Glimpse (The Tesla Effect Book 1) (22 page)

“Wow,” Tesla breathed.

“Do you like it?” Sam asked. “Really?”

“Yeah, of course.
Who wouldn’t?” she asked, a little scornfully, the sincerity in her voice unmistakable.

“Come see the inside,” he encouraged, and led the way up to an arched oak door set in a wall of stone.
There was a small window in the door, framed in the same greening-metal as the hardware on the fence.

As they walked in the front door, Sam watched Tesla to catch every expression as she took it all in.
The huge logs that made up the exterior of the house were visible on the inside, as well; he had not covered the walls with plaster or sheetrock. Instead, the stained wooden beams, with some hardened white material between each one, made the walls airtight and were their only ornament. Just inside the door was a coat and boot closet, and on the opposite wall a small mirror and the portrait of his family that Tesla had seen at his parents’ house.

There were two steps down to a sunken room just big enough for a round table and four straight-backed chairs, a cherry-red sofa and a comfortable old chair and hassock.
Open bookshelves lined the walls behind the sofa, and what were probably medical books, notebook and pen littered the rough-hewn coffee table where Sam no doubt studied. Instead of a TV, there was a stone fireplace, and to the left of the entry was a small but open kitchen, with a sunny garden window over the sink where clay pots of herbs grew. The roof was steeply pitched and open, the structural beams revealed, and the entire back wall was solid glass, with French doors that opened onto a small deck. Tesla gaped at the view. The land behind the cottage in the woods fell away to a spectacular valley, and from the glass wall one could see for miles the beauty of the natural world.

“Sam, I’ve never seen anything like this,” she began as she turned to him, her eyes bright with appreciation and excitement.
“It’s so beautiful! You’re actually an artist, you know—”

Sam was kissing her before she could finish her sentence.
He had taken one purposeful step toward her as she told him how much she loved the place, taken her face gently in both his hands, and covered her mouth with his own.

CHAPTER
23

Startled by the sudden kiss, Tesla paused for a fraction of a second, her unspoken question,
yes or no
, clear to both of them. She reached up with her right hand, placed it on top of his that cupped the side of her face, and kissed him back.

Yes
.

He wrapped her in his arms and pulled her in close to him with unexpected intensity.
He made a low, soft sound, and she pulled away, her heart hammering.

“Sam, I—”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry,” he hastened to say, both hands up in surrender. “I hadn’t intended that, I swear. That’s not why I brought you here.”

“I didn’t think that,” she assured him.
“It’s just that…I’m a little confused…I’m not sure….”

“I understand,” he said.
“I don’t want to scare you away, but I won’t pretend that I haven’t waited years for this.” His eyes were direct and without pretense, and Tesla felt a shiver roll up her back as his gaze held hers. “You, on the other hand, have not. Believe me, I am nothing if not patient.” He smiled, and while she knew from the tightness around his mouth what the admission cost him, she also believed he meant exactly what he said.

“Okay,” she said, uncertain if that was the appropriate response.
“Thanks.”

They stood there, awkwardly at first, and then he said, “Let’s not let a simple kiss ruin the day.
C’mon, let me show you the rest, and then I’ll get us a cold drink.”

Fifteen minutes later Tesla nodded on the red sofa, her glass of lemonade tipped precariously in her hand.
Sam reached over and gently took the glass from her and set it down on the coffee table.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled as she fought to keep her eyes open.
“I’m so tired all of a sudden.”

“So take a nap,” Sam said.
“It’s barely eight a.m. Just tell me what time you want to be out of here and I’ll make sure you wake up in plenty of time.”

“I don’t know….”
She hesitated, looked longingly at the comfy couch, and then back at Sam.

“I’ve got some stuff to do around here, so you’re free to sleep.”
He got up from the sofa and headed toward the kitchen. “You won’t bother me.”

She needed no additional encouragement.
Tesla pried off her running shoes and lay down on the sofa, a soft feather pillow, covered in some deep, dark green fabric, under her head. She closed her eyes, breathed out in one long, deep exhale, and was sound asleep.

Sam sat in the worn, overstuffed chair across from the couch where Tesla slept. Slouched down low in his chair, he watched her, a brooding, unguarded look on his face. It freaked him out, that she looked the same after all these years. She
was
the same, he reminded himself, because no time had passed. He had grown up, and the vision of her he had carried in his head all these years was right in front of him—but now she was the kid, not yet eighteen. Christ, he could be arrested for what he was thinking. He knew he should walk away, but he didn’t know if he could. When it came to Tesla, he still felt like that awkward teenager who would’ve given anything—anything he had, or would ever have—to be with her.

