Nightmare’s Edge (28 page)

Nathan furrowed his brow. “You want to steal a jet?”

“Not steal. Borrow. I think the airline company would beg us to take one if they knew what was going on.”

“Yeah. I can’t argue with that. But what about security? Even with no flights, O’Hare’s got to be battened down. We’d never even get to sniff jet fuel, much less climb aboard and take off.”

Victor offered a knowing smile. “I flew in to a small airport in the suburbs. The security people know me, so getting through won’t be a problem. We’ll fly from there to Chicago. With no air traffic, landing will be a breeze. Then just stick with me. I called someone I know with the Feds. He’ll take care of the rest.”

Nathan looked Victor over. Being on the runway in the private plane would give them access to the big jets without having to go through security. But could this guy pull it off? Daryl said that he had lost his nerve after his brother died. He’d have to get some of it back to make this work. “So, when do we leave?”

“As soon as our airport transportation arrives,” Victor said. He withdrew a cell phone from his pocket, flipped it open, and scrolled through his directory. “I asked Kelly’s father if he knew anyone in this area who had a vehicle that might not raise suspicion if we stowed away inside, like a florist’s delivery truck.” He pushed a button and held the phone against his ear. “Yeah, Tony. Did you get hold of him? . . . Great.” Victor looked at his watch. “Did you give him my number? . . . Super.” The phone beeped. “Wait. That must be him now. Call you later.”

Victor looked at his phone, pushed a button, and again put it to his ear. “This is Victor Markey . . . Yeah. We’re ready . . . A van? What color? . . . Okay. Drive around back. We’ll meet you there.” He slapped the phone closed. “Okay. Everything’s set. Let’s get this show on the road.”

Clara pulled a wallet from her purse. “I withdrew some money from your trust fund and put it in this. If we ever find your parents, we’ll just — ”

“My parents?” Nathan almost choked on his words. “No one told you?”

“Told me what?”

Barely able to contain his excitement, he took in a deep breath and spoke rapid-fire. “We found them. Dad and Mom are alive. I thought Daryl might’ve told you about Mom, because that was a while ago, but we just found Dad recently. He was trapped in a cocoon in a spider tree, so we had to tear him out of it. And Mom was all but dead, so Scarlet gave her life energy — ”

A light flashed at the center of the room, interrupting Nathan’s report. A female human figure appeared with a bag dangling from her shoulder. Now wearing baggy jeans over her bunny thermals, Daryl shook out her red locks and grinned at Nathan and Kelly. “Good thing analog’s working again. I saw what happened to you two.” She pulled a cell phone out of her pocket and turned it on. “Anyone got the time? It might take a few minutes for this to sync up.”

Dr. Gordon checked his watch. “Four eighteen in the afternoon.”

“Daryl?” Victor’s eyes lit up. “Is that you?”

Daryl gasped. Her mouth fell open, and she swallowed hard. “Yeah,” she said, pushing back her hair. “Do I look that much older?”

“Yes. I mean, no. I mean . . .” He drew close and squinted at her. “What happened?”

“Oh, Daddy!” She leaped and threw her arms around his neck. “I missed you and Mom so much!”

Victor returned the hug, laughing. “You’ve only been gone a few days. Science camp was a lot longer than that.”

“I was gone for years!” she cried, pulling back. “Earth Yellow moves a lot faster than — ”

“Better explain later,” Nathan said. “We’ll have time on the way to the airport.”

“We’re all flying to London?” Daryl asked as she looked in her bag. “And I didn’t bring a power converter.”

“Yeah, we’re all going, but first we’re flying from a smaller airport to O’Hare. I’ll tell you all about it in a minute.”

“I’ll stay here in case we need some kind of cross-dimensional transport,” Dr. Gordon said. “Anyone else?”

Clara nodded. “I’m going to London. My knowledge of the city will likely come in handy.”

Victor and Clara led the way out the tourist entry door, and Nathan guided Kelly by the hand. Daryl followed, carrying her bag. “I have the Earth Blue mirror, candles, and batteries for your IWART,” Daryl said. “Remember what Simon told us? That thing has GPS mapping built in. We could have looked up the points on that instead of emailing Dr. Gordon. Anyway, I played with it and figured out how it works before I gave it to your father. So he and your mom headed to Earth Blue fully equipped, including a new violin.”

“Did you find Amber?” Kelly asked as they piled into the elevator.

