Rick Carter's First Big Adventure (Pete's Barbecue Book 1) (37 page)

      “Maybe. But, pretend like I don’t and fill me in.”  Rick tried to keep a semblance of what the conversation was about.

      “It means that the reality tears and branches would cease, that there would be no more crisis to fix and that we all would be out of a job.”  He responded.

       “That’s good, right?”  Rick thought it sounded like a positive approach to the on-going problem.

      “It was complete rubbish.  It would never work and never stood a chance of working.”  The images in front of Mr. Ball changed to a computer simulated image of the reality streams represented by glowing worm-like projections that undulated about like live things, intertwining around each other, breaking reforming and then slithering off into space like a distracted child.  Then they suddenly came together, forced by an immense power surge that nearly blinded them.  They came together quickly and wrapped themselves into one like the theory suggested.  But, the moment of calm organization was brief because the image began to blur and pull inward, ultimately unraveling at a source further down as the reality streams returned to their normal state.   “You see.  It works for a little while, just briefly and then it tears itself apart trying to come back to a normal state.  There’s no unifying the fields.  But you couldn’t tell Campbell that.  He became obsessed with “fixing” the problem, so obsessed that it costs him his job.  He was fired and sent packing.”  

      “Wow.”  Rick contemplated.  “Okay, then what happened?”

     “What happened was that Campbell was far too resourceful a person to walk off into the sunset and leave the thing be.”  Mr. Ball explained. “He had planned, planned well and he had resources that we didn’t know about.  He was let go back in 1899.  But he had money and he had the skill.  When he found Tesla he had a partner, too.”

       “You mean
the
Tesla?”  Rick asked.

       “Yes,
the
Tesla.   For a while, we kept track of them.  Campbell bought a factory in Jersey, set up shop and laid low.   It was so quiet we didn’t pay it any mind and, to be honest, I never thought he would do something that would hurt people.  He wasn’t that kind of person.  We’re talking about a man who took time to rescue insects from pedestrians on sidewalks.  He was anything but a sociopath.  Then, one day while Tabert and I were occupied with other things, he ups and vanishes.”  Mr. Ball moved through a 3-D image of Campbell’s factory from the early 1900s, looking at it as he moved like he was trying to figure something out or spot some detail he might have missed. 

     “To where?”  Rick was left to ask.

    “That’s it.  We don’t know.  He vanished completely, out of reality.  He could not be tracked.”  Mr.  Ball told him as the 3-D image changed to a picture of Tesla’s funeral.  “All we know is that Tesla didn’t go with him and he remained quiet until his death.  But, he knew something, that much is for sure.”

       “How can you guys lose track of someone?  You monitor reality.”  Rick was confused.

       “Believe it or not, there are things even we don’t know.”  Mr. Ball waved his hand, and the image of a tall building appeared, in the sunlight of a bright afternoon.  It looked like a bank building but was very plain on the outside and unmarked.  “We were left with that mystery until the crap hit the fan in ’68.”

       Rick looked at him suspiciously.  He had heard that year mentioned a lot lately.

       Mr. Ball continued, putting his hands behind his back, as he paced in a small circle deeply reflecting on the past.  “There were a lot of bad things that happened that year.  USS Scorpion went down with all hands, the TET offensive erupted in Vietnam, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were both gone.  A lot of things going on meant a lot of work for us. But, really the first indications appeared back in 1965.  There was a blurp on the radar as they say.  The blurp was a momentary lapse of movement in the streams.  We thought nothing of it at the time.  But a few years later, amid all of the other things, the big one hit.”  The images changed to a whirlwind of activity, pictures of things falling into a black void, like cities crumbling over the edge of the world into nothingness.  Things, people vanished, whole portions of reality stretched like a rubber band.  “This happened.”  He indicated.  “As you can see we had our work cut out for us.”  The images changed from one to another showing the terrific amount of destruction and chaos.  “The tear was big.  But, as it turned out, the tear wasn’t the biggest problem we had.”

