The Traveler (56 page)

“Damn, that hurts!”

Niles smiled when he recognized the small form of Sarah McIntire. And then that smile was replaced with a look of concern for his missing nine people. He started to open the intercom to get his people moving again, but Xavier Morales was ahead of him.

“Get the doorway back up!”

As Sarah was assisted from the pad, she looked around in confusion and was wondering through her pain just what in the hell happened to her traveling companions.

DORTMUND, GERMANY,
MAY 16, 1943

Heinrich Himmler smiled as the young Jewish lab rat, as he referred to her, stepped through the doorway and vanished. He smiled as her brother was led out of the lab and the doorway started to slow.

Many Nazi officers smiled and congratulated the Reichsführer on the success of the Wellsian Doorway.

“How soon can we transport the doorway to Berlin?” he asked, but was soon cut off.

“Doorway is coming back online!” called out one of the German techs.

Down below in the laboratory, Professor Thomsen's mood went from one of triumph to one of confusion.

“I didn't order the doorway to be reopened yet. We have to recharge in order to bring the Traveler back.”

In the observation room Himmler saw the confusion below as the doorway started spinning faster and faster. Suddenly the room filled with bright light as many of the German technicians dove for cover, thinking the Wellsian Doorway had exploded. They were even more confused as twenty uniformed guards broke in and pointed their weapons at them, thinking they had something to do with the malfunction.

“What is happening?” Himmler asked.

Then the doorway opened. Doshnikov shook off the pain of the transit as he stepped into far cooler air. He smiled as his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. His relief quickly faded as he realized that he wasn't back home at all. As his four men joined him, the German soldiers rushed the strangely dressed travelers. He started cursing in Russian and that really got the party rolling. Gunfire erupted and Himmler high above in the viewing room stomped his feet as he thought the doorway had been compromised by their enemy, the Red Army.

As bullets started flying, Doshnikov cursed the Americans for tricking him again. He decided upon the best course of action after seeing the uniforms the troopers were wearing. He smiled as he tossed the grenade just as the automatic gunfire cut him and his ragged group of time travelers down.

The German foray into time travel had become very confusing indeed.

BROOKLYN NAVY YARD

The Wellsian Doorway started spinning and coming up to full power.

Above, Niles Compton placed his hand on the shoulder of Moira Mendelsohn as they waited. It didn't take long. He met the eyes of Sarah McIntire as she sat next to Alice Hamilton and drank a glass of water. Niles nodded.

“We have a signal coming through,” Morales said from the complex in Nevada. Then everyone heard the new computer genius laugh out loud as the other computer specialists started cheering and clapping him on the back. Xavier looked into the large monitor and made sure Dr. Compton was watching. “Nine transponders coming through. The team is accounted for, including one wayward admiral!”

The cheers continued as Niles sat hard next to Moira, who patted the director's hand.

“Thank you, God,” was all the director could say.

The homecoming was a rather raucous scene as everyone hugged anyone who had anything to do with the most harrowing mission Department 5656 had ever been involved in. Carl was in tears as they all hugged and offered congratulations.

Above, Niles Compton sat heavily into a chair next to Moira as Sarah dashed from the room to see Jack and the others.

“Thank you for this,” he said as he patted the old scientist's hand.

*   *   *

The next day as the Event Group made ready to depart Brooklyn, they were surprised to see six very large and very black Ford Explorers come screeching to a stop just outside of building 117.

Niles, who was standing on the front steps of the building, was leaning on his cane. He smiled over at Jack, who winked in return. Sarah, Will, Ryan, and Carl saw the two men standing there stoically as ten federal agents calmly walked up to the old concrete stoop. The lead agent produced a badge as if Jack and Niles didn't know who these men were.

“Dr. Compton?” the lead agent asked.

“Yes,” came the answer.

“Agent Freeman, Secret Service.”

Jack and Niles exchanged looks as they had expected the FBI and a whole lot of questions. The agent saw Collins's wrapped leg wound but decided not to ask.

