Love Beyond Time (40 page)

“None, so long as I am with you.” She put her
arms around him and Michel bent his head for a quick kiss.

“Welcome to the twentieth century, my love,”
he said.

“I want to see everything.” Danise was so
excited by the prospects before her that she could hardly speak.
“Your cities, your schools. Have you horses in this time?”

“You are going to have to teach her to speak
English,” said Alice in her sour way.

“She’ll never make it if she insists on using
that gibberish.”

“I plan to teach her myself.” Turning his
attention to Hank, Mike gently set Danise aside and went to the
computer. “What happened to it, Hank?”

“You know the new component, the one I added
to boost the power so I could move two people instead of just one
person at a time?”

“Yes.” Knowing he was going to have to stop
Hank from repairing the computer, Mike closely watched every move
Hank made. “What about that component?”

“I pulled in extra power to feed it. As a
result, there was a short circuit. The wiring in this house is
pretty old and couldn’t take the extra juice. I got you here just
in the nick of time. Another few seconds and you wouldn’t have made
it.”

“The fuse for the computer circuits has
burned out,” Alice informed them, “and two other fuses
besides.”

“What does that mean for your computer?” Mike
asked Hank, hoping it meant the computer was irreparably
damaged.

“It’s going to take a lot of work to fix it,”
Hank said. “If the fuse didn’t blow soon enough, it could take
weeks, maybe months, to repair. But that doesn’t matter now. I’ve
proved my theory, and you and Danise are here to back me up, just
as we planned.”

“What about repeating the experiment in the
future?” Mike regarded the computer with intense interest.

“As long as I have the disk that’s in there
now, and the notebook, I can replicate the experiment at any time.
You put the second disk in your jacket pocket just before you left
here the first time. I don’t suppose you brought it back with
you?”

“It’s lost in the eighth century, along with
my other personal belongings.”

“That’s a shame,” Hank said. “I really would
like to have both disks, but at least I have the remaining one.” He
got to his knees and began looking under the computer table.

“What are you doing?” Mike asked.

“Unplugging the whole system.” Hank’s voice
was muffled. “Hey, Alice, go put in a fresh fuse. I’m going to try
something. If I can get this baby humming again, I won’t have as
much work as I expected.”

Alice obediently left the room. Hank remained
beneath the table. Looking toward Danise, Mike put a finger on his
lips, cautioning silence. She nodded. Mike picked up the notebook
that lay open next to the computer keyboard. A quick glance at it
told him it was the right notebook, the one Hank had stolen from
India Baldwin. Mike handed the notebook to Danise.

“Hang on to this,” he said softly. “Don’t
give any sign that I’m doing anything more than explaining to you
what is happening. Move slowly toward the door and be ready to
leave at my signal. Hank may try to make trouble when he sees what
I am going to do.”

“Please don’t kill him,” she begged. “Were it
not for him, we would never have met. I am grateful to him for
that.”

“No one is going to be seriously hurt,” Mike
assured her. “But I have to stop Hank from continuing this insane
work of his. If he can get that computer going again, he’ll be
right back at it within the hour.”

When Danise stepped out of range, Mike drew
the sword that still hung from his belt. Down at floor level, Hank
began to slide out from under the table.

“Is everything unplugged?” Mike asked.

“Yeah, it’s safe to work on it now,” Hank
replied.

“Good.” Holding his sword in both hands, Mike
swung back his arms and aimed a mighty slash at the computer.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Hank scrambled to
his feet. “Cut that out! You’re ruining my computer.”

“I know.” Mike hacked at the machine
again.

“Stop it!” Hank made a move toward Mike, but
jumped out of the way of the flashing blade. “My computer!”

Mike did not stop until the computer and all
its special components lay in pieces. Then, after sheathing his
sword and while Hank stood shaking his head in trembling,
speechless rage, Mike lifted the floppy disk out of the ruins and
gave it to Danise to hold.

“I’ve wrecked the edge of my blade, probably
permanently,” he noted to Hank, “but it was worth it to stop
you.”

