Timecaster: Supersymmetry (27 page)

ow watch and I d at the same time.

in the middle of the room.

Couldn’t have seen that one coming.

“Mu,” Sata said, his eyes wide.

“That’s one of the names I go by,” Mu, né Amarillo Plantain, said. “I also go by Em. Mu is the letter
M
in Greek, you know.”

“You can fly?” McGlade said. “A singing, flying banana! That’s awesome! We’re going to make a fortune. This goes way beyond plush dolls. We’re talking remote control singing banana rockets.” In a falsetto, he said, “Daddy, can I have a remote control signing banana rocket?” Then he answered himself in a low voice, “Of course you can. I’ll buy you three.” McGlade clapped his hands together in obvious glee. “And I get eighty-five percent! I’m going to be rich! I’m going to rent one of those volcano drilling rigs, make my own island in the South Pacific! I love my life!”

We all ignored Harry.

“Mu-san,” Sata got to his feet, then bowed deeper than I’d ever seen him bow, even though he was shaking and covered with terrible burns. “I thought you were just a dream.”

“I appear in dreams sometimes.”

“You gave me the idea for the TEV. And all of its modifications.”

“Yep. That was me. Didn’t know I was a banana, did you?”

Talon 2 walked into the room, rubbing his jaw. Alter-Vicki was at his side. “What the heck is that supposed to be?”

“They’ve called me many things,” Mu said. “Like Zeus. And Deus. As in
deus ex machina
.”

“God from the machine,” Grandma said. “That’s used to describe stories that end abruptly with some silly contrivance that comes out of nowhere.”

“Exactly,” said Mu. “The TEV is the machine. And I am the god.”

“Almighty Mu,” Sata said, his head still bowed. “Did you use your powers to stop this earth from imploding? The time for it has passed.”

“Nope,” Mu said.

“But we should all be dead based on the theories of quantum enta
nglement and supersymmetry.”

“Then apparently those theories aren’t theories, they’re incorrect hypotheses. Science fucks up all the time. Did you know you humans once thought the world was fl
at? Did so for thousands of years.”

“This earth wasn’t going to be destroyed?” I asked.

“Does it look like it was destroyed?” Mu said. “Duh.”

“So how exactly is dark matter illuminated?” Sata asked.

The banana sighed. “Look, over, unconscious.

os. If youG the multiverse is a weird place. I’m an eternal, immortal being who can be everywhere at once, and even I don’t understand it all.”

Amarillo Plantain was a god? Couldn’t have seen that coming, either.

And I couldn’t say I liked the direction this was heading in.

“If you’re God, didn’t you create everything?” Alter-Vicki asked.

“No. I was created at the same time as the multiverse. The multiverse is entropic, becoming increasingly disordered. I am negentropic. I am here to balance the entropy. I create order out of disorder.”

“Like life,” Jack said.

“Very good, Jack. Infinite life on infinite earths. And of course, there is life on other planets as well. Perhaps you’ve heard of möbiusite? It is a particle that can exist in all dimensions and universes at the same time. I am made of möbiusite. While I’m talking to you right now, I’m also doing an infinite number of other things in an infinite number of other places.”

McGlade narrowed his eyes. “Does this mean we’re not going into show business together?”

“I’m the supreme being in the multiverse.”

“What if we split it 70/30?” Harry said.

“I’m not some trained monkey who dances for coins.”

“How about 60/40?”

“No.”

“Maybe 60/50?”

“That’s mathematically impossible.”

“You can’t ditch me, CB! I discovered you!”

“You know who this guy reminds me of?” Jack asked Phin.

“Yeah,” Phin said. “It’s his grandson. Someone keeps letting him back into the gene pool.”

“That would be me,” Mu said. “McGlade amuses me. So did his father. And his grandfather. That’s why I keep giving him the same personality. I don’t have many indulgences, but he’s one of them.”

“How about you indulge me by taking forty percent?” Harry said.

We all ignored him.

“So you’re responsible for timecasting technology?” I asked Mu. “And for the ability to travel to different dimensions?”

“Guilty as charged.”

“Billions of people have died because of that technology,” Talon 2 said.

“You’re not even close to the actual number,” Mu said. “Try a billion to the billionth billionth billionth billionth p digital tabletat />
billionth
a billion more times.”

