Fook (11 page)

“There is. Every inch of this facility is
covered by at least one camera at all times,” Derek confirmed his
roommate’s assumption. “Not to mention that the gate is not only
magnetically locked but also equipped with security sensors that
trigger the cameras to begin recording from the time that it’s
opened until ten minutes after one of the hundred or so motion
sensors on the property ceases to sense any signs of movement.

“So let me guess. You hacked into Mass.
Electric and planted a virus that will allow you to temporarily
disable their security systems and hence allow us to access the
facility undetected.”

“No,” Derek laughed. “When have you ever
known me to be the hacker type? I wouldn’t know the first thing
about hacking into a utility company’s digital infrastructure, let
alone how to write a program that could temporarily disable an
entire security network.”

“Then how are we going to get in there
without being seen?” Jason wondered aloud.

“With this.” Derek removed a single key from
his pocket, holding the simple device of entry up for Jason to
see.

“A key?” Jason questioned, surprised by the
simplicity of the proposed solution.

“Not just any key. A key that I had copied
during my internship with Mass. Electric last summer.”

Jason was impressed. He’d never doubted
Derek’s intelligence, but at times he
had
questioned his
commitment. Derek had always come across as the ‘whatever’s going
to happen will be’ type and not one to plan things out in the long
term, but seeing that key firmly grasped between his index finger
and thumb, he now realized that he’d seriously underestimated his
roommate’s commitment to the project. Derek had obviously been
planning this moment for quite some time now, which somehow made
him feel more at ease about the dangerous leap they were about the
take. At the same time though, a key seemed too simple a solution
for what sounded like such a sophisticated security system.

“You're telling me that the state’s largest
electric company probably spent a small fortune to install a state
of the art security system on this site and all that it takes is
one key to get inside?” Jason questioned.

“That and the passcode that I got by making
my boss, and I quote, ‘cum so hard that, not only her husband, but
her vibrator as well would forever pale in comparison'.”

“There’s the Derek I know.”

“Thanks,” Derek’s grin widened at the
perceived compliment. “Now come on,” he opened his door and
excitedly jumped from the vehicle.

Jason watched as Derek almost skipped his
way to the security gate, unable to conceal his excitement. “Here
we go I guess,” he spoke as he opened his door and followed more
cautiously.

*****

“You throw like a girl.”

“I am a girl,” Autumn Lively responded to
her brother’s taunt as her first pitch bounced in front of the
pizza box, currently standing in as home plate.

“You couldn’t hit it anyway!” Callie yelled
from the other side of the large back yard.

“I think you should back up a bit more!”
thirteen year old Jonathan yelled back at the mouthy outfielder as
he took up position beside the pizza box one more time.

Grabbing another ball from the bucket beside
her, Autumn stepped to the side of the stick that they’d placed in
the grass as an impromptu mound, kicked her leg in the air and
delivered the next pitch. This time the ball sailed from her grasp,
passing over the cardboard plate and just under the bat of her
overconfident brother.

Callie began laughing from the outfield.
“See! I told you!”

“Shut up Callie!”

“Hey, don’t yell at my friend just because
you suck!” Autumn scolded her embarrassed brother.

Jonathan didn’t say a thing. Instead, he
retook his position alongside the plate, slamming the end of the
bat into the box as he’d seen his major league idols do countless
times. Autumn grabbed another ball from the bucket beside her,
staring her brother down before winding up and releasing the ball
with another girlish delivery. The ball sailed toward him. Intent
on showing up the year older girl in the outfield, he focused all
of his concentration on the spinning projectile hurdling toward
him. Rearing back, in preparation for an all or nothing swing, he
took one quick glance at the pretty redhead in the outfield. As
much as he wanted to show her up; to prove just how good he was,
even more so, he wanted to impress her.

