The future next door box.., p.96
The Future Next Door Boxed Set, page 96
Caitlin shuddered. “I will. Fuck.”
“We know Jack wants to stop creatures like AmSyn and Jensen-Keystone from coming to life,” Dakota said. “And I don’t have a problem with that.”
Mark nodded. “Me, neither.”
“But he’s shown that he doesn’t care who he hurts, who he kills, along the way. With Troy and Janice dead, and me and Tayisha leaving, he doesn’t have anybody left in his life whom he cares about. It terrifies me to think of what he might do.”
“When he makes a move,” Caitlin said, “we’ll stop him. We’re three for three on world-saving, right? We’ll kick ass.”
“Whatever he’s going to do,” Alan said, “I hope he doesn’t do it for a few more weeks. We’ll be a little short-handed with just me and Dakota here.”
“Where are you going?” Mark asked Caitlin.
“L.A.,” she answered. “I got a gig. Don’t worry, though. I already told Eddie. First sign of trouble and I’m on the red-eye back here.”
“Me, too,” Mark said.
“You don’t want to leave your family, though,” Dakota said. “Not now.”
Mark smiled. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her roughly to him.
“Shut the fuck up,” he said. “You three are my family, too. I don’t say this enough, but I love you guys.”
“You literally say that all the time,” Caitlin said.
“Not literally,” Alan said.
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. You say it every time you drink, anyway.”
“Well, I mean it when I’m sober, too,” Mark replied.
Alan and Caitlin looked at each other, then jumped out of their chairs and onto the couch. Caitlin sat on the other side of Dakota and put her arms around her, resting one hand on the back of Mark’s neck and the other on his chest. Alan came to Mark’s free arm, lifted it, and put it around his own shoulders.
Mark felt better than he had in a long time.
“If you need me here,” he said, “then that’s where I belong.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
Cheek hiding
Doctor Shermon Cheek awoke from his nap with a start. It took him a moment to remember where he was. He grabbed at the bag on the table next to him in a panic, but both eggs were safely inside.
“A little careless, Doctor Cheek.”
“Jack!”
Cheek grinned at his employer. Jack was standing at the end of Cheek’s lounge chair. Cheek had been napping by the indoor pool of the mid-grade hotel he had checked into on the outskirts of Poughkeepsie. It had been three days since he had escaped from the underground complex and he had spent that time napping, sleeping, drinking and generally racking up as many charges as he could on the credit card Jack had given him.
“Sit, Jack, sit!” Cheek said, patting the chair next to him. It was fairly early on a Sunday morning and the pool was abandoned except for them. “Tracked me down, at last. I assume everything turned out all right? Silly question. Of course it did.”
“Troy’s dead. Janice too.”
“Oh, Jack.”
Cheek had never particularly cared for either Troy or Janice. Troy was an idiot and Janice a shrew. But the boy had proved to be a useful distraction, keeping Jack’s attention split, which had allowed Cheek to pursue his own plans undetected. That would be much harder going forward.
“I’m so sorry, Jack,” Cheek continued. “Truly. You’ve no idea how sorry I am.”
“You shouldn’t have used this hotel,” Jack said. “Tayisha knows about it. She booked me in here when I first inspected the server farm.”
“She’d never make the connection. She doesn’t know I’m working with you.”
“She does now,” Jack said. “They all do.”
“Ah. By that I suppose you mean...forgive me, it is very difficult to resist the urge to refer to them as ‘those meddling kids.’ It makes sense that AmSyn would drag them into this. The creature has an obsession.”
“Had,” Jack corrected. “All of the AmSyn copies have been destroyed. Along with the tesseract drive.”
“That’s a setback. I had hoped a few might have survived outside the complex. This is going to be difficult without AmSyn’s help.”
“But you can build another tesseract drive?”
“Oh, yes,” Cheek said. “We were very close, and I salvaged my notes. A month? Maybe two? That’s not the hard part. It’s programming the wormhole generator. Without AmSyn’s advanced computational abilities I’m not sure I can get you where you need to go.”
“That’s not an issue. AmSyn’s rampage told me what I needed to know. The drive does exactly what we thought it would.” Jack picked up the bag containing the eggs. “Get your things, Doctor. I’m taking you back to your old lab in Keaka Capital.”
“Isn’t that a bit risky?”
Jack shook his head. “The military is fully on-board now. The emergence of Jensen-Keystone was the push they needed. They’re more convinced than ever that these creatures are a threat to national security. The Pentagon is throwing money at me. We’ll be fine as long as we keep you out of sight of the public.”
Cheek stood. “And Tayisha and Dakota. And their friends.”
Jack didn’t say anything.
Cheek put a hand on Jack’s shoulder in what he hoped simulated a gesture of friendship. “They’re a threat, Jack. They’re far more capable than they should be, and they’re determined to see us both in jail, or dead. You’re trying to save the world and they’re trying to stop you. It’s as simple as that. Let me...”
“No.”
Jack shrugged him off. He turned away, looking out at the pool. Cheek couldn’t see his face, but his voice sounded choked.
