Chapter Twenty-Six
What is not sacred... is secret.
Rome, Italy.
Wednesday, March 21. 10AM. 125 S.A.
It had been barely two days since Monday, but for Lee the hours had crawled by in such a way that it seemed as if many more days had passed.
Monday afternoon he had been Deep-Dived by a metahuman from the SID Station in Rome, accompanied by the fey girl named Van and Eeger. Both had been present at the procedure, and tried to get him to relax so that the reading was as clear as possible for the mind reader.
The procedure had not been painful or anything. He had already been subjected to that procedure a few times when he was younger by the social services, to find out something about his past, but there had been no result whatsoever. Everything that had been his childhood just wasn't there. Now, by the same token, if they had tried to discover anything about his connection to criminals, they hadn't discovered anything about that either. Lee did not know the criminals.
He already knew that, but the others had to be sure anyway.
Van seemed worried that he might be kidnapped, given what had happened in Edinburgh, or even worse given what had happened to the girl named Sil Moore and had therefore ordered that he was to remain in the hotel under SID custody.
That put paid to Lee's plans to spend more time outside his apartment, and enjoy the weather of the new season, even though the mornings were still cool.
Since he could do nothing but move around the hotel while being guarded, he had worked out in the hotel gym, practiced swimming, played some video games in his room and, most importantly, tidied up his papers. Although he was used to the mess in his apartment, he had done it to distract himself from his situation and also to think about what had happened in a rational way.
After the interrogation, that woman named Van had said that he might be the target of the criminals who had caused the alarm at the Holy See. Why him? He had nothing particular to be a target.
Then there were those questions Nevermore's agent had asked him. Why had she asked about his hobby with the subject of time? It was all very strange. Although he couldn't blame the girl given the discretion with which the SID worked.
Anyway, to clear his mind he had tried sorting papers, doing the laundry, watching the roomba traverse the apartment floor, watching a movie or using a virtual reality headset to connect to a shooter game on Another Earth. Since he didn't own a Neurowire he had to use that every time he wanted a deep immersion in some virtual reality environment, as using the interactive contact lenses was too tiring for that purpose.
Doing a little sorting he had found memories of his time at the orphanage, and that at least had distracted his mind for hours. Interactive pictures of the other children, the Sister Claire, the rest of the others sisters and the couple of priests in the nearby chapel. Sifting through some more he had even found things that had marked his entire life.
And that was what he was focused on at the moment.
The old physics books that he had found in the library of the orphanage and that none of the children read because they were tedious. Although those books knowledge were still even used for academic historic subjects, and were basic readings, they were also outdated, since they were books written in the mid to late 20th and early 21st centuries of the Ancient Era.
The concepts had been updated with the incorporation of new knowledge, fractus technology, and the development of what many called neural evolutionary magic, the DEs and their disruption of the laws of physics but, even so, the basics had not changed much.
Lee found a stack of those books and, sitting on the floor of the apartment he had spent a few hours remembering it all, while the roomba's protested around him bouncing. Lee flipped through the pages looking at the parts he had highlighted himself with highlighter. They were things that had interested him as a child entering his teens.
There were many titles with varied science topics.
History of Time by Hawkins, Readings in Physics by Funnyman, Hyperspace by Lehman, Other Dimensions by C.W.Russell, The River of Memory by Jared Ford, The Mystery of Time by Leteo Waters, The Mythopoeia of Time and The Bicameral Mind by R.Carter, Portals and Other Time Machines by L.W & DiMatus, Hyper Drives by M.A. and the Frontier of Space series, a tetralogy written by Charles Shagan.
They were all physical books, which was a rarity, and he found it very amusing to remember them all, and to see his own traces mixed up in them. He had put on his contact lenses and had also taken a roll call of the digital books in his library. So much time had passed since then, it seemed like another lifetime. The truth was that many of those books were the ones that had sparked his interest in the universe, astrophysics, particle physics, engineering, time and the mind.
He was already twenty-seven years old, but in spite of that he did not feel that this was his age. Perhaps it was because he had lost his memory of his first twelve years. But for him time was a strange concept that worked strangely in his life. He had fifteen years of memories and twelve years of lost memories, but to him it felt as if those fifteen years had been more because he had done so many things in that time. Studying, learning to handle languages through devices, more studies, and all without neglecting his teenage life. Then graduating from college, with the best grades, and access to an academic professorship at a young age. In fact, while there were professors who looked as young as he did, that was because many had given up their FDC and had agreed to longevity at a young age to preserve their looks.
He could have done so, but he had judged that he would wait until he was at least thirty to decide if he wanted to do so.
