Paradox (Travelers Series Book 2)

  Chapter Eighteen

  Weird Science

  Once, when I was still living at Dominion House, I was forced to take an IQ test. I had consistently tested poorly on the schools standardized tests, so they figured I was a slow learner. Turned out, I ended up scoring impressively high on the IQ test, which puzzled the school administrators, but the psychologist who tested me explained I was probably just bored in school.

  High IQ aside, I never imagined I’d ever set foot at a university. For one, I was poor in the reality I spent most of my life in, and two, I never really took academics seriously. My grades improved as I got older, but academics were never something I put much focus on, seeing that I couldn’t afford to go to college. And now here I am, walking along the grounds of MIT. It’s pretty impressive, even for me.

  “I can’t believe you totally lied to my aunt,” I say as we walk across the campus. To get here, we ended up taking the hour and a half flight to Boston and then jumped to this reality from the other MIT campus.

  “I didn’t necessarily lie,” he points out. “Look, I know Maggie’s been pretty supportive about the whole thing, with you possibly putting yourself in danger once you resume your position in the other reality and all. I just figured she could use a break from worrying about you. A little white lie is all.”

  “Your ability to manipulate the truth astounds me,” I giggle. All laughing aside, I’m secretly glad Cooper did what he did. I don’t want to admit it to him, but I’m afraid my aunt has reached her limit and might possibly get concerned enough to change her mind and convince my dad I should forgo my destined future in the other reality. I don’t know if there’s any real threat of this, but her talk earlier about living for the moment is a big giveaway.

  He takes my hand and laughs. “Don’t worry, darlin’, I’d never lie to you about anything,” he says. I must be getting better at guarding my thoughts, because he is oblivious to what I was just thinking.

  And while he does tend to omit certain information, I believe him when he says he’ll never lie to me. This is still something to get used to. That and the hand holding. I mean, I know I’m technically betrothed to Cooper, but he still hasn’t told me the specifics of that yet. Maybe it has something to do with me being unsure of the situation, so I haven’t pressed him for any of the details. While I’m totally crushing on Cooper and enjoying his attention, the idea of being married is a lot to consider.

  We continue to walk along the sprawling campus, hand in hand. “Do you know where we’re going?” The campus is large, not to mention overwhelming, with students milling about. I’m not sure how we plan on finding the brothers, even if they are twins. They’ll be difficult to find in this maze, even armed with the campus map we picked up at the Visitor’s Center.

  Letting go of my hand, Cooper studies the map. “We’re looking for the McNair Building.” He gives the map another quick scan. “And we’re in luck. It’s not far from here. Just a couple buildings up from the Visitor’s Center.”

  “What’s in the McNair Building? Is it a dorm?”

  He turns away from the map long enough to look at me. “Nope. McNair houses the Kalvi Institute.”

  I’m afraid to ask, but I do anyway. “And what’s that?”

  “The astrophysics and space research department.”

  Of course it is.

  We pass a couple of more buildings until Cooper confirms we’re at the right one. “Looks like this is it.”

  The lab the twins work in is on the second floor, so we opt for the stairs. I wonder what kind of research they do here. Probably super geeky space stuff using telescopes that cost more than all the houses in my neighborhood combined.

  “So, what do these two physics geeks do for the cause?” Since they’re also part of the drug trials, maybe their minds were also expanded to understand and conceptualize complex science equations. Something like that could certainly come in handy in the other universe.

  Cooper shakes his head. “These geeks, as you so kindly refer to them, are the ones who keep us one step ahead in the realm of technology. They help create and navigate the systems used to help us fight Thornberry.”

  “But weren’t they also part of the experiments?” Surely, their usefulness in the other reality isn’t limited to just their scientific minds. They’re supposed to have powers too.

  “Oh, that, yeah. Twins have always been an asset to research studies, so I guess that’s why they were chosen for the project. Because of it, they’re able to possess the ability of second sight.”

