Coin #2 - Quantum Coin (30 page)

Hugh shook his head. “‘Don't make the same mistakes I did.’”

Ephraim ejected the tape from the deck. “I can't figure out why he and Ephraim left this for both of us,” he said. “I should at least tell Nathaniel. He'd want to know about his best friend.”

“His ‘best friend’ decided not to share any of this with him. Just be careful. Nathaniel is loyal to Dr. Kim, and who knows how she would react to all of this.”

“If you don't trust her, why are you helping her?”

“I'm placing my bet on the winning side. She is determined to keep this universe alive, and I plan to be in it when she succeeds. You're a survivor, too, Ephraim. Just don't do anything foolish.”

“Excellent advice,” Dr. Kim said.

Ephraim and Hugh turned. Dr. Kim and Nathaniel were standing at the front of the lab, watching them.

Ephraim stood. “Uh. How long have you been standing there?” He casually slipped the cassette into his back pocket.

“We heard everything,” Nathaniel said in a grim voice. He glanced up at the ceiling.

Ephraim saw a camera above the workbench. And another one in the corner. Everett had mentioned that the lab had surveillance cameras in his recording, but he didn't know Dr. Kim had been monitoring them.

“Smile. You're on
Candid Camera
,” Dr. Kim said.

“We're as surprised by this tape as you are, Jena,” Hugh said.

“It's Dr. Kim from now on, Mr. Everett,” she said. “I'm disappointed that you were going to keep this to yourselves.”

“I just need a little more information,” Hugh said. “I'm almost there. I can almost taste the solution to all of this. The first Hugh said that the universes are linked to this one, that we all share the same fate—”

“It's already too late,” Dr. Kim said. “I realized something after our experiment earlier.”

“What's that?” Ephraim asked.

She lit a cigarette and approached Ephraim.

“I think the other Ephraim we saw, your older analog, might have merged into this universe if you didn't have that coin. Instead we got that little brat.”

“His name is Doug,” Ephraim said.

“Doug, Cousin Oliver, whatever.” She waved her cigarette carelessly. “At least his unexpected appearance told me that my backup plan is going to work.”

“No.” Hugh stood. “You can't.”

“What?” Ephraim asked.

“You wanted that other reality to merge with this one,” Hugh said to her. “You used me.”

“You said it yourself,
darling.
We used each other,” Dr. Kim said. “He belongs here.”

“Who?” Ephraim asked.

“Ephraim,” she said. Frustration was creeping into her voice.

“I'm
Ephraim,” he said.

“You're the wrong one,” Dr. Kim said.

“So is that other guy!” Ephraim said. “You can't replace the one you lost, Dr. Kim. You saw them in the camera. The other Ephraim and Jena are happy together. At least they were until their kid was pulled out of their universe.” He paused. “Face it: You missed your chance.”

“This
is my chance. The one I've been waiting for. None of us have to be alone anymore.”

“Oh,” Ephraim said. He looked at Nathaniel for help. “You see it, don't you? She's completely lost her mind. You can't go along with this.”

“The Doc thinks that if we can't stop the collapse of the multiverse, perhaps we can control it. Save as much of it as possible,” Nathaniel said. “That sounds pretty good to me. I thought you'd be all for helping others.”

“It sounds like giving up to me,” Ephraim said.

“That's why you wanted me to modify the LCD software to filter universes,” Hugh said. “To try to manage the process of decoherence. There are hundreds of thousands of universes in the database. By using that data, we can choose those that are compatible with this reality and combine with them safely.”

“She wants to allow other universes to merge with this one?” Ephraim asked.

“Just elements from them,” Hugh said. “You filtered it even further, didn't you?”

“That's enough, Mr. Everett,” she said.

“You used the biometric records we have for Ephraim Scott to target his analog, but because there was already one of him here, protected by the coin, the closest match was his offspring,” Hugh said.

“Oh, shit,” Ephraim said. “You did that on purpose? Why? To create some kind of perfect universe?”

