Die Back Page 13
"But listen to this--
P.S. One last word about our shared love of books. Remember your favorite book? I think Jung's Psychology and Alchemy will be a new twist you'll enjoy. Oddly enough, Jung's book builds on the other like a house sits on a foundation.
"Didn't you just tell me The Time Machine was your favorite book?"
"Yeah."
"So, what do The Time Machine and Jung's book have in common?"
Frowning, Addison pulled a book, Carl Jung's Psychology and Alchemy, out of the pile, flipping through pages. "I have no idea." He set it on The Time Machine.
"Your father said Jung's book is like a house on the foundation of the other." She placed her hands on the books, her fingers exploring their edges.
"Dad and I just liked to read. We need to get back to our search."
"Wait a second, Addy. He had to have written those words for a reason. What does he say? A new twist you'll enjoy. Could it be?" She pivoted Psychology and Alchemy until the books were at ninety degrees and beyond.
"Will you give it a rest? They're just books. Now let's get back to what we're looking for, okay?"
Jules stared at him, as if he had turned into the walking dead before her eyes.
"What?"
She nodded toward him. "I think we found what we're looking for."
He turned around to a dark passageway where the bookcase had been just a moment ago. Jules picked up Psychology and Alchemy and the bookcase rematerialized. Touching the two books together, she twisted the top book again, and the bookcase faded to emptiness. "There must be some kind of electronic device embedded in these books. When you put them together, abracadabra."
"More likely some alchemical mumbo jumbo. I wonder if the books manipulate a confined time anomaly. Sort of like two time zones. One zone has a bookcase and the other doesn't."
"So, if we go through this thing, we get trapped in a different time continuum?"
Addison passed a hand through the opening, pulling it back, examining both sides of his hand. "I don't think so. I think this is the alchemical version of a time lock. A way to protect something important from prying eyes." He reached out to her. "Come on. There's only one way to find out."
On the other side of the opening was a cramped, dimly lit passage. Stepping inside, the bookcase closed behind them and lights switched on, revealing a descending staircase at the end of the passage. As they made their way down the steps, a final spotlight illuminated a steel door at the bottom. Addison put a hand on the cold, machined steel. "What do we do now?"
"Look. There's a box."
Addison touched a black box the size of a brick on the wall by the steel door, examining its edges and surface. He pushed it with his fingers, then tapped it a few times. Of course. He'd seen this on a million TV shows. He placed his palm on the box, certain the thing would scan his hand. Nothing. He stood inches from the box, staring at it, but again, nothing happened. "I have no idea what this thing is for. We're going to have to find another way."
With a clank, the steel door cracked an inch, allowing Addison to push it fully open.
"I think it recognized your voice, Addy. You sure you've never been down here?"
He turned back to her as he stepped through. "Trust me. I'd remember." Jules' widened eyes made him turn back around. "Whoa."
He stood in a room the size of a one-car garage. Only this space contained hundreds of thin, black binders filling one wall with coded titles such as 19A021747, 19A120479. A chalkboard covered the wall opposite the steel door, wiped clean of information. The wall to his left featured a Dymaxion map designed by Buckminster Fuller, devoid of national boundaries, hundreds of color-coded pins tagged with reference numbers across its surface. At the far end of the room, a bookcase identical to one in the Tempos Refúgium, rested against the wall. Addison pulled on one side of the case, which opened like a door, exposing a small closet with a metal hatch door in the floor. Pulling back the hatch revealed a narrow ladder extending down into darkness. Balancing with both hands on the wall he descended the ladder, his eyes adjusting to darkness. When he stepped from the ladder to the floor below, lights came on. He found himself in a small eight-foot-square room furnished with a large oak desk and two chairs. An Inking room.
He called up to Jules. "I think this is connected to a Tempos Refúgium."
She stepped down the ladder to see for herself.
Addison opened one desk drawer and then another. "Dad must have set up this safe room as a study with the alchemy of the books creating a protected gateway."
"I just hope we can get back." She pulled a binder from the bookshelves, opening the volume to scan its contents. "Looks like he tracked inking missions here, Addy."
"Yeah? Maybe we can figure out what's going on if we look through the files."
"There's hundreds of them. It'll take forever."
Addison reached for a binder on the top left shelf. "I guess we better get started."
They worked their way across the map from Antarctica to South and Central America, as well as spending some focused time on the United States. Since their mission occurred in the U.S., a previous inking to Fort Meyer or somewhere close may have shifted the continuum. Failing to find anything, they worked through Canada into Asia, finally making their way to Africa.
"This is not looking good, is it, Jules?"
"Yeah, I know. But let's take it to the end, just in case." She studied the map, a finger tapping yellow, blue and green pins. A red pin gave her pause. "Wait. This is the first pin colored red." She took a step back scanning the entire map. "It's the only red pin."
"What's the code?"
"02A071572."
