PROLOGUE
Project Quantum Leap
Stallion’s Gate, New Mexico
Admiral Albert Calavicci still couldn’t believe
the audacity of Jonathon Thomas Beckett.
The way that young man had plastered the truth over the Internet
about the classified government funded project still ruffled his feathers.
Everything the boy had done, every word, every single word placed in
that chat had led up to a point and it was beginning to poke him squarely in
the nose.
Sitting down at his desk, Al turned on his computer
as he sipped at the steaming cup of coffee in his right hand.
Leaning back in his chair, he waited for the computer to warm up then
he peered at his desktop for a long moment before he asked, “Ziggy?”
“Yes, Admiral?” the
parallel-hybrid computer purred back.
“Would you display the spam message
that started all of this nonsense, as well as the transcript of that chat
that was held?”
Without
an audible response, two documents faded in on Admiral Calavicci’s screen.
Transferring his coffee cup to his left hand, he placed his mouse on
the email. He read it again,
this time aloud: “Experienced
lapses in time you can’t explain?”
He paused, sighed, and then continued to read the rest of the message
aloud.
“Have
you had moments of your life pass by without any memories of it?
Have changes in your life occurred without you understanding why?
Have you ever felt like you had an out of time experience?
Have you had persistent dreams of being inside a blue room,
constantly monitored by people you have never met?
If you can answer yes to any of these questions, you are invited to
attend a live chat Sunday night (Jan. 15th) at 8PM EST.
At this time, all members will describe their experiences to the best
of their abilities and we shall all pull together what we have learned to
figure out why this event has occurred to a select number of us.
Is it a form of alien abduction, or is it something else beyond
imagination? It is my hope that
some of you will help fill in the gaps of our memories.
“This message has been sent to various e-mail
addresses all over the country in the hopes of finding others like myself
that have shared a unique experience. Most
of you reading this will probably disregard this message as a joke, but if a
small percentage find that a chord has been struck then this message has
done it’s job. The website
address for Sunday’s chat is at the bottom of the e-mail.
In the meantime, a message board is currently up and running for
those who wish to talk beforehand.”
Al set his coffee cup down, and then he rubbed his
face hard. J. T. had given them
factual explicit answers and all it did was get an assembly of people parked
outside of the project’s perimeter asking – no – demanding to see Dr.
Beckett.
Al used his mouse to minimize the email and looked
at the transcript dated January 15, 2006.
He read through all of it very thoroughly then shook his head and
closed his eyes.
“Admiral, are you okay?”
“Yes, Ziggy.
I’m fine. Fine as I
can be for someone still on a damn string.”
Al knew that he was still under the scrutinizing gaze of General
Hawkins and that didn’t set well with him, either.
Shaking his head to try to rid himself of the anger that quickly set
in with just the thought of the patronizing, egotistical bastard, Al peered
up at the ceiling hoping for some divine aid.
Sighing, he glanced back at the computer screen.
“Has Sam leaped yet?” Al asked.
“No, Admiral, he has not. As soon as he does… you’ll be the first to know.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After being whisked away from his last leap, Doctor
Samuel Beckett needed to escape. It
seemed that every leap was getting tougher and hard-hitting.
He remembered the exchange he had with an enigmatic bartender some
time ago, being told that he was the one leaping himself in Time, but he
just couldn’t make himself believe that - not after what he had learned
that day.
The leaps had become tougher… much tougher for
him, not only mentally but physically as well.
He remembered righting a wrong for Al and knew, deep in his heart,
that it was the right thing to do. He
just wished that he were home.
Even as he felt weightless in the void that held him
over an immeasurable abyss, Sam was not aware of any part of his body.
It was as if he was in a dream; a realm where he could see everything
from a universal scale, but not see anything at all.
It was then that he heard the voice that occasionally talked to him.
“Rest, Dr. Beckett.”
“I want to go home,” he said
softly.
“Not yet. Close
your eyes and rest. The road
ahead is… bumpy and long. Rest.
You will be home soon enough.”
If he could feel his head, Sam would
have bowed it slightly, but still the words came softly, “Oh boy.”
PART
ONE
Hope Springs, Virginia
February 10, 2006
Paige Ilene Arlyss sighed as she walked from her
cherry-red Volkswagen GTO to her house.
She couldn’t believe the day she was having. At ten o’clock in the morning, her boyfriend, Darryl
McDaniel dumped her for no apparent reason and then walked away.
Because her mindset was extremely bewildered from the ordeal with her
now -- ex-boyfriend, she was sure that she failed the Physics test over
Chapter Eight. It was then at
lunch that she found out that Darryl had already asked Phoebe Daniels to be
his girlfriend. By the time she
got to the door of her house, she’d had enough for the day and she just
wanted to snuggle up to the two things that didn’t judge her:
her Siamese kitten, Schrodinger, and her computer.
Opening the door, she heard her mother in the
kitchen singing a country-western song that was playing on the radio. She
sniffed at the air and smiled appreciatively.
Her mother was making fudge. ‘Perfect
comfort food after such a miserable day,’ Paige thought to herself.
“Hi mom,” Paige said as she paused in the doorway of the kitchen.
A tall brunette with emerald eyes turned with a
smile as she looked at her daughter. “Hi
honey. Did you have a good day
at school?”
“If you call getting dumped,
finding that your ex-boyfriend already has another girlfriend by lunch, and
failing a Physics examination a good day… sure,” Paige said with a scowl
as she plopped her backpack on one of the dining room chairs.
“Oh honey!”
Paige shrugged her shoulders and let a smile ease
her anguish. “It’s okay,
mom.”
Dianne Michelle Lane turned to her daughter after
dipping a spoon into the second bowl of fudge she had been making.
“Comfort licks,” she said warmly as she handed Paige the spoon.
“As soon as it’s done, I’ll let you have some fudge, okay?”
Paige grinned at her mother.
“Thanks mom,” then gave the spoon a lick and hummed.
“Anything for you, honey,” Dianne
said as she watched her only child pick up her backpack and head back to her
bedroom; then went back to humming the song on the radio.
Walking into her bedroom, Paige tossed her backpack
onto her bed. Going to her
desk, she bumped the mouse of her computer slightly then watched, as her
monitor seemed to come to life. Animatronics
of a kitten clawing at an envelope at the corner of the screen told her that
she had new e-mail. After
sitting down, she opened her e-mail program.
What she found wasn’t surprising.