       Rick looked at him in awe.  “There was something bigger?  This looks like the apocalypse.”

      “Yes.”  Mr. Ball readily agreed.  “We’ve been through several apocalypses.  But it turned out there was a side issue going on at the same time that was bigger.  And we almost missed it entirely.”  The images changed to two different pictures, side-by-side, of newborn babies.

       Rick was confused again.  “Okay, babies?  I’m not seeing the end of the world here.”

      “Neither did we, at the time.”  Mr. Ball turned in his pacing and faced the image.  “I mean look at them.  They’re adorable little bugs aren’t they?”

      Rick didn’t follow him and grunted something inaudible to that effect.

      Mr. Ball turned slowly to face Rick again.  “I’m sure you’ve already heard.  I know Pete has filled you in on our little reality conundrum with Roger and Mel?  Take a look at those baby pictures.  Would you ever suspect that the two of them, in reality, would signal a mass panic in the Company think tanks?  All the eggheads were running around like a red-ant hill set on fire.  But, these two cuties turned out to be our biggest problem yet.  They grew up completely unaware of each other until they became friends with you in second grade in William’s Landing.  Then they came together, and reality began to warp slowly from the pressure.  We sent our best man in to handle it.  But, that didn’t work out as planned.”

       “You mean Pete didn’t eliminate one of them for you.”  Rick quickly asserted.

      “He made a command decision in the field.  Our agents are trained to do that.  But, others weren’t as pleased with the outcome.  It left too many details unattended, too many loose ends.”  Mr. Ball looked down.  “But, that wasn’t the issue.  The real problem was that they existed at all.  You see,” he looked back up, “they were born from a single event.”

        “Yeah, I know.  Pete already told me.”  Rick affirmed.

         “No, it’s worse than that.  Back then we thought we had a different kind of anomaly.  We thought we had an event where a single person was split into two separate beings, resulting in our twins here.”  Mr. Ball put a hand out into the image of the babies to illustrate his point.  “But, we were slow to see the real problem.”

       “Which was?”  Rick stared at the baby pictures of his two friends trying to fathom what kind of problem such small seemingly insignificant beings could pose.

        “They weren’t just two different beings split from the same person.  They were two people split from the same person in two different universes.”  Mr. Ball fired back rapidly.  “And it was all because of that first event in 1968.”

        Now Rick stood erect and silent.  The terms were starting to make him feel like something very bad was coming his way soon.  “Two separate realities?”

        “No, not realities, two separate universes.  Two entirely separate reality strings from different universes.” Mr. Ball sounded emphatic.   “And the only way that could happen was if two reality strings from two different universes merged into one.”

       “Like the Unified Reality Theory?”  The idea was beginning to sink into Rick’s brain.

       “Not entirely as predicted but yes, basically the same concept just on a much bigger scale.  This means someone tried to merge the reality streams back in 1968 and when they did they managed instead to punch a hole through the fabric of space itself and merge realities from our universe and another.”  Mr. Ball crossed his arms in deep reflection.  “But, it didn’t last.  The union came apart just like the models predicted.”

        Rick’s eyes enlarged.  “This is big stuff.”

       “That’s putting it mildly.”  Mr. Ball confirmed. “What we’re left with are two people who both work for the Company and together could unravel the very nature of all existence.”

       “And the nut job responsible for it,” Rick added.

     “Yes, the nut job.” Mr. Ball nodded, his voice somber.

     “So,” Rick thought he understood the basics of the problem, “this means another apocalypse?”

      “I’m afraid so.”  Mr. Ball glanced at Rick with concern.  “Except, this one would make the other look like a holiday.”

    “I’m still not getting everything, here.  Is this what’s caused Guam?”  Rick asked.

    “Initially, that’s what we thought.  Now, we’re not so sure.  More than ever I think our little nut job is not Campbell.”  Mr. Ball pointed out.

      “I don’t follow,” Rick said.

