“I think I’ll go call the police.” I said, turning toward the house. I was about to start moving when two figures materialized and aimed some sort of weapons at Tricia and Noah.

“Freeze Adam!” One called. “Or they’ll go, one by one.” I dived at them and tackled them. Noah dived too. We were having a jolly good fight when a weapon went off. I looked to see where it had hit. I looked down and the person I had been fighting disappeared. I felt a warm tingling feeling in my right calf. Looking down, I found I had been hit. Easing myself over, I propped myself up against a tree.

“You know, Noah. I could be wrong, but I think I’ve been shot.”

“I don’t know, let me see.” He came over and looked at my leg. “Yes old boy, you’ve been shot. Tricia, go call the ambulance.” He shouted at Tricia who immediately obeyed. While she was in there, two more figures appeared.

“Hey Noah, looks like they came back for more!”

“Oh no!” He cried. Turning around, he got in a position to defend me.

“We want Adam Schofield.”

“Oh no you don’t, you’ll have to get through me first!”

“You don’t understand. We are the good guys. My name is Andrew Miller, Crack-shot Lawyer from the year 2060, and this is my investigator, Ryan Chapman. We’re here to catch the infamous team of criminals who call themselves the Dastardly Duo.” (Sounds like a bad Batman spin-off!) Andrew said.

“Yes, the Double D committed several felonies, including stealing the first Space Quest game ever made. In 2025 they were sentenced to life imprisonment.” Ryan said.

“Your last act as detective was to put them behind bars. In 2060 they escaped and stole a time machine control device from a nearby lab.” Andrew said.

“They came back here for the Da Vinci Palette, and to kill you before you could stop their scheme in the future. In order to do this, they enlisted the help of Matt and Noelle, by controlling their minds.” Ryan added.

“So you see, Matt and Noelle delivered the Palette to the Double D and that is why you could not find it. I was on their trail and ready to take the Palette when I heard them discussing their scam here. So I came.”`

“We need your help to find the Palette in the future!” Ryan said.

“But how can I be of any help, what with this leg and all.” I asked.

“Come with us.” He said, standing me up. He put a belt around me.

“What about Tricia and I?” Noah asked.

“To you, it will appear as if we had never gone. So until a few minutes from now!” Andrew said, pushing a button marked recall on his watch. The scenery around me faded and I saw the complete visible color spectrum. It felt as if I was moving at a greatly accelerated rate. We seemed to slow down and the scenery faded into a future scene. I saw many technicians in this dark room. They were all wearing clothes that had the same design, but with different colors. All had goggles or something on.

“What now?” Tricia asked.

“Now we have a little fun.” I said, with a snicker.

“What scenery do you want?” Noah asked.

“How about…” I said.

“I know!” Tricia started. “How about we have them tied to the bottom of a pool with an air hose to the surface and blindfold them!”

“Let’s make the pool body temperature!” I said. So that is the torture they had to endure. Noah programmed all the variables, and the fun had begun.

“It smells just like the fake air.” Tricia commented.

“No it smells like freedom! Or is it. . .manure?” I said.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I think we had better get some new clothes and worry about this tomorrow.” Tricia said.

“What about the game. If the power comes back on, they’ll expect us to be in there!” I exclaimed.

“So, we’ll make it so you are still in there, and Matt and Noelle also!”

“How so?” Tricia asked.

“By telling the Computer that you are still in there, but something went wrong so that you were seriously injured. They will have to enter the game.”

“But won’t they turn the game off first?” I asked Noah.

“Not if they don’t know that it’s on.”

“Oh! I see! You’ll tell the Computer that the game is off so they’ll go in and get caught in their own trap!” Tricia replied.

“Brilliant deduction Tricia. If I hook it up to my computer we should have no problems.”

“You know what still baffles me,” I started to ask Noah, “How they can have the equipment to create a game this big and this intricate.”

“I don’t know.” Tricia said.

“Well, I’ve got to get to work on the computer before the power comes on.”

“You know, in all this planning, we haven’t checked to see where Matt and Noelle are at. For all we know they could be going to the game now!” I said.

“Somebody’s got to keep an eye on them until I get the Computer programmed.” Noah said.

“You know, as soon as the power went out, if I were Matt and Noelle, I would have gone to check on the game.” Tricia said.

“Well I’ll go look in on them. In the meantime Tricia, you help Noah.” I said. I went to the house and realized that if they saw me the whole plan of catching them in their own trap would be useless. I peered in a window and saw Noelle on the floor by Matt’s side. Both were unconscious. It appeared that they had tripped or had been hit on the head by something. I scanned the area for implements that could be used in either situations. I could find none. They were out cold. I went to the game and informed my comrades on their situation. Noah finished programming the computer.

“Now what do we do?” Tricia asked.

“Wait for Matt and Noelle to take the bait.” Noah answered.

“Let’s hide in that tree over there so we can see when they enter.” I said. We went over and got in the tree.

Meanwhile, back in the house. . . Matt got up and said to Noelle, “Drat these twentieth century electrical systems. The game probably is off. Let’s go check on Adam and Tricia.”

“Right, we wouldn’t want them dead, yet!” Noelle said. They left the house and went to the Control Room. Which we could not see. The power came back on. Looking through the observing window of the Control Room, they saw what looked like the game off and Tricia and I in a heap on the floor. Thinking nothing of it, they came topside and entered the game through the upper door, where we spotted them.