PART III:  O.

 “You couldn’t stop me from getting the first kid, and now I’m here for the second,” the uber Ian yelled to the passengers of the mysterious boat. Michael was for sure he was the second kid but not quite sure why, the only indication of this was the direction of the other Ian’s eyes as he made this exclamation.

 No one said anything for a while and the silence was deafening. Tyler and Michael were both too scared to move and Ian and the other guy seemed to have some kind of calm serenity wash over their faces as if these kind of situations were commonplace to them.

 That’s when the shot rang out and the spotlight went dead.

 That’s when a girl in a wet suit entered the boat as gracefully as one can from the water with a gun in her hand.

 That’s when the chase began.

 “Yeah,” Zane continued, “it’ll be interesting to hear what kind of story they come up with this time about what happened.”

 Karen finished with, “I bet they try and convince us there was some sort of high speed chase.”

 The two boats barreled across the lake in the dead of night. They were completely silent and had no lights on them and Tyler thought there was a good chance they wouldn’t make it for both of those reasons. This alone sort of heightened the experience in his mind. But this time unlike the last time he was in a boat on this lake, all he could do was sit there and let the action unfold around him, and if needed, swim a little.

 “Yeah and bullets flying…”

 Michael heard the gunshot and was fairly certain it had hit the water that was beside him at the time of the firing. But there was no way to be absolutely certain. He ducked down a little more anyway.

 The other man was still hunched over controlling the boat somehow when Ian went over to him, Michael thought he heard him say he had an idea, Ian then came over to Michael and without saying anything grabbed his oxygen tank, then he went over to Tyler and did the same thing. He dangled them over the end of the boat and Michael began to think his uncle was nuts, if the bullets hit one of the tanks they’d all be dead.

Then Ian said something sort of unexpected. “when I say now everybody jump off, if you don’t you will die.”

 He looked at all of us to make sure we understood and about ten seconds later yelled, “now!”

 The other man delayed his jump a little bit rigging the motor so that it will still run about four times as slow.

 When the other boat hit their boat in the dense of night the fireball lit up the air.

 …and explosions,” Zane finished and they both laughed at the audacity of it all.

 Tyler surfaced and couldn’t see anything. This wasn’t so surprising considering Tyler’s vision wasn’t at all perfect but his enormous ego had rendered the thought of getting glasses dead in its tracks. He thought he might ask his parents about contact lenses after today.

 He wasn’t exactly sure what to do either, there wasn’t very much left of the other boat so the fire that was still burning didn’t give off enough light and he had no idea where to go. That’s when the girl came up for air beside him and said, “let’s go.” She preceded to grab him by the arm and drag him through the water, “land’s up this way a little bit.”

 They swam together for no more than a minute when they reached shallow water and could walk as well as anyone can on soggy ground. Michael, Ian and the other man were waiting there on them.

 “We’ve got to get back to base,” the man said.

 “I agree,” the woman said back.

 “Yeah.” Ian replied.

 “So would you want to go out with me again tomorrow night,” Zane asked Karen, “I know it’s short notice but I’m moving in a couple of weeks and regardless of what happens there I’d…”

 “I’d love to,” Karen said interrupting him, “but I should probably get to bed now it’s late and I just needed to vent. Goodnight.”

 Zane said his goodbyes and Karen made her way upstairs to her room, turned on the late and saw an envelope on her bed. She tore it open and read its contents with a look of shock on her face. The note read:

            Dear Karen,

                   Something big has happened. Check your email I sent you a link that should explain everything. You need to come home.

                                                                   -O.

 She laid the note back on the bed and made her way to the computer.

 Michael and Tyler followed the two men while the women went behind them and was only visible about half the trip. Then they got to the tents. Two small dome ones and a larger one in the center.

 “Get inside guys,” Ian said, “They are made out of a special material so if they have any heat seeking equipment we’ll be invisible.”

 Once they all got inside Michael broke the silence, “Uncle Ian, are you going to tell us what’s going on here.”

 “I don’t see that I have much of a choice. Four years ago I became part of a habitat program, we had no idea where it was located, or we weren’t supposed to know, but I found out and sent you the location on your birthday in case something happened to me. Almost exactly a year later there was an attack. People died, most of the habitat was flooded and wired with explosives that until yesterday didn’t go off.”

