The Dark Arrow of Time Page 21

  Helias paused, watching for a reaction from Nudeliev, who to all appearances was listening calmly, almost reclining in his chair.

  “Perhaps they thought that the Kadlers would have been able to reconstruct the compiler, since they must have known it very well….”

  “I don’t think so. Actually, this whole story of recovering the compilers reeks of red herring. At least at the beginning, up to the point when it was decided to get them back. Not, however, to use them, but to prevent them from being used by others later. So Kathia Cousins said when they had drugged me to the gills. I think my folks were kidnapped mostly to keep them from talking, and revealing what they had found out. And this is where my father’s second meeting with Cousins comes in, when she read his intentions in his mind, and he understood that she was working for the enemy….”

  Another pause. Because now the professor had sat upright and was reaching for something behind the desk with one hand, probably trying to slide open a drawer. Helias slipped his hand into his pocket, wondering whether the weapon would work through the wood of the desk. But he had not finished formulating the thought when Nudeliev said “Easy there, Dr. Kadler. Leave that weapon alone, there’s no need for it. I’m only getting a cigar, see?” And he raised his hand to show the cigar gripped between forefinger and thumb.

  “I rarely smoke. And only outdoors. My family can’t stand the stink. But this is one of those moments when only a cigar will do, even if they’re sure to make a fuss when they get back. I suppose I’ll have to air the place out before. If you don’t mind….”

  Nudeliev lit up and, after several voluptuous draws, visibly unwound. Borodine, though still at a loss for words, stopped squirming, as he had been doing for the last several minutes.

  “Very clever, Dr. Kadler. My compliments, really. I think, though, that you’ve made a few errors, perhaps marginal for you, but not for me. If you prefer, you can go ahead with your reconstruction. Or you can let me talk, now. But first, tell me a couple of things. I imagine you’re recording everything, aren’t you? And soon someone will be arriving, or you will call someone….”

  It was Borodine who answered, a bit regretfully.

  “Yes, we’re recording. And we informed the counselor of everything, shortly before coming here. If you prefer, we can call him right away….”

  “There’s no hurry. First I’d say that it’s better that you hear my side of the story. Yes, Dr. Kadler, I bear some of the blame for what happened, but, just like your father, I can consider myself a victim too. You’ve presented a valid reconstruction of the events, but you’ve got your target wrong…. If I were to ask you, Dr. Kadler, what is the most precious thing in our lives, what would you say? Life itself, perhaps? Or the people we love? But there’s something that neither you nor my friend George can image, something both your father and I have. Children, Dr. Kadler. If I had known how important children would have been in this whole business, I would never have asked that my project be approved. Yes, your father was blackmailed, and Geremy Stuerz was on your tail, ready to strike if your father refused to cooperate. And he wanted to refuse when he realized how far beyond the pale those experiments were, he saw the dangers inherent in them. But in my blind lust for knowledge I insisted that he continue, and I invited him to a meeting where Cousins was also present, but made up so that he couldn’t recognize her. But I wasn’t the one who blackmailed him, I’m not a criminal. Shortly thereafter, I received an anonymous letter threatening my children’s safety unless I agreed to the letter’s demands. And what was demanded of me was nothing less than the project. I was told to let it be stolen, or rather, I admit, to be an accomplice to the theft. And I did, even though I could well imagine what consequences that product would have in the wrong hands. And the rest was all an act on my part, a sham, starting from the compiler in your possession. A red herring, as you put it, they already had everything. But they didn’t have the knowhow, and so they kidnapped your parents. I’m not looking for excuses, I sold out. But the stakes were too high for me: my children’s lives. And I had to go on collaborating, a nightmare….”

  Nudeliev paused to stub out his cigar, eyes glistening.

  “You might not believe it, but you’ve done me a favor, and I’m relieved. I’m glad you’re here. Maybe the nightmare is about to end….”

  He seemed entirely overcome, slumping in his chair and apparently sapped of all willpower.

  “And I was the one who put them on your trail, when they decided to recover the diskettes. For that, I apologize to you, however little good it will do….”

  Then he roused himself, as if he had decided to take the bull by the horns.

  “But I can try to make amends for the damage I did to you, at least in part. But we have to be quick, before they wake up to what’s going on. They’re surveilling me…. Dr. Kadler, I know where your parents are. We can free them, if we hurry….”

  “We’ll call the counselor….” said Borodine.

  “No! They could intercept the call. And make all the evidence disappear, Kadlers included.”

  “He’s right….” said Helias. “Let’s go!”

  They went down to the basement, where Professor Nudeliev opened a well-concealed secret passage. After a long, narrow corridor, they turned into a dimly lit cross tunnel, where a four-seater cart was waiting. Helias sat facing the two professors and the cart took off, bowling down the tunnel.

  In the weak reddish light, Helias observed the two faces in front of him, so different from each other. No one spoke. Apparently only Helias was feeling the tension of that moment. Nudeliev had his eyes closed, and seemed almost to be dozing, as if he was resting up for whatever would happen next. Borodine, too, looked quite relaxed, probably relieved to have learned that his old friend was more victim than criminal, after all. And maybe he was thinking that everything was going to turn out well.

