Chapter 2: Interdimensional Secrets

Dark walls surround Henry as he sits at his chair with his hands cuffed on the table in front of him. Sounds of muffled conversation are the only things he can hear from inside the room. He leans his head behind him, causing it to hang over the back of his neck.

I can't believe they're using childish mind games on me. How could they have interrogated anybody from Dead Nevada with these tactics?

Shifting forward, Henry rests his head on his arms and starts to doze off. Hank and Deimos look through the one-way mirror to see Henry asleep in the interrogation room. Sanford enters the room with half a sandwich in his mouth and a cup of coffee in his free hand.

Hank turns to Sanford. "I told you we didn't need to go through the usual routine."

Sanford takes the sandwich out of his mouth as he opens the door to the room Henry is in. "Let's just say this was the first test to see if he was anything like you."

"I see," Hank says as he and Deimos enter the room.

The door closes, getting Henry to sit up on his seat as the trio sits at the opposite side of the table. Sanford's watch is the only sound that fills Henry's ears with ticking and tocking. Other than that, Henry breaks the silence as he sees the three men just staring at him.

"Are you going to ask me questions or just stare at me?"

Hank leans closer to him. "Who are you really?"

"You want the unabridged version or the cliff's notes?"

Sanford interrupts. "We want to know why you look so similar to Hank."

Henry looks to the ceiling. "Hm, gee. Maybe because I am Hank?"

Hank rolls his eyes. "When you were found in my house, you were badly wounded. What happened?"

Henry looks down in shame. "Dealt with some monsters. What about you?"

Deimos sits closer to the table. "What can you tell us about your past?"

Henry presses back on his seat, once again staring at the ceiling. "I was born an orphan just like Hank. Not that it really matters."

Hank rests his right arm on the table as he leans even closer to Henry. "I'm guessing you had some trouble with the other kids and faculty."

Henry gives a slight smirk. "Yeah, like that Julia Bitch, the horsefucker that she is."

"What?"

Henry sits up straight, looking Hank in the eye with his smirk still on. "You know, that caretaker that couldn't keep herself from burning up."

Sanford and Deimos trade confused looks while Hank grabs Henry by the collar and drags him across the table.

"Who the fuck are you?"

Henry's slight smirk broadens to an ear to ear grin. "Shawnson, now I see. You had to kiss her ass enough to gladly take her last name?"

"You really don't want to fuck with me right now."

"But I'm not! That's what your wife is for right?" Henry winks. "Maybe throw your kid in there too for those kinky nights?"

Hank turns to Sanford. "Petition for pulling out three of his teeth?"

Sanford crosses his arms. "Overruled."

"On what grounds?"

"The fucking Geneva Convention, Hank!"

Henry turns his head to show the bullet hole in his cheek to Hank. "How many teeth do you think you can pull out? Some are inside my gums. Think you can pull those out too?"

Hank lets go of Henry and tosses him back to his seat.

"So it's a fight you want." Henry tells the former mercenary as he effortlessly breaks the handcuffs that restrict him to the table.

Deimos quickly gets up and takes a step back as Sanford reaches for his gun and Hank stays put. Henry sees what the trio is about to do and punches the one way mirror to the room, shattering it. As the fragments fall, he picks up a large shard and has a grip tight enough to cause blood to drip from his fingers.

"You really want to start this?" Hank asks as he steps closer to Henry.

"Let's see you get through this unharmed."

"BOTH OF YOU CALM DOWN!" Sanford yells as he draws his pistol, takes the safety off and points it at Henry.

Both Hanks turn to him, Henry still smiling. "You better be careful, you just might hit the wrong Hank."

Hank walks to the door. "I've got work to do. He's your problem."

As the door slams shut, Henry gets back in his seat.

Sanford puts his gun back in its holster. "Are you always like this?"

"Only with jackasses like him."

Deimos sits back down, popping his knuckles. "How'd you get that hole in your cheek?"

"Fell on a nail."

"Really?"

"Of course it would be, how else could I get such a huge hole in my face?"

"Moving on," Sanford says as he takes his seat once again.

"Am I still a handsome lad where you're from?" Deimos asks.

Henry sits in silence for a few seconds. "I guess, considering you are a bit of a womanizer."

Henry notices Deimos raising an eyebrow.

"I'm guessing you're no longer like that."

"I was nev- I MEAN, uh… I was always a womanizer, of course! Heh." Deimos rubs at his hands, looking a little more fidgety than before. "But uh, just out of curiosity, how did I become a womanizer? Y-you know! For comparison's sake! Haha…"

Sanford lets out a subtle sigh as he closes his eyes in a futile effort not to cringe. Henry leans back on his chair.

