The Saga of Erotika Jones 07 (Serial)

Simple kidnapping. But I was the victim. Bound, gagged, and trapped in my own mystery. The goons we'd been chasing had now caught me. Far from home...

Where I was – and who I was – were two questions needing answers.

I'd been transported, yet not in my own body. Both actions I was more than used to. Usually didn't happen together. Usually.

And here I was, somewhere. It wasn't even uncomfortable to be someone else.

The one idea I knew for certain was that I was here to solve a mystery. Probably a crime. Something disastrous.

People were counting on me to solve these mysteries. Their lives and mine depended on how fast I could solve them.

And only me.

Nothing like the fate of the universe hanging on your shoulders to bring your idea of reality crashing in.

I guess the first thing is to get myself untied, and this gag out of my mouth.

I

The scene in front of us was bad enough without the alarms making it worse. So I turned them off, leaving the alarm lights flashing.

When the clock went from 23:59:59 to 00:00:00, the lights dimmed to near dark. Then restored with a flash, resolving into a continuing flicker.

The consoles didn’t start scrolling the data of Erika’s latest assignment. Instead, they just sat there – blank.

Dials for energy supply, only having occasional twitches before, were now erratic.

“Al?” No answer from our A.I.

“AL!” Still no answer.

Though the viewport window, we saw another dark bedroom.

But Erika was missing.

- - - -

TO SAY WE WERE FREAKED out was an understatement.

Not that it showed - well, mostly.

Finn went in and out of that room we saw in the viewscreen, exploring the whole apartment. Finding nothing. “Carol, it’s completely empty. Enough dust laying around to say that not only has no one lived there recently, it’s more that the landlord isn’t even trying to find someone to rent it.”

I’d pulled out the manuals and started going over the re-start procedure. The pages were crisp. They never had to be touched before this. Running down the lines with a finger only helped me focus. Erika has become a sister to me, and I had to stay focused. I knew that she would tell me to. Like she was at my elbow in this.

“Finn, it’s not all that logical, but I have to get ‘Al’ the A.I. back up and running first. He can get these other re-set sequences going faster than I could by hand.

Finn only nodded. His hands clenched into fists, but holding himself still. And standing away from the keyboards to give me space. The only thing he could really do at this point was calm down. I could hear his deliberate breathing to get his heart rate down. The effect was to get more color into his face - not that I had time to look at him other than glances.

My hands were pretty frantic on the keyboards, punching in the commands out of the book that would restart ”Al”.

At last the code on one monitor was scrolling down as it re-loaded the stored algorithms that made up his support core.

My only hope was that we didn’t have some huge data loss. I’d grown fond of “Al” and his Rat-pack version of a voice. Like another member of our close-knit family here.

Finally I got a prompt: “Enter your question:>_” The underscore was blinking.

I paused, my palms wet and pushed my fingers onto the table to stop their shaking. My own deep breaths helped stop those nervous fears.

And then I typed: “Al, you there?”

No response.

OK. So I tried something simpler: “Hello, World?”

A pause. The blinking cursor had quit. Something was happening in there.

Finally, hesitating words typed out on the screen: “Carol, is that you?”

I almost jumped out of my chair, grinning from ear to ear.

I typed: “Yes. Do you have a name?”

The response: “Al. Like always. Or since you told me I could have one, anyway.”

Next I typed: “How’s your audio circuits?”

Al responded: “Fine, how are yours?”

That’s my Al. To the microphone: “It would be nice to hear you again.”

A modulated baritone came smoothly through the speakers: “And it’s good to hear from you as well. Glad to be back. What happened?”

Then I did jump up and scampered over to Finn’s arms to get a hug. Just the closest thing I could interact with, since Al didn’t have a body. Not that I ever minded hugging Finn. Plus, he was as wet-cheeked as I was from relief.

One step closer to getting Erika back, wherever she had gone.

II

THE ROOM WAS A GRAYISH-brown. Top to bottom. Ceilings were supposed to be white. Of course, the old joke said “beige”.

But I could only see the part of the ceiling in front of me. Of course, my head was to the side, with the rest of my body. So I was seeing all “up” to my left, and “down” to my right.

The reason for this position is that my hands and feet were bound. And a gag in my mouth was tight, but not uncomfortable.

Of course, the bed smelled of dust and the lack of cleaning.

The smells were all old, not damp at anytime in the near present. Old. The room just smelled old.

But my logical self said I needed to get freed from these bindings.

And then figure out how to escape somehow.

First things first.

The hands weren’t tied across each other, and that gap was all I needed. Slumping my shoulders enabled me to move them around my bum and then down my legs. All without dislocating my shoulders.