Sam tensed when Tesla stirred.
She rolled, just slightly, from her back onto her side and faced him in his chair only a few feet away. Her breath slowed and deepened again, and she slept on. He realized that he held his breath, and shook his head, a silent laughter in his mind.
You’re such a fool
, he thought, though he never took his eyes from her face. The tangled mass of her hair shone brilliantly in the sun that streamed in through the wall of glass beside her and turned it from a deep blood-orange to honey-gold as it curled over her shoulders and spilled across the green pillow and halfway down her back. Her lashes were thick auburn fringe against her pale, smooth skin, cheeks with the barest hint of pink echoed in the slightly deeper hue of her lips. Her small, round breasts were outlined by the tight little T-shirt she wore, with its swirls of psychedelic blue-green-purple-white that rode up just enough to reveal two inches of her taut, flat stomach above her low-rise, somewhat tattered jeans. She had kicked off her shoes, and he saw that her toenails were perfectly lacquered with hot-pink polish, a note of unexpected whimsy that somehow broke his heart.

He must have sensed some change in the room, a lessening of the power that an unchecked gaze focused on someone else’s body always affords.
His eyes leapt back to her face and her eyes, remarkably, devastatingly blue and green, stared back at him.

“You’re awake,” he said unnecessarily.

“Yes,” she said, her voice low and soft with sleep.

Neither of them moved.

“It’s still early, not even noon,” he said. “You can sleep longer if you like.” He wanted her to get up, to ask him to take her back to her father’s house, to Lydia’s, to Finn. He wanted this impossible situation, which he had worked to achieve for almost a decade, to be taken away from him so he didn’t have to decide. To decide to give her up, wait for her to grow up and hope that she would want him, too, or to win her over and make it happen now. He knew he could do it, not because he was so irresistible or she was so malleable, but because he was twenty-three years old, and she was seventeen. Some things are just that simple.

“Can I stay a while longer?” she asked.

He swallowed. Exactly, and not at all, what he wanted.

“Of course,” he said.
“You can stay as long as you like.”

CHAPTER
24

Tesla looked around the small control room again, as if Finn might have magically appeared since the last time she checked.

“Tesla, it is imperative that you pay attention,” Lydia said.

“Yeah, I know, sorry. I’m distracted,” Tesla said guiltily. “Where is everybody?” Sam had dropped her off just after two o’clock in the afternoon at Lydia’s house but it had been unusually silent. Finally Lydia herself had come downstairs and they’d walked over to the physics building, and down into the Bat Cave, together.

Lydia relented—as much as Lydia ever relented. “Beckett is with Max back at the house—I believe they’re in the basement, which I have turned into a training facility-slash-media room. Something about pizza and
The Matrix
and some basic judo lessons, I believe. Joley has to study for a midterm, but you’re to offer him no sympathy, since he insists on an overload of summer classes so he can take the bar exam before he’s twenty-three, thus besting his older brothers in some he-man-lawyer contest. Jane has been called into her office. And I haven’t seen Finnegan all day. Now, can we get back to work? The stakes are considerably higher now, you know. We’ve got to try and prepare for every possible contingency.”

“You’re right, Lydia.” There was no one else in the room save Bizzy at the control panel, who checked and rechecked her calculations and equipment and ignored them both. The audio recording of Tesla’s heartbeat had failed to trigger the time machine, and preparations for Tesla herself to make the jump were underway.

Lydia paused and looked hard at Tesla. “Alright then,” she said briskly, but not unkindly. “As I said, now that Elizabeth has adjusted…well, whatever it is that she needs to adjust, you need to get ready. I have some items for you to take when you jump this time.”

“Spy stuff?” Tesla asked eagerly.

Lydia flashed a smile, but it was gone before Tesla could congratulate herself on cracking the woman’s stern exterior. “Yes, spy stuff,” she said as she looked down at the box on her lap.

Tesla sat down in the chair Lydia indicated and waited expectantly.
“This is awesome,” she said to the older woman. “It’s like you’re Q and I’m Bond.”

“I assure you, I am much more than your quartermaster here.”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Tesla hastened to agree, unsure if Lydia was kidding or not.

Lydia pulled out a slim black device that fit neatly into the palm of her hand. “This is a smart phone.”

“Yeah,” said Tesla, unable to hide her disappointment. “I’ve seen ‘em.”

“No, my dear,” said Lydia conspiratorially. “You haven’t seen this one.”