"You just did. I'm not a psychiatrist, so I can't help you with that." Henry looks to Deimos' left hand, noticing the ring. "You're married?"

Deimos looks to the piece of jewelry. "Yeah. Wanted to give the other guys a fair chance, you know?"

"Right. My Deemos would have a field day with you."

"It's pronounced 'Deimos'."

"Where I'm from, it's 'Deemos'. Ah whatever, potato-potahto, tomato-"

Sanford points at Henry. "You've already made me waste more than enough time from my lunch break. Get to the point."

"Fine, Stanford." He turns back to 'Deimos'. "Well, anyways, congratulations on the bastard child."

Deimos stands up and rests his hands on the table, glaring at Henry. "What are you implying?"

"I'm just saying, if you really aren't the one who's unfaithful… then you might need to ask a few specific questions to your 'loving' wife."

Deimos is ready to pounce. "You little-!"

"Enough!" Sanford yells as he hits the table. "I already had to keep Hank from killing you, so I don't need Deimos to be the other rabid dog going for your neck!"

Henry gives a mockingly bashful look. "Aww. But you're gonna miss the part where I tell you about that time Stanford dealt with that mom selling off her daughter. Judging by the shitty shingles on the house by the bar, it was probably for drugs. Moving on-"

"Drug house?" Sanford asks.

"I don't know, I wasn't the person who found out about this." Henry says.

Sanford gives a sigh of discontent. "Where was this house exactly?"

Henry looks to Sanford with a puzzled look. "You didn't clear that place out yet?"

"Maybe we did. I just want to know if this may have been one of the houses we didn't investigate."

Henry looks down at the table and blinks twice. "You didn't bother to check on some other houses?"

"We were investigating a drug ring and led us to someplace. I want to know if this is the same place."

Henry straightens his back. "I'm guessing this isn't the same place since the place I'm talking about is in a well off area."

Sanford takes out a pen and paper. "So you're saying…"

"I'm saying that this mother was morally bankrupt and wanted to either sell or prostitute her daughter."

Sanford slides the paper and pen across the table. "Where is this place?"

Henry writes on the blank sheet of paper and slides it back to Sanford.

Sanford reads the address. "This street runs through a shady part of the city."

"Not where I'm from."

"Is that so?"

"You'd be surprised at how demented people in general can be." Henry says as he leans on the table. "There was a case where a mother dismembered her son for not doing too well in school. And that was a middle-class household."

Sanford rubs the bridge of his nose. "I'm sure that may have happened where you're from. I also believe you know more than you're letting on about this." He presses a button on the table. Two large officers come into the room immediately after. "But it seems all you want to do is waste my time."

Henry gets his hands cuffed once again as the two men escort him out of the room. Once the door closes, Sanford puts the paper with the address in his pocket. He stays seated, staring through the table.

Deimos shakes him slightly by the shoulder. "You alright, San?"

Sanford looks at Deimos. "I'm fine. Just going over what Henry was talking about."

"You're seriously going to check the house?"

"Maybe. It was one of the places we were going to investigate after all."

"You go ahead and waste even more time with this," Deimos tells his friend as he exits the room.

Some time later...

The police officer watching over a cell looks through the door's bars and sees Henry lying down on the floor. He turns back around to face the door that leads to the rest of the headquarters until he sees Sanford enter the room he's in.

"I want a word with him."

The officer departs from his post. "Alright, sir."

Sanford takes out one of his keys and inserts it into the keyhole. As he turns the key, the locking mechanism makes a loud click and the door slides open. He gets inside the cell and stands beside the door frame. His shadow runs over Henry.

"What else do you know about the mother wanting to sell her daughter."

Henry gets up, yawning. "You know, it's kind of hard to tell what you're saying without any kind of slurred speech or-"

"I was an alcoholic where you're from?"

"More like a dead drunk… who was also Australian."

"I see, but what else do you know about that mother?"

Henry looks down for half a minute, then back at Sanford. "I'd ask Stanford this. He was the one who dealt with it… right. All I really remember was the address."

Sanford takes the piece of paper out. "Is that all?"

"Stanford said she might be a drug user. Said she had a cocaine ring around her lips."

"Thanks, I guess. You have any idea how you came to be here?"

"My only guess is that I made a dimensional or timeline jump from the desert."

Sanford opens the cell door once again. "I see. If what you're saying is true…"

"You can believe me?"