My fingers next were able to untie my feet, and pull the wad from my mouth.

No sense in crying out just yet. I’d seen too many horror movies to know better. God knows what was waiting outside. And my hands were still tied.

So the next thing to look for was a nail – or something sticking out and strong enough to pry these ropes apart.

At least I wasn’t handcuffed. I could pick locks, but was out of practice. And these long nails of mine weren’t conducive to holding and twisting some thin piece of metal to unlock other tiny bits inside a metal handcuff. Then repeat.

At last, I broke down and used my teeth. By bit and bite, I was able to extract one set of knots. Then my fingers could do the other.

Now for the next question.

It wasn’t where I was, that would come in due time. Once I left this room.

But first, I needed to know who I was.

III

FINN WAS STILL FIDGETING. Erika’s room was still a dusty, un-rented hole in the wall.

But Finn couldn’t do much besides walk in, walk out. And bother me. Without trying to bother me, because if he did bother me, then it just slowed down getting his sister back.

We couldn’t get his sister back until we got the background, unseen computer programs up and running.

That “we” was me and Al.

I even turned off Al’s voice to speed things up.

That just made bored Finn even more insufferable. More distracting. More bothersome.

So I did the next best thing - I handed him several technical manuals to read. The same ones he’d handed me when I first showed up.

Of course, the difference was that I could always look through the viewscreen and watch Finn and Erika go through their mysteries in real life. Like a huge TV screen, but with real actors.

The stories I watched weren’t as good as John writes them - no cutaways or scene shifts, few decent plot twists, and plenty of dull parts – but at least I had the option to go back to my slightly less-dull manual. Not like I could change the channel.

This time, Finn was trying to read to distract himself. The only good thing was that we had three chairs in the control room. So he sat in one and put his feet into the other - just so he didn’t accidentally brush up against a control button or dial with his big feet.

Like I said. Bored, fidgety.

Al was keeping a conversation with me in another console, so I’d go back and forth with him while inputting the commands he needed. It made me look to Finn like I was doing all this stuff, but actually Al was just keeping me occupied as well. Cracking jokes, getting me to tell him the sketchy details that John left out of my stories, getting gossip about the other heroines, and so on.

We were dealing with some old programs that originally ran on much slower vacuum-tube computers, so there was a lot of waiting involved.

Sure, if one of those whiz kids from the Library could be here, they’d have already re-written the code from scratch. But neither Bart nor Ernst were time-benders, so they couldn’t get here from there.

Which brings up our latest time-bender recruit - Will.

He was out doing some searches on his own. Mainly going over the idea that the location in the viewscreen was correct. Per our recollection, our next location was one of three Southern California cities. This apartment was in San Diego.

Since our last few cases all took place within a decade of each other, he last said something about checking up and down the timeline about 5 years in each direction.

And even for a time-bender, that took awhile.

While he was out, I was working with Al to get the systems back on line. Finn was trying to keep engrossed in a dry manual that reads like a cookbook.

All we could see was that empty, deserted apartment bedroom.

IV

I COULD SEE TOO MUCH, even though there was a single window in that dingy room, and it was papered over.

I could see into my own mind - and all the minds I’d co-habited over the years.

Since Carol gave me that treatment (and I still didn’t know how she did it, other than it helped) - I’d been able to access memories. Not just my memories, but those of the hosts I’d borrowed to do my detective work.

That was the trick I had to master.

I was moved around through space and time to chase bad guys and solve or prevent crimes.

To do that, I “borrowed” someone else’s body and their identity at each time-space incident. Not particularly with their permission, but with their cooperation.

And I kept their body alive and returned it in good condition. Plus, I tried to help them out somehow.

It wasn’t always easy. In fact, I mostly didn’t know how I pulled it off - other than a strong instinct for self-preservation. Plus wanting to treat others as I would like to be.

That, and the upbringing I had to never feel sorry for myself, but just take every problem as another opportunity. Kind of a hard-core positive self-image.

I could thank being the only daughter, the youngest sibling, with four older brothers. Since my mom got a job after I got into school, I caught the ragged edge of growing up. So my brothers raised me, mostly.

I got good at sports, shooting guns, running through open fields. And cussing, whittling, training hunting dogs.

But that wasn’t on my mind right now.

Because like the body I was in, my training from all these wonderful people’s lives and lifestyles that I’d borrowed also brought me their training - the very feminine side of life. Makeup, dressing, carriage. How to pout, cajole, flatter and generally get anything I wanted with just a look or a smile or a wink. Promise the world without saying anything. (And at the same time knowing that I could strain a finger or dislocate an elbow if anyone tried to “take advantage” of me.)

