A World Without Secrets (26 page)

"Yeah, right!" Billy said, grinning.

"I was just as skeptical at first. Here, let me adjust it for you." I reached over and set the coordinates for my kitchen.

Suddenly Billy was staring at an image of himself. "It's like a mirror," he said, turning his head from side to side.

"It's not a mirror. Can a mirror do this?" I adjusted the coordinates on the device so it was showing the back of Billy's head.

"Kewl. Is that my head? I guess I'm starting to get a little thin on top."

"Billy! Don't you get it? There's no camera behind you."

Billy grinned and turned around. He scanned the cabinets before saying nonchalantly, "Dude, you can't pull that on me. I just can't spot it. Some of those things have pinhole lenses on them now. I saw this show on TV where they operated on this dude's knee,
from the inside
, using a fiber-optic camera that was pushed into the leg through a hole smaller than the tip of a pencil. You're just trying to put one over on me. Where can I buy one of these things? It's great."

"You
still
don't get it," I said with a bit of exasperation. "Okay, explain this." I took a small notebook down from the shelf over the sink and flipped through its pages. I had once maintained a record of all important events I'd watched. I selected the Battle of Hastings, a particularly bloody and gruesome battle fought in medieval England, and entered the coordinates and date. The battle was raging as the gizmo locked into the location.

"Wow!" Billy exclaimed as the crystal-clear image resolved. "Is that the Mel Gibson movie?"

"No, Billy," I said, becoming even more exasperated. "This is a battle in medieval England. The people you see being killed and maimed are
really
being killed or maimed as you watch."

"Get outta town. Even
I
know they didn't have cameras back then. This has to be a reenactment, like those revolutionary war and civil war things."

"Look closely. Let me move the gizmo in."

Billy watched as the grisly battle raged on. "This is the best f/x work I've ever seen. It looks so real."

"It
is
real, Billy. This gizmo can look back at any time or place. I've watched Columbus as he discovered America, seen the Declaration of Independence being signed, and watched the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. I've spent days watching the greatest moments in history, and the worst, as they occurred. Don't you understand what I'm telling you?"

Billy sometimes liked to play the role of dummy when he drove his cab. He'd once told me it let him avoid playing tour guide to out-of-towners. I had learned just how sharp he was the first time I got into his cab and we began talking sports. But now he just stared at me with that silly expression he often wore.

Several seconds passed before Billy moved. He turned back to the monitor and stared intently without saying anything for several more seconds. "You're saying this is real? I mean really real?"

"Really real," I said, nodding affirmatively. "I'm not lying."

As the reality of the action sunk in, I saw his expression go sour and his facial color change slightly. He suddenly pushed his chair back and jumped to the sink, his cheeks bulging. The image on the gizmo was of a man having his head hacked off his shoulders with a battle axe. Billy just barely made it to the sink in time to deposit the contents of his stomach there. As he came up for air, I handed him a wad of paper towels and turned on the tap water to flush the contents.

Billy spit into the sink a few more times, wiped his mouth with the paper towels, and said, "That was real. Hollywood is good, but not that good. Turn that thing off, bro. It's making me sick to see people really doing that stuff to other people."

I turned off the gizmo. "I was almost sick myself a few times. Hollywood has done a great job of desensitizing us to extreme violence because we know it's not real. It's all computer graphics and special effects out there. But when you realize that what you're watching is real, and that real people are dying and being mutilated, it's a different matter entirely. Even so I became desensitized to it quickly when I remembered that all those people died many hundreds of years ago and their bodies have already turned to dust. I've watched tens, maybe hundreds of thousands die in natural disasters and wars. After a while you can maintain almost a clinical detachment."

"What is that thing?" Billy asked with a frightened look on his face. "Where did you get it? Who made it? And I know you ain't brokering any deal to sell it."

