Day 242 - Repeat Offenders - Chapter 11.3 - (1458 words)

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REPEAT OFFENDERS

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 11.3

Ivan breathed a heavy sigh of relief, the tension in him had built up to a point where he was no longer aware of it until he let it go. Once it was gone he was suddenly aware of how big it was again, by the weight of it's absence. The heat of the stored energy was gone as well in the vacuum left by it's dissipation there was a chill shivering along his skin and knocking his hollowed bones. He swayed unsteadily on his legs and grabbed the bench to support himself before finding a chair and sinking into it, his head cradled in his hands.


“It's hard to believe I hired you as a heavy.” Brian noted with a sideways glance.


“A heavy.” Ivan repeated.


“A heavy, you know, muscle, a hard man, a ruffian or thug, I don't know, what do you call yourself?”


“Ivan.” Ivan answered, not really thinking nor listening to the scientist.


George picked the frozen fingers up one by one, using a paper towel to handle them carefully back into the container and then placed them back in the freezer compartment. Ivan was still sitting in a foetal-like position and the look on Brian's face gave George concern. How could he concern themselves with fixing the damage left by the very people that were the cause of it, in some way at any rate. What was going to happen, conceivably when they all caught up, assuming that they do catch up? How much could they really repair and how much was still at risk? Did it really matter any longer? These new splinter dimensions were as valid as the original one, and he as a inhabitant of one of those splinters felt that his own one was the core reality, he could not conceive of it any other way. The things in his past, his history was his and it really happened to him, but the way that Brian explained it made him think about the nature of his existence.


If he had come into existence this very moment with all the thoughts, emotions and experiences of Detective George Smith would all come with him, how could any one of them if they were in a room together tell any one from the other? There was no distinguishing the differences in them except for the relative age, which at any one time may not may not be out by a few hours if Brian's version of how the machine worked and was being used could be trusted.


Could he be trusted? The later version of Brian sounded like a different person than the man they awoke from the freezer and brought up to date, as much as possible. He and Ivan had both been through a shock, about themselves and their position within reality. Future Brian had lied to past Brian, and to mid-future Ivan as well, if past Brian, the unfrozen one, were to be believed. The longer that this current Brian had with the information that they all shared though, the more that it unsettled the detective's opinion of him. He was becoming more acerbic and cold, stand offish and superior. Was he reverting to type? Was the base personality why the future version did the things he did, deceiving the others and allowing them to wreak havoc in the other dimensions with not thought to the people affected by those things.


If he did then he needed to be stopped and they would have to do it, there was little or no evidence that they had counterparts in their unique situation in other realities where there were people in a position to do anything. If he did not know then he was acting irresponsibly in ignorance and again would have to be stopped and there was no one else that they knew of that could or would stop them. So he was stuck with the cold and increasingly distant scientist along side the heavily depressed and affected muscle of the group who was driven by guilt and remorse.


And me, George thought, the one man interested in setting things right because it's the right thing to do. He considered that he could bring in other versions of himself into the team, he could contact himself and get reinforcing doppelgängers to give him the majority and the balance of power, but that was potentially as cruel as the fact that he had taken this trip with little thought to what he was leaving behind. There was now a splinter of reality where he was no longer in existence. His workmates and his family would not be able to find him and there would be no evidence or trace of him to track down. He would have been at the scene of an investigation, taken hostage and threatened at gunpoint, then the next minute he and his captors were gone. He would be branded a co-conspirator or a victim, but there would never be a body to prove either theory correct.


“We should move to the next one, the longer we stay here the longer the lead they get. If they are moving every three hours and we stay here one at a time, then the lead will stretch and we'll catch up with them, but much later than we need to yeah?” Ivan had lifted his head and from the dark thoughts he was working his way through came the realisation that sitting on his heels was doing nothing to resolve the situation. Once they got a hold of the first team, the one he had actually been a part of, then they could go back and repair what they could, make them stop doing what they were doing.


Brian nodded and said nothing, but started working the machine, and within a short period signalled again with no words that they were ready to go.


The room blinked and the warehouse went black again as they hopped across the dimensions again to arrive in the middle of the night in the next reality. George was more prepared and he knew that they would likely be in the dark still if they stuck to the three hour pattern, the next one or two jumps sideways would put them in the early hours of the morning as each dimension could be potentially minutes, seconds or up to three hours behind the previous one. Because time was moving forwards for the travellers and forward in each splinter that was created, there was a random like element to the time changes, as they knew that a new splinter existed but they had no idea how long the other team had spent in that dimension before making the jump to the next, so the offset was a surprise.


“Let there be … light!” George said and he flicked on the torch and shone a path to the switch on the wall to light up the room itself with the heavy halogen lamps hanging from the metal rafters of the space.


“At least someone seems capable of using their brains. Perhaps we may have need to use what you are keeping in store too Ivan?” Brian said caustically, getting more and more dismissive of Ivan in every interaction. He moved to the machine and checked the readouts there. “They moved again, they're not here there's a new destination, shall we go now then?”


“Give us five minutes to do a quick reccy, just to be sure.” George replied.


“I am sure, this is not a guess, they have definitely moved on as there is an new splinter on from this one.” Brian's tone had changed to condescending, like he was explaining the basics of how it all worked to a child.


George noted the change in demeanour, Ivan just ignored it and began searching the space.


“Five minutes.” George stated, in a way that brooked no argument.


“Nothing in the freezer.” Ivan called from the kitchenette room. “Whoever lost their fingers in the previous splinter, they obviously learned from it and didn't make the same mistake twice.”


“Or they covered their mistakes better?” George asked with a raised eyebrow.


“I'd prefer the more optimistic view, of my other self, or selves.” Brian said from the device.


George and Ivan went and opened the compartment door to find a new version of Brian there, in the machine and as yet not released from cryogenic slumber. “You're still here!” One of them shouted to the scientific mind that created all of this, and they got a grunt in response.


“Shall we continue?” He asked when they came out of the room again finally.