The mine cart took a sharp right turn and dipped, before suddenly beginning to rise. As the cart crested this latest hill, light shone up ahead. Derrick heard Elaine breathe a sigh of relief. He wasn’t sure he trusted himself to open his mouth again, after losing all the contents of his stomach a while back. The cart slowed at the top of the hill, stopping at the end of the track. There was very faint light surrounding them, and Derrick realized there was a cave wall in front of them that was blocking the light source.
“Well, we made it,” Elaine said, her voice shaky. Derrick climbed out of the cart and then helped Elaine down as well.
“I guess there’s nowhere to go but forward,” he said. “Unless you want to ride that mine cart back again.” He chuckled as Elaine’s face paled and she shook her head, then cautiously poked his head around the rock wall. The tunnel led straight outside, and Derrick could see that the light was coming from a very bright full moon. There didn’t seem to be anyone waiting for them, so he carefully stepped out of the cave, Elaine right behind him. They were standing in some sort of grassy area, but Derrick couldn’t see anything that might indicate where they were. As they stood there, the sound of a distant engine drifted towards them. It grew slowly louder, and Derrick stepped back into the mouth of the cave with Elaine. Eventually, headlights appeared, and a car went racing by on a road that he hadn’t noticed in the darkness.
“A highway,” Elaine said with relief. “It’s just a normal highway.”
“But why would the Switchboard have an escape tunnel that just ends in a highway?” Derrick asked. “You’d think they would want the escape route to put them out in the city or something. Which way are we even supposed to go?”
They were silent for a moment, thinking. Derrick was about to suggest choosing a direction randomly, when a chuckle from behind startled them.
“Humans are funny sometimes,” said a low voice. It was raspy and almost whispered, and it caused Derrick to jump and Elaine to yelp in fright. They scrambled away from the cave entrance and turned to see a figure in all black sitting casually on a small ledge above it. As they saw him, he chuckled again, and then dropped lithely from the ledge to the ground.
“Who are you?” Derrick asked, trying to keep Elaine from hearing the tremble in his voice.
“My name is Aventus,” said the man in black, bowing formally. He paused, as if waiting for something, and then straightened back up. Derrick squinted, but he couldn’t make out the man’s face. It was as if he was entirely in shadow.
“I see that you haven’t heard of me,” the man said, sounding more irritated than disappointed. “Cassia always did like to play things close to the vest.”
“Cassia?” Derrick repeated. “If you’re looking for Cassia, she isn’t here.” Aventus nodded.
“I can see that,” he said, his voice still a raspy whisper. “She has become quite talented at cloaking herself. Still, I think that perhaps you can lead me to her.” He took a step towards them, and Derrick instinctively moved away, putting an arm out to move Elaine. Part of his brain hoped that she would be fine with him moving protectively in front of her, and another part wondered how he could worry about such things with this threatening stranger advancing towards them.
“We can’t help you. We don’t know where she is,” Derrick heard himself saying. He wasn’t entirely sure why, but something about this man seemed off. Of course, that could just be the fact that he had seemingly been lying in wait for two people to step out of a hidden cave in Georgia. Aventus gave another one of his low, ominous chuckles.
“Very noble of you,” he said. “But you owe nothing to Cassia. Why hide her? Besides, I know that you were tracking her in the Switchboard.” Aventus took another small step closer to them. Even from a few feet away, his face still seemed to be in shadow. Derrick backed himself and Elaine up another step. He glanced behind him to see how close they were to the road. Too close, he decided. Aventus sighed, drawing Derrick’s attention back.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have much time,” he said. He drew a knife from somewhere on his person. The movement was fluid, almost natural, and it took a moment for Derrick to realize that a weapon was in play now. He glanced around wildly for an escape route, though something told him they would find it difficult to outrun Aventus. A glimmer of light caught his eye. To the left of the cave opening, behind a shrub of some sort, something was glowing. Derrick glanced back at Aventus, who was twirling the knife casually in his hand.
“I’ll ask once more,” he said, the rasp in his voice more pronounced now. “Where is Cassia?” Derrick glanced back at the glimmer of light. It seemed to be that something was hidden behind the shrub. A vehicle of some sort, perhaps? He figured that dying while trying to escape was probably preferable to dying while just standing here. He should say something to Aventus. Maybe he could distract the man before suddenly sprinting. Hopefully that would give him enough time to also drag Elaine with him.
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Derrick opened his mouth, but found that he couldn’t speak. His mouth was dry, and somehow he was too frightened to put his plan, small though it was, into action. Behind him, he felt Elaine grab his hand, and suddenly he had a different emotion contrasting his fear. Before he could speak, though, Elaine did.
