Page 29 of Wild Oblivion

“What is that?”

Henrik’s eyes narrowed as he sized me up. “What do you know about time, Deputy Wild?”

“I know that none of us has enough of it.”

He seemed amused by my response. “Indeed. At my age, every day is precious. Unfortunately, I spend them in here alone with my thoughts.”

Henrik’s fugue state was mostly an act.

He pointed to the bed. “Look at the sheet.”

We did.

“See the wrinkles?”

I nodded.

“The wrinkles and undulations are like time, bent and distorted by mass and gravity. With enough of either, you can warp spacetime. Even fold it onto itself. But it’s one-directional. You can move forward through time dilation as the rest of the world moves faster. But you can’t go back. Unless,” he said, holding his finger up with a sparkle in his eyes.

“Unless what?”

“Unless you could harness negative energy.”

“Negative energy?” JD said. “You mean from people who have a problem for every solution?”

Henry smiled. “No. A theoretical force. But like I said, that would be impossible.” A sly grin tugged his lips.

“Why do I get the feeling you know how?” I said.

“I had made it my life’s work. But I abandoned it. Too dangerous. Some things should be left alone. We were not meant to play God.”

I took it all with a grain of salt. Henrik could just be a crazy old man talking nonsense. But out of curiosity, I asked, “What would happen if someone could travel to the past? Seems like a recipe for disaster.”

“Like I said, some things should be left alone. The potential paradox could unravel the very fabric of existence. Say you traveled back in time and killed your grandfather. Would you cease to exist?” His eyes lit up with wonder. “Or would the timeline split at a quantum level, and two parallel timelines coexist? In theory, there could be an infinite number of timelines.”

I knew enough about quantum physics to understand concepts like multiple timelines and quantum superpositions. But at the end of the day, it really didn’t matter. The clock ticked in one direction, and we were just trying to get through each day as best we could.

I asked, “What do you have that they want?”

Henrik smiled and tapped his noggin.

“I’m sure there’s a vast amount of knowledge in there.”

He nodded.

“What about notes?”

“I destroyed them. Too dangerous. And the crystal is in a safe place.”

“The crystal?”

15

Henrik gave another look around. “My father worked closely with von Markov before the war, before he realized von Markov’s true nature. I would often help my father. We were building a time dilation device. It became clear to us that the Reich should not possess such power. My father took the Vrilkristall and gave it to me when I fled the country. Of course, the Americans wanted to develop the technology. But like nuclear weapons, it was a genie best left in the bottle.”

“Where is this Vrilkristall?” I asked.

“Someplace safe. Von Markov needs it to power his time dilation device and harness negative energy if he wants to return to the past.”