Entanglement by Gregg Braden Page A

entering!”
    â€œI think I just broke my ankle.” Jack started to stand up.
    â€œDon’t move! I’m calling the police right now.”
    â€œWhy? Don’t—please. I can explain.”
    Peter felt in his pocket for his phone, then realized that he’d left it back in his classroom. All the while, he continued staring at Jack. There was something vaguely familiar about him. “Just stay where you are. I’m going to get my phone and then I’m calling the police—”
    â€œHold on! I’m not trying to do anything bad. I just need to plug in my computer, okay?”
    Jack started hobbling down the hall toward Peter.
    â€œDon’t come any closer. Do you have a gun?”
    â€œIt’s just my computer,” Jack said. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not trying to steal anything. I told you, I just need to plug in my computer.”
    â€œYou broke in to plug in a computer?”
    Jack was growing exasperated by so many questions; time was ticking away, and he couldn’t seem to get his old physics teacher to understand his plight.
    â€œLook, I tried to log on to the network from outside, but the signal was too weak. So then I made it through the fence to connect in the breezeway, and my battery started to die. Please, Mr. Keller, it’s an emergency. I have to get online.”
    Peter stepped forward to see better, and something in his face relaxed.
    â€œYou’re Charlie Franklin.”
    â€œClose. Jack. We’re—”
    â€œTwins,” Peter said. “I remember now.”
    â€œGood memory.”
    â€œClass of 2005. Good students. What happened? You look like a hoodlum now.”
    â€œWhy? Because I’m wearing a hoodie?” He slipped it off, revealing his long hair.
    â€œNo, because you’re breaking into the school in the middle of the night.” Peter stared at him for a moment. “Are you high?”
    â€œMr. Keller … look, my brother, he’s a soldier in Afghanistan, and something’s happening, okay? I have to reach him, right away. I have to get on Skype so I can talk to him. Please.”
    The plaintiveness in Jack’s voice made a dent in Peter’s doubts. Why am I being so suspicious, anyhow? he asked himself.
    He gazed at his former student’s face. He remembered him now perfectly, and his brother, too—intense young men with level hazel eyes who seemed so linked that it had been a little odd to encounter them as a pair. How do you distinguish yourself when there is another one of you, so alike, so attuned? he remembered wondering.
    Like so many of his students, Charlie and Jack seemed on the brink of some critical turning point in their lives. And perhaps this had been it—one of them at war, the other at home.
    Peter sighed. He hoped he wasn’t making some grave error.
    â€œOkay,” he said to Jack. “Come on.”

CHAPTER 7
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    Peter and Jack walked through the high school halls together, Jack limping heavily on his injured ankle.
    â€œWe’ll get you some ice,” Peter said, suddenly solicitous. “Do you think your ankle’s really broken?”
    â€œI don’t know. Maybe I just twisted it.”
    They walked through the lobby, past the glass display of student photos. Peter glanced at Jack’s photo, but actually stopped and stared at Charlie’s—the same open sensitive face, but with close cropped hair and a more focused, intense look in his eyes.
    â€œThere he is,” Jack said. “I can’t believe he’s so far away.”
    After a moment, he moved on and Peter followed.
    â€œWhat are you doing here this time of night, anyway?” Jack asked him.
    â€œJust grading … things,” Peter mumbled. When they reached the physics classroom, Peter said, “Wait a minute,” and went in alone.
    He quickly tossed his cigarettes and ashtray into his desk, then pulled down the projection