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July 3rd, 1991 Little Piece, NY
SAM stood on the grass in the median of the divided interstate as she viewed the left-over bloodstains on the shoulder. She failed to find any other remnants of the accident. Standing behind her, Bailey kept his hand on her shoulder, probably so he could pull her to safety should any of the fast moving traffic veer in their direction.
Their own experience had been bad enough, but it could have been much worse. She could imagine only too easily what must’ve happened here—and was grateful that the physical separation had landed them somewhere else. She also thanked God their taxi had been slowing when Kirin had Traveled.
Sam and Bailey had found themselves tumbling across a vinyl floor inside a cheap club in the Bronx. Usually, people failed to notice Travelers arriving—they’d unconsciously assume someone had already existed there the previous moment and they simply hadn’t noticed. This time though, their landing had created quite a commotion. Thankfully Bailey was big and strong and knew from his days in enforcement how to cow a crowd.
Once they’d extricated themselves they’d had a short talk. Both of them had realized how Traveling out of the moving cab must have affected how they came through. The kinetic energy they couldn’t feel inside the taxi had transferred with them and sent their bodies flying just as if the taxi had suddenly braked—only without the inside of the cab to crash into. It didn’t require much imagination to know how it must’ve been for Kirin.
The person generating the main Travel field always arrived in the same physical location they had left from, which meant Kirin would have landed at speed in the middle of a busy highway.
Sam looked away from the bloodstains. “I bet no one considered what would happen if you Traveled from inside a moving vehicle. Or if they did, they failed to mention what it would be like.”
“Kirin never thought it through either. She was in too much of a rush to get away.”
“Are you saying it’s my fault?” Sam believed it was in a way. Her relentless pursuit of Kirin had led to this result.
“No, that’s not what I’m saying.” Bailey shook his head. “It’s hard to believe she really survived.”
Sam didn’t have any difficulty believing it—she simply accepted the reality. But what do I do now?
Unless and until Sam could come up with a way to stop her, the woman would continue doing horrible things. Once she recovered, she’d return to her perfidy. Wouldn’t she?
Sam couldn’t allow that. And it was still only a matter of time before Kirin Traveled away from her pursuers once and for all. Given half a chance.
Sam wondered if Harold would consider what had happened sufficient repayment for the loss of his life—even though she knew things didn’t work like that. She needed to go to the hospital.
She’d been grateful to have even an idea where to start searching for Kirin. Back in the Bronx they had found their locator apps pointing to each other rather than the leader device Kirin wore. Bailey had guessed it was because of the distance involved but had said it was something that hadn’t been covered in orientation. Another thing.
Sam hadn’t paid much attention herself, figuring Harold would tell her what she needed to know. A fine joke that was. But Bailey had conscientiously listened to it all and understood enough of the basic principles to surmise that there was a limit on how far the watches would detect each other. Or at least a limit to what information they’d display.
Anyway, they’d been too banged up and tired to spend much time theorizing, and only had enough money left for several hours rest at a cheap motel, but not enough for another taxi ride far out into the suburbs. The following day, they’d visited a public library to figure out exactly where they’d been when Kirin had Traveled. They’d also checked the newspapers for information about an accident, but there had been nothing.
Last night they’d slept in a stairwell, in a building with poor security, so that they could afford to pay for a bus ticket out to Chickadee County, where they’d Traveled from, their starting point to find out what had happened to Kirin. This morning the bus had dropped them just outside a diner.
Kirin’s fate might not have made the news, but the people at the diner were full of the story. After all, it wasn’t every day that a beautiful woman wearing an evening gown and a load of jewelry tumbled across the interstate. That Kirin hadn’t been hit by some speeding vehicle and killed they considered a mercy. Sam wasn’t so sure. Anyway, she and Bailey had heard the details, including the hospital Kirin was at, while devouring their breakfast.
Sam had insisted on first visiting this scene of the accident. She needed to see it, and she didn’t know yet what she’d do at the hospital. Keeping her hand on Bailey’s arm as they walked off the freeway, she wondered how Kirin was reacting to what had happened. Did it change her?
The hospital was a fair walk from here, but Sam didn’t mind. Her ankle was strong again, despite all the rough treatment and the relative lack of real rest or proper meals. She could do what was needed.
She squinted into the distance. “I believe I can convince them I’m her sister. Since it hasn’t been in the papers yet, how else would I know? It should be enough to get me in to see her at least.”