“I followed her bullet trail out to the parking lot. She had the hood up on Tony’s truck trying to hotwire it. She was so determined to find Francesca Yellow, I think she almost figured it out. So I just went back inside, used an office phone, and called Gunther. Good thing I memorized his number, too. Anyway, they all came back and picked her up, so Amber’s going to help Francesca and Solomon Yellow at their foundation point.” She pulled up her oversized jeans and tightened an extension cord she had threaded through the loops. “Thank goodness for Gunther. That guy’s like a Boy Scout — always prepared. He packed an extra pair of jeans along with all that food. Boy, was I glad. I was tired of showing my bunnies to everyone.”

“So they’re on their way to India now?” Nathan asked. “Flights are still running there?”

“Yep. I gave them the coordinates. They know what to do, but they’ll be there long before we get to London.”

As soon as the elevator door opened, Nathan helped Kelly out. With the violin in one hand and her hand in the other, he hustled down the hall. Although she winced with every few steps and favored her wounded shoulder, she didn’t let it slow her down. She was definitely in warrior mode.

When they arrived at the rear entry door, he stopped and peeked through the embedded window. An old white van had backed up to the steps, and one of its rusted double doors was open, as if welcoming them aboard.

“That must be our ride,” Nathan said as the other three caught up.

Victor opened the door. “I’ll speak to him.” He walked up to the driver’s side window and spoke to the owner of a burly arm resting on the frame. After a moment of conversation, Victor waved for them to get in.

Nathan helped Kelly into the back, a cargo area with an old carpet covering the floor. Shelves on the side panels sat empty except for a few old newspaper pages, folded or wadded into balls. After Daryl jumped in, Victor followed, while Clara hurried around to the passenger side, sat up front with the driver, and ducked out of sight.

As soon as everyone had settled, the driver started the engine and looked back. “Hey, kid,” he bellowed. “I see you survived. That witness-protection program must’ve worked out okay.”

Nathan looked at the man. Even with the graying hair sticking out from under his Chicago Bears cap, it didn’t take long to figure out who he was. “Gunther?”

He shifted the van into gear and drove away from the building. “I don’t remember telling you my first name, but that’ll do.”

“But how did you get in touch with Tony?”

Gunther took off his cap and scratched his head through his thinning hair. “On one of my deliveries to the Newton WalMart, I started wondering what happened to you. I remembered the house you went to, so I stopped by and asked the guy who lives there. He told me a pretty wild story. I’m still not sure how much I believe, but I gave him my card, and today he called me saying he needed a driver, someone who had a delivery truck. I was in the area, so I asked if this old van would do. I used to haul newspapers in it years ago. It’s old, but it runs.”

Nathan picked up one of the newspaper pages and read the date: July 29, 1978. “Nothing wrong with this van at all,” he said, smiling. “Nothing at all.”

“Well, I hear you’re in need of speed, so I’ll do the best I can.”

Once they had traveled well away from the observatory, Clara sat up in her seat, while Nathan and Kelly stretched out as much as they could, and Daryl fell asleep against her father’s shoulder.

Nathan pulled the IWART from his belt, switched it to Earth Blue, and pushed the talk button. “Anyone there? Dad?

Mom?”

He released the button. No one answered.

“Maybe it’s the metal in the van,” Kelly said.

“No. I just remembered. We have to be stationary.” He called toward the front. “Gunther, can you find a safe place to stop, just for a minute?”

“No problem. There’s a stop sign ahead, and no one’s around.”

As soon as the van halted, Nathan turned the dial to Earth Yellow and tried again. “Francesca?” After waiting a few seconds, he whispered, “Solomon?”

A buzz sounded, then a quiet female voice came through. “Nathan?”

He pressed the button. “Francesca, I’m just checking on you. Are you in India?”

“Yes, we’re at a hotel. I thought I’d try calling you in the morning.”

“How’s the delay? Do you have to wait very long?”

“Oh, sorry. I fell asleep again. What did you say?”

He held the unit close to his lips, hesitating a moment before pressing the button again. “I guess the delay’s pretty bad. We’re just leaving for London, so you’ll have to wait a while.”

“I understand. We’re prepared. My father . . . Nikolai, I mean, came with us, so he’ll watch little Nathan. But it has already been a day and a half since we left. Time is running out.”

