Quantum (23 page)

“No, what is it?”

“001.”

“How do you know that?” I asked, impressed as I tried that. The phone clicked a number of times and then I head the comforting sounds of a ringing tone.

“Hello?”

“Kellan?”

R
aj Sen surveyed the room around him. He could get used to living like this. His earlier walk through his new, unexpected living quarters had filled him with the warm sensation of opulence. Every detail in this suite reeked of unabashed luxury. The suite itself consisted of three separate rooms–a bedroom, a living room and a bathroom. To call them
rooms
were not doing them justice, though. They were works of art. The bath
room,
for example, had its own endless pool. Yes, settling into this suite was no problem whatsoever. His only complaint was the complete lack of windows; there was no view to the outside world. Still, if one was going to be deprived of the natural light from the sun, the light twinkling off the thousands of crystals hanging from the five-foot chandelier would do.

He made himself comfortable on the couch and reached out to pour himself a cup of tea from the steaming silver teapot, which seemed to have magically appeared on the glass coffee table when he had been in the bathroom enjoying the luxury of the Jacuzzi. He inhaled the aroma of mint emanating from the steam and then carefully took a sip.

The question was: what was he doing here? And, where exactly was
here
? He looked at his clock. An hour ago, he’d been at that nasty–he had not bothered to clean it–cottage in Mountain View watching
Oprah
. There hadn’t been much to do since Simla left. He spent four nights hanging out at the motel he’d been dropped off at, and then, when he thought it was safe to go back to the cottage, he’d returned to it. It was deserted, with no signs of Dan, Sophie or police around. So he made himself comfortable, to the point of being a slob, but who cared? He only had a few days left of living in squalor. Once Simla returned, they could get on with getting the portal blueprints to its new owner in return for a disgusting amount of money. He’d been feeling good enough about his future to spend his last days at the cottage watching endless hours of TV, not worrying about a thing.

The sudden pressure to his shoulders had taken him by surprise, during his favorite
Oprah
segment–the one where Tom Cruise jumps on the sofa. His eyelids felt unbearably heavy to the point that they’d been forced down. An indescribable weightlessness followed, accompanied by a loss of all perception of time. He must have temporarily lost consciousness, waking back up in this suite. It had taken him a few moments to collect himself and find his balance. Once he’d done so, he investigated his surroundings as best he could. Perhaps the buyer for the blueprints had somehow brought him here for the exchange. There was not much he could do while he waited to find out. The doors to the outside world were locked and his cell phone was missing. So, he sat back, closed his eyes and relaxed.

He quickly opened them again when he heard sounds coming from outside the locked double doors and sat as still as he could with excited anticipation. His future was about to walk in and greet him.

He was slightly taken aback when Simla appeared and then flung herself at him. She hugged him so tightly that he couldn’t see her face, but he could feel the wetness of her tears soaking into his shirt. He could also feel her trembling body and he wrapped his arms tighter around her to calm her. After a few minutes, he could feel her relaxing slightly, so he pulled back from her to be able to see her face. Her eyes were bloodshot and swollen, she had obviously been weeping.

“Dad,” she sobbed.

“Simla, what on earth’s going on? Have you been harmed?”

“I don’t know, Dad. I mean I’m okay, physically, but I’m scared.”

“What are you scared of? Where are we?”

“Madison is really furious with me and I’m scared to death of her.”

“Who’s Madison?”

“She’s a Sigma-W-Pi,” sobbed Simla, and pushed her face into her palms.

“Simla, I don’t understand what you’re talking about. Calm down and then explain. I’m going to pour you some tea.” Once he handed her a cup of tea, Raj sat back and watched her drink it.

She looked so different from just five days ago, when he last saw her at the cottage. She had appeared so polished and mature. The girl drinking tea was far from that. She was the scared, unsure, disheveled Simla from a year ago. Whatever could have happened in just five days? She was only supposed to go back through the portal with Olivia and call the number he’d given her. She wasn’t even supposed to have any contact with the buyers apart from just calling Dr. Masterson and asking him if he was still interested in the purchase. Something had obviously gone terribly wrong. Who was Madison? He allowed his questions to swim around in his head while Simla calmed down. Once she put her cup down, he allowed himself to voice them.

“Simla, are you feeling a bit calmer? I need to know what’s going on. Did you make contact with the buyers?”

“Dad, I didn’t even make it back through the portal!” she muttered angrily. “The Sigma-W-Pi took me before Olivia had a chance to take me back.”

“The Sigma-W-Pi?”

“They are a type of Wanderer, only they can travel geographically in addition to the usual stuff. Isn’t that how you got here?”