“I don’t expect you to understand, Cheek. I don’t...I’m not the villain.”
“I know you’re not, Jack. Neither of us are.”
Jack gave out a short, bitter laugh.
Cheek folded his arms across his chest. “I take that to mean you don’t appreciate the comparison.”
Jack turned back to face him. “Sorry, Doctor. I’ve no right to take the moral high ground. I have as much blood on my hands as you do. But I won’t let those five come to harm. They stopped AmSyn that first time, saved me, and made all this possible.”
“So it’s just gratitude? That’s all?”
“Of course not. Tayisha has been more friend than assistant to me over these past few years. And I loved Dakota’s parents once – I’ve known her since she was a baby.”
“Speaking of your sordid past...does Alan Lennox know of his coincidental connection to it? His...what would it be? One degree of separation from your old flame?”
Cheek had hoped to put Jack off his footing by revealing he knew about this tidbit from his employer’s past. He would have a lot to do when they got back to New York City, and he needed to find a way to get Jack off-balance and distracted. His love life had worked before, so he thought bringing up an old, painful memory might work again.
From the look on Jack’s face, Cheek thought he might have miscalculated.
Jack stepped in towards him, close enough that their noses were almost touching.
“How do you know about that?” His voice was deep and threatening.
“Er...I’m sorry, Jack. You know me. Information is power. I can’t help myself. I didn’t mean any harm.”
“I need you for now, Doctor. But keep your mind on the project if you want to survive past your usefulness.” Jack stepped back. “You and I are not friends. Do not discuss my personal life again. Is that clear?”
“Perfectly, Jack,” Cheek said. “Perfectly clear.”
Jack walked in the direction of the lobby. “I’m checking you out. Meet me out front in ten minutes.”
As Jack left the pool area, Cheek reached down and picked up his mimosa. It was warm now, after his nap, but he drank down the last of it.
He reached into his pocket and felt for the USB drive that contained the work that Dawn, his own private AmSyn, had done for him. It was there, safe and sound.
He raised his empty glass in the direction Jack had gone, and smiled.
He didn’t care about Jack’s tantrum. He was used to being disliked. Used to being attacked.
It was Jack who wouldn’t survive past his usefulness, Cheek thought. Along with everyone else. Compared to the scope of what he had planned, a little embarrassment, a little dressing down from his boss, was nothing.
It would all be worth it once Cheek destroyed this world Jack was working so hard to save.
DAKOTA BELL
and the
WASTES
of
TIME
Brian Olsen
About This Book
For more from Brian Olsen, including alerts to new releases, sign up for his monthly newsletter at www.brianolsenbooks.com.
Dakota Bell and the Wastes of Time
Dakota Bell had a difficult summer – her boss turned evil, her roommates took off, and her girlfriend wanted a break. She hoped her birthday might turn things around, but the gang of identical gunmen crashing the party had other ideas. Dakota and her friends flee for their lives through a mysterious portal, leaving them stranded in their own childhoods. She’ll need to save the past before she can save the future, but the present holds dangers all its own. A madman hunts her across the years, monsters wait for her beneath the earth, and Dakota’s out of time...
Dakota Bell and the Wastes of Time is the final book of The Future Next Door, a contemporary urban science fiction comedic thriller series in four parts.
Book One: Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom
Book Two: Caitlin Ross and the Commute from Hell
Book Three: Mark Park and the Flume of Destiny
Book Four: Dakota Bell and the Wastes of Time
For Debbie and Cathy
Chapter One
Danny attacking
Danny Greene walked along West Thirty-fourth Street towards Eighth Avenue, hoping nobody would notice that he kept doubling back along the same stretch of sidewalk again and again. He knew he didn’t really have to worry, that he was far from the strangest sight on a typical New York City street, but his mission made him anxious. He kept imagining that the horde of tourists, shoppers and commuters were staring at him with suspicion.
He got halfway down the block and turned around for the third time in twenty minutes, heading back the way he had come. The August evening was warm and sweat dotted his upper lip. He looked over his shoulder, afraid of missing the man he was waiting for, but there was no sign of his target.
He bumped into a woman talking on her phone. Danny’s muscular frame dwarfed the small woman and she spun sideways, the phone flying from her grasp.
“Sorry,” he said. “Sorry.” He made no move to pick up the phone, afraid to look away from Eighth Avenue for an instant.
“Asshole. Watch where you’re going.” The woman picked her phone up off the ground, inspected it for cracks, and continued on her way.
The crowd parted around Danny as he stood in the center of the sidewalk. The nasty glares he received only reinforced his fears that he was attracting too much attention, so he stepped towards the curb, out of the mass of people. He leaned against a waist-high concrete planter filled with flowers and took a deep breath.
“You can do this,” he muttered to himself. “You can do this.”
He wiped his forehead with the sleeve of the large, baggy coat he was wearing. The temperature was hot enough that he’d have been far more comfortable in just the white t-shirt and cargo shorts he had on underneath, but he needed a large pocket for what he was about to attempt.
