Hexad: The Factory (Time Travel Thriller) Book 1 (17 page)

"I told you they were a good investment, right?" Amanda smiled at him; she was beautiful.

"I love you Amanda," blurted Dale before he could help himself.

"I love you too Dale."

"I'll put the kettle on. Again."

"Careful you don't burn the bacon."

How Many!?

Present Day

Dale poured the coffee, wondering if he could now classify it as the present day as he'd actually jumped back to the house a day after he and Amanda had left. He guessed that it was the present as it was his present, but then that wasn't right as when he jumped forward then he called that the future. In the end he simply saved himself the headache and decided it was present day, so he changed his watch to make the dates match and left it at that.

More pressing matters crowded such thoughts out as Amanda came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his middle.

"Ah, that's nice. I missed you."

"Missed you too. It's been so long, so very long Dale."

"What do you...? Bugger. Look, we can't do this, it isn't right." Dale stepped away, handing Amanda a mug of coffee, and tried to get some distance.

"Sorry, it's easy to forget. I've seen so many of you, seen so many of everything, my head simply doesn't know what's what any longer. I don't think I'll ever see my Dale again, and to be honest I don't think it matters, and I don't even know if I could ever be sure anyway."

"Think you better explain." Dale knew that it wasn't going to be a quick story.

~~~

As they sat in the living room talking, Dale felt like he was split in two. Part of him was listening with rapt attention to the story Amanda told, much of which he already knew, while the other part of him was wondering if, to all intents and purposes, this was actually Amanda.

From what she told then her life with her own version of him had been an exact copy of his life up until when Amanda disappeared. It seems that while his Amanda was taken by the people from the future, then this Amanda was taken by Laffer. Up until that point any questions they asked each other the answers were the same — they had basically been together as they always had up until that point.

Then, because of whatever cosmic joke was being played, timelines diverged and that was that: a new universe was created just to accommodate the change, or the change made a new universe, and either way the result was that there was yet another Amanda, but from that point on she would be different to his Amanda and the women's experiences would differ.

As far as either of them were concerned what that meant was that basically this was his Amanda, and she was his Dale. It was hard to see it any other way, as whatever was happening to his Amanda now was something Dale could never experience just as he couldn't experience what this Amanda had gone through since that time. It worked the other way too, so up until when she was taken they had basically been together, a loving couple.

"Is this making sense to you Dale?" asked Amanda.

"Yeah, kind of. But it's sort of a frightening prospect. That to all intents and purposes you are the Amanda I have always known, but you're not. I suppose there are countless versions of me too though."

"I know it's a tad confusing. Sorry. I've done so much since then, seen so much, been trying to stop all this for so long, met so many of you that you wouldn't believe how lucky you are to—"

"What do you mean, lucky?"

"Oh, just that other versions of you are not so nice. You made different choices, had to for there to be multiple versions of you, and some were kind of... depressing."

"Oh." Dale never pictured himself as being a depressing kind of guy.

"It isn't your fault," said Amanda hurriedly, "it's just life. Some you win, some you lose. With infinite paths some are bound to be harder than others, stands to reason. You should see what some of the other versions of me were like, makes me want to shudder just thinking about it."

"Just what have you been up to Amanda?"

Dale felt the veil of reality lift and fragment, like nothing really mattered, as if decisions you made were nothing but you dancing like a puppet on strings that were infinite. Everything happened somewhere, so what was the point? Sunlight angled in through the living room window, dust motes dancing, each in slightly different ways in the myriad universes running almost parallel to his own. On and on it went, life diverging into infinity, making him doubt the necessity for his own existence.

"Sorry, I missed that. Can you start again? Sorry." Dale gave Amanda his full attention while she began her story once more.

"Sure, I know this must be hard, but you're my last chance Dale, my absolute last hope." Tears welled in Amanda's eyes but she brushed them away bravely and began once more.

Amanda had been taken by Laffer, long before Hector had tried to put right what he'd done. This was a Laffer from the time when Hector was looking to build an empire and he had discovered exactly what it was that made the Hexads function. She had been taken and she had managed to escape, the only Amanda that ever had. And since then she had been fighting to put right what had happened, not for others, for herself. It wasn't selfish though, if she stopped Hector and his henchman then she saved not only herself but the world too.

Dale didn't understand what she meant by him being the last Dale she could count on though, and Amanda went on to explain that she had seen the future, tried to change it herself with countless other Dales, and had also witnessed the results of thousands of other versions of her and him working in unison to try to change what happened, and the results were always the same: the end of worlds, countless in number and all empty, or almost empty, of life.

"It gets really rather depressing," said Amanda, taking a tissue from the proffered box of Kleenex.

"I bet. But how is it going to be different this time? I don't understand. And what about my Amanda? Where is she?"

"Well, does it matter? I'm here now aren't I? I may have lived a few years longer than you, jumping all over the place trying to sort this mess out, meeting up with I don't know how many versions of you, and other versions of me doing the same thing: trying. I mean we each have made numerous different attempts to stop this, but now you are the last."

"Why am I the last?" Dale didn't think he was going to like the answer.

"Because this is it Dale, don't you see?"

"It?"

"The only world left. All the others have gone. I can't get to them, even with the special Hexad, like the one you have. All other parallel universes, although I shouldn't call them that, they aren't quite parallel, well, they are now gone, not even empty any longer, simply not there. Not for me anyway. Whatever happens here is all that there is, nothing else, the rest are closed, disappeared now. I think I just left the last one, I felt it going right as I jumped. The only way to get them back is to stop this madness so they can appear again. But maybe, just maybe, well, maybe now you are here with me, maybe we can access the past, in those other universes."

"That's a pretty big leap of faith to make. How do you know?"

"I don't. I just think maybe the two of us are much stronger than either of us alone."

"Hmm, makes sense. Let's hope so. Why do you think they are closed though?"

"Because Hector changed things too much because of what he did. He made it so that what was meant to be no longer could be, so we have to do this, we are the ones that have the last chance. If we fail, then this reality will continue, but it will be as you saw it in the future: empty of people. There has to be one universe, nothing can stop that, so that's the only solution it could come up with. Stop humanity so that there are no Hexads to risk the final reality. We have to do it."

"And where do we start?"

"We start by waiting."

"What for?"

"You'll see." Amanda sat back, smiled and cupped a hand to her ear.

Ding-dong. Ding-dong.

It didn't register for a moment, then Dale checked his watch.

"Damn, it's the cops." The whole morning had passed without him even realizing, now he had to deal with the detective inspector, and he was in no mood for it at all.

"I'll get it." Before Dale could stop her, Amanda was up and going to open the front door.

"Wait."

"Don't worry, I've done this before you know, lots of times."

Dale just sat back and held his head in his hands, moaning quietly to himself, trying and failing to pull himself together. What was he going to do? He couldn't just abandon his Amanda. This wasn't right, in fact it was terribly wrong. But then this was Amanda, right? This was really her, just different, but at the end of it all it was still her, still his Amanda. He'd have to do what she asked, they had to save everyone, and he had to save his own special Amanda, didn't he?

"All sorted." Amanda came back into the room rubbing her hands together after a job well done.

"What? Where is he?"

"I told you, I've done this before. I told him exactly what he wanted to hear: said we were having lunch and anyway we hadn't done anything wrong. Then I told him we'd had enough intrusions."

"Really? Wow. What did he say?"

"What could he say? It's not like we are under arrest or anything. He just came to tell us that the Hexads were taken and I suppose he wanted us to confess or something. Done anyway. Cuppa?"

"Please love, maybe even with sugar."

"Right away darling."

"Hey. Oh, never mind. Make it two sugars?"

"I think one's enough, don't you?" Amanda glanced at his waist, smiled a stunning smile, and with a flick of the head, hair shining and twirling around her, she went into their kitchen to make a cuppa.

This is wrong on so many levels I don't know where to begin. I feel like I'm having an affair and I haven't even done anything.

Dale wondered what it would be like to go to bed with this Amanda. He couldn't help it, he missed her so much. Would it be wrong?

Of course it would.

Still, he couldn't help wondering. Cheating on your lover with the same person was perversely arousing.

"Hey, what did you mean about the Hexads that were special?"

"I'll tell you in a minute," shouted Amanda from the kitchen. "But first," she said, voice soft and close.

Dale turned. She was stood in the doorway, stark naked, hair falling over breasts still high and firm, pale body as gorgeous as ever.

"It's been a long time Dale. Years for me."

Dale had a hard decision to make.

Very hard.

The Cold Reality

Present Day

Dale stood under the cold water, a shower to wash away the smell, and hopefully stem urges that were ignoring his mind and not listening to his heart. He had excused himself from a very naked Amanda and said that he had to take a shower, hoping that didn't sound like he was just going to get clean before... It didn't, did it?

It probably did.

Once clean Dale wrapped a towel around his waist, trying to stop thoughts that were making serious decisions impossible, and padded into the bedroom to get clean clothes from the wardrobe.

"Hi," said Amanda from the bed.

Dale gulped, the towel was forced away from his body, and he said, "Hi."

Amanda pulled back the covers. "Getting in?"

"Amanda, I can't. This isn't right."

"It's me Dale, it really is. I'm your Amanda, you're my Dale. Things have just been a little different the last few days for you, the last few years for me, but it's us. We love each other."

Dale knew that on one level it was true, but also that on another this wasn't Amanda, not really.

He had the best sex of his life. Taboo sex where you cheated on your partner but with your partner. It felt wrong, but oh-so-good.

