ALL NOVEL Loop 255 - Part 4: Harold
Harold was sitting in the small area they used as both a kitchen and dining area. The day had started with Harold reading a list of questions to Bart this morning over breakfast. It had taken him nearly the entire first week they spent in the sub to decide on what to ask. The problem with questions was the act of asking them sometimes gave away more information than you wanted to, and while he believed the code words were accurate, that didn’t mean it was time to throw precautions out the window.
He needed the strange specter to relay the questions back to the other dimension that he was supposedly in contact with. Somehow, despite everything he had expected the life of a retired intelligence man would be, the world had found a way to surprise him. He always assumed it would be Mel who showed up at his door needing help, certainly not a shape-shifting specter and a talking cat. As he took another bite of toast, Bart appeared back in his vision across the table from him.
“Were they able to answer all my questions?” Harold asked immediately.
“Andrew answered them all the best he could, though he wanted to make it clear that some of his answers were pure speculation, and I had to promise to call them theories, not bullshit,” Bart answered.
“Understood. Is it possible for others to become aware of these time loops?” Harold asked the first question again.
“Yes, no speculation at all. You, in fact, apparently requested not to be brought into the loops in the last one due to an activity you preferred not to remember,” Bart answered.
Harold could guess at what it was but, for now, preferred to let it remain a mystery. “What will it take for me to enter the loops,” was Harold’s second question. If Mel had been mixed up in all of this and things had gone this far south, he wouldn’t have had any choice now if he wanted to protect her.
“Yeah, there’s the rub. We could bring you in in a few years, no problem there. Apparently, it just takes time to make the compound. The problem is, I can’t bring anything with me from the void house back to Earth. Andrew is willing to give you instructions if you want to attempt synthesizing the formula, but he doesn’t believe it would be possible without the direct influence of the void realm,” Bart answered.
Harold assumed the void realm or house was the other universe Bart was communicating with. While he found the name strange, he didn’t press about it yet. He added the potential difficulty in making the cocktail to the list of things to very carefully pry information out of Clark about. That was a meeting he was dreading far more than these basic questions. He asked the final question he wanted the answer to at the moment. “And what exactly is it that you think I will be so capable of doing that you can’t?” He already knew several answers to the question but wanted to hear what the others specifically thought about it. It would give him a good idea of how much he had revealed about himself previously.
“You’re an ex-spy. I’m an engineer from an otherworldly library who doesn’t really get a lot of the concepts of this world, and apparently, talking cats aren’t remotely the norm here either. The few other people who are loop-aware and aren’t trapped in the void realm aren’t people we know how to contact, assuming we can even trust them. It’s not so much as specific things we think you can do that we can’t. It’s essentially every damn thing. This wasn’t something that we had remotely prepared for. So basically this is all your call now. Andrew wanted me to make it very clear he is deferring to your leadership on this, not only because he has no choice. You made quite an impression on Gus in the last loop, which is probably also a major part of it,” Bart explained.
“Good enough answer, I suppose. We can table the rest of my questions for now. I have as much information as I need to plan our next step,” Harold replied. He was debating how much to tell Bart and the cat about his planned meeting.
“And just what is our next step?” Bart asked, forcing Harold to make the decision.
“I am going arrange a meeting with a man who is most likely either connected with the Agency or at least very aware of what is going on. There’s a strong potential this isn’t the best move and will result in our deaths. If that happens, you will need to carry that information back to me on the next loop, and we will plan from there.” Harold realized that full disclosure, at least as far as their moves, was probably the best course. This meant that, in case of disaster, they could try again with future knowledge.
“That makes some sense. I’m not sure Trashcat would enjoy another trip, though, so how about we try to get it right on this one?” Bart asked.
“Easier said than done. Whoever has captured your friends and my granddaughter is several steps ahead of us. The only thing we potentially have going for us is that they are unaware of you two and my connection to her. This almost certainly means they also have knowledge that survives from loop to loop. This puts us in a perilous position on anything we allow them to learn. Just how far can your shape-shifting go?” Harold asked Bart. He had an idea.
Bart quickly shifted through several forms: men, women, animals, and a few monstrous creatures Harold had never seen. It was an impressive display. “Was that enough of an answer?” Bart asked once finished.
“Yes. This means you will be doing all physical meetings, each time in a completely different form. We can find a way to keep Trashcat relatively close by, there are plenty of places virtually everywhere for a cat to hide unnoticed, but this way, it will allow us to keep the information we give them at a minimum during any potential meetings. I suppose now all that’s left is for me to make contact,” Harold said.
“Do you think he will respond?” Bart asked.
“Oh yes, that I’m certain of. The problem will be avoiding the trap,” Harold said. There was no love lost between him and Clark, and while they may have worked together in the past, those situations were few and far between. Harold respected Clark’s skills, but he did not at all like the man or what he represented.