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Chapter -20- Penultimate

Tuesday, August 31, 2049 - 8:30pm PDT Parker Mansion ... San Francisco ...

Reno Nevada looked up from the tablet screen and nodded to Kalen. "Hey, man."

"You find anything?" asked Kalen.

"Just a lot of crap I don't understand. Working as an USPRI-sanctioned FBI agent sucks. I have no team, I have no resources, I have nothing but credentials, which only help me slightly. My liaison is worthless. It's a pain in my ass. All this cloak-and-dagger crap when the Esoteric Council doesn't even really function anymore ... it's bullshit."

Kalen frowned. "What did you find about Lance?"

"What didn't I find? The guy kept meticulous records of all sorts of stuff." Reno swiped his finger on the screen. "Here's an article I scanned in about the currency crash of 1907. Interesting but not helpful. Apparently the Parker family helped fix it with a gentle influx of money in the right places. You know what triggered the economy to crash decades later on Black Tuesday? Elijah Parker died."

"I remember. How did that cause the country to sink?" asked Kalen.

"Lance wrote that Elijah personally restored things after the currency crash in 1907 - he was gentle to the economy and led the country into the roaring twenties. Then he died, and his brother's son wasn't old enough to help maintain stability. Those in the know of Esoteric dealings panicked and the stock market tanked."

"I see."

Reno shrugged. "Yeah. And over here," he swiped the screen, bringing up another article he found, "ole Methos was reading several articles at once when he disappeared."

"What were they about?" Kalen shifted his weight. "Maybe something can help us figure things out."

Nevada gazed at the screen and said, "Some guy, En-no-Gyoja, an esoteric founder of 'shugendo.' Am I even pronouncing that right? It's some sort of religion about 'Taoism, Shinto and esoteric Buddhism.' Oh, and, 'Japanese shamanism.' Hell if I know."

Karla arched his brows. "You mentioned other articles?"

"His browsing tab was also open on 'Thrice-greatest hermes - Hermes Trismegistus.' Yeah. Whoever the hell that was. It says here he was an author of a series of sacred texts that were printed on green glass or emerald or ... I can't follow this crap." Reno scrolled down a bit. "Some guy, Edgar Cayce, claims this dude was an engineer from Atlantis, and either designed or helped direct the making of the Egyptian Pyramids."

"You mean the city rumored to be the obsession of Dr. Aris Falcon?" Kalen sat down on a living room chair adjacent to the sofa where Reno had surrounded himself with the tablet and printed crime scene photos of Lance's apartment. Kalen folded his hands. "So we know Lance was reading what the world thinks it knows about the ancient esoteric past. The question is - does it relate?"

"Yeah."

Kalen reached over the coffee table and picked up a USB thumb drive. "Isn't this Nathan's?"

"I have it on good authority that it belonged to him but I wouldn't know for sure. I found it in my Chevelle - in the glove box. A contact of mine seems to think it belonged to Nathan, too. But I looked up the serial number of the USB drive and its manufacture date was ten years ago. So how can that be, right?"

Kalen nodded. "Yes, that means it was made fifteen years after Nathan's death."

Reno snapped his fingers and pointed at Kalen, signaling the vampire was correct. "I found one from the same batch sold on an online auction site, still new in the package." Reno reached down behind himself and pulled the package out from the sofa cushion. "See? It's the same thing."

"That's ... that's even odder than the fact it's a USB drive."

"What?" Reno ran his hand up through his hair. "Don't complicate things, man."

"Reno, Nathan had that device on him the day I met him."

"What? How long ago was that?"

"Mm, about a hundred and fifty years ago. He often groused that it was useless until one day in the future. One time, it was stolen by someone and I helped him retrieve it. He was quite attached to it. After that, he became quite ... guarded over it. For a while, he began to trust the Parker family enough to keep it in their vault."

Reno stared at Kalen for a moment. He looked down at the dirty USB drive on the table then at the package on his knee. "He was that guarded over it, yet he threw it in the glove box of my father's muscle car, in a crappy old shed?"

Kalen fidgeted. "Was Nathan your father?"

"What?" Reno laughed and shook his head. "No, man. I knew my dad, man. I got to thinking when you said we were related a few weeks ago. Hell, Karla once said we taste the same. So I was a little freaked out how close we're related. But no, Carrington was old as crap, and I knew my dad; they weren't the same person, trust me. The real question is how Nathanial got a USB drive back in time. The damn thing is formatted so that only current computers can read it. I couldn't access it in 2024."

"It doesn't make sense."

A younger male voice came from across the room. "Sure it does."

Reno and Kalen looked up at Conner.

Nevada nodded and gestured to the far end of the sofa. "Take a load off, kiddo."

Conner approached and sank down on the sofa. "Have you guys met Raul Poliandro yet?"

"Not yet," said Reno.

"Only once," Kalen said. "In the summer of 1908. He's not the kind of personality you easily forget. Very eccentric and erratic. He would flirt with any woman, no matter her build, figure, orientation..."

"Yeah," Conner said with a firm nod. "That's the guy. He moves through time."

"What?" Reno leaned back on the couch and traced his thumb over the package of the unopened USB drive. "I'm still reeling over the fact that USB drives aren't manufactured anymore and I had to buy this online from an auction site. You gotta go easy on me, kiddo - I'm not sure I am ready to hear about time travel."

"It's true, guys."

Kalen frowned. "He stopped time, Reno. Again, I'll never forget the man. I'm told he's related to Karla but she wasn't present at the time he helped save lives in 1908. She arrived afterwards." Kincade folded his hands and, in a somber voice, said, "So we've figured out how the USB wound up in Nathan's hands back then. Raul brought it back through time. The question is why?"

Reno added, "And why is Raul here to help us now?"

Kalen nodded. "And is he the same Raul that helped us, or gave Nathan the drive? Or maybe he hasn't done it yet in his timeline."

Conner groaned. "God, you're talking like Raul talks. I think I'm starting to understand it now, though. Some of the things he's accredited for doing may not have happened for him yet, or he might have done it when he first started time traveling, so ... he might not have the same personality or code of honor or whatever. Stuff might be different."

