Chapter 15

I became David Smith and jumped to my office in Atlanta. I got there about midnight, local time. I needed to find and copy the ledger for one of the drug ring's Atlanta big dogs. I had names and addresses, but it would probably take me a ridiculous amount of time to find my way around. I needed local help. I jumped back to about 3:00 PM, local time, and asked Alice to come into my office. I asked if she would help with the investigation of the drug ring I was working on. She agreed, but turned very enthusiastic when I told her of the school connection.

I explained that I had names and addresses of people I wanted to investigate, but it would take me hours to find them because I was not familiar with Atlanta. I had a map of Atlanta, but I needed her help in narrowing down the search. I coached her through a POV session and she picked up quickly on what I needed her to do. I gave her a name and address and asked her to find him while I made a quick trip.

I jumped to Brenda's location and asked if she wanted to join the search; naturally, she did. Together, we jumped to my Atlanta office to the time just after I had left Alice. I introduced the two and explained to Brenda why I had Alice helping me. Brenda suggested that we jump back to the nighttime to see what we could find. Alice agreed to work the "overtime," and we jumped to just after I had left.

Alice resumed her search and quickly found the man we were looking for. He was sitting in his home-office looking over a ledger. How lucky could we get? We all used POV to look over his shoulder to read what he was looking at. It was a record of drug income from various southern states. That was just what I needed for my visit to the FBI tomorrow. We jumped ahead in very short jumps to see where he kept the ledger. He put it in a safe and left the room, headed for bed.

I TPed us and the ledger to the EU office and copied the relevant pages from the ledger. I returned the ledger to the safe and invited the two ladies into the living room for coffee. Over coffee, Brenda and I explained to Alice just where we were and why I used this place for a secure office. I told Alice that I would show her how to use the computer and the other stuff, if she was interested. Alice was really impressed when I told her that the computers and other stuff were from the future and had to be kept secret. We talked for a bit longer and then returned to Alice's "real time" at the office.

I offered Alice the use of a room at the EU house as a hideaway, if she wanted it. She promised to let me know. Meanwhile, it was time for one of her soap operas!

Brenda jumped home and I picked up the ledger copies and jumped to the FBI office at 9:30 AM tomorrow. I walked in and asked for agents Jones and Williams, as I had an appointment. The receptionist dialed a number and talked for a few moments and hung up. She asked me to wait; someone would be out to escort me.

I had hardly sat down when Agent Jones walked up to me a put out his hand. I greeted him and he led me to a meeting room where Agent Williams was waiting. After the usual greetings and small talk over coffee, I produced the latest copies from the ledger I had taken last night. To quote Agent Williams, "These were not dynamite, they were atomic bombs!" Again, I was asked how I had gotten them, and, again, I refused to answer.

Agent Williams said, "Mr. Smith, we believe you, but how will we convince our superiors and, more importantly, the courts that these numbers are genuine?"

"Will photographs of these men holding these ledgers with the pages visible be sufficient evidence for your superiors and the courts? When the time comes to make arrests, we can then get the actual ledgers."

"That certainly should be enough to get the ball rolling, at least. When can we have the pictures?"

"I don't know how quickly I can get a full set of pictures, but one or two should be available in the next few days. Is that good enough?"

"That will probably be enough to get us started. Let's try, anyway."

"Very well! I'll leave these copies with you, for now. May I leave, now? I have a lot to do."

I TPed back to my office and warned Alice that she would probably get one or more visits from the FBI. I asked her to cooperate fully with them, except that she must not mention the ESP.

I decided to add a closet/dressing room to my office so that I could change identities there, rather than having to jump somewhere else to make the change. Lacking that for now, I jumped to the EU house and grabbed a quick nap, followed by changing to Bruce's body before jumping to meet my school obligation.

After school, I decided that I had better spend some time with Mother and Dad, so I jumped home and found Mother in the living room listening to her soap operas. I kissed her on the cheek and sat down beside her. During the commercials, she said that she was glad to see me and she hoped that I would stay around long enough to see Dad. She grinned and said that they both wondered if I had moved away, permanently. I laughed and said, "Not yet!"

