I sat there in the red room, wondering where Percy had gone.

“Sheila, do you have any idea what’s happening?” I whispered to her.

Her mouth hovered over my ear. “I think Dr. Perseus wants to show off his latest invention. It’s awe-inspiring. I think you’ll love it.”

The door swung open, and Percy propped it still. He pulled in a massive tripod and set it at the center of the room in front of a black leather chair. The tripod looked solid and durable, capable of balancing an anvil.

“Is this it?” I asked.

“It’s coming, Agent Wright. Please, I ask for some patience. Mickey, could you give me a hand?”

“Sure thing,” Mickey said, and he followed Percy out of the room.

I heard a door shut from the hallway, and then there was silence for a few minutes. A cart wheeled closer and closer until Percy and Mickey showed up. They had a mahogany trunk on a flatbed. Guiding it towards the tripod, they stopped, and Percy reached in and hauled out a black object that was smaller than what I was imagining.

“Thank you, Mickey,” Percy said, and when Mickey went back to the couch with Lori, I saw the device on the tripod.

My blood ran cold.

I stiffened up.

I became frozen.

I couldn’t take my eyes off what I was looking at.

It looked like a large, black human heart with a lens in the upper right corner.

Percy sat behind the device, turning knobs, clicking with each minor adjustment.

“Wh-what is th-that?” I asked.

“It’s a camera I’ve been working on, and this is a successful prototype. It’s my pride and joy. I can’t tell you how long I’ve been building this. And it works, it really works.”

“What does it do?”

“It takes pictures, of course.” Percy grinned.

“I see.”

“You must think I’m a real pile of shit, huh?”

“I never said that.”

“Correct, but I know you think it.”

“I don’t even think that either. You’re different, but we all are. Everyone has their eccentricities. You’ve done nothing to suggest that you’re a ‘pile of shit,’ yet. You’ve been a very gracious host, actually,” I said.

“Well, I’m sure you have your deep-rooted suspicions, and your instincts might be telling you that I’m guilty of something or another. Otherwise, why would you be here?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but Percy held his finger up.

“You don’t have to answer that question. But you know something, I truly do want to help you. And with your power alone, you can make all of this go away.”

“All of what?”

“Don’t be coy. I get what you’re trying to do, Agent Wright. You come here two nights in a row, you probably don’t remember much about the evening, and now you’re here a third time with the help of something I regrettably gave to my old friend. No matter what, you will pursue legal action against me, but it doesn’t have to be that way. I’m sure you want to arrest me, but you really don’t have to.”

“Are you trying to bribe me?”

“No. Not at all. I’m trying to help you like I said just a moment ago. Help is the keyword.”

“What could you possibly help me with?”

Percy smiled and took a deep breath. “Why don’t I show you, my friend. It’s so exciting because My colleagues here know everything I’m doing and what my ideas are. But you haven’t seen my work. I honestly think you’ll appreciate it.” Percy cleared his throat. “Leonard, Amber, say cheese.”

Amber and Leonard stood utterly still. Percy pressed a button on the top of the heart camera, sounding like a syringe sucking up a liquid. I couldn’t believe my eyes, nor my ears, but the camera began to beat like a heart. Percy pressed a second button, and a red flash beamed out of the camera. Paper slid through a print roller. The black heart device stopped beating, and Percy held a photograph in his hand. He beckoned me with his finger.

Sheila moved over, and I stood up from the couch. I looked at the deadpan Leonard and Amber and then at the grinning Mickey and Lori. I stepped up to Percy, and he got out of his chair and showed me the photo that the camera had taken.

It was a 5x5 photograph. Even though it was aimed directly at Leonard and Amber, the image was something very different.

It was a man sitting on a chair, reading a book underneath the open window in the middle of the day. This person in the photograph seemed to have no idea that a picture was being taken. His clothes looked like something out of the early 1900s. The picture quality was exceptional like it was taken by a professional photographer. I could see that the man in the photo was reading Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.”

“What is this? Why does this look so different? Where are Leonard and Amber?” I asked.

“Take a look at some of the settings I have on the camera. It might make a little more sense.” Percy pointed to the massive dial on the back of the camera with six rings.

Every year from 1900 to 2010 had a mark on the outer ring. Then the next ring had 1 through 60, and the following was 1 through 60 again. The next circle had the numbers 1 through 31, and another 1 through 24, and inside the tiniest dial was 1 through 12. There was a red hash mark at the top where all of the numbers could be lined up.

I read the markings at 1908 30:30:15 - 13 - 11.

“This is some kind of joke,” I uttered. I said it without thinking; had I been thinking, I probably wouldn’t have said anything. It felt like a prank, but at the same time, I didn’t imagine Percy being one to pull an elaborate joke like this.

