2: Fifth Dimension Project

27      Nora

As she made her way through the labyrinth of gates and walls Nora wondered if she could actually help Carlos.  The ICE removal process had been started, and with Carlos’s background, he might be whisked away in an expedited removal.  He could be removed in the next few weeks, unless the California attorney’s office thought it could make a murder charge stick.  In that case, he could be gone in days.

She sits down at the thick glass window; Carlos is brought in and he sits across from her.  “Buenos días Seῆor Carlos.”

Carlos just stares, looking through her just like the first time. 

“Okay, unless you have questions,” Nora begins, “I’ll start.  Yesterday, I stopped by the office of your employer.  He told me that you were one of his best workers.  You had been with his company for almost two years.  You don’t drink or do drugs on the job.  He is sad to see you at risk of being deported.  I asked if he would write a letter to support your case for a work visa.  He said gladly, so that is in process.  The ICE office should have it in a day or two.  This might keep you off the expedited removal list.  But there is still the murder of the restaurant owner that you are alleged to have committed.  Even if California chooses not to extradite you, the fact that you are a suspect puts you at high risk of a quick deportation.  Your having been the Silent Enforcer for the Cripps doesn’t help either. 

So, I don’t know if I can actually help you, but if you were in that restaurant when the murder took place, and if you are in fact innocent as I expect, allowing us to show the DA and ICE what you saw, hopefully identifying the real murderer, is your best chance for at least slowing the deportation process.  If you are guilty, then I cannot help you.”

Carlos just sat staring at her.  “Why should I believe you?”

“How about I see if I can stop the process of getting you either deported or extradited to California to give you some time to think.  I’ll be back again in two days.”  With that Nora got up and left.

Carlos watches her go.  He figures that this pretty white girl is just a pawn.  The cops are using her to get him to open up.  She could never help clear him of the restaurant owner murder.

Nora’s mind is always swimming with questions she had to ask Professor Wilster during the professor’s mindfulness sessions.  Carlos will not talk with her.  She is at a loss.  She tries to focus on her breath, tries to quiet her mind, but she is never successful for very long.  Tonight, she is more determined than ever to put Carlos out of her mind, and to shuttle both Sam and Marhan away in some distant recess of her brain to be retrieved later. 

The professor sits perfectly still in Lotus position. Incense burning a few feet in front of her.  The class all following suit.  Nora sits on her foam blocks, fidgeting, but she slowly settles down.  The quiet music starts floating through her.  “Relax your shoulders, breathe deeply, exhale slowly and feel the quiet work down into your arms, into your hands, all the way into your fingertips.  Breathe in slowly, now exhale.”  Nora drifts away to a peaceful scene when she was young.  She is sitting at the kitchen table with her mom.  She is studying, her mom is making up a grocery list, humming to the quiet music that is playing in the background.

Suddenly her eyes bolt open.  She jumps up.  It had come to her in a flash.  Professor Wilster opens one eye, looks at her.  Nora mouths “Sorry.”  She looks around, sees heads turning toward her, she is disturbing everyone.  She steps outside and runs to the lab.  Once there, she grabs Carlos’s file. 

All the background information about the family and Carlos’s dad being murdered must have come from his mother.  ICE must have interviewed her when she was captured.  But where was she? There was no follow-up on her whereabouts in the file.

She runs back to the class and gets there just as it is ending.  Professor Wilster looks at her as she comes in.  “I thought you were making real progress tonight.  What happened?”

“I was, then I had a revelation.  Carlos’s mother might be the key to getting him to talk with me.”

The professor looks at her.  “You might be right.  Does the file say where she is?”

“No, but maybe she went back to her village.”

“ICE officers have connections in Mexico.  I’ll put in a call tonight.  Come by tomorrow morning, I’ll let you know what I’ve found out.”

Nora smiles, says, “Thank you,” walks out of the room. 

28      Professor Wilster

Professor Wilster’s office door is open when Nora arrives in the morning.  She knocks, walks in. 

Professor Wilster looks up, grabs a handwritten note, hands it to Nora.  “The ICE connection in Mexico wasn’t able to give me an exact address, but she lives in this small village in the canyon country of northern Mexico.”

“What do I do with this information?  I was hoping to be able to talk with her on the phone.”

“When do you see Carlos next?”

“I’m going there today, why?”

“Bring up his mother while you are talking to him.  See what kind of reaction you get.  If it’s what I expect, maybe we’ll send you down there to talk to her.”

“Me.  I don’t even speak Spanish.”

