Authors: David Clarkson
‘How much farther do we have to go?’
‘It doesn’t work like that. I only see
the journey, not the destination.’
Esteban nodded. The kid had never lied to
him before and God knows he had reason to. Jimmy had been taken into custody
without access to a lawyer or a phone call. They kept him locked up in a cell
at night and for most of the day. Yet from the beginning he had done nothing
but cooperate with them in every way. This kid had faith – real faith, and in
comparison Esteban could only rue the fragility of his own flawed and hollow
convictions.
‘So what are you seeing right now?’
‘The same as what you’re seeing - an
empty highway. The visions showed me when to turn onto this road and they’ll
return when it’s time for us to turn off of it. Until that time, I expect my
sense to be dormant. The universe is very economical like that. It’s all to do
with quantum physics or something.’
Esteban slammed his foot on the brake,
bringing the truck to an abrupt stop. Jimmy’s body went rigid and his heart
rate quickened.
‘I didn’t see that coming!’
‘Cut the bullshit,’ said Esteban.
‘Quantum physics, the universe being economical, you and I both know that isn’t
you speaking. I’ve suspected for a while, but only now am I sure.’
‘S-sure about what?’
Jimmy felt vulnerable. He wanted
desperately for a sign to guide him, but was still receiving none. Normally,
when faced with confrontation there would be danger close behind. With danger
being his most powerful trigger, the fact he was without help at least meant
that the soldier did not intend to harm him.
‘Dr Rayne – I think you know her better
than you’ve led us to believe. It was she that told you about the effects of
quantum physics on your power, wasn’t it?’
An ordinary person would pause in order
to contemplate a lie before revealing the truth. Jimmy just answered the
question as soon as it was asked.
‘Yes, although I never really understood
most of it. She was the one who taught me to believe I could use my power to
help others.’
‘This was after you went on the run?’
‘Yes.’ He did not like betraying Emmy’s
trust, but in agreeing to lead the Americans to her, he had already broken his
oath. ‘After I escaped from the town I didn’t know what to do. I spent some
time travelling from town to town, paying my way by means of the poker table.
Bluffing was never really a problem. I’m hopeless at cards and always have
been. But then as soon as I was on the brink of losing everything, I could see
all of the other players’ cards. I never lost a hand after that.’
‘Sounds like the perfect crime to me.’
‘Exactly; it
was
a crime. Taking
money from those people made me no better than a thief. I hated myself for it,
but I could see no other way to get cash. It’s not like I could just take a
regular job. Even if I had any kind of skills, which I don’t, I knew that once
my name turned up on any database they would find me. For a while, I thought
about ending it.’
‘Suicide?’
Jimmy nodded.
‘Jesus – so what stopped you?’
‘That was when I found her. I came across
her camp entirely by chance. All I wanted more than anything else was to die
and that is where I thought the visions were leading me – to my death. It
turned out I was wrong. Instead, they led me to Emmy.’
‘And she gave you back your sense of
purpose?’
‘Yes. She also explained a lot about the
changes that I was undergoing. She told me about how she had caused the
radiation. She never intended for anything bad to happen, it was her
grandfather who used the power they created to do those awful things. He’s the
one who’s to blame for what happened, not her.’
‘I believe you. The colonel speaks like
she poses some terrible threat to humanity, but there’s nothing in her file to
suggest that to be true. I’ve often wondered if bringing her in would really be
the right thing to do.’
‘So why do you continue to help them?’
Esteban replied only with a solemn look.
Some things did not need to be put into words.
‘I think she’ll be able to help too,’
said Jimmy. ‘If anybody can bring my mother back, it’s Emmy.’
As Esteban nodded his agreement, a call
came through on the radio. It was the leader of his backup team.
‘Agent Cruz, why have you stopped – is
there a problem?’
Esteban placed the receiver to his mouth.
‘No problem. We will proceed as planned.’
He put the truck back into gear and
continued along the desert highway. The radius that covered the area where the
fugitive was possibly hiding was huge, with only Jimmy’s unique insight to
narrow it down. They could be one mile away or they could be one hundred. There
was no way for them to know.
‘Tell me more about Dr Rayne,’ urged
Esteban. ‘It sounds like you are quite fond of her.’
Jimmy blushed.
‘It’s hard not to be. She’s very
beautiful, you know.’
‘Yes, she is; I’ve seen plenty of
photographs to know that to be true. Sadly, I don’t think that you or I would
hold much interest to her romantically.’
‘What do you mean?’
Jimmy was genuinely puzzled by the
remark.
‘Never mind,’ replied Esteban, who, given
the nature of his business, found the young boy’s naïveté to be most
refreshing. ‘Tell me what she was like when you found her – was she alone?’
Jimmy struggled with the question, as if
he could not quite remember.
‘Sort of,’ he eventually replied. ‘It
wasn’t long after she’d lost her grandfather. She was confused.’
‘What is that supposed to mean – was she
on her own or not? It’s a simple question.’
‘She was alone.’
This time Esteban accepted the answer
although he was still not entirely satisfied by it. He did not think that Jimmy
was holding back, but there was clearly something amiss with the story. After
driving a couple more miles, Jimmy shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
‘Are you picking something up?’ Esteban
asked.
‘Yes, just ahead the road forks off to
the left. That’s the way you need to go.’
‘Whatever you say.’
Esteban made the turning and radioed the
vehicles following to advise what he was doing. It was not long before they
caught up to a road train up ahead of them. The vast behemoth had four trailers
attached and was travelling at a significantly lesser speed than they. Without
giving it a second thought, Esteban flicked the indicator and moved into the
adjacent lane to pass.
