Chapter 21

At the end of the day Mike emerged from the facility with her briefcase and a headache. Dr. Moffett was the most conceded, arrogant and difficult man she ever encountered. She met up with Dom and Sinjin in a rented car.

Dom sat behind the wheel and asked, "How did it go?"

She climbed in the back seat. Frustrated she began, "I apologize in advance for the words I am about to use. That guy is an asshole! He's an arrogant bigot and frankly after today I wouldn't mind helping my father kill him."

"In the first timeline he stole Airwolf, shot up the Firm and injured Michael and then killed your father's girlfriend who worked for the Firm." Sinjin recalled.

"What girlfriend?" Mike asked.

"Her name was Gabrielle," he informed. "She was recruited to help find Airwolf and Moffett killed her. Be careful dealing with him, Mike. He is a killer."

"And a total ass," she added.

Dom noted, "That happened in the timeline I remember too. That will be in a year from now."

"So, let's kill him now and spare everyone that grief." she suggested. "After today I have no issues popping that guy. I also met the sweetest guy in there today. He said his name was Archie but he goes by the name Sam Beckett. Anyone have any idea who he is?"

Sinjin stated, "Wasn't Sam Beckett that main character in that show you, your mother and my wife all love?"

"Quantum Leap," she nodded.

Dom wondered, "I saw the title on Netflix but never got a chance to watch. It looked interesting."

"It was about a guy who would leap into people's lives and change them for the better," she grinned. "I loved that show!"

Sinjin smirked, "More than the tenth Doctor?"

"Hmm," she debated. "If they could reboot Quantum Leap with David Tennant…"

Sinjin stated to laugh and shook his head, "Women."

"What?" she made a sour face.

"Nothing," he chuckled. He watched the entrance as the workers emerged. He spotted his brother walk out with Archie. He chatted with him, patted his shoulder and climbed into a Jeep. Archie went to a nearby motorcycle and dug out a helmet from the saddlebag.

Mike cocked her head, "That's Archie! I never would have pegged him for riding a motorcycle."

"I guess he not that much of a nerd," her uncle jested for he did look like a nerd to him.

Dom noted, "There's Moffett."

Sinjin stated, "Follow him."

Few Hours Later

They had followed Dr. Moffett about the city. He went to a local strip club and after spending few hours inside he left in his car. Night had fallen and they followed Dr. Moffett to a secluded bridge that spanned a nearby river.

Dom parked off of the road a few meters back. They emerged from the car and Mike had changed into a pair of blue jeans and a black t-shirt with black boots. Dom drew his pistol but kept the muzzle down as he slowly crept with Sinjin and Mike up to the bridge and watched what Dr. Moffett was waiting for.

Another car pulled up the bridge and across from Moffett's vehicle. A shadowing figure in a suit emerged and handed Moffett a briefcase.

Dom squinted, "He's making some sort of a deal."

Sinjin gathered, "Selling Airwolf already."

They watched as Moffett inspected the case and closed it. He then handed an envelope to the stranger who quickly inspected the package and then ducked into the car and drove off the bridge.

Moffett was about to return to his car when a motorcycle pulled up. Mike squinted, "That's Archie!"

Dom wondered, "What's he doing?"

Sinjin spotted a gun in his hand, "He's got a gun on him." He strained to hear as Archie's voice grew louder. "Let's get closer."

Archie stood before his motorcycle with a semiautomatic handgun leveled on Dr. Moffett. He shook his head, "Selling her already, huh?"

"Just go back to your apartment Beckett and we will forget this ever happened," he instructed.

"You don't even know who I am, do you?" he yelled.

"Who are you?" he shrugged.

"My real name is not Sam Beckett. I made that up," he confessed. "My name is Archibald Moffett. Recognize me know?"

"The only Archibald Moffett that I know is two years old," he snorted.

"Yeah, that's me Dad!" he huffed.

"Impossible," he scoffed.

"I came here because I thought I could save you. I thought if I became friends with you then maybe you would turn for the better," he confessed. "I was wrong. There isn't an ounce of good in you. You are just as much the psychopath that I was told you were. Since I have worked for you as your assistant you have treated me like absolute garbage. You treat everyone like garbage. Not just my mother, not just me…But everyone. You treat me like I'm an imbecile."

"My son is only two years old and my ex-wife took him into hiding," he stated.

"I know," he nodded. "I lived it! Being the son of a psychotic genius inventor…It wasn't a very good title to have. I have a doctorate to, Dad! In quantum physicist. Guess what I invited?"

Amused Moffett asked, "What did you invent…Son?"

"Time travel," he confessed. "Weather modification is the key."

'Interesting," Moffett stated. "And what do you plan on doing to me now?"

"I'm going to do the world a huge favor and kill you," he confessed. He brought the gun up to eye level when he heard a voice coming from the side.

"Archie," Mike pleaded. "Don't do this."