“Sir, as you know the president is still recuperating from his surgery in Los Angeles and he wanted me to pass this along.” He handed Niles a small parcel. “He would have done it himself but said you would understand his rather busy schedule with the problems incurred in the past few days.” The agent gathered his men and they quickly exited the navy yard.

“What is it?” Jack asked.

Niles opened the package and smiled. He held the object out to Collins, who had to laugh at the gift.

In Niles Comptons's hand was a small item he recognized. It was a large, mouth-watering corned beef sandwich. He looked at the note written in the president's handwriting.

“We're even, Baldy,”
was all the note said.

*   *   *

On the large dock where the others waited for the laughing director of Department 5656, the remaining members of the strangest mission ever conceived by the Event Group gathered. They watched as the sleek black hull of the USS
Los Angeles
slid out of the birthing area for her trip back to Groton.

“Where is Henri?” Virginia asked no one in particular.

“The last we saw he was being checked out by medical,” Ryan said, and Mendenhall agreed.

Virginia nodded just as alarms sounded inside the building where the last of the doorway was currently being dismantled. Ryan and Will shook their heads at the irony just as one of the engineering techs opened the door and stepped out.

“Dr. Pollock, we have an entire case of industrial blue diamonds missing.”

Virginia closed her eyes just as the sound of a large outboard motor was heard coming from the river. They looked up in time to see a waving Colonel Henri Farbeaux as he gunned the speedboat forward, heading toward the open waters of the bay.

Virginia was the only one who didn't look stunned. “What is the value of the case?” she asked.

“About eight and a half million dollars,” the tech said.

Jenks whistled.

“You want us to go after him?” Ryan asked as he was smiling so wide that it was almost scary.

“No, I don't think we need to do that,” Virginia said as she turned and looked at her people. “After what we put him through I'm sure he could use some walking-around money. Besides, who here thinks Henri is out of our lives forever?”

No one spoke.

“Then let it go,” she said as she turned and watched the speedboat blazing past the U.S. Coast Guard. Henri was still waving.

Ryan and Will exchanged amused looks. Jason started down the steps.

“Good for you, Henri.”

 

EPILOGUE

DISCLOSURE

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

—Abraham Lincoln

 

EVENT GROUP COMPLEX, NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, NEVADA

Virginia and the newly demoted Carl Everett, wearing his old silver eagles of a captain on his blue jumpsuit, waited by the cargo elevator descending from gate number one. The giant lift slowly slid down to level five and then stopped. The two exchanged looks as the doors slid open.

Niles Compton and Jack Collins stood and waited for the Secret Service team to step out. They were immediately joined by the President of the United States.

“Captain, I am truly happy to see you again,” he said as he released the captain's hand and then turned to look at Compton and Collins. “Shall we proceed?”

Virginia gestured for the president to follow them. Carl was formal as he greeted Jack and Niles, but they all soon fell into step behind the assistant director and their boss. They made their way to one of the interior elevator banks and entered the air-cushioned ride. The doors closed and the car remained silent as it descended into the most secure facility in the world.

“Dr. Pollock, I assume you received my approval for the replacement personnel for the Group?”

“Yes, sir, we did.”

The president waited for the assistant director to expand on her answer but there was nothing forthcoming. They soon found themselves inside the large conference room.

After coffee had been served and the small party was alone he half turned to Compton next to him.

“This Wellsian Doorway, you refuse to turn it over to my people.”

“That isn't true. The doorway was destroyed and we cannot recover it nor reengineer the science.”

The president slapped his hand on the tabletop in frustration, knowing his friend was lying to him.

“The technology can never get out in the open. We have seen firsthand how greed takes over common sense. The doorway's destruction was a godsend, because we were tempted to use it for what we thought was right. We have friends that we lost in that damn alien war and we wanted to get them back and had the means to do so. But when we start changing what was meant to be, we start dismantling who we really are. Without the pain of loss there is no commitment to be better than what we ever could be.”

