“Yes, it was impossible, until it wasn’t,” she said as she again crushed out her cigarette. “The theory has always been sound, but having the equipment, and for that equipment to be placed at the right time is the key. Without two corresponding doorways, there is no displacement. The link between time and space has to meet and you need a doorway to do that. And the doorway can only be placed in the past, or otherwise just how are you going to build a doorway in a past that has already happened?”
“In other words you’re saying that in order to time travel successfully you need to have built an identical doorway to the one you are using. Without that…?”
She looked at Jack and smiled. “You would end up anywhere but where it is you wanted to be. Even another dimension. The possibilities are endless and unfathomable.”
“You duplicated the experiments, didn’t you?” Henri asked, pushing just a little more.
Again Moira became silent as she watched the men before her.
“I sense you are not bad men.” She looked at Henri for a moment longer than the others. “Not all bad anyway,” she finished as Henri smiled and winked at the old woman. “What do you want the Wellsian Doorway for? If it’s a military application, I would just as soon blow my own brains out than to have that happen again.”
“We lost someone,” Jack said. “A friend.”
Moira listened as Jack explained for a few moments. She turned her chair away from them as she thought about their lost friend.
“I’m sorry, gentlemen, but your friend will forever remain lost to you.”
Before she explained both Jenks and Jack saw the flaw in what they were asking.
“We don’t have a doorway in the past for us to lock on to,” Collins rightly guessed at her answer just as his hopes deflated. Jenks was thinking another way but remained quiet.
“I am so sorry.”
Henri wasn’t in the least defeated.
“Can you tell us what it is you have hidden at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, building number one-seventeen, the one with the inordinate amount of protection?”
She smiled at Farbeaux, knowing she had pegged the man correctly. He was a cad and a bounder and she immediately liked the Frenchman.
“You are government, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but we are your government. And if we ever have an opportunity to prove this displacement correct, it would be used once and destroyed, as per orders from our director.”
She laughed heartily. She stopped and fixed Jack with a glaring look.
“Then your director must be a highly unusual man to throw away such power.”
“He is,” Jack and Will said at the same time.
“Such loyalty gives a man great power when his subordinates love him so much.” She smiled again as she lit her fourth cigarette. “Much like another man in history — he had loyal followers, too.”
“Madam, our director, how can I explain this? Well, he’s no Adolf Hitler. He can sure as hell come down on you sometimes, but he is the best man outside of this room that I have ever known,” Will said as the old woman looked at Jack, knowing the young black man was referencing not only their director, but the big man sitting right in front of her. She took up the old-fashioned phone receiver that looked as if it could be used as a lethal bludgeon and made a connection.
“Peter, yes, I will have four men stopping by this afternoon. Allow them total access to building one-seventeen, please. Full cooperation will be given. Thank you.” She hung up and then fixed Jack with her stern look. “I know how it is to lose someone who is close to you and cannot get them back. I know, I have tried on more than those six occasions you mentioned. But since you cannot make any attempt for displacement without a second doorway, I see no harm in allowing you to see it.”
“See what?” Mendenhall asked.
Moira Mendelsohn started the silent electric motor on her wheelchair and then made her way to the door, which magically opened as she gestured that their appointment time was up. She did turn and smile as she waited next to the guard. “To see what it is you came to see, gentlemen.”
The four men stood as they knew they were being asked to leave.
“And that is?” the master chief asked gruffly as he placed a cold cigar into his mouth.
“Why, my own Wellsian Doorway, of course.”
Jenks smiled as did the others with the exception of Collins. For Jack suspected that without a second doorway the mission was lost to them. But Jenks couldn’t contain his enjoyment.
“Now this I have to see.”
6
They passed through the main gate of the old navy yard, a starting point for hundreds of thousands of American troops in two world wars and was the building site for some of the most famous warships this nation has ever produced. From heavy cruisers to battleships, the navy yard had seen it all, but in 1966 the Department of the Navy decommissioned the yard and she had fallen on hard times since. The yard was now in the middle of a preservation fight and was modernizing most of the old buildings where 70,000 workers once made the United States Navy the most powerful afloat.
“I have to admit this place is looking better than it did a few years ago. I almost built USS Teacher here but decided New Orleans was better suited to my style,” Jenks said, and then looked over at the Frenchman and gave him a dirty look.
“Master Chief, I was never on your marvelously designed boat, but from what the colonel says, it was a real kicker.” Henri smiled over at Jenks.
“All right, you two, we’ll turn this car right around,” Will said, turning in the front seat to face the two opposites.
“Where in the hell is this Julien fellow taking us?” Jack asked as he maneuvered the rental car around a series of old wharves and warehouses.
“Maybe the old woman decided not to be so cooperative,” Will said, feeling somewhat better having weapons in the vehicle.
“No, you can see she’s been a straight shooter all of her life.” Jack looked over at Mendenhall. “Besides, I give anyone who went through what that woman and millions of others went through the benefit of the doubt.”
“There it is,” Jenks said from the backseat.
Jack saw building 117 through the rain that had just started to fall. Collins hit the pulse wipers and cleared the glass as he pulled in behind the Range Rover. They all watched as Moira’s man Julien and two others stepped from the navy blue vehicle. They were met by a uniformed guard and together the four men went to the front of the building.
Jack stepped from the car and as he did he examined the exterior of building 117. It was lined by an old dry dock that might have been used for commercial ships because of its compact size. The building itself was unremarkable. Brick and mortar. The glass windows, about five thousand of them, were all painted over and secured with outside locks. The small arch covering a loading dock and main office entrance had seen far better days as both awnings hung limp and shredded. The building wasn’t one of the oldest built in 1806 when the yard first opened, but it was in the same century range.
Collins stood in the lightly falling rain and then saw the old dry dock area next to the building. He saw the pile of bricks next to the water and walked the few feet over and then knelt down. Weeds had covered most of the fallen brick but Jack managed to tear some of this loose. Underneath he saw an old green-tarnished bronze plaque and he leaned closer. He removed a handkerchief from his coat pocket and brushed away years of grime that had covered the words.
ATTENTION