Coin #2 - Quantum Coin (39 page)

He tensed as the doors opened, but it was empty.

“What floor?” Nathan asked as they entered.

“Ten.”

Nathan jabbed the button and hummed his own elevator music as they rode up. Just as Ephraim was going to throttle him, the elevator dinged.

“Tenth floor. Mad scientists, evil doubles, and ex-girlfriends,” Nathan said.

The doors opened. Ephraim peered out, but there was no one waiting for them.

“It looks clear,” he said.

Nathan nodded. “I'll cover you.”

“With what?”

Nathan smiled and pointed the camera at him.

“Great.”

Ephraim stepped out of the elevator and looked around. It was empty. Where was everyone?

“It's quiet,” Nathan said.

“Don't you dare say what you're about to say,” Ephraim said.

He held up a hand. There were voices coming from the conference room on the left. He turned back to Nathan.

“You hear that?” Ephraim whispered.

Nathan nodded.

“I'll check it out,” Ephraim said.

“What if it's Dr. Kim?”

“Maybe I can reason with her. I have to face her sometime.”

“That's your brilliant idea? You're going to talk to them?”

Ephraim eyed Nathan's camera. “It works in movies. Er. It sometimes works in movies. For a little while.”

“It never does,” Nathan said. “Well, hardly ever. She isn't going to listen to you.”

“Probably not.” Ephraim eyed Nathan's camera. “I have a cooler mission for you, in case talking doesn't work out.”

Nathan grudgingly gave him the camera, and Ephraim told him what he wanted him to do. Then they split up. Ephraim took the left side of the lab, and Nathan went to the right.

Dr. Kim's office was dark, but the conference room was lit up and occupied.

Ephraim approached the door. The last thing he expected to see inside was Nathaniel, Zoe, Jena, and Hugh playing poker.

The door was locked, but his handprint released the latch. He opened the door.

“Surprise,” Ephraim said. He grinned.

“Get him!” Zoe said. Nathaniel and Hugh jumped from their seats on either side of the door and closed in on Ephraim.

Ephraim held up his hands. “Guys! It's me!”

Hugh pinned Ephraim in a bear hug from the right. Nathaniel glowered at Ephraim.

Ephraim flinched, waiting for the blow.

“No!” Jena said. “That's Ephraim!”

“Duh,” Zoe said.

“Not Ephraim,” Jena said.
“Ephraim.
Look at his face.”

“Nice. Who did that?” Zoe asked. “I'd like to congratulate him.”

“Et tu
, Zoe?” Ephraim said.

This was hardly the welcome he'd hoped for from his friends.

Zoe stared at him hard, and her mouth parted slightly. She approached Ephraim slowly.

“It
is
you, isn't it?” she asked.

“Good to see you, too,” he said.

Zoe kissed him. For a moment, it was just the two of them.

“Guys, get a universe,” Nathaniel said.

Zoe broke off their kiss. She looked at Hugh. “You can let him go,” she said. “He's the real deal.”

Hugh released Ephraim and brushed off his T-shirt. “Sorry about that,” he said. “Glad you made it back. Can't wait to hear how.”

Ephraim met Zoe's eyes. “Not so easy to tell analogs apart, is it? I'm waiting for an apology.”

“I didn't expect to see you again,” she said.

“Now why does that sound so familiar?” he said.

“So. Maybe this isn't the best time for a romantic interlude,” Nathaniel said.

Zoe showed him her middle finger.

“I have a new philosophy. You should always take time to let people know how you feel,” Ephraim said. “Or what are we trying to save?”

“Eph, I'm so sorry,” Jena said. “I didn't know what else to do. I believed Dr. Kim.”

“What changed your mind?” Ephraim asked.

“She's bonkers,” Jena said. “She took the other Ephraim to scout other universes. She's looking for analogs to bring back here. You were right. She isn't leaving anything to chance anymore.”

“I'm glad you found the controller,” Nathaniel said. “Hugh and I hoped you would use it to sneak back here.”

“You two worked together?” Ephraim asked. “Thanks, it was brilliant. I'm sorry I doubted you, Nathaniel. I thought you were with Dr. Kim.”

