Page 86 of The Paradox Club

“How did Harry tell you?”

“He has his ways,” said Tess with a smile.

“If Pilgrim 3 manages to open a portal in the middle of Manhattan,” said Vivian, “she might become world famous, but she also might destroy humankind. In the hands of the wrong person, and especially in a densely populated area, the radio could be the most dangerous object on Earth.”

“It’s a good thing we got it back,” said Richard. “I always thought it was destroyed the night of the fire.”

“I found it afterward,” said Vivian. “Harry’s copper shield was gone, but other than that the radio looked fine. Of course I wasn’t foolish enough to ever turn it on. I just hid it in the basement. And when it started getting too damp down there, I moved it to the attic.”

“If we have the radio,” said Richard, “we should get it as far away from New York as possible.”

“We need to go to the island,” said Tess.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” said Richard.

“We have to,” said Tess insistently. “We have to go to the island. Harry said so.”

“What do you mean, Harry said so?” said Richard.

“He sent me a message,” said Tess. “In his books.”

“His books?” said Richard.

“Yes,” said Tess. “Marie gave me Harry’s books and I unpacked them at Vivian’s and Harry used them to send me a message saying that if I was in danger near October fourteenth, 2015, I should find Vivian and get to the island.”

“Of course he did,” said Richard. “Harry Maxwell is trying to tell me what to do even beyond the grave. Would he ever invite me to the island when he was alive? No! But now he expects me to chauffeur you there at the exact moment that it’s an extraordinarily bad idea.”

“Is it?” said Vivian. “Is it a bad idea?”

“Of course it’s a bad idea,” said Richard. “You know what happened last time.”

“The most important thing is to get Tess and the radio someplace where Pilgrim 3 can’t find them,” said Vivian. “She hounded Harry for years about the location of the island and he never told her. We’ll be safe there.”

“If experience is anything to go by,” said Richard, “we’ll be anything but safe.”

“We’ll stay on the other side of the island,” said Vivian. “Hell, we’ll burn the damn radio. The point is Pilgrim 3 and her goons will never find us there.”

“Debatable,” said Richard.

“And there are other reasons to retreat to the island,” said Vivian.

“If you won’t take us,” said Tess, reaching out and holding Vivian’s hand, “we’ll find another way to get there. But Vivian and I are going to the island.”

Richard did not speak for a long minute. He looked away from the road for a moment and locked eyes with Vivian in the rearview mirror. He had seen that steely determination before and knew there was no use in fighting it.

“Can you navigate, Vivian?” he said.

“Absolutely.”

MONTAG 5 IS NOT A HAPPY CAMPER

Montag 5 had been stunned into inaction by the escape of Tess and Ardan 1. He hadn’t seen the driver of the car that took Tess, but the other car had been the black sedan he had been driving for the past two days, which meant Nemo 7 was complicit in the jailbreak. This was the only aspect of the whole affair that didn’t surprise Montag 5. He had never trusted Nemo 7 and now he felt like a fool for letting Nemo 7 out of his sight for even an instant.

It took several minutes of standing in the parking lot, watching the dust settle, for Montag 5 to replace his shock with adrenaline-fueled rage. No guest or employee of the White Pine Motor Lodge had come outside to investigate the gunshots he had fired at the retreating cars; he suspected that this was the sort of establishment with a tacit agreement among staff and clients alike that everyone mind their own business. That fact could work to Montag 5’s advantage. What worked to his disadvantage, he realized in his fury, was that he had let minutes tick by before taking action. That delay could put his quarry out of reach. It took another two minutes to determine that every car in the lot was locked. Visitors to the White Pine Motor Lodge took no chances, and by not guessing this Montag 5 had wasted even more time. Sleep-deprived or not, he had to start thinking smarter.

He strode to the door of room 9 and began banging on it with the butt of his pistol. He knew the room was occupied—they had all heard the noises of passion coming through the paper-thin walls.

“Open the damn door!” he shouted.