  Helias, though, was struggling to keep his calm and breathe normally. But his blood was pounding in his temples and his throat was parched. Especially, he could feel that hard object in his pocket pressing against his thigh, as if nearly all his senses were concentrated on that point. He could even feel the veins pulsing beneath it.

  After a few hundred meters the cart slowed and came to a halt opposite another corridor at right angles to the tunnel. They got out and walked down it, Nudeliev leading the way, reaching a door that opened onto yet another corridor, this one wide and well lit.

  As they hurried down the passage, Helias lagged a bit behind so that they wouldn’t see the sweat beading his brow. Then he slowed down and put his hand in his pocket.

  “Professor, I’d like to ask you another question….”

  “Not now, we’ve got to be quick, we’re almost there….”

  “No! Now. Professor.”

  Nudeliev stopped and spun around towards Helias. Who was pointing his gun.

  Borodine stopped too, looking at them uncomprehendingly.

  “What happened to Gasler, Thomay and your other two former co-workers who you deliberately kept out of the project?”

  The scientist regarded him with a strange smile.

  “I was expecting this question, sooner or later…. They’re down there, where the tunnel leads, in the lab where they’ve always worked for me, on my real project. The project you know about, the official one, was little more than a cover. Or rather, it’s where I produced the preliminary results, which I then perfected and used here. To keep my real results and aims under wraps. I picked the four of them because they were the most unscrupulous, and they would have been faithful to me without qualms as long as the pay was good. Yes, Dr. Kadler, you guessed everything. I’m the mind behind all this, no blackmail and no anonymous letters. My compliments, again. I’m just a bit surprised that you let yourself be taken in by my little sob story, even if it wasn’t for very long…. Ah, perhaps I hit all the right notes: the tears in the eyes, deliberate tears caused by cigar smoke, the raised hopes of freeing your parents…. Yes, I must say it
was a masterful performance. Even though I knew you had every reason not to believe me….”

  “In fact, I didn’t believe you, not for a moment. I only wanted to see what you were getting at, and if you really would have taken us to my parents. But they’re not here, are they?”

  “They’re not far away. But out of your reach. I had to kidnap them, they had understood everything. Like you….”

  “Professor, call the counselor. Let’s put an end to this.”

  “No, I’m wrong, you didn’t understand everything. You didn’t understand that my purpose was to bring you here: you’re trapped.”

  Borodine was fumbling with his cell.

  “What do you mean, trapped? Professor, what are you waiting for, why don’t you call?”

  “There’s no coverage….”

  “In fact, we’re isolated here. As I told you: you’re trapped.”

  “Are you perhaps forgetting that I’m pointing a gun at you and ask for nothing better than a good excuse to shoot you?”

  “And then? Who would get you out of here? The door down there is secured and you don’t know the password….”

  “Well, if you’d rather try writhing in insupportable pain, I can oblige you right away, but I don’t recommend it. Let’s go. Get moving!”

  But Professor Nudeliev didn’t move, twisting his lips in a malignant grin as he looked over Helias’s shoulders.

  “Freeze! Dr. Kadler. Drop that gun.”

  A voice had rung out in the corridor behind him. A voice he had heard before.

  © Springer International Publishing AG 2017

  Massimo VillataThe Dark Arrow of TimeScience and Fictionhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67486-5_16

  16. But Dr. Kadler, that Hot Afternoon Near a Sea on the Planet Thaýma

  Massimo Villata1

  (1)Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, INAF, Pino Torinese (TO), Italy

  Massimo Villata

  Email: villata@oato.inaf.it

  But Dr. Kadler, that hot afternoon near a sea on the planet Thaýma, was angry. Really angry. Nobody, but nobody, was going to tell him to freeze, or order him around like that, tell him to do this, drop that. No. But he also knew that he had no other choice, with a gun pointed at his back, however fast he might be.

  And so he decided on a compromise. He lowered the gun, but didn’t drop it. And he turned slowly, to look the unknown aggressor in the face. Enough time to recognize him, and raise his gun. Then he blacked out, caught in the crossfire between the newcomer and Professor Nudeliev.

  “Welcome back!” exclaimed the latter, sneering at Helias who, hands tied behind the seat back, was coming to his senses in that lab or whatever it was.

  “I believe you know each other already, but allow me to introduce my dear business partner, as it were, Mr. Petersen, who is also the personal secretary of our beloved counselor…. As you can readily see now, I was well informed of your visit as well as of your ‘investigations’, and my friend here has always been an invaluable source of information about everything that went on between you and the counselor. Including the unfortunate interrogation of Kathia Four and the rest, when he was ready to intervene with a special device planted in her camera, in case anything went wrong with the ‘deactivating’ cells….”

  “You make me sick. Both of you. Fine pair of shits….”