After the soap operas were over for the day, I asked Mother how her stocks were doing. She said that she was doing very well. Now that she was comfortable with the computer, she was able to use it, along with the 10-years-from-now Wall Street Journal to keep a steady growth in her portfolio. I asked her to make a list of stocks to recommend to Brenda's family. I would use her list to compare with the Wall Street Journal from her universe to see if the stocks were acting the same. I would cull those that were not and suggest that they invest in the rest.

I said that I would also need a lot of money pretty soon and I would appreciate her working up a list of stocks for me to invest in. Mother pointed out that the original investment had been mine and I should be the owner of all the stocks that were now in her name. I said that I wanted her to have all those stocks and I wanted her to start a new set for me. She raised an eyebrow at that, but agreed to do it.

We talked about a lot of trivial things after that until Dad came home. Mother got up to start supper and Dad and I talked about this and that. During supper, I brought them up to date on my drug investigation in the FU. They both laughed hard at Brenda's trick of substituting paper for marijuana and flour for heroin.

Dad thought that I had made a good start toward building up a history for David Smith, but I still had a lot to do. For one thing, he would have been in the military and that was one of the first places the FBI would look. Oops! I had forgotten all about that! I would have to put him in the Army in WWII. That would be hard, but I would start work on it immediately.

Mother asked if he had a driver's license. Another goof! I had to get him an Alabama license right away. Dad had already taught me how to drive and I was just waiting for my 16th birthday to take the test, so I could assume the David Smith persona and get tested immediately. That was an easy problem to solve, thank goodness!

I excused myself and jumped to EU to change to the 30-year-old David Smith persona. I then jumped to the testing place in the court house on the day of a test 6 weeks ago. I took the test and paid my fee. I got a temporary license and gave my parents address as my address. Afterwards, I jumped back to EU to change back to Bruce and then home a moment after I had left. I asked Mother if a license for David Smith had come in the last few weeks. She said that it had, but she held it until I asked for it to prevent any possible paradoxes. That's why she had brought it up tonight. I thanked her and kissed her cheek. Tomorrow, I would switch the paperwork around to make sure that the license was valid in FU.

That night, after I went to bed, I realized that I had made another error in judgment! David Smith was about 5 years too old! If I wanted him to enlist in 1943 at age 18, then he would have to be born in 1925. I had been giving out 1920 as his birth year, so I had to make a few changes in some paperwork, mostly related to the driver's license. I didn't want to forget, so I jumped to the EU office and TPed all the driver's license paperwork from MU, as well as sample forms from FU. The two sets of forms looked identical, so I just had to make the necessary minor changes in the date and the serial number by TKing the ink. Once this was done, I put my forms in the proper place in the FU files and shut down for the night.

The next day, I contrived during lunch to use mind-speak to discuss the David Smith and the Army time with Brenda. I told her that I planned to jump back to 1943 and enlist as David Smith. That was the only way I could think of to cover myself for the anticipated FBI probe. She was appalled, but agreed that the trip was necessary. I pointed out that, since I was immortal, the three years or so that I spent in the Army were trivial. Furthermore, if I jumped back right now and returned to this same time, she would never notice that I had been missing. She had to agree with that, too, so she gave her blessing to my adventure, provided I promised to keep my body armor up at all times. I promised and we sealed the bargain with a kiss.

I decided to jump right then, before I got cold feet. After I was honorably discharged, with the rank of master sergeant, I jumped back to Brenda only a moment after I had left. She didn't even notice that I had left! However, it didn't take her long to see a change in me, a greater maturity in my attitude, I supposed. I told her what had happened and she just stared at me.

I did say that I would fix the other gaps in David Smith's life the same way, but that was the last time I'd leave her for that long. Even though the time was too short for her to notice, it was 3 years for me and I really missed her. That also got me a kiss!

That evening at supper, we discussed our plans for after highschool. Brenda wanted to become a doctor, either a general practitioner or a pediatrician. I said that I wanted to take business administration at Auburn and then, possibly law. I still wanted to be an investigator, the way I was trying to set up David Smith. Both of these ambitions were subject to change in detail, but we both knew what we wanted to do with our lives in broad scope. We both also realized that we had plenty of time to study whatever we pleased and whenever we pleased. And, with enough money, wherever we pleased.