Bailey kept his eyes moving in every direction. “I don’t know. I think they tended to be fairly strict about hospital visitors.”
She bared her teeth at the man. “Don’t I look like her sister?”
Bailey looked at her long and hard. “There is a resemblance. There’s also your size.”
“My size?” She wasn’t sensitive about her short stature, but it wasn’t like Kirin was a giant.
“It’s an advantage. You look like a lost waif. It gives you credibility. Just don’t bare your teeth and squint your eyes like that. Give them a weak, trembling smile and open your eyes wide and be a little breathless, and they’ll likely let you see her.”
Sam tried not to squint. “I suppose you picked up on this kind of thing in enforcement.”
Bailey sighed. “Doing what I did, you learn the hard way that you can’t always go by appearances. That shy, vulnerable slip of a girl that looks like she wouldn’t hurt a fly might slip a knife in you as soon as breathe.”
She nodded. Kirin wasn’t shy or vulnerable, but you couldn’t tell what she was on the inside just by looking. She could seem warm and kind, but butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.
Bailey returned to the present. “Since the truth about the wealth she was wearing doesn’t appear to have circulated, scammers probably haven’t shown up. So they may not be extra vigilant. Yet.”
“So if we get there quick enough, we’ve got our chance. Why didn’t you say so sooner?” She had to get in to see Kirin, one way or another.
“If what they said about the shape she’s in has any truth to it, she won’t be leaving the hospital any time soon. And it’s not like she could imagine that we came through with her. Not at that distance.”
That brought up an interesting topic. Sam increased her pace and hoped he could keep up with her and talk at the same time. He might not know how to breathe like her. She suddenly realized how little she really knew about her new partner. It was time to find out more.
“I’ve got good eyesight.” Sam knew that was an understatement, but she tried to be modest. “And I know distances. We were at least a quarter of a mile behind Kirin—and that was before the taxi started slowing down to let us out. I don’t care how much of a fudge factor might’ve been included. There’s no way we should have Traveled.”
Bailey shook his head slowly. “Obviously there was a way. It happened. We just don’t know what it was.” He was keeping up with her and talking. That was a good sign. “But a quarter of a mile would put us at about four times the purported range. I agree something else must be going on, and we should try to figure it out—it might be useful if we knew. But I paid attention in orientation, and I’ve no clue what in the world might account for such an effect.”
Sam smiled. He’d done the math easily in his head and recognized the crux of the problem right away. That must’ve been part of his training. She wondered if his pessimism also came from his former career. She wasn’t a scientist or engineer, but she felt sure they could solve the problem. Maybe she’d even come up with the answer before him.
She started power walking to push her partner, then set her mind on the mystery of the expanding Travel field. Kirin wouldn’t have made a mistake. The woman would have learned what she needed if she’d had to worm it out of Harold.
If Kirin hadn’t messed up the operation of the Travel device, there must have been some unknown factor at work. Sam let that question rattle around in her brain and focused on increasing her pace to a light jog. She paid close attention to how her ankle was feeling. What’s the unknown factor?
After a bit, she felt more confident and would’ve started to run except she didn’t want to leave Bailey behind. He was too big and blocky to run with her. Or is he? Surely he’d been made to run in enforcement, and he seemed in good enough shape.
Sam glanced over at her partner. “I don’t suppose you’re up to running?”
Bailey gave her a rueful grin. “I couldn’t run to catch you, I’m sure—but I can manage more than a jog. If you’re sure about your ankle?”
For an answer, Sam broke into a run. Let’s see how he does when he’s chasing me.
She didn’t look back. She was enjoying the feel of the wind rushing past her too much to see how he was doing—her feet pounding against the ground, and the sweat. It was glorious to run again. So she ran.
Focused on getting to the hospital in good time, she didn’t know how long she’d been running when the answer popped into her head. She didn’t understand it, but she knew it was right. Perhaps Bailey could explain it to her.
Sam glanced back and saw he was thirty yards behind her. Not bad, but of course she hadn’t been going full steam herself, since she had her ankle to consider—and Bailey. She’d have to ask him about the answer later. Right now dealing with Kirin was more important than anything else.
Looking ahead, Sam could see the hospital now looming up over the other buildings before it. Easing her pace so her partner could start to catch up, she thought it looked just like the old pictures. Why so big? Can there really be so many sick people to need such huge hospitals? Maybe it explained why so many had died.
