Day 268 - Repeat Offenders - Chapter 14.3 (1366 Words)

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REPEAT OFFENDERS

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 14.3

So there was five times that George had stopped time, or five times that the machine had malfunctioned. Brian Two looked at the intervals and knew which one it was. The fourth intervention was the one that gave it away, it was about the same time as the sudden and violent 'marking' episode between Ivan Two and Brian Prime. The first coincided with their arrival in this reality, when he had given George a demonstration of the freeze time controls, when they had practiced it on Ivan Prime, with his knowledge and agreement of course. The second was minutes after they had secreted him in the room and taken their positions inside the lab space. That would make perfect sense, because that was George making sure he could do it on demand. So he froze time with them there, they had no idea that it was happening, how could they?

The the fourth he knew, was the assault, the one in between must have had something to do with the arrival of Brian Prime and his cohorts, maybe their arrival, maybe the brutality displayed by Brian Prime? It was around that time, so something then had triggered George to want to hold them in stasis while he … what? Then one more after that, just a few minutes ago and it was another freeze, one that slipped right passed them when they were frozen and George was using the machine to some unknown advantage?

Brian Two looked at Ivan Prime and nodded towards the door, getting an quick but alarmed face from the original Ivan, as original as was possible given their frame of reference, and then a glance at the controls, with a split second raise of the eyebrow.

Not before Ivan Two saw the all too brief exchange and spoke up.

“What? What's going on with you two? What's going on with the machine... and ...” Ivan stared down Brian Two who blushed and flicked his gaze towards the freeze room door. “What is with that door? What's behind that door? I don't think I've ever looked in there. What's in there? Who's in there?” Ivan Two made a number of logical conclusions very quickly assuming that was connected to the copies of the Brians that were now in play.

Embarrassed into revealing their secret so easily Brian Two shrugged his shoulders and tried to look anywhere except at the suspicious gaze of Ivan Two and the disappointed face of Ivan Prime. Brian Two looked down at the console again and saw that yet another freeze event had added itself to the listed logs, this one only seconds ago. Whatever George was doing, it was in reaction to the events taking place in the warehouse space.

Ivan Two was getting more and more paranoid and was taking no chances. His gun was on the shelf near the kitchen, he had put it there at the request of Brian Two, when they were being shown the ropes of dimensional machine navigation. Seeing his weapon so far away made him uneasy, but he needed to know how to get out and to use the machine to escape if necessary, so the weapon was shelved temporarily. The gun made Brian Two nervous, unlike Brian Prime who had taken to the use of a weapon with ease and a familiarity.

“Freeze! Police!” George shouted from the suddenly open door of the freeze room, appearing out of nowhere, the door was open and the detective's stance was measured and aiming a gun directly at Ivan Two's head. Ivan kept moving towards the shelf, but he hesitated just long enough to allow a shingle warning shot to be fired at the shelving unit, embedding itself in the wall spraying the backing board and plaster in the air, some hitting Ivan's face.

He came to a complete stop and raised his hands, sullenly staring at the man with a gun. “Who the fuck are you?”

“Ah, yes there was one other thing.” Said Ivan Prime apologetically to his other self, wincing as he knew what he had to say to him. “We picked up a new companion, kind of. This is detective George Samuels. George, that is me, the newer version that was created after the others left your dimension, the one where I … well.”

“You're working with the pigs? What the fuck man?” Ivan Two was stunned, he was having as much difficulty with the changes in himself as Brian Two had with his own Prime. Ivan Prime at least had the decency to be embarrassed by dealing with the police, unlike the murderously selfish Brian Prime.

“It's complicated, you know it is. Remember... I know you do come to think of it. When you killed Barbara? And then I got, we got all uppity about something, I can't even recall exactly what now, it might have been Harold joining us? Yes, and then I got left behind?”

“No actually.”

“Ah yeah, I guess you wouldn't but I guess you know about it?” Ivan Prime was back in the jail cell in his mind, pondering the nature of reality and the true nature of the crimes he had committed. The truth about the state of them, being real and not erased at all. I was, left in the bank that time and that was where I was arrested.”

“Eventually.” George qualified from his position, the grip and stance with the gun had not altered.

“Yes, true I almost got away, but then... well then... this is where we picked George up and we discovered.... did you know about the Freeze Time option? You know what else the machine can do?”

“What?” Ivan Two sat down on the chair nearest him heavily causing George to step towards Ivan Two, bristling and holding the gun slightly closer as it would make a difference in it's proximity. “Go ahead, shoot me if you want, I'm out. I … I just don't understand what the fuck is going on anymore. Did I really ...” Ivan Two hung his head and looked at the floor, the faces of the dead swimming in front of his eyes.

“Yeah. You did.” George stated this and then swung the gun in an arc from the despondent Ivan Two and covered Ivan Prime, showing him his time was up too. “You both did, and I have no idea how we charge two people for the same crime in the dimension where it didn't happen? But nothing will stop me trying.”

Ivan Prime was not taking the threat of the gun, and the potentially confusing idea of a trial that seriously, he moved and gestured as if the gun was intangible or non-existent.

“Did you find the fingers?” Harold asked from the back of the room, which made George spin around and take his guard down from Ivan Prime in just the amount of time it took to reach the gun on the shelf and then dodge away to cover as a hastily fired, un-aimed shot ricocheted off of the concrete floor.

“Ivan!” George shouted and he too raced for cover, but ultimately the new situation was a stalemate. Ivan Prime had a weapon but he was in cover, George was trying to keep a line of sight on the remaining people in the room, of which only the Ivans and Mike were really paying attention to him and the weapons.

“Yes, they're in the freezer, we left them there. I guess we could go back and give them to the other version of you and try and repair the hand? They'll be all right – in the freezer yeah?”

Brian Two shook his head, “Time progresses in the dimensional reality they came from. So the fingers might be good, but the hand they came from? He'd be dead or the wound's healed by now, too hard to reattach for the sake of a few...” Brian looked at Harold who had gone white in the face, rubbing his own fingers gently in sympathy.

“Sorry man. Wasn't thinking, I know they're not yours but... yeah.”