Crystal Keepers (6 page)

Joe narrowed his eyes. “So you were asking about identification? Who are you?”

Wilcox gave a smile and a shrug. “Just a fella looking to make a few credits. Good afternoon.” He ambled away casually, hands in his pockets.

“That was good timing,” Mira muttered.

“Looked like it,” Joe said. “He was running some sort of scam. There's plenty of that in Zeropolis. Maybe I shouldn't have left you alone. Anyhow, I've got a bunch of credits on my card, and I know where we're going to stay tonight. We'll catch the monorail in the morning.”

C
HAPTER

5

GWEN

J
oe booked a pair of adjoining rooms on the second floor of a big inn made of concrete blocks. One room contained four narrow beds, the other two. All of the beds had mattresses that looked and felt like the mattresses Cole remembered from back home, though a bit thinner. A couple of cowhide rugs softened up the cement floor.

“An actual faucet,” Dalton said, standing by the sink. “With hot and cold running water.”

“A toilet too,” Cole added.

Dalton twisted on a faucet and let water run over his hand. “What a miracle.”

“The showers are in a common area down the hall,” Joe said. “They have one washroom for men and another for women. But in the city, we'll have showers in our rooms.”

“Sweet,” Cole said. “This might be my favorite kingdom.”

They had gathered in the room with four beds. Mira would sleep in the other one when the time came.

Joe sat on the edge of one of the beds, hunched forward,
hands folded. He cleared his throat. “It's time I tell you my story.”

Cole perked up. “Why you wanted to get away from Zeropolis?”

Joe nodded. “That and more. As long as we're together, the mess I made for myself here could affect us all. Cole, Dalton, in a lot of ways, we're in the same boat. I tried to get back home, and you deserve to hear about the problems involved.” He rubbed his thighs and chuckled. “I hardly know where to begin. Some people know pieces of this, but I haven't told all of it to anyone.”

“You're from Monterey?” Dalton prompted.

“Right,” Joe said with a smile that was almost a grimace. “That's a place to start. I'm, what, thirty-four now? I was thirty. I worked as a paramedic, and occasionally as a studio musician.”

“You were in a band?” Cole asked.

“Yeah, a few, when I was younger. Later on I just helped out when other people needed stuff recorded. Guitar mostly. It was fun work. I did most of it in the Bay Area. A little in LA.”

“You can shred on guitar?” Dalton asked, impressed.

“If shredding is required,” Joe said. “That hasn't been the handiest skill here. Knowing some first aid helps at times.”

“Like with Sultan,” Cole said.

Joe winced. “I wish I could have handled that better. I'd never worked on an arrow wound.”

“I wasn't criticizing,” Cole said. “At least you did something.”

“Have you guys been where he's from?” Jace asked.

“Monterey?” Dalton clarified. “I haven't.”

“Me neither,” Cole said. “Don't they have an aquarium?”

“A famous one,” Joe said. “And a lot of natural beauty. Great coastline. Nice bay.”

“How'd you end up here?” Jace asked.

Joe clapped his hands together. “It's a painful story. But it's part of what I need to tell you. Let's see . . . I was engaged to be married. Gwen Saunders, the love of my life. Our wedding was coming up. We were about ready to send out invitations. Her family had some money, so it was going to be at a fancy country club. Some of my friends were lined up to provide live music. It would have been awesome.”

“What happened?” Cole asked.

“I was walking by the ocean one evening,” Joe said. “I was lost in thought. Feeling grateful, mostly. Gwen is amazing. It's ridiculous. She's so smart. A lawyer. The kind you don't want working against you. She's beautiful. We both love music. Especially some of the oldies. Anyhow, the air in front of me opened up, and before I knew what was happening, I got sucked through to here.”

“The air opened up?” Cole asked.

“It was a Wayminder,” Joe said. “I wasn't part of her plan, apparently. Just a mishap. She wanted to cross over to the Outside, and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Did you ask her to send you back?” Dalton asked.

“You bet,” Joe said. “And she told me the same thing you guys have heard. Once we cross to the Outskirts, we can return home temporarily, but we can't stay there. And those who know us best forget us the most.”

“Gwen?” Mira asked.

“Bingo,” Joe said. “I ended up in Zeropolis, and my fiancée forgot she ever knew me.”

“You're sure she forgot?” Cole asked.

Joe scrunched his nose. “I'm sure. There's more to the story.”

“How did a Wayminder bring you to Zeropolis?” Dalton asked. “I thought their shaping worked in Creon.”

“Or Junction,” Cole said. “Like when we came through.”

“Their shaping messes with time and space,” Joe said. “The time manipulation only works in Creon. They open ways by tweaking space. That works best in Creon, but it can be done all over. A Wayminder could explain it better, but I think they can borrow space from Creon wherever they go.”

“That's right,” Mira confirmed.

“The Wayminder felt bad,” Joe said. “She tried to make it right.”

“She was a girl?” Jace asked.

Joe nodded. “Sallanah. When I came through the way she opened, I broke her concentration and the way closed. She couldn't open a new one right there, so we moved. She sent me back as soon as she could—within four hours of me crossing over. She got me close to where I had departed from. I ran to my car, drove to Gwen's place. She answered the door . . . and looked at me like a total stranger.”

Cole's insides twisted. He imagined getting a look like that from his mom. Or his dad. Or his sister. Is that what the future held? He glanced at Dalton. Based on his friend's expression, the same worries were attacking him.

