slope. Gunfire sliced the chill air, and a rear passenger window exploded to his right. Jeff immediately ducked, the side door still swinging open as Future-Mitchell spun the vehicle through a hundred and eighty degrees.
‘Keep your fucking heads down!’ he screamed, twisting the wheel.
The sedan rammed into something Jeff couldn’t see, slewed around, then accelerated away once more. As the door swung back towards Jeff, he managed to grab hold of it, finally pulling it shut as further shots echoed around them. He hunched over, paralysed with fear, as he imagined those bulles tearing into his own soft and vulnerable flesh.
The car screeched to a sudden halt, then accelerated once more. Jeff pulled himself slowly upright, to see they were back on the highway.
‘I think we’re out of range now,’ announced Future-Mitchell, with a look of grim determination. ‘How is he?’
A total of three windows had been blown out, and there were also several large holes in the sedan’s roof. Jeff squeezed the upper half of his body between the two front seats, the sedan reconfiguring itself, and becoming slightly wider, in order to allow him more room. He glanced back at Present-Mitchell, who still lay sprawled on the rear seat. His eyes were closed, but his lips moved, and Jeff could hear him mumbling incoherently.
‘Well?’ asked Future-Mitchell, sounding tense. ‘Is he okay?’
‘Why? Don’t you remember?’
Future-Mitchell grunted. ‘Point taken.’
Jeff glanced through the shattered rear window to see that Arcorex had already vanished into the distance. ‘Can they catch us, do you reckon?’
‘I don’t know,’ Future-Mitchell replied, as he swung the sedan on to a turn-off leading back towards Omaha. ‘They’ll know who we are as soon as they check the surveillance recordings. What happens after that depends on whether they choose to tell the police or not. Personally, I’m guessing not.’ He glanced over his shoulder at his doppelganger. ‘Is he still unconscious?’
‘Completely.’ Jeff nodded. ‘He’ll probably sleep for a day before he even begins to wake up again.’
It wasn’t long before they arrived back at the motel, where Future-Mitchell helped Jeff haul their unconscious charge up to the room. They dumped him on the bed, and Jeff glanced back and forth between his two companions.
‘No matter what you tell me, or how much you try to explain,’ said Jeff, gazing down at the prone figure sprawled on the bed, ‘this does not get any less weird.’
Future-Mitchell nodded. ‘Imagine how
The man on the bed snorted and his eyes briefly flickered open. He mumbled something, and made motions as if he was about to sit up, but his eyes slowly slid shut again and soon he resumed snoring.
‘Okay,’ said Jeff, nodding towards the door. ‘I guess that’s it. Now we go get Olivia, then head for Florida and the Array.’
Something in the look on the other man’s face brought him to a halt.
Future-Mitchell shook his head slowly. ‘We’re not going to the Florida Array. It’s like hat aid yourself, they’ll be expecting us to try and make our way there.’
Jeff’s expression turned incredulous. ‘What, you mean you were
‘No.’ Mitchell shook his head again, ‘I wasn’t lying. We’ll go get Olivia, like I said, and then we’ll head for the Moon. But I don’t want to try and get there via the Array. I already learned the hard way it’s too risky.’
‘Mitchell,’ said Jeff, his voice cold and flat, ‘you’d better tell me right now what the fuck it is you’ve got in mind.’
‘Do you remember when me and Saul did that space-dive? All the way down from near-Earth orbit just in glider-suits? You were the one who put me in touch with the company that runs the flights, I seem to recall.’
‘Yeah,’ Jeff nodded, ‘what about it?’
Mitchell studied him for a moment. ‘Something bothering you?’
‘Apart from the fact that I have no idea why you’re bringing this up, no.’
‘Bullshit.’ The other man gave him a knowing look. ‘It’s because I mentioned Saul, right?’
Jeff made a sound of irritation. ‘For Christ’s sake, Mitchell. The guy had an affair with my wife, is all.’
‘Your ex-wife,’ Mitchell reminded him. ‘And it’s still bothering you?’
‘Maybe not so much recently,’ said Jeff, knowing that it was a lie. ‘It was a long time ago but, ever since me and Olivia got back together . . .’
Future-Mitchell nodded like he understood. ‘Sure.’
Jeff sucked in air, then expelled it in a rush. ‘Anyway, what about the space-dive?’
‘Your friends at the company, they also run flights to the Moon for rich idiots, am I right?’
‘Sure, on replicas of the original Apollo rockets, that kind of thing, along with the standard VASIMRs.’
‘“VASIMRs”?’
‘Variable impulse plasma ships,’ Jeff explained. ‘They can get to the Moon an awful lot faster than . . .’ Jeff paused, his eyes widening. ‘Fuck me, are you suggesting what I think you are?’
Mitchell nodded. ‘You need to get in touch with them right away, find out if they’re willing to take us up to Copernicus on board one of their ships.’ He stepped over to the door and pulled it open. ‘We might not get ourselves to the Moon the same wa as most people, but we sure as hell can fly there if we want to.’
