Road Less Traveled (31 page)

“Hey, it's Sheriff Carter,” he told her, holding the phone to his ear. “Listen, I'm trying to figure this out. I was the door between our two worlds, right? That's why most of the early appearances from your world to mine happened right after I'd been someplace?”

“That's right,” she agreed.

“So shouldn't I still be a door?” he asked. “The realities are not completely apart yet, right?”

“Not completely, no. They're still linked, though that link is getting more and more tenuous.” She thought about it. “But yes, you should be still be the focal point for that link.”

“Okay. So there's got to be some way to jump back to my own world,” Carter insisted. “I'm the doorway—there has to be a way for me to use that to get me and Kevin home.” He glanced at the screen, and the pretty blond researcher shown in it. “I'm still getting shocks from everything. What does that mean?”

“You are?” She frowned. “You were magnetized to attract energy from here,” she said after a second, “and that's what pulled our worlds together. The other me and Zane reversed that charge so you'd push us apart instead.” She paused. “You may still have a mild charge,” she decided finally. “It shouldn't be much by now, but your body's electrical field may still be a little higher than normal. That's why you're getting shocked.”

Carter thought about magnets. “And I'm still negatively charged in relation to here, right? Which means I should be positively charged toward home. My body should attract energy from my own Eureka—and vice versa.”

“Yes,” she said slowly. “But your physical mass is anchoring you here. You can't simply trust the charge to pull you back home across that gap. Especially since it's getting wider, and would take more energy to cross it.”

“What if I got more energy?” he asked her. His mind was racing. “What if I got a really big zap? What would that do?”

Russell considered. “It might shake you loose from here,” she finally admitted. “It would have to be a massive charge, but yes, it could amp up your magnetic charge and pull you through the link.” She frowned again. “But there's no guarantee it would get you all the way back home,” she warned. “You could be stuck between our two worlds, in the space between dimensions. That's pure energy, and you couldn't survive that for very long.”

Carter nodded. “I'd need something to pull me back the rest of the way,” he agreed. “Something to latch on to me, or my remaining energy charge, and drag me back to Eureka. My Eureka.” He wracked his brain. There was something there, he just couldn't quite grasp it. “Something to basically suck the energy back down and get me home.”

Then he had it.

“I need you to do something for me,” he told Russell. “Fast as you can.” He glanced outside and saw that the driveway was empty past Allison's station wagon. He might be here, but his Jeep was apparently back home. Fortunately, he didn't have far to go. Unfortunately, he had to hurry. “Allison, I need to borrow your car.”

She didn't argue. She just tossed him the keys.

“Did you get all that?” he asked Russell as he headed for the door, guiding Kevin by the shoulder.

“I did,” Russell assured him. “And you're right, it could work.” The worry on her pretty face told him it could also
not
work—and what would probably happen if it failed.

“You could just stay here,” Allison told him quickly, following them to the door. Her eyes went to Kevin, and she started to reach out, but stopped herself. “I know you'd be trapped, and I'm sorry, but at least you'd be alive and safe. Both of you.”

“I've got to try.” Carter grabbed her hand and forced her gaze to move to him. “We don't belong here. You know that. If there's any way for us to get back home, I've got to take it.”

She nodded.

“Okay,” he told Russell as he yanked the door open. “Let them know as quick as you can, and fingers crossed.”

“Good luck,” Russell called out as he tossed the phone back to Allison and raced outside to her station wagon. A minute later, with Kevin belted into the front passenger seat, Carter floored it and took off in reverse, barreling out of the driveway. Then he jammed the car into drive, his foot still slammed down on the accelerator, and they shot forward, toward their only chance at returning to their own world.

Carter didn't have to look in the rearview to know that Allison had followed them out to the driveway and was watching them go.

It wasn't working.

Every minute that Carter was gone—thirty-seven so far—meant one more minute that the worlds were gliding apart. And that he didn't have Kevin back.

Where was he?

She knew it was ridiculous to pin so much hope on one person. But Carter had always come through for her before. Always. Every time they'd been in danger, every time she'd needed him, he'd been there.

A part of her brain took great pleasure in pointing that out. Because how many people could you say that about, really? How many people were always there for you, and always came through?

Not very many at all.

So where was he now?

She stared at her phone, trying to will it to ring by sheer desperation alone. She knew he'd call her the minute he had Kevin. She didn't even have to ask. It was understood.

But the phone continued to lie dead and silent in her hand.

Movement on the screen tugged at the corner of her sight, but Allison didn't look up. The phone had her full attention. And through it, Carter. Wherever he was.

“Allison.”

Zane's voice was soft, but there was something in its tone that made her look up. She belatedly realized what it was. There was an urgency that she'd rarely heard from him before. Most of the time, Zane treated everything like it was one big joke. The world was silly, and he was happy to play along, hamming it up and goofing off and trusting his genius to get him through unscathed.

He wasn't joking now.

Glancing up, she saw the other Dr. Russell leaning into her microphone. Judging by her expression, the pretty blond researcher was sharing something important.

But all Allison heard was static.

“Damn!” That was Zane, as he checked the controls and readouts. “We must have drifted just far enough apart to lose audio!” The quick glance he shot Allison wasn't lost on her.

If they were too far apart to have sound transfer anymore, what were the chances people could make it back across?

And her phone was still silent.

Russell was gesturing at her counterpart, indicating her ear and shaking her head. Her double caught on and leaned back, looking frustrated. Then she bolted from her chair and ran toward the back of the lab. A minute later she was back, dragging the whiteboard. They'd forgotten all about those after the two Russells had managed to set up the mikes, but no one had thought to remove them.

Which now turned out to be a good thing.