By the time they reached the main entrance, her partner had caught up but he was seriously winded. She had slowed gradually and wasn’t even a bit out of breath—she would have to fake it if she were to follow her partner’s advice.
She stopped in the courtyard and immediately began stretching. Her partner needed to exercise more—he just gasped to a halt and leaned over and put his hands on his knees.
Sam watched him for a minute. “You need to do some cool down stretches. And rest for a bit. You can settle yourself on one of those benches while I go in and see Kirin.”
Bailey stood up and shook his head. “I should stick with you.”
Sam stared. “It’ll be easier for them to believe me if I’m on my own. And though Kirin knew I was pursuing her, she shouldn’t know about you, hopefully. If she doesn’t, we want to keep that advantage if at all possible.”
Bailey frowned. He seemed at a loss for what to say. “What if you need my help?”
“Surely you don’t think I’ll be in danger.” The thought popped into her head that he might have a different concern. “Or do you think she’s in danger from me? Are you worried about what I might intend, or what I might do without thinking?” Sam went ahead before he could respond, “You just stay here while I go do what I have to do.”
He looked her in the eye for a minute, then nodded before turning and walking over to one of the wooden benches. Her partner resisted her leadership less all the time. She hoped he’d know when not to obey her.
Turning her gaze away, she ran her mind over the advice he’d given her. She tried to get into the right frame of mind—she would be frantic to find out about her sister, what condition she was in. She took a deep breath and ran into the hospital, darting into the lobby and looking around wildly.
She grabbed the first official-looking person to come within reach. “Help me. I’m looking for my sister. I think she may’ve been in an accident.”
The woman in pink scrubs frowned but put her hand on Sam’s arm. “Calm down, now. It’ll be fine. Let’s go see.” And she steered Sam through a pair of large swinging doors back into a little office area with a window out onto the lobby.
Sam thought she should talk more. “I’m just so worried. She was supposed to stop by so we could have dinner last night, but she never showed and I wasn’t able to get in touch, and no one seemed to know where she might be and then this morning at the diner I heard about someone who sounds just like my sister being in an accident and having been brought here. Is it her? Is she alright?”
The woman in pink scrubs and a larger woman in a flowery dress who sat on a swivel chair in the little office shared a long look.
The office lady then turned her piercing gaze on Sam. “What’s your sister’s name?”
“Kirin. Does that mean it is her? She was well enough to tell you her name? From what I heard it sounded so bad. I dreaded to think how horrible a shape she’d be in—that she couldn’t tell you who she was and she never carries ID on her.”
The woman in pink scrubs nodded, but flowery lady didn’t look convinced. “Do you have ID? Anything to prove you’re her sister?”
Sam took a big gulp of air. Her effort to talk fast had made her short of breath in truth. “Oh my gosh. I rushed over here so fast I forgot to go get my ID—what will Kirin say? I’m always ragging her about that kind of thing and here I am. I’d just gone to the diner for breakfast. Of course I hadn’t bothered to take my purse and look at me. I was just so anxious that I ran over without going home even—it would have been quicker to get the car and drive over anyway, but here I am in such a state, I’d probably have forgotten my ID even if I had gone back for the car and then where would I be?”
The woman held up her hand. “Alright. I suppose it’s okay. Mildred here can take you up to your sister’s room.” She turned her stare on the woman in pink scrubs, who was presumably a nurse. “But make sure it’s alright with the sister first.”
“Of course.” And Mildred took Sam’s arm and led her out of the office and down the corridor further into the hospital.
Sam let herself deflate some. “I’m sorry for being so flustered—I just can’t believe something has happened to Kirin. How bad is she? It can’t be too bad if she’s able to talk? Can it?”
Mildred shook her head. “I really shouldn’t discuss her condition with you—not until we know for sure you’re family. But she can talk for herself.”
Sam smiled, and it was genuine. She needed Kirin awake and able to understand everything Sam had to say.
Mildred led the way to an elevator. Inside, she pushed the button for the third floor. Sam would have thought the lift was only for the patients since it was only a five-story building—her effort to seem out-of-sorts must’ve made more of an impression than she’d intended.
Sam held her watch in front of her face, checking the time in an obvious fashion. “I feel so silly. At least I’m wearing my watch and my shoes.” She tried a weak, trembling smile as Bailey had suggested. She held the watch out for Mildred to see. “Can that even be the right time?”
The nurse looked at the watch and nodded. “It’s right—and it looks exactly like that watch of your sister’s. Why do you both wear a man’s watch? And the same one?”
