Equilibrium (13 page)

Claire shook her head and said, “The Weeks’ basement was fully finished as well. No signs of any hidden doors, et cetera?”

“No, the search was pretty thorough. The dogs checked it out as well. No sign of the missing kids having been down there,” Agent Baker said resignedly.

“Okay. The kid, Simla, has she been back? Or the husband, Raj?” Claire asked, looking at her iPad.

“Nope. Any chance I could get one of those?” Keith asked, looking down at it admiringly.

“Can’t see why not,” Claire smiled as she turned to head back into the kitchen.

“Any idea where Simla may be?” Claire asked Erica.

“No, but then I hardly ever know. She does her own thing. I can try her cell phone,” Erica offered hoping that Raj had not got Simla involved in this.

“We’ve already tried her cell phone, there’s no reply,” Claire said.

“She doesn’t really answer calls. She seems to use text exclusively. Shall I text her?”

“Yes, please do. Something general, so she’ll call you back,” Claire added.

“Could I have my cell phone back?” Erica asked.

“I don’t have it. It’s probably still at the Weeks’ house. I’ll have one of the Agents text her,” Claire said talking into her radio again. “Okay, can you get us on the computers? Do you have all the pass codes?”

“No, but they’ll be easy enough to guess,” Erica said confidently. Both Raj and Simla were pretty predictable. She managed to guess the passwords and the agents set to work, rummaging through the files and emails. Where could Raj have taken the children? Erica wondered. Where could he keep four kids hidden? A shiver went down her spine as the unthinkable scenario unfolded in her imagination. Could he have taken them through the portal? The FBI would never be able to find them then. Had he taken Simla and Justin as well? They had both been seen this morning, so that could surely not be the case? Unless they had just left. They could have disappeared anywhere–to any time, in any dimension. She closed her eyes. Even with her abilities, how would she ever be able to track them down? Then she remembered– predictable.

“Dr. Sen, thank you for your cooperation. A few agents are going to stay here and watch the place, I hope that’s all right with you,” Claire stated rather than asked. She needed to head over to the Moreau house, not that she expected much.

Erica nodded as Claire got up to leave. “Could I have my cell phone back now?” she asked.

“Sure, I’ll have an agent bring it by,” Claire said, as she headed for the door. She got to her car and brought up the Moreau data on her iPad. The Moreau family consisted of the father, Pierre, the mother, Glenda, and one daughter, Ariele. Claire studied the faces carefully. They didn’t have the same serene look as Erica and Grayson. These three looked uptight, perhaps they’d had a spat before these pictures had been taken. They were new to the area. Claire scanned their profiles and then punched the address into the GPS and headed off. The Moreau residence was about forty minutes away. Five minutes later, her phone rang–it was her personal ringtone, could only be Harriett.

“Hey, Mom! When are you going to be home?” came the sweet, little voice over the phone. Harriett was four and the love of her life. Claire had been through a gruesome adoption ordeal with her partner, Andrea, to be allowed to add Harriett to their family. Harriet called her
mom
and Andrea,
mommy,
to distinguish between them.

“Baby, I won’t be back for a few days, but I’ll Skype with you later and tell you a story,” she promised. These sorts of days away were so difficult. She was so glad that Andrea had opted to be a stay-at-home mom. Claire couldn’t have done this job otherwise.

“Promise, Mom?”

“I promise. I have to go now. Mom’s driving. I’ll see you later.”

“Bye, Mom. I love you,” her darling said so sweetly that all Claire wanted to do was drive straight home.

“Love you too,” she said. Thank goodness for Skype.

Claire would have missed the entrance to the Moreau house had it not been for the numerous squad cars parked outside. It was very different from the two she had just visited. It was well hidden from the main road, behind tall trees and untrimmed bushes. It was small, but pleasant-looking. Her notes told her that it was a rental. The search had come up empty here as well. She walked into the small kitchen where the mother, Dr. Glenda Moreau, had been sequestered. She had decided to speak to her first, as she was the primary contact between the two families. Claire wondered why the elegant-looking woman seemed so tense.