That got Tesla’s attention, and the older woman went on. “This is not yet available to the public, and when it is, it will not be
this
version. This one was designed especially for our industry.”

“What’s it do?” asked Tesla eagerly.

“Well, it’s a phone, obviously, and a digital camera, with wifi and network capabilities—capabilities, I might add, that utilize government satellites and towers, not commercial ones. Quite a difference.”

“So, there’ll be no ‘can you hear me now?’” Tesla asked.

“It won’t work,” Bizzy said. She continued with her work and did not turn around.

“We’ve been through this, Elizabeth,” said Lydia, who kept her back to the goth girl as well.

“I know, but it won’t work. None of today’s hardware was in place then, communication networks have changed drastically in the last ten years. Do you have any idea how many more cell towers and satellites we have, how quickly equipment becomes obsolete and is replaced? And the smart phone itself—”

“Yes, dear, so you’ve said already. Humor me anyway.”

Tesla hid a smile as Lydia focused on her again. “I’m sure she’s right, but we have to be careful with our assumptions. We really don’t know how, or in what ways, time travel affects us, or our technology, or what new possibilities are opened up, perhaps for the very first time, by these jumps. I think we should experiment.”

“I agree.”
Tesla reminded herself that she and Finn had already begun to experiment with Schrödinger, and that she would need to surreptitiously pick up the mouse before she jumped to see if they could repeat their initial success.

“How lucky for us that you do,” Lydia said dryly.
“As soon as you arrive, I want you to call me—I’ve programmed a number into the phone, under my name in the contacts, a number that has been in service continuously for over ten years. I want you to email and text as well. It may not work, but there’s only one way to find out.”

Tesla held the iPhone in her hand, turned it over and looked at its reflective, obsidian surface. “What else does it do?”

Lydia pursed her lips, “Nothing that you are qualified to use, so its other attributes have been disabled for now.”

Tesla was clearly disappointed, but Lydia ignored her.

“Here is your driver’s license,” the woman said as she handed Tesla the hard plastic card with the usual holographic images and seals.

Tesla looked at it. “Wow, it looks legit.”

“Yes, of course it does. This is not the first time we’ve created an identity for someone.”

“Ellie Foster?” Tesla read.

“That was my idea,” said Bizzy as she spun around in her chair to face them. “Remember that movie with Jodie Foster, the one where she’s the very first human to travel through a wormhole, and she has some freaky trip with aliens? And Matthew McConaughey is a hot young missionary?”

“Uh….”
Tesla had no idea what Bizzy was talking about.

“
Contact
,” Bizzy said impatiently. “The movie was
Contact
.”

“Yeah, I don’t know that one,” Tesla admitted.

Bizzy rolled her eyes. “I live in a cultural wasteland. Jodie Foster’s character was named Ellie Arroway. Your jump-name is Ellie Foster.”

“Oh,” Tesla said. “Okay. Cool?”

“Forget it.” Bizzy turned back to her work.

“Your name is Ellie Foster, and you have legal identification. You also have money,” Lydia said, and handed Tesla a credit card from her box of goodies.

“Sweet!” Tesla exclaimed. “What’s my limit?”

“Tesla, you are not going shopping. If you get in a predicament where you have to show identification, or make a purchase—in an emergency—you can do so. We don’t want you to wind up in jail, or out on the street without food or shelter. Remember, we can’t get to you; you are on your own once you jump. This is just a little security to send with you. Both this credit account and this driver’s license are active in 2004.”

Tesla realized she hadn’t really thought about how vulnerable she was when she jumped. She couldn’t rely on anyone but herself. She looked again at the I.D. in her hand, at her actual driver’s license photo. Just as she was about to ask Lydia how they’d gotten her real DMV photo for the fake license, she noticed the birthdate printed right next to it.

“You made me eighteen!”
She looked up at Lydia with a huge grin on her face. “I can buy a car—or order a beer in some states…. And I’m done with high school!”

Lydia closed her eyes and summoned the strength to continue. “Tesla, please try to focus, dear. You’re as bad as the boys. Which is not a compliment.”

“Right. Sorry.” Tesla schooled her features into her serious-face, and tucked the I.D. and credit card into the outside, zippered pocket of her bag. “What’s next, boss? Can I call you M? Or Mum, in my best British accent?”

Lydia looked at her, but did not answer—nor did she reach inside the box. When she spoke, it was clear she was not joking. “As you know, Nilsen is alive eight years ago, and he may very well be in town where—when—you will arrive shortly. He doesn’t know what has transpired in subsequent years, of course, but he has already begun to attempt, at that time, to gain access to your parents’ work. And that’s only what we know for certain.”