“Maybe she speaks some English, or we can find you an interpreter.  Just pay attention to his reaction.”

Nora goes to get up, then sits back down.  “I told Carlos that I would see if I could slow down the extradition and deportation processes.  Can we do that?”

“Yes, we probably can.  The DA won’t be happy about it, but if your instinct that Carlos didn’t commit this murder is correct, and if we can use your technology to see who did, a small delay will be well worth it.”

29      Nora

In a scene that was now beginning to get familiar, Nora sits down at a window waiting for Carlos to be brought in.  She looks around.  It is a bleak room in a bleak place that is all about punishment and offers no hope.  The question, ‘How could anyone survive in here?’ is running through her mind when Carlos is brought in.

Nora smiles, “Buenos Dias, Senor Carlos.”  He looks right through her.  She tells him that she has asked to slow down the extradition and deportation processes and was told that it wouldn’t be a problem.  Carlos doesn’t react.  She stares at him, but cannot get him to look at her.  Finally, she bursts out, “Is this where you want to spend the rest of your life?  If you get sent back to California, maybe you’ll get to spend your life in one of their super-max prisons, where you can live in solitary for 20 hours a day.”  Then she pleads, “Give me a chance Carlos, I’m the best chance you have for a new start in life.”  When that doesn’t generate a reaction, she adds more softly, “I’m the best chance you have of ever seeing your mother again.”

Carlos looks at her.  He tries to keep his fierce countenance, but she can see that his eyes are beginning to get glassy.  “Carlos, please let me help you.” 

He regains control of his emotions and yells “Don’t try to give me hope when I know there isn’t any,” and he gets up and walks away.

Nora sits, stunned.  “I think I hit a nerve.  Now I just have to go find his mother.”

Nora walks back into the lab.  Marhan turns, “Glad you are here, I want to try a new experiment.”

Nora’s mind is elsewhere.  She looks at Marhan, that she is drained shows on her face. 

“What’s the matter?”

“I might be flying to Mexico in a day or two to try and find Carlos’s mother, to see if she will work with me to help me get through to him.”  She sits down at her desk chair facing Marhan.  “It’s rough.  I’ve gone to see Carlos three times now and he barely even acknowledges my presence.  He has suffered so much injustice, and has so much hate bottled up inside.  He thinks that I am there to deceive him.”

“In a sense you are, right?”

Nora says emphatically.  “If he committed that murder then yes, our test will get him locked up forever.  If he didn’t, and I don’t think he did, he has a chance at a new life.”

“I have an idea that, if it proves accurate, will make it so that you would not have to deceive Carlos to get him to implicate himself.  It struck me earlier today that for every test, except the first one we did on me, we’ve asked the subject to think of a specific scene to see if we could reproduce it.  What if we didn’t?  What if we just told the subject that this test will enable us to see events in their past, and then we started the test?  I think that the test subject will automatically start thinking about what they want us to see the least.  It is human nature.  The subject will give himself away without any prodding from us.”

Nora kicks back in her chair and thinks.  “You know, that actually might work, but I don’t want to drag Carlos in here and do that to him.  In his case, even if he didn’t murder the restaurant owner, there is so much else that could come out it would feel like entrapment.”  Nora thinks further.  “Maybe we should instead say something offhandedly like, ‘just don’t think of anything you wouldn’t want us to see.’  I think that would immediately trigger the subject to scan their mind for exactly that.” 

“That could work.  We could try it both ways.”

Nora sits up and looks at her watch.  “I’m having dinner with Emily in a little while.  I have been wondering what, if anything, I could tell her about our project.  What if I asked her to come by tomorrow to test out this idea.”  But then Nora thought for a minute and became uncomfortable, “I can’t do that.  We’d be setting her up; we’d be hoping that she would expose to us the thing about herself that she least wants us to know.”

“Do you think Emily has any dark secrets?” Marhan asked.

“Don’t we all,” Nora says as she smiles at Marhan, which makes him blush.  “Okay, I’ll tell her a bit about the Fifth-Dimension Project over dinner and ask if she wants to be the next test subject, and let’s hope that she doesn’t have anything that’s too dark hidden inside.”

30      Emily

“So, this is where the magic happens,” Emily says as she enters the lab. 

“I don’t know if it’s really magic.”  Nora notes.

“You can see scenes from people’s past lives on your computer screen, that sounds like magic to me.”

“Maybe so.  In that case, let me introduce you to Marhan, our head magician.”

