Chapter 6

Todd woke up with a splitting headache. He knew he had been drinking too much the night before, but they were celebrating their first victory after a week's worth of work. Sake hangovers are something to be avoided at all cost, if possible. Sarah had been drinking as well, but she was smart enough to stick with beer, saying something about being allergic to rice. Todd knew better, but didn't let her secret out. He was seriously thinking of using that excuse in the future.

He pulled himself to a sitting position in bed and immediately regretted it. The world spun and he lost focus for a moment before it settled down again. A few deep breaths and he launched himself to the washroom just in time to dry heave into the toilet. It was a debate on a shower first or brushing his teeth, but the bad taste in his mouth tipped the balance. After he was dressed and had something for the headache he headed to the medical center and his office. There was still a lot of work to be done, but he had learned long ago that it helps to celebrate the victories as they come.

As he opened the door he saw Sarah sitting at the desk with a smile on her face. "Good morning, sleepy head," she said with a grin. "How's your head today?"

"Please, not so loud!" Todd held his head. "I don't think the pills have kicked in yet. You look like you're in a good mood." It wasn't the first time that Todd wondered how such a small woman could drink so much and not feel it the next day. She may have been drinking beer, but she had been keeping pace with Tetsuo, Kaito and himself all night long.

"Well here's a bit of good news for you," she said, handing him a tablet with a report on it. "Looks like the wee girl woke up early this morning. She was up for over an hour before falling asleep again."

Todd looked at the report from the people monitoring Alice. Along with all the medical details it indicated that she had woken up some time around four and had even asked for something to drink before falling asleep again. "Does Tetsuo know about this?" he asked her.

"Aye, he's in the observation room now," she told him. "I heard that he was in with her for a while before she fell asleep. I think he's waiting for her to wake up again."

"Well, I don't want to disturb him right now. I want to get started on the next step. Then I'll see about going in and seeing how things are."

"What do you mean? I thought that we just needed to control her ability to generate the portals?" Sarah asked a little confused.

"That's true," explained Todd. "But I have this feeling that she may find another energy source now that we've cut off the one she's been using."

"I dinnae know what else could provide that amount of power," Sarah said a bit skeptically.

"Still, I don't feel comfortable only stopping access to the power. I also want to be able to stop her from generating them if she finds some other source of energy."

Todd and Sarah started discussing the information that he had found on portals and his theories on how they functioned. They had an incredible amount of data on the portals that Alice had created over the past week as well as some information from Tetsuo's portals. The two types of portals had a slight difference, but were effectively created the same way. If more people who had this ability were available to be studied, it might be possible to determine if these differences could be used as a signature for the portal creator, or if this was something completely different.

By the time they were ready to break for lunch the two of them had a good idea on the direction they would go to control, or at least contain, the creation of the portals. With the data that they had gathered, it looked like it would be possible to disrupt the N dimensional pattern that was being created which allowed the portal to fold space. Todd also thought that a short break for lunch would be a good idea before he got too deep into the design of the equipment.

As they walked out of the room, they headed towards the observation room to check in on Alice. Entering the small room, they saw Tetsuo sitting at the end of the bed in the girl's room talking to her. She was propped up by pillows in her bed hugging a large stuffed bear. A string of origami cranes had been created and now decorated the walls of the room. A small plate of food was pushed to the side of the tray near her bed. Most of it hadn't been touched. It looked as though she had been crying for some time and that Tetsuo had been trying to comfort her.

Neither Sarah nor Todd wanted to intrude on their conversation, so they nodded to Tetsuo and left the room again. Before the door completely closed behind them, Todd heard Alice ask Tetsuo in Japanese, "Who were they, Oji?"

Todd smiled as he and Sarah entered the elevator. He was still smiling as they sat in the small restaurant and ordered their meals. Sarah's curiosity finally got to her and asking, "What are you smiling about?"

"As we were leaving the observation room, I heard Alice call Tetsuo, Uncle," he explained. "No wonder he's been so involved in all of this."

Sarah looked at Todd with a puzzled expression and asked, "I thought that he was an only child?"

"I don't know, but that's what I heard," he stated. After eating they returned to the office to get back to work. They were both surprised to see Tetsuo sitting in one of the chairs as they opened the door to the office.

He stood as they came in and bowed slightly before saying, "Todd, may I have a moment of your time?"

Sarah turned to Todd, saying, "I need to get a report. I'll be back in a few minutes." She stepped out of the office again while Todd walked over to the desk.

"How can I help you?" he asked Tetsuo as they both sat at the desk.