​     The door on the driver's side opened. ​In the back, it was the door on the passenger's side, on Adam's side, that opened. Trevor slid across the car seat to get to Adam's door himself. Then, 

​     BAM!

     The slug from a police rifle hit the open door on the passenger's side, slamming it shut. 

​     Damn!

     He'd taken too long to get out of the car!

     He rolled into the front seat. BAM! BAM! More bullets. Damn! The door in the front on the driver's side was still open. No police bullets had slammed into it yet. He didn't waste another second. Trevor dove out the door and onto the street. A bullet cracked into the asphalt not an inch from his head. Damn! He stood up and, bent over, ran from the car. Trevor felt very, very happy to be invisible at that moment. Then it occurred to him that, damn it, the sandwich board where the three of them were supposed to meet was on the other side of the street! He'd have to cross the road with bullets flying everywhere! Shit!

​     PING! PING! Bullets pinged all around him, bouncing off cars, bouncing off street signs, bouncing off light poles and garbage cans. Really, there was no reason to try and out think the bullets. Pure chance would decide whether he got hit or not, yet still...yeow! A bullet pinged off a manhole cover right in front of him. If he'd been moving a half step faster...that did it. To hell with keeping low. Trevor rose to his full height and ran as fast as he could for the sandwich board. Then,

​     "Made it! Yeah!"

     "Pipe down," Adam said. "You want someone to hear us and know where we're at?"

​     "You okay, Trevor?" Gramps asked. 

     "Fine. Not a scratch."

​     "Let's move, then."

     They got a couple blocks away, and Gramps said, "No more driving. We'll get spotted the second any of us turns visible."

​     "True enough," Adam said.

​     "And we still need to pick up the Valids."

     "And now we've got to walk to where they live? That'll take all day."

     "I haven't..."

​     "They can't come to us?"

     "Well, that wasn't in the plan at all. In the plan we were supposed to...well, now that I think about it, I guess we could give them a quick call. Now what'd I do with my phone again? I put it right...oh, there it is. Okay, hold on."

     Forty-two seconds passed, and then Trevor heard Gramps say, "Uh, yeah, hi. This is Gramps. We need to talk. Call me immediately, please." To Adam and Trevor, he said, "I'll never get used to answering machines. I always get tongue-tied."

     "I can't believe you're as old as I am," Adam said.

     "Older."

     "There can't be anyone older than me. Before me, there was no time. No time. No space."

     "Let's just say I'm an older model and leave it at that." 

     "Alternative model."

     "You're the alternative model." 

     "We're both alternatives. All Adams are alternatives." 

     "We've been through this a billion times," Gramps said. 

     "Ten billion. We're very, very old, remember?"

     "What I'm trying to say is that I've been living here on Earth as a human being for a very long time, far longer than you have."

​     "That's right. You're the first one who introduced me to this place." 

​     "I love it here. I love my daughter and my grandchildren. I love our home together. I love working with my hands out in the yard."

     "You are getting old."

     "Let's not go into all of that again."

     "You can look any age you want. You don't have to look like a man old enough to keel over and die."​

     "We traveled different paths."

     "We shared a lot of those paths, too."

​     "I'll look anyway I damned well...oh, wait a minute. Here they are calling me back."

     Now Trevor heard Gramps' voice but could not make out the exact words as he talked to whoever was on the other end of the line. Then, after a minute...

​     "Yeah, they're coming to pick us up," Gramps said. "They're not real happy, but they'll be here in about half an hour."

CONTINUE