“Yet you saved Captain Everett from his fate.”

This time it was Niles who slapped the tabletop and leaned forward even farther.

“We went and retrieved a man we sent off knowing he was not going to come back. We, you and I. We could have changed his destiny by not allowing him to go, but we decided we didn't have that right to change what we knew was meant to happen. We adjusted that way of thinking by using the doorway to correct that decision.”

Niles stood with the assistance of Jack, who was very proud to know the man who faced down the president. Both men limped as Niles spoke.

“I have known you all of my adult life and I love you like a brother, but I cannot allow you to shame yourself by bending to the very temptations that you yourself despised about the big office before becoming the president. Your handling of Overlord was the greatest achievement ever conducted through the office of the presidency, ranked only with Lincoln and Roosevelt. No, you are better than that. We always play by the rules, we are the good guys. Remember saying that to me?”

The president sat stock-still. “The Constitution, Niles, we evaded the Constitution in not informing Congress what we were up to.”

“When I heard you on television that you were caving into the men that scare this nation on a daily basis because it helps keep us alert through fear, I knew that it wasn't you talking. It was that injured man at Camp David. The man that lost friends and sent boys off to a fate that you knew they were not coming back from.”

“That's what happens to soldiers, Niles.”

“My people are not soldiers for the most part, but they died anyway. It doesn't matter to me if my people wear a lab coat or a uniform, they are mine. They are also yours, and now I think you need to meet a few of them as you never have before.”

Niles and Virginia walked to the door and Jack waited for the president to rise from his chair. He buttoned his coat and reluctantly followed Compton to the large cafeteria. They entered and the president saw that the entire Department 5656 was present. They were silent as the four strode into the room and seated themselves in the back.

“What is this?” the president asked Compton.

“This is the Group's way of saying good-bye to our friends. We wanted to wait for the memorial until we recovered Captain Everett. Charlie Ellenshaw organized it.”

The president blinked when he saw the pictures on easels at the front of the cafeteria. The president closed his eyes at the soft refrain of Mama Cass Elliot as she sang the slow ballad, “Dream a Little Dream of Me.”

The president recognized far too many of the young faces in the blown-up photos. They lined the far wall on both sides and went all of the way to the front. Two hundred photos in all. He blinked when he saw the pictures of a scowling Garrison Lee, a smiling Matchstick, and Gus Tilly, Pete Golding, and Denise Gilliam and the many other military and civilian techs lost in Event Group field actions. He swallowed hard as Charles Hindershot Ellenshaw III stood and made his way sadly to the front. He placed a hand on the portrait of Pete and stood for the longest time until a wheelchair-bound man approached and tugged on Charlie's lab coat. The professor looked down and saw that it was Xavier Morales, the man who replaced Golding. They both nodded and then slowly left the crowded cafeteria.

As they sat long enough to see everyone slowly file out, the president nodded at Sarah McIntire, Jason Ryan, Will Mendenhall, Carl Everett, Anya Korvesky, and finally Alice Hamilton. They all just nodded as they passed by and the president felt he had no right to meet their eyes. Soon they found themselves alone. Only Virginia, Jack, and Niles waited.

Finally the president stood and buttoned his coat again, reached for his own crutch, and nodded his head at the three.

“That was low, Niles.”

“Yes, I believe it was. Cold. But you have to put the names to the faces, Jim. The soldiers and sailors of the nations that fought in that war are honored in public, but these people are anonymous. No one knows they ever existed and died for their world, their country, knowing that no matter what they did, no one would ever know about it. No one says thank you, no one can even mourn them because of who and what we do. If we do anything to change that and become just another tool for men to keep and hold power, what are we? Technology such as the Wellsian Doorway can never be controlled by men in power, even you, sir. Sometimes, as you once told me not long ago, we have to give the damn Constitution a rest.”