“I was on the fence. I figured I was better off playing along until I knew for sure. But as soon as she sent your analog and Jena after the coin, it was evident she wasn't thinking clearly,” Nathaniel said. “And I told her so.”

“Is that why you were all locked up?” Ephraim asked.

“Dr. Kim is convinced that we're conspiring against her,” Hugh said.

“She was right about that much,” Nathaniel said. He and Hugh pulled two laptops out from under the table. They opened them and started typing while Zoe gathered the cards together.

Ephraim looked around the room. “Where's Doug?”

Nathaniel rapped on the table. “Come on out, champ.”

Doug slowly emerged from under the table. He beamed at Ephraim.

“Eph!” Doug said. “You came back.”

“Hey, kid.” Ephraim ruffled his hair. Doug's face was sticky. He clutched a nearly empty bag of gummy bears. Ephraim smiled.

“Seeing that other Ephraim totally flipped the boy out,” Jena said. “That's why he was hiding under the table. He's better at telling analogs apart than anyone.”

Ephraim sat down, and Doug crawled into his lap. “Show me what you guys are working on,” Ephraim said.

“Nathaniel got us into the mainframe,” Hugh said.

“Tricky, because Dr. Kim set up so many password blocks,” Nathaniel said.

“Fortunately, I designed this software. Or rather, my analog did,” Hugh said. “So I know all the backdoors.” His fingers flew rapidly over the keyboard.

“And we're exploiting them to copy the database of all the coordinates,” Nathaniel said.

“That's wrong,” Ephraim said. “We have to—”

Hugh held up a hand. “I finally figured it out. The multiverse is all about observation. And observation is about acquiring information,” he said. “As long as information about these universes is stored somewhere, in some universe, they can't decohere. Once Dr. Kim has everything she wants in this reality, she's planning to purge all the rest. But she won't be able to if we take backups to other universes.”

“We may not have the portable coheron drive, but the LCD can still send each of us on a one-way trip,” Zoe said. “We can get back home!”

“I'm impressed, Hugh. You're right. This plan will definitely work,” Ephraim said. “If we were going to follow it. But we can't.”

“We have to,” Jena said. “We have to save as many universes as we can.”

Ephraim shook his head. “We have to delete all but
one
of the coordinates we've recorded, disable the LCD and Charon devices, and let nature run its course. Only one universe will survive, but it should be enough to start off a new multiverse.”

They all stared at him in disbelief.

Nathaniel stood. “Kid, you were against Dr. Kim's plan from the start. You wanted to save every universe. This is how we do that.”

“I was wrong. But that doesn't mean she's right. I have it on good authority that we need to wipe everything in the database.” Ephraim checked his watch. “In exactly forty-seven minutes.”

“On whose authority?” Nathaniel barked.

Ephraim locked eyes with Nathaniel. “I met one of my analogs. An old friend of yours.”

“Ephraim's still alive?” Nathaniel said. “How? Where?”

Ephraim flashed the coin Scott had given him.

“He had another coin?” Nathaniel said. “That bastard.”

“He did what he thought he had to,” Ephraim said. “And so are we.”

A wave of nausea passed over Ephraim. Jena and Zoe lowered their foreheads to the table, and Nathaniel slumped in his seat, face pale and sweat glistening on his forehead. Hugh moaned pitifully. Doug started bawling.

Then the feeling passed.

“Shh,” Ephraim said. He hugged Doug and rocked him gently. “You're still here.” He scanned the room with his eyes. Everyone was accounted for. “We're all still here.”

Doug pressed his face into Ephraim's T-shirt. The boy's tears and snot soon wet a spot on Ephraim's shoulder.

“What was that?” Ephraim asked.

“Dr. Kim and your analog are back,” Nathaniel said. “The same thing happened when they left with the Charon device. They'll be upstairs any minute.”

The group gathered in front of the elevator. The elevator was already descending, the numbers above the doors counting down from ten.

Nathan wandered over, hands in his pockets.

“Did you guys feel that?” Nathan asked. He belched and held a hand to his stomach. “Pardon.”

Nathaniel gaped at his younger analog. “I'll be damned.”