Callie had been friends with his sister for
nearly five years now, ever since she’d moved in next door. He’d
always liked her. She’d always been nice to him and they’d always
enjoyed each other’s company, but in the last year or so something
had started to change. What had been a secondhand friendship had
begun to take on a more exciting quality. Callie had always been
Autumn’s friend, but lately he’d realized a greater excitement
beginning to take over whenever she and his sister got together to
play, which is why he’d blown off going to the beach with Billy and
his parents that morning and, to his sister’s surprise, had
suggested baseball instead.

He wanted nothing more than to hit the ball
coming toward him. He intended to hit the ball so hard that the
leather cover simply peeled away, leaving only the ball’s core
sailing toward the other end of the yard, over Callie’s head and
into the adjoining woods. She would have no choice but to be
impressed. Rearing back, he prepared to swing.

As the ball approached the plate, he lunged
forward, putting all he had into the swing as the bat and the ball
crossed the plate at the exact same moment but one inch apart. Just
as the previous pitch had done, the ball struck the hockey net
backstop with a soft swoosh as the momentum of the swinging bat
compromised his balance and dropped him to his knees. Female
laughter erupted from the outfield, replacing Jonathan’s previous
confidence with adolescent embarrassment.

“My turn,” Callie yelled between laughs as
she sprinted toward the plate.

Embarrassed by his failure, Jonathan didn’t
say a word, simply dropping the bat in exchange for his glove. He
couldn’t explain how he felt. Hell, he couldn’t explain how he’d
been feeling for the past year. Instead, he chose to avoid eye
contact with the source of his confusion and jogged out to the
mound to take the place of his sister who was currently trotting to
the outfield.

“Right here,” Callie poked as she slammed
the bat into the plate, just as her unknown admirer had done
moments earlier.

Refocusing his attention away from his
confusing, early teen emotions and back on the task at hand,
Jonathan stepped back, preparing to deliver a perfect strike.
Displaying perfect form, just as his father had taught him, he
kicked his leg high into the air, lunging forward and released the
ball with all the strength he could muster.

The ball erupted out of his hand as Callie
prepared to swing. Shifting her weight to her back leg, she pushed
forward, toward the approaching ball. The sound of the metal bat
striking the spinning leather was almost inaudible as the baseball
instantly changed course. Within a millisecond, the leather orb was
sailing over his head and moments later, his sister’s as it broke
the wooded barrier and continued its airborne journey deep within
the distant woods.

He was devastated. The very thing that he’d
intended to do, to impress his unaware love, had just been done to
him and now she was rounding the loosely laid out bases in an
almost ballet like dance as her closest friend scurried off into
the woods to retrieve what would momentarily become an embarrassing
home run.

*****

He didn’t have to admit it. Jason was sure that his
worried look was all the evidence Derek needed to understand just
how nervous he was about this improperly planned and dangerous
test. Or, at least it would have been if his friend hadn’t spent
the last ten minutes consumed by the dangerous task of connecting
the device to the two-hundred-twenty kilovolt transformer that
Jason continued to admire from afar.

“And you’re sure that the device can handle
this much power?”

“Again, yes,” Derek reassured his nervous
friend for what was probably the fifth time since they’d set foot
inside the gate. “The charge only passes through the case for a
brief nanosecond before we're gone. It’s
this
place that I’m
more concerned with,” Derek displayed a half worried grin as he
took a quick look around at the multimillion dollar equipment
surrounding them.

“Why, what’s going to happen after we’re
gone?”

“Likely, nothing,” Derek reassured as he
connected the last of the spider web of wires to the large
equipment and then to the case. “If anything, the sudden surge will
probably just trip the breakers, knocking out power to half of the
town, or...,”

“Or?” Jason’s concern grew at the trailing
thought.

“Or, the sudden redirection of power could
cause this transformer as well as the other three behind it to
erupt in a massive ball of fire and sparks capable of being seen
from space,” Derek shrugged dismissively.

“Great. Let’s just hope we’re no longer
standing here when that happens.

“Right, now come on,” Derek held out the
pair of wire tethered orbs that would connect his friend to the
machine.