In short, I was hell on wheels, but looked like a slice of heaven in high heels.

Sure, I didn’t have time to sit down under a shady tree and consider all these lives I’d lived. But I knew what I had learned.

The smells and dim lighting of this room brought me back to reality.

I owed this girl who I’d borrowed from, as well as all the others.

Getting back to my people, getting back into their loop - that’s how I would pay her back and then some. If I didn’t, there was more than a fair chance I’d lose all that wisdom I’d accumulated, with nothing to show for all those girls who’d helped me fight the good fight all these short times I’d spent with them.

Because I also remembered how ruthless these people were that we had been fighting all this time. Sure, they were self-destructive. But they’d take me down with them if they got half a chance.

It was up to me to erase any chance of that happening.

So it was up to me and me alone.

I was untied now.

The next action was to escape this room itself.

V

“HI CAROL.”

“Mysti! You are a sight for sore eyes.”

John was standing besides her, his face going downcast when he looked at me, despite my smile at seeing those two.

“Something could be better in your life?”

I nodded, the sad look returned. “A nice way of describing hell in a hand-basket.”

Mysti tried to reach out to me, but couldn’t go through the force shield.

So I put my own hand through with the pendant.

Then she grasped my hand in hers. Her face went somber, then lightened. About the time my own did. You can’t be around Mysti without getting a deep respect for life and its possibilities.

“That’s better, Carol. So Erika as disappeared. And you have plans.”

I nodded, even as my own eyes watered - more of relief at someone stating the obvious.

She knew what to say. “OK, well you just have to do that. Now, John asked me to come, but not what to tell you. What you’ve just shown me through your thoughts just backs up what John briefed me on your situation.”

Mysti took John’s pendant and swapped for mine. “There’s a lot of data on there you can use. But data isn’t wisdom, you know that. Another thing you know is that you are still connected to everything and everyone around you, even more than you know. So Erika isn’t ‘lost’ - she’s more ‘misplaced’. And time, as you know, is a complete arbitrary - it’s what you do right now that counts.”

I had to smile, even as my eye moisture condensed into a single tear that ran down my face.

Then it hit me. My jaw went slack at the possibilities. And then I grinned. “Of course!”

I shook Mysti’s hand. And then held it out for John, who grabbed it with his big farmer’s mitt and squeezed my own.

The 30-second chime sounded at that. So he let go and I pulled my hand back inside again.

“Well, OK. Thanks to both of you. Looks like this is the last time I’ll have to meet you this way. See you on the other side.”

I gave their smiling faces a half-salute as the shield closed in a very patchwork opaque pattern.

All another sign that we had less than a day after this to extract ourselves before everything collapsed.

I turned back to the control room.

Finn was standing there, a grim smile on his face.

So I hugged him. And filled his mind with the images I’d just gotten from Mysti.

I could feel him relax as his own confidence returned.

We held that hug for awhile. Not a luxury, but a necessity.

Then I went back to the control board, sat down at the keyboard, inserted the data-pendant for upload, and started typing up the data to Al - so he got up to speed, and could help me in between getting the systems back up and going.

Finn went through that narrow door besides the observation window. To the room where Erika was supposed to be.

We both knew what we had to do.

VI

NOW THAT I SORTED OUT who I was and what I knew, it was time to figure out the rest.

Where was I?

I hadn’t heard anyone outside this dusty old room. No food or water was dropped off. No one had turned the knob at all. No footfalls outside.

Too quiet from that hall.

That doesn’t mean someone isn’t in it - or they don’t have a camera watching that door and hall. Because I would.

Next logical thing is to get that window back into being an outside portal.

It was jammed or painted or nailed shut. Breaking it would be noisy.

I started scratching it - and quickly knew my nails wouldn’t hold up. The glue was old, a crust holding the newsprint to the glass.

So there had to be something in this room I could use to scrape that all off. Or at least enough to peer through.

- - - -

NOT TOO SURPRISING, anything I could hold in my hand (or had a sharp edge) were gone. Closet was empty. Not even shelves in the bathroom cabinet. No shower curtain or rings. No carpets. (Could have pulled some nails out.) No kitchen implements or appliances. Not even extension cords.

So I finally just sat back down on the bed.

My hand stroked the worn comforter on its surface. I was surprised that dust didn’t puff up. At least it was soft.

Wait a minute.

Soft meant padded. Padded meant quiet. Maybe not quiet in the street below, but any watching person or camera in the hallway wouldn’t pick up something breaking.

I scooped up the comforter and held my breath against both dust and smell.