Reno rubbed his face. "I've seen enough time travel shit to know that if we approach him about it, it might cause those things to happen, or prevent them from happening. Time travel is complicated bullshit, even in fiction."

Conner tongued one of his broken teeth. "So, you guys are saying, this could be a younger Raul who hasn't taken the thumb drive back in time yet?"

"Exactly," said Reno. "Like I said, time travel is complicated no matter how you look at it."

"True," Kalen murmured.

"All we need is a DeLorean," said Reno

"What?" Conner tilted his head. "That's a classic car right? Only made for, like, three years? Vertical doors, V6?"

"Jesus Christ, you don't know Back to the Future?"

"...Sorry?" Conner tilted his head the other way.

Kalen shook his head and changed the subject. "So have you booted the drive yet?"

Reno replied with a sour looking face.

"Have you looked at the files?" asked the vampire with a frown.

"Hell no." Reno reached for the dirty drive on the coffee table and held it up in the light. "Look how smooth the casing is, worn down from being around for so damn long. What if it tells me shit I'm not ready to know about ... myself or ... Nichole, or something?"

Kalen snatched it from Reno's hand. "What if it tell us where to find Lance Patterson?"

"Dammit." Reno grabbed it back and passed it to Conner. "You got a computer that's a few years old? Something with the older USB jack this fits?"

"I do. What a cheap piece of shit, though."

Kalen blinked. "It's survived a hundred and fifty years without falling apart, Conner."

"I mean ... it doesn't even have built in Bluetooth or some other way to communicate with a computer. It needs a physical connection - that's budget as hell. I could have accessed it directly if it had normal, modernized features. Just saying."

"I wouldn't let you," Reno told him in a matter-of-fact tone. "Seriously. Have you been practicing that ability lately? Because unless you're amazing with that ability, I wouldn't want to chance you accidentally formatting something _that_one-of-a-kind, man. No offense. In fact," Reno used his ability and melted the side of the packaging for the new USB drive. "We're going to copy the contents of that old drive onto this new drive. Seriously. Better safe than sorry - we should back it up."

"That's a good idea," Kalen agreed.

Conner put the old drive with the smooth, faded shell onto the coffee table. "I have an eight inch tablet PC from when I was a kid. It still runs and it has a USB jack. It's down in storage. I'll be back in a minute." Conner walked across the living room then glanced back at Reno and Kalen. "Hey, one thing."

Nevada looked back up. "Yeah?"

"Reno - James and I will be headed to the vault with Raul. He thinks he can help us live two whole months, training together, and condense it into a few days. Think of it as speeding up our healing time, so that we heal eight weeks in a matter of days. The rest of the world will take place way too slow all around us, so we have to go somewhere secluded; we have to bring food, water, and training gear. Are you in?"

"Are you for real?"

"Yeah, Uncle Reno. I'm for real. You were in a coma. You're not at your best, no matter how well you heal, and how many times you juice yourself. Uncle Jaye was injured. Dawn is also coming - she needs to get her head together. You need to join us. It will feel like we're living on the Parker Island for two months, but only a few days will pass."

"Can I bring all this stuff so I can take my time going over it?" Reno gestured to the printed photos and the tablet sitting beside him. "I could use the extra time to familiarize myself with Lance's disappearance."

"So you'll come with us?"

Reno sighed. "The vampire gang is gone. Someone killed the time bandit guy. So ... I guess I'll go. But we can't leave until Wilfred calls me in a few hours with the results of the autopsy."

Conner shrugged. "That's fine. I want Tamamo to come with me. It'd be nice to spend two months together. And anyone else who wants to go ... everyone is welcome to come. We'd be a much tighter team if we trained together."

Kalen folded his arms. "Then why not just spend two months together, here, in the mansion - with_out_the temporal theatrics?"

Conner frowned. "What if the world can't wait two actual months for us to save it?"

Kalen returned the frown. "While it's a bit strange to hear you think we're some sort of superheroes trying to save the world from villains, I have to agree that many things could change in two months."

Reno ran his fingers through his hair. "Yeah. We probably can't afford to let that much time pass."

Parker looked down for a moment, as if discouraged. He lifted his gaze and, in a calm tone, announced, "We're all that stands in the way of whatever Aris Falcon does next. Most of you went to stop him twenty-five years ago. And you failed. And the result? Part of America was ripped off the continent. The world could have been saved in the nick of time, and it didn't happen. I don't want to sit here for two months, spread out, injured, and vulnerable while those assholes make progress under the Atlantic. If we do this, no one will be able to attack us. We'll have all the time we need to..."

"We get it," Reno said. "God, you're as talkative as Karla when you're trying to get your point across, kiddo."

Conner froze.

Kalen, bemused, turned to Reno and said, "You offended him."

"I was honest to him," Reno replied.

Conner licked his lips. "I didn't realize I rambled. I just yelled at her for doing it before we were hurt. Now I feel like a dick."

Kalen folded one leg across his other. "Mm. For raising your voice to a lady?"

Conner replied with a strange look. "Karla's cool and all, but she's not a 'lady.' At least no definition of lady I've ever..."

"Stop," Kalen said in a firm yet soft tone. "She has done nothing to earn your disrespect."

"My mother..."

"No," Kalen interrupted. "Karla upset your mother over a misunderstanding. But she has done nothing but focus on helping you, and the rest of us, to find our loved ones. She could have stormed off to find her children. She could have turned to the bottle like Raul. But she's here trying to prove to us that she is still a key part of the team."

Conner folded his arms. "I'm told she's the reason Aris won last time. She made a selfish choice. And, in case you didn't know, she's the reason I had a roof fall on my head. She's the reason I was impaled with a cane."

Reno sighed. "That shit wasn't on purpose, man."

"I know it wasn't on purpose," said Conner. "But you guys treat her like she's sooo amazing," he said, ending with a sarcastic tone. "And what is up with you guys treating her like she's a key player of the team?" He threw his hands up. "Guess what? She's not! If anything, she's the least focused. She's the team fuckup."