He looked over, "You followed me?"

She shook her head, "We followed him." She motioned towards Moffett.

Dr. Moffett looked at her and asked amused, "I assume you are a time traveler too?"

Sinjin stood shotgun, "We all are."

Moffett looked and realized he was surrounded, "And who might you be?"

"Doesn't matter," he smirked.

Archie asked, "How did you travel through time?"

"A storm brought us back," Mike confessed.

He rolled his eyes, "Great! The government must have had a copy of my plans that I missed. I should have wiped every hard drive."

"I don't know who runs it," she confessed. "But I do know that if you kill Dr. Moffett you…Well, frankly you make the world a better place and my family rather wealthy but you will also become what you wish to destroy. I mean, your father is an asshole. I whole heartedly agree with you on that. But you're better than this, Archie. I only met you today but you are a sweet and kind man." She looked at Moffett's disturbed face, "Unlike him."

Moffett asked, "What the hell is this? Some kind of joke?"

Sinjin huffed, "It's not joke Moffett and I know a number of people who would like to put a bullet in your head. Now take your money, get in your car and drive away and forget you ever met us."

Dom really wished he could have pulled the trigger but motioned to the car, "Get in that car before I shoot you myself."

He held up and hand and gave a nod, "I'm going." He took his case of money and got into his car while Archie stood shaking. He placed the car in drive and drove past them while they stood on the bridge.

Archie watched as the red tail light disappeared from view, "Why did you stop me? He had it coming."

"He will get his," Mike assured him.

"Innocent people are going to die," he told her.

"And we can't stop that," she replied. "We can't upset the timeline."

"Which timeline do you mean?" he wondered. His shoulders slunk in despair and he let the pistol fall to his side.

"How many have there been?" she wondered.

"The first timeline," he began. "My father stole Airwolf and went to work for the USSR. In the second timeline he stole it and went to work for Libya. In the third timeline Airwolf accidentally hit a quantum cell and disappeared to my time. I sent it back to put things right. Then I came back to try and convert my father."

"I'm from that timeline," Mike confessed. "Stringfellow Hawke is my father."

He cocked his head, "You're Major O'Shannessy then. I thought you looked familiar. I saw you on TV when Airwolf arrived in D.C.."

"Yeah," she slowly nodded, "That's me. You changed it again when you came back and killed him before he stole Airwolf."

Archie asked, "What happened? I made sure the program would go to your father."

"He's miserable," she confessed. "He hates his job and he becomes so bogged down he couldn't even come back to stop it…Not that I think he would have wanted too."

Archie stood baffled, "But that was a perfect job for him."

"Well," she winced. "I know you meant well and honestly it is a great job but it's just not him." She wondered, "So how exactly are you traveling through time?"

"I just use the motorcycle," he confessed.

"But the lightning strikes," she gulped.

He smiled, "Only an issue if you are high in altitude."

Sinjin added, "They sent me back in a lab and steel tube."

He winced, "Barbaric!"

Sinjin nodded, "Yup!"

Mike asked, "Can you control these storms and send us back to the future?"

Archie nodded, "I can! But if the program is running then whoever else has control and can send you right back again."

Dom wondered, "How exactly does this invention of yours work, Archie?"

Archie pulled out a square device from his pocket. He informed, "You see the world runs on vibrations and frequencies. Normally, those frequencies are stable but with the added particles in the air from the ongoing weather experiments and cloud seeding, if you hit them with right frequency you can disturb the particles and create a hole through space and time. Like this," he pointed the device off of the bridge over the water and emitted a frequency so high that no one could hear it. Suddenly a small storm formed and tunnel formed in the middle. "Your frequency also controls the destination." He then stopped the device and tunnel disappeared. "I suppose in layman's terms you could call it a wormhole."

Sinjin asked, "You took that invention and ran?"

"They wanted to weaponize it," he told them. "I wanted space exploration. Not only is time travel possible but also space travel. We could go to Mars in the blink of an eye. We could make things never happen and use it to warn people before an earthquake hits by going back in time and warning them." He groaned, "But the D.O.D. wanted a weapon. They didn't want it to be public knowledge. So, I wiped the hard drives and took my controller."

"But they got it anyways," Sinjin told him.

He sighed, "Yeah."

Mike pleaded, "Come back with us?"

"I can't go back home," he told her. "The minute I do they will kill me and take my controller….Or worse…Torture me for everything I erased."

"Then come with us two years into the future," she begged. "They won't know who you are there."

Sinjin added, "There are people, good people who want to help you put things right."

He cocked his head, "I've seen you before."

"I'm Saint John Hawke," he informed. "String is my brother."

"You flew Airwolf in the other timeline," he mentioned.

"I remember that," he smirked.

"You married Jo Santini," he recalled.

Sinjin asked, "I did?"

Dom cocked an eyebrow.

Archie pondered, "Maybe that was a different timeline? After a while they kind of run together."