“Probably.” Nathan sized up his older self. “Not bad, old Nathan.”

“Where did
you
come from?” Nathaniel asked.

“I had to keep Ephraim out of trouble.” Nathan grinned.

“Good to see you, Nathan!” Jena said. Zoe nodded.

Hugh shook Nathan's hand and introduced himself.

“You've been holding out on me, kid,” Nathaniel said to Ephraim. “What are you up to?”

“You'll see.” Ephraim raised his eyebrows questioningly at Nathan. “Did you…?”

“Mischief managed,” Nathan said. “Pretty sweet setup, like you said. And my best work ever, if I do say so myself.”

“How about the other thing?” Ephraim asked.

“Couldn't find it,” Nathan said.

“Okay. Well, you have perfect timing.” He checked his watch. They had forty-two minutes left. The elevator numbers were counting up from the ground floor.

They lined up in a row facing the elevator: Ephraim, Nathan, Nathaniel, Zoe, Jena, and Hugh. Ephraim held Doug's hand, but the boy hid behind him, peeking out around Ephraim's legs.

“Cute kid,” Nathan said. “He takes after his mother.”

“Thanks,” Ephraim said.

When the elevator doors opened, Dr. Kim's face briefly registered shock before she composed herself and stepped out. Ephraim's analog trailed behind her. He flipped the coin over and over like a movie gangster, one hand in his pants pocket.

“Looks like we're just in time for the party,” Dr. Kim said. Her eyes fell on Nathan. “Terrific. Just what we needed. Another Nathaniel.”

“Hi, Dr. Kim,” Ephraim said.

“If you're here to beg for a place in my universe, it's too late,” Dr. Kim said. She tucked her hands into her lab coat pockets.

Ephraim looked at his analog standing beside her. “This isn't the Ephraim you want. I know you were out looking for his replacement.”

The analog fumbled the coin. He recovered it and turned to her. “That's not what you—”

“Shut up,” she said. “Both of you.
All
of you. I won't listen to any more of this.”

“I figured as much,” Ephraim said. “But I know someone you
will
listen to.”

“Oh?” Dr. Kim's eyebrows shot up.

“Your Ephraim's still alive, Dr. Kim.”

Her expression was unreadable. “That isn't possible.”

“Nothing's impossible in a multiverse.” Ephraim nudged Nathan with his elbow.

Nathan pulled a small remote control from his pocket and pointed it behind him.

Scott's face appeared on every monitor in the lab. His voice came from hidden speakers all around the room, like the voice of God:
“Jena, I love you. I know I tell you that every day, but I want it on the official record.”

This time, the expression of shock remained on Dr. Kim's face. But they had her attention.

“Who wants popcorn?” Nathan asked.

“
I've made a terrible mistake. I haven't told Jena or Nathan what I'm planning to do. If you two are listening to this, then I'm sorry. I don't know if I'll be able to get back to you, but I'm going to do whatever I can to fix this. I hope you can forgive me.
”

Ephraim frowned. Nathan had taken some creative liberties with Scott's recording. But Ephraim had to give his friend credit: He'd edited hours of footage into a “Best of Seattle Below” highlights reel in record time on the terminal in Nathaniel's office. It was a bit too heavy on what Nathan called “money shots” of the transhumans' Coherence Engine and Scott's console, but the narration got the point across.

“
Most parallel universes are meant to be fleeting. They come into existence when individual actions diverge at a quantum decision point, but they often disappear or merge back into each other, according to the decisions with the greater probability
,” Scott said onscreen.

“
We aren't supposed to have this technology. It's risky to try to save too many. Some universes will probably stick around anyway, once there's enough room in the buffer. When we erase the information we've been saving and remove the coheron drives from the multiverse, it'll all be up to chance—as it should be. The universes may simply disappear, or they could merge in unpredictable ways. But that's better than wiping the slate completely clean and pushing all of us to the Omega Point
.”

Scott had carefully outlined the plan for Ephraim and Nathan back in the transhumans' universe, and now for everyone else in the video recording. Nathaniel had a hard expression on his face as he watched, but Dr. Kim looked pale and a little lost.