Page 15 of City of Love

“And you did say, did you not, that the Group’s medical team has found a way to treat our people for the problems they’ll face when crossing to your world long term. Because if you can’t ameliorate that problem, it will be incredibly painful for them—and for me, I might add—to exist in your universe. They’ll have a great deal of trouble with the sensory overload of your world, and their skills, the very ones you want to study, will be diminished because of it,” Benjamin said. “It’s also highly likely some of them wouldn’t survive the relocation.”

His stomach cringed as he spoke, knowing he’d have the same problems when he escaped to the other world if the Prometheus Group couldn’t keep their promise of medical help. But he was ready to take the plunge. To finally be rid of the ugly gray patina his world had taken on for him since the day his fellow citizens, his friends and colleagues, had killed his wife Mary. A murder by neglect and disregard perhaps, but a murder nonetheless.

His guest stopped pacing and spun to meet his stare, rejecting the notion with a flick of the hand. “I’ve reassured you many times not to worry. Are you in agreement or not?”

Benjamin turned back toward the window, hiding the swallow he took. The very people this fancy suit was dismissing with a wave of the hand were people he’d known for decades. Many of them far longer than that. Still, if he were to admit the truth, he really didn’t care for most of them anymore. They were a righteous lot, always convinced they knew what was best for everyone else. What was best for their world.

Of course, what was best for everyone else certainly hadn’t been so for Mary. When her kidneys began to fail nearly two years ago, and treatment was beyond the skill of their healers, doctors from World Two suggested they bring over some kind of equipment they had at their disposal—something called a dialysis machine. It needed electricity to run, which was not available in his world, but they’d had a solution for that as well, claiming they could bring over another small machine that ran on fuel and could generate portable electricity.

The council had voted to refuse permission for this, however. With smug sympathy on their faces, they referred to the lifesaving device as a slippery slope. Someone would always have another valid reason for bringing technology into their world, and though several people on the council were Mary’s friends, they refused to go down that path. Mary herself was far too fragile to spend any time in the debilitating realm of the other world in order to receive treatment there. Six months later, she went down her own slippery slope into death.

“I need your final answer, Benjamin. The Prometheus Group will pay you a lump sum in advance to aid us with the preliminaries such as testing the capture devices, which as you know we’ve now started doing, and then an ongoing fee for each asset you identify for their various skills and help to bring over. And, yes, you will get paid for each capture even if for whatever reason they don’t… pan out.”

Bile burned in his throat, but in the year and a half since Mary’s death, his resentment had festered into an itchy thing, and he no longer felt comfortable in his home world. When the Prometheus Group had first approached him, he’d briefly considered bringing their offer right out into the open before the City Council. They might have negotiated a trade in technology that would have benefitted both worlds and prevented the need for any underhanded maneuvering. He’d considered this for all of about two seconds and then rejected the notion.

Nothing had changed in the minds of his people on the subject of technology. They would’ve refused the offer, and then he’d have shown his, and the Prometheus Group’s, hand and lost the opportunity for working with the Group altogether. Instead, he saw a chance to start a new life in the other world. A chance to forget all his pain and impotence. A clean slate in a new universe. But to do that he’d need a lot of money, because to live there with the same standard of living he was accustomed to in the abundant world of his home would be expensive.

Not to mention all the pricey new toys he couldn’t wait to get his hands on and finally play with, luxuriate in. They’d be a balm to all his recent pain and loss.

And a giant fuck you to his world with its short-sighted Luddites.

He automatically reached into his coat pocket where he absentmindedly rubbed his thumb over a folded-up magazine ad for the new Mercedes Roadster. His was going to be bright red, he’d already decided. Mary’s favorite color.

Benjamin lifted his chin. “You may count on my help.”

“Excellent. I’ll let the Group know you’re on board.”

“And just to be clear, though I’m sure it goes without saying, if the other members of the City Council or the Portal Committee, for example your buddy Gideon Ashe,” Benjamin tipped his head to the salon across the street, “or anyone else for that matter, were to find out about this, I would not be around long enough to do you any good.”

“Of course. If you need to reach me, I can usually be found at Taco Shots. But I suggest that for now you plan on speaking with me only when I’m visiting your world with the rest of the weekly patrons. It will attract less attention.”

“Understood,” Benjamin nodded. “I’ll wait for you to contact me on your next visit, —”

“Stop right there.” A pale flat palm rose up in his face. “Don’t ever say my name out loud again. We’ve been far too casual about it so far in our interactions. In fact, with all the telepaths in your world, don’t even think it. Let’s just use a nickname.” A pause, fingers tapping to lips. “How about… Philly.” His now-official business partner gave a very un-businesslike grunt. “Yo, Philly. Yeah. That’s funny.”

Benjamin wasn’t completely sure he got the joke but did as he was told. “Yo Philly.”

“Just Philly. Embed it in your brain.” A sharp finger jabbed him in the forehead. “That’s how you’ll think of me, that’s what you’ll call me. Whether out of your lips, or across your mind. Got it?”

Benjamin nodded. He hadn’t thought hard enough about the telepaths. Though in normal situations no one would ever randomly scan his mind, he had to assume once things started to get crazy in his world, fear and suspicion could easily lead to panicked—if unauthorized—exploration.

A hot bitter taste rose in his throat once more at this latest reminder of exactly how dangerous this enterprise was. An enterprise he’d now committed to. He swallowed down the burn in his chest, knowing it was too late to turn back, and watched as… err… Philly… spun and disappeared out the door.

CHAPTER 7

Vik took a peek at the timer on Lexi’s wrist as they continued their stroll down Market Street. “We’ve got a little more than three hours left, and the restaurant’s not far from here.”

Her head swiveled like she was watching a tennis match as she took in every sight they passed. “I feel like I’ve stepped back more than two hundred years into Philadelphia’s past, and yet it’s not exactly like that either, is it?”

The buildings were Colonial and early Victorian, brick, stone and wood. Pre-Industrial Revolution, pre-gasoline and electricity. The population density also reflected that of a much earlier era. The town felt busy enough for safety and excitement, but quiet enough to truly breathe and relax. To see the stars and hear crickets.

Yet the main roads were all neatly laid brick and cobbles, not dirt, and were impeccably clean, with none of the filth associated with cities of the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries. And there was unquestionably a modern air. People strolled in and out of storefronts, or socialized at cafes, exactly as they would on a Friday night in her world. They weren’t struggling for survival. There was no sense of uptight or antiquated social mores. These people were her contemporaries, in an anachronistic setting.

And there was so much more.

Her attention was caught by a young couple seated at an outdoor café. Holding hands on the tabletop, they were clearly engaged in deep conversation, heads nodding, smiling and laughing as they responded to each other, but they weren’t talking out loud. Their lips weren’t moving. The woman blushed at something the man must have silently said to her then, and she giggled as she covered her mouth with her hand.

Feeling like a voyeur, Lexi returned her focus to the street. “Okay, so no cars.”

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