Tess Learns （Part of） the Truth
“I don’t suppose either of you would like to tell me what the hell is going on,” said Tess, when they had cleared the Sturgis city limits and were zipping down a two-lane road lined with fences and punctuated with long dirt driveways every half mile or so.
Richard caught Vivian’s eye in the rearview mirror. “It’s time she knew,” he said. “Time she knew about Harry.”
Something about the way Richard said about Harry made Tess think there must be other things she did not know, but for now she’d be happy with any information that helped explain her current predicament.
“All right,” said Vivian, nodding. “Your father and I both belonged to an organization called the Paradox Club.”
PC, thought Tess, remembering the lapel pins on Montag 5 and Nemo 7.
“Were you part of this club, too?” asked Tess, turning to Richard.
“My dear,” said Richard, sitting up a little taller in his seat, “you see before you the president of the Paradox Club.”
“What is it?” said Tess. “Some sort of club for scientists?”
“We have many members who are scientists,” said Vivian, “and your father was chief among them. But we have philosophers and politicians and archeologists as well. The mission of the Paradox Club is to locate, retrieve, and secure UFOs.”
“I don’t need to remind you, Vivian,” said Richard, “that there is some debate over what the mission of the Paradox Club ought to be.”
“Wait a minute,” said Tess. “Are you telling me Harry was involved in something to do with alien spacecraft?”
“Goodness, no,” said Vivian. “You should know from talking to Harry that he didn’t believe in such things. No, I mean UFOs like the radio.”
“The radio doesn’t look much like a flying saucer to me,” said Tess.
“UFO in this context doesn’t stand for ‘unidentified flying object,’” said Richard.
“Then what does it stand for?”
“‘Untethered foreign object,’” said Vivian.
“You mean like an escaped Canadian cow?” said Tess.
“The metaphor is not entirely inapt,” said Richard. “An untethered object is one that has become disconnected from its universe of origin.”
“And an untethered foreign object,” added Vivian, “is one that has crossed from its original universe into this one.”
“Is this some sort of posthumous practical joke that Harry put you up to?” said Tess.
“Not at all,” said Richard. “Harry was passionate about his work for the Paradox Club.”
“Perhaps too passionate,” said Vivian.
“Now is hardly the time to dredge all that up,” said Richard.
“When better?” said Vivian.
“Can we go back one step?” said Tess. “Are you telling me that this Paradox Club has actually collected objects from other universes?”
“Four hundred and twenty-one untethered foreign objects have been collected and secured in the vault of the Paradox Club over the last eighty or so years,” said Richard.
“Leaving aside the fact that objects can’t move between universes,” said Tess, “how can you even tell that an object is…what did you call it?”
“Untethered,” said Vivian. “And what makes you think objects can’t move between universes?”
“For one thing, Harry told me,” said Tess.
She remembered a conversation the night after Harry first told her about the theory of parallel universes.
She had asked if people could move from one universe to another and he had told her they could not.
And when she asked if things could move between universes, he had sounded almost angry when he curtly replied no before walking back up to the house and leaving her alone on the dock.
“Harry told you, did he?” said Richard with a laugh.
“He hated lying to Tess,” said Vivian. “But sometimes he felt he had no choice.”
“He was lying? When he said that things can’t move between universes?”
“He was,” said Vivian gently, “but only because he thought you were too young to be burdened with the secrets of the Paradox Club.”
“But you never answered my question,” said Tess. “How do you know an object is from another universe?”
“Some people have the gift,” said Richard.
“Your father had it,” said Vivian. “He could sense an untethered object better than anyone in the club. But most members have some degree of sensitivity to UFOs. It’s what draws them to the club, even if they don’t know it.”
“But personal sensitivity only works if you happen to stumble across a UFO,” said Richard. “That does happen, but not very often. Before the big board, the club only had about forty objects in the vault.”
“What’s the big board?” asked Tess.
“In the 1960s,” said Vivian, “scientists started working on technology to detect untethered objects. The big board came into use once the club got access to some satellite technology.”
“The club has its own satellites?”
“No,” said Vivian, “but for decades we’ve had members at NASA and in the big telecom firms, so it’s never been a problem to get access to satellites.”
“The big board is a display at the club that shows where UFOs have been detected,” said Richard.
“When Montag 5 took us,” said Tess, “I was holding that old radio of Harry’s. The one we used to listen to on the island. Montag 5 looked awfully pleased when he made me put it in the trunk of the car.”
Richard and Vivian shared a smile in the rearview mirror.
“Do you mean to say that the radio is now in the trunk of this car?” said Richard.
“If Nemo 7 transferred everything,” said Tess.
“That,” said Richard, “is monumentally good news.” Rescuing Tess had been topmost on his agenda, but to recover the radio in the same operation meant Pilgrim 3’s plans would be well and truly stymied.
