"What the h.e.l.l do you mean sending me out to sea to search for pirates? Are you nuts? Why would I do a stupid thing like that?" he demanded without preamble.

"It's not stupid," Nian Zhen said. "We need to do some research on these curs so we can deal with them properly."

"I don't care. I'm not going."

"But, Indian. I need you. You're the only one who can do this important job," Nian Zhen cajoled shamelessly. "Who else has the qualification to do this? Them?" he asked, flinging his arm contemptuously at the five people whose faces fell when he motioned to them.

"Well..." Indian said, puffing his chest with importance.

'It's not like we'd miss you if you leave," Hank said, very cunningly bursting his balloon. "Why would we since you're doing an important job we can't do."

Indian glared at him.

"I know you've always been jealous of me, Hank," he said. "With your background, I can understand. A pencil pusher like you? Ha! Ha!"

It was Hank's turn to puff with irritation. He opened his mouth to retaliate but Sumo caught his arm and dragged then pushed him outside. The door shut on his protesting face.

"Well," Sumo said. "Indian's the man for this job. He'll find those thugs for us and then we'll get them."

"Get them?" Indian commented, lifting supercilious brows at Nian Zhen. "With what? We don't even have a navy."

"We might be doing something about that," Nian Zhen shrugged. "That's why we need to do some research first."

"Do something about it? Like what? Send people out in a lifeboat to attack them? Nian Zhen, you're an idiot."

"We're not sending people out on lifeboats, d.a.m.n it!" Nian Zhen shouted, annoyed. "Why all these questions? Can't you just do as I say and get the job done?"

"Because you're not thinking this through and you know it," Indian snorted. "Anyway, since you asked nicely I'll do it. I'll leave tomorrow."

"Good."

"Then I'm taking Sumo, Gray and Terri with me," Indian said, very satisfied.

"What?" Kari said, her voice sounding like a screech. "You can't do that!"

"Oh? Why not?"

"Because...because...Nian Zhen!" she cried, turning to Nian Zhen.

"You're taking Sumo, Gray and Terri with you? Why?"

"Then you want me to paddle your life raft alone? You can wait for my report in two years time then," Indian said sarcastically.

The three mentioned folks, who have been turned into stones from utter astonishment at Indian's surprised announcement, swiveled their heads in Nian Zhen's direction. Terri was near to tears. Why him? He didn't even like burgers and fries.

"Okay then," Nian Zhen shrugged unconcernedly, oblivious to the groans of despair that greeted his announcement. He then turned and continued his conversation with An Ning.

"Aren't you going to introduce me?" Indian said, his eyes on An Ning.

"No," Nian Zhen didn't even turn his head.

"Hi, pretty lady," Indian said, walking over and extending a hand to An Ning. "Indian. And you are?"

"An Ning," she said, smilingly taking his hand.

"Well, well," Indian said grinning winningly as his eyes roved all over her face and body. "Hi, you beautiful girl, you."

"Hi to you, too," An Ning smiled.

"No wonder Nian Zhen is smitten. You're really, truly beautiful."

"Skin deep and all that."

"Witty, too," grinned Indian. "I'll be sure to come back early so we can get to know each other really well."

"You do that."

"Don't forget to say goodbye to Mimi before you leave," Nian Zhen reminded blandly. "I'm sure she'll miss you."

"Mimi? Who's Mimi? I don't know any Mimi."

The four musketeers chortled behind him.

"Right. And don't forget Linda and Grace, too," Sumo said, shoulders shaking with mirth.

"Haha," Indian said, shooting daggers at him. "Goodbye for now, beautiful lady," he said tenderly, turning to An Ning. "See you when I get back."

"See you."

"Okay, you bozos," Indian said, spearing the three laughing men behind him with an evil smile. "We'll leave at fifteen hundred tomorrow morning. Be late and I'll tie you to the boat as fish bait."

With that pithy comment he left.

"There goes my egg waffles," Kari said dejectedly.

"And my j.a.panese food," Sumo said, echoing her dejection.

"Why am I going with them? I don't even like burgers and fries," Terri complained bitterly.

"That Indian is a real w.a.n.ker," Gray spat out. "We all know he can do this job with his eyes closed. He just wants to make us suffer. b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

"Okay, enough of that. Let's get to work," Nian Zhen said.

"What are we looking for anyway?" Terri asked, walking to a computer.

"The time machine. An Ning said it's here but took a wrong turn and lost it's way."

"The time machine?" Hank, who just entered the room, said excitedly. "It's here? It's actually here?"

"If we could get hold of it, we can study it and maybe find out more about the magus gene," Terri said. "We can even duplicate it if we know what it is."

"Why is that important?" An Ning asked.

"The magus gene is very unstable as it is now. But if we can find the missing link, then we can use it to stabilize the time tunnel. Later on, the time tunnel can be used as a natural bridge to connect the different timelines. We can then crossover to different dimensions in our physical forms," explained Hank.

