PART XVI The Mysterious Warehouse!

Cindy and Penny were traveling on the city bus as it approached downtown San Jose.

"Get off at Market", Cindy said, as the old bus wound its motor up the boulevard.

Penny pulled the lever, ringing a bell through out the bus. Shortly after, the air brakes let out a loud sigh as it pulled to the stop.

"Pew", Cindy said, pushing her hand against the smelly exhaust smoke as they stepped down from the old bus, "I feel sorry for people in the fifties who rely on public transportation."

The streets were quite busy in this major shopping district. A block over, Hart's, Penny's and Woolworth's department stores were booming as shoppers briskly moved to and from the brightly-lit chains.

As the women walked toward the bright lights, Cindy pointed to a side street. They both nodded and turned into the dark street that lead to their warehouse.

As they approached the the old brick building, something just didn't seem right. Penny slowly turned the knob of the entry door.

"That's strange", Penny whispered as the door creaked open, "Why would this door be unlocked?"

The two women slowly walked forward. The inside was dark except for moonlight that seeped through the upper windows.

As their eyes adjusted, they could make out slightly more detail, mostly consisting of empty pallets and large oil drums.

The building began to throb as a train blasted by, the bright headlight briefly illuminating the inside of the building. Something very strange and intricate was in the center. Seconds, later, it was all dark.

"I don't like this, Penny", Cindy announced.

The front door abruptly closed behind them.

"Good evening, ladies", the high pitched voice of a man echoed thought the room.

At that, the lights went on and a large motor began to wind up. On an upper level plank, Sidney Bekon stood with his white shirt and bow tie.

The large apparatus in the center of the room consisted of pipes, meters and two glass tubes.

"You're not going to get away with this, Bekon", Penny yelled up.

The stark sound of a click went off directly behind them. As they turned around, the same man that had abducted Cindy in the hotel held a large pistol pointed at the two women.

"So we meet again after all these years, Officer Cest", Bekon continued, "And you, Cindy Taylor... Did your memory come back?"

"I remember everything about you, you miserable little twerp", Cindy defiantly answered.

"Sorry to hear about your boyfriend, Cindy", Bekon giggled, "He had a much unfortunate accident in what was once.. your house."

"What did you...?" Cindy began to ask out.

"I'll have to cut our little chat short", he said running down the metal stairs, "I have an appointment with Mayor Getzbe... in 2002."

"What happened to Mario?" Cindy cried out.

Without an answer, Bekon walked over to one of the tubes and opened the sealed plastic lid.

"See, while it was easy to travel back, there is no easy way to go into the future, other than building a vehicle that could travel the speed of light", Bekon continued. "That one is even out of my technical abilities, but I was always fascinated with the concept of suspended animation."

"So you just freeze your body for forty-five years", Penny determined, "And to you it will just seem like you're traveling into the future."

"Brilliant, my dear!" Bekon said.

Cindy still stood there in shock, thinking about the what happened to Mario. Bekon laid down in the tube, sealed the plastic door and pressed a switch in the module. Smoke covered the inside of the tube.

"Get on your knees", the man said.

"Ah", Penny said, "You wouldn't shoot a couple of poor defenseless ladies."

"I have my orders", he said.

"And what is that?" Penny replied as she looked around the room, "After you shoot us, to sit and watch this stiff for forty-five years?"

There was a plank that Bekon stood on that was around fifteen feet high, but the stairs to it were too far to run to. Off to the left, there was a large chain hanging from the ceiling with a hook.

"On the count of three", Penny whispered from the side of her mouth to Cindy, "Hit the ground."

Cindy slowly nodded.

"One..." Penny whispered.

"He's paying me good money for this", the man said.

"You were the best man for the job", Penny answered.

"Two", Penny whispered.

"Look, don't patronize me", the man protested, "I'm not stupid."

"Of course you're not", Penny answered.

"Three!"

As the two women quickly hit the ground, the gun went off, ricocheting off one of the far walls. Penny immediately rushed to him and tried to grab it, but the large man had an iron grip and hung on. During the struggle, the gun went off again, hitting something near Bekon's tube. The man swung the back of his hand, throwing Penny against a pallet of old motors.

Cindy looked at a dark corner on the other side and quickly ran to it.

As Penny slowly got up, the man began to aim his weapon at her. She slowly backed up until the chain was almost directly above.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, Penny jumped up and grabbed the hook on the end of the large chain. The man followed his pistol to Penny's rhythm as she swung back and fourth on the squeaky hook. As Penny got higher, she released herself onto the upper ramp.

The man looked up, but there was no sign of his target. He slowly walked around the large facility, holding the weapon in front of him. All was quiet, except the steady hum of a motor and occasional passing cars.