    “Guam is not his doing.  Call it a hunch, gut feeling.  I just knew the man too well, worked with him for too long.  You get to know a man’s personality when you’ve worked with him for thousands of years.  And this isn’t Campbell’s doing.  Tabert thinks so, the circumstantial evidence points to it.  But, I disagree.  It’s his ideas, his workings, but not him pushing the buttons.  Someone has hijacked Campbell’s theories, and they’re trying to play them out.  That’s what’s going on in Guam.”  Mr. Ball instructed.

       “I don’t understand how.  You said this thing needed a power source, a big power source.  What’s in Guam?”  Rick asked.

       “You remember Pete’s Honey Pot?”  Mr. Ball turned sharply.  The image changed to a nice shot of the Honey Pot, postcard quality.

       “Yeah?”  Rick studied the picture as it turned before his eyes.

       “What powers the Honey Pot?”  Mr. Ball asked almost rhetorically.

       Rick stopped stunned by the sudden realization.  “Holy crap.”  He muttered.

       “Holy crap, indeed.” Mr. Ball promptly agreed.

     The image in front of them disappeared, and the light went out.  Seconds later they were back in the cab, Mr. Ball in the front seat, Rick in the back, just like before.  Silence drifted between them with the old man staring out of the windshield at nothing and Rick staring out of the passenger’s window at the same thing.  Finally, Rick shifted on the fake leather seat and spoke.

       “So, what do you want from me?”  He asked.

       Mr. Ball let his thick hand slide over the steering wheel in front of him.  “There’s a lot ahead that you’re going to have to deal with, Rick.  When we hired you, it was for one express purpose, to put you into play in a game of the ultimate consequences.”

     “I thought you hired me for my driving skills.”  Rick pointed out.

      “We did, but for a whole lot more as well.  I think you’re going to learn you have more skills than you realize and abilities all of your own.”  Mr. Ball told him.

        “It would have been nice to know this up front.  Do I get a choice in all this or do I just get used?”  Rick asked quietly.

      “You have a choice.  Choice is what it’s all about.  But, tell me the truth, would you rather go back to your old job after all of this?”  Mr. Ball turned slightly.

       Rick chuckled.   “Right.  You still haven’t told me what you want me to do.”

       “The solution to this problem in Guam is already in the works, Rick.  We’re not asking you to solve it for us.  What were asking is for you to help us fix some of the problems that are coming as a result of this problem getting fixed.  There’s going to be a lot of them, trust me.”  Mr. Ball reluctantly told him.

       “So, now I’m a fixer?  Just like that?”  Rick sat forward.

       Mr. Ball looked down.  “Rick what you’re going to be, if you stay with us, goes beyond fixing.  If I’m correct, if we’re correct, you might just prove to be the one single key to resolving all of this, which makes you the most important person in the world at the moment.”

        Rick laughed.  “Is that all?  Campbell, Guam, Mel and Roger and all of it?  Anything else you want me to take care of?  I don’t even know how to use this ridiculous contraption.”  He pointed at the REAL-Pro 9000 on his wrist. 

        Mr. Ball smiled broadly.  “Rick we have a crisis in Guam but a game changer in the bigger picture.  Ultimately we’re going to have to find out who is behind this and we’re going to have find out if there are other players involved.”  He reached for the handle to his door and opened it.

       “Wait!  What are you talking about now?  Who else is involved?”  Rick adamantly shot back.

      Mr. Ball swung himself around in the seat as he was preparing to exit but stopped and thought for a moment.  “We’re dealing with two different realities from two different universes here, Rick.  We don’t know the implications or whose attention might have been alerted to the recent activities.  We have no idea who may be involved from the other universe, looking to do the same thing we are.  It could complicate things very much.  But,” he smiled again, “you shouldn’t be focused on that right now.  Your current mission is in Guam.”  He reached back and grabbed something that had been lying on the seat beside him and tossed it toward Rick.  Rick instinctively caught it.  It was another small black electronic device attached to a wrist strap.