Unraveling

  “You didn’t seem to mind playing junior detective when we thought it was a virus,” I say. I don’t add that he also didn’t mind when it was just me and him.

  What I don’t say doesn’t matter. I’ve pissed him off enough. I feel the brakes grinding together before I realize he’s decided to pull over and stop the car. The tires squeal and the car jerks to a stop, and Alex turns around to face me. “Six days,” he says. “Six days!”

  “Don’t you think I know that?” I yell back.

  “Look, when we thought it was a virus, we were planning to tell your dad the theories as they came up, just like we always do,” he says, his voice slightly more even, though no less tense. “And this is completely different. We stumbled on something way too big for us, and as far as we know, the FBI doesn’t even think it’s in the realm of possibility. You need to tell Struz.”

  “We’ve had this argument before,” I say. “Nothing is going to change if we have it again.”

  “No, that’s not good enough. I just sat back and did nothing when you got roofied and didn’t want to tell your dad because it was your decision to make, but I’m not—”

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “I’m just saying, this is bigger than you.”

  “Again, you think I don’t know that? Even if Struz did believe me,” I say, trying to force myself to calm down, “how is he going to actually help us? The FBI will bring Ben, Elijah, and Reid in for questioning, which would actually waste more time.”

  “Is that what this is about?” Alex laughs, only it’s filled with bitterness. “You don’t want to turn Ben in? I don’t care what you feel for him, J, for all we know he hasn’t told us everything, and by protecting him, you could just—”

  “It would end up being counterproductive!” I lean toward Alex. “If Ben, Elijah, and Reid are the only ones who understand alternate universes, we need them. Locking them up and questioning them could be the worst thing for us.”

  Alex shakes his head. “Why do you even believe them?”

  “What?”

  “Why do you even believe them?” he asks again. “Seriously, three random stoners? Sure, they’re not as bad as we thought they were, but still, you don’t even know them.”

  “You said you believed them,” I say, even though I know that’s not what Alex wants to hear. He wants to hear he’s right—because he would be, except I do feel like I know Ben.

  “I said the alternate universe theory works,” Alex corrects me. “It fits, and yeah, I guess I could believe them about that, but why do we believe they’re not the ones opening the portals anymore? Their motivation still hasn’t changed.”

  “People were dying. Ben wouldn’t—”

  “How do you know that? Because you think he’s hot? C’mon—”

  “This is crap,” I say, unbuckling my seat belt. “I can’t even talk to you. Not when you’re not going to listen to anything I say.”

  “Seriously?” Alex says. “Seriously. I always listen to what you say. How can you even—”

  “You didn’t believe me when I told you I’d died!”

  Neither one of us has any response to that. I don’t because I didn’t realize until this moment I was still upset about it, and Alex doesn’t because he didn’t, either. Only now that I’ve said it, I’m furious. My hands curl into fists, and I feel like my whole body is shaking under the weight of my anger.

  “I told you,” I say. “I told you I died and you passed it off as my optic nerves firing, like I was just some crazy idiot girl.”

  “That is not at all—” He’s shaking his head.

  “Of course you don’t believe Ben. You didn’t even believe me, even though you’ve known me forever. You don’t believe anything.”

  I’m suddenly too hot to be in the car. I swing the door open and get out.

  And as I’m slamming the door shut, I hear Alex say, “I always believe you!”

  “Not when it matters!” I yell back, even if it isn’t completely true.

  Then I stalk off down the road.

  Alex tries to drive alongside me for a few minutes, but when I give him the finger, he throws up his arms and hits the gas.

  I watch as his car gets smaller and smaller until it finally disappears, and when it does, I have the urge to sit down and cry a little. And with everything going on, I don’t quite have the strength to resist it. So I do.

  05:23:51:24

  Without thinking about it, I show up at the Staybridge. Reid’s blue 4Runner is easy to spot now, because it also throws into sharp relief how wrong everything went for Ben and Elijah. All three of them went into the foster-care system on the same day, and through the luck of the draw, Reid found a family that took him in and adopted him and gave him things—like a nice car. And Ben and Elijah got shuffled from home to home.