He was still immersed in his thoughts, about what he would do in a few years about it, when he felt a soft knock on the door of the room. He pointed to the door with one hand and with the other hand he made a movement in his eyes. Almost instantly the image transmitted from the intercom appeared in his eyes. On either side were the two people guarding the door, and in the middle, looking directly into the intercom camera, he saw Van's pink hair with a serious gesture.
"Come in!" Lee said, not knowing what to expect from the fey girl's expression.
***
Van scratched her forehead. It had been itching her for several hours, even though she had no insect bites. But it was something else that worried her. She had been thinking about how to approach the situation and what exactly to say to Lee.
The situation from Monday until that morning had had several unexpected developments.
She had accessed information through channels other than the official ones. The Intelligence Department had these capabilities, and they handled their affairs in secret, in conjunction with the Counterintelligence Department, and both were subject to Internal Affairs at the same time.
Sometimes both areas had to handle their sources without telling the main intelligence department how they had obtained the data, or perhaps revealing the information later, when the waters had calmed down. This was to keep other areas of the SID, such as the special agents area, out of suspicion. Because the special agents needed the cooperation of state and international agencies, such as the police or military forces, they had to avoid generating friction that could lead to mistrust of them. For this reason, Van, and other members of the Intelligence and Counterintelligence Department, often had to handle their information without saying anything to other areas.
While intelligence and counterintelligence worked together, intelligence was dedicated to clandestine work and obtaining information through anti-terrorist cooperation agreements. Counterintelligence was solely dedicated to the work of protecting information and uncovering spies or individuals carrying sensitive information out of the Nevermore Institute.
The Kolsay case had been different, because Mai and Shin had acted undercover, which was a standard procedure within the special agents' protocol for conducting investigations. Although they had both taken the necessary precautions to put out of suspicion how they had obtained the information, Virginia Mortenson still had to put out the fiery fires of suspicion through diplomatic channels and with the help of the Council.
In the Van case she often had to move in the shadows but, in the Vatican case, she had access because of the agreements for cooperation and prevention of DEs and events that might involve a terrorist attack.
However, she had been deciding how to tell Lee about the unfolding events that had occurred since Monday.
She had first been relieved when, at about six o'clock in the evening, after Lee Reubens had been Deep-Dived, the report had come in that the criminals had been captured in Turin and transported in custody to the Pyrene Station in Grenoble. The Pyrene staff would be interrogated them and deep-dive them as well.
Deep-Diving required the permission of the person in question whose mind would be scanned, but this right did not apply in cases of murder and related to terrorist events, which did apply to both criminals, since it was not known what they had done with Sil Moore's body, nor how they had obtained materials that were forbidden to use in urban centers.
That had changed in part thanks to Pyrene's Deep-Dive, because the identity of the criminals had been established. Both had remained under the radar for a long time and in fact there was no record in their profiles prior to what happened in Edinburgh.
In fact there was nothing about them except for certain childhood files, which were protected by the child protection courts in their respective countries. This meant that there were details of his childhood that were problematic, but there was nothing of his adulthood. Either they had been off the security radar for a long time, or they were very good at hiding the steps on their criminal path. Almost all the details that were known now were thanks to Pyrene and the Deep-Dive.
But there was something else. They had managed to establish what had been done with Sil Moore's body, which had been handed over to certain people in Edinburgh. From the clothing of those surrounding the apparent leaders, they appeared to be from the same group that had attacked the police and FRT leader team Jim Stuart on the abandoned pier. Facial recognition had been run, but the two people who had spoken to the criminals did not appear in any database.
The strange thing was that even at that point the Deep-Dive had failed, and they could not access what happened afterwards. It was not known how they had reached Rome, nor how they had obtained the materials to get to the tunnel.
Van should have been on her way to Grenoble, to coordinate the transfer to a safer place, when the news arrived that the identity of the body found in the tunnel was known. This had shocked her and all the staff at the Rome Station, but it had nothing to do with the case, even though the information was immediately sent to Siren Island due to the sensitivity of the subject.
Van sent Lee home with custody at about 8:00 p.m., and for a few hours she wrote the reports at the station to handle the case.
Thanks to her status she had rented a room nearby and had slept for a few hours, when she was awakened by what had happened at Pyrene Station early Tuesday morning, where the criminals had been held. A lightning attack with tactical droids to rescue them, along with the device they had stolen from the subterranean tunnel. The identity of the main attacker who did the major damage was unknown, although no one was killed.
Because of this the alarm did not go down in Rome but went up again, as if there were more involved there was a possibility that the Holy See and Lee were still being targeted. Although, since the thieves had fled in Turin, Van considered it unlikely that they would return to Rome with the level of security in place at the time.