Paige found another e-mail from the ever playful, every annoying, but
always-kindhearted Shepherd Jameson.
Paige leaned back in her chair
slightly as she read and licked at the spoon.
PIA,
I
heard about what happened with Darryl.
He’s a hypocritical ass. You
should go out with someone like me. *Hehe* I know… I know… go fly a kite
noodle head, right?
Anyway…
have you thought about the Valentines Day Dance – The Enchantment Under
The Sea? Isn’t that name just
hokey or what? Well… I know
that I’m not the hunkiest guy around, but if you’d like… we could go
together. Wow… I’m corny… asking a girl out on the computer
instead of face-to-face. But
then again, you know me….
Oh
yeah, I forgot to ask you – have you thought about what or who sent that
e-mail / pop-up virus to you? Have
you traced it? The main reason
why I asked about it is because if you can get rid of them as easily as you
do … and you know how computer literate I am… with all those floozies
out there… I just don’t want the little rinky-dink computer I have go
blutzeroo, if you know what I mean.
Well,
sugar lips talk at ya later. Call
me if you need to talk.
Later,
Shep
“The dance?”
Paige rolled her eyes but a grin spread across her features as she
thought about the dance that the school was going to hold.
Darryl had asked her to go with him.
A frown immediately found its way onto her face.
“We’ll talk later about that Shep,” she said softly as she
continued to read. “I’m not in the mood for a dance at the moment.”
As she read about Shepherd’s computer skills, she smirked.
“You are a long way from being any kind of computer literate
person. However, that
virus…”
Paige
minimized her e-mail program then opened yet another to look at the virus
she had received recently. It
was harmless; or at least it seemed to be.
It had no malicious intent to shut down programming; nor did it have
a code to reformat the computer. It
wasn’t a worm capable of replicating itself and eating the memory of her
CPU either. It didn’t even
look as if it was capable of transmitting itself across networks or
bypassing security systems. Even
as Paige studied it, she knew that just the aspect of it sitting on her
computer was enough to pique her curiosity.
|
|
She rapped her fingernails thoughtfully on the desk
as she finished up the rest of the fudge on the spoon.
She stared at the virus application software for a long moment then
turned in her chair to look at the picture of her father, Ira Milam Arlyss,
on the wall. She had only known
him for four years of her life, yet her mother told her often enough that
she was more like her father every day. Paige looked into his eyes.
“So, what do you say, dad? Do
I crack it? Or no?”
A slow smile spread on her face before she answered back, “You’re
right, dad. They shouldn’t
have sent it if they didn’t want me to crack it.”
Turning back to her CPU, Paige flipped open yet
another operating software program and began; her fingers flying over the
keyboard; her mind seemingly to run even faster than her fingers.
She was sure glad that she had the weekend ahead of her.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Doctor Beckett?” the voice
called through the abyss echoing softly as it disturbed his rest.
Even though Doctor Beckett still
could not feel his body, he intently opened his eyes. “Yes?” his voice
was weak and weary.
“It’s time, Doctor Beckett.”
“Time?” He was trying to get his
bearings from being woken from his much-needed rest and relaxation.
“Time to put right what once was wrong,” the
voice reverberated back at him. “Don’t
worry Doctor Beckett. You’ll
know all you need to know.”
Before the green-eyed physicist could
reply, he leaped.
PART
TWO
Hope Springs, Virginia
February 10, 2006
As reality began to materialize around him, he found
himself lying back on a bed, listening to music, which he assumed was on the
airwaves. Sam swallowed as his
stomach made its presence known with a growl.
He forced the idea of food away and tried to concentrate on where and
who he was.
He rubbed at his eyes as he sat up on the bed.
With just a glance around the room, he knew that he had leaped into a
teenage boy. He didn’t know
how many girls had posters up that displayed several bikini-clad super
models around their room.
Shaking his head, Sam stood up and felt his back
pocket. He was relieved when he
found a wallet. Pulling it out,
he looked at the driver’s license. It
belonged to Shepherd Allen Jameson, born January 16, 1988, living at 2613
Maple Avenue, Hope Springs, Virginia.
Sam frowned as he looked at the teen’s driver’s
license. The green eyed, black
haired, tan faced kid staring back at him made him question why he had
leaped into Shepherd Jameson as he heard the telephone ring.
It immediately stopped, letting him know that there
was another person in the house with him; moments later he heard a bellowed
call from somewhere else in the house. “Shepherd! Phone!”
Reaching over to the phone beside the bed, he picked
it up and answered indifferently, “It’s your dime.”
Sam blinked and shook his head wondering why he couldn’t have just
said hello as he heard the click as whoever had answered the phone hung the
extension up.
“Oh Shep, you won’t believe
this!” the voice on the other end of the line was a female and her voice
was bubbling with enthusiasm.
“Uhm… ok… what… wait… who
is this?” Sam stumbled.
“It’s Paige.
I can’t believe this. I’ve
never stumbled across anything like this.
I mean, I knew that they existed, but…” Paige began to ramble.
“Paige?” Sam asked hastily with a
grin.
“Yeah?” she said excitedly.
“Take a deep breath. Slow down.” Sam
heard her take in a slow deep breath, then let it back out. “Now, tell me what you found.”
“Well, you know how you asked about
that e-mail – pop-up virus that I received?”
“Yeah,” Sam said knowing that she
was trying to base things on Shepherd’s prior knowledge even though he
personally had no clue about the virus she was talking about.
“Well, I found more out about it;
not only from the net, but from the program itself.”
Sam frowned. “What’d
you find?”
“Ok. Number
one, about only fifty or so people got this so-called virus.
This one message board I go to... to check out computer viruses and
colds was talking about this virus that they have named Inconspicuous.
However, it was number two that’s got me all hyped up.
You ready?”
“Sure, what?”
“It’s taken me all weekend, but… I’ve found
something complex. I’ve found
a hidden program in this virus!”
“You’re hacking into it?” Sam asked a bit
amazed. Sam had heard of people
who had gained unauthorized access to computer systems for the purpose of
stealing and corrupting the data they found.
It was because of those individuals that he had put so many security
applications and protocols on the parallel hybrid computer.
“That’s illegal,” he said into the receiver as the Imaging
Chamber door opened a few feet before him.
Admiral Albert Calavicci stepped out of the Imaging
Chamber door dressed in a comparatively easy on the eye outfit.
He wore black khakis, a dark blue buttoned up shirt and a black tie.