He found a small room off to the corner. Creaking the door open ever so slightly, he noticed a hump of something moving.

The man pulled a cigarette lighter out of his pocket flicked it. As the dancing flame lit the room ever so slightly, Cindy's figure became more pronounced as she cowered in a fetal position, shivering and scared.

"Please", Cindy begged as the man trained his revolver on her.

Out of nowhere, a quick foot hit his the back of his head, knocking him against the cold brick wall. The man got up, shook his head and looked around.

Cindy scrambled out of to find another hiding place. The man slowly walked out of the room, his nerves tightening as he reacted to every sound in the room.

A loud crash behind him broke the silence. The man quickly turned around but found nothing except the wood pallets bouncing off the cement floor, apparently fallen from the ramp.

Penny slid across the floor, landing below the man's legs,. He was thrown off balance as she quickly whipped her legs under him. As he fell backward against an oil drum, the gun fell out of his hands and landed on the floor. Stretched out on the floor, Penny kicked the weapon, flinging it to the other side of the room.

Cindy ran over and hesitantly grabbed the gun. As she held the revolver in her hands, she moved it about, looking at the various mechanisms and levers.

The man and Penny faced off. Penny crouched down and began to wind her body up. The man lunged his heavy body toward her, but she unwound like a tight spring and landed a kick into his stomach. His heavy body weight padded most of the blow and just backed him slightly off balance.

He looked at Penny and just smiled. She had seen this look many times before when her opponent perceived they had the upper hand. He threw his hand at full force at Penny, but only met air as she almost seemed to disappear. He looked back and she was behind him.

"You are one squirely dame", he said as he wiped the sweat from his eyes. At this point, there was no way out, other than to fight a man so large that all of her skills were resistant to his massiveness.

"Over here, cutey", Cindy said off to the side, both hands shaking as she held the gun aimed at the man.

"I'll bet you never used a gun before, darling", he said as he turned his attention to Cindy. "You're just not the type", he spoke as he slowly approached her.

"Hold it!" Cindy yelled out, the weapon shaking as it pointed out toward him. He abruptly stopped.

"I can be very sweet", Cindy said in an almost possessed and unnatural tone, "But then I will turn around and slap your face... hard."

The man's eyes opened wide and his face turned white as the shaking gun became very still, almost as if it was being braced by an invisible hand. Cindy eyes became steady, her pupils dilating under the bushy light brown eyebrows. She methodically pulled the trigger. With surgical precision, the bullet shot directly into the center of his forehead. Blood and tissue debris flew out the back as the bullet exited the rear of his skull. He fell flat to the ground, blood gushing from his head like an open faucet

"I don't believe you just did that", Penny said in disbelief.

Cindy held the gun down and looked at the man, tears running down her face.

"It's okay", Penny said as she slowly took the weapon.

"It's never easy to kill another human being, but sometime one has no other choice", Penny whispered as she held her sobbing friend.

Penny looked at the other tube beside Bekon."You know that we can both fit in that thing."

Cindy hadn't moved and was trying to make sense of the horrible thing she had just done.

"Cindy", Penny said, ""What's done is done." Cindy gathered her thoughts and walked over to Penny.

"We must get back", Penny pleaded, "You must look at this thing and get us back to the future"

"This is not a time machine", Cindy sniffed, "Many things could happen between now and 2002- including the major earthquake in 1989."

"It's our only option!" Penny defiantly answered, "As far as we know, the '89 quake did not damage the building, but beyond that, it is in God's hands."

Cindy wiped her eyes and walked over to the controls.

"This appears to be a digital timer", Cindy observed as she looked at the device next to Bekon's smoke filled tube, "He must have brought this with him from 2002."

"How accurate is it?" Penny asked.

"Down to a microsecond within a ten-thousand year period." Cindy whispered in her technical tone, "This is state-of-the-art in the 2002 era."

"Now the only question", Penny wondered, "Is if this thing is going to transport us forward to 2002 or just gas us to death?"

"After you, my dear", Cindy said as she opened the plastic lid."

The two women got in. Cindy set the timer to open the container on the same day they left in 2002. She closed the lid. As they worked themselves together into a position, Cindy activated the switch inside.

As smoke filled the tube, Penny noticed everything becoming blurry and distorted. For a moment everything just turned white. A brief time later, the lid opened. Penny opened her eyes. A warm blast of air from a heater located inside the module had apparently been bringing their body temperatures back to normal.

As Penny emerged, her body felt extremely stiff. Shortly after, Cindy opened her eyes. After looking around, she slowly managed her way out. At first sight, everything in the room appeared the same.

