Equilibrium (22 page)

~

Raj Sen was furious. His whole body was shaking. Not only had he lost the children, but when he’d made his way to Ames, he couldn’t access the portal. All his carefully laid plans were in ruins. Someone was going to pay! He
had
to get those blueprints, even if it meant going back and prying them from Olivia’s cold, dead fingers. Yes, dead is what they would be if she didn’t hand them over. Those blueprints were his future, his future in paradise. Kevin had to get him access to the portal.

“I don’t know how else to explain this,” Kevin said exhausted. “I can’t just
open
the portal and transport you through. I may be able to hack into the system, but it’ll still not work, not now. There is no energy. It’ll be months before the energy reserves are replenished.”

“Replenish it quicker,” Raj whined. “This is such nonsense! I need to get back
now
.” He sat down with his face in his palms. This had to work. He couldn’t get stuck
here
. “Right, get up! Let’s go. We’re going to Ames and you
are
going to get the portal working or your life won’t be worth living.”

“That’s right,” Sophie said, coming back into the room. “Stop stalling with your nonsense. Of course you can get it to work. Let’s go.”

Kevin got up on his feet, his stomach churning. He needed to get out of here and help the kids. This trip to Ames was going to be colossal waste of time and he would probably end up dead when he couldn’t get the portal to work.

As he walked into the hallway, he reached into the closet for his Ames pass, which hung on a hook, just to the left, inside the closet. A hand grabbed his.

“Just going to get my pass,” he said, and slid into the closet, into Inez’s arms. “Get me out of here,” he whispered, and closed his eyes. He immediately felt a warm rush of calm and a slight push. When he opened his eyes again, he was standing in Inez’s hallway.

Inez collapsed into his arms, completely drained. He carried her into the family room where Olivia and Ella were still sleeping soundly.

“Dad!” David whispered, and threw his arms around his parents.

“Let me put your mother down,” Kevin said, as he took her to her bedroom and gently laid her in her bed. “Rest,” he said softly, as he closed the bedroom door and made his way to the kitchen to talk to David. “We need to rescue Arizona, Kellan and Harry.”

“Where are they?”

“At Morena’s house.”

“Good, that shouldn’t be difficult then,” David replied. “We’ll go over to Morgana’s and it will be an easy transport.” The two sisters shared the same house, in different dimensions. “We do need the Elders’ permission, though. Mom needs to call an emergency meeting.”

“Let’s give her an hour and then wake her,” Kevin suggested. “The kids are in safe hands for now. How’s Olivia coping with all this? Does she know about
Wanderers
yet?”

David chuckled. “She’s been told, but I don’t think she believes any of it. Not yet, anyway. Is Arizona okay, Dad?”

“She is, but she’s conflicted about her dad, not surprisingly.”

“Dad, do you think she’ll come through?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged.

~

The meeting with the Elders was a formality, but a necessity. It was protocol. It was carried out efficiently and quickly. Morgana and Lars would go through to help bring the children back. David was desperate to go and get Arizona himself, but accepted that he was not strong enough yet. Inez and David accompanied Lars and Morgana back to Morgana’s house and watched them transport out.

~

I tried calling Dad again, no answer. I was becoming concerned that perhaps Dr. Sen had gotten to him. I had to make sure he was okay. But how? I had no other way to contact him other than calling him. Hopefully Monica would check in with him.

I was lying by the poolside in Kellan’s arms enjoying the sunshine. Harry was busy swimming laps, up and down–relentlessly.

“Come on, lazybones!” he shouted and splashed us. Get in the water and exercise. You never know when we’re going to have to run endless miles again,” he said, not joking. Kellan jumped in, dragging me with him. We started swimming, up and down. Harry was right. We shouldn’t rest, thinking that everything was going to be all right. Dr. Sen and his nutty entourage could find us at any moment and we would have to outrun them again. However, I didn’t want to overtire myself either, so after ten laps I got out and dried myself off on one of the large beach towels Morena had left on the table for us. I looked up and saw Morena come walking up toward me with some guests. One of them was definitely her twin sister–they were totally identical. The other could have been her brother.

