Chapter 12: Getting ready to leave

Despairing of finding the Time Travel Machine, I made plans for a more mundane escape from Mountain View. My plan was to go to my cousin's hunting cabin for a few weeks and then make my way to the city, where I could start afresh. I started by collecting things I will need, buying things with the credit cards I intended on leaving behind.

One day I came home as usual, but there was something wrong. I searched my apartment, trying to find what ever it was that looked out of place. It took me a while to put my finger on it, but I finally noticed that some of my books had been disturbed. It shocked me to realize that the first break-in had been a deliberate warning, to scare me.

This burglary was all business. Someone was looking for something particular and they were being very careful. Thankful that I returned all of the diaries to their hiding place, I began to intensify my escape plans. I packaged the diaries and schematics in small, waterproof containers, ready to be moved. I made and reviewed lists of what I'd need to live in the woods for a few weeks. I also read more about Brantwell's Time Machine, teasing myself about making "a clean getaway." I'd even selected a world called Hole-in-the-Wall as my hideout. The Wild West had always appealed to me and, if I could only find the Time Machine, it was within my grasp.

I was getting caught up in my plans to leave. One night, everything stopped. While I had been at a gun show one Saturday morning, Lucy surprised a burglar in my apartment. I found her body in my living room, a small bullet wound behind her left ear.

I called 911 immediately. The police came and questioned everyone. I sat in a squad car, numb and blaming myself for involving her in a situation I couldn't control. After the police left, I sat in my living room. Her death had accelerated my plans, I was going to leave that night, before anyone else could get hurt. I knew that the burglaries were professional, high school kids don't use silenced 9mm's and that's what the sergeant told me was the probable weapon.

Not wanting to be next, I called Bert and asked for a favor. Bert's uncle ran the local army surplus store which had most of the items on my list. I quietly offered Bert a few hundred dollars in cash to let me have a "private shopping spree" in his uncle's store. Bert, a true friend, wanted to help but thought that I might be trying to run away from my grief over Lucy's death. He agreed to help and talked me into stopping by Andrea's on the way to the store.

When we got there, I found that Bert had assembled the whole gang to show their support. Andrea, Sue, and Ernie all tried to console me, offering tea and sympathy for my loss. I was touched and ashamed that I had once used mind control on these people. I told them the story of the lab, focusing on the time machine and barely mentioning the other devices. Looking at their faces I could tell they didn't really believe me, but I pushed on and told them my plans to hide in my cousin's cabin while I studied the diaries.

My theory was that Brantwell traveled from whatever world he was on to Mountain View, discovered that I had found his lab, and then tried to stop me. Once I could find the machine, I could find Brantwell and discover who killed Lucy. The rest was pure revenge. None of it would have stood up to close scrutiny. Brantwell would be over ninety by now. The others were now completely skeptical of my sanity. All except Ernie.

She said that, based on my description if the time machine, she might know where it was hidden. She had moved a lot of crates around the bunker complex warehouses as a forklift driver and she remembered some large cubes in the back of one level. The large packing crates had been too big and heavy to lift. At the time, she'd been told to let them be. I guess that the company was searching for the MC Device, something small. I still don't know whether my friends decided to look in the warehouse to humor me or because they believed me. I'm not sure it mattered.