  I’m sick thinking about it.

  Ben must see me coming, because he opens the passenger door and gets out. “Is everything okay?”

  I nod, despite the fact that my eyes feel a little watery, and my throat constricts as I think about the way I just left things with Alex. I don’t want to tell him that, though, so I try for the most honest answer I can give. “I just can’t sit at my house and wait anymore.”

  Ben nods once like he understands, and Reid gets out of the car. “I’ll check on Elijah.” Then he looks at me and back at Ben. “You should sit in the driver’s seat. Just in case.”

  And then Reid is gone, walking around to the back of the hotel, and Ben is moving around the car to the driver’s side. I slide into the passenger seat and shut the door. Even with the back windows open, the inside of the car is hot and sticky, and my shoes step on a week’s worth of potato-chip wrappers, making them crunch.

  “Please tell me you’ve had some real food,” I say, looking over at Ben.

  A smile starts to curl his lips, but he doesn’t look at me.

  “If you could eat anything right now, what would it be?” I ask.

  “Steak,” he says without hesitation. “A huge piece of steak, medium rare, and mashed potatoes.”

  “Oh my God, testosterone overload,” I say.

  “Does that mean you weren’t offering to make dinner?” He laughs.

  “I might have offered to spring for a pizza.”

  “My mom made the best steak and mashed potatoes,” he says quietly. “It’s what we ate on all our birthdays.”

  I’m about to say something else when someone—a man—comes out the front door of the Staybridge. Ben and I both sit up, and he grabs something from the center console and leans forward, lifting it to his eyes.

  Binoculars. And ones that look like they must be pretty expensive.

  Ben hands them to me, and I look through. As soon as I manage to find the guy walking out of the Staybridge, I know it’s not our guy. Alias Mike Cooper has probably fifty pounds of muscle on this guy.

  I give Ben the binoculars and lean back in the seat. “Where’s Elijah?” I ask.

  “We’ve been taking turns watching the two exits. Two of us will stay in the car and watch the front exit, and one of us will hang out by the back exit in case he comes out that way.”

  “Just out in the open?”

  Ben shakes his head. “There’s some trees and bushes back there.”

  “So you’ve been hiding out in the shrubbery in the middle of the night?”

  He smiles again. “Yeah, it’s not really as glamorous or exciting as Elijah had imagined. This guy is pretty damn boring.”

  Speak of the devil. Elijah turns the corner of the hotel and starts jogging toward us.

  “He would do anything for me,” Ben says as we watch him. “He always has. He’s like my version of Alex.”

  That hurts, since Alex and I are currently not talking, but Ben doesn’t know that, so I just nod and keep watching Elijah. Alex puts up with all my shit and misanthropic tendencies. I suppose I should be able to understand why Ben puts up with Elijah.

  When Elijah
reaches us, he opens Ben’s door and says, “Get out.”

  “You’re sending me somewhere already?” Ben says. “Reid just got back.”

  Elijah shakes his head. “That dickwad spends too much time jerking off. Go inside to the third floor and see if Suspect Zero is still in his room.”

  Ben groans a little, but he gets out of the car and Elijah gets in instead.

  “Wait, what are you going to do? You can’t just knock on his door,” I say.

  “Sure he can,” Elijah says, pulling the door shut before Ben has a chance to answer. Then he says, “Relax, it’s been two days since we first pulled the fire alarm.”

  That’s how they found out what room alias Mike Cooper is in. Each one of them took a floor, Elijah pulled the fire alarm, and then they each pretended to be just another aimless hotel guest walking around and going, “What happened? Is there really a fire?” Not exactly science, but it worked.

  “It hasn’t quite been two days, actually. Besides, a fire alarm every two days, even for a dump like this, is excessive,” I say.