Glenda
felt
tense. She had no idea what was going on. Olivia had called her last night to find out if she’d seen Arizona or Kellan. Then she’d called her back to ask the same about Harry and Ella. Something serious was up. And she just
knew
that it was somehow linked to the October Project. But she couldn’t talk about that. She didn’t even know much, though she had been able to gather from her data at Ames that it had to do with time travel. She was sure that Olivia had built some kind of portal. Why had her house been searched? Was it just random? She would have to be very careful with what she said to this agent. She hoped that her husband and especially Ariele wouldn’t let anything slip inadvertently.

“Dr. Moreau, I’m Agent Adams. Could you tell me how you know Dr. Darley?”

Glenda flinched. Nothing she said would check out. She first had noticed Olivia when she was a student at Imperial College in London during one of her physics lectures. Olivia had been one of the brightest students she had ever had. Coincidentally (although she now wondered if it indeed was just coincidence), they had both relocated to New Jersey, but they had not come into contact with each other there. Glenda had been busy at the astrophysics department at Princeton University, while Olivia had been working secretly at Ames while pretending to be a stay-at-home housewife. She could hardly share that with this agent though, could she!

“Dr. Darley head hunted me for a job.” She decided to be as brief as possible.

“What kind of job?” Claire persisted, sensing that Glenda was terribly uncomfortable.

“Oh, at Ames. Dr. Darley is my boss,” Glenda explained.

“Do you work with Drs. Weeks and Sen?” Claire continued.

“No, not directly,” replied Glenda, wondering where this was going.

“Do you know them at all?” Claire asked surprised. She had wrongly assumed that they all worked together.

“Not really. I’ve seen them about, of course. But, I haven’t talked to either of them,” Glenda confirmed.

“So, your projects are completely separate?” Claire probed.

“To be candid, I really don’t know. Larry Fox heads the department and Olivia works for him. Olivia employed me. I believe she also supervises whatever Erica Sen and Grayson Weeks are working on. I have no idea if all the projects are linked. I’m at present just crunching data. I’m fairly new to the department.” Glenda knew how improbable this sounded and anticipated the next question.

“What sort of data?”

Glenda tried to keep it simple. “Highly complex collider data.” She looked over at the agent. Her eyes definitely glazed over when the word
collider
was used. Good. “Have you had any news of the children?”

Claire was taken aback. “How did you know that they were missing?”

“Oh, Olivia called me last night to ask if I’d seen them.”

“Why would you have seen them?”

“Well, not me exactly, I guess. My daughter Ariele is good friends with Arizona, Kellan and Harry. They hang out at school and outside school, as well. I guess Olivia thought that she may have heard from them.”

“Could I speak with Ariele?” Claire asked.

“I’d rather you don’t. She’s very upset. But if you must, I’d like to be present. She’s upstairs with their friend, Ali, at the moment. Ali’s very upset, as well. They’re all very close.”

“I’m going to have a quick chat with your husband. Can we speak to the girls then? I’ll have one of the agents call Ali’s parents for permission,” Claire assured Glenda.

Glenda’s heart was racing as she nodded at Agent Adams. This could all go horribly wrong. What if Pierre or Ariele let slip that they had arrived here from the future? She hoped that they had learned their lesson the last time they had done that, during their psych evaluation after their
accident.
It hadn’t been an easy time for Ariele, or her husband. After all, they had not devoted most of their lives to studying the possibility of time travel. At least her mind was open to the possibility, which was why Olivia had brought her over. Ariele had just been thrown into a different time/dimension with no warning and no explanation and had been expected to
deal with it
. When they’d asked questions, they had been labeled as
mad
. So Ariele knew to keep quiet, but could she under pressure?

Claire did not spend much time asking Pierre Moreau questions. He was a fairly nondescript, harmless-looking man. Not that his appearance made any difference to Claire. She was way too experienced for that. However, unlike his wife, he seemed to be genuinely lost. He had no idea what was going on at all. He had never met any of the kids, nor knew the other families. He had just been offered a French teacher’s position at the high school, which he seemed happy about. Claire decided that, for now, she was wasting her time with him. For now, she really wanted to talk to the daughter, Ariele, and her friend Ali.

