Paradox (4 page)

Zac looked away from the old newspaper,
thinking that his eyes must be playing tricks on him. How could he be in a
newspaper from the day after he was born? That couldn’t be him in the picture.
Could it?

He had a million questions that he wanted
to ask his dad, but he knew that it would be pointless. His dad would just deny
everything, would just try to convince him that it had all been in his head. He
had to catch him off guard. Zac knew that as long as it was just his word
against his dad’s story, there was no chance of getting the answers he wanted.
He had to ask him when there were other people around, when he might slip up.
His dad might be able to lie to
him
, but to try to convince several
people at the same time… well, that would be a bit tougher.

Zac took the newspaper to his bedroom. It
was late now. He’d have to wait until morning. When his dad thought he was at
school,
that’s
when he’d carry out his plan. He’d surprise him at work,
and then he would see how long his dad could keep up this charade.

The morning couldn’t come fast enough for
Zac. He stayed in bed, listening to his dad get ready for work. His dad rarely
checked in with him before school. Today wasn’t any different.

Zac heard the door close and the garage
open, followed by the running of the car’s engine. He got out of bed and got
dressed, anxious to leave the house. He knew he couldn’t leave too soon,
though. It had to be in the middle of the day, a time when his dad wouldn’t
expect him.

He waited until about ten in the morning,
then
drove to his dad’s office building. He entered the
doors and was stopped by the security guard.

“Hello,” he said. “Here to see your dad?”

“Yeah,” Zac said.
“Just
stopping by.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be in school right
now?”

Zac had to think quickly. “I got a pass to
leave for lunch.”

“Oh,” the security guard replied. “I see.
You want me to buzz him, let him know you’re here?”

“No,” Zac said. “It’s supposed to be a
surprise. I’m going to take him out for lunch in a bit.”

The security guard nodded.
“Sounds good.
Go on back.” He smiled and wrote something
down, then turned back to his work.

Zac made his way down the hallway and
found Emilee sitting at the desk in the front. A look of confusion crossed her
face when she saw Zac.

“Zac?
What are
you doing here?”

“Just stopping by,” he said. “Do you know
where my dad is? I need to see him.”

“He’s…” Emilee said,
then
stopped herself. She hesitated for a moment. “He’s in a meeting right now. I
can just give him the message if you tell me what it is.” She offered a smile.

Zac turned and started down the hallway.
“That’s okay,” he said. “I’ll go wait outside his door. It’ll only be a
minute.” He moved through the bright corridor, heading toward the conference
room door. He’d only been in the room a few times before. It was large and had
a long, wooden table in the middle of it, chairs surrounding it on all sides.
He wasn’t planning on waiting, though. He was just going to stroll in and
interrupt. It would make his dad mad at first, but then he would pull Zac aside
to talk. He’d know that Zac meant business, and he wasn’t leaving until he got
answers.

Emilee hurried after him, trying to get
him to wait in the lobby. “You can’t go back there,” she said. “He’s in a
meeting with investors!”

Zac pretended not to hear her. He
approached the door and pulled down on the metal handle, not bothering to knock.

“Wait!” he heard Emilee say. But it was
too late.

Sitting around the table were about ten
men in business suits. They looked up when Zac entered, and his dad stopped
speaking. A look of surprise registered on his face.

“Zac?
What are
you doing here?”

Zac walked next to the spot where his dad
was sitting and took off his backpack. From it, he pulled the newspaper and
tossed it onto the table in front of his dad. It was folded back to display the
picture with Zac in it.

“Care to tell me why you were looking at
this last night?” he asked.

Dr. Ryger looked up at him,
then
shot a quick glance at Emilee.

“I’m so sorry, Dr. Ryger,” she said,
almost pleading for forgiveness. “He just walked past me and went straight
toward the room. I didn’t know what he was doing.”

For a split second, Zac felt sorry for
her. He might have gotten her in trouble. Hopefully she wouldn’t lose her job
or anything. No, his dad would never fire her. Not for something like this,
even though his eyes said something different.

“Daniel,” said one of the investors,
“what’s all this about?”