He waved at Sam as he held up the handlink to get the data Sam would
need for the leap. “What’s
illegal?”
Paige sighed on her end of the phone.
“Not really. I’m not out there trying to steal anything from anyone.
I just want to see what this hidden program does.
That’s all. And if
they didn’t want it to happen, then they shouldn’t have sent it to me.
Just listen, Shepherd. There
are hidden programs in everything. Most
hidden programs are in your computer for a reason – you know so that you
will not accidentally corrupt them or delete them.
Well, you can do the same thing in any manmade file.
It makes it invisible to the simple-minded people who don’t have
the knack of reading or writing programs.
Well, these hidden programs can be accessed by passwords. They call
the programs hard-parameter programs. They
have one way in and one way out. It’s
absolute. You with me so far?”
“Yes…”
“Well, this one like I said is more elaborate.
This one has soft parameters. Now
remember, hard means… unless you have the password, you won’t get in.
Soft parameters mean that in order to gain access; you have to
contribute to the program. In
other words, you share your knowledge with the program.
You feed the data every step of the way.
So, if you don’t feed it the right data, your entrance is
rejected.”
“Sam, what’s illegal?” Al asked as he looked
at his friend who was still on the phone.
Sam raised his index finger asking for a moment.
Al nodded.
“Okay, so you can’t guess your way in.
Good.” Sam then put
his hand over the receiver then said softly to Al, “Computer hacking.”
“Ahhh… Crackers… lovely beings
on the planet,” Al supplied.
“Right,”
Paige said still thrilled even though a thought of not getting in bugged
her. “The designer was no
dummy. You know what, Shep?”
“What?” Sam asked a bit hesitantly.
“I’m gonna break this one.
I’m gonna do it. I’m…”
Paige broke her sentence when she heard someone pick
up an extension. “Paige?
I’m sorry to break into your conversation honey, but I need to use
the phone. I need to talk to
your stepfather.”
“Okay mom,” Paige said plainly.
“Talk to you later, Shep. I’ll
let you know what I find.”
“Okay,” Sam said with a frown.
“Bye Paige.” Hanging up the phone, he looked up at Al a bit expectantly.
“So, what’s going on, Al? Why
did I leap in as Shepherd Allen Jameson?”
“Oh good. You’ve
already started to piece the puzzle,” Al began.
“If you haven’t seen it already, Al, I’m in a
colossal puzzle and all I’ve found is the corner piece!
Give me something. Why am I here?”
“Gees, Sam. You’re
testy. Have you had your
Wheaties this morning?” Al tried to decrease his friend’s mood but from
the gaze that Sam shot at him for his efforts, Al knew that Sam wasn’t
going to lighten up much more. “All
right. All right.
You already know who you are. You
have leaped into…”
“Hope Springs, Virginia.”
Al looked up from the handlink as he waved his hand
in the air whimsically. “Seems
to me you have more than one piece of the puzzle, Sam.”
Sam grimaced as he rolled his eyes.
“Do you have anything on Shepherd?”
Al smacked the side of the handlink as the words
hung for a moment. “Well, uh,
no. As far as Ziggy can see,
there hasn’t been anything that happens to Shepherd or his family.” Al paused then faced the scowl on the leaper.
Even as Al took a step toward Sam, Al asked, “Who was on the phone?
Maybe that’s why you’re here.”
“That was Paige.
Paige what – I don’t know. She
didn’t give her last name.”
“That’s enough for Ziggy to get a good rundown
on the people of Hope Springs, Virginia.
That shouldn’t take too long.”
Al entered the data into the handlink then looked approvingly at the
posters on the wall. “Thank
God for women, huh, Sam?”
“That’s degrading,” Sam
supplied protectively but his eyes drifted over to one of the posters and he
blushed as his gaze lingered.
The bleep of the handlink brought Al’s eyes back
to the link in his hand. “Aha!
Paige Ilene Arlyss was whom you were talking to on the phone.
She’s seventeen, the same age as you… er… Shepherd is and oh…
she’s a computer whiz. And
well…”
“And…?” Sam queried back as he
narrowed his eyes.
Al cleared his throat and pulled up the Imaging
Chamber door as the handlink let out another definitive beep that Al had
recently come to know as more trouble coming his way. “I’ve got something that I need to check on.
I’ll be back.”
“Al…”
“I’ll be back,” Al assured him,
and stepped back into Project Quantum Leap.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Project Quantum Leap
Stallion’s Gate, New Mexico
Al couldn’t believe what he had read on the
handlink and rushed back to see just why Ziggy was spewing gobbledygook.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Al demanded as he waved the
handlink in the air. “Ziggy,
tell me what’s going on! Why
can’t we give Sam any data on this leap?”
“I can not give data that I have
not received yet, Admiral.”
“What?”
“Just that. I
can not predict the future.”
“Dominic, did you give her some new
program that mimics L.S.D. or something?”
A comical look came over Dominic’s
face but quickly faded as Ziggy’s next words floored them all.
“Dr. Beckett has leaped into Hope Springs,
Virginia into the aura of Shepherd Jameson on February 10, 2006.
The only reason why I can not give any data is because it’s
currently happening.”
“Oh my God,” Al said with a shocked expression
on his face. “Okay, then,
Ziggy – give me your best guess.”
“I could deduce that Dr. Beckett is
there for Paige Ilene Arlyss, but I can not say for certain why he would be
there.”
Al nodded at the parallel-hybrid computer’s words.
“All right, then, give me everything you’ve got on Paige Arlyss.
Perhaps some logical sense will prevail here.” Al glanced around the room as people scattered.
For several long moments, Al paced the room, his
mind going ninety to nothing. His
right hand came up to rub at his stubbly chin and he pursed his lips in
wonder. “Is there…” Al
paused for a moment then glanced up at the blue sparkling orb of lightning
above him. “Is there any way
that the retrieval program could work since he’s in the present?
What are the odds on that Ziggy?”
“If Doctor Beckett hadn’t used
the other accelerator in Dr. Garner’s lab, there could be a high
probability.”
“What is it now?
Should we try?”
“Using the retrieval program as it
is, now, Admiral, there is only a twenty percent chance of it working
correctly without harming the doctor.”
“Damn. Okay,
Ziggy, let’s get this ball going. Give
me all you can and we…”
“Oh my…” Ziggy’s sensors
warmed in the orb above Al as her voice rose in surprise.
