Quantum

QUANTUM (Portal Chronicles Book Three)

Text copyright © 2010 by Imogen Rose

Website: imogenrose.com

Cover photograph and design by Imogen Rose. Cover photo copyright © 2010 by Imogen Rose

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Paperback ISBN-13: 9780982800201 (Printed in the United States of America)

Acknowledgements

My younger daughter, Lauren, continues to be my inspiration. She loves a
good story
and looks forward to my next novel, not just with enthusiasm, but also with high expectations. I hope I have delivered. Lauren, thank you.
 
You started me off on this journey and you keep me on it.

What would I do without Sue? I met Sue Bernstein a few years ago. We share a passion for Champagne and shopping. When she offered to edit my first book, I’m sure she didn’t quite know how much of her (billable) time she was about to spend editing my stories. I’m indebted to you, Sue, yet again, for editing this novel and for your patience with me.

Similarly, I’m extremely grateful to my friend Andee Larkin for copy editing my work so carefully. Thank you Andee, you are a star.

I want to thank my beta readers, Al Kunz, Allirea Brumley, Frankie Sutton and Vickie Boehnlein, for their valuable criticisms and suggestions.

Thank you to all those who purchased and enjoyed PORTAL and EQUILIBRIUM, the first two books in this series. I am blown away by the enthusiastic support from all of you.

-Imogen Rose

A dreamer must dream

A storyteller must tell

I dream to tell

A STORY FOR LAUREN

prologue

A
madea glanced up at the wire-sculpted herald angels as she walked toward the ice rink looking for Inez. The breathtaking sight of the looming Christmas tree made her stop for a moment before she fought her way through the throngs to where she had arranged to meet Inez, smiling at her fondly as she walked up and gave her a hug.
 
Inez laughed apologetically as she inadvertently smeared her lipstick onto Amadea’s gorgeous brown fur coat as her face was brought close in a tight embrace. Amadea looked down at the smear and shrugged; it was of no consequence, nothing that couldn’t be dealt with. She could tell that Inez was mortified, so she squeezed her shoulders reassuringly and gave her a not-to-worry look. Inez smiled gratefully–she would, of course, have the stain taken care of–and then pointed to the ice rink. Amadea followed the direction of her finger, looking down to see her young son glide effortlessly on the ice–it almost looked like he was floating. He was easy to spot, the only one wearing a helmet, she had insisted on it even though he’d been reluctant.

“Inez, thank you so much for putting us up. We really appreciate it,” she said, looking down at Inez gratefully.

“You are very welcome, my dear,” Inez smiled. “It’s been lovely having you, I’ve enjoyed the company. I’ll miss you both.” Christmastime in Manhattan was always magical, but it was even more so if you had someone to share it with. She could relax around Amadea, who knew her secret–that she was a Wanderer, a being who could travel through time and dimensions. Taking her guests to visit her favorite haunts, sharing the delight of the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Rockettes show, and today, watching people skating around the ice rink at the Rockefeller Center was such a treat. Normally, Inez would have forgone these pleasures, opting to work.

Amadea hugged her and turned back to watch her son. He was crouching down on the ice. Had he fallen? She instinctively started walking toward the rink, but stopped as he stood up and watched him intently. He seemed to be fine. He was staring down into his gloved hand and then started skating again. Not casually, as before, but purposefully. Amadea watched him skate up to a little girl who was standing by the huge gold statue of Prometheus. He took his helmet off as he chatted with her. She was a pretty little girl from what Amadea could tell, very fashionably dressed in a beautiful, pink, wool coat. The little girl suddenly smiled as he handed her something. She took it, kissed him on the cheek and skated off toward her mother who was calling for her.

Amadea kept her eyes on her son as he skated off the ice and made his way up to find her.

“Mummy, that was fun! Can we come again?”

“We’re heading home to London tomorrow, but we’ll come again, I promise,” she smiled, looking at his flushed cheeks. “What was that you found on the ice, Rup?”

“Oh, it was this shiny necklace, said
Quantum
on it. Mummy, what does that mean?” Rupert asked.

“Quantum? Hmm, that’s unusual,” Amadea mused. “Did it belong to the little girl?”

“Yes, her name is Ollie and I’m going to marry her one day.”

T
his blows. Where the heck was he? I must have left him like a zillion messages telling him that I’d be back tonight. Let me explain. I was–yet again–waiting for Dad to pick me up. He was inexcusably late. It was particularly annoying since I was now alone in the school parking lot. The bus driver dropped me off last, but here I was–by myself. It was dark, not that I was the least bit bothered by that, but Dad should be, wouldn’t you think?

I walked over to the main building and let myself in. Thankfully, the door was still unlocked–a school concert, no doubt. The halls were quiet, but there were muffled sounds emanating from the auditorium. I put my ear to the auditorium door trying to identify the source, but gave up, gently prying the door open so I could have a peek. The debate team. Sigh.

As I made my way down the hallway, I ran into the janitor–Bob. I ran into Bob a lot. He was used to letting me back into school after hours to retrieve my hockey gear and other stuff that I habitually forgot. I wondered what drove him. He just seemed to go about his business, happy as a clam, not the least bit annoyed with me when I disturbed his routine. He smiled kindly and let me borrow his cell phone–I had forgotten mine at home–to call my dad. Dad wasn’t picking up his phone. It sucked, big time. I tried Monica next. Monica is my BFF, well one of them. The other one is Ariele. She moved to California last weekend. I was going to miss her.

Last weekend started early, way too early for me. Who schedules SATs early on a Saturday morning? That’s seriously warped. Then, after the SATs, I decided–on a total whim–to head off to an all-girls’ ice hockey camp–yes, weird, I know. However, I knew that there would be college scouts there. I figured that since I had totally screwed up my SATs–and GPA–I’d better try to get on the ice hockey scouts’ radar. So I went, although I had totally decided not to. I’d never played with a bunch of girls before and I thought it would really suck. But it wasn’t too bad. In fact, I sort of enjoyed it. So when the coach suggested I stay for the rest of the week, I jumped at it. Missing school for a week–awesome! Well, almost a week. It was only Thursday. Maybe I could blow off school tomorrow. That would make the week perfect.