Time Benders (2 page)

Zack glanced at the flight attendant and nodded. He fastened his belt and checked his watch. They were fifteen minutes late. It didn’t bother him. In fact nothing about this trip bothered him. It was getting him out of class for a whole week.

The plane made a fairly smooth landing and taxied to the terminal. When it stopped, Zack carefully pulled a brown canvas duffel bag out of the overhead storage compartment and unzipped it. The electronic equipment inside
looked all right. He’d brought along his latest experiment just in case he needed something interesting to do while he was in Washington.

He backed into the aisle and bumped into one of the passengers. “Sorry.”

“No problem.” A tall kid about his age grinned at him.

Zack couldn’t help smiling back. Then he turned and walked off the plane in search of the baggage carousel.

Twenty minutes later he was sitting near the baggage claim waiting for someone from the Institute of American Science to pick him up. The tall boy from the plane stood nearby, noisily bouncing a basketball while he listened to his CD player.

Thirty more minutes passed. The waiting area had cleared out except for an elderly couple, a family of four, and the two boys.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of sitting here.” The tall boy had taken off his earphones and was standing beside Zack. “Want to split a taxi?”

Zack scratched his head. “Uh, sure. I guess so. Looks like my ride’s forgotten me. I’m supposed
to be staying at the Fairmont. How about you?”

“Hey, that’s where I’m staying too. Cool. Say, you aren’t one of the ner—I mean genius types who won a trip here because of some dopey test, are you?”

“Afraid so. You?”

“It’s a long story, but yeah, that’s why I’m here too. I’m Jeff. Jeff Brown from L.A.”

“Zack Griffin, Denver.”

“Great. Need any help with your stuff?” Jeff offered.

Zack shook his head. “I can handle it.”

“Okay then. Let’s get out of here.” Jeff led the way through the lobby. “If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll spot a video arcade on the way to the hotel.”

“How did you do that? Nobody scores that high playing Super Body Crushers on their first try.” Jeff lifted his suitcase out of the trunk of the taxi.

Zack shrugged. “I just watched you play and then figured out the game’s program. It wasn’t much of a challenge.”

“Are you kidding me? That’s the toughest game there is.”

Zack balanced the duffel under his arm and picked up his other bag. “If you say so.”

Jeff followed his new friend inside the hotel. “Does everything come that easy to you?”

“Some things don’t.” Zack stopped a few feet from the registration desk. He eyed Jeff’s basketball. “I’m not very good at sports.”

“That’s too bad.” Jeff gave him a sympathetic look.

“There you are!” A short, balding man rushed over to them. “We’ve been frantic. Our driver somehow missed your flight. I’m Cummings from the Institute. The rest of the group has already left for the laboratory. Let’s get you two registered and we’ll be on our way.”

“Wait,” Jeff said. “Don’t we get to go up to check out our rooms first and get settled in?”

Mr. Cummings rolled his eyes. “Young man, I already explained that we’re late for the tour. Which means we’ll also be late for the presentation and the dinner if we don’t get a move on.”

“But what about our stuff?” Zack asked.

“Don’t worry about a thing. We’ll leave it with the desk clerk and he’ll have a bellhop take it up to your room.”

“There’s no way I’m leaving my CD player or this ball with strangers. The disk player is brand new and the ball is signed by Charles Barkley.”

“And I can’t leave this bag. The things in it are too valuable.” Zack clutched it to his chest.

“Oh, very well. Keep them if you must.” Mr. Cummings moved to the desk to make the arrangements. In a few moments he returned to the boys and rubbed his hands together. “We’re all set. Shall we go?” He hurried toward the door without waiting for an answer.

Zack looked at Jeff. “Are you as excited about this as I am?”

Jeff spun his basketball on one finger. “Maybe we can ditch the little guy and go back to Video World. You can show me how to beat that game.”

“On one condition.” Zack smiled. “You have to show me how you do that.” He pointed at the spinning ball.

“Deal.”

“And this wing houses some of our most important projects.” A tall gray-haired man wearing a white lab coat led the group down a long hall. He opened a door. “In here we have the latest in telecommunications experiments. Feel free to wander around the room and observe, but please do not touch anything.”

Zack stopped behind one of the scientists, pulled a small notebook from his shirt pocket, and hastily began scribbling notes.

“I thought we were gonna take off,” Jeff whispered.

“In a minute. Some of this stuff’s more interesting than I thought.”

“Right. Looking at a bunch of wires and glass tubes has always been my idea of a good time.” Jeff watched the students milling around the various workstations. They all looked like they belonged here. One kid was actually wearing a bow tie and pocket protector.

“Just my luck,” Jeff muttered to himself. “My first night in D.C. and I’m stuck in a stupid laboratory with a bunch of brainiacs.”

