was still very high.
“Let’s drive somewhere, okay?” I suggested.
Patrick focused on my injured arm. “You’re hurt.”
“Quigs,” I answered. “Down at the gate.”
Patrick’s eyes suddenly went wide. “Quigs!” he shouted, ramping up again. So much for calming down. “You know what that means? Saint Dane is here! Here! It’s starting, isn’t it? That’s why you came, right?”
It was Courtney’s turn to try and calm him down. She put her arm around his shoulder and started out softly, saying, “It’s okay. We’re here to help.” Her calm, reassuring voice quickly amped up into a tirade. “But we can’t do anything unless you get a grip! All right! Now calm down!”
Good old Courtney. Patience wasn’t her strength.
“Nice,” I said sarcastically, pulling Patrick away from her. “Let’s take a breath and go someplace quiet.”
“I’ll take you to a doctor,” Patrick said. “You need to get that treated.”
“Fine, whatever. Let’s just go.” My first thought wasn’t about the slash on my arm, but if letting Patrick focus on getting me help would put him back under control, I wasn’t going to stop him. He jumped behind the wheel of the tiny car.
“You sure you can drive?” Courtney asked. She wasn’t thrilled about riding in a car being driven by a maniac. To be honest, neither was I.
“I’m okay,” Patrick said, taking a deep breath. He was definitely calming down.
We all got in, with Courtney in the back and me next to Patrick. I could feel Courtney’s tension radiate from the backseat.
“My doctor is in Manhattan,” Patrick explained. “He’ll take care of you.”
“Good,” I said. “No hurry.”
“Yeah, no hurry,” Courtney echoed. “Safe and boring. That’s the ticket. Let’s get there in one piece.”
Patrick looked at her, then at me. “She’s not a Traveler?” he said, as if I had just brought a martian into his life.
“It’s cool. She’s as much a part of this as we are.”
“But she’s not a Traveler,” Patrick argued.
“That’s the least of our problems,” Courtney said sharply.
I hoped she was right.
Patrick gave me a worried look, then turned over the ignition. The engine made no sound. Moments later we were rolling along the peaceful road, headed toward Manhattan. The trip was exactly as I remembered it, except for the dados. I didn’t say anything to Patrick about them at first. I wanted to make sure he was completely calm. I also wanted to make sure his mind was on his driving. Crashing into a tree wouldn’t have helped matters.
I noticed that his eyes were darting everywhere. It seemed like every time we rounded another bend, he’d see something so shocking that the sight actually made him tense up and give out a little gasp-as if he were seeing ghosts or something. The guy was a raw nerve. It finally clicked that it happened whenever he saw another group of dados.
I couldn’t take it anymore and said, “Okay, tell me why you’re so freaked.”
Patrick answered, “I was hoping you could tell me.”
“Uhh,” I answered dumbly. “We just got here. You’re the one acting all mental.”
Patrick thought a second. “You’d be a little crazy too if you woke up to find your territory wasn’t the same as when you’d gone to sleep.”
I shot a look back to Courtney. She raised an interested eyebrow.
“Explain that,” I demanded.
Patrick took a shaky breath. “When I went to bed last night, everything was normal. Do you know how I woke up this morning?”
“No,” I said patiently.
“A stranger was shaking me, saying it was time to get up to go to work.”
“Who was it?” Courtney asked.
Patrick laughed, but it wasn’t because he thought it was funny.
“Not ‘who,’ what!” he shouted. “It was a mechanical man! I jumped up screaming and demanded to know who he was, but he just gave me this confused look and said he’d been my domestic da… da…”
“Dado?” I asked.
“Yes, dado! He said he’d been working for me for five years and didn’t understand what game I was playing. I thought somebody was playing a practical joke. I ran out of the house to get away, but there were mechanical men everywhere! Pendragon, they weren’t here when I went to sleep. Now there are more robots than people and nobody seems surprised but me! Am I crazy?”
“Unfortunately, no,” I answered.
Patrick continued, “I drove around in a daze, not believing what I was seeing. That’s when my communicator activated, saying you were at the gate. I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence.” He pulled the silver card out of his pocket. “But this isn’t my communicator! It’s changed! How can that be?”
The communicator looked exactly like the one at the flume.
Patrick added, “You can explain all this, right?”
I looked at Courtney. She shrugged and said, “Go for it.”
“I only have theories. We’re here to find the real answers.”
“But I don’t have any!” Patrick cried.
“History might,” I shot back quickly. “The same thing happened on Second Earth. One minute all was normal, the next minute technology changed. It’s your computer archives that we’re hoping will tell us why.”
“You’re saying this all happened in the past?”
“I think so,” I answered. “I think the reason nobody is reacting to the change is because it happened long before they were born. These robots are now a normal part of Third Earth.”
“But if something happened in the past, I shouldn’t have noticed a change,” Patrick argued. “I mean, this should all seem normal to me, too, right?”
“Except you’re a Traveler,” I said. “This gets into a whole nother thing, but from what I’m learning. Travelers aren’t like normal people. According to Saint Dane, we’re illusions.”
Patrick gave me a blank look. The car started to drift off the road.
“Hey!” Courtney barked. “Eyes on the road. Professor!” Patrick quickly snapped the car back onto the road. “You’re not making things better, Pendragon.”
“I know,” I said with sympathy. “Let’s get me patched up, then go to the library. The answers we’re looking for are going to be found in the past, and you’re the only one I know who can find them.”
Patrick smiled. “That’s the first thing I’ve heard all day that makes sense.”
“You’re the man, Patrick. If anybody can solve this, it’s you.”
“And I will,” he said with confidence. “I will.” Patrick was back in control. I knew he’d find the answers. What worried me now was what those answers might be.
(CONTINUED)
FIRST EARTH
Our first stop was at Patrick’s doctor. Though we Travelers seem to heal incredibly fast (for some reason I haven’t yet figured out), I didn’t need to be slowed down by an injury, even for a little while. We rolled over a bridge to Manhattan and Courtney’s first look at the future of New York City. The island of Manhattan was much more citylike than the Bronx, but there was still more green grass than cement. Tall buildings were few and far between, though the roads now straightened out into a grid pattern. Shortly after crossing the river, Patrick parked next to a green kiosk where we stepped onto an escalator that brought us down to another vast, underground part of the city. After descending a few levels, we ended up on a floor that was ringed by silver doors. Each was marked with a five-digit number. Patrick led us to one, and we entered an office that wasn’t much different from my doctor’s office on Second Earth.