Zac’s dad abruptly changed demeanor,
turning on his businessman-like charm. “I assure you, gentlemen, it’s nothing.”
He gave a broad smile. “I apologize for my son’s rudeness, and I hope that this
does not reflect poorly on your decision to fund the research.” He looked at
his watch. “But perhaps today we should cut this meeting short. I will be happy
to meet with you all again next week if you’d like. Just leave your information
with Emilee and she’ll call you to set up an appointment.”

The men got up to leave, some looking
perplexed, some irritated. Dr. Ryger shook their hands as they passed, and they
handed their business cards to Emilee. When they had gone, he turned to her.
“Shut the door, please,” he said.

Zac had a sudden feeling of uneasiness,
but he stood his ground.

“What’s this all about, Zac?” he said,
sitting down. He brushed his hand against the newspaper as if dismissing it.
“Why’d you bring this here in the middle of the day, interrupting a meeting
with important people? Do you have any idea how much money you might have cost
me?”

“I want you to explain this,” he said
pointing to the picture and sitting next to him.

His dad leaned closer in to him, ignoring
the picture completely, shoving the newspaper aside. Emilee walked over and
picked it up.

“And your questions couldn’t wait?” he
asked. “Do you realize that those men are responsible for funding my research
here?” He threw up his hands and leaned back in his chair.
“Because
without them, Zac, my work isn’t possible.
If I don’t have their money,
I don’t have a job. And if I don’t have a job, we don’t have a house.”

Zac shook his head. “Don’t try to avoid
the question. Why were you so intent on staring at that picture last night,
Dad?” Dr. Ryger was silent. “I
saw
you!” Zac said.

Emilee looked at it, stunned. She sat down
across from Dr. Ryger. “Is this…”

Dr. Ryger held up his hand to silence her.
“I think we need to get you to a doctor, Zac.”

Zac reached across the table and grabbed
the newspaper from Emilee. “Why am I in that picture?” he asked, pointing to
himself on the worn paper. “And don’t say you don’t know, because we both know
you’re hiding something.” Zac pushed the paper in front of him. “I heard you
and Bryce talking last night.”

His dad sighed, resting his elbows on the
table. He put his hand to his face, exhausted from the conversation. “What you
think you heard—”

“What I
did
hear,” Zac interrupted.
“I heard the way you were talking about me. I knew something was up. And then I
see
this
,” he said, gesturing toward the photo. “What happened to me
last night? What was that room downstairs?”

“I don’t know,” his dad said, not missing
a beat.

Zac could see it in his eyes; he was lying.

“Then what were you two talking about?” he
asked. He smiled and turned to Emilee. “Did you know there’s a secret room
behind the bookcase near your desk?”

She looked down at her lap as if hiding
something. Her hands fidgeted.

“I haven’t told her about it yet,” his dad
said. “I was going to—”

“Yes,” Emilee said. “Yes, I knew.”

A stunned silence hung in the room. After
a few moments, Zac’s dad spoke.

“You signed a sworn affidavit, Emilee.”

“He clearly knows something,” she said.
She looked up. “How long can you keep this up? I think we just need to tell
him. He’s not some random person. He’s your son.”

“We?”
Zac said.
“You mean… you knew about that room, too? You knew what’s down there?”

“Zac,” his dad said, “there are some
things that are just better left unknown.”

“But I
want
to know,” Zac said.
“That’s
me
in that old picture; I know it is! Just please, tell me what
you know.
Anything.
I just want to know what happened
to me last night. I won’t let up until you at least tell me what you know.”

His dad and Emilee exchanged glances.
“You’d better go get Bryce,” he said. “I may need his help explaining things.”
He stared intently at Zac. “Son, if I told you what I know, you’d call me a
liar anyway. You wouldn’t believe me.”

“Try me,” Zac said. “I want to believe.”

Dr. Ryger sighed. He pushed the newspaper
in front of Zac. “Okay,” he said. “But you have to understand that what I say
never leaves this room.”

Zac nodded.

“Yes, that is you in the newspaper.”

Zac’s eyes widened. “I knew it,” he said.
“But how?
Is it digitally edited or something?”

“No,” Dr. Ryger said. “Here’s where it’s
going to sound like I’m lying to you. When you stepped inside that blue
pentagon, you travelled through time. And the scary thing is, we have no idea
how you did it. It should have been impossible.”