“She’s with Eli Thorn,” she said, her voice full of determination. It was a simple statement, though Derrick appreciated what she was trying to do. Elias Thorn was obviously a name known across multiple universes. She was telling a vague truth in hopes that Aventus would let them go. Derrick, though, was certain that he would not. Surprisingly, however, this statement seemed to give Aventus pause.
“Eli Thorn,” he muttered, knife hand still outstretched. “The leprechaun?” Derrick realized this was likely the best distraction he would get, and he suddenly sprinted for the shrub, yanking Elaine’s hand behind him. She lurched after him with a yelp, and Aventus followed with a guttural growl.
Somehow, Derrick and Elaine won the race. They skidded around the large shrub ahead of Aventus to find a large tricycle. It had two seats next to each other, just in front of the back two wheels. Each seat had its own pedals, and there was a small knob in the center of the handlebars that looked to Derrick like a bicycle bell. He was crushed. He hadn’t expected to make it this far, but in doing so he had begun to hope they could escape the strange, knife wielding man behind them. There was no way they could escape on this. Still, he jumped into one of the seats and Elaine settled in next to him as Aventus arrived. The man, still seeming to be fully in shadow, laughed openly.
“The Switchboard always was old fashioned,” he said, still chuckling. “Thanks for the tip about Thorn.” He raised the knife. Elaine suddenly reached forward and turned the bell knob. The classic sound of a bicycle bell rang out in the night, and Aventus laughed again. Suddenly, Derrick felt the familiar ripping sensation of a multiversal jump, and Aventus shouted. The setting suddenly shifted, and Derrick found himself on the tricycle in the middle of a street. The moon was not as bright on whatever Earth they had found themselves on, but Derrick could still tell that they had arrived at some sort of town.
“It was a jumper,” Derrick said, looking over at Elaine. “Of course. You’re a genius.” She smiled at him and shrugged.
“It seemed like the only thing left to try,” she said. “I mean, this thing was obviously left for a reason.” Derrick was so relieved to have escaped, that he impulsively gave Elaine a hug. She leaned into it, and they stayed there for a long moment until Derrick suddenly felt self conscious. He let her go and stood up from the bicycle.
“Good job distracting him,” he said, as he tried to peer through the darkness. “It gave us just enough space to get to the bicycle.” Elaine nodded, but then her face fell.
“I didn’t mean to give him any clue about Cassia,” she said. “I thought that Eli Thorn would be vague enough, but he knew immediately who I was talking about.”
“No, it was what gave us an escape,” he replied, leaning down and briefly rubbing Elaine’s back in what he hoped was a comforting way. “Now we have a chance to warn Cassia ourselves.” Elaine seemed to brighten at this thought.
“Should we just jump to where we last saw her?” she asked. Derrick frowned in thought.
“I guess so,” he said. “We just have to hope that our message through the Switchboard got through to her in time and that she’s not detained by the IPF right now.”
“Only one way to find out,” Elaine said, putting her hand on the bicycle bell. Derrick smiled and sat back in his chair. There was a small popping noise, and a dark form appeared in a crouch out of thin air about ten feet in front of them. Aventus stood slowly and ominously.
“Find out now!” Derrick shouted, and Elaine twisted the knob.
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Aventus growled in frustration as his two quarries disappeared for the second time. Perhaps he was losing his touch after all these years, but it had been sometime since he had underestimated someone twice. Not that a second jump was much of an underestimation, but he hadn’t expected them to jump again so soon. He could track them again, of course, but it took effort to follow a multiversal jump stream. Maybe he was getting old.
He jumped back to his ship that was sitting back at the cave entrance on Earth-6. Once inside, he stalked up to the control panel, tossing his shadow cloak to the side. He looked out the viewport at the night sky for a moment, then queued up his computer.
“Where are you these days, Eli?” he muttered under his breath. Eventually, the computer told him that Eli Thorn’s last known location was on Earth-73.
“Ah, back at home,” Aventus said to himself, entering some coordinates for a jump. He paused before pushing the button. Had he just seen movement at the cave’s entrance? He stared through the moonlit darkness, but couldn’t make out anything unusual. It was true, then. He was getting too old for this job. He finished punching in the details, then hit a bright yellow button that caused the ship to begin hovering a few feet off the ground.
There was more movement out the window, and Aventus growled, leaning forward on the dashboard to peer out the window. Below him, he saw a small, strange animal disappearing under the ship. In his brief glimpse of it, he could’ve sworn it had been armored. Likely it had been disturbed by the engines coming to life. Aventus found it strange that the animal hadn’t been displaced by the earlier confrontation, but perhaps it had simply wandered over while he had been chasing those two. He pushed the strange animal out of his mind, then punched another button and the outside shifted.