“Nice to meet you,” Marhan says, “but Nora is wrong.  I am not head magician, she and I share that title,” which makes Nora smile.  “I presume that Nora has told you something about how this process works.  Here, let me show you around the equipment.”  Marhan walks Emily around while Nora gets the computer up and ready for her test.

“So, what do I do?” Emily asks as she walks over to the table and contemplates the helmet.

Nora stands up and walks over to her, while Marhan starts affixing the helmet on Emily’s head.  “For today, nothing, just try and relax and keep your mind quiet.  We’re going to try and see if we can see what you are thinking about.”

“Wait, so you want me to not think about anything, but then you want to see what I am thinking about?” Emily asks while looking at Nora.

“That’s the idea.  We want to see what a quiet mind settles on.”

“Okay,” Emily says hesitantly, while scanning her mind as she climbs onto the table. 

As she lays down, Nora can’t help but add, “Just don’t let your mind settle on any thoughts you don’t want us to see.”

The stress in Emily’s face makes it apparent that her mind is not quiet.  Nora and Marhan turn away and go over to the computer to start the protocol.  Emily settles down immediately as they began energizing the helmet.  Nora comments, “I feel bad doing this to her.”  As they increase the pulses Nora quietly asks Marhan, if he thought they were going to have to try and move her through time.  “No, I doubt it.  I expect she will settle on something unsettling that has happened recently.”

The flash appears and then they are in.  They can hear the argument before the picture starts to form.  “Emy can’t you just take off for this evening and go out with us?”

“No.  I’ve got to finish what I’m working on.”

“That’s what you always say.”

“That’s because I’m a graduate student and I have to keep working if I’m ever going to graduate.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll go out without you, … again.”

“I’m sorry.  This will all be over someday,” Emily says as she walks up to Ben and gives him a hug.

“Yeah, it will be over once you have tenure.”  Ben says as he closes the door.

Emily goes over to her computer to get back to work.  The picture gets distorted.  “I think she’s tearing up,” Marhan notes while looking at Nora. 

Nora nods.  “She’s starting to cry.  I hate watching this, but I know how she feels.  Ben has a regular job that he works at for about 40 hours a week.  Emily probably works more than twice that many hours.  They don’t give out PhDs for showing up.”

Marhan understands, but adds, “If that’s her darkest secret, she has it pretty good.  At least she has someone.”

Emily takes a few deep breaths, her forearm rubs across the front of her eyes, the picture improves somewhat, she gets back to typing.  Nora turns to Marhan, “We should probably wake her up.”  On the way over to the table she adds.  “You don’t know how difficult it is for women scientists to find a relationship that works.  A lot of guys are afraid of women who are more accomplished, or dare I say smarter than them.  Then there are guys like Ben, who is reasonably accomplished, but wants to have a life.  There are other women out there that he will meet while he is out and she is tied to her computer.  In the end, Emily might end up trading him for her PhD.”

Emily sits up.  Nora asks if she is okay.  “Could you see what I was thinking?” 

“Yes, I expect so.  Do you want to come over and watch the scene on the computer?”

Emily goes over and sits at the computer while Marhan and Nora look on.  “Oh my god, this is amazing.  This is an exact replay of the argument that Ben and I had.  It’s even more accurate than the version of it I played in my head.” After a minute more she says, “You can even see that I am crying,” and with that Emily begins to cry.  “Ben wants a house, he wants children.  I keep putting him off, until after I finish my degree, until after I get tenure.  He’s a good guy, but I don’t think he’s going to wait for me.”

For a minute Nora and Marhan just stand behind Emily not knowing what to say.  Then Nora brightens up.  “Emily, do you speak Spanish?”

“Un poco.”

“Girls’ trip!  I need help.  You can bring your computer, but you are flying with me to Mexico.  Tomorrow if I can get it arranged.”

“I can’t just leave like that.”

“You can and you will.  I need you, and you need a break.  It’s for this research.  Tell Ben I need your help, and tell your adviser that you’ll be back in two days tops.  I’ll send you the flight details as soon as I have the tickets, and I’ll explain everything to you while we are in the air.  I have a lot to do.  Marhan will see you out.”  And with that Nora heads out of the lab.

Emily just sits there.  Marhan pipes up.  “She’s just like you.  Driven to get this work done.  Please go with her.  I want her to be safe.”

Emily nods her head, “You care for her, don’t you?”

Marhan blushes, doesn’t know what to say.  “She is my research partner; we have work to finish.”