“What’s that then?” Jason motioned to the
red backpack, propped against the fence behind him.

“Oh shit, wouldn’t that have sucked,” Derek
laughed as he placed both of his orbs on the ground and jogged over
to the bag.

“What?” For the first time in his life he
felt completely confused and in the dark about what was going
on.

“Spare parts,” Derek explained as he picked
up the bag and trotting back toward the device, grabbed Jason’s arm
to encourage him.

“Spare parts? Encouraging,” Jason hesitantly
moved toward the briefcase.

“Don’t worry about it,” Derek reassured.
“Everything will be fine. I just wanna be prepared for
anything.”

“You, prepared?” Jason almost began laughing
at the comical statement.

“Hey, I can plan ahead when necessary,”
Derek assured as he bent down and picked up his orbs. “You remember
those two girls in our dorm room?”

“You mean the one I assaulted and her
friend,” Jason recalled the embarrassing encounter, his face
turning red.

“Yes, them.”

“What about them?” Jason searched for a
point.

“Well, before bringing them home, I made
sure that I was well protected.

“But weren’t you just telling me in the lab
the other night how you needed another box of condoms and wanted me
to run to the convenience store to pick them up for you.”

“A task which you have yet to complete.”

“Sorry. I’ll get right on that.”

“Anyway, yes you are correct. I was out of
condoms but I knew that I was out of condoms so I made sure to
engage our fine young female friends in a very specific and
provocative line of questioning before inviting them home. A line
of questioning which ultimately provided me with the knowledge that
not only were both on birth control, but also that the lovely
blonde occasionally left her back door unlocked.”

“What does having no condoms have to do with
her poor security habits?”

The grin, which had continued to grow as
he’d recounted his previous night’s escapades, suddenly faded at
his sadly inexperienced friend’s tame existence.

“Never mind,” Derek sighed. “You ready?”

“What?” Jason’s confusion continued. “Oh
wait.”

“There you go,” Derek’s smile returned.

“How are we going to get back?”

Derek’s grin again faded. “What?”

“Here. How do we get home? How do we know if
there’s a suitable power source on the other side that can safely
return us back to this time?”

Realizing that the joke had been completely
lost on his friend, Derek switched back to a tone of reassurance.
“What does that plaque over there say?” he motioned to a small
silver sign mounted on the exterior wall of the gate house.

“1990,” Jason stuttered as he adjusted his
glasses in an attempt to read the distant numbers.

“Right, a whole year before our programmed
arrival point. So there’s nothing to be concerned about. This place
will exist to provide us a safe journey home.”

“But if the calculations are off, we could
arrive in the wrong year.”

“If the calculations are off we could be
dead,” Derek let out an uncomfortable chuckle.

“Excuse me!” a young, female voice suddenly
interrupted.

Both Derek and Jason turned to find a young
girl holding a baseball and standing on the other side of the fence
at the edge of the clearing.

“Time to go,” Derek announced as he pushed
the tiny button on his orb.

“Wait! What about the transfor—” Jason was
cut off mid-sentence as a loud snap followed by a deafening pop
erupted from the equipment around them.

Autumn stumbled backward at the eruption of
noise and a sudden burst of wind that swept through the large
clearing, tripping over a root and falling backward onto her butt.
The home run ball that she’d just retrieved, before stumbling upon
the two strange men standing at the center of the large facility,
rolled from her grip and stopped against a nearby tree.

Though the fall had temporarily jarred her
head back, she quickly returned her focus to the two strangers,
just in time to see them, the wires and the odd box at their feet,
vanish into thin air. The popping, sizzling noises slowly faded as
the air calmed, but the same couldn’t be said for her nerves.
Stumbling to her feet, forgetting about the ball and reluctant to
remove her eyes from the spot on which the two men had just been
standing, she began making her way back to her two friends who were
now standing at the other edge of the woods, intrigued by the odd
noises taking place just beyond their property.