He took the binder to a small table at the center of the room, opening it for both of them to read. A briefing described a mission to find the Alchi̱meía hidden in the Great Library of Alexandria. The Roman Emperor Aurelius would burn the city and much of the library in 272 A.D. as part of his campaign to put down resistance by Queen Zenobia. Thomas had scrawled, "Renascentia" across the top of the file. The last entry was the day his father died, noting his plan to ink into a librarian while Nikki inked a slave boy. Together they would acquire the document, store it in a location with a high probability of surviving continuum shifts and retrieve it in the present. The "outcome" portion of the report had been left empty.
“I’m not sure what we do with this, Addy.”
“We go to third century Alexandra, that’s what we do.”
"Why? I don't see how whatever your father was up to has anything to do with the continuum shift we created on our mission."
"Look, if anyone knows how to help us, it's my father. Alexandria was the last place he was alive. We can warn him, prevent him from dying. And if we save him, he'll be able to save us."
"So, you think if we find your father and keep him from being killed, we'll find a way to fix the continuum?"
"Yeah. Definitely." If only he felt as confident as he sounded.
***
Returning from the inking room along the same passageway, they were relieved to find themselves back in the study at Addison's house. They went upstairs for some food and a short nap. When Addison awoke, afternoon sun had crept across a blue sky, dirigible traffic casting giant shadows on the street below. He found Jules on the living room sofa, one leg propped on a coffee table, the other tucked in to give her access to her toes. She had a small bottle in one hand and a tiny brush in the other, painting her nails.
“Really? We’re about to go to the third century with the fate of the continuum on our shoulders and you’re painting your toenails? You do realize they stay here, don’t you? With the rest of your body?"
She lifted her eyes from her work, an amused grin on her face. "You apparently don't understand that painted toenails are not simply a physical reality, but a metaphysical science. You think I do this to look pretty, what, for you?" She laughed.
Addison flushed. He couldn't tell if he was embarrassed because he wanted her to be p
ainting her toenails for him or pissed because she wouldn't, or both.
"See these?" Jules raised her foot to Addison, her red toenails contrasting with her soft, mocha skin.
He had never noticed how perfect her toes were, each one flowing gracefully to a nicely arched foot and well-proportioned ankle. If he could just hold her foot in his hands…
"Addy, my toes."
"What? Yeah, I see them. Look like toes to me."
"Red is my power color. Trust me, you have no idea the empowerment you feel with red toenails. Want me to do yours?"
"What? Uh, no. I want to get on with this mission."
She shrugged, twisting the brush cap back on her bottle of polish. "If you change your mind, just let me know."
***
Back in the inking room, they reviewed his father's mission notes one more time. Both would ink into library guards using names in the file, hoping their hosts would have access to most of the library. Together they would search for the Alchi̱meía, hopefully finding Thomas Shaw in the process, and learn what they could do to restore the time continuum. Sitting across from each other at the oak desk, their pens filled with ink, paper laid out before them. Addison met Jules' eyes.
"See you in Alexandria."
Jules' stared through him, her posture rigid. She had already inked to the library. Addison scribed a date and a name, slipping into the inking, his consciousness like viscous oil seeping in and through the weave of space and time.
The Alchimeía
I'm standing outside of a thick sycamore door, the air hot and tainted with an acrid haze. Behind me is a large, limestone building, its stairs leading to a dusty street below. Hopefully, Jules is somewhere nearby. In the distance black smoke rises from several locations in the city, including large wooden boats moored in the harbor. My host is supposed to guard this door with his life, but he doesn't think much of the self-important Captain of the Guard who gave him the order, so willing him inside against his Captain's orders takes little effort. I walk briskly through a courtyard surrounded by black marble pillars, the clattering of my scale armor a counterpoint to the echoing murmur of water from several fountains. Jules and I plan to meet near the north wall. A statue of the god of writing, Thoth, rises from a gold fountain, the man-like body holding a writing palette as if making notes and his ibis head narrow with a long curving beak. Two men stand nearby as I approach.
A thickly built man with chiseled features in chain mail and scale armor right out of Game of Thrones scowls at me. I think we've got some history. "Hail. Did I not give you strict orders to stand guard by the East Gate?"
Great. I've managed to run into the captain. I look to a guard standing beside him, taking a chance. "The Time Traveller vanished three years ago."
Our captain looks perplexed, while the other man, who looks something akin to a super-heavyweight professional wrestler, shifts his feet nervously. Jules and I decided to use the last line from The Time Machine as our password, but in hindsight maybe we should have come up with something less weird to Alexandrian ears.
The captain steps into me, willing a confrontation. "What did you say? Are you being insubordinate?"
The guard clears his throat. "And, as everybody knows now, he has never returned."
Jules.
The Captain explodes, redirecting his anger toward the other guard. "You too? We've got Aurelius attacking Queen Zenobia's city, closing in to destroy this Great Library and all you can do is recite gibberish?"
I catch him reaching for his sword. Before his blade clears its scabbard, I hurl my weight into him. Man, I could be a linebacker with this body. The captain's bare head slams into stone, knocking him unconscious, his blade clattering to the ground. I look up to the giant guard, hoping I didn't imagine him reciting a line in the third century from H.G. Wells.
***
I told Addy the whole Time Machine thing was a bit too cute. Luckily, his host, while on the small side, has some power in those legs.
"Jules?"