Van spent the morning hours receiving reports of both what was happening in Grenoble, as well as reports of Lee's activities in the building. Around ten o'clock in the morning, a new alarm was raised in France, due to a sanitation operation, although Nevermore FRTs would help in the situation.
For several hours nothing changed and Van used her time to see what was happening everywhere, although nothing happened, until the early evening hours, between the border of France and Switzerland.
A military information blockade had been set up, so Van did not find out about the plane that appeared out of nowhere until eleven o'clock at night. Information was trickling in from the scene, but it seemed that firefighters, soldiers and special teams from both countries had been deployed to control the fire due to the fuel explosion so that the fire would not spread any further.
But that had set off even more alarm bells for her.
A machine that was supposed to be able to look back in time had been stolen early Monday morning.
The thieves had been caught and subsequently released and the machine had disappeared again, at the cost of wiping out an entire control station.
A plane that was not supposed to be there had turned up on the border between France and Switzerland.
And Lee, an academic professor involved in fields of time study, had been targeted by the two criminals hours before the theft of the machine.
There was one factor that tied it all together: Time.
It was too much of a coincidence to be natural.
Hearing Lee's voice, inviting her in, she took a deep breath, stepped inside and closed the door behind her.
***
She decided that the best way would be to say it matter-of-factly. After all, he had been dragged into a situation that was not in his control and, although Van was used to lying being part of the prosecution of her job, that was not the situation with someone who had not broken any rules.
Lee had no criminal record, not even a driving ticket or any other run-ins with the law. On the contrary, his resume also listed a couple of times he had been consulted by quantum financial security agencies regarding virtual particle hacking. Although his area of expertise was in astrophysics, virtual particles and quantum science were linked to his areas of study, so it was only natural that he could also advise other organizations outside of academia.
Lee was on the floor at the moment surrounded by books and three roomba's bouncing gently against him, which seemed to silently demand that he move out of the way.
"Hi," he greeted.
"Hi, how are you holding up?"
"The best I can. Not much to do."
Van put her hands on her hips and looked around the room.
"Sorry about the mess," Lee said and picked up the floor and removed some papers from one of the couches for Van to sit on.
"No worries. It looks more alive than where I live," Van said. Which wasn't a lie, given that her Siren Island home was barely furnished. But that was because she spent more time off the island than on it. In a way, Van had made the world her permanent place of residence, and she practically traveled with her most important things in an extra turtle backpack.
She say on the couch, free of papers and Lee sat down on another of the couches, as the roomba finally swirled into the spot left by him. He looked at her and pursed his lips, as he lifted his shoulders, then offered her something to drink but she shook her head.
"So, has something happened?" Lee asked a little nervously.
Van shook her head "The alarm level is at level 5 in Rome. That's all over the news, though."
"You people still haven't caught them?"
Van looked at him doubtfully and spoke. "About that... I'd like to talk to you about what's happening elsewhere... and that's not on the news."
"Other parts?" Lee frowned.
"The truth is, they got caught."
"Oh! That's good!" Lee celebrated, but frowned again. "But why is the alarm level still high?"
"That's... because they escaped... it would be more accurate to say they were released."
Lee looked at her dumbfounded.
Van sighed and told him in detail what had happened on Monday, with the capture of the criminals and their rescue early Tuesday morning by an unknown group of tactical droids and someone else who remained unidentified.
In the details she had given him, she never mentioned the discovery of the body in the tunnel, as that had no bearing on the investigation and, as far as she had discovered, the thieves had not touched the body either. This was concluded from the footprints on the floor, which indicated that not even the thief had realized that there was a skeleton just a few meters beyond where he had walked.
But she did show him the blueprints and photos of the object that was then in the possession of Rome's evidence department. The two parts of the machine found.
The division's technical department had carefully disassembled it and the larger part functioned like a television, albeit with odd circuit parts and was not the only one. The other smaller one consisted of three separate circuits connected to a fourth one that appeared to be the main one and connected to the outside through hidden slots. But as far as they could see there were many parts in the circuitry such as diodes and coils that should not be there, unless their builders had access to military grade electronic components. It was all very old, but the components were of a quality that had never reached the public and had been used in the last decades of the twentieth century.
Lee didn't know how to make sense of the legend of a camera to look into the past and into the future at first, but there was something inside him that had begun to think of something unimaginable.
He couldn't get over his amazement at Van's story. He could not imagine that someone could perpetrate an attack on a station or base dedicated to the study and prevention of DEs. These had the best security so, it was unimaginable to him that only someone with a handful of droids could do something like that.