"Do you have anything nice to say?" asked Kalen in a calm tone.

Conner continued, "But she has a power that will help, and she is motivated by personal reasons not to betray us like she did all those years ago. So I'm letting her stay here and help. But she's not the All Star, here. And she's definitely not a lady. Tamamo is a lady. Sinopa is a lady. There's a huge difference."

Kalen closed his eyes and sighed. "I do not require training for two months. Take whoever will go with you, Conner. I will keep your mansion safe and prepare to wake Natalia."

Conner shrugged. "Fine by me." He placed the old USB drive on the coffee table and walked out of the living room.

Reno ran his hands through his hair again. "This is going to be a long two months."

Kalen cut his gaze to the lower left, as though looking behind himself without turning his head. He sighed softly, and then asked, "You're going?"

"Yeah. You weren't there twenty-five years ago, but I found this jar of nanobots for the kid's father. Those damn things are on that island. We're going to find them and I'm going to make sure the boy practices using them. I want him to be really_good with them." Reno paused, smiled, then said, "Don't give me that look, Kalen. They were _real nanobots. You know what nanobots are right?"

Kalen nodded. "Yes, the medical world uses them to fix things like an internal bleed. They'll repair a nicked artery, or replicate white cells to fight a dense infection mass, like Staph. It's common knowledge, Reno."

"Yeah, well, _these_nanobots let Fox tear down a car engine and put it back together piece-by-piece in a different car. Fox said Methos knew a lot about them - the things I'm talking about are First Age technology."

Kincade eyed Reno for a moment.

Silence.

The vampire rubbed his chin, thoughtfully. "You're serious, aren't you?" Kalen said, surprised by Reno's demeanor.

"I didn't believe it either. Not at first."

Kalen's cellphone rang. Kincade fished it out of his inside vest pocket and clasped it to his wrist. The wristband conformed to his forearm and magnetically latched itself without assistance. Kalen thumbed the screen then touched the metal crown on the side, activating the speaker phone. "Kincade."

A familiar voice came over the speaker. "Kalen, how'n the hell ya' doin'? Goddamn is it good to hear yer voice, son."

"Rufus!" Kalen sat up in the chair. "We hadn't heard from you and assumed the worst."

"You were damn-well right ta' do so. Let's see ... I lived in a cage, I was thrown through walls, shot 'n left for dead, operated on by Cybil ... again. It took this_damn long ta make it to Ulfey. But, damn, I _found her, brother!"

"My God, Rufus. Why didn't you call one of us to help you?"

"Nevermind all'a that," said Rue. "I got news!"

"Do you need me to come up north and help you?"

Rufus laughed over the line. "Nah. Kalen, you're a right good guy, y'know that? But I made it. I ain't been able to tell anyone yet but it's been a whirlwind if there ever was one. Kalen, you sittin' down?"

"I am."

"I'm a daddy."

Kalen and Reno both blinked and looked at each other. Kalen cleared his throat. "Excuse me? Can you elaborate on that? How far along is she?"

"Nah," Rufus laughed again. "Nah, Ulfey ain't pregnant. Or, rather, she ain't been pregnant for twenty-six years. My boy's headed east lookin' for me right now. Ulfey agreed to come with me and catch up with him. But first, we gotta protect the village here in Washington."

"I'm happy for you, Rue. I really am."

Rufus laughed again, over the line, saying, "I'mma meet my son, son! The Oracle said he's gonna be important. He's got an important destiny 'n all that."

Reno whispered to Kalen. "I've never heard him sound so happy."

Kalen nodded with a wan smile. "That's amazing, Rufus. Stay safe. Call if you need my help. I mean it. You mentioned protecting a village?"

"How fast can ya get here, vamp?"

"Fairly soon."

"Well, c'mon up and be ready to get'cher fangs dirty."

"I'll be up tomorrow," Kalen replied. "In the morning - first flight out. I need to wrap up a few loose ends first."

"A'ite. Tell everyone else I said hey. Don't, uh ... don't tell Karla I got a son. I owe her the respect to tell her myself."

"...Why?" Kalen asked.

"It's complicated. She's missin' her kids and I find out I got one who ain't been abducted. Just ... yeah. I'll handle tellin' her. Karla should hear it from me. Shit's complicated."

Kalen sighed and shook his head. "Fair enough. Just stay safe, Rue."

"Same goes fer you 'n everyone else. Just tell'em I ain't dead, heh. Take care now. I look forward to seeing yer pale-ass-self tomorrow mornin'. Let me know when you're due in and I'll have someone come pick ya' up." Rufus disconnected from his end.

Reno frowned. "He sounds happy."

"Mm," Kalen murmured, noting that it was Reno's second time saying it. "Something wrong?"

"Nichole and I planned out our wedding before she died. We were talking about kids at Muir Beach right before Nathan died west of Sausalito." Reno ran his fingers through his hair again and stretched.

"Ah, Nichole."

"Yeah. She said that I sounded happy talking about being a family cop. And now that crap is all out the window. Rufus finds out he had a kid he never knew, and he's excited. He wants to meet his son. I'm happy for Rufus, don't get me wrong. It just ... everything kind of sucks. I refused to process all that stuff at the time. We were busy dodging bullets from guys in black flak, you know?"

Kalen nodded with a frown. "Sorry, Reno."

"What about you?"

Kalen shook his head. "Vampires aren't as glamorous as pop culture makes us sound. There are no hybrids or vampire parents. Our bodies' reproductive system no longer produces sperm and eggs. We no longer produce the necessary hormones for sexual copulation."

"I thought you said Natalia and Methos were lovers?"

Kalen shrugged again. "We can be a physical lovers for someone, to some degree, but there is no hormone release. Natalia could please Lance romantically, but it does little for her, physically. She did such to create an emotional bond between them. She, therefore, allowed Lance to have physical interactions with other females."

"Damn, really?"

"Yes, really. Their romance was emotional ... spiritual to some degree. Metaphysical, if you will."

"Christ, and I thought time travel was complicated."

Conner returned to the room with the computer tablet. "You guys ready to find out the secrets of the universe or whatever?"