“Arizona, this is my sister, Morgana, and this is Lars, a friend.”

“Hey,” I said, as Harry and Kellan joined us.

“Can you guys sit down for a moment? We have something we need to discuss with you,” Morena said.

That sounded serious, I thought as we walked over to the deckchairs. I sat down and looked over at Morena expectantly.

“When Kevin went home to his house, he was accosted by Dr. Sen’s people.”

Oh no, I thought to myself. This was not good. That madman had tracked us down.

“We need to be on our way again,” Harry said. “We can’t sit around here and wait for them to find us. Where is Kevin now? Is he okay? Do we need to head over and help him?”

“Kevin’s fine,” Morena said slowly.

“He is?” I asked. “Where is he now?”

“He’s been rescued. He’s in a safe place,” Morena replied vaguely.

“Where?” I persisted. “If it’s safe, we should maybe all head over there?”

“That’s what we would like to do,” Lars said, speaking up for the first time. He had a strange accent. I couldn’t place it. “Morgana and I are here to help transport you back to your parents.”

I just looked at him, dumbstruck again.

“And how are you going to do that?” Harry asked. “Through the portal?”

Yikes, I thought. Wasn’t the portal unreliable at the moment? It had been tampered with. I really didn’t want to end up in Victorian times or maybe even with the dinosaurs. But, how else were we going to get back? Maybe we should just head back to Princeton.

“The portal isn’t functional at the moment,” Morgana replied. “We are Wanderers, like David. We’re going to transport you home in the same way Ella got home.”

I just couldn’t get my head around that. I looked over at Kellan and Harry. Harry looked just as skeptical as I felt.

“It doesn’t hurt,” Morena assured us quickly.

Pain was not even a consideration. I just didn’t buy into the whole thing. Still, we’d all seen Ella disappear with David. I’d just not given it any thought, mainly because it was so unbelievable. It seemed as if I might have dreamed it all. To accept that it had been real was almost impossible. It was one thing to accept that Mom had built a portal. That was sort of based on sound scientific stuff, or so I’d hoped. Physics was really not my strong point. It did sound plausible, though. The whole many-worlds blah-blah, I could let slide. Maybe there was a small chance. But this? Wanderers? Really? I don’t think so. I must have been very tired when Ella disappeared, it must have been some kind of illusion. I could tell that Harry was thinking the same. Kellan was nodding.

“It’s not that we are concerned with the possibility that it may hurt,” Harry said. “I just can’t get my head around it, that’s all.”

“I know that it’s difficult to accept,” Morena replied. “Can you trust me, though?”

I looked over at the boys and we nodded. After all, she had driven all that way to get us and had offered up her house to us. And Kevin seemed to trust her.

“Then I would like to take you home,” she continued. “If that’s what you all want. I would understand if you wanted to stay here,” she said, looking at me thoughtfully.

“Of course, she doesn’t want to stay here,” Harry said perplexed. “Why would she?”

I shrugged at him. This was no time to go explaining to him about my dad. Dad wasn’t even home. I needed my mom to help me deal with him and my situation. We had to go back–for now.

Morena nodded. “Okay, so get into some dry clothes and meet me back in the hallway.”

I tried calling my dad one last time after I had changed into my clothes. It was difficult saying goodbye to this life. I was going to miss Monica, Beth, Raymond, Christian and everyone else I knew in New Jersey. I walked down the stairs to the hall feeling miserable, until I saw Kellan waiting there for me.

 “Arizona, come to me,” Morena said in an even, calm tone. I went over and took her hand. “Kellan, go to Morgana and Harry go to Lars.”

Morena’s hands were super soft. I felt calm and relaxed as soon as I touched them.

“Is everyone ready? Close your eyes and relax,” she said.

I felt a soothing, warm calm. A slight pushing feeling and then more calm. I felt like I was floating through clouds. This was followed by a sensation of sheer happiness. Then Morena let go of me and I opened my eyes.

“Welcome home,” Kevin said smiling at us.

I
felt totally disoriented, once again. One would think that I’d be used to it by now–not so. I was still clutching onto Morena’s hand, but I let go as soon as Kellan grabbed hold of me and drew me into his arms.