 “Then why didn’t you come home then, go to the police.” Michael asked.

 Then the other man from the corner spoke up, “son, I am the police.”

 “It was, well, complicated,” Ian said.

 Then Tyler said, “ok, well that explains almost nothing we already, or Mikey rather, already found out. Who was that woman that kidnapped him, who killed her, and when were you going to tell Mikey here that you have a twin?”

 “I don’t have a twin. He is in every sense of the word, me.”

 “You made a robot version of you?,” Michael asked.

 “I wish it were that simple, no he’s human, in the simplest terms I can explain it to you it will still be complicated, but if I’m going to try I’ll have to start at the beginning. In the beginning, the universe and everything in it were created. Now for reasons still not known the universe likes simitry, on a broad level. We all know that the closer we examine something the more differences there are to be found but on a broad level the universe exists in checks and balances. When it was created it was asymmetrical, and then it split. Creating two multiverses. The one you and I live in, and the one the man chasing us comes from.”

 “Are all the twins evil?” Tyler asked.

 “No, Carrie’s twin is quite pleasant,” he looked at the woman that had saved there lives, “you’ll forgive me if I leave out a lot of the explanation but until about a week ago we didn’t even know this ourselves.”

 “But the director of Gemini Labs obviously did, given the name,” Michael observed.

 “Yes, he did sort of leave that part out.”

 “But why are they after me?”

 “That’s the thing, there are only four people who have the access and ability to cross over between the multiverses, eight if you count all the twins. And only one of them is fixated on you.”

 “Your twin.”

 “Yes, we still have no idea why, but we came here to warn and save you.”

 “Then why didn’t that woman just kill me.”

 “She was just a bounty hunter, she was after us and was using you and your friend as bait.

 “This is a lot to take in, it seems so surreal.”

 “Trust me buddy, I didn’t believe it when I heard it the first time either, until I saw my twin.”

 “How do you guys know General Dunkirk?”

 “We don’t he knows about us though, but we’re not sure why. He’s probably one of the key players to Project Gemini, although we don’t know much about what’s going on all we know about Project Gemini is what I just told you.”

 Everyone sat around for a few minutes not saying anything. Then Michael’s phone rang, he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to answer it but he did to make sure that the ringer didn’t give them away.

 “Hello?” he whispered into the phone.

 “Michael, it’s Zane I think something’s wrong with Karen.

“What do you mean?” Michael said over the phone.

 Zane was pacing around his room going back and forth to his computer. He had decided to check his email before he went to bed and was pleasantly surprised when he had seen Karen had emailed him, after they had already spoke on the phone.

 The problem was the email said that she couldn’t go out with him tomorrow and she would explain later.

 He explained this to Michael. “I’m sure there is a good explanation for it,” Michael said.

 “You’re probably right I just sort of wanted to hear someone else say that. So how are you guys doing down there?”

 There was only static. “Hello?”

 The blinding light came from no where and made Michael’s phone shut off.

 “What is that?” Tyler asked.

 The woman in the corner was the first to respond, “they’re not dead they’re trying to get back we have to go with them.”

 “Why?” Michael asked.

 “Because they could do a lot of damage if we don’t follow them,” Ian said, “they’ll be back on the water that’s where the gateway will be.”

 “How do you know,” Michael asked.

 “Because the light is coming from the lake, and, water’s the key, remember?”

 “Right.”

 They all made their way back to the lake and when they got to the edge they saw a giant part of it lit up, “this is our stop,” Ian said, “listen, Mikey, take this,” he handed him another cube that looked white like before , “it will turn white whenever a portal is open, when this portal shuts it will be black again, if it ever turns white, expect me to contact you on this,” he handed him a radio, “and hide.”

 “We’ve gotta go now,” the man said. 

And Ian hugged Michael, “take care of your mom.”

 And with that the all jumped in the lake and headed toward the light.

 Tyler looked over at Michael and said, “well, Zane and Karen are never going to believe this.”

 END PART III

 EPILOUGE: …AND ALL THE BOARDS DID SHRINK

 2 DAYS LATER

 It had been two days since any of them had seen Karen and now the three boys sat in Mr. Adams room conducting the first meeting of the little club Tyler and Michael had decided to start after the incident on the lake and with the woods.

