Run (The Tesla Effect #2) (5 page)

At least he hoped it would turn out right. The next week would be difficult, at best. He remembered it all too well—and that was if nothing changed, if he hadn’t already screwed things up in some miniscule way that he didn’t yet realize but that would nonetheless deviate from the timeline they were on. It was all so confusing. And of course, in the here and now, Tesla would have vanished, and he’d have to figure out how to make
that
right. With her father, with—

He shook his head to clear it. He couldn’t worry about that now.

“Are you ready?” he asked as he pushed the button on the mic in front of him.

“I think so,” she said uncertainly. The camera picked up the nervous twitch of her mouth, the flash of electric colors as her eyes darted about the chamber. And then she stilled and seemed to stand a little straighter, as he watched her in the monitor. He grinned, despite himself, when she thrust out her chin, stubborn and brave as always, the flinty core of her contradicted by the soft mouth, the deep dimples.

“I’m ready when you are,” she said.

He put his hand on the switch that would activate the lasers. “In five…four…three….” He paused. “Tesla,” he said suddenly, impetuously. “Tonight was not the second time we’ve ever kissed.”

She looked startled for the briefest moment, and then she laughed as she realized that he had just broken the rules, and why, and her eyes looked right at him from the monitor, an invitation that sent a hot wave of desire through him.

“Really?” She drew the word out, a tease and a challenge. “We’ll see about that.”

“In three…two…one,” he finished, dazzled by her face before the lasers even began their circuitous route. The photonic tubes sent beams to rotate in opposite directions, to swirl and increase in speed and intensity until their white glare became a black hole that cut through the world and took her from him.

He was bereft, despite the fact that his younger self was in the lab at this very moment eight years ago, that it was he himself who would open the door of the time machine and watch Tesla walk out, still smiling just for him.

CHAPTER 7

After a restless night punctuated by sudden starts and vague fears each time he started to doze off, it took Finn all of ten minutes to decide he was acting like a jealous child—which prompted an immediate wave of self-disgust—and to head over to Tesla’s house instead of moping around. It was only eight-thirty in the morning when he rang the bell, but he simply couldn’t wait any longer. Dr. Greg Abbott answered immediately.

“Hey, Dr. Abbott, is Tesla here?”

“No, she’s not. I was just about to call Jane looking for her.”

“I just came from there, and Tesla is definitely not at the house,” said Finn slowly.

Max came up behind his father and pushed his way into the doorway and the conversation. “She didn’t come home last night,” he said, eyes wide behind his wire-rimmed glasses, wavy, carrot-orange hair falling over his forehead.

Dr. Abbott looked quickly at Max, frowning. “Are you sure? I thought she just left early, before I got up.”

Max shrugged, unperturbed. “Yeah, I’m sure. She always comes in my room and turns off my reading light when she gets home. It was still on when I woke up this morning. I checked her room. She hasn’t been home.”

Dr. Abbot ran his fingers through his thinning hair. “Do you know where she went last night?”

Finn considered leaving. Things were clearly about to get awkward as hell, but at the same time he wanted to hear it said out loud, if only to help him accept it.

“She said she was going out with Sam,” said Max, shrugging. “To a movie.”

Dr. Abbott turned to Finn and they looked at each other for a moment.

“Do you know where Sam lives?” asked Dr. Abbott. His voice did not invite conversation beyond a simple answer.

“Yes,” said Finn. “I do.” He hoped as much for his own sake as anyone else’s that her father wouldn’t find Tesla there.

Finn paced the sitting room at Jane’s house two hours later, hating the tension and the worry he felt, furious that he was reduced to this cliché, but unable to stop himself.
Where was she? Was she okay?
It just seemed so unlikely that she’d blatantly spend the night with Sam, push her father to this point, no matter how mad or frustrated with him she might be. She was kinder than that. He hadn’t known her very long, it was true, but of this he was certain.

The doorbell rang, and Finn jumped. When he opened it he found Sam on the doorstep.

Finn felt the cool, detached expression he relied on so often slide over his features. “No way—you’re a Jehovah’s Witness? I didn’t know. Okay, go ahead, give me the spiel.”

“Can I come in?” asked Sam.

Saying nothing, Finn stepped aside and Sam walked into the house and they turned to face each other. It didn’t occur to either of them to sit on any of the chairs or sofas that occupied the spacious sitting room.

“I came here to say something,” said Sam.

“Do tell,” said Finn, sounding bored.

