Journey of Rick Heiden Ch. 04

It had been sprinkling all morning, and Ms. Newton was standing at the edge of the sidewalk waiting for us, holding her umbrella. She wore a classy-looking checked grey dress with a matching jacket. She took the front passenger seat, as I had sat in the back to give them room to chat.

"Amanda, I believe you remember Rick Heiden. Rick; Amanda Newton." David reintroduced us and drove on. "I know you have something important to discuss, but I must catch you up, Amanda. Two Americans abducted Rick yesterday afternoon at two o'clock."

She turned toward me with eyebrows raised. "Are you okay?"

"Thanks to David, yes. I appreciate your asking."

"Do go on," she said to David in interest.

"I can't leave him alone. They took him to a warehouse east of the city airport."

"What did you do to them?" she asked with passivity.

"One of them mysteriously died. The other got away."

"Damn," she said.

"Have you something I should know?" David asked her.

She said, "I'm glad you told me. I received a call on my mobile yesterday afternoon, a little after four o'clock. The man disguised his voice, but he sounded American. He told me that if I wouldn't release what he wanted into their custody by Monday night at midnight, they would harm my daughter. He said his dangerous friend had lots of patience, and if I try to hide her, I couldn't hide her forever. I must take threats seriously, David. I can't hide my daughter at all; she's twelve and has autism. It has taken us years to get her to the current level. She must have consistency, so we cannot hide her."

"I never knew you had children," David said.

"Few do. When my ex-husband and I divorced ten years ago, we decided that she should live with her father. Government service keeps me away too much, and he planned to live closer to the school she would need."

"Who knows about her?" David asked, pulling into a parking space.

"Very few."

"Who knew at the facility yesterday?" he asked her.

"Only Katheryn Elliott. I've known her for several years. We share the same yoga class. She requested to lead the team that's studying Amaré."

"Amanda, there's a possibility that Katheryn is giving secrets to the Americans," he said.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"It's possible but uncertain."

A thought occurred to me, and I figured I would share it, but first. "Ms. Newton, what's your daughter's name?"

"It's Helen," she replied.

David and I locked eyes in the rear-view mirror. He pulled the piece of paper from his pocket, handing it to Amanda. "The dead man had this in his pocket. Is that your number?"

She nodded. "My private mobile number. If the man is dead, would that mean my daughter is safe?" I could almost feel her holding her breath.

"I don't know," said David.

"Did the man on the phone specifically use the phrase lots of patience?" I asked.

"Yes, he did. Does that matter?"

"I think David hadn't arrived when the man said it to me, but the man who did all the talking said the dead man gave me too much in the injection, which put me in a deep sleep for several hours. He told me the other guy waited because he had lots of patience, but it was wearing thin. I don't know why the dead man had the paper with your mobile number and your daughter's name, but I think the talking man called you."

"I agree," said David, "but it does seem curious that the talking man had the dead man to play the ruffian. I couldn't guarantee anything, but he may be unwilling to pull any triggers himself." He pulled out his mobile. "I took a video of the dead man's recent calls and contacts from his mobile. The talking man might be among them. If I ask, Mr. Haywood won't do it because he dislikes me, but if I send you this video, could you have MI5 check the names and give us a background on them?"

"Of course," she said.

"What will happen to Katheryn?" I asked.

"We have no evidence, so for now, nothing," said David, "but she seems the best candidate. It may be a case of having to keep your potential enemies closer."

"Indeed," said Amanda, "and I'll have MI5 check her further."

"One last thing, Amanda," said David, "where have you kept the body of the man like Amaré?" David pulled into traffic and drove us back toward the Albert.

Amanda paused for a moment. "Facility3 with Amaré. He had head trauma, so the emergency services took him to the hospital in Queen Square, but he died, and they held the body in their morgue for a few days so that they could scan and x-ray it for us. When Amaré showed up, they took him to Facility3 as well. I like to keep things tidy."

"But Facility3 doesn't have a morgue," said David.

"No, but they make portable versions of everything these days, even body freezers. By the way, Mr. Heiden, since you met with Amaré yesterday, he has been talking to us, so thank you."

We pulled into the lay-by at the Royal Albert Hall. As Amanda thanked David for coming, she stroked his cheek and smiled at him before leaving the vehicle. It seemed an odd gesture, which I hadn't quite understood, but seemed consistent with her barnacle-like behavior at the party. Once out of sight, David expressed his frustrations. "Why must things have so many bloody complications?"

I jumped into the front seat. "They put them both in the same facility, isn't that good? Why couldn't we tell Amanda the situation, get her to let us take Cadmar's body, get Amaré and Maggie, then head for the portal?"

"Oh, Rick, I wish things worked with such simplicity," he said, pulling out into traffic. "I appreciate the body's convenient location, but it would change everything if we told her the situation; the government is her priority. The list of things to do before we leave continues to grow. If we don't want that list to have exponential growth, we must keep things to ourselves. Even after your abduction, we could have ignored the talking man, but not if he's threatened a child. Now we must take care of the talking man and the informant, retrieve Cadmar's body and then free Amaré from his cell. That's enough to cope with, I should think."

"Couldn't MI5 get the talking man and the informant? It's their job," I said.

"Yes, and no," he said, "it's MI5's job, but I have a connection to the cause so I cannot absolve myself of responsibility without honorable reasons. You have many things to learn about Jiyū. We must willingly take responsibility for our actions and protect our honor. We do not have the litigious society that exists in this world. We have no government to uphold contracts, so we do not use them, and no one sues anybody. So, your word is your bond, the effects of your actions are yours to deal with, and how you deal with them reflects upon your honor. Cadmar came here to take me home, but he died in the attempt. My involvement places the responsibility upon me, so I must fix this."