"Maybe." Sanford tells the other Hank as he gets out of the cell.

Deimos waits patiently at Sanford's desk until the door opens and he sees his friend walk into the room. "Any more clues, Dick Tracy?"

"Turns out the 'Stanford' from wherever he's from was the only one who dealt with this woman."

"And you still believe him?"

Sanford sits at his desk. "I still think we should check out that house. It was one of our targets a while ago."

Deimos leans on his chair, making his head be close to the wall behind him. "How're you going to do that?"

Sanford opens a drawer in his desk. "You still have some spare time from your holiday right?"

"I'm not wasting it on this wild goose chase of yours."

Sanford pulls out a wad of bills. "Will 50 bucks convince you otherwise?"

"Bribery and going into a house without a search warrant. Isn't that, like, double illegal?"

"For the record," Sanford starts as he pulls out a piece of paper. "I do have a warrant. And not for the record," he tosses the wad of one-dollar bills on the desk. "Those fifty bucks don't exist."

"This still isn't convincing me to join you."

"What else are you going to do tonight besides waste time on your computer?" Sanford asks as he gets to the door.

Deimos gets his coat on. "Alright, fine."

While the two were leaving, a shadowy figure passes by the window, catching Sanford's attention. He points to the window. "Did you see that?"

Deimos looks out that same window. "No. Should we check on it?"

"Probably."

The two get out of the room and exit the building. They walk over to the parking lot where Sanford's window is and check the general area. Deimos looks under the cars. "You sure you saw something?"

"I think I did," Sanford says as he checks the corner of the building. "It was very blurry. Could've just been a bird for all we know."

"We're just wasting time."

"Just like the old days."

Deimos sighs as he and Sanford get into a police car and drive off. The car ride starts off quiet due to Sanford silencing the radio.

"So, it's just us?" Deimos asks as he rests his head on the window.

"Don't want to waste anyone else's time if this really is a goose chase."

"But you believe Henry enough to go through with this?"

"Deimos, there's something about him. He survived that car crash that should have killed him-"

"He could just be a clone."

Sanford shifts a gear as he drives faster. "Or possibly from another dimension or timeline."

Deimos shakes his head. "That's what he said about being here?"

"Only explanation he could find."

"So you're actually gonna believe this fuckin' psycho's story about alternate timelines and shit?"

Sanford slows down the car to a halt as they approach a red light. "No. I don't believe a bit of it."

"Then why-"

"Because, Deimos. If he's right about the house, there are only two groups of people who would have known about that." The light turns green and the two ride down the road. "The first being the cops. And the second… the people involved in selling the kids."

They reach a stop sign and start hearing a banging noise from the rear of the car.

"What the hell?" Sanford mutters as both he and Deimos look back. The audible bashing grows louder.

Deimos turns to his partner. "Your call, chief."

Sanford takes out his gun. "Let's see what's in there."

The two get out of the car and walk over to the trunk. Sanford readies his pistol and takes the safety off as Deimos gets his hand close to the trunk door and pops it open. Inside it is none other than Henry.

"Wha-? Whe-? HOW?" Sanford asks as he puts his pistol away.

Henry shrugs. "I escaped. Simple as that."

"How did you escape?"

"Using my training?"

Sanford rolls his eyes. "I figured. But how'd you escape that quickly? That was what, three or four minutes?"

Henry gets out of the trunk. "Well, it's to be expected if you're from the Anti-AAHW."

"Fine," Sanford says as he walks over to the driver's seat. "May as well take you with us then."

"That's the spirit." Henry says in a chipper tone as he sits in the back of the police car.

Deimos hesitantly gets in the passenger seat. "You sure we can trust him?"

Sanford gets his seatbelt on. "If he's too much trouble, we can just make him collateral."

"You know assholes, I'm right behind you." Henry tells them as he grips the barrier between him and the front of the car.

"Oh I know," Sanford responds as he starts the car and begins driving. "It just seems like you wouldn't have cared regardless."

Henry sighs and slumps on his seat.

"You might want to put a seatbelt on," Sanford says.

"I'll be fine."

As soon as Henry responds, Sanford abruptly stops the car, forcing the scarred Hank to collide with the barrier.

"Ow." Henry gets back on his seat. "Nice driving."

"You said you'd be fine. After all, I'll bet the guard that was watching over you is in perfect shape. RIGHT?"

Henry puts his seatbelt on. "He'll live."

"What did you do to him?"

"Just broke his collarbone and left wrist. That's all."