  “What about their brains?” I wonder again if that’s why they’re so smart. I mean, come on, this is MIT. You have to be pretty damn smart to be accepted to this school.

  “What about them?” He gives me one of those blank looks.

  “Just curious, that’s all. I mean, did it make them smarter? Is that why they study astrophysics or whatever it is they study here?”

  Cooper stops mid-stair and thinks about this for a moment. “To be honest, I don’t really know. I assume some of the experiments conducted on us did have an effect on sections of the brain that control intellect, but since it wasn’t the primary focus of the study, I don’t think your father ever made records with respect to intelligence levels.”

  It doesn’t take us long to reach the second floor and we follow the signs that direct us to the right room. I stop Cooper in the middle of the hallway. “Wait, what are their names again?”

  “Chance and Chase.”

  “How original,” I snicker, as we continue to walk towards the room. “Kinda jock-y sounding for a couple of nerds, don’t you think?”

  “I think you’ve been hanging around Jaime too long,” he says, before stopping himself.

  With all the running around we’ve been doing, I almost forget about Jaime. It makes me frustrated to think she may be in danger and I’m in no position to help her.

  “I think I know where she is,” I finally admit to Cooper. I’ve been hiding the fact that I’d gone and astraled twice. I feel like he’ll be mad, or worse, disappointed, if he finds out I took such a big risk.

  He halts right in his tracks, narrowly bumping into a student walking directly behind us. “What do you mean you think you know where she is?”

  “Well, I, uh…” I know it probably isn’t the brightest idea, telling Cooper about my astral trips, but I have to talk to someone about it besides my aunt. Especially since I’d promised her I wouldn’t astral project anymore. “I astraled.”

  Cooper’s eyes got wide. “You what?” He says, looking around to make sure no one heard his outburst, then lowers his voice. “You what? Etta, you can’t just astral project all by yourself. I know we haven’t spent much time going over your new power, but you have to be careful. What if you astraled some place and you failed to return?”

  Maybe I shouldn’t have confided in him, but I thought he’d be more understanding. I don’t want to admit I’ve had the very same concerns. “I know, but I have to find her, Coop. It’s all my fault Thornberry took her.”

  He takes a hold of my shoulders. “It’s not your fault, darlin’. If anyone’s to blame, it’s Thornberry. Jaime is just an unwilling participant in whatever scheme he’s hatching.”

  “You’re right, but still. If I don’t try to find her, who else is going to? Certainly not her mom.” I think back to the other day, seeing Jaime’s mom all stressed out over her family’s disappearance. I feel bad not checking in with her again, but what good would it do? She’s probably called the police by now. Not that they’ll be much help under the circumstances.

  “Look, I’ll tell you what. Let’s just get through this and when we get back home, we’ll think of something.”

  I hug Cooper. “Thank you.”

  “Come on,” he says, ending the embrace. “Let’s go find the Dyson brothers.”

  We continue to look for the little plastic room numbers, finally locating the right room. “This is it, room 215.”

  The door to the lab
is already open, so we don’t bother to knock. As we enter the room, we can hear the two of them arguing.

  “They should be arriving any minute…”

  “…and just how accurate are your premonitions?”

  “Trust me, my premonitions are at a eighty-eight percent rate…”

  “…hardly significant…”

  Neither of them notice as we walk into the room. “Ahem. I hope we’re not interrupting anything,” I say.

  “Ah, Etta. Cooper. We’ve been expecting you.” I’m not sure which one of the twins says this. Whichever one it is, looks over to his brother and gloats. “You see? They’re here.”

  “You have? I mean, you know who we are?” He must be the one with the precognitive powers.

  “Well, of course. I had a vision of the two of you coming.”

  “Then you must be Chase,” I say, extending my hand.

  The other brother also takes a turn extending pleasantries. His hand is cold and clammy to the touch, but not in an off-putting way. “And I’m Chance,” he says, shaking my hand vigorously, despite his sticky hands.