“Sallanah had warned me what to expect,” Joe said. “Since I'd only been in the Outskirts a short time, I kind of hoped the side effects wouldn't take hold. I said Gwen's name, and she asked if she knew me. I told her my name but got a blank stare. It was right out of a nightmare. The more I tried to talk, the more I hinted at details I knew about her, the more uncomfortable she became. Before things got out of hand, I walked away.”

“Did you get sucked back here?” Dalton asked.

“In less than two hours,” Joe said. “After Gwen, I went to visit a good friend who also had no memory of me. I called in to work. Nobody knew me. I found a place to park my car and just sat there, trying to think. I felt like I was losing my mind. For a good while I couldn't stop laughing. Not healthy laughter. Before too long, the air over the passenger seat started to ripple. A way opened up and I was back in Zeropolis.”

“That's the worst,” Cole said.

“Not yet,” Joe said. “The worst is coming. Sit tight. Sallanah came and found me not long after I returned to Zeropolis. She apologized again, and explained that I was stuck in the Outskirts. She helped me get a freemark, an identity card, and a place to stay. She gave me some money. I was in a daze at the time. I couldn't appreciate how lucky I was to have someone to orient me.”

“Are you still friends?” Dalton asked.

“Not really,” Joe said. “In theory, I guess. I wasn't overly nice to her. In spite of her help, she had kind of ruined my life. Looking back now, I can at least appreciate how she
tried to make up for it. I don't think she's in Zeropolis anymore. My understanding is she returned to Creon.”

“You got stuck here,” Jace said. “Then what?”

“I found a hospital,” Joe said. “Since I'm a paramedic, they became very interested when they learned I was from Outside. They hired me, and we taught each other some techniques. The medical care in Zeropolis is pretty good. Some of their technology surpasses what we have back home, though our medicines are more advanced.”

“How'd you get involved with the Unseen?” Cole wondered.

“Gradually,” Joe said. “I began to notice how controlling the government is here. I could never shake the hope of finding a way back to Monterey. You meet a lot of people as a paramedic. I kept my eyes and ears open. I started to hear about thruports that could connect to our Internet back home. When I met the right people, I started asking questions. Within a couple of years, I connected with some members of the Unseen who helped me get online.”

“That's so weird they can get our Internet,” Dalton said. “Are we even in the same universe?”

“It takes help from a Wayminder,” Joe said. “Under normal conditions, a Wayminder can only hold a way open for a limited time. But some can open tiny ways for a really long time. The Wayminder opens tiny ways near a wireless router in our world, a tinker makes gear to pick up the signal, and before you know it, they're online. Some tinkers even own routers in our world and pay the access fees and everything.”

“Did you try to contact Gwen?” Mira asked.

“What do you think?” Joe replied. “Nonstop. She never opened a single e-mail from me. None of my friends or family did either. I went through some of my obscure contacts and tried them. Sometimes I'd hear back. We'd make idle chitchat. I never tried to tell anyone where I was. I knew how it would sound.”

“That must have been so frustrating,” Cole said as his hopes of e-mailing his family crumbled. This story was creating a dark, anxious pit in his stomach.

“Still gets worse,” Joe said. “See, I know the password for Gwen's e-mail. She had mine, too. She never changed it. So even though I couldn't contact her, I could peek at her life. I could see the e-mails I sent, sitting there unopened. She opened everything. Even half of the spam. But nothing from me.”

“Man,” Dalton said.

“Bummer, right?” Joe said. “I'd check up on her from time to time. Meanwhile, the more I learned about the Unseen, the more I believed in their cause, and the more involved I became. I began to understand how completely Abram Trench wants to control life in Zeropolis. And I came to realize the tyranny of the High King. If I was stuck here, I wanted to help this world become the best it can be. I mean, slavery? Are you kidding me? As a fringe benefit, the Unseen gave me access to thruports so I could keep peeking at my world.”

“Because thruports are illegal,” Dalton said.

“The Grand Shaper does all he can to shut them down,”
Joe said. “But the Unseen are well organized here. I had good access.”

“How'd it get worse?” Jace asked.

Joe sighed. “About six months ago, I started to notice some of Gwen's e-mails taking a turn for the worse. I can read her pretty well. I know how she gets when she's frustrated. She's type A—works hard, plays hard, and takes things hard. She internalizes every little failure. I helped balance her out there. I helped her have fun. I helped her shake stuff off. We'd listen to music, or I'd play my guitar, or we'd get Italian, or we'd ride bikes along the coast. She was going into a downward spiral like I'd never seen. It wasn't clear in most of her e-mails—mainly the ones to her sister, and hints in the messages to her mom.”

“Did you feel bad spying on her?” Jace asked.

Joe rubbed his face. “Well, yeah. But it was my only form of contact. I couldn't resist. As time went on, I realized that she felt alone. Maybe it's the romantic in me, but I thought maybe even though she couldn't remember me, a part of her was grieving my absence.”

Suddenly Cole was fighting back tears. Were his parents like that? Could they feel something was wrong, even though they had forgotten him? Were they depressed without knowing why? Even if it caused them pain, Cole couldn't help hoping that some part of them deep down remembered him. He had to believe there was some hidden refuge of memory that might be wakened somehow.

“That must have been difficult,” Mira said tenderly.

Staring at the floor, Joe folded and unfolded his arms. “It
wasn't a picnic. The longer I watched, the clearer her sadness became. I couldn't take seeing Gwen like that, unable to help her. It led to a crazy, stupid plan.”

“What?” Cole asked, fascinated.

“I decided to bring her here,” Joe said.

“Did you do it?” Dalton asked. “Did it make her remember you?”