Ensemble [Book 1: SEKTOR V Trilogy]

Chapter 4: Cover the Trail

Chapter 4: Cover the Trail

Gus Lebanchek looked forward to interrogating the numbnut loser who was jeopardizing his spotless record. He was confident he would get him to divulge everything he knew, and perhaps things he didn't know he knew.

"So tell me, Stanley F. Dial, how did all of this happen to you? I'd like to know why, when, how and with whom. I want to know everything about everyone and I want every single detail."

Still in considerable pain from the beating he took, Stanley cleared his throat. "Actually, it really isn't very complicated and I don't have a lot to say. I sell insurance for a living and I lost my job about 18 months ago when our company was bought out. I tried to get another job but these days it's not easy. I did every possible odd job I could. It wasn't close to being enough. My wife and I have four children. We have no additional family to lean on and no other financial options available."

"My heart bleeds for you, Mr. Dial," Gus said without batting an eye, "truly it does. So how does all that unfortunate sadness get you here, talking to me, in custody?"

"Look, I was...actually still am an unemployed insurance agent. We were—no, are—set to lose everything. I couldn't just sit by and let my family become homeless. I could take just about any indignity if I were alone but not with a wife and family to support. I've desperately been trying to secure loans, IOUs, anything I could to help turn things around. Finally, I thought I had found something that could actually have...saved us... Well, for a price..."

Gus leaned forward. "Yes, a price...continue."

"I... I was given the chance to Jump."

"By whom?"

Stanley stared at him. "I thought you wanted to know how and why?"

"Yes, yes, but that can wait. Right now, answer my question. Who gave you access to time travel?"

"Well... actually, I don't know exactly," Stanley muttered.

"Look, Dial, don't waste my time. I will ask you again. Who gave you access to the machine? We know precisely where your family is, so it would not behoove you to play games with the Ministry. In the end, you will lose."

"I'm not playing games, I simply don't know what you want me to know!" Stanley shot back.

Gus gave Dial a hard look, causing him to swallow. This lummox better remember who he's talking to, Gus thought. Stanley took a deep breath and began speaking in a softer voice.

"Leading up to the practice Jump and when I returned, things were very, very controlled. I was told to drive to a pre-determined location. Then I got into the car of the two guys I had met weeks earlier. One drove and one sat in the back with me. At that point, the guy in the back cuffed and blindfolded me. Soon after that, I felt a small pinprick in my right shoulder. That had to be the drug they gave me. Within a few minutes I was groggy...and stayed that way for hours. I could function but everything was a blur, like...smoothed out.

"I couldn't say how long the drive was or where we ended up. Still blindfolded with handcuffs on, I was taken out of the car, and we entered a building. A few minutes after that, I was in the actual Jump room sitting in the Time Machine chair.

"Oh...I want to say there were other people there with us. Maybe technicians, I don't know. No one spoke to me, and if I tried—I can't remember if I did or if anybody replied... Anyhow, as for anything else I remember, it's not much. For some reason, I did get the impression that the room was big...wide...open... Maybe it was more like a warehouse than a room? I can't say for certain.

"Anyhow, the whole ordeal was very jarring and disorienting. After I arrived in the future, if you can call it that—it was only four days out—I was still sitting in the same chair in the same room or warehouse or whatever it was... This time no other people were around, or if they were, they were pretty quiet. However, the same guys were there to greet me. They proceeded to escort—okay, well, drag would be more accurate—me into a limo that was waiting just outside the building. Once I was inside, it took off. They didn't tell me where I was going and for most of that trip I was out, so there's not much more I can tell you except that there was a driver. Then when I woke up... before arriving at our destination...I was still groggy... Not until we arrived did the driver take off the blindfolds and uncuff me and that's when I found out we were in Atlantic City... in front of the Tropicana.

"I did what I was told to do... Canvassing the tables, gathering info, making exact notes of what the winning numbers were. After that, I was set to come back. Returning to the present was basically a repeat of what I told you, only in reverse. The same two guys contacted me, we met outside the Tropicana in the parking lot, they drugged, cuffed and blindfolded me and before I knew it, I was back in that chair, feeling messed up all over again. After I was sent back in time, I was immediately sent back to the future, this time to win the money. Up until a few hours ago, I wasn't sure why they did that. All I had to do was wait, go back out to the Tropicana, and make the bets again. I figured they thought if I hung around a few extra days maybe I'd do something stupid to mess things up? Anyhow, now I know better. When I finally arrived in that other world, I'm pretty sure that only one of the guys met me. I was still drugged, so I can't say for sure. Whoever was there helped me stumble into yet another limo. And just like before, I eventually ended up at the casino. That's pretty much everything I know, or at least everything I can remember."

"So you keep mentioning these two guys," Gus said. "These handlers, who are they?"

"You mean their names, social security numbers? I have no idea... Like I said, they handled everything. I never saw or interacted with anyone else...except for the Atlantic City limo driver... But he never said a word. Well...these two handlers—if you want to call them that—were pretty big. One of them had a tattoo of a tree on the back of his hand. The other guy barely said a word and was a bit shorter and fatter. Other than that, there's not really much more I can add.

"Look, when they came to collect several weeks ago, well, I just didn't have it, so they said I could get what I owed by doing these Jumps. They also said that there'd be no way I could possibly fail. All I had to do was show up at a certain place at a certain time and they would take care of everything else...and they did. They never told me their names and I never asked. Throughout it all, I never met with anyone else."

Stanley looked at Gus as if to gauge his reaction. Gus stared back at him, expressionless, expecting more.

"I already told you how I got to that other time...timeline...world, whatever it was," Stanley continued, "but if you want, I can also tell you how I got back here, to our world. Until I got busted, when the doppelganger Ministry agent told me what was going on, I had no clue I was in the wrong place. Now, I'm not sure I needed to get my butt kicked in the process, but I'll take that over being abandoned in some crazy alternate universe any day of the week."

Gus remained blank-faced. This jackass better have more.

"I can take you to their storefront—if you want? It's not the Time Machine warehouse but it is the place where I met them a few times several weeks ago where all of this was initially set up, and where I'm...well, where I was supposed to deliver what I owe. It's downtown. But if I were to hazard a guess, I'm pretty sure they don't actually 'sell' anything there."

Gus pressed his hands on the table, leaned forward, and got right up in Stanley's face. Stanley shrank back into his chair.

"Oh, you absolutely will take us there, Mr. Dial...today, in fact. And you and your family better hope that this leads us where we need to go."