The image of Harold as she last saw him helped Sam feel sad. “Our father—he gave each of us one just like his. Now we wear them to remember him by.” That was stretching the truth past the breaking point, but it might be as close as this woman could understand anyway. “Mine has an engraving on the back. LD—3. Loving Daughter, and I’m the third.”
Mildred shook her head. “So why does she have two of those same watches?”
“She wears our father’s watch now all the time—she got it after his death. She carries her own with her as well.” Sam shook her head. “But not her ID.”
Mildred nodded, her face filled with sympathy as they stepped off the elevator. “We locked up your sister’s belongings, most of them, for safekeeping. But at least she still has the watch she was wearing with her. She clearly values it a lot.”
“You probably can’t say, but I bet her purse held nothing but the watch and some cash. She doesn’t like banks. So I’m glad you’re keeping everything safe for her.”
Sam followed the nurse down several hallways to a separate wing, where they stopped in front of the door to room 414.
Mildred held up a hand. “Stay right here for a moment while I make sure it’s okay.” Opening the door and leaving it open, the nurse stepped into a large, pleasant private room. Sam listened in.
Mildred entered with, “You’re looking better.”
Kirin’s voice, “Is that some kind of joke?”
“No, dear—I understand you’re upset, but your strength is returning. That’s good.”
“What will be good will be getting plastic surgery to fix this. And soon.”
“And you’ll need to be in good health before the doctor will perform that—regardless of how much money you have. Now, your sister’s come looking for you. She’s concerned, and I’m sure you want to see her. But don’t let her tire you out. And just buzz the nurses’ station if you need anything.”
There was a long pause. If anything more was said Sam didn’t hear it, but a moment later Mildred marched out of the room. “Now, don’t wear her out. She needs her rest.”
Sam nodded without saying a word and stalked on in to get her first look at Kirin’s condition. The woman was propped up in bed with bandages over most of what could be seen, even over her left eye, and one of her legs was in a cast. She didn’t appear pleased to see Sam, but that was to be expected.
Kirin glared out of the one eye. “Looking for my jewelry? The cash? They’ve got it locked in a safe, and you’re not getting your hands on any of it.”
“I’m not interested in the jewels or the money.” Neither did Sam think them Kirin’s, but she wasn’t going to argue about that. “I did want to see what shape you’re in.”
“Come to gloat, is that it?” Even lying there in the hospital bed, Kirin still had her long, luxurious black hair, the alabaster skin and fine, classic bone structure—what could be seen of it.
“If you hadn’t been trying to escape justice for the crimes you’ve committed, you’d not be here.”
“Next you’ll be telling me that this is justice—well, let me tell you something. I have all the money I’ll need for the best plastic surgeons. They’ll make me as good as new.” Kirin snorted. “How did you follow me? I thought I’d left you far behind.”
Sam smiled. “This was just a bump in the road to you?”
Kirin glared back at her. “Don’t imagine you’re going to finish the job. I’ve got my finger on the call button, and I’m strong enough to fend you off until help comes. Then you’d be in big trouble.”
“I didn’t come to kill you. I came to offer you a second chance. To make a deal.”
Kirin snorted again. “You have nothing to offer me. Next time I Travel, I’ll just make sure you’re a long way away. Or dead.”
“I don’t think so.” Sam’s smile was grim as she removed her watch. “Our watches look exactly the same, so don’t bother calling the nurse. I made sure to give Mildred a good look at mine.” As she talked, Sam swapped her watch for the one on the bedside table. “The only difference between them is something they wouldn’t even understand.”
“You won’t get away with this.”
Sam ignored that. “Now, this is my offer, and I suggest you take it, since you can no longer Travel. And you no longer have access to the trust fund.”
“I’ll get that back from you. I swear.”
Sam ignored that, too. “You could allow me to take you back to the others and answer for what you have done.”
“You don’t think I’d possibly go along with that. I’ll stay in the past where no one can touch me.”
Sam held up a hand. “I didn’t imagine you’d go along with that. Not now. Someday you may want to atone for your actions, though.”
Kirin narrowed her eye in suspicion. “So what’s your offer then?”
“Just this. Keep your ill-gotten gains and try to live and be happy. If you can. I won’t pursue you anymore.”
“That’s it?”
“Without a leader device, you’ll have to answer to the contemporary authorities if you commit any further crimes.”
Kirin’s unbandaged eye twitched as she tried to glare Sam down. Sam stared straight back.
