Interesting Places (Interesting Times #2) (9 page)

Chapter 11

Oliver woke up on his couch with his
head feeling like someone had taken a hammer to his skull during the night.
Jeffrey lay curled up next to him, sound asleep. On the television the DVD menu
for
Back to the Future
played on an endless loop. It would probably keep
repeating until the end of time, or at least until someone shut the power off.

Oliver’s mouth felt dry and tasted as
if he’d been chewing on a dirty sock. He squinted against the sunlight coming
in through his living room windows. “What time is it?”

Jeffrey stirred on the couch, not
opening his eyes. “It’s too early for this,” he said.

Oliver picked up the empty bottle of
tequila and examined the label, as if doing that was going to answer his
question. “How much of this did I
drink
?”

Jeffrey stretched out on the couch
and sat up to start washing his face. “You can’t hold your liquor at all,” the
cat said. “You passed out before Marty McFly even got to the school dance.”

“What the hell was I doing?” Oliver’s
memory was failing him. He remembered drinking with Sally, but he hadn’t
realized he’d had so much.

“You kept going on about how you had
a time machine. It got pretty annoying.”

“Where’s Sally?”

“She left right after you conked out.
She said she had stuff to do, and thanks for the movies. And then she said you
should fry up some sausage for my breakfast.”

Oliver doubted very much that Sally
had said that last part. He squinted at the wall clock. “At least I’m not late
for work. I’m going to take a shower.”

“I’m going back to sleep,” Jeffrey
said, lying back down. “Put some music on for me, will you? Maybe some smooth
jazz.”

“Really?”

“Of course not. My playlist.” The cat
had spent a great deal of time picking out his favorite songs to listen to
while Oliver was at work. He’d insisted on having a remote control available so
he could turn the stereo on and off whenever he wanted. His playlist was heavy
on old Michael Jackson albums.

Oliver got cleaned up, took two
aspirin, and caught the train for the financial district. He was still having
trouble remembering everything that had happened the night before. Oliver
hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he didn’t really drink; in hindsight, he
probably shouldn’t have started off with a pail of margaritas. It had felt like
a pail, anyway. If he didn’t know better he’d have thought Sally had slipped
something into his glass. That really wasn’t her style, though, and even if it
had been what motive could she possibly have had? If she wanted him knocked out
she could just have punched him in the head. She’d done it before, and Oliver
wasn’t too proud to admit that Sally could have wiped the floor with him using
no more effort than he did swatting mosquitos.

Oliver bought a large black coffee at
a shop across the street from his building and then caught the elevator up to
the 41
^st
floor. “Good morning, sunshine!” Bruce called as he passed
the reception desk.

“Do I look that bad?” Oliver asked.

“You’ve sure looked better.” Bruce
nodded at the water cooler. “You’re going to want some of that. Hydrate
yourself.”

“I’ve got coffee.”

“You’re going to need more than
that.”

Oliver retreated to his office. He
was beginning to wish he’d brought the bottle of aspirin along from home. He
could always make a run to the drug store for more, if need be. There were only
about six different Walgreen’s within walking distance of the office.

The first earthquake hit about half
an hour later. At first Oliver thought it was just in his head, but after
fifteen seconds he realized the entire building was swaying, not just his own body.
It was far from the largest earthquake he’d ever felt in San Francisco, but at
that moment he’d have greatly preferred the ground to stay where it was
supposed to. His stomach felt like it might decide to empty its contents into a
trash can at any given moment.

Tyler passed by the door to his
office a minute after the earthquake had ended. “That was a good one, huh? What
do you think? A five?”

Oliver would have said the earthquake
felt more like a 14, but he knew the scale didn’t go that high. “Yeah.”

Tyler took a good look at him. “Long
night, buddy?”

“There’s a reason I don’t drink. I
guess I needed a reminder.”

Tyler laughed. “You seen Sally? She’s
not in yet.”

“Not since last night.”

Tyler’s eyes widened. “Holy shit,
really?
You two
? Wow. I can’t say I never saw you guys getting together,
but I didn’t think it’d actually happen…”

“Not like that,” Oliver snapped. Then
what Tyler had just said registered in the part of his brain that was still
capable of processing language. “Wait,
what
? Me and Sally?”

“Why not?” Seven suddenly brushed
past Tyler, making a beeline for Artemis’s office. Tyler watched him go, then
turned back to Oliver. “Well? Why not?”

“I don’t…” Oliver stammered. “It
never even occurred to me.”

“Not even once? You guys are friends.
She’s beautiful. You’re…kinda funny. Neither of you is seeing anyone. You get
my point here?”

“I don’t know if we’re actually
friends,” Oliver said. “I think she tolerates me. And even if there was more to
it than that…”

Seven rushed past Tyler again, this
time heading for his lab. Tyler watched curiously. “What’s gotten into him?”

“Who knows what ever gets into him?”

“Fair point. Anyway, even if there
was more to it than that?”

“Well, we work together, for one
thing. I can’t imagine it would be a good idea. Besides, she’s…”

“What?” Tyler asked. “Not your type?”

“It’s not that. It’s more that…she’s
absolutely terrifying.”

“You never struck me as someone who
has a problem with strong women.”

“Strong women, no, but Sally’s like the
Godzilla of women.”

Tyler shrugged. “She’s pretty fierce,
I’ll give you that. I think you’d be a cute couple, though. You’d analyze
things, she’d break them.”

“I think you’re totally insane.”

Tyler smirked. “You up for lunch
today? Something nice and greasy?”

Oliver’s stomach flip-flopped. “Oh,
you bastard.” Food was the last thing he wanted to think about right now.
Greasy food, even less.

