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REPEAT OFFENDERS
By Wayne Webb
CHAPTER 12.4
Michael was standing over the body of the dead police officer and kicking it with his toes, trying to see if he was dead or just unconscious. There was blood pooled on the ground and the man had been shot twice, but it did not hurt to be sure. They would reset this time-line of events soon anyway but it would be hard to reset a bullet in the back and he was not sure he wanted to know what it was like to be left behind in and erased to come back without the memory of this event. He knew it could be done, but did he actually want to experience such a thing? Not really that appealing when he thought about it.
Logically of course it made no sense to worry about something you would never know about, but the person he was now would cease to be and then he'd be back where he was a few hours ago and none the wiser about it. It still creeped him out to know that he would not know, so to speak.
“Have you ever gone back without me?” He asked suddenly and turned to Brian who was still trying to catch his breath and looking panicked when spoken to.
“What do you mean?” He sounded as if he had his hand in the jar, stuck on egress.
“You know what I mean. We left Ivan behind, he knows it because we told him, but potentially you could have done this before and I would not know. Right? It's possible.” Mike was making himself angry, looking for things to wind himself up over. He was ready to light the fire under his rage and let it spill over.
“No!”
“No it's not possible?” Mike raised an eyebrow and clenched his fists.
“No, no I mean yes. Yes.” Brian squeaked.
“You have done it then?” The crocodile smile that came with it drained the remaining blood from the scientist's face.
“No! I mean just hold on! Hold on! Please?” He waved his hands to try and stay the execution he feared was coming, his throat closing up in muscle memory of the grip he had been held up in moments before. The hands, the fingers were shaking noticeably and he could not control it.
No control at all. He had gone from the indispensable to the besieged and despised in a short period, unsure of even how that happened. He was beset on all sides, the alarm meant that something, someone was in the warehouse now and had arrived from another version of reality. He did not believe that this was possible, but it obviously had happened. There was only one real possibility and that worried him greatly. If what he thought was the cause for the alarm turned out to be correct then there was about to be some serious repercussions. On the other than he had aligned himself with mean who did not share the same boundaries, or at least not the same boundaries regarding immediate violence over remote decisions affecting life and limb.
This entire situation was going to get out of hand very fast, and he did not see an easy solution presenting itself. He needed to get rid of Michael and Ivan, they were wild cards now and could cause the house of cards they were a part of, to come crashing down from within. It would not do to have the other version of himself and what he thought might be the other version of Ivan, the one that everyone else was thinking to no longer exist to turn up.
That would lead to questions he would not like to answer, like why there were multiple versions of himself in time stasis storage and there were no more versions of his 'associates'. That would create anger and retribution as a reaction, he was certain. The visceral and heavy handed nature of the reaction when the alarm went off and it was assumed that Brian was hiding something, that was ugly. Imagine when they found out what was really happening, what he was really doing when he was 'marking them as anomalous' and what that meant to the way he had behaved regarding the partners he was in business with. That was going to be unacceptable, and it was going to light the fuse in a conflagration he would not walk away from.
He needed to separate them, there was a way to do it, but it would require some finesse and right now finesse was beyond him, he could barely control the raging torrent of fear at being caught out. His body was turning on him, the weaknesses and the very problems he was trying to solve were eating him alive, in more ways that one and now it pulled the legs out from under him just when he really needed to stand up.
“There's a problem with the machine, we should all go and deal with it.” Hoping against hope that reverse psychology would assist him just this once. “Forget the last haul, it's not important, we can get it next time. If the machine is still functioning correctly.” He added the last sentence thoughtfully, like it was possible but not top of mind, an after thought.
“What?” Ivan piped up finally. “Is the machine broken? You said that there was someone there playing with the machine! That someone broke in and you ditched us to go and fix it? What are you lying about now you fucking weasel? Is our meal ticket fucked?”
That was the reaction he wanted, Ivan was all about the money, and Michael was about being the big man. Make them think the loot is in danger and direct them away from the decisions he wanted them to make, so that contradicting him gave Michael the control he desired. He tried to dismiss Ivan. “No, no I am just thinking about what or who more rightly, could trigger the machine. And you are right, no one but me. No one but me.” He looked evenly at Mike and the shaking in his hands began to calm down, but no one else noticed except Brian himself.
“You just killed a cop.” George stated, white in the face and unsteady on his feet.
“Shut it Bank boy!” Michael snarled. “What the fuck are you saying now? Brains? There's no one there?”
“No, I mean, maybe. I don't know... but...”
“BUT WHAT?” Mike was getting angrier which was perfect for Brian.
“The more I think about it the more I think that maybe it's a malfunction, maybe we have been pushing the machine too hard and it needs a break. We can ditch this load, and maybe pick another one up in a few months once the cooling....”
“A COUPLE OF MONTHS??? Fuck me!” Ivan took the bait. “Jesus, you're unbelievable. You said that we could do this ad infinitum. I may not speak any fucking Latin but I know what that means fuck knuckle!”
“I don't know that term. I'm guessing it's not good?”
“We killed someone.” Harold said again louder.
“It's always hard, or shocking maybe? The first time any how, but it gets easier when you come back to the reset point and everyone is still there. You know, it never happened and you can carry on.”
“But he's bleeding and ...” Harold swayed and Ivan caught him and gently guided him to sit on the pavement.
That set Michael off again. “Get him on his feet! We are moving now!” He opened the car door and waited for the others to move. Brian moved immediately and the other two did not budge. “For fuck's sake Ivan, get him up or he's next!” Michael had the gun trained on Harold who did not register what was going on at all.
“He can barely walk, tell you what, you guys go to the machine and give us what fifteen minutes to pick up the box contents. Why wait a few months when we can get this and it is a double down on the last grab? Yeah? Why bother with waiting, we can get it now! He's no fucking use, look at him, we'll go and get the gems and then we'll all reset together. If there's a real problem with the machine then we'll come and join you and then we'll see what happens then.” Ivan had a thought at the end of that request. “Fuck! If the machine is borked then we are stuck here in this time! Right?”
Brian nodded and Mike swore under his breath, before pointing at the bled out cop in street. “Get him in the car, we can't do anything about the blood, but in case the … just in case let's get this out of sight.”
The three men man handled the body into the back seat of the car, managing to cover themselves and the car in blood at the same time. Ivan took of his jacket and checked the shirt he was wearing, to make sure there no huge bloodstains visible. Most of them were on the jacket, the suit blazer he was wearing as his 'bankers' disguise. The blood soaked garment was thrown over the dead cop's head in the back of the Van and then he looked to Michael for permission.
That was the right move to make as Michael nodded curtly and waved with the gun in the general direction of the Plaza. “If we are stuck here? Don't alert any one, don;t raise any suspicions. And leave the original gems in the original box, no point alerting the owners if we can't reset. Just take the duplicated stash with you, nothing else and no problems with the guards, no bodies.” He looked at the red, wet stains along the side of the Van and shook his head. “Except this one.”
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