At this point Alice returned to the
bedroom.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she shouted
at Mike. “Just look at this mess!”

“Hank’s career in organizing time-travel
tours has just ended,” Mike announced.

“You promised to back up my claims!” Hank
cried. “How am I going to prove the truth of my theory if I can’t
replicate the experiments? Mike, we could have been rich! I could
have won a Nobel Prize.” Hank’s heartbroken litany of complaints
ended only when Mike seized him by the shirtfront, lifting him off
his feet.

“Listen to me, Hank,” Mike ground out. “Any
promise you think I made to you is overridden by the moral
imperative to keep you from destroying the present-day world. Your
experiments with the space-time continuum are over. Get that? Done.
Finished.
Finito. Kaput
” With a gesture of supreme disdain
he set Hank back on his feet.

“What about my work?” Hank was close to
tears. “You talk about me destroying the world when you don’t know
for a fact that it would happen, but you have just destroyed
my
world. Everything I hoped to accomplish was tied up in
that computer.” He broke off, regarding the ruined computer with
swimming eyes and a tragic expression.

“Oh, I am so sorry.” Danise could not
understand what Mike and Hank were arguing about, but her ready
sympathies were stirred by the pathetic sight of a man in tears
over the destruction of a treasured possession. Hands outstretched,
she moved toward Hank, intending to comfort him and to thank him
for saving her from a lifelong separation from Michel.

She never reached Hank. Alice stepped between
them, snatching at the disk and notebook Danise was holding. At
once Danise whipped her hand behind her back. She could not
understand what Alice said, but the woman’s anger was obvious to
her.

“Leave Hank alone. You and your precious Mike
have just about killed him. His work was all he cared about,” Alice
said. Turning to Mike, she went on, “You get out of here, both of
you. I will take care of Hank.”

“The situation is not as bad as you think,
Alice,” Mike informed her. “I’m not completely ungrateful for
Hank’s help in bringing Danise into the twentieth century to live.
But just in case his last experiment failed and I never returned, I
made a couple of phone calls yesterday, while you were at the
electronics store and while Hank was too busy in here to keep an
eye on my activities.”

“What do you mean?” Alice took a menacing
step toward Mike.

“Stop!” Danise put up a hand to keep Alice
away from her love. “Michel, beware. I cannot understand her words,
but I can tell this woman’s intent is malicious.”

“Keep her away from me and from Hank,” Alice
ordered, glaring at Danise, who looked back at her with no trace of
fear.

“I plan to do just that,” Mike replied,
smiling at Danise. “Far away from both of you.”

“What did you mean, you made phone calls?”
Alice now demanded. “To whom? And why?”

“At any time now you are going to have some
interested visitors,” Mike said.

“Who?” Alice went white. “Did you turn us in
to the Feds? You bastard! After all we did for you! I warned Hank
he should leave you there in the past, and good riddance to you,
but he wouldn’t listen.”

“Not exactly the Feds,” Mike told her. “There
is nothing to be frightened about. I told you when I first came
here that there are people who are extremely interested in Hank’s
work. I think by the time the sun sets today he should receive an
absolutely fascinating job offer in a slightly different and much
less dangerous line of work.”

“Oh, yeah?” sneered Alice. “And what about
me? Am I going to end up paying for what happened here?”

“I daresay, if you could bring yourself to
try a little tact and just a smidgen of graciousness, you might
talk yourself into a new line of work, too,” Mike said. “After all,
you have been Hank’s assistant for some time, haven’t you?”

“A job? Fat chance.” Alice stared at him,
openly disbelieving. “I haven’t worked for months. I’m practically
bankrupt after supporting Hank with my savings. He said when his
experiments were finished, we’d both be rich. But you ended those
dreams. Are you telling me someone is going to offer me work, just
like that? Out of thin air?”

“Stick around and find out,” Mike said. “I
think youll be pleasantly surprised.” He took Danise’s hand. “Come
on, my love, it’s time for us to leave. Oh, by the way, Alice, I
would appreciate it if you and Hank would keep quiet about Danise’s
sudden appearance.”