Jimmy’s hyper instinct kicked in without
warning. This time he had only a split second advantage on the future. At times
like this, it did not so much show him what to do, as guide his actions. He had
an overwhelming impulse to take hold of the steering wheel. Much to his
driver’s surprise, he sharply pulled the wheel toward him, veering the car into
the side of the road train.
‘What the hell!’ exclaimed Esteban.
With reflexes, though not radioactively
enhanced, no less quick than Jimmy’s, the soldier wrested back the wheel. The
wing of the vehicle grazed the tyres of the oversized truck, scraping away a
layer of paint, but Esteban was back in control. The same could not be said for
the guy in charge of the road train.
Upon seeing the overtaking vehicle
swerve, the startled trucker applied his brakes, causing his ride to rock
dangerously before jack-knifing.
He was an experienced driver and
immediately took action to prevent the vehicle from tipping over. In a regular
haulage truck he would not have stood a chance, but the increased load actually
worked in his favour. The combined momentum of the four trailers was enough to
force apart the connection with the cab in front.
A cloud of dust was blown back into the
path of Esteban’s truck and as this cleared he could see that the massive
vehicle had come to a complete stop with the cab at a right angle to the road
and the trailers still facing ahead, but now static in the centre of the two
lanes. They were also perched right in the middle of a rail crossing.
‘What were you thinking?’ asked Esteban,
frustrated by his young passenger’s recklessness.
‘I wasn’t thinking,’ replied Jimmy.
‘Sometimes I can’t help myself.’
‘At least no harm has been done. I’ll
make a call to stop any trains that may be coming.’
They both got out of the jeep, but before
Esteban could make the call, Jimmy had seen something. It began as a shadow in
the corner of his eye, quickly taking shape and growing in clarity until it
seemed as real as the ground he walked on.
‘Too late,’ the boy said, raising his arm
and pointing at the phantom image bursting out of the horizon. ‘It’s already
here.’
‘No, it’s not,’ replied Esteban, seeing
an empty track stretching out into the distance. ‘Tell me - am I in your
vision?’
Jimmy nodded.
‘Yes, but you can’t change what’s
supposed to happen.’
‘And what am I doing in your vision?’
asked Esteban.
‘You’re taking cover like me. There’s
nothing else you can do.’
‘We’ll see about that.’
Esteban ran toward the stationary truck.
The driver was a little shaken, but unlike the other two men, he had no
awareness of the imminent danger that was approaching. He climbed down from his
cab and walked to greet Esteban, but the CIA man had no time to chat. He had a
plan and if it was going to work, he could not afford a moment’s hesitation.
***
When he saw the train hit, Jimmy
instinctively crouched low, raising his arms to shield himself from debris, but
he was in no immediate danger as the true impact would not be for at least
another minute. This was just the dress rehearsal, so to speak.
There was no explosion as the speeding
train smashed into the stranded trailers. No fireball to give those poor
unfortunates at the epicentre a swift death. The collision caused an instant
derailment, which reminded Jimmy of when a pool player breaks the pack, sending
balls cascading off at unpredictable angles.
Phantom carriages were pushed from their
tracks and corkscrewed into the air. One tore in half, spilling out passengers
like blood, whilst another rolled and rolled as it hit the ground, completing
seven full revolutions before coming to a beaten and battered rest a good
hundred metres from the track. Catastrophe did not even begin to describe what
was about to happen.
Esteban, meanwhile, was driving his
commandeered cab away from the imminent accident. When he had travelled fifty
metres he brought the vehicle sharply about before accelerating toward the
trailers blocking the track. The ghostly scene of the terrible accident had by
this time faded from Jimmy’s view only to be replaced by the real train now
approaching. The agent had a sizeable head start, but the train was moving
considerably faster and did not show any sign of slowing.
Esteban refused to back down in this
deadly game of chicken. He was so determined to coax every ounce of
acceleration from the vehicle that he stamped on the gas pedal so hard that he
lost all feeling in his foot, as if flesh and metal had merged into one.
As he got closer, so too did the train
until finally he impacted directly into the coupling between two trailers,
forcing them apart and sending each away from the tracks just enough to avoid a
full derailment.
The back of his cab missed a collision by
mere inches as it shook violently in the slipstream of the speeding train. It
was not the first bullet the soldier had dodged, but it was the largest. He
could not believe that he was still alive when he finally brought the vehicle
to a battered and dented rest.
Jimmy watched on in amazement as he saw
Esteban come so close to death and escape unharmed. With the trailers from the
road-train repositioned, the oncoming locomotive suffered only a graze, as a
sharp corner of overhanging metal peeled open a seven metre long tear in its
side as easily as a tin opener would a can of baked beans.
The derailment and the bloodshed had not
come to pass. Instead, the train was slowed manually, coming to a safe stop a
hundred metres or so further down the track.
‘Looks like you got it wrong this time,’
said Esteban, still high on adrenalin and glad not only to be alive, but to
also have saved so many others.
‘I don’t understand,’ replied Jimmy.
‘That’s never happened before. I can’t change fate – it’s impossible.’
‘You didn’t change it – I did.’
‘It just doesn’t make sense. That train
was supposed to hit. If I was meant to stop that from happening, I would never
have seen the impact. I have to have seen the crash for a reason.’
‘You did. The reason was to stop it.’
‘No. There has to be something else.’