“Dr. Moreau, can we speak to the girls now?” Claire asked, walking back into the kitchen.

Agent Baker interrupted them. “I haven’t been able to get the girl Ali’s parents on the phone. So I guess, you can only speak to Dr. Moreau’s daughter for now.”

“Okay, thanks, Keith,” she said, as Glenda went up to fetch her daughter down to the kitchen.

Glenda was so glad that she had been allowed to get Ariele herself.

“Mom, did they find them?” Ariele asked, as soon as Glenda opened the door to her bedroom. She looked at her daughter and then at Ali. They both looked like they had been crying.

“I don’t think so. I don’t think they would be here if they had. They’d like to talk to you, Ariele. It’s a nice agent called Claire.”

“Why me?” Ariele asked temperamentally.

“Well, actually, both of you. But they can’t get hold of your parents for permission, Ali. So, just you for now, Ariele. Come down with me, they are waiting. Will you be all right up here on your own for a bit, Ali?” Ali nodded as the two of them closed the door and headed down to the kitchen.

“Hello, Ariele. My name is Claire. I just have a few questions to ask you.”

Ariele looked at the small, blond lady in the kitchen. Not at all what she imagined an FBI agent would look like. She nodded politely and sat down on one of the bar stools. “Have you found any of my friends?” Ariele asked directly, staring at Claire.

It was best to keep Kellan’s return under wraps for now, for his own safety. However, she could tell that Ariele was not going be fobbed off. “Ariele, I have to keep all that sort of information confidential for now, for their safety. I also need to ask you some questions for the same reason.”

Ariele nodded, reluctantly.

Claire continued. “Do you know anyone who may want to harm your friends?”

“I guess. Not Ella, though! Who’d want to harm her? Arizona, Kellan and Harry have a thing going with Simla and Justin.”

This was the second time this had been mentioned, so Claire delved into it. “Can you tell me exactly what happened?”

“I guess it started when Arizona decided to try out for the ice-hockey team at school. Justin wasn’t pleased.”

“Why not?” Claire inquired puzzled.

“’Cause he’s an ass,” Ariele said rolling her eyes. “He didn’t want a girl playing for the team. So the four of them got into it, that’s Justin, Arizona, Kellan and Harry, at the rink parking lot where Justin sort of lost cred in front of his pals. Anyhow, Simla was none too pleased. We think she’s Justin’s hook-up, but don’t know for sure. Anyhow, Simla cornered Arizona in the restroom at the high school and choked her half to death.”

“I didn’t see a police report that mentioned Simla’s name, although the altercation was mentioned,” Claire said.

“Yes, that’s because Arizona didn’t want anyone to know that she’d been taken down by Simla. She was going to take care of it herself,” Ariele said.

It was Glenda’s turn to roll her eyes.

Ariele continued, “So, that’s it. Justin and Simla hate Arizona and the boys.”

“Do you think they could be involved in their disappearance?” Claire asked, totally unconvinced that a teenage spat could be responsible for their disappearances.

“Wouldn’t be the least bit surprised,” Ariele responded.

“Any ideas on where we could find them? We’ve already checked their homes,” Claire asked.

“No. I don’t really know them at all. Did you try their cells?” Ariele asked

“Yes. They’re not picking up, but we’ll keep trying. Is there anything else you want to tell us that may help?” Claire asked, watching Ariele intently. Before her was a very confused teen. She could see it in her eyes. She definitely had more to share.

“Nope,” Ariele said firmly. “Just find them.”

“Well, thank you both. I’ll probably be back with more questions, but will leave you for now.” She stood up to shake hands with Dr. Moreau and Ariele. As she shook Ariele’s hand, Claire could feel something scratching her palm. She gently enveloped it with her fingers and put the scrap of paper Ariele had surreptitiously handed to her in her pocket, making sure that Glenda didn’t notice. Why was Ariele handing her a note? A secret note. She couldn’t wait to get out of there to find out. As soon as she was safely back in her car, she extracted the note and carefully opened it up. Two words.

time travel