anyone there will be called Luca. I’ll also have two sequencers. I have a few tricks up my sleeve.”
I set Tidus’s drone to its own escape protocol. Then I programmed each protocol to a speed dial option on my phone. When Kiki handed me their device, I did the same as I had done with mine. And that was it. That was all I had at my disposal to impact the situation.
I considered my plans. In my guts, I knew it would be dangerous. This Don threatened to obliterate two Tiduses and maybe even a handful more people just to get me to talk to him. The image of the painting of one Dugan staring at another one drowning under the ice came to mind. Don could and would destroy two universes if he needed to. And that kind of person knew my name.
“Man, I hate being popular,” I said out loud. I put Kiki’s sequencer into the bun of my locs and tightened my hair tie.
“Can you see it?” I asked them.
“No, but also why?”
I grinned. “If you were about to be searched by a white person, do you think they’d check your hair?”
Kiki smiled and shook their head. “What about the other one?”
I thought about putting it in my pocket, but that seemed both obvious and inaccessible. I couldn’t risk Don getting it since half my plans depended on it, not that he could use it with the security protocols being as extreme as they were. My only option was to hide it. And I realized I should hide the drones, too. Nothing was more suspicious than my empty-looking Tupperware container. I considered the room. There was Bowser. There was the kitchen island, a bowl of fruit, a coffee cup, the boxes of cereal—the boxes of cereal!
“I got it,” I said, snapping my fingers. I got a box and opened it. Tidus had started eating that one, the mangled plastic bag doing little to keep the cereal from spilling out into the cardboard. Before I reconsidered, I dropped the sequencer inside.
“You’re insane,” Kiki said.
I shrugged. “Escape training was about two things: hiding in plain sight and bluffing.”
“Absurd.”
“You would’ve been great at it,” I said with a wink.
“I’m ready,” I said.
Kiki made a dismissive gesture. “What? Don’t want to pack a butcher knife or something fucking useful?”
I laughed. “Naw, it’s fine. I wouldn’t know how to use that anyway.”
In a last-minute impulse move, I poured all the drones into the cereal box. It probably looked weird, pouring a near vapor of humming microcomputers into sugar O-shaped cereal.
“Martin, you’re going to be on your own for…well, I don’t know how long. I can hear them coming. Please be careful. I’ll be listening. God, this is stupid and I hate it…good luck.”
“Wait, two more things,” I said.
“What?” Luca asked.
“Go on a date with me,” I said, feeling alive and worked up because of the adrenaline. Kiki’s eyebrows jumped practically off their face. I heard Luca’s warm laugh.
“Ask me again when this is over. What else?”
“When I say go, tune me to that verse.”
“God. You just said that will burn out your drone!”
“Luca, it’s okay. I have ten thousand more. I also just sent you a link to a second one for me. If all else fails, you’ll know what verse I’m in, and I still have my com so you can track that. I just don’t want to risk messing up my programing—”
“Shit, fine.” There was a beat where all I could hear was typing. Then he breathed. “Okay. Ready.”
Kiki stepped up to me and hugged me. I hugged them back. Bowser tried to get between us.
“Okay,” I said when Kiki was back at a safe distance. “Go.”
Section 16
Think of me as a keynote speaker
I blinked and found myself in an apartment. It was nearly empty and still smelled like paint. Well, like paint and peanut butter now. Maybe the building was new. The first thing I saw was Don standing by the windows. Tidus was sitting in one of five metal folding chairs. He jumped, visibly stunned, when I suddenly appeared.
“Martin,” Tidus said. His face was pale and his eyes enormous. I could feel his panic. I tried to smile at him.
“All right, you have my attention,” I said, going for cool, turning slowly clockwise to take in the rest of the apartment. I didn’t let Don out of my sight, keeping him in my peripheral. “Seems to be a few people missing.”
“Really?” Don asked, turning finally from the window.
I reached inside the open cereal box. I wondered what it would look like to ingest a handful of drones. I didn’t try it. I shuffled the contents of the box and turned on my sequencer, pretending to eat some by putting my empty hand to my mouth. I could feel the drones buzzing through the cardboard, waiting for my commands.
“You said we would like a word with you.”
The only hallway in the apartment led off to my left. I stood at a forty-five-degree angle to both Don and the hallway so I could see him and down it at the same time. That meant I was looking straight at Tidus. His eyes didn’t leave me, but I couldn’t let mine linger on him.
“I don’t know shit,” Tidus said. “And frankly, I don’t want to know. I don’t even know his last name. Wait. I remember it, but that’s cheating because his name is what it is. I don’t know anything about how I got here or who you are.”
“It’s all right, Mr. Avery. We didn’t suspect you did. We’re here for Mr. King.”
“We again. So, let’s see ’em,” I said, gesturing to the room at large with the box, cereal crunching inside as it shifted. Tidus and Don were mostly in a living room. I was mostly in an entryway, and there was a kitchen behind Tidus. I could see five doors down the hall, but the weird part was the place was carpeted.
“Who has carpets in Florida?”
“That’s what I said,” Tidus said.
A high voice came from one of the bedrooms. “Let’s move this along.”
A woman stepped out and started down the hallway. She was a brunette with short, flat hair and thick makeup. She reminded me of a Twiggy-era model. She was wearing a pencil skirt with a gray hoodie and tennis shoes. She looked like she was going to brunch rather than a kidnapping. I knew her right away as the counterpart of the founder Josephine Hudson.
It almost wasn’t a surprise. But it was interesting. Founder Don discovered a rift on the back acres of his home in Alaska, then he recruited lead scientists to help him investigate it. Founder Josephine was top in the field of quantum physics. Like the founders, these counterparts were working together. I could see counterpart Don, like founder Don, experiencing a multi-verse event. Then he found counterpart Josephine to help him.
I assumed they were here-verse. Josephine wasn’t wearing a badge, so she didn’t have whatever tech had allowed Don to find me in the FOX-verse. Tidus had a badge pinned haphazardly to the back of his shirt collar, though. I looked back down the hall. They needed two more founders to complete the team. A heartbeat after Josephine took a seat, two sets of arms emerged through the door, and two men tried to leave the room at the same time.
“Damn it, Justin,” a warm tenor snapped.
“Sorry, after you.”
