Pop Travel (35 page)

From his jeans pocket, Cooper pulled out the two copies of the original video Dr. Rastogi had made and handed them to her in full view of the brooch.

“Will you hold on to these for me?” he asked.

Her eyes widened in shock. She couldn’t believe it. He must trust her! She accepted them and nodded.
What was he thinking?

“You ready, Cooper?” Hasan called.

“Let’s do this.” He winked at Geri and met Dr. Rastogi at the medical station.

The group proceeded in solemn silence and Geri filmed the procedure. They were on the verge of changing history. Again.

Dr. Rastogi took Cooper’s vitals and walked him to the transport dock. Cooper remained stoic, doing what he had to do.

Geri’s heart fluttered as she watched Cooper wince when he received the anesthetic. She saw in his eyes the obvious fear he tried to mask. She had never met such a man.

Once Cooper was out, Dr. Rastogi gave him the propofol, checked his status, and shut the dock. He hurried over to the medical station to monitor Cooper’s status and gave Hasan a thumbs-up.

Hasan nodded. After running the pre pop-scan, he transmitted Cooper with the new, finer-tuned codes.

Pop!

Dr. Rastogi opened the transmitting dock like a magician, verifying his beautiful assistant had indeed vanished.

Hasan stepped over to the receiving station. It buzzed.

“I wonder who that could be,” he said with a grin, breaking the intense quiet. He held up crossed fingers and received the transmission. Cooper’s green silhouette formed on the imager and Hasan ran the post-travel scan.
Ding
. Like a freeze-dried dinner in a hydrowave, he was done.

Hopping over to the dock, Geri wanted to be ready to help Dr. Rastogi attend to Cooper. At the tech station, Hasan examined the scan comparison. No one even considered the fact he might be a pile of powder.

“This is incredible,” Hasan whispered.

Once Dr. Rastogi deemed Cooper healthy, they all joined Hasan at his terminal.

“It looks perfect,” Mr. Dhruba said.

“Must be the specimen,” Cooper joked. Geri smiled for him. His sweet attempts at humor at his own expense camouflaged his doubts and couldn’t penetrate this crowd. They were all business now that they had some data to decipher.

Hasan and his uncle looked at each other with concerned, nervous smiles, less than pleased with the good news.

“It really does,” Dr. Rastogi agreed. Geri heard the doubt in his tone as he rubbed his chin and further scrutinized the images.

“Well, it was supposed to work,” Hasan said with the same muddled look. “I just wasn’t expecting results this, this…”

“Perfect!” Mr. Dhruba repeated. He beamed, rocking back and forth on his heels.

“It’s just wonderful, isn’t it?” Geri asked, mirroring their scrunched faces, wondering why they weren’t happier.
Did something go wrong?

“Never trust the first attempt. It could be a fluke. Right, Hasan?” Cooper said.

Geri looked at Cooper and raised her eyebrows.
How did he know? Everyone should be ecstatic, not disappointed. This was an ideal outcome. What more could they want?

“Right, Cooper. I will feel much better with a few hundred more perfect attempts and some bad ones in the batch for us to pick apart. We learn from our mistakes. Nothing is perfect, especially on the first try. I guess this will have to do.” Hasan shrugged.

The deep chimes of the doorbell jolted them. Glancing around, Geri shared the alarm she saw in their eyes. All except Cooper’s.

“Don’t panic. I have a plan,” he said.

“Really?”

“Of course. Trust me.” He grinned at her.

1:10 p.m., Saturday, July 27 (3:40 a.m., Atlanta, GA)

“Excuse me, Mr. Dhruba. There are two men here who wish to speak with Mr. Rahki.” The servant android spoke in a steady tone on the vidcom as if the visitors were Girl Scouts selling cookies. Cooper wasn’t buying.

And neither was Dhruba. “Tell them to go away.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Oh, no! They’re here! We have to blur! Now!” Hasan yelled, waving his arms.

“But where?” Geri asked.

Cooper put a hand on Hasan’s shoulder to level him out. He needed that boy to grow up and focus. He stared calmly into Hasan’s eyes.

“Hasan, do you have codes for any other locations?”

“Yes. I collected a list of secluded docks all over the world, just in case I was able to escape. Did you have anywhere in mind?”

“Sir, they’ve forced open the gate and are coming to the door,” the droid reported.