 They wanted to start the club to investigate all accounts that seemed weird or just as they put it, cool. But no one was very festive for the first meeting because just yesterday Karen sent Zane an email saying that she had gone home and maybe for good. That she couldn’t explain right now but hopefully soon.

 And so they sat when the door opened.

 There was a girl in the door way they all brightened up for a fraction of a second but then realized it wasn’t Karen.

 The girl looked at them, hoping they would say something first because she came for the meeting but was new here. They didn’t say anything. Luckily for her that never stopped her from talking before and then she spoke.

 “Hey guys, I’m here for the meeting. My name is Mandy.”

 THE END

Part II: Two

Michael’s gaze went back and forth from the computer screen, to the note, to the CD, and back to the computer. His hands fought back the urge to just put the CD in the computer, to see what would happen. To see what secrets it might unlock. His hands, however, could not fight the urge forever, and he hit the button on his computer that opened the disc drive.

Then he put the CD in.

His computer made the humming noise that it always made whenever it was thinking about what it was going to do next. When at last it brought up a video player program, Michael almost immediately turned the computer off, but then he saw Uncle Ian. For a second his uncle just sat there staring at him and Michael for a second thought that it was a live video feed. Then Uncle Ian began to speak.

“Mikey,” was all he said for a while, “Mikey, if you’re watching this then you figured out how to open the cube. Water was the secret ingredient, I encoded a little message on the newspaper gift wrap, but I doubt that at 12 you noticed it, but if you did, way to go Mikey. I made this CD and hid it in the cube because I’m not allowed to tell anyone where I am, or where I’m going. Gemini Labs will deny all responsibility for me. But I wanted my family to one day know the truth, or as much of it as I now know. I’m working on a habitat program, a complex that can house a community of people indefinitely in case of certain disasters that could occur in the near future. They are keeping the location a secret, and the reason why it’s a secret, even more so. But I managed to find out where, it’s on the sheet of paper, I don’t say it aloud in case the CD falls into the wrong hands. If the cube has fallen into the wrong hands then congratulations on opening it. I have no idea where they are putting the habitat or why there but I wanted you to know. Mikey, I was trying to do the right thing, but I may have made a mistake, just know that I love you like my own son and that I will always be thinking of you.”

Then Uncle Ian reached up toward the camera and shut it off.

“I’m not going back,” Karen said to Michael. “I almost died there and every time I go somewhere with you something weird happens.”

“Wasn’t that the point.”

“Maybe for you, but not for me. I just want to do normal girl things, buy dresses, wear makeup, go on dates, but instead I’m always out with you and the guys looking for the next big thing. Well, Michael, now it’s my turn. Zane is taking me out tomorrow so I can’t go with you even if I wanted to, which I don’t.”

Michael didn’t say anything for awhile, he just stood on her porch staring at her through the screen door which she hadn’t opened even after the pleasantries. Karen could see what he was thinking about. And decided to finish their conversation with, “and if you try and convince Zane to go with you, I swear, I will kill you.”

Michael was speechless. And then he just let out a laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Karen demanded.

“Nothing,” Michael said, “you just get really excited when you get mad and it’s kind of funny, listen, I’m sorry for laughing, you and Zane have a wonderful evening tomorrow.”

“So, that’s it. You’re not mad. You’re not going to try and get me to go.”

“Of course not, I didn’t know you were that opposed to the trips in the first place.”

“So you’re just going to go alone.”

“No. Tyler’s going with me.”

“Wait, we’re going back to that lake but Karen and Zane both aren’t going,” Tyler said after Michael had arrived in his room and explained the situation.

“Right, they’re going on a date.”

“I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that you’re convincing me to go back to that God forsaken town, or that Karen and Zane are going on a date. You still haven’t told me why we’re going back.”

Michael just handed him the CD. And Tyler put it in his computer and five minutes later Tyler looked up at Michael with a look of surprise in his eyes.

“Oh,” he started, “we’re going back.”

And then he looked up at Michael and finished, “but this time I’m driving.”

Zane knocked on Karen’s door and waited, shifting his feet and looking down. He’d never really been nervous about taking a girl out before, but somehow this wasn’t just a girl, and this wasn’t just a date. It was Karen.

Then she opened the door.