“Where are we?” I asked. We certainly weren’t
home
as Kevin had indicated.
Welcome home?

“You’re at my house,” Morgana smiled. “Welcome.”

I extracted myself from Kellan’s arms and looked around. Morgana beckoned us to follow her, and we all walked through to her family room. The shape of the room, its angles and contours seemed so familiar. Then the incredible realization dawned on me–this was the same house that Morena lived in, at the other dimension! But Morgana’s house was decorated very differently. My mother would describe it as eclectic, which I think is just nice word to describe miss- matched…

“Please do sit down and make yourselves comfortable. You’re all safe here. We have a lot to discuss, but first let me get you some refreshments,” Morgana said, pointing us to her couches.

I sat down between Kellan and Harry and looked around. Kevin was perched on the arm of a chair occupied by an older, blond lady. I totally felt that she was in
charge
somehow. In charge of what?  Sitting on a couch in the corner were Morena and Lars. There was definitely a warm feeling of calm in this room. I felt peacefully euphoric, if one can feel that. It was a very strange feeling. Morgana reappeared with a large tray full of goodies–chips, dips, pita bread and nuts. I dove right in, as did Kellan and Harry. We’re teenagers, after all, always hungry.

“There are drinks in the refrigerator,” Morgana said, pointing to the bar. “I’ve ordered some pizza and chicken wings. The delivery guy should be here in about forty minutes or so,” she added, much to my satisfaction. Good lady.

“Where are we exactly?” Harry asked. “I know we’re at your house, Morgana. Thank you for your hospitality, I’m very grateful. But, exactly
where
are we?”

The lady, the older one with blond hair, answered. “Morgana, let me, please. Kellan knows me already. But, may I introduce myself to you, Arizona and Harry? I’m Inez. I’m David’s mother and Kevin’s ex-wife.”

Kellan knew her already? He hadn’t mentioned it, I thought to myself as I threw him a
look
. Harry stood up and shook her hand, I followed suit. It seemed to be the right thing to do.

“Have you seen David?” I asked her. “Is he okay?”

“Yes, both David and Ella arrived safely. They’re at my house. Your mom’s there as well. We’re waiting for two more of our Wanderer friends to arrive, Javier and Constance, and then we’ll talk more,” Inez promised.

We didn’t have to wait long. There was a tap at the door just as she finished talking and Morgana let them in. They entered silently, nodded at us and took a seat. I noticed that they all shared the same serene calmness. I liked and trusted them right away.

“We’re all here, so let’s get started,” Inez said. “Children, you are back in your home dimension.”

I guessed she meant the Darley dimension. I supposed that was ok, for now.

“A lot of things have happened since you’ve been away. So, first of all, let’s have a short de-briefing. Kellan and Arizona disappeared from the lakeside. We think that you were assaulted, taken to the Weeks’ cottage and held there by Raj Sen and his accomplices. Arizona, you were then transported back through the portal to Princeton.” Inez stopped, to check herself. She had nearly slipped and said
to your dad
. That would’ve been a mistake. Harry was still unaware of Arizona’s
otherlife
and it was not her place to mention it. “Kellan, a ring with a message was put on your finger and you were left by the roadside. The ring contained a microchip with a message for Olivia and Larry from Raj Sen.”

“What message? I asked, unable to help myself.

“It was a message asking for a set of blueprints of the portal to be delivered to Raj in return for you children. Harry, you and Ella were taken from your bedrooms to the Weeks’ cottage–or perhaps it was somewhere else, we don’t really know–to be held for ransom. Olivia and Larry did not immediately figure out the ring and the FBI was deployed. The police issued an amber alert and a full search undertaken. Knowing that the authorities had been alerted, we assume Raj Sen panicked and felt he had to move Harry and Ella as quickly as possible.  Raj managed to transport them though the portal and away from the prying eyes of the law. We assume that once Raj was through the portal, he had no idea what to do. He has no contacts there that we know of. Kevin tells me Sophie, an Ames staff member, her brother-in-law, Dan, and three other men are involved.”