"Yeah, it's me. Maybe we come up with a better password next time."
"Let's pull him out of sight, then go to the storage rooms."
We drag the Captain, who's been hitting the Egyptian equivalent of bacon burgers and cheese fries, if you ask me, behind an alcove. After hiding him, we follow the courtyard wall through a portal leading to a passageway lined with doors. The storage rooms.
"This is a maze, Addy."
"Yeah, but at least we've got some directions."
The mission profile stated Addy's father would proceed to the north wall, enter the passageway, and take the third door on his left. The Alchi̱meía papyrus should be tucked behind a set of documents on a top shelf opposite the door. We take the third door on the left, entering a chamber ten feet across and twenty feet deep. The top shelf with the Alchi̱meía must be ten feet above us. I look around for some way of getting up there.
Addy stands behind me, pressing down on my shoulders. "Never a ladder when you need one."
"What are you doing?"
"Bend over. I'll get on your shoulders."
I look down at my smaller companion who's at least a head shorter than me. "Why am I the human ladder?"
"Have you looked at yourself? I think you're the Alexandrian version of a wooly mammoth."
"Funny."
"No, really."
I crouch down so the little man can clamber aboard. "Do you see it, Addy?"
***
Sitting astride Jules' broad shoulders, I push papyruses out of the way, reaching beyond them to the back of the stone shelf. My fingers touch a scroll wound tightly and placed farthest from my reach.
"Lift me higher, Jules. I almost have it."
Footsteps echo from the passageway.
"Hurry, Addy. Someone's coming."
The steps grow louder.
"Hurry."
"I've…almost…"
The footfalls stop. Right at the door to the storage room. I'm sitting on my perch wondering how I'm going to explain the odd vision of a guard mounted on the shoulders of another guard in a storage room while Romans burn Alexandria to the ground. Jules squats so I can hop off. At the door stands an old man in robes, his gray brow furrowed.
"May I help you two?"
I mutter like I'm talking to a department store salesperson. "No, no. Just looking."
"Are you sure I can't interest you in a scroll? Maybe a classic. Dickens? Or do you lean more in the direction of Isaac Asimov's writings?"
"What? Dad?"
His face looks serious, but his eyes laugh. "Well that depends quite a bit on who you are, I suppose."
"Addison. I'm Addison."
His host's old face, wrinkled with time, smiles. "If you're Addison, then yes, I'm your father." He reaches out, offering me his hand, but I wrap my arms around him. He's in an old man's body, but I know my father's in there. "I miss you so much."
He holds me, breaks our hug, and peers into my eyes. "Addison, what's going on? You haven't hugged me like that since you were a kid."
I want to keep hold of him, a solid anchor in this craziness. But even though I'm talking to him now, I know he's dead present-side. "Dad, we need your help."
He looks over to the large, bearded guard to my right. "And this is?"
I put a hand on Jules' broad, muscular shoulder. "Oh, sorry. This is Jules, my inking partner."
He shakes Jules' hand. "Good to meet you, Jules." Standing back, he puts his hands on his hips. “I had hoped to protect you from a life of inking. What's your present-side date?"
He wants to know how much latter in his life I joined the League. If I tell him…
"Dad, we need your help."
Jules adds, "And we think you might be able to use our help too."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah, Mr. Shaw…" Jules looks to me.
"Your mission here in Alexandria? Dad, I think you fail."
He cocks his head, "Do you now? Why do you think we're going to fail?"
The old man crosses his arms, letting out a sigh. "Oh. Yes, that is a problem."
What the hell is he talking about? "Problem? Not finding the crunchy peanut butter is a problem. Being dead is a mega-fucking nightmare!"
He doesn't move an inch. Just stares as us. "You need to calm down. Let's take this one step at a time."
"Did you hear what I said? You're dead."
"I heard you. We'll deal with it."
"We came here to help and keep you from dying. You can't die." I know I'm making a scene, but I can't help it. He was dead and now he's standing right here in front of me. I don't want to lose him. I can't lose him again.
Jules looks at the old man, and back to me. "Are you going to tell him?"
"Tell me what?"
Why did she have to jump right in with our mission? I really don't want the account of my first mission to be a screw up, but I suppose I've got to fess up so we can fix the continuum. "We had a small problem with our first mission. Everything went fine, but I think we may have shifted the time continuum."
Jules twirls a piece of her thick beard. "May have shifted? There are dirigibles flying in the skies and some jerk is selling bicycle parts in my vintage vinyl record shop."
"Yeah, Dad. We were hoping you'd be able to help us out. Now that you’ve been warned, you can die back and keep yourself from being killed."
He steps to the doorway, leaning out to peer down the passageway. Turning back to us, he pulls a scroll from the sleeve of his robe. "I have what you're looking for. The Alchi̱meía. Here's what we're going to do. Addison, you take the scroll." He hands the papyrus to me. "I'll grab another similar scroll. If our plan is stopped, as you say, it's probably an enemy agent. I'll let him think he's accomplished his mission."
I can't believe what I'm hearing. "But you need to die back, now. Someone's murdering you as we speak. You've got to go back."