Emily looks at him, knows it is more than that.  She can see it in Marhan’s eyes, when he looks at Nora, in his discomfort at being asked.  “Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.  It’s none of my business.  It was nice to meet you.”  She stands up, exits the lab.

31      Girls’ Trip

Two days later, Carlos sits alone in his cell during visiting hours waiting to be called to the room where he could sit across from the pretty white girl.  Even though he doesn’t trust her, even though he doesn’t believe she can help him, he misses this new part of his routine.  She provided him a rare break from the bleakness, the hopelessness, of this place.  He thinks about his mom.  The last time he saw her was when they were running away from Border Guards.  She fell and got hurt, and he was suddenly alone.  She screamed, “Run Carlos, run.”  So he ran.  He tried to find his aunt, but he had no idea how to search for her.  He wishes he could see his mom again.                           

Nora and Emily board a one-stop flight to Aeropuerto Regional Barrancas.  Nora fills her in on the details then they both try to sit and work, but this is exciting.  The second leg of the flight was on a 6-seater flying over deep canyons.  This is going to be an adventure. 

They rent a jeep and head to the small village of Areponapuchi.  The goal is simple; pull into town and ask around for Seῆora Rojas.  The village is small.  If she is there, it isn’t going to be too difficult to find her. 

“Assuming we can find her, do you really think talking to his mom will get Carlos to open up?” Emily asks.

“He was 14 when he last saw her.  It had to be traumatic to see her get injured and then run leaving her and Rinaldo, his younger brother, behind.  He has no idea what happened to them, just like they have no idea what happened to him.  I expect that there is trauma all around that a conversation could begin to heal.”

“But what if he did kill the restaurant owner?”

“Then it’s likely that he still won’t agree to a session in the fifth dimension.  Even if he did it, I would still like to see him connect with his mom.  He’s been through a lot.  He deserves this.”

Emily looks at Nora, “Are you starting to care about Carlos?”

Nora glances away from the road, “It’s not like that.  There’s no connection between us.  He won’t let me in, but after reading through his file over-and-over, I have started to empathize with him.  I would like to see him get some measure of justice, even if it is just to talk with his mom and for her to learn that he is still alive, even if he is in prison.

“To change the subject, I asked Marhan how he feels about you.  He wouldn’t admit to anything, but he’s nice, I think he cares for you.  Are you guys dating?”

“No, but I am starting to have feelings for him, but I’m not sure.  Even if I was sure, I wouldn’t dare act on them because, what if it doesn’t work out?  He’s my research partner.  We see each other all day every day.  As you may have noticed, I have moved my desk so that I am facing out the window and he is off to my side.”

“That was my first time in your lab.”

“Sometimes I look over at him while he’s working and wonder about us, but it’s too risky.”

“Any updates on Sam?”

“Not really.  He hasn’t called; I haven’t seen him in months.  I think we’d have a chance together, but he still seems to be in love with Sarah, his ex.  Any new deep conversations with Ben?”

“You saw our conversation from the other night.  Now, he is frustrated that I can get away with you, but that I am always putting him off.  We didn’t exactly have a fight while I was packing last evening, but the air was thick with tension.  Then, as a way of trying to communicate, he asked me if I could get a post-doc here for a few years, to put off moving.  That was both good and bad.  He was acknowledging that we are going to have to move, while trying to find a way out of having to do so.  A post-doc could work for a year or two, if I can get one.  But does that just kick the ‘day of reckoning’ in our relationship down the road?”

They drive by a family, with meager belongings walking along the road.  “Should we help them, “Nora asks.

“We can’t fit them in the vehicle.  Let’s stop and at least get them water and some food at the next town.”  Emily looks through her wallet, “I have some extra cash.”

“Will do.”  Then Nora adds, “I wonder if this family was displaced because of Nichols’ policies.  He’s ruining our economy by throwing out workers we need, and putting pressure on other economies to absorb returning workers.”

“You’ve been paying attention.”

“You got me started, now I can’t seem to stop.”

“Nora the doom scroller, eh.”

“I’m not that bad, at least I hope not.  There’s just so much shit flying, I wish I saw a solution.”

“The only solution involves people actually getting informed.”

Nora glances at Emily, “Time travel was easier than that will be.”

“So new at this, and already so cynical?”

Nora glances over at Emily.  She doesn’t want to say that Sam is the force behind her cynicism.

Luckily, they pull into town at this moment.  Nora sees a small open air taco shop.  She pulls into the parking lot.  “Maybe they’re still in the restaurant business.”  They walk in and the man behind the counter looks up.

