Momentum (20 page)

R
aj felt like his head was about to explode. As much as he loved her, all he wanted to do at the moment was slap Simla. In a matter of ten minutes, she’d practically ended any chance of a good future of any kind for him. All that remained was a future on the run, not just from the FBI, but also from Sophie and Dan, since they had turned up in the Bahamas looking for him. He had no idea how they’d been able to get there. But they were there. They’d left a message with the receptionist at his motel asking him to call them. He hadn’t, but now that they knew where he was, he couldn’t go back there. They wanted their money. He didn’t have any. So he had to run–from them, the FBI, and now Potomal, apparently.

“Simla, stop! Stop with the hysterics! I can’t understand what you’re saying! What do you mean, Potomal’s going to kill you? Are you still working for him? How? Why? And if that’s the case, why on earth was I dumped back in Mountain View?”

Simla wiped her face with the back of her hand. She’d appeared out of nowhere at his motel, just when he was on his way out. They were standing facing each other in the parking lot. It was not a good place to talk. Besides, Dan and Sophie might be back any time. They might, in fact, be there already. He had to get out of there. He grabbed Simla by the arm. “Come with me.”

He walked her toward the beach. He’d figured out where all the isolated spots were. They’d be as safe as they could be hidden away in one of his spots.

~

Sophie saw Raj coming down the stairs from the motel they had managed to track him to. “There he is.” Sophie murmured. It hadn’t been easy to find him. Nothing had been easy since they had come back through the portal.

First of all, they hadn’t expected to run into Larry Fox at the other end. That had been a shock. for Larry as well, judging by the look of utter horror on his face. Once he recognized Sophie, his shock had turned to anger, and he’d almost hit the panic alarm. She’d begged him not to and, when she saw his hesitation, she’d jumped on him and with Dan’s help managed to restrain him. They hadn’t meant to hurt him; he’d sustained some cuts and bruises, but he would be okay. They had tied him down on one of the metal chairs and taped his mouth to keep him from squealing. The one benefit from running into Larry had been that they’d been able to find out where Raj was hiding out. Larry didn’t know the exact location, but was able to tell them, or rather write down for them, that Raj was in the Bahamas.

Sophie’s first priority after they left Ames was to see her daughter. It had been a year. Would Tiff even remember her? She welled up at the thought that she might not. They’d taken Larry’s car and, after dumping it in a supermarket parking lot and borrowing a Ford Escort someone had conveniently forgotten to lock, driven to Sophie’s mom’s house. They’d parked outside and watched the house for a while. Then Dan asked to leave. His house wasn’t far, and he wanted to visit his wife.
Be careful
, Sophie had warned him, a lot could have changed in a year. It would be silly to go rushing in thinking everything was the same. The woman might even have remarried! She didn’t suggest that last idea to Dan, though, no point in getting him worried. She just asked him to meet her back at the car in an hour.

Then she sat and stared at the little one-story whitewashed bungalow. It looked exactly the same as it had a year ago, save for the new swing set she spied in the backyard. She suddenly heard a squeal of laughter as the swing set shook, and then she caught a glimpse of dark curly wisps of hair blowing in the wind. She strained to catch a glimpse of whom the hair belonged to. It had to be Tiffany. She was overcome with emotion. All she wanted to do was to get out of the car, rush over, and throw her arms around her daughter. She caught a peek of herself in the side mirror as she turned to get out. She stopped and stared at the mess in the mirror. What had happened to Tiffany’s mother?

A year ago, she’d been a blond-haired, well-dressed woman with a responsible job. That was whom Tiff knew and loved, not this dark-haired mess staring back at her. Tiffany had no chance of recognizing her; in fact, her own mother would have a hard time with it. If she walked into the back yard now, her mom would probably call 911. She needed to get back to her normal self before she approached her daughter. Anything else would be unfair to both of them.

So, she sat there in the car for an hour, catching the occasional glimpse whenever Tiffany appeared at the bit of the broken fence where she could just see the top of her daughter’s head.

Dan had returned before the hour was over. Sophie had been surprised; she’d thought that he would be late for certain. He seemed clearly perturbed as he got back in the car. She hoped that he hadn’t been foolhardy and rushed at his wife.

“Everything okay?” she’d inquired softly.

“Nope. She ain’t there.”

“Oh?”

“Yup. New family’s moved into the house. They were outside getting in their car. I stopped and talked to them–nice people. Moved in seven months ago. They didn’t know the previous owners. Suggested I speak to the realtor. Gave me his name.”

“Wow, that sucks. I’m really sorry. What are you going to do?”

“Don’t know. Call the realtor, I guess. But yeah, it sucks big time. What about you? Tiff around?”

“Yes, over there.” Sophie pointed to the head bobbing up and down in the backyard.

“Did you go see her?”

“No, not yet. I think I should get my hair color back to normal so I look like I did last year so she recognizes me.”

“You’re her mom! She’ll know who you are! Go see her.”

