The Didymus Contingency by Jeremy Robinson Read Free Book Online

additional time-space distortions,” explained Spencer.
    “Meaning?” Sally asked.
    “Meaning two or three people—” David said.
    “Or objects,” Spencer added.
    “—traveled through time in that room at roughly the same time,” David finished.
    “How is that possible?” Sally asked, “All but two of the watches are accounted for and you still have yours, right?”
    David removed the watch from his pocket and held it up for Sally. “Which means someone or something transported into the room and then back out after the first watch went missing.”
    “Is anything else from the room missing?” Sally asked Spencer.
    “We already compiled an inventory. Absolutely nothing, other than the one watch and the unfortunate chair, is missing,” Spencer said with unusual confidence.
    “What about added?” David asked. “Was anything added? Maybe our future selves sent something else back?”
    “We would have found that during the inventory,” Spencer said. “Nothing inside the room has changed. But…”
    David’s impatience grew. “What?”
    “Perhaps the monitoring equipment is flawed?” Spencer said, looking a little uncomfortable at suggesting such a thing. “This is, after all, the first time we’ve monitored space-time distortions. What if what we’re seeing is, for lack of a better term, ripples?”
    “Like aftershocks?” David asked.
    Spencer smiled with relief. “Exactly! What if the second and third distortions we detected were simply aftershocks, or ripples, created by the first?”
    “It’s possible,” David said. “That might make sense, but we should keep an eye out for the phenomenon in the future, just in case it repeats.”
    “Good,” Sally said, the subject put to rest for the moment.
    David patted Spencer on the shoulder and said, “Good work, Spence.”
    “Thanks, David. See you in the past,” Spencer said as he hustled away.
    See you in the past?
    “David, what are your thoughts?” Sally asked.
    David’s mind left his thoughts about Spencer’s odd comment and focused on their predicament “My best guess,” David said, “is that it’s either a side effect from the all the time distortions created in the last day or our future selves adding or subtracting from what they sent back. If it wasn’t from an internal source, then there’s nothing we can do about it anyway. I suggest we focus our efforts primarily on the problem at hand.”
    “Agreed, but I want another inventory done, just in case something was missed,” Sally said as they entered Receiving Room Alpha, which was swarming with guards.
    David scurried to the eight remaining watches, resting on a table. He picked one up and glanced over it. “Good, they’re identical. I still might be able to catch him,” he said without thinking.
    “Catch who?” Sally demanded, “And how on God’s green Earth can we find were ‘he’ went?”
    David put the watch down and pulled out the one from his pocket. He strapped the watch to his wrist and looked up at Sally, “Because I know where and when he went. And since the watches are identical and most likely function similarly, I’m sure he could have—”
    “David, for the last time…who?”
    David paused. Should he tell her? Would she still trust him after knowing the truth? David’s honesty won out, “Dr. Greenbaum… Tom went back.”
    Sally cocked her head sideways, apparently confused. “What? Why would he?” she asked.
    “It’s a long story,” David said, “I don’t have time to explain and I’m going to need a few things.”
    David began mentally preparing for the ordeal, which he knew was his to face alone. It had been years since he held a conversation in his native Hebrew tongue, let alone his school-learned Greek and Aramaic. Thank God they were required learning throughout his years at private Israeli schools. He feared Tom would be even worse off. He began making a mental list of items he would need: Authentic clothing could be created.