I open the message, my head pounding, exploding.
I know this situation is totally insane, but do you want to partner with me? Two minds are stronger than one. We could work together to get rid of the others, and when all the smoke has cleared, I’m sure we can figure something out. Time is critical. What do you say?
What do I say?
I can hardly breathe.
I leave the business center.
Sweat runs down my sides, but I feel so cold.
The first-floor hallway is empty, quiet.
I hurry to the elevator and ride up to the fourth floor.
Stepping off onto the beige carpeting, I move quickly down the hall and lock myself back in my room.
Spiraling.
How did I not anticipate this happening?
In hindsight, it was inevitable.
Though I wasn’t branching into alternate realities in the corridor, I certainly was in every world I stepped into. Which means other versions of me were split off in those worlds of ash and ice and plague.
The infinite nature of the corridor precluded me from running into more versions of myself, but I did see one—the Jason with his back flayed open.
Undoubtedly most of those Jasons were killed or lost forever in other worlds, but some, like me, made the right choices. Or got lucky. Their paths might have altered from mine, through different doors, different worlds, but they eventually found their respective ways back to this Chicago.
We all want the same thing—to get our life back.
Jesus.
Our life.
Our family.
What if most of these other Jasons are exactly like me? Decent men who want back what was taken from them. And if that’s the case, what right do I have to Daniela and Charlie over the rest of them?
This isn’t just a game of chess. It’s a game of chess against myself.
I don’t want to see it this way, but I can’t help it. The other Jasons want the thing in the world that is most precious to me—my family. That makes them my enemy. I ask myself what I would be willing to do to regain my life. Would I kill another version of me if it meant I could spend the rest of my days with Daniela? Would they?
I picture these other versions of me sitting in their lonely hotel rooms, or walking the snowy streets, or watching my brownstone, wrestling with this exact line of thinking.
Asking themselves these same questions.
Attempting to forecast their doppelg?ngers’ next moves.
There can be no sharing. It’s strictly competitive, a zero-sum game, where only one of us can win.
If anyone is reckless, if things get out of hand and Daniela or Charlie is injured or killed, then no one wins. That must be why things seemed normal when I looked inside the front window of my house several hours ago.
No one knows which move to make, so no one has made a play against Jason2.
It’s a classic setup, pure game theory.
A terrifying spin on the Prisoner’s Dilemma that asks, Is it possible to outthink yourself?
I’m not safe.
My family isn’t safe.
But what can I do?
If every possible move I think of is doomed to be anticipated or made before I even get a chance, where does that leave me?
I feel like crawling out of my skin.
The worst days in the box—volcanic ash raining down on my face, almost freezing to death, seeing Daniela in a world where she had never said my name—none of it compares to the storm that’s roiling inside of me in this moment.
I’ve never felt farther from home.
The phone rings, snapping me back into the present.
I walk over to the table, lift the receiver on the third ring.
“Hello?”
No response, only soft breathing.
I hang up the phone.
Move to the window.
Part the curtains.
Four floors below, the street is empty, the snow still pouring down.
The phone rings again, but only once this time.
Weird.
As I ease back down onto the bed, the phone call keeps needling me.
What if another version of me is trying to confirm that I’m in my room?
First, how the hell would he find me at this hotel?
The answer comes fast, and it’s terrifying.
At this very moment, there must be numerous versions of me in Logan Square doing exactly what he’s doing—calling every motel and hotel in my neighborhood to find other Jasons. It isn’t luck that he found me. It’s a statistical probability. Even a handful of Jasons, making a dozen phone calls each, could cover all the hotels within a few miles of my house.
But would the clerk give out my room number?
Maybe not intentionally, but it’s possible the man downstairs listening to the Bulls game and stuffing his face with Chinese food could be duped.
How would I dupe him?
If it were anyone other than me looking for me, the name I checked in under would probably keep me undetected. But all these other versions know my mother’s father’s name. I screwed that up. If using that name was my first impulse, it would have also been another Jason’s first impulse. So assuming I knew the name I might have checked in under, what would I do next?