The Man From Taured (13 page)

Shaw said: "Yes, absolutely. Thank you for allowing this."

Frank smiled. Shaw knew that this had been the man's plan all along. There was also a feeling that his work with the alternate dimensions had more applications and money-making potential than Frank was letting on. Whatever, Shaw thought, as long as they let me continue to work with it. I was so close.

"OK," Frank said, "go home for today. Rest up and make sure that you haven't dislodged half your brain. When you get back here tomorrow, spend time working on your food experiments and then follow up with me tomorrow afternoon. I should at least have an idea of where we will be setting up this other experiment."

Shaw nodded, at a loss for words. The smile was now on his lips and any notion he had of trying to act cool about this was gone. He stood up and shook Frank's hand. He nearly skipped out of the office. The pounding in his head was forgotten and his brain was spinning with ideas of what he should be doing next.

***

Dr. Lance Shaw drove home, his brain still filled with ideas of what he should do next. He had been so close. The wave generators had been vibrating at a frequency that nearly opened a dimensional portal. He needed to generate a more powerful energy field, he figured, and he needed more of the wave generators. He needed better control over the intensity of the vibrations he
created and he needed more protection around him to stop those waves from bringing the lab crashing down around his ears.

He drove home barely aware of what he was doing, completely oblivious to traffic. He pulled up in to the parking lot of his apartment building and as he stepped out of the car the afternoon sun bore down on him, but the air was biting and cold. Shaw had a smile on his face, his head down, thinking.

So, of course he collided head-on into a man standing on the sidewalk.

Shaw's head collided with the man's chest and that caused his already sore brain to explode in pain. Shaw let out a cry and staggered backwards. His vision exploded in white and he stumbled off the sidewalk. He vaguely heard the man he hit also cry out, but he was in too much pain to really notice.

"Jesus, watch what you're doing!" Shaw yelled, his hand on his head.

"I believe you collided with me," said a voice. "Dr. Shaw."

Shaw felt a sudden chill travel from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head, as if the air had suddenly become electrified. He had been living in his apartment for months, but he had been so busy with Gemini that he hadn’t bothered to get to know any of his neighbors. He had no intention of getting to know them, either. Shaw had little need for social interaction with the people around him. When you were a man who graduated with three degrees in various sciences at an age as early as he, most of the "regular" people in the world bored the living snot out of you. They could not keep up, their mundane lives were frustrating.

In short, there was no one around here, living in this apartment complex that should have known his name.

Shaw raised his head and then shielded his eyes from the bright sunlight. The man in front of him wore a long gray overcoat and a hat with a wide brim. Shaw had not seen a hat like that outside of movies (what few movies he had bothered to view). Beneath the shadow of the hat was a man with what he could only think of as a weather-beaten face. There were thick lines and the skin looked like leather. There was stubble across the man's chin and wisps of gray hair stuck out from beneath the hat. Resting on the hat’s brim were goggles that had red lenses.

"Wh-who are you?" Shaw asked.

"I'm the man who is here to stop you from continuing with the experiment that you started today," the man said, his voice as rough as his exterior. He had a faintly British accent. "You are messing about with
things that you cannot possibly fathom."

So that’s what this was. He had heard about other laboratories who were constantly jealous of the things, the advances, being made at Gemini. Other scientists had been muttering about being offered lucrative jobs and opportunities if they would just sneak files out of the Gemini building. There were rumors that Gemini had an entire secret security force to take care of people who decided to sell Gemini secrets.

Rumors of people who had disappeared.

"I don't know who you are and I don't appreciate being bullied and made to feel afraid in the parking lot of my own apartment," Shaw said.

"I'm sorry to do that, Dr. Shaw," said the man. "But this outfit is necessary, you’ll just have to trust me on that. Please, just stop the experiments that you started with the alternate dimensions. The work you've been doing with food is a good thing and can help the world, change it. There's nothing wrong with feeding starving people. Maybe it's not as exciting, but it could make you a legend in the scientific community. That's not a bad thing. You could end up with some kind of major prize or award and end up in the history books."

Shaw cocked his head to the side, studying the man. How old was he? He looked like he had been standing out in the desert sun for years. Where the hell had he come from? Where the hell would that outfit be necessary and accepted?

"Who are you?" Shaw asked.

"My name is Ezekiel Clay," the man said.

"How old are you?"

Ezekiel tipped his head back and laughed a hoarse laugh that matched his rough voice.

"I am old," Ezekiel said. "How old, well, even I have lost count."

"Who sent you?" Shaw asked.

Ezekiel thought about that for a moment. "There are things that I have not been authorized to talk about just yet. I'm just here to tell you that it would be best if you stopped your experiments. There are people, other people, people perhaps not quite as nice, watching you and this experiment. They want you to succeed, but the success of this experiment will be detrimental to everyone. Literally everyone, in this world and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others."

"What do you mean?"

"There are walls, barriers, between realities, Dr. Shaw," Ezekiel said. "They are there for a purpose. There are things in these other realities that are dangerous. If you start mucking about with those barriers, they weaken and if they weaken, realities can collide."

Ezekiel lowered his head, his face obscured by his wide-brimmed hat for a bit. Then he raised it again, studying Shaw's face, as if trying to determine if anything of his warning was sinking in. There was a momentary widening of his eyes that made Shaw think that Ezekiel realized he might only be fueling the young scientist’s curiosity.

"If the realities collide, that’s a bad thing, they tend to cancel each other out, but not until the two realities spend time trying to exist, thrashing in their death throes, and nearly destroying each other. Then they just stop existing. All of the people. Everything. Just stop."