“I’ve told Dr. Abbott, and I assume by telling you I’m letting Jane and the others here know as well.”

Finn’s heart was racing now, and it was only through sheer effort of will that he was able to keep still, to hold his body in the same, somewhat slouched stance, to look to all the world as though he had no interest whatsoever in what Sam was here to say.

“Tesla is—” Sam began.

“With you? Yeah, I’m not sure it’s that newsworthy,” Finn said. “But thanks for the announcement all the same.”

Sam looked confused for a moment, and then with a slight uptick of one side of his mouth—not quite a smile, and there for only the briefest of seconds—he corrected Finn. “No, Tesla is gone, I was going to say. She jumped back in time last night. I thought you should know—all of you.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” demanded Finn, alarmed by how alarmed he felt.

“She went to the Bat Cave last night. She decided to jump. I ran the controls for her.”

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Finn said, his voice low and menacing as he took a step closer to Sam, wiry and tense, his carefully-calculated slouch forgotten. “You have no business in there, and you don’t have the right to make those kinds of decisions.”

Sam took a step in, too, but Jane Doane entered the room and they both stepped back, silently fuming.

“I’ve just gotten off the phone with Greg Abbott,” she said briskly. “This is not good news.” She was all business, her short, elfin dark hair, her petite frame in stark contrast to her surprisingly deep voice and the unquestionable confidence and authority it held. “Sam, Finn is absolutely correct that you had no business sending her back—you are not trained on the equipment, you have no security clearance, and that time machine is a government-funded project. I don’t even know yet how many laws you might’ve broken.”

Sam stood and took it. He knew before he even got to the house that this was how it would go—and of course he’d already heard much worse from Dr. Abbott. He did not attempt to defend himself, but neither did he look the least bit contrite for sending Tesla back in time, without anyone knowing, in the middle of the night.

“Wait, when did she go—exactly what time was it?” Finn asked suddenly.

Sam considered. “I’m not sure…probably around one thirty or so this morning.”

Finn thought back to his restless night, the agitation he’d assumed was due to the kiss he’d witnessed between Sam and Tesla, the unpleasant surprise he felt over how much he cared that they’d kissed at all. But he’d managed to settle down after a while, had been listening to Miles Davis, was almost asleep in fact, when he’d suddenly felt a surge of such extreme, mixed emotions, with absolutely no source for any of it that he could identify, that he’d been thrown wide awake again and left utterly confused. His heart had pounded in inexplicable anticipation, he’d felt fear in his gut, nervous tension in his muscles, worry, and, bizarrely, a sense of triumph, happiness even. And all of it jumbled up—
tangled
up, he realized suddenly.

He’d felt what Tesla felt, just as she’d made the jump back in time.

“What is it?” Jane asked, watching his face.

“There’s been a…development,” said Finn, aware from his peripheral vision that Sam was paying very careful attention.

“What sort of development?” Jane asked, her tone brisk, but wary.

“Bizzy will have to fill you in on the particulars, but it seems as though something happened to Tesla and I when we made the jump together last summer. We’re entangled—that’s the quantum physics term, not mine,” he added hastily when Jane frowned. He didn’t even look at Sam.

“It seems as though we are bound together, connected in some way that causes us each to experience what the other one experiences, physically and emotionally, at the same exact moment.”

“This is a real thing?” asked Jane, who already had her phone out, her finger poised over the touchscreen.

“Yes, according to Bizzy,” said Finn.

“I’ll get back to you,” she said, already turning and walking out of the room. “I have to make some calls, find out what this means.”

“Entangled,” said Sam, and it was a statement, not a question.

“So it seems.”

“You feel what she feels?”

“Can’t say I know very much about it at this point.”

Sam couldn’t help himself. “So you know, then, how our date went last night. And when we—well, you must already be aware.”

Finn looked at him for a moment, dread giving way to amusement and then relief, relief that he could feel amused,
did
feel amused. Sam, clearly trying to make Finn think the worst, had just told him exactly what he’d wanted to hear.

“Oh, you guys went out last night? Funny, I didn’t feel a thing.”

“Okay, you two are seriously getting on my last nerve,” said Keisha thirty minutes later, arms crossed over her chest as she frowned at Finn and Sam.

“Much as this pains me, I have to agree with her,” said Beckett, one slim, perfect leg draped over the arm of the overstuffed club chair she sat in as she ignored the glare Keisha sent her way.