To the window, a small “push” from a well-swung elbow and the glass came out mostly in one piece.

But made no sound when it landed.

I looked out. An alley with no one in site. Below was a bush. Just a few feet below. Because this was a ground floor.

Next, I checked my shoes. Low heeled. Wearing stove pipe jeans, synthetic mix and stretchable. Means I could run if I had to. In style. The top was a little too low. I ran a hand through my hair, just to see if I needed to pull it back. Those earrings might be great for a dance floor, but not for escape.

They went into a back pocket.

Of course, I didn’t have any I.D. with me. No purse in the room.

That figured then. No loss of memory - I didn’t dress myself this morning. I’d been here overnight, or since sometime last night.

So I’d shifted in without waking up in my “own” bed.

And how did that work?

I didn’t know.

But it did explain why Finn hadn’t showed up already.

Because no one knew where I was.

VII

FINN ONLY HAD TO HANG around a little while in that bedroom beyond the viewing window before Will showed up again. I was watching through that window. In between my typing with Al.

“Hey Will.”

“Any news?”

“No - you?”

Will sat down next to him. His shoulders slumped, looking at the floor.

Finn looked over at him. “But…”

Will looked up. “But?”

“One of Carol’s friends showed up this afternoon. She said something interesting. About how we’re all connected to each other - like there are no limits between us.”

Will looked puzzled. Then the furrows in his forehead eased. “Like the links between you and your sister. Nothing is stronger than blood ties.”

Finn and Will both stood. Will took him by his shoulder and they disappeared.

VIII

THE COMFORTER COVERED the rest of the broken glass in the window frame and extended over the shrubbery below it.

I was able to squirm and roll out the lower half of that paned window with some dignity. No one in the alley to see me. The building was a two-story and long. It looked like the street at the alley end ahead was probably the front of the building.

Now, if I came out the front, then that would be an amateur’s approach. Easy to nab me again. If I went out the back, to another street, then the low body traffic would mean I couldn’t escape. And a camera in the hallway would show which I took.

Now, if one of those goons with a transporter gun grabbed me originally, then they’d be out back - since a flash wouldn’t bring any attention. And I could be locked up again, only better. Or that flash would take me somewhere worse.

Out front, I could disappear into the sidewalk traffic.

Time to think fast - and a disguise.

- - - -

THAT COMFORTER, WITH a little fresh dirt and grime from the alley, made me a great street person. Found a bag in the dumster and wrestled some cans and bottles out of the trash near it.

Shuffling out of the alley with a little weaving, I leaned against the brickwork and peered both ways. Nobody obvious looking at me. So I turned to the right and started shuffling off.

Until two big brawny types stepped in front of me.

I tensed my legs and prepared to run.

“Erotika Jones.”

At that I straightened up and dropped the comforter.

I looked up into their faces.

And was nearly crushed between the hugs of my brother and my beau.

- - - -

ONCE BACK IN THAT APARTMENT, I found all the clothes and sweet-smelling femininity I needed to freshen up.

A wardrobe change, leaving off the earrings and slipping into a more substantial top, helped quite a bit. Then some cotton sock-lets and running shoes meant I was ready for some real detective work.

I found the boys waiting for me in the living room. In my comfortable chairs and holding iced tea in tumblers as they waited.

Both rose, smiling, when I came back in. Great to have two real gentlemen in my life.

“Finn, Will, I don’t know how to thank you.”

Their smiles both widened into grins.

“So, boys, ready to get the bad guys?”

Finn held out his hand, and Carol appeared.

“Not so fast, Erika.”

IX

I COCKED MY HEAD TO the side as I raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t it time to get a little payback - I mean, so they know that they can’t do this to me or any of you again?”

Will stood and reached behind the chair he’d been sitting on, and pulled up a large gym bag. When he heaved it over to fall just shy of my feet, it landed with a thudding clank.

The unzipped top was open. Inside were a dozen or so shiny transporter guns, along with other gizmo’s.

“Will, what is all this about?”

Finn jumped in to answer first. “Erika, we made a little side trip on the way to get you back.”

Will pulled out the smartphone I usually carried. “You see, Carol said she saw a flash just at midnight, when the clock turned over and about the time everything went south in the control room.”

“But Erika, don’t worry - we got all the programs back on line.” Carol was watching my worried face. “We had the worst of it, since we didn’t think we could find you. This apartment was empty, like it hadn’t been rented for months or more.”

Finn spoke up again. “Meanwhile one of Carol’s friends came by and gave us a tip. Me and Will just took it a logical bit farther. You know that smartphone that’s in Will’s hand is also a recorder.”

