Chapter 23. Preventing a Murder
"Would it do any good," I said slowly, "to prevent the murder that we saw them commit?"
"Well, of course," said Nick. "If we prevent the murder of Halloway 437, Halloway A won't die either, because there won't be any resonance."
"But then," objected Shep, who was answering my complete thought rather than what I'd actually expressed so far, "they could just go kill Halloway 438, or Halloway 436, and that murder would resonate and kill Halloway A."
"Wait," said Andrew. "How would you prevent the murder, Mitch?"
"First of all," I said, "could we, the two of us here in front of you, be in World A physically at the same time we were actually living in World A as Mitch A and Shep A, and also in World A inside the Ys' heads? Could there be three of each of us that way?"
"Good question," said Nick slowly. "I don't think it's ever come up. So we don't know."
"And," I went on, working it out in my head, "if that's possible, could you find World 437? Is it possible to identify it?"
"That I can answer," said Nick. "It might be time-consuming, but luckily that's not a problem. We'd just have to look at the Lincoln campus at 12:45 a.m. on that date in all the worlds close to World A until we see the Ys making their way to the president's house. Alan could do it."
"I'm not sure about being there physically, twice, and also in the Ys' heads, though," said Andrew. "What did you have in mind?"
"We wouldn't have to be anywhere near the Ys," I said. "We wouldn't even see them at a distance. In fact, if we time it just right, we might not overlap with our in-their-head selves, but only with our World A selves. Who would probably be asleep.
"What I'm thinking is, Shep and I could probably pass for college students, first-year students. So at 12:25 we go to the Campus Security Office and say that on our way back to our dorm from the library, we saw some undesirable types on campus, walking on the path to the president's house. We leave the office, supposedly to go back to our dorms, and exit World A at 12:29. By the time Campus Security gets to the right place, the Ys have arrived and are on the path."
"I like it!" said Andrew. "I especially like it because they won't know that their plan is intentionally being thwarted. They'll think it was a coincidence."
"But it's only a temporary reprieve," objected Nick. "As Shep said, they could then go to another neighboring world and kill Halloway there."
"Wait—wouldn't their being thwarted also resonate?" I asked. "Wouldn't that carry over into the nearby worlds? Obviously Shep and I can't show up in all of them—or wait, yes, we could! Because, because we exist in World 437! And in World A probably, for that matter—so it doesn't matter if we're really physically in a world and also there inside somebody's head, because we did that and nothing happened!
"So if we did go to World 437 from here, from the TSA, and stop the murder, then when we got there, would the us already in World 437 wake up and feel drawn to go to the campus, like you said—reality trying to bring the two sets of us together? And then wouldn't the us's in all the neighboring worlds tend to feel the urge to go to the campus that night and—but they'd have to really run into the Ys, not just go to the Security Office and report that they had. Would that work?"
"Very possibly," said Andrew after a pause. "I think it's worth a try."
"Would it be helpful to leave us linked?" asked Shep. "I mean, if we're really physically present, obviously we can really physically talk with each other, but it might be helpful to be able to talk privately when other people are around."
"Absolutely," said Nick. "Certainly can't hurt."
"Okay," said Shep. "Let's do it."
"Now?" The three of us spoke almost simultaneously.
"What?" said Shep, looking around at us. "Why not? Why wait? Let's go and do it and see if it works. Then we'll know, and we can plan the next step."