“Buenos Dias Senoritas, ¿Qué puedo conseguir para ti?”  He is the spitting image of Carlos.

Nora stares at him for a moment, says, “Oh my god!” then asks, “Seῆor Rojas?”

“¿quién quiere saber?”

Nora stands open mouthed, turns to Emily, who hesitates, then slowly replies “Nosotras … queremos … sabe.  I think that’s right.”

“Maybe English is easier for you.”

“Yes, yes, thank you,” Nora says, then hesitates.  She had spent time with Carlos, they had traveled here, but she hadn’t thought through exactly how to introduce herself to his family, how to tell them his story.  Finally, she just says, “You look just like Carlos.”

He is wiping the counter.  He stops.  “You know Carlos?”

“Yes, and I’m trying to help him.  Hi, I’m Nora and this is Emily.”

The man behind the counter motions for Nora to wait.  He turns around and calls, “Mamá, please come here.”  Seῆora Rojas appears momentarily.  “These women know Carlos.”

“My Carlos is alive?”

“Yes, Seῆora, your son is alive.”  Nora slowly pulls out the prison photo she had brought with her and unfolds it, “but he is in prison.  I am trying to help him.”

She takes the photo, hesitates for a moment as she studies it, then bursts into tears, “mi hijo, mi hijo.”

32      Carlos Rojas

Working through Professor Wilster, Nora got permission to visit Carlos in a room.  There is a guard right inside the door, and one right outside.  Nora sits at the table in the center of the room.  Carlos expresses surprise at seeing Nora when they bring him in.  He looks around.  The guard walks him to the table.  He sits down; there is no glass between them. 

Nora touches the screen on her phone and sets it down between them on the table.  It rings.  A few seconds later a voice on the other end asks, “Hola, Carlos?”

Carlos looks at Nora, then stares at the phone.  His normally fierce exterior melts.  “Mama, is that you?”

“Yes, Carlos.  I’m here with Rinaldo.”

“Hi mama; hi Rinaldo,” and with that Carlos bursts into tears.

“Are you okay Carlos?”

“No mama.  No, my life has been hard since I left you.”

“You are in prison?”

“Yes mama, I am sorry.”

Nora steps over by the door next to the guard to give Carlos a measure of privacy.  They talk for the full 15 minutes of time Carlos is allotted.  His mama and Rinaldo tell him that Nora went down to Areponapuchi to find them, that she didn’t believe that he committed the murder of the restaurant owner and that he should trust her. 

After they hang up, Nora goes to the table to retrieve her phone.  Carlos looks up at her and says, “I was there.  I will show you what I saw.”

“Okay then,” Nora replies with a hint of sadness in her voice.  “I will get that process started.  Is there anything else?”

“Yes,” Carlos responds.  “Thank you for today, and thank you for working to help me.”

Nora gives Carlos a big smile, gets up, walks to the door to be buzzed out.

They bring him in wearing an orange jumpsuit with chains on his wrists and ankles.  One officer stands guard outside the door, another is in the room with Nora, Marhan, Professors Levin and Wilster, Ryan Northfield, an attorney from the DA’s office, and Alfred Nevin, Carlos’s attorney. 

Professor Wilster has informed both attorneys that the technology can see into the past of the individual undergoing a session, and based on what they might find the DA and Attorney Nevin had come to terms that Carlos agreed to.  If the session shows that Carlos wasn’t guilty of the murder, and if it identifies the guilty party, the DA will write a letter to ICE supporting Carlos’s bid for a work visa.

Nora turns to Carlos, then asks Ryan and the officer in the room, “Can we please remove his shackles?”

Ryan speaks up, “No, he is potentially dangerous.  Why do you want to remove them?”

“For one,” Nora says as much to Ryan as to Carlos, “once we place the helmet on his head and the session starts, his body will quiet down and he will be unable to move.”  Now she specifically addresses Carlos, “Marhan and I have both undergone these sessions, you won’t feel like anything is wrong, the energy pulsating through your brain, just makes it like you are sleeping.  You’ll be absolutely fine once it is over.”

Then, turning back to Ryan, she continues, “We want him to be relaxed, even comfortable so that his mind stays focused on the events in question.”  Ryan still isn’t comfortable, so Professor Wilster jumps in with a possible solution.

“How about we just take off the leg shackles to help get him up on the table, and we remove the handcuffs once the session is in progress.”  She looks over at Ryan, “He won’t be able to move anyway.”

Ryan looks over at the officer, “Are you comfortable with that?”

