Lost in time

Chapter 8

The first run wasn’t the huge success Max had hoped for, and he paced his office trying to figure out where in the calculation they could have gone wrong and what else they could use as a power source.

His phone rings and he doesn’t look at the screen, simply answering it. It can only be his sister that calls him at this time of the night.

“Yes, Sophia?”

“Max! There is someone…”

Her voice sounds panicked, and he immediately pays attention to her call, but no matter how many times he calls out to her, all he hears is a scream and breaking glass before the line dies.

***

How could he betray her brother?! The moment she saw his eyes, she knew exactly who had taken her.

Bernard…

“Now, now, play along, and you won’t get hurt.” He whispers in her ear before smashing her cell phone.

Dragging her out of her townhouse and into a van parked in front of her garden, ready and waiting. It pulls away the moment the door closes and a bag is put over her head, so she can’t see where they are going.

“Why are you doing this?!”

“Don’t play stupid, Sophia. You know why. That secret project you and Max have been working on is the ultimate way of treasure hunting. I want the machine, and the only way to get Max to deliver it would be if he feared for your life.”

The next moment she feels a stinging pain in her head, and everything goes dark.

***

He storms into her house. The front door is open, and as he rushes through the townhouse, the only clue he can find is her bedroom lamp that is shattered on her floor. The police arrive, and they move in.

Max fights to stay calm and explains what happened, but it feels as if they were moving so slow! Why aren’t they rushing out to go and look for her? Asking him the same questions over and over until he is ready to lose it. His attorney arrives and not long after the director shows up.

“Have you received any demands?”

“No.” He growls at the man who not only basically stole his project but is now interested in why his sister disappeared.

Could they know something? His phone rings and Bernard’s name shows on the screen.

“I’m sorry, Bernard. I can’t talk right now.” He impatiently answers.

“Max? Max, he wants the machine, or he is going to kill me.” He hears Sophia’s voice and the wheels in his brain start turning.

“Bernard! If you hurt her!”

“Now, now, Max. I won’t hurt the lovely Sophia as long as you do what I say. See, see, I was going to steal the machine from your lab, then you had to go and move it to a government department.” Max hears the sound of a car door sliding open.

“Now, Maxie boy, I want you to build me a machine, or you will never see Sophia again.”

The director’s phone rings and Max looks up seeing him step outside.

“Bernard… The machine doesn’t work. They will lock you up and throw away the key!” He says through gritted teeth.

The director comes walking into the townhouse, and Max hears him telling his attorney that they have to get to the lab immediately, his fear is confirmed.

“It works, Maxie boy. Don’t try to track us. I will contact you. Build my machine.” The line dies, and Max looks at the director.

“We don’t know how they got in, Max.” He looks stunned.

“If you had just listened to me, my sister would still be here!” He rushes out of the house, jumping in his car, and drives to the government warehouse. Lights are flashing everywhere with ambulances arriving and people injured. From what Max can see, his so-called friend used the money he sent him to buy his own personal army. They simply rammed the gate and opened fire.

Dragging Sophia into the lab, and with their own power supply that is now destroyed, started the wheel. It can’t be possible. He couldn’t have disappeared with her through time. Max and Sophia had been working on the machine and the formula for years. Bernard couldn’t possibly have found a power source and started the machine.

Jumping behind his computer to try and find any kind of trace to where they went, he finds only empty folders. He storms the men that had been caught and start asking them what they did to the machine. None of them are talking. Rushing back to his workstation, he tries to find something, anything that can give him a clue as to what happened, but nothing.

***

Mischief presses the green button, but nothing happens.

“Oh, I forgot an important part.” Uncle Jack remembers and walks into his house before returning with a crystal.

“You will need this to reflect the light for the power source or it won’t work.” He smiles, clipping it into place.

Magenta takes a deep breath, praying his make-shift power source will work. She gives Mischief a nod, and Mischief presses the green button.

The power source starts humming and the crystal starts to glow. Then the wheel slowly starts to light upon the different energy points, before an energy field starts to form in the middle. It grows quickly and touches the sides.

All of them were standing there looking at the black hole in space and time that just opened thanks to a crystal. It lasts for about two minutes before shutting down.

“It worked,” Mayhem says looking stunned.

“It actually worked!!” Mischief shouts and the three young girls rush together in a huge group hug, rushing over to Uncle Jack to hug him.

