The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series (31 page)

“Breakthrough technology has identified a type of Josephus Junction in the Quantum Matrix that spirals into the multiverse.”
~
Dr. Xiomar Kunkel, MD PhD, 2019

QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): COREY CHASTAIN

The sphere fell immediately, and we were back in QHR. Dirk rushed us through detox and we were back at First Cabin within the hour.

I had a raging headache, and Tara and Eunavae poked some ibuprofen down me, then sent me to bed. I walked into my bedroom and suddenly stopped. I looked around the room so full of memories. I staggered to the foot of the bed. The absence of Kate overwhelmed me. I jerked the covers off of the bed and curled up in a corner. It didn’t feel right.

Our bed. Without her.

I couldn’t sleep, so I stared at the moon through the window and conjured up memories of her smooth skin, her vibrant eyes, her long curtain of hair, the warmth of her body, the deep tenderness of her heart. Kate, the tender soul.

What would happen to her now? Who ran the village? Who controlled the jump assignments? If Chaps didn’t know about our mission, would he reinstitute the jumps for the other teams? How would that affect things? How could I get Kate back?

I tossed and turned on the floor of our bedroom every night for two weeks while we waited for the bureaucratic red tape to clear us for jump status. Evidently, when we left the QHR last time, we violated some rule. A debate raged somewhere between some suits and white coats and who knew else as to whether we were stable enough to continue. I knew it would come down on my side, eventually. I did have the final word about things here. I just didn’t want to pull rank unless I had to. Besides, I had more pressing things on my mind to keep me up at night.

Every night echoed the night before. When sleep finally did claim me, my dreams disturbed me. I ran from dragons and tornados all night. A red headed boy who resembled Jimmy, Kate’s brother, laughed at me. Not Jimmy, just a lookalike terrorized my dreams.

I woke in the middle of the night covered in a sheen of sweat. The red headed boy featured prominently in my nightmare on this night. I ripped off my shirt, stepped out of the patio doors and spread out on one of the lounge chairs. The night air cool against my skin, accompanied by a slight breeze, fanned over me.

“Couldn’t sleep either, huh?”

I peered through the shadows to the sound of Dirk’s voice.

Barely discernible in the dark, he flashed eyes and teeth.

“Nightmares.”

“Huh, yeah.” He crossed the patio to take the chair next to me. “Have you been able to make any sense of all this, Corey? ‘Cause for the life of me, I have no clue what’s going on.”

I sat quiet for a moment, and then answered. “It’s like it’s right there in front of me. All the pieces to the puzzle, they are all in place. I just have to connect them.”

“Yeah? Well that’s a lot better than me. My puzzle pieces are blank.”

“Let’s talk it out.”

“Okay.”

“Mama Ty sent us to the tornado world, why?” I pressed my elbows into my knees.

“So we could jump back to Poland.”

“Why not just jump us to Poland?”

“Huh. I see what you mean. The tornado city was significant.”

“Yes, and then she sent us back to the dragon world.”

“There and back. She sent us there and then she sent us back there.”

“Maybe. For all we know it is the infiltrator sending us to these places.”

“I don’t think so, Corey. Why would he give himself up like that?”

“I don’t know. I tend to agree with you that Mama Ty sent us to the tornado world, but not the other jump to the dragon world. I just don’t see the connection.”

“Well, we’d better hope Mama Ty can send us to the dragon world again, or Kate is lost to us.” Dirk’s words knifed through me.

“So do you think we’ve found the infiltrator? Do you think this Gregor, Grego, Greg…” Dirk’s words strangled in his throat. He whipped his head around to me and tapped his forehead with his palm. “No freakin’ way!” Dirk rustled up a stream of curses and let them fly.

“What?”

“Stay here.”

He ran to his room and came back with his compad. He thrust it into my hands, and it had the picture of
Gregorvitch Mattovdzky from his dossier.

“Yeah, he’s the one,” I said and shrugged.

Dirk tapped at the compad screen and another picture came up. A young red headed boy sat in front of the Staying Well Fountain.

I stared at the spitting image of the laughing boy in my dream. “Dirk, who is this? I’ve been dreaming about this kid.”

“A dream?” His eyebrows shot up. “Did Kate or Trip ever show you this picture?”

“No.”

“I took this moments before the cross jump with Kate and Trip. This is Gregory Matthews, the kid we lost to the tornado.”

I looked into his smiling face, and the puzzle pieces all locked into place.

“The kid that went to Poland via tornado and got adopted by Jewish farmers!” I said catching on. I scrolled back to the prior picture and put them side by side. “Gregory Matthews grew up to be Gregorvitch Mattovdzky!”

“But I don’t understand. Wouldn’t he be like 150 years old?” Tara objected the next morning when Dirk and I filled in the team at breakfast.

“You mean like you are 232 years old?” I asked. “He was a Quantum Physics genius. He manipulated the fields. We only age when we are here. When we go back through the Quantum fields we revert back to the age we were when we left.”