“I guess so,” then looking at Nora he adds, “As long as you can give me notice when the session is ending so I can put the handcuffs back on before he is alert.”

Nora agrees.  Then the officer removes Carlos’s leg shackles and he and Alfred help Carlos get up on the table.  As the helmet is placed on his head, the stoic Carlos is suddenly looking uncomfortable with the process.  Nora sees this and smiles, and in a quiet calming voice says, “You’re going to be fine.  Just think about the events of that day, and the session will soon be over.” 

Attorney Nevin and the officer help Carlos lay back.  Once he is settled, Nora starts the protocol.  “Level 1 pulses beginning.”  With that Carlos settles into a relaxed state, and Nora calls out, “It’s time to take off the handcuffs.”

“What do we do?”  Attorney Nevin asks.

Nora turned to him.  “Just watch the computer screen.  If Carlos focuses on the events of that day, they should play out on the computer screen.”  He looks uncertain, but he nods and watches.

At pulse level 10, the now familiar flash occurs.  The visitors express shock and are uncertain whether they should be looking at Carlos or the computer and are trying to keep an eye on both.  Marhan suggests, “It’s okay to just leave Carlos there and come look at the computer screen.  We are about to see what happened that day through Carlos’s eyes.”  The two attorneys move over behind Nora at the computer screen; the officer keeps most of his focus on Carlos. 

Nora reports, “Moving to pulse level 11.”

The door opens and fragments of Carlos’s thoughts started flying by as they moved back through the past two years.  Voice fragments organize first into intelligible words.  “I know who you are,” a man’s voice says.  As the scene forms everyone can see that Carlos is staring down the barrel of a shotgun. 

“I am here to talk to you, not hurt you,” Carlos responds.

“Put up your hands,” says the man, who Nora, Professor Wilster and the two attorneys recognize as the restaurant owner.

Carlos does as he is told.  They can see parts of his raised hands out of the corners of his eyes.  Then Carlos speaks.  “I am here to give you the protection money my brothers want from you.  It’s in my inside pocket.”

“Why should I believe you, and why would you do such a thing?”

“I … I,” Carlos was having difficulty speaking and the image starts becoming distorted.  It seemed that Carlos had tears in his eyes.  “Just let me give you the money sir, I will be back with more each month.”

“I don’t trust you.”

Just at that moment a shot rang out and the owner was slammed back against the wall. Carlos ducks, turns to his right, and his weapon is now visible in front of him. 

“It’s okay Carlos,” Julio said.  “I didn’t think you ever let anyone get the jump on you.”

Carlos lets his gun fall out of view and walks up to the owner.  He was still breathing.  Carlos knelt down beside him.  The owner turned his head and with his dying breath says, “I knew I couldn’t trust you.”  The view gets distorted, Carlos was weeping. 

Julio was exuberant as he made his way through the restaurant, “I am an enforcer!” He said as he threw his arms into the air.  He made his way to Carlos, still smiling as he surveys the bloody scene in front of him.  “What’s going on?” Julio asked, while looking at Carlos and casually waving his gun.

Carlos takes a deep breath to regain his composure.  “What’s going on is that you just killed a man and we need to get you out of here.  This isn’t like killing a brother.  The cops are going to start a manhunt to find this man’s killer.  You are a US Citizen with a passport, right.”

“Yes,” Julio responded.

“Where’s your passport?”

“It’s in my car.”

“And you have family in Oaxaca, Mexico.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“You need to start driving there immediately.  Then you need to lay low until the heat dies down, possibly a year or more.”

“I made my first hit; I want to celebrate,” Julio said proudly.

“You do that and you will surely get arrested.  There is an informant among us.  If you say a word to any of our brothers or sisters, word will spread and the cops will come down on you with maximum force, here or in Mexico.  It won’t matter, they will catch you and will likely shoot you.”

The gravity of his situation was starting to dawn on Julio.  “Okay, so we need to go.”

As he stands up, Carlos reaches for the shotgun that the restaurant owner is still holding in his right hand.

“Why are you taking that?” Julio asked.

“I have my reasons.  Give me your weapon.” Julio handed it to Carlos.  Let’s get out of here.”

Julio was a step ahead of Carlos, who turned around, takes one last look at the dead man on the floor.  “I am sorry, sir.” And he wipes a tear from his eye.

Julio screeched his tires.  Carlos looked down as he stuffed the pistols into his jeans and kept the shotgun right against his leg as he walked toward his car, jumped in and began to drive.  No one in the lab is familiar with the area so they can’t follow where he drove, but they are all mesmerized by what they have just seen, are still watching.  “This is incredible.  If this is real, then Carlos is innocent of murder,” Alfred says somewhat distractedly as they watch the video.