  Elijah shrugs. “Ben probably won’t do that anyway. He’ll listen at the door, try to hear if the fucking guy is still watching TV, and he can always make a hole in the door or the wall or something and peek through.”

  That doesn’t sound stealthy, and I almost say it, but Elijah must see my face, because he just laughs. “Relax, Tenner, it would be a tiny hole, and he probably won’t do that anyway. You act like we’ve never spied on people before.”

  I don’t say anything else. I’m not exactly excited about sitting in the car alone with Elijah.

  As if he can read my mind, he says, “I don’t care that you don’t like me.”

  “That lack of caring is mutual.”

  He smirks at that but doesn’t say anything else. We watch as a woman and two small children come out of the Staybridge and head toward the In-N-Out across the street.

  “Don’t fuck with his head, either.”

  “Save it,” I say. “Whatever happens between me and Ben isn’t any of your business.”

  “Oh, but it is.” Elijah turns and looks at me this time. “Because nothing is going to stop me from getting home. Nothing. Not this fucking guy, not Wave Function Collapse, and certainly not you. We’re all getting home.”

  “Right, even if it kills innocent people. Trust me, I think I understand your commitment to the cause.”

  “You don’t understand shit. He got plenty of those portals open without bringing anyone through, and he can do it. He can fix the portals, figure out where we’re going, and get us home. I know he can.” Only I have the sense Elijah is trying to convince himself and not me.

  Which I might have been tempted to say if his phone didn’t ring.

  “What?” Elijah says as he answers it. “Shit, we’ll be right there.”

  He hangs up and starts the car, and I reach around to pull my seat belt on as I ask, “Where are we going?”

  “Call Ben,” Elijah says. “Suspect Zero is leaving out the back right now.”

  “So where are we going?” But I open up my phone and dial Ben.

  “Tell him to break in and toss the room but to keep his phone on. We’ll call when he’s coming back.” When Ben answers, I repeat Elijah’s instructions, even though my heart is racing and I feel a little light-headed about the fact that I just told the guy I like to break into a hotel room.

  “We’re following this guy. If he’s opening portals, I want to know how he can fucking help us get home.” Elijah pulls over and we pick up Reid, who gets into the back and makes the entire car reek of cigarettes.

  “He’s in the blue Ford F-150,” Reid says. “Remember to stay a car’s length behind him.”

  Elijah doesn’t acknowledge Reid’s instruction, but I watch as the Ford turns onto University Avenue and as Elijah waits for two cars to pass before he turns onto the road as well.

  I’m not sure how, but this stakeout just turned into a chase.

  05:23:41:48

  I realize where we’re going as soon as I see the Ford F-150 turn into the residential neighborhood. “What the hell is he doing here?” Reid mutters as we follow him.

  “Circle around,” I tell Elijah. “Pass him when he stops. Two streets down, make a right, then you can make your next two rights, and we’ll be able to see him from the street.”

  He glances at me, and I say, “This is where the portal dropped three people and melted everyone inside.”

  Elijah’s eyes widen with surprise, and he turns back to look at Reid. Some sort of information passes in that look, but I’m not sure what it is, and then Elijah does what I said, passing the Ford F-150 just as alias Mike Cooper is getting out of the car.

  It is him—the guy from my father’s grainy gas station photo. He looks like he’s in his thirties, and he’s definitely military. Seeing him in person, it’s not just the haircut, but his posture, the way he carries himself, his movements—it all says military.

  As we’re passing him, I take note of the bulges in his clothes—his left ankle and the small of his back—that’s where he’s carrying his guns.

  I wonder if he’s some kind of spy, a navy SEAL turned CIA operative or something. If he does know something about the portals and the radiation burns, he must be working for someone. The thought is a rock in the pit of my stomach. If this guy is just muscle, we’re a long way from figuring out who’s opening portals and how we can prevent Wave Function Collapse. Alex might have been right. Even if alias Mike Cooper is just a mercenary, this is even bigger than I’d expected.