“Time travel?
Why
won’t you tell me the truth?” Zac asked, indignant. He kicked back in his
chair. “I’m not stupid. Time travel is impossible. I want the real truth.”

“That
is
the real truth, Zac. It’s
what I do here.”

“What do you mean?”

“What do you know about my research?” his
dad asked. “How much do you really know about my job? Have you ever seen me
bring anything home from work?”

Zac thought about it. “No,” he said
finally.

“Of course not,” he said. “There’s a
reason for that.”

“But I thought you just did research in
the field of physics,” Zac said. “Isn’t that what this place is?” He looked
around the room, which seemed like a perfectly generic conference room.

“No,” Dr. Ryger said. “It’s just a cover
for what I really do. And now I have to inform the proper authorities that you
know, too.” He sighed. “They aren’t going to be happy, but I’ll have to explain
everything to them.”

“But that doesn’t make sense,” Zac said.
“Time travel?
That’s only in the movies.”

“I know it sounds bizarre…”

Zac got out of his chair and walked over
to the window and leaned against it. “Dad, are you hearing yourself? You’re
sitting there telling me that people can travel through time, and that I just
did it accidentally. And it’s been this huge big secret all along, and… and…”
He shook his head, unable to take it all in. “Do you realize how insane you
sound?”

“Zac, look, I—”

“Okay, here’s a question for you. If time
travel is really possible, then where are all the visitors from the future? Why
aren’t we seeing people from the future coming here telling us not to do some
of the stupid things we do like start wars and… and…” His frustration began to
show as he talked faster, motioning with his hands. He began pacing the room.
“If time travel is really happening, then why aren’t our future selves coming
to tell us what to do, like to avoid big mistakes?”

“I don’t think you understand,” his dad
said, trying to stay calm. “It doesn’t work like that. There are certain rules.”

“No,
you
don’t understand,” Zac
said, voice rising. His dad’s eyes darted to the door, and he motioned with his
hand for Zac to lower his voice. “I think you’re full of it. I think you’re
just trying to feed me some more science fiction bull like those stories you used
to tell me when I was little.” He jabbed his finger in the air at his dad. “I’m
not a kid anymore, and I’m not going to be played with. There’s no such thing
as time travel!”

The door opened. “Actually, there is,”
said Bryce, stepping in. Emilee was at his side, and she shut the door behind
them. Bryce gestured for Zac to take a seat again while he sat down. “So Emilee
says you’re now in the loop about our little research experiment going on here,
huh?”

Zac sat down but refused to look at
anyone. This was ridiculous. All he wanted was for someone to level with him,
to give him a straight answer.

Dr. Ryger turned to Bryce. “I don’t think
he’s going to buy it, hearing it from me. How about you try explaining it to
him? He thinks I’m lying to him.”

“Because you
are
,” Zac said. And
now two other people were too. Even though they weren’t friends, he thought
Emilee would at least do him the courtesy of not playing into this.

“I’ll tell you what,” Bryce said. “Let me
ask you to assume for the moment that time travel is possible. Can you do that?”

Zac sneered. “What are you?
My dad’s boss?”

“No,” Bryce said, “I’m one of his
assistants. Emilee is, too. Your dad hired me when I started college. But just
assume for a minute that time travel is possible. Then maybe the rest of what I
say will make sense to you.”

“I can’t just do that,” Zac said. “You’re
asking me to believe something ludicrous.”

Bryce shrugged. “Don’t you do that all the
time when you watch a movie? You allow yourself to believe that aliens can
invade, or that teenagers can get super powers from being bitten by a spider.”

Zac was silent. He looked over at Emilee,
who met his gaze. She remained serious, focused on Bryce. Emilee was smart. If
she seemed to be listening to his dad and Bryce, then maybe there was a ring of
truth to it. He could at least hear them out.

“Fine,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Let’s
assume that time travel is possible. What does that have to do with this place?”

“This,” Bryce said, taking over the
conversation, “is where we house the project. You saw it last night when you
went down that corridor. Ordinarily, our security wouldn’t let someone get that
far, but being Dr. Ryger’s son, you were allowed in the building.
That,
and we’re not exactly connected to the government.”

“Wait a minute. How can you have some big,
top-secret project going on under an office building like this? You’re telling
me no one knows that it’s down there?”