“Now if you’ll all come this way …” The gray-haired man led them across the hall. “In this area we are conducting experiments dealing with time and space. Once again, feel free to look, but don’t touch.”

“Come on,” Jeff whispered. “Now’s our chance to escape.”

“In a minute.” Zack moved to the back of the room, where a scientist with white hair that stuck out all over his head was hunched over a table. The man looked suspiciously at the two boys. “Are you interested in time bending?”

“I’m not sure.” Zack studied the intricate equipment in front of him. “What is it?”

The scientist cocked his head. “Why, it’s rearranging time, of course. You’ve seen how light can be turned and sent in another direction through the use of fiber optics, haven’t you? Well, you can do the same thing with time—if you know how to bend it.”

Zack stepped closer. “How does it work?”

“The subject puts on this headgear, which is attached to the computer, and then sets the clock forward or backward depending on his needs—”

“Dr. Cranium.” The tall gray-haired man who was acting as their tour guide spoke in a loud disapproving voice. “You should also tell our guests that these particular experiments work only in theory, not in reality. We wouldn’t want to fill our future scientists’ heads with a lot of superstition, now, would we? Come this way, gentlemen. The tour will be moving down the hall to view some fascinating work in the area of fats and acids.”

“Fascinating,” Jeff mumbled.

Zack hung back. “I’d like to get a better look at that machine.”

“What? That time bender thing?”

“Yeah. Imagine how great it would be to do something really crazy and then set the dial and go back like nothing happened.”

“I knew you and I had a lot in common.” Jeff rubbed his chin. “Tell you what. I’ll get you back in here later. But when you’re finished looking around you have to promise to go downtown and show me how to beat that game.”

Zack followed the tour out the door. “How are we going to get away from the rest of the group?”

“Just leave it to me. And be ready to take off when I give you the signal.”

“I know you’re all anxious for dinner to begin. Especially since the food we will be enjoying this evening has actually been manufactured right here in our own laboratories. But before we get to that, the Institute would like to thank you for coming and make a few presentations based on your academic achievements and test scores.”

Jeff caught Zack’s eye across the table. Jeff was about to put his escape plan into motion when someone called his name. He looked
up. The speaker at the head table was staring at him expectantly.

The speaker smiled. “I guess he’s a little shy. Come on up here, Mr. Brown, and receive your award for attaining the highest score ever on the American Institute’s intelligence test.”

The students were clapping. Jeff stumbled to his feet and hesitantly walked to the front.

When the clapping had died down, the speaker, a serious-looking woman in a business suit, handed him a plaque and shook his hand enthusiastically. “I understand that your best score was in quantum physics, Jeff. Would you be willing to answer any questions the audience might have for you in that area?”

Jeff swallowed. A girl at the first table raised her hand. “I have a question about the sub-microscopic mechanical vibrations in the layers of atoms compromising crystals.”

The room was silent. Jeff bit his lip. “I, uh … well, you see, it’s … I mean … it’s sorta like this.…”

Zack stood up. “Listen, if you’re going to
ask him baby questions, why bother? Jeff is way beyond that stuff. Right now he’s working on an experiment that involves electromagnetic interactions with the exchange of virtual particles in gravitational forces.”

An excited murmur swept around the room and the audience began clapping wildly. Jeff bowed and quickly found his way to his seat.

Zack winked at him. Jeff nodded toward the exit. When the speaker called the name of the next student the two boys grabbed their things and headed for the door.

Outside, Jeff leaned against the wall and breathed a long sigh of relief. “Thanks for covering for me in there. How did you know?”

“Just a hunch. Anybody who looks at a revolutionary telecommunications station and calls it a bunch of wires and tubes is probably not really into physics.”

“Then I guess you’re wondering how I managed to win the trip, since I’m not a certified genius like the rest of you.”

Zack shook his head. “Not really. However you did it, you were able to pull it off. That takes somebody pretty sharp.”

“You’re okay, Zack.” Jeff stopped in front of the door to the laboratory. “Ready?”

Jeff nodded. “Sure. Because as soon as you get done snooping we’re out of here and on our way to the arcade.”

Zack slowly pushed the door open. The lab was empty.

They made their way to the back of the room, where Dr. Cranium’s experiment was sitting on a glass table. Zack quickly put his bag down and pulled out his notebook.

Jeff watched Zack examine the machine’s parts and write furiously. Jeff looked down at his watch and then twirled his basketball. It was still early. The arcade would be open for at least three more hours.

He looked back at Zack, who had typed something into the computer and was now wearing the time-bending headset. “Hey, what are you doing over there? The tour guide said this thing only worked in theory.”

“I know. I’m just messing around. Don’t worry.” Zack set the clock back one minute and flipped the switch.

Nothing happened.

“I wonder what he’s overlooking.”

“Who?” Jeff picked up a clear fiber rod from one of the tables and looked through one end.