Zane was a little taken aback. He’d never seen her look quite like this before, sure she dressed up for all their adventures, wore her nice shirts and her Doc Martin shoes, but this, this was different.

He looked her in the eyes and said, “you look beautiful.”

Tyler looked over at Michael, “so what exactly are we going to do when we get back. It’s not like we have anywhere to go and we obviously can’t go back to Ray’s, that guys crazy, and argueably Mikey, we’re crazier.”

Michael just looked at him.

“You want to go back to Ray’s don’t you?” Tyler asked of the speechless Michael.

He continued, “it’s crazy, Mikey, sure we don’t know anyone else out there in the sticks but there has to be something else we can do, rent a boat and just stay on the water, jump around from gas station to gas station, we could even get a motel room, but I really don’t think we should go back there.” After a second he added, “not that I’m scared.”

Tyler shifted his gaze out the window to concentrate on the driving. Michael didn’t say anything.

Tyler didn’t even look over at him and said, “I hope his brother isn’t visiting this time.”

Zane pulled the chair out from the table for Karen. She had never felt so good in all her life. No one ever really paid much attention to her, her parents were loving and her friends were the best but deep down she longed for something more. And now she had found it.

Zane had taken her to Graysville, the next next city north of Terrace Park. It wasn’t much bigger, in fact, in terms of population it was a little smaller but it had one thing Terrace Park didn’t: a nice romantic Italian restaurant.

The dinner had been flawless so far, the appetizers were good and the small talk before the main course, even better. Now the server was bringing them the meal and Karen looked up at Zane. She looked hard into his eyes, she secretly wanted to know if he had wanted to go with Tyler and Michael. If he had he certainly wasn’t showing it but she knew the only way she was ever going to find out for sure was if she asked.

So she did, “do you wish we would have rescheduled so you could go back to the lake.”

Zane without missing a beat said, “not in a million years.”

Karen just smiled.

Then she finished with, “I bet they’re not having fun anyway.”

Ray opened the door after a couple of minutes and stared in disbelief. “Well I never expected to see you kids again,” he said and finished with, “where are the other ones?”

“They’re not coming” Michael said, “listen, could we stay here for a little while.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Common Ray,” Tyler said with the grin that only the boy who had recently pushed a man out of a boat could give.

Michael looked at Tyler and gave him the stare that only the boy who thought his valuable time was being wasted could give.

“Ray, I want you to watch this, we need your help.” Michael handed Ray the CD, he invited them in had them sit down in the couch and went to his little office to watch the video.

He came back a little later and said, “and I suppose you think that your uncle is somewhere in Blue Frost?”

“Not just somewhere, I think he was in the lake.”

Ray and Tyler both looked at him in disbelief.

If there was one thing to say about Terrace Park, it could be that it was a town of secrets. But to say that would be a little generous, it was more, a town of facts, facts because no one in Terrace Park could keep a secret for long.

This fact alone made Terrace Park a very interesting place to live. One of the best examples of this was the story of the two movie theatres that the sleepy little town had. With a population of just under 5,000 one theatre would have sufficed. In the late 70’s two brothers decided to open a movie theatre. The Williams brothers were always known for being competitive so it was a little bit of a surprise when they unveiled, the Williams Brothers Theatre.

It was a surprise but it was a success.

Then in 1986, to the surprise of no one, Paul Williams caught his brother sleeping with his wife. So in a jealous rage, Paul, not only seduced his brother Peter’s wife, but quit his brothers theatre, and opened his own. It was not necessarily a nicer theatre, but it was bigger, and as if often the case was all that mattered. And in the Fall of 1986 the Grand Opening of the new theatre was officially started.

And to no ones surprise Paul named it efficiently and to the point: The Bigger Picture.

Yes, towns have their secrets and towns have their quarrels and Terrace Park had enough of both to fill a library. But neither secrets nor lies were on the minds of the couple walking under the marquee of The Bigger Picture and as the cashier saw them walk in she was a little jealous because she hadn’t seen that much visisble, no, glowing, happiness in quite a while.

“Two please,” Zane said to her.

“It makes perfect sense,” Michael stated in answer to Ray and Tyler’s shocked faces, “there was an explosion, and someone on the military boat mentioned a structure, the note in the cube said Blue Frost. It all points to the habitat being built under the water.”

