Devil's Paradise

18: Time Machine: One Giant Leap

"Well," said Merlin briskly after a pause, "Everything is charged for a trip back in time. Are you ready?"

I got on the backpack and strapped on the pistol. I went over to the bottle of Scotch and poured myself a half glass. I took a slow sip, then tossed back the glass at once. "Whew!" I looked at the half-full bottle, my eyes watering, and decided not to take it with me. "I'm going to get some more good scotch, as soon as I get there." I picked up the rifle. "Clothing, check. Gear, check. Money, check. Gertrude, are you ready?"

"Wheep! Wheep!"

"Gertrude says she is ready."

"Actually, I think she said she is hungry."

"Just go, Merlin, before I lose my nerve."

"All right. Here we go..."

The lights dimmed again as a subsonic thrum ran through the room. I felt my skin tingle, and my arm hair stood up. My intestines quivered, and there was a smell of ozone, as a sudden wind blew toward the machine. The time machine itself seemed the same, except that there was now a blue glow around the doorway.

"I can't see anything."

"Wait a few more seconds; it is still stabilizing. Now what do you see?"

"Nothing but gray. It's like a fog, but it's a solid wall of it, like drywall."

"Toss something through it."

I set down the rifle, ripped a sheet off the top of the spiral bound notebook that was beside me, and crumpled it up.

"Louis?"

"Yes, Merlin?"

"Do not let your hand get near the doorway when you toss that through."

"I won't."

I tossed the wadded-up paper through the doorway. As I let it go, I felt a distinct tingling in my fingertips. When the paper got to the middle of the door, it vanished. There was no flash, no sound, no shock wave. In one split second there was a paper ball flying through the air. In the next, it was as if it went through a wall of impossibly thick smoke.

There was something, though..."Merlin, it looked like the paper ball got sucked into the fog."

"That fits. There should be a strong gravitational attraction to the field."

"Anything come back out?" I rubbed my fingers together. They still tingled.

"Not that I could tell, Louis, at least, not in the spectra I am recording. Do the same with the guinea pig, but be even more careful about getting your hand near the field. Toss her through the field, or she will struggle and possibly destroy herself crossing the barrier. Forty seconds before it collapses."

"Right." I bent over the cage on the floor. Gertrude was eager to get my attention, but when I didn't offer her food, she didn't want to be picked up. I gentled her in my hands.

"Twenty-five seconds, Louis."

"Here you go, Gertrude. Sorry about this, old girl." I stepped up to the machine, leaned over, and gently tossed her through, an inch or so off the floor. I hated to do that, but I didn't want her getting scared and trying to turn back halfway through, with gruesome results. We had played with the idea of putting her in a little cart, but she would just jump out of it.

That close, I felt tingling in my scalp as I bent over near the field, and my eyes blurred. As I tossed Gertrude through, her wheep sound became a little scream, cut off in the middle. I knew she'd be fine, if the field didn't hurt her. I'd seen guinea pigs jump more than a foot in the air.

"That was spooky," I said. "Did you see any harm?"

"No, just a natural fear response."

"Anything that would indicate it will be dangerous to me?"

"No, Louis."

"All right then. How much time do we have left?" I heard footsteps in the hallway.

"About fifteen seconds," said Merlin. "Louis, if you decide not to do this, I will understand, but do not stop in the middle."

"Wish me luck, then."

"I do not know how to do that, Louis."

"Just say, 'Good luck.'" I picked up the rifle.

"Good luck. Ten seconds."

"Louis, stop!" Delilah was coming through the door, panting. There were men behind her.

I looked at Delilah, smiled grimly, and said, "Merlin, I will see you again; I promise." Then I ran two steps to the doorway and leapt through it.

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