“What?” Al
asked.
“Paige Ilene Arlyss is the daughter of Dianne
Michelle and Ira Milam Arlyss. Ira
Arlyss died in an automobile accident in 1994.
Though the police found that his brakes had been meddled with, they
could not find any evidence to pin Dianne Arlyss with the murder of her
husband. Mrs. Arlyss even hired
a hypnotist and went under Sodium Pentothal to convince everyone involved
that she did not have anything to do with her husband’s demise.
Dianne Arlyss then married Isaac Dennis Lane, five years later.”
For a long moment, Al frowned wondering how the
information had anything to really do with the leap. It didn’t seem to mean anything.
As the frown furrowed his brow, he was surprised at what he heard
next.
“Oh my,” Ziggy said again, her voice pitching
even more curiously, causing everyone in Central Control to stop and look up
at the spherical orb that shimmered methodically.
“What is it, Ziggy?” Al asked
warily.
“Isaac
Lane has recently signed a contract with General Hawkins.
He is currently working with him in an anti-terrorist project called
Project Liberty.”
Al
looked up at the parallel-hybrid computer, inwardly rolled his eyes and took
in a deep breath as he tried to push down the anger that wanted to overtake
him. ‘That monkey butt,’ he thought to himself as he glanced at the
Imaging Chamber door. ‘He’s
working on an anti-terrorist project? Hell,
he’s a terror himself.’
Al
looked up at the electrifying blue orb above him and shook his head.
Something about what Ziggy had said was eating at him and it didn’t
have anything to do with General Hawkins.
Licking his lips, he tilted his head slightly then asked, “Ziggy,
what’s with the ‘Oh my’ responses this evening.
Is there a problem?”
“I do not know, Admiral Calavicci. I shall run a
diagnostic and see if there is a problem.
Thank you for pointing it out.”
Al frowned; questioning what exactly was going on.
Now, the ego-bound computer was being terribly polite about running a
diagnostic. Something again was up and he knew it. “Your welcome, Zig. Listen,
just check it out and let Dominic know what’s going on.”
Shaking his head, Al then looked over at Dominic.
“Get the link back up. I’ve
got to talk with Sam.”
“You can’t, Admiral Calavicci,”
the computer purred back to the Admiral.
“And why not?”
“Dr. Beckett has leaped.”
“He
leaped!? What the…” Al’s
questioning quickly faded as he turned, his head angling up at the sphere
once again.
PART
THREE
Hope Springs, Virginia
February 11, 2006
Paige looked at the screen as she leaned back in her
chair. She wasn’t any further
along than she had been when she called Shep.
“Augh,” she rumbled lowly in her throat as she tilted her head up
to the ceiling hoping for divine assistance.
The
thing that was stumping her was the question from the virus itself that was
on the screen:
Who
has many experiences in their travels and
yet
takes time for the prosperity of others?
She
tried various answers just that sparked off the top of her head: Captain
James T. Kirk and Spock of Star Trek; Thomas Magnum of Magnum PI; Michael
Knight of Knight Rider; and Angus MacGyver in MacGyver; any of the team in
Stargate SG1; the new handsome Captain Jonathan Archer from the new Star
Trek: Enterprise, then went to more real life individuals; the Pope; Mother
Theresa; police officers; investigators; policemen and women; lawyers;
priests; teachers; and as her shoulders sagged, she thought of the hero next
door who moved in from Alabama and rescued her dog from being hit by a car
over a month ago.
“Great.
This is going to take forever. Dammit,”
she mumbled, then in frustration, she got up from her desk and walked away
from it. She had been sitting staring at the screen for so long that
her butt was beginning to hurt and she felt as if her brain was going to
start to melt from the strain of thinking.
As
she walked into the kitchen in search for something to drink and a snack,
she went to the pantry and glanced around.
Nothing caught her eye. “Isn’t
that the case?” she whispered. “When you’re somewhat hungry, you never
find exactly what you are searching for.”
It was in that moment that she slumped her shoulders and her hand
came up to her head in an abrupt epiphany.
“You moron!” she exclaimed as she shut the pantry and opened the
refrigerator to get a drink.
She
rushed back to her room with the cola in her hands and quickly opened her
Internet browser. She typed in
the whole phrase into the Yahoo search engine and, crossing her fingers,
pressed the enter key.
Forty-three
thousand, four hundred results came back on her screen and she began with
the first one, reading through each title that came up.
It was better than sitting there wracking her brain as she tried to
think of the answer.
As
Paige scrolled through the pages the titles seemed far-fetched and
completely random in nature. Some
of them that popped up in the search engine were titled:
Scrappleface: Rumsfeld’s Sorry for ‘Axis
of Weasel Remark’
Useful Tools
Chronology of the History of Slavery 1619 to
1789
The Nature of Time in Economics
Wisdom of Time
A Brief of History of Time: Revisited
Chapter 1: The Law of Time and Chaos
Time: Albert Einstein – Nobel Prize in
Physics 1921
It
was after she had scrolled through a few thousand entries, she propped her
head in her hands as she read through the titles.
Two hours later, she came across an interesting post from a message
board. As she read it, she was
unaware that she was reading parts of it aloud.
“Have
you ever felt like you had an out of time experience?” Paige paused then
uttered painfully, “Ohh brother.” Yet
she continued to read, “Is it a form of alien abduction, or is it
something else beyond imagination?” Paige
frowned but curiosity won out and she then went ahead and read the chatroom
discussion that was held on January 15, 2006.
By the time she finished reading it, she hummed.
“Wild. Some people and their affection with time travel just
really…”
She
stopped in the middle of her rambling thought and for a moment sat back and
thought about the implied and detailed meanings in the chat she had read. Minimizing the Internet browser, she looked back at the
question and the cursor waiting for her answer.
She typed in a name on the keyboard -- her answer being one man’s
name: Sam Beckett.
Balling her fists, she hesitated, then finally pressed the enter
button.
The
computer screen went utterly black, faded to a sparkling blue-white hue, and
then suddenly it turned a brilliant blood red then went black once more. In the middle of her screen it said:
Identify
yourself.
Paige
wasn’t quite sure about identifying herself to the program for fear of
retribution, but she plunged ahead and entered only her first name.
Without pause another question popped up:
Why
are you interested in Sam Beckett?
Paige
bit at her bottom lip as she typed in:
I am interested in Sam Beckett to find out why he has assisted so
many people in his travels.