"If you have the responsibility, why did Amaré come here?"

"He would have requested that Cadmar come," he replied.

"I see," I said. "So, why did Amanda stroke your cheek?"

"She has a fondness for me."

"Right...," I said.

"Oh, your mention of Maggie joining us reminded me," he said. "I did a cursory examination of your associates during your background check, and I noticed something about Maggie. It's nothing bad, so don't worry about that, but when the time comes, she may not want to go."

"Why not?" I asked.

"I don't think you've thought this move through," he said. "We won't move you to the opposite side of the planet, but another planet altogether, a permanent move, and not an easy one. Jiyū has a larger circumference than the Earth, and its gravity is 1.375 times as great, which at first will present a challenge for you. But you shouldn't assume she will want to go. People live complicated lives."

"Oh, I've thought about it," I said, "but I admit not having considered certain aspects of it. I do know I want to remain with you. Wait, you said we would have 1.375 times as much gravity." I made a quick calculation in my head. "I'll weigh 220 pounds there! That sounds exhausting. So, how long did you live there before you came back?"

"My parents and I moved there when I was two years old, and I came back at thirty, in Earth years anyway, but the time differential caused only five and a half years to pass on Earth."

"What? I don't understand," I said.

"We have an anomaly near our solar system, which distorts how time passes around it. It's a 5:1 ratio. Five years there has a rough equivalence of one year here, give or take some days."

"That sounds wild. What does that feel like?" I asked.

He shrugged. "It feels like it does here. Can you feel time moving five times slower here than it does somewhere else in the galaxy?"

"Not that I've noticed," I said.

"That's because you'll only notice a difference after having traveled between the two planets. Since I've lived here, nearly ten Earth years have passed, but on Jiyū, it's been fifty."

"Fifty years? Might your parents have died by now?" I asked.

"They died not long after we arrived. My parents hadn't survived the transition. Some people have difficulty with the increased gravity, and enhancements take time. My mother had an undiagnosed heart condition, and my father had led a sedentary lifestyle and was far too old. We've ensured that won't happen again. My father was forty-six when we left Earth, and my mother was forty-one. After the age of forty, humans begin a steady decline to middle age. We made forty the age limit for transitioning to Jiyū, and while I've been here for ten years, I was enhanced long ago. So, I won't have a problem upon my return."

"I'm sorry about your parents."

He turned to me, and I noted his sad smile. "I don't think about it much. After they died, an amazing, loving couple adopted me. I consider them my parents since I barely remember my biological ones."

"In this context," I said, "what does enhanced mean?"

"It means that parts of my body have similarities to the X-ray of Cadmar. I've gone through a technological alteration so that I can live on Jiyū. We evolved to live in Earth's gravity. Without enhancements, younger people can cope with the higher gravity on Jiyū for a while, but it has significant side effects. Over time, it will age you faster, wear out your joints, strain your heart, and damage your bones. We've corrected those problems and even managed to stop the aging process long ago for those people who want it. I've not had that enhancement, but I will upon my return, and over time, my body will revert to a younger state than it is now."

"You'll never grow old?"

"Not if I don't want to," he said, "and you'll have the same opportunity."

"They could make me immortal?"

"Not really, you would have provisional immortality," he said. "You will die one day. However, barring some accident or incident that causes catastrophic homeostatic failure, if you continue to receive food, water, and oxygen, you will endure."

I thought I could no longer find amazement in anything that David told me. I was wrong. The revelation had consequences that even I could see would bring nothing but disaster for the people on Earth should they get their hands on that technology. If the population hadn't rapidly exploded, it's because the rich would make immortality only available to themselves.

It also distressed me that Maggie would not want to come with us. If true, I wished to get that news over with. I called her to ask if I could come to visit. She agreed, and David took me there, as he had something to do that could not involve me. It made me curious, but I figured I would find out later. He asked me to remain vigilant and not to leave her apartment until he returned. I had no problem with that as I wasn't seeking re-abduction. He saw me to her door and kissed me a bye-for-now. Maggie smirked when she witnessed it.

"I knew it! You told me you hadn't had sex with him."

"I never lied," I said. "I hadn't...not at the time, anyway."

"So, you have now."

"Yes, but I hadn't come about that. I'm here about you."

"Me? Why?"

I told her the astonishing things David told me. She hadn't known whether she believed everything he said. I told her that I had seen the weapon he used to kill the man who hit me, but most compelling of all, I had stared into Amaré's eyes. They did not come from Earth with the current technology.

"Yes, I know you never saw those things," I said to her, "but for the sake of argument, let's suggest you had, and you knew it as I do. David offered us an opportunity to go to his home planet, and I, your best friend, want to go with him. Will you go?"

She looked at me with a blank stare. "It sounds like an opportunity that only comes once, and for as much as it sounds like a grand adventure, I could not."

I had a tightness in my chest as if someone were squeezing my heart. I wanted Maggie to come with me. She was my family; I couldn't lose her.

"Would you tell me why?"

"My grandmother," she said. "She took care of me when I had no one else. Now, she's elderly and unable to work. She has her pension, but it doesn't cover the cost of all her needs. Every month I send her money from my salary to make up the difference. If I left, she would have no one to help her. I cannot go, but I would never want that to stop you. I will be fine."

She and I talked for several hours. We sent out for Chinese and had a satisfying meal together, and as we did so, it reminded me of David and his cup of tea. I thought to myself then, that could be the last meal that she and I shared. I would miss that.