Page 43 of Joker's Ghost
Rattler nods, and as the others digest Mamba’s words, I jump in with my proposal. “I wanna have another meet with the Nomads. Only this time, we all go as a show of strength, ‘cause there’s no way,” I point to my phone, “I’m letting this stand.”
“Not a bad idea,” Cobra says. “That way, if some bullshit is going on, we’ll be able to stop it before it goes any further.”
The brothers nod their agreement, then Boa looks up from his laptop. “Probably a good idea to have the old guy, Warrior, there too. Although he’s not the one who put this curse on you, he might know something about it, or a way to remove it.”
“Fuck, brother,” Cobra nods at me, “I’m trying to make him feel better, not worse. It’s bad enough he believes this bullshit, but now you too?”
“It’s not bullshit.” Boa taps at the keyboard of his laptop. “If Warrior is a shaman, then he has powers beyond this world. Powers for good and evil.”
“Regardless, I’ll connect with the Nomads after the meeting and set something up for tomorrow night.” Cobra looks around the room. “Anything else?”
When no one speaks up, Cobra slams the gavel down again.
Cobra grips my shoulder. “You look like you could use a drink.”
“In a minute.”
All the brothers head for the bar, but I stay behind and sit next to Boa, who’s still typing on his laptop.
“So, these powers Warrior might have are real?” I ask when everyone is out of earshot.
“Absolutely.” Boa types in some keywords, then turns the laptop to me with article after article about the powers of a shaman.
“Gotta ask you something else.” I look over my shoulder, then back to Boa. “How do you feel about time travel?”
“If I had my choice, I’d definitely go back to Roman times.” He puffs out his massive chest. “Would’ve loved to be a gladiator.”
“You know most of them died, right? Eaten by fuckin’ lions.”
“Still, cool times.”
“So you believe it can happen, time travel?”
Again Boa types at his keyboard, then turns the computer to me.
“Time travel to the past is theoretically possible in certain general relativity spacetime geometries that permit traveling faster than the speed of light, such as cosmic strings and traversable wormholes."
“What the fuck is a wormhole?”
“A wormhole is a hypothetical structure that connects disparate points in space. It may be visualized as a tunnel with two ends at separate points in time.”
“Can we try that again in English?” I deadpan.
“There have been theories of tunnels that can be traveled from one point to another. Einstein believed in the theory of relativity, so in essence, he believed time travel could be possible, but to date, there have been no recorded events. Only people who claimed it happened to them.”
I digest Boa’s words. “Probably ‘cause when people say it’s happened, their friends think they’re nuts.”
“Maybe, but scientifically it’s hard to prove.”
“Geez, fuck, how do you know all this shit?”
Boa shrugs. “Photographic memory helps, but I just like to read and learn shit.”
“Thanks, brother, for not thinking I’m crazy.” I push out of the chair and rest my hand on Boa’s shoulder. “And . . . let’s just keep this between you and me.”
“No problem.” Boa closes his laptop and pushes away from the table.
The guy is fuckin’ huge, bigger and wider than the rest of us, and the crazy thing is, it’s all natural. Sure, he works out, but his bulk is genetic and belies the knowledge stored in his brain. Most people look at him and only see his size, but the man’s brain is just as big, which makes him an amazing tech genius and club treasurer. Nobody can move and finesse money like Boa.