Reno looked from Kalen to Conner and shook his head. "You remind me of Evan."

"Who?" Parker put the tablet on the coffee table and opened its built-in stand. He sank into one of the sitting chairs by the sofa, opposite of Kalen. "God I'm almost ready to try pain killers for the first time."

Reno stuffed the AC plug down into his sock, so that the prongs touched his skin. A light came on, on the side of the tablet, showing it was charging. "You've never tried Advil or Tylenol before?"

"Hell no," said Conner. "My body is a temple, man. I can handle the pain. So who is Evan?" He leaned forward, eyes following the power cable to where the plug disappeared into Nevada's sock. "Nice trick, Uncle Fester."

"Are you kidding me? You know the Adam's Family but you don't know Back to the Future? What is _wrong_with you, kid?" Reno turned on the tablet and reached for the old USB drive. He reached his other hand for the new USB drive that came from the melted packaging.

"So who is Evan?" Conner repeated.

Reno kept his eyes on the tablet. "He thought he was a superhero and Falcon's people killed him. I miss that kid. He kept the rest of us in check. You're starting to sound like him."

"Sorry," said Conner. "The more I get excited about all this stuff, the more I find myself treating it like it's our destiny or something."

Kalen shook his head. "It's fine, Conner. You're a teenaged boy. Your grandfather, Jonathan Parker, had an _obsession_with superheroes when he was your age."

"He did?" asked Reno.

"You knew my grandfather?" asked Conner.

"Yes. And ... yes," Kalen replied with a knowing smile. "He had an impressive first edition comic book collection. Even after he grew into a very serious adult, he collected them as a guilty pleasure."

Reno plugged in the USB drive, remembering the Christmas of 2023. "Yeah. I remember hearing about that. Topaz gave them to Evan as a gift. The kid damn near cried from happiness. It's a shame he's gone - we could have really used Evan's help."

"Mm. Well, let's find out what's on that drive," Kalen said. "The screen just populated with a file tree. What's on it?"

"This is as far as I've ever gotten," Reno said. "The author of these files, presumably Nathanial Carrington, wrote down things he did with his life, and things the Oracle told him. Notes of what he thought about people, relationships people had and when ... and a bunch of other bullshit. A lot of these are file documents. Let's just do a search for 'Lance' and 'Methos' before I sit here and rifle through 'em the old fashion way."

"Mm, so you _have_booted this drive before?"

Reno plugged the newer USB drive in on the other side and copied the files from the old drive to the new one. "Yeah. It was at a computer in Lance's place a few weeks ago."

"What happened?" asked Conner.

Nevada cut his gaze to the left. "I psyched myself out and pulled the drive after I found a file on my brother. It had a picture of his social security card, his birth certificate. It was just ... it was weird."

Kalen tilted his head. "What if you could have prevented Lance's disappearance by whatever was on this drive? If a time traveler was involved, then there might be information from our past, present and future, Reno."

"I lost my nerve, okay? I've been through a lot of bullshit, man."

"Okay, let's not argue about it," said Conner, adding, "let's just see what's on there and go from there."

Reno nodded. "Let's take our time. I don't want to rush and overlook something."

Conner shrugged. "You can have that tablet. Take it to the island; take it to bed with you. Take all the time you want to look at that stuff, Uncle Reno. But let's at least see what all the fuss is about. I want to see if the Oracle told this Nathan-guy about me. He died before I was born, after all."

"There's a file here with your name on it," Reno said. "The dates start a few months ago. Some of the folders are dated up to the end of this year."

Conner grinned at Kalen, excited, then back at Reno. "Awesome. Let's see my future, then."

"You're enjoying this a little too much," Kalen said, moving to the sofa. He picked up the photos of Lance's apartment and placed them on the coffee table then looked at the propped tablet sitting on the coffee table. His eyes landed on a folder labeled 'Natalia Kincade.' "Open that one."

Reno touched his finger against the screen and opened the folder tree to another listing of folders in the sub-directory.

Kalen glanced at each of the folder dates then frowned. "Damn."

"What?" Conner murmured.

Kalen looked up at the boy then back down at the screen. "Most of the file folders are labeled with dates when she was awake, years ago. But the bottom two folders..."

Conner interrupted, excitedly. "What's the next soonest one dated? When, rather."

"A few days from now," Kalen replied in a reverent tone of voice. "One can assume she'll be waking up a few days from now." He brought his hands to his face then leaned back on the sofa and sighed through his fingers. "I'll have to tell her I'm in a relationship with a human. She won't understand my personal involvement in all of this."

"You're dating someone?" asked Conner.

"Yes." Kalen glanced at Reno then back at Conner. "Carmen Nevada."

Conner blinked. "You're banging my sister, man? Are you serious?" He stood up quickly and began pacing the floor. "Jesus. Are you really serious?"

"We are involved, romantically, yes."

Parker scrunched his brows and shook his head rapidly. "Do you, like, bite her and all that shit?"

"Conner, please..." Kalen frowned.

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" Conner said. "Karla said your dick is broke because you're dead. Dead, man. What the fuck."

Reno groaned. "Take a breather, Conner. I mean it."

The teenager grimaced. "I used to run the skyline of San Francisco to clear my head and I can't even do that right now."

"Conner..." Kalen frowned. "Please just be respectful of..."

"Are you seriously banging my sister? She's barely an adult, and you're like ... super old, not to mention dead. That's so gross."

Reno held his hands up to stop everyone from talking. "Conner. You're dating a chick who is, like, three thousand years old and turns into an animal. Don't be judgmental."

"Yeah but it's my sister, and he's a corpse!"

Nevada pointed at Conner, as if to gesture for the boy to cease his rude tone. After a brief pause, Reno said, "At least Kalen wants to save her. You know you can trust him to help." Reno turned to Kalen and said, "You didn't have to go into those kind of details right yet. He's a teenaged boy, and he's still new to all this supernatural shit. Now he's going to freak out that you're biting his sister or something."

"Reno," said Kalen and Conner in unison.

"Alright, guys, alright. Let's just not fight okay? I'm sick of people fighting with each other in this group."

