Convergence, Part 2
Unification Island
Angelalt, Olga, and Walter walked up the dock to the ferry terminal for a short ride to the Konstanstadt mainland. A soldier checked Angelalt’s Show Me and granted them access to the ferry pier. While Angelalt and Olga waited for the ferry to arrive, Walter studied the electronic status boards on display:
Cities Ratheim Nicholasburg Neustadt Pempton Große Strömung Sandigesvertiel
Air quality Red Red Green Green Green Green
“What is this?” Walter said.
“It's a list of hot spots where the damage was worst,” Angelalt said, “Konstanstadt and the surrounding areas. Neustadt, Große Strömung, and Sandigesvertiel were still habitable, but there were so many breaches there people were moving out.”
“I see,” Walter said.
“It's getting better, though,” Angelalt said, “The bridge is helping to heal our world."
"I wanted to bring a casserole,” Walter said.
“Casserole?” Angelalt said.
“Well, in times like these, people need to eat,” Walter said, “But apparently it's forbidden to transport perishables between universes.”
“Dr. Humboldt, do you or Anders have a theory as to how a plane crash in one universe can kill people in the other?” Olga said.
“No, not yet,” Walter said, “In our years of researching the relationship between the universes, Willy and I were successfully able to transport matter from one side to the other. Even to merge tiny portions of both universes, but it never occurred to us an event that happened in one universe would cause a reaction on the other.”
“But do you think that someone could have caused this?” Angelalt said.
“On purpose?” Walter said. “Anything's possible, even Santa Claus."
“Why?” Olga said. “You don't think Jansen had something to do with this, do you?”
“It's just Mina said things were about to get a lot worse, and then this happened,” Angelalt said.
“It's possible,” Walter said, “But if Jansen caused this, he's conceived of something Willy and I never did.”
X-Division headquarters - 8:00 PM
It was now after dark, bit Walter was just getting started with the corpses delivered to X-Division headquarters from Ratheim. His first act was to attach metal clamps with electrode leads from the dead passengers back to a small bank of commercial grade tuning forks interfaced with several precision sound attenuators and control components. A pleasant tone emanated from the first cadaver just as Angelalt, Annie, and Olga returned.
“What are you looking for?” Angelalt said.
“Not looking,” Walter said, “Listening. You hear that? It's a perfect G.”
He reached into his bag and took out a hand, which he also attached to his tuning forks.
“A hand?” Annie said.
“I removed it from one of the victims on our side,” Walter said.
“You couldn't bring over a casserole, but a severed hand is okay?” Olga said.
“Shh,” Walter said, “That's a G. That's incorrect. It should be a C. You see, each universe vibrates at its own specific frequencies. Everything from this universe would vibrate at a G, and everything from our universe at C. Somehow the victims on our side were made to vibrate at the frequency of this universe.”
“So you're saying the counterparts were linked across universes?” Olga said.
“Yes, it would seem so,” Walter said.
“How?” Angelalt said. “How were the bodies retuned?”
“That's a good question,” Walter said.
“Well, do you think maybe that's what killed them?” Annie said.
“That's another good question, but I don't think so,” Walter said, "I suggest it was the plane crash that killed them, not the retuning, as you call it. But it stands to reason somehow these events were linked.”
“Have you recovered the black box yet?” Olga said.
“What's a black box?” Angelalt said.
“From the plane,” Olga said, “The cockpit recorder.”
“We don't have that,” Annie said, “But satellites record all communication in flight.”
8:30 PM
They crowded around Agent Frank’s desk as the audio from the plane was downloaded and played back.
“289, Departure Radar has you at 8,000 feet,” the air traffic controller said, “Maintain a heading of 2-2-0.”
“Control, we appear to be running into some turbulence,” the pilot said, “Request permission to climb another…”
“What the hell was that?” Brian said.
“Say again, 289?” the controller said.
“Control, aircraft is coming apart,” the pilot said, “Systems failing! Vertical control is…Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! The wing!”
The audio clip ended.
“Would you like for me to play that again?” Agent Frank said.
“No,” Olga said, “That won't be necessary.”
“If my hypothesis is correct, whatever merged the frequencies of the two universes destabilized the aircraft,” Walter said, “Whoever's responsible must have attached a device to the craft.”
“Okay, well, what if you're right?” Angelalt said. “I mean, why?”
“Doesn't feel like an assassination,” Olga said.
“So what, is it a threat?” Annie said. “What are they trying to prove?”