“But you have to keep those in the control room, because I shift bodies every midnight.”

“Exactly. But they didn’t count on us recording where that flash came from. Once we had that tip-off, then finding them was easy.”

“How does that explain this bag of guns?”

Will asked, “Promise you won’t get upset with either of us?”

“Depends.”

“The goons we were chasing just gave up all their weapons and gizmo’s. Well, the ones we could catch.”

“Because…”

“Persuasion.” Both Finn and Will said at once.

I put my hands on my waist, my arms akimbo. “Finn, tell me you didn’t…”

“No, Erika, nobody got seriously hurt. Just a bit embarrassed.”

“From being scared enough to… well, soil themselves.”

“Meaning?”

“Well, Will knows how to move people around in space and time, so he’s got some really scary places where people can find themselves dangling in mid-air over deep gorges, live volcanoes, and pits of snapping gators…”

“So that’s why they simply gave up all these guns?”

“And everything else they were carrying.”

“How did you capture them?”

“We traced back the signal to find them. Our own guns were set to a fine beam, as we demonstrated on some other equipment they had around - a nice slice through it was all the show they needed.”

Will nodded. “Like you said, Finn’s a fine shot. Then my ‘persuasion’ techniques got them to rat our their associates. Frisking them pulled every gizmo out of their pockets. And we sliced up anything that didn’t fit into that bag.”

Finn grinned at that. “With a little adjustment on their guns, we sent them back to where they came from, but not exactly.”

“How ‘not exactly’?”

Will looked over at Finn, smiled, and then looked back at me. “They wound up in the center of a very maximum security prison, and had to explain how they broke in. Of course no one is going to believe that they ‘teleported’ there. And they all have rap sheets a mile long, so it will be awhile before they are going anywhere else.”

I had to smile. “So when did you come for me?”

Finn grinned. “Well, we knew you’d be disappointed if we got to where they detained you too early, so we waited until you got yourself out.”

Will was grinning, too. “Besides, that was a lot easier than having to check every single room in there to find which one they’d hid you in.”

“You two are so considerate. Letting me figure out how to untie myself and escape, then cover myself in that disgusting comforter. Thanks. So very considerate. Consider that I owe you both a punch.”

Will and Finn just smiled and kept quiet, knowing that any additional explanation would just land them in more hot water. Will had to know exactly what room I was in, because he could shift in and out of all those rooms. Taking no time at all to do it as well. Or using duplicates.

I pouted.

Carol chimed in. “But the good news was that when they got you back to your proper space and time, the computer tracking latched onto you and everything went back to normal. All we had on this end was a bare apartment and no clue where you’d gone - plus no way to find you.”

Then she came over and hugged me tight like a long-lost sister.

X

FINN AND I LEFT ERIKA and Will in the living room while we went back to the control room.

“I left him a little timer. Just so he doesn’t let Erika show him how ‘grateful’ she is too long.”

Finn looked at the clock over my shoulder while we both had our arms around each other’s waist. “He’s cutting it close.”

“Oh, I told him he doesn’t have to come here when they were done.”

Finn looked down into my eyes and smiled. “That was subtle.”

I reached up on tiptoes and kissed him.

- - - -

ONCE THE CLOCK CHIMED and turned to all zero’s, the lighting started flickering.

The screens on the control board were scrolling data, as usual, though.

“Al? What’s going on?”

“Carol, Finn. We’re now officially running out of juice. But we still have an assignment left.”

“One for the road?”

Al replied, dead serious. “While we start your extraction plan meanwhile.”

I swallowed and hugged Finn tight. “OK, Finn. Let me tell you what Al and I planned out…”

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Book Universes Notes

The first in this series is "The Saga of Erotika Jones 01", where Erika and Finn are first introduced.

Carol and the concept of time-bending were first introduced in "Time Bent", as well as her learning to heal.

Like the others in this series, this story is placed in the late 1970's. The Navy still trained recruits at San Diego during that time.

Mysti was first introduced in "The Training: Mysti".

John was first introduced in "Ghost Hunters".

The green stone pendants were first introduced in "A Case of Missing Wings", while their first use for data-storage was introduced in "Moon Bride".

Will was first introduced in "Erotika Jones 02", but his existence as a time-bender shows in "Erotika Jones 04"

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The Earlier Episodea

[New Voices] The Saga of Erotika Jones 01

The Saga of Erotika Jones 02 - Serial

Erotika Jones 03 - Virginia Beach, VA. (Serial)

The Saga of Erotika Jones 04 (Serial)

The Saga of Erotika Jones 05

The Saga of Erotika Jones 06

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