"Then I'll have you know," Sanford turns to face him. "That cell's going to be your new home for the next couple of months just for that."

Henry raises his hands defeatedly. "Alright, fine."

"Good." Sanford turns back to the road and starts driving again.

"Haven't seen you like this since that argument you had with your wife," Deimos tells his friend as he pulls out a cigarette.

"No matter how many times you say it, you never quit smoking."

"I need something to help out with the stress."

"Stress of what exactly?" Henry asks as he leans closer to the barrier once again.

"Let's see…" Deimos pauses as he holds out his hand and is ready to count on his fingers. "I have a job as a CEO of a software company that is likely to be absorbed soon. A wife that can drive me crazier than Tricky the Clown. A son that can't follow simple instructions and probably has a bad case of ADD." He turns back to the other passenger. "Do I need to go on?"

"All I'm hearing is complacent whining."

"Yeah, because we happened to have fixed our shit instead of letting it sit and get worse."

Henry yawns as he slumps on his seat. Deimos turns back to the road.

"That's what I thought."

Fifteen minutes of driving later, Sanford slows down the car as the three of them see the house that the address pointed to. He gets his pistol ready.

"Henry. If you want to help out with this and lower your jail sentence for assault, you will have to follow my instructions."

Henry gets his seatbelt off and opens his door. "What do you need?"

"Right now," Sanford starts as he opens his door. "I need you to stay put."

"Can't I at least provide a distraction?"

"If you don't go crazy and kill whoever's in there. Then fine."

"You're seriously going to let him do this?" Deimos asks as he exits the car.

"Why else would I have gotten my gun?"

The three huddle up in front of the car. Deimos tosses his cigarette. "What's our plan of action?"

Sanford looks at the house and yard surrounding it. "Deimos and I can go around to the back while Henry can come in from the front."

"Alright," Henry starts walking to the house. "Let's get going."

"Henry, wait," Sanford calls as he grabs Henry by the sleeve.

"What? We've already got a plan."

"I don't know how things are done back home, but we need a bit more coordination than just entry."

Henry yanks his sleeve away. "Fine then, Erich Von Manstein. What else do we need?"

"I need you to not commit any kind of serious assault when we get into position. You got that?"

"Yeah," Henry says as he looks at one of the cracked windows. "I guess."

Sanford turns to Deimos. "We will have to make a silent entry through one of the back windows. The door is likely to be locked and-"

Dried grass being stepped on fills Deimos' ears. "Henry!" He calls as Henry steps on the dilapidated porch and stands beside the door. The scarred man points to the cracked window and motions them to get into the backyard. Deimos and Sanford silently sprint to the back as Henry knocks on the door.

After a minute or two, the door opens and a woman in a pink bathrobe comes into his view. She looks to be in her late – forties, hair is starting to frizzle, wrinkles overtaking the top of her cheeks and below her eyes. Her most notable feature however, was a strange ring around her lips.

She looks to the man towering over her, eyes widening over who exactly she is face-to-face with. Her hand raises to hover over her cheek and curls her fingers to poke in circular fashion.

Henry shrugs. "It's what happens when you save the world twice."

"R-right."

"May I come in?"

The middle-aged woman closes the door slightly. "What for?"

Henry points to the ceiling. "I noticed that there were a few things you might need help with. I just wanted to see if there may be some other things that may be missing."

Her eyes squint while she tilts her head to the side, trying to figure out what he meant by that statement.

"Is there anything THE Hank J. Wimbleton can do to help you?"

She tries to close the door a little bit more. "I would like it if you were to leave."

Henry grabs the closing door and holds it open. "Where's your daughter?"

She freezes for a few seconds before slamming the door thanks to Henry letting go. A vase shattering is all that Henry hears before sounds of struggling followed by grunts and wood splintering.

"Damnit Sanford," Deimos calls. "She's got a club."

"That's not really a problem Deimos." A minute passes. "Put the table leg down and put your hands on your head."

Henry opens the door and enters the house to see derelict portraits of unfamiliar people. One framed picture lies face down. He picks it up to see the same woman in a picture with a girl that is the spitting image of her. Popping open the frame, Henry takes the picture and enters the room with Sanford and Deimos.

As he enters, he sees Sanford handcuffing her. "Already found the drugs?"

Sanford looks up at Henry. "Yeah."

Deimos tosses a bag full of white powder at Henry. "Anything else we should look for?"

Henry looks at the woman. "Coming to think of it…" He turns to Deimos. "Stanford did mention a basement."