“Smart boy. I knew you'd understand,” Dr. Kim said.

“But all those universes,” Ephraim said. “Those people…you'll just let them disappear?”

She took a drag on her cigarette and blew out a cloud of smoke. She studied it thoughtfully.

“They would have disappeared anyway. But this way, we can save some of them,” she said.

“Like another Ephraim. Do you think any of my analogs could love
you
?”

“One did, once. And I let him get away.”

“You were clearly a different person then,” Ephraim said.

Dr. Kim looked at Nathaniel.

“I need you to give me the coin, Eph,” Nathaniel said.

Ephraim put his hand in his left pocket. “Why? It won't do you any good,” he said. He glanced at Hugh. He met Ephraim's eyes and nodded slightly.

“We can't have you interfering,” Dr. Kim said. “We can make this the best of all possible worlds. You can still help be a part of that.”

Hugh quietly opened a drawer in the workbench and withdrew one of the controllers. He flipped it open and pressed a button, then lowered it back into the drawer and closed it.

“Hell, no,” Ephraim said. “I already know you plan to replace me, so you'll understand if I'm not that enthusiastic about cooperating,” he said. “What about Jena and Zoe?”

Dr. Kim didn't respond.

The sound of the LCD outside the lab had stopped. He glanced nervously at Dr. Kim. She hadn't noticed. But Nathaniel tilted his head, listening intently.

“The universe will never stabilize if there's more than one analog in any universe,” Hugh said. “I think that's why your friends merged with each other. The multiverse couldn't distinguish between identical twins and analogs.”

“How did this happen to you, Jena?” Ephraim asked. “Your plan is the most self-serving thing I've ever heard. You're going to pick and choose who lives and who dies.”

“And who do you really want to save? Worlds full of strangers you've never met, never will meet? Or do you want to preserve the people you love? Your mother. Your best friend. Your girlfriend?” she said.

“There has to be another way,” Ephraim said.

“'E pluribus unum,'” Dr. Kim said.

“Excuse me?” Ephraim asked.

“That's written on the coin. It's Latin,” she said.

“‘From out of many, one,’” Hugh translated.

“I know what it means,” Ephraim lied. “It's on all our currency. It doesn't mean anything special.”

“It's the answer to everything,” Dr. Kim said.

Ephraim squeezed the coin in his left pocket tightly.

Dr. Kim narrowed her eyes. “You're free to leave, Ephraim. But not with the coin. It was never yours. Nathaniel, reclaim our property.”

“I'm sorry, kid.” Nathaniel approached and held his palm out, like he was reaching out to take Ephraim's hand in friendship.

“Nathaniel…” Ephraim tensed.

“You might have been able to beat me in a fight back in junior high, but not anymore, Ephraim.”

“Right. I've seen what you're capable of,” Ephraim said.

“Please don't let it come to that.”

“Don't do this,” Ephraim said. “‘The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Or the one.’”

“You're actually quoting
Star Trek
to talk me out of this?” Nathaniel asked.

“It would have worked on Nathan,” Ephraim said.

“I'm not Nathan. Here's another movie quote for you: ‘There can be only one.’ And this universe has to be the one. Now stop playing around and give me the coin, Eph.”

“You know, Judas got more than a quarter for his betrayal.” Ephraim pulled the quarter from his pocket and dropped it lightly into Nathaniel's open hand.

“And he hung himself for it,” Nathaniel said sadly.

“Hanged,” Dr. Kim corrected.

“It'll work out,” Nathaniel said. He patted Ephraim's arm and returned to Dr. Kim's side. He studied the coin curiously as he passed it to her. He snapped his head around to look at Ephraim and opened his mouth.

But it was too late. Ephraim had one hand in his right pocket, grabbing the real coin while already forming the wish in his mind.

“You should have known better, old man. You've fallen for that trick before.” Ephraim flipped the coin and snatched it from above his head a moment later.

