The McIvers agree to continue hosting Team Matic, but at their real house
this time. They don’t have a fancy schmancy infirmary there, but it doesn’t
look like that’s what Mateo needs. He just needs rest, and when he wakes up,
fluids. There aren’t as many rooms in the farmhouse, but it’s comfortable
enough, and the team is grateful. From what Leona can surmise, Mateo
spontaneously traveled into the past, where he met up with his cousin,
Danica. For whatever reason, she found it necessary to store him in a stasis
pod for however long, strip The Constant of all sensitive materials, and
leave a single clue as to his whereabouts. Once the trail was at its end,
the bunker was programmed to self-destruct, giving Mateo—and anyone else
down there—just enough time to escape.
Leona knew that her husband would be found inside that particular wall, if
anywhere, because that’s where she found him back in the early 23rd century.
He was removed from time, brought back dead using a sort of Rube Goldberg
contraption of temporal objects, and resurrected with a final special
object. The line from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, “meet me in
Montauk” told her that it was the key to finding someone again who she had
once forgotten. Mateo should be able to fill in the blanks when he’s better.
“He’s awake!” Trina calls out for the whole house to hear.
Leona was eating her breakfast. It was supposed to be a soup, but she was
distracted, and accidentally skipped out on the milk, and most of the water.
It’s good, though. She places her bento box in the refrigerator. Then she
walks up to the bedroom.
“Lee-lee, what happened?” Mateo asks her after Trina leaves.
“It’s your job to tell us,” Leona says.
“I don’t know.”
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
Mateo tilts his lizard brain to think. “I was driving out to see if I could
find the Constant. Sorry I went alone.”
“That’s the last thing?” she questions. “That was nine days ago.”
“Oh. I jumped forward in time? Then it’s true, and I was right, the Constant
is still there, and houses temporal energy. How far are we from it?”
“It was there,” Leona begins to explain. “It’s been destroyed.”
“Why?”
“Do you remember not too long ago in the main sequence, when we ended up in
that version of the Constant? Danica told us about a sort of reset protocol
if the facility were ever compromised.”
“Yeah, of course. She did that?”
“Evidently, she did it halfway. She said that a new Constant would spring up
in its place, and she would be replaced by an alternate version of herself
too. But this Constant is just gone. There’s a lake where it used to be. You
seemed to know it would happen. You called it Danica Lake.”
“When did I say this?”
“Yesterday. You fell down the elevator shaft, presumably went back in time,
was placed in stasis, we found you, and then the whole thing imploded.”
Mateo tries to remember. “We need Nerakali.”
“That’s an understatement, but you passed out shortly after the event,
suggesting that your memory loss was predetermined, and nowhere near an
accident. It may have even been consensual.”
“I’m sorry,” Mateo says, shaking his head. “I wish I could remember why I
don’t remember.”
“You can’t apologize for something you don’t know that you did, or why you
did it. I blame you for nothing. I don’t really blame anybody. We’re all
okay now.”
“Except for Marie.” Heath is standing in the doorway.
“Except for Marie,” Leona echoes.
“We’ll always have Croatia,” Mateo says, determined. “I won’t let anything
happen to her. I’ll always protect my team.”
“You should know,” Heath says, hobbling forward. He’s hurt again—not
still—having twisted his ankle when the elevator car came crashing down. It
was the only injury. “You should know you saved my life. I’m not a traveler.
What happened to you when you went back, may not have worked for me.” He
frowns. “I probably would have just splattered onto the floor.”
“I would say you’re welcome, but according to..my wife,” Mateo says in a
Borat voice, which he has never done before. “..I can’t take credit for
something I don’t remember doing.”
“I never said that,” Leona defends.
“You can’t have it both ways,” Mateo contends.
“You need something to eat.” She kisses him on the forehead. “Were I you.”
“Were I you.”
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