Forty Leap (17 page)

Gathering my courage, I approached one of the
guards, one of those who had delivered messages to Samud in the
past, and asked him to tell my friend that I would like to see
him.

They didn’t dare talk to me, the others. They
could sense my mood and my irritation and so left me alone the next
night at dinner and during socialization. Of course, they knew that
I had acquiesced. All they could do now was wait.

For my part, I did not expect Samud to honor
my request, nor to respond very quickly. So it was much to my
surprise that I found him waiting for me in my room when I returned
there after the socialization period. Upon seeing him, I froze,
standing on the threshold of my open door, my escort standing
behind me, waiting for me to close the door. He still had several
others to return to their rooms.

“Please come in,” Samud said. “You’re holding
up the others.”

Regaining some semblance of composure, I did
as I was asked and closed the door behind me. Footsteps retreated
down the hall behind the closed door. Before saying anything, I
studied my visitor. He seemed a little more uncertain than the man
I had come to know. He blinked a lot. We stood facing each other
for a while. We were what we were. Two friends who needed to mend
fences before continuing on.

“I’m not sorry,” I said.

He nodded. “I didn’t expect that you would
be. I expected you wanted to see me about your escape plan.”

He was trying to surprise me, catch me off
guard. Though I hadn’t expected him to know about it, I found that
I wasn’t surprised that he did. After all, I had been seen speaking
with Carlos and it was probably no secret that I had visited him
once during the night and Lydia, who had become a regular
acquaintance of mine, had probably been to his room many times. No,
there were no surprises there.

“I need a map of the subway tunnels,” I told
him.

He raised his eyebrows. At least
I
had
surprised
him
. “Why would you want to go down into those
filthy tunnels?”

“Because you’ll never find us there.”

He considered this. “I suppose I just assumed
you would want to get out of the city.”

“I don’t need to tell you the whole
plan.”

“Then why should I give you the map?”

I took a breath, but there was really no need
for the hesitation. My mind had already been made up. “Because
we’re friends.”

“Friends are we?”

I nodded. “In the end, I think so.”

He didn’t reply.

“Samud, I need to get out of here. You and I
both know that I’m eventually going to skip through time again.
This time I may lose ten years or fifty years. I need to see my
family and I need to see Jennie before that happens. I’m begging
you.”

He laughed at me. He actually laughed at me.
“
That’s
your plan?
That’s
how you expected to
convince me to give you the map?”

I became suddenly angry. “No,” I said very
quietly. “The plan was to use coercion.”

All hints of laughter stopped instantly.
“What sort of coercion?”

Curiosity is the first sign of guilt.

“It doesn’t matter,” I told him. “I told them
I wouldn’t do it and I won’t. If you won’t help me, then you’d
better just go.”

“I cannot get you the map,” he admitted after
a moment. “I cannot go back to my office.”

Maybe I’m just dense, but I didn’t see what
he meant at first. I just looked at him queerly, trying to figure
it all out. He didn’t wait long for it all to come to me.

“Dr. Miktoffin was arrested earlier this
evening. It seems he was conducting some sort of secret research
using misappropriated resources.”

It became very clear to me, then, exactly
what was going.

“They’ve traced it back to you?”

He shook his head. “Not yet. But Abdel, as
dedicated a man as he is, will tell them anything they want to know
as soon as they shine a bright light in his face.”

“And then?”

He shrugged. “As a doctor, he may very well
buy his life, if not his freedom. There will be no further use for
me.”

“So you didn’t come because I asked you. You
came… Why did you come?”

“Because you are in as much danger as I am.
Maybe more.” I started to speak, but he put up his hand to stop me.
“If they determine that Abdel’s research was worthwhile, they may
have him continue it. In that case, you would be taken to a lab and
caged. You won’t like it.”

I thought about that for a minute, wondering
how different it would be from the way things were. I looked up.
“What if they don’t think his research is worthwhile?”