“I’ll be right down! Turn on your shocker guns, Varin. No one is forcing their way into
my
house!” Mr. Dhruba stormed off. With his bionic arm, he could probably do some damage and give the group more time to get away.

“Just pick one!” Geri shouted. “We have to hurry. We can only pop out one at a time!”

“Right. We can execute the plan once we pop and lose these guys again. Hasan, send Geri first. Then Dr. Rastogi, you send Hasan. I will go last,” Cooper said. “Will you be able all right staying here?”

“Of course. I can hold my own,” the Doc said and stuck his chin out.

Hasan grabbed the Doc’s arm and pulled him to the tech station.

“Come, Uncle. I’ll show you the special code to erase the trace. Geri, go get in!”

Geri wasted no time. Plopping into the seat, she gave herself the shot and threw the syringe gun out of the dock with a slick smile. Instinctively, Cooper caught it. Shaking his head after Geri’s surprisingly astute performance, he sealed her in the dock.

Pop!

“You’re up, Hasan!”

After giving himself the anesthetic, he waved goodbye to his uncle. Cooper slid the door shut for him.

Pop!

“Ready, Cooper? I hate to send you out again so soon.”

“Doesn’t matter now. Don’t worry. Just send me!”

When Cooper gave himself the shot, the door to the transport room burst open. Before he went under, Cooper recognized the short, dark man from the Ritz hotel lobby. As his eyes closed, the guy shot an electric bolt toward the dock.

Everything went black.

“Hasan’s idiot security guards caught up and stormed the castle. I stunned them, but the birds flew the coop again,” Blake reported. He had his electrogun aimed at the uncle.

“Great. Well, we just got a lock on Geri. They’re in Australia!” Nate hit his forehead. “Sorry. I’ll have a code for the nearest travelport and you can follow them in a second.”

“Good. But I fried the dock they used. I’ll have Hasan’s uncle escort me to one close by.” Blake gave the uncle a nod and he frowned.

“Ed gave you the go-ahead on Cooper. Just bring back the boy and the video.”

“What about Geri?”

“He wants her alive.” Blake shrugged.

“You got it.”

Local Transport Station, Canberra, Australia
5:45 p.m., Saturday, July 27 (3:45 a.m., Atlanta, GA)

elcome to the party. Glad you could join us.”

Yanked out of the receiving dock, Cooper blinked his eyes to see three policemen holding Geri, Hasan, and himself.

“They don’t like unauthorized pops here.” Geri nodded her head at Hasan.

“Hey, is that my fault? How was I supposed to know?”

As the officers escorted the trio out of the transport center, Cooper tried to reason with them.

“Officer, if I could just explain the situation,” he started, but got cut off.

“Yeah. Down at the precinct.”

Beasley Hills Plantation
4:00 a.m., Saturday, July 27 (1:30 p.m., Mumbai, India)

“But Mr. Saffioti, he shocked us from behind!”

“That old guy was stronger than he looked, too.”

Ray closed his eyes and shook his head at the two dumbfounded security guards. It had to be another agent.
These are my best men?

“So where is Hasan?” he screeched.

“We don’t know. This guy, Dhruba, can’t trace the pop. What do you want us to do?”

As Ray massaged his temples, his QV buzzed. An international call.

“Just have them come home,” Ray said to Manny and answered the incoming call.

“Saffioti here.”

“Hello, Mr. Saffioti. My name is Captain Baz Brown of the Canberra Police Department. I believe this is the number our travelport centers were given to contact Pop Travel International in case of emergency.”

Fearing another disintegration report, the hairs on Ray’s neck stood up.
Australia? There haven’t been any international incidents except that one in Japan!

“Yes. Certainly. What is the problem, Captain?”

“Well. We had an unauthorized pop into one of our local transport centers. That’s a felony here. Quite dangerous.”

Ray let himself breathe again.

“Of course. But how is that an emergency for us?”

“Oh, yes. Well, it’s Hasan Rahki, the Creator. We’re going to have to hold him for a bit and work this all out.”

Yes! Unbelievable! Thank God!
Ray smiled, with fireworks going off in his head. He let out a huge sigh and told a big lie.

“Ah, so that’s where he ended up. He was conducting an experiment with some new codes.”

“On himself?” the officer lowered his chin to look over his glasses.

“He’s very eccentric. We don’t encourage it, but he can be impetuous that way.”