“You mean, you could have programmed any one of the mat-trans units to take you back?”
“Once, alas, yes. I could have, although let me add that some mat-trans chambers are more inclined to be taken for a temporal spin than others, but I could have attempted them all until I found the correct vehicle to allow my passage.”
“How did you know the code, Doc?”
“I reached past Cerberus’s yawning maw and down his heated throat and down farther even into his vile stomach and I pulled it out, dear girl.”
“There’s a lovely image,” Krysty said.
Doc cocked an eyebrow, giving his lined face a quizzical, yet stern look. “Computers. When I was a younger man with a far keener intellect, I adapted to their encrypted uses in a most timely fashion while being held prisoner as a member of Operation Chronos. I never did learn to type worth a damn, I fear, since I kept looking at the keyboard, but I was a demon with that little track-ball thing. A rodent, I think they called it.”
“A mouse, Doc,” Dean said, stepping next to Krysty. The younger Cawdor had been listening to the conversation, but not wanting to be accused of eavesdropping he decided to join in with his full presence.
Doc gave the boy a quick toothy smile. “Yes, a mouse! Well done, lad! Your knowledge is growing by leaps and bounds! Yes, Theo Tanner was greased lightning with a mouse.”
“I don’t get it,” Krysty said, running a hand through her flaming red hair. The prehensile locks responded in kind to her grooming, arranging themselves around her shoulders. Used to the way the redhead’s hair acted and reacted like a living thing, neither Doc nor Dean commented.
“Get what, dear Krysty?” Doc replied, looking blank for a second.
“The code, Doc. Did you forget or something?” Dean asked.
“Or something. When I was sent forward into the future, my physical form suffered in transport. Overnight, I aged thirty years in body, if not in soul, and much of my earlier keenness was damaged as well. Short-term memory loss, young Dean. I remember more of the horrors, but less of the routine day-today details. As for the gateway code that I ripped out of the innards of that black project, now all my mind gives up is a fleeting number, here or there, with no order, rhyme or reason.”
“Well, hell Doc, if you had the code, why didn’t you use it?” Ryan asked bluntly.
“I tried, Ryan, God knows I tried my best,” the old man replied in a whisper.
“Well, I was thinking,” Ryan began. “All this with Jamaisvous might have been avoided if I’d been quicker on the draw. I still can’t believe you didn’t want us to know you were going to try and trawl back to your wife and kids while we were gone, Doc.”
“I feared you might try to stop me.”
“No. Your choice. You would have had my vote no matter what you did.”
“There are all kinds of support, Ryan,” Doc said softly. “While you might not be conversant in the mathematics used in time trawling, I sleep easier knowing you are at my back.”
Ryan smiled, the expression pulling back the ghastly scar on his right cheek, and clasped Doc firmly on the shoulder. “You’ve always been a stand-up guy, Doc. From the first time we met, I just knew you were going to drag my ass into all kinds of craziness. I thank you now for not proving me wrong.”
Doc beamed. “My friend, I do believe I have been insulted, but I do not take it personally.”
Across the room, Mildred made a final adjustment and switched off a comp monitor. “What do you think, Dean? About the disc?” Mildred asked.
“Me? Boy, I think being able to find our way around would be a hot pipe,” Dean said, picturing a future when they could choose their destinations within the mat-trans units.
“Dean, that would be worth two hot pipes,” Mildred replied with a grin.
J.B. stepped over and placed an arm around Mildred’s shoulders, giving her a squeeze. “What’s going on?” he asked. At the chamber, Ryan was waiting for the rest of the group to step inside, before closing the door and triggering a new jump to take them into another part of the world-or Deathlands.