***

The next morning...

At a back alley, a vortex giving off strange blue light appeared. First, Remmy flew out, slamming into a dumpster. Then Colin, but he was caught by Remmy before he had suffered the same landing he had. Quinn landed on his feet and braked himself before hitting the garbage bin and then caught Maggie who was stumbling out of the blue wonder. And a few seconds later the vortex disappeared.
Remmy walked to Quinn, limping a little, "Man, there MUST be a way to fix these landings on that remote, Q-Ball..."
"Hey, I'm working on it," Quinn replied. "How much time we have till the next window?"
Colin pulled out the timer, "Two weeks."
Maggie was relieved by the news, "Oh, finally, a long stay. All we ever get from that thing lately was a day or so. Now I can get time to relax."
"You said it." Remmy agreed. "Just let me make my run to the ATM and we'll be on our way."
So the group walked out of the alley and into the sidewalk of the main streets. A few minutes later, they arrived at the Chandler. "OK, you guys go chill at the bar." Remmy said, "I'll go and get us the usual suite."
On there way to the bar, Maggie was asking Colin on how did it feel to ride a motorcycle on the last world.
Colin said sheepishly, "Fast. Period. Although, it was kinda bumpy."
Quinn was about to snicker until his eye caught the TV set at the bar.
"Shhh...guys." Quinn whispered as he pointed to the screen. It was a news broadcast.
"... on today's top stories, Quantum physisist, Quinn Mallory, was brutally murdered at LucenTech Labs last night while he was doing some late research. It was said to be a robbery turned deadly, but only his computer files and disks were the only things missing. Police say, in no doubt, foul play is suspected. He was 25."
Quinn looked puzzled and bewildered and what he just saw and heard. "I'm a dead man." he muttered.
Colin said, "Uh, brother... I don't think this is a good time to go drinking here... or anywhere."
"Colin's right." Maggie agreed. "We have to fing a way to sneak him upstairs. I'll see if Remmy has gotten us a room yet." That instant, Maggie walked off.
Colin gave Quinn a napkin from one of the tables, and told him to cover his face and act sick. Quinn started rehearsing his fake sneezing as they walk off toward the stairs.

Later in the room, the four watch more of the news coverage concerning the event.
"Last night, young quantum physisist, Quinn Mallory, was leaving the building in a body bag with a bullet in his head. Just an hour ago, his family was notified and was horrible at the news. Police are dropping the allegation that it was a robbery case gone awry, but they only found that disks and computer files were taken, not the valueable computers as anyone believed. Quinn Mallory was a recent graduate of high honors at UC Berkely, and was given employment at LucenTech Labs, for research. His last assignment was to reseach anti-gravity until that fateful night. He was 25. We'll have news and interviews, after this..."
Quinn, turned the TV off, "I don't believe this. Who would do such a thing?" Quinn asked, "I'm not the kind to have enemies. Not one that would act THIS intense."
Remmy went around to comfort him, "Hey, different worlds, different Quinns. But I don't know, it is kinda odd."
Maggie spoke up, "We could go to the labs and see what technology he had, I mean, each world we've been to, every Quinn had stumbled on sliding researching antigravity."
Colin said to his brother, "I think it's best that you stay in here till we leave this world. It would look suspicious, if they see a 'dead man' walking."
"I agree." Maggie said.
"Yeah," Quinn agreed, reluctantly, "it does seem best. Would the three of you mind to stop there at the labs to get me some papers or any shred of existence my double had on antigravity."
"Sure... let's hoof it." Maggie said, walking out the door, The Colin followed.
Remmy was about to join the others until Quinn stopped him.
"Remmy, would you do me a favor?"
"Anything." Remmy replied.
"Can you see if you could find anything there of my killer?"
"I'll try man. I'll try."
And with that thought, Remmy walked out, leaving Quinn in the suite, alone.

<passing the torch>

"Now wait a minute. I offered several perfectly good suggestions," retorted an incensed Maggie. "And my problem with - with 'Farmboy's plan is that it's not gonna work!"

"It is clear that my resemblance to Quinn is the best card we have to play," pointed out Colin. His recent experiences with card games had not deterred him from constantly pestering Rembrandt to let him try again. "And I have been practicing my acting skills."

They arrived at the front door of LucenTech.

"Fine," said Maggie. "This had better work or there're going to be *two* dead Mallorys on this world."