  When we park, I make us all scrunch down in our seats so it’s not obvious we’re spying on him. We’re at the corner, across the street from where that house used to be, and alias Mike Cooper is standing on the scorched earth with his back to us, but I don’t want to take any chances.

  After about half a minute of silence, Reid says, “What’s he doing?”

  “How the fuck should I know?” Elijah says.

  Alias Mike Cooper squats and reaches down to the ground. “It looks like he’s checking out the dirt.” Which makes no sense at all. What is he doing?

  “Let’s get out of here,” Reid says. “We’ll have more luck helping Ben with checking out the room.”

  “Don’t be such a pussy. We need to call him when he’s leaving and—”

  “Get down, he’s getting up,” I say as alias Mike Cooper stands up and starts walking the backyard fence line. He’s going the same direction I went when I was here that night, and once I realize that, I can’t help but shiver.

  “This fucking guy,” Elijah says, and then he looks at me. “Should one of us get out and get a closer look?”

  “Are you kidding? He’d see us for sure. How would you explain that away?”

  Elijah looks back at Reid, and out of the corner of my eye, I’m sure I see Reid shake his head slightly.

  I’m ready to ask them what the heck they’re hiding from me, when another car pulls up in front of the house. A car I recognize.

  It’s a TrailBlazer. Specifically, it’s Barclay’s TrailBlazer, and I have a moment to wonder if it was stolen from him before the door opens and he gets out.

  “Who the hell is that?” Elijah asks, looking at me.

  “Doesn’t he work for the FBI?” Reid asks, sliding farther down in his seat.

  “The fucking FBI,” Elijah says, glaring at me, and I know they’re both going to be even more dead against involving Struz now.

  Barclay walks slowly but with purpose as he approaches alias Mike Cooper. He must have taken the information I gave him, found alias Mike Cooper, and made the connection himself, and now Barclay is going to arrest him and crack the case. I want to be angry with the arrogant prick for not telling me whatever it is he’s found, but I only feel relief.

  “How are we going to get any information from him now?” Elijah says.

  “I can probably get info out of Struz,” I say. Or Barclay, even though I don’t say it. Again, he’l
l owe me since this bust will make his career. He’ll probably get a promotion in a few months and become a full agent.

  “You better not say anything about us,” Reid says. “I don’t want the FBI knocking on my door.”

  “How’d this FBI guy even find our Suspect Zero?” Elijah asks. “Did you fucking tell him?”

  I feel giddy and light-headed, and I’m sure a smile has just taken up permanent residence on my face. This was actually the perfect solution for me. The FBI knows now. I can go to Struz, confess everything, and they already have the bad guy.

  Only as I watch them, it’s as if everything is happening in slow motion. “Wait.”

  Elijah and Reid drop whatever argument they were about to launch at me and turn to the windows, and the three of us watch Barclay talk to alias Mike Cooper.

  It doesn’t look like an interrogation.

  It looks like they’re chatting.

  Like they might be friends.

  05:18:13:34

  When I get home that night, after we fill Ben in on the meeting alias Mike Cooper had with Barclay and he fills us in on the fact that he found nothing out of the ordinary at the hotel room—nothing—I open the front door to find Jared playing video games and eating more pizza and Struz on the phone in the kitchen.

  The house is a mess. Struz has actually tried to pick up after himself and Jared. He just hasn’t done a great job, because there are still three people eating and at least pseudo-inhabiting this house, and no one’s actually cleaning it.

  I check on Jared first. He’s playing World of Warcraft again, not really a game I get in any capacity even though I play with him sometimes, but he’s addicted. “How was polo?” I ask.

  Jared shrugs in response.

  “Did you get enough to eat?”

  He nods, and when I reach down to tousle his hair, he shrugs me off. “I’m fine.”

  “Okay, let me know if you need anything,” I say, because I just can’t do another fight today. I’ll have it out with Jared tomorrow. When I have a better idea of what I might say.