“You don’t have to worry about us talking,”
Alice said in a slightly more agreeable tone than she ordinarily
took when speaking to Mike. “Nobody would believe us if we said
where Danise has come from, or how she got here. We’d be locked up
for nut cases.”

“I knew you’d understand. Good-bye, Alice.
Hank.” With his wife’s hand clasped firmly in his, Bradford Michael
Bailey walked outside, into the bright sunshine of a New Mexico
morning. His car was still parked beside Alice’s house, where it
had been for the better part of a week. Mike looked at his car and
then at Danise.

“I know I have asked a lot of you today,” he
said to her. “I am going to ask more now. I want you to trust me
completely, and not be frightened by what is going to happen. Just
remember that this time is very different from your own.”

“I trust you with my life,” she said,
stepping away from the house with him. “Haven’t I proven as
much?”

“Indeed you have. Danise, you and I are going
to climb into that dusty red chariot you see just in front of us. I
am going to fasten belts across your shoulders and around your hips
so you can’t fall out, and then we are going to move faster than
you have ever moved before. I don’t want you to be frightened.”

“I have come across twelve centuries to be
with you,” she replied. “Nothing can frighten me.”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

“Where is the stable?” Danise asked, looking
around. “I will help you with the horses.”

“This chariot doesn’t use horses.” Mike
stopped walking to regard Danise with a smile. “Although we do have
a unit of measurement that we use to describe how many horses would
be required to do the work of the engine in this car.”

“
Car
,” she repeated, trying to make
sense of what he was telling her. “
Engine
. Oh, a machine.
Yes, I have watched builders with their machinery, the ropes fitted
around little wheels that they use to lift heavy stones.”

“The engine in this car is much more
complicated than that,” Mike said.

“There is so much I need to learn. May I see
your machinery?”

“There isn’t time right now, but later I’ll
be glad to explain it to you. I want to get you out of here before
Hank’s visitors arrive.” He was running his fingers beneath the
car. Danise watched him, expecting some wondrous thing to
occur.

“Michel, what are you doing?”

“As far as I can remember,” he said, “my keys
are lost in the eighth century. But I have an extra car key hidden
here, in case the other is lost.” Retrieving the key, he opened the
car door. “You sit down in there, Danise. I’ll fasten the safety
belts for you.”

Danise stood where she was, pulling on the
drawstring of the scrip that was fastened at her waist.

“Your belongings,” she murmured, tugging
loose a knot and reaching into the little purse. “I almost forgot
that I have this. Will it be of any use to you?” She handed him a
stiff little card.

“You brought my driver’s license with you?”
Mike took the card, then flung his arms around her. “You wonderful
woman! God, how I love you! My darling, you have saved me endless
hours at the Motor Vehicle Department, not to mention saving me
from possible arrest if we’re stopped and I don’t have it.”

“You are pleased, then?” Danise paused to let
him kiss her before she got into the car. After Mike fastened the
belts around her and climbed into his own seat, she looked at the
panel in front of him and at the wheel he was apparently going to
use to maneuver the machine. “Michel, how many
horsepowers
are there in this chariot – this
car
?”

“If I told you,” he said, “it would terrify
you. Perhaps you ought to close your eyes until we are moving.”

“No. I must face these challenges so that I
can live my life as any woman of your time would do.”

“All right. You asked for it. But, please,
Danise, don’t scream while I’m driving. What I am going to do now
is perfectly normal for this time and place.”

“I am not afraid,” she said again.

“Maybe you ought to be.” He put the car into
gear and began to back out of the driveway. Danise went white and
bit her lip, but she uttered no sound as he eased into the street
and shifted gears. Out of the rearview mirror he saw two long,
black limousines approaching from several blocks away. “Just in
time,” he muttered, and floored the gas pedal.

Danise did not scream. She clenched her hands
together until her nails cut into her palms, but she kept her mouth
shut and her eyes open. Michel handled his strange chariot with
such ease and sureness that she felt certain this means of travel
must be safe. Surely she would soon grow used to it.