Colin approached the lab's front desk and offered the receptionist his broadest grin. "Hello, ma'am..."

Maggie cringed. For someone whose "cousin" had just been murdered, Colin was awfully upbeat.

Colin never got to that part of the backstory, though, as the receptionist recognized him. "Colin, I'm so sorry," she babbled. "It's been hard on everyone here - we all cared so much about your brother. He was a great man... but I thought you were vacationing in Maine; that's what they said on the news..."

"Uh, ma'am," interrupted Colin, "we're here to pick up some of Quinn's papers from the lab. Personal effects, sentimental value and all."

The secretary sniffed. "Of course. I'll let you in."

***

Quinn was pacing in the hotel room when there was a knock at the door.

Startled, he called out "Who is it?" before cursing himself for his stupidity.

"It's Callie. Quinn, is that you?" The door flew open (how could he have left it unlocked? This murder thing was driving him to distraction!) and a woman burst in.

"Oh, Quinn, thank God! What happened? Everyone said you- you were..." She collapsed into his arms sobbing...

"They...they told me you were...were dead." She could barely get her sentence out she was so upset.

He had to tell her the truth. "Callie," he said quietly, "I'm not your..."

"She put her finger on his lips and whispered, "Sshh," and before Quinn knew what was happening, she had kissed him passionately on the lips. It was obvious to Quinn now that she must have been his double's girlfriend, but that made it even worse. She wasn't gonna believe him.

When she'd had enough of the kiss, she hugged him hard until a thought occurred to her. She stared up at him, eyes flashing. "You didn't fake your death so you could be with *her* did you? That Alexia bitch?"

Quinn didn't know what to say. She looked like she could hurt him if she wanted and he did want to have kids some day. "Err...no, of course not." He hoped his nervousness wouldn't show in his voice.

Partially mollified, she relaxed slightly. "Good, becasue if that ex-girlfriend of yours so much as comes near you, I'll...I'll..." She didn't finish her sentence.

"She's not going to." Quinn hugged her again. At least that way she couldn't she the expression on his face. Now the problem was, what was he gonna do with her. He couldn't do what she obviously wanted him to do; it wasn't right. And he couldn't go anywhere else. He couldn't let her leave either. She could let everything out. Now it was out that he was here, he had to contain the effects. A dead man seemingly coming back to life might cause a bit of a stir and
whoever the murderer was they might come and kill him as well. Quinn just hoped he could keep her here until the others returned.

* * *

Rembrandt, Maggie and Colin rummaged around in the papers in Quinn's laboratory. None of the other scientists were there; they had all stayed home to mourn.

"There's got to be something in here somewhere," complained Maggie as she pulled out every drawer, not closing any of them.

"Is this any good?" Colin held up a wad of notes with scribblings on in Quinn's handwriting. "It mentions Tesla and induction coils. I think my brother told me about those." He looked inquisitively at Maggie and Rembrandt.

Remmy and Maggie glanced at each other and shrugged. "Can't hurt to take them," said Rembrandt eventually.

They searched further, mostly turning up pieces of models or equations which were crossed out again and again. Then Rembrandt stumbled upon a treasure trove of information.

"Hey, look at this," he called to the other two. They came immediately. Behind a pile of textbooks on a shelf, there was a hollow in the wall. Inside were various disks and videos. Some
were labelled scientific diary, personal diary, antigrav-notes and some not at all. "Could be useful."

"Alright, I'll take these back to Quinn and you to keep searching." Maggie had picked up the videos and stuff as well as taken the other notes from Colin's hands before she looked at the guys for their acceptance. "That's okay, right?"

Rembrandt thought for a moment, but then gave in, "Yeah, yeah. You go keep him company."

Maggie walked out of the lab laden with the things they'd found. She didn't seem to care that the secretary gave her a strange look as she passed.

Some time after Maggie had left them, Rembrandt and Colin heard footsteps on the stair. "That you, Maggie?"

"Who's Maggie?" the voice was masculine and definitely NOT a joking Maggie. "More to the point, who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I'm his brother," piped up Colin, "We came to pick up some of Quinn's stuff."

The man obviously didn't believe him. "I'm one of Quinn's colleagues as well as his best friend and I just got off the phone to you in Maine. I came to pick up some things he was asking after since he couldn't get back until tonight. That means, you cannot possibly be him." The man just stood there, looking menacing in the doorway.