“Then they will look to eliminate all traces
of its existence.”

Including the subject, I guessed.

“I had hoped,” he began, “that your plan
would be more fully realized. I had hoped that I could join
you.”

I thought of that. I thought of Carlos’
reaction to it. He would not like it. None of them would
like
it. But Carlos would likely melt down. In order to be
accepted, Samud would need to bring something to the plan. Like a
subway map. Or…

“Do you have a car that can take us all?”

He nodded. “How does that fit in with your
subway plan?”

“It doesn’t,” I said. “But it makes work an
older plan.”

If nothing else can be said about Samud, he
was an excellent decision maker. It was probably how he had risen
to his position so quickly. And also probably why he had fallen.
The decision to pursue the time jumping research had taken him no
time to make, but the risk involved had been too much. Apparently,
his choice of co-conspirators had been too quick a decision as
well. I was wondering how well this choice would work for him.

At the moment, he still had some power over
the guards. While he anticipated a formal announcement of an arrest
warrant within a short amount of time, it hadn’t come yet and he
would use his name and his soon to be former position wisely. He
marched us out of my room, the last time I would see that room, and
past the guards into the stairwell.

“We must gather the others quickly and
leave,” he said.

But I didn’t know where any of their rooms
were, except Carlos’. He could have found out from the register,
but that would have taken time and we didn’t have time. Instead, we
gambled that Carlos would have more information. At the very least,
he would know where Doreen’s room was. But the big fish was Igor.
He would know where everyone lived.

Carlos’ reaction was not what I expected. It
may be that we took him unawares. In the first place, it was hardly
past 8:30 when we knocked on his door. Visitors were unlikely three
and a half hours before a shift change. In the second place, we
knocked on his door. No one ever knocked. Finally, and I think this
was the rub, he was alone. Carlos was a natural leader, but the
caliber of his followers was in question. Without them, though, his
weaknesses were thrown into sharp relief.

Seeing me first, he was almost quick to
anger, but Samud’s presence behind me stayed his hand instantly. We
pushed our way past him and Samud closed the door.

“We’re going tonight,” I said.

“What? Now? With him?” His mind was working
and I could see what he was thinking. He’d guessed that the
blackmail was having a much more potent effect than
anticipated.

“Samud has a car. We need to get the
others.”

A confused Carlos was almost more difficult
to manage than a confident Carlos. It seemed that his instinct in
such situations was to present obstacles. I ascertained that this
was a stalling tactic while he regained his composure. Deep inside
the brash hero was a very frightened young man. Remove any element
of his control and you remove his armor. Sensing this, and noting
my own ability to do so, I explained to him that we could use
Samud’s clout and car to get us to the tunnel. There we would
hopefully have the time to break down and replace the barrier as we
had originally intended. I could tell that he was skeptical but he
held his tongue. He didn’t think me capable of deception which, in
his mind at least, equated to trust. That this line of thought was
in direct conflict with the possibility that I could have executed
blackmail on my friend Samud completely escaped him.

I would like to say that we quickly rounded
up the others, but it was not so quickly. Each of them had the same
questions and each required answers. Only Igor flashed a wry smile
when he opened the door. Since he was the first we went to, it gave
up hope for speed, but those hopes were dashed.

At long last, though, we travelled as an
uneasy troupe out to the street. Guards double-took at the sight of
us and then quickly looked away upon identifying Samud. To his
credit, he walked with an easy confidence despite his claim of
danger. I suppose anything less would have given us away, but I
don’t know that I would have been able to manage it in his
position. Parked at the curb was a black minivan. I noted with
amusement that it was a Toyota and it was not new, although it
looked to be in spectacular shape. We climbed aboard, Lydia and
Jonas squeezing themselves into the back with Doreen while I took
the middle with Jesse. Carlos went first to the driver’s seat but
Samud rebuffed him unkindly. I thought there was going to be an
explosion of tempers, but Carlos backed down without more than a
glare and took shotgun. With that, Samud started the van up
flawlessly and we were on our way.