Silence stretched between them until Kirin decided to speak. “Now you have access to the trust, you can Travel. Take my advice and only Travel to the past. Because I will pursue you. With the money I have and the knowledge to invest it, I can still make myself incredibly wealthy. I’ll be able to hire people to hunt you down.”
Sam was taken aback by the bitterness in Kirin’s voice. “I’m not worried about your wealth and what it can do. Neither am I interested in using the trust funds to try to get rich like you. And I’m not afraid of you.”
“You should be. If you stay in this time or show up while I’m alive, I’ll find you. And I’ll give you the same thing I gave Harold.” The woman laughed. “I may even make arrangements so that after I’m dead and gone, there’ll still be a price on your head.”
Sam was glad she’d kept Bailey’s presence a secret. She would need that advantage—because she believed Kirin would do what she said. “I’m giving you the chance to end this now. I said I won’t pursue you and I won’t. But if you come after me, you’ll have only yourself to blame for whatever happens.”
“Get out.”
Taking a last look at the woman, Sam left without another word. She ran into Mildred of the pink scrubs further down the corridor and walked with the nurse to the elevator.
While they waited, Mildred took a good look at Sam’s face. “As bad as that?”
Which was when Sam realized that she was crying. She rubbed the tears away with the back of her hand and punched the elevator button again. She’d been through so much. It was just that this was the last straw, wearing her down to the nub.
She summoned a smile for the nurse. “I’m fine. But my sister—you may be able to fix the scars on the outside, but how can you heal the ones on the inside?”
Mildred shook her head. And as Sam was getting onto the elevator, she heard a warning. “They’ll be waiting for you to fill out some forms—”
The closing doors cut off the rest, but Sam was grateful. When she stepped out on the ground floor, she started looking around for another exit, one that wouldn’t take her out through the lobby but rather avoided the office lady in her flowery dress.
Sam found a side entrance and slipped out and kept her head down. She circled the building looking for Bailey. Of course she found him sitting up straight on the wooden bench with his eyes fixed on the front entrance of the hospital, watching for her to come out. She veered wide and approached him from behind.
“We’re both still alive.”
If she’d hoped to see the man jump or start, she would have been disappointed. He just stood and turned to look at her. “So what did happen?”
She loosed a long sigh. She wanted to sit down on the bench he’d just vacated and not get up. But she didn’t.
“I got Harold’s Travel device back—swapped it with my own. And I told Kirin that I won’t be chasing her anymore.”
“So that’s it?”
“She swore to come after me. Hire people, hunt me down for the rest of her days.” And then some.
“So what do we do?”
Sam looked up at him and smiled. “We make preparations. Kirin has a lot of recovering to do, so that gives us some time. But she’ll be busy making her own plans.”
Bailey grimaced. “We don’t have any idea what those plans might be. How will she come after us?”
Sam’s smile was thin. “Not us. Me. She doesn’t know about you, and with those helper watches she can only track me now. At least that was how they were supposed to work. Since we can’t rely on that, you’ll have to stick close to me so we can preserve that advantage. And I’ll need you there by my side when she does attack.”
“Her advantage is all that money, so we’ll need resources of our own. We had better get back to the city and visit the bank.”
“The best resource I have is you, Bailey. You’ve got the experience and skills to handle whatever she comes at me with. Help me make plans.”
He grunted. “Right now we barely have enough for a bus ticket back into New York City. At least I can carry you to the station.”
Sam shook her head. “I can walk.” She started strolling in what she hoped was the right direction, Bailey by her side. “By the way, the answer came to me—why we Traveled with Kirin at such a distance. I was hoping you could explain to me how it actually works.”
“You know what the answer is but you don’t understand it?”
“Because it’s the only thing that makes sense.”
The moan of a strong wind came from her partner, and Sam figured that was an expression of his exasperation with her.
She squinted into the distance and tried to say what she knew. “Kirin still had her own helper device on her all the while she was using Harold’s to Travel. I don’t understand how these things work, but her having two devices must be responsible for the two of us Traveling with her.”
Bailey plodded along. “I don’t understand how they work, either. But since the helper devices generate a kind of field of their own that’s supposed to merge with the main one, it must have combined in a different way with both of them together like that. That’s my best guess. It’s not my area.”
“Mine either. But that must be it. The helper device did its thing when she used Harold’s to Travel, making the field bigger or wider. Or whatever. And our devices did their thing.”
“That must be it.”