James woke up sweating in bed, from a dream that shook him to his core. He took a moment to look at his surroundings, he realized he was no longer in that horrible dream. A dark room was all he saw, where not even the morning sun had broken in through the drawn blinds, which over-hanged the bed. As he stared at his familiar ceiling for the last night, before shipping out, he realized this may be the last time he will ever see this again. The dream was on the edge of his thoughts and yet the more he tried to reach it, the more it disappeared. He shook off the dream as a fight or flight response caused by his current situation, where he would be going into a war zone and his mind was preparing itself for the upcoming trip. He locked his apartment for most likely the last time and breathed out and walked away.
A day earlier, “Thanks again, Ashley for taking care of the little guy.” remorsefully James stated as he pets his cat, Samson, good bye.
“It’s the least I can do, it’s so amazing you are going to deliver food aid and help with reconstruction in Syria with the new UN green zones,” said the cheerful and beautiful next-door neighbor, Ashley as she beamed at James hoping to elicit some response to advance the conversation.
She had been trying for the past two years to get a rise out of the mercurial and mysterious next-door neighbor for years. She had a hunch he was a spy or in the witness protection given his hermit like nature. Ashley had a tendency to over exaggerate and develop illusions of grandeur. She once thought the janitor, Vlad, was a Russian KGB agent and trailed him only to find he was just a sad middle aged man. It was a depressing discovery finding the janitor watching romantic comedies while eating ben and jerry’s ice cream as she fell off the trash can outside his apartment on the first floor.
Ashley was a hopeless romantic and worked in a typical office cubical and dreamed of adventure beyond the day to day. She was an attractive brunette with a great hour glass figure, big green eyes that caught your attention and an attitude that demanded respect, but she longed for a guy that was more than the mundane. She agreed to take care of the James cat as he told her he would be shipping out with the National Guard as part of the humanitarian relief effort for Syria after the recent peace accord was signed.
James hated lying to the neighbor, but he knew that this was the cover that the government had setup and that not only his life was in danger but that of his family. They sent him a photo of his niece born less than a year ago, the first of his four siblings, with the caption of play ball or else. They also sent a link to all his dealings with the dark web and programming he did off the books for various organizations.
A week ago, he attempted to trace and go after the source of the blackmail, but found two agents at his door that very hour, one tall man and a beautiful looking woman. They were dressed in your standard Men in Black outfit with black sunglasses and an ear piece which communicated to potentially to some third party.
“Mr. Smith, can we come in to discuss recent events, I am agent Green,” said the woman.
“Sure, Men in Black show up at your door the first thing you should do is invite them in and ask if they would like some coffee or tea,” James said with a hint of mirth.
James Rule #1 – Always be considerate and kind to others when an opportunity presents.
“If you can, I would like a green mountain k cup, my understanding is you have a few of those,” said the 6’5” man in black next to the shorter more professional looking woman who sighed as though the other man broke character they were going for. They let themselves in and the taller guy moved to the kitchen while the woman gestured to the couch where both James and her sat.
The woman took a moment to breathe and compose herself before saying, “we are here to convince you, politely, to assist us in a delicate matter of national security. It was originally assumed through your data profile we have been collecting you would be susceptible to blackmail. We were wrong your attempts to trace us via the messages we sent is proof of that intelligence assessment failure.”
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James studied the woman for a moment and asked the question that bothered him the most, “What could I possibly do to assist you that you can’t already get from someone else more qualified?”
“You worked with a professor Duncan at MIT right before you were expelled for cheating?”
“Yes, we worked closely for two years and I helped him with his research into quantum simulation theory by programming the supercomputers to run some computations to support his theories:
“Did you by any chance keep in touch with the professor after you were expelled?”
“No. Why? What does any of this have to do with you blackmailing me to come meet with you?”
Crash, the larger agent that made his way to the kitchen had accidently broken a coffee mug while trying to get a green mountain K cup. “Sorry, I will pay you back for that.”
The woman sighed even more heavily at her partner’s action, “Before we continue, please sign here and here.” As she presented a piece of paper to James. There was very little choice as he looked between the paper and the agent. He signed the paper which could have very well have been his soul for all he knows.
“Mr. Duncan was wrong, but his actions led to a discovery which allowed a bridge to be formed between here and somewhere else. The only problem is it won’t close and we have sent two team through and heard nothing back, except a message was sent saying and I quote, ‘James, my boy I found it, I bloody found it, but I need your help. Come as soon as you can. This could change the world. Don’t worry about those drab Gestapo type suits.’ My question is do you know what he is referring to and why did he ask you and not anyone else for assistance?”
“Miss Green or is it Agent Green, I don’t know what this guy is talking about, he must be out of his mind,” James was a mess and his mind was running a hundred times a minute about what the professor was talking about, but he would keep his poker face going as long as possible.
“James, we did not want to do this, but here are photos and evidence of your brother involved in a hit and run, along with your sister’s tax evasion, and your father’s pot growing. We have no intention of forwarding this to the authorities, but let’s just say we keep this in our outgoing mailbox until you work with us. We want you and 5 other members of our team to use this bridge that was created in the professor’s lab to make contact and report back. That is all. Once you do that the above will go away for your family and you are all set and we will even get you reinstated to MIT, where you can resubmit your thesis and not have to work as a simple business consultant, “ the female agent spun a tale that sounded like a spiders web where things were both deadly and beautiful. It was hard to resister her toxic and alluring voice.
“I don’t really have a choice in this, I guess, sure, why not, let’s suppose that the professor is not crazy and that there is a gate that has been established between two universes or realities. Why have you not told me what happened to your second team that went after the professor?”
“You are a smart man. The second team has built a base right outside the gate, but they have been having some issues with communication setup it appears that time moves slightly different there and that two-way travel is prohibited. One of the guys tried to jump back and well…. you can see for yourself, “ Green gave him her smart phone which showed a video of a man bleeding from his eyes, mouth and ears, like the Ebola virus, “this may be a one way trip. We want you to get your affairs in order and your cover is that you will be going to Syria to help with food aid and relief efforts. We will be shipping out in 7 days as we gather the team and setup the next jump through the gate.”
Agent green and the other agent left after discussing a few more details as well as the logistics and James was left racking his brain on what he should do. They left him with no choice, but to believe that the professor had made a connection through his quantum simulation efforts and somehow found a key, a person who existed in multiple realities. A drunken hypothetical that James had told the professor, when he was drinking heavily while writing code and considering how to spot an original reality versus a simulated reality. The idea was some people act as anchors to simulations, a main character, and that you should see them in multiple simulations. If the professor found a key, a person who is in our reality and the simulated reality, then that would change everything.
The elevator dinged and James walked in and pushed for the lobby, he had a small bugout backpack, a tablet full of eBooks for every occasion containing a terabyte of various books, diagrams, and videos, and lastly he had a photo of his family and his girlfriend who died two years back in a car accident, Samantha was his saving grace and since her death he was just existing, but now he had hope that he may be able to see her again. If the professor had succeeded the possibilities are endless, but so is the risk especially if they lost contact with the first team they sent through the gate.
"Ding," the elevator opened, and James took a deep breath and walked forward as the elevator closed behind him. Closing another chapter in his life and starting a new one.