"You think there's more shit there?" Sanford asks as he gets off of the middle aged mother.

"More than likely. I remember one of her options with her daughter was to have her tied up and be used."

All three stare at the handcuffed woman before she spills her guts. "Basement door's next to the kitchen."

Sobbing sounds off as Sanford grabs her by the shoulder and lifts her up to her feet. "Lead the way."

The four walk to the kitchen until the door comes into view. Henry grips the brass knob tight enough to leave indentions. Only a set of ominous stairs appear once the door creaks open.

Not a word is spoken by anybody as they get into the basement and Sanford turns on the light switch. There they see a smooth platform with a pole and chair. Deimos spots a table across the room.

"Deimos wait," Henry says as he turns on a second set of lights that reveal a camera and miscellaneous sex toys.

Deimos rushes to the table and opens a drawer. "Uh, guys?"

Sanford gets to the table and looks in the drawer to see a sundry of pictures that involve a little girl very similar to the mother they have in the basement currently. Each one has her in several sexual acts with many different men and women. Sanford gripped the side of the photo, bending it as his blood boiled.

Very familiar men.

Deimos clutches Sanford's shoulder and shakes it. "San, aren't you going to do something?"

Sanford shakes his head. "I guess that guard's going to get more of a beating than what Henry gave him."

Henry turns to the mother. "When did you sell her?"

She gives no answer as she stares away from the three investigators. He grabs her by the throat and lifts her a foot off the floor.

"You're only tying your own noose."

She stares into the masked man's red eyes. Only seeing the gaze of anger and death as she tries to pull his hand off of her throat.

"Henry," Sanford calls. "Stand down."

"As you wish," Henry tells Sanford as he lets go of his grip and has the woman fall back on the ground. Gasping for air, she backs away from the tall masked man.

"I sold her a few years ago."

"Do you still know who it was?" Deimos asks as Sanford handcuffs both her and Henry.

"He never told me his name," She says as she gets dragged across the filthy basement floor.

"He's in one of the pictures."

Deimos takes a picture from the bottom of the pile and sees the girl tied to be in the splits. The camera angle reveals she is not wearing any underwear and is oozing from down under. "Can't believe the son of a bitch was right."

Henry turns to Sanford. "Believe me now?"

Sanford shoves him forward. "All this proves is that you could have been involved."

Henry looks down, cheerfully smiling. "Perhaps, perhaps. But I can show you other crimes that could be happening right now."

"Like what?"

"Like something in a particular warehouse."

Hank sits at his porch with a bottle of Mexicola in his hand. He stares at the stars that surround him as the moonlit night eclipses his house. The peaceful moment was interrupted by bright headlights from a familiar car that gets into his driveway. After half a minute, the door opens and a blood-stained Sanford walks out. The most noticeable red splotch rests in his hair, dripping slowly.

Hank gets up from his porch and walks to the car. The sound of grass being crushed as he takes one step after another fills his ears. "What happened?"

"I don't know who this Henry person is." Sanford pauses as he pulls out his phone, opening his photo gallery. "But he was able to lead us to crime scenes and even interrupt a snuff film."

Hank takes the phone. "You're telling me-"

"I'm telling you there may be some weight to what Henry knows and says. This was his snuff film prediction I was telling you about earlier. At a warehouse."

Hank looks at the first picture: an image of a nude woman lying face down on a guillotine and missing her head. Puncture wounds scatter the back of her neck, as her hands lay on her nether regions.

"You took this?"

"Henry did."

"Of course he did." He turns the phone off and grimaces. "So he was able to get every 'prediction' right?"

"Most of them."

"What did he get wrong?"

Sanford leans against his car. "He said there was a former operative of Antithesis with the name of 'Lance' that went rogue and brutally raped and murdered people all over Nevada."

"I figure this Lance was in Henry's head."

"I don't know Hank," Sanford takes his phone back. "This Lance could either be lying low, or already be dead."

"Where is Henry now?"

"Back in his cell."

"And it's going to hold him?"

"I hope it will until tomorrow. Have more than one guard taking shifts watching him this time around. Going to see if there's anything else he might know."

"I just wish my wife would stop thinking that he's really me."

Sanford opens his car door. "I'm not quite sure that would be entirely true."

"Then what exactly are you sure of?"

Sanford enters the car and starts it. "That it may be possible that Henry's really from some other dimension or timeline."

"Well, there's only one group of people who can."

Sanford closes the door, hand on the gear shift as he looks at Hank. "And who would that be?"

"Our ex-bosses."