Conner sighed. "I'm going to take a hot shower."

"I thought you wanted to know what your file says?" asked Nevada.

"Those files aren't going anywhere. I just need to clear my head and I can't do my run because I have a hole in my gut. I have staples and stitches. I have a mesh lining in my intestine. It sucks, okay? I'm doing my best to handle this stuff, and now I find out Carmen knew about all this supernatural shit and she didn't even tell me. My parents, too. But screw it, they lied to me about who my father was, is- so why should I know any goddamn thing about what's going on? I'm frustrated okay?!"

Silence.

Conner threw his hands up in the air, "I'm rambling! Just like Karla! God!" He stormed out of the room.

Reno sighed and slumped back against the backrest of the sofa, holding the tablet in one hand. He backed out of the file tree and opened the folder named 'Kalen.' He glanced over some of the folder names. 'Kalen and Karla.' Another was named, 'Kalen and Carmen.' Reno snorted and shook his head. "Some of the stuff in here might cause some serious fights between the members of the group. We need to keep some of this information protected."

"Mm, I agree. What are the dates on the folder named after myself with Carmen?"

Reno opened it and saw documents within. The latest text file was dated a few months in the future. "Should I open it? It looks like you and she have some sort of text doc labeled with a future date, man."

"It could be notations about how I have to bury her. I've buried mortal lovers before. I refuse to curse people who do not wish to live with the blasphemy that is my existence."

Reno sighed and opened the file. It was written in a list similar to the way a member of law enforcement would take notes regarding a suspect or victim. Reno scanned the content then pointed to the screen. He touched a line of text, inadvertently highlighting a few words. "Look."

Kalen leaned forward and read the screen.

It read, "...they were happy to be reunited. Conner was childish about their relationship but Tamamo managed to talk some measure of sense into him."

Kalen frowned and said, "Reno, read down a few more lines."

Reno scanned down the file to a line that read, 'Kalen, Reno, you shouldn't be reading these files. Not yet. You're too close to this. Anything you read may change the outcome. It's better to have a third party read these files. Someone who won't influence a relationship or act irrationally. Someone like Natalia or Lance. I seem to recall that Lance should be dead at the time of this reading. Karla will take it fairly hard. So break it to her gently. And, for the love of God, don't go any further right now. It's not the right time. Copy the files, give the old drive to Natalia and keep the new USB drive, Reno. But keep it protected - DO NOT let Conner read it!"

The blood drained out of Reno's face. He closed the file, pulled both USB drives, and turned off the tablet, setting the small slate by the newer, larger tablet sitting face down on the coffee table. He handed the older USB drive, with the worn shell, to Kalen. "You give that to Natalia. No one else. Especially not Conner or Karla." Reno pocketed the newer drive. "I wish Evan was here. It'd be easier to deal with this 'destiny of heroes' bullshit."

"Reno, we could see what his file says."

"Kalen..." Reno grimaced.

"You're right. You're absolutely right. As alleviated as I am to hear I may be reunited with Carmen, knowing too much about it..."

Reno finished the sentence. "...That knowledge might cause things to happen differently."

"I cannot chance that." Kalen tucked the older of the two thumb drives into his vest pocket. "I will tell Conner that the first file we opened turned out to be a warning from the author that it's too soon to open those files because the knowledge could cause our loved ones to die. However, I will tell him that it appears his sister is alive, and if we read anything else about her, the knowledge may cause us to inadvertently change the future course of events."

Reno sighed. "I can't believe we're taking this time travel shit seriously."

"Reno..."

"Sorry. I'm just ... it's kind of freaking me out. I mean, what if some of that knowledge _needs_to be changed? Lance said there's something called a 'rogue wave'. And maybe we could do that 'chaos theory' thing and change the future? What if it ends badly, and we could've warned ourselves?"

"You saw what the author wrote, Reno. The text actually told us, by name, to stop reading. The author suggested we share it with someone who can handle the knowledge without being emotional, so the proper decisions can be made."

"Well we know Natalia wakes up in a few days," Reno said. "And the author mentioned her as a candidate. Go wake her up and give her the damn drive."

"I'll wait until the rest of you leave for your trip to the island with Raul. First, I have to help Rufus. I'll set up a flight itinerary and fly out before sun-up."

"Fine, fine." Reno stared at the coffee table for a moment then smirked. "So the author is categorizing people by their relationships, I wonder how many folders Karla has."

Kalen frowned. "I know of several relationships she has had, just off the top of my head. She and Nathan. She and Gerald - Ethan's husband. She and Lance. She and myself. She had a relationship with Marcus 'Chance' Howard, and it was very special to her. I understand she slept with Donovan Loupe at least once."

"Jesus..."

Kalen continued. "She had an open relationship with Topaz Parker. She had a brief romance with Natalia in the 1990's."

"Damn, for real?" Reno said, eyes widening.

"There was a brief thing with Michael Richter - we called him The Judge," Kalen said, adding, "and she had a one-night-stand with Johann Foster. She had a brief romance with Rufus ... and, of course, Eric Loupe - her husband."

"Girl gets around." Reno frowned. He caught a glare from Kalen and said, "I totally don't judge. I don't even care. She's a succubus. Girls with a healthy sexy drive aren't any-less of a lady. A lady is how they carry themselves in public."

"Mm."

Nevada stared at the coffee table again. "I wonder what the parameters are for a 'relationship,' file folder," Reno said aloud.

"How do you mean?"

"She went down on me a few times, twenty-five years ago."

"I see." Kalen shrugged. "I'm sure you'd have a folder."

"Let's not look."

"That would be best," Kalen agreed.

X

X

New Atlantis Morning ...

Evan rubbed his face and sat up in bed. He looked over at Patty, who was standing in the bedroom doorway, using the hallway mirror to get herself ready for 'work.'

She looked over at her husband and gave him a weak smile. "I've been thinking."

"Yeah?"

"We're holding you back, Evan."

"What?" He eased out of bed and adjusted his boxers. "What does that mean?"