It was no surprise to Van. While not common, there were occasions where attacks on bases or stations occurred, though rarely did anything serious happen. These attacks could be cracking of facilities, planting of electronic spies, conflicts of interest, or attacks by certain groups when there was dissatisfaction with research. While in cases involving civilians showing discontent, it was normal for the press to cover the news, in more serious cases, without civilian involvement, these conflicts remained behind closed doors between organizations or, if it involved different interests, with governments and local forces and agreements were reached by jurisprudence or by diplomatic means. Pyrene's security was good, although lax in the sense that since it was never attacked, its staff was relatively quiet.
Van continued to tell him about other events that were intervening in the investigation but the most serious had occurred the night before. At that point she had to be more careful, because she was basically going by her instincts.
She avoided telling him about the number of victims on the plane going up by the hour, but Lee was already quite terrified by what he was hearing.
"I've been watching the news, what you've told me...a lot of details aren't on the news."
"It's the least I can do since you seem like you were somehow involved in this, without even knowing it."
"Why me?"
"What we think is that somehow that machine may have been able to cause a distortion in spacetime, allowing you to bring objects from another time here."
"But the original story was that it couldn't just be used to see into the past or the future, right?"
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
"Exactly, but there could be a possibility that it contains something we don't know about. Or that maybe the stolen part could have been modified in some way."
Lee got up from the couch. Playing with space time was what had caused the explosion in Tokyo at the time of the Great War, but an object that could bring other objects from another time... The idea of a time machine was absurd to him, but something capable of causing distortions in the fabric of reality was something that had happened many times and there were even rumors that Nevermore had entire stockpiles of such objects. After all, the problem with having control over time-related research had to do with the violation of the Principle of Locality by Dark Events.
"Assuming you're right, the closest I could think of would be that the machine could generate an Oopart? Is that it?"
Van nodded. "But imagine this. Now it's been a plane. If somehow these terrorists could regulate the direction of an object…"
Lee thought for a moment and looked at her. "Are you telling me that the plane is just a test and they're planning something bigger?"
"I don't know, but it's possible. Who knows. Maybe you're the one they had in mind who could help them with that problem."
"In a scientific experiment replication is the vital thing," Lee said, quietly.
" What do you mean?"
"I mean if what you say is true, this is going to happen again. Whatever these guys are aiming for, if it's a test then, they'll repeat it."
"My guess is that they're thinking of selling the machine to the highest bidder, but first they may want to demonstrate how it works."
"Assuming all of this is the case, if they can't control it properly, they may want to, or may already have someone who can regulate it as you say. I mean, why would you assume that I might be the only one who could help them? There are other academics specifically specializing in time issues. I can assure you that time travel is not my area."
"That's the problem. From the profiles of these thieves, we simply believe they were hired to steal it, but we don't know by whom, and why they were following you hours before. Someone who has credentials to do research with time crystals usually works for quantum encryption agencies. Kidnapping someone like that would put defense agencies on alert. The only ones in Italy are at the encryption center in Naples."
Could it be possible? He knew about particles and some engineering, but it didn't matter how he put his spin on it. It seemed ridiculous. The idea of a time machine, or something that could create a distortion in space time, had never crossed his mind in any serious way.
He had fiddled with the observatory's telescopes and particle accelerators so much that he could practically do it even with his eyes closed. But something to bring something as big as an airplane. That would require bending spacetime in such a way that it would require a tremendous amount of effort and energy. From what Van had told him and shown him, the size of the stolen item was very small, not to mention old.
Lee opened the files she showed him with the photos and analyzed them. Could it be that the second part was not only the engine of the whole object, but that it had some kind of energy that was enough to bend space time?
Lee sat back down and at that moment looked at the pile of books. The sun was shining on the pile of old, yellowed tomes and the roomba's were passing by the sides and bouncing away and then back again, repeating the same choreography they had repeated when he was there but this time with the books.
Something big had been replaced by something small.
Lee turned to Van with wide eyes and stared at her for a few seconds.
Van was startled to see his face. It was as if he had just remembered something.
Lee got up and walked over to the pile of books and knocked some of them over with one swipe. "This can't be possible."
"What's wrong."
"I don't believe it."
"The what?"
Lee stood up and in his hands clutched one of the old books. It was Portals and Other Time Machines by L.W. and DiMatus. "What you said about time crystals brought something back to my memory."
"The what?"
"The jikanium."
The term meant nothing to Van, but Lee was excited by it.
"The jikanium is a time crystal hypothesized in virtual particle physics. It is a postulate that has never gone beyond mere simulations and has also never been successfully crystallized to physical form."
"There are not many physical time crystals."