  “Nice to finally meet you both,” I say. “I’ve heard a great deal about you two.”

  “Yes, um, we’re quite familiar with the two of you as well,” Chase (I think?) says. “I’ve had visions of you over the last few days. My brother and I are very excited about the prospect of discovering new worlds.”

  The other brother finishes his brother’s thoughts. “It’s been a part of our research for years.”

  Cooper also takes a moment to greet the twins. “Well, now that introductions have been made and you both know why we’re here, I’m sure there aren’t any objections to what we’ll be asking you to do?”

  “No,” both answer in unison.

  “Good. Pack your bags boys; we’re going on a little side trip.”

  Did I hear Cooper correctly? “We’re going somewhere else?”

  He flashes me another one of his brilliant smiles. “Yeah.”

  • • •

  The twins take us back to their apartment so they can pick up their bags. You’d think the one who can see the future would have had the mind to suggest they keep their bags with them back at the lab, considering he was already expecting our arrival.

  As if he read my thoughts, one of the brothers stops before entering his bedroom to retrieve his stuff. “I apologize for our lack of preparedness. It would’ve been more logical to keep our luggage back at the lab, knowing you’d be coming for us, but my brother was still not convinced of your arrival. He computed the probability of the scenario and the odds were not favorable to my premonition.” He shrugs and continues back to his room.

  I just gawk at the brother, who I assume is Chase. I can’t seem to keep the two of them straight; they look so much alike. As I consider our two new curious companions, Cooper says something about heading to Vegas from here.

  “I thought we were just coming to MIT for the day? You told Aunt Maggie we’d be back tonight.” I glance at my watch. It’s already getting close to eight o’clock and we’re still in Boston. She’s going to wonder what happened to us. Getting home late is one thing, but coming home the following day, is entirely something else. “So, what? We’re just going to say we’re not coming back until tomorrow?”

  “Sure, why not? We’ll just tell your dad and Maggie we drove down to Richmond to check-out some of the campuses there and we’re too tired to drive back home at this hour.”

  “There’s no way Aunt Maggie is going to fall for that. My dad, maybe, but not Maggie.”

  “How do you figure? Richmond is only an hour and a half drive. Besides, why wouldn’t we have gone down there for a visit? You’ll tell her you felt Georgetown was a bit out of your league, so we went to visit the University of Richmond.”

  I guess this is plausible. And Cooper’s from an alternate Richmond, so he’d definitely know his way around—if the city is anything like the one in my reality. The drive there is almost the equivalent to flying to Boston. Time-wise, it’s totally possible. But I’m still not sure she’s going to buy it.

  I’m still confused as to why we’re traveling behind my dad and Maggie’s back. “I don’t get why we’re trying to hide the fact that we’re rounding up everyone. They gave us permission remember?”

  Cooper shrugs. “They did, but I have a feeling that even though they gave you the okay, they might change their minds. Remember, I can hear their thoughts. I don’t think they’re entirely convinced of what we’re trying to do.”

  That makes sense, remembering Maggie’s speech on responsibilities this morning. “Okay, I’ll make the call.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Moose Espinoza

  The Year 2018

  Council Meeting

  Etta thought the council meeting went well. It was a small gathering, but everyone was present and accounted for. Even those who weren’t council members hung on every word she, as their leader, had to say. She was even surprised to see some of the neutrals in attendance. Most of what she said to the crowd was nothing more than a declaration of their plan of attack and she was pleased she wasn’t met with resistance, once she explained the initial phases. It was an ambitious effort, but it appeared she had a following that trusted her judgment.

  After the meeting, she pulled aside the big burly man who served as one of her and Cooper’s most trusted lieutenants and asked him to stay behind. The others were adjourned for the rest of the evening to enjoy, what little they could, under the circumstances.