Magenta stands looking at the machine with her jaw dropped. It actually works. They can finally go back and look for their father. As soon as they figure out how to get back once you are on that side…

But first, they have to find a power source strong enough to hold the connection open for longer than a couple of minutes. She turns to look at her sisters and uncle Jack. If it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t have been able to get the machine to work.

She walks over and hugs him in thanks.

“Don’t worry, you will be working double-time to pay for all this.” He waves at the warehouse, making them laugh.

They go inside and have a drink, discussing all the different possibilities of what this could mean for them until it’s time to go home.

***

Early the next morning the girls are out of the house and on their way to the shop. The more time they can spend on researching and getting the machine running, the sooner they can start looking for their dad.

“Good morning, girls.” Uncle Jack greets them when he hears the bell ring.

“Good morning, uncle Jack.” They chime in unison, making their way behind the counter.

Their mom was very happy to hear that Magenta had found a job, and the girls were allowed to go with her. Since the machine had disappeared out of the apartment, she didn’t ask any questions, and when the girls gave her the broach for her birthday, she just mentioned that she appreciated their sacrifice.

She didn’t know about the girls scavenging or that they were still working on the machine, which in the end worked out better for everyone.

Unfortunately, the crystal was completely burnt out, meaning their power source was depleted. They needed to find another crystal. Uncle Jack had small chards, and they tried using them, but none of them were big enough to carry the power required. After spending the day trying to figure it out, they all go home tired but happy.

They arrived back home just in time to make dinner before their mom got home, and when she asked how their day went, everyone smiled.

How do you tell your mom that you have this big secret that you are hiding from her, but that it makes you incredibly happy? Having discussed it during the day, they tell her how they cleaned the shop and how much work they still have to do.

She sounds interested, and they spend dinner laughing and talking as they haven’t done in a while. After dinner, they all help clean up, and when the girls and her mom go to their rooms. Magenta pulls out her father’s old notes to see if she can find anything that can help her find a power source before finally falling asleep.

***

Max spends all night working with the government scientists and his own to get the machine working again so he can find his sister. The director has the men locked up that work with Bernard, and they are trying their best to get information out of them, but they aren’t talking.

In the meantime, he is losing his patience. He thought Bernard was his friend. He thought he could count on him! How is he supposed to build Bernard a machine when the government now owns everything he has on it?

“We don’t negotiate with terrorists.” He hears the director saying over the phone while he is talking to someone, pacing the floor behind him.

“Unless they can change the time,” Max says out loud enough for him to hear.

“What?” He tells the person on the other side of the line to hold on.

“What are you talking about?”

“I would have thought you would realize it. This man has gone back in time with the only other scientist that can build this machine. Imagine what he can do if my sister helps him build this machine fifty years in the past…” He waits for it to sink in.

“Imagine the changes he can make in time.”

Max sees the realization in the director’s eyes before he walks away continuing his conversation.

No matter what he tries, the machine won’t start. The programs aren’t running right. It’s as if the calculations are all wrong… He finally starts from the beginning, working out each step and recalculating and recalibrating everything on the machine.

“This is taking a long time. I would have thought…” The director walks in, and Max realizes it’s dark outside.

“It will take even longer if you interrupt me. This is years of work that for some inexplicable reason isn’t working as it should. Bernard must have done something to the settings before he left.”

“And here I was thinking you were the brains behind the project. We should have protected your sister better.”

“Excuse me!” Max storms him, grabbing him by his shirt collar, angrier than he has ever felt.

“You have no idea what you are talking about. If you hadn’t insisted, we move the project, she might still be here, and Bernard would be the one in lock-up!”

“Well, I guess we will never know. Better get this machine running. We are waiting for the results. Oh, and Max, you better hope that your friend doesn’t change anything in the past, or it will be on your head.”

He turns on his heel and leaves the warehouse with his guards at his sides. Max grabs the keyboard and throws it at the first thing he can aim at. It shatters into pieces, and he burst out laughing. If they use this bad quality of keyboards… They would never have been able to protect his sister from Bernard, even if they had extra security! They couldn’t even protect the machine!

Turning around to look at his workstation, he sweeps all the screens from his table in anger. He can’t work like this. He needs his one station to control everything from! The moment he starts, making changes to the connections, the government scientists start asking questions, he isn’t in the mood to answer, and he ignores them. Ripping out cables and connecting them to his station, he starts reworking the calculations.

If he is ever going to find his sister, he needs to see everything working together as one…