"Exactly, but the story goes that there had been a way to use a type of time crystal in a physical way. A fractal type that involved the Calabi-yau tensor theory sending information through time. It was a little crazy since the theory was to send information through time but to consider time itself as an intrinsic aspect of dimensions." Lee flipped through the book in his hands to the index and looked up the word he was looking for and then flipped back to almost halfway through the book. He marked a portion and passed it to Van.
She accepted and there, amidst the fluorescent yellow underlines, she read the excerpt he marked from the chapter called: About the possibility of controlling a time crystal.
Although today our technology prevents us from reaching the scales to study, or even control tokion particles, it is possible that in the near future, if we do not destroy each other in an absurd way, these concepts can leave the mathematical scenarios to finally create something that allows us to control time.
The geometry of the tokihedron and its postulates were already predicted a long time ago by the Dr. Satou Nobuyama, now we only have to approach its fundamental elements: the Jikanium, and the most magical of all, which awaits below the Planck scales: the tokion. There, where supposedly nothing can see it, maybe it is the particle of time.
Van gave him back the book without knowing what to say. Satou Nobuyama, that name said something to her, although she couldn't remember where she had heard it.
"Basically, what this book talks about is time, and it is based on one of Einstein's fundamental ideas, that of the incorporation of geometry into spacetime. You can't separate one from the other."
"We already know that since the war. After all the Fractus are entities from a different spatial dimension, who can't interact with us now thanks to the throat being closed. But they are still here with us."
"That's true, but it's still not clear if this story is true. I mean this book was written more than a hundred years before the story happened."
"What story are you talking about?"
"The Tokyo explosion. In 2098."
Oh, no, Van thought. If what Lee was thinking was true, she knew one of the people involved very well, even though that person never told her about it, because it had been a trauma for her. "What does it have to do with the machine?"
Lee turned to the next page and showed her a drawing. There was a fantasy reconstruction of the machine she had seen at the station, with the only difference being that you could see a part in between. It reminded Van of a kind of camera on a tripod. The drawing was not exact to the two parts that were in the station, but it could be because it had been embellished by the artist. Pyrene never opened the suitcase because of the warning that it might be an object that would cause space-time distortion. But from the looks of it that book applied the theme of more extra dimensions in a rather old-fashioned way.
"You're talking about time as a fourth dimension right?"
"Well that's been a bit misunderstood for centuries, the fourth is simply for relativity. That changed with the fractus invasion that forced us to reinterpret sixty-eight spatial dimensions and one of time."
"Nice. I know that already, I mean the book."
"Well, the book is mostly theoretical. Although..." Lee stopped and looked at Van's face as if he was surprised. "You're bleeding."
"What?"
"Your nose."
Van touched her nose and looking down at her fingers saw them stained with blood.
What? She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a normal nosebleed. She wasn't allergic to anything as far as she knew. The last time she had had a nosebleed had been the year before during a certain mission but, even so, her level of regeneration was one of the best.
Lee took a box of napkins from the nearby table and offered it to her.
"Thank you," Van said.
"Where did it happen? The plane, the incident, where did it happen?"
Van thought for a moment and said. "Over the lake between France and Switzerland."
"Which one?"
"Lemac."
Lee opened his eyes and walked over to her. "Which part?"
"On the French side."
"On the French side..." repeated Lee. That hit him somewhat close. "In which area?"
"Lugrin..."
Lee fell silent. It was only a few kilometers away from where he had lived with the other children in the orphanage.
"A lake…" Could that be possible? A lake. In case the stolen part was also the core and energy, how to handle the residual field created by the distortion? Could it be that it occurred in a lake so that the water would act as the heat sink for the artifact? No. That was not necessary since a liquid cube with Von Neumann machines could circumvent that problem, but they would need to handle enormous levels of energy... or maybe not. "Do you have temperature data on the lake?"
Van shook her head.
Lee began to pace the room thoughtfully as everything he had learned in the past few years flashed through his mind. But no matter what hypothesis he formulated he could not come to a conclusion if he did not know the true shape of the stolen part. The drawing told him nothing beyond the fact that it appeared to be a camera mounted on a tripod.
"I want you to come with me," Van said, holding a napkin to her nose.
"What? Where?"
"Lugrin."
That threw Lee off. "Why?"
"Because if this really has to do with a time warp we have to stop them, I want you to help us. A team of our best agents is already on the scene."
"What am I supposed to do?"
"Is there any way to trace the machine if it was used there?"
Lee thought about it. There was no way he could do that. Tracking a particle of mass below the Planck scale in a lake didn't sound very sane, if it was even related. But he thought about it some more.