Ezekiel's eyes burned into Dr. Shaw's brain. His head still hurt from the beating it had taken earlier in the day. The headache pounded at his skull, making it feel as though his eyes were bulging out of his skull.

"I'd like to ask you to leave, Mr. Clay," Shaw said. "My head hurts and I'm not really thinking all that clearly. I need to go into my apartment and load up on a lot of painkillers and then I intend to get a very long and good night's sleep. Once tomorrow comes, I have to go back to Gemini and decide what I'm going to do next. Your suggestion has been noted."

"You're not going to stop, are you?" Ezekiel said. "I can see it in your eyes."

"You're a mind reader now?"

Shaw found reserves of bravery that he did not know existed. He walked past Ezekiel, brushing past the man with his shoulder. The long jacket that Ezekiel wore felt heavier than just leather or some other known material. He caught the old weathered face out of the corner of his eye, the eyes now sad. Still he pushed past and started walking to his apartment.

"There will be others who visit you, Dr. Shaw," Ezekiel said. "And there is one that will probably contact you that you will definitely wish you had never heard from. I cannot tell you his name, because as far as we can tell, he has no name. It may not even be a 'he' so much as an 'it.' It's evil, whatever it is, Dr. Shaw. Make no mistake about it. There are those here on this plane that work with it and have been corrupted by its evil. They may also pay a visit to you and will likely do more than just talk."

Ezekiel shifted from one foot to the next and his mouth opened and then closed. He
looked like he wanted to say more
.
Instead, he just reached up to his hat and pulled down those odd red goggles. Then he lowered his hands to his belt buckle where there was a soft click.

"You've been warned, Dr. Shaw," Ezekiel said. "Be careful."

And then there was a quick, bright, flash of light and Ezekiel was gone.

Shaw gaped at the spot where Ezekiel had been standing. He walked over and waved his hand around like an idiot for several seconds. There was nothing there.

"This has to be the weirdest day of my life," Shaw said to himself.

He walked into his apartment, shut the door and headed for the kitchen. He removed the prescription bottles in the small white bag that the doctor at the infirmary had given him. He opened one of them and took several of the pills, then he got a beer out of the fridge, walked into his living room and sat down. Not long after, he dozed for a bit.

***

It was night when the phone started ringing. Shaw had fallen asleep on the sofa and he jumped when the jangling sound pierced the veil of sleep. On the coffee table in front of him was the empty beer can. He admitted, at least to himself, that when it came to booze he was a total lightweight. He rarely drank and the beer in the fridge had been in there since he moved in, bought in payment to his friends for helping him move in.

"Huh?" Shaw said aloud before realizing the origin of the ringing.

Shaw fumbled for the cordless. It skittered out of his fingers and across the glass surface of the coffee table. It then teetered on the edge and fell onto the floor. He cursed, staggered to his feet and reached down to get the phone. Once had it firmly in hand, he pressed the phone to his ear on the last ring before it would have gone to voicemail.

"Hello?" Shaw said.

"Well, hello, Dr. Shaw," said a calm, oily voice on the other end of the phone. "I thought it might be time to welcome you to the club."

Shaw's brain was still a bit fuzzy. He scratched his head as if that might clear his brain and his thinking.

"What?"

"Don't say much, do you?" The oily voice said and then there was an oily laugh. "My name is Dr. Augustus Whitten, by the way. You are Dr. Lance Shaw, correct? You're the man who has started experiments in inter-dimensional travel? Portals and the like?"

Shaw felt something like an icy hand close around his heart. Everything at Gemini was supposed to be top secret. How did everyone seem to know about the failed experiment?

"I'm not supposed to talk about the work that I've been doing," Shaw said.

"Yes, yes, yes, I understand," Whitten said. "I know all of the protocol bullshit. I've been studying alternate realities and dimensions for years, Dr. Shaw. Despite my study of them, I have never come as close as you did to opening an actual stable portal into another reality. You are something of a phenomenon."

"I can't talk about this," Shaw repeated.

"Dr. Shaw, there are others out there who have interest in this," Whitten said and Shaw suddenly felt a wave of deja vu. "Not just me. There are others, in different realities, which are also interested in opening portals, allowing free travel between dimensions. You may also hear from people who think that traveling from one dimension to the next will bring about some fantastic apocalypse. A bunch of religious nonsense, if you ask me. Your achievement today, although technically a failure, is a major accomplishment. The Wright brothers only flew a few hundred feet with their first flight, but it was still a major step. Today, with what you did, you accomplished that first step. A first step that will change everything."

Shaw felt several emotions fight with each other. There was the fear that he was not supposed to be talking about his work with Gemini. However, there was also the feeling of pride and achievement that went with being acknowledged by someone that the work he was doing meant something. He had hoped that his discoveries in this would be part of history, but everyone was so busy telling him to stop that it was getting disheartening.

"I - I don't know what to say," Shaw said.

"Continue your experiments, Dr. Shaw," Whitten said. "And when the time comes, I think more of us who are in the camp who want these experiments to continue will contact you. There is one in particular that I think you may hear from very soon. But be careful, Dr. Shaw. There are those who will try to sabotage your experiments."

"I think I met one just this afternoon," Shaw whispered.

There was a pause on the other end followed by a deep sigh. "Was he an older gentleman?" Whitten asked. "Did he give his name?"

"Ezekiel something," Shaw said.

"That was what I was afraid of," Whitten said. "Yes, he is part of an organization that wants to continue with the status quo. They want to keep things as they are, inhibit progress. They will do all they can to stop you, Dr. Shaw."