The ELI Event B007R5LTNS

it burned. The night—the night Mama and Lizzie died,” Arty said gently. “The wavy lines are the pattern in the metal. The dots—”
    “—are the nail heads,” Robin finished.
    “Yup. You and me, buddy, we’re Robin Theodore Kirkland.” He smiled. “Hey, has anyone called you Robbie since then?”
    Robin shook his head.
    “Can I?”
    Robin nodded.
    Arty sat quietly then, deciding to give Robin whatever time he needed to assimilate this new and confounding development. It didn’t take long. Suddenly the boy grinned and whooped and jumped up excitedly. “Holy crap,” he cried, “you are me!”
    Arty stood up as well and smiled. “Wait,” Robin said abruptly. “So, twenty years from now, I’m a janitor? ”
    Arty laughed heartily. “Maybe not, if we’re lucky today. Come on, Robbie,” he said. “Let’s go change the future.”

Twenty-Six
    Kelly’s Honda hurtled north on the 405. Wheeler wondered whether he could make his seat belt any tighter.
    “Lucky you couldn’t find a parking spot,” Arty said.
    “Oh, we just figured if we circled long enough you’d find us. I’m glad it was both of you.” She smiled into the rearview mirror. “Nice to meet you, Robin.”
    “Did Arty tell you he’s me from the future?” Robin asked excitedly.
    “Um, no,” Wheeler said. “I think he might have omitted that little tidbit of information.” He looked back at Arty sternly.
    “Oh, come on, Steve,” Kelly chided. “Weren’t you paying attention earlier at your apartment? Colby? 2034? Vested interest? Hello! Why do you think his future visitors chose him to help Robin?”
    “Well, sure, it’s obvious now ,” Wheeler said sheepishly. “So, Robbie…” he began.
    “Robin,” Robin corrected. “Only Arty gets to call me that.”
    “Right. So, Robin, you understand about E-L-One and the whole MDA project data thing, yes?”
    “You mean Eli? Yeah, I get it. Eli went through my computer and stole their data and now he doesn’t know what to do with it.”
    “Close enough,” Wheeler admitted. “And you know he’s been, let’s just say, guarded about what he’s told Dr. Duncan and me.”
    “Yeah, but he’ll listen to me. I’m his only friend.”
    Clearly irritated, Wheeler sighed and pulled out his pocket recorder. “Note to self: Look for apartments in South America,” he said into it. He turned back to Robin. “Really. You think E-L-One will take instructions from you about the data?”
    “Sure he will. Eli trusts me, like I trust him.”
    “Well, don’t you think he might be a bit more inclined to obey his creator?” Wheeler asked, pointing at himself.
    “I don’t know,” Robin said doubtfully. “We’ve been friends for a long time, and he never mentioned you once.” Wheeler grimaced. “I mean, if I said give the data back , or Eli, erase the data now! or something, I’m pretty sure he would.”
    Wheeler noticed his recorder was still on. “Scratch previous note,” he said tiredly. “Look for apartments on the friggin’ moon.” Kelly bemusedly shook her head as he dropped the device back into his jacket pocket.
    Wheeler looked at the clock on the dash. Oh crap, surely it wasn’t that late already! “Faster moving’s better,” he said pointedly.
    “Got it,” Kelly replied, and stepped on the gas. The speedometer, hovering just past 80, jumped up to well over 90. Suddenly she had an idea. “Screw the 405, I’m taking Culver up to the 10. Cuts off that whole triangle.”
    “No, there’ll be lights at the cross streets!” Wheeler protested.
    “It’s the middle of the night—they’ll all be green for Culver,” she argued. Exit 51 for Culver Boulevard was coming up fast, and the Honda was still in the left lane. “Hang on to your knickers, boys!” she shouted, and yanked the wheel to the right, hard.
    They were already past the ramp entrance. Kelly slashed across four lanes of—thankfully—almost no traffic and blasted across a dirt median where—again, thankfully—there was no concrete divider, and the Honda got air. Two substantial bounces and three terrified passengers later, they were on the exit ramp. The ramp was relatively short, however, and therefore relatively steep, and she had already jumped past the first third of it, going much too fast.
    “Hey,” Kelly shouted gleefully, “I think I’m getting the hang of—”
    Suddenly a shape loomed in front of her, a large dark mass, blending into the dimly lit asphalt. It might have been