"Uh oh," mumbled Rembrandt, "Looks like we have a problem..."

Back to the mystery...

***

Maggie carefully balanced some of the load on her knee as she fumbled with the key. It fell to the floor. "Oh crap" she said, agonizingly trying to bend down. The door opened just as she reached the keyring and roomlight illuminated the small Chandler card. She carefully looked up. "Quinn, you think you could get some of this stuff...?" she said trailing off. The woman who answered the door wasn't Quinn.
"Hi Maggie." said Callie girlishly. "Quinn's told me all about you. Come on in."
Huh? thought Maggie. What now?
Quinn finally caught up to her and pushed her to the side. "Sorry, Maggie. I didn't hear you knock." He wiped some sweat from his brow and looked her over for awhile. They stood there.
"Oh," he said suddenly. "Let's, uh, get some of that stuff in here." he said grabbing some of the papers.
"I was waiting for you to notice." said Maggie, finally able to move without bending. She walked into the room and dropped the rest onto the couch.
"You think..." She was immediately interrupted by Callie, who vehemently pointed at the seat where she had placed them. "That's my seat." she said pointedly.
Maggie just looked at Quinn, then back at her. "What?"
"I said that's my seat. You can't put those there." she picked up the papers and books and dropped them ungraciously on the mini-bar. Then she sat in her seat and watched.
"Okk" mumbled Maggie under her breath. She took Quinn aside, who was incidently scratching his ear and looking around the room.
"Who is that?" she whispered fiercely.
"Oh!" said Quinn loudly in a stage voice. He turned to Callie. "You mean my girlfriend Callie? I thought the FBI had files on everyone working at LucenTech?"
"Ok, I get it already." said Maggie, still whispering and holding herself back from hitting him. "Why is she here?!"
"Long story, tell you later." He went over to the mini-bar while Callie turned on the TV. Maggie suddenly saw the bad idea. "No!" she said, rushing over and switching it off.
"What the?" Callie stood up. "What'd you do that for?"
"J-Ju.." Maggie carefully kept her hand from reaching for her throat. "We can't risk it, ok?"
Callie put up a face and sat back down, her arms crossed. Maggie went over to where Quinn was sifting through the records and diaries.
"Found anything useful?" Quinn didn't look up, but seemed to be looking for something.
"Quinn?"
"I don't know. There are all these references to some SynTech Labs about a license. That was all I could get." He thought for a second. "I think this Quinn worked there for awhile, then quit for some reason." He took up the diary and looked at the cover. He was still doing so a minute later. Maggie said some words of encouragement. "It's your diary."
"That didn't help, Maggie. It's like telling a thief 'That's your television set'." He went back to staring and rubbing his chin.
Meanwhile the phone rang. "I'll get it!" said Callie, jumping from the couch. "Aw shit" said Maggie, running off and leaving Quinn deep in thought.

"Maggie is that you?" said Rembrandt into the shielded mouthpeice. The "friend " lay on the floor, groaning. Colin was watching him, worried.
"What?!" said Rembrandt to the phone. He looked at it strangely.
"What's wrong?" asked Colin.
Everything, thought Rembrandt, but he didn't say it. He went back to the phone call. "Hey, Maggie!"
Colin was about to turn back to the groaning man when he noticed he was gone. The lab door closed. He turned to Rembrandt.
"Yeah, we have some more big problems..."
"Rembrandt, we have to go!"
"What?" Colin showed him the spot where the man had been lying. Remmy quickly cut the call short.
"Hey Maggie, something's popped up. We'll see you later, ok?" He hanged up before she answered and they both raced out of the lab.

Quinn recognized the writing. That's the first thing that was odd. The strange I-don't-remember-writing-that... feeling. Then he read some of it. The first part was predictable, all about mesons and the transformation of virtual and real particles. Then came the entries at SynTech. Few and far apart. A few pages later he came to an entry from LucenTech labs. As an afterthought, he went back and read the last SynTech entry. He frowned. It had nothing to do with tech. The last sentence was especially strange. "I don't feel well here...I've decided to stop."
There was a small tracing of some kind of circuit, but it seemed to be crossed out in a frenzied inkbath.
"Hmm..." thought Quinn, sitting back. Then he thought of the disks...

"Yes. I am Colin's twin brother, Thomas. We look exactly alike."

