Part VII

Max and Jade watch Jessica’s taxi pull away from the curb and drive toward the museum.

Max opens the door for Jade and follows her into the taxi. "OK my good man to my home, please." He leans over and whispers to Jade "They recognized me so I played along. We, my companions and myself, have found sometimes it helps."

Jade looks at him with suspicion, but Max doesn’t seem to notice.

The rest of the drive is made in silence. The driver pulls up in front of a very nice home. Max pays the taxi driver and walks up the driveway. Instead of heading for the front door Jade notices Max walks all the way around to the back of the house. She hurries to keep up with him. Max goes right to the back door.

"What happened here?" She points to the broken window.

"I believe that is how Mr. Mallory, Mr. Brown, and Miss Welles gained entry to the house. I found it like this when I arrived back at the house." Max tells her.

Jade looks at him with suspicion. "What do you mean back? You told Jess that you had been held for two weeks here. Were you lying to us."

"No, my dear. I only escaped the morning of the slide. I chained my double in the basement, and took the timer. Then I went looking for Quinn and the others, and when I could not locate them I came back here. I was hoping they would come here looking for either me, or the timer and they did. Unfortunately, they found my double in the basement first, and were unable to distinguish which of us was the real me. My double knocked me out, and left with them to Quinn’s doubles home. I came to and followed. Where our struggle continued as I told you both before, and the rest you know." Max opens the door and goes to his doubles study. "His computer should be in here." He turns on the light as he enters.

Jade has closely followed him to the study. She is thinking more and more that her suspicions are correct about him. That she should not trust this Professor anymore than they would trust the double from this realm. Most Arturos are the same she feels. Always looking for a way to take credit or advance his standing in the Scientific Community. To get the fame, recognition, and fortune that he feels he deserves and should have gotten. If only Quinn Mallory hadn’t gotten in his way. Jade knows this from past experiences with other Arturos on other realms. Yes their Maximilliam had been different on their realm, but they had not met another like him yet.

Max is right. There is a computer on the desk. He goes to it and powers it up. Almost immediately a password box appears. "Jade it is password protected. Is there anything you can do? I’m not real good on these contraptions. Wade was always the one that handled computers for us."

"I can find the password with the tracker." She takes the tracker out of her pouch, and goes over to the computer. She examines the slot on the hard drive unit. She pops the appropriate connected disk out the side of the tracker, and inserts it into the disk drive. She uses the tracker to retrieve the password. Jade then quickly begins downloading all the information on Professor Arturo’s computer. "Look around Professor see if you can see anything else concerning sliding. See if there are any notebooks, diskettes, anything we don’t want to leave behind. Anything that can help someone else find a way to slide."

Max begins looking around the already ransacked room. "It does appear that someone else has already made a search of the room."

"Yeah I noticed that also." Jade says without looking up. The computer download has already finished and Jade has started downloading Internet information.

Max has moved over to the desk and has started looking through the drawers. "Nothing, either he keeps everything at the University or he has hidden everything." Frustrated Max stops and takes a deep breath. Then he goes around and moves a big winged back chair in front of the desk placing the back toward the door and sits down. He starts fiddling with the pair of glasses on the desk.

"I didn’t know you wore glasses Professor." Jade says to Max.

"I do but only occasionally, but I certainly don’t wear bifocals." He shows them to Jade.

Jade looks at them briefly and puts them back on the desk. "Got it." Jade says as the download completes. She then reaches around and unplugs the modem from the computer and punches up the virus program Jessica told her to leave. She then loads it on to the computer. "You didn’t see anything around here about sliding right Professor?"

"No nothing. We should make a search of his office at the University. Shall we go meet Jessica." Max suggests.

"Yeah, it’s early but if I know Jess she is already on her way there herself." Jade says.

Jade unplugs the tracker, and by the time she has powered down the computer all information has been erased. Jade stands and prepares to put the tracker back when her attention is drawn to the door. A woman Jade does not know is standing at the door with a gun pointing at her.

Max’ back is still to the door, but has noticed Jade starring at the door. He hears a familiar voice behind him and stays where he is sitting.

"Don’t move Miss if you know what is good for you." She steps a couple of steps in and continues. "What are you doing in Professor Arturo’s study?"

Jade tries to slowly place the tracker in her pouch. "I’m a friend of the Professors. He asked me to come over."

"Stop! Whatever that is place it on the desk and back up." The woman says angrily. "I’m sure Professor Arturo would have told me that someone else would be joining us." She steps to the desk and looks at the tracker there on the desk. Her eyes quickly dart from Jade to the tracker. She has the gun aimed directly at Jade, and has not noticed Max sitting perfectly still in his chair. The woman reaches down and picks up the tracker, and examines it.

"Back up and stand still, What is this thing?" She questions Jade. While she is looking at the tracker Jade slowly reaches down to her jeans pocket. Miss Vondrake sees the movement and backhands Jade across the face giving Jade a bloody lip. "I told you to stand still." She spats at Jade. "Now what is this thing?"

From behind the woman, Max bellows angrily at her. "That my dear Miss Vondrake is not for you to be questioning right now." Miss Vondrake jumps, and is visible shaken by Max’ sudden burst of revealing his presence. She steps back from the desk almost dropping the tracker. "Please place that back on the desk, it is a sensitive piece of equipment."

Max waits for her to set the tracker down. "Now what is the meaning of this rather rude behavior of yours? Do you really believe that a gun was necessary for our meeting this afternoon?" Max pauses waiting for Miss Vondrake to answer his questions.

She stammers to answer him. "I … but Professor … the door window was broken. I wasn’t really sure what or who to expect was in here. And when I saw her here in the study, I was worried that something had gone wrong." She pauses a moment to compose herself. "It’s just after everything that has happened these last two weeks. I wasn’t sure, and you told me to be careful that those people were dangerous."