“Believe it, agent Wright. The camera took a picture of this room at that exact point in time.”

“And what exact point in time is that?

“Let’s see. 1908, the year. The first 30 is 30 minutes. The second 30 is 30 seconds. The 15 is the day of the month. The 13 is the hour, so 1PM. And finally the 11, is the month, November. It’s laid out like this because I had to fit all the dials together into one cohesive ring. I didn’t want a bunch of separate ones. You understand?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“I don’t believe it. This photo is a reprint or something.”

“Look at the ceiling tiles. Don’t they look quite similar?”

I focused on the ceiling tiles in the room and the ceiling tiles in the photo.

My body was covered in goosebumps.

They were the exact same, except the current ceiling tiles were cracked in some spots but more worn out in comparison.

“Take another photo,” I said.

Percy snickered to himself.

“What’s so funny about that?” I asked.

“Taking a photo. It uses precious and valuable resources.”

“I’ll pay for you to take another, so I know you’re not kidding.”

“It’s not a matter of dollars, Agent Wright. But if you insist, I can take another photo. I’ll even let you adjust the dials as you see fit.”

“Take the picture out in the hallway. This could just be a setup where you always take photos here. How would I know?”

“Are you familiar with the concept of Occam’s razor?”

“Yes, and at the moment, the simplest solution is the fact that this is a prank. You’re pulling my leg.”

Percy took a deep breath. “Let’s take it out in the hallway then.” Leonard and Mickey both stood up and picked up a leg from the tripod. Percy helped them as well.

Walking into the dimly lit hallway, they set the tripod down, and Percy aimed the camera below the ground floor.

“Go ahead. I’ll let you adjust the dials this time,” Percy said. “This used to be a train station back in the day with an inn and a restaurant up above. The train station was active from 1900 to 1930, so go ahead. Take a photo down below. Make the adjustments you’d like. The train stopped here every hour, top of the hour.”

I adjusted the dial from 1908 to 1915 and to 7:00 PM (labeled 19). I also changed the month to March.

“Go ahead, take another photo.”

“This one is on your hands, Agent Wright,” Percy said as he pressed the first button. The black heart device began thumping like a heart. The sound reminded me of my own existence and my own heart beating away in my chest. It made me lightheaded for a brief moment, but I was quick to regain my balance. That syringe-sucking sound happened again, and Percy pressed the other button on the camera. A red flash illuminated the entire space.

The sound of print rollers pushing out a document returned. Percy held a photo in his hand. “Come with me. Let’s look at it.” Percy guided me back into the red room, and he showed me the photo underneath the light.

In full color, there was a train station illuminated with standing lights, people walking around in hats, and old clothing styles from 1915. The train was an all-black locomotive, shining with pride.

I stepped away from the photo. I thought I was about to pass out. “This is a dream. This is a dream.”

“It’s not, Agent Wright. This camera is the closest thing we have to time travel. I don’t have to tell you this, but can you imagine what we can accomplish with this camera?” Percy asked.

I couldn’t tell who was in the room. I had a rush of blood in the head. The only thing I could focus on was Percy and the photograph. Sheila, Lori, and Amber were probably still in the room, thinking I’d gone crazy, but it didn’t matter to me.

“I want you to take another photograph,” I said.

“Do you remember how I told you it uses valuable resources? Very precious indeed,” Percy said.

I nodded.

“I don’t care to take photos up and down my nightclub just to prove to you it works. I’ve already taken enough to show you how real it is.”

“It’s just hard to believe. It’s science fiction,” I said

“Yes, I know, it’s unsettling. But it’s quite the miracle, is it not?”

“What does it use to take a photograph?”

“I think you already know the answer to that question. You’re a smart man, Agent Wright.”

My breathing grew louder, my inhalations and exhalations were erratic. I tried gaining control of my usual rhythm, but I couldn’t.

“You seem so terrified, but there’s nothing to be afraid of. I wanted to use this camera to help you. We can forget about everything else, and we can use this to find Michael.”

How did he know?

I fell into a mental bear trap. Tears surged their way forward until they covered my eyes.

Percy put his hand on my back and rubbed my shoulder. “We are all friends here. We want to help you find your friend. Truthfully. With this tool, we can find Michael.”

The thoughts began racing through my mind of what could happen.

I would get in a limousine with Percy and his cronies. We could go back to my hometown in Michigan. Go to the abandoned building, turn the dials where they needed to be, and get to work in the middle of the night. Find out everything, narrow it down to the second, what happened and where. Get a perfect look and picture of the perpetrator, something we never got a hold of.

“Think about Michael’s family, and the closure they deserve,” Percy said to me.

You son of a bitch. You know precisely what you’re doing.

As an FBI agent, I have to be mature. There’s a level of mental toughness needed, and I always prided myself with that tenacity.

