Sergio De La Pava - A Naked Singularity

“I guess,” I said. “But—”

“There’s no guess about it,” he said. “C’mon let’s go.”

“Go where?” I said. “Besides the masks, how are we supposed to get back across?”

“I have an extra hook in the bag,” Dane said. “I planned for this contingency.”

“What are you fucking smart?” I said.

“Let’s go,” he said.

“I don’t know without the masks,” I said. “But connect the hook now anyway to save time later.”

“True,” Dane said. He started connecting the replacement gold hook to the rope then he stopped.

“What’s up?” I said.

“Can you believe I needed three attempts to lasso this shit?” he said.

“You got it though,” I said.

“I know but I still haven’t sorted out what that means. And like just now when you almost didn’t make it across and then we lost the hook. It’s like what in the holy hell is going on?” Dane punched the pole. He looked down then up.

“It’s 2:57,” I said.

“I’m furious as I’ve ever been,” he said.

“It’s late Dane. Let’s go,” I said.

“Fucking life Casi,” Dane said.

“Let’s go Dane,” I said. “Look you missed twice but then you got it. A fucking impossible million to one shot and you made it with your goddamn eyes closed. And I almost didn’t make it but I did. I should’ve jumped like you said. That was my fault. And I lose the fucking hook and you have a crazy backup? Who thinks of this shit? It’s 2:57. Three minutes.”

“Fuck it,” Dane said. “Let’s go get our money. I’ll think about this later. But I’m in no mood I’ll tell you. Someone’s going to pay for what I’m going through right now.”

I taped the new hook to the pole to keep it from sliding away and we walked toward 410 together. I put my camera on the northwest corner of 408’s ledge and Dane put his on the southwest one. We met in the middle and sat on the roof with our backs against the ledge separating 408 from 410. I looked at my monitor. I saw no one. I used the joystick to scan the area with the camera. There was no one.

“You see anyone?” I said.

“No,” he said.

“What the hell?” I said.

“Well that makes it easy,” he said.

“Except where are they? You said they were there before,” I said.

“They were,” he said.

“So where the fuck are they? Because we have the whole roof covered and I don’t see shit,” I said.

“They must be inside somewhere,” he said.

“Yeah and with our luck they’re probably flanking Whale as we speak staring at the money,” I said. “Or better yet they’re right inside the door making sure no one comes in from the roof. Let’s abort this whole thing. Nothing’s going the way it was supposed to. Remember what we said about if things weren’t going well?”

“They’re going fine, here they are,” said Dane. “They must’ve gotten called down for something now they’re going back to their posts. It’s 2:57:53. Plenty of time. Look there they go, positioned exactly as we expected. Heckle on the North, Jeckle on the South. 2:58.”

I looked at Dane’s monitor.

“Oh man,” I said.

“What?” Dane said.

“I know these guys,” I said.

“Who?” said Dane.

“Heckle and Jeckle,” I said.

“What do you mean you know them?” he said.

“We got into it like an hour ago,” I said.

“Why?” he said.

“Parking,” I said.

“What?” he said.

“A parking space,” I said. “We were arguing. It was the kind of thing they would remember. I’m sure of it.”

“Let me think about this,” he said. “I don’t think it matters. They’re not going to see you anyway.”

“If they do they’ll know where I’m parked,” I said.

“Now you’re giving them way too much credit,” he said.

“A mask would sure come in handy right about now,” I said.

“Then you shouldn’t have thrown yours into the alley,” he said.

“I was trying to keep from plunging to my death,” I said.

“If you had jumped like we agreed,” he said.

“And if you had bought a mask like you said you would I could use that one since they haven’t seen your face,” I said.

“I have no response to that,” he said.

I laughed.

“2:58:32,” Dane said. “Almost showtime.”

“I’m not sure,” I said.

“What do you mean you’re not sure? In less than a minute and a half I’m going in. Are you coming?” he said.

“Let me think,” I said.

“You know David Lewis?” he said.

“Who?” I said.

“David Lewis,” he said.

“Yeah, I think, isn’t he a DA or a court reporter or something?” I said.

“DA?” said Dane. “I’m talking about professor David Lewis formerly of Princeton and recently admitted to the Great Nothing. Philosophy. Know him?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Didn’t think so,” he said. “But surely you know Leibniz and his concept of possible worlds at least as continually and disrespectfully alluded to in Voltaire’s Candide?”

“Yes and I know Lewis too. What’s your point?”

“2:59 even,” he said. “The point is that if we accept his form of modal realism as true, which we should, then since we both admit that it is possible we will turn around from here and abandon the plan, we acknowledge that there exists a world where you and I do in fact turn around from here and go home.”

“And?” I said.

“And there is of course likewise a world where we go forward and get that money,” he said.

“And?” I said.

“And I have nothing but contempt for these people, if you can call them that, who will turn around at this point,” he said. “And when I think that one of them looks just like me and has the audacity to go around calling himself Dane it makes me want to draw blood from the anger. Remember that because right now it is certainly at least possible that you and I will go get that money, that means at least two of our counterparts will in fact get it. Don’t we need to be those two? Of course we do, it absolutely must be us. I don’t care what it entails. You have total power and control here. You just have to decide who you want to be and that’s who you’ll become.” He looked at me. “2:59:41 and it looks good,” he said holding up his monitor. “Ready?”

I looked at the monitor. Each of the guys was standing at his ledge looking up and down the block. Then Heckle in the front said something like here we go and spoke into his radio.

“Fine, let’s go,” I said.

“Good,” Dane said.

I spun over the ledge and landed softly on the roof of 410. I placed my monitor near my face staring at Jeckle on the screen as he patrolled the back of the roof. With my naked eyes I stared at the back of Heckle as he bent over the ledge looking down on the street and the surely approaching Nova. I took three long steps and stopped behind a heating duct. When I was sure neither had seen me I took another five steps then slid past the door and into the entryway to the top floor. I looked at the monitor and Jeckle hadn’t moved. I looked at Dane still at the ledge and he signaled that Heckle hadn’t seen me either. I waited.

Thirty seconds later Dane was in the entryway. “We good?” he whispered. I looked at the screens. “Yes,” I said. We walked down the six stairs to a landing. I positioned myself so I could see the second floor while not being seen. I saw the dorsal portion of a malicious entity as it stared out the front window. It was Ballena.

“Damn,” I said.

“What?” Dane said.

“I can see it,” I said.

“What?” he said.

“The Whale, I see it,” I said.

“So is it big?” he said.