Read The Didymus Contingency for Free Online Page B

involved.”
    “You’re drunk!” David shouted, “You can’t drive!”
    “You can’t stop me, David.”
    “Give me the keys.”
    “Goodbye, David.”
    “Give me the keys, now.”
    “See you around.”
    “What are you going to do?”
    Tom was finished with the conversation and slammed his foot on the gas. The SUV peeled off, leaving David to choke on a cloud of dust. David coughed as he chased after Tom, yelling, “Wait! What are you going to do?”
    David stopped running in the middle of the road and caught his breath. He mentally sifted through all the possibilities Tom’s drunken mind could be considering. He thought about what Tom had said. Where would he go? What event would he witness?
    David opened his palm, looked at the heavy metallic watch and found the answer. They had unlocked the door to the past and Tom was going to step through and face the man he blamed for his pain.
    David’s face contorted into sheer panic and he said aloud, “No… Oh no, Tom…”
    He smashed through the doors of Peggy’s Porker Palace. “Help! Somebody help me! I need a ride!” David shouted. A room full of slovenly, bibbed truckers stared at David, annoyed by the disturbance to their feast. David met their eyes and knew he was going nowhere fast.

    *   *   *   *   *

    A dark blue Chevy pickup with bull horns tied to the front stopped amid a cloud of dirt only ten feet from the inconspicuous shed in the middle of nowhere. David flung the door open and jumped out.
    “Thanks,” he said to Betty, the waitress who had used her smoke break to drive the frantic David to God-knows-where for God-knows-what. Betty leaned out the window and spat, “Sure this is where you wanna be? Ain’t nothin out here.”
    David smiled and nodded his head, anxious for the woman to leave, “Yes, I’m positive. Thank you again for the ride.”
    “All right,” Betty said with one eyebrow perched high on her forehead, “It’s your walk back.”
    David watched as Betty spun her tires, sending the truck into a quick one-eighty spin. She disappeared into the darkness, speeding through the night, country music blaring. As soon as she was out of sight, David ran into the shack like a child whose bladder was overflowing. The green laser dropped from the ceiling and scanned David’s head.
    Once David reached the parking level floor, Fred greeted him. “Salutations, Dr. Goodman. What are you two doing here this late?”
    “When did Dr. Greenbaum arrive?” David asked.
    “He came through not twenty minutes ago. Didn’t quite seem himself though. Nearly ran me over.”
    “Maybe I’m not too late,” said David to himself.
    “To late for what?” asked Fred.
    Waaooh! An alarm sounded throughout the complex, so shockingly loud that David and Fred had to cover their ears. Red lights flashed on every wall. Just as quickly, the noise of the alarm disappeared, but the light remained. David knew he was too late.
    David entered the control center and was met by raw chaos. Scientists were running in every direction attempting to make sense of what had happened. Armed guards lined the walls and aisles watching for anything out of the ordinary, which was everything as far as David could see. Sally was at the center of it all, giving orders to every soul in the room like a general in the trenches.
    Her eyes caught David’s and he saw an expression on her face he determined that second to never forget: relief. Sally rushed to David and said, “Someone used it! Someone went back! I don’t know how this could happen. Only you, Tom and I had… Where’s Tom?”
    David dodged the question, “Are the other watches still there?”
    “One is missing,” Sally replied.
    Spencer, a timid scientist with thick glasses and a slight hunch, approached Sally with his head down and waited for her to acknowledge his presence. “What is it?” Sally barked.
    “Uh, well, closer inspection of the data sheets from the time of incursion shows two