It
was then that her computer seemed to have a personality of its own as it
split the one virus program she had been working on into two.
She blinked at the screen, mesmerized.
Her screen was divided in half from top to bottom.
At the top of the screen, there was a request.
At the bottom there was a question.
She
decided to try out the top first. It
began asking her questions about Sam Beckett – questions that had some of
the answers from the chat that she had read then others… others were more
unambiguous and she couldn’t respond to them.
When she couldn’t respond to it anymore, the program replied with
‘Nicely done,’ then went blank.
The
bottom however began to spew out questions that were odd.
When the program asked, ‘Do gray cats have claws?’ Paige
answered ‘yes’. Immediately
another question scrolled itself across the screen:
‘How wide is the Mississippi River?’
When she put in the answer that she had to look up, the monitor then
scrolled another: ‘How
many seeds are in a watermelon?’
Although
the questions bewildered her and had nothing to do with the program itself,
she understood what the programmer of the software had done.
He had made the virus a heavily coded program –for his or her own
reasons.
Paige
knew she was close but even as she pulled away from the computer once again,
she knew she was a good step away from being able to get into the program
itself. She just needed more
information about this Beckett person.
Someone had to know answers. She
just needed to dig deeper.
PART
FOUR
Stallions
Gate, New Mexico
Project
Quantum Leap
February
11, 2006
Al
was pacing like an expectant father. He
couldn’t believe that Sam had leaped and he also didn’t understand why
Ziggy couldn’t find him. He
hadn’t done anything, had he? Al’s
mind raced. Even if Sam had
done something, there was no history to base anything on.
Being in the present was not helping matters one bit.
“Have you found him yet, Ziggy?”
“I’m
refining my search right now, Admiral,” Ziggy replied promptly.
A moment later as Al had passed by the mainframe of the hybrid
computer, Ziggy purred, “I have a lock.”
“Oh,
thank God!” Al exclaimed. “Let’s
get that door opened so that I can talk to Sam and find out what’s going
on!”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hope
Springs, Virginia
February
11, 2006
Sam
blinked his eyes and shook his head slightly to try to regain his senses
about him. He didn’t
understand why he had leaped already and he blinked as he realized that he
remembered his previous leap.
He
quickly looked about him to find out that he was in an office, sitting
behind a computer. Looking
carefully at the computer screen, Sam wondered if he had leaped into Paige
Arlyss. Seeing data spewed across the screen, he sighed as he glanced
down at his attire to see that he was wearing a police uniform.
Swallowing, he checked his badge to read:
Officer McPhearson. “Oh
boy,” Sam simpered. The name
seemed familiar to him, but he quickly dismissed it and glanced back at the
computer before him to decipher what was on it.
He
heard someone clear his or her throat and he turned to see an older
gentleman who was leaning against the doorframe; a warm smile on his face. “Lorraine? Why
don’t you come with your old man and we’ll go get some dinner?”
The
man’s face seemed familiar to Sam and as he blinked, Sam remembered him
from a previous leap.
“Hi Sheriff,” Sam had responded
while nodding his head towards the little girl.
“Almost don’t recognize her, do ya, Brad?” the
sheriff smiled. “My little
Lorraine is growing up quick.”
The young girl shuffled, clearly
embarrassed by the attention, causing Sam to smile.
“Almost reminds me,” the sheriff went on,
“have you considered my suggestion of applying to the police academy?
Since you quit your job at the prison and all, I figure you could get
certified and work for me.”
“I’ll think about it,” was all
Sam could say.
“Good.” The
sheriff started to lead the girl forward.
“Well, I gotta run. Promised
Lorraine she would spend her allowance at the music store.
Wants to buy something called Wham!
Lord knows what the hell that is.”
Sam
grinned at the man and shook his head.
“Okay, Dad. Let me
save this document then, we can go. Okay?”
It
was in that moment that the phone rang.
Sam immediately leaned over and picked it up and answered, “Officer
Lorraine McPhearson speaking. May
I help you?”
“Officer
McPhearson, it’s good to hear your voice.
Sergeant Bennings, here. Listen,
Lorraine, I’m going to be coming into Hope Springs for a few days. I want
to check out a few things that I had heard about through the grape vine. Will that be a problem?”
“I
don’t see why it should, Sergeant,” Sam replied respectfully.
“Ohhh
formal, aren’t we?” he asked. “You
know after thirty years of knowing each other, Lorraine, at least you could
call me by my name.”
Sam
smiled at the man he was talking to on the phone.
“Can’t help it, sir. It’s
one of those things that was drilled into me.”
“Well,
when I get there, I expect you to call me Brad.
Understood?”
“Is
that an order?” Sam countered.
“Yes,
Officer McPhearson, that is an order.”
“Yes,
sir… er… Brad.”
“Oh,
is that Brad Bennings?” the older McPhearson asked.
Sam nodded as he glanced over at Lorraine’s father.
“Let me talk to him, please.”
“Brad,
Dad wants to talk with you. Hold
on.”
As
Sam handed the phone over to the man, he heard the Imaging Chamber door open
to the right of him and saw Al come out of the door looking concerned.
Before he had a chance to say hello, Al was already questioning him.
“You
leaped! We don’t know what
you changed. What did you do
after I left you?”
Sam
stepped around the doorframe to get a little privacy from the conversation
on the telephone and looked at his holographic pal.
“I didn’t do anything, Al. Nothing.”
“If
you didn’t do anything, then why did you leap?” Al questioned back to
him.
“I
don’t know, but, look, Al. I’ve
leaped into Lorraine McPhearson. Remember
her? She was the little girl who was being held at the Memorial
Day Festival when I leaped into Brad Bennings.
It seems that things aren’t done here in Hope Springs, yet.”
“What?”
Al asked. “You’re still in
Hope Springs?”
“Yes,” Sam said pleasantly surprised.
“So why did I leap into Lorraine?”
“Hell
if I know,” Al said as he held up the handlink.
“I
remember her. She was so scared
that day she was held captive,” Sam said as his eyes shifted to the right
as he thought about that day on the stage.
“She
vowed that she would never again be helpless to defend herself or others,”
Al said simply. “Makes sense
that she became a cop.”
Sam
looked at Al pensively. “Al,
what’s going on? Why doesn’t Ziggy have any data for me?”
Al
brought his hand up to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Everything that he had just heard from Ziggy had only given him an
instant headache and Sam’s concerned tone of his questions only aggravated
it more.
