Day 308 - Perfectly Executed. - Chapter 5.1 (1256 Words)

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PERFECTLY EXECUTED

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 5.1

The temperature in the room had changed and that was all Edward Thompson could feel right now, the chill of being caught out, whatever that meant for consequences. He was breaking no laws, there were no laws about this and he had not harmed anyone at all. To the contrary he was planning on undoing some harm, changing things for the better. Still he had been found out when he had gone to lengths to hide his real plan, and to obfuscate the underlying science of his work.

It was impossible for anyone to guess what he was doing, wasn’t it? You would have to be a genius, and more of one that Edward Thompson was. He had few peers that could understand the cover work he was doing, the underlying project, the hidden layer was all new work. Completely theoretical work was put into it based on his thoughts and designs. He had shared none of it, peer reviewed zero of the content, and he was not interested in publication, just results.

There was no way that they could have seen and understood, no key to decipher the coded messages that were the hidden elements of his work.

There was no way … unless.

“It worked?” he said finally, more to himself that the man standing with the assistance of a cane.

“Yes. It certainly does work.” The man sat back down on the edge of a desk, and tapped the cane on the floor, a small mannerism he had repeated a few times now.

“I used the past tense, you use the present, but… it did work, does work, and is going to work!” Edward rubbed his hands together, his work was being validated right here and now, before he had even done it.

He took a sharp breath, because there was a small matter that didn’t make sense.

“Why is she still dead? If I have been back before.” He started to ask but the old man cut him off.

“You haven’t. You have not been anywhere yet except the current version of your life, that is all that has happened to you. You are about to go back, it’s happened before and I’ve known you, the version of you that is about to grow into the older you, that is who I’ll get to know, some time ago now, but that’s where we’ll meet, for you the first time, but it’ll be like the second, and me the reverse of that.” The older man tapped his cane on the floor again and reconsidered his sentence. “Is that right? Maybe it’s backwards? I’m too tired to think about it. It doesn’t matter. This is what we are here for, to help you get back and do what you think you need to do.”

Dr Thompson picked up the hastily assembled part that the man who claimed to know him, who claimed he would know him if he was being precise, had put together as proof, and then started assembling the rest of it.

“I’m not sure we should be talking about it, isn’t this a paradox, isn’t this a thing with the…” he struggled for thoughts in this thoroughly unexpected situation.

“You’ve read too many science fiction novels, and it does not seem to matter how much you know things have a way of working out regardless don’t they? Oh no, sorry you don’t know yet, but the next time we have this conversation you and I will be more … aligned I guess?”

“Is ... does she… do they?” Edward’s head was caving in on itself; he thought that maybe his brain might explode from the internalized pressure.

“You want to know the answers to those questions? Go. Do. I have nothing that will help you. The problem is that every thing you get told changes you and the information becomes useless, and there is nothing I can tell you that would help you, not really, just more generic advice. “

“Is this some kind of trick?” He knew it wasn’t, he could feel it in some way, and this had to be true. Nothing else fit the narrative, and it was not impossible, just improbable. As the impossible was eliminated, the remaining improbable was the next most likely thing to be accurate.

“No, I’m afraid not. We’ve been with you for some time, we make sure you have what you need and get what you want. Even if you don’t know it.”

“The retreat?” Dr Thompson wondered now if the place had been bugged, did something in the calculations betray his purpose? The scribbling on the windows were incomplete, the keys to the missing elements were all in his head, he was the one who could decipher them.

Or so he thought.

“That is my house, our house really, since you are going to help us pay for it.” The man tapped his cane on the ground once again, a quick double tap that made a small knocking sound.

“Am I? I don’t see how when…”

“When? When is the appropriate term to use though isn’t it?” The old man looked at his watch and nodded to a thought that only he heard and decided to not share. “I’m getting too old for this, and you are going to be gone soon enough. Just remember what it is that you are trying to achieve, don’t lose sight of it, and … look before you leap. That sounds really obvious, but you don’t always.  Think, that is, about what you are doing. I don’t mean literally looking before actually leaping.” He tapped the cane again.

“I like to be clear where I can.”

“I have more questions!” Edward shouted this as the man shuffled to the back of the room to the exit that would lead to the executive offices.

“I won’t answer them though, I already made myself clear, it won’t help, not in the way you think it will.”

Edward threw his arms up in despair, he had the ultimate cheat guide to the success of his machine and his endeavor and it refused to let him know what they had access to. It didn’t make sense.

The old man stopped at the doorway and nodded at something beyond it.

“We’re all here today, the surviving members of the board, perhaps you should come and meet them, it may help you put things in perspective, talking to someone else other than me? Well?” He nodded again and then the double tap of the cane on the floor punctuated the repeated request.

“Where are they?” Edward asked and walked cautiously towards the back of the room.

“In the board room, where else would the board be?”

“Makes sense I guess?”

“It’ll make more sense if you meet them all, they can help put this into frame for you, give you the context of why answering you questions won’t help. They’ll help understand, or they should do. It will make more sense, or it’ll confuse the hell out of you, either way you’re still going to do what you do and we have no control over the outcome.” He lifted the came to tap it down in his way, but he froze in mid air and looked back at Edward. “I’ve known you much longer than you have known me, yet anyways. Trust me, you’ll want to meet all of us, it will help.  I promise.”

No tapping this time, he just leaned forward on his cane and waited for an answer.