“We’ll get there as fast as we can. Don’t worry about answering. I’ll give you an update soon.”

After reclipping the IWART, he turned to the front. Gunther propped his arm on the seat and nodded in Nathan’s direction. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah. Let’s hurry.”

While they rattled along, Nathan explained everything he could remember from their adventures. Although Clara asked a hundred questions, and Victor added several more, Gunther never said a word. He laughed from time to time when Nathan described Gunther Yellow’s roles, especially when he took out the murderer in Francesca’s room and wielded a tire iron when he thought Nathan was a kidnapper.

Nathan had barely finished his story when they pulled into the nearly empty airport parking lot. Daryl woke up and rubbed her eyes, while her father opened the rear door and helped her and Kelly get out.

“I’ll drive around until I see a plane take off,” Gunther said. “You have my number if you need me.”

Nathan reached over the back of the seat and shook Gunther’s hand. Although the muscular driver’s grip hurt like crazy, it was worth it. “Thanks for everything,” Nathan said. “Both for what you did in this world and in the other one.”

Gunther smiled. “My pleasure. If it wasn’t for all the crazy stuff going on, I wouldn’t have believed a word of it. But it actually all kind of makes sense.”

Again leading Kelly by the hand, Nathan followed Victor into the terminal building, while Clara and Daryl tagged along behind. Victor spoke to a uniformed man, who let them pass, and soon they were walking out to a small Cessna parked inside a hangar.

“My brother’s old hangar,” Victor explained. “That’s why I use this airport. He rented it until he died, and I just kept up the payments. He was my best friend, so it’s sort of a sacred place for me. I can almost feel his presence when I’m here.”

“Daddy!” Daryl leaped into his arms. “Didn’t Nathan tell that part of the story?”

“What part?” he asked, leaning back to look at her face.

“On Earth Yellow I saved Uncle Harry’s life!”

Victor’s mouth dropped open, but he quickly closed it and cleared his throat. “You saved his life? How?”

Daryl grinned and pointed at the plane. “Let’s get airborne, and I’ll tell you all about it.”

“Okay,” Nathan said. “I’m going to check up on the other worlds while you get the plane ready.” He grabbed the IWART again and pressed the button. “Francesca, we’re at an airport, and we’ll be heading toward London soon. Just checking on your time status there.”

Francesca Yellow’s sweet voice, now more lively, erupted from the unit. “Hello, Nathan. It’s nearly noon the same day.”

“Okay. That’s pretty fast, but not too bad. Any sign of Mictar?”

“No, but we brought Amber with us, so he isn’t likely to come by when she’s around.”

“Amber? How did you get her through security?”

“We’re living in the days before your nine-eleven, so it wasn’t too hard. Solomon was able to get a passport with a girl’s photo that looks similar to her, so we managed.”

“Perfect,” Nathan said. “That should help.”

“I’ll try calling you this evening to let you know where we are on the timeline.”

“Cool. Thanks.” He switched to Earth Blue. “Dad? You there?”

After a few seconds of silence, a crackling sound burst through the speakers, then a voice. “Yes, son. Thank God you made it safely to Earth Red.”

“How’s Mom?”

“She’s fine. We managed to play a few notes, but the Womb shook so hard, we couldn’t continue. At least twenty stalkers showed up, and Patar helped us escape through a hidden door in the wall.”

“A hidden door?” Nathan glanced at Kelly and Daryl. Daryl rolled her eyes, while Kelly just stared blankly. “I wish I had known about that.”

“Patar isn’t one to dispense much information. Anyway, we went back to Earth Yellow, and Daryl gave us the GPS coordinates and the IWART. Before she sent us off to Earth Blue, she showed me the collision simulator. It appears we had some success with the violin, but those few days might not be enough.” “Tell me about it. We’re leaving now for O’Hare. I’ll check in again when we get there.”

“Very good, son. We’re camping out in some woods close to the telescope site. If need be, we can be at the exact spot in less than a minute.”

“Sounds like a plan.” After Nathan clipped the unit back on his hip, he helped Kelly climb the airstair and showed her to a comfortable seat just behind the pilot’s. He slid in next to her while Clara sat across the aisle.

Daryl jumped into the copilot’s seat and grabbed the yoke. “Let’s get moving!”

“Patience,” Victor said as he grabbed a headset. “You know the drill.”

She gave him a mock glare. “I thought you said this thing was fast!”