  “Are you sure everyone here was legit?” She asked Moose. Earlier, before the meeting, she’d asked him to do a thorough sweep of everyone who entered the meeting room. Not that they were checking weapons at the door, but emotions. Moose was able to detect fraud and any ill intentions from anyone that walked into the room. He’d already assured her before she began the meeting that everyone passed muster, but she wanted to make sure. She might still have time to do damage control if there were any moles present.

  “Absolutely, Boss Lady. Everyone in attendance had the same intent. Not one imposter. I did a walk through while you spoke, just to make sure.”

  Etta breathed a sigh of relief. She knew she could count on him for his attention to detail. “You know, I don’t think I ever thanked you for coming to my aid that night.” She told the gentle giant.

  At first glance, the man, standing almost seven feet tall, with a face full of acne scars that resembled craters, looked jarring, but she knew looks were deceiving and inside the rocky exterior held a person who embodied courage, as well as kindness.

  She had completely misjudged him the first time they met, but she vowed never to repeat the same mistake again. Her husband Coop liked to call him his most trusted operative and if it came down to a duel for this man’s support, she’d fight to the death for him.

  “Anything for you, Etta girl,” he said. “You’re one brave chick.”

  There was a time him calling her a ‘chick’ would have offended her, but not anymore. “You know, if you hadn’t gone ahead of Coop to Thornberry’s house that night, who knows what would have happened to me.” She was speaking of the night when she had astraled to Cooper to come to her aid when she was held in Thornberry’s house.

  “It’s been my experience never to dwell on things of the past. We’re better off focusing on the future,” he said with a wink.

  “You know, my aunt told me once, that I should focus on living for today and not spend so much time worrying about the future. Do you think she was wrong?” She remembered that day in the kitchen when her aunt feared for her future. But what seemed like just yesterday, was actually seven years ago.

  “Oh, I don’t know about that, but from what I hear, your aunt’s a pretty smart broad. Then again, if we didn’t concern ourselves with the future, we wouldn’t have gotten this far.”

  “No, I suppose you’re right.” In a way, they’re still living in the present, she thought to herself. Chase’s precognition
powers only allowed for them to be a couple of days ahead in terms of knowing the future. Everything beyond that point was mere speculation.

  He stops mid-stride and took a second before speaking again. “Hey, I got a question for you.”

  Etta didn’t know if she should be worried. As long as she’d known him, she hardly ever saw him tongue-tied. “Shoot.”

  “Well, I’ve been getting these vibes from Taylor and I’m not sure what to make of them.”

  “What do you mean vibes?” Moose was pretty skilled at reading the emotions of others. Why would he have trouble gauging Taylor’s, she wondered.

  “I think my feelings might be clouding my feed off her.” The big man was almost shy in his response, the way he looked at the ground and refused to look Etta in the eye. This was a man who was never at a loss for words or hesitant to speak his mind.

  “Your feelings?”

  “Well, yeah. I mean, it’s no secret I’m kinda into her. Whenever I’m around her, I just… I don’t know.” He throws his big giant hands in the air. “Now, I think she might be feeling the same for me, but it could just be that she thinks of me like a big brother or something.” Moose’s eyes went back to the ground. “That’s probably it. She’d never be interested in a guy with pock marks who towers over her like a giant.”

  “Oh, not you too!” It looked like Chase wasn’t the only one who had a crush around here.

  “Huh?”

  “Nothing. Something one of the twins said. But seriously, that’s great! I mean, I’m glad to see you really are a big softy after all. I had my suspicions,” Etta said as she playfully punched him on the arm. “I’m sure that if you’re getting something from Taylor, it’s probably good or you wouldn’t be getting those feelings from her.”

  “You think?” He looked so hopeful; Etta hoped she wasn’t giving him bad advice.

  “I’m sure of it.” Now, Etta had no idea if Taylor shared Moose’s sentiments or not. The girl was always hard to read and always kept her feelings to herself. But Etta was willing to help Moose out. “Do you want me to have a talk with her?”