The Secret

PART III:

Rajesh Prasad looked at the screen in front of him. He could see the four people they had picked up were agitated. The girl and the older man were sitting and fidgeting with their clothes while the other two paced across the length of the room. They didn't speak much. It was as if they knew there were hidden cameras in the room. He still couldn't believe what had happened. "And how the hell did these people get their hands on this?" he demanded of his assistant, indicating the timer. The man shook in fear; no one had ever seen Dr. Rajesh in such a state! "I…I don't know….sir", he stammered. "I will find that out at once sir, we can interrogate them…" "'WE' are doing nothing! I shall question them myself; you think I would leave that task in you hands? If you do, then I must say Higgins, you are crazy!" saying this, the doctor marched off in anger. He couldn't wait anymore for his partner to come.

Ian Campbell rushed into his home to the secret entrance of their lab. His partner and good friend, Rajesh was waiting for him. He didn't understand why Rajesh wanted him there in such a hurry, but it must be important, or he wouldn't have called, not at this time. In a way it was better if he got back to work, he wouldn't have time to dwell upon the death of his beloved aunt just a week ago, or the disappearance of his uncle either. He entered his password into the terminal hidden under a book on a shelf in the room and placed his palm on the blue monitor for identification. As soon as it was processed, the bookshelf slid back to reveal a long, white and spotless corridor. He pressed one more button once he was inside and a small, car-like, sleek, silver vehicle called the 'Bullet' appeared instantly at his side. Just before he got into it, he pulled down a lever which closed the opening behind him and sealed it. He squeezed his slightly plump bulk into the vehicle; making a note to himself to get a new, larger 'Bullet' for his travel, and its glass roof slid noiselessly over his head and it sped off into the corridor, just a silver blur.

Ian got out and hurried towards his colleague's office. But he had barely taken two steps when the man he was in search of himself came barging around the corner and slammed into him. "Hey man, steady!"

"Where the hell have you been? The next time you decide to take a vacation or break, please do tell us where, got it?" was the reply from Rajesh.

"If I told you, it wouldn't be a vacation now would it? Anyway I got here within thirty minutes of your call, didn't I? Considering the fact that I was almost halfway across the world when I got your message, it was pretty fast!"

"You know that we can cover ground much faster if the new 'Bullet' is approved. But I'm veering off topic here. " Then a guilty expression came over Rajesh's face. "Look I didn't mean to be rude, I understand what you've been going through, with your uncle Max and the date today and all, really I do. But it's just that this is really urgent. I don't know how to tell you this…we found four people; they had somehow stolen your uncle's device. We're still investigating how they managed to get past security at the storage unit to get their hands on it. And one more thing, one of the men… he... I think…he looks a bit like your uncle, from the photos that I've seen. But I've never actually seen him so…" Saying this Rajesh led Ian to his office where he pointed out to the screen showing the four captive sliders.

Ian looked questioningly at Rajesh to see if he was joking, but his friend's expression was perfectly serious. He then looked at the screen. He was so shocked by what he saw that he didn't even hear what his friend was saying. "I saw these four on the road, and they had it with them, just like the one your uncle created, an inter-dimensional travelling device. It's in the lab waiting for you…..it seems modified somehow…."

Quinn and Rembrandt paced across the floor, till Wade finally had enough. "Stop it, both of you! Your pacing is driving me crazy! If we're trapped here, then we wait till those goons come and tell us why they got us here! OK?" The other three in the room stared at her in shock. They had never heard her talk like this. They realised that after the difficult time they had had on the last world, she was very much on edge. But before they could say anything the door swung open and two men walked in. One of them was the man who they had 'met' earlier. The other man stopped in his tracks as soon as he entered. With a shocked sound, he practically ran to Professor Arturo and hugged him saying, "Oh my god! It really is you! You're alive!"

PART IV:

Ian couldn't believe his ears! "But how can you not be him? I'm sure that you just lost your memory or something! The travelling device, it must have not been perfected; after all it was still in testing stage. It must have messed up your mind, made you forget….." his voice trailed off as he saw his uncle, no, someone like his uncle, shaking his head. It slowly sunk in that what he was saying was true. why would they lie? "You can ask Mr. Mallory here, he invented the machine. I'm sorry, but I'm not your uncle. I'm a double of his, from a parallel world." Quinn and the Professor took turns explaining to Ian and the other fellow, Rajesh how Quinn had discovered sliding and how they were lost and trying to find their way home. After they had finished, Ian told them his story.

"My uncle was Professor Maximillian Arturo. He was a genius, always inventing stuff. He was a physics professor once upon a time, but there were so many other things he knew. Six months ago, he discovered this thing, which proved his theory, about the Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Very secretive, wouldn't tell anyone what he was working on, didn't even tell me till towards the end. All he told me was that he was working on something big, that's it, very sketchy, no details. Then a week after he told me, he went into his lab….and didn't come out.

We broke in and found all his equipment, and his records. He was a very methodical man, kept record of all his work and observations." Here Ian stopped to take a breath. Stammering a little he said, "He…he was like a father to me…my mentor, everything…. Today is actually exactly six months to the day he…disappeared. I've always thought that he was successful in his experiments, that he used his machine to cross over to parallel worlds. Always have had hope that he would be back one day. No one believed me, said he must have killed himself with that machine or…or something. I continued his research and two months later, I met Professor Rajesh here who was in the same line of work, and we set up our lab. We now work together for the government. We were able to accomplish many things, except this. Things always went wrong with it. According to my uncle's notes and records, it should be working. But it doesn't. Maybe we didn't try hard enough…. I guess there was always the fear that we could disappear, like my uncle."

The entire room was silent, as everyone absorbed what they had just heard. In an attempt at cheer, Professor Rajesh said, "At least we know that your uncle isn't dead, he is probably out there, travelling though worlds, and we just have to wait till he comes home."

Wade noticed some movement out of the corner of her eye which distracted her for a moment. But the minute she turned around, there was no one there.

John Higgins ran as silently as he could back to his cubicle. That was close. The girl had almost seen him. Almost, but not quite. No one could know that he knew what was going on, or his cover would be blown. He had to pretend that he was the ignoramus they all thought he was. He had heard all that he needed to. It had been a shock to see Max, but now he knew the truth. He had always known that Max would have succeeded, these 'travellers' just proved all his theories. But he, Higgins, just couldn't let them reveal the secret of inter-dimensional travel to Ian or Rajesh. Higgins's anger grew as he thought about Rajesh. How he hated that man! It just infuriated him that an Indian, a coloured fellow could be his boss. He would show them, Oh yes he would! "Then we'll see who's the boss here!" he smirked in glee.