The ELI Event B007R5LTNS

Eli—obliquely, of course—while you run some background diagnostics. I won’t confront him about the credit card or the tickets, I’ll just see if I can draw him out, get him to tell me what’s wrong of his own volition. Then we can compare notes.”
    “No.” Wheeler shook his head emphatically. “No. For the moment, I’m the one who needs to stay out of it. Besides, I need to go over that printout again, I need to research those formulas, I need...”
    “What you need is some sleep.” She looked at him earnestly. His eyes were red, dull; she hated to see him like this. “Go home, okay? I’ll do what I can and let you know.”
    Without answering, Wheeler rose, walked to the door of the shop, and turned to look at her. He paused a moment, then pushed open the door and walked off to his right, away from the lab.
    Kelly waited until he was gone, then went to the door herself. She turned to the left and rounded the corner, wondering what Eli would tell her—and what he wouldn’t.

Nineteen
    “Trooper Kuvak, set a course for the unshielded region. Use the coordinates from Trooper Jalin’s preliminary scan. We’ll refine the coords as we approach the target area.”
    “Yes, sir.” At the pilot’s station, Kuvak smoothly lifted the Federal Police cruiser off the pad, transferred Jalin’s coordinates to the nav panel, and pointed the sleek craft south-east, toward the suspected location of the rogue scientists’ temporal relocation lab.
    Sazar glanced at the crew area at the rear of the cruiser, where four stiff and stocky young troopers sat strapped into their seats, alert and ready for action.
    “Thank you for appointing me to the squad,” Jalin said curtly. She glanced up at Sazar, then returned her attention to the scanning console. “I apologize for my earlier behavior and hope you’ll not hold it against me. Sir.”
    “If I held it against you, Trooper, you wouldn’t be here,” Sazar replied flatly. “And, you’re the best scan tech in the Division,” he added, without taking his eyes off the console. “Having you on the team increases our chance of success. Nevertheless, I have reservations about your ability to remain focused, due to your… close relationship with Trooper Valik. Don’t make me regret my decision.”
    “I won’t, sir. We’ll trace their signal and find them.”
    Jalin was far from certain of that statement. She had forwarded the scan data from her work console to the cruiser, and had studied it closely. She reevaluated every data point, reconsidered every variable, and still could only come up with a large, vaguely defined area where the rogue lab might be. Plus, there was the unexpected and unexplained matter of the Science Ministry’s temporal relocator—almost certainly used by Lokus himself—a complication that effectively obliterated most of the weaker signals from the rogue locator, due to its proximity to headquarters. Frankly, based on available data, she might scan for weeks and not find the dissident scientists’ lab. In fact, unless they actually used their relocator again while she was actively scanning for its disruption pattern, she would most likely never find them at all. No, she was not certain, far from certain, that she could find them.
    “We’ll find them, sir,” she told Sazar. “I’m certain of it.”

    * * *

    “Do you think they’re looking for us?” Lucinda asked nervously.
    “If not now, then soon,” Pan-Li replied. “That is why I shut everything down after relocating the young man, Arty, to old Los Angeles. We must exercise the utmost caution in using the relocator.”
    “But we have to get Aurora and Denes home.”
    “If we can. And we must do so without compromising our position.”
    “Of course,” Lucinda admitted meekly.
    “Yes, about that,” Pan-Li said thoughtfully. “I have an idea. It is somewhat risky for our friends, but frankly less so than exposing our facility and the relocator.”
    Pan-Li considered the gravity of what he was about to suggest, closed his eyes briefly, and sighed, wondering if it was a wise choice, yet knowing it was the only choice. Lucinda made no reply, allowing him to continue in his own time.
    “We might attempt to bring them both home simultaneously.”
    Lucinda caught her breath. “Is that even possible? We never relocate more than one subject at a time, even to the same destination.”
    “It is theoretically possible, but quite difficult. And, I fear, quite necessary. We