BROOKLYN NAVY YARD
The return team was shocked as the warning alarm on the doorway sounded three times, almost breaking the monitors along the technician’s stations.
Niles went to the window where Moira was sitting in her chair. Alice bit her lip as she was confused as to how the return trip would work. They watched as the young technicians ran to their various stations. The activity was vivid and exciting as they speculated on the success of the mission. Most though worried about the missing security team that had deported with the Russians. Xavier Morales was most worried about that fact since it had been him who had so unceremoniously sent them away.
“Los Angeles, we need fifty percent reactor power,” called out the young UC Berkeley grad who was now in charge of doorway operations.
“Los Angeles reports her board is in the green. Going to fifty percent.”
“Open the collider and send out the return.”
The doorway slowly started its revolutions. The sound was piercing as most placed the headphones over their ears. They had learned that fact the last time—it was painful when the audio tones began.
“Signal acquisition at twenty-two thirty hundred hours and twenty-two seconds.”
The loud cheer went up inside the control room and at the science labs at Nellis.
Niles nodded his head as the first hurdle was jumped successfully. He turned and looked at the large monitor where Xavier was sitting, patiently and nervously waiting with the rest of them.
“What are the chances of us accidentally bringing something back that we don’t particularly want?” Compton asked. Moira had not thought of that. The worst thing they had ever feared bringing back was a batch of angry Nazis, not monsters from a long-dead world.
Morales smiled. “Group locators will tell us; even our French friend was fixed with a tracking bug. We injected him the day before his departure.” Xavier watched as Niles clearly understood.
“You can stop an intruder from entering based on their transmission signal?”
“Yes and no. We can’t stop them from transiting once they are through the doorway, but we can redirect an undesirable to another location if we prefer.”
“Where’s that?” Niles asked, but as he looked at the Traveler he could see by her smile that she already knew.
“There are only so many operational doorways emitting signals, Doctor.”
Compton fully understood then.
ANTARCTICA, 227,000 B.C.E.
Jack shook his head and tried to clear the fog that clouded his memory. One minute he was standing next to Sarah as they were both exhilarated that a return signal had been acquired, then the world went crazy. He felt a sharp sting in his back and Sarah’s small fingers digging into his skin. He hissed as she pulled out a smoking piece of metal shrapnel. He slowly looked up from his prone position and saw the others as they recovered and started moving. Charlie had his hair in his accustomed state, but he was bleeding from a large wound on his forehead. Others were tending to people who were slow to get up from the devastating explosion. The first thing a bleeding Jenks did was check Virginia, and when he saw that other than a broken nose she hadn’t taken a big shot, he immediately crawled to the still-spinning doorway. He looked and saw that it was still functioning. He was about to turn and tell Virginia the good news that it hadn’t been the doorway that exploded, but the gun pointing in his face explained the real reason behind the shocking and brutal attack. Doshnikov was standing over him. Jenks slowly stood on wobbly legs and saw the other four torn and battered mobsters as they held the team at bay with their sidearms.
“I am so disappointed you were going to go home and leave us behind without at least saying good-bye,” he said as he pushed the master chief hard into Virginia’s arms, who stayed his fall while giving the Russian a withering hate-filled glare. He gestured with his Colt .45 for the others to stand. “I am sure you won’t mind if we go first this time?”
Jack rocked back and forth as Sarah stilled him. Charlie Ellenshaw helped Farbeaux to his feet and Will and Ryan were still trying to gather their senses. Carl was on the ground with a bleeding Anya lying prone with her head in his lap. Everett was watching the Russians with murderous intent. The dark-haired Gypsy moaned and they all felt relief as she batted her eyes. Everett looked down—his relief was most visible.
“Now.” Doshnikov stepped forward and then reached for little Sarah. When Jack tried to stop him, Doshnikov shot the colonel in the upper thigh, sending him crashing to the ground.
“You son of a bitch!” Sarah said as she fought the hold of the Russian.
Ryan and Will ran to Jack but another shot rang out and ash and dirt flew from the bullet striking just inches from their feet.
