Quantum (13 page)

I had a good look out the window. I was clearly on the north side of the Seine, I could spot the river, which was fairly close and the Eiffel Tower was slightly to the left of me. Beyond that, I had no idea where I was. I turned around and headed for the door situated on the opposite wall. As I was about to turn the gilded knob, something clicked and then it turned. I made my way to the opposite side of the room and waited.

The door opened slowly to let a familiar face through, Well two, actually–Simla and Justin. I wasn’t entirely jaw-down-on-the-floor surprised to see Simla, but the sight of Justin walking through that door, well my jaw did hit the floor, metaphorically, of course.

Both of them walked in with their fingers over their lips and closed the door quietly. They waved at me to follow them to the couch at the far end of the room, while making it clear for me to hush, which I was less than thrilled about. However, I decided to give them a chance to explain before I bit–can’t imagine where that rabid thought came from–them or whatever.

Once we were huddled together on the couch–which had a nauseatingly strong smell of cigarettes–Simla looked me up and down and then spoke.

“Where are we?” she whispered.

“Where are we?” I hissed right back at her.

She nodded.

“You don’t know?” I snapped. Beyond incredulous.

She shook her head.

“Do you know?” Justin whispered.

“Well, yes. Duh. We’re in Paris.”

“In Paris?” They both exclaimed in unison. “How? Why? How do you know? Are you sure?”

“Well, yeah. I’m sure,” I said, pointing to the window.

They both got up and walked over and gazed outside. I could hear them gasp.

“Sure it’s not Vegas?” Justin whispered, as he walked back to the couch.

“Yeah. I’ve been here before. Not here, as in this room, but here in Paris. Besides it totally smells of Paris.”

“What are you? A sniffer dog?” Justin mumbled. “What do you mean
it smells like Paris
? All I smell is that disgusting smell of tobacco or whatever.”

“Oh, never mind,” I said, shaking my head. It was so typical of him not to be able to concentrate on the nice aromas instead. “What are you two doing here? How did you get here?”

“Well we obviously don’t know
what
we’re doing here or we wouldn’t have asked you,” Justin replied sourly.

“Well, do you know how you got here?” I persisted.

Justin shook his head. “Not really. I was in my dad’s car, listening to my iPod when I felt something pull at my shoulders. Then Dad began to fade and I felt like I was
wandering
, but it was different somehow. It took much longer for one thing and I was
cold
. The next thing I knew I woke up in a room, similar–but much smaller–to this one but on the other side of the apartment.”

“We’re in an apartment?”

“Yeah, quite a nice one, too. It’s huge,” Simla added.
 
“I was delivered to the room beside Justin’s. I must have gotten here first. I heard a commotion through the wall and went to investigate, and found Justin in there on his own.”

“I understand that you were taken from the portal?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yup, I’ve already told Justin. Did your mom get back okay?”

“Well, she did come back through. I haven’t spoken to her yet. She went over to Constance’s right after she came back. They are trying to figure out what happened to you.”

“Where were you taken from?” Justin asked me.

“From home. I was taken from the kitchen. Your dad had just arrived and was telling us how you disappeared when I felt some kind of pressure to my shoulder and then everything faded.”

“Did anyone see you fade?” Simla asked.

“Yeah. Kellan saw, but the others–Rupert, Grayson and Rupert’s mom–were busy talking.”

“What did he do?”

“Do? There wasn’t much he could do, it all happened so fast. He tried to grab hold of me, but I seemed to fade right through him.”

“Shit.”

“Yes, no kidding,” I agreed.

“Anyone got any ideas? Why we’re here?” Simla shrugged.

I shook my head. I had no idea whatsoever. “Did you guys search through the rest of the apartment?”

Justin nodded. “Yup. The front door is locked. In addition to the three bedrooms we have, there are another three bedrooms. One of them is locked, so I guess I don’t know for sure if it’s a bedroom. The two that are unlocked are empty. We did knock at the locked one, but there was no reply. There’s a kitchen with lots of food–I’m kind of hungry. There is a huge room with a big conference table in the middle with seating for at least twenty people. Then there is a living room with comfy seats, huge TV and game station. And the usual, bathrooms and all,” he added.

“No other people, other than us?” I asked.

“Not as far as we can tell, but let’s be careful and quiet. We didn’t get here on our own,” Simla responded.

“Well, I need some grub. Let’s head over to the kitchen.”

I nodded. Whoever brought us here had locked us up. They left us in an apartment that seemed fairly respectable. So it was probably okay to get some food, best to keep our strength up while we waited for someone to come to us with an explanation.