“Don’t you think if a bunch of contractors started building a habitat in my back yard I would have known about it?” Ray asked.

“I don’t know why or how they did it, but the fact remains something down there blew up.”

“Well even if that was true, what would you want me to do about it?”

“I thought maybe we could take your boat out again and look for clues.”

“No,” Ray said, “no, no, no. This is ridiculous. I’ll let you stay and hell I might even take you out on the boat tomorrow if I can bring my fishing pole but we are not going out there tonight.”

Zane’s car pulled up to Karen’s drive way.

“Well,” he said, “this is your stop.”

“Zane, thank you for not making this awkward and taking me on the best date of my life.”

“The pleasure was mine,” he said.

“Now,” Karen started, “if you don’t mind I’m going to kiss you and then I’m going to go to bed.”

Zane just laughed a little and then they leaned in and kissed.

“Wake up,” Michael whispered to Tyler.

Tyler responed, “are you kidding I haven’t even thought about sleeping yet, I know you’re up to something. I’m just going along for the ride.”

“It’s true I do have a plan,” Michael said.

“What is it?”

“Well, it’s going to involve a little Grand Theft Boat.”

“I’m always up for a felony, what else?”

“When that lady kidnapped me she led me through the garage and I saw the Ray has scuba equipment, I went diving last spring break in Flordia so I can’t imagine it being that hard. And I’m gonna find out what’s down there.”

Tyler looked up at him, “that’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard, but I’m so in love with it.”

The two misfits crept their way to the garage without a hitch, they could hear Ray snoring the whole way, there were two scuba suits in the garage and when Tyler looked at them both all he said was, “fate.” They both grabbed a suit and tank and headed down to the boat.

Michael decided to show Tyler the basics of scuba diving before starting up the boat. After the impromptu lesson they were putting on the wet suits and about to start the motor when Michael said, “any second thoughts?”

Tyler said, “never.” And Michael pulled the ripcord on the motor.

It roared to life and they were off speeding towards the spot of the explosion. Once Michael got to a spot he thought was close enough he killed the motor.

“Well, I guess this is it,” he said.

They sat there a long time. The night was silent and the moon was full. Michael’s cell phone rang and both him and Tyler jumped.

Karen held on to Zane’s hand as he walked her up to her door. They stared at each other and Zane finally kissed her on the cheek and said, “good night.”

“Good night.” She said back.

“Hello?” Michael fumbled his phone out of his jeans and answered.

“Hey, it’s Karen, I didn’t wake you did I?”

“No.”

“Are you ok, you sound funny.”

“Yeah you just freaked me out.”

Karen started to say something about Zane but Michael heard his name, “Mikey” sort of half whispered. He looked at Tyler and mouthed, “what?”

Tyler looked at him and said, “it wasn’t me.”

Karen stood staring at her phone, Michael had just hung up on her and she was mad. She threw her phone against the wall, hard enough to show the teddy bears lining her bed she was mad, but soft enough to know it wasn’t in any real danger.

She retrieved the phone and decided to call Zane’s cell.

“Miss me already?” he answered.

She said of course and then preceded to tell him what happened.

“I’m sure he’s just trying to make you jealous for not going. I mean, I know last time was exciting and everything but, really, you can’t expect those sorts of things to happen every time we go somewhere.”

“You’re right,” she said.

“Mikey,” the voice said again from the distance this time accompanied with a low humming noise.

“Mikey, it’s Ian.”

Michael and Tyler’s jaws could not have dropped any further as the sleek boat with the low humming motor pulled up.

“Uncle Ian?” Michael yelled?

“Yeah, it’s me hurry up and get in this boat and I’ll explain.” The other boat docked up next to their little boat.

Uncle Ian asked Michael, “what are you doing out here at this hour in wet suits?”

Michael sat there, Tyler answered, “looking for you.”

They got on the boat and Michael hugged his Uncle hard, then he noticed the guy driving the boat and asked, “whose that?”

But before Ian could answer a spotlight hit the boat.

“Nowhere to run now.” A familiar voiced taunted. Then Michael turned back to his uncle and asked, “umm, nevermind, whose that?”

His Uncle turned pale and answered solemly, “me.”

Michael turned back to the boat and saw the man who had yelled at them.

And it looked exactly like his Uncle Ian.

END PART II