He nodded. He must have. The transport had felt a bit like when he had wandered with Erica, but it was also different. So this made some sense. But this was the first time he’d heard of this type of Wanderers. What did they want with him and Simla? They weren’t after the blueprints, that was for sure. They hadn’t exactly imprisoned them in uncomfortable surroundings, so whatever the Sigma-W-Pi wanted from them couldn’t be all that bad. “Who’s Madison?”

“She’s the Sigma-W-Pi in charge of my training. She’s been working me like a slave,” Simla said, welling up with tears again.

“Training? She’s mistreated you?” Raj asked, getting angry.

“No, Dad. Not really mistreating. She’s just been on my back to train really hard. We’ve been out running, doing weights. I’m exhausted. I hate it.”

“I’m confused,” Raj mumbled, furrowing his brows. “What are you training for?”

“You know, I’m not even sure! I think I’m here because they want to recruit me for something. I’m guessing they’re going to teach me to wander, that’s why they’re training me so hard. But they haven’t actually told me anything yet. I got fed up with all the exercising and tried to run away. That’s why I’m in trouble. What are you doing here?”

“I’ve no idea. Simla, tell me everything. Start from when you left the cottage, don’t leave any detail out.”

As Simla recounted the events, Raj found himself getting more and more confused. Hopefully someone– perhaps this Potomal character that Simla had mentioned numerous times–would enlighten them. In the meantime he sat and listen to his daughter tell him a story that would have landed any of his patients into a locked ward with heavy medication–indefinitely.

He was happy when he heard the door open again, but he could feel Simla tensing up, so he laid his hand over hers. A woman walked into the room, he guessed from Simla’s description that this was the formidable Madison. She was certainly wearing a fearsome expression as she marched into the room to face them.

“Come with me,” she beckoned, waving her hands at them.

“Where are you taking us? Where are we?” Raj demanded.

“Your questions will be answered shortly. Come with me,” she repeated.

Raj stayed put on the couch, pulling Simla back down when she made an attempt to stand up. “We’re not going anywhere until we get some answers,” he said firmly, pursing his lips into a thin line.

“Dad!” Simla protested in a whimper.

“Shush, Simla! Not a word. Let me deal with this.” He could see that the Madison woman had been taken by surprise at his lack of cooperation. Well, no one was ordering
him
around.

Unexpectedly, she smiled at them. “Suit yourselves. Stay here if you want.” She shrugged and turned to walk away.

“Wait!” Raj called. “Why have you brought us here? Where are we?”

“Like I said, if you want answers, you’ll have to come with me. So, what’s it going to be?”

Raj would have loved to tell her where to go, the insolent woman! Remaining in this place indefinitely without answers, however, was not an option, so he got up and pulled Simla up with him.

“This way,” Madison said, and led them along the corridor to a bank of elevators. They were taken to the top floor where the elevator doors opened into a marble-floored hallway surrounded by Greek-looking statues. They followed Madison through brass double doors into a round conference room surrounded by floor to ceiling windows. Well, at least one of Raj’s questions had just been answered. The gleaming metal capsules of the London Eye dominated the view. They were definitely on the north side of the river Thames. London. He certainly had not expected that. The journey didn’t seem long enough to be able to bring him all the way to London from Mountain View. Normally, that would be at least a ten-hour flight, by airplane that is. These Sigma Wanderers could really travel fast. He was impressed.

“Please sit down,” Madison instructed, pointing them to a couple of chairs.

As they seated themselves, the doors opened again and a bunch of people walked in. Raj tried to get a good look at each. However, one person stole his attention. The man must have been about four hundred pounds. He was at least six-foot-six inches tall, easily towering over everyone else in the room. His shoulder-length blond, straight hair was secured in a low ponytail. He was smartly dressed in a three-piece dark business suit and gleaming brown Brogues. He wore an out-of-place looking silver medallion. He took a seat directly opposite Raj and Simla. He stared at Raj with his ice-blue eyes as he spoke in a soft baritone voice.

“Welcome to London. I hope you’ve been comfortable,” the man said, looking at Raj, and ignoring Simla completely. “My name is Potomal. I head the Sigma-W-Pi.”

The big cheese, Raj thought to himself. He should have known! He was hardly likely to be one of the hired muscle guys in that fancy suit.

“I’m sure you are looking for answers. You must be wondering why we brought you here.”

Raj nodded. “Yes, we are.”

“We need Simla to work for us, temporarily only. Once she’s completed the project we need her for, you both will be free to go.”

“What project?” Raj queried.

“We need her to extract some information for us. She will be given adequate training for it. There is no danger involved.”

“Well, I’m not doing any more training!” Simla whined. “Why should I help you anyway?”

“We were hoping that you would do it for the reward of being able to wander,” Potomal replied. “However, since that doesn’t seem like a strong enough incentive, we’ve decided to hold your dad and hand him over to the FBI team, who were investigating the Darley children’s disappearances last year, if you don’t cooperate.” Potomal looked at Simla with a smirk on his face.