"It works as an alternative to either heaven or h.e.l.l, right?" An Ning was rather amused by the premise. "It basically nullifies the natural law of G.o.d and nature and creates an alternative universe for wandering souls."

"Why not?" Gray asked. "It's kind of like the chaos theory. You leave some souls unattended of course h.e.l.l is going to break loose. Anyway, why are working on this now when we're leaving with Indian tomorrow?"

"Kari and Hank and I can do the rest," Nian Zhen said. "It's just a simple retrieval job anyway. Nothing we've never done before."

"But this is the time machine, Zhen. I mean it's the Atlantis as far as all of us are concerned," Terri protested.

"It's not like you're not coming back. At the most, you'll be gone for two days tops. We might not even find it by then."

"I a.s.sume the time machine created the time tunnel?" An Ning asked Nian Zhen. "It can't blast through a specific time but along the way, it opened portals that opened to different pockets of time. More like a long hallway with different doors that open to different dimensions, is that it?"

"That's right," Terri said excitedly. "And your grandmother did that by creating the magus gene. How she did it we don't know yet. But it's unlike anything we've ever seen on earth. It's not nuclear, electric, volcanic or anything like that. It's something else."

"The tunnel I saw was like a dense body of water blasted by a laser beam," Nian Zhen said. "After I followed it, imagine my surprise when I woke up here in Chengdi with a physical body. Everyone called me Nian Zhen and prince. I realized my presence in this time somehow created not only a physical body but an ident.i.ty. I went back and told everyone."

"We weren't that hard to convince," Sumo grinned. "I was the first to go with him. Then Terri and the rest. We were lost souls adrift and forgotten but this thing...this was our second chance. It was the one miracle we were not expecting to happen."

"What I don't understand is how you knew that the time machine is coming here," Hank frowned. "Are you holding out on us about something, An Ning?"

"I made contact with my grandmother. Scratch that. She contacted me. I was looking at her like through a mirror. Then the second time, I told her what I discovered, that the time machine somehow created a bridge that allowed spirits and people to crossover to the other side. I told her she can find the way home if she turns back at the start. I a.s.sume that's precisely what she did because the SOS I received the last time was from my mom."

"You entered the time tunnel as a physical body?" Terri was shocked. "How? Why?"

"He pulled me in," An Ning said, pointing to Nian Zhen. "And I woke up in the body of a dead empress. How's that for reincarnation?"

"Did you really?" Kari was as shocked as Terri. "But it does make sense. The only one who can enter and use the tunnel besides Zhen is Ban Chao. That's why he was able to go with Zhen to Yuqui."

"Ban Chao is not a spirit?" It was An Ning's turn to be surprised.

"No, he's a native here in Chengdi. He's related to the prince, isn't he, Zhen?"

"Yes. He remembers Nian Zhen. I don't know why but as soon as I woke up as Nian Zhen, everybody knew me as Nian Zhen."

"But why did you force An Ning to crossover? That I don't get," Hank frowned.

"Because An Ning was my wife in my previous life," Nian Zhen said, his face expressionless.

The others looked at him, dumbfounded.

"Seriously, dude. Isn't that rather selfish? You love her that much?" asked Hank, staring at Nian Zhen with a complicated expression.

"None of your business," Nian Zhen said crisply.

"Just saying," Hank shrugged.

"Anyway, why do you need to see my grandmother for?" An Ning asked, steering the topic to a less complicated subject.

"To ask her about the magus gene of course," Terri said, eyeing Nian Zhen like he was an unlit time bomb about to go off. "Maybe if we work together we can find the missing link to make it more stable."

"She's some kind of a legend here with us," Hank beamed happily. "The Creator. That's what we call her."

"She has a name, you know," An Ning was amused. "Her name is Hippolyta."

"Hippolyta," Gray's voice was awestruck. "What a cla.s.sy name."

An Ning laughed. She couldn't help it. Wouldn't Hippolyta be surprised to find this groupie excitedly waiting to meet her. I hope she wouldn't get offended and slice their heads off or something, she thought, grinning.

"Where do we start our search?" she asked.

"I'm doing it now," Nian Zhen said. "Had to recalculate the location to a spot I remembered."

"You remembered? You made a virtual map of the time tunnel in your computer?" An Ning asked, flabbergasted.

"I know it very well. I did spend nearly a year investigating it. How do you think I found you?"

"But Zhen, how do you power all this? This is not electricity, right?" An Ning asked, looking at the cable plugs on the wall.

"Certainly not," Terri said. "It's energy we harnessed from the magus gene. It's clean energy and doesn't take that much to use."

An Ning look at him, totally freaked out. She was beginning to wonder what secret ingredient was in this magus gene to make it nearly as amazing as electricity. And was Hippolyta aware of how life-changing it was to many lost souls living their second chances?