“Sorry. I couldn’t help it. You want
an aspirin? There’s a first-aid kit in the…” Seven rushed past again, this time
nearly bowling Tyler over. “Hey!”

Oliver felt his stomach starting to
sway again. A moment later he realized it wasn’t his stomach; it was everything
else. “Another earthquake?” he asked. Their building was moving again, and
looking through his window he could see several other skyscrapers were, as
well. There also appeared to be some kind of shimmer in the air, like he might
see when there was a gas leak, but that could have just been his eyes rebelling
against the sunlight.

“Maybe it’s the big one,” Tyler said,
putting his hand on the wall. “Are we supposed to get under the desks or
something?”

“If this building goes down I don’t
think being under a desk is going to help that much.”

Oliver’s phone chimed and Artemis’s
voice came over the intercom. “My office. Now!”

“You want me too, boss?” Tyler asked.

“I want everyone. Have you seen
Sally? She’s not responding.”

“Not yet,” Tyler said. “We’ll be
right there.”

Oliver and Tyler headed for Artemis’s
office. Seven was already there, tablet in hand. The building hadn’t stopped
swaying yet. In fact, it seemed to be getting worse. “Should we be evacuating?”
Oliver asked.

“Or getting under our desks?” Tyler
chimed in.

“It doesn’t matter,” Artemis said,
studying the readout on Seven’s tablet. “This isn’t an earthquake.”

Oliver blinked. “It’s not? Then what
the hell is it? Did a bomb go off?”

“It’s a timequake,” Seven said.

“What the hell is a…” Oliver began.

“It’s like an earthquake, but with
time,” Seven said.

“Oh. Of course it is.” Oliver looked
at Tyler. “Do you know what that means? I kinda need the simple version.”

“That
was
the simple version,”
Seven said. “We’re in a hurry, so I chose easy words you’d be able to
understand.”

“I don’t think it worked,” Tyler said.
“I don’t know what it means, either.”

“Oh for god’s sake,” Seven said. “A
timequake is…”

“There,” Artemis said, tapping the
tablet screen. “That’s the epicenter. It’s coming from Vault 3.”

“How?” Seven asked. “Nobody could
have gotten in there. Turrets are online but dormant, no security alerts. It’s
green across the board.”

Oliver looked through Artemis’s
window. “Um…guys? You should probably take a look at this.”

Artemis’s window faced the
Embarcadero where an outdoor park adjacent to the waterfront was often used for
a farmer’s market. Oliver liked to pick up fresh vegetables to take home after
work, and for the ever-hungry Tyler it was like an open-air candy store. Today
it looked a bit different, though. Twelve cyborgs could be seen marching up Market
Street, outfitted in metallic armor similar to that of the cyborg that had
attacked them in the parking garage. Each appeared to have a weapon held at the
ready, although from this distance it was hard to tell exactly what they were.
Oddly, only about half the people on the streets outside seemed to be able to
see them. Those were moving out of the way, while everyone else went about
their business as if nothing were out of the ordinary. Admittedly, one did
develop a tendency to ignore the unusual after a few weeks of living in San
Francisco, but this was going beyond the pale.

“We’re under
attack
?” Tyler
asked. “How is that even possible?”

“The attack already happened,”
Artemis said. “Reality is being rewritten around it. We’re just catching up to
it now.” She turned to Seven. “How far back?”

Seven studied his tablet, sweeping
his fingers over it and pressing the touchpad almost more quickly than Oliver
could see. “Fourteen months, give or take. A little more time and I could
pinpoint it, but time is something we’re out of.”

“How?” Tyler asked. “How is this
happening?”

“Vault 3?” Oliver asked. “You said
that’s the, what, the epicenter?”

Outside the skyscraper at One Market
Street shimmered and then disappeared into thin air. “Jesus!” Tyler screamed.

“Never mind,” Artemis said. “It
wasn’t there anymore. It hasn’t been there for a long time. What about Vault 3,
Oliver?”

“Well, if it’s a timequake, doesn’t
it make sense that it would have something to do with the time machine? That seems
kind of obvious to me.”

Artemis stared at him. “What do you
know about the time machine?”

“Sally showed it to me. She said we
weren’t allowed to use it because of changing the past and all that.”

“Oh, god,” Seven said. “She could not
possibly have been that stupid.”

“We have a time machine?” Tyler
asked. “Why am I just hearing about this now?”

“Mr. Jones, this is very important,”
Artemis said. “Did Sally tell you the time machine was in working order?”

“Of course,” Oliver said. “What would
be the point of a time machine that didn’t work?” He looked around. “Where
is
Sally, anyway?”

“No doubt in Vault 3. Or she was.
Where she is
now
I could only imagine, but given the events outside, I
strongly doubt she survived her attempt.” She sighed deeply. “Damn her. No,
damn
me
. I should have seen this coming.”

“Can someone tell me what’s going
on?” Tyler asked.

Artemis pointed at Oliver. “She knew
you could change things, Mr. Jones. If you believed something strongly enough,
you could make it real.”

“Believed what?”

“The time machine hasn’t worked since
1945,” Seven said. “The quantum drive was destroyed and even if we wanted to
fix it, we don’t have the materials to make a new one.”

The pieces were beginning to fit into
place now. “She told me it worked,” Oliver said. “It was all she could talk
about the last week. It was all I could even think about. Then she came over
last night and…I think she might have drugged me.”

“No,” Tyler said.

“Just enough to get my mind wandering
like it had…” he looked at Artemis. “I heard the water. Like when I made
Jeffrey talk, and when I wiped out the Kalatari. It was the same noise I heard
those times.”

“You changed reality,” Artemis
nodded. “You believed the time machine worked, and so now it does work. And
Sally turned it on.”