"Bad news Cindy", Penny sighed, "The only thing this did was put our brains on cloud-nine."

"Wait a minute", Cindy observed as she sniffed around, "I do not recall this room looking and smelling so ... rancid."

"Wishful thinking", Penny replied as she stretched her body trying to get her movement back. She looked over at Bekon's glass tube to find a dilapidated skeleton inside. Penny nudged Cindy's arm as they looked at the remains of their arch enemy.

"Somehow, I don't think this is 1957", Penny said.

Cindy walked over to Bekon's module and discovered a small hole in the plastic.

"It looks like his henchmen's bullet made it's way to our old friend, Sidney Bekon", Cindy said as she pulled a small bullet from the broken plastic.

Penny walked over to the corner. The remains of the man she fought with laid on the floor toward the wall, also soiled in bones and tattered clothes.

"Let's say we get out of here", Cindy suggested.

As they opened the door to get out, a 2002 GMC drove by. Further observation revealed the newer buildings of downtown San Jose.

"Hold it", a male voice off to the left ordered. A spooked armed guard held his pistol. "How did you get in?"

"Call the police." Penny told the guard.

"See", he replied.

Several days later, Penny sat in one of the leather chairs in Mayor Getzbe's office. Getzbe held a piece of paper in his hand.

"Dental records confirm that the the bones found in that tube were that of Sidney Bekon.", Getzbe said.

"Thank god", Penny sighed, "This man was just too evil to live among us in society.

"By the way", Getzbe asked, "I heard Cindy Taylor is returning to the air."

At KMOG Radio, the On The Air light was in the small studio of Cindy Taylor.

"Hello, Tom from San Jose", Cindy said in her whisper Myrilin Monroe voice, "This is Cindy and you can ask me anything about computers."

"Hi Cindy", a male caller said, "I was thinking of buying a Macintosh. What do you recommend?"

"My", Cindy replied, "Moving to the dark side, aren't we?"

"But...", the caller tried to insert.

"No buts, Tom", Cindy shot back. "The once ripe apple has turned spoiled. The Macintosh will go the way of the Do Do Bird in the next five years. You obviously need to read my book, 'Ask Cindy Anything About Computers'- best seller on Amazon with raving customer reviews, I might add- Chapter Five, 'Remember The VHS BetaMax War'."

After the call, the news break gave Cindy had a little extra time. She began to search the archives of her local paper's website for "Mario Rackman".

A news article dating back to November 1985 covered Mario Rackman's obituary. Born in 1922, he was 63. The article described his recovery from an injury of the house explosion in 1957, and his heroic rescue in the Korean conflict, earning him a Purple Heart. It went on to say that he died from natural causes.

As Cindy thought back, at the date of his death she had just turned 19. On this day, she decided to take a trip out to the coast of Half Moon Bay. As she looked out at the ocean, many things were going through her head- her parent's recent divorce, her six-month ordeal in Federal prison for the hacking of the space shuttle, and an intolerable boss by the name of Sidney Bekon.

As Cindy stared out at the horizon admiring the ocean's magnificent beauty, she sensed someone behind her. As the young brunette turned, she saw an older man standing before her. He looked tired and discouraged. She was especially drawn to his sad eyes.

At first, she thought it was just some weird man out to pray on a young girls. But further observation revealed that it was something completely different, that his intentions were sincere and he was hurting deeply inside.

For a brief second, an odd feeling passed through the young woman. Even though she had never seen this man before, she sensed that he was the most important entity in her life.

Because of Cindy's sensitive and caring nature, she asked the man if he was okay. He looked deep into her green eyes and just whispered her name in a tone that was as gentle as the soft blowing wind. She looked down for a second, but when she looked up, he was gone.

The more Cindy thought about this vivid event, the more she was convinced that it was Mario at an older time in his life, that he had visited her one last time before he passed on to the next plateau.

The following Saturday, Cindy went out to the Golden Gate Cemetery out in San Bruno, located a few miles south of South San Francisco. The burial grounds were reserved for war veterans.

In the rolling green hills of the large Cemetery, a breeze blew Cindy's scarf as she looked down on the grave. With flowered in their hands, she kneeled.

The tombstone read :"Mario Rackman- August, 1922- November, 1985. A Purple Heart Korean war hero." On the very bottom, it read, "I will love you forever Cindy Taylor."

Tears began to run down her cheek as she remembered him in the prime of his life, his high integrity, his rugged demeanor but kind and gentle nature and the deep sincere love he had for her.

For a brief moment, she felt Mario's presence, the smell of his cologne and the familiar cigarette aroma. But when she turned, there was nothing except her car parked by the curb and the wind blowing through the trees.