6.6  ·  Among Us

“Okay, everyone line up in front of me, single file. Shouldn’t be a long process, so don’t fight for a spot, okay?”

The dummy warehouse was, unusually, full of people: Project staffers, security, and those from the depths of the facility below the warehouse.

John pulled open the Reality Lens, and held it over his eye as the crowd queued up before him.

First in line stood Gooshie, who John understood was more or less Project Quantum Leap’s version of Will: programmer, tech guy, workaholic, just a little neurotic.

“I don’t know why I’m nervous,” he said, dabbing at his forehead with a handkerchief. “I’m ninety-eight per cent certain I am who I think I am. But there is a minor chance I’m a leaper that’s so heavily psycho-synergised that I’ve forgotten my own identity.”

“Well, I suppose that’s not completely outside the realm of possibility,” John said, suppressing laughter.

The image within the Lens matched John’s own perception, and he gave the little guy a thumbs up.

“Well, don’t worry about that, Gooshie. You’re good to go. Next, please!”

Gooshie let out a held breath, and stepped away, where an already-checked Donna confirmed his security credentials in her wristlink, allowing him clearance back into the Project.

Doctor Beeks was the next in line.

“My door’s still open,” she said, as John confirmed her identity. “Any time, you can come talk to me. Really.”

John gave her a look.

“Why is everyone trying to analyse me lately?” He gave a pointed glance at Donna. “You’re clear.”

Verbena stepped towards Donna, and they exchanged a look.

“We care about you very much,” Donna said. “That’s all.”

John frowned, and turned back to the line-up. One by one, each person was cleared. After a while, Sammy Jo met eyes with him.

“Oh, hey,” she said, awkwardly twirling a lock of her hair.

John found himself grinning at her without realising he’d been doing it. It was the first he’d seen of her since hearing the bizarre, but exciting, news that Sam had fathered her during a leap.

“Well hi. I heard what happened… you doing okay?” he said, looking into the Reality Lens, and seeing that she was who she said she was.

She contemplated his question for a moment. “Mixed feelings, I guess. It’s a shame I wasn’t able to get to know him before he had to leave again.”

“Yeah, that must be tough. Well, if there are any questions you wish you’d asked… I may be able to help. Not on everything, of course.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said. “Am I cleared?”

John nodded, gesturing towards Donna. She moved toward her new stepmother.

“Doctor Elesee…” she said. Donna smiled.

“For years I’ve been trying to get you to address me as Donna,” she said. “If ever there was a time, it’s now that you know about your father.”

Sammy Jo bowed her head. “Alright, alright. Donna. Listen… I’m sorry about my security breach last week.”

“Sammy, if Sam had been a bit more proactive, like I wanted, you’d never have needed to resort to that. So let’s call it even.”

She hugged Sammy Jo, before tapping the wristlink and reactivating her security clearance.

John turned back to the dwindling queue, and his eyes popped open when he saw Tom.

“Tom? I thought you’d have already left now that Sam’s gone.” He lowered the Reality Lens. “I don’t think we even need to scan you, do we?”

Tom smiled. “Maggie invited me.”

So she took my advice after all.

He continued: “And all I heard was that everyone needed checking, so here I am.”

John shrugged, and held the Lens to his eye.

“Yeah, you’re all good.” He lowered it, and re-established eye contact with the man his own brother might have become. “When you’re done with Maggie, I… I think I’d like to spend some time with you, too.”

“I think that can be arranged,” said Tom, patting John on the shoulder, before turning to Donna.

“How are you holding up since Sam left again?” he asked her.

“Oh, I’m a trooper. It’s back to the status quo, really.”

John tuned out the rest of their conversation as he looked to the next in line. Maggie winked as he checked her over.

“Can you imagine if there was some leaper trying to figure out my family dynamics when my alternate universe Dad showed up? Oh boy, they’d have their work cut out.”

John chuckled. “Yeah, I heard Sam was a little bewildered when he leaped into you instead of Sherri.”

“Even Ziggy was bewildered,” she said with an amused grin.

“You’re clear,” John said with a resolute nod. He would have hoped he’d know a real Maggie if he saw one, by now.

She moved aside to Donna, who fished her warehouse keycard from a crate beside her. Attached was an envelope, which Donna pointed to.

“This has the new access PINs for your rooms below,” she explained.

“Thanks,” Maggie said, accepting the offering, and joining Tom as the two of them walked away. John noted they were walking quite closely together, and he smiled at the possibilities that closeness suggested.

John turned back to the queue, and noted just a few military guys he didn’t know remained.

He leaned toward Donna. “Where are Alia and Rembrandt?”

Donna’s brow furrowed as she noted she hadn’t returned their keycards.

“I don’t know. But I think they’re… the only ones left.”

Why do I have a bad feeling about this?

*          *          *

Huh? What happened?

Alia’s eyes fluttered open to see a dark, starry sky. She was lying on a dusty surface, but it was too dark to see anything but the sky, and the far off horizon with the hint of a glow.

I’m in the desert?

With a start, she realised that the last thing she remembered was approaching her motorcycle.

She attempted to sit up, and found her head was overcome with pain.

Well that may explain how I lost consciousness…

“You really don’t know how you escaped, huh?” Rembrandt’s voice was shaky.

Alia turned her head to see the dimly lit silhouette sitting on the ground beside her.

“Rembrandt…?”

“Oh, come on, Alia. You’re not stupid. I was the one other person who left after we all found out the Reality Lens was being fixed.”

Alia let out a breath. She hadn’t wanted to believe it.

The mystery leaper was passing a revolver between their hands, in a similar fashion to the way she’d seen them with the salt shaker earlier. Each movement made the moonlight glint off the gun when it hit certain angles.

“I’m surprised nobody worked it out,” the leaper continued. “Everyone seemed so preoccupied. Never looked twice at the guy watching a stupid show on TV all day.”

“Which one are you?” Alia asked, finally reaching a sitting position.

It can’t be Zoey, they’re not acting like her at all.

“…Thames?”

“Just because I leaped into a black man, you think I’m Thames? Alia… really.”

“Well then… who?”

The silhouette of Rembrandt paused for a moment.

“Okay, okay. You were right the first time.” Thames laughed. “Lucky guess.”

He peered into the chamber of his gun, then closed it with a click.

He’s going to kill me. How can I buy time?

“What happened to Zoey?”

“Oh come on, straight to Zoey? No, ‘how have you been, Thames?’ Alia, I’m hurt.” He climbed to his feet, looming over her. “Who cares about Zoey? What about you and me?”

He placed a finger under her chin, tilting her face upward. “When I saw you on New Years Eve I could hardly believe it. Lothos had no clue you’d show up. He thought you were being handed to us on a silver platter.”

“And what did you think?” She wrenched her chin away from his hand, at the expense of a wave of pain.

“Me?” he turned away, looking up at the moon. “I saw an opportunity.”

He reached into his pocket, and produced a quartz crystal.

“I was here to get my hands on these things,” he said, holding it up so it caught the light. “Lothos wanted sliding tech, and the enhanced retrieval, as described in Senator Grady’s old correspondence with his, uh, benefactors. See, it only showed up in those records recently, so Lothos knew it was a major find.”

With a grunt, Thames threw the crystal into the distance with as much force as he could muster.

“Fuck that.”

Alia’s eyes grew wide.

He’s defying Lothos?

Thames dropped to his knees. “Alia, I need your help.”