“I haven't the slightest,” Walter said.
Ostend
David sat on a bench in a public plaza and sipped his tea, surrounded by the skyscrapers of the financial district. His henchman ran over and sat next to him.
“Sorry I'm late,” he said.
“No matter,” David said, “Gave me time to enjoy my tea. I must say, Matcha is one of the few things I'm going to miss. How did our experiment with the plane go?”
“Better than we expected,” the henchman said, “Do you have a preference for this next one?”
David passed him a briefcase.
“Surprise me,” he said.
Tatiana’s house - 9:00 PM
It had been a long day for Tatiana. She was tired by the time she walked through the front door and pushed a button on her key to have the car park itself. She loosened the collar of her combat fatigues and went to the kitchen to get a glass of wine. There was a card on the counter, from Anne’s family. It was a picture of Anne, Diana, and Tobias in their Sunday best, Tobias in a suit and the women in uniform. Underneath was a simple caption: “Get well soon, Olga!”
Boris hugged her from behind and kissed her cheek. “Evening.”
“Hey,” Tatiana said.
“How is she?” Boris said.
“She’s improving,” Tatiana said, “Nanite shortage again, damnit. Had to use some tissue regeneration drugs. You know how slow they are.”
“I'm so sorry,” Boris said.
“It's fine,” Tatiana said, “How's Irina?”
“She’s good,” Boris said, “She’s worried about her sister. Keeps begging me to take her to the hospital to see her.”
“Maybe we should take her,” Tatiana said, “Where is she?”
“She's in the living room,” Boris said, “We've been entertaining your friend.”
Tatiana’s face paled. “What friend?”
She ran into the living room and found Irina sitting across from David.
“Hi Mom,” Irina said.
“Hello Tatiana,” David said, “I'm just catching up with Irina here. She really is a remarkable woman. It's a pleasure to finally meet her.”
Tatiana pushed him into another room and shut the door.
“We have protocols for contact,” Tatiana said, “Showing up in my home isn't one of them.”
“I see where my showing up unannounced would be worrying,” David said, handing her a syringe filled with a substance along with four more vials of the substance, “But I wanted to bring this to you, personally. I understand it's a tad overdue. Irina’s responding extraordinarily well to treatment. It's hard to imagine a few months ago her condition was deteriorating. She was in constant pain, her eyesight was gone, she was…”
“Dying,” Tatiana said.
“Every parent's worst nightmare,” David said, “Even when they’re 45. I certainly don't envy what you've been through. I noticed the way your husband looks at Irina. It's as if he's witnessing a miracle.”
“But there aren't miracles,” Tatiana said, “That's what you're here to remind me about. Right?"
“I'm sure you were dismayed after the incident with your other daughter,” David said, “The incident you caused.”
“My daughter is a good woman,” Tatiana said, “She didn’t deserve to be put in a hospital for what YOU did. I’m sick of this. She’s not the first casualty of our collaboration, but I hope she is the last. The fact I told you to shoot up that convoy when I knew she was there…someday I’ll have to account for what I’ve done. Someday, Olga will have a lot of questions for me.”
"But you can't lose your girl,” David said, “Love makes us vulnerable to many things. But it also makes us human, I suppose.”
“Is there anything else?” Tatiana said.
David walked to the front door and went outside. “Not yet. But I will be calling on you shortly.”
Ostend, Constantinople, the Reich - July 14, 2011, 6:30 AM
David’s henchman flagged down a taxicab and got inside, carrying the briefcase he was given. Sitting in the back of the cab, the man fiddled with a few switches near the handle, slipped it under the seat in front of him, and waved to the driver.
“Right here's fine,” he said, handing the driver a five mark bill.
He got out just as another woman, Matilda, got in.
“I'm going to Palation,” she said.
The cab set off, navigating the streets of the Ostend before approaching the East-West Bosphorus Bridge to the Westend. Matilda was unaware of the briefcase sitting in front of her feet, which was now beeping red.
Schlossberg (Palation), Konstanstadt, Holy Roman Empire - 6:37 AM
Matilda did a little late-night shopping for pet supplies in a quiet retail store. She approached the checkout and set down her items.
“Did you find everything you were looking for?” the clerk asked, scanning her items.
“Yep,” Matilda said.
“That will be 18 annons, 47 pfennig,” the clerk said.
Constantinople
Matilda’s taxi began to shake violently as the device in the briefcase activated.
Konstanstadt
Matilda was suddenly thrown halfway across the store and violently slammed into the wall.