"Maybe... by nuclear transmutation and beta decay? That's what happened in the Tokyo explosion and in other places where space-time distortions have occurred. But I imagine your people have a way of knowing that."
"Yeah, still maybe you can get an idea of what's going on if you were on site."
Lee thought carefully. "A lot of what you've told me is classified information, right?"
"Yes, you have to sign a confidentiality agreement if you decide to go."
Lee had had to do that a couple of times when he'd offered consultation to private entities, so it wasn't something new. But it still made him feel strange to be involved in such a delicate matter, but he could no longer ignore it.
"From what you've told me it's not like I can refuse anymore. It sounds like they're lying to a lot of people."
"The French and Swiss governments are preventing this from causing mass panic. Luckily there are not that many civilians in the area where the incident occurred, given the time."
"The attack has been in Grenoble and the major incident in Lugrin, but Rome will continue with this level of alarm?"
"At least until everything calms down. The truth is that there are very few Italian authorities who know what is happening in Lugrin, and you are now one of those people."
Lee looked at her with a wry smile. "Now you are making me part of the lie."
"What is not sacred... is secret. At least that's what used to be said around these parts when I was here a long, long, long time ago." Van said with a wry grimace too, it had been over two centuries since she'd heard that.
Lee weighed the situation one last time, but inside him the decision had already been made. If he could help, he would. It had happened quite close to his home and if he could help solve the mystery, and make sure there were no more victims, he would do it without a second thought.
After all there would be SID agents helping, military personnel and a perimeter cordon so there should be no safer place to be. If he really had been targeted by the criminals there must be some reason and perhaps he could shed some light on the matter.
Tokions. Could it be possible that the machine could somehow generate them or attract those particles that no one had ever been able to detect by particle accelerators?
The situation sounded dangerous, but if that was really the case, it would be like discovering a new grail in physics.
Lee nodded and looked at Van.
"When are we leaving?" asked Lee decisively and Van nodded as she heard that.
"Pack light, we'll be leaving in an hour." Van replied. Her nose had already stopped bleeding.
***
Broxburn, West Lothian. Scotland.
The FRT agent Jim Stuart was wearing only an old T-shirt and shorts for pajamas. It was already a little late for breakfast and sunlight was streaming into the living room.
That wasn't a problem, though, since he had two days off ahead of him.
Jim Stuart drank greedily a few good sips from the water bottle and set it on the somewhat messy kitchen table, while wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
The night before he had been working late with his team, due to some alarms of a possible DE, which turned out to be simply a misunderstanding of the witnesses' facts. Still, even though it was a mistake, he had had to fill out a report and check the equipment used in the investigation so that everything was recorded. Fortunately nothing serious, but he had still gone to bed at three in the morning.
His apartment, located in the same building as the station, was rather small, but the room where he slept was at least tidy. The opposite was true in the living room where a few pizza boxes from the previous days had been piled on the living room table.
The latter was not his fault. Many of those pizza boxes, and other fast food wrappers in the kitchen, were due to the fact that sometimes the other members ended up dining there after ordering delivery. Somehow his apartment had become the place for his subordinates to end up dining on more than one occasion. Last night had been no exception, for someone else had joined the failed mission.
Jim Stuart came out of the kitchen and there, sleeping soundly, sprawled out on his favorite couch was Thor. He had taken off his shirt and was resting still wearing his tank pants and undershirt.
The living room looked messy too, although it wasn't dirty, but that was also usually the fault of the team members, since every time they came they ended up messing everything up. The sofa cushions were all over the place, and a blanket was folded carelessly on one of the armrests.
On the coffee table, next to a pile of instruments and acrylic projection sheets, several empty pizza boxes and empty glasses were piled up, witnesses of late nights after work. Next to the cardboard boxes, there was a part of the table that stood out for its almost impeccable neatness. A portrait of a smiling girl was delicately framed, occupying that small space of order in the middle of the chaos. It was a photograph of Oxy, that hyperactive physics professor who almost always spent her time on the island. The photograph seemed to be a valuable treasure, perhaps a special keepsake that someone treasured in the midst of the daily clutter.
Jim walked over and looked at Thor, who was snoring with his mouth open.
The dwarf had helped them the night before, in case something might have gone wrong but then, being sure that it was nothing more than a false alarm, he had invited everyone else to drink beers, while Jim had to fill out the reports and pass registration to the mobile station team, in which he moved along with the others.
It was unusual for Special Investigation Division agents to pass through the Broxburn station, as it was rather small and nothing much happened. Many cases in fact tried to be referred to the SIGN Agency stations, since they were local and tended to have a higher priority to show that their agents could compete perfectly well with the SID from Nevermore.