Tesla sat silently and waited, Lydia’s tone and face driving all humor from her mind.

“I want you to be able to protect yourself,” Lydia said. “I want you to take this with you.”

When Lydia pulled her hand out of the box, she held a small, darkly metallic gun. Lydia deftly pulled the top of the barrel back. It slid on its well-oiled mechanism, and Tesla heard a click that sent her heart beating wildly. “It’s loaded,” Lydia said, her eyes on Tesla’s. “The safety is on, here—see?”

“Oh, no way.”
Tesla stood up quickly, a sudden sheen of sweat on her upper lip. “I don’t do guns.” She had begun to back away from Lydia, though she did not realize it.

Lydia cocked her head slightly, noting the girl’s widened eyes, the quick rise and fall of her chest as her breathing quickened.
This was panic, clearly—a panic whose origin was unclear. “Tesla, I understand. And I’m glad that you aren’t comfortable with this: a gun is certainly not a toy, and I am reassured you understand that. What you must also understand, however, is that Nilsen—and whoever else works for him—will not hesitate to use a gun against you, someone you care about, or any unlucky person who simply gets in their way. I insist that you take this. You must be able to protect yourself.”

“I can’t do it, Lydia, I’m sorry,” Tesla said as she continued to shake her head. “I understand about Nilsen, and I don’t disagree about the potential for danger, but I will not shoot anyone. Now or ever.”
Tesla knew instantaneously that she was absolutely immovable on the point. Her agitation at the sight of the weapon in Lydia’s hand should, perhaps, have generated some questions in her mind, but it did not. She simply knew what she knew: no guns.

Lydia looked at her for a moment, and the sudden sag of her shoulders told Tesla she had won. “I was afraid you’d say that,” Lydia admitted. “You’re very much like your father in that.”

“Really?” Tesla asked, surprised. She and her father had never discussed guns—why would they—and in general she tended to see her father as very, very different from herself.

“Yes. He was reluctant to accept any security measures at all, and adamantly refused to carry a weapon himself. I thought you might be cut of the same cloth, so I’ve brought you this as well.” Lydia handed Tesla a small spray canister, metal and unmarked.

“Pepper spray,” Lydia answered Tesla’s unspoken question. “I presume your ethics will allow you to make someone who has attacked you somewhat uncomfortable for about an hour, with no permanent damage to your assailant whatsoever?”

“Yeah, that would be okay, I guess,” Tesla said quietly, and she added the pepper spray to her bag.

“Good,” Lydia said, brisk again. “All I have left for you are a bottle of water and an apple.”

“Seriously?” Tesla asked, unable to make the leap from deadly weapon to fruit.

“Well, yes,” Lydia said, mildly defensive. “Apples are quite good for you, and you’ve got to stay hydrated.”

“Everything on this end is set,” Bizzy interrupted. “Whenever you guys are ready.”

Tesla looked at Lydia. “I guess I’m ready.”

“Have you still got your father’s office key?” Lydia asked.

“Yeah.” Tesla patted the messenger bag that was slung, as always, across her chest and down by her hip.

“See you tomorrow night, Tesla,” Bizzy quipped as Tesla moved toward the door. “Oh, I’ve decided to poke around in the thrift stores for an outfit to wear to the Physics Institute event Saturday. I’ll look for you, too, if you want.”

“Oh, okay. I forgot about that. Maybe my dad will be back by then—we’re supposed to go. Thanks,” Tesla said, just before she closed the door to the control room and headed, alone, down the metal stairs and into the Bat Cave. She marveled at Bizzy’s ability to pause in her work at the controls of a time machine to think about what to wear to a party. The girl was unusual, to say the least.

Once she was in the time machine chamber, with the now-familiar mirrors at each corner of the room, Tesla wondered what Sam was up to, where he was—he had certainly been unhappy when Lydia denied his request to be here for the jump. Would she see his younger self when she arrived, she wondered?
I should have asked him
, she thought, as she suddenly realized that of course he already knew the answer to that since this jump today was in his past—

“Ready?” asked Bizzy through the mic, and Tesla nodded from the center of the time machine.

“In five…four…” Bizzy began.

Out of the corner of her eye, Tesla thought she saw movement….

“Three….”

She turned her head to look….

“Two….”

And Finn stepped out from behind one of the mirrors, sprinted to her side, and grabbed her hand, hard….

“One!”

The brilliance of the lasers eclipsed Tesla’s world and blotted out all that was real in a brilliant flash, including the feel of Finn’s hand in hers.