2024-12-13 “Road Trip” for Kent (born 1998)

Kent sat with Hannah in the common area. They both were a little unsettled. Emma and Merritt sat on the other sofa, equally stunned.

Kent looked at the iPhone in his hand; he had just ended a call from Eric Marsten.

“Must be good to know folks from national security agencies,” Kent said.

Eric had talked to a former contact at NSA and another at the FBI. Knowing the Social Security Number of the Merritt born in 1960 had made the task all but trivial—for Eric’s contacts.

In 1984, Merritt took a job with Bluewater Private Security, a company owned by David Ryder. In 1985, he married Emma Knox, born in 1965 from Vicksburg Mississippi. In 1989, Merritt, Emma, and two others formed an LLC for the purposes of handling joint investments and property: Hannah and Kent Marlon. 

In 1999, Traveling Friends LLC purchased multi-unit residential property in Virginia beach on Sandfiddler Road. They also had registered three vehicles (aTahoe, an Explorer, and an Accord) and a 2000 Cabo 45 Express fishing yacht.

“We have phone numbers…” Emma looked at the others. “We should call?”

“Yeah, we should,” Merritt answered. “This is the most surreal thing to happen since I drove into a cloud and ended up in Canada.”

Emma smiled. “I can’t wait to find out what the 1856 Merritt thought when he went through a cloud and ended up driving a car!”

“We’re gonna need some time off,” Hannah added.