Remember the Future Read Online Free PDF Page B

sidearm.
    A second one.
    Maddy stopped walking. The man behind her also stopped.
    Making eye contact with a random man in military camouflage approaching on the opposite moving platform to her left, Maddy bolted forward again, waving erratically at him.
    “Help, sir!  I’m being attacked,” she yelled to him as all surrounding eyes turned in her direction.
    The second Blank Man stepped casually onto the opposite platform moving toward her.
    Maddy slipped over the short dividing wall between the moving platforms with the help of the confused soldier, then leapt the short outer wall to the solid floor of the concourse and broke into a run toward the entrance to the next terminal.
    The two Blank Men continued down the opposite platforms at a casual pace as the soldier and surrounding travelers watched Maddy disappear from view into the crowd ahead.

11
    At the end of his shift, Grant walked to the station of everyone he felt he knew reasonably well and shook their hands, saving Carl Simmons at the neighboring station for last.
    Giving him a firm handshake, the other man studied Grant’s face with a bemused expression.  “Why do I feel like your retiring instead of just going on vacation?”
    Grant tried not to look awkward as he considered.  “You never know,” he responded.  “Maybe I’ll get used to the lifestyle and decide to stay on permanent vacation.”
    “What?  Did you go and win the lottery on us?”
    Grant gave a dark chuckle.  “I wish,” he replied, thinking instead: If only money could solve this problem.
    Carl gave him one last nod then turned back to his station.  “Yeah, if either of us could retire at our age, we’d have done it by now, right?  Have a good time, man!”
    Grant started out, taking one last look back before he headed out to the elevator.

12
    No one approached Grant in the airport as he made his way to the garage.  Down in the belly of the underground garage, he watched every shadow and listened attentively for footsteps coming from behind in the darkness but no one materialized.
    All day, his mind had been replaying one of the last things Rudy had said to him: “You’ve got twenty-four hours, Frederickson.  Choose how you want to spend it.”
    He could have spent the day somewhere other than work, but oddly enough, he had still felt a duty to his co-workers and to all the anonymous passengers on all those planes that depended on people like him.
    Grant found his Toyota parked in the usual spot, tail-end first in the far right hand row.  He opened the unlocked door and cranked his engine.
    The knock on his window brought him to attention.
    In that split second, he thought: If this is it, I’m ready to go and I’m going to meet this thing head-on.
    Slowly, he turned to look his destiny in the eye.
    The girl stood at his passenger side window with a wide-eyed panicky look on her face.  After a moment, she produced a hundred dollar bill and pressed it wordlessly against the window with an open palm.
    “Maddy,” he recalled in a murmur.
    Grant instantly recognized her from the coffee shop even before she proceeded to press her nametag next to the hundred he had given her.
    He had completely forgotten that he had given her the last of his cash.  At the coffee shop after he had done the thing, he had felt instantly free and unburdened, almost as if he had removed the last of the piece of ballast that had kept him from floating away.
    In an odd way, seeing his money again brought back the heaviness of reality.  Life and its responsibilities seemed to settle back onto his shoulders like a backpack, and he felt a sudden urge to shake this person off and continue to look for the man who had made a date to kill him.
    After a few moments of consideration, Grant leaned over and cranked the window down by hand.
    “Hi,” she said, apologetically.  “I saw you get off the elevator and…  I’m having a little trouble and I need a huge favor.”
    Just behind her a black