"So how come we've never heard of you?" His assistant asked, club in hand.

"I am the black chicken of the family. I was kept out of the view of the public and have led a very quiet life."

The assistant began to say something, but he was quickly hushed by the general. "Very good, Mr. Mallory. Now who are you, Mr. Brown?" he said with a very condescending tone to his voice.

"I work for the Mallory family, specifically C- Thomas here."

"Really," the police general said in a mock surprised tone of voice. "I wasn't aware that the Mallory family was participating in the re-integration program."

Rembrandt had gotten very good at thinking on his feet, but his voice barely disguised the disgust he felt for whatever "re-integration" must mean. "Yeah, well, they needed someone to be Thomas' chauffeur, bodyguard and all-around babysitter. They couldn't get a real professional, so they hired me."

"I see," the police general said in a very puzzled manner. "So what were the two of you doing in a building which is off limits to civilians?"

"We were trying to find information about my brother's death," "Thomas" explained again.

"That is the job of the police, Mr. Mallory. I trust you will not meddle in police business again. That is, unless you want your father told about these shenanigans?"

"No, sir," Colin muttered.

"Well, I'll let you two off with a warning this time, but next time be more careful about where you look for clues." The police general paused. "And who you look with," he said, indicating Rembrandt.

"So we're free to go?" Colin asked, all too eager to leave this unpleasantness behind him.

"Certainly, anytime you wish." Rembrandt and Colin both left post haste. After they were gone, the lieutenant voiced his pent-up anger. "How could you let them go, sir?!? We could have put him away forever!"

"Patience, lieutenant. I'm not about to let Colin Mallory get away after all he's done to my family." The general threw a dart at his dartboard, where a picture of Colin hung over the bullseye. It hit just below Colin's right eye. "Soon, 'The Butcher of Berkeley' and his interdimensional travel device will be mine."

When they reach the the room they enter and begin to explain to Quinn that they were almost arrested. It was then when they realize there was a fifth person in the room. Of course they were surprised to see her but Quinn explained that "they" were seeing each other blah blah blah.

Well Quinn then announces that his counterpart accidentally stumbled on the secret of sliding technology. Of course this is no surprise to the four sliders so Quinn goes on. However there is a mention of a Mr. Floppole who came to his lab last month. "In 'my' diary it mentions that he was asking about Tesla coils and Theories of Multiple Dimensions, however he sent him away because he was working on an anti-gravity machine and saw no relation. This is when the entries get ususual. He describes a vortex that he only explains as a hole in space-time. 'A sort of black hole...' It seems that my double didn't even realize it was a sliding vortex. He though it was a gravational spike."

Then Colin sits up and declares he is going to find out what he can on Mr. Floppole. Maggie offers to go with him but he tells her to look at the tapes and books with Quinn and Remmy. "Your help is needed here," says Colin.

Colin goes out of the room and walks to the city offices. When he enters the receptionist recognizes him, not as Quinn's brother but as her old boyfriend. This works out for Colin because he uses her interest to lead him to the file room. Colin is about to get some when he knocks her on the floor by throwing her into the wall.

Now he is looking through the personnel files for Mr. Floppole went a shadow lurks behind him and man appears with a gun. They struggle and Colin is thrown to the floor. The man aims the gun and pulls the trigger...

He racked his brains for something to divert her. He was about to suggest something lame like having her go out for a meal (perhaps not sooooo lame, since he WAS hungry) when the door to the hotel swung open and his friends entered, followed by a man dressed in black who seemed to be walking unsteadily and was holding his head with one shaky hand.

Colin's usually impassive face was even more grim, and he seemed to be avoiding looking at the shaken man.

Three more men appeared in the door, dressed in the uniforms of the local police. They both clutched long barreled pistols which, judging from the size of cylinder, appeared to be 8-shot affairs.

The highest ranking policeman eyed Quinn without surprise. "Guess who we found, yet again, wandering around where they they didn't belong. I was going to put them away, especially butcher-boy here, until they told me that there was something special waiting here for me in this hotel room. It is the only reason they are not cementing small rocks into bigger rocks at my hard labor jail right now!"

After motioning for his two men to cover everyone else, the General moved right in front of Quinn, eying the man menacingly. He took a deep, dramatic, sniff. "Smell that, boys? That's PIG I smell! Butcher Pig. Butcher pig who is getting ready to get butchered!"

