The ELI Event B007R5LTNS

fully face Kelly, his back to the Samaritans and the charred remains of her car. She wondered what the— Suddenly he screamed at her, “What do you mean you left the bag in the car?!?”
    She jumped involuntarily, taken aback by his outburst. “Um, I, er…” The half-dozen or so people milling around at the side of the ramp all promptly turned to look at them in bewilderment.
    “There’s twenty thousand dollars in there! What the hell is wrong with you?” Wheeler shouted at the top of his lungs, throwing up his hands in frustration. The onlookers’ heads simultaneously turned left toward the burned-out car, like they were watching a tennis match.
    “Oh,” Kelly said, getting the idea now. She raised her voice, and her chin. “Well, I thought you had it!” she shouted with mock indignation. Boom, all eyes right, precisely on cue, back on the action.
    “You thought? You thought? ” Wheeler screamed. “How can you think when you’re friggin’ toasted all the time? Now the money and the pot is probably burned up!”
    Snap, heads left, noses up, bodies down to peer into the smoldering car. “Twenty thousand… pot… bag… drug money…” they murmured among themselves, examining the wreckage with great interest.
    Wheeler dared not look over his shoulder. “Now?”
    “Now would be good,” Kelly nodded.
    The four of them sprinted for the M5 and jumped in. The keys, of course, were in it. Steve fired it up and they were gone, speeding up Culver Boulevard, before the Samaritans even knew what had happened.

Twenty-Seven
    Professor Marx opened the door and let them into the lab. “Hello, all. Oh my,” he said, looking them over, “you look as though you’ve been through quite an ordeal.”
    “You don’t know the half of it,” Kelly said.
    “What are you doing here?” Wheeler wanted to know.
    “Oh, it’s my last day onsite,” Marx said, “and I wanted to get an early start with the computer. I only just got here myself, as you can see.” He indicated his lightweight, loose-fitting coat.
    “Well, it’s been a rough night,” Wheeler said. “If you’ll excuse—”
    “And who are these two gentlemen?” Marx asked, looking at Robin and Arty.
    Kelly stepped in. “Um, Robin, Arty, meet Professor John Marx.” Robin nodded in greeting; Arty and Marx briefly shook hands; Marx stared curiously at Arty’s arm unit, but asked no questions. “Professor, we need to—”
    Marx looked at his watch. “You know, Dr. Duncan,” he interrupted, “I had some thoughts this morning about the machine’s interaction response matrix. I hoped perhaps we could—”
    Kelly also looked at her watch. Less than half an hour now. “Yes, Professor, that would be lovely, but right now—”
    This time it was Wheeler who interrupted. “Screw it,” he said to Kelly. “We don’t have time for pleasantries. We’ve got to get busy.”
    “Oh, my,” Marx said. “Is there an emergency of some sort? Do tell.”
    Wheeler ignored him. He put his hands on Robin’s shoulders and turned the boy toward Eli’s hologram. “E-L-One, this is Robin. We found him.”
    “Yes, thank you so much, Dr. Wheeler,” Eli said, his face showing infinite relief. “Robin, it’s so nice to meet you in person at last.”
    Robin grinned at Eli’s head. “You too, Eli.”
    Eli’s brows furrowed. “And who is your friend? Arty, is it?”
    “Yeah,” Robin said, “that’s kind of tough to explain. It’s a long story.”
    “Give me the short version and I’ll ask for details as I need them,” Eli said pleasantly.
    “Okay, here goes—Arty is me from the future. From the year 2034.” He smiled at Arty, waiting for Eli’s incredulous response.
    It didn’t happen. “Very well,” Eli replied evenly. “How did he come to be here?”
    “Really, Eli?” Robin asked, bewildered. “That’s it? You believe that Arty’s from the future, just like that?”
    “Robin, my friend, there is nothing in the theoretical literature that specifically precludes time travel. Einstein himself did not discount the possibility. And, of course, you have never lied to me, so I readily accept your statement as fact. My question is how—and why—is he here?”
    Robin took a deep breath. “Well, that’s the long part of the story. Short answer: Some people from the far future, twenty-three hundred and something, sent him here to help us.”
    “I see. To help us do what?”
    Wheeler took over. “E-L-One, we know about the data you