Their guards whipped open the side door. Gruff words were exchanged in Japanese. Grabbing the prisoners’ duffel bag and gear, the soldiers scrambled out of the van and slammed the door shut behind them, leaving Ford and Joe alone in the back of the van. He figured now was their chance to finally talk to each other. Ford hoped to hell his dad knew what this about, because he was totally lost.

“Okay, okay,” he said, trying to get a handle on the situation. “So the good news is that we’re not going to fry from radiation poisoning.” He looked to his dad for confirmation, but Joe seemed lost in a world of his own, staring bleakly at the floor of the van. It dawned on Ford that his father had barely said a word, or even made eye contact with him, since the guards had taken them into custody. “Hey, Dad. You okay?”

Joe didn’t react. His lips moved, as though he was talking to himself, but nothing audible emerged. Ford wondered if the strain of the last several hours had been too much for him. What if his dad had finally cracked for good—just as his insane theories were looking less crazy by the moment?

“Hey!” Ford said sharply.

“…dragging you back here.” Joe roused a little, at least enough to mumble audibly. He turned anguished eyes toward Ford, his battered spirits in some sort of hellish freefall. Guilt weighed down his voice. “I am, I’m totally insane. It’s a replay of fifteen years ago and it’s all my fault. Now I’ll lose you, too.”

Ford tried to snap his father out of whatever sort of post-traumatic depression had gripped him. “See that’s the crazy talking. That’s not going to help us. No one’s losing anyone.”

“They’re never going to let us out of here, Ford. Why would they? Now they’ve got the disks…”

“Disks? What disks? What are you talking about, Dad?” Ford leaned anxiously toward his father, desperate to get his dad’s full attention. The irony of the moment was not lost on Ford; after years of doing his best to tune out his father’s paranoid ramblings, he suddenly wanted more than anything to know exactly what was going through his father’s tortured mind. “Look at me. I’m listening now, okay? Help me understand this.”

“I’m cursed, Ford,” the other man said despairingly. “Look what I’ve done.”

Ford wanted to shake him. “TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW!”

Joe flinched, blinking in surprise. The sheer intensity of Ford’s demand jolted him back to reality. His eyes came back into focus. He nodded gravely.