It’s a Brave New World Ch. 08

Next to his bed was a night stand with an old rotary phone. And next to the phone, lay a little black address book.

I let out an audible "DUH!" and snatched it up.

Parsing through its pages showed me dozens of numbers. Most of them with a name, notes, or some scribbled symbols which meant nothing to me. Family, friends, girlfriends, but not much else. It looked like Lawrence used the address book linearly, instead of filing names alphabetically. Older names were in the beginning, and newer entries were further in. Taking a guess whatever Lawrence was up to was a much more recent activity, I flipped to the end.

On the last page, one entry stood out above all the others. It read - 'Professor Williams $$$' followed by a phone number. Jackpot!

I copied the number down quickly on a pad of paper Mandy had given me. I returned Lawrence's address book to its original location. I was about ready to leave when I glanced down at the old style rotary phone.

'Oh, what the hell,' I thought to myself and snatched up the receiver. I dialed the number Lawrence had assigned to the Professor Williams entry. I wondered what the dollar signs meant. Was he getting paid? Or did the man owe Lawrence money?

A deep male voice, one I had never heard before, answered on the third ring.

"Yes?"

I forced down a nervous swallow and replied in my best 'Lawrence' voice I could come up with. "This is Lawrence."

A pause and then, "I told you not to call unless there was a problem. Is there a problem?"

Whoever was on the other end of the line had a voice which drove an incredible amount of authority into every syllable he spoke.

I took a gamble and said, "It's about the money."

Another pause and this time the reply came back with a good deal irritation included with the already present authority. "We paid you a large sum to observe and report on Harold Williams's activities. If you think you can shake us down for more, you are gravely mistaken."

That threw me for a loop. I thought perhaps I was speaking to Professor Williams. And that Lawrence was assigned to watch me. Obliviously not.

Now I was silent, trying to figure out what to say next.

"Are you still there?" came the voice after several seconds had passed.

My mouth had gone dry. An urge to hang up the phone and run from the room was growing by the second. But somehow I managed to blurt out, "Williams is getting suspicious. It's becoming hard to follow him."

"Hmm, not unexpected," rasped the voice from the phone. There was another potent pause, and then the speaker said, "We will send assistance. But you will not be getting any more money. Understood?"

"Yes," I managed to squeak out. I slammed the receiver down and found myself literally shaking in my shoes.

I swore under my breath. Damn, this was not good. Whoever Lawrence was working with would send someone here and the treacherous RA would have no idea why. Would Lawrence put it together and figure out someone had impersonated him? Could he even work out that Cindy had made a distraction? I needed to give her and Mandy some form of warning.

With my heart still jackhammering in my chest, I left the room. Whatever was going to happen it made no sense to remain in here. I needed to get moving. Making my way down the stairwell, I did my best to compose myself. My impromptu phone call had me nervously sweating, and my bizarre pheromones weren't something I needed to deal with.

The second-floor meeting to address Cindy's laundry issues was just breaking up when I got to the first floor. People were milling around and still chatting. Cindy was carrying on with two women I didn't know. From the little snippets of conversation I could make out, these two were getting the blame for whole trumped up incident and were not too happy about it.

I kept a low profile as I made my way past the lounge. I saw Jake the twit laughing with some guys and I made a sharp turn to the left. With my attention on avoiding him and his buddies, I nearly ran right into Mandy.

She took my hand and pulled me to the side, away from the crowd in the lounge. "Jason," she whispered, "What did you find out?"

"Hard to say," I admitted. "I now have even more questions than answers. But," and I leaned in close to Mandy, "Be careful at the hospital. I think Lawrence is mixed up with some very powerful people. They could be watching Abby."

Her lovely brown eyes widened with fear. I immediately wanted to reassure her. Putting my arms around her, I pulled her to me. Holding her close.

"I'm scared," she whispered into my ear as she leaned into me. "Not just for Abby. But for you, me, Cindy...everyone."

"It will be alright...I'll make it better." She smelled so wonderful.

Mandy pressed her body into mine. "Mmmm," came a throaty murmur in my ear. "I believe you," she continued in a hushed tone. "I feel so safe in your arms..."

Then she was pushing away from me with a forceful shove. I stumbled back, shocked. But my surprise was short lived. It happened again. More out of control chemicals causing havoc. The expression on Mandy's face was a weird war between anxiety, lust, and disbelief.

"Wow," she managed to get out as she worked to get a hold of herself. I did the same.

"Now go," Mandy shakily commanded. "Before I change my mind and rip your clothes off."

--

I made it the Mathis Building with two minutes to spare. The science lecture hall was open but utterly empty. Row after row empty chairs faced an equally empty lectern. Evidently, I had beaten who ever invited me to this clandestine encounter. I sat down in one the dozens of green plastic chairs in the front and waited.

Going over everything that had happened to me for the last two days, I tried to put it all in some type of context. My father had grown up in this world, but twenty-two years ago he had vanished. Somehow he had gotten involved with a group capable of jumping between parallel universes. One way or another he had ended up on my Earth. Most likely in hiding from the alternative world travelers. He had met my mother, they had got married, and then I'm born.

Twenty years go by, and he's found. And I'm what? Abducted? Rescued? I'm put in Abby's room, and we hit it off immediately. Was that part of the plan? Or an accident? Did someone know how I would affect women on this Earth?

Professor Harold Williams very likely had something to do with my arrival here. And Lawrence helped him. But Lawrence was also reporting to someone on the good professor's activities.

Around and around. Tons of questions and no answers to any of them. It made my head hurt.

As I sat there waiting, trying to make sense of the impossible, a man popped into existence right in front of me.

I nearly sprang out of my seat in surprise at his spontaneous arrival. There had been noise, no shift of light, no motion at all. Just one moment nothing was before me and, in less time than a blink of an eye, a man stood there.

He was on the shorter side with a tuft of thinning white hair on his head. Wearing a neatly pressed charcoal gray suit, his rather tattered blue and yellow bow tie made for an odd contrast. Combined with his snowy silver beard, his whole ensemble gave him an unassuming, harmless grandfatherly appearance. He did not seem shocked at all at his sudden appearance in the hall or my stupefied expression as I gaped at him.

"Ah, Jason, you're here," said the man as he extended his right hand to me.

I didn't take the offered hand. I remained half in and out of the chair with my mouth open.

"Sorry," he said and pulled back his arm. "You seem to be a little out of sorts with seeing my shift."

He rolled his shoulders and then twisted his neck back and forth. "When you get to be my age these jumps do a number on one's joints," he added nonchalantly.

I managed to get out a - "Oh, it does?"

He shook his head and gave me careful stare. "You don't remember me at all, do you?"

Before I could answer, he went on. "Doesn't surprise me. You were very drunk when I found you. And the first time through a quantum tunnel usually messes with the brain. Can cause some short-term memory loss."

The answer was obvious, but I said it anyway. "You brought me here. To this world."

"I did indeed."

"Who are you?" I asked. But I had a feeling I knew who this man was.

He smiled and offered his hand again. "My name is Harold Williams. I imagine you have a lot of questions."