“Yes,” Ryan adds, “but helping Julio get away makes him an accessory after the fact.  How do we know any of this is true?” he asks while looking over at Nora.

“Just keep watching,” Professor Wilster chimes in, maybe he’ll show us where he stashed the weapons. 

Carlos makes his way onto I-10 East and drives toward the desert.  Darkness is falling.  He gets off at an exit, drives into the desert, stops the car, opens the trunk, pulls out a shovel, digs a small hole and buries the weapons. 

“There,” Professor Wilster says, “We need to pass this video to the LA police, I expect they will be able to follow the trail Carlos has given us, dig up the weapons and that will be the proof that this is real.”

“But he could have had someone stash them there after he knew that he was going to do this session.”

“Unlikely,” Nora replies.  “If he tried to edit the scene we would know.”

“What makes you so sure?” Ryan asks.

“When people try to edit reality, the scene moves from behind their eyes.  We start looking at them from the vantage point that they are trying to move to.”

Ryan gives her a perplexed look.

Nora insists, “I know that it’s a lot to take in, but what we just saw was real.”

“Those guns have been buried in the desert for two years now.  Find them, and have a forensics expert verify that they have been buried for an extended period.  I would think that should be persuasive,” Professor Wilster adds with an air of confidence.

Marhan stops the session while this discussion is going on, and he and Nora help Carlos sit up while the officer reapplies the shackles to Carlos’s arms and then his legs.

Carlos is sitting up at this point.  Ryan turns to him and asks, “Why would you choose to hide the guns and then out Julio in these images?”

Carlos looks at Ryan and then over at Nora.  “Ask her, she knows.”

Nora smiles, goes to speak, but Ryan cuts back in.  “I want to hear it from you.” 

Carlos hesitates, lowers his eyes and then begins to speak with a palpable sadness in his voice.  “That man reminded me of my father.  Julio shouldn’t have killed him.  Maybe now he has to pay for that.”

Alfred chimes in, “That statement goes a long way toward defanging an accessory charge.”

An officer is holding Carlos’s arm, leading him toward the door.  Carlos stops for a second.  Turns, looks over at Nora.  “Thank you.  I know this doesn’t fix everything, but maybe it will give me a chance at a new life.”  And with that he is out the door.

33      A Pre-Seminar Trail Run

Marhan and Nora stay locked in the lab as often as they can, and do their best to deflect questions when they are out and about.  Their colleagues are interested in their progress, and the goings-on at the lab raised speculation to a fever pitch.  First there was Winnie carting mice in and out day after day, and more recently a man in shackles and an orange jumpsuit was escorted into the lab by police officers and attorneys.  Their colleagues insist on being brought into the loop.

In addition, enough people had been through the lab that word was starting to leak outside of the confines of the university that Marhan and Nora had the ability to peer into people’s pasts.  The video sent to the LA police had not been leaked, but its existence had.  Newspapers and TV programs were starting to call the university.  The University President was put on notice that these two graduate students had figured out how to unlock secrets from individual’s pasts.  The possibility of changing the past was bantered about on the Internet, but no one outside of Marhan, Nora, Wilna, Winnie and Professors Levin and Wilster knew the truth.

Professors Levin and Wilster join them in the lab one afternoon to discuss what details they can reveal to their colleagues and the wider world.  “The problem,” Marhan starts, “Is that all of these memories are personal.  The things we remember most, the things we replay in our minds and that get catalogued in the fifth dimension are maybe too personal to be shared outside of this small circle.”

“Maybe we could do a live demonstration for our colleagues,” Nora suggests.  “One of them might be willing to come up and reveal a memory.”

“That’s dangerous,” Professor Wilster offers.  “Remember the Mae fiasco.  We don’t know what is ruminating inside our colleagues’ skulls that will inadvertently come out.  We might get sued for privacy violations, or harassment.”

“Wilna’s memory was sweet, very sad but sweet,” Nora offered, “Could we possibly show that with Wilna’s permission?”

“That’s a possibility,” Professor Levin chimed in, “But, the thing about Wilna’s memory is that it brings up the desire to change the past.  Anyone who sees those images is going to ponder whether the past can be changed.  We need to stay away from that topic for now, maybe forever, which also puts discussion of the mouse experiment off limits.”