“Another foolish attempt to stop us will result in us leaving one of these behind as we pass through the doorway.” He raised something he held in his left hand and easily tossed it up and down. It was an old grenade. “It seems you were right in your theory about others coming here before us, Colonel,” he said as he watched Jack hiss as he struggled to sit up. “We found two of these inside the pack attached to the skeletal remains of a soldier. We couldn’t tell if he was Japanese or Chinese, but I must say it was indeed fortuitous that we came across him in our flight from your treachery.”
“There he goes using those big words again,” Jason said as his anger was just about to boil over. He would rather die here and now than take a chance at his friend being left behind in this whacked-out menagerie.
Doshnikov turned and looked at Ryan. He pointed the .45 at his head and pulled the trigger. Click, the hammer fell on an empty chamber.
“Your luck is holding, my friend.” He eased the old and rusty pin from the grenade and smiled as he held the handle in place and turned to the master chief and Virginia. “Now, start the process and get me and my men out of here.”
Jenks looked at Virginia and winked. She didn’t understand why Harold was taking this so well. He stood on wobbly legs and made his way back to the trailer. He looked at Jack, who was watching while holding his wounded thigh. Of all people it was Henri who was applying pressure and a dressing to the bleeding hole. Collins fought his building anger with every ounce of willpower he had as the Russian reached out and took Sarah by the arm and steered her toward the still-spinning doorway.
“Remember, all I have to do is drop this inside of there and your dreams of a future are done—am I understood?”
Jenks smiled but it was brief and only Virginia saw it. She bit her lip, wondering why the gruff bastard was taking all of this so well.
“Behave and you just may see this lovely young lady again; misbehave and she will die a horrible death and you can stay here and contend with the animal life.”
“Master Chief, send this man to where he wants to go,” Jack said as Henri assisted him to his feet.
“Yes, sir,” Jenks said as he started the collider rolling at full RPMs. “Slim, stand by on the lasing system.”
Virginia saw Jenks switch to another tone setting on his control panel and made sure the volume was down when the return signal arrived. Her eyes widened when she realized what he was going to do. She looked at Sarah and then hurriedly back at Jenks, who winked.
“Start the lasing and get the collider lined up.”
Doshnikov heard the orders and, remembering this was where they were tricked back in Brooklyn, roughly brought Sarah to his side.
Henri made as if to move on the Russian but Jack forcibly stayed him. They exchanged looks and then Farbeaux knew the Americans had other plans for Doshnikov.
“Let’s just cut to the chase—no countdowns, no fact-checking. Either this damn thing works, or it don’t.” He smiled at Virginia and then nodded. “Bring the collider online at full power, Slim.”
Without even looking at the panel before her, Virginia did as she was told. Sarah looked over at Jack with fear in her eyes. Jack nodded at Jenks, telling her to concentrate on him. The master chief looked at the small woman whom he had come to like immensely.
“You trust me, Shorty?” Jenks asked as Doshnikov forced her to the doorway’s opening. Sarah could only nod that she did. “Then tell everyone we’ll be along shortly.” She nodded and Jenks smiled, relaxing her as much as he could.
As the other Russians came forward to join their boss, the doorway went into full-power mode. Suddenly the lasers reached the correct frequency and the burst of pure atomic sunlight exploded from the circling laser apertures, sending out a brilliantly illuminated perfect tunnel of spinning light. Doshnikov turned and smiled at the Americans. He halfheartedly saluted them as he started forward through the vortex of wind and multicolored light.
“Short Stuff, remember: that asshole doesn’t have a Group security clearance,” Jack yelled above the din of noise.
The dawning look of understanding filled her face. She smiled as she realized what was about to happen.
The five Russians along with Sarah stepped into the doorway.
BROOKLYN NAVY YARD
The doorway went to 115 percent power and the world inside the building started to shake and rattle as the dimensional doorway opened before them.
“Dr. Morales, we have six targets coming through, only one has a transponder.”
“All right, Europa, cull the herd down to size,” he said as he watched on from Nellis.
“Separation of signals commencing,” came the call as the explosion of light bathed the old building in a myriad of color. Before they saw the doorway start to power down they heard it.
They heard a woman’s yelp of pain as the vision of the technicians returned slowly after having their retinas fused by the brilliant lasers. When they cleared they saw a lone figure standing on the far side of the doorway as the lasers shut down one at a time.
“Los Angeles, cut power!” called out the lead tech as she stood and ran to the latest traveler.
“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.”