Besides that, it had been a good opportunity to chat with Thor, since the two knew each other from when Jim had trained on Siren Island.
So, after drinks, Thor had accepted Stuart's invitation to sleep there and would leave bright and early, to see if there were any new developments with the investigation at the old port of New Heaven.
Thor, despite being a multi-millionaire, didn't look like one at all. In fact Jim Stuart almost considered the dwarf to be one of the most sociable people he had ever met on the island, so he held him in high esteem and treated him as a friend.
"Hey, man! What happened to waking up early?" Jim asked, raising his voice a little and patting him on the shoulder.
Thor instantly opened his eyes and closed his mouth, as he wiped a trace of saliva on his chin with his arm. "Shit!" he said then waking up fully. "What time is it?"
"It's almost twelve noon."
"'Fucking hell! I was supposed to be at New Heaven at ten o'clock." Thor checked his mail in his Neurowire and noticed that he had not received any messages regarding the appointment. That could either be because there really was no news, or they were waiting for news from Rome, as they were aware that two of the people involved in the disappearance of Sil Moore's body had been in another incident in Italy. Either way, it was a relief. If anything more serious had happened the station would probably have already been there to bring it to their attention.
"You drank too much last night."
"You call that drinking? I don't even have a hangover." That was true, most likely after dinner and drinks the tiredness had overcome Thor, as it had been quite a busy few days regarding the investigation for him, since he was in charge of Sil Moore's case, now that Philip and Zi had left for France. "Anyway, I guess I'd still have to go..." Thor ran his hand across his stomach, "after lunch."
"Yeah, we skipped breakfast anyway."
"It's okay with you anyway, right?"
"Yeah, I'm free," Stuart said returning to the kitchen and Thor could sense from the noise that he was putting some order in the place.
Then Thor noticed the portrait in the middle of the table. The truth was that he had seen it the night before but, because the room had been full of people, he hadn't wanted to ask about it. But even the team member had been careful not to touch that portrait. "Hey, hey! What do we have here? Why is Oxy in the middle of your table? Do you like her?"
Thor heard a noise of Stuart choking on saliva and saw him come out of the kitchen.
"Where did that come from?"
"You like Oxy?"
"I respect her too much. I learned a lot about physics from her."
"From respect to love there are only a few steps boy. Although due to my own experience it's not like I can say much about romance."
"Are you kidding? How many relationships have you had?"
"Quality over quantity, never forget that. It doesn't do much good to have a lot of relationships if none of them are stable in the end. I may have a lot of money, but that hasn't paid off in a relationship either."
"Maybe by attracting something, something else pulls away."
"If that's what happened, I wouldn't be sure if I'd give up money today either in exchange for a relationship. Too much responsibility to send it all up in smoke."
"Yeah that I can understand. Although... can't it be that simply because of your perception of time you think it's been a lot, but in truth it's been a few?"
"No. It's been a lot, believe me. I must be the garden gnome that no one wants to steal."
Do people steal garden gnomes? Stuart wondered, but took up his point. "I mean when you're in a new relationship, at first everything is exciting and full of newness, but then, over time, it seems like that excitement goes out the window."
"With that shit you are describing to me ninety percent of the love relationships in the solar system." Thor said that and leaned forward and took in Oxy's moving portrait. "Oddly enough, mostly in the relationships I was in with humans they lasted less, with fey women they lasted a little longer, but in the end it all went cold. Damn! Now that I remember, even in the last one she hit me with a frozen fish!"
I'd like to ask for context, but something tells me I shouldn't, Stuart thought.
"She thought I was cheating on her..." said Thor, who, looking at Stuart, could imagine he was getting some ridiculous scenario.
"That doesn't explain the frozen fish."
"Anyway, if you're going to gnaw on that bone, be careful." Thor warned him, as he pointed his eyes to the portrait and put it back on the table.
"What do you mean?"
"Oxy hasn't been in a relationship for a long time. I guess you must have heard something."
"No, I haven't heard anything."
Thor pursed his lips. "It's not a secret, but if you screwed up, you didn't hear it from me. She lost someone very important during the war."
"Which one?"
"The Great War, against the Fractus."
That had happened too long ago. "What happened?"
"The Tokyo explosion," Thor said with a serious gesture and got up from the couch. "Anyway, why don't you take advantage of these days off and talk to her? You could use an excuse to ask her something about what happened at the pier."
"Well that wouldn't be an excuse. She was involved in the case too."
"Don't bite me. I'm just giving you ideas. Now, if you'll excuse me, let me borrow the bathroom. I apologize if I clog it up," Thor said and walked toward the bathroom, but stopped halfway and turned to look at him.