But it felt like it had been flushed down the drain.

I became a child again.

My emotions were raw and hollow in a way I had not felt in a long time.

Helpless.

“This all goes away with you, Agent Wright. I respect your work and what you do. Stick around town, keep investigating if you must, but in the meantime, we can slip out and help find Michael for you.”

“How do you know about Michael?”

“It’s not really important, is it? You did your research on me. I did my research on you. All is fair in love and war, and I love you as a friend. Please, Eddie, let’s find Michael together.”

It weighed on my mind like a thousand boulders. It was soul-crushing. I had to make a decision. I finally had a key. I finally had a break in my lifelong case. This was it. Just a little bit of corruption, hell, that happens from time to time in every occupation, but how corrupt is it if it would be saving a life, perhaps even more lives?

But is it the right thing to do?

I’ve never had the urge to throw out my badge until that moment.

I thought about the families of the victims.

John and Barry.

Mitchell and Carol.

Ray and Cole.

They were gone, and those six families deserved closure. Right?

“Let me think about it overnight. I’ll come back tomorrow,” I said.

“Fat chance,” Mickey said, walking into the room with a gun pointed at me.

“Mickey, what the hell are you doing? Eddie here is our friend.”

“We either do this tonight, or we don’t do it at all. I need his commitment, and I need him to give me his gun and his phone. And any other equipment he might have on him,” Mickey said.

I stood there, debating my options in the few seconds I felt like I had.

“I’m not feeling very patient today. Give me the gun and the phone. We’re finding your friend.”

“Mickey! You’re starting to get on my nerves!” Percy snapped, the room became silent. “Don’t listen to him, Eddie. We want to help you find Michael. Let’s just keep it at that, hold onto your gun and your phone. Mickey, lower the pistol, please.”

“Sorry, boss, I need to make sure He’s not lying to us. Eddie is a smart guy. He’ll understand.”

“Yes, of course. I’m with you, Percy. I think we should go find Michael. Out of a show of good faith, you can have my gun and my phone,” I said. Reaching into my pocket and my holster, I grabbed what I needed.

“Set it on the floor. Don’t look behind you. If you try anything funny, Leonard has a gun pointed at you too,” Mickey directed.

“Sure thing.” I set the gun and phone on the floor.

“If one of you ladies could be so helpful and take away Eddie’s items, that would be tremendously appreciated.”

Percy sighed. “Eddie, I’m sorry about Mickey’s sensitivity here.

Sheila came up from the side and grabbed the phone and gun. “I’m sorry about this, honey.”

“I get it. We haven’t known each other that long, so we need to establish some trust. I just wish I had some collateral,” I said.

“You’re insane if you think you deserve collateral from us. We are trying to help find your friend.”

“Yeah, trying to help find my friend while you took my belongings with a gun pointed at me.”

“And I’ll keep on pointing it at you until we leave!” Mickey shouted.

“Enough! I don’t want any arguing, nor do I want our guest here to feel uncomfortable. I think we should move out now. Amber, could you please bring the Escalade to the back of the building. We’ll load in the camera, and only some of us will go. Mickey, sorry, buddy, but with the way you’re acting, you’re not coming along for this trip,” Percy said.

“You’ve got to be kidding me?”

“Go ahead. You and Lori have the night off. Go back to your room.”

Mickey grumbled something to himself and put his gun away. He looked at Lori and shrugged. “Come on, let’s get out of here, Lor.”

Mickey and Lori walked out of the red room, and it felt like a lot of stress went with them. Although I didn’t trust Percy, he did a lot more to make me feel welcome and comfortable than anyone else I was near, including Sheila.

“Do you mind if we change back into our normal clothes?” Amber asked.

“Please do, ladies. Thank you for working this evening. I appreciate everything you two do. Let’s help our friend, and I promise to pay you some overtime for tonight,” Percy said.

Sheila and Amber left the room. On their way out, Amber said, “I’ll pull the car out back.”

“Excellent, thank you. And with that, Eddie, Leonard, let’s take the camera downstairs.”

The three of us put the camera back into the container that was wheeled inside. Before we put the lid on, I gave one last look at the horrifying invention. So many questions.

They wheeled the cart into the hallway and went down an elevator. Making it to the ground floor, we went to the back of the building, where there was one exit door but not even an exit sign for fire code purposes. I wondered if the fire marshal had inspected the place.

Going through the back door, a Cadillac Escalade was waiting for us with Amber at the wheel. Sheila opened the trunk, brought the cart over, hauled the camera into the empty compartment, and placed the tripod next to it.

My heart was racing, I still wasn’t sure if I could trust any of these people, but I didn’t have a choice. I wished I had texted Martha to come storm inside and start putting handcuffs on people, but alas.