“Look,
Sam,” Al said as he brought his hand down and let his arm swing loosely at
his side. “You remember…”
Al began then paused and sighed, as he knew that the likelihood of Sam
remembering what he had told him about General Hawkins was very low.
“General Hawkins came to the project under presidential orders to
take over when your nephew, J. T. went online and told everything that he
knew to the people there about Project Quantum Leap.”
There was a dawning look on Sam’s face and Sam shook his finger
somewhat knowingly at Al. “You
remember?”
“I…
I remember vaguely.”
“Well,
that man’s audacity makes me think that he had balls of brass,” Al said
heatedly.
Sam
tilted his head quizzically at Al’s words.
“What’s happened, Al?”
“From
what Ziggy just told me, General Hawkins has opened another project.”
“What?”
Sam asked in disbelief.
Al
nodded his head appropriately at Sam’s shocked response.
“You heard me.” Al
pocketed the handlink then threw his hands up in the air and let them flop
back down to his sides. “I’m
not quite sure what to make of it. Ziggy
said that it dealt with anti-terrorism.
What a riot -- a maniac dealing with the maniacs!
Talk about redundant.”
Sam
began to pace again for a moment as Al raved.
“Did Ziggy say what the project would entail?
Will it affect us at all?”
Al
frowned and screwed up his mouth. “Well,
that’s the problem, Sam. We
don’t know.”
“What
do you mean ‘we don’t know’?” Sam’s
brow wrinkled with a frown.
“What
I mean is exactly that.” Al
paused then finally met Sam’s eyes.
Wishing that he had a cigar, Al licked his lips, paused for a brief
moment, and then said, “Sam, you’re in the present.
We can’t tell you what’s happened because it hasn’t happened
yet.”
Sam
blinked amazed at Al’s words as he leaned back against the desk. He was home. The
whole ordeal of trying to get back to his own time had finally been
accomplished, however, he wasn’t himself.
Sam brought his hand up to his face, rubbing his right cheek before
looking expectantly at Al.
At
that moment, the handlink rang out in Al’s pocket.
He fished it out and looked down at it, then hit the button to
activate Ziggy’s hologram. “What’s
up, Ziggy?”
Ziggy
turned her attention to Sam. “I
have been monitoring your conversation with Admiral Calavicci. I must substantiate what the Admiral has told you, Doctor
Beckett. Present time is in
flux because the present is still in motion as opposed to the past in which
all scenarios have played out; therefore, present data cannot be
interpolated.”
Sam
nodded his head at Ziggy’s words, knowing that what she said was true. “I know, Ziggy. I know.”
Sam
looked up at the handlink in time to see Ziggy’s holographic image falter
before she frowned. “I
apologize, Doctor. I shall take
your leave.”
Sam
frowned at the holographic image of the parallel-hybrid computer as she
bowed her head then disappeared. “Take
your leave?” Sam questioned, as he looked up at Al to see him pop the side
of the handlink with his hand then shrug and stick the handlink back in his
pocket.
Al
saw the look that Sam gave him and grinned.
“Ziggy seems to be having some… uh… problems at the moment.
It seems that her highness is having politeness issues.”
“Politeness
issues?” Sam asked with a
slight grin.
“Hey,
we’re used to the uppity ego, not Mary Poppins, okay?”
“Well,
I guess that’s the one thing that seems to be the same problem in both
areas.”
“What?”
“Paige,”
Sam said then saw the look on the observer’s face.
“She’s working on her computer trying to hack into a virus.
Remember?”
“You
know, Sam, I was thinking about that earlier. Some Crackers aren’t very
careful and they get caught.”
“Crackers?”
Sam asked.
“Yeah,”
Al said as he bobbed up on his toes. “Computer
hackers prefer to be called Crackers because they ‘crack’ the code and
the name also gets rid of the criminal connotation of their actions being
illegal. But I was thinking
that maybe you should go over to her house and see exactly what she’s
doing. She shouldn’t be messing around with those things
anyway.”
Al
brought his hands up to his head and massaged at his temples with his eyes
closed; his head beginning to pound.
“You
know, Al, I don’t…”
When
Al didn’t hear Sam’s voice for a moment, Al opened his eyes and dropped
his hands to his side as he saw the blue walls of the Imaging Chamber around
him. “Ziggy?”
“Yes
Admiral?”
“Get
the lock back. I was talking to
Sam.”
“I
cannot, Admiral. Dr. Beckett
has leaped.”
Al
rolled his eyes, slumped his shoulders in exhaustion and sighed before he
exited the Imaging Chamber. These
mini leaps were driving him nuts. How
were they helping? Or were
they? But no matter how much Sam’s leaps were beginning to drive
him insane, Al knew that Sam had asked the right question and Al was
irritated that he didn’t have the answer.
The
moment that Al stepped back into the Control Center, he glanced at each one
of the personnel in turn. The
idea of General Hawkins having a time travel project raised the hair on the
back of his neck and he had no idea how it would affect Quantum Leap or the
people involved.
Al
walked through the Control Room and placed the handlink on Ziggy’s
mainframe and glanced at Dominic, who averted his gaze elsewhere as he
passed. “I want to know exactly when we get another lock on Sam,
Dom. Use that epoch…
epochtonsu… that thingy-ma-bob to watch his blood pressure.
I’ve got to go check on something.
If his pulse raises for any reason, I want to know about it, got
me?”
“Yes
sir,” Dom replied as he watched Al walk through the Control Room and head
toward his office.
Dominic
paused and placed his hand on his forehead as he glanced back down at the
mainframe before him. He hated
it that he had basically sold his soul to General Hawkins. But
what else could he have done? The
man had him literally by the balls. Even
as he set Ziggy in looking for Dr. Beckett in Time, Don remembered the
conversation he had had with General Hawkins not so long ago.
The
General nodded at Dominic’s classification of what the parallel hybrid
computer could do. “In order
for my new project to work, it has become clear that I need a system of
Ziggy’s caliber to make it operate.”
“You
need me to create a system like Ziggy for you?”
“Not
quite,” Hawkins responded. “I
need Ziggy.”
Eyes
wide open, Dom shot to his feet. “You
can’t have her, sir. She is
tied in too directly to this project. Removing
her will end it, and trap Dr. Beckett in time.
Arrest me, or do what you will, but I will not disconnect Ziggy and
hand her over to you.”