"I think of it as a window in time. You can see anything that's happened, any place in the world. I don't understand it, but you can use GPS to find any location, even though GPS didn't exist even fifty years ago. I guess it finds the location first, and then goes to the date requested. And no, I'm not brokering any deal to sell it. The fact is you're one of only a select few who even know I have it. I've been afraid to tell anyone, and
you
can't tell
anyone
else about this."

"Whadda ya mean? You're sitting on a goldmine."

"Think about it, Billy. With this device I can learn anybody's secrets. I can uncover murderers, thieves, rapists, molesters, and criminals of all sorts. I can even learn the deepest secrets of our government and governments around the world. If people learn that I have it, they'll try to take it away from me and won't stop until I'm dead. If they find out that you know about it, your life won't be worth any more than mine."

"My life?"

"Sure, they couldn't be sure you haven't already learned their secrets and made recorded copies from the device."

"But I'm not involved in this."

"You became involved when you learned the function of the gizmo."

"Good God, Colt!" Billy spit out. "I thought you were my friend. How could you do this to me?"

"How could I? How could I not? You
demanded
to know, Billy. But don't worry, as long as you
never
mention it, no one will ever find out. You'll be safe."

"Where did you get this thing?"

"I found it— the day the building across the street exploded. I had a box of photocopies in my car, and they were missing when I located my wreck. I found them scattered around the street outside the car, so I scooped them up and brought them upstairs. The gizmo was mixed in with them."

"You said I'm one of only a few who know about it. Who else knows?"

"I needed to learn where it came from, so I recently confided in a scientist I know. He was just as blown away as you and I are and had no idea about the device's origins. But I'm worried he might tell someone even though I warned him in advance that he could never tell anyone and repeated that before I left. I've told no one else, but somebody knows. Even before I knew I had it, I started getting weird emails from someone demanding that I destroy it."

"Have you tracked the return address?"

"I've tried, but there is no address. The emails just appear in my computer. I have no idea how they've done that."

"Anybody smart enough to create something like this is probably smart enough to avoid being traced."

"Yeah. At first I expected someone to show up at my door. I still worry about that. Every time I hear a sound in the middle of the night, I'm up at the window or the door with my service weapon. But so far, nothing."

"And your sudden prosperity came from using the— window?"

"Uh, yeah. I began by tracking down criminals for bail bondsmen. That led to the art recovery work."

"Did you consider tracking down the FBI's Ten Most Wanted? They offer really serious coin for those guys."

"I thought of that but decided against it. The last thing I wanted to do was get involved with the Feds. They'd want to know how
I
located the people they couldn't find, and things could have gotten even more complicated real quick if they started watching me. That's one of the reasons I agreed to work for them. I figured it was better to be on the inside than the outside."

A strange expression suddenly crossed Billy's face. "As long as I'm risking life and limb just knowing about this device, can I use it?"

"Sure," Colt said, "what do you want to see?"

"I want to see tomorrow's winners at the track."

I grinned. "No can do, pal. We can't see the future. We can see the present and the past only. I don't know why, unless it's intended to prevent anyone from altering the future. Or it might simply be that, in this reality, the future hasn't occurred yet."

"This reality?"

"Yeah. It's really complicated, but some folks believe there are an infinite number of realities."

"Wow. Bummer about the track though."

"Yeah, I was hoping to find the lottery numbers when I first realized what this machine could do, but it won't let me see even one second into the future."

"But it lets you see anything in the present or past."

"Yep."

"Anything?"

"Anything."

"Show me how to use it."

I spent ten minutes showing Billy how to operate the gizmo. As I've said, he's a lot sharper than he looks or acts.

"Got it?" I asked after I finished explaining how it works.

"Yeah. Got it. Can I use it now?"

"Sure. Go for it. I'm going to take a nap. It's been a busy morning."

When I returned to the kitchen six hours later, Billy was still absorbed with the gizmo. I understood that completely. Of course, we had different priorities. Billy was busy looking at the Rockettes in their dressing room as they prepared for a performance. I had to laugh.