~~~

"She'll never forgive me; I've ruined everything."

"Don't be silly. I forgive you, so will she. Not that there is anything to forgive. It's me, her, we are the same."

"But you aren't, are you? You aren't because you're here and she is who knows where? I can't believe I'm here when I should be there saving her. Trying to."

"Dale, that's why I'm here, to save her, to save everyone. You and me? This is it, the last hope left to do something about this. We will get her, I'll get the chance to get my Dale back, everything will return to normal. Well, normal-ish anyway." Amanda smiled at him sweetly then took the towel off the floor, wrapped herself in it and went to take a shower.

Can this really be happening? I'm sorry Amanda, I miss you so much. And this is you isn't it?

Dale knew he was kidding himself, but it did feel great to have Amanda back.

~~~

It turned out that the Hexad Dale owned, or at least the one he'd taken from the trunk, was one that was not only able to provide six jumps but it was cross-universe capable too. Amanda had one similar, in fact it was the same one Dale had, just from a different universe, and that was how she had been able to try so many different ways to save everyone, with so many different Dales, without messing up the appropriate timelines. In the end it had been for naught as now they were gone, still gone.

She had taken a while to discover the secret of its functionality, but figured it out when it kept beeping at her each time she renewed it by jumping somewhere where it was still available, a story she didn't go into in detail. There was too much to tell so he only got edited highlights, but suffice to say she had seen more than he could ever imagine and nothing had worked.

All that was left was one idea, and it was a simple one.

They had to go forward, forward to where the Hexad was invented, and stop them, then it would all be over, everything would return to normal.

Dale wondered whether that would mean none of his life would have happened, and Amanda had said that yes, all of it would be gone, her too, replaced by the other Amanda. She would go back to her right timeline, right universe, and it would all be as if nothing had happened. The paradox, of course, was that it had all happened, and if they went forward and stopped Hexads from being invented then, of course, they would never have a Hexad to go forward and stop it.