He spotted a balding, older man at the far end of the street and jumped to his feet. The man had appeared in the brief instant while Danny had been wiping the sweat from his brow. He was headed for the entrance to a large office building and had almost reached it.
“Shit, shit, shit.”
Danny bolted for the man. He stepped off the curb into the street, hoping to move faster by bypassing the pedestrians in his way, but an approaching bus forced him back up onto the sidewalk.
“Sorry, sorry.” Danny darted and weaved through the crowd. For a moment he lost sight of his target, and panicked that the man had gotten into the building, where Danny wouldn’t be able to follow.
“Get the fuck out of my way!” he shouted. A couple holding hands in front of him parted in surprise and Danny ran between them.
He spotted the older man again, only just reaching the small flight of steps which ascended to a large open plaza in front of the building. Danny gave a roar of triumph and picked up his pace, leading with his right shoulder.
Danny felt blood rushing to his face, partly from exertion, but partly from rage. His hands clenched into fists.
Pedestrians dove out of Danny’s way. The man noticed the commotion and turned to see what was happening. His face registered surprise at the sight of Danny charging towards him, but there was no recognition.
This only made Danny angrier.
Danny let out a guttural howl. The man put his hands up to ward him off, but he was too late. Danny tackled him, lifting him up and throwing him over his shoulder. The man was also wearing a long coat, which flipped up and over his head. Danny wanted to knock him down, but he knew the man might die if his head crashed into the pavement, and Danny and his friends needed him alive.
A small plot of dirt with bushes and flowers decorated the edge of the plaza. Danny jumped up into it and threw his squirming bundle to the ground. The man’s glasses flew from his face and skidded across the sidewalk.
Danny pinned the terrified man down. He heard screams from all around him as a crowd gathered. He was counting on his size being too intimidating for anyone to risk intervening, at least for a few seconds.
“What do you want?” the man screamed. “Help me! Help!”
“Shut up,” Danny shouted. “Shut the fuck up!”
Danny batted at the man with his hands, but he did as he had been told and kept the blows light. He couldn’t leave any visible signs of damage, as much as he wanted to. The feeble beating’s true purpose wasn’t to harm the old man, but to conceal the pat-down Danny was giving him.
Danny found what he was searching for and quickly slipped it into his own pocket. He clenched his hand into a fist again and raised it up, then pounded it into the dirt next to the man’s head. The man flinched and gave out a pathetic screech of fear.
Danny jumped up and took off down the street. He knew the police would have been called already and he needed to put some distance between himself and the scene of his crime. The crowd parted out of his way. He reached the corner and darted across Eighth Avenue before risking a look back. He thought he saw someone helping the man to his feet. Good, he thought.
He forced himself to slow down as he crossed Thirty-fourth. He ran his fingers across his scalp in an unnecessary attempt to smooth out his buzz-cut brown hair, then smiled as he opened the door of the diner on the corner. He knew he’d be spotted by someone who had witnessed his attack and the police would look for him there, but it didn’t matter. He only needed a few minutes.
“Danny!”
Danny’s already racing heart skipped a beat. Someone had recognized him, which roused a strange mixture of hope and terror in him.
He saw who was approaching from inside the diner and both feelings subsided, replaced with confusion.
“Sylvia?” he said. “Arnold? Is that really you?”
The African-American couple both smiled at Danny, though their smiles failed to mask the hints of fear in their eyes. Sylvia swept him up into a hug. He left his arms outstretched behind her back and Arnold grabbed his hand and shook it vigorously.
“Good to see you again, Danny boy,” Arnold said. “Despite everything.”
Sylvia stepped back and Danny took the couple in. Arnold’s hair was thinner than the last time Danny had seen him, and he had a paunch that hadn’t been there before. Sylvia was wearing her hair natural, and the black curls were tinged with gray. They were both in their mid-fifties, about thirty years older than Danny. That was about right, he thought, but the sight of them disturbed him nonetheless.
“Why are you here?” Danny asked. “You shouldn’t be here. Has something gone wrong?”
“No, nothing’s wrong,” Arnold said. “But we had to see for ourselves. To see that it was really happening. It’s been so long...”
“Is it done?” Sylvia looked over her shoulder, into the diner, then back at Danny. “Is it?”
“Yes, it’s done. What about your part? Are you ready?”
“We’re ready,” Arnold said. “We’ve been ready for years. Although...”
“Arnold!” Sylvia glared at her husband. “Need to know.”
Arnold nodded quickly. “Right. Sorry. Sorry, Danny.”
“No, you’re right. I shouldn’t have asked.”
Sylvia shook her head. “No, you’re right. We shouldn’t have come. We’re risking everything.”
Arnold took her hand. “That’s why we had to come. We had to be sure.”
“Sure that we’re doing the right thing,” Sylvia said. “By doing nothing.”
“Not nothing...”
“Mom? Dad?”
Danny spotted the young woman approaching from inside the diner, looking for her parents.
“You brought her here?” he hissed at them. “What were you thinking? What if she sees me?”
“I was supposed to keep her occupied while Sylvia found you,” Arnold said, “but she went to the restroom and then we saw you...”