Patience sighed softly. "They keep you locked up so I'll keep working, but we have our daughter now. They still have that control on me. But we discovered something yesterday down in the dig site. Did you know there was an earthquake in 2025 that ruined the surface? Millions died. It's because of something unearthed down there when I was first forced to work."

"Patty..."

"And now we might have found something else just as dangerous. You should go topside and find anyone willing to help. Dr. Falcon won't stop digging into that city. He's obsessed."

"Patty..."

"Evan, there are sections that are technologically sealed, and he's obsessed with trying to gain access. And the things we're finding down there ... some of it is ahead of technology we have now. It's dangerous in the hands of a man that obsessed, and you can't help to stop him if you're down here."

"Patty..." His voice was calm."

"I mean it. We're holding you back. You can_not_ escape with all three of us. You need to come back for us with help from topside."

Evan stared at her.

"Daddy?" The little girl standing in the hallway, around the corner from her mother, approached the doorway. "If you could be a rockstar, but you gave up making music to stay home, you would grow to regret us. So why would you give up being a hero?"

Evan frowned, "Pumpkin..." He knew they were ganging up on him because they'd already talked about this situation without him. He knew the husband was always the last man in the house to find out what's going on. Evan took a calm breath and closed his eyes."

The little girl reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. "Daddy, you know what I've always wanted? To see the sun. I've seen pictures, but I've never seen the sun for real. I don't want you to regret us."

"Haley Svetlana Balmoral, you shouldn't be eavesdropping."

"Mom, it's a family talk isn't it? I don't want daddy becoming regretful."

Patience looked back towards the mirror. She met Evan's gaze in the reflection. "She means she doesn't want you to become resentful, Evan."

"How would I make a difference against someone as powerful as Falcon?"

Patience continued getting herself ready for work. "Regardless of your intentions to make this family work, this family needs more than to be a slave to this system. We've spent twenty-five years without seeing the sun."

"I can't guarantee that I'd even make a difference at this age. I'm forty-five. Saving the world is game played by the young."

Patty glared at him in the reflection. "Evan, you could be making a difference and you know it. And we're standing in your way."

"Patty, please bae, I don't know if..."

Haley made a sour face. "Nobody says bae anymore, daddy."

"You can do it," Patty told him. "You have to. For us. You have to. I've been thinking about this for a few years now; I just haven't said anything until today. We talked about it the other night, remember?"

"I do."

"What if I was partly responsible for the quake in 2025? You want them to make me do it again? I can't live with that on my conscience. We need you to be you. Man up, head to the surface, and put a team together. But do it better than last time. Find Karla."

"Karla? I thought she was the one who sold us out."

Patience picked up her flat iron and began working on touching up her hair. "This relaxer works better than I hoped, though." She lifted her gaze in the reflection, making eye contact with her husband. "Evan I found out something else."

He opened a dresser drawer and retrieved a pair of pants. "You did?"

"Karla's children are here. Falcon abducted them. He's using Karla's six-year-old son to try and access an ancient computer network still running down there. The little boy has been at the dig site all week. His name is Donnie and he told me that his big sister is here and she's in cryogenic stasis."

Evan swallowed. "Oh my God."

"You have to go, babe. You have to."

"Patty..."

"No, Evan. Don't. What happens when my usefulness ends? All three of us would be put into stasis next. I'm still young enough to have one more child. But that would never happen down here. Please, Evan. For our family."

The little girl in the hallway looked up at her father. "What if it was me? What if I was in cry-ro-gen-rick freeze?"

"If I left, you'd be a single mother, Patty. You'd have to..."

"Military families do it," Patience said in a firm tone. "Families of the men and women that work the import and export subs do it."

"Won't they punish you if I defect and escape?"

Patty turned to Haley. "Child, go fix your hair, so it don't get nappy. Go on, now." She turned back towards her husband and nodded towards the bed. She guided Evan back, stepped into the bedroom with him, and closed the door. In a soft voice, she said, "Do you know Vincent Nevada?"

"I've met him," said Evan. He reached for a bottle of lotion on the nightstand and pumped a bit into his palm then worked it into his forearms and biceps. "He's a good guy - does the radiation thing."

"He works at the dig every now-and-then. We worked together yesterday during the discovery of an artifact that would provide power to the city down there. It has its own sustainable power source."

Evan glanced at the window adjacent to the bed, looking up at the dome sky. "When I was young, my mom used to make soul food. I didn't care for it as a kid. But now I'd give anything to eat good like that."

"What would she make?" asked Patty.

"Just ... all sorts of thing. Pig feet, hog maw, collard greens, fried okra, sorghum..."

"Don't make me hungry," Patience said with a grin. "What was the one I always liked? I can't remember what you call them."

"Hushpuppies." Evan grinned. "What do you miss most about the surface?"

"American comedy; characters like Madea."

Evan laughed. "Yeah. You know 'Diary...' came out before I was born? Well, before either of us. I'm pretty sure Aris Falcon doesn't have a clue who Tyler Perry was. Or, is. Let's face it, forty-eight percent of New Atlantis is black, but Falcon has no idea how to import soul food or good entertainment."

"I'll be honest, I didn't know much about those movies until I visited America," she said. "I was focused on my education and proving myself for the longest time."

Evan rubbed his palms together then he reached for the lotion again and applied it to his legs. "Is he still alive? Tyler Perry, I mean. God, that's another thing about being down here. Disconnected with the world. He'd have to be damn near 80 years old if he's still alive. I sure hope so. I grew up on those movies."

"If Aris Falcon makes me activate another artifact like I did, twenty-five years ago, he's going to have his own '...Mad Black Woman' to deal with - me."

Evan frowned. "Do you really think it would happen again? I know you were on that excavation team twenty-five years ago, but you're not the one who figured out how to activate that thing. That was your team leader - you're not to blame for people dying up on the surface, Patty."

"There's a new artifact. It'll be unearthed soon, Evan."

"This is all just ... it's all so sudden."

She looked down and sighed. "Yeah. It is. They want to activate it. Vincent and I wound up working alone in a dig for four hours. It gave us a lot of time to talk."

Evan fidgeted, draping his pants across his lap. "What about?"