That number was so staggering it was in comprehensible. “But… why?”

“Because the multiverse has to be in balance. I maintain the balance.”

“By letting billions of people die?” Alter-Vicki folded her arms. “You’re not God. You’re the devil.”

“I’ve been called that, too.”

I turned my attention back to Alter-Talon, and I reached down his nanosuit for his TEV. Once I found it I located the buckle and pulled it free.

“Talon 2,” I said, “disarm the Satas.”

“Way ahead of you.” I noticed he was already walking toward them.

I went to Dark Alter-Talon and removed his TEV.

Then I set uffsee with a single boolean search term and focused my concentration on the octeract point. Once I tuned in to the imploded eighth dimension, I activated the beam, sending both evil Talons to another earth. One that was entirely desert.

I saw a flash, and noted Talon 2 had done the same thing with both Satas.

“Talon!”

The byter had scurried out of the lab, the Nife still protruding from its head. I spun like a gunslinger and shot from the hip, zapping it with the TEV. The bug and a small chunk of floor disappeared.

“You got all the bad guys,”
Mu sang,
“but you’re still too late.”

What was he crowing about?

Then I remembered.

Vicki.

I ran back into the lab, saw an Indian woman sitting next to her.

“I’m sorry,” the woman said, looking up at me. Her face was kind. “She lost too much blood.”

I rushed to Vicki, dropping to my knees, cradling her head in my lap.

So cold. So pale.

I felt her neck.

No pulse.

No—

No no no no—

This can’t be happening…

“Vicki. Don’t die on me. Don’t you die on me.”

I laid her head down gently, pressed my bleeding lips to her cool ones. Blew in a breath. Began chest compressions.

One and two and three and four and breathe…

“Come on, honey. Stay#em?” Alter-Vicki asked.llveryone with me.”

“CPR won’t work,” the woman said. “I’m a doctor. I know.”

One and two and three and four and breathe…

“Don’t listen to her, babe. You can do this.”

The doctor tried to gently pull me away. “She doesn’t have enough blood in her. There’s nothing to circulate.”

I shrugged her off.

One and two and…

“She died of hypovolemic shock. Nothing can be done to start her heart. You have to let her go.”

…three and four and breathe…

“Come on, Vicki.”

“Talon…” Grandma was above me, putting her hand on my shoulder.

I was crying now. I looked up at my grandmother. “I love her, Grandma. I love her so much. I can’t let her die.”

“The cosmic scales must balance,”
Mu sang,
“that’s why we sing the blues.”

I turned to Mu, saw he’d come in with the others.

“Fix her,” I demanded, my vision blurry with tears.

“That’s not my job, Talon.”

“You said… you said you created life.” I choked back a sob. “You can save her.”

“Life does what life does. Death is part of life. It’s cyclical. But there are other Vickis, on other earths. You can find another one.”

“I don’t want another one.” I got to my feet, my legs shaking, the tears stinging my bloody cheeks. “I want this one. This is the one I’ve shared my life with. This is the one I love more than anything in the world.”

“Sometimes love doesn’t conquer all, Talon.”

I felt everyone’s eyes on me. Felt the weight of their pity.

This wasn’t what I’d fought so hard for. It wasn’t the happy ending I’d always managed to keep alive in the back of my mind, even during the worst of the shit I’d gone through.

She couldn’t be dead. Not my Vicki. Not when there was someone right in front of me who could save her.

I dropped to my knees. “Please. I’ll do anything. I’ll trade my life for hers. I’m begging you.”

“I’ve heard a lot of begging in my time,” Mu said. “But I don’t answer prayers.”

I was going to reach out, squeeze the life out of Mu, but he promptly?” Talon’s wife asked.at />

“Had to be done,” he said. “That banana was rotten.”

I stood up, fists clenched. “He was her only chance, you son of a bitch!”

“Plus we were going into show business together!” wailed McGlade.

“There’s another way,” Talon 2 said. Then he asked the doctor, “How long as she been dead?”

“She died about a minute ago.”

“Then we still have nineteen minutes to save her.”

There wasn’t much time.
We had to move. Fast.

I pointed at Vicki. “You can give her a transfusion. You have the same blood. Sata, find an IV.”