The interior of the van was spotless and had
that new car smell, despite not being a new car. Mounted on the
dash was an expensive GPS unit and a radio that blasted an alert
not five minutes into our trip. The alert was in Arabic and there
was no reason for any of us to suspect that it was anything out of
the ordinary but for the fact that Samud’s face went pale and
Carlos was naturally mistrusting.

“What was that?” he asked. “What did they
say?”

“They have issued a warrant for my arrest,”
Samud answered in an even voice. “They are looking for me.”

“Are they looking for us?” Carlos accused.
“Are they looking for this car?”

Samud nodded.

Jesse issued a curse.

I could see the anger boiling in our “leader”
and braced myself for what was to come. But again Carlos surprised
me. I suppose the fact that we were on our way, in action, past the
turning point, had leveled him somewhat. His personality could not
be concealed but it could be controlled.

Someone suggested we abandon the Toyota.

“We can’t,” Carlos said. “If we drop it,
they’ll find it faster and look for us on foot. If we’re near the
tunnel, it’ll kill the whole plan. If we’re not, then we’ll never
make it there.”

“So what do we do?” Lydia squeaked from the
back.

“Someone’s going to have to keep the van on
the road. Someone will have to keep driving while the rest of us
break open the tunnel.”

“So, what?” Jesse accused. “Someone gets left
behind?” She glanced back behind her and I could tell she was
thinking of Jonas. I didn’t understand what was between them and
probably never will, but she seemed to care about him a great deal.
When I looked back, he seemed unconcerned.

Samud had the solution. “The person driving
the van can circle back around and join the party when the work is
almost done. Once the barrier is completely replaced, they will not
think to search the tunnel.”

“Oh, that’s much better,” Jesse admonished
sarcastically. “Who gets that crappy job?”

Carlos looked back at us, his faithful
companions, and I could see his simple mind working through the
choices. He would not choose Doreen because, for whatever it was
worth, they were lovers. Jesse would never accept the assignment
and it wouldn’t be worth his effort to take her on. Besides which,
she might turn us in in anger. Jonas, he probably felt, wouldn’t be
able to handle the job and Lydia was already on the verge of tears.
That left Igor, Samud, and me. Igor was a double-crosser and Samud
was a wild card. I was the obvious choice. I was his choice. He
didn’t say it, but I could see it in his face every time his eyes
fell upon me. I was there because of my time leaping. I was there
because I was desperate to see my family again before I was
propelled beyond the spans of their lives.

I was there because of Jennie.

And yet for me it was all fleeting. Even if I
reached them, how long would I have with them? Though I had been
grounded for some time at this point, I was not fool enough to
believe that my condition had suddenly erased itself. My time with
them would come to a rapid end and I would find myself in another
alien situation, fighting to stabilize yet again. Such was my
curse. And yet Lydia could live out the rest of her life with her
husband. Carlos could be with Doreen. Jesse. Jonas. For them, this
escape had value. For me it was just another temporary chapter in
my temporary existence.

“I’ll do it,” I said.

Carlos didn’t even acknowledge my acceptance
of the job. My volunteering just confirmed his decision and he went
straight to directing Samud toward the tunnel. We avoided police
cars twice, but managed to stay hidden. When we arrived, everyone
piled out of the van and I went round to the driver’s seat. The
entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel looked dark and foreboding. The
barriers were complete, but I wondered if it would really take
anything to slip a person inside. If this thought occurred to
anyone else, it was left unspoken. The die had been cast.

“Look,” Carlos said to me as I climbed in.
“Try to come back around every twenty minutes or so. If they catch
sight of you, don’t come back.”

“Goodbye, Lydia,” I said to her through the
open window. There was an October chill in the air, but we were all
too keyed up to notice. “Good luck.”