“Is the radio a UFO?” asked Tess.
“That radio,” said Vivian, “is the most special UFO of all. Your father found it, and its existence sparked the greatest debate in the history of the Paradox Club—a debate that, in some ways, is still raging today.”
“What makes it so special?” asked Tess, already sensing the answer.
“The radio,” said Vivian, “is the first untethered foreign object we have ever found that maintains a connection to its universe of origin. The broadcasts you hear when you turn on that radio don’t come from Earth or from any other planet in our universe. When you listen to that radio…”
“I’m listening to another universe,” said Tess, feeling her pulse quicken with excitement.
“Exactly,” said Richard. “The club had never seen anything like it.”
“So why isn’t it in the vault at the club with all the other UFOs?” asked Tess.
“Harry wouldn’t give it up,” said Vivian.
“Because he wanted to use it,” said Richard.
“Or because he didn’t want Pilgrim 3 to use it,” said Vivian.
“Who is Pilgrim 3?” asked Tess.
“Another member of the club,” said Richard. “One who would very much like to have me out of the way.”
“And possibly the only member of the Paradox Club who was happy when Harry…”
“When he died?” said Tess.
“Perhaps not happy,” said Richard, “but his absence did serve her purposes.”
“What did she want to use the radio for?” asked Tess.
Vivian gave Richard a warning glance that did not escape Tess’s attention and after a moment of silence, Richard spoke.
“It’s no secret in the halls of the Paradox Club that Pilgrim 3 is hungry for fame and power—not just within the club but in the wider world.
Because it stays connected to its universe of origin, the radio has powers beyond any other known UFO, powers even Harry didn’t understand.
Pilgrim 3 wants to use those powers to open a portal to another universe, and she wants to do it in a very public way. ”
“She wants,” said Vivian, “though of course she never says it out loud to anyone other than her inner circle, to be world famous as the person who connected our universe to another, who proved the existence of parallel universes.”
“Harry was the one who gave her the idea,” said Richard. “When he claimed that the clubhouse of the Paradox Club was particularly suited for such a portal. And, of course, Harry did the math.”
“What math?” said Tess.
“The math that determined when the two universes will be perfectly aligned.”
“October fourteenth,” said Tess.
“How did you know that?” asked Vivian.
“Harry told me,” said Tess. “Sort of.”
“How did Harry tell you?”
“He has his ways,” said Tess with a smile.
“If Pilgrim 3 manages to open a portal in the middle of Manhattan,” said Vivian, “she might become world famous, but she also might destroy humankind. In the hands of the wrong person, and especially in a densely populated area, the radio could be the most dangerous object on Earth.”
“It’s a good thing we got it back,” said Richard. “I always thought it was destroyed the night of the fire.”
“I found it afterward,” said Vivian. “Harry’s copper shield was gone, but other than that the radio looked fine. Of course I wasn’t foolish enough to ever turn it on. I just hid it in the basement. And when it started getting too damp down there, I moved it to the attic.”
“If we have the radio,” said Richard, “we should get it as far away from New York as possible.”
“We need to go to the island,” said Tess.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” said Richard.
“We have to,” said Tess insistently. “We have to go to the island. Harry said so.”
“What do you mean, Harry said so?” said Richard.
“He sent me a message,” said Tess. “In his books.”
“His books?” said Richard.
“Yes,” said Tess. “Marie gave me Harry’s books and I unpacked them at Vivian’s and Harry used them to send me a message saying that if I was in danger near October fourteenth, 2015, I should find Vivian and get to the island.”
“Of course he did,” said Richard. “Harry Maxwell is trying to tell me what to do even beyond the grave. Would he ever invite me to the island when he was alive? No! But now he expects me to chauffeur you there at the exact moment that it’s an extraordinarily bad idea.”
“Is it?” said Vivian. “Is it a bad idea?”
“Of course it’s a bad idea,” said Richard. “You know what happened last time.”
“The most important thing is to get Tess and the radio someplace where Pilgrim 3 can’t find them,” said Vivian. “She hounded Harry for years about the location of the island and he never told her. We’ll be safe there.”
“If experience is anything to go by,” said Richard, “we’ll be anything but safe.”
“We’ll stay on the other side of the island,” said Vivian. “Hell, we’ll burn the damn radio. The point is Pilgrim 3 and her goons will never find us there.”
“Debatable,” said Richard.
“And there are other reasons to retreat to the island,” said Vivian.
“If you won’t take us,” said Tess, reaching out and holding Vivian’s hand, “we’ll find another way to get there. But Vivian and I are going to the island.”
Richard did not speak for a long minute. He looked away from the road for a moment and locked eyes with Vivian in the rearview mirror. He had seen that steely determination before and knew there was no use in fighting it.
“Can you navigate, Vivian?” he said.
“Absolutely.”