"What? You never used the gizmo to look at naked babes?"

"Only my mom," I said.

"Ugh!" he said, his face showing disgust.

"I watched my own birth. That's all."

"Oh. Hey, I never thought of that. I'm gonna watch mine— after the Rockettes finish dressing."

I smiled, then turned to put some water on for pasta. "Hungry?" I asked.

"Yeah. I haven't eaten since breakfast, and that was only a bagel."

"Okay, dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes."

After dinner, Billy wanted to use the gizmo some more, so I took my laptop into the living room to work.

It was approaching midnight when I finished what I was doing and turned off my laptop. Billy was still rooted in front of the gizmo. This time he was watching the models get dressed at a Victoria's Secret event. One thing about Billy was his consistency. Another was his libido. When I asked him if he was almost finished, he didn't even respond. I peered around him and saw that his eyes were open and he seemed alert, so I shrugged and went to bed. He had a key and could let himself out when he got tired, or he could sack out on the living room sofa.

When I rose in the morning, Billy was still at the kitchen table— asleep. I reached across him and turned off the gizmo, which was showing an empty Broadway dressing room in 1964. I didn't bother to record the location or time; I simply put the gizmo into its matchbox and pushed it into my pocket.

Billy woke up when I started cooking some eggs. "Smells great, dude. Make mine over easy."

"You want them now or do you want to shower first?"

"Food first, shower later."

"Okay, two over easy coming up."

"Got enough for four? I'm starving."

"Four over easy coming up. Toast?"

"Yeah, light with butter."

"Home fries?"

"The more the better."

"Coffee?"

"Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah."

"Okay, the coffee's started. It'll be ready in a few minutes."

As Billy dug into his breakfast, he sighed. "Oh, dude. This is great. Will you marry me?"

"I'm taken already. Maybe your bronco-busting rodeo star is a good cook."

"She told me she burns water."

"Oh. Well, so much for that relationship. If neither of you can cook, you'll both starve to death."

"Not in Manhattan. Not while there's takeout."

"Well, maybe not. Are you going in to work today?"

"Yeah, I have to, but I'd way rather go back to sleep."

"How late did you stay up watching naked bodies?"

"The last time I looked at the clock, it said four twenty-three."

"You'll be lucky to complete your shift."

"No problemo. I'll grab a few winks here and there. What about you?"

"I'm great. I got six hours yesterday afternoon and another six overnight."

"No, I mean what are you going to do now?"

"I think I'm going to Amsterdam."

"You mean up by Albany?"

"No, the Netherlands. I told you about the call I got a couple of weeks ago. A museum was hit there. They lost twelve pieces. They'll cover all my travel expenses just to come take a look. The local police, national cops, and Interpol have exhausted all leads and are at a dead end. The Swiss insurance company wants me to come take a look before they have to pay up in four months. If I solve the case and recover everything, I get three million eight Euros."

"What's that in real money?"

"Euros are real money."

"You know what I mean."

"I think it's a bit over five million US."

"Five mil? Holy shit. What are you still doing here?"

"I'm a little hesitant. I've never done anything outside the U.S. before. I don't know the language, the customs, or the legal system."

"One way to learn, man."

I thought all day about taking on the job in Europe. The idea of trying to solve a crime in a country I didn't know, with customs I didn't know, among people speaking a language I didn't know was daunting. I'd heard that most Europeans were friendly and multilingual, and that English speakers were common, so not knowing how their legal system worked caused me the greatest apprehension. I finally decided that Billy was right, and that going there, at least for a look-see, was the best way to learn.

However, before I made the final decision on the European theft, I wanted to take a look at the robbery. I punched in the date, approximate time, and building coordinates and sat down in front of the gizmo to watch. The thieves hadn't shown up when the microwave beeped at me, so I got up and retrieved my food and a bottle of cold beer.