Just before the room disappeared, Nathaniel winked at him.

Ephraim appeared in his bedroom, seated at his desk. He was disoriented for a moment; he'd forgotten that using the coin without the controller swapped him with his analog in the destination universe. Since he, Jena, and Zoe had used the controller to shift, there shouldn't have been an Ephraim in his universe to swap with, but it was possible one had merged into his reality in his absence.

In fact, without the controller to confirm quantum coordinates, he couldn't even be sure this was his home universe.

After his experiences with the coin last year, Ephraim had frequent nightmares that he had slipped into a parallel life without even knowing it—or that someone else was leading the life he was supposed to have. So he'd developed the habit of checking that things were the same as he remembered whenever he came home.

He pocketed the coin and looked around his room. The photo on the bookcase of him and his mother had been taken at a dinner celebrating six months of her being alcohol-free. A photo next to it showed her with her boyfriend, Jim. That was a very good sign that Ephraim was where he belonged.

Had he left that book open on his desk? He picked it up. It was a collection of science fiction stories by Philip K. Dick. Not something you wanted to read when you were already feeling paranoid—or when people really were after you.

He noticed it was a library book, and it was a day overdue. He owed the Summerside Library twenty-five cents.

“Ha,” Ephraim said.

The bed was unmade. Ephraim always fixed it before he left. He considered it an active crusade against entropy. There were a lot of things he couldn't control in life, but he could make his own bed in the morning.

“Someone's been sleeping in my bed.” He chuckled and quickly silenced himself.

Was Dr. Kim's madness contagious? If cell phones were supposed to be bad for you, hanging around a coheron drive—or carrying part of one in your pocket—had to be much worse. That might explain Nate's megalomania and his Ephraim's psychotic tendencies.

It would be so easy to attribute their behavior to external causes, but it was far more likely that their darkness had come from within, that everyone was capable of making selfish choices, regardless of who had to suffer.

Ephraim wondered who would come for him: Dr. Kim or Nathaniel. Either one of them could use the controller to track the coin and follow him whenever they wanted, but they wouldn't be able to transport themselves directly to his apartment. That gave him an hour on the outside if they walked from Greystone Park, but as little as twenty minutes if they took a cab.

Nathaniel had winked before Ephraim shifted. He'd realized Ephraim had switched the coins, but had he let him get away with it anyway? Or was he just showing Ephraim that he was unconcerned about catching up to him? He'd seemed pretty firmly on Dr. Kim's side.

Maybe Nathaniel had gotten dust in his eye and it didn't mean anything.

An instant message dinged on Ephraim's computer. He recognized Jena's screen name, uhny-uftz. It seemed another Jena analog had merged into this universe along with another Ephraim.

uhny-uftz: u still there?

Jena would never have substituted “u” for “you” or abandoned proper capitalization, not even in a text message. Ephraim scrolled back through some of the history of the conversation she'd been having with his analog just before Ephraim had shifted in. He'd interrupted them in the middle of some hot and heavy sexting.

Ephraim checked the list of users. The screen name Jimmy01sen blinked green as he stared at it. Nathan. But was it his Nathan?

Ephraim typed.

intrst11r-pig: Nathan? I'm back. From the future.

He waited impatiently for Nathan's response.

Jimmy01sen: welcome home!!!!

Ephraim let out a breath.

intrst11r-pig: Good. You're still you. Right?

Jimmy01sen: how's my camera?

Ephraim grinned. That was Nathan, all right. He'd forgotten Nathan's camera, but considering his sudden exit, he had a perfectly good excuse.

intrst11r-pig: Thank you for your concern. Had a rough time over there.

Jimmy01sen: I was having a rough time over here
.

intrst11r-pig: Of course you did. I'm sorry
.

Jimmy01sen: I thought you might be back though. My webcam went nuts a few seconds ago. Some of the local news stations picked up faint quantum ghosting, and social media feeds are exploding with people talking about what they saw on their TVs and cameras
.