"He's going to help me fake your death," she told him in a direct, pointed tone. "I'm going to ask for leave so I can 'mourn your loss.' I'll take Haley out of school for half of a semester. I've had a private conversation with Haley's homeroom teacher."

Evan snapped his fingers a few times, "Right, right ... something that sounded like seamstress ... Jones. Jeeze, what was her name?"

"Janelle Semestress Jones," said Patty, pronouncing the woman's name to sound like, 'sah-me-stress.' "She said she'd help me enroll Haley in a homeschool program so she wouldn't lose where she's at, but if things go right, Haley's next school would be in California."

"I'd like that," Evan said. "Okay. What's the plan?"

Patience placed her hands atop of his, and met his gaze. "Vincent will make use of the technology lab - he has unsupervised access to it. We'll create a car fire on your way to your 'office.' Vincent will be a first responder and witness; he'll call in the fire. He's going to testify that he tried to use his radiation ability to stifle the fire but, accidentally, he'll have caused the car fire to reduce your remains to whatever it is that will be found on scene."

Evan frowned. "Sounds a bit overkill. And dark. Is it so there will be no autopsy?"

She nodded. "I know it sounds gruesome but we can't fake a whole body."

"When ... when would this happen, Patience?"

"Today. Vincent will help you get topside but you cannot get caught or the whole thing is off, and he'll be arrested for lying under oath. That could cause him to be put on trial for treason."

Evan swallowed. "I know this is selfish but ... if it has to happen now, with no time to react ... all I want is an hour with my wife. Just us, right now. You and me."

Patty fidgeted for a moment, not wanting her plan to backfire. "Okay. I'll take Haley to the bus stop. When I come back, be packed. Shower last. I'll be back around the time you're getting out of the tub."

"You're really sure about all of this?" Evan stood up, putting his pants over his shoulder. He drew his wife into his arms. "I'm forty-five years old. You really think I can run around like I did all those years ago? Fighting off attackers, making a team and breaking into a super-fortified city ... I don't know if I'm up for it."

She put a finger under his chin, forcing his head up. Patience put her hands on his shoulders. "Back straight, hold your head high. You said you were so confident the first time I kissed you. Now you have a family on the line. I need you that confident again. I need you ready. I need you motivated to save this family, and the families of everyone we know. And if you do that for me, I'll give you an hour you will never forget before I send you off."

Evan licked his lips and then nodded. "I'll do it."

"That's my man." They shared a kiss. "Now let me get her to the bus stop. I'll see you in twenty minutes. Be packed up, and be naked when I get back." She went for the door and looked down at her daughter. "Mm-hmm. C'mon, little miss busybody. I knew you'd try to listen in."

"I couldn't hear what you said," Haley replied.

"Oh, I know, child. That's why I talk quietly to your father. Let's go, we're headed to the bus stop, young lady." Patience stepped into the hallway and pulled the bedroom door shut behind herself.

X

X

Four hours later...

"How is it you can get around unnoticed?" Evan glanced sidelong towards Vincent Nevada.

"Nichole has been banned from the city because someone tagged her with a radioisotope that can be tracked. It only has a short lifespan - maybe a month. So this is our chance to get around without her noticing. She was really starting to annoy me."

"How so?" Evan looked around the alleyway between buildings. He held his hand out and a dense glass pole formed in his grasp with a flat end. Evan focused, incorporating a sapphire coating over the end of the pole to reinforce the flat section.

"How do you make glass that doesn't break against concrete and metal like that?"

"I don't know," Evan said with a shrug. "It's my thing. Ever since I figured out how to create crystallized structures, I incorporate sapphire in my glass. It's much harder, now." Evan wedged the manhole cover open and gestured to Vincent. "It can withstand temperatures of thirty-seven hundred degrees."

"Holy crap. Is it really that hard?" Vincent looked around the alley, making sure they were still alone.

"There's a scale that measures hardness. A diamond is rated at a ten. Sapphire is rated at a nine."

"Wow. Okay, that's impressive."

Evan shrugged. "Yeah. I'm used whenever Falcon needs sturdy glass-like tools manufactured on the fly. Else I stay in a cell like a slave for most of my day."

"Oh my God, Evan. I'm so sorry, man."

"Yeah. Patty didn't like it ether. You had your own warden, Vince. The thing is, I thought Nichole went into some sort of sleep-state when she wasn't roaming around being a sociopathic weirdo."

"Fox and Topaz Parker broke in and installed a virus in the computer system," said Vincent. He eased down onto a ladder, carefully, and descended beneath the street level. His voice echoed as he went down. "Anyone we thaw from a deep freeze will wake up immediately. The coma-state was supposed to be a two-stage form of security. Now Nichole is awake full time - Falcon hasn't figured it out. He thinks it's something to do with Nichole on the genetic level or she created a tolerance to the stuff that put her in the medically-induced coma."

"So now she's always awake? That sounds like the Parker's plan created more bad than good."

Vincent shook his head with a grin. "It helped to wake up Reno. And now, anyone we unfreeze will wake up right away."

"Holy smokes," Evan murmured, mostly to himself, as he lowered himself into the manhole.

"Yeah. So she was starting to really get on my nerves, man." Vincent stepped off the ladder and looked around the underground area. He switched on a flashlight and checked the immediate vicinity for rats. "I wish I could go with you. I'd love to help, but you'll need an inside man. You know? A backup plan to get back into the city."

Evan pulled the manhole cover into place and made his way down the ladder, joining Vincent. "Yeah. Wait ... who's in cryogenic stasis? I thought it was just a few people whose powers required further study?"

"So far as I know, it's everyone."

Evan blinked. "Everyone?"

Vincent nodded firmly. "Everyone. All of our friends. Everyone who was captured, at least. Even Johann."

Evan felt a rush of emotion. He took a deep breath and nodded. "I can save them all. Everybody. We can get all our friends back, Vincent."

"They'll all be younger than us."

Evan shrugged. "Who cares? They deserve to live their lives."