“Sorry if we’re annoying you,” said Sam in a somewhat peevish tone.

“You don’t have to be here, Keish,” Finn pointed out. “Why are you here, anyway?”

“I texted her. Don’t let it go to your head,” said Beckett, turning briefly to Keisha.

“And Keisha texted me,” Malcolm added. “Though why I wasn’t included in the original text is unclear. I’ll just send you my contact info now, Beckett. In case you don’t have it.” He was already busy with his phone.

“As I was saying, your cousin is right, Finn. Let’s just try to stick to the issue at hand rather than devolving into some testosterone-laden death match, mm-kay? It’s gross.” Beckett had apparently decided that pretending she didn’t know Keisha’s name would prove annoying and, as usual, she was right.

“Finn does have a point, Beckett,” Bizzy said. “This
is
Sam’s fault.”

Sam had had enough. “How many times do I have to explain that
this already happened
?” He turned to Finn. “We agreed to let things unfold the way we know they did, to not interfere with the past and change things. You agreed.”

“That’s true.” Finn met Sam’s eyes without flinching, his head tipped just slightly as he considered this.

Everyone waited. All eyes were on Finn, anticipating the come-back, the ruthless verbal cut, the witty deathblow, the resulting argument—it’s what Finn and Sam had been doing for the last half hour.

“What?” Finn said, looking around in surprise. “He’s right. That’s what we all agreed to do. Or, rather, not to do.”

“So we can move on, then?” asked Keisha, doubting her cousin’s ability to leave it at that. “Or do you have some feats of strength you two want to demonstrate only to be ultimately humiliated, because I’m pretty sure I’m stronger than both of you.”

Gratified by Joley’s muffled laughter and Bizzy’s inability to stifle her grin, Keisha took control of the meeting. “So what do we know, my little spylettes?”

Finn spoke immediately. “We know that Tesla jumped back about twelve hours ago, and we know from the time machine settings that she is, just like us, in—on—November seventh. Sam, you were the last one to see her, anything you want to add?”

Sam cleared his throat before he spoke. “She said she’d had an awful day, and even though she didn’t jump because of that, I think it added to her general frame of mind. The main thing was that she was worried and upset because she thought Dr. Abbott knew something about her mom’s death. Something he was hiding. She said she needed information. That’s why she went back.”

“Why doesn’t she just talk to her dad?” said Beckett, incredulous. “Dr. Abbot is a sweetheart.”

“I don’t know, but she said she heard her dad say something himself that made her think he’s not telling her everything—she didn’t say what she heard, but whatever it was, it really shook her.”

“Hm. Well, she might just be a little melodramatic. Hard to imagine Dr. Abbott harboring important info about his dead wife. Though I guess protocol is protocol, and it’s a possible lead. Should we talk to Max?” asked Beckett, turning to Finn.

“I don’t think so,” said Finn. “It doesn’t strike me that Tes would want us to involve him, and we have no reason to think he knows anything.”

“What about Jane, then?” asked Joley. He had been standing in the doorway the whole time, leaning against the frame and listening.

“What do you mean?” asked Bizzy. “She already knows about the entanglement, and she knows Tesla jumped.”

“Right, but this little meeting was called for a reason. Is there a decision that needs to be taken? Something we should do? Let’s be honest, at least, or we’ll make a cock-up of this whole thing. It can’t be a bloody accident that we’ve gathered only
after
Jane left, can it? Let’s have it then.”

Everyone was quiet for a moment, and then Finn spoke up. “I don’t think we need to consult Jane, at least at the moment. She knows the facts, just like Bizzy said, and if she had a job for us to do related to this, she’d be the one calling the meeting. Seems obvious that she’s not acting on this in any way that involves us.”

Joley looked at him, considering. “Okay. True enough, as far as you go, but don’t be a prat, mate. What else?”

Finn looked right back, and neither of them blinked. Finally, Finn surprised everyone but Joley by laughing. “You win,” he conceded. “I think Jane is too close to this—we haven’t come together to have this conversation because Tesla has used the time machine again. We’re here because of
why
Tesla jumped back, because there seems to be some mystery as to how Tasya Petrova Abbott died.”

Joley’s obsidian eyes glittered suspiciously, though there was no trace of laughter about his mouth or in his voice when he said, “And?”

“And,” Finn continued. “Tesla is suspicious of the role her father might have played in her mother’s death—and we all know that where Tasya and Greg Abbott were, Jane Doane was, as well.”