Justin opened the door to my bedroom hesitantly and peered into the hallway. Then he turned and beckoned to Simla and me to follow him. We followed him through the apartment to the kitchen, which was unexpected. I had expected an old-fashioned, dark-wood kitchen with a large, old cooking range. The stainless steel vision took me by surprise. This was a high-tech, gadget-overloaded, sci-fi kitchen. I made my way to the triple door fridge/freezer and couldn’t help but smile as I opened it–none of that fancy-schmancy French stuff. Pastrami, cheese, burger meat, fruit, veggies, a nice selection of Starbucks Frapuccinos, Coke, you name it!
 
This was full of
real
food. In the middle, there was a huge strawberry cake, which I rescued and placed on the stainless steel counter. I immediately dug in, as did Justin.

“What’s up, Simla? Dig in!”

“Naw, I don’t like strawberries,” she explained, and pulled out sour cream and onion chips.

I helped myself to a handful of those as well and washed them down with Coke. Whatever the three of us felt about each other, for now we had to remain united. So I decided to share a bit of what I knew.

“It’s got to be the Sigma-Ws,” I announced.

“Say what?” Justin mumbled, as Simla looked over questioningly.

“The
Sigma–Ws
,” I repeated, thinking that these two were really ignorant for half-Wanderers–if that’s what they are called.

“Yes, I think you get it. We don’t know what you’re talking about. ‘Splain,” Simla snapped, clearly irritated.

“You’ve never heard of Sigma-Wanderers?”

“No!” Justin practically hollered at me.

“Okay, okay, keep your pants on,” I soothed. “The Sigma-Wanderers, as you can tell by the name, are a type of Wanderer.”

“I thought there were just the Wanderers,” Justin grumbled, looking over at Simla who nodded. “How many types are there and how do
you
know?”

“Well, I don’t know how many different types there are. I just know about the Sigma-Ws because Rupert’s mom told us about them.”

“Rupert’s mom? What’s she got to do with it? Anyway, tell us what
you think
they are first.”

I couldn’t help but catch that little snide comment–
what I think
. Gah. “Well, unlike regular Wanderers, Sigma-Wanderers can travel geographically, as well as through time and dimensions. That’s why I think they are responsible. I mean, we are in
Paris
!” I concluded triumphantly.

“Why would they take us and then bring us here?” Simla inquired.

“Well, it’s not them,
per se
… it’s the baddie Sigmas,” I said.

Justin cracked up. “
Baddie
? What are you? Five?”

“Oh, shut your face, you know what I mean!” I really needed to give up on Ella’s lingo. “Anyhow, the
not-so-nice
bunch,” I continued, grimacing at Justin, “are led by a Sigma called Potomal.”

“Silly name,” Simla remarked, rolling her eyes.

“Yup,” I agreed. “Potomal wants to seize power and control of the Sigma-Ws, who, if I understand this correctly, rule the Wanderers. Don’t know why he wants control.”

“Well that’s pretty obvious, isn’t it, airhead?” Justin scowled. “Everyone wants power!”

“Not so sure about that,” I said. “Anyhow, if you shut your mouth, I’ll continue. That’s unless you don’t want to know what I know.”

Justin nodded, so I continued. “Apparently Potomal has been watching you for some time,” I said, looking over at Simla.

“Me? Why?”

“Because he thinks that you will be easy to recruit to his cause, since you seem to hate everyone. So that’s probably why you’re here. Maybe he’s been watching you, too, Justin and you’re here for the same reason. I can’t for the life of me understand why I’m here, though!”

“Rupert’s mom told you all this?” Simla asked thoughtfully.

“Yes.”

“How does she know? Is she a Sigma-W?” Simla asked, her eyes narrowing.

“Yeah.”

“What about Rupert, is he one as well?”

“No.”

“So assuming Simla and I are here as potential
recruits
, which would explain the nice lodgings, we still have you to contend with. Why do you have the nicest room? Maybe they took you by mistake. Maybe they were after my dad or Rupert’s mom,” he mused.

I guess that was possible. They could, in fact, have been after Rupert. He was a potential Sigma-W, after all. I guess we would know soon enough. In the meantime, we had everything we needed here. “So what are you two going to do if Potomal wants to recruit you?”

They both shrugged.

“Sheesh, I don’t know. I guess I’d have to know a lot more before I make a decision of any kind,” Justin said. “Show me the money!”

“Oh, don’t be an ass,” Simla responded. “If it means that they’ll teach us both to wander, well… then it’s a no-brainer. I mean, our own type has practically abandoned any intention of accepting us.”

“Speak for yourself,” Justin said. “My dad thinks that they’ll let me wander–eventually. I just have to prove myself.”

“And how are you going to do that, Justin? Pretend to suddenly become a good citizen?” Simla asked sarcastically.

“Actually, yes. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve been putting in a lot of community service hours and haven’t been in any trouble for a whole year! So unless the Sigmas are offering something really sweet, I’m not interested.”

“They may teach you to wander geographically,” Simla mused.

“Still not worth it, I can hop on a flight anytime.”