Day 202 - Repeat Offenders - Chapter 4.1 - (1226 words)

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REPEAT OFFENDERS

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 4.1

Monday 10:30 a.m. April 17^th


The three men blinked away from the machine and came back to existence in the return from the future that was no longer going to happen. Nobody moved at first. Ivan was holding a gun in his hand and started with a huge grin that slowly faded. Michael was impassive the whole way from appearance until her saw where they were, he said nothing but the look on his face, was the one he arrived with, annoyed. Brian was holding a coffee cup and a saucer, branded with the logo of the coffee shop her had sheltered in and then decided to hold up.


“We didn't get the diamonds. Reset!” Ivan finally said and ran to the machine, still brandishing the gun and looking at Brian, not Michael. “Come on Brains!” Ivan put enough stress on that word to make Brian know it was far from a compliment.


“We need to talk first.” Brian started with his hands up, completing the odd picture of Ivan pointing a gun at the inventor while he talked and the man in response surrendering. Anyone looking in on the scene would have read it like a hostage situation or a robbery.


It was neither, yet.


“You can't just keep going on a murderous rampage every time we rest the anomaly and start again.”


“Why not?” The response though came from Michael, not from Ivan.


“What do you mean why not, because you can't. It's not right. It's dangerous. It's insane.” Brian was amazed that Michael had chosen to side with Ivan on this.


“Except right and wrong don't enter into it, do they? This is time travel, there are no rules. Even if there were, who would enforce them? It's not dangerous, it's consequence free.” Michael did not address the last concern at all, he left it hanging.


Brian noticed it was unaddressed, Ivan did not. “See? Let's go, let's go. If it makes you uncomfortable I'll only kill the guards this time, event though it does not matter at all. Come on, come on!” Ivan still had the gun and he waved it at the scientist again, “Come on!”


“Please don't wave that thing at me and please put it down while we are calibrating thank you.” Brian fussed with the controls a little but stopped and stared at the gun in Ivan's hands. Ivan stared back and the men were in a stand off, but the look on Ivan's face showed he was not likely to crack, more likely to take a violent resolution to the confrontation.


Michael thumped the younger, stronger man in the back of the head with a fire extinguisher, he moved so fast and so accurately that neither of the others saw it coming and it caused the aggravated Ivan to drop like a sack of potatoes to the floor, unconsciously twitching from the blow.


Michael picked up the gun and aimed it at Ivan still lying on the floor. “Now, please.” He waited until Brian set the machine and got his own bracelet set as well, Brian had done his first as usual. The odd one out was Ivan on the floor, he was starting to come to after they had set the machine and stood groggily.


“What the fuck man?” he slurred his words and had trouble staying upright, Michael wheeled him a chair and sat him down. He took the seat gratefully and tried clearing his head, but every shake just made the dizziness worse.


“You were going to shoot Brains here. We can't have that Ivan.”


“I wasn't, I wasn't.” He sounded like a little child now, one caught doing bad things.


“Yes, you were we could see it in your eyes, couldn't we Brian?” Michael looked to Brian for back up but all he got was a curt nod and his gaze darting away, not wanting to meet either one of them directly.


“I … I … wasn't.” Ivan was still woozy and when he put his hand to the back of his head, it came away with a few specks of blood on it.


“You went too far mate, you are going bloodthirsty crazy. Killing without consequence is dangerous, for your mental health. This is not a video game, these are real people. It's affecting you Ivan, and not in a good way. We will do the next run on our own, you can sit this one out. Capiche?” Michael was sounding reasonable but he too had the gun in his hand like Ivan had.


“He's no good, he can't help with the robbery.” Ivan was sulking a little, but the concussive effect of the blow to the head meant that he would not likely be of any use in the heist anyway. He would have to stay out of it, and stay back in the real time-line.


“So what, you go an do the robbery and then what, we play this whole scene again? Is that it? Do we erase the me now from existence? Is that it? I'm a prop now? What about when you do need me? Huh?” Ivan had his head in his hands to stop the room from spinning as he yelled at his co-conspirators.


“Just take a rest, we'll reset the machine for you and it'll be after this moment when we come back ok?” Michael patted him on the arm and then stepped away. “Don't touch the equipment when we're gone. You could easily fuck it up and then there's going to be nothing.”


The two of them walked away leaving Ivan sitting there trying to recover. He fell asleep for a few minutes and when he woke up he was on the floor, the world had stopped spinning but he had a thumping headache, he looked at the clock and saw it was almost eleven a.m. now, the others would be at the bank and he did not recall anyone fiddling with his wrist band before they left. What would happen when the rest went off? Would he be back on the floor with a hole in the back of his head? Would he be back twice? No, he was not in range of their bracelets. He needed to be with them for the reset.


“Bank, bank, bank.” He muttered to himself, if he had enough time to get there then he could get in and stay within the range of the anomaly field, and then he would come back. There would be two of him, one on the floor and one with his head in the game and ready to take action to defend himself.


Yes, that was a plan, to put the odds back in his favour. He had to be at the bank before they started the robbery, or just after maybe so there was no time for the police to turn up. Then he could get in and get near Brian. Mike would not risk hurting Brian, and they could either wait out the timer or reset it hard, sending them back in time with the extra Ivan. No, he was the Real Ivan, the extra Ivan would be on the floor and out of it.



Get to the bank, get to the bank.