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©Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
REPEAT OFFENDERS
By Wayne Webb
CHAPTER 9.3
“Ignore him, tell me again.” Brian was fascinated to hear from Ivan how he came to be here, alone. He was very interested in the separation of the pack, how that had lead to the problem of not being 'marked' and how he had not remained within the field of the reset. Brian asked him to go over that detail time and time again, asking Ivan to explain his 'understanding' of the anomaly field and the 'rules' such as they were. He asked about the timing, the distance, what Ivan expected to happen over and over as George was trying to make sense of the situation.
Ivan had George's gun, he took it from him in the first few minutes when he had been semi-conscious and stunned. Since then though instead of demanding anything or stamping his natural authority on the cop, Ivan simply answered everything that Brian asked of him. The logic was simple, with his Brian gone then this Brian was the only one who could work the machine, but how they could use that to their advantage, to get out of this situation, that was beyond what he knew.
Having said that to himself already he also had to admit that the machine obviously did more than his Brian had alerted them to. Obviously Brian Two was assuming that Brian Prime had shared more with his partners than he actually had done. George was trying to pick up what he could from the conversation, and the only time that the pattern deviated was when he made a sudden lunge at Ivan, only to find a gun barrel, his own gun barrel, calmly pointing at this chest, held back slightly so it was just out of his reach when he skidded to a halt.
“This is a trick, it's a scientific one, I'll agree to that description but not the kind you are expecting to understand as a 'trick'. Time is really stopped, or more rightly we are stopped. It's a trick in that it looks like we have stopped time, but in reality we are on our way back to the place that we started from, it just so happens that the time we are going back to and the time we started are the same thing. It's a trick in that sense, if that makes any sense.” Brian smiled at his description, the nonsense that it made even to his own ears.
“None of this makes any sense!” George screamed and tore at his hair in frustration, a gesture he never fully understood until this moment, faced with the unfaceable.
“Well I can't pretend to understand it, I don't know why I didn't reset.” Ivan didn't get it yet.
“Because you were not marked for the reset, for the journey back, that was why you stayed where you are.” Brian chose his words carefully.
“That's what I don't understand though. Why is 'here' still here?”
“You guys a re lunatics!” George paced the room, trying to get a little closer to Ivan by increments. “I'm being held hostage by lunatics!”
“You are not being held.” Brian waved away the accusation with a casual tone.
“Excuse me?” Ivan held the gun and Brian scowled at it.
“He can leave any time he wants, it's not like he'll be able to do anything. Time is non-existent out there. He'll step through the threshold and freeze with the rest of them, he'd be leaving the transit lounge, so to speak, and be at the destination. This state is more like a doorway, you are in the doorway now, you are neither at your destination nor your origination, you are in between, that's the trick. That was the problem the machine had to solve, or I had to solve for the machine to work, that and the 'duplication' issue.” Brian pointed at the door. “Go, whenever you want to.”
George was not that keen on finding out the hard way if this madness was real or not. “How about you go first?”
“No thank you, we are good here, you are the one impatient to leave, we on the other hand have some issues to resolve first.”
Ivan scratched his head. “You still haven't told me why I'm still here, and why 'here' is still here, and why you are here, 'here'.”
Brian sighed and looked at his shoes. “I'm not sure I 'know' the answer to that.”
George saw his opening, the detective's instinct seeing the hole that could be exploited, widened and worked on. “You do know, don't you? Maybe you 'think'? Is that it? You have a theory? Something you don't want to share?”
Brian sighed.
Ivan raised an eyebrow and looked at the detective, who was now an ally in finding out the truth of his situation? This was an unexpected turn of events, maybe Brian Prime was right, maybe killing people was not the best of ideas, lack of consequences or not.
“To think I was just going to shoot you, and let the universe collapse around you.”
“Are you threatening me?” George bristled.
“Not conventionally. You may not believe this but I have done this plenty of times already, I know this works.” Ivan was still waiting on an explanation from the brains of the operation.
“I'm not sure you do.” George dug a little deeper into Ivan's self esteem.
“Shut up and let Brains do the talking.”
“Brains is it? What does that make you? Muscles?” George laughed harshly.
“Well at least I'm not a Dick, detective!” Ivan was blushing.
“Please. There's no need for this kind of nonsense. We need to figure out a way out of this room without the police seeing us.”
“And what am I?” George asked.
“Collateral Damage, you are not our hostage of course, you can do what you want. Trust me though you really only have three options, and it's up to you to choose.”
“Three options?” George was playing along for time.
“One you can come along with us and travel in time, join our little gang, that could be quite useful to have a man of your experience and knowledge on our team.”
“Not going to happen” George stated matter of factly, there was no room for discussion. “What are my other two options?”
“Two you go back to ...out there I guess would be the way to put it and you tell the police, your partners, bosses and I assume, friends, that … well you tell them all that you know. But that way there would be no proof, we would not be around to corroborate any of your claims and you will be … I don't even know what you would call it, they would deem you mad. If you are lucky it would be PTSD or something that the job would be blamed for and you'd get a nice, comfortable retirement and the best treatment that the department could afford you. Worst of course would be open slather 'treatment' on the public mental health system, and that would not likely be a lot of fun for you. I hear they no longer lobotomise with hooks though, but the drugs they use? I do not hear good things.”
George was going cold and white listening to that option, he knew what they said was true, he had been thinking much the same thing, which mean that the third and final option was likely silence.
“Or three, I would say nothing because option two would be... unworkable.”
“Precisely. So ultimately I don't care what you choose, there's no winning move except to join us, the gang of thieves and adventurers.”
“Just thieves.” George corrected with sulky tone, though he was already considering the first or third options.
“Kind of, I've never stolen a thing.” Brian rubbed his head, similar to the way Ivan had been doing when trying to work it all out.
“So where do you fit in then? You must be from the past, maybe even the start if you really have never stolen anything?” Ivan was quicker and more logical than most gave him credit for.
“Me? I'm the original, Brian Prime if you will.” Brian said.