"..." Stuart stared at him without saying anything.
"He who warns is not a traitor."
"..."
"I'm kidding. I think..." Thor said, and disappeared, closing the bathroom door.
Jim Stuart amused himself by taking out the pizza boxes and putting them on the conveyor for the recyclable trash part. When he returned to the living room he stopped and looked at the picture frame on the table and picked it up.
Meanwhile Thor, from the usurped throne, was reviewing the events of the Sil Moore case over the Neurowire. The truth was that he was worried about the cop who had helped them and even Philip and Zi had asked him to keep an eye on him.
The shock of meeting someone with the same face as him from another universe must have been more than enough to make someone question many things about their own existence.
He was thinking about it when a call came in out of the blue. The origin of the call surprised him a little. He had given orders not to be bothered with company business when he was working on a case. There had to be some reason for that or the special assistant wouldn't be calling him.
"What's going on?"
"Sorry to interrupt, Sir. We have a situation at headquarters that requires your attention. If possible, I think it would be best if you came directly to the company."
"Now? What's going on? Why?"
"I can't give you details now, but there's something in Germany you need to see. It is of vital importance."
"Germany? What's going on? Why?"
"One of the information blocks has been completely blocked."
"What? That's all they're calling me about?"
"It's not just one block. It's one of the old ones that's still operational."
"Just shut it down."
"It's holding sectors hostage."
What? What are you talking about? Thor thought. "I don't understand what you're talking about."
"The sector that has been locked out is explicitly asking for you."
Thor frowned. "Which block is the one giving trouble?"
"The one left by the founder. The one he took it upon himself to develop."
Thor's face tightened. He knew what she was referring to.
That was the sector left by Gehirn Schmidt himself, before he left the planet.
Jim Stuart could hear Thor's voice coming from the bathroom, but he didn't care. He was concentrating on the portrait in his hands. He slowly ran one of his fingers across the acrylic that protected the image and gave it some more sharpness and brightness, touching one of the controls. Oxy's smile seemed to suit the tone of the image, as fresh as a spring morning. She was looking straight at him, over her shoulder as she held a book against her chest.
It had just been a hot day at the university, and he had forgotten to ask her something important, so he had run out of class to look for her. He had found her going to the parking lot, crossing one of the many gardens that were on the site. His sudden call had taken her by surprise.
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/42dd80f9-5ac6-42d5-8ccc-bcea020b6152/dgc4t64-ea66bbfc-f677-4ddf-8db4-2bb13b9fd4e4.jpg/v1/fit/w_828,h_1172,q_70,strp/nevermore_enygma_vol_3_chapter26_by_hasegawakein_dgc4t64-414w-2x.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTIyOCIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzQyZGQ4MGY5LTVhYzYtNDJkNS04Y2NjLWJjZWEwMjBiNjE1MlwvZGdjNHQ2NC1lYTY2YmJmYy1mNjc3LTRkZGYtOGRiNC0yYmIxM2I5ZmQ0ZTQuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTg2OCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.2EyvByFHjnvzxmQUAnQWIh73mi0SMaKLpiLIpxcmR4A [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/42dd80f9-5ac6-42d5-8ccc-bcea020b6152/dgc4t64-ea66bbfc-f677-4ddf-8db4-2bb13b9fd4e4.jpg/v1/fit/w_828,h_1172,q_70,strp/nevermore_enygma_vol_3_chapter26_by_hasegawakein_dgc4t64-414w-2x.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTIyOCIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzQyZGQ4MGY5LTVhYzYtNDJkNS04Y2NjLWJjZWEwMjBiNjE1MlwvZGdjNHQ2NC1lYTY2YmJmYy1mNjc3LTRkZGYtOGRiNC0yYmIxM2I5ZmQ0ZTQuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTg2OCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.2EyvByFHjnvzxmQUAnQWIh73mi0SMaKLpiLIpxcmR4A]
That picture had been one he had taken and, since he had as much of a photographer's soul as Thor had luck with women, the picture had not turned out well at all. But that fey girl's smile had been so perfect at that moment that he had activated the function to record the moment sequentially through his Neurowire.
The truth is that for Jim Stuart Oxy had always been someone he had respected very much, but he didn't think it was really love that he felt for her. The professor was attractive, both intellectually and physically, but for Stuart it was like seeing someone who was in a sphere far above him, because of the different responsibilities they had.
That was admiration, or so he felt.
Jim looked at Oxy's smiling face and lightly squeezed the picture frame and smiled. Maybe he would call her later and they could talk, if she wasn't too busy.
Yes, I think I'll call her, he said to encourage himself.