Page 90 of The Paradox Club

“I just want a full accounting of our current assets,” said Richard. He slid into the driver’s seat and pulled the latch that popped the trunk.

Tess walked to the rear of the car and looked in. She felt anxiety tapping on the door of her tranquility and wished they had just driven on, leaving the trunk closed.

“I think you two should come and see this,” she said.

Richard and Vivian joined Tess at the rear of the car and the three stood staring at the contents of the trunk—a scattering of men’s clothes and a few toiletries. The radio was nowhere in sight.

* * * *

Montag 5 had done one thing right, he thought as he barreled toward Chicago. He smiled remembering how easy it had been. He had sent Nemo 7 to the motel office to check in (without his cell phone of course), put the child lock on the back doors of the car, and threatened Tess and Vivian with gunfire if they tried to crawl into the front seat. Then he adjusted the side mirrors so he would have a view of the back seat from the rear of the car. It only took a few seconds to open the trunk, dump the clothes and toiletries out of the black duffel bag, and replace them with the radio. No one else, not even Nemo 7, had known that the bag that sat in plain sight next to the bed in the motel room held Harry Maxwell’s famous radio—the one he had refused to turn over to the Paradox Club. In Tess’s escape he might have lost one prize, but he still had another one. And while the radio might not possess the unique qualities of Tess Maxwell, it had worked its magic once before and, in the hands of Pilgrim 3, he had no doubt it could do so again. If he didn’t catch Tess and the turncoats in the next one hundred miles, he could drive to O’Hare and, without a kidnap victim in his keeping, fly back to New York in plenty of time for the alignment. When this had all started, Pilgrim 3 had only wanted the radio. Tess had been a bonus, but the radio would be enough. He felt better already. Another twenty miles, he thought, and he’d call her with the good news.

The call did not go as smoothly as he hoped.

HARRY AND VIVIAN ON THE DOCK

“Is she asleep?” said Vivian.

“She’s out of earshot,” said Harry.

“And Marie?”

“Ditto.”

“Why did you want me to meet you out here on the dock?” asked Vivian. “What’s so important that Tess and Marie can’t hear it?”

“It’s time for me to tell you the history of the island.”

“I thought I knew the history—your grandfather and all that.”

“Did you ever wonder how I came to be a member of the Paradox Club when I was only seventeen?”

“You’ve always been brilliant, Harry. I just assumed…”

“I was a legacy. My father was a member and his father before him. My grandfather died before I was born, and my father died—”

“When you were seventeen.”

“And I took his place in the club.”

“And were your father and grandfather as stubborn as you about not taking a club alias?” said Vivian.

Harry laughed. “No, I’m the first Maxwell to claim that distinction. My grandfather was Nemo 1. Dad wanted his own alias and became Lidenbrock 1. But there has always been a Maxwell in the Paradox Club.”

“Because of your grandfather?”

“Because of this island,” said Harry. “You know that I have tried to convince members of the club that there are certain physical locations in our universe that are particularly open to making connections with other universes, to receiving UFOs.”

“I’ve heard you argue that theory,” said Vivian.

“It’s not a theory,” said Harry. “It’s true. My grandfather knew it, my father knew it, and I know it. This island contains one of those places.”

“Your circle of trees?”

“How did you know?”

“I guessed,” said Vivian. “If you say someplace on this island is closely connected to other universes, it stands to reason it’s the one place you forbid everyone else to set foot.”

“My grandfather didn’t realize it at first, but he had a strong intuition when it came to UFOs.”