Everyone watched as the other Dr. Russell scrawled something on the whiteboard. “Man, I hope we can read her writing,” Zane muttered. It looked like typical scientist scribbling, all but illegible.

“I can read it,” their own Russell promised, her lips quirked in a half smile. “I've been deciphering my own notes for years.”

But nobody needed to translate the first word. And Allison felt relief buoy her up, even as a sense of dread washed over her.

The first word Russell wrote was
Carter
.

“Carter is okay,” their Russell read off to them, squinting at the monitor. “He has Kevin. They're both safe.”

Allison wanted to cry. But she knew “safe” was a far cry from “home.” Especially since their safety was being conveyed to them via whiteboard from another dimension!

“Worlds too far apart to slip back across,” was the next line, and Allison felt her phone digging into her palm as her hands clenched. That was exactly what she'd been afraid of. She couldn't lose Kevin. She just couldn't!

And, if she was being honest with herself, she couldn't bear to lose Carter, either.

But Russell was still writing. “Carter has an idea.” Allison couldn't help it—she laughed. Of course he did. Carter always had an idea. For an average guy surrounded by geniuses, it was sometimes amazing just how many good ideas he had. Crazy ones, but then Eureka was a crazy place. And most of his plans wound up working.

Which was why she knew she could count on him, and why the relief was starting to outweigh the dread.

As Russell wrote down the details, however, even Allison gaped. And Zane shook his head.

“He's certifiable,” Zane claimed, staring at the instructions again as if reading them a second time would somehow change them so they made more sense. “He's completely mad.”

“Will it work?” Allison asked him quietly.

Zane considered it. “Maybe,” he admitted finally. “It could. I can't be sure.” He shook his head again. “But who would even think of that?”

“Carter would.” Allison felt more laughter bubbling up inside her, some of it verging on hysteria, and forced it back down. She'd have time to laugh later. Assuming Carter's plan worked.

But she had a good feeling about it.

It was Carter, after all. And he'd never let her down before.

Her phone was still in her hand, and she opened her fingers, wincing at the belated pain from where it had pressed into her flesh. But she didn't hesitate to raise it and switch it on. Time was of the essence here.

Dialing the number, Allison lifted the phone to her ear. “Hello?” she said as the call connected. “Dr. Savile?”

 

“Listen to me, Kevin,” Carter said as he sped down the
street. “I'm going to try to get you back home to your mom, okay?” He didn't bother trying to explain that the woman they'd just left behind wasn't her, or at least not exactly.

Kevin nodded. “That wasn't her,” he said, gesturing back behind them. They'd already gone several blocks, but Carter wouldn't have been at all surprised to learn that Allison was still standing there, staring after them. He probably would have been, in her shoes. “It was a quantum variant.”

“That's right. But I'm going to get you back to your real mom, okay?” It always amazed Carter just how Kevin's mind worked. The teenager was often oblivious to the world around him, and sometimes didn't seem to understand things as basic as checking for cars before stepping out into the street, but then he could perform amazingly complex math in his head, and sometimes had surprising insight into people and events. Like now.

Kevin nodded. “I'd like to go home,” he admitted, glancing out the window as they raced along. “This is an interesting variation, but I don't feel comfortable here.”

“Me either,” Carter assured him. “Me either.”

They drove the rest of the way in silence, with Carter concentrating on the road and Kevin staring at the almostfamiliar homes and streets that were whizzing past. Fortunately, it seemed that Jo's alert—and Fargo's, here—had convinced people to stay off the roads, and the streets were almost completely empty.

They skidded on two tires as Carter yanked the wheel, forcing Allison's station wagon into a hard right onto Silver Road, and he held his breath. It should be right about—there!

He almost shouted with relief when the little stuccoed house came into view. True, it was a dusty blue rather than an alarming orange, but there was no doubt it was the same home.

He just hoped it belonged to the same person.

Carter sped up the driveway and then slammed on the brakes, rocking the car to a stop just shy of the garage door. He was kicking open his door and yanking off his seat belt before the engine had even finished shuddering. “Come on, let's go,” he urged, but Kevin was already following his lead and stepping out of the car.

The front door opened as they stepped onto the walk, and a man emerged from the house. “Sheriff Carter?” He was average height and stocky, bald, and with a neat brown beard.

“Dr. Savile?” Carter let himself relax a little—but just a little—when the man nodded and extended his hand. “Boy, am I glad to see you!”

Savile smiled. “So I heard. Though I don't know if I should feel the same way, after being told that you want me to deliberately overload my heat sink, which could set me back months of research.” He didn't look upset, however. If anything, there was a gleam in his eye, and Carter had the sudden sense that Savile was the kind of man who enjoyed breaking the rules occasionally.

And, while normally as sheriff he had to take a stand against that sort of thing, right now Carter was all for it.

“Come on inside.” Savile ushered them both in, and Carter allowed himself to be guided through the short front hall and into a large, studio-style living room. The furniture—all ultra-modern, blond wood Scandinavian-style pieces, Carter noticed—had been shoved to the sides, and in the center of the floor sat a ceramic and metal box about the size of a large cooler.

“That's it?” Carter eyed the thing warily. He'd expected something significantly larger, and with a lot more wires and dials and switches. Something more high-tech looking. This thing looked like a snazzy way to hold a few beers when going on a picnic.

“That's it.” Savile's pride as he admired his handiwork was unmistakable. “The basic concept of an ambient heat sink was the easy part, in a way. Getting it to be this portable was a lot trickier.” He knelt in front of the device, flipped open a panel along one side, and began fiddling with something in there. “I've been storing energy for several days while testing its capacity,” he explained. “So there should be more than enough of a charge for your purposes.” He grinned over his shoulder. “Assuming it doesn't fry you to a crisp, of course.”