"They WERE dangerous Miss Vondrake, those four individuals slid from our world last night." Jade’s attention snaps to the Professor. Max reaches down and picks up the tracker, and moves over next to Miss Vondrake. "My double escaped yesterday and slid with his companions. Taking the functioning timer with them, and even with the schematics I not sure I can get a timer working properly. Fortunately Jade’s companion Jessica slid in and rescued me believing that I was the other Professor. And now with this lovely device, I do believe I shall yet get my Nobel Prize."

Jade’s look of surprise has turned to anger. She glares at Max. "You lied to us. You used us to get back here and get what you thought you deserved. You are actually what I thought you were a lying, scheming bastard. I told Jess not to trust you. I knew you weren’t anything like Maximilliam."

"Ah, yes I got that feeling from you Ms. Mallory. Now shut up." Max turns and addresses Miss Vondrake. "Now how is everything proceeding, and please keep the gun on our guest for the moment." Max has put on the glasses and turns his back to Jade. He begins fiddling with and examining the tracker waiting for Miss Vondrake to update him.

"I paid off and dismissed the men we hired. I went to the museum to retrieve the notebook like you asked, but we have a minor problem there. They won’t release it to anyone but you. All other physical evidence has been destroyed. Everything has been placed on disks like you asked. I just have to go to the office and erase everything from your computer, and then we are ready to leave." She glances over her shoulder to look at the tracker Max is fiddling with.

Jade uses the distraction to reach down to her pocket to press the 911 button on her pager. Which will alert Jessica of the trouble Jade is in. Miss Vondrake’s attention comes back to Jade. "Hands away from your pockets lady." She then asks the Professor. "Do you think you can figure out how to use that thing?"

"Yes Miss Vondrake I do believe I will be able to. Now where are those disks?" Max asks her.

"Here in my bag. I was hoping to have the notebook. So that the only thing we had left to do was erase the computer." She points to Jade. "What are we going to do with her? Do you want her chained up in the basement like your double was?" She asks smiling at Jade.

Max places the tracker in his jacket pocket, takes off the glasses and turns and looks at Jade smiling. "No Miss Vondrake I believe I will take care of her myself. Would you mind loaning me your gun?" Max asks her.

Jade reaches her right hand over to her left forearm. "No Ms. Mallory. Hands at your sides please." Jade reluctantly complies.

Miss Vondrake pauses a moment then hands him the gun. "You can’t possible be thinking of shooting her here Professor?"

"Now hand me your bag Miss Vondrake." Max commands her.

"You want me to tie her up, so we can move her to another location. Miss Vondrake says smiling. She turns to hand her bag to Max. When she sees the look of contempt on his face. Her smile dissolves to shock. Max reaches and takes the bag from her hand before she can recover.

"Who said anything about shooting her. I said I would take care of her, and I plan on doing that very shortly. Now stay where you are." Max turns and points the gun at Miss Vondrake. With his other hand he holds the bag out to Jade. "Ms. Mallory check her bag for the disks and anything else concerning sliding."

"But Professor Arturo we are in this together. Are you telling me that you are working with this woman now?" Miss Vondrake’s look of shock quickly turns to anger.

"No, Miss Vondrake, we were never in this together. Your partnership with Professor Arturo ended when he slid with my companions, and left me stranded here. Now your Professor Arturo is randomly sliding from world to world with my friends." Max says angrily.

"You actually had me for a moment there, Professor. I thought for sure that you were either this realms Arturo or had decided to take advantage of the situation here." Jade says.

"My dear Jade, was what we have come to call thinking on your feet. You have to take advantage of any given situation. We found out what we needed to know. Besides I couldn’t let anything happen to either you or Jessica." He smiles at Jade.

Jade shakes her head and takes the bag from Max. She empties all the contents on to the desk. She rummages through and finds the disks and a non-functioning timer. She holds both up to show Max. "Looks like these are it. We need to make sure Jessica has gotten that notebook. Speaking of Jess, she should be here at any moment. I sent her a 911 page."

"I had a feeling that’s what you were doing when she caught your hand in you pocket." Max says. "Now what shall we do with Miss Vondrake here. We can’t very well take her with us."

Jade places the disks and timer in her pouch. Then she walks over to Miss Vondrake, and punches her, knocking her out cold. "That was for my bloody lip." Jade looks up at Max. "Problem solved let’s go. Jessica should be here by now."

The two leave the study and walk back out the back door. They are just coming around the front when Jessica pulls up in a taxi. Jessica pays the driver and sprints up the driveway to them.

"Are you two all right? I was worried." Jade says.

"We are fine now Jess. Professor … I mean Max had the situation under control the whole time." Jade says smiling. "Now we need to go to the university to erase all the information on Professor Arturo’s computer. Oh and did you happen to get a notebook from the museum?"

Jessica looks from Max to Jade and back with a puzzled look. "What happened here? And how did you know about the notebook?" She questions.

"We shall discuss that later. We should find a taxi." Max says moving toward the street.

"No we don’t." Jessica says. Max stops and comes back to her and Jade. "I’ve already been to the museum and got the notebook and taken care of the computer at the university. We actually need to get home right away." Jessica takes out the Bio-Scanner and walks toward the back. "I checked in with Dad and work called." Max and Jade follows her around back.

"Sorry about the shopping trip Max maybe tomorrow." Jade says.

Jessica opens a portal and jumps in followed quickly by Jade. Max stops a moment and looks up. "Where ever you are my friends, I hope you are safe." Then he jumps in and follows the ladies back to Terra Prime.

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