“A transfusion at this point won’t help,” the doctor said. “It’s too late.”

“There is resurrection serum at Jack’s cabin in the woods,” I told her. I locked eyes with Talon. “If we can get it to her within the next nineteen minutes, she’ll live.”

“No bullshit?” Talon asked.

“No bullshit.”

He nodded. “I believe you. McGlade, call Yummi. Tell her to land in the yard.”

“You got it.” McGlade pressed his earlobe.

Grandma went from Talon over to me. “You can’t do this. It’s too risky. You could bring a zombie apocalypse to this earth.”

“You tried it,” I said. “With Phin.”

“And I failed.”

“We won’t fail.”

Grandma looked hard into my eyes. “Then we’re going with you.”

“Only two people fit in the heliplane,” Talon said. “Is Yummi here, McGlade?”

“She’s out in front.”

I thought about what we’d need besides the TEV. If the zombies were still around, we had to have weapons.#em?” Alter-Vicki asked.TL />

“Give me your flamethrower,” I told Harry.

“On one condition. If you find any talking fruit, bring it back for me.”

“Deal.”

He handed the weapon over, then held out his hand. “Good luck.”

I shook it. “Thanks, Harry.”

Phin also had a hand for me. “Be careful, Talon.”

“I will, Phin.”

His eyes were warm, and I saw his face soften. Like it used to when I was a kid.

“Grandpa,” he said. “Call me Grandpa.”

“I will, Grandpa.”

I hugged him. Then I hugged Grandma. Vicki walked up to me, her eyes wide with concern.

“You’d better come back to me,” Vicki said.

“Don’t worry. I won’t leave you. I promise.”

She pressed her body and her lips to mine, and I wondered if I’d be able to keep my promise. In the meantime, Sata came up behind and injected me with something.

“A little pick-me-up cocktail,” he said.

“What’s in it?”

“Amphetamines. Painblockers. Steroids. I gave the other Talon one as well. Good luck to you.”

“Thanks, Sata-san.”

I bowed. But he ignored the formality and embraced me.

Talon was shouldering a duffle bag. His DT hung around his neck, counting down seconds.

17:59

17:58

“Let’s move,” he said.

We moved, hurrying out of the lab.

“It doesn’t have to be a fruit,” McGlade called after us. “It could be a vegetable. Eggplant. Carrot. Celery. But no broccoli. I hate broccoli.”

In the living room, we saw the two discarded nanotube helmets. I told Talon to grab them, remembering the baby squid hats. The whole suit of armor would have been better, but the helmets should offer us at least some protection.

On the front lawn, next to the Mustang, was a heliplane. In the pilot’s seat was one of the biggest women I’d ever seen.

“Twins,” she said, giving us the once-over, looking at me in the same way a dog looks at a steak. “That’s hot.”

We climbed into the vehicle, and then wedged ourselves# mering pizzas.”

onTp into a cramped overhead compartment. Talon gave the woman coordinates.

“You doing okay?” I asked him as we took off.

“Been better. But that little injection Sata gave me is taking the edge off. You?”

“Same.”

“What’s this zombie thing you and Grandma are worried about?”

I filled him in.

“So if we’re even a second late, Vicki will become a zombie?”

“Yeah. And infect the earth. We, uh… we can’t allow that to happen.” I let my words sink in. “You know what I mean, right?”

His voice got soft. “I know.”

“Those zombies are pretty awful. And there would be nothing to keep them in check. It doesn’t rain squid here.”

“Huh?”

“It rains baby squid on Jack’s earth. Long story. So you want to explain the sentient banana god thing?”

He filled me in.

“Amarillo Plantain,” I said, and whistled through my teeth. “Just when I thought things couldn’t get weirder.”

“I guess, technically, you could say he’s the top banana.”

I chuckled. So did Talon. I never had a brother. The closest friend I ever had was Teague, and that didn’t end so well. But I had a bond with Talon that was both immediate and powerful. I didn’t want anything to happen to him, or his wife.

“Boys, we’re here,” Yummi said. “Get ready for landing.”

“Time?” I asked Talon.

“Twelve minutes and change.”

“Sata left some zombie repellant at Phin’s cabin. We’ll grab that then use the TEV. If all goes well, we should make it back with plenty of time to spare.”