I got up slowly. Sachs forced open a sliding door and hopped out. I could see him on his cell, talking to someone as he paced the ground.
The rotors finally stopped thumping, and there was silence, except for Strain’s low, helpless sobs.
I thought of all he had gone through, the chances he’d taken–and for what? A machine he knew nothing about, the product of a research program he didn’t understand. I wondered how many of us go through life chasing after shiny things without knowing why. We struggle and cheat and compromise ourselves, and all for nothing. Sleepwalkers chasing a dream …
“I’m impressed.” Goldman’s voice. He’d risen to face me in the cabin. “I didn’t know you had it in you, Mr. Brand.”
I had to smile. “Frankly, neither did I.”
“Well, you’ve given a convincing demonstration. And wrecked a million-dollar aircraft in the process.”
“And saved your ass,” I pointed out.
He nonchalantly straightened his tie. “You were right about Strain. I concede that much. We’ll still have to take you in, though.”
“Really think you can?”
“I do, yes. Believe it or not, I’ve seen this kind of thing before–though only under experimental conditions. People who expend the kind of energy you just let loose are pretty burned out for a while afterward. No more juice in the battery.”
I took inventory of myself and realized it was true. I was all used up. I couldn’t have mustered the power to start another psychic shitstorm even if I’d known how the hell I’d done it in the first place.
“You could cut us a break,” I said. “You know, out of ordinary human decency, if that means anything to you.”
“We’ve never wanted to hurt you, Mr. Brand. Or Miss Holland. We’ve told you that from the start.”
“I still have trouble believing it.”
“We’re just doing our jobs. And our job is to take you to the institute.”
“No, it isn’t.” That was Sachs, off the phone and leaning in through the doorway. “There’s been a change of plans. We have to deliver them to Area Two.”
I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of that. “What’s Area Two?”
Goldman frowned. “A sector that’s off limits to nearly everyone. Including us.”
I pictured one of those old maps where unknown territory was marked Here Be Dragons. “Why do I feel this isn’t a good thing?”
“It’ll be fine.” He didn’t sound very certain of it. “The higher-ups know what they’re doing.”
“And you’re just following orders. Too bad. I almost believed you’d started to think for yourself.”
“Strain’s double dealing is one thing. The institute is something else. We have no reason to distrust them.”
“You’re loyal, I’ll say that much. Loyal to a fault.”
Goldman simply ushered us out of the aircraft. The pilot, groggy but awake, would remain to watch over the huddled, shaking thing on the floor that had been Philip Strain.
We emerged into the blaze of morning and stood there awkwardly, the ground unsteady under our feet. Goldman clapped his hands.
“Let’s move. It’s only going to get hotter.”
We trudged along in a ragged line, heading east into the pitiless sun. After a quarter mile, we came to a rutted track tufted with clumps of desert brush. I knew it on sight. Quarry Road.
No dragons here. There was nothing on Quarry Road except the Silver Creek Mine, started in 1880, played out by 1892, and abandoned ever since–or so I’d assumed.
We kept walking. The job got harder with each step. You could feel the heat radiating in waves off the parched ground. It was like hiking on a hot griddle. Goldman and Sachs had to be sweating under their suit jackets. Hell, I wasn’t wearing a suit, and I was sweating too.
Claire alone showed no sign of perspiration. But she couldn’t fool me. She was again in the clutches of the Omega program, and this time there was no way out.
I spoke quietly to her as we marched along. “Do you know what a strange loop is?”
If the question took her by surprise, she didn’t show it. She looked straight ahead, her gaze fixed in a thousand-yard stare. “No.”
“It’s a cause-and-effect relationship where the effect is the cause. Reality folding back on itself. Like a Möbius strip. Or a snake swallowing its tail.”
“And why are you telling me this?”
“Because that’s how it all works. The whole system. It folds back on itself. God and consciousness and information–how did it all come into being? It didn’t. It always was, is, and will be. Once it exists, it exists at all times, past, present, and future. It could never not exist.”
“Then I suppose … everything that will happen has already happened.”
“That’s what I’m saying. Here and now, we’re still trying to reach a goal. But if we could see things from a higher vantage point, we’d see that we’ve reached it already.”
She let her head droop, exhausted. “Then what’s the point of even having goals? Of trying at all?”
“The point is, we had to go down all these paths to reach that ending. By playing now, we ultimately win–and because we ultimately win, we’ve won already. Do you see?”
She allowed herself a small smile. “Not as clearly as you.”
I thought she did, though. And even if she didn’t, that little smile was reward enough for me.
Ω
The Silver Creek Mine was cut into the side of a rocky hill. The entrance was a rectangular hole shored up by crosshatched timber. Across the entry stood a big steel barricade made of heavy bars, looking ominously like the door of a prison cell.
“They said there would be a key,” Sachs said.
They hadn’t lied. The key was in the lock. Sachs slid the door back on a set of polished rails.
Goldman gestured at Claire and me. “In.”
I decided to be difficult. “Suppose we don’t want to.”
He gave me another look at his holstered service weapon.
“For someone who claims to have our best interests at heart,” I said, “you seem to enjoy threat displays.”
“It’s the only way to get you to cooperate.”
“Even so, it’s not very friendly.”
“I’m sorry about that.” He almost seemed to mean it.
Claire and I stepped inside. Goldman and Sachs didn’t move.
“You two coming?” I asked.
Goldman shook his head. “This is as far as we go.”
“You intend to lock us in?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“And just leave us here?” Claire said. “Trapped in a cave?”
“It’ll be all right,” Goldman said, though he didn’t sound too sure.
I wanted to use those brand new superpowers of mine to tear up the whole hillside and bring it crashing down on him like Godzilla’s foot. But he’d been right; I didn’t have it in me.
The barred door clanged shut, and the key rattled in the lock. I hoped Sachs would be considerate enough to leave the key in place, so I could reach it through the bars. Nope. The key went into his pocket.
“What happens now?” Claire asked our captors as we faced them from inside our cage.
Goldman shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. Whatever goes on in Area Two is above our pay grade.”
“But you’ll walk away anyhow,” I said.
“Just doing our job.”
My gaze panned from one to the other. “You know what? I don’t like you guys.”
They looked uncomfortable, maybe feeling some twinge of conscience, but they still weren’t going to let us out.
Turning, they headed down the road. Goldman looked back once. “Thanks, Brand–for saving my ass.”
I heard his echo of what I’d said to him. “I didn’t do it for you,” I answered.
He nodded. He knew.
They walked on, fading to blurry specks in a shimmer of heat.
For no good reason I tugged at the steel door. It was only a gesture, like kicking the tires at a car dealership. I knew I couldn’t open the damn thing.
“Do you think there’s another exit?” Claire asked.
“There had better be.”