  “Now, now…, insulting us will do you no good. Actually, I think we make quite a good pair. You see, he knows nothing whatsoever of science, no offense, naturally. You know what he’s interested in? He’s an ambitious sort, not cut out to be a mere secretary. I saw that the minute I met him, and I suggested letting him in on the deal. All he had to do was tell me everything that came to his attention, and lend a hand when needed, in choosing a pilot and things like that for instance…. In exchange for what? Money, of course, wealth and power, to be stored up on Earth, where eventually he’ll move. As you can imagine, if you’re not squeamish and have the right tools, it’s not hard to make money with a few time tricks…. Come on, George! Don’t look so priggish, you’ve no idea how much all this costs me….”

  “You’re a madman…. You’re running roughshod over everything, human beings included…. And for what, Valeri?” said Borodine, also tied to a chair.

  “For what? For the greatest discovery of all time. Which is well worth a little sacrifice of insignificant human beings now and then….”

  “Bastards!…” growled Helias. Which earned him a backhanded slap from Petersen, bloodying his nose.

  Valeri Nudeliev was now so busily extolling his research that he seemed oblivious of the incident. And of everyone and everything, except himself.

  “…You know what’s always fascinated me most? The seventh dimension, and the opportunity it gives for changing history. Yes, George, I know you don’t believe that, but as good scientists we have to let scientific experimentation provide the answer…. And this is where you come in…. You’ve arrived at the right moment, you know? Two human guinea pigs are just what I needed. With rats I didn’t have much luck, in the last experiment…. You already know that I’m working on space-time transfers with no receiving station, or in other words, on the possibility of traveling freely in time…. So that one could go anywhere, back in time whenever you like, if ‘inverted’ at departure. But then you would have to invert again, if you want to participate in the past events, and not just be there, watching them run backwards in time. To be able to change history, in fact. Or even just in order to survive, or to return to your own time. And that also calls for a free process of time inversion that can be carried out anywhere, outside of the usual labs. This is what I’m working on now, and I’ve got to the home stretch, to the crucial experiment. Before, with the guinea pigs, I made a mistake and they vaporized on me, vanished into thin air, or rather, transformed into pure energy. But I corrected the error, and now it’s your turn for the definitive test….”

  “And what will you say when they start looking for us? The counselor knows we’re here….” broke in Borodine.

  “We’ve already taken care of that, haven’t we, Petersen?”

  The secretary nodded.

  “He called the counselor, with a message from you, since you hadn’t been able to call him directly: “Everything in order with Professor Nudeliev. We’re following a lead that takes us back to Alkenia.”. Except that your shuttle has already had an accident on the way there…. You know transmissions aren’t so safe yet. That’s why we’re working for you…. No, George, nobody will be looking for you, here or anywhere else.”

  Nudeliev checked the time.

  “We’ve still got a little time left. But let’s be on our way…. I’ll bet you can’t wait…. It’s an enormous honor for you, wouldn’t you say?”

  They were freed from the chairs but remained with their hands tied behind their backs as they were prodded at gunpoint into another, much larger room which immediately reminded Helias of the time inversion cave on Alkenia, though it was smaller in scale. Here, too, there was a semicircular tunnel constructed of some transparent material, and a waiting shuttle. There was also a large, complicated device in a transparent cabinet against the wall. Helias looked at it, wondering what it was for.

  Nudeliev noticed his interest and said “You see, here’s where I keep my most precious products. Makes you curious, doesn’t it? Yes, we’ve got time, and I’ll tell you what it’s for…. But first let me show you what’s going to happen to you later, and what your role is. As you may have guessed, it is in this tunnel that the shuttle, with you inside, will go through a self-initiated time inversion, in the sense that the shuttle will do everything itself, as it will again when you reach destination, at the target time. I won’t tell you when that is, so as not to ruin the surprise. So everything is programmed and the tunnel is practically inert, no membranes or anything like that. It’s used only to delimit the route and absorb the energy, given that we’re not in empty space, as you will be for the next inversion. The shuttle is programmed t
o take you to a given place on Earth at the target time. Once it lands, the harnesses that secure you to the seats and keep you from doing anything foolish will be released, even though there’s not much you could do anyway, since there are no manual controls. And so you will be free…. Assuming that everything goes well. As I told you, the whole business is at the experimental stage, and you’re the guinea pigs. If you are there and still alive, a gadget on the shuttle will detect your heartbeats and set off a process of self-destruction. But you’ll have plenty of time to escape…. Eh, you ought to thank me for this, since whether or not you blow up together with the ship is all the same to me. What matters to me is that, at the moment of the explosion, a particular radiation will be emitted that I will be able to pick up from here even after a lapse of time and determine whether it in fact arrives from the target time. That way I will know that you arrived at the target time alive, and thus that the experiment was successful. Even more importantly, I will know if I am right and you have changed history, because I will be able to check whether this radiation reaches me via the usual four space-time dimensions, or via the seventh dimension. In the latter case, I will know that history has forked and that you belong to a new, freshly created reality, with a history that differs from ours, the respective world lines separated by the seventh dimension, which I will thus be able to discover and study….”

  Helias had a question.

  “But if this took place in the past, you should already be detecting that radiation. But you aren’t, are you?”