“Sit
down!” Hawkins bellowed. “I
did not say anything about taking Ziggy away from here.
I said I need Ziggy to run my project.
I need you to create a copy for me.”
“Create
a copy? It’s not like I just
save a file, put it on disc and let you install it.
There are so many algorithms and subroutines. It’s impossible!”
Hawkins
slammed his fist on the desk. “It’s
not impossible. You just
admitted that you are at the same level as Gushman.
You will find a way. I
want a working replica of Ziggy as fast as you can get it to me, one without
the Streisand ego preferably.”
Dom
folded his arms. “What makes
you think I’ll do this to help you?”
Anger
began to bubble at the general’s forehead. “Working at this project
makes me think this way. This
project has fallen under Presidential authority, so in turn working here
makes you an employee of the United States government.
Making a copy for me is a direct order.”
“I
still refuse. Besides, Ziggy
will not allow this. She’ll
tell Admiral Calavicci at the first chance she gets.”
“You
forget, Mr. Lofton.” Hawkins
pointed to one of his computers. “You
designed this for me as a direct link to Ziggy.”
“Only
to monitor and communicate, nothing else.”
“And
so you did, Mr. Lofton. But I
went beyond your work. Last
month when those people that Dr. Beckett had once leaped into arrived, I had
a team of computer technicians with me to analyze the computer that young
David Watkins put together. With
the help of those technicians and the unwitting help of Mr. Watkins, I am
now able to launch commands and directives directly into Ziggy that she is
forced to comply with. If
anyone asks Ziggy about this, she will of course deny this.”
“You’ve
programmed her to lie,” accused Dom, his eyes suspiciously searched the
General’s eyes. ‘Why had he
done that?’
“To
suit my purposes, yes. By the
way, do not make any attempts to disconnect my system.
Removing it will cause a system breakdown and destroy Ziggy.
Dr. Beckett will remain trapped in time.
So help me with my project or I pull the plug.”
“You
sick bastard,” Dominic said, his anger flashing in his eyes.
“It’s
your choice, Mr. Lofton. Unless…”
“Unless
what?” Dom was afraid where this was going.
“Unless
you help me. I understand that
part of your salary goes to your relatives to help them make ends meet.
Be a pity if that money was cut off because you were part of a
conspiracy.”
Dom’s
shoulders slumped and he knew he was caught in a web that he didn’t want
to be a part of. Shaking his
head, he finally met the General’s condescending gaze.
“Fine. I’ll do what
you want. I’ll write a
version of the Ziggy program for you as you ordered.
Just don’t tell anyone I am doing this, please.”
“Not
to worry, Mr. Lofton. My lips
are sealed. As are Ziggy’s.
As long as no one tells Admiral Calavicci or anyone else associated
here about your association with my project, no one will ever know.
I don’t think the Admiral would support what I am doing.”
“You’re
damn right, he wouldn’t,” Dominic said aloud as he thumped the back of
his hand on the mainframe.
“I
have a lock,” Ziggy’s silky-smooth voice replied.
“Thank
you, Ziggy,” Dom answered. “Set
the lock and don’t let go of it.”
PART
FIVE
Hope
Springs, Virginia
February
12, 2006
Sam
blinked and shook his head for a moment as he glanced around. He was in a
kitchen and he found himself actually bent over peering into the
refrigerator when he felt a hand slap his butt rather hard.
Letting out a yelp, he stood up and turned to see a lovely brunette
with emerald eyes looking at him seductively.
Slinking up to him, the woman slid her arms around his neck and gave
him a kiss that should have curled his toes.
“So,
are we going to do some… role-playing tonight, Isaac?” she whispered as
she moved to place a small kiss below his earlobe.
“Uhm…
I… oh boy.”
“Oh
boy?” she questioned as she leaned back to look up into his eyes before
she kissed him on the mouth again, deeper this time.
“And all this time, I thought we were shooting for a girl.
You know, if you want a boy, we don’t have to try all those
interesting positions anymore….”
Sam
never even heard the Imaging Chamber door open and close but Al had heard
enough of the woman’s last sentence to catch on and just from the look on
her face he couldn’t help himself. “Oh
no, Sam!” Al interrupted the woman who seemed to be pouting somewhat.
“You can’t stop those interesting positions. You just… can’t… because… well, look at those
eyes…. You’ll upset her.”
“Uhm,
honey, we’ll have to see about that role-playing.
I mean…”
“You
brought work home again, didn’t you?” she asked before pulling away from
him.
“Ahhh
Sam, look at what you did! You
spoiled the mood! You never
spoil the mood! I tell you if
Beth was like that and I spoiled the mood, she’d whip me with a wet
noodle. Ooo… now… there’s something that we haven’t tried
yet.”
Sam
rolled his eyes at Al’s words but lightly grabbed onto the woman’s arm. “Honey…”
“It’s
okay, Isaac. Tomorrow is really
the best day anyway in my cycle. So,
you do what you need to do. You
may want to go up to talk to Paige. She’s
still working on that computer virus. Remember,
the one that she asked you to talk to your boss about?
Oh… what did he say?”
“To
bring her up to the building to talk about it,” Sam automatically replied,
then blinked at the immediate response. He was surprised at how quickly he
had responded, but somewhere in the back of his mind, knew that that was the
right answer to give.
“Wait…
wait a minute. Paige is your
daughter?” Al questioned then quickly pulled up the handlink and ran the
data through Ziggy’s processor. “Sam!
You’ve leaped into Isaac Lane,” Al said a bit excitedly.
“You’ve leaped into the Head of Security at Hawkins new project.
We have access. Just…
don’t leap out. Okay? Keep it. Don’t
leap out,” Al began to chant.
“So,
when are you going to take her to the site?”
Al
quit chanting for a moment as he glanced down at the handlink.
“Oh… and her name is Dianne Lane.”
“Tomorrow,
Dianne, but…” Sam said as he slid his arms around her body and lightly
kissed the top of her nose, “if you’ll promise to keep the bed warm,
I’ll be there as soon as I can tonight after I talk with Paige.”
Dianne’s
smile brightened then faltered. “I
thought you had work to do…”
“It
can wait.”
“Sam!
You dog!”
Dianne
smiled as she perked up on her tiptoes and planted yet another kiss on her
husband then caressed his cheek. “You
know, if you met me in the shower… I wouldn’t mind.”
A
small smile crept up onto Sam’s face and he blinked at her as he felt
Isaac Lane’s love for his wife fill him so completely.