“But everyone has seen Winnie bringing mice in and out for over a month,” Marhan says in a stressed tone, “What are we going to tell them?”

“That we wanted to see if the test worked on nonhuman species,” Professor Levin offers.  “Tell them the mouse experiments failed.”

“I’ll do it,” Nora suddenly offers.  “I’ll do a demonstration in front of the audience.  I go trail running when I’m not in here.  I’ll focus on scenes from a recent run.”

“Are you sure?” Professor Levin asks.

Nora nods.

“Just make sure to stay focused on your run.”  Professor Wilster says.  “Work on your mindfulness skills to clear you head of unwanted intrusions into your thinking.  Maybe we can allow a few news people into the seminar so as to let the wider world in on what you two are accomplishing.  What do you think Mark?”

“It makes me nervous, but it is probably necessary.  The world is going to be astounded, even frightened when they see what you two are doing.  We have to expect that the news on this project is going to contain more than a veneer of terror for what this project means for the future of our world.”

It was October, days were starting to get short, the air crisp.  It had snowed a few times on the high peaks.  Nora checks the forecast.  Tomorrow is forecast to be a blue bird day with comfortable temperatures.

She is at the trailhead, stretching when another runner parks and walks to the trailhead.  “Sam?”

He looks over at her, “Oh, hi Nora.”

“How are you?” Nora asks.  Then says, “No texts, no calls.  What the fuck dude?”

“I’m sorry.  I picked up my phone so many times to call you, I just couldn’t.  I couldn’t put you at risk of getting caught with me.”

Nora gets angry, “That was my choice to make, not yours.  You could have talked to me.” She steps in front of him, raises her arms and smacks the sides of her fists into his shoulders.

Sam absorbs the shock, understands her rage.  “The whole world hates me, Nora.  You don’t know what that feels like.  I’m sorry, but I feel like I did the right thing.  Could we run together, maybe talk some more?”

She sneers at him, but then nods, indicating that on some level she understands.

They take off up the mountain.  “Are you still stuck?” Nora asks.

“Less so,” Sam responds, “but I still don’t have a clear direction forward.  I’ve been writing.  I’ve written a true account of my time with Nichols, and I’ve written a fictional account where I try and make myself less culpable.  In both versions, I’m the villain.  If even I can’t absolve myself of responsibility, the world certainly will not.  But enough about me, how is your work going?”

“If I remember correctly, we had experienced our first successes with our new technology the last time we went out running, but I told you that I couldn’t give you any details.  Well, we’ve had more successes, but I still can’t tell you much.”

“Still building violin strings then,” Sam says with a smile.

Nora laughs, “I will give you one detail if just to pique your curiosity.  We can look into the minds of a session subject and see moments from their past.”

Sam stops running.  “Really?”

Nora nods, “Yes, on a computer screen.”

Sam starts running again.  “Wow!  You really might change the world.”

When they had gotten up onto the ridge, where wildflowers had thickly graced the land throughout the summer, Sam asks if they can stop for a minute.  “This is the spot you found me passed out among the wildflowers.  There is something I need to tell you, something I need to come clean about.”

Nora glances over at him, “Sam you don’t have to tell me, I figured it out for myself.”

He looks at her.  “Of course you have.  So, you know that I drink, but you are still willing to spend time with me.  It helps me sleep; drink, along with sleeping pills and gummies, allow me to get at least some rest, but they all have consequences.”

“I’ve looked at online discussions about you both before and after you left the political scene.  First it was the left hating you, then the right.  It gave me a sense of what you are up against and what it is doing to you.  Besides, I’m not just out on runs with Sam the drinker, I’m out with Sam the brilliant political writer who has the best interests of humanity in his soul.”

“Thank you.  You know, given your youth, I don’t give you enough credit sometimes.  You truly are amazing.”

She smiles.  “None of us are perfect.  I ended up with Jake for a year, because I, … I have no fucking idea why I stuck that out so long.”  She says as her smile changes to frustration.  She does a quick headshake to check her emotions, then continues, “We need to go up a little higher to the top of the first peak.  I have to put on something of a show for a seminar Marhan and I are doing.”

They continue up to the peak where Sam steps aside and watches as Nora talks out loud, talks with her arms straight out in front of her while rotating her hands with fingers spread wide, and points a mirror at herself, but with no visible recording device.  At one point Sam sees her smile change to sadness as she looks in the mirror, then she seems to catch herself, looks over at him, smiles, and continues.

“What was that about?” he asks.

“You’ll know when the rest of the world does,” she says with a smile and they start down.