Alex Benedict 07 - Coming Home Read Free Page A

when the big scientific discoveries were being made. Those who were around during those years saw incredible changes. New technologies constantly showing up. Diseases that had been fatal when you were a child were wiped out by the time you had kids of your own. Not like today, when stability rules. Or, as some physicists would say, boredom.
    “He had a huge collection of books, fiction, from those years. My dad said he was always watching shows set in that period. And he was infuriated that so much had been lost.”
    “I’m not sure I know what you’re referring to,” I said. “We still have pretty good visual records of the third millennium. We know its history. There are a few holes, but by and large—”
    “I’m not talking about the history. What he cared about were the artifacts. Have you been to Earth, Chase?”
    “Yes. I’ve been there. Once.”
    “There’s not much left from the years when they were going to the Moon. It’s all gone. Other than a few old buildings and some dams. My grandfather was always looking for stuff. Like maybe a pen that Marie Curie had used. Or a chair that belonged to Charles Darwin. Or maybe Winston Churchill’s reading lamp.”
She shrugged.
“According to my father, it was his life. He spent years on Earth trying to track things down.”
    I wondered who Darwin and Curie were. “How’d he make out?”
    “He found a few things. An old radio. A few lost books. Nothing that was connected specifically to any historical figure, though—”
    “Books? Anything significant?”
    “Yes. One was
Tender Is the Night
.”
    “Really? He was the guy who found that?”
    “That’s correct.”
    “I think he and Alex would have gotten along pretty well.”
    “He contributed most of what he found to the Brandenheim Museum. It’s on display. You can take a look next time you’re down there. They have a whole section dedicated to him.”
    “Sounds as if he had a decent career. You say you didn’t see much of him?”
    “When I was about fourteen, he came back here to live with us. I’d only seen him once or twice before that, but I was so young, I can barely remember it. I was surprised to discover that our house belonged to him.”
She was looking past me, into another time.
“He apologized for not being around when I was younger. He was a nice guy. Did you know he found the only existing wristwatch? You know what that was?”
    “I’ve seen them in the old clips.”
    “It didn’t belong to anyone in particular, as far as we know. It was just a watch.”
    “Okay.” The snow was coming down harder. “What actually can we do for you, Marissa?”
    “His room was on the second floor. He was with us for about seven years. But then he had a stroke, and we lost him. That was almost eleven years ago. Dad eventually took over the room and used it as his office. And I guess nobody ever really cleaned it out. Recently, we came across something on a shelf in one of the upstairs closets.”
She removed the lid from the box. My angle wouldn’t let me see inside it, but I had a pretty good idea where this was leading.
    “Well, Marissa,” I said, “whatever it is, I’m sure we’ll be able to get you a decent price for it.”
    “Good. That’s what I was hoping you’d say.”
She reached into the box and took out a black electronic device, wrapped in a cloth. She set it on the seat beside her.
    “What is it?” I asked.
    “I took it to the Brandenheim. I thought the guy I was talking to would go crazy. He tells me it’s a—”
She stopped and checked her link.
“It’s a Corbett transmitter. It’s for sending messages through hyperspace. This one is apparently an early version. They thought I was going to donate it, which I had originally intended. I just wanted to get rid of it. But I got the impression it’s worth a lot. So I backed off. They got annoyed.”
She smiled.
“I guess I’m not much like my granddad.”
    “Okay,” I said. “We’ll take a look. When Alex