With that, he punched Quinn in the stomach. Fortunately, Quinn had suspected such a move and rolled with it, taking less of a blow that he might have otherwise. He sagged on the floor and wheezed, as if really hurt. The other man kicked Quinn as he lay there, and again Quinn dramatized the blow's effectiveness. "Squeal for me, pig boy!" The general laughed and turned away, heading for the hallway door. "No one gets out of here alive, boys."

***

In the hallway, someone lurked. Callie would have recognized who he was, of course, since he sired her, but only because of his shoes. His face was covered with a black mask. He held a long barreled automatic pistol in one delicate hand. How was he going to get his accomplice out of that room? It would be him against all three police, and he had only seconds to decide. To say nothing of his daughter.

Then, beneath his mask, the man smiled. He had an idea...

***

<Torch is about to reach finish line! Take it, SpaceTime, it is hot! :-) >

Huddled outside the window of the Dominion Hotel, he pointed his shotgun at that insipid girlfriend of his son's. "Good Lord, Quinn, I'm doing you a favor," he said under his breath as he pulled the trigger.

Glass splintered and flew everywhere, embedding itself in what was left of Callie's back. The shotgun blast had, at close range, left a hole in her body the size of a basketball.

Callie's father Geoffrey saw everything from his vantage point in the hallway. As pandemonium set in, he ran to his daughter's lifeless body, the look on her face just as vacuous as if she were alive.

The police grabbed Geoffrey and ripped the mask off of him. The smile he had worn only a minute earlier had faded.

Mike Mallory aimed again and fired, taking the head of the General off his body and relocating it to several parts of the room. He jumped through the window and motioned for his sons to follow him. "C'mon, boys!" Rembrandt and Maggie weren't far behind.

In Mike Mallory's car, father hugged sons as they drove towards Quinn's office. "You really pissed the brass off, son," he said. "Those cops in there were ready to haul your ass to the electric chair."

"How could you kill those people?" Colin demanded.

"What, Callie? That stupid little strumpet deserved to die. She'd been telling her father about sliding, Quinn, about your experiment. That guy in black was ready to pop all of you and take your notes. And the General? Well, industrial espionage goes hand in hand with army intelligence. You still have that disk?"

"Yeah," Quinn managed to stammer out.

"Good, because we're going into your lab to destroy it and get out of here."

"Destroy what?"

"Sliding."

At the office, Colin and Rembrandt grabbed everything familiar and pulled it from the electrical sockets and placed it on a wheeled platform. Quinn, Maggie and Mike Mallory looked on.

"Excellent," Mike Mallory said. "Now," he said, "you die." He pulled a sawed-off shotgun from his trenchcoat and aimed it at his sons.

"What are you doing?" Quinn asked.

"Should I get sympathetic for you? You're not even my son," Mike Mallory said.

"What are you talking about? How could you possibly know that?" Quinn asked.

"Because I killed my son a few nights ago trying to get that damn disk. Now give it to me." He waved the gun at them menacingly. "Give it to me!"

Rembrandt, in the meantime, had taken the timer from his pocket and checked the time. 3 seconds?! He activated the vortex directly between Mike Mallory and the rest of his friends.

Mike Mallory looked at the back of the vortex. He could see the doppelganger of his dead son through the coursing spacial distortion. He aimed the gun and fired, but the bullets just softly disappeared into nothingness.

Quinn took the disk out and threw it into the vortex. Colin and Rembrandt pushed the dolly into the vortex as well. Mike Mallory angrily waved the gun at them, knowing that the vortex prevented him from firing.

"If you want it, you have to come and get it," Quinn said. "How could you kill your own son, you bastard?!"

Mike Mallory rushed the vortex from the backside and disappeared. Quinn, Maggie, Colin and Rembrandt jumped into the wormhole from the other side.

Wind and force pushed the Sliders out of the vortex. They looked up. It was Golden Gate Park. Mike Mallory was no where to be found.

"Where the devil is he?" Rembrandt asked.

Quinn looked around, searching for an answer. "The opposite side of the wormhole must... open on another dimension. Or another space. Wherever he is, he's still a threat."

"What about this sliding equipment?" Maggie asked.

"We throw it in the bay," Quinn said. On the ground sat the green disk that had caused so much trouble. He lifted his leg.

The crunch of plastic gave him little satisfaction.

===
END
===