Dr. Ryger broke in. “It’s not actually
that hard to believe. When Oppenheimer was working on the atom bomb with the
Manhattan Project, it was all being done under a college, and the college
president didn’t even know about it.”

“True,” said Bryce. “And the TEMPUS
Project is similar.”

“TEMPUS?”
Zac
asked.

“The name we gave the project,” Emilee
said.
“Temporal Energy Manipulation Portal Usage System.”

“You lost me,” Zac said.

“‘Tempus’ means ‘time’ in Latin. But for
us, it’s also an acronym.”

“Then how does it work? I heard you say
‘portal’ or something. I didn’t see any kind of a portal.”

“It’s not exactly what you think,” his dad
said. “It uses wormholes to travel from one place in time to another.”

“Wormholes?”
He
raised his eyebrows. “You told me to keep an open mind, but you’re not making
it easy. You’re talking about wormholes and portals… my science teacher said
those are just theories.”

Bryce slid the black, pen-like object on
the table toward Zac, the same one he had found in the glass case embedded in
the concrete wall. “Recognize this?”

Zac picked it up. It felt light in his
hand, and the metal was cold. He studied the small strip where there had once
been lights. It was dark.

“That’s how we open one up,” continued
Bryce.
“Using that.
We call it a Wand.
Wormhole Activation Network Device.”

Emilee held out her hand to receive the
Wand, and Zac passed it to her. “When you used it, you opened up a wormhole. It
took you back in time somehow when you must have pressed this button on top.”

She pressed the button. Nothing happened.

“See?” Zac said, looking at her. “You’re
still here; you didn’t travel back in time.”

“That’s not how the Wand works,” Bryce
said. “It’s kind of complicated, but the system has built-in checks and
balances. It regulates travel by not allowing someone to just press it and open
up a wormhole anywhere. To create a wormhole, you need a tremendous source of
energy. Ours is in the room you saw last night.”

A look of realization crossed Zac’s face.
“You mean the blue pentagon? I was standing on that when I pressed it.”

“Exactly.
So you
activated it and leapt into the past,” Bryce said. “I noticed the path behind
the bookcase was open and checked the computer. I noticed a large energy spike,
so I got worried. Either something had gone wrong, or someone had used the
machine without being authorized to do so.”

Zac nodded. “Okay, so if those Wand things
let people jump around in time, aren’t you worried that just anyone can break
in and take one and use it?”

Dr. Ryger shook his head. “Even if someone
were to find a Wand, it shouldn’t work.”

“Well, it did for me.”

“But it
shouldn’t
have,” his dad
continued. “As a safeguard, all of the Wands have sensors on the top that can
only be activated by a unique user’s fingerprint. That’s why, when you press
down, it makes it work. It also prevents people from using one if it’s not
theirs, like if someone from another time period somehow obtained it. It would
be useless to them. But what baffles me is that the one you used wasn’t
registered to any user.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a prototype. Technically, it
shouldn’t work for anyone. It’s not programmed to.”

Bryce held up the Wand. “I agree. I’ve
been trying to figure it out, and I’ve been analyzing it, but I have no idea
why it worked for you, Zac.” He shook his head. “There is no logical reason why
this thing should be functioning for you. But it does. Maybe it’s a malfunction
or something. I need to figure it out.”

Zac sat back in his chair, soaking it all
in.
Time travel.
Was it truly possible?

“So that Wand took me back in time?
To when?”

His dad sat forward. “I have a
hypothesis,” he said. “We usually program a place for the wormhole to open. But
when you used it, we hadn’t done so. I think that since you were somehow able
to activate the device, it took you to the earliest date in your past.”

“The day I was born,” Zac said in
realization.

“Yes,” Dr. Ryger said. “Bryce was able to
look at the program and discern where the wormhole opened up, and he followed
you through it. That’s why he was there.” He looked at Bryce, thankfulness in
his eyes. “I sent him to get you.”

Zac slid the newspaper back toward
himself. “So it really is me in this picture from the day I was born,” he said,
looking closely at it. “That’s me in the past.” He smiled in awe at the fact.
“Wow. That’s so cool.”

The room was quiet. “Um, not necessarily,”
Emilee said. “We think it could actually be a big problem.”

Zac looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”

“You might have changed things,” she said.