Scene 18

Inside the Van

As the van sped down the road, I addressed our rescuer. “Thank you, but how did you know we were there?”

“We routinely monitor the local police channels. Any time we hear about the capture of a KLF terrorist we try to help. Man, I never would have believed it was you though. I am so glad to see you again.”

He had removed his mask and turned around to look at me. I recognized him immediately. He was Mr. Splash on our world.

“Mike?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s me. I’m sure you can understand why we were so surprised to see you. We all thought you were dead. How did you do it? How did you manage to fake your own execution?”

“I would be interested in learning that myself,” said the man in back with us.

I turned to look at him. He had removed his mask as well and his face was well known to me. It was Livingston, but this Livingston had a harder, colder look to him.

“Greg?”

“Yeah,” he said. “So how did you do it? I watched them bury you. I saw your body.”

I looked to my two associates. They both shrugged. How would I explain this to our rescuers?

“It’s a long and complicated story,” I said.

“And you’ll have time to tell it when we get back to headquarters,” said Mike.

“Right,” said Diane, hugging me to her. “Let’s just be glad he’s back with us.”

I worried about Diane. Obviously my double had some sort of relationship with her in this world, but what kind? I couldn’t deceive her, but how would I explain that I was from another world and not her David.

“Headquarters?” I asked Mike.

“Right, the Great Hall of X Marks the Scot.”

“But we were there earlier, it’s just a pile of rubble.”

Mike looked to me in confusion. “What do you mean? You know the underground complex is still functioning.”

“Oh, right,” I said, as if my mind had blanked for a moment. “Of course, what was I thinking?”

I glanced over and saw Greg staring at me. His cold eyes seemed to be examining me closely.

I got the feeling he didn’t completely trust me.