Sophie shook her head. “No. It’s not fair to her to see me looking like this. I need to look like her mom again. And I need a plan for what I’m going to do with her. I can’t just walk in there and take her. Not after a year. Mom would never allow that, not without me having a solid plan and somewhere to live. All we have at the moment is this stolen car.”

“Yeah, I suppose,” Dan agreed.

“Our best bet is to find Raj, get the money he owes us, and then figure out our lives. Then I’ll come back for her.”

“And how are we gonna do that? I mean, find Raj? I’m not even sure where the Bahamas is exactly. It’s an island, right?”

“Yup, it’s actually many islands, and it’s not even a part of the U.S., so we’ll need our passports. Did you put yours in the safe deposit box before we left, like I asked?”

“Yep.”

“Good. So now we need to know exactly where in the Bahamas and get over there.”

It hadn’t been easy to get any information about Raj. He was still wanted by the FBI. If he’d flown to the Bahamas, it was under a different name. After giving up on getting any information from the Internet, they’d decided to just fly out to the Bahamas and try to find him themselves. Sophie was glad that she’d had the foresight to get fake passports made before they left here last year. She looked at the photo in hers. She looked so different. She put her hair in a bun hoping that she could slip past the TSA. Luckily, the agent at the desk had been busy chatting with the pretty agent next to him and just gave them a cursory glance.

Armed with only a couple of photocopied pictures of Raj, they had arrived in Nassau and begun the process of trying to locate him, by foot since they were quickly running out of money. A couple of lucky breaks–at bars where Raj had left an impression by running off without paying for his drinks–had led them to this remote section of the Bahamas. Sophie couldn’t believe her eyes when she finally saw him.

She was just about to get out of the car to confront him when a girl suddenly appeared out of nowhere, as if by magic. “Woza! Where did she come from?”

“Who?”

“That girl, over there!”

“Dunno, didn’t see. Who is she?”

“No idea.” The girl was young, in her teens. She was very well dressed, but appeared upset. She threw herself at Raj, who looked mildly irritated. Then he suddenly took the girl’s elbow and walked off with her.

“Let’s follow them,” Dan suggested.

Duh. Sophie waited for Raj and the girl to leave the parking lot, and then followed them slowly, hanging back as much as possible without losing them. After a while, they stepped onto the beach.

“What now?” she muttered.

“The beach seems quiet. They’ll probably notice us if we follow them. Let’s wait here. They’re bound to head back to the motel eventually.”

~

Simla had calmed down somewhat by the time they got to the beach. Raj walked her over to one of his hidey spots–a bunch of trees and bushes they could hide between. It also provided some much-needed shade.

“Simla?” He extracted a couple of bottles of water from his rucksack and gave her one. She grabbed it and gulped down the water.

“Thanks, Dad. What’s with the backpack? Are you leaving again?”

“Yes. How did you find me?”

“Potomal.”

“How does he know that I’m here? And why? What do you have to do with him?”

“Everything, Dad, everything.”

“What does that mean? Are you working for him? In that case, why did he dump me at Mountain View with those old ladies? That was unacceptable! I’m very angry about that.”

“I don’t know anything about that, Dad. But yes, I’m working for Potomal. I was, anyway; I’m not sure anymore. I think I screwed it all up.” She teared up again.

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t yell at me! This is all about those flaming blueprints that you were supposed to get, Dad! So
you
screwed up, and I’m trying to clean up the mess!”

“I don’t understand.” He was totally confused now.

“Dad, Potomal is your buyer.”

Raj was confounded. Potomal? “Why on earth would Potomal want the blueprints, for goodness sake? He can wander wherever he wants!”

“I guess he wants the power they represent. Imagine the chaos he could create. I’m guessing it’s his leverage to get ultimate power over the Sigma-W.”

“He’d have ultimate power over more than just the Sigma-W with that kind of a tool and the money to develop it. The possibilities are endless.” Raj was impressed. It all made sense now. No wonder the prints had been spotted as fake so fast! Potomal was a smart being, one that he’d like to work with. “So, let’s figure out how to get them for him.”

“Isn’t that what you’ve been doing all along? And you’ve failed! That’s why he brought me in. When he realized that you were my father, he decided to use me. So, he brought me back to work for him after his first plan went bad. He decided to help you get the blueprints from Dr. Darley; it seemed the best way. He wanted to keep as low a profile as possible so that his name wouldn’t be connected when he made his bid for control. So, he sent Stan to help you.”

“Ah! Stan told me he was a friend of yours, that you’d met him at Potomal’s.”

“Not exactly. He’s not a friend. He’s Potomal’s son. He wasn’t exactly pleased when he was told to get Arizona. I think he likes her.”

“Likes her? He helped her escape! That’s why I’m in such trouble now,” Raj muttered. “Why did he do that?”

“It wasn’t him. The Wanderers rescued Arizona. Stan was ticked off, and Potomal is furious. He wanted Stan to get Arizona back, but he refused. So he decided to send me.”

“You? Why? You can’t even wander!”

“Actually, I can. I’m not very good at it yet, but I can. And it’s not like Potomal has a large group of people he can choose from, not anyone that would be willing to kidnap the Sigma-W princess herself. I was more than happy to.”