"Oh I agree, don't worry. I want my wife back, Evan." Vincent nodded towards the sewer tunnel. "Come on. And keep your voice down. We won't be alone down here. I damaged the surveillance network last night with a blast of radiation. The IT department will be working on it tonight, but in the meantime, there will be some foot patrols."

"Local cops?"

"Yeah. They're the bad guys, Evan. They're all that stands between you and freedom. They carry out Governor Falcon's orders."

"They have families," Evan reasoned.

"Yeah. They do. But they're armed. They'll kill us."

Evan shrugged. "There has to be a way we can..."

"If they spot us, our trick won't work. If they report seeing you down here, Falcon will figure out that you're not dead up in that burning sedan up on Lafayette Street. Evan, can you do this or not?"

"I want to take the moral high ground, Vince. If we can get by without being seen, or if we can render them unconscious..."

"Hey!"

Vincent sighed and shook his head. "Well, now's our chance to find out. We fight, or we're captured, put on trial, and put to death. Don't look at the flashing lights and the laser crap. It'll make you disoriented and sick to your stomach."

The two guards drew their weapons, with lights on the end. The flashlights turned into a strobe effect with a rapidly flashing green laser beneath. Vincent and Evan covered their eyes from the disorienting light effects.

Evan created a glass panel. An electric round silently discharged from the weapon and struck the glass panel, causing the pane to distort from the heat.

"It won't hold for long," Evan said, trying to repair the glass panel as quickly as he could. He added a clear, ultra-thin sapphire layer. "They're going to call for backup."

"No they're not," Vincent replied in a reassuring tone. "I'm creating interference. But if you ever want to have a second kid, it's best I don't do it very long."

"Yikes," Evan muttered, using the panel to deflect another energy round. He kept his eyes on the ground.

The sensory-overloading light effect shifted away, harmlessly, trailing white and green up the walls. One of the guards went to his back and the other was thrown up against the wall, face first, then dropped to the ground forcefully.

Within seconds, neither guard was responsive. Someone up ahead threw their weapons into the sewer water.

Evan caused the glass panel to revert into a pile of sand, which he kicked into the water. The sapphire layer reduced to fine shards, almost like a powder. He and Vincent hurried up the tunnel towards the two unconscious guards and a shadowy figure standing over the bodies.

Vincent raised his flashlight. They saw a red overcoat and a large-brimmed red hat. The figure removed their hat, holding it up to block out Vincent's light. "God are you two chuckle-heads serious? Why are you down here by yourselves?" The figure approached with a confident stride. "Please," spoken in a feminine voice, "my eyes are perfectly adjusted down here. Point that towards the ground."

"Who are you?" asked Vincent. He switched the light to its lowest setting and pointed it behind himself.

Evan added, "Are you breaking in or out?"

"Out," she said. "Wait." She approached Vincent, took his flashlight and pointed it in his face at an angle so as not to blind him. "Uncle Vin ... I mean ... Dad?"

"Carmen?" Vincent's eyes widened in shock. "I thought you were frozen? How the hell did you...?"

"It's a long story. Are you really breaking out?"

"I'm helping Evan leave. Are you leaving too?"

"Yes." Carmen lowered the light back to the concrete ground. "I've been drifting the city for a month, healing from the freezer burn. I remember waking up and Mom was there, and Fox, too. They told me I need to get topside and find my brother and tell him the family secret - that he's the one Falcon is searching for. And the very next day, they were caught and captured."

"They never told me they woke you."

"They didn't tell anyone. They did it the morning before they were caught. Fox hacked into the city network and entered me as a citizen born here. I managed to lay low and heal up. I had a lot of tissue damage from the cryogenic freeze. Now I'm finally on my feet and I'm ready to go home and see Kalen and my brother."

Vincent pulled his daughter into a hug. "I thought I'd never talk to you again."

She slid her arms around Vincent's waist and hugged him in return. "Come with us?"

"I can't. I want to, but I can't."

Carmen sighed. "How can you not be furious? They took mom. She's missing. They froze Uncle Fox. They took Elvena. How can you help them?"

"I'm here to help you guys come back and try again. I hate it here. I hate Governor Falcon. I hate everything they make me do. I miss my wife. But I can't be emotional like I was when I was a teenager. I have to stay in place so I can help you guys when you come back."

"What do you want us to do?" she asked in a somber voice.

"I want you to make a team with your brother. I want you to get Karla's help because her children are here. She'll be motivated to help in any way possible. I want everyone to band together and come down here and burn this place to the ground." Vincent gestured to Evan, "But first I want you to help my friend escape."

"I will, dad. I promise. I'll come back for you. I'll find mom and we can all be together again; we can live together in the mansion." Carmen swallowed to maintain her attempt at a stoic demeanor. "I don't care where we live. I just want to get us out of this hellhole. I want to be together - a family."

"I love you," he told her.

They shared a chaste kiss and another hug. Vincent turned to Evan and said, "This is my daughter, Carmen Parker."

Evan offered his hand and shook with her. "A pleasure."

"Yeah. Likewise. What've you got?"

"...Got?"

She grinned. "What power?"

"I turn objects to glass or sapphire. I can also turn glass back to silica dust - think really fine beach sand."

"Alright." She looked around the area, listening for other sounds, then said, "Dad, you need to be topside when we escape. If you really need to be an inside man, then you're screwed if you're seen with us. I'll take Evan topside. I broke in, I can break out. But you need to be by Falcon's side when it happens or it won't be believable."

"God, honey, it's good to see you again," Vincent said.

She afforded her father a smile. "Yeah, yeah. Get going. I can handle it from here on out. Just stay safe, okay? It's bad enough mom is missing. If anything happened to you ... I'd freak out."

They shared another quick kiss and a hug. Vincent turned to Evan and they shook hands.

"Stay safe," said Balmoral.

"You too," said Nevada. "Keep my brother alive."

"I will, I promise." Evan moved besides Carmen and gestured towards the tunnel. "Ladies first."

Carmen scoffed with a slight grin. She waved one last time to her father and headed up the tunnel with Evan.

Vincent watched them go then headed back the way he came with a little extra pep in his step.

---

Final Chapter: https://www.sofurry.com/view/763273