Once again it made her miss Mark.
According to Gunny’s letter, he felt that mixing the territories in some cases was okay. Eelong was proof of that. But he hadn’t seen the negative results of what could happen when the territories were mixed. The destinies of four territories had been altered, with the threat of more to come. She was happy for Eelong, but it didn’t take away her fear of what might be in store for Halla. As Bobby said many times, it wasn’t about winning battles, it was about winning the war. Eelong was a battle that was won. The war was far from over.
After leaving Courtney alone with her thoughts, Dodger cleared his throat. “Like I said, I know what’s going on.”
Courtney folded the note and gave it to him. He placed it back in the strongbox.
“You know a lot,” Courtney said. “Not everything.”
Courtney filled Dodger in on all she knew, starting with their lives on Second Earth before Bobby left home to become a Traveler. From there she filled in all the gaps of the story he wouldn’t know about, because Gunny didn’t know. She told Dodger about Denduron and Cloral, Lifelight on Veelox, the battle for Zadaa, the games of Quillan, and most important, the way Saint Dane had been a part of their lives as Andy Mitchell since they were little kids. She told him all about the Sci-Clops science club, and the Stansfield school where Saint Dane had turned himself into a boy that Courtney developed a crush on. It was a crush that nearly killed her. She finished by talking about the death of Mark’s parents, and about Forge technology that led to the creation of dados, the lifelike robots that had changed the course of history on Earth and on Quillan. Finally, Dodger read the letter from Patrick telling of Mark’s voyage on the Queen Mary, and his disappearance.
It was a lot easier to explain it all than Courtney thought it would be. Dodger had already accepted the concept of Halla and territories and the Travelers and, of course, Saint Dane. All she did was add to the story and bring it to where they now stood.
Dodger took it all in, then said, “So you want to find Mark and stop him from bringing this future gizmo into our time.”
“That,” Courtney said. “And save him from the danger he’s in. I believe Saint Dane’s plan for Second Earth started when we met Andy Mitchell back in kindergarten. It was all a devious plan to steer Mark into creating Forge, gain his trust, and get him to spring it on the other territories. Once that happens, I think Mark won’t be needed anymore and-“
Courtney didn’t finish the sentence. Dodger whistled in awe. “Does Saint Dane think that far ahead?”
“Time means nothing to him. He bounces back and forth between territories like we walk across the street. Saint Dane keeps talking about this thing called the Convergence. Bobby thinks that whatever it is, it’s the mother of all turning points. The turning point for Halla. By mixing the territories, Saint Dane is making sure it goes the way he wants it to. It’s not about individual territories anymore. Maybe it never was. He’s lining up the dominos. We’ve got to knock some of them out of line.”
Dodger stared at Courtney, wide eyed. “I liked it better when I thought you were from Pluto.”
Courtney grabbed a newspaper from the bed. She’d bought it when they got back to the hotel because of the big picture on the front page. It was a shot of a large ship docked in lower Manhattan.
“RMS Queen Mary” Courtney said, staring at the picture. “Big ship.”
“The biggest,” Dodger added. “The hotel’s always lousy with passengers after they make a crossing. They say it’s the cat’s meow.”
“The what?”
“It’s a nice ship. Like a fancy, floating hotel.”
Courtney stared at the picture. “According to the database on Third Earth, Mark Dimond was on board when she sailed for England on November seventh. He never showed up in England.”
“And you think his body washed up in Jersey a few weeks later?”
“That’s what Patrick thinks. It makes sense.” She dropped the paper and paced, thinking out loud. “Mark filed his Forge technology application with the US Patent Office in October. He had a meeting scheduled with a company called ‘KEM Limited’ in London on November thirteenth and booked passage on the Queen Mary. He boarded the ship but never showed up at that meeting, and was never seen again. A few weeks later the body of a passenger in a tuxedo washed ashore in New Jersey with a spoon from the Queen Mary in his pocket. He was killed by a bullet. The body was never identified.”
“And nobody filed a missing-person report,” Dodger added.
“Because nobody knew Mark here. I think it all fits.”
“Except for one thing,” Dodger cautioned. “You’re saying all this like it’s history.” He picked up the paper and pointed to the headline. “It’s November second. The Queen Mary doesn’t sail for five days. None of that happened yet.”
“Exactly!” Courtney exclaimed. “On November seventh Mark is going to board that ship.”
“Unless we stop him.”
“Unless we stop him,” Courtney echoed.
(CONTINUED)
The next few days were busy ones. While Dodger worked his shifts at the hotel, Courtney did all she could to track down Mark. She made dozens of phone calls to different city offices, trying to find the former tenant of 240 Waverly Place, apartment #4A. She tried the housing authority, moving companies, the police department, the fire department, banks, the phone company, and even the US Patent Office again. The answer was always the same. “We can’t help you.” It was frustrating because she had to do so much legwork just to get to a place where somebody would tell her to “forget it.” There was no Internet. She couldn’t leave messages on anyone’s answering machine because those wouldn’t be invented for another fifty years. She went back to scouring newspapers for information about Mark Dimond or the Dimond Alpha Digital Organization or even KEM Limited.
Two days before the Queen Mary was scheduled to sail, she found something. It was a small item in the New York Times about a British company called “Keaton Electrical Marvels, Ltd.” They announced plans to manufacture a new, portable phonograph machine. Courtney wasn’t even sure what that was. She had to go back to Macy’s to learn It was a device that played records. The only records Courtney had ever seen were vintage albums that her parents never played anymore. But in 1937, phonographs were popular. The design made by KEM Limited was touted as being incredibly innovative, with the ability to store energy in batteries that would allow the phonograph to be played for short periods without being plugged in. The article made it sound as if this were an amazing scientific breakthrough. Of course to Courtney, it seemed about as amazing as a flashlight, but knowing that KEM Limited was involved in electronic technology made sense. She realized a company like that might be able to take Mark’s invention and actually do something with it.
The pieces of the puzzle were coming together.
However, on November 6, the day before the Queen Mary would leave, Courtney was no closer to finding Mark than she had been on November 2. It was looking more and more like the only way they would be able to stop him would be to intercept him at the ship itself. She took the train back to Stony Brook, where she put Bobby’s latest journal in the safe-deposit box. She had no idea what to expect the next day, but she knew that one way or another, things would happen. She wanted the journals to be safe. Her last stop of the day was at Macy’s, where she replaced her floppy cap that she’d lost in the sinking taxicab. She also bought Dodger a new brown fedora. She liked that it made him look like Indiana Jones. A short Indiana Jones, but still. She hoped he’d have the same luck as the fictional character.
She barely slept that night. She knew her mission on First Earth would end the next day. Either she would prevent Mark from getting on that ship, or she would fail, and history would play out the way the computers of Third Earth said it would. She vowed not to let that happen.
The next morning was sunny and warm for November. The Queen Mary was scheduled to leave the pier at 1:00 p.m. The plan was for Dodger and Courtney to be on the pier early, to intercept Mark before he could set foot on the gangway. The two arrived at the pier by 9 a.m., long before any passengers were likely to show up. They positioned themselves at the entrance to the pier, ready to inspect each and every person headed for the ship. Dodger was armed with the family photo of the Dimonds, though Courtney didn’t think Mark looked much like that picture anymore. She couldn’t rely on Dodger to recognize him. It would be up to her. She positioned herself square in the middle of the mouth of the pier. They had anticipated everything…
Except for the size of the crowd. By 11 a.m. the place was packed with people. It was a carnival-like