“You know, I could talk to Paige afterwards….”
“Oh?”
Dianne said as she licked her lips and lightly pulled on his arm.
“If you want to then, by all means….”
Sam
began to let Dianne pull him after her and he licked his lips as he let his
eyes roam over her body.
“Sam!”
Al’s
retort made Sam blink and he glanced over at Al then back at Dianne. “I better talk with Paige, first, ya know…”
Dianne
smiled at her husband. “You
are such a good step-father, Isaac. Between that and the way that you love
me… how could I go wrong?” Caressing
his face once more, she turned, grabbed her wine glass then headed up the
stairs toward their bedroom.
“How
could you, Sam? I mean, I
would, but you’re the Boy Scout! How
could you say that you were going to go up there and… and…”
Sam
gave him a look that told Al that he didn’t know what he was talking
about.
“You
basically said that you’d join her up in the shower, Sam,” Al exclaimed
exasperatedly.
Sam
seemingly ignored the holographic image and started up the stairs.
“Sam!
Where are you going?”
“I’m
going to talk to Paige. Where
did you… Al! Get your mind
out of the gutter!” Al opened
his mouth and floundered as Sam watched him.
“Are you going to follow me up there?”
Licking
his lips, Al shrugged and started after Sam.
Standing
in the doorframe of the room, Sam looked at the way the huge room was set
up. It had an office nook as
well as a bed nook; and her room was a complete disaster.
It looked as if she had been tossing things around her room, leaving
only enough floor space to pace back and forth in.
Al
shook his head in dismay. “Eww…
what a mess.”
Pursing
his lips, Sam said, “Ohh… look, you do have a floor.
I was starting to wonder.”
“Ohh
ha ha, Dad!” Paige said sarcastically as she turned to him.
“For the past two days, I’ve been working on this virus and when
I work like this so consistently, I tend to be a slob – you know that.
Sorry for the mess. Just…
push it to the side.” Moving
through the mess, Paige pulled up a chair to the desk beside her and
motioned to it. “Okay, have a seat and you can see what I’m researching
now to help me out with this.”
“Research?
What are you researching?”
“Who,”
she corrected.
“What?”
Sam questioned as he watched the beveled screen saver on her computer
monitor change from blue to green then yellow.
“I’m
researching someone… not something,” she said as she sat down at her
desk and reached for her mouse. “And
you won’t believe this. You
won’t believe what this is all about.”
“What?”
Sam asked as he leaned forward to look at the screen.
“Time
travel.”
Sam’s
face paled as she turned toward her computer screen and she placed her hand
on her mouse. The screen faded
to show a picture of himself on the cover of Time Magazine; the title
reading: Sam Beckett: The Next Einstein.
Sam watched as she scrolled through a page seeing information listed
about himself as she read parts of it aloud.
“This
guy, Sam Beckett, no relation to the playwright, is one interesting
character. He’s a Quantum
Physicist who has an impressive background.
I mean, listen to this: at
the age of two, he could read and could do advanced calculus in his head at
age five. He went to college at
MIT, finished early, has a photographic memory, has earned six doctorates
– some of them in Music, Medicine, Quantum Physics, Archaeology and
Ancient Languages and get this-- he’s won the Nobel Prize and knows
Martial Arts.”
“Why
is she researching you, Sam?” Al
asked as he peered at the site that she was looking at.
Sam
shook his head slowly in response. He then pointed to the monitor and after
licking at his dry lips, he said, “Why do you want to know about that guy? What made you research him?”
“Oh…
let me find it,” Paige said as she minimized the screen and pulled up
another Internet browser page that showed a site that had a message.
The title was: “Experienced
lapses in time you can’t explain?”
Al
shook his head and sighed. “Oh
dammit. She was reading the
chat that J. T. talked to everyone about.”
“This
site gave me some more answers to help me with the virus program.
This virus application has soft parameters.
See, Dad, look at this.”
Minimizing
all of the browsers, she clicked on one program that was running at the
bottom of her screen. “This
is the program,” she said as she turned her head to Sam.
Excitement filled her eyes and she opened it. The question once again appeared on her screen:
Who
has many experiences in their travels and
yet
takes time for the prosperity of others?
“For
the longest time, I had no idea who to put down until I found that chat
located on the net. I inputted
a name… Sam Beckett. Watch
what happens.” She typed in
the name and hit the enter key then looked at her father to see his jaw
slack in awe.
The
screen faded to black, faded to a blue-white sparkling hue then changed to a
brilliant blood red before it faded to black once more with the writing in
the midst of her screen:
Identify
yourself.
She
identified herself quickly with this time just her nickname.
Why
are you interested in Sam Beckett?
Paige
said it as she typed it in this time: “I
am interested in Sam Beckett to find out why he has assisted so many people
in his travels.”
Sam
watched as the computer split the virus program in half; the screen divided;
one part requesting information and the other a question.
“See…
this is where I get stumped. I
don’t know all the answers, but… oh… did you talk to your boss about
this virus?”
“Ohh
no,” Al said plainly. “No…
please, don’t tell me you talked to Hawkins about this program.
Please don’t tell me that Isaac did that.”
“I
did,” Sam said softly. “He
wants to see you tomorrow.”
“You
can’t take her Sam. You
can’t take her.”
“He
said that he was very interested in this… as I am,” Sam replied as he
slipped out of control of what was being said yet again.
“I
bet he is,” Al said quietly as he put his hand to his head.
“Do…
do you think that I might have stumbled across something… special, Dad? I mean… wow! I
can’t wait until tomorrow!”
Sam
didn’t know what to say to her as she rambled on about the program, but
when she slid her arms around his neck in an excited hug, Sam looked to Al
for help. Al didn’t seem to
have any assistance and shrugged his shoulders with a shake of his head.
“Have…
have you told anyone else about this?” Sam questioned in her hold.
Paige
leaned back from him. “Yes
sir, I told Shepherd, but he doesn’t know much about computers.
He… he’s just a guy who wants to take me to the Enchantment Under
The Sea Dance.”
“Okay.
Let’s leave this alone until we know more about it,” he told her
then glanced back at the computer screen as she came back into the circle of
his arms.
While
in her embrace, Sam turned his head toward the monitor to see the question
up on the screen – a question that had been taunting him since he had
talked with the enigmatic bartender:
Where
would Sam Beckett most likely want to go?
To
Be Continued…