Time Travelers Never Die - Jack McDevitt [40]
IN the morning, he called Dave. “I could use some help.”
“Sure. What’s the problem, Shel?”
“I seem to have had another one of those incidents.”
“Are you okay?”
“More or less.”
“What happened? Where are you now?”
“Atlantic City.”
“You going to tell me you don’t know how you got there?”
“Pretty much.”
“It was the converter, right?”
“I’ll tell you about it later. Can you pick me up?”
“Sure.” He didn’t sound happy.
“I wound up in the ocean this time.”
“Really? How’d you manage that?”
“I don’t know.”
SHEL was still in a state of near shock when his ride arrived at the hospital.
Dave tried to turn it into a joke, and they both laughed. But Shel’s heart wasn’t in it. They got into the car. “So how’d it happen?” Dave asked.
Shel told him.
“Where’s the converter?”
“In the ocean.”
“Probably the best place for it.” It was a cloudy, cold morning. “Am I taking you home? Or to your father’s place?”
“I don’t know.” He sighed. “My father’s place, I guess. That’s where the car is.”
He pulled out of his parking place and eased onto Pacific Street. But Shel was searching his pockets.
“What’s wrong, Shel?”
“I think the key was still in my jacket when I got rid of it.”
“What key?”
“The key to my dad’s house. I’m going to have to break the window again.” He grunted. “Looks like my keys went, too.”
They drove in silence for a while. Finally, Dave sighed. “How many converters do you have?”
“Now? I’ve two left.”
“Do you have any way of checking them? To make sure they don’t malfunction, too? I mean, suppose the thing had dumped you out in the middle of the Atlantic instead of close to shore?”
“I don’t think it was a malfunction.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think it was the cardiac principle.”
Dave took a long time to answer: “It’s hard to believe.”
“I can take a hint.”
“So what are you going to do about your father?”
SINCE Shel had no keys, Dave delivered him instead to the town house. It was shortly after noon when they arrived. By then, Shel had been grumbling for an hour. “Going to have to figure out where he went. Find him after he left.” He got out of the car, glanced toward the front door, and led the way around back.
“You don’t have a spare key stashed anywhere, do you?” asked Dave. “Maybe in a flowerpot, or something?”
“No. My other set of keys is inside.” Shel picked up a rock and was about to break a windowpane when Dave raised a hand to stop him. “Hold on,” he said.
“Why?”
“I have an idea.”
“We could use one.”
Dave grinned. “You didn’t try the front door.”
“I always lock the front door.”
“Try it anyhow.”
“Okay,” he said. “Whatever you say.”
The front door was mostly chiseled glass with an angled frame. Shel turned the knob. And the door opened. “I’ll be damned.” He stared at Dave. “This is the second time this was supposed to be locked.”
“How about that?” said Dave.
“Good day to play the horses.”
“Shel, I need you to get me one of the converters. Preferably the one I had in New York and Italy, that I know works okay.”
“Why?”
“Just do it for me, please. And I’ll show you something.”
They went into Shel’s den. He retrieved a key from a cup that had the Phillies logo and used it to unlock his desk. Then he opened the bottom drawer and removed a converter. “What are you going to do?”
“Will you set it for me?”
“Okay.”
“You don’t think it’ll drop me in the ocean?”
“We’ll have to see.”
Dave looked at his watch. “It’s a quarter after twelve. I want to go back fifteen minutes.”
“Where? Here?” And a light went on for Shel. “My God. And it actually worked?”
“Apparently.”
“Brilliant, Dave.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll take it from here.”
“Okay.”
Shel opened the lid, set the device for default, and pressed the button. Dave and the den faded. The den came back, without Dave. Shel shook his head, amazed at the possibilities of the device. He came out of the aura, walked into the entryway, and unlocked the glass door. Then he went back to the den and returned to his base time.
“Very good,” said Dave.
“How did you know?”
“I didn’t. But I made up my mind that when we got inside, we’d use