“Guys, okay, so say this is Greg. What is his motive? We agreed that Kate has been the sole focus of the jumps. Gregory adored Kate. How could he be a part of something that would harm her? It just doesn’t add up,” Trip interjected.

“People change,” Mel said darkly, and then flicked a glance my way.

I knew she pondered Kate’s change of heart toward me that she had witnessed in her Scriptorium. I couldn’t accept that. Even with all of Kate’s recent strange behaviors.

“I agree, Trip. There are still a lot of unanswered questions.”

“When are we on green status again?” Eunavae asked as she nibbled at her grapefruit.

“I don’t know. Chaps is supposed to text me. Stay close to the cabin today. It could come at any time. Kim is bringing up replacement supplies so we don’t have to leave.”

“Anybody up for a swim?” Tara asked.

“Sure.”

“Last one in digs the next latrine!”

We raced away to change into our suits.

QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): EUNAVAE MONTGOMERY

They splashed around in the pool and soaked up sunshine all morning. After lunch, Kim brought supplies and handed Eunavae a badge. She studied the badge and saw her team transfer had been complete. The new badge said, EUNAVAE MONTGOMERY, KEEPER TEAM ~ HEALER.

“Wow, I have a new title too?”

Kim laughed. “Yeah I figured anyone with as much medical experience as you and Corey have should have a title. Corey already had a title, so now you do too.”

“Hey, what about me and Tara?” Trip feigned offense.

“Oh I made up new name badges for you too. I figured you’d complain.” She tossed badges to Trip and Tara.

Trip snorted.

Tara laughed and read hers aloud. TARA JOHNSON, KEEPER TEAM ~ BADASS #1
.
She hiked a brow at Trip. “I guess that makes you Badass #2?”

He grinned.

“Chaps said to tell you that you go green in 2 hours and happy trails,” Kim called over her shoulder as she carted away.

Dirk nodded, checking his text messages.

Eunavae put her badge in her sock drawer in her and Tara’s room and spent the next hour and a half sketching pictures, a hobby she had taken up when they got back from the long jump. She wanted to remember her family she left back in the Darchori city. When two hours were nearly expired, she closed up the sketchbook and ambled back to the living room to wait with the team.

“When we get there, let’s hit the ground running,” Dirk said.

“Get where?”

“I just have a feeling that Mama Ty is going to arrange for us to go back to the dragon world to save Kate,” Dirk replied. “Let’s be ready for anything, though.”

“Yes, if Greg and Mama Ty are duking it out in there, it could get ugly for us. Stay together as much as possible,” Mel interjected.

“So, recovering Kate is the priority?” Tara asked.

“Yes.”

“What if she’s…” She hesitated and glanced at Corey. “What if she’s the bad guy, now?”

“Tara,” Corey objected.

“No, hear me out, Corey.” She held up a hand. “We lost her and then we jumped for nine months, we’ve been sitting here twiddling our thumbs for two weeks. We don’t know how long it’s been for her there. We were gone all of thirteen hours and we spent two centuries in there. People do change, Corey.”

“It doesn’t matter, we go for Kate,” Trip growled.

“Not Kate, she can’t possibly—” Corey began.

“We were given that vision for a reason!” Tara debated as they sputtered and argued over her.

“HOLD IT!” Dirk bellowed. “Enough! We will do reconnaissance and we will know when the time comes. We can’t second-guess ourselves. Kate is an important member of this team and we don’t leave our teammates behind. We go for Kate. We stay smart and flexible, but recovering Kate is our primary mission. Got it?”

Tara mashed her lips together and gave a curt nod.

Thick tension broiled in the room. Trip and Corey could barely look at each other. Tara bounced her foot, ready to crucify Kate. Kate remained a definite unknown in the whole picture. And Mel was obviously pregnant, she didn’t know it yet, but Eunavae could tell. She had spent 170 years as midwife to her 68 live births. The signs were there for Mel and the Keepers. This team strained at its seams, on the edge of breaking apart. Eunavae almost wished herself back with the Chartreuse team, playing communication games. Almost.

“I have a question,” she ventured.

Dirk worked his jaw, clearly still agitated and turned his intimidating glare to her. She cleared her throat and hurried on. “What does the Quantum Field do to pregnancies?” She glanced at Mel. “I mean the only one I know of who went through pregnant is Mel, but she was coming back from our two century jump, not going in.”

Mel creased her brow in confusion, the loss of the baby still difficult for her.

“I, uh, I don’t think it’s ever been tested,” Dirk stuttered.

“It’s fine. No issues going in. The Quantum Matrix just won’t allow foreign particles to come back through. It has a scan of what we were genetically when we went through and it resets us to that scan. The fetus will go back to the previous level of development,” Corey explained.

“But Corey, what if the baby is born on the other side? Will it ever be able to cross over to our side?”

“Theoretically, no,” Corey answered, then snapped his attention to Eunavae. “Why do you ask?”

“Because I’d bet my shiny new title as Healer that Mel’s pregnant.”