Ensemble [Book 1: SEKTOR V Trilogy]

Chapter 13: F A M I L Y

Chapter 13: F A M I L Y 

At this point, Stanley was so sick of Gus Lebanchek, Rick Joliet, and anything that had to do with the stupid Ministry. For all he knew, he'd already permanently lost his family. Did any of these people care at all about that devastating possibility? Were any of Lebanchek's lackeys even looking for his family? Of course not. The only thing that man cared about was tracking down an Underground connection that could lead him to the Jump machine and the people who controlled it. Anything else was either a means to an end or an unimportant side-detail that could be ignored or dismissed.

Stanley sighed and turned to make another lap. He'd reached halfway to the other end of the hallway when, out of nowhere, the word "F A M I L Y" in large, black block letters flashed just in front of his face.

Startled, he glanced around. Is anyone else seeing this?

Lebanchek and two other men were in the hallway looking for trace evidence. They were either too busy to see what he just saw or he was losing his mind.

Maybe Jumping did have some crazy side effects after all... With his luck, he wouldn't be surprised if it went downhill from here... Is this an early sign of brain damage? After all, why should something as unnatural as time travel be completely safe?

He continued pacing but came to a sudden halt.

There it is again! This time it was even bigger, floating five feet away, filling the width of the hallway.

F A M I L Y

"What the hell?" Stanley muttered.

His eyes widened when a Ministry CSI walked right through the word without appearing to be aware of it.

OK, I'm really starting to lose it here... Shaking his head in an attempt to reset his brain, Stanley turned his back on the inexplicable phenomenon and walked a few doors down from room 333, where it was quieter. Here he could think. Am I going insane?

Before he could self-reflect further, another string of block letters appeared:

L A U R E N

His first-born daughter's name! His heart pounded as he stared at it for five seconds before it disappeared. After a brief pause, a second name appeared:

E D W A R D

Now he was sweating. What the hell does this mean? Who's doing this?

The rest of his family's names appeared, one at a time:

P A T R I C I A ... S T A N L E Y ... M A R I A

Stanley was beginning to feel sick and his head was pounding too. He didn't know where they were and there was nothing he could do! Then, the next words came through...

S A V E T H E M

"How?" he blurted.

This message displayed in front of him two more times.

A sinking feeling filled his gut. How do I save them? Is this a trick?

As if whoever-it-was could hear him think, the letters G and O appeared followed by T and O, and finally, 39.9495° N 75.1503° W flashed.

What's this? The last bit was obviously a set of coordinates. Those repeated in front of him at least five more times. They, whoever, wanted him to go there.

Is that where my family is? Stanley wasn't sure but that didn't matter. This was something he could do. He instinctively checked if any of the investigators at this end of the hallway had seen this insanity, but it didn't seem so. Sufficiently convinced, he walked back down the hall and stopped just outside of room 333. Nothing had changed. Lebanchek and the two CSIs were still knee-deep into whatever they were analyzing from before, oblivious to anything else going on around them.

Stanley realized that he had to move now.

He strolled away from the crime scene toward the stairwell, keeping his gaze down, hoping he wouldn't attract attention. Two new guys were coming towards him but they walked right past him and paid him no mind. Stanley couldn't believe how easy this was going to be. He simply had to walk down two flights and within a minute he'd be on the sidewalk, looking for a ride.

Three minutes into his "escape", he was sitting in an old-school, yellow cab. "Driver, could you wait a minute?"

"Sure, buddy, it's your dime," the driver responded in a thick South Philly accent.

Stanley took out his phone and stared at it. Lebanchek and company had made it a useless piece of technology by eliminating its ability to make or receive calls.

But the navigation app... Still working? Stanley smiled as he punched in the coordinates. Yess!

"Where to, pal?" the driver asked, sounding slightly irritated.

Chuckling with a sense of relief, Stanley glanced out the window at the entrance to 325 North Front Street where all the lunacy had gone down. Good. Nobody was missing him...yet.

"Take me to The Independence National Historic Park," he said.

"Where?" asked the cabbie.

"The Liberty Bell... Take me to the Liberty Bell, and get there as fast as you can!"